VOIP Provider Viber Attacked By Syrian Electronic Army 33
An anonymous reader writes "The hacking group known as the Syrian Electronic Army have hacked into Viber, defacing its support website, and posting what they claim is evidence of surveillance by the free phone-messaging app. The Syrian Electronic Army posted a message claiming the 'Israeli-based Viber is spying and tracking you' alongside what appeared to be a screenshot of an internal Viber database containing users' phone numbers, device UDIDs, IP address, operating system, and Viber version information."
Viber is saying the attack was minor: "...the hack only allowed access to two minor systems, a customer support panel and a support administration system. According to the company's official response, 'no sensitive user data was exposed and Viber's databases were not "hacked."' Apparently, an employee simply fell victim to a phishing attack.
probably true (Score:2)
From Wikipedia,
From that, you can surmise how many different governments are likely to have access to its call "metadata".
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Considering the shit this administration has pulled against the Israeli's I think they'd hand them shit and more shit. Why should they make them look good by giving them any intel?
Re: (Score:1, Interesting)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/08/1043424/-10-Things-Obama-Has-Done-To-Strengthen-Israel [dailykos.com]
With the amount of gratitude you show the United States, I'm amazed that we spend so much money on Israel. We could be using that money to fix our infrastructure, upgrade to a nationwide fibre internet, and perhaps switch to single payer healthcare.
We don't want to attack Iran just because Netanyahu brought out a Wiley E Coyote diagram at the UN. I'm sorry if that offends you. Israel has been crying wolf about Ira
Re: (Score:2)
Replying to undo wrong mod. Should've been Informative but got Funny.
Re: (Score:1)
As a politician you can't be against Israel in the US, you'll be an outcast and out of a job as a politician forever:
If you don't understand that, watch this docu:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N294FMDok98 [youtube.com]
Communication... (Score:1)
...should be point-to-point and use encryption. Anything else is a major design flaw.
This whole cloud business needs these types of attacks to show what a bad idea it is.
Of course it's for surveillance. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, but don't let the fact that you pay for it lull you into a false sense of security. If you don't control the encryption keys (and really, have access to the source) you should be suspicious. Don't think your text messages are intercepted?
Re: (Score:2)
Every router on the internet is an interception device. Interception doesn't necessarily mean spying. But yes, I get your point. Of course everyone who legally can will harvest and exploit data. To think otherwise is naive.
just how big is this "army" ? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
It's about as big as the Mongolian navy.
"Evidence of tracking?" really? (Score:5, Insightful)
Someone please explain how a VOIP service is supposed to work /without/ a table associating numbers with UUIDs, software versions, etc? *eyeroll*
Re: (Score:2)
I dunno, my SIP phone works just fine without all this information.
Re: (Score:2)
>> "They HAVE an ID, Pass and IP"
> Which of those are "UUIDs, software versions"?
Regarding part of your question, the answer to "which of those is a UUID?" is.... "ID". That was a fun game! But surely if you're informed enough to be willing to just dismiss the previous commenter as an idiot, you would know that a UUID is just a randomly-generated ID number, which is much more practical than distinguishing users by username.
You would also, of course, be able to infer that storing software version in
Re: (Score:1)
Your SIP provider surely has a table identifying you to route calls, and your phone surely sends its software version when it connects. Certainly every SIP server software I've seen can list this too. Without some sort of provider to connect to, your SIP phone will be very quiet.
Syrian Electronic Army? (Score:3)