Violence, spam, hack and porn

This week we explore a halted hacker, online crime drivers, malware attacks for August, banning porn, and protecting children.

Nicholas Lee Jacobsen, 23, who stole over 400 people`s personal data from T-Mobile US`s systems almost two years ago, has been sentenced.

With one year of home detention and a fine of $10 000 in compensation to T-Mobile, Jacobsen has been let off easy, as such crimes are punishable by up to five years` imprisonment.

Spamming and phishing campaigns still take the number one slot for primary drivers of online mis-activity, according to the latest Kapersky Labs report.

New spamming tricks include the adoption of animated gifs in an attempt to stay ahead of filters.

Ilva Pieterse, ITWeb journalist

August`s top 20 chart is compiled almost entirely of variants of the Internet worm, Mytob and the e-mail worm NetSky.

However, in at twelfth place is the phishing Trojan Bankfraud.od, a campaign first seen in March, which was modified and re-launched last month. Kaspersky notes that August was a particularly active month for phishing.

New spamming tricks include the adoption of animated gifs in an attempt to stay ahead of filters.

Beijing is reported to have overtaken Kuala Lumpur as the major source of malware during August.

The majority of malware attacks originated in Eastern Asian countries, with China, Hong Kong and Malaysia at the top of the list with Beijing accounting for 6.75%.

Liz Longhurst, 74, has won her fight to ban ownership of violent Internet porn after a man who was in possession of such images killed her daughter.

Longhurst`s 30-month campaign was backed by MPs and a 50 000-signature petition.

The UK government has announced plans to make the possession of violent porn punishable by three years in jail.

The UK government is also planning to exclude details of celebrities` children from a national child database created in response to the inquiry into the murder of Victoria Climbie, who was left to suffer despite having been seen by dozens of social workers, nurses, doctors and police officers.

The contact details of children with violent parents will also be excluded from the database.

The index, due to be introduced in 2008, will link sensitive information about England`s 11 million children and their families in one database accessible to hundreds of thousands of officials.

Sources: M2, BBC News, Society Guardian, Computer Shop, The Register