Cyber Gangs Raise Profile of Commercial Online Bank Security
Posted by Soulskill on Sunday September 27, @01:26PM from the only-you-can-prevent-identity-theft dept.
tsu doh nimh writes
"The Washington Post's Security Fix blog has published a rapid-fire succession of investigative stories on the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars from companies, schools, and public institutions at the hands of organized cyber thieves and 'money mules,' willing or unwitting people recruited via online job scams. Some businesses are starting to challenge the financial industry's position that they are not responsible for online banking losses from things like keystroke logging malware that attacks customer PCs. Last week, a Maine firm sued its bank, saying the institution's lax approach to so-called multi-factor authentication failed after thieves stole $588,000 from the company, sending the money to dozens of money mules. The same group is thought to have taken $447,000 from a California wrecking company, whose bank also is playing hardball. Most recently, the Post's series outlined a sophisticated online system used by criminals to recruit, track and manage money mules."
(Related)
http://www.databreaches.net/?p=7531
FBI: Virus suspected in school thefts
September 28, 2009 by admin Filed under Breach Incidents, Education Sector, Malware, U.S.
Brett Rowland and Kate Schott report:
As much as $350,000 reported stolen from Crystal Lake District 47 bank accounts earlier this summer could be linked to cyberthefts at other suburban schools.
The FBI’s Chicago office is investigating the cases, at least one of which involves a hard-to-detect computer virus. No arrests have been made or charges filed, said Cynthia Yates, a spokeswoman for the Chicago office of the FBI. She said Crystal Lake School District 47 and Sycamore School District 427 were part of their investigation, but she declined to identify any other organizations involved in the case.
Read more on Northwest Herald. Thanks to Brian Honan for this link.
Why does this sound all too familiar? Why does Charlie Brown trust Lucy to hold the football? Thank god stupid isn't a capital offense.
http://www.databreaches.net/?p=7533
Jail chaos as lag hacker is left in charge of computer system
September 28, 2009 by admin Filed under Breach Incidents, Government Sector, Non-U.S., Of Note, Other
Justin Penrose reports:
A jailed hacker shut down a prison’s entire computer system – after bosses gave him the job of programming it.
Douglas Havard, 27, serving six years for stealing up to £6.5million using forged credit cards over the internet, was approached after governors wanted to create an internal TV station but needed a special computer program written.
He was left unguarded and hacked into the system’s hard drive at Ranby Prison, near Retford, Notts. Then he set up a series of passwords so no one else could get into the system.
Read more on Mirror. Thanks to Brian Honan for this link.
[From the article:
The blunder emerged a week after the Sunday Mirror revealed how an inmate at the same jail managed to get a key cut that opened every door.
What is it with governments passing laws restricting a very limited range of devices, and not addressing the problem they are trying to solve?
For New Zealanders, No More Phones As Sat-Nav Devices
Posted by timothy on Monday September 28, @04:16AM from the fine-distinctions dept.
rixth writes
"From the 1st of November, it will be illegal to use cell phones while driving in New Zealand. Today, the Government clarified that you can't use your mobile phone as a navigational device, even if it is mounted on the dash board."
[From the article:
The restriction does not apply to navigation systems that do not have a mobile phone function, he says.
I was going to suggest that the 'unhackable' would be hacked quickly, but the comments report that these computers have already been hacked. That's what happens when you challenge hackers.
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/09/27/0252235/AU-Government-To-Build-Unhackable-Netbooks?from=rss
AU Government To Build "Unhackable" Netbooks
Posted by kdawson on Sunday September 27, @08:09AM from the smells-like-a-challenge dept.
bennyboy64 writes
"In what may be one of the largest roll-outs yet of Microsoft's new Windows 7 Operating System, Australia's Federal Government decided to give 240,000 Lenovo IdeaPad S10e netbooks to Year 9-12 students. Officials are calling them 'unhackable.' iTnews reports that the laptops come armed with an enterprise version of the Windows 7 OS, Microsoft Office, the Adobe CS4 creative suite, Apple iTunes, and content geared specifically to students. New South Wales Department of Education CIO Stephen Wilson said that schools were 'the most hostile environment you can roll computers into.' While the netbooks are loaded with many hundreds of dollars worth of software, 2GB of RAM, and a 6-hour battery, the cost to the NSW Department of Education is under $435 (US) a unit. Wilson praised Windows' new OS: 'There was no way we could do any of this on XP,' he said. 'Windows 7 nailed it for us.' At the physical layer, each netbook is password-protected and embedded with tracking software that is embedded at the BIOS level of the machine. If a netbook were to be stolen or sold, the Department of Education is able to remotely disable the device over the network. Each netbook is also fitted with a passive RFID chip which will enable the netbooks to be identified 'even if they were dropped in a bathtub.' The Department of Education also uses the AppLocker functionality within Windows 7 to dictate which applications can be installed."
A case to follow. (Even if they're ALL douchebags.)
http://www.rep-am.com/News/438521.txt
Blogger to be back in court Former Mills High student's suit before U.S. appeals panel
BY JIM MOORE REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
Avery Doninger will soon return to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals with the right of students across the country to speak their minds in blogs and text messages at stake.
… Her federal lawsuit against former Region 10 Superintendent Paula Schwartz and Lewis S. Mills High School Principal Karissa L. Niehoff, who disqualified Doninger from election as senior class secretary when the infamous blog post came to their attention, is expected to be heard, perhaps for the final time, later this year
… According to the argument presented by the Virginia-based Student Press Law Center in a "friend of the court" brief, Doninger's post — which urged readers to contact administrators in support of the endangered concert — is especially deserving of protection.
"The lower court's decision would send the wrong message to civics classes, for it unmistakably says that a student may not exercise her First Amendment rights to encourage others to challenge a governmental decision," wrote SPLC attorney Joseph P. Esposito.
… For the plaintiffs, and their legal supporters, the issue boils down to a comparatively simple question: whether school officials have the right to discipline students for off-campus speech.
Anti-Trust in the 21st Century! “If theys big, theys musts be evil!” “They're not out-competing, they must be cheating.” “It's not fair!”
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10362108-265.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Google adjusts to life with trustbusters
by Tom Krazit September 28, 2009 4:00 AM PDT
Google's greatest challenge as it heads into its second decade may very well be innovating without ticking off Uncle Sam.
The position taken by the Department of Justice two weeks ago on the Google Books search settlement marked the second time in about a year the U.S. government has taken an active step to rein in one of the tech industry's signature companies. Google now is in the process of renegotiating a deal it once called "a historic settlement," one that gave it sweeping and exclusive rights to digitize certain kinds of books that competitors and activists feared would allow Google to gain more control of access to digital information.
Unlike the famous technology antitrust cases of the last century [Boy, does that make me feel old... Bob]--IBM, AT&T, Intel, and Microsoft--Google has not drawn government scrutiny based on allegations of past conduct. Rather, the focus is on what the company might do or is about to do, which should be both comforting and troubling for Google executives.
(Related)
http://webanalytics.globalthoughtz.com/index.php/google-announce-two-new-search-features/
Google announce two new search features
On 09.27.09, In Basics, by rohit
Google has been facing stiff competition from Microsoft Bing, which has come out a slew of new search features. Though Google still dominates the search result but it needs to make things better, if it wants to remain at the top. And Google is doing just that, Google has now come out with two more features in its search result to help users search better.
(Related)
With Google Places, Concerns Rise That Google Just Wants To Link To Its Own Content
by Erick Schonfeld on September 27, 2009
Play time for geeks?
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-try-out-the-microsoft-office-web-apps-technical-preview/
How To Try Out The Microsoft Office Web Apps Technical Preview
Sep. 27th, 2009 By Varun Kashyap
… Microsoft has been working on a free version of its popular Office franchise as well. The free version would be available via the cloud. Microsoft recently launched a tech preview. It is an invite-only preview, however you just need a Skydrive account and some URL tweaking to try out the Office Web Apps Preview. Here is how:
For my Business Continuity class, because noting disrupts your business operations like killing off your employees.
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/022425.html
September 27, 2009
CDC Weekly Influenza Surveillance Report
"Each week CDC analyzes information about influenza disease activity in the United States and publishes findings of key flu indicators in a report called FluView. During the week of September 13-19, 2009, a review of the key indictors found that influenza activity continued to increase in the United States compared to the prior weeks."
Because I show (or at least point to) many videos in my classes, it's good to have some tools to control things.
SafeShare
Not only does SafeShare.TV remove distracting and offensive elements around YouTube videos, but it also allows you to crop videos before sharing them.
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