Daily Archives: June 7, 2012

‘Six million LinkedIn passwords stolen’

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London – Around six million users of the social networking site LinkedIn have had their accounts hacked and their passwords stolen, according to technology experts.

The website, popular with businessmen and women, is investigating claims that a file containing 6.5 million encrypted passwords was published on a Russian hackers’ web forum.

Experts are now advising users to change their passwords on LinkedIn and other websites for which they use the same password. They also warn that the stolen passwords are probably already in the hands of criminals if the security breach is genuine.

LinkedIn has more than 160 million users in 200 countries and nine million in the UK.

Graham Cluley, of internet security firm Sophos, said he believed the breach was genuine and warned that the passwords were now likely to be in the hands of criminals.

He added: ‘We’ve confirmed there are LinkedIn passwords in the data. We did this by searching through the data for passwords that we at Sophos use only on LinkedIn. We found those passwords in the data. We also saw that hundreds of the passwords contain the word Linkedin.

‘Our advice is to change your LinkedIn password. And if you use the same password on other accounts, change it there too.’

Per Thorsheim, the internet security expert who first raised the alarm, said that the number of users who may have had their passwords stolen is likely to be around 6.5 million.

The news comes after LinkedIn was forced to change its policies after it was accused of a privacy breach discovered by web security researchers.

The problem concerned a mobile app which sent unencrypted calendar entries, such as phone numbers and passwords for conference calls, to LinkedIn servers without the users’ knowledge.

On Tuesday a hacker with the username ‘dwdm’ appealed for help on the Russian hackers’ forum to decrypt the files and access the original passwords.

By yesterday morning, hackers claimed to have revealed hundreds of thousands of passwords.

Although LinkedIn does not contain a wealth of personal data like other social networking sites such as Facebook, there is a risk that confidential information could be stolen.

There is also a risk that LinkedIn members who use the same password for other websites could be at risk of having other personal data stolen, including bank details.

A spokesman for LinkedIn said: ‘Our team continues to investigate, but at this time we’re still unable to confirm that any security breach has occurred.’ – Daily Mail


ANC won’t endorse land grab – Gwede

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The ANC tried to soothe farmers on Wednesday after a call by its youth league for the constitution to be changed to allow land to be expropriated without compensation and a warning that Zimbabwe-style land invasions loomed.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the party wouldn’t endorse a land grab, as ANC Youth League deputy president Ronald Lamola said would happen unless whites surrendered their land.

“It is not the ANC policy to expropriate land without compensation, and personally I don’t think it will work,” said Mantashe.

He was speaking after a meeting in Joburg on Wednesday between the ANC and commercial and emerging farmers.

Mantashe said the ANC would discuss land redistribution with the youth league so that its concerns could be addressed at the ruling party’s national policy conference at the end of the month. “It will not be helpful to engage in violent polemics (with the ANCYL) in the run-up to the policy conference. The conference will address land reform in detail,” Mantashe said.

He said the party was discussing how to ensure food security with established and emerging farmers .

The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, among others, has singled out the willing-buyer, willing-seller approach as the biggest hindrance to achieving the land reform target of transferring 30 percent of agricultural land to black farmers by 2014.

It has proposed in its Green Paper on Land Reform to create an office of a land valuer-general to determine a fair price for land acquisitions.

Lamola warned white South Africans on Tuesday that “whites must voluntarily give up their land if they don’t want to see young black people flooding their farms”.

AfriForum’s legal representative, Willie Spies, said Lamola’s comments amounted to hate speech.

“Lamola specifically referred to, among others, ‘the Van Tonders and the Van der Merwes on farms’ and warned that their safety cannot be guaranteed,” the organisation said.

Spies said AfriForum intended to lay charges against Lamola at both the Equality Court and with police.

Youth league spokeswoman Magdalene Moonsamy said it would not be intimidated and was unapologetic about land reform. “We re-affirm the statement made by the deputy president of the youth league that those who continue to hold land which was illegally and immorally taken away from the indigenous people of South Africa must voluntarily co-operate with the ANC-led government to ensure swift and equitable redistribution of such land to the masses of our people,” she said.

Moonsamy said: “The call of the ANCYL, members of the ANC, the trade unions and South Africans in general for the speedy return of our land and our birth right has never, today, nor will it ever, require approval from unpatriotic white farmers and landowners.”

She added that if necessary “we are prepared to fight with all that we have for that which our people should have”.

She said the willing-buyer, willing-seller principle had failed the people of SA because of greed and at the expense of millions of landless people.

The DA called on the government to reject the youth league’s call.

DA spokesman on rural development and land reform Athol Trollip said any assault on land rights would compromise national food security and job creation.

Political Bureau


Fury after cop shot dead

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A huge manhunt is under way for two armed men who shot and killed an off-duty Lyttelton police officer.

Sergeant Bruwer Smit, known to family, friends and colleagues as “Smittie”, died on Tuesday afternoon while his son Jean-dre, 10, looked on in horror.

Smit was described as a dedicated, passionate and hard-working police officer by co-workers.

Frans Esterhuyse, chairman of the CPF Sector 3, said he met Smit about five years ago when he was part of the trio task team assigned by the Lyttelton police station to focus on armed robberies, hijackings and housebreaking in Sector 3.

“He was a good man, a born cop, and made a huge impact in the community and showed true dedication. We presented him with an award of appreciation in 2010 to thank him for his hard work,” he said.

Esterhuyse said he last spoke to Smit last Thursday. “He said he was going for a bike ride. He was very excited and could not wait to go.”

On Tuesday, Smit – a keen mountain biker – was enjoying a ride with his son near the Zandfontein cemetery on the Mabopane Highway west of Pretoria when he was gunned down.

Police spokeswoman Captain Agnes Huma said he was shot in the neck and died at the scene.

She said the two armed men had emerged from bushes, overpowered Smit and his son, removed Smit’s shoes, tied Jean-dre up with the shoelaces and shot Smit.

“The suspects took his bicycle, money and cellphone and disappeared into the bushes,” said Huma.

Jean-dre freed himself and ran to the main road for help.

Huma said the person who stopped to help the child had seen the suspects passing but did not think much about it. He contacted the police, who arrived quickly.

“We are not sure if he was shot with his own service pistol but we are investigating the possibility,” Huma added.

Colonel Neels Kleinhans, stationed at the SAPS vehicle safeguarding section, said he was Smit’s former immediate commander from 2009 while he was on the trio task team.

Kleinhans said he worked closely with Smit for three years and was shocked when he heard the news.

“He was an exceptional police officer, the type of man you could phone any time of the day or night for help. He always had his pistol by his side. I don’t know what went wrong on Tuesday,” he said.

Twitter was abuzz with messages of shock and condolences on Wednesday.

Sally de Beer tweeted: “RIP Sergeant Smit, sympathy to his family and colleagues.”

SAPoliceService tweeted: “Condolences to family, colleagues and friends. Senseless killing. This must stop.”

Zinhle Ngubane tweeted: “It sickens me to see the public kill the people who are supposed to protect them. RIP to all the fallen heroes.”

 

Provincial duty officer Lieutenant-Colonel Tshisikhawe Ndou said the manhunt was still on. He said Jean-dre was being treated for shock and was undergoing counselling from SAPS counsellors.

 

The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union said it was enraged by the brutal killing.

 

Anyone with information is asked to call the Hercules police station on 012 377 4100, 012 377 0320, crime stop on 08600 10111 or Lt Col Makhunufane on 082 319 9737.

Pretoria News


‘Zuma axes Bheki Cele’

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National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele will soon – possibly as early as Thursday –leave the service in disgrace.

Three police sources have confirmed to Independent Newspapers that Cele was informed of his imminent axing on Wednesday, but that the official announcement – which was supposed to have taken place on Wednesday – had been postponed at the eleventh hour.

The sources confirmed that Cele had been instructed to vacate his office and that his replacement was due to report for duty on July 1.

President Jacob Zuma may have delayed the announcement following fresh developments in the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday afternoon in which now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t crime intelligence boss, Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli, was barred from performing any duties in the police.

An announcement of Cele’s dismissal on the same day would have come as a severe body blow to an already punch-drunk police service reeling under claims of political interference in internal police investigations, ongoing turf wars and allegations of a spillover into the police of party political manoeuvring in the run-up to the ANC’s elective conference in December.

Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said on Wednesday night: “All I can say is that the president will make known his decision when he is ready to do so.”

A board of inquiry appointed by Zuma to determine whether Cele was fit to hold office recommended last month that he be fired. It found that, in pushing for the police and public works departments to lease the overpriced buildings of businessman Roux Shabangu, Cele had acted “dishonestly” and “with an undeclared conflict of interest”.

“(T)he board is duty bound to recommend that the president … orders his removal from office. The evidence proved abundantly that there was a questionable relationship between (Cele) and Shabangu … and between Shabangu and the officials within the Department of Public Works, on the other hand, as well as between (Cele) and some members of the SAPS,” chairman Judge Jake Moloi concluded.

This followed similar findings by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela last year. Her investigation concluded that Cele’s involvement in the leasing scandal was “improper, unlawful” and amounted to “maladministration”, prompting widespread calls for the general’s head to roll. But Cele was suspended, pending the outcome of the board of inquiry.

Cele could not be reached for comment on Wednesday night. Eyewitness News reported on Thursday morning that Cele said he had not heard from Zuma, nor had he heard any rumours that he had been fired.

There has been mounting speculation in recent weeks that Zuma may replace Cele with advocate Nathi Nhleko, currently the director-general in the Department of Labour and an old colleague of Zuma’s.

However, Maharaj last week dismissed these rumours.

Two police sources confirmed on Wednesday night that Nhleko had already undergone a preliminary vetting process, but a third suggested that Zuma had had a last-minute change of heart and was now considering a woman for the position.

Acting police chief Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi is perceived in some quarters as being too independently minded to be given the job on a permanent basis. This view has gained currency after Mkhwanazi bucked the trend by moving against Mdluli. –

Political Bureau