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PATH: BS | Privacy
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New "Hearse" Worm May Be Worst Yet
Posted by Pile
(9414 views)      [E-Mail link]
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As a data security specialist, Jeremy Pickett sees all kinds of digital tricks. So on Mar. 20, when he was tracing the origins of a computer worm that had been blocked the night before from entering a client's computer network, Pickett wasn't too surprised that it tried to connect with four sleazy Web sites, most of them, he believes, in Russia. Or that it then tried to load victims' PCs with as many as 30 new pieces of "malware," ranging from spam programs to those that automatically dial in to expensive phone-sex services.
But the real shock came when Pickett decided to test another bug by infecting his own PC with it. Out slithered a program that promptly installed itself deep inside his computer. There it became virtually immune to detection from the basic antivirus software that scans for dangerous code. The bug -- known as a "Trojan," which in turn was hidden inside a "rootkit" -- was designed to activate whenever a Web surfer typed in a user name or password for bank accounts or Web sites for dating, social networking, or e-mail. Pickett went to a bank site and entered fictitious log-in information. Right before his eyes, those data were sent streaming back to Russia, joining the IDs of thousands of real victims. His reaction: "absolute horror." |
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Your Porn-Buying History May Now Be Public
Posted by Pile
(10362 views) [E-Mail link]
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[Viral Marketing]
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Seventeen million customers of the online payment service iBill have had their personal information released onto the internet, where it's been bought and sold in a black market made up of fraud artists and spammers, security experts say.
The stolen data, examined by Wired News, includes names, phone numbers, addresses, e-mail addresses and internet IP addresses. Other fields in the compromised databases appear to be logins and passwords, credit-card types and purchase amounts, but credit-card numbers are not included.
It appears spammers have been buying and selling these lists and using them as sources for solicitations. So if you're getting more spam than usual, it could be because your personal information has been leaked to the black market. |
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Let Yours (Or Someone Else's) Fingers Do the Paying
Posted by Pile
(8076 views) [E-Mail link]
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[Faulty Products]
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 Buying groceries with the touch of a finger could be closer than you think, if new research touting the benefits of biometric payment for retail giants like Wal-Mart, Target, and Costco is anything to go by.
The report, by Sanford Bernstein analyst Emme Kozloff, found that the use of so-called "electronic wallets" reduces the potential for fraud and identity theft, speeds up the checkout process, and most importantly, lowers transaction processing fees for retailers, improving their bottom line.
Unfortunately, this highly-paid analyst didn't mention in the Fortune article that a finger made out of Play Doh can fool these machines 90% of the time. |
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You can't make this stuff up, folks...it seems that the Foley story just keeps getting more and more icky. Now the investigative reporters at ABC News have discovered that Congressman Foley (R-Florida) was engaging in a little online sexual banter...including description of the extected payoff of such banter...while on the floor of the House of Representatives, awaiting a vote to increase funding for the Iraq war.
By now most know about AOL's "mistake" of releasing a portion of their search data to the public for research purposes. Even a cursory glance at the so called "anonymous" data (where users were identified with a number), it became obvious people reveal quite a bit about themselves and their social network when using search engines, and this data, in almost any form, could be considered a substantive privacy invasion.
FEMA will replace locks on as many as 118,000 trailers used by Gulf Coast hurricane victims after discovering the same key could open many of the mobile homes. 
Darren Irby, spokesman for the national American Red Cross says, "We haven't viewed this as a security breach at this point."
Let's say that you're one of the brave soldiers who have served your country honorably, earning yourself the right to a few veteran's benefits for your service. What's one way your Veteran's Administration can thank you?
Here's a snippet of the information AT&T and the US Government are desperately trying to supress:
Verizon Communications Inc., and BellSouth Corp. began sharing records of tens of millions of their customers' phone calls with the NSA shortly after the 2001 terror attacks, according to USA Today. But when the NSA came calling, former Qwest Communications CEO Joseph Nacchio broke ranks with fellow former Bell companies and didn't sell out his customers...
A recent study by McAffee company, Siteadvisor.com has revealed some interesting data: that virtually all the search engine results contain links to sites that install adware and subversive programs. Ok, that's nothing new, but some search engines are "cleaner" than others. 
"The FBI, while waging a highly publicized war against terrorism, has spent resources gathering information on antiwar and environmental protesters and on activists who feed vegetarian meals to the homeless," reports Nicholas Riccardi. According to environmental activist Kirsten Atkins, who wound up in an FBI terrorism file after she attended a protest against the lumber industry, "They don't know where Osama bin Laden is, but they're spending money watching people like me."
In what some are calling a scandal that makes Watergate look like a parking ticket, two years ago, George W. Bush went behind the back of the American people and secretly authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to carry out surveillance of people throughout the United States. 
Here's a sordid tale of corporate control gone horribly wrong.
It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it isn't. The pages coming out of your color printer may contain hidden information that could be used to track you down if you ever cross the U.S. government.
Today Google has announced Google Talk. This is their competition to AIM, ICQ and all the other instant messaging applications on the net. Since it centers around Google's Gmail account system, you can safely assume this is more information exchanging between people that Google will archive forever and exploit later. Nothing to be worried about, if you are comfortable sacrificing your personal security to a big corporation.
Today the Federal Communications Commission issued a release announcing its new rule expanding the reach of the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).
American online activist David Swanson alleges that Comcast and Symantec have blocked emails drawing attention to the so-called 
Apparently the Swiss are just too clever for their own good. They've developed a public toilet which is covered with one-way glass so that while you're inside you can see out, but nobody can see in. Would you use this thing? (See the full article for the picture from the inside)