Latest news with #leaking
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Hegseth team told to stop polygraph tests after complaint to White House
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's use of polygraph tests to hunt for people leaking information to the news media was stopped at the direction of the White House after a senior adviser to Hegseth raised alarm to senior officials there about being targeted, U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter said.
TechCrunch
5 days ago
- TechCrunch
Cybercrime forum Leak Zone publicly exposed its users' IP addresses
A self-styled 'leaking and cracking forum' where users advertise and share breached databases, stolen credentials, and pirated software was leaking the IP addresses of its logged-in users to the open web, security researchers have found. Leak Zone left an Elasticsearch database exposed to the internet without a password, according to researchers at UpGuard. In a blog post shared with TechCrunch ahead of its publication, the researchers said they discovered the database on July 18 and found its data was accessible to anyone with a web browser. The exposed database contained more than 22 million records storing the IP address and precise timestamp of when Leak Zone users logged in. The records were dated as recently as June 25, and the database was updating in real-time. While the records were not linked to individual users, the data could be used to identify users who logged into Leak Zone without using any anonymization tools. Some of the records, seen by TechCrunch, indicate whether a user is believed to have logged in through a proxy, such as a VPN, which can help conceal the user's real-world location. Leak Zone, which gained popularity in 2020, advertises access to a 'vast collection of leaks ranging from breached databases to cracked accounts,' referring to stolen credentials used for logging into a person's online accounts. The forum also offers a marketplace that explicitly promotes 'illegal services,' the site's guide reads. A page on Leak Zone's website claims the forum has more than 109,000 users. According to UpGuard, 95% of the records in the exposed database relate to Leak Zone user logins. The remaining data reference accounts associated with AccountBot, another site for selling access to compromised accounts used for streaming services. TechCrunch verified that the exposed database was recording users logging into Leak Zone by creating a new account and logging in to the site. A corresponding record immediately appeared in the exposed database containing our IP address and the timestamp of the exact moment we logged in. It's not known why the database was publicly exposed. Human error or misconfigurations are often a cause of data exposures, rather than malicious actions. TechCrunch was unable to contact the Leak Zone administrators for comment as the forum software denied our ability to send them messages. It's not clear if the Leak Zone administrators are aware of the exposure or if they plan to notify their users about the security lapse. The database is no longer online, UpGuard told TechCrunch. In recent years, U.S. and international authorities have increasingly targeted cybercrime forums and websites for their roles in facilitating hacking, identity theft, and other criminal activity. This week, Europol announced it had arrested the alleged administrator behind a long-running Russian-language cybercrime forum, which the authorities also seized as part of a takedown operation.
Yahoo
20-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Witkoff bashes ‘treasonous' leak of US intel assessment of Iran strikes
Steve Witkoff, President Trump's top envoy to the Middle East, blasted what he called 'treasonous' leaking of information after multiple media outlets reported that the administration's strikes on Iran only set its nuclear program back a few months. 'Well, it goes without saying that leaking that type of information, whatever the information, whatever side it comes out on, is outrageous,' Steve Witkoff told Fox News's 'The Ingraham Angle' Tuesday night. 'It's treasonous.' 'So it ought to be investigated and whoever did it, whoever is responsible for it should have been — should be held accountable,' Witkoff said. 'It could hurt lives in the future. There is — leaking is a completely unacceptable thing.' CNN, The New York Times and other news outlets reported Tuesday that an internal government report found strikes on the three facilities over the weekend delayed Iran's nuclear program by only a few months, despite initial assertions from Trump administration officials that those sites had been destroyed. The report also said Iran had moved much of its enriched uranium before the strikes, according to multiple outlets. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday at the NATO summit in the Netherlands that a leak investigation was underway, while Trump blasted the news outlets that reported on the internal assessment as 'scum.' Trump and other top officials have been adamant that the nuclear facilities were 'obliterated,' even as experts have said it would take days to determine the extent of the damage. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
