Cybercrime

Somewhere in a small city in south central Russia, a group of men in their twenties have got away with what some are describing as one of the biggest cyber-heists in history.

Since a recent claim researchers could “uncloak” Tor users for less than $3,000, there has been a flurry of activity in the “anonymous” online service - but in the form of new adverts, new markets, and new security.

After a technical error on a Mozilla database, thousands of email addresses and encrypted passwords were exposed for nearly a month - leaving 78,000 Mozilla app developers vulnerable to hackers.

This week in security news saw the world’s researchers discover a whole new range of Achilles Heels for PCs, the online privacy service Tor, and even ‘connected’ gadgets such as internet fridges.

Victims of the notorious attack against Sony’s online gaming service and associated websites in 2011, which exposed details for up to 77 million subscribers, are to be offered $15m in digital goods as compensation.

Using free cloud application hosting can allow an attacker to create a “free supercomputer” according to The Register's report - used to mine cryptocurrency, researcher Oscar Salazar warns.

Ebay’s online ticket resale service Stubhub fell victim to a cyber-scam where a “global gang” used 1,600 hacked accounts on the service and bought and resold tickets, laundering $1m through European banks.

Account hackers and thieves who loot magic weapons, armor and hard-won game currency from players in massively multiplayer titles such as World of Warcraft should face the same sentences as real-world thieves, a politician has suggested.

Tesla’s Model S has been hacked to make the doors and sun roof open while the car is in motion - and the researchers behind the attack were able to control the systems remotely.