Teenager allegedly headed international hacking ring, Sophos comments

IT security and control firm Sophos has welcomed news that a teenager from New Zealand, believed to be the brains behind an international cyber gang, has been arrested.

The gang was allegedly responsible for infecting more then one million computers, stealing bank and credit card information, and embezzling more than USD 20 million. It is suspected that the teenager, known only by his cyber moniker 'AKILL' was the head of the gang and began his hacking activity while still at school.


Teenager allegedly headed international hacking ring, Sophos comments

Man sentenced to 20 years in murder of online rival

A 48-year-old man caught up in an internet love triangle was sentenced to 20 years in prison for killing his rival after being dumped by the woman they both competed for.

Thomas Montgomery of Cheektowaga, New York, pleaded guilty in August to the shooting death of 22-year-old Brian Barrett while he sat in a pickup truck shortly after work ended.

Montgomery had passed himself off as an 18-year-old Marine in online chats with a middle-aged West Virginia mother, identified as Mary Sheiler. Never mind that the woman herself posed as an 18-year-old student by using photos of her daughter. When she learned the truth about Montgomery, their online romance cooled and she turned her attention to Barrett.

“When he could no longer get the Sheiler girl, the chats reveal an obsessive desire to make Brian Barrett suffer and to make her suffer,” prosecuting attorney Frank Sedita said.


Man sentenced to 20 years in murder of online rival | The Register

United Airlines exploits tragedy in Brazil

I'm sure you've all heard the tragic story of Tony Harris by now...the son/son-in-law of a loving wife, a soon to be born child, a devoted step-father and his wife... Tony Harris goes to Brazil to play basketball and life takes a tragic turn... But...is United Air Lines hospitable? Sympathetic? NO! instead of giving the grieving step-father...

Digg - United Airlines exploits tragedy in Brazil

Alleged Cisco hacker convicted in Sweden, bewails fate

A 19-year-old from Uppsala, Sweden, has been found guilty on seven counts of unauthorized access to Swedish university servers and research computers. He is also suspected by the FBI of breaking into servers at Cisco Systems and stealing classified source code.

The man, who was no older than 16 when the crimes were committed, was found guilty by the court of appeals on Monday. He will have to pay about $32,000 to three Swedish universities and to the national supercomputer center in Linköping. The man, who had no previous record, was also given a suspended prison sentence.


Alleged Cisco hacker convicted in Sweden, bewails fate

New Trojan In The Wild, Update Your Antivirus Now!

A new day, a new Trojan to infect our computers. This time it’s Troj_Small.Jiu, a Trojan horse which was discovered by security vendor Trend Micro that informed the infection can be installed by other malware or as a standalone file by any user. "This Trojan arrives as a file dropped by other malware. It can be a component bundled with other malware packages.
It can also be downloaded unknowingly by a user when visiting malicious Web sites," Trend Micro wrote in the report.


Update Your Antivirus Now! - Troj_Small.Jiu discovered by Trend Micro - Softpedia

Ballmer talks a big game against Google

Google ain't no thang, according to the confrontational stylings of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. The leading search-turned-services giant poses no real threat to Microsoft, Ballmer said, which is doing fabulously. Ballmer is clearly tired of the big G's shadow, so he turned up the "what, me worry?" attitude in Tokyo this week during the launch of Windows Live Service Microsoft's suite of IM, e-mail, photo sharing, and every other service imaginable—and made a serious effort to play down Google's level of competition.

Ballmer talks a big game against Google

Facebook invites ads into user profiles

Social network Facebook unveiled a new advertising system on Tuesday that will let companies introduce ads into the user pages of its 50 million members, and launch dedicated pages on the site for their brands.

Microsoft Corp took a minority investment in Facebook last month that valued the privately held company at $15 billion, largely on the expectation the social network would soon be able to mine user profiles for valuable ad data.

( OH...Really...humph! )

"It's not about being commercial, it's about being useful," said Quincy Smith, president at CBS Interactive.

( geeez, do you really think everyone's an idiot...right, yer doin' it to be ' useful ' ...barf )

Facebook invites ads into user profiles | Technology | Reuters

Cracking passwords

Passwords
When you type in a password, the computer converts whatever you type into a hash. A hash is a unique algorithmic value that is then stored on your computer (or Web server). "Computers have been designed this way for the last 20 years," said Graham, "so that when hackers break into your computers they can not just easily steal your passwords. All they can steal is that cryptographic information." Typically, passwords are stored in MD4 hash, says Graham.

Security Watch: Cracking passwords - CNET reviews