MacBook Spying Case | Image Source : Appleinsider.com

FBI investigates, federal prosecutors subpoena documents in MacBook spying case, say reports.

The parents of a Pennsylvania high school student have asked a federal judge to bar school district personnel from switching on cameras in school-issued MacBook laptops, calling the security feature “peeping tom technology.”

In their motion Friday, Michael and Holly Robbins of Penn Valley, Pa., asked U.S. District Court Judge Jan DuBois to issue a restraining order preventing the district from remotely activating the webcams on student notebooks. They also requested that the judge block the district from recalling the laptops from students, saying that they believe school officials will then wipe the MacBooks’ hard drives to delete evidence of any camera activation.

“There can be no assurances that the School District will disable the use of the remote webcam or, once deactivated, make an internal decision to reactive the webcam,” the motion argued.

Elsewhere in the motion, the Robbins labeled the camera functionality “peeping tom technology,” and disputed the district’s account that cameras had been activated only when a notebook was reported lost or stolen. “[Blake Robbins] was at home using a school issued laptop that was neither reported lost nor stolen when his image was captured by Defendants without his or his parents’ permission and while he was at home,” the motion said. Read more ……

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Identity Theft | Image Source : Hiteidtheft.com

A new study shows that banks, not consumer victims, are increasingly feeling the pain of digital fraud.

Identity theft often feels less like a random act of fraud than a personal breach of a victim’s secrets. But while consumers feel the sting from having their private data stolen, it’s their banks that are increasingly picking up the bill.

That’s one finding from an identity theft study released Wednesday by fraud analysis firm Javelin Research. The study, which surveyed around 5,000 Americans last year about their experiences with identity theft, calculated that ID fraud had cost around $54 billion in 2009, a significant jump from the $48 billion it estimated for 2008. That higher cost was driven by a greater number of fraud incidents that affected 11.2 million consumers in 2009, compared with 9.9 million in 2008.

That means financial services are absorbing a much larger chunk of fraud losses, says Javelin president James Van Dyke. “Businesses are really stepping up,” he says. “Even as the cost of fraud mitigation becomes higher, they’re bringing the out-of-pocket expense for victims closer and closer to zero.”

And why are banks willing to cover a larger percentage of those fraud costs? Van Dyke posits that the firms are dealing with consumers’ increasing impatience regarding data security issues and the growing problem of losing customers after fraud incidents. In about one out of five cases, according to Javelin’s research, a victim of identity theft switches banks. “Acquiring a new customer can costs hundreds of dollars, and banks are becoming more and more sensitive to the cost of losing that relationship,” he says . Read more ……

Identity theft is a term used that is to refer to fraud that involves someone pretending to be someone else in order to steal money or get other benefits. The term dates to 1964[1] and is actually a misnomer, since it is not inherently possible to steal an identity, only to use it. The person whose identity is used can suffer various consequences when he or she is held responsible for the perpetrator’s actions. In many countries specific laws make it a crime to use another person’s identity for personal gain.Identity theft is somewhat different from identity fraud. However, the terms are often used interchangeably. Identity fraud is the result of identity theft. Someone can steal or appropriate someone’s identifying information without actually committing identity fraud. The best example of this is when a data breach occurs. There has been very little evidence to link ID fraud to data breaches. Source : Wikipedia

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Image Source : Silicon.com

London: A group of computer scientists have come up with a system that deciphers the templates a botnet uses to create spam, and these templates are then used to teach spam filters what to look for. This can be used to block the most common kind of spam.

Most spam messages originate in networks of compromised computers, called botnets, and owners are unaware that the machines quietly run malicious software in the background that pump out spam, reports New Scientist. But researchers have now come up with a system that deciphers the templates a botnet is using to create spam, and these templates are then used to teach spam filters what to look for.

The system, developed by a team at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, California, and the University of California, San Diego, works by exploiting a trick that spammers use to defeat email filters. As spam is churned out, subtle changes are typically incorporated into the messages to confound spam filters. Read more ……

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Microsoft Corp. on Thursday released a patch to protect Internet Explorer users from attacks like “Operation Aurora” which targeted Google Inc.’s China business and caused widespread Internet panic.

“This security update resolves seven privately reported vulnerabilities and one publicly disclosed vulnerability in Internet Explorer,” the world’s largest software company said in a statement on its Web site.

This security update includes all supported versions of the Internet Explorer browser, and will be automatically installed for the majority of customers who have enabled automatic updating. Read more ……

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Google China Hacking | Image Source : technology.timesonline.co.uk

A coordinated hacking campaign targeting Google, Adobe Systems and more than 30 other companies raises serious concerns, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday.

In a statement released late Tuesday night, Clinton said that the U.S. government is taking the attack — which Google said came from China — very seriously. “We have been briefed by Google on these allegations, which raise very serious concerns and questions,” she said. “We look to the Chinese government for an explanation.”

Sources familiar with the situation say that more than 30 U.S. companies, including Adobe Systems, were hit by this targeted attack, which Google first discovered in mid-December. Using an attack that exploited an unpatched bug in widely used software, the attackers were able to gain footholds in these companies and siphon out valuable intellectual property.

In Google’s case the attackers also gained access information about the e-mail accounts of Chinese dissidents.

Google apparently feels strongly that China is behind the attack because the company said Tuesday that the event helped convince the company that it “should review the feasibility of our business operations in China.”

The company now says it will no longer censor search results on Google.cn, a move that could put it out of business in China.

Google’s competitor, Yahoo, also condemned the attacks. “We stand aligned with Google that these kinds of attacks are deeply disturbing and strongly believe that the violation of user privacy is something that we as internet pioneers must all oppose,” the company said in a statement.

A company spokeswoman declined to say whether or not Yahoo had been hit by the attack as well.

Yahoo doesn’t directly do business in China. It sold its Yahoo! China business to Alibaba.com in 2005, but it is a major shareholder in that company. Read more ……

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Body Scanners | Image Source : Privacylover.com

The full-body scanning technology being adopted and discussed since the attempt to take down a passenger plane on Christmas Day isn’t a “magic machine” that will solve aviation security issues, experts say.

“Regardless of the sophistication of the piece of technology, if you can collect the information on how it works and what its technical parameters are, then that machine is not going to deter a [sophisticated] terrorist operation,” said Dr. Richard Bloom, director of terrorism, intelligence and security studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Full-body screening and other security measures are more effective in detecting threats from an increasing number of unsophisticated, mentally troubled suspects acting alone, he said. The technology is “only a piece” of aviation security.

Security technologist Bruce Schneier believes that the body scanning machines are a waste of money. Investigation and intelligence gathering is where the money would make a difference, he said.

“Stop trying to guess. You take away guns and bombs, the terrorists use box cutters. You take away box cutters, they put explosives in their shoes. You screen shoes, they use liquids. You take away liquids, they strap explosives to their body. You use full-body scanners, they’re going to do something else,” said Schneier, who is the author of a number of security-related books, including “Beyond Fear.”

“In general, the odds are really stacked in the terrorists’ favor … because they only have to be successful one time and the government has to be successful all the time.” Read more ……

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Image Source : Techcrunch.com

Internet giant Google.com has lost an arbitration case over the domain name Groovle.com. In a decision released today, The National Arbitration Forum, dismissed Google’s complaint which claimed that it was entitled to the domain name Groovle.com. Google claimed that the domain name  is “confusingly similar” to its trademark for “Google”.

The unanimous three person panel ruled that Groovle.com “is not confusingly similar” to Google’s trademark, “Google”.  Google has commenced 65 similar domain name disputes and this is only the second time that it has ever lost. Domain name lawyer and Internet law expert, Zak Muscovitch is responsible for successfully defending the “little guy” against the mega-corp Google.

The domain is owned by Canadian entrepreneurs Jacob Fuller and Ryan Fitzgibbon, who launched Groovle.com in 2007. As Fuller explains, “Groovle was created to provide users the ability to upload photos and customize their Internet start page. We thought it would be a cool feature to have a nice photo of friends, family etc., every time you launch your web browser”. Says Fitzgibbon, “since we launched Groovle in 2007, Google, Bing and Ask.com have each come out with something similar”.

The pair are elated with the decision. “We were stunned when Google launched the domain name dispute as we have great respect for Google and have always had a good relationship with them”, said Fitzgibbon. Fuller added that, “Google never had anything to fear from our web site. The arbitrators’ decision that the two domain names are sufficiently different should put Google at ease and we look forward to a renewed positive relationship with Google”.

Muscovitch concluded “Google clearly miscalculated here however my clients are prepared to put this behind them”.

Source : Google News

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Image Source : Kaspersky.com

Our phones are becoming more like computers with every passing day. The good news is that we can take our data anywhere and work wherever we’d like. The bad news is that our phones are becoming more vulnerable to spyware, viruses and other attacks.

A start-up called Lookout is trying to make phones safer and views itself as the “Symantec or McAfee of the mobile space.” In 2010, the company will offer software that can scan phones to determine which apps are safe and which are not. “Applying PC solutions to a mobile problem just won’t work,” says Lookout Chief Executive John Haring.

Here’s how Lookout’s technology works: You download the software, sign up for an account and configure the options you want to enable. The software offers anti-virus, data backup and device location. Then, when you download a new app from, say, the Android Marketplace, Lookout’s software automatically scans the app and alerts you to take action if an app contains spyware or other malware. Read more ……

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Image Source : Siliconindia.com

The millions of Twitter buffs are at dismay as Twitter gets hacked for the fourth time consecutively, this year. The last time it was hacked in August this year, Twitter said in its status blog that it was ‘defending against a denial-of-service attack,’ in which hackers command scores of computers to a single site at the same time, preventing legitimate traffic from getting through. This time the site seems to be hacked by an Iranian Cyber Army.

It marks an already difficult week for Twitter. Its application Twitterfeed had a data migration only this weekl, leaving many users with a reduced service. The new hack is nothing but an added woe. The problem started around one hour back. The site, which has been hacked for the fourth time this year, is offline and the message reads, “This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army.

The message at the bottom of the hacked page, which has been translated by Tech Crunch, goes on to say, “U.S.A. Think they are controlling and managing Internet by their access, but they don’t. We control and manage Internet by our power, so do not try to stimulation Iranian peoples to… NOW WHICH COUNTRY IN EMBARGO LIST? IRAN? USA? WE PUSH THEM IN EMBARGO LIST Take Care.”

Image Source : PcWorld.com

Look for Google’s lightweight, browser-based operating system to debut on mobile systems sometime in 2010.

Google unveiled what it’s hoping will be the new standard in netbook operating systems: Chrome OS. Based on Linux, Chrome OS is a fast, low-overhead OS that boots directly into a Web browser to get you online with as little waiting as possible. We’ve been running an early version of Chrome OS on our test systems since Google released the code to the open-source community. Here’s a peek at what you can expect to see when preinstalled systems debut for the 2010 holiday season.

Chrome OS runs exclusively on solid-state drives, it boots extremely quickly. The early build we played with took as little as 7 seconds to reach a login screen, and then snapped almost instantly into the browser.

Web-app bookmarks in Chrome OS unlike traditional operating systems, Chrome OS offers few controls that you can’t already find in Google’s Chrome Web browser. The most significant difference is the Chrome icon in the upper-left corner, which reveals a list of bookmarked Web apps. It’s as close as Chrome OS gets to installing software. While the inability to install apps as Windows does can be a limitation, it’s also a safeguard against viruses and malware: If apps can’t install, neither can Trojan horses and other nasty bits of code. Read more ……

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Image Source : 3mobileshop.co.uk

Apple and Nokia are getting into the holiday spirit this year by suing one another over a patent dispute.

The fun started this past October when Nokia sued Apple for allegedly infringing on 10 of its patents that covered a wide range of mobile data technologies, including speed encoding and decoding, security and encryption. At the time, the Finnish smartphone manufacturer accused Apple of trying to get a “free ride” off of its intellectual property.

Apple accused Nokia of allegedly infringing on 13 of its patents and pointedly told Nokia that “other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours.” Apple did not detail what patents Nokia allegedly violated but instead provided a long list of the company’s accomplishments, such as “igniting” the “personal computer revolution.”

The Apple-Nokia spat is the second high-profile tech-related lawsuit to generate headlines in the past few weeks. In November, AT&T filed a lawsuit against Verizon alleging that the carrier’s “There’s a Map for That” ads falsely assert that AT&T has major gaps in its wireless coverage. In Verizon’s response filed with the U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia, the company eschewed standard legalese and instead launched into a bombastic broadside against its rival. AT&T decided to drop the suit earlier this month after its initial efforts failed to get Verizon to take its ads off the air.  Read more ……

Source : b2net.co.uk

IT security firm Sophos has announced its latest probe into how easy it is to steal identities via Facebook and found that user negligence is worst in 2009. It is assumed things would be better in 2009 but the situation is worse. This really is a wake-up call,” said Paul Ducklin, head of technology, Sophos Asia-Pacific (Sydney).

Ducklin, who led the Facebook probe, said they created two fictitious users with names based on anagrams of the words “false identity” and “stolen identity.” He said 21-year-old “Daisy Felettin” was represented by a picture of a toy rubber duck bought at a US $2 shop; 56-year-old “Dinette Stonily” posted a profile picture of two cats lying on a rug. Each sent out 100 friend requests to randomly-chosen Facebook users in their age group.

Within two weeks, a total of 95 strangers chose to become friends with Daisy or Dinette — an even higher response rate then when Sophos first performed the experiment two years ago with a plastic frog. Worse still, Ducklin said, in the latest study, eight Facebookers befriended Dinette without even being asked.

Ducklin said 89% of the 20-somethings and 57% of the 50-somethings who befriended Daisy and Dinette also gave away their full date of birth.

“Nearly all the others suppressed their year of birth, but this is often easy to calculate or to guess from other information given out,” he said, adding that even worse, just under half of the 20-ish crowd, and just under a third of the 50-ish crowd, gave away personal information about their friends and family.

The following top tips for users who want to protect themselves from identity thieves on Facebook:

• Don’t blindly accept friends. Treat a friend as the dictionary does, namely “someone whom you know, like and trust.” A friend is not merely a button you click on. You don’t need, and can’t realistically claim to have, 932 true friends.
• Learn the privacy system of any social networking site you join. Use restrictive settings by default. You can open up to true friends later. Don’t give away too much too soon.
• Assume that everything you reveal on a social networking site will be visible on the internet for ever. Once it has been searched, and indexed, and cached, it may later turn up online no matter what steps you take to delete it.

Honeymoon period with social networking sites ought to be over by now — but many users still have a ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude to their personal data. Read more ……

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Source : Forbes.com

As the world’s biggest file-sharing sites clean up or shut down, all eyes are on Isohunt.

The world of peer-to-peer piracy is in turmoil. In April, copyright-flouting icon the Pirate Bay was ordered by a Swedish court to shut down its file-sharing service, and last week the second largest file-sharing destination, Mininova, announced that it would comply with a court order to remove all of its copyright-infringing files.

That leaves Isohunt, a peer-to-peer file-sharing search engine with 30 million unique monthly visitors and 10 million daily searches, as the biggest remaining magnet for the Web’s pirate population. It’s also attracting the same legal troubles: The Vancouver-based site is being sued by both the Motion Picture Association of American and the Canadian Recording Industry Association.

But Isohunt founder Gary Fung argues that his site won’t be the next to fall under the legal guillotine. Isohunt, he argues, uses a different model: Unlike Mininova or the Pirate Bay, the site functions as a search engine for the “torrent” files that map connections in peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, rather than a host of those files or a forum for downloaders. Read more ……

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Source : SiliconIndia.com

The new worm is affecting iPhone users in the Netherlands. The worm is redirecting users from a legitimate banking website to a fake site. The worm has been identified by security experts at security solutions firm F-Secure, and appears to be predominantly affecting Dutch iPhone users attempting to log on to their ING Bank accounts on the device.

Users visiting the legitimate home page of the bank are unconsciously redirected to an imitation site by the worm, leaving them vulnerable to cybercriminals, who could capture their username and password and use this information to commit fraud. Only ‘jailbroken’ iPhones, a hack that allows the device to run software and services not approved by Apple, are affected by the worm.  Read more ……

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I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by this, but I have seen more and more elementary kids carrying and talking on cell phones each year.  I see more and more of these kids wearing a full sized iPod.  Kids have computers and TV’s in their rooms.  Am I being an old fashioned fuddy duddy by dragging my feet with this trend, or could there be good reason for caution here?

Don’t get me wrong, I love my little iPod shuffle.  Obviously, I enjoy having my computer with internet.  And I greatly appreciate the convenience my cell phone usage has provided me for the last several years.  But does my nine year old need all of this at her complete disposal too?  And her own version of each one of those?  Hmmm….it just really makes me think about what fits for our family and our situation. Read more ……

The ads should appear for relevant keywords only; I’ve tried about a dozen different combinations, and haven’t seen them, but it could be because I’m not located in the USA. You should see them if you’re looking for foreclosure rescue, lottery, and fixing credit problems. If you click on one, you’ll land on trade commission or Microsoft Web pages containing advice about avoiding online scams. Read more ……

If there was a disclaimer on every piece of media that received a bit of digital “help,” our images here in the US would be nothing but disclaimers. In France, however, lawmakers are concerned about the effect that Photoshopping has on people’s body images. As a result, one such member of parliament, Valerie Boyer, has proposed a law that would require “enhanced” images to sport a warning, making it clear that viewers are not looking at an unretouched image.

Magazines and advertisements around the world are filled to the brim with airbrushed imagery portraying not-quite-real people living in a fantasy world filled with diamonds, puppies, Louis Vuitton bags, and lots and lots of great sex. Men’s and women’s magazines are equally guilty, and it’s not exactly a secret that impossibly hot people help make effective advertisements.

It’s also no secret that these images can warp how normal people see themselves, especially teenagers who are particularly prone to developing body issues. That’s the group that Boyer is most looking out for with this proposition. A proponent of anorexia and bulimia awareness within the French government, Boyer believes that the disclaimer would help bring youngsters back to reality and promote a healthier body image for all. “These photos can lead people to believe in a reality that does not actually exist, and have a detrimental effect on adolescents,” Boyer said in a statement this week. “It’s not just a question of public health, but also a way of protecting the consumer.”  Read more ……

The required warning would be needed in newspaper and magazine advertising, press photos, product packaging, political campaigns and art photography, according to the Telegraph. The language will reportedly be: “Retouched photograph aimed at changing a person’s physical appearance.”

The proposed law comes from French MP Valerie Boyer and is inspired by a recent report she authored on anorexia and bulemia. She points to the deterimental effect that unrealistic body images can have on adolescents: “Many young people, particularly girls, do not know the difference between the virtual and reality, and can develop complexes from a very young age. In some cases this leads to anorexia or bulimia and very serious health problems.”

More than 50 French politicians have voiced support for the law. If passed, advertisers who break it would be subject to a fine of £30,000 (about $48,200 USD), or 50 percent of the campaign cost.

What do you think: should this law pass? Is Photoshopped body imagery a public health issue?

Read more [via Ars Technica]

However, those who sign up for the service could find themselves becoming the victims instead, PandaLabs warned.

The Facebook hacking service, which is delivered via a professional-looking Web site, was discovered by PandaLabs earlier this week.

Users of the service are required to first register with the site and then provide an ID of the Facebook account they want hacked, said Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs. Users who enter the ID and click on a “Hack it” button are then presented with the username of the owner of the Facebook account. They then have the option to “Start Facebook hacking.”  Read more ……

Lisa Severens, a clinical trials manager from Worcester, Massachusetts, learned the hard way. A virus took control of her laptop and started sending pornographic photos to colleagues.

“I was mortified about having to deal with it at work,” said Severens, whose employer had to replace her computer because the malicious software could not be removed.

Cybercrime, which costs US companies and individuals billions of dollars a year, is spreading fast on Facebook because such scams target and exploit those naive to the dark side of social networking, security experts say.

While News Corp’s MySpace was the most-popular hangout for cyber criminals two years ago, experts say hackers are now entrenched on Facebook, whose membership has soared from 120 million in December to more than 200 million today.

“Facebook is the social network du jour. Attackers go where the people go. Always,” said Mary Landesman, a senior researcher at Web security company ScanSafe.

Scammers break into accounts posing as friends of users, sending spam that directs them to websites that steal personal information and spread viruses. Hackers tend to take control of infected PCs for identity theft, spamming and other mischief.

Facebook manages security from its central headquarters in Palo Alto, California, screening out much of the spam and malicious software targeting its users. That should make it a safer place to surf than the broader Internet, but criminals are relentless and some break through Facebook’s considerable filter.  Read more ……