Criminals exploit leaked personal data

According to new figures from fraud database firm Lucid Intelligence, incidences of personal data being stolen and sold online have soared by 230% since 2007, says Computing.co.uk.

The company, which develops technology allowing users to check whether their data has been compromised and traded online, said in its annual report that, although the number of stolen credit cards being used online dropped slightly last year to 67 750, cyber criminals are shifting their attention to more sophisticated attacks.

"Phished, stolen or negligently sold personal data has become the basis for creating false identities that can be used to set up bank accounts, credit cards and loans," explains Lucid chief executive Colin Holder.

Human Rights Watch has warned that Libya must stop blocking access to opposition Web sites and Internet pages such as YouTube, writes the BBC.

The activists say Tripoli began a crackdown on 24 January, blocking several foreign-based sites reporting on Libya, and the entire YouTube site.

"The government is returning to the dark days of total media control," the group said in a statement.

Password cracking of iPhone backups has become a point-and-click exercise, thanks to software unveiled yesterday by a computer forensics tools provider, reports The Register.

The Elcomsoft iPhone Password Breaker, which was released for free into beta, recovers passwords for iPhones and iPod Touches by trying thousands of phrases per second. It performs wordlist-based attacks only, but the final version will allow dictionary attacks that can be customised.

Apple's iTunes application allows users to make iPhone and iPod Touch backups that store a wealth of potentially sensitive information, including call logs, address books, SMS archives, calendars, pictures and voice mail.

A US study has indicated younger Internet users are losing interest in blogging and are switching to shorter and more mobile forms of communication, states the BBC.

The number of 12- to 17-year-olds in the US who blog has halved to 14% since 2006, according to a survey for the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

It suggests they prefer making short postings on social networking sites, and going online on mobile phones.

The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a cyber security Bill that calls for beefing up training, research, and coordination so the government can be better prepared to deal with cyber attacks, says CNet.

The Cyber Security Research and Development Act of 2009, which passed by a vote of 422 to five, authorises the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop a cyber security education programme that can help consumers, businesses, and government workers keep their computers secure.

It also creates cyber security scholarship programmes for college students and research centres, and asks NIST to boost development of identity management systems used to control access to buildings, computer networks, and data.