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Security

Submission + - $9 million ATM hacking ring busted (threatpost.com) 1

Submitted by Trailrunner7
Trailrunner7 writes: U.S. and international prosecutors have taken down a criminal ring that they allege was responsible for an ATM scam last year that stole about $9 million from RBS WorldPay. The criminals were able to evade the company's encryption system used on payroll debit cards and withdraw money from ATMs in 280 cities around the world. A federal grand jury in Atlanta has indicted eight men in connection with the scheme, including five Estonians, one Russian, one Moldovan and one unidentified man. Prosecutors allege that the men "used sophisticated hacking techniques" to defeat the company's encryption system. The scam, which hit RBS WorldPay last November, involved an elaborate plan in which the attackers first bypassed the encryption on the debit cards, which RBS WorldPay issues to customers for employee payroll purposes. They then raised the limits on the accounts attached to the cards.
Wireless Networking

Submission + - Tracking people using bluetooth. (bluetoothtracking.org)

Submitted by
damdam
damdam writes: "A Dutch guy seems to have set up a small network of bluetooth scanners in his town of Apeldoorn scanning for bluetooth devices. He has all the information logged to a central database and you can search it over the web. On his website it says "Some of these matches were only minutes apart. Therefore I could even calculate the approximate speed of someone moving from one location to another.". There are also some interesting statistics on his site showing traffic volume in his hometown (based on bluetooth signals) and he even lists popularity of certain Nokia phones. It's interesting to see how much information an individual can gather using old equipment. I just noticed this guy is the same guy as the one running the wired house on Icepick.com. Seems like tracking people is his thing."
Debian

Submission + - Debian refuses to push timezone update for NZ DST (debian.org)

Submitted by Jasper Bryant-Greene
Jasper Bryant-Greene writes: Although a tzdata release which includes New Zealand's recent DST changes (2007f) has been out for some time, Debian are refusing to push the update from testing into the current stable distribution, codenamed Etch, on the basis that "it's not a security bug". This means that unless New Zealand sysadmins install the package manually, pull the package from testing, or alter the timezone to "GMT-13" manually, all systems running Debian Etch in New Zealand currently have the incorrect time, as DST went into effect this morning. As the last comment in the bug report says, "even Microsoft are not this silly".
Microsoft

Submission + - Trouble with Microsoft's Genuine Office Validation (networkworld.com)

Submitted by Julie188
Julie188 writes: Here's another little gotcha with Microsoft license validation, discovered by security and PowerShell expert Tyson Kopczynski. The Microsoft Office 2007 add-on site refuses to download legitimate add-ons for Office 2007 when a legitimate — but not yet activated — additional Microsoft product is installed on the computer. In Kopczynski's case, the product was Visio. He writes: "Let's back this license train up and look at why this picture is wrong: 1. I have a valid copy of Office 2007. 2. The Visio installation only failed the validation because I haven't activated it. 3. Microsoft has presented me with a page to buy Office, which I have a valid copy of. ... Dear Microsoft, When used incorrectly and in direct conflict of something that you are promoting, DRM sucks! By making the usage of your software a hassle, you risk further pushing more users of your applications to other solutions."
Media

Copyright Alliance Says Fair Use Not a Consumer Right 504

Posted by CowboyNeal from the no-rights-make-a-wrong dept.
KingSkippus writes "In response to a complaint to the FCC filed by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) to change copyright warnings before movies and sporting events, Executive Director Patrick Ross of the Copyright Alliance tells us in an editorial that 'fair use is not a consumer right.' The Copyright Alliance is backed by such heavy-hitters as the MPAA, RIAA, Disney, Business Software Alliance, and perhaps most interestingly, Microsoft, who is also backing the CCIA's complaint."
Windows

Mark Russinovich On Vista Network Slowdown 423

Posted by kdawson from the nuts-and-bolts dept.
koro666 writes "In his latest blog post, Mark Russinovich analyzes the network slowdown experienced by some users when playing multimedia content. 'Tests of MMCSS during Vista development showed that... heavy network traffic can cause enough long-running DPCs to prevent playback threads from keeping up with their media streaming requirements, resulting in glitching. MMCSS' glitch-resistant mechanisms were therefore extended to include throttling of network activity. It does so by issuing a command to the NDIS device driver... [to] pass along, at most 10 packets per millisecond (10,000 packets per second)... [T]he networking team is actively working with the MMCSS team on a fix that allows for not so dramatically penalizing network traffic, while still delivering a glitch-resistant experience.'"
Book Reviews

PCI Compliance 115

Posted by samzenpus from the read-all-about-it dept.
Ben Rothke writes "It has long been rumored that manufacturers of items such as razors and batteries specifically produce their products to an inferior level in order to ensure repeat business. A similar paradox is occurring in the information security space where many are complaining that the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is too complex and costly. What is most troubling is that such opinions are being written in periodicals and by people that should know better." Read on for the rest of Ben's review.
United States

Torrentspy Disables Searching For US IPs 277

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the everyones-favorite-pariah dept.
dr_strang writes "Torrent indexing site Torrentspy.com appears to have disabled torrent searches for IPs that originate in the United States. Instead of a results page, users are directed to this page, which states: 'Torrentspy Acts to Protect Privacy. Sorry, but because you are located in the USA you cannot use the search features of the Torrentspy.com website. Torrentspy's decision to stop accepting US visitors was NOT compelled by any Court but rather an uncertain legal climate in the US regarding user privacy and an apparent tension between US and European Union privacy laws."
Security

Submission + - Storm botnet spams Youtube exploit (blogspot.com)

Submitted by cottagetrees
cottagetrees writes: Security researcher Roger Thompson at Exploit Prevention Labs posted about a big Storm botnet spam that tells the recipient their face is all over 'net on a YouTube video. The hyperlink to the video looks innocent enough, though the html under the link takes the user to an exploitive IP address that attempts a driveby download of the Q4Rollup exploit, a package of about a dozen encrypted exploits. If the user is unpatched against anything, they're hit. Here's the text of the spam I personally received this morning: "Subject: Who is that your with? lol Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2007 09:40:32 -0400 From: To: OMG, what are you doing man. This video of you is all over the net. here is the link I got http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAqQ2G671GV (in the html email, the actual hyperlink is to a different address, which I confirmed was exploitive by pasting it into LinkScanner Online at http://linkscanner.explabs.com/linkscanner/default .asp I test all my suspicious hyperlinks here.)
Privacy

Submission + - Skype-Linux reads /etc/passwd and firefox profile! (skype.com)

Submitted by
mrcgran
mrcgran writes: "Users of Skype for Linux have just found out that it reads the files /etc/passwd, firefox profile, plugins, addons, etc, and many other unnecessary files in /etc. This fact was originally discovered by using AppArmor, but others have confirmed this fact using strace on versions 1.4.0.94 and 1.4.0.99. What is going on? This probably shows how important it is to use AppArmor in any closed-source application in Linux to restrict any undue access to your files."
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - Teen hacks $84 million porn filter in 30 minutes

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Tom Wood, a Year 10 Australian student has cracked the federal government's $84-million Internet porn filter in just 30 minutes. He can deactivate the filter in several clicks in such a way that the software's icon is not deleted which will make his parents believe the filter is still working. Tom says it is a matter of time before some computer-savvy kid puts the bypass on the Internet for others to use.
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Via Unveils 1-Watt x86 CPU

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: Taiwanese chip and board vendor Via Technologies has introduced a new ultra-low voltage (ULV) processor aimed at industrial, commercial, and ultra-mobile applications. Touted as the world's most power-efficient x86-compatible CPU, the 500MHz 'Eden ULV 500' processor debuted at an Embedded Systems Conference in Taipei this week. Via says its chip draws a minimum of 0.1 Watts, when idle, and a maximum of 1 Watt, making it a great candidate for consumer electronics devices such as UMPCs, PVRs, and such.

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My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells down by the seashore.

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