Majorie Grace-Sayers( Flickr - May 21, 2013 )
The cybercriminal gang behind a dangerous ransomware attack, which locks victims out of their computer systems and scams them by demanding cash to fix the problem, has added password-stealing functionality to the malware, according to Microsoft researchers that have documented some of the latest attacks. Reveton, a popular ransomware campaign behind the Citadel banking Trojan, has been increasingly detected in infections globally. Reveton is included in a number of automated attack toolkits, including the popular Black Hole toolkit, said Stefan Sellmer, a researcher with Microsoft’s Malware Protection Center. In his analysis of the attack, Sellmer wrote that the Reveton authors are using password-stealing Trojans to monetize the threat when victims fail to pay the ransom.

Ellen Nakashima( The Age - May 21, 2013 )
Chinese hackers who breached Google’s servers several years ago gained access to a sensitive database with years’ worth of information about US surveillance targets, according to current and former American officials. The breach appears to have been aimed at unearthing the identities of Chinese intelligence operatives in the US who may have been under surveillance by American law enforcement agencies.

Terril Yue Jones( Reuters - May 20, 2013 )
China’s Internet is brimming with disclosures of officials collecting bribes, homes and luxury accessories as casually as they do mistresses. But while the government tolerates such anti-corruption vigilantism, it is also extremely leery of the threat the Internet can pose to Communist Party rule.

Jaikumar Vijayan( ComputerWorld - May 20, 2013 )
China’s remarkable success at infiltrating U.S. government, military and corporate networks in recent years shouldn’t be seen as a sign that the country is gaining on the U.S. lead in cybertechnology expertise.

Robert Lemos( Drak Reading - May 20, 2013 )
Products frequently follow a trajectory from customized prototypes to mass-produced goods, and

Radu Marinas( Reuters - May 17, 2013 )
Valentin Boanta, sitting in his jail cell, proudly explains the device he has invented which, he says, could make the world’s ATMs impregnable even to tech-savvy criminals like himself. Boanta, 33, is six months into a five-year sentence for supplying gadgets an organized crime gang used to conceal ATM skimmers, which can copy data from an unsuspecting ATM user’s card so a clone can be created.

Shaun Nichols( V3.co.uk - May 17, 2013 )
Researchers at a conference in Norway have uncovered a new piece of OS X malware, which attempts to present itself to systems as a signed and authorised application. The malware, spotted on the system of a conventiongoer from Africa, uses the credentials of an Apple Developer ID, allowing the program to appear authorised and possibly bypass Apple’s Gatekeeper security tool.