The website for the Central Intelligence Agency is down at this hour, and a shadowy network of hackers have claimed credit. Anonymous (a group that Gothamist.com has no beef with!) Tweeted "CIA Tango down." ("Tango down," the AP notes, is an expression used by the US Special Forces when they have eliminated an enemy.) A later Tweet explains that Anonymous does it for "the LULZ." more ›

Police say that a billionaire real estate heiress is so dependent on e-mail that a hacker managed to pose as her and e-mail her secretary to wire $548,625 to bank accounts before anyone wised up. A source told the Post, "[Candia] Fisher relies on e-mails all the time. So it’s easy for someone to learn lots of things about her if they get access to them." more ›

An electronic sign at the entrance to the Queensboro Bridge...oh, okay, Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge in Queens serves two purposes: to notify motorists that bridge washing begins on Monday (FINALLY!) and to cheer on Ron Paul's 2012 presidential campaign. The tipster who took these photos last night, Zachary Leven, tells us he finds it "highly ironic, as Ron Paul would undoubtedly disapprove of a tax-payer funded civic improvement project such as bridge washing." more ›

Yesterday's FBI raid on Anonymous was bigger than it initially appeared. In addition to busting into the homes of, but not arresting, six alleged hackers in Brooklyn (including one in the McKibbin lofts) and Long Island, the feds charged 14 people yesterday with taking part in cyber attacks on PayPal's servers after the site stopped accepting money for WikiLeaks. They also made two additional related arrests. more ›

A prominent internet activist has been arrested and charged with stealing more than four million documents from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and JSTOR, an archive of scientific journals and academic papers. Aaron Swartz, 24, is founder and director of the nonprofit group Demand Progress, and created a site that later merged with the mecca internet message board Reddit in its infancy. more ›

The Feds are zeroing in on Anonymous. Or trying to. Fox News (in need of a distraction perhaps) is reporting that early this morning the FBI raided the homes of three suspected members of the computer collective. Not that the group of loosely affiliated activist hackers seem too worried. more ›

The leader of London's Metropolitan Police Services, better known as Scotland Yard, resigned today. Sir Paul Stephenson stated that his job was "in danger of being eclipsed by the ongoing debate by senior offices and the media. And this can never be right." Revelations that the police agency failed to thoroughly investigate the tabloid News of the World for its part in the phone-hacking scandal, and that Scotland Yard was a "revolving door" for News Corp employees, who in some cases paid police officers for confidential information, have deeply tarnished the institution in recent days. more ›

Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News Corp.'s British newspaper division, resigned today as the phone hacking scandal fallout continues to boil in the United Kingdom and has started to simmer in the U.S. The departure of Brooks, who was once the editor of now-closed tabloid The News of the World whose reporters allegedly hacked the phones of celebrities, politicians, murder victims, dead soldiers, and, possibly, 9/11 victims, as well as bribed police, is called a "another stunning blow to [Rupert] Murdoch’s once all-powerful empire" by the NY Times. And Times competitor, the News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal, reports, "Ms. Brooks's resignation is the latest development in what has been a dramatic series of events." more ›

A Michigan man will go on trial next month on hacking charges that are normally leveled at those who break into a government system or private business. Leon Walker's crime? Reading his wife's e-mail on the laptop they shared. Through his snooping, Walker discovered that his wife Clara was now having an affair with her second husband—a guy who was previously arrested for beating her in front of her son. more ›

After admitting that they were hacked yesterday, Gawker Media sites are now running an alert at the top of their sites about the breach of their 1+ million commenters' usernames and passwords with a link to how commenters can change their passwords, adding, "We understand how important trust is on the internet, and we're deeply sorry for and embarrassed about this breach of security—and of trust." The purported hackers, who also took over Gawker's content management system, said, "You would think a site that likes to mock people, such as Gawker, would have better security and actually have a clue what they are doing. But as we’ve proven, those who think they are beyond our reach aren’t as safe as they would like to think!" more ›

After a tech guy was laid off at North General Hospital in Harlem, he got revenge the only way he knew how: hacking! 45-year-old Jason Wang was fired last September and shortly thereafter he hacked into the hospital's network, sent emails to staffers under a doctor's address (one calling a higher-up there "racist"), and according to the NY Post he also accessed patient files and test results. Wang has now been arrested and charged with computer trespass, unauthorized use of a computer and 4th degree computer tampering. What would IT guy Nick Burns do if found in this predicament! more ›

Paging 1995: hacking is uber-cool again! According to a new survey of 1,000 NYC kids released by Tufin Technologies, a computer-security firm, 30 percent of NYC kids think hacking is easy, and one in six have tried hacking into other people's computers (Facebook is the number one target, followed by friends' email). Seven percent said they hacked for money, and six percent see it as a viable career option. (In England, one in four have tried hacking.) more ›

Yesterday's sighting of a DOT warning that "New York is Dying" apparently had less to do with the city's decaying infrastructure and was more likely the handiwork of hacker(s) who had their way with road signs in Manhattan yesterday. Commenters yesterday pointed us to a January posting on iHacked that gave simple instructions on how to manipulate the roadside messages as well as the fact that the Diggnation founders had just mentioned it (and even gave out the signs' default password!) this past week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. more ›

A reader sent us in this picture taken at East 4th Street and Broadway in front of the French Connection, claiming that "all sorts of signs (were) taken over" today. Apparently another sign at the corner of Houston and Chrystie Streets read "Party at Julie's." Who is behind this DOTomfoolery? Has Poster Boy gone digital?? Does anyone have directions to Julie's??? more ›