2012 is most certainly the year of the hack. So far in 2012 we have heard of more large scale security breaches related to allegedly secure companies and banks than in just about any previous year. What make this year very interesting is that it is also the year that many companies are joining the push for the “cloud”. Now the term “cloud computing” has been around for a very long time and derives from the symbol for the internet (which is a cloud if you did not guess) although many view it as a new technology it is not.

Google would like you to use two-factor authentication for their Gmail service to help prevent unauthorized access. Using this extra layer of security can protect you and your data, which makes it sound like a good idea. The advice comes after the recent publication of Mat Honan’s tragic and life changing, account hack thee have been many changes to the way that the companies involved do business. While we sympathize with Mat completely we are actually kind of glad that it was someone of note that had this happen. If this had been a regular consumer it is unlikely that Google, Apple, or Amazon would have done anything to fix these issues. In fact most of the issues that allowed this hack to happen have been in place for a very long time.

About five days ago a hacker that goes by the name of Reckz0r kicked off a new group called SpexSec which created quite a stir. We talked about the group’s appearance and just as sudden disappearance. They showed up made three dumps of data and after a short exchange with someone on Twitter all three of the SpexSec members announced their retirements.

The game League of Legends has had some of their European and Nordic Database servers hacked; I know shocking right? According to the announcement by Riot the attackers exploited a specific security issue (again really?) that is now addressed and is no longer an issue. The attackers were able to get user login information, including passwords (encrypted), email addresses, “summoner name”, date of birth, and a small number of encrypted security questions and their answers.