El Paso School District Website Pwned

A hacker identifying himself as TheSlayer compromised the El Paso Independent School District website late Tuesday night, causing the site to go off-line for 12 hours.

El Paso Times reported the culprit posted “a vulgar” animated picture and a message on the district’s homepage saying “Owned by TheSlayer.”

Officials said someone hacked into one of the district servers late Tuesday night and compromised the site for approximately a half-hour. As…

Embattled Designer John Galliano Wins Cyber-squatting Case

Designer John Galliano, who was recently fired by fashion house Christian Dior for alleged anti-Semitic remarks, won a cyber-squatting case yesterday.

An arbitrator ruled Galliano had trademark rights to his internationally recognized name and ordered the disputed galliano.fr to be transferred to him within 10 days, Reuters said.

“It is obvious that the defending party wanted to take advantage of the fame…

UK Minister: More Must be Done to Stop ISPs from Email Snooping

U.K. ministers must do more to hinder Internet service providers from snooping on private emails without prior permission, a former cybersecurity minister said.

In the United Kingdom, some ISPs have implemented software that intercepts and scans emails to target ads. Although consent is required, former Labour Minister Lord Alan West says…

NIST Seeks Input on Overhauled Catalog for Federal Information Systems

The National Institute of Standards and Technology is seeking comments from the public on its biennial update of the catalog of security controls for the federal government, which provides a series of management, operational and protective measures that can be used by federal agencies to help protect their information systems.

The publication in question is Recommended…

Telcordia Opens Regional Maryland Offices

Telcordia has announced the opening of two regional offices in Maryland to better serve its growing government business and to further solidify the firm’s presence in the state.

A new office in Aberdeen, Md., will allow Telcordia to deliver a deeper scope of tactical and strategic communications support for…

Man Spends 200K on Fake Online Girlfriend

Police in Illinois said a man “was in disbelief” when officers told him the online girlfriend he had had a 2.5-year online relationship with was not a real person, according to media reports.

Chicago Sun-Times reports the 48-year-old man called investigators Wednesday to say he believed the woman, to whom he had wired $200,000, had been kidnapped in London.

The man told police he had wired money…

DHS Seeks Cyber Warrior Interns

Every summer, high school and college students flock to the nation’s capital to advance their forthcoming careers by interning at nonprofits, federal agencies and news outlets. For aspiring cyber warriors desiring a career in government, the options have been few — until now.

The National Protection and Programs Directorate, part of the Department of Homeland…

Illinois Woman Gets 5 Years’ Probation for Unlawful Computer Access

A 43-year-old woman from Illinois has been sentenced to five years’ probation for illegally accessing a protected computer used by the Better Business Bureau.

In addition to probation, the Chicago Office of the FBI announced Theresa L. Glass of Belvidere, Ill., admitted to accessing a BBB computer located in Centerville, Utah, without authorization. The computer she accessed was used in and affected interstate commerce.

Glass, a former…

Former Trader Gets Prison Time for Stealing Bank Secrets, Computer Code

A former trader at Société Générale has been sentenced to 36 months in prison for stealing proprietary computer code, the FBI’s New York Field Office announced.

According to court documents, Samarth Agrawal worked at SocGen’s New York offices, first as a quantitative analyst and then as a trader in SocGen’s High Frequency Trading Group. He was caught on surveillance cameras stashing printouts of…

Intel Finalizes McAfee Purchase

Intel Corporation yesterday announced the acquisition of McAfee, Inc. has been completed.

McAfee will continue developing and selling security products and services under its own brand. The firms plan to bring the first results of their strategic partnership to market later this year, with the intent of tackling security and the…