Skip to main content

Hackers Fight Scientology

To most of us, Scientology is the books of founder L. Ron Hubbard or perhaps the declarations of one of its most famous converts, actor Tom Cruise. It hasits fans and it also has plenty of enemies.   The group simply calling itself Anonymous is definitely in the latter camp. According to Vnunet, they’vedeclared war on the Church of Scientology, going so far as to set up a page on Wikipedia to help draw in recruits as well as launching denial of serviceattacks against the Scientology website.   What motivated them? That by-now infamous video of Cruise talking about Scientology. At the request of the Church, most video-sharing sites have pulledit, but you can still see it on Gawker. That prompted the beginning of Project Chanology.   "Project Chanology was coined as a description of the ‘covert’plan, the main goal of which is to enlighten the Church of Scientology by any means necessary," the Anonymous group declared on its site. "This will be a game of mental warfare. It willrequire our talkers, not our hackers. It will require our dedicated Anon across the world to do their part."    There are rumors they briefly took down the Scientology site, butnothing has been confirmed.  

Editors' Recommendations

Digital Trends Staff
Digital Trends has a simple mission: to help readers easily understand how tech affects the way they live. We are your…
Amazon sellers had funds stolen by hackers in extensive six-month fraud
what is amazon key boxes 2 720x720

A number of Amazon sellers have been targeted by hackers who stole sales revenue and loans from their accounts.

In a British legal document only recently made public, Amazon said the crimes took place between May and October 2018 and affected around 100 sellers on the online shopping site. Bloomberg, which has seen the document, said the ecommerce giant described the fraud as “extensive.”

Read more
Prone to web surfing? Google Chrome’s new Focus Mode fights internet distractions
Chrome Apps

Have you ever tried to concentrate hard on your work, but found yourself quickly becoming distracted by adorable cat photos on Reddit or videos on YouTube? Google might have a solution to help us fight our short attention spans and it's called Focus Mode. While it may not exist yet, Focus Mode appears to be right around the corner. A new flag has been detected within Google Chrome that signals whether or not the mode is switched on.

Different applications have tackled the problem of getting people to focus while working on a computer, with software solutions available for both Mac and PC. Now, Google will also be stepping into the ring. Little information is known about the feature, except that it will soon be making its way to the world's most popular web browser. The flag notes that if "#focus-mode" is enabled, it allows a user to switch to Focus Mode.

Read more
Hackers find a way to bypass Gmail two-factor authentication
A MacBook running Gmail in a dark room.

Two-factor authentification has been hailed as a significant move forward in providing online security, letting us log in with confidence to sites such as Gmail. Websites that once required an insecure password now need a complex password with a second form of authentication from a mobile device, or implement other two-factor systems. However, as with everything, two-factor authentication isn't impervious to flaws, and a new report by Amnesty International details how hackers have been phishing two-factor codes.

Authenticating with a two-factor system is two-step, as hinted by the name, and will typically involve asking a user to enter both a password and a code, either generated by or sent to a mobile device. This secure option does indeed help to prevent hackers from accessing user accounts if they have only gained access to one factor, such as your password, if a website's data has been breached. But, if you unknowingly give your two-factor code over to a malicious individual or site, the system has been defeated.

Read more