Allison Nixon – Page 2 – Computer Security Articles

Dual-Use Software Criminal Case Not So Novel

April 4, 2017 admin Aeonhack, Allison Nixon, Blackshades RAT, Blackshades trojan, Electronic Frontier Foundation, FBI, Flashpoint, Hackforums, justice department, Kevin Poulsen, Limitless Keylogger, Mark Rumold, Mephobia, NanoCore, Net Seal, Other, Rat, remote access trojan, remote administration tool, Taylor Huddleston, TeamViewer and VNC, The Daily Beast, wired, Zachary Shames

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2017 18:41:33 +0000

“He built a piece of software. That tool was pirated and abused by hackers. Now the feds want him to pay for the computer crooks’ crimes.” The above snippet is the subhead of a story published last month by the Daily Beast titled “FBI Arrests Hacker Who Hacked No One.” The subject of that piece — a 26-year-old American named Taylor Huddleston — faces felony hacking charges connected to two computer programs he authored and sold: An anti-piracy product called Net Seal, and a Remote Administration Tool (RAT) called NanoCore that he says was a benign program designed to help users remotely administer their computers. The author of the Daily Beast story, former black hat hacker and Wired.com editor Kevin Poulsen, argues that Huddelston’s case “raises a novel question: When is a programmer criminally responsible for the actions of his users? Some experts say [the case] could have far reaching implications for developers, particularly those working on new technologies that criminals might adopt in unforeseeable ways.” But a closer look at the government’s side of the story — as well as public postings left behind by the accused and his alleged accomplices — paints a more complex and nuanced picture that suggests this may not be the case to raise that legal question in a meaningful way.

Independent Krebs

Who is Anna-Senpai, the Mirai Worm Author?

January 23, 2017 admin Allison Nixon, Ammar Zuberi, anime, anna-senpai, applej4ck, BASHLITE, BlazingFast, bulletproof hoster, CJ Sculti, datawagon, ddos, ddos-for-hire, dox, dreadiscool, exfocus, Fastreturn, Fracisco Dias, Frantech, Golang, Hackforums, Hypixel, Incapsula, Jesse Wu, Josiah White, lelddos, LiteSpeed, Minecraft, Minetime, Mirai Nikki, Namecentral, OG_Richard_Stallman, ogexfocus, ogmemes123123@gmail.com, Other, p1st0, Paras Jha, Pierre Lamy, ProTraf, Protraf Solutions, ProxyPipe, Qbot, Richard Stallman, Robert Coelho, Rutgers University DDoS, Supermicro, SWATting, switchnet.io, vDos, Verisign, Vyp0r

On September 22, 2016, this site was forced offline for nearly four days after it was hit with “Mirai,” a malware strain that enslaves poorly secured Internet of Things (IoT) devices like wireless routers and security cameras into a botnet for use in large cyberattacks. Roughly a week after that assault, the individual(s) who launched that attack — using the name “Anna Senpai” — released the source code for Mirai, spawning dozens of copycat attack armies online. After months of digging, KrebsOnSecurity is now confident to have uncovered Anna Senpai’s real-life identity, and the identity of at least one co-conspirator who helped to write and modify the malware.