Day: 09/20/2012

Cosmo, the Hacker ‘God’ Who Fell to Earth.

Posted by

0


Cosmo is huge — 6 foot 7 and 220 pounds the last time he was weighed, at a detention facility in Long Beach, California on June 26. And yet he’s getting bigger, because Cosmo — also known as Cosmo the God, the social-engineering mastermind who weaseled his way past security systems at Amazon, Apple, AT&T, PayPal, AOL, Netflix, Network Solutions, and Microsoft — is just 15 years old.

He turns 16 next March, and he may very well do so inside a prison cell.

Cosmo was arrested along with dozens of others in a recent multi-state FBI sting targeting credit card fraud. It is the day before his court date, but he doesn’t know which task force is investigating him or the name of his public defender. He doesn’t even know what he’s been charged with. It’s tough to narrow it down; he freely admits to participation in a wide array of crimes.

With his group, UGNazi (short for “underground nazi” and pronounced “you-gee” not “uhg”), Cosmo took part in some of the most notorious hacks of the year. Throughout the winter and spring, they DDoS’ed all manner of government and financial sites, including NASDAQ, ca.gov, and CIA.gov, which they took down for a matter of hours in April. They bypassed Google two step, hijacked 4chan’s DNS and redirected it to their own Twitter feed, and repeatedly posted Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s address and Social Security number online. After breaking into one billing agency using social-engineering techniques this past May, they proceeded to dump some 500,000 credit card numbers online. Cosmo was the social engineer for the crew, a specialist in talking his way past security barriers. His arsenal of tricks held clever-yet-idiot-proof ways of getting into accounts on Amazon, Apple, AOL, PayPal, Best Buy, Buy.com, Live.com (think: Hotmail, Outlook, Xbox) and more. He can hijack phone numbers from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and your local telco.

“UGNazi was a big deal,” Mikko Hypponen, the chief security researcher at F-Secure, told Wired via email. “The Cloudflare hack was a big deal. They could have done much more with that technique.”

So, yes, he is Cosmo the God. But before he was Cosmo, he was Derek*. And while Cosmo may be a god, Derek is just a kid. A high school dropout. A liar, fraud, vandal and thief. But ultimately a kid, without much adult supervision or guidance.

I met Cosmo by accident and opportunity, after hackers used social-engineering techniques to circumvent Apple’s and Amazon’s security mechanisms and break into my accounts. They wrought enormous damage, wiping my computer, phone and tablet, deleting my Google account, and hijacking my Twitter account.

After it happened I fell into their world and began communicating regularly with the very hacker who jacked me, a kid named Phobia. He introduced me to Cosmo, who wanted to tell me about all manner of other account vulnerabilities. And last month, I flew down to Long Beach to talk to him face to face.

His real name is classified by FBI.

Source: weird.com

 

Urinary BPA Levels Tied to Obesity in Kids .

Posted by

1


Children with higher levels of urinary bisphenol A (BPA) — a chemical found in many food and beverage containers — are more likely to be obese, according to a JAMA study.

Researchers studied some 2800 children and adolescents aged 6 through 19 years who participated in an NHANES survey between 2003 and 2008. All participants provided urine samples for BPA measurement, had their BMIs measured, and answered lifestyle questionnaires.

After adjustment for confounders including caloric intake and television watching, children with higher BPA concentrations were twice as likely to be obese as those with the lowest concentrations (roughly 20% vs. 10%). The BPA–obesity link was significant only among white children.

The researchers cite studies showing that BPA interferes with “multiple metabolic mechanisms.” Nonetheless, they acknowledge that their cross-sectional analysis “cannot rule out the possibility that obese children ingest food with higher BPA content or have greater adipose stores of BPA.”

Source: JAMA

Common Breast Tumor with Good Prognosis Still Dangerous at 10-Year Mark .

Posted by

0


A long-term follow-up of breast cancer cases finds that even women with a tumor subtype thought to carry the best prognosis — luminal A — show steady declines in survival after 10 years. The study appears in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

Researchers followed some 900 women from a community-based managed care system whose invasive tumors were classified according to molecular subtypes: luminal A, luminal B, basal-like, and HER2-enriched. Median follow-up was 13 years; some patients were followed for over 20 years.

Compared with luminal A tumors, luminal B and HER2-enriched tumors carried a twofold higher risk for breast cancer mortality. However, the authors observe: “Despite its markedly higher survival probabilities in earlier years of follow-up, luminal A subtype was the only subtype that continued a steady drop in survival over the 20-year period with little leveling off in later years.”

Source: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention

FDA Expands Warning on ‘SimplyThick’ to Include All Infants .

Posted by

0


The FDA is cautioning caregivers and clinicians that SimplyThick — a thickening agent used to manage swallowing disorders — may cause necrotizing enterocolitis in infants born at any gestational age. Previously, the agency warned against giving SimplyThick to infants born before 37 weeks.

Since May 2011, 22 infants have developed necrotizing enterocolitis after being fed SimplyThick. One of these infants was born at term. The agency says that further study is needed to determine whether there is an actual association between use of the thickening agent and enterocolitis.

Source: FDA

 

A More Creative Version of Counting Sheep to Get to Sleep .

Posted by

0


In a small study among college students with insomnia, focusing on personally engaging but nonarousing thoughts (e.g., song lyrics, recipes) instead of ruminations seemed to be more effective than standardized sleep hygiene.

In Journal Watch Psychiatry, Peter Roy-Byrne writes: “Clinicians, especially those in primary care, could offer this technique to their patients as a first-line intervention before prescribing hypnotic medications. The intervention seems to be a creative variant of the old ‘counting sheep’ method, but is more likely to be effective because it employs personalized cognitive scripts that are more appealing and easier to focus on.”

Source: Journal Watch Psychiatry

First Ultrasound Imaging System Approved for Dense Breast Tissue .

Posted by

0


The FDA approved the first ultrasound system for imaging dense breast tissue on Tuesday. The somo-v Automated Breast Ultrasound System (ABUS) is intended for use in women with dense tissue who’ve had a negative mammogram and no symptoms of breast cancer.

In a clinical study of some 200 women with dense breast tissue, cancer was detected significantly more often when board-certified radiologists reviewed mammograms along with somo-v ABUS images than when they reviewed mammograms alone.

Source: FDA

JACC Editorialist: Looser Control of Antiplatelet Therapy After Stenting Not Safe — Yet .

Posted by

0


Two studies in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology hint that loosening of dual antiplatelet therapy regimens after cardiac stenting may be possible; however, an editorialist cautions against it.

One study followed some 1600 patients who’d received drug-eluting stents. Rates of adherence to antiplatelet therapy were measured by telephone interviews every 3 months. Interruption of therapy occurred in 11% of patients; such interruptions were mostly temporary and lasted a median of 7 days. Rates of the study’s primary outcomes, cardiac death or acute coronary syndrome in the first year, did not differ between those with and without therapy interruptions.

Another study found no difference in cardiovascular event rates between patients receiving a zotarolimus-eluting stent and only 3 months’ antiplatelet therapy versus those receiving other types of drug-eluting stents and 12 months’ therapy.

An editorialist notes flaws in both studies’ designs and advises clinicians to avoid unplanned discontinuations of dual antiplatelet therapy.

Source:JACC study on interrupted antiplatelet therapy

Hypoglycemia Associated with Death in Critically Ill Patients .

Posted by

0


Moderate-to-severe hypoglycemia is tied to an increased risk for death among patients in the ICU, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

As part of the NICE-SUGAR trial, roughly 6000 ICU patients were randomized to intensive or conventional glucose control. Nearly half of all patients experienced moderate hypoglycemia (41–70 mg/dL), and 4% had severe hypoglycemia (40 mg/dL or less); the majority of these patients were in the intensive control group. The primary outcome — death within 90 days — was more frequent among those with severe hypoglycemia (35%) or moderate hypoglycemia (29%) than among those with no hypoglycemia (24%).

The authors conclude that “it would seem prudent to ensure that strategies for managing the blood glucose concentration in critically ill patients focus not only on the control of hyperglycemia but also on avoidance of both moderate and severe hypoglycemia.”

Source: NEJM

FDA Warns Against Using GI Drug Made in El Salvador .

Posted by

0


Patients should stop using Intestinomicina — an oral treatment for infectious diarrhea and other acute gastrointestinal infections — because it contains chloramphenicol, the FDA has warned. Oral chloramphenicol was banned in the U.S. earlier this year because it increases risk for bone marrow toxicity and other life-threatening conditions.

Intestinomicina, which is made in El Salvador, is sold in tablet and liquid forms and may be found in stores in the U.S. that sell Central and South American specialty products.

In addition, the FDA notes that Intestinomicina contains neomycin and sulfonamides, which also can cause life-threatening adverse reactions.

Source: FDA MedWatch safety alert

FDA Warns of Possible Heart Failure Risk with Pramipexole .

Posted by

0


The FDA is investigating the possibility that pramipexole (Mirapex) increases the risk for heart failure.

In a pooled analysis of randomized trials, the drug — used to treat Parkinson disease and restless legs syndrome — showed an increased incidence of heart failure relative to placebo, but the results weren’t statistically significant. Further review of two epidemiologic studies also found an increased risk, but confounding factors may have influenced the results, according to the FDA.

Until the agency completes its review, it is instructing clinicians to continue prescribing pramipexole according to the recommendations on the label. Patients should be counseled about the potential risk.

Source: FDA MedWatch safety alert.