The week in security, volume 5
Once again, a big mess of security-related links compiled by ParetoLogic's Jeff Green to edify and entertain those interested in spyware and PC security.
If you're really interested in security and privacy, you might want to take a look at this new Wired blog on those two exact topics. (I gather that a 27B Stroke 6 is some kind of form. Is it an American thing?)
Spyware/Malware/Virus/Phishing:
U.S. junk e-mailers sent more spam than those in any other country during the first quarter, a security company recently reported, although China is hot on America's heels.
According to U.K.-based Sophos, U.S. senders accounted for 23.1 percent of the world's spam in 2006's first three months. Chinese spammers sent 21.9 percent of global junk mail during the same period.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/security/187001671
Cloudmark, a San Francisco-based e-mail security company, said it has seen two separate attacks this week. In both cases, the spammed message warns of a problem with a bank account and instructs the recipient to dial a phone number to resolve it, the company said in a statement published Wednesday.
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,39355262,00.htm
Computer-based fraudsters are becoming ever-more sophisticated, using elegant tricks rather than technology to get at your money. [This is a nifty article. Good journalism, if you ask me -Ed.]
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/FinancialPrivacy/P149356.asp?GT1=8004
Internet users around the world send an estimated 60 billion e-mails every day and many of these are spam or scam attempts, business leaders said on Tuesday.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12480457/
News Analysis: Some industry watchers contend that the threat of malware aimed at mobile handsets is over-hyped; others say enterprises preparing for such threats will be better off when attacks arrive.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1950790,00.asp
Parental Controls/Filtering:
Surprise, surprise…kids know how to outsmart web filters!
Last November, Ryan, a high-school sophomore, figured out a way to outsmart the Web filters on a school PC in order to visit the off-limits MySpace.com while doing "homework" in the computer lab.
http://news.com.com/Kids+outsmart+Web+filters/2009-1041_3-6062548.html?tag=nefd.lede
One of the people responsible for protecting children was recently accused of being a predator himself. A spokesperson for the Homeland Security Department was put on unpaid leave after being charged on April 4 with "preying on a child" through online sexual conversations with an undercover detective who was posing as a 14-year-old girl.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/50135.html
Legal/Mergers/Acquisitions:
A malware-for-sale ring used to distribute customized copies of a data-pilfering Trojan has been cracked by two computer security firms. Panda Software of Glendale, Calif., and RSA Security of Bedford, Mass., "neutralized" several Web sites that were providing information thieves with customized versions of the Briz.A Trojan, according to Panda.
Security researchers and legal experts have voiced concern this week over the prosecution of an information technology professional for computer intrusion after he allegedly breached a university's online application system while researching a flaw without the school's permission.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/28/breach_suspect_prosecuted/
NEC Corp. acknowledged today that the company has been the victim of a large-scale piracy ring that has sold both counterfeit NEC goods as well as NEC-branded products that the company does not even manufacture.
http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/hardware/story/0,10801,110976,00.html
Health insurer Aetna on Wednesday said a laptop computer containing personal information on about 38,000 of its members was stolen from an employee's car.
http://news.com.com/Aetna+says+laptop+with+member+data+stolen/2100-1029_3-6066078.html?tag=cd.top
Windows XP/Vista:
Anti-virus firms at Infosec say they expect Vista and IE7 to change nothing for the industry. Microsoft used its presence at the show to laud the security features they've been busy building in the the upcoming software.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/27/av_on_ms/
Two patches released in Microsoft's April batch of security updates are causing system hangs, Windows crashes and the appearance of strange dialog boxes.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1950095,00.asp
Business:
For years, organizations of all sizes have suffered the hassles and unexpected costs that accompany deploying and maintaining a variety of traditional software applications that, ironically, were intended to make them more productive. Now a new breed of Web-based services are pushing legacy applications aside and finally giving users the business benefits they've been seeking.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2006/tc20060417_996365.htm?campaign_id=bier_tca
Clearware.org conducted an informal poll that indicates that 67% of respondants (66 so far) never or rarely completely read EULA’s (end user license agreements). Clearware.org aims to make sense of software by proposing guidelines for vendors that would make them easy to understand in consumer friendly ways similar to care labels on clothes, food facts and hazardous materials.
Misc:
And you thought your tax bill was high???
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has hit Symantec Corp. with a $1 billion tax bill for allegedly underreporting the value of intellectual property that the software vendor transferred to two Irish subsidiaries.
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/story/0,10801,110617,00.html
It sounds like the setup for a punch line: What do you get when you cross an ultra-Orthodox rabbi with a mobile phone? But the "kosher phone" is real and its developers are serious about looking beyond the religious enclaves of Israel. Some Arab companies even have inquired about the phone's main feature: keeping out sex lines and other worldly temptations.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060331.gtphonemar31/BNStory/Technology/
I found the opening scene to the 1991 movie sequel, Terminator 2, to be one of the most powerful SciFi film openings ever. There's a massive firestorm, chunky metal warriors waging war against humans, and then the camera zooms into a metal robot foot crushing a human skull. It’s very graphic. The world has been taken over by terminator robots, first created by man and now bent on destroying us. It's Skynet. What interested me most about this SciFi classic was how real and plausible this future could be, understanding the dark side of human nature that creates evil and some people's inherent need to cause harm. [FYI, this story is about botnets, not Schwarzenegger -Ed.]
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/20/war_against_botnets/
