Hackers leak details of 13k users of PlayStation, Xbox and Amazon

A gang of internet hackers claims it has leaked personal details of more than 13,000 users of PlayStation, Xbox and sites including Amazon in what appears to be the latest high-profile breach of internet security in recent weeks.

The hackers - who say they are affiliated to Anonymous, the shadowy anarchist hacking collective - released a document containing username and password combinations, with credit card numbers and expiry dates added later.

Microsoft’s Xbox games console, Sony’s PlayStation equivalent, and online gaming site Twitch.tv were among the main targets of the hack, the Dailydot.com website reported. Other reported targets include Walmart, the US supermarket giant, Amazon, Dell, computer games including The Sims 3 and Dragon Age: Origins and a host of porn sites.

However Microsoft said it had found "no evidence" of a security breach.

Games consoles such as Xbox and Playstation, as well as computer games, use the internet so that gamers can play each other online.

The hackers, who posted on Twitter that they had carried the hack out "for the Lulz", or laughs, also uploaded the The Interview, the controversial Sony film that has recently caused a diplomatic row involving the US and North Korea, to a file-sharing website where it can be illegally downloaded.

A tweet, posted by the @AnonymousGlobo account, said: “A total of approximately 13k accounts. We did for the Lulz.”

If confirmed, the apparent hack comes soon after other high-profile breaches of internet security.

Sony is still battling to fully restore its PlayStation services following a separate hack over Christmas took gamers around the world offline, just as they were settling down to enjoy their new festive gifts.

The company on this weekend urged players to be patient as it worked to bring services on its PS4, PS3 and Vita systems back online. Microsoft’s Xbox, which also went down over Christmas, was restored on Boxing Day.

A group of hackers, calling themselves Lizard Squad, took credit for the attacks, with a man claiming to speak for the group claimed they had done it for the “public good” to “raise awareness” about shortfalls in security systems.

Some security experts believe Lizard Squad is closely allied with Guardians of Peace, the group blamed for the attack on Sony provoking a diplomatic row between North Korea and the US.

But tracing the hackers could be problematic, say experts, while Sony and Microsoft continue to decline to give exact details of where the hacks originated.

A spokesman for Microsoft said: "We have no evidence of a security breach in Xbox Live services. Microsoft takes the security of our customers’ data very seriously and employs a team of professionals to monitor and manage the security of the services that process and store customer data."

Source: Telegraph

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Missing AirAsia flight QZ8501 believed to have crashed in Belitung waters

Family members of passengers of missing AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 gather at Juanda international airport in Surabaya in East Java on Dec 28, 2014, hours after news broke that the flight went missing.
PHOTO: AFP

AirAsia flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore is believed to have crashed at the location 03.22.46 South and 108.50.07 East, in waters around 80-100 nautical miles from Belitung, a National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) official has said.

According to The Jakarta Post via AsiaOne, Basarnas Pangkalpinang spokesperson Supriandi said, as reported by Antara news agency on Sunday, that it had dispatched a rescue team to Belitung.

It is believed that the Airbus A320 had circled over the sea near Belitung to avoid a storm before it experienced severe turbulence and crashed into the ocean.

QZ8502 is reported to have had 155 passengers and seven cabin crew on board. The passengers included 16 children.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had written on his Facebook page: "Sorry to learn that an AirAsia aircraft from Surabaya to Singapore has gone missing.

"We don't have many details yet, but have offered our help to the Indonesian authorities. Our thoughts are with the passengers and their families."

He added: "Called President Joko Widodo to express concern and offer help. Two RSAF C-130 search and locate aircrafts are on standby, ready to go. Our ministers are following up."

Sources: Stomp, AsiaOne

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AirAsia flight QZ8501: Plane en route from Surabaya to Singapore lost contact with air traffic

An Air Asia flight travelling from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control, Metro TV reported on Sunday. -- PHOTO: ST FILE

An AirAsia Indonesia plane travelling from Surabaya to Singapore lost contact with air traffic control on Sunday morning.

Flight QZ8501 has 155 passengers and seven crew members on board. The passengers include 149 Indonesians, one Singaporean, one British, one Malaysian and three Koreans.

"AirAsia Indonesia regrets to confirm that flight QZ8501 from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control at 07:24 hrs this morning,'' said an airline statement.

"At the present time, we unfortunately have no further information regarding the status of the passengers and crew members on board.

"Search and rescue operations are in progress and AirAsia is cooperating fully and assisting the rescue service,'' said the airline.

The Airbus A320-200 left Juanda international airport in Surabaya in east Java at 5.20am and was expected to arrive in Singapore at 8.30am (0030 GMT).

Joko Muryo Atmodjo, air transportation director at the Transport Ministry, told a news conference that the aircraft was between the Indonesian port of Tanjung Pandan and the town of Pontianak, in West Kalimantan on Borneo island, when it went missing.

"We are coordinating with rescue team and looking for its position. We believe it is somewhere between Tanjung Pandan, a town on Belitung island, and Kalimantan," AFP quoted Indonesia's air transportation director-general Djoko Murjatmodjo as saying.

Airforce spokesman Marsma Hadi Tjahjanto confirmed that the air force was using the last point of contact to conduct an air search. He said the air force radar recorded the weather at the time as cloudy, Sydney Morning Herald reported.

AirAsia has established an Emergency Call Centre for family or friends of those who may have been on board the flight. The number is +622 1298-50801. 

Source:  The Straits Times 

An Air Asia flight travelling from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control, Metro TV reported on Sunday. -- PHOTO: ST FILE - See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asia/south-east-asia/story/air-asia-flight-bound-singapore-lost-contact-air-traffic-report-2014#sthash.nkux4oyY.dpuf

An Air Asia flight travelling from Surabaya to Singapore has lost contact with air traffic control, Metro TV reported on Sunday. -- PHOTO: ST FILE - See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asia/south-east-asia/story/air-asia-flight-bound-singapore-lost-contact-air-traffic-report-2014#sthash.nkux4oyY.dpuf

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Check out the aftermath of the Christmas celebrations in Kunming, China

Christmas Eve was a night of mayhem in Kunming, with 110,000 reveler out on the streets spraying each other with cans of artificial snow in a 3-hour carnival-like event from 8pm to 11pm. The aftermath of the party left the city in a mess, with heaps of empty spray cans and garbage that took cleaners hours to clean up.

Source: Shanghaiist

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Third person held over cash frenzy sparked by HK$52M security van spill

The hooded man is arrested in Kowloon Bay. Photo: Dickson Lee

A third person was arrested last night over a cash-grabbing frenzy in Wan Chai, three days after bundles of banknotes totalling HK$52.5 million tumbled from a money transport van onto a busy road on Christmas Eve.

Police arrested the man, 23, on suspicion of theft in his Ap Lei Chau flat last night. Officers seized two computers, two ferry ticket stubs and a mobile phone. The man was detained overnight for further questioning.

About HK$9 million was still missing yesterday as the van's owner, security firm G4S, apologised to its contract employer, Bank of China Hong Kong.

Two other suspects, a man and a woman, were still in custody on suspicion of theft after officers traced the pair with CCTV footage and found HK$165,000 stashed under a bed in the man's home in Kowloon Bay, a police spokesman said. They had not been charged.

The man, 43, and woman, 36, were passengers in a taxi that had stopped at the scene of the cash spill.

Police repeated their warning for people who had picked up the spilled money from Gloucester Road to return it.

Barrister and lawmaker Alan Leong Kah-kit said: "If the persons who have taken cash from the scene volunteer to surrender it to the police in a short period of time, it is less likely for the police to charge them with theft as it may be harder to build a case."

Hongkongers were confronted with the prospects of a dubious windfall when three cash boxes, each holding HK$17.5 million, fell from the side door of the van at about 1pm on Wednesday.

Drivers and passengers were seen abandoning their vehicles in the middle of the road in a money scramble that lasted about 10 minutes. Mainland tourists reportedly left their coaches and helped themselves to the Police said HK$15.23 million was gone before officers arrived.

By last night, a poll on SCMP.com found that 63 per cent of respondents said that they would not try to keep any cash they had picked up from a road spill.

As of 5pm yesterday, 38 people had brought HK$6.3 million to police, including one person who handed in HK$2 million.

The van was transporting HK$500 and HK$1,000 notes worth HK$270 million in 30 plastic boxes to its head office in Cheung Sha Wan.

All four staff members on board - a driver and three security guards - were sitting in front and did not notice the side door had slid open until they had driven past the Western Harbour Tunnel, G4S spokeswoman Sheeta Leung Hui-kwan said.

They reported the incident on reaching head office. All four have been suspended.

"We would like to offer our sincere apology to BOCHK and the public for the incident and any inconvenience or embarrassment it may have caused," Leung said. The firm would handle the loss with the bank "according to the contractual agreement and in line with the process required by our insurance".

Source: South China Morning Post

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