Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Wednesday News Feed

Internet has a trash problem, researcher says
April 1, 2008 (IDG News Service) Between 1% and 3% of all traffic on the Internet is meaningless packets of information, used in distributed denial of service attacks (DDOS) to knock Web sites offline.





A Peek at ISP DDOS, Spam Traffic Trends - 4/1/2008 5:50:00 PM An average of 1,300 distributed denial-of-service attacks hit each day, according to data from Arbor Networks's ISP customers





FaceTime security product scans Skype's encrypted IM The only product allowed to look at encrypted instant messages between Skype users detects harmful URLs. Read more...





Microsoft joins MIT's Kerberos Consortium
It's about time - Microsoft has been using Kerberos since Windows 2000.





Linux ignored, not immune, says hacker contest sponsor





'Fight Club' Aims to Test Pornography Filters - 4/1/2008 11:30:00 AM Last year, it proved that antivirus products don't stop all viruses. Now Untangle prepares to show how much porn can escape 'safe' content filters





5 reasons to ditch the Mac and return to PCs
computerworld.com — Productivity gains, compatibility issues drive a CTO (and Mac fan) to switch to Windows at his company.........More… (Apple)





Council of Europe, ISPs Draft Anti-Cybercrime Guide
A set of guidelines to help European ISPs and law enforcement cooperate on cybercrime investigations is almost done. 01-Apr-2008







Olympics Committee Calls On China to Open Internet During Games
The Internet must be open during the Beijing Olympics. That was the message a top-ranking International Olympic Committee official delivered Tuesday to Beijing organizers during the first of three days of meetings - the last official sessions between IOC inspectors and the Chinese hosts before the games begin in just over four months. Beijing routinely blocks Chinese access to some foreign news Web sites and blogs, a practice it has stepped up since rioting broke out over two weeks ago in Tibet. Kevan Gosper, vice chairman of the IOC coordinating commission, said restricting access to the Internet during the games "would reflect very poorly" on the host nation.
IOC Tells Beijing: Don't Block Internet, Associated Press, April 1, 2008.
Posted by EPIC on April 01, 2008.Permanent link to this item.







Competitive intelligence gathering via LinkedIn's new Company Profile pages






Outsourcing Passports
The U.S. is outsourcing the manufacture of its RFID passports to some questionable companies.
This is a great illustration of the maxim "security trade-offs are often made for non-security reasons." I can imagine the manager in charge: "Yes, it's insecure. But think of the savings!"
The Government Printing Office's decision to export the work has proved lucrative, allowing the agency to book more than $100 million in recent profits by charging the State Department more money for blank passports than it actually costs to make them, according to interviews with federal officials and documents obtained by The Times.
Another story.
Posted on April 02, 2008 at 06:08 AM6 Comments
View Blog Reactions






Macrovision InstallShield InstallScript One-Click Install ActiveX Control Code Execution






Flashing-image attack targets epilepticsNews Brief, 2008-03-31Vandals seed an epilepsy-community forum with an attack that redirects visitors to a site with a flashing image, triggering seizures in some victims.





Researchers dive into memory dumpsNews Brief, 2008-03-31Armed with a USB thumb drive or an iPod, an attacker can grab passwords from the physical memory of untended computers.







Comcast Shift a Nod to Political, Competitive Realities
Comcast's decision to cooperate with peer-to-peer (P2P) platform provider BitTorrent is a surprise that has the potential to shift the political debate and alter the technical landscape. Early reaction pointed to two possible reasons the cable operator did an about face. Some commentators said that the company is cutting its losses and seeking a graceful way out of a sticky situation. Others — and the groups are not mutually exclusive — feel that Comcast saw the issue as a competitive loser against Verizon, which already has said that it will work to allow P2P traffic to move more smoothly over its FiOS network. For whatever reason, this week, Comcast said that it will treat P2P the same as other protocols.





'Clear' Lanes Designed To Make Travelers Go Through Security Lanes FasterAt first, Oakland International Airport officials were skeptical of the new program that promised travelers a quick trip through security checkpoints. The checkpoints, they argued, didn't get that backed up. On Thursday morning's opening, those same officials were praising the Oakland arrival of Clear, the largest of three private companies that provide what amounts to a fast-track service for airport security. What are they saying about this program?





Study gives insight into iPhone usersIn recent online survey, a quarter of respondents say the Apple device is displacing a notebook computer.
Tue, Apr 01 21:03:00 PDT 2008 Read full story





Google does April Fools': 'Custom time' and a Mars trip





Microsoft's Office Open XML now an official ISO standard
Microsoft's Office Open XML format has achieved ISO approval after receiving support from 86 percent of the national bodies participating in the vote.
April 01, 2008 - 05:15PM CT - by Ryan Paul

Updated IE Mobile to bring “real Internet” to Windows Mobile
iPhone users are browsing the web in droves, while Windows Mobile users are... not so much. Microsoft hopes to change that with the introduction of a desktop-grade browser into Windows Mobile later this year, though.
April 01, 2008 - 02:50PM CT - by
Jacqui Cheng








Craigslist Ransacking Was To Cover Up Burglary
from the well-that-didn't-work dept
Remember that story last week about someone posting a fake ad on Craigslist, leading to people ransacking a house and taking all sorts of stuff? It turns out that the folks behind the fake ad were simply trying to cover up their own burglary of the house. Apparently, they had stolen some stuff from the garage and figured the best way to hide the theft was to get a ton of other people to steal stuff as well, via the Craigslist ad. Of course, by posting the ad, they made it that much easier to track them down, as police retrieved the IP address and were able to figure out who was responsible. Once again, despite those who tried to "blame" Craigslist, it looks like Craigslist helped the police catch the crooks.





Police Arrest Unsavvy Couple in Fake Craigslist Ad Case






Hannaford tells regulators how breach happened
Dan Kaplan April 01, 2008
Hackers used sophisticated methods to evade detection and place malware on nearly 300 Hannaford Bros. store servers to intercept payment information during the credit card transaction process, the grocery chain told Massachusetts authorities.






New rogue software targeting Mac users
Jim Carr April 01, 2008
Security researchers at Sophos have identified a new trojan targeting the Mac OS X operating system.





PGP Adds Encryption To Windows Mobile Smartphones TechWeb - Tue Apr 1, 2:31 PM ET
PGP Mobile encrypts Windows Mobile-based data automatically, but still allows mobile data to be shared securely with other mobile and desktop users.

No comments: