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Saturday, 4 February 2006
Software Piracy Plot Nabs 19
Mood:  energetic
Topic: Make Money with Your Blog
A federal grand jury in Chicago on Tuesday returned an indictment on 19 people that they used the Internet to pirate more than $6.5 million of copyrighted movies, software, and games. Title stolen include "The Incredibles," "The Aviator," and "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005."



The defendants belonged to a "warez" group called "RISCISCO," founded in 1993. Warez groups seek to use the internet to illegally distribute copyrighted software.

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Each was charged with conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, which carries a 5-year sentence. Three were also charged with copyright infringement, which carries a 3-year sentence. Each defendant worked in a high-tech job.



The reason we mention this headline is that some of our readers may be tempted by warez announcements of riches, or may be duped into buying (for resell) illegally distributed works off of auction sites. We want to protect you. The simplest advice is this: if the deal on an online auction looks to good to be true (e.g., selling a book for a dollar that you know retails for $20), treat it with caution. Usually, the dollar book has a hefty shipping fee.

CIAO for now,
Randy

Posted by Randy at 3:41 PM MNT
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Thursday, 2 February 2006
Gimme Your Hot Kama Sutra Love
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
As the Kama Sutra Worm is scheduled to dump its load tomorrow, please make sure your security is up to date. John Sith, of SecurityProNews, reports that people with the incorrect date on their computers may have already been affected. He also states that the worm lives on 30,000 computers in Turkey, Peru, and India. He also mentions that the worm will hit all of your hard drives.



In a related development, 19,000 of current and former Honeywell employees had personal information posted on the internet. Fortunately, the web page was immediately removed, and measures are being taken to ensure that it does not come back.

So please be careful out there. Drop us a line if you have any additional internet safety tips!

CIAO for now,
Randy

Posted by Randy at 10:52 PM MNT
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Wednesday, 1 February 2006
Better Blog Policies??
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
"Microsoft Outlines Blog Policy

Under the new rules, Microsoft will remove access to blog content only when it receives a government-issued, legally binding notice indicating that the material violates local laws. This framework comes after Microsoft was criticized for removing the blog content of an outspoken Chinese journalist
. " Information Week 1/31/06



Brad Smith, general counsel and senior vice president for Microsoft, called for a broad international dialogue to establish a set of principles for Internet companies with blogging services in different regions of the world.



Brad told government officials and other leaders at a Microsoft conference in Portugal that Microsoft is committed to the sharing of information and ideas through blogs. He said the new policy is a guide for dealing with government orders. He said, "We believe we have a set of principles that ensure we comply with all of our legal obligations in China and other countries and ensure we are consistent with the broad principles that the Internet creates and people's desire for free expression."



Microsoft is not alone in when it comes to helping other governments control their media. In September, Yahoo gave information about journalist Shi Tao's personal email account to Beijing. They, in turn, charged him with divulging state secrets. He was sentenced to 10 years in jail.



Microsoft reports some 3 million people in China are using MSN spaces to create blogs which are being read by some 15 million chinese citizens. MSN Spaces is the only blog provider covered by this new policy.



For those of us in countries where there is no government monopoly on information, let us be thankful and continue to contribute to the free flow of ideas and oppose any legislation that seeks to hinder that. Also, let us keep the Chinese people in our prayers. Maybe MSN's move will help them obtain some measure of freedom of speech.



To help keep your own searches private from government busibodies, here are four suggestions:

1) Delete your history - Tools, Internet Options, Clear History in Internet Explorer; Tools, Options, Privacy in Firefox

2) Empty your cache - Tools, Internet Options, Delete Files in Internet Explorer; Tools, Options, Privacy in Firefox

3) Use an anonymous surfing tool - This prevents sites from seeing where you are accessing them from

4) Be careful where you surf - Don't surf any site you wouldn't wwant others to know you visited



CIAO for now,
Randy




Sources: The Austalian, February 2, 2006; The Seattle Times February 1, 2006; TechWeb January 4, 2006;
Techweb Febraury 1, 2006;

Posted by Randy at 6:38 PM MNT
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How to get to the Top of Social Bookmarking Sites
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
We were just reading Site Pro News and found what it had to say about Darren Rowse's Problogger quite interesting. He got 8,000 hits in one day! That day he was at the top of the social bookmarking site Del.ic.ious, recently acquired by Yahoo. We are going to review his 7-step guide to getting to the top of Del.ic.ious.



1. Make a List
2. Number your List
3. Write a ‘How to…’
4. Make Big Promises and Claims in Your Titles (without being deceptive)
5. Get Technological
6. Inspire
7. Use Humor



These tips could easily be adapted to any other similar social bookmarking site, such as My Web 2.0, Flickr, Furl, Frassle, or Spurl. Who knows? Maybe social bookmarking (the Favorites tab for the 2000's) is the next major traffic generator! In any case, don't pass up any opportunity that could lead to more traffic, readers, and sales.

CIAO for now,
Randy

Posted by Randy at 12:21 AM MNT
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Monday, 30 January 2006
The Nyxem-D Worm
Mood:  quizzical
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
The experts at Sophos have issued a warning for all email users. The Nymex-D worm allegedly poses as pictures of the Kama Sutra, and is set to be launched on this Friday, February 3.

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Beware of any unsolicited email that claims to contain sex movies and/or obscene pictures. The worm's aim is to disable sexurity software, such as anti-virus or firewalls, and tries to collect email addresses in order to send itself to others.



Subject lines used in these badmails include the following (edited for family-friendliness):

*Hot Movie*
Arab sex DSC-00465.jpg
Kama Sutra pics
Fw: SeX.mpg
Fwd: Crazy illegal Sex!
give me a kiss
Miss Lebanon 2006
Part 1 of 6 Video clipe
School girl fantasies gone bad
The Best Videoclip Ever



Graham Cluley, senior tech consulatant for Sophos, encourages "safe computing": i.e., don't open an email from someone you don't know and you should refrain from sending and receiving joke files, porn and funny photos and screensavers. He says this is mainly because this particular worm "feeds on people's willingness to receive salacious content on their desktop computer."



Another thing the Nyxem-D worm does is destroy files, replacing the contents with:

DATA Error [47 0F 94 93 F4 K5]

So please beware and follow the safe computing tips outlined by Mr. Cluley and frequently mentioned here.

CIAO for now,
Randy

Tags: Sophos, worm, , Internet, security

Posted by Randy at 6:59 PM MNT
Updated: Monday, 30 January 2006 7:15 PM MNT
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Saturday, 28 January 2006
Spyware Perpetrators Nabbed
Mood:  energetic
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Spyware, spam, and phishing is truly a global problem. Atsushi Takewaka, 31, and Kiichi Hirayama, 41, are accused of stealing Internet bank account passwords. They then used these passwords to take money from online bank accounts.



The pair took the banking password of a jewelry store in Kawasaki. They stole Y 216,000 ($1,865) from the account. Police report they had other illegal activities wherein they acquired Y11 million from nine other accounts at Japan Net Bank, Mizuho Bank and eBank Corp during the summer.



According to the police report, Takewaka said, "I created the spyware in about three months using a range of software. I wanted money to live." Hirayama admitted that he sent CD ROMs to companies that, when run on a PC, installs spyware and steals banking information. The duo stole around Y3 million ($25,904) in this way.



"Spyware which steals Internet banking customers is on the increase, so it's essential that everyone ensures they have proper protection in place," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "It's encouraging to see computer crime fighters around the world having more success in catching the perpetrators, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Everyone needs up-to-date anti-virus protection, firewalls and security patches, and ensure they are acting securely when online."


Quotes taken from Security Pro News.

CIAO for now,
Randy

Posted by Randy at 1:02 PM MNT
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Update on Bots
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Here's an update on the bot problem alluded to in a previous post. The number of dangerous bots on the internet increased more than 175 per cent between 2004 and 2005, with more than 10,000 cases of the malware documented by PandaLabs.



Bots are called thus because they can infect your computer and live there without your knowledge. The bots then wait for commands. PandaLabs belives that these bots are now created professionally, in order to secure financial returns for their creators. The results are a great diversity of bots and similar malware programs that are becoming increasingly difficult for protection systems to cope with.



The worst threst from bots comes when they are organized into networks, or botnets, to collectively distribute spam or other malware. As mentioned previously, these botnets are sometimes sold to spammers and blackmailers.



"Botnets are one of the current business tools of cybercrime", said Luis Corrons, director of PandaLabs. "The biggest danger lies in their secrecy: a large company could be serving the interests of a group of malware creators without realising it. Their computers could be at the disposal of these cyber-crooks, and the legal implications that they might create for the company itself."



Information from
Vnu-Net was used in preparing this report.

CIAO for now,
Randy

Posted by Randy at 12:41 PM MNT
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Wednesday, 25 January 2006
Stopbadware.com
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Harvard and Oxford have launched www.stopbadware.com. According to their website, they are organized by Harvard's Berkman Center, Oxford's Internet Institute, and Consumer Web Watch. Their sponsors include Google, Lenovo, and Sun Microsystems.



The initiative is like a "Neighborhood Watch" program for the WWW, seeking to fight badware. Badware are programs that automatically install themselves on your computer without your consent and/or knowledge.



They want to provide objective information on badware and its perpetrators. They also desire to "become a focal point for developing collaborative, community-minded approaches to stopping badware".



The International Herald Tribune indicates such an initiative is necessary because the "spread of noxious code and the ease with which it can be deposited on unsuspecting users' machines has generally outpaced the ability of legislative and regulatory measures to grapple with the problem."

John Stith states the program will work like this:

? You can visit StopBadware.org to see whether programs you want to download have badware and tell others about programs you have come across that include spyware, non-stop pop-ups or other obtrusive programs.

? StopBadware.org will publish short user friendly reports on badware downloads.

? StopBadware.org will list the names of companies that use badware and show how they make money through unethical marketing practices.

? StopBadware.org will get your badware horror stories and publish these stories to raise awareness of badware's affects.

CIAO for now,
Randy

Posted by Randy at 8:06 PM MNT
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The New Prayer Room
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: Wedding
For our Christian readers, we want to announce our new prayer room! Please feel free to post your prayers and petitions so our global prayer team can join you in making your requests known to God. We also have a Gospel store with quality Christian items at reasonable prices. Proceeds benefit global missions.

CIAO for now,
Randy

Posted by Randy at 6:52 PM MNT
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Death of a Zombie Network
Mood:  energetic
Topic: Create + Promote Blogs
Dum - dum - dum - dum - another hacker bites the dust! This certainly seems to be the week for catching and convicting hackers and phishers. First there was the Bulgarian bust and now, in California, 20-year-old hacker Jeanson James Ancheta, has pleaded guilty to a variety of crimes. He will probably be most infamously known for 2 hacks of the US military. He earned about $61,000 from his illegal actions.



He faces 6 years in prison, plus he has to pay the federal governement restitution and return his profits and a 1993 BMW.



The "Zombie Network" he used was a number of Windows machines controlled remotely, without the owners' knowledge or, most likely, consent. Ancheta used these computers to distribute pop-up ads and sold the ads to others.



We advise you to never ever join a "peer network," no matter how attractive the returns might sound. It's just an invite for hackers to come a'knockin.' Go ahead and get some quality anti-virus/anti-spyware such as we regularly showcase here.



CIAO for now,
Randy


Information from SecurityProNews was used for this report.

Posted by Randy at 12:21 AM MNT
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