“Three men have been indicted in connection with a Ukraine-based fraud scheme which tricked Internet users into believing their computers were infected and collected some 100 million dollars, officials said Thursday. Internet users in more than 60 countries purchased more than one million bogus software products from the three defendants, two Americans and a Swede, [...]
“Contractors that fail to live up to security requirements in federal technology contracts should be held accountable, even if the vulnerabilities originated in products or capabilities provided by suppliers, a top Homeland Security Department official said on Tuesday. In most business situations, ‘if we have a contractual arrangement and you fail [to meet the requirements], [...]
“Media Temple, the Web host for Adobe, ABC, Sony, NBC, Time, Volkswagen and Starbucks, was recently shut down by a distributed denial of service attack. ‘The outage began about 3:50 p.m. PDT [Tuesday], when Media Temple’s domain name servers were deluged by a flood of traffic coming from outside the U.S., and lasted less than [...]
“The past decade may be portrayed as a period of growing cyber threats, or at least as a period of increasing fear and a growing conviction regarding cyber insecurity. Among many different cyber-vulnerable industries, critical infrastructure in the energy sector is paramount in facing new risks and threats due to the connection and interdependence of [...]
“Canadian government, college and industry computers are increasingly vulnerable to cyberattack, federal authorities said. Cyberattacks via social networking sites have grown ‘substantially’ in Canada, said a censored report from Canada’s Security Intelligence Service. The Canadian government needs to act now or risk being targeted by computer hackers who use social networking services to steal government, [...]
“Like convenience stores and fast-food restaurants, phishing is no longer a mom-and-pop operation, according to a study released today. A single crime syndicate dubbed ‘Avalanche’ was responsible for some 66 percent of the phishing traffic generated in the second half of 2009, according to a report (PDF) published by the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG). ‘Avalanche’ [...]
“Hackers have begun using compromised servers instead of client PCs to launch more powerful denial of service attacks. Hundreds of web servers are infected with a DoS application that transforms them into zombie drones, according to database security firm Imperva. These zombie servers are controlled using a simple web application, consisting of just 90 lines [...]
“The FBI’s top anti-cyber crime official today said the agency is planning a law enforcement action against so-called ‘money mules,’ individuals willingly or unwittingly roped into helping organized computer crooks launder money stolen through online banking fraud. Patrick Carney, acting chief of the FBI’s cyber criminal section, said mules are an integral component of an [...]
“The U.S. military may never have a direct answer on when to fire back against a computer-based attack, a top Pentagon leader said Wednesday, reflecting the complex world of cyber warfare. James Miller, the principal deputy undersecretary of defense, said the Pentagon has been working through a range of scenarios, in an effort to come [...]
“The U.S. Army Reserve Command began alerting affected reservists on May 7 via e-mail. Col. Jonathan Dahms, chief public affairs for the Army Reserve, said the personal data was contained on a CD-Rom in a laptop that was stolen from the Morrow, Ga. offices of Serco Inc., a government contractor based in Reston, Va. The [...]
