Hacked govt Web sites for sale

Dozens of hacked military and government Web sites from both the US and Europe have been found for sale on cyber criminal forums, writes Computing.co.uk.

Data security firm Imperva found that the sites' security was breached primarily using SQL injection.

Computing.co.za was shown a list of hacked sites, citing the level of control granted (often full site admin rights), and the price, which ranged from $55 to $499. The hacker was also selling personal information stolen from various sites at a rate of $20 per one thousand records.

The Facebook account of Nicolas Sarkozy was hacked over the weekend to post the false rumour that the French president would not seek re-election next year, reports The Register.

The badly spelt update claimed Sarkozy had decided not to seek re-election in response to the "exceptional circumstances facing our country".

The post linked to another Facebook page, entitled “Farewell to Nicolas Sarkozy”, implausibly inviting supporters to meet up outside Le Fouquet's restaurant in Paris, on 6 May 2012, for an "end-of-term party".

Pope Benedict XVI yesterday told Catholic bloggers, as well as Facebook and YouTube users, to be respectful of others when spreading the gospel online and not to see their ultimate goal as getting as many online hits as possible, says the Associated Press.

Echoing concerns in the US about the need to root out online vitriol, the Pope called for the faithful to adopt a "Christian-style presence" online that is responsible, honest and discreet.

"We must be aware that the truth which we long to share does not derive its worth from its 'popularity' or from the amount of attention it receives."

Believe it or not, there may still be a white iPhone 4 in our future, according to Yahoo News.

The mythical beast was recently sighted in carrier inventory systems and on AT&T's subscriber Web site.

The white iPhone was spotted just a week ago in these screenshots of Vodafone Germany's inventory database, before surfacing again on Best Buy's internal Web site with a listed "in-stock" date of 27 February - although as Boy Genius Report points out, the "in-stock" date might not represent the actual launch day.