cybercrime

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Facebook 'Friend' Emergency Latest Online Scam

Cybercriminals hijack Facebook accounts to pose as friends in crisis

(Newser) - Fraudsters posing as friends who need emergency cash are scamming Facebook users out of thousands of dollars, CNN reports. Criminals filch Facebook identities, then bombard their friends with desperate-sounding messages pleading for money. The scammers often claim to have been robbed in a foreign country and beg the friend to...

Phony Ad Clicks at Record High
 Phony Ad Clicks at Record High 
Jan 28, 2009 4:07 PM CST

Phony Ad Clicks at Record High

Click fraud rate climbs to 17.1% in fourth quarter of 2008

(Newser) - Fraudulent attempts to deceive web advertisers into paying for phony clicks reached an all-time high in the last quarter of 2008, CNET reports. The rate of phony to genuine clicks climbed to 17.1% in the fourth quarter, increasing 1.1% from the third quarter and 0.5% from the...

Stalkers Terrorize 3M Americans a Year: Study

Statistics prompt new calls for updated laws

(Newser) - More than 3 million Americans, mostly women aged 18-24, are stalked each year, but it’s an abuse rarely prosecuted, the Chicago Tribune reports. The staggering figure from a first-ever Justice Department study highlights the need to strengthen laws and enforcement, especially with technology now making it easier for stalkers...

Computer Experts: The Bad Guys Are Winning

Security researchers outflanked by well-funded cybercriminals

(Newser) - There's a war on for your computer and the bad guys are winning, the New York Times reports. Malware that stealthily hijacks a computer to send more malware is spreading like wildfire, and efforts to battle the constantly evolving threat often amount to little more than a game of online...

Court Pokes Facebook Spammer for $873M

Cybercriminal accused of hijacking user profiles to send out millions of messages

(Newser) - Facebook has won an $873 million judgment against a man accused of hijacking user profiles to spew spam, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The award—the biggest ever under federal spamming laws—was made against a Canadian citizen who Facebook accused of stealing login details to send more than 4...

Miley Cyrus Is Alive and Well

(Newser) - Miley Cyrus is alive, and a report of her death was the work of a hacker, E! Online reports. A video claiming Cyrus had been killed by a drunk driver went up on the teen sensation's own YouTube page over the weekend, using her new single “Goodbye” as background...

Nigerian Scamsters Want to Be Your Friend

Con artists try to fool Facebook users by posing as friends in need

(Newser) - Nigeria's notorious cybercriminals are looking for some buddies, Ars Technica reports. The conmen have infiltrated social networking sites like Facebook by filching passwords and contacting users in the guise of a friend who suddenly, urgently needs funds. Internet security experts fear the new tactic could prove a lot more effective...

Malware Hijacks Obama Emails
 Malware Hijacks Obama Emails 
Nov 6, 2008 7:40 AM CST

Malware Hijacks Obama Emails

Spammers launch massive 'Obama Trojan' malware campaign to capitalize on victory

(Newser) - Malicious hijackers have hitched a ride on the Barack Obama bandwagon, ChannelWeb reports. "Obama Trojan" emails offer a link to an amazing Obama speech or election results, but when the link is opened, it infects computers with malware that sends the user's personal data to a command center and...

Federal Informer Was Behind Massive Credit Card Theft

Multinational gang stole 45M credit card numbers from US retailers

(Newser) - Federal agents struggling to crack the biggest data-theft ring in history discovered that one of their own informants was orchestrating the syndicate's US operations, the New York Times reports. The supposedly reformed hacker had turned Secret Service informant to escape a prison sentence in 2003 but secretly continued his criminal...

Tips for Candidates on Cyber Security
 Tips for Candidates 
 on Cyber Security 

OPINION
Aug 7, 2008 4:23 PM CDT

Tips for Candidates on Cyber Security

Next president must find right balance of regulation for internet safegaurds

(Newser) - Noting that both candidates have plans to ensure our collective cyber security, Bruce Schneier, in Wired, lays out some essential policy advice for the next president:
  • Use the government’s enormous purchasing power to make security software producers do better. Make security requirements for government software high, and those improvements
...

'Every Network Is at Risk' Thanks to Bug

Security expert says DNS flaw could cause Internet-wide chaos

(Newser) - Security researcher Dan Kaminsky outlined what he calls the biggest Internet security hole since 1997 to a gathering of experts yesterday, and it's a lot worse than had been understood, Wired reports. “Every network is at risk,” Kaminsky said at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas. "...

Feds Nab 11 Cybercrime Masterminds
Feds Nab
11 Cybercrime Masterminds
Aug 5, 2008 3:49 PM CDT

Feds Nab 11 Cybercrime Masterminds

40 million credit and debit card numbers stolen across US

(Newser) - An international crew of hackers who reportedly stole more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers from nine US companies were indicted today in what Attorney General Michael Mukasey is calling "the single largest and most complex identity theft case that's ever charged in this country." The...

Cybercrime Getting Organized
 Cybercrime Getting Organized 
Jul 16, 2008 5:20 PM CDT

Cybercrime Getting Organized

Hackers, identity thieves working more like mafia; profits increasing

(Newser) - There’s serious money to be made in cybercrime, and its perpetrators are beginning to reflect that fact, Ars Technica reports. Lone hackers have been replaced with hierarchical organizations that divide the criminal risks inherent in stealing and reselling (usually financial) information. The cybercrime "firms" are growing steadily as...

In One Domain, Anyway, Man Still Conquers Machine

CAPTCHAs, where humans distill words from squiggles, hold line in spam war

(Newser) - Every web user has come across CAPTCHAs: wavy-lettered depiction of words you must retype as text. Most pay them no mind, but, Lev Grossman writes in Time, we should reflect upon completing one. They're one of the rare visible skirmishes in the largely invisible war between spammers and security programmers....

Malware Threats Skyrocketed in 2007

Symantec mulling new security approach

(Newser) - Last year saw an explosion in malware threats that has Symantec considering a new approach to Internet security—“whitelisting” legitimate computer code rather than blacklisting known threats. Of 1.1 million threats the company has discovered in over 25 years, it uncovered almost two-thirds of them in 2007, Computerworld ...

Cybercrooks Hacking Power Grid
Cybercrooks Hacking Power Grid
Jan 20, 2008 8:38 AM CST

Cybercrooks Hacking Power Grid

In cities outside the US, hackers shut down grid for blackmail

(Newser) - Foreign extortionists have managed to hack into US power grids and shut them down, PC World reports, citing a CIA analyst speaking at a security conference this week. "In at least one case, the disruption caused a power outage affecting multiple cities. We do not know who executed these...

Wi-Fi Hotspots Become Hackers' Delight

Easier now for hackers to snatch data from thin air

(Newser) - Wi-Fi hotspots multiplying around the nation are boosting convenience for internet users on the go, but are also making life easier for hackers, the Wall Street Journal reports. Hackers at hotspots in hotels, airports and cafes can pluck other users' financial details and company information out of the air.

Latest Domain Name Hack Disguises Its Danger

Can secretly steer Windows users wrong

(Newser) - The misdirection of “open-recursive” DNS servers, which facilitate web-surfing by translating verbal domain names into numerical IP addresses, is the new, more covert face of cyber-criminality, and could explode into a new wave of phishing attacks, IDG News reports. Hackers can use these types of DNS servers to redirect...

Hackers Breach Security at 2 US Nuclear Labs

Personal info exposed at Oak Ridge; damage unclear at Los Alamos

(Newser) - A US nuclear lab has been the target of a coordinated cyberattack that may have exposed the personal information of thousands of visitors, reports ABC News. Hackers broke into the nonclassified part of the computer system at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a research facility in Tennessee, and made over 1,...

'Little Emperors' Run Riot in China

Single-child pressures & tech revolution blamed in crime surge

(Newser) - China is seeing an explosion in youth crime, and the effects of the one-child policy  and sweeping social and technological change are thought to be partly to blame, reports Reuters. Juvenile delinquency has doubled in the last decade, with offenders getting bolder and more innovative. "They are committing new...

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