The World's Richest Ex-Hackers

 

Long before he was the two-hundred-and-second richest person on the planet, Jan Koum was just another curious kid with a wardialer.
Koum, whose net worth suddenly jumped to $6.8 billion last month when his startup WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook, began his tech career as a teenage immigrant from Ukraine and fan of the 1995 film ‘Hackers.’ From the privacy of his Mountain View, Calif. bedroom, he’d use his wardialer—a machine that cycles through phone numbers, dialing them on a modem to find open connections—to probe the global Internet and explore faraway networks.
“The Internet was so insecure back then,” he told my colleague Parmy Olson during her reporting for Forbes’ recent cover story on Koum’s $19 billion dollar startup. “Servers on the fringes of the Internet with root account and no passwords…The challenging part was finding these systems where you have to learn your way around. There were no manuals.”
Koum says his intentions were never malicious. He was careful not to delete anything and never participated in the distributed denial of service attacks that plagued websites in the late 90s by flooding them with junk traffic. “It was more curiosity, how can I figure it out, more of a challenge,” he says.
Once, Koum admits, he found his way onto the network of the computer graphics giant Silicon Graphics, a story that the 38-year-old CEO is careful to leave unfinished. “At some point I connected to the server,” he says. “And that’s as much as I’m going to say.”
Add Koum’s name to the growing list of ultra-successful entrepreneurs whose paths to billions started on the wilder side of the hacker frontier. In fact, founders of Apple , Microsoft , Facebook and Twitter all flirted with activities that might today be called illegal hacking before going on to found Silicon Valley’s most successful companies, a trend worth remembering as the tech world and Washington grapple over how to apply–or restrict–the controversial Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
In the late 60s, a teenage Bill Gates and his Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, for instance, were caught with unauthorized access to an administrator account at Computer Center Corporation and even rummaged through its Dumpster for printouts of source code, according to Allen’s memoir. In 2004, Zuckerberg used login records on TheFacebook.com to break into the email accounts of Harvard Crimson reporters, according to reporting by Business Insider’s Nicholas Carlson. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey got his first job by breaking into the network of the dispatch company he hoped would hire him to show the company its security vulnerabilities.
Jan Koum’s hacking adventures played a similar role in his unlikely rise from welfare to a top spot on the most recent Forbes billionaire list released earlier this month. Koum was a noted member of the 1990s hacker group w00w00, which also included Napster co-founder Sean Fanning and, occasionally Napster co-founder and Facebook investor Sean Parker. Gordon “Fyodor” Lyon remembers Koum as a vital contributor to the development of the Nmap security scanner, a tool used today by both attackers and defenders of networks to suss out vulnerabilities. “He was particularly helpful in training Nmap to recognize FreeBSD machines,” Lyon writes to me in an email, referring to a common open-source operating system. “We lived nearby and used to hang out from time to time. This tremendous WhatsApp success truly could not have happened to a nicer person!”
When Koum was working at Yahoo! years later, it was the same w00w00 crowd that he turned for advice in fending off an unprecedented denial of service attack hitting the company’s websites, according to Reuters’ Joseph Menn. And when his startup WhatsApp was acquired for a shocking $19 billion dollars in February, the same group of hackers assembled for a spontaneous celebration, Menn reports.
Career paths like Koum’s should be taken as evidence of how prosecuting harmless young hackers under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act can hamper innovation, says Hanni Fakhoury, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “[The CFAA] is definitely creating a chilling effect on researchers, tinkerers and innovators,” says Fakhoury. “At the EFF, we get phone calls weekly from researchers who have an idea, have done some preliminary testing, and want to look deeper but are worried about CFAA liability. The volume of those calls has gone up.”
Fakhoury points to the case of Aaron Swartz, the coding prodigy, activist and early employee of the social news site Reddit. Swartz was prosecuted under the CFAA in 2011 after using an automated script to download millions of files from the academic journal website JSTOR. Facing seven-figure legal bills and decades in prison, the 26-year-old committed suicide. His story is told in a soon-to-be-released documentary titled “The Internet’s Own Boy.”
“Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Wozniak, Paul Allen, all have told stories or written in autobiographies about how when were younger they engaged in legally questionable activities, and how they used those mostly harmless experiences to create the biggest tech companies in the world,” says Fakhoury. “They were fortunate that they were spared the fate of Aaron Swartz.”
No one, perhaps, has better captured the importance of hacker experimentation for innovation better than the late Steve Jobs, who once partnered with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to sell “Blue Boxes,” tools that skirted the phone companies’ security measures to allow free calls. “If it hadn’t been for the Blue Boxes,” Jobs told his biographer Walter Isaacson before his death, “There would have been no Apple.”
And if there had been no wardialer, there may have never been Whatsapp.
Here’s the full list of the world’s richest former hackers.

DRDO, armed forces' computers hacked

In a major security breach, around 50 computers belonging to the armed forces and the DRDO were hacked sometime back and classified files could have been compromised.

Apparently in view of the development, an advisory has been issued to the Services that computers having internet facility should be kept at a distance from those on which classified work is conducted.

The security breach took place in December and was detected by the intelligence agencies after which a high-level probe was ordered, government sources said here.

The computers that were hacked are located in the South Block and belong mainly to the Army along with the other two forces, they said.

The security establishment fears that up to 30 files marked as classified could have been compromised in the process, the sources said.

National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon sought to downplay the hacking incident saying there are "various forms of compromise" and "not every leaked password is a big threat to security.

"A mere fact that some computer is open in North Block and South Block and is accessible, does not mean that therefore there is big gap in security."

Insisting that "things are not in bad shape", he said, "We will deal with those computers which we feel are compromised."

An advisory issued to the Services said that it was found that a spyware was detected which could read the files of computers, which were not even connected to internet, the sources said.

Armed forces have suffered a lot due to the attempts of hacking by Chinese and Pakistani hackers as one Major posted in Andaman and Nicobar Islands was found to have leaked critical information from his computer.

Russia-Ukraine Standoff Going Online as Hackers Attack

Cyberspace is fast becoming a battlefield for Ukrainian and Russian partisans even as ground troops from the two countries continue their military standoff.
Hackers have launched attacks on the websites of state agencies and publications on both sides. A Russian government watchdog has ordered a shutdown of the social-network pages of Ukrainian nationalist groups. And a Ukrainian phone company said its network in parts of the Crimean peninsula was damaged as unidentified men took over communication centers.
“We’re going to see a very large cyber component to whatever happens” in Ukraine, said Rodney Joffe, senior vice president at Neustar Inc., a technology research firm near Washington, D.C. “The damage can be quite debilitating.”

U.S. intelligence analysts are closely watching the roles hackers are playing in the Ukraine conflict for clues to how Russia and others might employ cyber capabilities in future conflicts, said two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence issues. The officials said cyberspace is quickly rivaling traditional battlefields as a place where wars may be won or lost.
Russia Today, an English-language website backed by the government of President Vladimir Putin, said hackers on March 2 added the word “Nazi” to headlines. The sites of Russian newspaper Vedomosti, news agency RIA Novosti, and several TV and radio stations have been hit with attacks meant to block readers, though none have been pushed offline, according to Group-IB, a Russian online security company.

Anonymous Video

“There has definitely been an increase in malicious activity,” said Ilya Sachkov, Group-IB’s chief executive officer. “But the difference isn’t as intense as, for example, what we saw during the most recent elections for Moscow mayor or the Russian parliament.”
In Ukraine, newswires Unian and Gordon said they had been attacked by hackers, the latter asserting that the culprits were Russian. And a group claiming to be affiliated with Anonymous, a loose collection of Internet activists, posted a video on sharing site Vimeo that said it was targeting Russian websites due to the conflict in Ukraine.
Russia’s foreign ministry declined to immediately comment on preparations for cyber warfare. The defense ministry didn’t return phone calls. Ukraine’s computer security agency said it had registered attacks on websites and phone networks in the country. The security police didn’t answer repeated phone calls.

Hacked Phones

Russian state television channels yesterday reported a leaked phone call between EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton and Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, who recently returned from Ukraine. In the hacked call, according to the reports, Paet said that snipers who killed protesters in Kiev had been working for the opposition, not now-deposed President Viktor Yanukovych. The Estonian Foreign Ministry said the call was authentic, but said Paet hadn’t blamed the opposition for the shootings.
And on Feb. 23, state-funded Voice of Russia published e-mails alleged to have been written by Vitali Klitschko, a pro-Western candidate for the Ukrainian presidency. The documents leaked by a hacker group calling itself Anonymous Ukraine included one in which Klitschko thanked an adviser to Lithuania’s president for funding the Ukrainian protests.
“The fact that this was published in the Russian media hints that the hackers may be linked to Russia,” said Andrei Soldatov, who runs a Russian computer security website called Agentura.ru.
While there has been a cyber component in many recent armed conflicts, it’s likely to be particularly intense in Ukraine because of the level of programming skills in both countries. Absent a crisis, Ukrainian and Russian Web wizards often deploy their skills against companies and consumers, aiming to profit from stolen bank data and corporate secrets.

Targeting Target

The theft of 40 million credit card numbers from Target Corp. at the height of Christmas shopping season last year has been linked by security experts to a hacker based in the Ukrainian city of Odessa, and the U.S. Justice Department last July indicted Russians and Ukrainians in the theft of at least 160 million credit card numbers from several companies.
The key to winning the cyber conflict largely depends on whether the political leaders on each side can rally the hackers to their cause, said Sean Sullivan, an adviser at F-Secure Oyj (FSC1V), a tech consultant in Helsinki.
“There’s quite a lot of cyber crime coming out of that region, so there are a lot of guys who know how to get around legitimate blockades,” Sullivan said. “There’s going to be a lot of cat and mouse, for sure.”

WWII Monument

Cyber warfare can include blocking websites with so-called distributed denial of service attacks, in which millions of computers bombard servers with communication requests, causing them to shut down. More sophisticated -- and damaging -- techniques include switching off a phone network or remotely damaging oil refineries, said Costin Raiu, director of research at Kaspersky Lab, a computer security company in Moscow.
Estonia was hit by attacks that disabled the websites of the president, parliament, ministries, banks and newspapers in 2007 during a dispute with Russia over the relocation of a World War II monument. Estonian authorities at the time said computers around the world were used to overload servers with a barrage of access requests coordinated in Russia.

Georgia Attacks

In 2008, hackers targeted the website of Georgia’s president in the weeks leading up to a military conflict with Russia. The attacks were more intense than those that hit Estonia, according to Internet security firm Arbor Networks. Russian officials at the time declined to comment on whether the government was involved.
On March 3, Roskomnadzor, Russia’s telecommunications watchdog, ordered social-networking site VKontakte to block access to the online communities of 13 Ukrainian nationalist organizations. The agency said the Ukrainian groups had called on Russians to participate in terrorist activities and illegal gatherings. VKontakte complied with the order in Russia, but the groups can still be accessed by users in Ukraine, according to the St. Petersburg-based social network.
Ukrainian phone carrier Ukrtelecom said yesterday that its operations in parts of Crimea have been limited since Feb. 28 because of takeovers at several switching centers. Though there have been no communications failures on the peninsula, the carrier said, some traffic had to be redirected.

DDOS Attack on Meetup

After a rocky week spent recovering from a massive attack by a hacker extortionist, the popular meetup organizing website Meetup is back to normal.
And Meetup co-founder and CEO Scott Heiferman is assuring users no personal data was accessed or stolen in the attack.
That should come as good news to consumers, who are an increasing number of apologetic emails from businesses ranging from Adobe to Target telling them that personal data including passwords and even credit card info has been compromised. It’s getting to be such a regular occurrence that the credit monitoring agencies must be seeing their business skyrocket.
In a message to Meetup users, Heiferman wrote:  ”You may have had trouble accessing Meetup in the past week, and you may have heard that we were hit by a massive attack on our servers — a DDoS attack, which is a barrage of traffic intended to make services unavailable.
“I’m happy to report that Meetup is up and running! And no personal data was accessed or stolen.”
Heiferman said it “was amazing to see how many people were rooting for Meetup.

 See for more details

Tips about How to Secure Your WebBrowser From Hackers

Securing Your Web Browser

Why Secure Your Browser

Today, web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari (to name a few), are installed on almost all computers. Because web browsers are used so frequently, it is vital to configure them securely. Often, the web browser that comes with an operating system is not set up in a secure default configuration. Not securing your web browser can lead quickly to a variety of computer problems caused by anything from spyware being installed without your knowledge to intruders taking control of your computer.
Ideally, computer users should evaluate the risks from the software they use. Many computers are sold with software already loaded. Whether installed by a computer manufacturer, operating system maker, Internet Service Provider, or by a retail store, the first step in assessing the vulnerability of your computer is to find out what software is installed and how one program will interact with another. Unfortunately, it is not practical for most people to perform this level of analysis.
There is an increasing threat from software attacks that take advantage of vulnerable web browsers. We have observed a trend whereby new software vulnerabilities are exploited and directed at web browsers through use of compromised or malicious websites. This problem is made worse by a number of factors, including the following:

• Many users have a tendency to click on links without considering the risks of their actions.
• Web page addresses can be disguised or take you to an unexpected site.
• Many web browsers are configured to provide increased functionality at the cost of decreased security.
• New security vulnerabilities may have been discovered since the software was configured and packaged by the manufacturer.
• Computer systems and software packages may be bundled with additional software, which increases the number of vulnerabilities that may be attacked.
• Third-party software may not have a mechanism for receiving security updates.
• Many websites require that users enable certain features or install more software, putting the computer at additional risk.
• Many users do not know how to configure their web browsers securely.
• Many users are unwilling to enable or disable functionality as required to secure their web browser.

As a result, exploiting vulnerabilities in web browsers has become a popular way for attackers to compromise computer systems.

Web Browser Features and Risks

It is important to understand the functionality and features of the web browser you use. Enabling some web browser features may lower security. Often, vendors will enable features by default to improve the computing experience, but these features may end up increasing the risk to the computer.
Attackers focus on exploiting client-side systems (your computer) through various vulnerabilities. They use these vulnerabilities to take control of your computer, steal your information, destroy your files, and use your computer to attack other computers. A low-cost way attackers do this is by exploiting vulnerabilities in web browsers. An attacker can create a malicious web page that will install Trojan software or spyware that will steal your information. Additional information about spyware is available in the following document: http://www.cert.org/archive/pdf/spyware2005.pdf. Rather than actively targeting and attacking vulnerable systems, a malicious website can passively compromise systems as the site is visited. A malicious HTML document can also be emailed to victims. In these cases, the act of opening the email or attachment can compromise the system.
Some specific web browser features and associated risks are briefly described below. Understanding what different features do will help you understand how they affect your web browser's functionality and the security of your computer.
ActiveX is a technology used by Microsoft Internet Explorer on Microsoft Windows systems. ActiveX allows applications or parts of applications to be utilized by the web browser. A web page can use ActiveX components that may already reside on a Windows system, or a site may provide the component as a downloadable object. This gives extra functionality to traditional web browsing, but may also introduce more severe vulnerabilities if not properly implemented.
ActiveX has been plagued with various vulnerabilities and implementation issues. One problem with using ActiveX in a web browser is that it greatly increases the attack surface, or “attackability,” of a system. Installing any Windows application introduces the possibility of new ActiveX controls being installed. Vulnerabilities in ActiveX objects may be exploited via Internet Explorer, even if the object was never designed to be used in a web browser (VU#680526). In 2000, the CERT/CC held a workshop to analyze security in ActiveX. The results from that workshop may be viewed at http://www.cert.org/reports/activeX_report.pdf. Many vulnerabilities with respect to ActiveX controls lead to severe impacts. Often an attacker can take control of the computer. You can search the Vulnerability Notes Database for ActiveX vulnerabilities at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/byid?searchview&query=activex.
Java is an object-oriented programming language that can be used to develop active content for websites. A Java Virtual Machine, or JVM, is used to execute the Java code, or “applet,” provided by the website. Some operating systems come with a JVM, while others require a JVM to be installed before Java can be used. Java applets are operating system independent.
Java applets usually execute within a “sandbox” where the interaction with the rest of the system is limited. However, various implementations of the JVM contain vulnerabilities that allow an applet to bypass these restrictions. Signed Java applets can also bypass sandbox restrictions, but they generally prompt the user before they can execute. You can search the Vulnerability Notes Database for Java vulnerabilities at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/byid?searchview&query=java.
Plug-ins are applications intended for use in the web browser. Netscape has developed the NPAPI standard for developing plug-ins, but this standard is used by multiple web browsers, including Mozilla Firefox and Safari. Plug-ins are similar to ActiveX controls but cannot be executed outside of a web browser. Adobe Flash is an example of an application that is available as a plug-in.
Plug-ins can contain programming flaws such as buffer overflows, or they may contain design flaws such as cross-domain violations, which arises when the same origin policy is not followed.
Cookies are files placed on your system to store data for specific websites. A cookie can contain any information that a website is designed to place in it. Cookies may contain information about the sites you visited, or may even contain credentials for accessing the site. Cookies are designed to be readable only by the website that created the cookie. Session cookies are cleared when the browser is closed, and persistent cookies will remain on the computer until the specified expiration date is reached.
Cookies can be used to uniquely identify visitors of a website, which some people consider a violation of privacy. If a website uses cookies for authentication, then an attacker may be able to acquire unauthorized access to that site by obtaining the cookie. Persistent cookies pose a higher risk than session cookies because they remain on the computer longer.
JavaScript, also known as ECMAScript, is a scripting language that is used to make websites more interactive. There are specifications in the JavaScript standard that restrict certain features such as accessing local files.
VBScript is another scripting language that is unique to Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer. VBScript is similar to JavaScript, but it is not as widely used in websites because of limited compatibility with other browsers.
The ability to run a scripting language such as JavaScript or VBScript allows web page authors to add a significant amount of features and interactivity to a web page. However, this same capability can be abused by attackers. The default configuration for most web browsers enables scripting support, which can introduce multiple vulnerabilities, such as the following:

• Cross-Site Scripting Cross-Site Scripting, often referred to as XSS, is a vulnerability in a website that permits an attacker to leverage the trust relationship that you have with that site. For a high-level description of XSS attacks, please see the whitepaper published at http://www.cert.org/archive/pdf/cross_site_scripting.pdf. Note that Cross-Site Scripting is not usually caused by a failure in the web browser. You can search the Vulnerability Notes Database for Cross-Site Scripting vulnerabilities at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/byid?searchview&query=cross-site+scripting.
• Cross-Zone and Cross-Domain VulnerabilitiesMost web browsers employ security models to prevent script in a website from accessing data in a different domain. These security models are primarily based on the Netscape Same Origin Policy: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/components/same-origin.html. Internet Explorer also has a policy to enforce security zone separation: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie6/using/howto/security/setup.mspx.
  Vulnerabilities that violate these security models can be used to perform actions that a site could not normally perform. The impact can be similar to a cross-site scripting vulnerability. However, if a vulnerability allows for an attacker to cross into the local machine zone or other protected areas, the attacker may be able to execute arbitrary commands on the vulnerable system. You can search the Vulnerability Notes Database for cross-zone and cross-domain vulnerabilities at http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/byid?searchview&query=cross-domain.
• Detection Evasion Anti-virus, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) generally work by looking for specific patterns in content. If a “known bad” pattern is detected, then the appropriate actions can take place to protect the user. But because of the dynamic nature of programming languages, scripting in web pages can be used to evade such protective systems.

How to Secure Your Web Browser

Some software features that provide functionality to a web browser, such as ActiveX, Java, Scripting (JavaScript, VBScript, etc.), may also introduce vulnerabilities to the computer system. These may stem from poor implementation, poor design, or an insecure configuration. For these reasons, you should understand which browsers support which features and the risks they could introduce. Some web browsers permit you to fully disable the use of these technologies, while others may permit you to enable features on a per-site basis.
This section shows you how to securely configure a few of the most popular web browsers and how to disable features that can cause vulnerabilities. We encourage you to visit the vendor's website for the browser you use to learn more. If a vendor does not provide documentation on how to secure the browser, we encourage you to contact them and request more information.
Multiple web browsers may be installed on your computer. Other software applications on your computer, such as email clients or document viewers, may use a different browser than the one you normally use to access the web. Also, certain file types may be configured to open with a different web browser. Using one web browser for manually interacting with websites does not mean other applications will automatically use the same browser. For this reason, it is important to securely configure each web browser that may be installed on your computer. One advantage to having multiple web browsers is that one browser can be used for only sensitive activities such as online banking, and the other can be used for general purpose web browsing. This can minimize the chances that a vulnerability in a web browser, website, or related software can be used to compromise sensitive information.
Web browsers are frequently updated. Depending on the version of your software, the features and options may move or change.

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) is a web browser integrated into the Microsoft Windows operating system. Removal of this application is not practical.
In addition to supporting Java, scripting and other forms of active content, Internet Explorer implements ActiveX technology. While any application is potentially vulnerable to attack, it is possible to mitigate a number of serious vulnerabilities by using a web browser that does not support ActiveX controls. However, using an alternate browser may affect the functionality of some sites that require the use of ActiveX controls. Note that using a different web browser will not remove IE, or other Windows components from the system. Other software, such as email clients, may use IE, the WebBrowser ActiveX control (WebOC), or the IE HTML rendering engine (MSHTML). Results from the CERT/CC ActiveX workshop in 2000 are available at http://www.cert.org/reports/activeX_report.pdf.
Here are steps to disable various features in Internet Explorer 7. Note that menu options may vary between versions of IE, so you should adapt the steps below as appropriate.
In order to change settings for Internet Explorer, select Tools then Internet Options…

Select the Security tab. On this tab you will find a section at the top that lists the various security zones that Internet Explorer uses. More information about Internet Explorer security zones is available in the Microsoft document Setting Up Security Zones. For each of these zones, you can select a Custom Level of protection. By clicking the Custom Level button, you will see a second window open that permits you to select various security settings for that zone. The Internet zone is where all sites initially start out. The security settings for this zone apply to all the websites that are not listed in the other security zones. We recommend the High security setting be applied for this zone. By selecting the High security setting, several features including ActiveX, Active scripting, and Java will be disabled. With these features disabled, the browser will be more secure. Click the Default Level button and then drag the slider control up to High.

For a more fine-grained control over what features are allowed in the zone, click the Custom Level button. Here you can control the specific security options that apply to the current zone. For example ActiveX can be disabled by selecting Disable for Run ActiveX controls and plug-ins. Default values for the High security setting can be selected by choosing High and clicking the Reset button to apply the changes.

The Trusted sites zone is a security zone for sites that you think are safe to visit. You believe that the site is designed with security in mind and that it can be trusted not to contain malicious content. To add or remove sites from this zone, you can click the Sites… button. This will open a secondary window listing the sites that you trust and permitting you to add or remove them. You may also require that only verified sites (HTTPS) can be included in this zone. This gives you greater assurance that the site you are visiting is the site that it claims to be.


We recommend setting the security level for the Trusted sites zone to Medium-high (or Medium for Internet Explorer 6 and earlier). When the Internet Zone is set to High, you may encounter websites that do not function properly due to one or more of the associated security settings. This is where the Trusted sites zone can help. If you trust that the site will not contain malicious content, you can add it to the list of sites in the Trusted sites zone. Once a site is added to this zone, features such as ActiveX and Active scripting will be enabled for the site. The benefit of this type of configuration is that IE will be more secure by default, and sites can be “whitelisted” in the Trusted sites zone to gain extra functionality.
The Privacy tab contains settings for cookies. Cookies are text files placed on your computer by various sites that you visit either directly (first-party) or indirectly (third-party) through ad banners, for example. A cookie can contain any data that a site wishes to store. It is often used to track your computer as you move through a website and store information such as preferences or credentials. We recommend that you select the Advanced button and select Override automatic cookie handling. Then select Prompt for both first and third-party cookies. This will prompt you each time a site tries to place a cookie on your machine. If the number of cookie prompts is too excessive, the option to Always allow session cookies can be enabled. This will allow non-persistent cookies to be accepted without user interaction. Session cookies have less risk than persistent cookies.


You can then evaluate the originating site, whether you wish to accept or deny the cookie, and what action to take (allow or block, with the option to remember the decision for all future cookies from that website). For example, if visiting a website causes a cookie prompt from a web domain that is associated with advertising, you may wish to click Block Cookie to prevent that domain from being able to set cookies on your computer, for privacy reasons.

By selecting the Sites... button, you can manage the cookie settings for specific sites. You can add or remove sites, and you can change the current settings for existing sites. The bottom section of this window will specify the domain of the site and the action to take when that site wants to place a cookie on your machine. You can use the upper section of this window to change these settings.

Alternatively, if you do not wish to receive warning dialogs when a site attempts to set a cookie, you can use Internet Explorer's pre-set privacy rules. Click the Default button and then drag the slider up to High. Note that some websites may fail to function properly with the High setting. In such cases, you may add the site to the list of sites for which cookies are allowed, as described above.

The Advanced tab contains settings that apply to all of the security zones. We recommend that you disable the Enable third-party browser extensions option. This option includes tool bars and Browser Helper Objects (BHOs). While some add-ons can be useful, they also have the ability to violate your privacy. For example, a browser add-on may monitor your web browsing habits, or even change the contents of web pages in an attempt to gather personal information.

Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) can be abused to allow spoofing of web page addresses. This can allow phishing attacks to be more convincing. More details about IDN spoofing can be found in Vulnerability Note VU#273262.  To protect against IDN spoofing in Internet Explorer, enable the Always show encoded addresses option. This will cause IDN addresses to be displayed in an encoded form in the Internet Explorer address bar and status bar, which will remove the visual similarity to the spoofing target address.
We also recommend that you disable the Play sounds in webpages option.  Sounds in web pages are rarely integral to web page content, and may also introduce security risks by having the browser process additional untrusted data. This option is for Internet Explorer's ability to natively handle sounds. It will not interfere with other software, such as Adobe Flash or Apple QuickTime.

Under the Programs tab, you can specify your default applications for viewing websites, email messages and various other network related tasks. You can also disable Internet Explorer from asking you if you would like it to be your default web browser here.

Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox supports many features of the same features as Internet Explorer, with the exception of ActiveX and the Security Zone model. Mozilla Firefox does have the underlying support for configurable security policies (CAPS), which is similar to Internet Explorer's Security Zone model, however there is no graphical user interface for setting these options. We recommend looking in the Help, For Internet Explorer Users menu to help users understand how terminology differs between the two applications.
The following are some steps to disable various features in Mozilla Firefox. Note that some menu options may change between versions or may appear in different locations depending on the host operating system. You should adapt the steps below as appropriate.
To edit the settings for Mozilla Firefox, select Tools, then Options.

You will then see an Options window that has a Category row at the top and the features for that category below. The first category of interest is the General category. Under this section, you can set Firefox as your default browser. Also select the option Always ask me where to save files. This will make it more obvious when a web page attempts to save a file to your computer.

Under the Privacy category, you will find options for browser History and Cookies. In the History section, disable the option to Remember what I enter in forms and the search bar. If the browser remembers these options, it can be a privacy violation, especially if the browser is used in a shared environment. Visited page and download history can be disabled here too.
In the Cookie section, select ask me every time. This will help make it clear when a website is attempting to set a cookie.

When the user is prompted, the contents of the cookie can be viewed and the user can select whether to Deny, Allow for Session, or Allow the cookie. This gives the user more information about what sites are using cookies and also gives more granular control of cookies as opposed to globally enabling them. Select Use my choice for all cookies from this site to have the browser remember your decision so that you will not be prompted each time you return to the site. Clicking the Allow for Session button will cause the cookie to be cleared when the browser is restarted. If prompting for each cookie is too excessive, the user may wish to select the Keep until: I close Firefox option. This will prevent websites from being able to set persistent cookies.

Many web browsers will offer the ability to store login information. In general, we recommend against using such features. Should you decide to use the feature, ensure that you use the measures available to protect the password data on your computer. Under the Security category, the Passwords section contains various options to manage stored passwords, and a Master Password feature to encrypt the data on your system. We encourage you to use this option if you decide to let Mozilla Firefox manage your passwords.
The Warn me when sites try to install add-ons option will display a warning bar at the top of the browser when a website attempts to take such an action.

The Content category contains an option to Enable Java. Java is a programming language that permits website designers to run applications on your computer. We recommend disabling this feature unless required by the trusted site you wish to visit. Again, you should determine if this site is trustworthy and whether you want to enable Java to view the site’s content. After you are finished visiting the site, we recommend disabling Java until needed again.
Press the Advanced button to disable specific JavaScript features. We recommend disabling all of the options displayed in this dialog.


The Content section has an option to modify actions taken when files are downloaded. Any time a file type is configured to automatically open with an associated application, this can make the browser more dangerous to use. Vulnerabilities in these associated applications can be exploited more easily when they are configured to automatically open. Click the Manage button to view the current download settings and modify them if necessary.

The Download Actions dialog will show the file types and the currently configured actions to take when the browser encounters such a file. For all listed file types, either select Remove Action or Change Action... to modify the action to save the file to the computer. This increases the amount of user action required to launch the associated applications, and will therefore help prevent automated exploitation of vulnerabilities that may exist in these applications.


Firefox 1.5 and later include a feature to Clear Private Data. This option will remove potentially sensitive information from the web browser. Select Clear Private Data... from the Tools menu to use this privacy feature.


Because Firefox does not have easily-configured security zones like Internet Explorer, it can be difficult to configure the web browser options on a per-site basis. For example, a user may wish to enable JavaScript for a specific, trusted site, but have it disabled for all other sites.  This functionality can be added to Firefox with an add-on, such as NoScript.
With NoScript installed, JavaScript will be disabled for sites by default. The user can allow scripts for a website by using the NoScript icon menu. Scripts can be allowed for a site on a temporary or a more permanent basis. If Temporarily allow is selected, then scripts are enabled for that site until the browser is closed.

Because many web browser vulnerabilities require scripting, configuring the browser to have scripting disabled by default greatly reduces the chances of exploitation. To extend this protection even further, NoScript can be configured to also block Java, Flash, and other plug-ins by default. This can help to mitigate any vulnerabilities in these plug-in technologies. NoScript will replace these elements with a placeholder icon, which can be clicked to enable the element. Click the NoScript icon and then click Options... to get to the NoScript configuration screen.

On the Plugins tab, select the options as follows:

Aside from visiting websites that are inherently malicious, users can also be put at risk when a legitimate, trusted site is compromised. For this reason, we recommend enabling the option to Apply these restrictions to trusted sites too. If this option is too intrusive, it can be turned off at the cost of increased risk.

Apple Safari

The Safari web browser supports many of the same features as Mozilla Firefox. The following are some steps to disable various features in Safari on Mac OS X. The options for Safari for Microsoft Windows may differ slightly. Also note that some menu options may change over time, and you should adapt the steps below as appropriate.
In order to change settings for Safari, select Safari then Preferences…
Note that on the Safari menu, you can also select the option “Block Pop-up Windows”. This option will prevent sites from opening another window through the use of scripting or active content. Be aware that while Pop-up Windows are often associated with advertisements, some sites may attempt to display relevant content in a new window. Therefore, setting this option may disable the functionality of some sites.

Once you select the Preferences menu, the window below will open. The first tab to look at is the General tab. On this tab you can set up many options such as Save downloaded files to: and Open “safe” files after downloading.  We recommend that you download files to a folder that you create for that purpose. We also recommend that you deselect the Open “safe” files after downloading option.

The next section of interest is the AutoFill tab. On this tab, you can select what types of forms your browser will fill in automatically. In general, we recommend against using AutoFill features. If someone can gain access to your machine, or the AutoFill data files, then the AutoFill feature may allow them to use the stored credentials to access to other sites that they would not otherwise have the ability to access. However, if used with appropriate protective measures, it may be acceptable to enable AutoFill. We recommend using filesystem encryption software such as OS X FileVault along with the Use secure virtual memory option to provide additional security for files that reside in a user's home directory.

The Security tab provides several options. The Web Content section permits you to enable or disable various forms of scripting and active content. We recommend disabling the first three options in this section, and only enabling them based on site-specific cases. We recommend selecting the Block Pop-up Windows option. Remember that this option will prevent sites from opening another window through the use of scripting, or active content. Again, be aware that while Pop-up Windows are often associated with advertisements, some sites may attempt to display relevant content in a new window. Therefore, setting this option may disable the functionality of some sites.
It is safer to use Safari without plug-ins and Java, so we recommend disabling the options Enable plug-ins and Enable Java. It is also safer to disable JavaScript. However, many websites require JavaScript for proper operation.
In this dialog you can disable cookies and also view or remove cookies that have been set. In general we recommend disabling cookies, and enabling them only when you visit a site that requires their use. At this point, you should determine if the site is trustworthy and whether you want to enable cookies to view the site’s content. After you are finished visiting the site, we recommend disabling cookies until needed again. You can choose to only accept cookies from the sites that you visit by selecting the Only from sites you navigate to option. This will permit sites that you visit to set cookies, but not third-party sites. Finally, we recommend selecting the Ask before sending a non-secure form to a secure website option. This will prompt you before sending unencrypted form data when viewing an HTTPS-secured website.

Other Browsers

Other web browsers may have similar options to those described above. Please refer to the browser documentation to determine which options are available and how to make the necessary changes. For example, the links below show where to find information for four popular web browsers:

• Opera - http://www.opera.com/support/tutorials/security
• Mozilla SeaMonkey - http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey
• Konqueror - http://www.konqueror.org
• Netscape - http://browser.netscape.com

Note that official support for Netscape has ended on February 1st, 2008. If you are using Netscape, we strongly recommend switching to a browser that is still supported.

Keeping Your Computer Secure

In addition to selecting and securing your web browser, you can take measures to increase protection to your computer in general. The following are steps and links to information resources that will help you secure your computer.

1. Read the Home Network Security and Home Computer Security documents

2. Enable automatic software updates if available

   Vendors will usually release patches for their software when a vulnerability has been discovered. Most product documentation offers a method to get updates and patches. You should be able to obtain updates from the vendor's website. Read the manuals or browse the vendor's website for more information.
   Some applications will automatically check for available updates, and many vendors offer automatic notification of updates via a mailing list. Look on your vendor's website for information about automatic notification. If no mailing list or other automated notification mechanism is offered, you may need to check the vendor's website periodically for updates.

3. Install and use antivirus software

   While an up-to-date antivirus software package cannot protect against all malicious code, for most users it remains the best first-line of defense against malicious code attacks. Many antivirus packages support automatic updates of virus definitions. We recommend using these automatic updates when available. A partial list of antivirus vendors is available is available on the CERT/CC website.

4. Avoid unsafe behavior

   Additional information on this topic can be found in the Home Network Security document.
   
   • Use caution when opening email attachments or when using peer-to-peerfile sharing, instant messaging, or chat rooms.
   • Don't enable file sharing on network interfaces exposed directly to the Internet.

5. Follow the principle of least privilege — don't enable it if you don't need it

   Consider creating and using an account with limited privileges instead of an 'administrator' or 'root' level account for everyday tasks. Depending on the operating system, you only need to use administrator level access when installing new software, changing system configurations, etc. Many vulnerability exploits (e.g., viruses, Trojan horses) are executed with the privileges of the user that runs them — making it far more risky to be logged in as an administrator all the time.

How to stop hackers from getting your facebook account.

First and foremost, the easiest way for hackers to steal your account is by phishing schemes. All they have to do is create a legitimate looking page telling you that they need your user name and password to log in. There are two main ways this can happen, from within Facebook or via email. From within Facebook, here's the thing to remember... if you are logged in, you WON'T need to log in again short of losing your internet connection. If someone sends you a gift app that requires you to log in to see the gift, DON'T!!! I have made it a point to weed out the crAPPs (as I call them) by removing people from my friends list who send them. One crAPP posted to my wall means you're out!!
Via email, you may receive a legitimate looking email saying that your account has been compromised and have a link within the body of the email to log in. DON'T USE THE LINK!! Instead, go directly to Facebook and attempt to log in as usual. IF your account is truly compromised, you will receive a message from Facebook on attempted login.
To comment on someone's trade note, just navigate to their notes section and find it yourself. If they have multiple notes, ask which one to leave a comment on.
Also, stay away from trading within Facebook's chat or email. Scammers and hackers prefer to "trade" this way because it keeps them from prying eyes... like ours at KTM!

The next way any hacker can get your password is by brute force. These are simple hacking tools that use number/letter combination and try again and again until your password is found. They might need 2 things for this to work. 1) your user name (email account) and 2) possibly your date of birth. These are easily found within your info page within your profile. FIRST... hide these from prying eyes.

Go to Account>Account Settings>Privacy Settings and change your birthday settings to "Only Me".
Then go back to Privacy>Contact Information and set your email to "Only Me".
By doing this, you have just removed the most easily accessible 2/3 of the information any hacker needs.

The final step is your password. This is the single-most important piece of the equation... and you should follow this advice in ALL your important web sites you visit, especially banking, PayPal, eBay, Credit Cards and other critical sites.
MOST brute force hacking tools can only do number/letter combinations up to 8 digits... some can do more. The key here is the combinations of what they can do. I HIGHLY recommend the use of special characters in your password such as _ - + = / \ | * & ^ % $ # @ ! ~ etc. Brute force hackers CAN'T do these symbols! Also, make your password more than 8 characters. Use number/letter/special character combinations with the use of capital letters thrown in.

If you want to make sure you don't forget what it is, use common words, like your own name, but substitute numbers for letters that look similar.
e.g. my name is David Reedy. I can do a password using my name as an example like "Mah1_G33ri" or variations. Notice the underscore? The likelihood of this password being hacked by brute force is slim to none!
The variants make it so that if a brute force hacking tool was used, and it was able to try a new combination every second, it would take at least 12-billion seconds to crack it. How long is 12-billion seconds?? Almost 380 years!!! Long enough for me to not care less if and when they finally hack it!

I hope that this has given you some ideas to better safeguard your personal accounts. And remember, if YOU get hacked, you are going to lose more than your loot and lotto, you're going to potentially lose your well established name and reputation. And others who have come to trust your name and reputation will suffer also when they in turn get scammed by the hacker.

Make sure your personal identity; your email, birth date and password follow the rule of The Lord of the Rings... "Keep it secret. Keep it safe"!

Top 10 Ethical Hackers in India | Best Indian Hackers | Indian Ethical Hackers

#1 ) Ankit Fadia

Ankit Fadia  is an independent computer security and digital intelligence consultant with definitive experience in the field of Internet security based out of the Silicon Valley in California, USA. He has authored 14 internationally best-selling books on numerous topics related to Computer Security that have been widely appreciated by both professionals and industry leaders the world over. His books have sold a record 10 million copies across the globe, have been translated into Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Polish and are also being used as reference textbooks in some of the most prestigious academic institutions around the world. He was one of eight people named MTV India's Youth Icon of the Year for the year 2008.

#2 ) Sunny Vaghela

Sunny Vaghela is one of the countries pioneer Information Security & Cyber Crime Consultant. The young and dynamic personality of Sunny has not only assisted in solving complex cyber crime cases but has also played an instrumental role in creating awareness about information security and cyber crimes. During his graduation at Nirma University he developed projects like SMS Based Control System, Voice Recognition Based Control System exhibiting his sharp acumen for technology. At the age of 18, Sunny exposed loopholes like SMS & Call Forging in Mobile Networks. The technology that allowed to send SMS or Make Call to any International Number from any number of your choice. At Present, He is Director & Chief Technical Officer at TechDefence Consulting Pvt Ltd which is rapidly growing security services & investigation consulting organization focusing on Cyber Crime Investigations,Cyber Law Consulting,Vulnerability Assessment & Penetration Testing,Information Security Training.

#3 ) Trishneet Arora

Trishneet Arora has authored for book "The Hacking Era” with several technical manuals and given countless lectures, workshops and seminars throughout his career. He trained IPS Officers, Crime Branch Cell, Banks and IT Experts. He  solves cyber crime cases with agencies, Trishneet Arora also known as Social Networking Specialist, solved many cases like Fake Profiles, Tracing on Facebook, Email Tracing and money fraud investigations. He has been interviewed by Various Newspapers, News Channel’s, TV Channels, Blogs and Communities Namely The Economic Times, The Times of India, Indian Express, Dainik Bhaskar, Punjab Kesri, Daily Post, Fastway News, PTC News, The Tribune, Dainik Jagran, Punjabi Tribune, Punjabi Jagran and more. He is currently Chief Technical Officer at TAC Security Solutions. Trishneet and  Mr.Yashwant Sinha (Former Finance Minister of India) were keynote speakers at Bussines Relation Conference, Gujarat

#4 ) Vivek Ramchandran

Vivek Ramachandran is a world renowned security researcher and evangelist. His expertise includes computer and network security, exploit research, wireless security, computer forensics, embedded systems security, compliance and e-Governance. He is the author of the books – “Wireless Penetration Testing using Backtrack” and “The Metasploit Megaprimer”, both up for worldwide release in mid 2011. Vivek is a B.Tech from  and an advisor to the computer science department’s Security Lab. In 2006, Microsoft declared Vivek as one of the winners of the Microsoft Security Shootout Contest held in India among an estimated 65,000 participants. The competition was aimed at finding leading Security Experts in India. Vivek was also awarded a Team Achievement Award by Cisco Systems for his contribution to the 802.1x and Port Security modules in the Catalyst 6500 series of switches. These are high end security features used in Enterprises

#5 ) Koushik Dutta

Koushik Dutta is responsible for Clockworkmod recovery and Rom Manager for Android rooting and the core member of famed UnrEVOked team. He has been a .net developer from heart and had his internship initially at Microsoft and is a former MVP. He decided to leave Microsoft and hack Android cellphoneslike there was no tomorrow. Sony approached him after geohot humped them like anything but he politely declined .

#6 ) Aseem Jakhar

Aseem is a renowned security researcher with extensive experience in system programming, security research and consulting. He has worked on various security software including IBM ISS Proventia UTM appliance, Mirapoint messaging/security appliance, anti-spam engine, anti-virus software, multicast packet reflector, Transparent HTTPS proxy with captive portal, bayesian spam filter to name a few. He is well known in the hacking and security community as the founder of null - The open security community the largest security community in India. The focus and mission of null is advanced security research, sharing information, responsible vulnerability disclosure and assisting Govt./private organizations with security issues.His research includes Linux remote thread injection, automated web application detection and dynamic web filter. He has authored several software projects such as Jugaad, EyePee and Kunsa due to be released under an open source license.

#7 ) Sai Satish

Sai Satish is an young Entrepreneur, Founder & CEO of Indian Servers. Administrator of Andhrahackers (Top hacking awareness forum in INDIA).Author of “HACKING SECRETS” an Internationally sold hacking book, a renowned Ethical Hacker & Cyber Security Expert. Thousands of college students and professionals got benefited by his lectures which are delivered at 90+ colleges all over the WORLD. He worked as Microsoft Student Partner, Corporate .Net Trainer . He was rewarded by IAS officers for pentesting on government sites, which helped to them to improve security and safe transactions and Forensic Investigator. He was interviewed by Many International, national and regional news channels like Dap News(caombodia), AAjtak, The Hindu,Deccan Chronicle, Zee TV,TV9, NTV, Eenadu , Sakshi etc.

#8 ) Benild Joseph

Benild Joseph  the 20 years old world renowned Ethical Hacker | Information Security Consultant | Speaker | Author in Indian IT Industry was born in Calicut, A City of Kerala. Currently Acting as the Chief Executive Officer of “Th3 art of h@ckin9“ – International IT Security Project. He has his credit to many registered and pending patents in cyber forensic and information security domain. He specializes in Web Application security, Penetration testing and Forensic investigation. His research interests include Computer Security, Networking, Data Forensic, Virtualization, Web Application Vulnerability and Information Security. He has been interviewed by several print and online newspapers where he has shared his experiences relating to Ethical Hacking, Scope in Indian Information Security field, Cyber War and Cyber Crimes.

#9 ) Falgun Rathod

Falgun Rathod is one of the countries pioneer Information Security & Cyber Crime Consultant. Falgun has solved number of complex cyber crime cases and has also played an instrumental role in creating awareness about information security and cyber crimes. He is a Founder & Director of Cyber Octet Pvt Ltd - a Company providing Training on Ethical Hacking and Information Security as well as Cyber Crime Consultants. He has been assisting many agencies & companies and conducted numerous workshops and seminars in the Colleges about Information Security and Ethical Hacking. He is also the member of OWASP (open web application security project), invited member at ICTTF (International Cyber Threat Task Force), CSFI (Cyber Security Forum Initiative), DSCI (Data Security Council of India).He is also Invited Article Writer at PenTest Magazine based in Poland. He was featured in March 2012 Issue of PenTest Mag on the Cover Page of Magazine.

#10 ) Rahul  Tyagi 

Rahul  Tyagi  is  a  sovereign  computer  security  consultant  and  has state-of-the-art  familiarity  in the  field of computers.  Recently Tyagi conversed with several media channels to create consciousness in people regarding the threats and terror of hacking. He was also invited as a speaker in the principal ethical hacking conference DEF CON, Chennai where he presented his research paper amongst other security experts. His research paper has also been published globally on exploit-db and packetstormsecurity, which are world renowned research paper database communities. Rahul Tyagi is presently working as the brand ambassador of TCIL-IT Chandigarh as Corporate Ethical Hacking Trainer. He also provides his services to ‘Cyber Security & Anti hacking Organization of India’ as Vice-President. Additionally, he is the Technical Head of News Paper Association of India as well.

Snowden leaks: GCHQ 'attacked Anonymous' hackers

Snowden leaks: GCHQ 'attacked Anonymous' hackers

GCHQ disrupted "hacktivist" communications by using one of their own techniques against them, according to the latest Edward Snowden leaks.

Documents from the whistle-blower published by NBC indicate UK cyberspies used a denial of service attack (DoS) in 2011 to force a chatroom used by the Anonymous collective offline.
A spokeswoman for GCHQ said all the agency's activities were authorised and subject to rigorous oversight.
But others say it raises concerns.
Dr Steven Murdoch, a security researcher at the University of Cambridge, said using a DoS attack to overwhelm a computer server with traffic would have risked disrupting other services.

Introduction to GCHQ

The UK government's communications-focused intelligence agency, employing about 5,000 people.
It stands for Government Communications Headquarters.
The agency is based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and also operates two smaller sites in Cornwall and North Yorkshire.
Its two key roles are:

• To identify threats from intercepted communications. It says these include terrorism, the spread of nuclear weapons, regional conflicts around the world and threats to the economic prosperity of the UK.
• To serve as an authority on information assurance - meaning that it advises the government and organisations running the UK's critical infrastructure how to safeguard their systems from interference and disruption.

The foreign secretary is answerable in Parliament for GCHQ's work.

"It's quite possible that the server was used for other purposes which would have been entirely unrelated to Anonymous," he said.

"It's also likely that most of the chat that was going on about Anonymous was not to do with hacking because the people who join Anonymous are fairly wide-ranging in what they think it is legitimate to do.
"Some have gone into criminality but many others just go out and organise protests, letter-writing campaigns and other things that are not criminal."
Campaign group Privacy International is also worried.
"There is no legislation that clearly authorises GCHQ to conduct cyber-attacks," said head of research Eric King.
"So, in the absence of any democratic mechanisms, it appears GCHQ has granted itself the power to carry out the very same offensive attacks politicians have criticised other states for conducting."
The UK government's Cyber Security Strategy document, published in 2011, says officials should take "proactive measures to disrupt threats to our information security", but also notes that any such action should be consistent with freedom of expression and privacy rights.
Hacker arrests The latest documents are published alongside an article part-written by Glenn Greenwald.
The journalist is one of only two people reported to have access to all whistle-blower Edward Snowden's leaked documents.

GCHQ has not discussed the specifics of the operations included in the Snowden leaks

The article highlights that the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) is the division identified as being responsible for the DoS attack - a unit whose existence had not previously been publicly disclosed.
The documents indicate the unit also spied on and communicated with chatroom users to identify hackers who had stolen information.
In one case, agents are said to have tricked a hacker nicknamed P0ke who claimed to have stolen data from the US government. They did this by sending him a link to a BBC article entitled: "Who loves the hacktivists?"
"Sexy," P0ke is alleged to have commented.
But when he clicked the link it is reported that JTRIG was able to bypass measures he had taken to hide his identity, although it is not clear how.

GCHQ is said to have tricked one hacktivist by sending him a link to a BBC article

NBC reports that P0ke - a Scandinavian college student - was never arrested despite GCHQ learning his true name.
But the leaks indicate others were imprisoned as a result of JTRIG operations.
One paper highlights the case of Edward Pearson - a hacker known as GZero - who was sentenced to two years in jail in 2012 for illegally acquiring credit and debit card details registered with PayPal.
A transcript of a chatroom conversation indicates that Pearson had contacted GCHQ agents claiming he knew a hacktivist they were investigating, unaware of the agents' true identity.
'Grey area' In addition to Anonymous, the documents list LulzSec, the A-Team and the Syrian Cyber Army as hacktivist groups GCHQ was concerned about.
In one case it appears simply warning activists that carrying out their own DoS attacks was illegal had the desired effect.
NBC reports that the notice was posted via Facebook, Twitter, email, instant messenger and Skype.
One alleged GCHQ document states that one month later 80% of those contacted had stopped using a hacktivist chatroom.

Several of the Lulzsec hackers have been arrested after carrying out DoS attacks

But the documents also indicate that GCHQ was willing to use DoS attacks itself as part of an operation codenamed Rolling Thunder, which prevented hacktivists using a chatroom for 30 hours in September 2011.
GCHQ has a longstanding policy of not commenting on specific intelligence-gathering procedures, but a spokeswoman said all its work was "carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework".
Even so, one cybersecurity expert said he had mixed feelings about the latest leaks.
"We have to remember that cyberspooks within GCHQ are equally, if not more, skilled than many black-hat hackers, and the tools and techniques they are going to use to fight cybercrime are surely going to be similar to that of the bad guys," said Andrew Miller, chief operating officer at Corero Network.
"Legally, we enter a very grey area here; where members of Lulzsec were arrested and incarcerated for carrying out DoS attacks, but it seems that JTRIG are taking the same approach with impunity."