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Submission + - Phishing Education Test is blocked...for phishing (blogspot.com)

An anonymous reader writes: From the Sunbelt Software Blog: It appears a website called ismycreditcardstolen.com, designed to "educate users about the dangers of phishing" has itself been flagged by Firefox as a reported web forgery. The site, which asks visitors to enter their credit card details to "see if they've been stolen" takes the hapless visitor to a page warning them about the perils of phishing, giving them advice on how to avoid similar scams and also provides a link to the Anti-Phishing Working Group's website. Or at least it did, until various browsers started blocking it. I've done a little bit of digging, and it looks like one of the creators is taking questions here. As the blog post notes, the project was likely doomed to failure both because of the domain name itself and also because it uses anonymous Whois data, which isn't exactly going to make security people look at it in a positive light. Does anyone out there think this was a good idea? Or will malicious individuals start playing copycat on a public now trained to think sites like this are just "harmless education"?
Security

Submission + - Homer Simpson and the Kimya Botnet

An anonymous reader writes: As all hardcore Simpsons fans know, Chunkylover53@aol.com was revealed to be Homer Simpsons' email address in one particular episode, registered by one of the shows writers, who would reply to fans as Homer himself. After a flood of messages, "Homer" signed off — seemingly forever. Well in the last few days, security company Facetime Communications reports that anyone who had Homer on their AIM buddy list would have noticed his sudden reappearance. Unfortunately for all, he appears to have been hacked and pushing Malware links which deposit those unlucky enough to run the file into a Turkish Botnet. The message claims the file is a "web exclusive" episode of the TV show — an interesting way of targeting a specific group of fans who would assume Homers return would only coincide with something special like (say) a TV episode just for them. What I want to know is, is Homer smart enough to run an AV scan?
Security

Submission + - Security Researcher chases virus maker off the Net

An anonymous reader writes: I just saw a writeup on CNET that that covers the pursuit of a virus writer who created a fake Grand Theft Auto game, crippling PCs by causing them to endlessly reboot. Despite the police apparently not being very interested, a security researcher pursued his man anyway, culminating in a teary eyed "I'm leaving the internet" post from the virus writer himself. Awesome stuff, and one in the eye for the bad guys (for once).

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