GAME was quick to deny these claims saying they are untrue after the video game vendor was forced to investigate them. The claims suggested passwords and user names allegedly belonging to the online website members had been found on Pastebin, a web application that allows for the uploading of text, usually source code samples.

One spokesperson for the retailer, Anne-Marie Mason said ‘At GAME we guard our customers’ details very carefully.’ She went on to explain that ‘The published email addresses are not registered users of Game.co.uk, and there has been no breach of our database security.’ This statement was made after the company claimed they had thoroughly investigated the claims.

‘Hunterbeckham’ is a hacker that has explained how the credentials were acquired. They say a shell injection method was used. GAME meanwhile are assuring customers that their details are safe and advising anyone that has any questions regarding the situation to get into contact with their customer services team via Twitter, Facebook or their website.

Yet more assurance comes via the Inquirer, who say they attempted to use a few of the login details that were listed on Pastebin to access the website but were unable to have any success, getting an error message every time that read ‘We could not find a GAME Account for the email address you provided. Please enter the information again.’

Are you a member of the GAME website? Do you believe the claims that they were hacked or are you remaining assured that your details are safe?

LulzSec are the group of hackers, or ‘hacktivists’ as they are also sometimes referred to, who are responsible for the cyber-attacks on several well-known companies’ sites. These companies include Sony, whose PlayStation Network was forced to shut down after the security breach left millions of online accounts open to access. These accounts contained confidential details and in most cases bank account details.

This hack was to be the first in a string of publicized attacks including the hacking of Sega who’s Pass service security was breached, Sony Pictures where again personal information was left insecure, the CIA website was forced to shut down after a disruption from the hackers, the UK law enforcement agency SOCA’s site was also forced to shut down and yesterday the group were claiming they had attacked the Brazilian government‘s website. Just yesterday we brought you news of a suspected member of the group getting arrested in the UK.

It seems all their recent antics may have irritated certain groups of hackers and as a result have found themselves the victims for once. Their website that was left defaced had a message left on it which taunted that TeaMpOisoN were the group responsible. The message warned the group that personal details of the members of the group had been obtained, such as phone numbers, IPs, passwords, addresses and pictures.

They also ridiculed the group in the message, claiming the scripts and tools they used for their attacks were pre-made and therefore they were not worthy of calling themselves real hackers. Though TeaMpOisoN was the name left in the message, it seems the attack was from one member who comes across as angry which could make this a personal vendetta rather than the act of the group as a whole.

The TeaMpOisoN hacker admits to being just 17 in the message and warns LulzSec that they are going to be exposed in ‘TeaMpOisoN Issue 2.’ Check out the article at ABC where they have the full message available and see for you what was written.

Could this be the act of one person or has LulzSec’s recent actions drawn too much unwanted attention causing other hacker groups to take action?

The teenager is thought to be a key member of the group, though the group itself is playing down the arrest and instead are boasting this latest attack on the Brazilians. Yesterday we brought you news of the attack on SOCA, which LulzSec were also responsible for after posting a message on Twitter. They also taunted that they used their most abundant and least powerful ammunition.

According to the article at CNN the Brazilian government websites went down hours after a similar announcement from the group. They had apparently y interrupted the service of the sites forcing them to not load or function.

LulzSec taunted UK police in regards to the teenager arrested, being named Ryan Cleary, calling them ‘lame’ saying they are ‘desperate’ and that Cleary is ‘mildly associated’ with them at best. They claim they had only used his IRC server to host chat rooms, of which they have many. The suspect remains in custody but has not been charged.

The man was arrested in suspicion of being associated with the group and several attacks including the hacking of Sony Pictures. The group is thought to be responsible for the crippling of the CIA site as well, as they even tweeted boasting about it.

Also today we have news of a German hacker who is currently being sued by Sony. It appears the hacker, Alexander “Graf Chokolo” Egorenkov, who is facing a €1 million fine will instead be facing jail time for failing to raise enough funds for the court case. The company are suing him or attempting to restore Linux on the PS3 after it was officially removed by them.

GeoHot, who also famously hacked the PS3, was also sued by Sony except he was able to pay court fees thanks to several donations from his many followers. It seems a shame that the German faces a jail sentence but I guess he just wasn’t popular enough. Do you agree that hackers should face prison sentences? What are your thoughts on the group LulzSec and their arrogant boasting?

Today’s news is the latest in a line of several stories of hacking attacks that have occurred recently. We previously brought you news of the very same hacking group LulzSec when they were claiming the credit for the disruption that the CIA’s site experienced. They were also responsible for the hacking of Sony Pictures.

Another famous company that has found it has been the victim of a hack recently was Sega. This time LulzSec were not responsible. The games company issued emails warning customers that details from accounts had been stolen. They also recommended login details should be changed on other accounts with similar details just in case.

The U.S government has even injected $500m into the Department of Defense which will be put towards improving their cyber-crime defense to avoid these kinds of situations and to maybe one day be able to attack back using the new systems. As a result of the attack on SOCA, the agency’s website was taken down due to a DDoS (distributed denial of service) which the group had implemented. The site is now back up and running after being out of service for just two days.

Much like when the CIA site was disrupted LulzSec posted a message on Twitter on the same day the SOCA site went down saying ‘Tango down – soca.gov.uk – in the name of #AntiSec.’ They later warned that government hacking was occurring behind the scenes at that time and that DDoS was their most abundant and least powerful attack weapon.

According to the article at Guardian, this is the first attack on a British law enforcement website by LulzSec. The group has also announced its intentions and they are to steal confidential government data and documents leak it to The Pirate Bay and their website. Their main targets also include high profile companies and banks as well as governments.

What do you think can be done to stop this group? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Having previously brought you news of the IMF getting hacked before news emerged that the CIA website had been allegedly the victim of the LulzSec group, it seems as though hacking is on the rise. Today’s news also suggests this as it was revealed that the US government has been given over $500m funding for cyber defense technology.

The money will go towards building a system that replicates the internet and will allow researchers to mimic attacks in order to find solutions for stopping them. The simulations may also offer ways of attacking back as well as ways to defend.

According to the article at the BBC, defense against cyber-attacks has been one of President Obama’s priorities as he feels it poses a major threat to the country. Check out the full article by clicking the link above for more details about the US defense against hacking.

Do you agree with Obama that cyber-crime is a major threat to the country?

As Emma Woollacott over at tgdaily.com noted, RSA’s multifactor authentification security system – which is used by around 25,000 organizations inlcuding government agencies and the military – involves the usage of SecurID electronic tokens, which create a time-based number for people to use alongside their passwords.

The company’s executive chairman Art Coviello said that they are confident that the information that was taken would not allow a successful direct attack on any of its SecurID customers. However, Art said that the stolen data could potentially be used as part of a broader attack.

Coviello pointed out that the company do not believe that either employee or customer personally identifiable information was compromised as a result of the recent attack, which seems to be an Advanced Persistent Threat of the type that attacked Google back in 2009.

There appear to be fears that the stolen data could well inlcude source code that reveals vulnerabilities in the security system or the seed codes for clients, which would then enable the attacker to create the time-based code to allow them access to client systems.

Are you an RSA SecurID customer?

According to PCMag, the attack first happened on Tuesday morning, and operates by redirecting users to dangerous sites, sites which could be filled with malware, spyware and other harmful software.

Even though Twitter staff had claimed that they had sorted the problems, users were still reporting that they were getting redirected to other websites, definitely not good for younger users due to some of the material that was shown on the redirected site.

If you have been affected by this problem , there is a quick solution to help you. According to PCMag, using a third-party Twitter client will reduce the problem, while also maintaining javascript security will help too.

Let us know your thoughts on the virus. Have you been affected or not yet?