Saturday, March 07, 2009

Consider instead that the governments have penetrated the criminal networks.

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/07/0252244&from=rss

Shaming Russia Into Action On Cyber Crime

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday March 07, @12:14AM from the stand-in-the-corner-until-you're-sorry dept. Security

krebsatwpost writes

"The Washington Post ran a piece earlier this week that confronts the myth that cyber criminal gangs in Russia and Eastern Europe avoid attacking their own, pointing to numerous examples of late that counter this common misconception. The story draws on data from Team Cyrmu about distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) that target Russian and E. European organizations, intel from McAfee about Russian banks and federal agencies that appear to be under control over cyber gangs there, and tens of gigabytes of data stolen via keyloggers that disproportionately impact Russian systems, including that of a top Gazprom official. The piece begins: 'If you ask security experts why more cyber criminals aren't brought to justice, the answer you will probably hear is that US authorities simply aren't getting the cooperation they need from law enforcement officials in Russia and other Eastern European nations, where some of the world's most active cyber criminal gangs are thought to operate with impunity. But I wonder whether authorities in those countries would be any more willing to pursue cyber crooks in their own countries if they were forced to confront just how deeply those groups have penetrated key government and private computer networks in those regions?'"


Related?

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/020766.html

March 06, 2009

Director of National Cybersecurity Center Resigns

WSJ: "The government's coordinator for cybersecurity programs has quit, criticizing what he described as the National Security Agency's grip on cybersecurity. Rod Beckstrom, a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur, said in his resignation letter that the NSA's central role in cybersecurity is "a bad strategy" because it is important to have a civilian agency taking a key role in the issue. The NSA is part of the Department of Defense."

  • Mr. Beckstrom's resignation letter: "...the NCSC [National Cybersecurity Center] did not receive appropriate support inside DHS during the last administration to fully realize its vital role."



A tool for capturing those ephemeral sites you just know are going to be shut down... Something for my Forensic class. Would it be admissible as evidence?

http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/backupurl-com-create-a-cached-copy-of-any-url

BackupURL.com - Create A Cached Copy Of Any URL

http://www.backupurl.com/

BackupURL.com is the tool you were looking for in order to make the internet freeze! How many times have you found something on the net which you really crave and that you want to show all your friends, and when you return to the site everything has changed?

In all honesty, with the sheer speed at which the internet regenerates each day it is so easy to lose track of all the stuff you like. Very often, when you go and try out your bookmarks they all take you to something that resembles more a ghost town than the site you bookmarked. However, not all is lost since BackupURL can help sort out this little conundrum we have to deal with.

Here’s what to do, land on their site and it’s all simple and straightforward - type in the URL you want saved and hit “Backup!”. Presto! You are all done! The result is a new URL where you can access the exact same site you just backed up only that it’s coming from a different server and it will not be updated ever again. This application is really cool if you need to use an alternate mirror to handle the load on your site or as a safeguard in case your servers blow up or something bizarre happens to them like being hit by a hurricane, or who knows what.



The porn industry is an early adapter of technology. (Evil thought: Now there could be drivers out there reading porn on their cell phone while driving...)

http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/06/2123219&from=rss

Is Salacious Content Driving E-Book Sales?

Posted by timothy on Friday March 06, @04:46PM from the let-me-take-one-lust-driven-guess dept. Books Media Entertainment

narramissic writes

"Having already abandoned ebooks once, Barnes & Noble is jumping back into ebooks with the purchase this week of ebook seller Fictionwise. Why is the format suddenly hot? Look no further than the top 10 Fictionwise bestsellers, says blogger Peter Smith. Once again it seems like 'porn is blazing a path to a new media format. Of the top 10 bestsellers under the 'Multiformat' category, nine are tagged 'erotica' and the last is 'dark fantasy.' Need more proof that folks (let's take a leap and call them women) who read 'bodice rippers' like the privacy of ebooks? Author Samantha Lucas (who writes for publishers like Cobblestone Press and Siren Publishing) tells Smith that she sells almost all of her novels in ebook format."



Records are made to be broken. Think of this guy as the digital equivalent of the little old lady with 50 cats...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10190977-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Biggest-ever Internet piracy bust claimed in Sweden

by Erik Palm March 6, 2009 3:07 PM PST

Swedish police on Friday reported making a major Internet piracy bust.

Authorities said they seized computer equipment belonging to a Stockholm-area man whom they suspected of violating local copyright law. The police, who carried out the raid on February 9, only disclosed the news Friday.

… The seized server contained 65 terabytes of digital data, [I know a Fortune 500 company that ran on only 6TB Bob] consisting of films, TV series, computer programs, and the music equivalent of 16,000 movies, according to the Antipiracy Agency, an organization based in Sweden that's supported by a consortium of film and game organizations to fight Internet piracy.



Use this to create “Twit of the Year” covers? Picture manipulation for my website students.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10190786-2.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

WriteOnIt turns pics into fake magazine covers

by Josh Lowensohn March 6, 2009 12:46 PM PST

WriteOnIt is a simple service that lets you caption and manipulate uploaded photos. Just like BigHugeLabs' Flickr toys project (story), it can take uploaded photos and stick them into magazine covers. It can also slyly insert them onto coffee mugs, billboards, art easels, and fake mirrors within ready-made photos. [I didn't see that... Bob]



Tool for meetings and seminars?

http://www.killerstartups.com/Video-Music-Photo/klewel-com-innovative-flash-video-players

Klewel.com - Innovative Flash Video Players

http://www.klewel.com/

Online video has really changed the way we use the internet. If you still haven’t gotten the most out of online video, then you’re going to love Klewel.com.

With this site, you’ll be able to create your customized video player, which works great for conferences and events. What’s the best part? You’ll be able to tape your event, and alongside it, show the slides you used for your presentation. This makes your video a lot more useful, as people who are watching it from home will be further immersed into the online conference. It’s great for professors who like to use this type of thing for their classes, to be able to reach more students and eager listeners.



I was at a Math conference yesterday (sounds geeky as hell, doesn't it) where a presenter demoed this tool for grabbing screen images, with the option to make them into movies and then save them on your desktop or as links to storage in the cloud. Very slick. You should take a look at it! Mac or Windows!

http://www.jingproject.com/

Jing

* Snap a picture of your screen.

* Record video of onscreen action.

* Share instantly over the web, IM, email.


Related. That same presenter used MindMaps to organize her collection of software tools. Rather than re-list her list (and you know I love lists) I'll just point you to her mind...

http://www.mindomo.com/view.htm?m=a8f84cc1210944ebbc10819e4c57c45d



If Dilbert says it, it must be true!

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-03-07/

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