One Group Responsible for Majority of Phishing Attacks

One criminal operation has been responsible for 66 percent of phishing attacks throughout the world, according to a report released by the Anti-Phishing Working Group.

The Avalanche gang, which allegedly grew out of a previously active cyber gang, was responsible for 2/3rds of phishing attacks and a 2 fold increase in crime.

“Avalanche uses the Rock’s techniques but improved upon them, introducing greater volume and sophistication,” the report states.

The gang…

Coder Makes Twitter Botnet Construction Easier

A security researcher has uncovered a new tool that makes construction of a botnet using Twitter significantly easier. The new tool called TwitterNet Builder “offers script kiddies a point-type-and-click interface that forces infected PCs to take commands from a Twitter account under the control of attackers,” according to The Register. “At the tail end of last year, Botnets controlled by Twitter accounts started to make the …

Neo Revealed: Latvian Hacker Unmasked

Police in Latvia have discovered the identity of a computer science researcher who hacked into the national tax office and exposed the pay data of public officials.

Ilmars Poikans, an artificial intelligence researcher at the University of Latvia, called himself Neo during his whistleblower campaign where he utilized Twitter to spread information on how extensive some government salaries were during a time of severe austerity.

Police took Poikans into custody on…

Pentagon Confirms Military Action Possible Following Cyber Attack

The U.S. military might not ever have clear guidelines on when and how to respond in the event of a cyber attack, a senior DoD said earlier this week.

James Miller, the principal deputy undersecretary of defense, said that the U.S. military was currently exploring a variety of scenarios involving cyber attacks.

“I do not think we’re going to have…

Featured Job- Senior Scientist, Cyber Security with SAIC

SAIC’s Advanced Systems & Concepts Division is continuing to expand its Research and Development (R&D) and Test and Evaluation (T&E) efforts in cyber security with an emphasis on network security and has an opening for a Senior Scientist with expertise in this area. This is a high-energy position requiring the ability to lead innovative research into emerging challenges in cyber security and…

Man Pleads Guilty to Selling Bogus Cancer Drug Online

A 22-year-old Canadian man on Tuesday pleaded guilty in Phoenix, Ariz., to selling a counterfeit cancer drug using the Internet.

Hazim Gaber was indicted by a federal grand jury last year on five counts of wire fraud for selling counterfeit cancer drugs through the website DCAdvice.com. At Tuesday’s plea hearing, Gaber admitted selling what he falsely…

2010 Sees Upswing in Arrests, Prosecution of Cyber Criminals

F-Secure yesterday released the first part of its 2010 security review, which notes a significant success in arresting and prosecuting cyber criminals around the world, a development the company hopes will be a permanent move for law enforcement to identify, seize and prosecute cyber criminals.

Before the Internet, drug trafficking, money laundering and smuggling were considered international crimes without borders. Although those problems still exist, the element of Internet…

Cyber Plan to Touch e-Health

The White House wants to make online commerce more secure, according to White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt. During a conference hosted by the Health and Human Service Department’s Office of Civil Rights and National Institute for Standards and Technology, Schmidt said the White House is looking to develop a strategy to…

Das Internet ist Kaputt: German Internet Disrupted

Significant portions of the German Internet were unavailable yesterday for over an hour, following a mistake by the DENIC, which administers the .de domain. According to some reports, all 13.6 million .de domains were impacted by the interruption, though other reports say the number of affected domains was smaller.

Email and websites were disrupted from 1:30 pm to 2:50 pm, German time. The problem was likely occurred when DENIC uploaded…

German Court Wants Civilian Help to Stop Hackers

Internet users in Germany can now be fined up to euro100 ($126) if a third party uses their unprotected network to illegally download data, a German court in Karlsruhe ruled Wednesday. The highest German court has ruled that Internet users need to secure their WLAN connections by installing password protection to keep cyber miscreants from illegally downloading data such…