Feb 10, 2015 10:30 PM (This post was last modified: Feb 17, 2015 01:13 AM by Oak.)
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The edition you are currently reading is the 226th full edition. To read any older editions of HF News, please go here.
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The Phoenix That Shall Fail to Be Reborn
On February 10th, 2015 the official group Phoenix came to a sudden end. Phoenix was a group based on innuendo, relationship/life advice, and discussions. However even a group with only positive thoughts and intentions can die, and this one did. As of right now it is unclear as to exactly why the group was deleted, all we do know is that Omniscient and Tibit had a falling out due to undisclosed reasons. Tibit was then repfucked and his posting privileges were removed. Omniscient then posted a thread stating that the Phoenix group was closed and that he was selling the group for BTC. However not too long after posting that thread he followed up with a second post stating that the offer is no longer available. That thread and post can be found, here.
Who Has OMC and Wants to Buy an Official Group?!
On February 8th, 2015 Omniscient announced that he is selling an official group via OMC auction! This was originally talked about a couple of months or so ago, and it has finally arrived. Originally the price was supposedly going to be around 1,000,000 OMC for the official group, however now it's auction based with a minimum starting bid of 250,000 OMC. On February 8th, Omniscient stated that he's expecting a lot of activity taking place over the next couple of weeks. The information thread can be found, here. The auction thread can be found, here. Unfortunately though, two days later Omniscient posted another thread announcing that there is a slight problem with OMC and AllCrypt. Omniscient is not sure what to call it exactly yet but currently AllCrypt and the OMC Dev Team are working on resolving the issue. Omniscient has no plans on halting the auction as there is still three weeks or so until it ends. Also, the OMC award and the EP1C upgarde are temporarily disabled for the immediate future. As of right now Omniscient has already started attempting fixes for the current issue and that is trying to get onto a larger exchange such as Cryptsy instead of AllCrypt. If any of you have any ideas, suggestions, or contacts to help make this happen you should head over to this thread and post them!
HF IM XMPP is Down
Since the last day or so the HF IM XMPP has been down. Whether this is because of maintenance or an issue with the servers is still unknown, however surely Omniscient is aware of the situation and is working on resolving the issue (if there even is one.) With the constant activity and new members joining the XMPP, it wouldn't come as a surprise if some maintenance was needed. Just please sit back and be patient and in time the servers will be back online. Until then just keep yourself updated by visiting the Rules, Announcements, News, and Feedback section.
Lots of Official Group Activity!
A lot has been happening with the official groups over the last week or so. Group leaders have changed, groups themselves have changed, many group recruitment's, and also interestingly enough this is the first time in months that an official group hasn't either been for sale or in the process of changing into something else. The Revolution has changed over to Fortune, a group based on marketing. Polymath has finally been sold to the user Τrust and will soon be turned into "Craft" according to this thread.
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User News
Crypto™ won MOTM for January 2015. Congratulations.
---HackerCraft Ruined - Omniscient ---HackerCraft is no more. It seems that it's gone for good this time around. Read the thread for full details.
---[News] Group For Sale (BTC Only) - Omniscient ---The usergroup Phoenix has been deleted and resold by Omniscient. If you would like to place bids on the group, check out the thread.
---OMC group: Who's gonna get it? - Who Soup ---A fun debate over the new auction held by Omniscient for an official usergroup. Who do you think will win it?
D3xus: For the 226th edition of the HF News, we have the electric boxxy. Any shoutouts or comments to the crowd you'd like to make? boxxy: Thanks for having me!
I'd like to shoutout Fox(Vanilla), xadamxk, and WaterSpice aye :3
D3xus: You were inactive for a while before actually jumping into HF. You didn't post anything until September of 2014. What made you decide to start being active here? boxxy: Well, I was pretty active under my old aliases (BlackVeilBrides, emotion) but I got banned for a month due to the fact I changed my username 38,000 times.
I came back with a new mindset, and started getting active in the Appraisals and Pricings Section, and the E-Whoring section.
D3xus: What do you find most appealing about those forums? Why do you frequent them over others? boxxy: Well, I've been E-Whoring for a while now and I'm tired of people begging for help with no one really helping them. People normally just say things like, "Use the Search Tool" or "Google it" and Im honestly tired of that. I got active in the Appraisals and Pricings section because I've been dealing with online accounts quite often and I think I have a fairly accurate sense of value towards the "OG" scene.
D3xus: Do people appreciate what you do? Do they thank you for trying to be genuine in a world of repetition and monotony? boxxy: People constantly thank me for what I do, and that's why I do it.
Those are the things that basically keep me going you know?
D3xus: What other things on the forum do you enjoy? Not just forums, but activity in groups, events, games, etc. boxxy: Well, I enjoy sub forums shoutout to nightfall even though they kicked me out.
D3xus: That stinks. Are there other groups you respect or want to be a part of? boxxy: Well, I always respected 143 and wanted to be in there a while ago.
But honestly, groups aren't really all people think they are.
Most groups are just inactive, and people just want in for the status and the reputation it gives you to wear the userbar when others don't have it.
D3xus: People have whored for userbars for a long time. Even if they have to pay hundreds of dollars for a userbar, they'll do it. People are strange sometimes, aren't they? boxxy: I used to be obsessed with the idea of groups but they're mostly just money hungry owners as you've probably seen with Enterprise as a prime example.
D3xus: Most of the user-owned groups could use some improvement in one way or another. Do you ever wish things had gone differently with groups? That is, with them being sold for several thousand dollars at a time nowadays. boxxy: I wish there were more user groups back in the day.
This would definitely cause more activity, and make groups more accessible for people to have their own groups because groups shouldn't be a prestigious thing in my opinion.
D3xus: So do I. Unfortunately, that's all the time I have; any closing remarks or comments? boxxy: Optimized is gay.
Thank you.
.Sinister: Hey, Ego™! Welcome to the 226th edition of the HF News. Any shout outs before we begin? Ego™: Hi Sinister! I'd love to give a shoutout to Tech, Aceman, Elusive and Dubitus, and Panik.
.Sinister: How has things been for you? Life, school, social, everything good? Ego™: Things have been going quite well. I'm towards the top 5% in terms of GPA for my course in the IB Program at school, my social life could never be better, as I just got the girl I've had a crush on since 8th grade accept to go to prom with me. I'm making money from services on HF that I love doing. So I'd say life is pretty fantastic. How about yourself?
.Sinister: That's awesome to hear! I'm doing good myself. I heard you are managing/running an unofficial group called The Black Hand. Can you tell us more about it? Ego™: Yes, right well... The Black Hand is owned by Dubitus, a fantastic user who's knowledge in web forensics is beyond this universe. Essentially the group is designated to attain "revenge" on BANNED scammers from HF. I emphasize banned, as we do not partake in going after current users of HF who have open scam results on them. The idea behind the group was to minimize the scamming going on in the forum, because now there would be this presence called The Black Hand, that would target you if you scammed and were banned for it. We are a group of talented individuals, each with our own roles and we are extremely effective with our intimidation and "revenge" methods. We will be releasing a Banned Scammer Log for the rest of HF to see, so that they know we are taking action and going after these banned scammers.
.Sinister: Wow! I don't think anyone has done something like that here before. What's good about getting revenge on a banned member? Won't they be banned already? Ego™: It's extremely impressive, the individuals we have working on this are great users to work with, they all know their areas very well. I also had concern about whether staff would mind if we were to go after HF members, even if they were banned, they were still registered on the site at one point. But our logic is that they were banned for a reason, if Omni and staff really wanted these users to remain on the forum, they would have allowed them to do so. Which is why we feel we are in the clear to go after users that are no longer allowed on the site or to partake in any activities on the site itself. In terms of getting revenge, we have a method that we will be trying to implement. Our layout that we are going to show in this Banned Scammer Log is as follows:
.Sinister: Now, how would you go on about punishing these scammers? How will this help out the person that was scammed? Ego™: The client being the person that was scammed, and we are hoping to somehow get justice for whatever the scammer took from them. Whether this be messing with the scammer enough that he gives back what he took, or just the pure relaxation for the client to know that the scammers actions were not unseen and are being dealt with.
.Sinister: I'm quite speechless. Is your team consist of only HF members or do you work with members not apart of HF as well? How would one join this team? Ego™: This group was established on HF and was open for the general public to apply. Essentially the recruitment thread was just information, users would post if they were interested in joining and I was the one responsible for Private Messaging these users and seeing what they could bring to the table. There were no set requirements, however we preferred to have users who specialized in a particular area rather than an expansion of areas of knowledge. The skills required are not hard to specialize in either, which was another positive side to the recruitment. The skills involved are Forensics (Doxing), Social Engineering (Calling), and then of course we needed some helpful users to fund for our Google hangouts and our Skype calls to the Scammer in which allow our Callers to do their magic.
.Sinister: Interesting. I've heard about you and Sanctum. Is it similar to The Black Hand? Ego™: Yes, I actually own Sanctum. It was established in 2014 around September time... and it was an unofficial group that wanted to recruit the best of the best and work mainly offsite. Granted, we did have some services and still do have some services running on HF, but the activities we took on as our priority were more blackhat and things that could not be conducted on HF. Our members actually consisted of users that I have personally helped or have met through clients, which were offsite... but we did have some onsite members that changed their alias and such to not have it linked.
.Sinister: Hmm. You seem to be whitehat in one group, and blackhat in the other. What would you consider yourself? Ego™: Interesting question actually, and to be honest... I really don't know yet. I switch back and forth, but if I had to pick one, I would say whitehat.
.Sinister: It's always good to side with the law. How did you first get involved with all of this? With web forensic and many more? Ego™: I started HF on the 22nd of January in 2014, and I knew absolutely nothing, and some could still say I know nothing... but I have always been a fast learner. I was interested in the Whitehat Help Section of the forum, which is where I met Aura who later turned out to take me under his wing and teach me about security and virus/malware removal, etc. I was also fond of the act of doxing users, and this is where I met a good friend and my teacher, Dubitus. He also grew fond of me, and knew that I would learn quickly, just like Aura saw. Essentially it was these two that got me started. I was accepted into Complexity and The Brotherhood before I had even upgraded to L33t at the time and that was solely because of Aura, and his kind heart. And in terms of Forensics, Dubitus taught me offsite and via skype. I've been doing both for a little over a year now and I can't thank those two enough.
.Sinister: I can definitely say you're quite knowledgeable in your field. It seems like you hit the one year mark. What have you done in the past year here? Ego™: Well, I've just been perfecting the two areas that I would like to specialize in really. Computer Security and Forensics. I have joined some fantastic groups and have met tons of close friends, as well as clients. I had one of the most successful Forensic services offered here on HF, which I did for free, simply because I didn't really need money at the time. And now I am trying to pick up my third wanted area of expertise which will be that of Networking.
.Sinister: From what I've seen, you seem to really like the IT field. Do you ever plan on getting a job in this area? Ego™: I do. I want to go to University for this field and get as many certifications as I can to one day do what I love doing and maybe potentially start a third party IT firm. That would be quite a lot of fun and would be a huge achievement for me, for someone who started out on a website called HackForums.
.Sinister: With where you're at, I believe you can do it. What has HF done for you besides teaching you your skills? Groups, friends, care to tell us? Ego™: HF got me out of a pretty rough time in my younger years... I was struggling with family and friend issues and this was a way to keep my mind on track and get to know people who care about you and your online personality rather than how you perform IRL. I know that sounds sad, but it's easier to get to know someone online, rather than in person, and there is less tension seeing as you are not face to face most of the time. Phoenix is the main group that kept me on HF, without those guys (including you), I wouldn't be here talking with you. I don't have that many CLOSE friends on HF, but I do talk to a lot of users daily, and I am constantly looking for partners for work as well as new clients. Essentially HF was an escape from IRL when I needed to keep my mind off things.
.Sinister: That's really deep man. I'm always here if you need me. Thanks for being with us Ego™! Would you like to say anything else before we wrap this up? Ego™: I appreciate that. Thank you for the interview. I'd like to do another quick shout out to Phoenix, Sanctum, The Black Hand, The Brotherhood, and Specialists. Without those groups, I wouldn't know what to do with myself on this site. Thank you!
Feb 10, 2015 10:33 PM (This post was last modified: Feb 11, 2015 10:15 PM by Oak.)
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New Omnicoin Client Released
OmniCoin V2 v0.9.0.0 has been released. It will be completely replacing the old v0.8.6.2 client. All clients must be updated by block 150,000 (Approximately 04:00 AM GMT February 18th, 2015) to avoid the need to resynchronize. This release will implement a number of new features, including QR code support, UPnP (Universal Plug-n-Play) support, a static Windows binary (no more need for lots of DLLs), and most notably, a new difficulty targeting algorithm, Dark Gravity Wave, which should help mitigate difficulty spikes due to burst mining and overall, make difficulty transitions smoother overall. It is available for download from the Github Wiki Download Page. Note that this will not affect your existing coins. The changes are on the back-end to make things safer and more advanced. Updating is as simple as running the new binary for your system, or if you're on Linux, recompiling, for which Raoul Duke has created some excellent instructions for Ubuntu.
If you're in the US, we're mere weeks away from the most important vote of our
lifetimes. The FCC is voting on whether it should reclassify ISPs as Common Carriers,
and preserve net neutrality. Please, take a moment and comment on FCC docket 14-28
using the FCC's comment system, and visit Battle for the Net
for more info on what you can do.
-Crypto™
If anyone wants to LMK how to
add more hours into the day, LMK Yellows-
My friends grew up, they never get drunk, they never wanna hang out late.
They're gonna get jobs, they're gonna pay bills, they're gonna get old and grey.
I'll never do that, I wanna stay young. Don't wanna fit in, I wanna have fun.
So if that's okay, I don't think I'm ever gonna act my age.
-Panik
Time is of the essence, and time is money,
therefore money is our essence. Justin Timberlake-
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There are some massive infrastructural changes incoming to the HF News.
I won't share much now, though it's not really a secret, but is still being contemplated.
One thing that I can say, is that soon we will be disallowing unnecessary comments on HF News editions.
Anthem Breach and Phishing Attacks
Last week, large HealthCare company Anthem, was the target of an intense attack leading to the theft of over 80 million social security records in addition to other sensitive information including emails, physical addresses and credit card information. The current string of attacks on the medical world are apparently linked to a group of state-sponsored Chinese hackers attempting to get information on private citizens. The alleged group, named DeepPanda, has been using Adobe FlashPlayer exploits to get into the networks of its victims, causing Adobe to release three major emergency updates to their software to stop these attacks. However, it is still unclear as to how the hackers were able to infiltrate the network, as well as how long they had been there. Ironically, albeit unsurprisingly, through this breach, this group has indirectly allowed hundreds of other hackers to set up wide-scale phishing attacks in an attempt to solicit data as if it were from Anthem themselves. For example, a site which sports Anthem's logo pretends to offer victims of the attack a free year’s worth of credit card monitoring services has been seen. Spoof sites as well as phone calls have been made to thousands of victims and have had their information stolen, for a second time, by these opportunistic scam artists.
FancyBox Wordpress 0-Day
A WordPress plugin named FancyBox, which has been downloaded over half a million times, has recently been the target of zero day exploits and attacks that have distributed malware to thousands of unsuspecting victims. The plugin was originally intended to be an interface for viewing images, but has been used by attackers to send malicious iFrames via persistent XSS (cross-site scripting) vulnerabilities. The Russian security researchers Gennady and Kovshenin, who have uncovered this exploit, were able to get an advisory issued to dump the plugin and reported it to its developers who have since made an update to the code, blocking this particular attack. However, the majority of the users of this plugin have not updated as of yet, and this is leading to people continuing to exploit it. Wordpress was able to pull the plugin before more people had the opportunity to download it. So far, 50,000 websites have been compromised in some form, but it continues to rise as people pay less attention to their websites' security than to how it looks.
Lizard Squad Takes Down Facebook (Not)
As many of you probably have heard, Facebook, Instagram, and a handful of other websites were offline for an entire hour from about 10pm-11pm last Monday. Lizard Squad, the infamous hacking group responsible for the take-down of the Play Station Network and Xbox Live gaming networks, had posted a tweet about the downtime not-so-subtly implying that they were the cause. However, Facebook has issued an official statement saying that the downtime was actually due to an engineering mistake as opposed to a malicious attack. Technical engineers reconfigured the physical layout of Facebook's API servers and had accidentally caused them to fall over, unplugging their power supply and turning off. The Lizard Squad is a prime example of, according to the security expert Professor Alan Woodman, how easy it is for a group to get recognition by making unsubstantiated claims. The mere mentioning of the problem by Lizard Squad sparked immediate speculation that they were, indeed, the ones who had brought down the internet monstrosity, but at the end of the day, it was merely a technician error.
Internet Explorer and its Cross Site Scripting (XSS) Zero-Day
A discovered Cross-Site Scripting bug within Microsoft's Internet Explorer allows an attacker to be able to hijack your current session and use your online account without your knowledge, stealing valuable information. This vulnerability has been given the name CVE-2015-0072 (http://tif.mcafee.com/threats/13711). As of now, Microsoft is currently looking into finding a patch for the bug and has not given a date for when we might see this fixed. Microsoft's only advice for now is to keep an our out for CVE-2015-0072 and grab the patch as soon as it comes out.
D-Link Routers Susceptible to DNS Hijacking
One of D-Link's best selling routers, the DSL-2740R, has been identified as vulnerable to DNS Hijacking by Todor Denev, a Bulgarian security researcher. The vulnerability was found within ZynOS firmware used by the router. Any D-Link router using this firmware may be at risk, but has not been confirmed. This issue allows an attacker to get into the router's interface without authorization, enabling the attacker to be able to do things like reconfigure your DNS settings, in turn, letting the intruder direct your network towards fake, malicious sites. The vulnerability has not been patched as of yet.
Sony Security Breach Estimated at $15 Million
After Sony Picture's devastating cyber attack in December fueled by the creation of the movie, "The Interview", they announced the attack will cost them $15 million in damages. The attacks resulted in Sony Pictures Entertainment being unable to close the financial statements for this year's last quarter. Since they were unable to do so, the company can only make forecasts as of now. The current forecast for Sony Picture's Entertainment show sales have decreased by 11.7% year-on-year to $1.6 Billion, one of the largest hits Sony has ever taken.
Silk Road Founder Found Guilty
Ross Ulbricht(30) a.k.a. Dread Pirate Roberts, founder of the deep-web marketplace Silk Road was found guilty and could face a life sentence in jail. According to the reports, Ulbricht pocketed $18 million in Bitcoin by running the site which was famous for its illegal drug trading and more. He is also alleged to have made six attempts to arrange murders in order to protect the site. Although his exact verdict was not given, it is assumed that he will be spending a lot of time behind bars.
Coin Locker--The Ransomware Saga Continues
Few days ago, a new variant of ransomware was found, named Coin Locker. It uses the primitive encryption process which can be dated back to Julius Caesar's Ceaser Cypher. If you believe that you have been infected by this ransomware, you may decrypt your files by using Crypto Locker Decryptor.
Free Playstation Plus Games for February
There are a wide variety of games being offered for free to Playstation Plus members throughout the month of February. The acclaimed Transistor, a strategy and action game, will be made available on the Playstation 4 to Playstation Plus members. Also on the Playstation 4 will be Apotheon, a platformer that takes place in different areas of Greek mythology. Available on the Playstation 3 will be Yakuza 4, The City, and Thief. Playstation Plus owners who own a Playstation Vita will be able to get both Rogue Legacy and Kick & Fennick. All of these games will be available to Playstation Plus members on Feburary 3rd.
6.4 Million Playstation 4 Consoles Sold Last Quarter
Sony has recently released their financial results for the third fiscal quarter of 2014, which includes information spreading from September 1st to December 31st. All of the statistics for the corporation of Sony, including their gaming business, have been in the positive. The only negative area in the entire corporation was the Pictures sector. 1.1 million Playstation 3 consoles were also sold this last fiscal quarter. Due to the recent hacking fiasco with Sony, all of the given results are 'forecast' rather than final, with final results being delayed to a later date.
Possible Amiibo Release Dates Leaked
An anonymous employee from the Europe-based company GAME has leaked an image that shows possible release dates for the fourth wave of Nintendo amiibo. The amiibo appear to be in the theme of Super Smash Bros. and Super Mario Bros, two popular games available on the Wii U console. The leak comes in the form of a picture of a computer screen with dates and titles for the amiibo, which can be found here. The current official release window for these amiibo is spring 2015. Amiibo are defined as, "a series of Nintendo character toys that interact with multiple games on the Wii U and 3DS."
Call of Duty Franchise earns over $11 Billion WorldWide
This is currently the sixth year in which Call of Duty has been the best selling franchise in North America. Call of Duty Advanced Warfare was the most sold console game in 2014. The Call of Duty franchise has earned an astounding $11 billion since it's first release in 2003. A recent DLC for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare has added a new Exo Zombies mode and plenty of new multiplayer maps. Call of Duty: Advanced warfare has solely generated more revenue than any other piece of media in 2014.
Release Date for the Week of February 10, 2015:
Evolve - Xbox One,Playstation 4, PC - February 10, 2015
Unmechanical Extended - Playstation 3, Playstation 4 - February 10, 2015
Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy+ - Nintendo 3DS - February 13, 2015
Computer Chip Transistors Have Been Made as Small as One Atom Thick
Silicene is a new material made for computer chip transistors, and it can be made only one atom thick. This new material will allow computers to be built much smaller, and become much faster in the coming years. The research itself is going to take years to fully develop, but the promise of a computer revolution will follow suit due to the amount of power that will be given with this technology.
[img=300x300]http://images.sciencedaily.com/2015/02/150203160100-large.jpg[/img] Credit: University of Texas
HIV and Syphilis can now be Tested by Smartphone
Bio-medical engineers at Columbia University have created a device that can test blood for HIV and Syphilis. It connects to your phone from the audio jack, and the app itself will read to you the results of the test. It draws your blood and tests the blood for these two viruses due to chemicals inside which react in a way that can identify whether or not you are infected.
Battle Bots Makes a Comeback This Summer!
Remember the show battle bots, where people would get together and build a custom robot killing machine and fight other peoples bots in an arena of death? It's coming back for summer in 2015. ABC bought the show and will be recreating it in all of its former glory. While the show was only on for 2 years and has been off the air for over 10 years, we are sure many will have the delight of seeing robots fight each other the death.
Feb 10, 2015 10:34 PM (This post was last modified: Feb 10, 2015 10:41 PM by Oak.)
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Every week - assuming we get enough submissions - the HF News will feature the best submitted battlestation.
Send Sir a message by clicking here and including an imgur link of your battlestation!
(Feb 10, 2015 11:17 PM)Douchebag # 145 Wrote: Let us know what ya'll think about the podcast this week. Thanks to our good and new friend Jeff for joining us.
I honestly enjoyed the podcast. Would love to hear a lot more!