Tackling on Campus Piracy 02/27/2007

Cracking down on college students, the music industry is sending thousands more complaints to top universities this school year than it did last year as it targets music illegally downloaded over campus computer networks. A few schools, including Ohio and Purdue universities, already have received more than 1,000 complaints accusing individual students since last fall — significant increases over the past school year. For students who are caught, punishments vary from e-mail warnings to semester-long suspensions from classes.

Banning Terrorists from Purchasing Domains 02/26/2007

Cybercrime Law reports on bill A5026/S63 in the New York State Legislature which would make it a crime under New York State law to knowingly sell domain names to terrorist organizations.

Top Piracy Schools Rival Party Schools 02/26/2007

Forget party schools: The RIAA lists the top piracy schools in the US: Ohio University - 1,287 Purdue University - 1,068 University of Nebraska at Lincoln - 1,002 University of Tennessee at Knoxville - 959 University of South Carolina - 914 University of Massachusetts at Amherst - 897 Michigan State University - 753 Howard University - 572 North Carolina State University - 550 University of Wisconsin at Madison - 513 University of South Florida - 490 Syracuse University - 488 Northern Illinois University - 487 University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire - 473 Boston University - 470 Northern Michigan University - 457 Kent State University - 424 University of Michigan at Ann Arbor - 400 University of Texas at Austin - 371 North Dakota State University - 360 Indiana University - 353 Western Kentucky University - 353 Seton Hall University - 338 Arizona State University - 336 Marshall University - 331 complete article

Cyberbullying Bill Takes Aim 02/25/2007

The state of Washington is considering a cyberbullying bill aimed at taking some of the sting out of this electronic scourge. They aren't the first state to consider such legislation—we mentioned several other states looking into similar measures a few days back—but they are one of the most recent, and the Washington bill highlights the difficulties that legislators face as they try to restrict certain kinds of speech. Cyberbullying Bill

YouTube Names Names 02/21/2007

YouTube has released the identities of several users that were pirating, including one fellow who was uploading television episodes before they had even aired. While that certainly won't stop the circulation of the videos, it very well demonstrates Google and YouTube's willingness to prove they are anti-piracy. This isn't the first time they have done this, either. complete article

Security Glossaries 02/20/2007

Use the following glossaries to locate the meaning of popular security related terms  - Security Glossaries

Apple Patches 02/20/2007

Apple shipped a set of four security updates on Feb. 15 meant to plug a list of vulnerabilities in its Mac OS X operating system and iChat messaging software, and some researchers are calling the release highly critical.

Smokers, A Security Threat? 02/20/2007

Where there's smoke, there's a door. A U.K. security company is warning that smokers may impact IT security, leaving open doors that could let in intruders who could abuse a company's network. complete article

A Blow to Prosecutors Fighting Software Piracy 02/19/2007

A Russian court has thrown out a criminal case against a rural headteacher accused of using pirated Microsoft software in his school. The court in Perm, some 620 miles east of Moscow, dismissed the case of Alexander Ponosov as "trivial".

70% of Websites Vulnerable 02/15/2007

About 70% of Web sites contain vulnerabilities that put them at risk of being hacked, according to a new study issued on Tuesday. A year ago, Acunetix, a Web site security company, began scanning sites, both business and nonbusiness, looking for vulnerabilities. Out of 3,200 sites scanned, 70% had vulnerabilities with either a medium- or high-risk rating, according to an Acunetix announcement. Company analysts say there is an "extremely high probability" of hackers finding and using the vulnerabilities to steal information.

Valentines Day Attacks Not So Sweet 02/14/2007

Spammers and virus writers are upping their efforts this month to lure in victims with sweet-sounding messages, security companies warn.

Hackers Attack Every 39 Seconds 02/13/2007

Researchers at the University of Maryland set up four computers with weak security to uncover how often hackers would try to break in. The results: 2,244 attempted hacks per day. The most commonly tried user names were "admin" and "root," while popular guesses for passwords were "123," "password" and "test."

Cellular Security Issues 02/12/2007

With the number of employees using smart phones and other mobile devices, corporations must start to focus their security on more than just their network perimeter, according to security analysts and specialists attending the RSA Conference here.

BotNet Attack 02/18/2007

The worst attack in years on the Internet's infrastructure has slowed traffic but failed to bring down the web last week, with infected computers around the world used as "zombies," security experts say. Private sector analysts say the computers that direct Internet traffic were hit by a so-called denial of service attack, which seeks to slow or knock out a network. The US Department of Homeland Security said only that its cybersecurity arm had been monitoring "anomalous" activity on the Internet.

More Children Being Exposed to Online Porn 02/07/2007

More children and teens are being exposed to online pornography, mostly by accidentally viewing sexually explicit websites while surfing the Internet, researchers say. Forty-two percent of Internet users aged 10 to 17 surveyed said they had seen online pornography in a recent 12-month span. Of those, 66% said they did not want to view the images and had not sought them out, University of New Hampshire researchers found. Their conclusions appear in February's Pediatrics, due out Monday.

Sex Offenders to Register Online 02/07/2007

Sex offenders could be forced to register their e-mail addresses and chatroom names, the government in England says. Home Secretary John Reid said he may make paedophiles put online identity details on the Sex Offenders Register. Mechanisms would be set up to "flag up" approaches by them to sites popular among youngsters, he told the BBC.

Educational Feeds and Podcasts 02/06/2007

Interested in learning about security? There is a new educational feed and podcast directory that contains a multitude of educational content.

Vista Speech Recognition Hole 02/06/2007

Microsoft has admitted that speech recognition features in Vista could be hijacked so that a PC tells itself to delete files or folders. Vista can respond to vocal commands and concern has been raised about malicious audio on websites or sent via e-mail.

Top 10 Big Brother Companies: Ranking the Worst Consumer Privacy Infringers 02/05/2007

How much would you sell your private data to a company for? Would you take $100 to let someone see every site you have visited over the past year, how about $1,000? Today, many major companies spend millions collecting a variety data on individuals such as; what charities you donate to, your political beliefs, your shopping habits, your educational data and your contact information. full article

TomTom with Viruses 02/04/2007

According to the company, a small number" of TomTom GO 910 satellite navigation devices were shipped last year with malicious software preinstalled. It has come to our attention that a small, isolated number of TomTom GO 910s, produced between September and November 2006, may be infected with a virus. Appropriate actions have been taken to make sure this is prevented from happening again in the future," said TomTom in a statement. TomTom with Virus

BotNet Pandemic 02/03/2007

Father of the internet Vint Cerf has warned high-powered attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the internet is at serious risk from botnets. Vast networks of compromised PCs, used by criminals for sending spam and spyware and for launching denial of service attacks are reported to be growing at an alarming rate in terms of their potential and Cerf, now an employee of Google, warned they could undermine the future of the internet — likening their spread to a pandemic. BotNet Pandemic

Cyber Bulling on the Rise 02/03/2007

Cyberspace has replaced the schoolyard as the preferred space for bullying among many US kids, who are going online to threaten, insult and harass each other outside the watchful eye of teachers or parents.

Virus Warnings 02/02/2007

Avira Premium Security Suite - lists viruses prevalence and popularity! Virus Warnings

Internet Host of Information - What About Security? 02/01/2007

A teacher on issues related to computer security and ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater says he stumbled across a piece of his son's adoption record while searching a state-run court records Internet database looking for his parking citation.

South Korea Censorship? 01/31/2007

North Korea said on Friday the South Korean government was violating the public's basic right to information by blocking access to Web sites sympathetic to the North. South Korea has denied access to more than 30 Web sites that it has designated "pro-North Korea" since 2004, including the North's official KCNA news agency's Web service and sites operated outside.

Pump and Dump 01/31/2007

Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit against a 21-year-old Florida college student on Jan. 25 who is believed to be responsible for carrying out a sophisticated online "pump-and-dump" fraud scheme. In the claim, filed in U.S. District Court of Florida, Washington-based SEC claims that Aleksey Kamardin, a resident of Tampa, masterminded a plot to break into online brokerage accounts and purchase shares of low-priced stocks to inflate the price of the shares. By purchasing the stocks shortly before driving up the their price via fraudulent trading and then selling them at premium, Kamardin was able to bilk the market for almost $83,000 in little over a month. complete article

Security Web Sites 01/30/2007

Key security websites that are oft overlooked but contain valuable information for security professionals or those interested in security in general: Security Protection - collection of security RSS feeds. Alarm Tools - security and alarm directory of related vendors. Password Software - tools for managing and protecting passwords Security Software - collection of key security software solutions. Government Feeds - collection of RSS feeds from government agencies. Take a look at the above websites, they are worth attention!

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