Security News-1/08/05

Is phishing a band?

The average American Internet user doesn?t know the meaning of some of the hottest new online terms, according to a study released this month by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, Computerworld reports.

While users know the definitions of some common Internet terms such as firewall and spam, they often don?t know the meanings of terms like podcasting and RSS feeds, according to the survey,

And 70% of users have never heard of phishing or say they aren?t really sure what it means. Phishing refers to unsolicited e-mails that attempt to snare an Internet user?s sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, by pretending to be sent from a trustworthy person or business.

Men who spend time online are more likely than women to be aware of these terms, while people with college degrees are more aware than those with high school diplomas. And older internet users are less likely than younger ones to understand the meanings of these terms, the Pew research found.

Read the full story:
http://www.computerworld.com/securit...ecurity-103426

Hacker fights to stay in the UK
Online July 28, 2005

In a London court the British man, Gary McKinnon, charged with hacking into 97 US government computers - including machines belonging to NASA and the Department of Defence - has begun his campaign against extradition to the US, ZDNet Australia reports.

McKinnon's lawyers said Wednesday on the first day of the trial that he will be fighting the extradition on human rights grounds. If convicted, the north Londoner could face 70 years in jail.

The US government alleges McKinnon accessed passwords and deleted critical files from the Earle US naval weapons station, causing the 300 computers in its network to shut down. In the process, he gained password information that could be useful to an enemy and caused the US Army's Washington military district to shut down its systems for about a day, the US authorities say.

McKinnon, however, said he only deleted files once, accidentally, and that he gained unauthorised access to military systems just to look for evidence of UFO conspiracies. The hearing has been adjourned until October 18 to give McKinnon's defence team more time to prepare its case.

Read the full story:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/securit...9204504,00.htm

People over 50 lose millions
Online July 28, 2005

Older Americans over 50 were being defrauded of more than $43 million last year through Internet scams, with on-line auctions and identity theft topping the complaint list, Reuters reports.

Internet-based scams are growing and now account for about 41 percent of fraud complaints the Federal Trade Commission receives from people over 50, Lois Greisman of the FTC's consumer protection division told the Senate Committee on Aging Wednesday.

"This figure is all the more dramatic when one considers that Internet-related fraud represented only 33 percent of all fraud complaints from this age group in 2002," Lois Greisman said.

Older Americans lost $152 million to con artists last year.

Read the full story:
http://news.com.com/Elderly+American...tml?tag=cd.top


Security holes add up in second quarter
Online July 26, 2005

According to data released by the nonprofit SANS Institute, more than 422 new Internet security holes were found during the second quarter, ZDNet reports.

This represents an increase of 10.8 percent compared with the number found in the first quarter, and a jump of 20 percent compared with the second quarter of last year, the institute said in its quarterly report.

If companies and individuals don't take corrective action, the agency warned, their systems could be used by remote hackers for identity theft, industrial espionage, and distribution of spam and pornography.

In order to be included on the quarterly list, the vulnerabilities must affect a large number of users, the SANS Institute said. Additionally, they must allow an attacker to take control of a PC remotely, and they must remain unpatched on a substantial number of systems. Information sufficient to let people exploit the flaws must be available on the Net.

Read the full story:
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5803078.html


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The BullGuard Team
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