McDonald's is working with law enforcement authorities after malicious hackers broke into another company's databases and stole information about an undetermined number of the fast food chain's customers.

McDonald's has also alerted potentially affected customers via e-mail and through a message on its Web site. "We have been informed by one of our long-time business partners, Arc Worldwide, that limited customer information collected in connection with certain McDonald’s websites and promotions was obtained by an unauthorized third party," a McDonald's spokeswoman said via e-mail on Saturday. McDonald's hired Arc to develop and coordinate the distribution of promotional e-mail messages, and Arc in turn relied on an unidentified e-mail company to manage the customer information database. This e-mail company's systems were hacked into.

(Source: Computer World)

Full story

Computer World

Google said Thursday that it expects to introduce more stringent copyright protection policies to prevent questionable web sites from participating in Google's services. The goal is to protect content creators from having their intellectual property exploited, the company said. At YouTube, Google already offers Content ID -- a set of audio and video matching tools that give content providers controls to manage their content if someone uploads it.

Participating rights holders provide reference files for comparing with the content on YouTube, and when matches are found the rights holder is given the opportunity to block, track or earn money from creations. "We're seeing media companies make the most of this revenue opportunity," noted YouTube Product Manager David King in a blog. "In the last quarter alone, claims to make money from videos increased 200 percent."

(Source: Newsfactor Network)

Full story

Newsfactor Network

The British government says cyber crime is now one of the biggest risks to national security. A new cyber crime unit is to be set up which will both defend from and be able to attack other nations. As more of the world comes online, so the number and location of PCs available for hijacking is changing. Spencer Kelly investigates what the latest threats look like, and how they can be avoided. For the full story on "How to avoid the fake security tool scam", click here

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

Identity theft and misuse of data is of top concern to people around the world as well as in the United States. That's a challenge for our society, our political leadership and the IT industry. It's also a challenge to our customers. End users are sensitive to security technology and security safeguards used for Internet banking and online transactions. Our belief is that it's best to let people see that you have good security rather than making it invisible to people. It's the equivalent of showing people the vault in the back room in your great grandmother's generation.

What people want to see now is that their Internet banking and identity data is safe. We've seen this more than we did three or four years ago. Our customers want two-factor identification not to be invisible. If you log onto your bank through a kiosk device it acknowledges that you haven't used this device before and it puts you through an extra handshake.

(Source: Forbes)

Full story

Forbes

Facebook admitted late last week that some developers have sold user IDs (UIDs) to data brokers. The popular social-networking site said it has taken steps to prevent this in the future, including a six-month suspension of some developers. In a post Friday on the company's Developer Blog, Facebook's Mike Vernal said the company has "discovered some instances where a data broker was paying developers for UIDs." He noted that the developers were less than a dozen, mostly small developers, and that none of the apps were in the top 10 on the platform. He also noted that some sharing of UIDs happened "inadvertently" due to "an issue with the way that web browsers work." He added that no evidence was found that this "sharing" resulted in the collection of private user information. With a user ID, a user's public information, including name, can be found. The Journal found that at least one data broker, RapLeaf, had correlated the user IDs with its own database of Net users, and had shared the Facebook IDs with other firms.

This kind of data correlation can help to create a user behavioral profile. RapLeaf said the sharing wasn't intentional, and has agreed to remove all the UIDs it has. The company is no longer allowed to conduct activities on the Facebook platform.

(Source: News Factor Network)

Full story

News Factor Network

A former IT staffer has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison for stealing sensitive information belonging to his co-workers and using the data to make money filling out online health surveys. Cam Giang, 31, was fired from the University of California San Francisco Medical Center earlier this year after investigators discovered that he'd been using the names, birthdays and Social Security numbers of other UCSF employees to fill out hundreds of online surveys.

The point was to collect online vouchers, worth US$100 each. He had worked at the medical center's IT department for five years and had access to the sensitive information through his job, according to court records. Between January and April of this year, Giang filled out 382 surveys before the company that was paying for them, StayWell, figured out what was going on. StayWell had been offering UC employees the gift vouchers as incentives to fill out health surveys, but it grew wise to the scam. The company received complaints from employees who couldn't fill out the survey. When StayWell investigated, it turned out that Giang had already filled out surveys in their names.

(Source: Computer World)

Full story

Computer World

ZDNet reported recently that a Western Australian man was the victim of a new bizarre twist of identity theft. According to the report, Roger Mildenhall, was contacted by a neighbor saying he had seen one of his investment houses for sale. Mildenhall looked into it and found that it was for sale . He was also surprised to learn that he sold another property in June. In this economy, you might jump for joy. Roger was dumbfounded since he never intended to sell these properties - this was done unauthorized by him.

ALL transactions were made via email, telephone, and fax. No human interaction. The report indicates that alleged scammers hacked into Mildenhall's email account. From there they were able to get to his personal and property documents.

(Source: Infosec Island)

Full story

Infosec Island

As technology advances, children are becoming quite adept at using smart phones, surfing the web, posting pictures, etc. So it may be important to sit your child down and teach them one quick lesson about the Internet:

What happens on the Internet, Stays on the Internet…FOREVER

And as parents, before you hand over that phone to provide some extra entertainment when you get stuck in line at a restaurant, you may want to make sure all other applications are locked down, you have signed out of your email and other social networking sites, and that before anything can be sent a passwords must be entered.

(Source: Infosec Island)

Full story

Infosec Island

Google Inc admitted for the first time its "Street View" cars around the world accidentally collected more personal data than previously disclosed -- including complete emails and passwords -- potentially breathing new life into probes in various countries. The disclosure comes just days after Canada's privacy watchdog said Google had collected complete emails and accused Google of violating the rights of thousands of Canadians. "If in fact laws were broken...then there's some serious question of culpability and Google may need to face significant fines," said Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington DC-based privacy advocacy group.

Regulators in France, Germany and Spain, among others, have opened investigations into the matter. A coalition of more than 30 state attorneys general in the United States also have launched a joint probe. It remains unclear how many people may have been affected by the privacy breach.

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters

Nearly half of home wi-fi networks can be hacked in less than five seconds, according to a study carried out across the UK. Of the 40,000 networks identified across six cities, just under 20,000 had no password or the most basic form of security encryption, the research for card protection and insurance company CPP found. In the “ethical hacking” experiment, researchers spent half an hour in each city using freely-available software to use as many unsecured wireless connections as possible. Nearly a quarter of the private networks (9,249) had no password, despite 82% of Britons saying their network is secure. But the study found even password-protected networks were not secure, with hackers able to breach a typical password in seconds.

(Source: Belfast Telegragh)

Full story

Belfast Telegragh

All network security equipment, the strongest of which is used by the financial industry, is exposed to a new kind of online attack, Finnish data security vendor Stonesoft said on Monday. Stonesoft said it has found a new threat category -- advanced evasion techniques (AETs) -- which simultaneously combine different evasions in several layers of networks, and in the process become invisible for security gear. While evasions -- tools hackers often use to penetrate network security -- are nothing new, AETs package them in new ways to let attackers bypass most firewalls and intrusion detection and prevention systems (IPS) without being detected.

This could give them access to data on secure corporate networks and allow them to plant further attacks. "From the point of view of cybercriminals and hackers, advanced evasion techniques work like a master key to anywhere," said Klaus Majewski, business development chief at Stonesoft. "Current protection against advanced evasion techniques is next to zero. This is a new thing and there is no protection against it currently," Majewski said.

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters

INTERPOL has launched an international initiative which will see the world police body provide a list of Internet domains containing severe child sexual abuse content to Internet Access Service Providers (ASPs) voluntarily participating in the scheme to reduce the availability of such material on the Web. Under the scheme, Internet users attempting to access severe child abuse material on the web will be re-directed away, either to an INTERPOL stop page or to an error page.

INTERPOL’s Trafficking in Human Beings unit, which steers the world police body’s combat against child sexual exploitation, will work with the Organization’s National Central Bureaus and international police forces amongst its 188 member countries in updating and enlarging this “Worst of” list of domains containing severe child sexual abuse material, according to criteria defined in collaboration with the pan-European police project CIRCAMP – the COSPOL (Comprehensive Operational Strategic Planning for the Police) Internet Related Child Abusive Material Project.

(Source: Interpol)

Full story

Interpol

PRE-TEENS should not be on Facebook, insists Queensland Premier Anna Bligh - and the social networking site needs to work harder at enforcing the 13-year age limit. "I think that parents are right when they say that primary school children should not be on Facebook and I support Queensland parents when they say that Facebook needs to do more to address their legitimate fears," Ms Bligh said. "Vigilant parents can email the company if their child is under 13 and the child's site will be shut down.

''Unfortunately, there really is nothing to stop their child setting up another site." Sandy White from Norman Park in Brisbane's inner east is the mother of Thomas, 13, and Ryan, 12. She believes the number of primary school children using Facebook is growing. "I do not allow my boys to have a Facebook account, even though they would love to. It seems the norm these days is for children as young as 10 or 11 to join up but I believe that children of that young age are defenceless to predators.

(Source: Queensland Newspapers)

Full story

Queensland Newspapers

Adult websites and applications are too easily accessible to adolescent smartphone users, with the Korean government unable to censor materials uploaded from foreign soil, a lawmaker said Monday. Rep. Han Sun-kyo of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) said that smartphone users, including minors, can access many applications containing sex-related material and games. “Internet users cannot search sites containing adult materials by typing in sex-related words. But if you do that in the App Store and Google-backed Android market, you get up to 900 X-rated applications,” he said during the National Assembly’s audit of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports. In particular, those who are over 17 can download adult content from the App Store, Han said. “Even if they are minors, they can have access to adult content as long as they type in passwords and click the approve button.” Among the most downloaded applications, one involving sex acts ranked 40th, he said, stressing there are even applications allowing smartphone users to view adult video clips by providing their uniform resource locators (URL).

“The Korea Communication Standards Commission (KOCSC) has recently decided to tighten applications on App Store and other online open application markets, believing there is too much sex-related material. But it is not certain that the commission will be able to apply local regulations to foreign companies,” the lawmaker said.

(Source: The Korea Times)

Full story

The Korea Times

Addiction counsellors have told Newsbeat they're seeing more cases of people worried about being hooked on playing video games. There are now calls for the gaming industry to offer more support to people who can't switch off. Technology or computer addiction isn't officially recognised as a clinical condition. But the group representing games companies admits there needs to be more research into the problem.

"Most of the people that are getting into difficulties tend to be in their teenage years and early 20s. "As that generation moves through and others come on behind, I think the problem is going to get bigger."

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

Appropriately for a month that concludes with a holiday designed around scary things, October has been declared Cyber Security Awareness Month. President Obama recently signed a proclamation and urged everyone to back up files, keep Internet-surfing children safe, and "play an active role in securing the cyber networks we use every day." National Cyber Security Awareness Month is part of a campaign organized by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and backed by the Department of Homeland Security.

The government agency said, "America's competitiveness and economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on effective cybersecurity." NCSA said October's designation is part of the first Global Online Safety Campaign, called STOP | THINK | CONNECT, which began Monday. The public-private partnership is intended to "help all digital citizens employ universal behaviors to protect themselves," the organization said.

(Source: NewsFactor Network)

Full story

NewsFactor Network

The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has sponsored a new online directory of Australia's security professionals and academia, which aims to highlight leaders in the industry. The National Security Research Directory is a brain's trust of hundreds of experts operating in a burgeoning list of fields across IT security, biometrics and counter-terrorism. It includes research topic areas such as applied cryptography, physical security and "ubervelliance" — a system with the ability to automatically locate and identify individuals and predict their movements.

Deputy national security advisor Margot McCarthy said the network will tighten coordination on matters of national security in the public and private sectors. McCarthy also announced the National Security Advisor's Group within the Department of the Prime Minster and Cabinet, which will report directly to the National Security chief information officer, Rachael Noble, on issues including cybersecurity.

(Source: ZD Net)

Full story

ZD Net

Nearly six-in-ten adults (58%) have done research online about the products and services they buy, and about a quarter (24%) have posted comments or reviews online about the things they buy. On a typical day, 21% of adults search for product information online.

This is an increase from 15% in 2007 and 9% in 2004. The 2010 data come from a telephone survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project conducted between August 9 and September 13, 2010. The survey was administered to a sample of 3,001 adults, age 18 and older, using a combination of landline and cellular telephones. Interviews were conducted in English or Spanish. The sample margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points for the general population and plus or minus 2.9 percentage points for internet users (n=2,065). Among internet users, 78% say that they at least occasionally conduct product research and 32% report that they have posted online product comments.

(Source: Pew Internet Research)

Full story

Pew Internet Research

500 million users worldwide and still growing, Facebook is now ubiquitous. Because of its popularity, minors have jumped onto the social media bandwagon, too, and they use networking the same way adults do--to share pictures, connect with friends, organize events, and play social games. And that can be a problem.

For the most part, Facebook provides a fun and safe way for users of all ages to communicate with their pals. But because kids and teens are, well, kids and teens, they're the ones most at risk of falling victim to the dangers of Facebook. With a bit of strategic parental guidance, you can educate your kids about the potential hazards of social media and give them the tools they need to protect themselves from online predators, guard their personal information, preserve their online reputation, and avoid suspicious downloads that could harm your PC.

(Source: PC World)

Full story

PC World

Students awaiting loans and grants should watch out for scam emails asking for bank details, Student Finance England warns Students were today warned to beware of scam emails purporting to be about loans and grants, after it emerged that 50 phishing websites targeting young people have been shut down during the last year.

Hundreds of thousands of people are starting university in the coming weeks, and Student Finance England, which processes English students' loans and grants, today urged students to "remain vigilant" and not disclose any personal or bank details in response to email requests that look like they are from either itself or its parent company, the Student Loans Company. Student Finance England expects to make payments to more than 600,000 students this week, and fraudsters are taking advantage of the timing to target students who are waiting for money to arrive. Heather Laing, its fraud manager, said: "Students are likely to receive a great deal of correspondence from Student Finance England at this time, with payment schedule letters or letters requesting further information coming through the door. Some students may fall victim to an email request that looks to be from Student Finance England or the Student Loans Company asking for confirmation of bank details. However, we will never ask students to confirm their bank details via email. If they do receive such a request, they should forward it on to us to investigate."

(Source: Guardian)

Full story

Guardian

For the 10th eLearning Awards, European Schoolnet and ENISA, the European Network and Information Security Agency, announce a new prize category called "Teaching online safety and citizenship".

The rapid spread of internet use among young people is making it essential to address eSafety and ePrivacy, in order to protect young people from online risks and threats and to prepare them to use digital technologies in a secure and responsible way. As a major European actor for eSafety and ePrivacy, ENISA highly encourages all teachers to address these issues with their young students. “Young people and children are today amongst the biggest user groups of online technologies in Europe. It is important to equip them with the skills and knowledge to stay safe online,” said Dr Udo Helmbrecht, Executive Director of ENISA.

(Source: ENISA)

Full story

ENISA

In UK, ISPs must pay 25 per cent of the cost of implementing new anti-piracy measures, it has been announced. The process of identifying and informing broadband customers suspected of copyright infringement will be paid for partially by ISPs and copyright holders, who will pay the other 75 per cent.

The decision comes as the government attempts to thrash out the details of how some parts of the controversial Digital Economy Act will actually work in practice. Minister for Communications, Ed Vaizey, said: "Protecting our valuable creative industries, which have already suffered significant losses as a result of people sharing digital content without paying for it, is at the heart of these measures. "The Digital Economy Act serves to reduce online copyright infringement through a fair and robust process and at the same time provides breathing space to develop better business models for consumers who buy music, films and books online.

(Source: Webuser)

Full story

Webuser

The 2011 Global State of Information Security Survey is a worldwide security survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers, CIO Magazine and CSO Magazine. It was conducted online from February 19, 2010 to March 4, 2010. Readers of CIO and CSO Magazines and clients of PricewaterhouseCoopers from around the globe were invited via email to take the survey. The results discussed in this report are based on the responses of more than 12,840 CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, CSOs, vice presidents and directors of IT and information security from 135 countries. Thirty-seven percent of respondents were from Asia, 30% from Europe, 17% from North America, 14% from South America, and 2% from the Middle East and South Africa. For the main finadins please click here

(Source: Price Waterhouse Coopers)

Germany is the first country to launch a large scale malware cleaning project backed by the government, Internet service providers and security companies.

The new Anti-Botnet Counseling Center (Anti-Botnet Beratungszentrum) is an organization dedicated to assisting German users with removing botnet infections from their computers. It was established with funding from the Federal Ministry of Interior and the technical assistance is provided by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). The initiative was announced late last year as a collaboration between the Federal Government and the German Internet Industry Association (eco).

(Source: Softpedia)

Full story

Softpedia

Sometimes it's a story of a grown woman who has chosen prostitution as a path to a better life. More often, it's a story of a woman being forced to sell her body by a pimp. And then there are the children, and the mothers that miss them.

"They told me to look on Craigslist and it almost blew my mind," the mother of one missing 12-year-old told CNN. "She was there with a wig on. She was there in a purple negligee. The same day the woman spoke to CNN, her daughter was rescued by police at a seedy hotel near Washington where she was being sold for sex. And she's not alone. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's website contains thousands of posters of missing children. Many are girls, classified as "endangered runaways," and the center says more than fifty of them have been pushed into the sex trade. But that's just a snapshot, a tiny indicator of the true scale of the problem.

(Source: CNN)

Full story

CNN

An awkwardly-worded reply by Defence Secretary Liam Fox to questions in the House of Commons suggests that cuts in information security spending are not on the agenda for the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), which is due to report back in the Autumn. On the contrary, Britain is looking to boost its capabilities in the area. Cyber-security is an important element of the SDSR and has already had considerable consideration. Decisions on enhancing our capabilities will form part of the review, which we will announce to the House later this autumn.

Developing a military cyber-security policy should not be the responsibility of the Ministry of Defence alone, Fox added. Investing in better cyber-security will not be an option for the United Kingdom. What is being considered under the National Security Council as part of the SDSR is how that occurs. We will face increasing threats in cyberspace in the years ahead-the question is how we identify the weakest areas, which need to be looked at first, and how we develop the technologies so that, as the other technologies that might affect us continue to evolve, we are best protected.

(Source: The register)

Full story

The register

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are a set of targets intended to reduce global poverty and improve living standards by 2015. Specific goals target education, fighting disease and promoting gender equality. Access to communications technology is a part of one of the targets. With five years to go until the deadline to achieve the goals, progress remains uneven. Some countries have achieved many of the goals, while others - mostly in the developing world - may not realise any. Many development experts question how the goals will be achieved and how they will be paid for. Some even question whether the approach is necessary or helpful.

But Dr Toure said that he believed technologies such as broadband could be used to "accelerate" progress on the goals and help countries achieve them. "Access to broadband in an affordable manner is our greatest challenge," Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary general of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), told BBC News.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

Make your password strong, with a unique jumble of letters, numbers and punctuation marks. But memorize it — never write it down. And, oh yes, change it every few months. These instructions are supposed to protect us. But they don’t.

Some computer security experts are advancing the heretical thought that passwords might not need to be “strong,” or changed constantly. They say onerous requirements for passwords have given us a false sense of protection against potential attacks. In fact, they say, we aren’t paying enough attention to more potent threats. Here’s one threat to keep you awake at night: Keylogging software, which is deposited on a PC by a virus, records all keystrokes — including the strongest passwords you can concoct — and then sends it surreptitiously to a remote location.

(Source: The New York Times)

Full story

The New York Times

With its millions of users, the world’s most popular social network has become a perfect target for hackers exploiting such a dense concentration of potential victims. Apart from phishing attacks or spam, which are now easily recognized by many Internet users, hackers are employing new methods, which for the moment at least, are proving to be successful. What to do if your Facebook profile has been hacked

Step 1: Firstly, remove all permissions that have been given to the malicious application. This is a simple process: from Account > Application settings in the top-right corner of your Facebook profile. This ensures that the application will not continue to have access to your profile once the password is changed.

Step 2: Change the login password! To keep your identity safe, it is advisable to change your password and the user name (it’s a good idea to do this from time to time anyway). This is also easy: Go to Account > and Account Settings in the menu in the top left corner of your Facebook profile. It is also advisable to use strong passwords that cannot easily be guessed.

(Source: Panda Security)

Full story

Panda Security

Every week, hackers are creating 57,000 new Web addresses which they position and index on leading search engines in the hope that unwary users will click them by mistake. Those who do, will see their computers infected or any data they enter on these pages fall into the hands of criminals. To do this, they use an average of 375 company brands and names of private institutions from all over the world, all of them instantly recognizable.

eBay, Western Union and Visa top the rankings of the most frequently used keywords; followed by Amazon, Bank of America, Paypal and the US revenue service. This way, when users search for these names, a link to the malicious website will appear among the first results returned. When they visit these sites, one of two things will happen: either malware will be downloaded onto the user’s computer, with or without their knowledge, or the website spoofs the appearance of a genuine page, a bank say, and users will unwittingly enter their details which will fall into the hands of criminals.

(Source: Panda Security)

Full story

Panda Security

A booby-trapped e-mail that promises free sex movies is racking up victims around the world, warn security firms. Some variants of the Windows worm contain a link to PDF that a recipient has been told to expect. Those clicking on the link get neither movies nor documents but give the malware access to their entire Outlook address book. When installed, the worm sends copies of itself to every e-mail address it can find.

The malicious e-mail messages have a subject line saying "Here you have" and contain a weblink that looks like it connects to a PDF document. Instead it actually links to a website hosting the malware.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

While social media use has grown dramatically across all age groups, older users have been especially enthusiastic over the past year about embracing new networking tools. Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older nearly doubled—from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010.

- Between April 2009 and May 2010, social networking use among internet users ages 50-64 grew by 88%--from 25% to 47%.

- During the same period, use among those ages 65 and older grew 100%--from 13% to 26%.

- By comparison, social networking use among users ages 18-29 grew by 13%—from 76% to 86%.

(Source: Pew Research Center)

Full story

Pew Research Center

The Safer Internet Forum has been organized by the Safer Internet Programme as an annual conference on safer internet issues since 2004. It brings together representatives of industry, law enforcement authorities, child welfare organizations and policy makers. The past editions of the Safer Internet Forum have welcomed guests not only from Europe, but also from countries such as Australia, Brazil or the Russian Federation.

The 2010 edition of the Safer Internet Forum will take place in Luxembourg on the 21-22 October. This year the Safer Internet Forum will focus on the results of two major research projects funded by the Safer Internet Programme: EUKidsOnline II, which surveyed children and parents in 25 European countries about internet use, and European Online Grooming Project, the first European research project that studies the characteristics and behaviour of sexual offenders who have used the internet to groom young people.

(Source: Europe's Information Society)

Full story

Europe's Information Society

A new targeted malware attack is threatening UK bank customers. Security firm Trusteer said that it has spotted a malware attack that compromises user credentials by creating a fake bank log-in page and then uses those credentials to perform an "authorised" monetary transfer. The attack is being spread through multiple infection methods, including web-based exploits and spam email attachments. Rather than aim to infect numerous systems around the world, however, the company said that the attack is specifically targeting the UK and focusing on very few banks at a time, anywhere from three to seven in a single run.

The UK is not the first country to be targeted for such attacks. Trusteer has spotted similar operations in South Africa and Germany.

(Source: v3.co.uk)

Full story

v3.co.uk

New Zealand has joined a global taskforce to fight online child exploitation. Police Superintendent Win Van Der Velde today signed an agreement with the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) board in Rome. VGT is made up of international law enforcement agencies, and Deputy Commissioner Rob Pope said joining strengthened an already firm resolve to tackle the online abuse of children. Police will collaborate with VGT through its Online Child Abuse Exploitation Squad (OCEANZ). VGT is chaired by the Australian Federal Police.

(Source: New Zealand Herald)

Full story

New Zealand Herald

Experts from nearly 40 countries gathered in the Estonian capital Tallinn to discuss the latest issues in the fight against virtual attackers. Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves opened the conference with a stark warning about the seriousness of cybercrime. "Our critical infrastructure, electricity grids, transportation networks and mobile phone networks are so enmeshed and tied to the internet that any open society is open to complete and utter failure," he said. "There are no smoking guns, no foot or fingerprints in virtual reality," Estonia's Minister of Defence Jaak Aviksoo added.

Skilled hackers at the conference said malware designed to be used in attacks could be purchased for a few hundred dollars online, or even downloaded for free.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

Police have arrested 178 people in Europe and the United States suspected of cloning credit cards in an international scam worth over 20 million euros ($24.52 million), Spanish police said on Tuesday. Police in fourteen countries participated a two-year investigation, initiated in Spain where police have discovered 120,000 stolen credit card numbers and 5,000 cloned cards, arrested 76 people and dismantled six cloning labs. The raids were made primarily in Romania, France, Italy, Germany, Ireland and the United States, with arrests also made in Australia, Sweden, Greece, Finland and Hungary.

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein, Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Chief James W. Johnson of the Baltimore County Police Department; and Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.

(Source: Baltimore FBI)

Full story

Baltimore FBI

Federal chief information officers and chief information security officers will convene Monday, June 14, at an annual information technology conference where they are sure to discuss the Office of Management and Budget's mandate to look toward cloud computing to cut IT costs, increase efficiencies and enable greater government-wide collaboration and data exchange. In examining the potential benefits and vulnerabilities of moving their services to the cloud, government CIOs and CISOs should ask and demand answers to some difficult questions.

Does your provider ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability with mature processes, proof of past performance, understanding of and mechanisms for disaster recovery options, and encrypted backups?

(Source: GovInfo Security)

Full story

GovInfo Security

In Africa, few countries have started their security project and fulfilled some good steps; other countries have now started implementing national mechanisms for combating cybercrime and other related threats; however, a sizeable number of African countries still do not have a strategic plan and are unable to start their first actions. These countries need to be assisted and supported, through guidance and advisory services as well as experience and information sharing with others. Knowledge and information sharing is indeed the missing link at the moment.

CERT-AFRICA is ultimately the resource outlet that will help security experts to share and enhance collaboration to address security threat by connecting leading African security experts and bringing them around a common project. While CERT-AFRICA will be inward looking for its activities, it will also be a conduit for connecting African countries to ongoing efforts within international instances such as the FIRST, the ITU, ICANN, UNCTAD, OIC, etc.

(Source: CERT Africa)

Full story

CERT Africa

The number of internet threats coming from the UK has increased in May, according to research by managed security firm, Network Box. The UK is now responsible for nearly six (5.9) per cent of the world’s internet viruses, up from three per cent in April. The only countries that produce more viruses than the UK are Korea (16.26 per cent) and the US (11.68 per cent). The US and India continue to dominate the production of the world’s spam, with the US producing 10.7 per cent, and India 7.1 per cent (similar figures from last month).

Russia has seen a decline in viruses produced from within its borders – possibly an early result of Russian hosting service, PROXIEZ-NET – notoriously used by criminal gangs – being taken down earlier this month.

(Source: Network Box)

Full story

Network Box

Internet security firm Sophos has warned Facebook users to be on the alert for a scam which sends a spam message to all of their friends on the social network. Sophos, in a pair of blog posts late Monday, said "hundreds of thousands" of Facebook users have fallen for the scam which it dubbed "likejacking." It said some Facebook users had received a message such as "This man takes a picture of himself EVERYDAY for 8 YEARS!!" and were encouraged to click on a link. "This of course posts a message to your newsfeed, your friends see it and click on it, and so it spreads," Sophos said.

That followed a similar scam that spread on Facebook the week before involving a fake posting tagged as the "sexiest video ever," according to Sophos.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

With the threat of cyber wars lurking, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a United Nation's arm, has asked countries to take the ‘no-first-attack' vow in order to avert chain of events. “There have been countries at (cyber) war already. A wrong attack could lead to a chain of events. Like they do with regard to nuclear arms, the countries should take a vow that they would not attack first,” Mr Hamadoun Toure, Secretary-General of ITU, said.

“We need to have an international framework to make cyber space peaceful. Some say, it might take 10 years. Even if it takes that long, we need to start now (to get there),” he said. “It will be like a cyber tsunami. It would be a catastrophe if a war were to start. In order to achieve a secure cyber space, countries should have a legal and regulatory framework, technological readiness (with a robust response team), a coordinated national effort and capacity building,” he said.

(Source: Business Line)

Full story

Business Line

According to the latest data by Trend Micro, a leading Internet security company, more than 2 million computers were hacked and 476 million spam e-mails were sent in Turkey between June 2009 and May 2010. With Internet an increasingly integral part of daily life, criminals are finding new playgrounds in cyberspace.

In 2004 there were 680 million Internet users and 3 million malwares globally. Six years later, the number of Internet users increased to around 1.7 billion, but malwares jumped 10-fold to 30 million. The nature of the Internet also makes it harder to track down a criminal of cyber crime, as it crosses borders and is hard to understand. “It is not like a bank robbery. There is no eyewitness or video footage,”

(Source: Hurriyet Daily News)

Full story

Hurriyet Daily News

"People that play these fast-paced games have better vision, better attention and better cognition," said Daphne Bavelier, an assistant professor in the department of brain and cognitive science at the University of Rochester. Bavelier was being a presenter at Games for Learning, a daylong symposium on the educational uses of video games and computer games. The event, the first of its kind, was an indication that electronic games are gaining legitimacy in the classroom.

President Barack Obama recently identified the creation of good educational software as one of the "grand challenges for American innovation," and the federal Department of Education's assistant deputy secretary for the Office of Innovation and Improvement, Jim Shelton, was to attend Thursday's conference. Panelists were to discuss how people learn and how games can be engineered to be even more educational. "People do learn from games,"

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

A few weeks ago I came across several email messages in Spanish purporting to have been sent by Western Union: As you can see, this is a typical message sent as spam that we have seen in many guises. It tries to pass itself off as some kind of official notification from well-known companies -anyone from UPS to Apple or even Panda- with the real aim of trying to trick users into running the attached file. However, this time when I saw the message I couldn’t help but smile. Why? Because I thought there was a certain irony about the message claiming to have been sent by Western Union, a company used by virtually all cyber-criminals.

Should we be pointing an accusatory finger at companies like Western Union? There are those who would argue that this is like criminalizing the Internet just because there are users that abuse its services. Fair enough. But if Western Union is just like any other company, why is it used so insistently by criminals?

(Source: PandaLabs)

Full story

PandaLabs

On 23 November 2010 the Belgian Privacy Commission will organize an international conference on privacy and scientific research. The conference will take place in the context of the 2010 Belgian EU presidency and focuses on several target groups, first of all the European data protection authorities, but also national and international academics and researchers. Two areas of scientific research will be examined: historical and clinical-medical research. The conference is primarily intended as a discussion forum on best practices in both areas. That is why workshops will be organized alongside the traditional plenary sessions.

"Privacy & Scientific Research: from Obstruction to Construction" was opted for as the working title of the conference, the objective of the event being a reflection on how to integrate privacy protection in scientific research without making it an obstacle. And what's more, the quality of research will only be improved thanks to privacy protection.

(Source: Commission For The Protection Of Privacy)

Full story

Commission For The Protection Of Privacy

It might go against conventional wisdom, but a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project is adding fuel to the argument that young people are fast becoming the gurus of online reputation management, especially when it comes to social networking sites. Among other things, the study found that they are most likely to limit personal information online — and the least likely to trust free online services ranging from Facebook to LinkedIn and MySpace.

Marlene McManus, 21, is among those young adults. On the job hunt since graduating from Clark University in Massachusetts, she's been "scouring" her Facebook page, removing photos that contain beer cups and any other signs of college exploits. She's also dropped Twitter altogether. "I have to present a public face that doesn't have the potential to hurt my image," McManus says.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

CYBER-GEDDON has been overhyped, but IT security professionals need to find new ways of dealing with the never-ending threats, says Scott McIntyre, chief security officer for Amsterdam-based ISP XS4ALL Internet. "The sky is not falling, the situation is not as bad as many make out, but we need to accept that the internet has been 'pwned' (compromised or controlled by rivals)," he told the AusCERT 2010 conference on the Gold Coast last week. "We need to maintain a sense of proportion and adjust our expectations about internet security,"' he said.

"Not everything that happens is a major crisis, you don't need huge cyber bunkers because there's a worm on the network -- this should be your daily routine by now." Mr McIntyre, who is also a member of the Dutch computer security incident response team KPN-CERT, said the industry was stuck in "a weird loop of going backwards and forwards" on the same issues.

(Source: The Australian)

Full story

The Australian

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the Internet social network will roll out new privacy settings for its more than 400 million users, amid growing concerns that the company is pushing users to make more of their personal data public. "Many of you thought our controls were too complex," said Zuckerberg in an opinion piece published on Monday in The Washington Post.

"Our intention was to give you lots of granular controls; but that may not have been what many of you wanted. We just missed the mark," said the 26-year-old Zuckerberg, who co-founded Facebook in his Harvard dorm room in 2004. In the coming weeks, Zuckerberg promised, Facebook will add privacy controls that he said would be much simpler to use. Facebook will also give users an easy way to turn off all third-party services, Zuckerberg said.

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters

Malaysia’s Information Communication and Culture Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, said that the country plans to work in collaboration with a number of countries in the fight against cyber crime. “The rise in cyber security attacks over the last few years reinforces the urgency to address the issue through the establishment of appropriate global frameworks for assessment and exchange of information related to cyber security,” he said at the opening of the World Information and Communication Summit in Seoul.

Last year the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT) opened its global headquarters in Cyberjaya, Malaysia. IMPACT is a platform for governments and industry players to exchange ideas and best practices and work together in combating cyber threats.

(Source: Malaysia In Focus)

Full story

Malaysia In Focus

Carders.cc, a German online forum dedicated to helping criminals trade and sell financial data stolen through hacking, has itself been hacked. The once-guarded contents of its servers are now being traded on public file-sharing networks, leading to the exposure of potentially identifying information on the forum’s users as well as countless passwords and credit card accounts swiped from unsuspecting victims.

The breach involves at least three separate files being traded on Rapidshare.com: The largest is a database file containing what appear to be all of the communications among nearly 5,000 Carders.cc forum members, including the contents of private, one-to-one messages that subscribers to these forums typically use to negotiate the sale of stolen goods. Another file includes the user names, e-mail addresses and in many cases the passwords of Carder.cc forum

(Source: Krebs on Security)

Full story

Krebs on Security

The UAE can lead international efforts to promote global cyber security and cyber peace and to avoid the use of cyberspace for conflict, said a former senior White House adviser on Tuesday. "The UAE can play a leading role in creating an international system for cyber peace. You can do that not just by computers. But you can do that by strategists and diplomats. And there is a great role for the UAE to play in helping the world step back from cyber war to create an international system for cyber peace," said Richard Clarke, who served as a counterterrorism adviser to Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Warning that cyber war is the next threat to UAE national security, Clarke argued physical defences akin to borders such as firewalls will remain essential, but given the high levels of cross-border connectivity in cyber world, new approaches for cyber security must include the international diplomatic dimension.

(Source: Gulf News)

Full story

Gulf News

Du 17 au 21 mai 2010 se tient à Ouagadougou un atelier sur la cybersécurité. Avec comme objectif de former les acteurs chargés de la sécurisation du cyberespace à la lutte efficace contre les cybermenaces, cette session connaît la participation de délégués de la Côte d’Ivoire, du Ghana, du Mali et du Nigeria. Les travaux dudit séminaire ont été ouverts par le Secrétaire général du Premier ministère, Paul Marie Compaoré.

Face aux spams, scams, virus, vers et autres cyberattaques, il est plus qu’urgent de développer des stratégies et des dispositifs de pointe à même de sécuriser les systèmes du cyberespace en le protégeant de toutes ces cybermenaces. C’est dans cette optique que l’Union internationale des télécommunications (UIT), en partenariat avec IMPACT et l’Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques (ARCE) du Burkina, organise du 17 au 21 mai 2010, un atelier sur la cybersécurité.

(Source: Le Faso)

Full story

Le Faso

Phishing may not be the most sophisticated form of cyber crime, but it can be a lucrative trade for those who decide to make it their day jobs. Indeed, data secretly collected from an international phishing operation over 18 months suggests that criminals who pursue a career in phishing can reap millions of dollars a year, even if they only manage to snag just a few victims per scam.

Phishers often set up their fraudulent sites using ready-made “phish kits” — collections of HTML, text and images that mimic the content found at major banks and e-commerce sites. Typically, phishers stitch the kits into the fabric of hacked, legitimate sites, which they then outfit with a “backdoor” that allows them to get back into the site at any time.

(Source: Krebs on Security)

Full story

Krebs on Security

Thousands of people have paid tribute on Facebook to an Australian teenager allegedly lured to her death by a man she met on the social networking site. The body of Nona Belomesoff was found two days after she went on a trip with the man, who told her they were going to rescue injured animals, police say. A 20-year-old man has been charged with Ms Belomesoff's murder at a creek south of Sydney.

Detectives say the case reinforces the need for vigilance when using Facebook. Ms Belomesoff, 18, is believed to have befriended Christopher James Dannevig, who police say set up a fake Facebook profile in which he claimed to work for an animal welfare group.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

Researchers at Imperva have discovered an 'experimental' botnet that uses around 300 hijacked web servers to launch high-bandwidth DDoS attacks. The servers are all believed to be open to an unspecified security vulnerability that allows the attacker, who calls him or herself 'Exeman', to infect them with a tiny, 40-line PHP script. This includes a simple GUI from which the attacker can return at a later date to enter in the IP, port and duration numbers for the attack that is to be launched. Building a Secure and Compliant Windows Desktop: Download nowBut why servers in the first place? Botnets are built from PCs and rarely involve servers.

According to Imperva's CTO, Amachai Shulman, they have no antivirus software and offer high upload bandwidth, typically 10-50 times that of a consumer PC.

(Source: Networkworld)

Full story

Networkworld

For all the Twitterers who were fretting about where their followers went earlier today, fear not. They're back. Twitter engineers have corrected a bug that was messing with users' followers on Monday. To fix the problem, Twitter engineers had to reset users' followers/following numbers to zero for a while around midday, according to Twitter's Status update.

"What we really see with social networking is that for any given tool, whether it's Twitter, Facebook or any other site, there is a hard core of very active users who care a lot about any problems, changes, or interruptions. These people are very vocal and opinionated -- passionate, in other words."

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

With the 2010 FIFA World Cup less than two months away, cybercriminals (as expected) are banking on this prestigious international football event to trick users. TrendLabsSM spotted the latest threat involving this, and it came in the form of an email message currently being spammed in the wild.

The spam carried a .PDF file attachment which was found to contain details about the lottery the recipient allegedly won. It also instructed the recipient to give out personal information and send them to the contact person or email sender before the prize could be claimed. What was interesting about the purported sender of the email—one Mrs. Michelle Matins, Executive Vice President—was also the signatory for the 419 scam, aka the Nigeria scam.

(Source: Trend Micro)

Full story

Trend Micro

Cybersecurity needs a global rethink, and fast, Dell's CEO Michael Dell and Services CIO, Jim Stikeleather, have warned experts at the EastWest Institute Worldwide Cybersecurity Summit in the US. In separate presentations and briefings, the men developed the theme of piecemeal reactions to the rapid rise of crymber-criminality, which included economic crime and direct threats to critical infrastructure.

Governments haven't done enough and have fallen into the trap of seeing matters in a narrow, national way. Meanwhile, the security industry has been content to sell products without asking whether security was properly embedded into the way products are developed. "Governments and private industry need to work collaboratively to develop the appropriate international framework to secure cyberspace. We should all do this in a way that keeps our global information central nervous system intact and secure," said Michael Dell.

(Source: MIS Asia)

Full story

MIS Asia

As much heat as Facebook has taken recently for its privacy policies and the freedom with which it shares data across the Web and around the world, Facebook is still not the biggest threat to online privacy--you are. A study by Consumer Reports illustrates that users are really their own worst enemy when it comes to online privacy.

Here are some of the key findings of the Consumer Reports survey: • A projected 1.7 million online households had experienced online identity theft in the past year. • An estimated 5.4 million online consumers submitted personal information to e-mail (phishing) scammers during the past two years. • Among adult social network users, 38 percent had posted their full birth date, including year. Forty-five percent of those with children had posted their children's photos. And 8% had posted their own street address. • An estimated 5.1 million online households had experienced some type of abuse on a social network in the past year, including malware infections, scams, and harassment.

(Source: PC World)

Full story

PC World

Cybersecurity experts from around the world meeting on ways to protect the Internet say they still have fears of "nightmare" scenarios in which attacks could cripple critical computer networks. "I live in a world of nightmares," Patrick Pailloux, director general of France's Network and Information Security Agency, told participants in the first Worldwide Cybersecurity Summit which ended on Wednesday. "Each subject is a nightmare: electricity, power grids, transportation, airplanes, water supply, finance, the banking system, the health system,"

Pailloux said. Pailloux was among the 400 participants from 40 nations who attended the meeting hosted by the EastWest Institute think tank to come up with ways to protect the world's digital infrastructure from cyber threats. The cybersecurity experts, government officials and business leaders agreed that only global cooperation could protect computer networks under constant attack from ever mutating viruses, worms, spam and a host of other dangers.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

Websites operated by the US Treasury Department are redirecting visitors to websites that attempt to install malware on their PCs, a security researcher warned on Monday. The infection buries an invisible iframe in bep.treas.gov, moneyfactory.gov, and bep.gov that invokes malicious scripts from grepad.com, Roger Thompson, chief research officer of AVG Technologies, told The Register. The code was discovered late Sunday night and was active at time of writing, about 12 hours later.

To cover their tracks, the miscreants behind the compromise tailored it so it attacks only IP addresses that haven't already visited the Treasury websites. That makes it harder for white hat-hackers and law enforcement agents to track the exploit. Indeed, Thompson initially reported that the problem had been fixed until he discovered the sites were merely skipping over laboratory PCs that had already encountered the attack.

(Source: The Register)

Full story

The Register

A new research report on online government from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project shows that citizens are searching for information in unprecedented numbers. When they visit sites, they're increasingly making transactions and participating in discussion around policies. Forty-one percent have gone online to get forms, including tax forms, health forms or student aid forms, and 35 percent have researched government documents or statistics. Roughly one-third of all Internet users reported renewing driver's licenses and auto registrations online. In general, the use of government websites for information and transactions is nearly ubiquitous among Internet users, with 82 percent of online adults surveyed reporting one of the two activities.

(Source: Pew Research Center)

Full story

Pew Research Center

European ministers are considering establishing a new agency that would tie together law enforcement agencies and other entities dedicated to fighting cybercrime. The ministers released a set of goals they'd like to achieve over time. One of those is to gain more ratifications of the Council of Europe's Cybercrime Convention, the only international treaty covering computer crime. The treaty requires countries to adopt cybercrime laws, have contacts available 24 hours a day for fast-breaking investigations and other measures. Another medium-term goal focuses on revocation of domain names and IP (Internet protocol) addresses. The document doesn't spell out exactly the ministers' objectives there, as it is already standard procedure for many ISPs to shut down Web sites linked with bad behavior. The new agency would also be tasked with forging stronger bonds between various law enforcement and other organizations that deal with cybercrime, including Europol, Eurojust, Interpol and others.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

The German government is planning to establish a botnet cleanup helpline for computer users affected by malware infection. ISPs are teaming up with the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) to set up an operation geared towards cleansing consumer systems from botnet infestation. ISPs will track down infected machines, before directing users towards a website offering advice and an associated call centre, staffed by around 40.

The project, due to start in 2010, was announced on Tuesday at the German IT summit in Stuttgart. Malware in general, and botnets in particular, are a Windows ecosystem problem. Some bloggers have taken exception to the German plan, and have described it as a state funded subsidy to Microsoft, arguing that the money would be better spent offering advice on how to switch to less virus-infected systems.

(Source: The Register)

Full story

The Register

Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mohammed Bello Adoke, has called for the establishment of computer forensic laboratories across the country either on zonal or state basis. The AGF said that the yet to be established laboratories would be federally funded and managed by government agency that would be designed to work closely with the military, police, paramilitary, state security service and all state and local law enforcement agencies.

The director, Digital Evidence and Cyber Forensic Institute, Arinze Emeka said the study on forensic analyses has become more important because present state of global technology. "You cannot do anything today without the use of the communication network. Before now, we have been used to the analog way of doing things. Virtually all functions of government in whatever manner they operate through the cyber space," he said.

(Source: NGR Guardian News)

Full story

NGR Guardian News

Blippy, a social networking site that allows users to share their purchases and discuss shopping with others, will revamp its security plans and hire a Chief Security Officer after an embarrassing incident in which the site accidentally published a few of its members' credit card numbers on Google.

Blippy Co-founder and CEO Ashvin Kumar said in a blog post this week that the slip-up occurred as a result of a technical oversight back in February that caused raw transaction data to appear within the HTML code on some Blippy pages for about half a day. Kumar said Blippy executives have hammered out a security plan that aims to prevent further security missteps. It includes hiring a Chief Security Officer and associated staff that will focus solely on issues relating to information security. Blippy will also undergo regular 3rd-party infrastructure and application security audits and create a security and privacy center, in addition to other measures included in the plan.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

Four U.S. senators want Facebook to make it easier for its more than 400 million users to protect their privacy as the website develops new outlets to share personal information. It marks the second time in the past three days that Schumer has expressed his misgivings about a series of changes that Facebook announced last week. The new features are designed to unlock more of the data that the online hangout has accumulated about people during its six-year history.

Schumer sent a letter Sunday to the Federal Trade Commission calling for regulators to draw up clearer privacy guidelines for Facebook and other Internet social networks to follow. The political pressure threatens to deter Facebook's efforts to put its stamp on more websites, a goal that could yield more moneymaking opportunities for the privately held company. Facebook's expansion "raises new concerns for users who want to maintain control over their information," the senators wrote in their preliminary draft.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

This paper presents the findings from the 2nd Global Annual Symposium on DNS Security, Stability and Resiliency, conducted 1-3 February 2010 at Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan. Program committee members chose to focus this year's conference on the theme of measuring the health of the DNS. As the entire Internet relies daily on the DNS, understanding its health – both at a given instant and as it changes over time – is critical for being able to reasonably predict the DNS's health outlook and to decide whether to take corrective measures.

The Symposium endeavored to analyze the state of understanding DNS health, the key vital signs for the DNS and how the community might approach improving measurement and assessment of DNS health.

(Source: ICANN)

Full story

ICANN

"A hacker who calls himself Kirllos has obtained and is now offering to sell 1.5 million Facebook IDs at astonishingly low prices — $25 per 1,000 IDs for users with fewer than 10 friends and $45 per 1,000 IDs for users with more than 10 friends. Looking at the numbers, Kirllos has stolen the IDs of one out of every 300 Facebook users. Quoting: 'VeriSign director of cyber intelligence Rick Howard told the New York Times that it appeared close to 700,000 had already been sold. Kirllos would have earned at least $25,000 from the scam. Howard told the newspaper that it was not apparent whether the accounts and passwords were legitimate, but a Russian underground hacking magazine reported it had tested some of Kirllos' previous samples and managed to get into people's accounts.'"

(Source: Slashdot)

Full story

Slashdot

History was made the other evening when the UK's three wannabe prime ministers took centre stage for a TV debate. This was the culmination of weeks of rehearsals, practice runs and body language training. But what if I then tell you that every mobile phone call made by one of the campaign teams preparing for this TV event was secretly recorded and analysed, enabling their rival to understand everything from the campaign strategy through to the likely rebuttal to a particular question? Illegal? Of course. Farfetched? No longer. The past few months has seen the mobile phone industry thrown into turmoil as the computer hacking community has carried out successful attacks against mobile phone call security. I wrote an article about such a hack a while back, but at that point it remained a theory rather than a practical way to listen into mobile phone calls.

(Source: IT Director)

Full story

IT Director

Facebook brings families closer together. But as with any medium, Facebook is sometimes abused, occasionally to damaging effect. The Facebook Privacy Settings options let you control who has access to your personal information. The page includes a Block List that prevents contact with the people and e-mail addresses you specify without their knowledge.

The Safety for Parents section of the Safety Center describes what to do if your child views inappropriate content on a Facebook page, how to help a child report abusive conduct, and how to delete an account of a child under the age of 13. Much of the information in this section parrots the entries on the Safety for Teens page, but it does include links to in-depth articles by Common Sense Media on security for teens online.

(Source: CNet News)

Full story

CNet News

Attackers have begun exploiting a design flaw in Adobe's PDF format to spread the Zeus botnet, only days after the publication of a proof-of-concept exploit for the flaw, according to security researchers.

On Wednesday, researchers at M86 Security said they had discovered emails claiming to originate from Royal Mail with PDF attachments exploiting the flaw. The attachment attempts to run an executable file that installs the Zeus Trojan on a user's system. Zeus attempts to steal banking information by logging a user's keystrokes. It also attempts to make a user's system part of the Zeus botnet.

(Source: ZDNet)

Full story

ZDNet

The government is expanding its scholarship program for students in cybersecurity fields. About 108 universities participate in the 9-year-old Scholarship for Service program, which covers up to two years of tuition in exchange for two years of federal service. More schools, including community colleges, will be added in June, White House cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt said Tuesday at the Interagency Resources Management Conference.

The expansion will be announced at the annual Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education — a conference that brings together academic, government and industry cybersecurity professionals — in June in Baltimore, Schmidt said.

(Source: Federal Times)

Full story

Federal Times

Patients whose medical identities are stolen face serious lingering effects. Fraudulent healthcare events can leave erroneous data in medical records. This erroneous information–like information about tests, diagnoses and procedures–can greatly affect future healthcare and insurance coverage and costs. Patients are often unaware of medical identity theft until a curious bill or a surprising line of questioning by a doctor exposes the issue. Then, the burden of proof is often with the patient and it can be difficult to get the patient’s legitimate medical records cleaned up. The consequences can also be life threatening and can lead to serious medical errors and fatalities.

1. Get a credit freeze and follow the steps for your particular state. This is an absolutely necessary tool to secure your credit. In most cases, it prevents new accounts from being opened in your name. This makes your Social Security number useless to a potential identity thief.

2. Invest in Intelius identity theft protection and prevention. Not all forms of identity theft can be prevented, but identity theft protection services can dramatically reduce your risk.

(Source: Infosec Island)

Full story

Infosec Island 

Google is investigating a growing number of reports that hackers are breaking into legitimate Gmail accounts and then using them to send spam messages. The problem started about a week ago but seems to have escalated over the past few days.

"The Gmail team takes security very seriously and is investigating the reports we've seen in our user forums over the past few days," Google said Tuesday in an e-mailed statement. "We encourage users who suspect their accounts have been compromised to immediately change their passwords and to follow the advice at the following page: http://www.google.com/help/security/." Gmail accounts are often compromised after phishing attempts or via malicious programs, which can seek out and log online credentials from a hacked computer.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

Text messaging rises sharply among teens and is now their most frequent form of communication with friends. 72% of those ages 12-17 now are texters and the average young text user exchanges 1,500 texts per month.

Cell phones are mixed blessing to American families, bringing safety and connection along with disruption and irritation. Daily text messaging among American teens has shot up in the past 18 months from 38% of teens texting friends daily in February of 2008, to 54% of teens texting daily in September 2009. In fact, text messaging has become the most frequent way that teens reach their friends, surpassing face-to-face meetings, email, instant messaging and voice calling as a daily communications tool. However, cell phone calling is still the preferred mode that teens use to connect with their parents.

(Source: Pew Research Center)

Full story

Pew Research Center

A new type of malware infects PCs using file-share sites and publishes the user's net history on a public website before demanding a fee for its removal. The Japanese trojan virus installs itself on computers using a popular file-share service called Winni, used by up to 200m people. It targets those downloading illegal copies of games in the Hentai genre, an explicit form of anime. Website Yomiuri claims that 5500 people have so far admitted to being infected.

"If you find you are getting pop-ups demanding payments to settle copyright infringement lawsuits, ignore them and use a free online anti-malware scanner immediately to check for malware," said Mr Ferguson.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

Police hunting a hacker who had attacked a US school's systems found themselves cornering a "very intelligent" 9 year old instead, it has emerged. When passwords for teachers at Spring Hill Elementary, Virginia, were changed without authorisation the school board initially thought a hacker had broken into the school district's Blackboard system. Police were called in to investigate in mid-March and were quickly able to trace the incident back to a PC at the home of a 9 year-old school student.

The youngster's mother was initially chief suspect in the hack but after speaking to her and and her son police came to the surprising conclusion that they were dealing with a 'kindergarden' hacker.

(Source: The Register)

Full story

The Register

A computer security researcher has released a plugin for Firefox that provides a wealth of data on Web sites that may have been compromised with malicious code. The plugin, called Fireshark, was released on Wednesday at the Black Hat conference. The open-source free tool is designed to address the shortcomings in other programs used to analyze malicious Web sites, said Stephan Chenette, a principal security researcher at Websense, which lets Chenette develop Fireshark in the course of his job. Hackers often target legitimate Web sites with code that can either infect a machine with malicious software or redirect a user to a bad Web page.

(Source: InfoWorld)

Full story

InfoWorld

Is it cyberbullying if kids post mean comments and then say they were “just joking”? Is it wrong for a boy to pressure his girlfriend to send racy text messages? For teenagers, these questions don’t necessarily have clear answers. Associated Press MTV is trying to get teens themselves to support each other in standing up to behavior that crosses over into “digital abuse” — use of technologies such as texting and social networking to bully, harass and intimidate people.

The network introduced a new online tool called Over the Line this week that allows young people to post about their problem and have peers say whether the behavior is acceptable. The posts and comments are moderated, to make sure bullying doesn’t become a problem in the tool itself.

(Source: The Wall Street Journal)

Full story

The Wall Street Journal

The report, from researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania, is among the first quantitative studies looking at young people's attitudes toward privacy as government officials and corporate executives alike increasingly grapple with such issues.

Among the findings:

• Most people — 86 percent — believe that anyone who posts a photo or video of them on the Internet should get their permission first, even if that photo was taken in public. Among young adults 18 to 24, 84 percent agreed — not far from the 90 percent among those 45 to 54.

• Forty percent of adults ages 18 to 24 believe executives should face jail time if their company uses someone's personal information illegally — the same as the response among those 35 to 44 years old.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

Africa's spending in IT security has risen and is expected to continue growing as more people access affordable connectivity and companies embrace smartphones and social media in work places. According to IDC, Africa's IT spending is high compared to the GDP, with South Africa leading with IT security spending of 3.8 percent of its GDP. Mauritius, Morocco spend 1.1 percent of GDP on IT security while Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Ethiopia spend less than 1 percent.

"The focus from criminals is to steal data and monetize that; they blend their attacks across multiple vectors; URL lists and signature based security mechanisms cannot keep up with zero-day threats," said Mike Hibbert, director for Websense in Africa.

(Source: IDG Magazines)

Full story

IDG Magazines

Microsoft today patched 25 vulnerabilities in Windows, Exchange and Office, including nine marked "critical," the company's highest threat ranking. But researchers were unanimous in urging users to immediately apply two of the 11 updates, which address major bugs in Windows Media Player and an important video file format, to block drive-by attacks that will quickly spread on the Web.

The patches also fixed eight flaws pegged as "important," the next-lowest step in Microsoft's four-stage scoring system, and another eight tagged as "moderate." Five of today's 11 update packages were marked critical, while five were labeled important and the remaining one as moderate. Security experts directed users' attention to a pair of updates that addressed issues in Windows' media infrastructure.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

Facebook is employing aggressive legal means in combination with technical measures in order to stop hackers from abusing its social-networking site, according to its chief security officer, Max Kelly. Facebook Chief Security Officer Max KellyThe company is constantly under fire from hackers trying to spam its 400 million registered users, harvest their data or run other scams. Facebook's security team started off with just a few people, said Kelly, who began working at Facebook in 2005 after a stint as an FBI computer forensic analyst.

As many as 10% of Facebook's 1,200 employees are involved in security-related functions for the site, Kelly said. Its core security team consists of 20 people, a site integrity team of around 15 people and 200 others who are part of a user operations team that monitors illegal activity.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

Two senators yesterday introduced a bill that seeks to build a multilateral framework to mitigate and respond to disrupting cyber attacks.

The bill, sponsored by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., would create an ambassador-rank coordinator position at the State Department that would advise the secretary of State on international cyberspace and cybersecurity issues. The coordinator would promote development of a strategy for international cyber engagement, including considering the utility of negotiating a multilateral framework that would provide internationally acceptable principles to mitigate cyberwarfare.

(Source: Federal Times)

Full story

Federal Times

Cell phones, texting, IM, e-mail, Facebook, MySpace -- kids are interconnected today in ways hardly imagined two decades ago. But these technology-based communication platforms also enable new forms of an age-old parenting strategy: monitoring your kids.

Is it any easier to put the proper measures in place to ensure your child's security since you already have an expertise in this area? Or do you go overboard because of you are hyperattuned to risk? And what is the right balance of freedom and guidance to provide for kids? Turns out it was tricky issue before social networking, and remains tricky now. Here are views and strategies collected from an array of security professionals.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

A British child protection agency said it has pressed Facebook to add "panic buttons" to its pages after the murder of a teenager was linked to the site. Jim Gamble, chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), said the social networking giant did not agree to his demands outright at a meeting in Washington but he felt they were moving in the right direction. Speaking after a four-hour meeting Monday, Gamble said Facebook was close to "doing the right thing" but urged the website to turn "words into action."

Calls have since grown for the inclusion of the buttons -- which allow youngsters who feel threatened online to quickly contact a number of sources of help, such as CEOP or anti-bullying helplines. Politicians, police and anti-bullying groups have voiced outrage that the online giant will not bow to demands to include the system.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

The case of a teenager in Massachusetts who killed herself after a relentless, months-long bullying campaign shows how the common schoolyard behavior is evolving in dangerous new ways online.

Six students face felony charges in the death of Phoebe Prince, 15, who hanged herself in January after being subjected to verbal assault and threats of physical harm. Some harassment occurred online on Facebook, in text messages and in other high-tech forms, a contemporary development in the age-old practice, experts said.

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters

Suing your parents isn't just for celebrities anymore--a 16-year-old Arkansas boy is suing his mother for hacking into his Facebook account and allegedly posting slanderous remarks. ATV-TV reports that Denise New of Arkadelphia is facing harassment charges from her 16-year-old. Her son, who lives with his grandmother, also requested a no-contact order. Prior to this issue, New and her son reportedly had a "great relationship," despite their living arrangements.

According to the boy, his mother hacked into his Facebook and email accounts, then changed both passwords. She also allegedly posted remarks that involved slander and information about his personal life. New admits to changing the passwords, but denies hacking--she claims he left his account logged in on her computer.

(Source: PC World)

Full story

PC World

Link-shortening services such as TinyURL seem ideal for criminals because they can disguise the names of malicious sites. Yet on Twitter — one of the most popular places for them — they may not be nearly as malicious as many industry experts fear, according to new security research. Zscaler Inc., a company that sells security services, studied 1.3 million shortened links taken from Twitter over two weeks, before Twitter began in early March to examine such links for malicious content.

Just 773 of those links — a mere 0.06 percent — led to malicious content. Link-shortening services convert long Web addresses into shorter ones. They have become more popular as people spend more time on social-networking sites and share with their friends links to photos, news articles and other tidbits. They are especially important on Twitter, which restricts its posts to 140 characters.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

One of the world's most notorious computer hackers was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to helping run a global ring that stole tens of millions of payment card numbers. Albert Gonzalez, a 28-year-old college dropout from Miami, had confessed to helping lead a ring that stole more than 40 million payment card numbers by breaking into retailers including TJX Cos Inc, BJ's Wholesale Club Inc and Barnes & Noble.

It was the harshest sentence ever handed down for a computer crime in an American court, said Mark Rasch, former head of the computer crimes unit at the U.S. Department of Justice. Gonzalez and conspirators scattered across the globe caused some $200 million in damages to those businesses, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Heymann.

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters

Four countries and two territories have won preliminary approval to have Internet addresses written entirely in their native scripts as early as this summer.

Rules are being developed to make sure that addresses in either script go to the same Web sites. Since their creation in the 1980s, Internet domain names such as those that end in ".com" have been limited to 37 characters: the 10 numerals, the hyphen and the 26 letters in the Latin alphabet used in English. Technical tricks have been used to allow portions of the Internet address to use other scripts, but until now, the suffix had to use those 37 characters.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

Countries in Asia now face the same level and type of sophisticated cyber attack as countries in the West, according to a new report from non-profit US cyber-crime research organisation Team Cymru.

Countries in Asia now face the same level and type of sophisticated cyber attack as countries in the West, according to a new report from non-profit US cyber-crime research organisation Team Cymru. "We would expect to see high concentrations of compromised machines in areas with high concentrations of Internet saturation and urban population," said Team Cymru director, global outreach, and former Scotland Yard detective, Steve Santorelli.

(Source: IDG Connect)

Full story

IDG Connect

International police agency Interpol launched Monday a "most wanted" site for suspected child sex offenders across the Group of Eight (G8) most industrialised nations. The "G8 Wanted Child Sex Offender" site, accessible via Interpol's homepage (www.interpol.int), draws together information from G8 members the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.

It includes photographs of people wanted on charges of abuse and enables the public to access to information about how to report missing sex offenders who may have crossed borders.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

In a bid to cut down on fraud and inappropriate content, the organization responsible for administering Russia's .ru top-level domain names is tightening its procedures. Starting April 1, anyone who registers a .ru domain will need to provide a copy of their passport or, for businesses, legal registration papers.

Loopholes in the domain name system help spammers, scammers and operators of pornographic Web sites to avoid detection on the Internet by concealing their identity. Criminals often play a cat-and-mouse game with law enforcement and security experts, popping up on different domains as soon as their malicious servers are identified. Criminals in eastern Europe have used .ru domains for a while, registering domain names under fake identities and using them to send spam or set up command-and-control servers to send instructions to networks of hacked computers.

(Source: PC World)

Full story

PC World

Hollywood and Bollywood linked arms Thursday to fight piracy, with the announcement of a coalition among the Motion Picture Association of America and seven Indian companies to tackle counterfeiting in one of the world's largest film markets.

The alliance comes as Hollywood tries to tap global markets more aggressively and as Indian movie studios grow in size and stature — narrowing the gap between Indian and U.S. filmmakers, who have not always seen eye-to-eye on intellectual property issues. A year in the making, the coalition to fight film piracy in India will work with movie theaters to crack down on camcorder piracy — the source of 90 percent of all pirated DVDs — with police to tighten enforcement, with Internet service providers to fight Internet piracy and with politicians to create more effective laws.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

Spam levels have not been dented by a series of strikes against controllers of networks of hijacked computers. Early 2010 has seen four such networks, or botnets, tackled via arrests, net access cutoffs and by infiltrating command systems. The successes have not inconvenienced hi-tech criminals who found other routes to send spam, say experts. And, they add, despite falling response rates, spam remains too lucrative for criminals to abandon.

"Most non-commercial spam these days is aimed solely to get you to click on a link, even out of curiosity," he said. "As soon as you click on that link, you're infected, most likely to become yet another botnet victim, have your identity and information stolen and go on to participate, all unknowingly in the infection of further victims."

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

The government has added fresh resources to the fight against cybercrime with the launch of a £4.3m programme to help combat fraud, estimated to cost UK consumers £3.5bn per year. The programme, which aims to take down scam websites, was launched by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills this week. Under the scheme, up to 300 of the UK's approximately 3,000 existing trading standards officers will receive "intermediate" level training in tackling cybercrime.

In addition, a new cyber enforcement team within the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) will be set up. The team will lead investigations into websites selling fake or non-existent goods, tickets or services online, and will have an attached digital forensics lab that will be available to all OFT staff.

(Source: Silicon)

Full story

Silicon

Reporters Without Borders issued the third annual report ahead of Friday's World Day Against Cyber Censorship, an awareness campaign organized by the Paris-based media advocacy group. Le Coz said repressive regimes seemed to be winning a technological tussle with dissidents who try to circumvent online restrictions. "Enemies of the Internet" list, got more sophisticated at censorship and overcoming dissidents' attempts to communicate online, said Reporters Without Borders' Washington director, Clothilde Le Coz.

Including Cisco Systems Inc., which has been criticized by activists who say that it sells networking equipment that could be used in official efforts to monitor and control Internet use. In a statement Thursday, the company reiterated that it does not provide any government with any special capabilities, and said products sold in China are the same ones sold elsewhere.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

Fraudsters are continuing their switch from traditional card fraud to raiding online bank accounts, according to new research. Fraud losses on UK credit and debit cards totalled £440m in 2009 - a drop of 28% compared with the previous year - the UK Cards Association said. But the number of "phishing" attacks rose by 16% in the same period. This is when fraudsters trick people into entering their personal details on a website or in an e-mail.

Overall losses from card fraud fell last year. Chip-and-pin was highlighted as the major factor behind an 11% fall in fraud on lost and stolen cards - now at its lowest for two decades.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

Twitter launched a new link-screening service on Tuesday aimed at preventing phishing and other malicious attacks against users of the popular microblogging service.

Phishing scams on Twitter usually involve attackers trying to obtain the login credentials of Twitter users, and then sending spam messages from the stolen accounts in a bid to make money, Twitter said on its blog last month. Twitter also fights phishing scams by watching for affected accounts and resetting passwords, it said. Phishing attacks ballooned on Twitter last year as the service grew in popularity. Twitter's new link-screening service comes after it last year started using Google's Safe Browsing API to check for malicious content in links posted by users.

(Source: PC World)

Full story

PC World

The Internet was built on freedom of expression. Society wants someone held accountable when that freedom is abused. And major Internet companies like Google and Facebook are finding themselves caught between those ideals. Such may have been the case when three Google executives were convicted in Milan, Italy on February 24 over a bullying video posted on the site -- a verdict greeted with horror by online activists, who fear it could open the gates to such prosecutions and ultimately destroy the Internet itself.

Matt Sucherman, a Google vice president and general counsel, wrote in a blog post that the company was "deeply troubled" by the case, saying it "attacks the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built."

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters

This three-day event fosters opportunities for IT and Telecommunication professionals to network, build relationships, and explore new ideas. It brings together IT professionals, developers, decisions and policy makers, governmental officials, experts, consultants, industry leaders, bankers, law enforcement officials, academics, networks security managers, database administrators, IT marketing executives, surveyors, etc. to share their protection experience in IT security and exchange ideas on most emerging technology trends, applications and practices.

Kuwait ICT Security Forum aims to keep you at the forefront of the latest security developments. Don't miss this opportunity to learn fresh approaches and develop innovative strategies and tactics to defeat today's biggest information security threats.

(Source: Kuwait ICT Security Forum)

Full story

Kuwait ICT Security Forum

Hackers breaking into businesses and government agencies with targeted attacks have not only stolen intellectual property, in some cases they have corrupted data too, the head of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation said Thursday. The United States has been under assault from these targeted spear-phishing attacks for years, but they received mainstream attention in January, when Google admitted that it had been hit and threatened to pull its business out of China -- the presumed source of the attack -- as a result.

Researchers investigating the Google attack -- thought to have affected at least 100 companies including Intel, Adobe and Symantec -- say that prime targets of the hackers were the source code management systems used by software developers to build code.

(Source: PC World)

Full story

PC World

Authorities have smashed one of the world's biggest networks of virus-infected computers, a data vacuum that stole credit cards and online banking credentials from as many as 12.7 million poisoned PCs. The "botnet" of infected computers included PCs inside more than half of the Fortune 1,000 companies and more than 40 major banks, according to investigators.

Spanish investigators, working with private computer-security firms, have arrested the three alleged ringleaders of the so-called Mariposa botnet, which appeared in December 2008 and grew into one of the biggest weapons of cybercrime. More arrests are expected soon in other countries.

(Source: The New Zealand Herald)

Full story

The New Zealand Herald

Four California men were charged on Monday with using sophisticated computer programs to fraudulently obtain more than a million tickets to concerts and sporting events and reselling them for a profit estimated at $29 million.

The company was able to snap up the best seats as soon as they were made available online because the programs were able to complete transactions more quickly than real humans vying for tickets manually. For example, Fishman said, Wiseguy bought nearly half the 440 available floor tickets for a Bruce Springsteen concert at Giants Stadium in 2008. In most cases, individual buyers are restricted to a maximum of four tickets.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

Security experts are split over the effectiveness of Microsoft's efforts to shut down a network of PCs that could send 1.5 billion spam messages a day. The firm persuaded a US judge to issue a court order to cripple 277 internet domains used by the Waledac botnet. Botnets are usually armies of hijacked Windows PCs that send spam or malware. "We aim to be more proactive in going after botnets to help protect the internet," said Richard Boscovich, the head of Microsoft's digital crime unit.

Security firm Symantec has estimated that over 80% of unsolicited e-mail comes from botnets.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

The International Women Day (8th of March), once again will provide the European Commission with an occasion to address the role of women in the ICT sector. However, this year, substantive changes have been introduced to the formula of the event, starting from the location: Cyprus. The intention is to move the discussion to Member States which have only recently joined the European Union adventure, exactly where women's potential is particularly untapped and where fresh ideas could bloom. This year the debate on women and ICT will be embedded in a broader initiative encompassing other ICT related issues. The event will comprise workshops targeting women willing to set up consortia and submit proposals for future calls.

(Source: Europe's Information Society)

Full story

European Comission

Intel was the victim of a cyber attack similar to the one experienced by Google, the company revealed Monday. "We regularly face attempts by others to gain unauthorized access through the Internet to our information technology systems," Intel said in regulatory filings posted by The New York Times. "One recent and sophisticated incident occurred in January 2010 around the same time as the recently publicized security incident reported by Google."

Attacks have included people who masqueraded as authorized users or those who used "surreptitious introduction of software," Intel said. "These attempts, which might be the result of industrial or other espionage, or actions by hackers seeking to harm the company, its products, or end users, are sometimes successful."

(Source: PC Magazine)

Full story

PC Magazine

China has issued new restrictions on Internet use, requiring those wanting to set up a website to meet regulators and provide identity documents, in a move slammed Wednesday by one rights group. The new rules come as the United States has stepped up pressure on Beijing to break down its vast system of web controls -- the so-called "Great Firewall of China" -- for the more than 380 million people now online in the country.

Washington issued those calls after US Internet giant Google said last month it was considering pulling out of China over cyberattacks and Chinese government censorship of its search results. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the new guidelines to local authorities on February 8 and lifted a ban imposed in December on individuals acquiring .cn domain names, state media said Tuesday.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

There are two aspects you have to consider when negotiating security and privacy with a service provider. First, you have to have the correct principles encoded in your contract. Second, you have to worry about how well they are executed by the provider. If you read most service contracts you will see that "law enforcement assistance" sections are usually vague. It is up to you to negotiate terms that address key issues of data protection and safeguard your rights:

* Demand that law enforcement requests are properly documented. Show me the warrant. A phone call from agent Bob at headquarters is not a warrant.

* Demand that you are notified of any requests that may affect your data. You have the right to contest warrants in court and most corporations do contest them.

* Demand that each data access request, whether granted or not is documented.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

An online survey of 895 Web users and experts found more than three-quarters believe the Internet will make people smarter in the next 10 years, according to results released on Friday. Most of the respondents also said the Internet would improve reading and writing by 2020, according to the study, conducted by the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University in North Carolina and the Pew Internet and American Life project.

"Three out of four experts said our use of the Internet enhances and augments human intelligence, and two-thirds said use of the Internet has improved reading, writing and the rendering of knowledge," said study co-author Janna Anderson, director of the Imagining the Internet Center.

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters

A former security researcher turned criminal hacker has been sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for hacking into financial institutions and stealing credit card account numbers.

Max Ray Butler, who used the hacker pseudonym Iceman, was sentenced Friday morning in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh on charges of wire fraud and identity theft. In addition to his 13-year sentence, Butler will face five years of supervised release and must pay US$27.5 million in restitution to his victims, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Luke Dembosky, who prosecuted the case for the federal government. Dembosky believes the 13 year sentence is the longest-ever handed down for hacking charges.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

A new type of computer virus is known to have breached almost 75,000 computers in 2,500 organizations around the world, including user accounts of popular social network websites, according Internet security firm NetWitness. The latest virus -- known as "Kneber botnet" -- gathers login credentials to online financial systems, social networking sites and email systems from infested computers and reports the information back to hackers, NetWitness said in a statement.

A botnet is an army of infected computers that hackers can control from a central machine." The company said the attack was first discovered in January during a routine deployment of NetWitness software.

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters

A common Web programming error could give hackers a way to take over Google Buzz accounts, a security expert said Tuesday. The flaw is a "medium-sized problem" with the Buzz for Mobile Web site, said Robert Hansen, CEO of SecTheory, who first reported the issue. This type of Web programming error, called a cross-site scripting flaw, lets the attacker put his own scripting code into Web pages that belong to trusted Web sites such as Google.com. It is a fairly common flaw but one that can have major consequences when exploited on widely used Web sites.

The attacker "can force you to say things you don't want to say, to follow people," he said. "Whatever Google Buzz allows you to do, it allows him to do to you."

(Source: PC World)

Full story

PC World

A man has appeared before magistrates in Truro charged with four sex offences following an investigation into children being groomed on the internet. Michael Williams, 28, of Tresooth Lane, Penryn, was charged with sexual assault and grooming a girl under 16 and two counts of making indecent images. The inquiry centres around pupils from Falmouth School and Penryn College. Mr Williams, who was remanded in custody, is not a teacher and is not directly connected with the schools. Letters have been sent to parents of pupils at Falmouth School and Penryn College informing them of the investigation.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

Former top US intelligence officials will become cyberwarriors on Tuesday in a simulation of how the US government would respond to a massive cyberattack on the United States. "The scenario itself is secret," said Eileen McMenamin, vice president of communications for the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), which is hosting the event dubbed "Cyber ShockWave." "The participants don't even know what it is," McMenamin told AFP. "None of them know what's going to transpire."

Former president George W. Bush's Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff will play the role of National Security Advisor to the president while former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte will be Secretary of State.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

50% of European teenagers give out personal information on the web – according to an EU study – which can remain online forever and can be seen by anybody. Today, Safer Internet Day, the European Commission is passing a message to teenagers: "Think before you post!" It welcomed actions to protect children using social networking websites taken by the 20 companies who signed the Safer Social Networking Principles last year (IP/09/232 ).

Most of these companies have empowered minors to tackle online risks by making it easier to change privacy settings, block users or delete unwanted comments and content. Yet more needs to be done to protect children online, the Commission says. Less than half of social networking companies (40%) make profiles of under-18 users visible only to their friends by default and only one third replied to user reports asking for help.

(Source: Europa)

Full story

Europa

The government has called on the mobile phone industry to do more to protect handset owners against theft. Alan Campbell, Minister for Crime Prevention, said firms "have a social and a corporate responsibility to tackle crime". Around 2% of British mobile phone users report they have suffered a theft in the last year, although for teenagers the figure is three times higher.

The government's call comes as the Home Office unveiled the winning designs in a crime prevention contest, aimed at making mobile phones less attractive to thieves. Designs included an alarm that sounds when a phone is too far from its owner and locks the handset.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

Deep inside millions of computers is a digital Fort Knox, a special chip with the locks to highly guarded secrets, including classified government reports and confidential business plans. Now a former U.S. Army computer-security specialist has devised a way to break those locks.

The attack can force heavily secured computers to spill documents that likely were presumed to be safe. This discovery shows one way that spies and other richly financed attackers can acquire military and trade secrets, and comes as worries about state-sponsored computer espionage intensify, underscored by recent hacking attacks on Google Inc.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

China has closed what it claims to be the largest hacker training website in the country and arrested three of its members, domestic media reported on Monday.

The "Black Hawk Safety Net" website taught hacking techniques and provided malicious software downloads for its 12,000 members in exchange for a fee, the Wuhan Evening News newspaper reported this weekend, citing police in Huanggang, just east of Wuhan.

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters

Twitter required some users to reset their passwords on Tuesday after discovering that their log-in information may have been harvested via security-compromised torrent Web sites, the company said.

For years, a malicious hacker has been setting up file-sharing torrent sites that appear legitimate and then selling them to well-meaning buyers who want to own their own download site, explained Del Harvey, Twitter's director of trust and safety, in a blog post. However, the sites are riddled with malware and backdoors that allow the malicious hacker to steal log-in credentials -- like e-mail addresses, usernames and passwords -- from users who sign up for them.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

Facebook and Twitter users are under attack by cybercriminals -- and the incidents are rising, Sophos says in its its 2010 Security Threat Report released Monday. In the past 12 months, Sophos says, cybercriminals have focused more attacks on social-network users. Spam and malware are leading the charge.

Fifty-seven percent of users surveyed reported getting spammed via social-networking sites -- an increase of 70.6 percent from 2008. And 36 percent say they have been sent malware via social-networking sites, a 69.8 percent increase.

(Source: NewsFactor Network)

Full story

NewsFactor Network

China will gradually move to cut censorship of the Internet, but it will take a long time, the man credited with inventing the World Wide Web said Wednesday.

Commenting on Google's threat to pull out of China, Tim Berners-Lee said Beijing was having to move "carefully" in opening up Internet openness, but said the "genie is out of the bottle" in terms of access. "I think that openness increases steadily. Every time you open it the genie comes out of the bottle and it's very difficult to put it (back) in the bottle," he told AFP. Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, he said: "The Internet has a tradition of bit by bit increasing openness.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

The design of the future German identity card has been unveiled. Credit-card sized and made of polycarbonate, it will be issued from November 2010 on. The new card aims to ease the citizens' transactions with government and businesses and to increase security as well as to enhance public confidence in electronic services.

The front side has the image of the federal eagle, whereas on its reverse side the Brandenburg Gate is depicted. The new card contains numerous security features in order to increase protection against forgery. A special feature is that the holder's details are digitally stored. It is also capable to carry a digital signature. Both features will allow card holders to complete commercial online transactions as well as official business with government offices.

(Source: eGov Monitor)

Full story

eGov Monitor

If you have thousands of friends on Facebook, most of them are not your real friends, reports The Sunday Times of London.

According to a recent study by Oxford University professor of Evolutionary Anthropology Robin Dunbar, a human brain is limited to keeping up with about 150 meaningful relationships, regardless of how many Facebook friends you might have. This is in line with Dunbar's earlier research on the matter, in which he concludes that there exists a theoretical "sweet spot" for the number of relationships a human can effectively manage. Throughout history, people have formed social groupings of about 150, as larger groupings quickly begin to deteriorate and lose social cohesion.

(Source: PC World)

Full story

PC World

The 'Health-e-Space' website has gone online in Moray, Scotland, aiming to encourage individuals to play an active role in personal health matters by providing them with a series of online tools and information.

The website allows anybody living in Moray to become a member and to obtain local health information, links to recommended websites and suggestions on how to live with health conditions. Its sister website, the 'Health-e-Space Community', serves as a social networking platform for people to share their health concerns and experiences among them in the Moray area.

(Source: eGov Monitor)

Full story

eGov Monitor

Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the first countries to win preliminary approval for Internet addresses written entirely in their native scripts. Since their creation in the 1980s, Internet domain names have been limited to the 26 characters in the Latin alphabet used in English, as well as 10 numerals and the hyphen. Technical tricks have been used to allow portions of the Internet address to use other scripts, but until now, the suffix had to use those 37 characters.

An announcement Thursday by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, known as ICANN, paves the way for an entire domain name to appear in Cyrillic or Arabic by the middle of this year. Applications for strings in other languages are pending.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

If Your Password Is 123456, Just Make It HackMe. Back at the dawn of the Web, the most popular account password was “12345.” Today, it’s one digit longer but hardly safer: “123456.”

Despite all the reports of Internet security breaches over the years, including the recent attacks on Google’s e-mail service, many people have reacted to the break-ins with a shrug. According to a new analysis, one out of five Web users still decides to leave the digital equivalent of a key under the doormat: they choose a simple, easily guessed password like “abc123,” “iloveyou” or even “password” to protect their data.

(Source: The New York Times)

Full story

The New York Times

For the first time, the Ministerial High Level Conference on eHealth and the World Health IT Conference and Exhibition are being held in the same week in a joint initiative called “e-Health Week 2010”, the most prestigious event in the European eHealth sector. Barcelona International Conventions Centre (CCIB) will open its doors from March 15 to 18 to receive the European meeting most attended by the healthcare sector interest groups.

March 15 will see the start of the High Level eHealth Conference, an E.U. event organised by the Spanish Presidency of the E.U., the European Commission, the Government of Catalonia and the TicSalut Foundation. The conference is presented under the motto of “eHealth for sustainable healthcare: global changes through local actions”

(Source: eHealth Week)

Full story

eHealth Week

Hundreds of tech volunteers spurred to action by Haiti's killer quake are adding a new dimension to disaster relief, developing new tools and services for first responders and the public in an unprecedented effort. "It really is amazing the change in the way crisis response can be done now," said Noel Dickover, a Washington, D.C.-based organizer of the CrisisCamp tech volunteer movement, which is central to the Haiti effort. "Developers, crisis mappers and even Internet-savvy folks can actually make a difference."

Another volunteer project forged in the quake's aftermath is a cell phone text-messaging system that has helped the U.N., Red Cross and other relief groups dispatch rescuers, food and water.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

The World Economic Forum today released its study on Scaling Opportunity: Information and Communications Technology for Social Inclusion, an analysis of how ICT is evolving to address the social and economic needs of the poor. The study notes that, as 4 billion people have access to the global communications infrastructure, the opportunity to create innovative and inclusively tailored solutions for connecting the unconnected is extraordinary.

Along with highlighting the rapid adoption rate of mobile phone usage within emerging economies, the report focuses on the question: “What’s next?”

(Source: eGov Monitor)

Full story

eGov Monitor

Hackers are attacking consumers with an exploit of Internet Explorer (IE) that was allegedly used last month by the Chinese to break into Google's corporate network, a security company said Monday.

That news came on the heels of warnings by the information security agencies of the French and German governments, which recommended that IE users switch to an alternate browser, such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Opera, until Microsoft fixes the flaw. In a Monday alert Websense said it identified "limited public use" of the unpatched IE vulnerability in drive-by attacks against users who strayed onto malicious Web sites.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

A man who ran a music-sharing website with almost 200,000 members has been found not guilty of conspiracy to defraud at Teesside Crown Court. Alan Ellis, 26, was the first person in the UK to be prosecuted for illegal file-sharing. He operated the site, called Oink, from his flat in Middlesbrough from 2004 until it was closed down in a police raid in October 2007. In that time Oink facilitated the download of 21 million music files.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is advising people to be careful when evaluating donation programs related to the earthquake in Haiti as one security firm is already seeing scam e-mails circulate. People should apply a "critical eye" to requests for financial donations following Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti, which caused an unknown number of deaths and severe damage to the country's infrastructure.

Scam e-mails are already emerging. Symantec noted a so-called 419-style e-mail that purported to come from the British Red Cross. A 419 scam, named after the number of a statute in Nigeria's criminal code banning the practice, is one in which an e-mail or a letter implores a person to send money for some bogus reason.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

Facebook is trying to strengthen security on its Web site with some outside help. Computer security company McAfee Inc. will now scan and repair the computers of Facebook users whose accounts have been compromised, the company said Wednesday. The scanning process will be added to the steps that Facebook already makes the users of such accounts go through if they want to reclaim their pages.

Facebook says spam and viruses affect a tiny percentage of its users. But hackers are increasingly targeting the social sites as they become a core part of the Web. Spokesman Barry Schnitt said Facebook spends a lot of time and resources to keep users' accounts secure.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

The cyber threat environment is constantly changing and becoming more challenging with every day that passes. Malware grew last year at the highest rate in 20 years. Multiple security reports showed that more than 25 million new strains of malware were identified in 2009.

Forecasts suggest that 2010 will again see unprecedented growth in malware and the trend is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. Not only will the cyber attack volume escalated dramatically, but the sophistication of malware delivery modalities will also become much more sophisticated and dangerous. In addition, social networking sites will become major targets of choice for cyber criminals.

(Source: Defense Tech)

Full story

Defense Tech

Despite the prevalence and popularity of social networking sites like Facebook, almost a third of respondents said that they preferred to meet friends face-to-face, although 44 percent said the internet made it easier to keep in touch with them. More than seven in 10 children said their most common use of the Internet was for gaming, while 59 percent said that they used the worldwide web in the course of doing their homework. The youngsters from Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Poland also expressed a strong sense of social responsibility, with 90 percent saying it was important to look after the planet, and 74 percent saying they recycled regularly.

They've never known a world without the Internet, but they still prefer to meet their friends offline.

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters

Violent video games have "a much bigger negative influence on kids" than pornography, a leading porn star has claimed. He said parents should be more worried about the harmful effects of such games. Mr Jeremy's comments were made at a session called the Great Porn Debate during the Consumer Electronics Show, CES, in Las Vegas. His comments angered gamers, who accused him of "ignorance".

Mr Jeremy also urged parents to play their part in preventing children from accessing adult websites. He said the industry already does all it can to protect youngsters. "Parents can block this stuff and need to stop blaming porn for a bad case of parenting," Mr Jeremy told BBC News.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

Hackers calling themselves the Iranian Cyber Army briefly hijacked the home page of China's top search engine, Baidu Inc, on Tuesday weeks after doing the same thing to Twitter.com.

Media carried screenshots of Baidu's home page showing a message: "This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army" against a dark background and the flag of Iran. The group hacked popular microblogging website Twitter in December replacing Twitter's home page with the same headline and an anti-American message.

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters

A wireless industry group said mobile phone conversations are safe from eavesdropping, even after a German security expert released the code for unscrambling calls made using most of the world's cell phones. Concerns spread last week that cell phone calls could easily be intercepted after encryption expert Karsten Nohl unveiled his research at Europe's largest hacking conference, in Berlin.

The London-based GSM Association said on Thursday that it has spent the past few years figuring out ways to thwart hackers who might try to tap into wireless calls using Nohl's research, which it first learned of in 2007.

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters

People who post intimate details about their lives on the internet undermine everybody else's right to privacy, claims an academic. Dr Kieron O'Hara has called for people to be more aware of the impact on society of what they publish online. "If you look at privacy in law, one important concept is a reasonable expectation of privacy," he said. "As more private lives are exported online, reasonable expectations are diminishing."

The rise of social networking has blurred the boundaries of what can be considered private, he believes - making it less of a defence by law. We live in an era that he terms "intimacy 2.0" - where people routinely share extremely personal information online.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

The new year will usher in some interesting new changes in the world of malware and cyber-attacks, according to one company's predictions for 2010. Watchful eyes will have to be kept on mobile phone apps, Google Wave accounts, file sharing and peer-to-peer networks -- cyber-criminals will target those in greater numbers, according to predictions released by Kaspersky Labs, a provider of Internet threat management solutions for combating malware.

"Given the growing sophistication of threats -- it's no longer just an e-mail saying, ‘Please click on this attachment,' and you get infected with something -- the schemes are much more elaborate than that," said Roel Schouwenberg, the company's senior malware researcher.

(Source: Government Technology)

Full story

Government Technology

Got an e-mail list of customers or readers and want to know more about each such as their full name, friends, gender, age, interests, location, job and education level? Facebook has just the free feature you're looking for, thanks to its recent privacy changes. The hack, first publicized by blogger Max Klein, repurposes a Facebook feature that lets people find their friends on Facebook by scanning through e-mail addresses in their contact list.

Using a simple scraping tool, a marketer could then turn a list of e-mail addresses into a rich, full-fledged set of marketing profiles, with names, pictures, ages, locations, interests, photos, wall posts, affiliations and names of your friends, depending on how users have their profiles set.

(Source: CNN)

Full story

CNN

Last year, the Internet began to be seen as a basic human right and some countries have instituted legal means of guaranteeing that the vast majority of their citizens have access to a quality Internet connection. Other countries, though, are going the other way, hindering their citizen's web use and in some cases moving to disconnect them altogether. In France, the heavily criticized and disputed, so-called "three strikes" law has come into effect starting January 1st. Its backers are quick to boast the laws unabridged effectiveness, but common sense points the other way.

How exactly the agency will determine users' email addresses, or even harder, the address they are actively using remains to be seen.

(Source: Softpedia)

Full story

Softpedia

Chinese authorities caught nearly 5,400 suspects last year in a crackdown on online pornography and have vowed to strengthen Internet policing.

Beijing's pervasive policing of cyberspace and attempts to block the Internet are already among the world's most stringent. In a statement late Thursday, the Ministry of Public Security said the "purification of the Internet" and fighting of online crime are closely tied to the country's stability. "Lewd and pornographic content seriously pollutes the online environment, depraves social morals and poisons the physical and psychological health of the masses of young people," the statement said. "It must be firmly controlled."

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

A court in east China has handed down jail sentences of up to three years to 11 people for their roles in online gaming scams that netted them around 140,000 dollars, state media said. Lu Yizhong and Zeng Yifu wrote malicious Trojan horse viruses to steal 5.3 million user names and passwords from online gamers, which were then used for "illegal gains", the Xinhua news agency reported late Wednesday. Defendants Yan Renhai, his girlfriend Chen Huiting and other accomplices sold or used the viruses to steal online credits, the Gulou District People's Court in Jiangsu province found, according to Xinhua.

The number of Internet gamers in China reached 217 million at the end of June, or 64.2 percent of the nation's total online population.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

Internet users are being warned to watch out for a computer virus targeting popular social networking sites in the run up to Christmas.

Security experts say the new virus is "particularly nasty" and compels its victims to participate manually in creating a new Facebook account to help spread the worm. "The more people who use an application such as Facebook, or any other means of social networking, the more likely they are to be targeted by bad guys to send out malicious threats such as Koobface." The internet security company recommends that users do not reply to or follow links included in unsolicited Facebook messages and users should always carefully check that the URL they are entering is really that of the site they want to access.

(Source: FOX News)

Full story

FOX News

Thirty percent of 17-year-olds with cell phones have received sexting photos or videos, while eight percent have sent them, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center. What's more, four percent of 12- to 17-year-olds admit they have texted sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images of themselves to someone else. Another 15 percent said they have received such images.

Meanwhile, laws and law-enforcement practices have emerged around sexting. The Pew report notes that some law-enforcement officers and district attorneys have begun prosecuting teens who create and share such images under laws generally reserved for producers and distributors of child pornography.

(Source: News Factor)

Full story

News Factor

Australia said Tuesday it would push ahead with a mandatory China-style plan to filter the Internet, despite widespread criticism that it will strangle free speech and is doomed to fail.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said new laws would be introduced to ban access to "refused classification" (RC) sites featuring criminal content such as child sex abuse, bestiality, rape and detailed drug use. Blacklisted sites would be determined by an independent classification body via a "public complaint" process, said Conroy, admitting there was "no silver bullet solution to cyber-safety".

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

They're the scourge of the Internet right now and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation says they've also raked in more than $150 million for scammers. Security experts call them rogue antivirus programs.

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center issued a warning over this fake antivirus software Friday, saying that Web surfers should be wary of sudden pop-up windows that report security problems on their computers. This software can appear almost anywhere on the Web. Typically, the scam starts with an aggressive pop-up advertisement that looks like some sort of virus scan. Often it's nearly impossible to get rid of the pop-up windows.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

A "friendly" hacker called c0de.breaker claims to have broken into two secure internal sites at NASA's Instrument Systems and Technology and Software Engineering divisions, and snapped screen shots to prove the protected sites were intruded.

"I didn't want to make something bad!" c0de.breaker wrote in a web posting. "Only to show NASA (has) many vulnerable subdomains to SQLI (SQL injection), XSS (cross-site scripting), etc." The hacker gained access through a combination of a SQL injection and poor access controls. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has had major problems securing its websites for years.

(Source: Gov Info Security)

Full story

Gov Info Security

What do phishing, instant messaging malware, DDoS attacks and 419 scams have in common? According to Cisco Systems, they're all has-been cybercrimes that were supplanted by slicker, more menacing forms of cybercrime over the past year.

In its 2009 Annual Security Report, due to be released Tuesday, Cisco says that the smart cyber-criminals are moving on. "Social media and the data-theft Trojans are the things that are really in their ascent," said Patrick Peterson, a Cisco researcher. "You can see them replacing a lot of the old-school things."

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

The government is preparing to set up a National Identity Management Center (NIMC) to distribute National Identity Cards (NIDC) across the country. Government officials said that the center will be located in Kathmandu and will distribute cards through thousands of government employees mobilized across the country.

Government officials are making preparations to set up the center on the basis of the recently submitted recommendations of a task force formed to study the need and structure of such a center. “We have recommended to the government to set up NIMC to distribute NIDCs as committed in the national budget and government policy and programs," Lilamani Paudel, Secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM), told myrepublica.com.

(Source: Republica)

Full story

BBC

Lessons in using the internet safely are set to become a compulsory part of the curriculum for primary school children in England from 2011.

The lessons are one element of a new government strategy being unveiled called "Click Clever, Click Safe". Children will also be encouraged to follow an online "Green Cross Code" and block and report inappropriate content. The measures have been drawn up by the UK Council on Child Internet Safety, a new body comprising 140 organisations. The campaign intends to encourage children to not give out personal information on the web, block unwanted messages on social networks and report any inappropriate behaviour to the appropriate bodies, which may include the website, teachers or even police.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

The Taiwan government says it will spend 2 billion New Taiwan dollars ($65 million) to support its electronic-book industry and help makers cash in on the rapidly growing world market.

Companies can receive government subsidies of up to 40 percent of costs for programs developing related technologies, according to an Industrial Development Bureau report released Thursday. Taiwan is already a leading player in the digital book market, being the exclusive supplier of e-paper displays for Amazon's Kindle and Sony's e-Reader through collaboration with foreign firms that hold cutting-edge electronic ink technologies, officials said.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

The U.S. government and private businesses need to overhaul the way they look at cybersecurity, with the government offering businesses new incentives to fix security problems, the Internet Security Alliance said.

The alliance, in a report released Thursday, also called for permanent international cybersecurity collaboration centers, new security standards for VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) communications and programs to educate corporate leaders about the benefits of enhanced cybersecurity efforts. Lots of groups have called for better information security education for students, but education for enterprise leaders is often overlooked, said Joe Buonomo, president and CEO of Direct Computer Resources, a data security products vendor.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

The 13-year-old Florida girl sent a topless photo of herself to a boy in hope of gaining his attention. Instead, she got the attention of her school, as well as the high school nearby. The incessant bullying by classmates that followed when the photo spread put an emotional weight upon Hope that she ultimately could not bear.

Her death is only the second known case of a suicide linked to bullying after “sexting” — the practice of transmitting sexual messages or images electronically. In March, 18-year-old Jesse Logan killed herself in the face of a barrage of taunts when an ex-boyfriend forwarded explicit photos of her following their split. “As far as training them on the Internet and what to look at and what not to look at, yeah, we talked about it,”

(Source: MSNBC)

Full story

MSNBC

If your iPhone has been jailbroken, change your passwords now, advised Paul Ducklin, Sophos Australia's chief of technology. Ducklin said the writers of this virus included a program call "Duh", which added malicious capabilities not present in last month's ikee release.

The new password installed by this virus was "ohshit", which can be used to remove the threat of further remote attacks on an infected device. Ducklin said to clean up the device by searching the file "directory/private/var/mobile/home", type in "passwd" to initiate the command, and change the password. "Otherwise the buggers can get back in anytime they want," said Ducklin.

(Source: ZDNet Australia)

Full story

ZDNet Australia

It’s not good news for IT cities. According to a report prepared by the Computer Emergency Research Team from the Union IT ministry, a total of 692 websites have been affected in September alone.

The unit has now asked the respective state governments to secure their own websites. “We have instructed all state governments to instal security measures, especially for those sites which contain sensitive data,’’ said a senior ministry official. Of the websites hacked, a whopping 74% belong to the dotin domain Most common hacking method is to steal password from administrator Hackers also enter web server and destroy the site Another method is to try and poison the URL.

(Source: The Economic Times)

Full story

The Economic Times

A computer worm that China warned Internet users against is an updated version of the Panda Burning Incense virus, which infected millions of PCs in the country three years ago, according to McAfee.

The original Panda worm, also known as Fujacks, caused widespread damage at a time when public knowledge about online security was low, and led to the country's first arrests for virus-writing in 2007. The new worm variant, one of many that have appeared since late 2006, adds a malicious component meant to make infection harder to detect.

(Source: PC World)

Full story

PC World

Diners who frequent a popular Downtown restaurant should review their charge-card statements because hackers broke into its computer system to loot debit- and credit-card numbers, police said today.

Between 30 and 50 people have reported fraudulent charges on their accounts, and Columbus detectives said that anyone who used a charge card at Tip Top Kitchen and Cocktails in July or August is at risk. The hackers have been traced to an overseas Internet address, and no Tip Top employees are involved, police said. The hackers found a weak point in the restaurant's computer defenses, wormed their way in, and installed "malware" that stripped the numbers.

(Source: The Columbus Dispatch)

Full story

The Columbus Dispatch

The European Union’s first dedicated NGO Alliance for Child Safety Online (eNACSO) launched its Digital Manifesto on 14 November 2009 during the Internet Governance Forum(IGF) in Egypt. ‘The global nature of the internet places a particular responsibility on international institutions and governments to take action at national and international level to ensure children are safe online’ says Dieter Carstensen, eNACSO Chair.

The Digital Manifesto will form part of eNACSO’s ‘Agenda for Action’ document which will be launched in Brussels in May 2010.

(Source: eNACSO)

Full story

eNACSO

While the Senate bogs down in negotiations over drafting major cybersecurity reform legislation, a House panel Wednesday passed a nuts-and-bolts IT security bill that would require the president to assess the government's cybersecurity workforce, including an agency-by-agency skills assessment, and provide scholarship to students who agree to work as cybersecurity specialists for the government after graduation.

"There are some very technically, sophisticated ways in enhancing cybersecurity, but there are some simple ways, also. Some aspects of computer security are rocket science and others are fairly, simple precautionary steps which most people can take."

(Source: Gov Info Security)

Full story

Gov Info Security

In today’s technologically advanced world, documents and correspondences that were once sent by post are now exchanged electronically. This exchange takes place smoothly until a signature is required in the transaction. Then the entire process falls back to the real ‘e-less’ world of paper documents, faxes, snail-mail and even physical presence.

Technology, however, has not ceased to search for solutions to this barrier. The result: a method that is accurate and arguably more secure than the traditional handwritten signature, which allows documents to be signed online — e-signatures.

(Source: Business Today)

Full story

Business Today

That television set you discourage your children from watching may not be the greatest threat to their wellbeing. Instead, the mobile phone is the gateway in introducing children to the world of cyberspace, posing a great risk to their safety, a lobby group said Tuesday.

According to The Cradle, the unmonitored use of technology is increasingly exposing youngsters to the risk of harm and violence. "Only 24 per cent of children in the study reported to their parents or an authority of online or cell phone harassment,” Cradle programme manager Brian Weke told journalists. The study also revealed that 77 out of the 96, who had the incidences reported to them, took no action and ignored the seriousness of the matter.

(Source: Daily Nation)

Full story

Daily Nation

Four men, including the self-proclaimed "Godfather of Spam," were sentenced to prison on Monday for their roles in an email stock fraud scheme, the Justice Department said. FBI special agent said Ralsky, the self-proclaimed "Godfather of Spam," flooded email boxes with unwanted spam email and attempted to use a botnet to hijack computers to assist them in the scheme. A botnet is a network of computers infected by malicious software.

"Today's sentencing sends a powerful message to spammers whose goal is to manipulate financial transactions and the stock market through illegal email advertisements," said assistant attorney general Lanny Breuer.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

A Canadian woman on long-term sick leave for depression says she lost her benefits because her insurance agent found photos of her on Facebook in which she appeared to be having fun.

Nathalie Blanchard has been on leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, for the last year. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Saturday she was diagnosed with major depression and was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits from insurance giant Manulife. But the payments dried up this fall and when Blanchard called Manulife, she says she was told she was available to work because of Facebook.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

A series of skimming crimes that hit the Nashville, TN area recently is but one of many ATM fraud schemes preying upon financial institutions and their customers.

Nashville police reported last week that they were investigating an ATM card skimming scheme where at least 600 individuals were potential victims. Investigators say five Bank of America ATMs were hit, as well as an unknown number of US Bank machines. A total of 60 people had fraudulent withdrawals from their accounts for anywhere between $100 to $5,000 dollars. Investigators suspect that the skimming schemers have now moved on to other cities. "No one vendor or ATM type is more susceptible over another," Ipson says, "so everyone needs to be aware of this threat."

(Source: Bank Info Security)

Full story

Bank Info Security

A self-proclaimed geek from the age of 14, Andre DiMino had always been interested in computers and networking. But it wasn't until he entered his professional life many years later that he became interested in the security side of that world.

Just five years ago, hunting botnets, said DiMino, was a much different game. The botnets were fairly straightforward, he said, and the primary method of communication was the IRC (Internet Relay Chat). DiMino and other volunteers were able to act like criminals by joining a botnet, watching its traffic to get an understanding of how it was architected and learn more its particular function. They found their efforts were worthwhile as they began contacting network hosts, alerting them that were supporting the botnets and seeing them shutdown.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

The world's biggest social networking site has brushed off criticism by a senior UK police officer responsible for preventing online bullying that it is failing to combat abuse.

Jim Gamble, head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) Center, said Facebook and MySpace, which between them have more than 500 million users, could work harder to stamp out bullying. The initiative came as UK charity Beatbullying highlighted Bebo, owned by AOL, and Microsoft's instant messaging service as hotspots for bullying. In a poll of 2,094 young people across England conducted by the charity, 30 percent of 11 to 16-year-olds who had been "cyberbullied" had been targeted on Bebo.

(Source: CNN)

Full story

CNN

Cyber war has moved from fiction to fact, says a report. Compiled by security firm McAfee, it bases its conclusion on analysis of recent net-based attacks. Analysis of the motives of the actors behind many attacks carried out via the internet showed that many were mounted with a explicitly political aim.

It said that many nations were now arming to defend themselves in a cyber war and readying forces to conduct their own attacks. "There are at least five countries known to be arming themselves for this kind of conflict," said Greg Day, primary analyst for security at McAfee Europe. The UK, Germany, France, China and North Korea are known to be developing their own capabilities.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

The first applications were accepted on Monday for internationalised domain names (IDNs), in one of the most significant steps to making the Internet more accessible around the globe.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has opened the application process, ending the exclusive use of Latin characters for website addresses. On the first day, "we have already received six applications from around the world for three different scripts," ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom told an Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

Criminal gangs are making millions of dollars out of the H1N1 flu pandemic by selling fake flu drugs over the internet, a web security firm said on Monday.

Sophos, a British security software firm said it had intercepted hundreds of millions of fake pharmaceutical spam adverts and websites this year, many of them trying to sell counterfeit antiviral drugs like Tamiflu to worried customers. Tamiflu, an antiviral marketed by Switzerland's Roche Holding and known generically as oseltamivir, is the frontline drug recommended by the World Health Organization to treat and slow the progression of flu symptoms. GlaxoSmithKline makes another antiviral for flu, known as Relenza.

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters 

A new spam campaign is targeting a financial transfer system that handles trillions of dollars in transactions annually and has proved to be a fertile target of late for online fraudsters.

The spam messages pretend to come from the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), a U.S. nonprofit association that oversees the Automated Clearing House system (ACH). ACH is a widely used but aging system used by financial institutions for exchanging details of direct deposits, checks and cash transfers made by businesses and individuals. In 2002, ACH was used for nearly 9 billion transactions worth more than $24.4 trillion.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

Testing a brand new copy of Windows 7 shows that malware still finds its way around inbuilt preventative measures.

Got Windows 7? Yes, we know an increasing number of you have. But you'll still need antivirus protection. A test by the security company Sophos has found that Windows 7 is, out of the box, vulnerable to 8 out of 10 viruses that dropped into its feed (its feed being gnarly viruses picked from the internet). But of those 8, the User Account Control (UAC) - meant to save you from yourself, you button-clicking obsessive, you - did stop one.

(Source: Guardian)

Full story

Guardian

Nearly half of England's 14-year-olds have been a victim of bullying and cyber-bullying is now the joint most common form, according to new research.

The Government-commissioned research, conducted by the National Centre for Social Research, analysed bullying among more than 10,000 secondary school pupils in England aged 14-16. The initial findings show that 47 per cent of young people report being bullied at the age of 14. After cyberbullying - where children face taunts, threats and insults via the internet and mobile phones - and name calling, the most common type of bullying was teenagers being threatened with violence, being excluded by their friends and facing actual violence.

(Source: Telegraph)

Full story

Telegraph

For the last few days, some jailbroken iPhone users have found their home screen background a little different than they remembered. A hacker, going by the name "ikee," created a worm that changes the home screen background on jailbroken iPhones whose owners failed to change the default password after installing SSH.

Simply jailbreaking your iPhone will not make you vulnerable to this sort of hack. The iPhone OS, in general, is also immune to this hack. On jailbroken iPhones, SSH is installable with a package from Cydia that allows you to connect to your phone and make changes to the filesystem.

(Source: TUAW News)

Full story

TUAW News

Australian internet provider BigPond has become the latest internet company to be targeted by hackers on Twitter, after one of its accounts was hijacked as part of a phishing scam.

Affected users received a private message from BigPondTeam saying "Hey, look at this," and directing them to follow a link that asked them to enter their Twitter password. The attack was part of an attempt to steal their credentials and potentially gain access to other services they use - such as their bank accounts or email services.

(Source: Guardian)

Full story

Guardian

THE next world war could take place in cyberspace, the UN telecommunications agency chief has warned. "The next world war could happen in cyberspace and that would be a catastrophe. We have to make sure that all countries understand that in that war, there is no such thing as a superpower,'' Hamadoun Toure said.

"Loss of vital networks would quickly cripple any nation, and none is immune to cyberattack,'' added the secretary-general of the International Telecommunications Union during the ITU's Telecom World 2009 fair in Geneva. As the internet becomes more linked with daily lives, cyberattacks and crimes have also increased in frequency, experts said.

(Source: News.com)

Full story

News.com

Spain says Internet-related child pornography has risen tenfold in the past five years. Francisco Villanueva of the Interior Ministry says the number of cases has gone from 108 in 2004 to 1,024 last year. Other Internet-related crimes also rose.

Villanueva said Thursday that hacking has risen from 92 to 447 cases, and that bank fraud has more than doubled in the same period, from 509 cases to 1,954. He says piracy of intellectual property decreased slightly from 330 to 298 cases, but that if more resources are not dedicated to policing piracy, Spain could lose up to 300,000 jobs. Villanueva says Spain's cyber crime levels are similar to those of neighboring European countries.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

Pedophiles can exploit virus-infected PCs to remotely store and view their stash without fear they'll get caught. Pranksters or someone trying to frame you can tap viruses to make it appear that you surf illegal Web sites. Whatever the motivation, you get child porn on your computer — and might not realize it until police knock at your door.

An Associated Press investigation found cases in which innocent people have been branded as pedophiles after their co-workers or loved ones stumbled upon child porn placed on a PC through a virus. It can cost victims hundreds of thousands of dollars to prove their innocence.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

China has issued rules banning the beating and confinement of youths being treated for Internet addiction after revelations of abuse at rehabilitation clinics, including the death of one teenager. The regulations posted on the health ministry's website Wednesday stressed that restraint must be used in dealing with such youngsters as "the concept of 'Internet addiction' has not been fully defined".

In August, the beating death of a teenage boy enrolled by his parents at an Internet addiction camp in southern China's Guangxi region provoked outrage across the country.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

Internet users throughout Europe accused of illegal file-sharing are to receive more protection from being cut off by their service provider. The European Parliament and Council is due to make a decision on its Telecoms Reform Package in late November. The package will entitle users in all 27 EU states to be put through a "fair and impartial procedure" before being disconnected.

The outcome is a compromise agreed during all night negotiations. Some members of the European Parliament felt nobody should lose their connection until after they had been prosecuted in a court for illegally downloading content.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

An expert on cable modem hacking has been arrested by federal authorities on computer intrusion charges. According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Ryan Harris, 26, ran a San Diego company called TCNISO that sold customizable cable modems and software that could be used to get free Internet service or a speed boost for paying subscribers.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

China's police chief has called for a reinforced nationwide Internet security system, in the nation's latest effort to oversee the activities of the world's largest online population.

"The Internet is developing quickly, there are many loopholes in social management, and maintaining social stability faces unprecedented new challenges," public security minister Meng Jianzhu said in rare public remarks. Internet use has expanded at a dizzying pace in China, which now has the world's largest online population of at least 338 million users.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

If your cash card gets eaten by the automated-teller machine, it may not end up in the hands of a bank employee. European financial institutions are seeing a sharp rise in card "trapping," where criminals use various tricks in order to capture and retrieve a person's ATM card for fraudulent use.

For the first half of this year, financial institutions reported 1,045 trapping incidents, according to a new report from the European ATM Security Team (EAST), a nonprofit group composed of financial institutions and law enforcement. The figure, which covers 20 countries within the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), represents a 640 percent increase over the first half of 2008.

(Source: CIO)

Full story

CIO

Twitter warned users Tuesday of a new phishing scam on the social networking site. It's the latest in a series of scams that have plagued the site over the past year, designed to trick victims into giving up their user names and passwords.

"We've seen a few phishing attempts today, if you've received a strange DM and it takes you to a Twitter login page, don't do it!," Twitter wrote on its Spam message page. The message reads, "hi. this you on here?" and includes a link to a fake Web site designed to look like a Twitter log-in page. After entering a user name and password, victims enter an empty blogspot page belonging to someone named NetMeg99.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

Facebook outlined changes to its privacy policy on Thursday and asked for feedback from the social network's more than 300 million users. Members will have until November 5 to send in their comments about the proposed changes.

"This is the next step in our ongoing effort to run Facebook in an open and transparent way. After the comment period is over, we'll review your feedback and update you on our next steps." Some of the changes to Facebook's privacy policy are the result of pressure from Canada, whose privacy czar conducted an investigation into its handling of personal information.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

I am advised to "avoid giving my credit card online" and to be "careful when banking online" and to use random, complex passwords that I never repeat and never write down. So, as long as I refrain from commerce, stay indoors and have a superhuman memory, I should be fine!

I worry about identity theft and take measures, throughout the year, to defend my identity. So here's some identify defense advice that's actually practical: * Don't sign credit cards. I sign mine "See ID". Why give a card thief my signature too?

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

The 17-year-old’s body was dumped in a ditch after she sneaked out of her home on Sunday night to meet a boy she thought was 16, but who turned out to be 32. Her mother, Andrea Hall urged, “Tell your kids to be careful on the internet. Don't trust anybody and don't put your children on Facebook or other sites if they are under age. All we ask now is that people help the police in any way they can. We don't want any other child to be a victim.”

A 32-year-old man, of no fixed abode was due to appear at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates Court on Wednesday, charged with manslaughter and kidnap. The convicted sex offender was also charged with failing to notify a new address as required for sex offenders under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

(Source: Telegraph)

Full story

Telegraph

Nearly a decade after it introduced a program to internationalize domain names, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is expected to take another step on Friday. ICANN, during its annual meeting in Seoul, Korea, will vote on the internationalized domain names (IDN) initiative, better known as the Fast Track.

"In Seoul, we plan to move forward to the next step in the internationalization of the Internet, which means that eventually people from every corner of the globe will be able to navigate much of the online world using their native language scripts," said Rod Beckstrom, ICANN's CEO.

(Source: NewsFactor)

Full story

NewsFactor 

The Swiss Foreign Ministry says it was the victim of a "professional" cyber attack aimed at obtaining information from its computer network. Spokesman Georg Farago says the ministry cut the connection between its network and the Internet after the attack was discovered on Thursday. He says specialists are trying to determine the source of the attack and whether any information was stolen.

Farago said Monday it appeared the Foreign Ministry was specifically targeted. Switzerland frequently plays host to international peace talks and other high-level negotiations.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

Developing countries risk missing out on the benefits of information technology because of their lack of broadband infrastructure, a U.N. agency said.

Lack of broadband Internet access deprives countries of the possibility of building up offshoring industries, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a report late on Thursday. It also prevents people from tapping into all the advantages of mobile phones, whose use is exploding in poor countries. "What is known as the broadband gap for example is becoming a serious handicap for companies in many poor countries," he told a briefing to launch UNCTAD's Information Economy Report.

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters 

The Internet is set for its biggest technical change in decades when a new multilingual address system is approved this week, a global regulatory body said Monday.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said it would declare an end to the exclusive use of Latin characters for website addresses on Friday -- the final day of its six-day conference in Seoul. When the change comes into force, it will be possible to use characters from other languages -- such as Chinese, Arabic, Korean and Japanese -- for a full Internet address, instead of for just part of an address as now.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

Nigeria's anti-corruption police is working with Microsoft to halt thousands of fraudulent emails in a crackdown on internet crime in Africa's most populous country, an agency spokesman said.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said on Thursday its new project "Eagle Claw," expected to become fully operational within six months, is aimed at improving Nigeria's tarnished image as one of the world's top countries for internet crime. The agency said it has already shut down 800 scam websites and arrested 18 people.

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters 

Networks of hacked computers are being used more than ever to click on advertisements, a scam known as click fraud that cheats search engines, publishers and ad networks out of revenue.

For the third quarter of the year, 42.6% of fraudulent clicks came from botnet-infected computers, according to Click Forensics, a company that produces tools to detect and filter out fraudulent clicks. The figure is the highest in four years, when Click Forensics began producing reports. For the same quarter a year ago, botnets accounted for 27.5% of bad clicks. Botnets are a powerful tool for hackers.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

China is building its cyberwarfare capabilities and appears to be using the growing technical abilities to collect U.S. intelligence through a sophisticated and long-term computer attack campaign, according to an independent report.

Released Thursday by a congressional advisory panel, the study found cases suggesting that China's elite hacker community has ties to the Beijing government, although there is little hard evidence. The Pentagon report described computer attacks believed to have originated in China, but concluded that "it remains unclear if these intrusions were conducted by, or with the endorsement of, the PLA or other elements of the PRC (People's Republic of China) government."

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

The European Parliament has given the green light for member states to cut persistent file-sharers off from the net. It has dropped an amendment to its Telcoms Package which would have made it hard for countries to cut off pirates without court authority. It follows pressure from countries keen to adopt tough anti-piracy laws.

The French government has just approved plans which could see pirates removed from the net for up to a year. The UK's file-sharing policy is also likely to include a clause about disconnecting persistent offenders. The European Parliament was originally opposed to such legislation, claiming internet access was a basic human right.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC 

It is being billed as the largest-ever social change event on the Web and one which its organizers believe will unite the digital world in a wider conversation about climate change.

"I would say that 99 percent of our bloggers have never written about climate change before. I think there is a lot of power in people who usually don't write about this having conversations about a major issue like climate change." The scale of involvement in the day has been impressive. So far, over 8,000 blogs have registered in 144 countries and organizers predict that there will be around 15 million readers.

(Source: CNN)

Full story

CNN

The Republic of Montenegro officially became a member of the International Multilateral Partnership against Cyber Threats (IMPACT), which is established under the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and consists of 191 members. The President of the Board of Directors of IMPACT -Mr. Datuk Muhd Noor Amin- welcomed Montenegro's membership in IMPACT and stated that Montenegro acquired the status of a full member in this international organization.

Montenegro has recently acquired the capability to track new information on cyber threats. More particularly, the participation in IMPACT will assist Montenegro in the identification of cyber threats in the early stages of their development.

(Source: eGov Monitor)

Full story

eGov Monitor

Microsoft admitted Hotmail users had been tricked into revealing their passwords, 10,000 of which had been published online.

The spam is being sent from users' accounts to contacts in their address books - so recipients will think it came from one of their friends. While the new spam is not malicious in itself, it does point the contact in the direction of something that is — a "shopping" website. The trick is, the shopping site is not a real one. The scam persuades victims to order goods online by credit card, leaving them vulnerable to identity theft and fraud.

(Source: Fox News)

Full story

Fox News

Hotmail and several other Web e-mail providers were recently hit by phishing attacks that gleaned usernames and passwords.It's terribly insecure, but the string of digits 1234567 is a popular password on Hotmail, according to security researcher Bogdan Calin, who analyzed 9,843 stolen Windows Live Hotmail passwords that were posted on a Web site.

In a blog post, Calin said the following were the most common passwords in the Hotmail collection: 123456, 123456789, alejandra, 111111, alberto, tequiero, alejandro and 12345678.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

Surfing the Internet just might be a way to preserve your mental skills as you age. Researchers found that older adults who started browsing the Web experienced improved brain function after only a few days.

"You can teach an old brain new technology tricks," said Dr. Gary Small, a psychiatry professor. With people who had little Internet experience, "we found that after just a week of practice, there was a much greater extent of activity particularly in the areas of the brain that make decisions, the thinking brain -- which makes sense because, when you're searching online, you're making a lot of decisions," he said. "It's interactive."

(Source: Health Day)

Full story

Health Day

A 15-year-old girl who posted her profile on a vampire website was allegedly murdered by two men who created a "fictional internet alter-ego" a court heard.

Carly Ryan's body was found by a swimmer on an Australian beach in 2007. Yesterday a father and son appeared before the South Australian supreme court accused of setting a trap that led to her alleged murder. The girl posted personal details and photographs of herself on the Gothic website www.vampirefreaks.com and soon began an internet romance with a fictitious teenager called Brandon.

(Source: Telegraph)

Full story

Telegraph

The founder of lastminute.com, Martha Lane Fox, has unveiled an ambitious policy to get everyone in Britain online by 2012, backed by a study that says it would save the government up to £1bn annually in customer service costs and boost the economy by more than £20bn.

Lane Fox, who is now chair of the government-created Digital Inclusion Task Force, says that getting the 10m Britons who have never used the internet to go online could generate at least £22.6bn in economic benefit – including at least £10.6bn over the lifetimes of the 1.6m children who have never used it.

(Source: Guardian)

Full story

Guardian

Tens of millions of U.S. computers are loaded with scam security software that their owners may have paid for but which only makes the machines more vulnerable, according to a new Symantec report on cybercrime.

Cyberthieves are increasingly planting fake security alerts that pop up when computer users access a legitimate website. The "alert" warns them of a virus and offers security software, sometimes for free and sometimes for a fee. "Lots of times, in fact they're a conduit for attackers to take over your machine. They'll take your credit card information, any personal information you've entered there and they've got your machine,"

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters 

It’s the F word question that all parents now dread. “Can I go on Facebook?” your eleven year-old bullies you over dinner, declaring that absolutely everybody else in her class is not only on Facebook, but also on Twitter as well as Bebo and Orkut and other peculiarly named social networks.

So how should parents in today’s social media age deal with the F word question? Is social networking bad for children’s brains? Should we allow our kids to freely expose their identities on the Internet?

(Source: Telegraph)

Full story

Telegraph

Cyber-crime just doesn't pay like it used to. Security researchers say the cost of criminal services such as distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attacks has dropped in recent months. The reason? Market economics.

Criminals have gotten better at hacking into unsuspecting computers and linking them together into so-called botnet networks, which can then be centrally controlled. Botnets are used to send spam, steal passwords, and sometimes to launch DDoS attacks, which flood victims' servers with unwanted information.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

A survey of 16 to 24 year olds has found that 75% of them feel they "couldn't live" without the internet. The report, published by online charity YouthNet, also found that four out of five young people used the web to look for advice.

About one third added that they felt no need to talk to a person face to face about their problems because of the resources available online. The survey looked at how the web influences the well-being of people aged between 16 and 24.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC 

Internet users in the North East of England have the most nervous attitude towards the web, according to research that highlights the country's "digital divide".

Online engagement will soon replace social class as the most powerful determiner of economic success, damaging the career prospects of internet refuseniks, according to the social anthologist who analysed the survey. Nearly one-third (31 per cent) of in the North East are reluctant to use the internet for anything more than sending email and occasional browsing, higher than the national average of 23 per cent.

(Source: Telegraph)

Full story

Telegraph

Twitter users should refrain from changing their log-in data until further notice or else risk getting locked out of their accounts. Twitter is investigating instances of users who have lost access to their accounts after modifying their usernames, passwords or e-mail addresses, the microblogging company said on Tuesday.

Until the problem is resolved, Twitter users shouldn't modify their log-in data, according to an official posting on Twitter's Status Web site. "This seems to affect new users as well as long term users," the note reads.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

Studies on whether mobile phones can cause cancer, especially brain tumors, vary widely in quality and there may be some bias in those showing the least risk, researchers reported on Tuesday. So far it is difficult to demonstrate any link, although the best studies do suggest some association between mobile phone use and cancer, the team led by Dr. Seung-Kwon Myung of South Korea's National Cancer Center found.

Myung and colleagues at Ewha Womans University and Seoul National University Hospital in Seoul and the University of California, Berkeley, examined 23 published studies of more than 37,000 people in what is called a meta-analysis.

(Source: Reuters)

Full story

Reuters 

About a third of UK employees throw sensitive documents in the bin instead of shredding them, research suggests. The study also found almost three-quarters of workers felt their organisations could do more to protect their customers' sensitive information.

The data was compiled for National Identity Fraud Prevention Week. Identity fraud costs the UK more than £1.2bn annually. The UK's Fraud Prevention Service says 60,000 people have fallen victim so far this year.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC 

Facebook has seen an impressive bump in traffic versus this time last year. For September 2009, the site claimed 58.6 percent of U.S. social networking tracking, a jump of 194-percent over the same period last year. Twitter's increase, meanwhile, was downright absurd, jumping 1,170 percent over the past year.

In September 2008, Facebook recorded a 19.94 share, which increased to 58.59 percent for Sept. 2009. MySpace, by contrast, dominated the social-networking sites last September, with a 66.8 percent share. Since then, however, MySpace's market share has plunged to 30.3 percent, still leaving it second in U.S. traffic.

(Source: PC Magazine)

Full story

PC Magazine

For the fourth time this year, Adobe has admitted that hackers used malicious PDF documents to break into Windows PCs.

The bug in the popular Reader PDF viewer and the Acrobat PDF maker is being exploited in "limited targeted attacks," Adobe said yesterday. That phrasing generally means hackers are sending the rigged PDF documents to a short list of users, oftentimes company executives or others whose PCs contain a treasure trove of confidential information.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

Security researchers are warning that Web-based applications are increasing the risk of identity theft or losing personal data more than ever before.

The best defense against data theft, malware and viruses in the cloud is self defense, researchers at the Hack In The Box (HITB) security conference said. But getting people to change how they use the Internet, such as what personal data they make public, won't be easy.

(Source: PCWorld)

Full story

PCWorld 

Scammers have grabbed the Hotmail passwords that leaked to the Web and are using them in a plot involving a fake Chinese electronics seller to bilk users out of cash and their credit card information, a security researcher said.

"We've seen a 30% to 40% increase in these types of spam messages in the last several days," said Patrik Runald, senior manager of Websense's security research team. "By 'these types of spam,' I mean messages that are advertising great consumer electronics bargains, such as cameras and computers."

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

Meet "network man." He has basic desires of his own, but has many arbitrary preferences, such as in music or clothes, that have been influenced by the people he knows. Network man's likes and dislikes, in turn, affect the behavior of his friends, and their friends, and their friends.

People have profound influences on each other's behavior within three degrees of separation, the authors find. That means that your friends, your friends' friends, and your friends' friends' friends may all affect your eating habits, voting preferences, happiness, and more. At the fourth degree, however, the influence substantially weakens.

(Source: CNN)

Full story

CNN

The head of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has stopped banking online after nearly falling for a phishing attempt. FBI Director Robert Mueller said he recently came "just a few clicks away from falling into a classic Internet phishing scam" after receiving an e-mail that appeared to be from his bank.

In phishing scams, criminals send spam e-mails to their victims, hoping to trick them into entering sensitive information such as usernames and passwords at fake Web sites.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

IPhone lovers and other smartphone users should take heed: A security researcher showed ways to spy on a BlackBerry user during a presentation Wednesday, including listening to phone conversations, stealing contact lists, reading text messages, taking and viewing photos and figuring out the handset's location via GPS.

And ironically, Sheran Gunasekera, head of research and development at ZenConsult, said the BlackBerry is one of the most secure smartphones available, in some ways better than the iPhone.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

Investigators in the United States and Egypt have smashed a computer "phishing" identity theft scam described as the biggest cyber-crime investigation in US history, officials said Wednesday.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said 33 people were arrested across the United States early Wednesday while authorities in Egypt charged 47 more people linked to the scam. A total of 53 suspects were named in connection with the scam in a federal grand jury indictment, the FBI said.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

Privacy and security are foundational to health care reform. Patients will trust electronic health care records only if they believe their confidentiality is protected via good security.

As vice chairman of the federal Healthcare Information Technology Standards Committee, I have been on the front lines in the debate over the standards and implementation guidance needed to support the exchange of health care information. Over the past few months, I've learned a great deal from the committee's privacy and security workgroup.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

The social networking site said that its security teams had noticed an increase in scams where people's login information is collected through phishing sites, and then their accounts are accessed without permission to ask friends for money.

"While the total number of people who have been impacted is small, we take any threat to security seriously and are redoubling our efforts to combat the scam," The attacks, known as 419 scams, involve a fraudster accessing Facebook accounts and posing as the account owner.

(Source: Telegraph)

Full story

Telegraph

Microsoft blocked access to thousands of Hotmail accounts in response to hackers plundering password information and posting it online.

Cyber-crooks evidently used "phishing" tactics to dupe users of Microsoft's free Web-based email service into revealing account and access information, according to the US technology giant. Phishing is an Internet bane and involves using what hackers refer to as "social engineering" to trick people into revealing information online or downloading malicious software onto computers.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

In a somewhat unusual data breach, hackers recently stole the login credentials of an unknown number of customers of payroll processing company PayChoice Inc., and then attempted to use the data to steal additional information directly from the customers themselves.

Hackers broke into the site and managed to access the real legal name, username and the partially masked passwords used by customers to log into the site. They then used the information to send very realistic looking phishing e-mails to PayChoice's customers directing them to download a Web browser plug-in to be able to continue using the onlineemployer.com service.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Thursday that her department has received the green light to hire up to 1,000 cybersecurity experts over the next three years.

Kicking off "National Cybersecurity Awareness Month," she said the new recruits would "help fulfill the department's broad mission to protect the nation's cyber infrastructure, systems and networks." "Effective cybersecurity requires all partners -- individuals, communities, government entities and the private sector -- to work together to protect our networks and strengthen our cyber resiliency," Napolitano said.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

A long-time critic of the video game industry has sued Facebook for US$40 million, saying that the social networking site harmed him by not removing angry postings made by Facebook gamers.

Thompson is best know for bringing suit against Grand Theft Auto's Take Two Interactive, Sony Computer Entertainment America, and Wal-Mart, arguing that the game caused violent behavior. In 2005 episode of CBS's 60 Minutes, Thompson likened the popular video game to a "murder simulator" and blamed it for the 2003 shooting deaths of two police officers and a 911 dispatcher in Fayette, Alabama.

(Source: PCWorld)

Full story

PCWorld 

It's your birthday. And thanks to your Facebook profile, everybody knows that. Your wall fills up with well wishes from hundreds of "friends." Sure, it's nice to be noticed. But security experts are skeptical about whether sharing information, such as birthdays, with a broad audience is a bright idea. "It's all about providing the bad guy with intelligence," said Robert Siciliano, CEO of IDtheftsecurity.com.

Many people use their birthdate in passwords and personal identification numbers, and security questions often ask for it to resend a lost password. So broadcasting a birthdate could help cybercriminals pose as others as they log on to various Web sites, experts warned.

(Source: CNN)

Full story

CNN

Cybersecurity researchers often scare the IT world with tales of brilliant and devious hacks: encryption cracking techniques, wi-fi booby-traps and undetected vulnerability data sold on the black market. But the most common path cybercriminals use to gain access to victims' PCs today, according to a new report, is far more mundane: buggy software that users and IT administrators fail to patch for months, long after fixes are publicly available.

The study to be released Tuesday by the security-focused SANS Institute states that the cybersecurity community is facing an epidemic of unpatched software, particularly widely used applications like Adobe Flash, Java and Microsoft programs like Word and PowerPoint.

(Source: Forbes)

Full story

Forbes

Microsoft on Tuesday began serving up scam warnings with Bing search results for topics such as fixing credit scores or rescue from home foreclosure that are prime material for online cons.

Microsoft worked with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Postal Inspection Service, and Western Union to provide public service announcements (PSAs) in the form of advertising posted on relevant Bing results pages. Targeted in the campaign are key words related to searches for information about foreclosure rescue offers; promises to fix credit problems, and "lottery scams" in which people are told they've won prizes but must pay to collect.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

Web surfing is no longer a solo affair. Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks have quickly become an integral part of the online culture, and with them comes a whole new array of potential security threats.

Social networking is built on the idea of sharing information openly and fostering a sense of community. Unfortunately, an online network of individuals actively sharing their experiences and seeking connections with other like-minded people can be easy prey for hackers bent on social-engineering and phishing attacks. It's important to be aware of the threats, and to maintain a healthy skepticism in your online interactions.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

The US Secret Service is trying to identify the people who launched an online poll at Facebook asking whether US President Barack Obama should be assassinated. Facebook on Monday shut down the user-generated poll, which was titled "Should Obama be killed?" and offered answer choices of yes, no, maybe, and "If he cuts my health care."

"Once we found out about it, we worked with Facebook to have it removed," Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley told AFP. "We are certainly investigating; just like we would with any threat case." More than 750 Facebook users had reportedly cast votes by the time the poll was yanked from the wildly popular online social networking community.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

A network of Russian malware writers and spammers paid hackers 43 cents for each Mac machine they infected with bogus video software, a sign that Macs have become attack targets, a security researcher said yesterday.

In a presentation Thursday at the Virus Bulletin 2009 security conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Sophos researcher Dmitry Samosseiko discussed his investigation of the Russian "Partnerka," a tangled collection of Web affiliates who rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars from spam and malware, most of the former related to phony drug sites, and much of the latter targeting Windows users with fake security software, or "scareware."

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

Next time you're recovering from trip to the emergency room, keep an eye on the young doctors tending to you. They might be chatting about your case on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and blogs.

A survey of medical schools published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 13 percent of respondents reported breaches of doctor-patient confidentiality, and 60 percent reported "unprofessional content" posted online.

(Source: PCWorld)

Full story

PCWorld 

Many major social networking sites are leaking information that allows third party advertising and tracking companies to associate the Web browsing habits of users with a specific person, researchers warn.

That's the conclusion of a study on the leakage of personally identifiable information on social networks done at AT&T Labs and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. "In some cases, the leakage may be unintentional, but in others, there is clever and surreptitious anti-privacy engineering at work," the EFF said.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

They were crimes born of the Internet age -- romantic solicitations on popular Web site Craigslist that police say led to the fatal shooting of one woman and the robbery of another in Boston hotels this past spring. And it was high-tech, 21st-century sleuthing, along with some old-fashioned gumshoe detective work, that put police on the trail toward a suspect and eventually an arrest.

CNN looks at how technology was used to lead police to 23-year-old medical student Philip Markoff, who has been indicted on seven counts, including first-degree murder. Investigators knew they had crimes born of the Internet on their hands, but how were they able to use that same technology to help them find a suspect who went to great lengths to hide his tracks?

(Source: CNN)

Full story

CNN

Scammers are increasingly using machine-generated Twitter accounts to post messages about trendy topics, and tempt users into clicking on a link that leads to servers hosting fake Windows antivirus software, security researchers said Monday.

The latest Twitter attacks originated with malicious accounts cranked out by software, said experts at both F-Secure and Sophos. The accounts, which use variable account and user names, supposedly represent U.S. Twitter users. In some cases, the background wallpaper is customized for each account, yet another tactic to make the unwary think that a real person is responsible for the content.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

Teens and texting is a subject that's often discussed in pathological terms. They're texting in class! They're sexting! They need thumb therapy! But texting isn't always bad. In some families, it's become a primary form of communication between parents and children. In fact, one of my favorite texts from kids is the earth-shattering query "Wuz4dina?"

Psychologist Thomas W. Phelan says one of the biggest problems with teens is getting them to communicate at all, so if they're willing to text their parents, we should embrace the trend. "Instead of seeing the whole text thing as an enemy, see it as an ally."

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

Decades of war and occupation have not provided an answer to that question -- but the social networking Web site now permits both options, sparking fears about an anti-Facebook cyber-war. The Golan Heights is Syrian territory that was captured by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. Since then it has been internationally classified as Israeli-occupied territory.

Up until recently, Facebook fans in the Golan Heights could only choose Syria as their country of origin or else leave it blank. Pro-Israel Web site honestreporting.com sought to change that, starting a group called "Facebook, Golan residents live in Israel, not Syria."

(Source: CNN)

Full story

CNN

A new botnet has caused a sharp spike in click fraud because it is skirting the most sophisticated filters of search engines, Web publishers and ad networks, according to Click Forensics. The company, which provides services to monitor ad campaigns for click fraud and reports on click fraud incidence every quarter, said on Thursday that the botnet's architects have figured out a way to mask it particularly well as legitimate search ad traffic.

Click Forensics is calling this the "Bahama botnet" because it was initially redirecting traffic through 200,000 parked domains in the Bahamas, although it is now using sites in Amsterdam, the U.K. and Silicon Valley.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to outline network-neutrality proposals on Monday, according to Reuters. The proposals could become rules at the FCC's October meeting.

Neutrality advocates want Internet service providers barred from blocking or slowing Internet traffic based on content. ISPs, including AT&T, Verizon Communications, and Comcast, say growing traffic needs to be managed, and they contend that neutrality could stifle innovation.

(Source: NewsFactor)

Full story

NewsFactor

Microsoft filed lawsuits against five companies Thursday, accusing them of using malicious advertisements to trick victims into installing software on their computers.

Typically, when a scareware ad pops up on a victim's screen, it looks like a Windows utility running some kind of security scan. It will then warn that it has found a critical security problem and direct the victim to a Web site where they can buy a product to fix the issue. DirectAd Solutions, Soft Solutions, qiweroqw.com, ote2008.info and ITmeter have used ads to "distribute malicious software or present deceptive websites that peddled scareware to unsuspecting Internet users".

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

In the economic downturn, teenagers around the world have focused their spending cuts on clothes, games and food, according to a survey by networking site Habbo Hotel.

The survey of 61,000 teenagers in more than 30 countries showed one teenager out of three is getting less money from their parents, with more than half of youngsters getting less to spend in the United States, Spain and Latin America. Some 19 percent of youngsters globally say the recession has most hurt their spending on console and computer games -- the industry for which teenagers are a key client group.

(Source: Reuter)

Full story

Reuter

With many who bank online now wary of phishing attacks, criminals are adding fake live-chat support windows to their Web sites to make them seem more real. RSA Security spotted the first ever of these "chat-in-the-middle" attacks in the past few hours, according to Sean Brady, a manager with the security company's identity protection and verification group.

The phishers send e-mails that direct victims to a fake Web page designed to look like a banking site. That's a standard technique, but what's different in this case is that the phishing site comes with a fake online chat option, so that scammers can talk directly with their victims.

(Source: PCWorld)

Full story

PCWorld

The French National Assembly has passed a draft law that would allow illegal downloaders to be thrown off the net. The law was narrowly passed by 285 votes to 225.

The French hard-line policy on piracy has drawn worldwide attention as nations around the globe grapple with the issue of piracy. The ruling majority UMP voted in favour but the Socialist Party has already announced that they will appeal to the Constitutional Court once again. The Constitutional Court insisted that a judge rather than a high authority had to rule on the issue of whether to disconnect users.

(Source: BBC)

Full story

BBC

As millions of students across the world go back to school this month, 178 students from 49 countries will turn on their computers and step onto the virtual campus of the world's first global, tuition-free online university.

"Our mission is to change people's lives." Called University of the People, the non-profit comes from Israeli entrepreneur Shai Reshef who says he founded the school to provide higher education to those who might otherwise never have access to it. "We are creating a global classroom for science and allowing people to freely collaborate. We want to put high quality teaching and learning materials into the hands of anybody and everybody who wants to become a scientist,"

(Source: CNN)

Full story

CNN

A computer hacker who was once a federal informant and was a driving force behind one of the largest cases of identity theft in U.S. history pleaded guilty Friday in a deal with prosecutors that will send him to prison for up to 25 years.

Albert Gonzalez, 28, of Miami, admitted pulling off some of the most prominent hacking jobs of the decade. Federal authorities say tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers were stolen. Gonzalez entered guilty pleas in U.S. District Court in Boston to 19 counts of conspiracy, computer fraud, wire fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

Cyber criminals are taking advantage of swine flu fears with e-mails promising news on the illness which then infect computers with a virus, a Spanish computer security firm warned Friday.

The e-mails invite recipients to open a document with information claiming the H1N1 flu virus was developed by pharmaceutical firms seeking to make huge profits from the outbreak, Pandasecurity said in a statement. But if the document is opened, a virus is installed on the person's computer which can steal personal information like bank account data.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

South Korea plans to train 3,000 "cyber sheriffs" by next year to protect businesses after a spate of attacks on state and private websites, a report said Sunday. The "cyber sheriffs" would be tasked with "protecting corporate information and preventing the leaks of industrial secrets," Yonhap news agency said.

In the event of cyber attacks, the National Intelligence Service, the country's main spy agency, would set up a taskforce including civilian and government experts to counter the online threats, it added. The country already has a military cyber unit. South Korea, where 95 percent of homes have broadband, is among the top countries in terms of access to the high-speed Internet.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

A third of Web users under 25 claim they don't care about their "digital tattoo" and the items they post online, says Symantec. Symantec said a "digital tattoo" is created by all the personal information web users post online and can easily be found through search engines by a potential or current employer, friends and acquaintances, or anyone who has malicious intent.

The security firm revealed that nearly two-thirds of all those surveyed had uploaded personal photographs, while 79 percent had at least part of their address online and nearly half had their mobile phone numbers online.

(Source: PCWorld)

Full story

PCWorld

In communist Cuba, where only state media exist locally, a vibrant blogger culture has emerged as a venue for critical commentary, a leading journalists' rights group said Thursday. "Despite vast legal and technical obstacles, a growing number of Cuban bloggers have prevailed over the regime?s tight Internet restrictions to disseminate island news and views online," said a report from the New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

"The bloggers, mainly young adults from a variety of professions, have opened a new space for free expression in Cuba, while offering a fresh glimmer of hope for the rebirth of independent ideas in Cuba?s closed system."

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

By selling an array of virtual products from avatar clothes to e-furniture, Asia's social networking sites appear to have solved the conundrum of how to leverage big profits from their extensive user bases.

Chinese university student Tan Shengrong spends about 20 yuan ($2.90) per month purchasing outfits for her pet penguin avatar or playing games on QQ, an instant message portal on Qzone, China's most popular social networking site. It might not seem like a hefty sum, but every fen, or cent, is money in the bank for Tencent Holdings, which owns Qzone and saw an 85 percent increase in its second quarter net profit this year compared to 2008 despite the economic downturn.

(Source: Reuter)

Full story

Reuter

Hong Kong is under siege from legions of "zombies" attacking people with spam and leaving in their wake a trail of destruction costing millions of dollars a year, analysts have warned.

There are an estimated 4,000 zombies active in Hong Kong and their criminal puppet masters use them to fire off thousands of messages offering products ranging from jewellery to pornography. According to the 2008 Annual Security Report by Internet security firm MessageLabs 81.3 percent of emails sent to Hong Kong computer users last year were spam, more than in any other territory or country in the world.

(Source: INQUIRER)

Full story

INQUIRER

Anonymous hackers have attacked a Taiwan film festival over plans to screen a documentary on the US-based leader of China's predominantly Muslim Uighur minority, festival organisers said Tuesday. A message, posted on a blog run by one of the organisers of the Kaohsiung Film Festival, blamed Rebiya Kadeer for recent bloody unrest in northwest China's Xinjiang region, which is home to the Turkic-speaking Uighurs.

The film festival, which takes place in Taiwan's second largest city Kaohsiung, is scheduled to show "Ten Conditions of Love" on World Uighur Congress leader Kadeer in October.

(Source: INQUIRER)

Full story

INQUIRER

President Barack Obama warned American teenagers on Tuesday of the dangers of putting too much personal information on Internet social networking sites, saying it could come back to haunt them in later life. "Well, let me give you some very practical tips. First of all, I want everybody here to be careful about what you post on Facebook, because in the YouTube age, whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life," Obama said.

The presidential words of advice follow recent studies that suggest U.S. employers are increasingly turning to sites such as Facebook and News Corp's MySpace to conduct background checks on job applicants.

(Source: Reuter)

Full story

Reuter

Web sites that collect information about visitors in order to target advertising on their own pages would be required to prominently disclose what information they gather. Web sites that share user information with outside advertising networks, which place ads on sites all over the Internet, would be required to obtain user approval before collecting data. Web sites that deal with sensitive personal information, such as medical and financial data, sexual orientation, Social Security numbers and other ID numbers, would be subject to the opt-in rule.

Rep. Rick Boucher, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, hopes to put in a bill governing Internet advertising.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

Parents who install a leading brand of software to monitor their kids' online activities may be unwittingly allowing the company to read their children's chat messages - and sell the marketing data gathered.

Software sold under the Sentry and FamilySafe brands can read private chats conducted through Yahoo, MSN, AOL and other services, and send back data on what kids are saying about such things as movies, music or video games. The information is then offered to businesses seeking ways to tailor their marketing messages to kids.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

China approved of Google's efforts to filter porn from search results on its China portal following state-led criticism of the links, the former head of Google China said Sunday.

Google.cn has long filtered out some results for sensitive searches. The search engine displays a notice that some results have been filtered for search terms such as "Tiananmen," the square in Beijing around which soldiers killed hundreds to disperse a student democracy protest in 1989, or for the names of major political leaders. The search engine currently displays no search results at all for "Xu Zhiyong," the name of a human rights lawyer recently detained for about one month. The results screen says the search "may touch on content that does not conform with the related laws, regulations and policies"

(Source: PCWorld)

Full story

PCWorld

In an age in which instant news and constant life streams from Facebook and Twitter change the way we communicate, the rules of etiquette surrounding these interactions are still evolving. What happens when I expected a phone call about something and read about it in a status update instead? What's the polite response to a distant friend posting bad news on Facebook? What to do with sensitive information?

Good etiquette on Facebook might not apply on Twitter or in an e-mail. These days, milestones like marriage, pregnancy, breakups and divorce are being described over more forms of communications than ever. Because it's so new, there is sort of a gray area of what the manners are,"

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

Facebook warned Thursday that members who buy "friends" from an Australian online marketing company could face banishment from the social network. The Brisbane-based firm, uSocial.net, offered this week to sell a Facebook user 1,000 friends for 177 dollars and 5,000 friends -- on a standard profile account -- for 654 dollars. USocial caused a stir earlier this year with a similar offer to users of popular micro-blogging service Twitter seeking to increase their number of followers.

Facebook fired back against uSocial on Thursday and issued a reminder that it was against its terms of service for a user to access an account belonging to someone else or to share a password.

(Source: AFP)

Full story

AFP

Ben Alexander spent nearly every waking minute playing the video game "World of Warcraft." As a result, he flunked out of the University of Iowa. He needed help to break an addiction he calls as destructive as alcohol or drugs.

Internet addiction is not recognized as a separate disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, and treatment is not generally covered by insurance. But there are many such treatment centers in China, South Korea and Taiwan - where Internet addiction is taken very seriously - and many psychiatric experts say it is clear that Internet addiction is real and harmful.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

A coalition of 10 U.S. privacy and consumer groups has called for new federal privacy protections for Web users, including a requirement that Web sites and advertising networks get opt-in permission from individuals within 24 hours of collecting personal data and tracking online habits.

In a broad set of new recommendations for privacy regulations released Tuesday, the groups also called on the U.S. Congress to prohibit Web sites and ad networks from collecting behavioral information about children under age 18, whenever it's possible to distinguish the age of the Web user, and to require that online businesses inform consumers about the purpose of the information collection.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld

Google said Tuesday's widespread Gmail outage occurred when the company took some servers offline to perform routine maintenance, causing its remaining routers to become overloaded with traffic. "We know how many people rely on Gmail for personal and professional communications, and we take it very seriously when there's a problem with the service." wrote Ben Treynor, a Google vice president of engineering.

Gmail's problems were a top trending topic on Twitter, with users trading updates and posting links to blogs such as Mashable, which published a post called, "5 Things to Do While Gmail is Down." (No. 1: "Immediately flood Twitter with tweets alternately proclaiming 'Gmail is down!' and inquiring 'Is Gmail down?' ")

(Source: CNN)

Full story

CNN

Federal judge George Wu officially overturned the conviction of Lori Drew, who was convicted of cyberbullying 13-year-old Megan Meier to suicide. That conviction was based on the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which makes it a crime to intentionally accessing a computer system with intent to commit a crime or tort.

At trial, the jury found Drew guilty of misdemeanor violations of CFAA based on the theory that accessing MySpace with intent to harrass Meier was an unauthorized access of an interstate computer.

(Source: ZDNet)

Full story

ZDNet

This is a story about love and Twitter, hope and the relative safety of a Walmart parking lot. Six months ago, Brianna Karp found herself living in an old truck and camper she inherited after the suicide of a father she barely knew.

She wrote as a way to stay in touch with the world. Soon, other homeless people were leaving comments on her blog, telling their stories and cheering her on. "I was definitely surprised just how many homeless and former homeless people are online and using social media to seek opportunities," Karp said. She blogged from Starbucks while she continued to search for work, buying $5 cards each month that entitled her to sip coffee and soak up unlimited Wi-Fi.

(Source: AP)

Full story

AP

If Google Inc. digitizes the world's books, how will it keep track of what you read? That's one of the unanswered questions that librarians and privacy experts are grappling with as Google attempts to settle a long-running lawsuit by publishers and copyright holders and move ahead with its effort to digitize millions of books, known as the Google Books Library Project.

Librarians and the online world have different standards for dealing with user information. Many libraries routinely delete borrower information, and organizations such as the American Library Association have fought hard to preserve the privacy of their patrons.

(Source: ComputerWorld)

Full story

ComputerWorld