A New Zealand teenager, allegedly at the centre of a cyber crime ring causing millions of dollars of damage, admitted six computer crime charges when he appeared in court today.
Owen Thor Walker, 18, who has Asperger’s syndrome, was accused by the FBI of being “Akill” - leading a group of international programmers that set up a “botnet” which infected a million computers with a virus and resulted in an estimated $NZ26 million-plus of economic loss.
A botnet is a network of hacked computers that can be controlled by a single computer via the internet.
Although some of the charges Walker was convicted of today carry maximum sentences of five years’ imprisonment, Judge Arthur Tompkins indicated he was not considering jailing Walker.
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April 1st, 2008 | Posted in Hackers, Internet Security | No Comments
Authorities who have traced part of an international check scam to a Concord couple said Friday they hope victims won’t be too embarrassed to come forward.
State Police say the man and woman were part of a scam, mostly likely based in Nigeria, that has stolen $5 to $10 million over two years from people selling items on the Internet. In a typical exchange, someone posing as a buyer sends the seller a check for more than the item’s price and ask the seller to wire back the extra money. After returning the money, the sellers find out the checks were fake.
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March 31st, 2008 | Posted in Scams | No Comments
A top Australian neurosurgeon says the world’s heavy reliance on mobile phones could be a greater threat to human health than smoking and even asbestos.
Vini Khurana, who conducted a 15-month “critical review” of the link between mobile phones and malignant brain tumours, said using mobiles for more than 10 years could more than double the risk of brain cancer.
He has called for “immediate and decisive steps” by industry and governments to reduce people’s exposure to invisible electromagnetic radiation emitted by handsets.
Dr Khurana also called for a “solid scientific study” observing heavy mobile phone users for a period of at least 10-15 years.
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March 31st, 2008 | Posted in Mobiles | 1 Comment
Australian internet entrepreneurs are earning millions of dollars each year by spotting the true value of what’s in a name.
The so-called “Domainers” search out generic or popular names that have not been turned into websites and then register them for as little as $7.60 - names such as bedroomfurniture.com.
“Domain parking” is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion worldwide and Australia’s market is growing.
The Australian Domain Name Administrator (auDA), the governing body for all domains ending in “dot au”, will lift a ban on the sale of dot au domains in June, opening an expected thriving market in their sale. AuDA chief Chris Disspain said the ban was being lifted because “it made no sense”.
Domainers can cram the websites with advertisements, then leave them idle and sit back as they earn a few cents per click - big bucks when you have a portfolio of thousands.
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March 30th, 2008 | Posted in Internet Money | 2 Comments
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March 30th, 2008 | Posted in Domains for Sale/Rent | 2 Comments
To the long list of objects vulnerable to attack by computer hackers, add the human heart.
The threat seems largely theoretical. But a team of computer security researchers plans to report Wednesday that it had been able to gain wireless access to a combination heart defibrillator and pacemaker.
They were able to reprogram it to shut down and to deliver jolts of electricity that would potentially be fatal — if the device had been in a person. In this case, the researcher were hacking into a device in a laboratory.
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March 30th, 2008 | Posted in Hackers, Internet Security, Scams | 1 Comment
A laptop running a fully patched version of Microsoft’s Vista operating system was the second and final machine to fall in a hacking contest that pitted the security of Windows, OS X and Ubuntu Linux. With both a Windows and Mac machine felled, only the Linux box remained standing following the three-day competition.
Shane Macaulay, who played a hand bringing down a Mac during last year’s Pwn2Own contest, defeated the Vista machine using a previously unknown vulnerability in Adobe Flash. On final day of the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver, Macaulay spent the better part of four hours trying to get the exploit to work. (The delay prompted one spectator to playfully dub the difficulty “hacktile dysfunction.”)
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March 30th, 2008 | Posted in Linux, Hackers, Internet Security | 1 Comment
When Martin Cooper invented the mobile phone 35 years ago, he envisioned a world with people so wedded to wireless connections that they would walk around with devices embedded in their bodies.
But while phones have come a long way since the former Motorola researcher made the first-ever wireless call from a busy New York street corner in April 1973, Cooper says the industry has fallen short of his expectations.
“Our dream was that someday nobody would talk on a wired telephone. Everybody would talk on a wireless phone,” the 79-year-old electronic engineer told Reuters.
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March 30th, 2008 | Posted in Technology | 1 Comment
Microsoft’s hostile-takeover attempt against Yahoo may encounter an unexpected hurdle in August after a Chinese anti-monopoly law that will extend the nation’s economic influence far beyond its borders takes effect.
The law, effective Aug. 1, is intended to strengthen antitrust regulations the Chinese established in 1993. It will make China a third sphere of regulatory influence, matching the power of the European Union and the United States, according to legal specialists in this country and in China.
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March 29th, 2008 | Posted in Yahoo, Microsoft | 2 Comments
Hackers in Indonesia protested a law banning online pornography by posting a picture of a bare chested male model on the Indonesian information ministry’s website.
“Congratulations on the law,” said a message above the picture, which was posted yesterday and taken down 11 hours later, said Sukemi, a spokesman for the Communication and Information Ministry.
Sukemi, who goes by a single name, said the site’s security had since been strengthened.
Parliament passed the law on Tuesday which makes accessing or posting pornographic websites punishable by up to 12 years in jail or a fine of up to 1 billion rupiah ($A116,500).
It also bans the posting or accessing of gambling sites and threatening material.
The law comes amid an ongoing debate in Indonesia, which has more Muslims than any other country, on how to stop the distribution of pornographic materials.
The issue has become a rallying cry for the country’s small but vocal hardline Muslim fringe.
March 29th, 2008 | Posted in Hackers | 3 Comments
Social networking site Facebook has closed a second $US60 million investment round with Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing through his foundation, a source familiar with the deal confirmed on Thursday.
The source said the deal, which boosts Li’s holdings in Facebook to $US120 million, including an earlier $US60 million round late last year, is valued on the same $15 billion terms as a $US240 million stake Microsoft took in October.
Li’s investment was made by the Li Ka Shing Foundation. Li-backed companies such as Hutchison Whampoa Ltd and TOM Group were not involved, the source said.
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March 29th, 2008 | Posted in Facebook | 2 Comments
A computer hacker was sentenced to three years in prison for placing a phony emergency call that led police to storm a family home at gunpoint.
It marked the first prosecution in Orange County, in South California, for a prank known as “swatting” that involves sending SWAT teams - special weapons and tactics units - on fruitless chases, said county district attorney’s spokeswoman Farrah Emami today.
Randal Ellis, 19, pleaded guilty yesterday in Orange County Superior Court to five felony counts, including computer access and fraud, false imprisonment by violence and falsely reporting a crime.
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March 28th, 2008 | Posted in Scams | 1 Comment
Facebook has about 67,000 million members. With the new “People You May Know” feature, the number of connections per member will skyrocket, extending the reach and stickiness of Facebook’s social graph.
People You May Know finds people within six degrees or so of separation and suggests them as potential friends. It appears that the threshold is set at four, meaning you are connected to four of the same people as the suggested “friend.” FriendFeed has taken a somewhat similar approach for recommending new people to “follow.”
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March 27th, 2008 | Posted in Facebook | No Comments
Google announced this evening the immediate availability of a new video statistics package free for anyone with a YouTube account. The software, called Insight, gives users access to a range of statistics about the videos they upload to the site, such as where viewers are from, how often viewers in specific geographic regions viewed a video, or how long it took a video to become popular.
“Insight gives the creators an inside look into the viewing trends of their videos on YouTube, and helps them to increase views and become more popular,” said YouTube Product Manager Tracy Chan. “Partners can evaluate metrics to better serve and understand their audiences, as well as increase ad revenue. And advertisers can study their metrics and successes to tailor their marketing — both on and off the site — and reach the right viewers.”
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March 27th, 2008 | Posted in You Tube | 1 Comment
The maker of the popular photo-editing software Photoshop on Thursday launched a basic version available for free online. San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe Systems Inc. says it hopes to boost its name recognition among a new generation of consumers who edit, store and share photos online.
Photoshop Express will be completely Web-based so consumers can use it with any type of computer, operating system and browser. And, once they register, users can get to their accounts from different computers.
Web-based software is increasingly popular, and Adobe knows it’s got to get on that train, said Kathleen Maher, an analyst at Jon Peddie Research.
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March 27th, 2008 | Posted in Software | No Comments
