Hackers DDoS Israel websites, will expose Norton source code tomorrow

[Rick]

Fueled by anti-government sentiment, hackers continue their string of attacks against Israel. On Monday, a distributed denial of service attack was launched against two websites: the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and El Al, the national Israeli airline. The DDoS attack successfully brought down both online destinations.

As of the time of this writing, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange website states "Please try again later. The site is too busy right now." while El Al appears to have resumed normal operation.

Israel has the been the target of numerous, high-profile attacks by Middle Eastern hacking groups, some with ties to Anonymous. Most notably, an Anonymous hacker known as 0xOmar, claims the "Lords of Dharmaraja" stole over 400,000 "Zionist" credit cards. The hacker has vowed to release 200 more every day. Several thousand cards cropping up from this incident have been verified as authentic credit card numbers. 

If the recent attacks against Israel weren't enough, India seems to be dealing with its own hacker-related issues. A twitter user with the account handle "Yama Tough", tweeted that a full, 1.7GB dump of Norton Anti-virus source code will be released tomorrow. The hacker added "the rest will follow", perhaps alluding to the release of other proprietary source code which was purportedly stolen during the operation.

Last week, we had reported that the source code for Symantec's anti-virus products had been pilfered in a broader set of cyber attack against India's military network. Based upon the portion of code that was subsequently leaked, Symantec denied the source code was for its consumer Norton Anti-virus product. Rather, the company claimed hackers had stolen older versions of Symantec Anti-virus and Endpoint.

However, it would appear the company has back peddled on that statement. Symantec has finally admitted hackers do have source code for a consumer version of Norton Anti-virus , but the software maker now claims it is code for Norton Utilities 2006. Symantec's Chris Paden stated:

"The code for Norton Utilities that was posted publicly is related to the 2006 version of Norton Utilities only. That version of the product is no longer sold or supported. The current version of Norton Utilities has been completely rebuilt and shares no common code with Norton Utilities 2006. The code that has been posted for the 2006 version poses no security threat to users of the current version of Norton Utilities."

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/47059-hackers-ddos-israel-websites-will-expose-norton-source-code-tomorrow.html

 

[Guest]

Norton antivirus source? Even the source for notepad would be of more use.

 

[Mudvayne819]

what guest said lol.

Its easy, just understand what you open, then you know what files can infect your system, then when u have to use that kind of file that can infect your system, use http://virusscan.jotti.org/en to scan it.

 

[Rick]

Despite how ineffective you may believe Norton Anti-virus is, A release of source-code could impact quite a few people. I believe it accounts for nearly 15% of users in the United States and something like 9-10% of users world-wide.

Norton has had many years to build a bad brand reputation (and deservedly so) but NAV in its current form is really no less effective from any other AV product. Differences between most products these days are marginal. http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/summary/summary2011.pdf

Interestingly, Norton is a top-scorer in system resource usage and malware removal. And for those who believe AV comparatives has an agenda, they've certainly been hard on on Norton many times in the past, for what it is worth.

 

[Guest]

What the heck is wrong with the editors choosing a picture of a shredded Israeli flag to illustrate this article?

 

[Rick]

Guest said:
What the heck is wrong with the editors choosing a picture of a shredded Israeli flag to illustrate this article?

The connection seems obvious, to me.

"Fueled by anti-government sentiment, hackers continue their string of attacks against Israel."

The flag represents the Israeli government. The tattering symbolizes the damage being done by hackers who have declared war against that government. It's not a sophisticated metaphor.

Keep in mind, this isn't just about a couple of DDoS attacks -- this is about computer savvy anti-Israel ideologues doing whatever damage they can do through hacking, be it stealing credit cards, hacking government SCADA computers, defacing government websites, exposing government log-ins and so forth.

Their intentions are mired in prejudice and contempt for all Israelis, not even just the government itself. The phrase "Death to Israel" has appeared multiple times throughout these attacks and 0xOmar has basically declared "cyber war" against the nation, calling upon hackers everywhere to do whatever they can to damage the government and its people.

As I result, I believe the image is entirely appropriate.

 

[treetops]

The flag makes sense, I guess the guest is just sensitive. Maybe I would be to if my country was getting bombed all the time by suicidal maniacs.

 

[Guest]

"Norton antivirus source? Even the source for notepad would be of more use."
+1

 

[slamscaper]

Symantec's older security suites were definitely resource hogs, but since 2007 they have completely recoded every module for efficiency. Quite frankly, their latest suite is one of the best available overall. Everything is entirely automatic. I never have to scan manually. Even the firewall configures itself for the most part.

Using NIS 2011, noscript (with Firefox), and MBAM (just for scanning, no real-time protection), I haven't been infected in over four years.

Symantec will always have a bad rap with the more tech savvy users, but IMO this is not deserved anymore. Try out their latest suite (or just read some reviews). You may be surprised.

 

[Guest]

Gotta love snide, ignorant comments that are done on the run.

If my land was stolen from me & I had the whole world sitting by watching the murderous thieves squat on my homeland for 64 years now *and* [the icing on the cake] they call ME a "terrorist", I don't know what I'd do to protect my family & resist in the name of freedom.

So let's get our heads out of the sand. It's 2012. Thanks to the internet & social media [thank you al'Jazeera English!], more & more people in the world/the West are coming to grips with what the Middle East has known for a while now: the dirty little secret that is "Israel". Nothing complicated about it, really: on one side you have the American-funded military of the last apartheid nation/state on the planet vs. a people who will never give up hope or their land.

 

[foreverzero89]

guest @ 4:23 knows whats up. down with the apartheid wall.

 

[dedparrot]

guest @ 6:59 discredits himself with his own comment! lol

 

[Guest]

Guest@ 4:23, foreverzero89, dedparrot: Word.

 

[Row1]

If you steal Norton's source code, does it automatically take over resources on your computer like when you install it normally?

Having Norton source code stolen is bad for all of us, since we all know you can never totally remove that garbage from your computer.

 

[Row1]

Posting an image of harm to Israel makes sense, but posting a tattered flag without a direct connection to the story is very tasteless to any country. I think TS should change this.

 

[Guest]

>hacking government SCADA computers

That has not happened. If it had it would represent more than a mere inconvenience as DDOS or website defacements do. To be honest even the exposure of credit card numbers is no more than an inconvenience. Israeli law on cards is quite similar to US law so any unauthorized transactions with those card numbers are easily disputed and reversed at no charge to the customer.

Consider that these same types of shenanegans regularly occur against US companies. Would you consider a tattered American flag justified? As no actual damage to the State or citizens of Israel has occurred, the tattered Israeli here flag is not justified.

 

[Guest]

the muslim religion is worse than the Nazis were