Hackers love Google

Google is an effective tool for finding caches of credit card numbers and back doors into protected databases.

According to security writer Johnny Long, hackers are using Google - and other search engines - as one of their favourite tools.

Speaking at a recent hackers` conference, Long showed how Google searches could net credit card and bank account numbers, tax returns and other personal information buried in court documents, expense reports and school Web sites.

Speaking to Reuters, Long said one of Google`s features is that you can pull up older versions of a Web page. However, these "cached" pages can turn up security holes even after they have been fixed, or allow an intruder to scan a network without leaving a footprint.

eBay, Microsoft, PayPal and Visa are participating in a new anti-phishing aggregation service, dubbed the Phish Report Network.

Phishing - attempts by criminals to steal the identities of Internet users by sending out e-mails or links to Web pages mimicking popular Web sites - is the fastest growing segment of spam on the Internet.

According to E-Commerce Times, the Phish Report Network allows any company that is a victim of phishing attacks to immediately and securely report fraudulent Web sites to a central database operated by WholeSecurity - a company that screens Web sites for suspicious behaviour.

Other companies subscribing to the Phish Report Network can then access the database or receive real-time notifications of known phishing sites, enabling them to more effectively protect consumers by blocking these sites in their user-facing security applications.

Macrovision yesterday unveiled a technology that it claims will block 97% of the DVD-copying software used by Internet pirates, without interfering with a DVD`s picture quality.

The company says its RipGuard system - which can be included in personal computers, DVD players and DVD recorders - would close the digital breach through which unauthorised versions of DVD films can be easily copied on a computer and then "burned" to other discs or put online for downloading.

According to XinhuaNet, Macrovision is the first of several firms expected to roll-out new anti-piracy technology that has been years in the making.

It is estimated that unauthorised DVD copying cost the studios $1 billion of the $27.5 billion they collected from worldwide DVD sales and rentals in 2004.

More than 22 million US adults - 11% of the country`s over 18-year-olds - own an iPod or an MP3 player, claims a research firm.

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, men (14%) are more likely than women (9%) to have the device, while nearly one in five people under 30 will own one.

Families in the higher income brackets are the majority owners of the devices, TechWeb reports. Around 25% of the devices are owned by people in households earning more than $75 000 (R450 000). Households making less than $30 000 (R180 000) accounted for only 6%.