The UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency has issued a warning about the increasing number of international online gangs stealing and trading Web users' personal details, says Computing.co.uk.
A report issued by the agency says groups of criminals - often comprising of an average of 30 specialists focused on areas ranging from phishing to data trading - are part of a market evolution geared at trading and exploiting data.
Information is often stolen through techniques such as phishing and key-logging, using malware sent via e-mail. The stolen data is then used by the thieves for fraudulent purposes, or sold to other cyber criminals over the Web.
Hacker admits $70k botnet rampage
A 21-year-old American has admitted to using a potent botarmy to wage a relentless campaign of destruction on two volunteer Web sites as part of a scheme to punish the operators for behaviour he thought was unfair, reports The Register.
Gregory King, of California, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two felony counts of transmitting code to cause damage to protected computers. King, an irascible hacker who used monikers including Silenz, SilenZ420 and Gregk707, faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison and a fine of $500 000, although his plea agreement calls for him to spend two years behind bars and pay restitution to his victims.
King's distributed denial-of-service attacks on CastleCops and KillaNet Technologies were so potent that the sites and their service providers sustained as much as $70 000 in damage, according to court documents.
Symantec hints at Sun, Dell deals
Symantec chairman and CEO John Thompson did not have any new product news to speak of when he opened the annual Vision user conference, in Las Vegas, this week, but he did allude to a couple of big deals, says eWeek.
Thompson, now in his 10th year at the helm of the world's largest-selling software security company, said Symantec would announce OEM deals with Dell and Sun Microsystems "later this year". One of them will involve the integration of his company's Altiris Software Virtualisation Solution Professional into Dell's ever-growing software portfolio.
In the other partnership transaction, Sun will incorporate Symantec's storage virtualisation software into its own set of products, to help with archiving and e-discovery capabilities.
Anti-child-porn tactic criticised
The decision yesterday by three Internet service providers to block access to online child pornography is the latest in a series of steps by companies and government officials to curb the distribution of such materials. But a report to be published later this month questions whether such actions are making it more difficult to track users, says Washington Post.
The report, by the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography, formed by credit card issuers and Internet service providers to cut off funding for these crimes, states the efforts are pushing child pornographers toward unregulated Web companies that allow anonymity in purchases.
"One of the first things that happened when we began shutting down the credit card avenue is that these guys began to look to other ways to get money quickly," said Ernie Allen, president and chief executive of the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
Share