Mass. Attorney General Bans Internet Cafe Gambling

Massachusetts attorney general office filed emergency regulations Wednesday declaring illegal gambling at cyber cafes and “phone-card” videogaming terminals statewide, The Telegram reported.

According to the attorney general office, establishments such as cyber cafes sell Internet time or phone cards as a pretext for criminal online gambling. Customers at cyber cafes pay to gamble on a computer, usually playing a video slot machine or similar game….

DOJ Awards Contract to General Dynamics

The Justice Department awarded General Dynamics with a contract worth $1.1 billion. The terms of the seven-year contract, under the department’s Information Technology Support Services 4 program, requires General Dynamics to provide systems development lifecycle support for the DOJ’s IT systems and equipment.

Senior VP of General Dynamics IT Civilian and Homeland Security Solutions…

Russian Prez Assails Hackers for Blog Disruption

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev yesterday urged authorities to investigate a cyber attack that took his blog offline for at least an hour on Wednesday.

News reports said Medvedev’s blog was hit by a denial-of-service attack on LiveJournal, a hosting website popular with government critics in Russia.

“I have received many appeals in connection with the … attacks on LiveJournal,” Reuters said Medvedev wrote in his blog….

No Furlough for DHS Cybersecurity Staff amid Possible Government Shutdown

Amid concerns and the likelihood of a government shutdown, Homeland Security officials told Nextgov those who perform cybersecurity functions will not be furloughed if the shutdown happens. The lack of a budget deal by midnight tonight increases the chances of a government shutdown and would affect government agencies nationwide.

With the clock ticking closer…

TJ Maxx Hacker Claims Government OK’d His Crimes

Albert Gonzalez, the hacker who pulled off what prosecutors called an unparalleled credit card heist, is asking a federal judge to dismiss his earlier guilty pleas and reduce his 20-year prison sentence, alleging the government green-lighted his criminal activities, Wired reported.

Gonzalez, who according to the indictment used…

Scotland Yard Wants More Authority to Crack Down on Hackers

Cyber police need the authority to crack down on hackers who cost the United Kingdom billions, the director of Scotland Yard’s cyber unit said yesterday, according to the online edition of The Daily Mirror.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Janet Williams said cyber crooks can target a bank before “jumping” ­countries, by switching…

Northrop Grumman Awards Scholarships to CyberPatriot Winners

Northrop Grumman last week presented $54,000 in scholarships to 36 students at the Air Force Association’s CyberPatriot National Finals Competition.

Each of the winners, part of the CyberPatriot program, received a portion of the total amount with first place winners awarded $2,000 each, second place winners awarded $1,500 and third-place winners receiving…

Not Your Usual Hacker: Elderly Woman Inadvertently Cuts Off Internet Service for Entire Nation

Apparently Bingo was too boring for this grandma. A 75-year-old woman in the former Soviet Georgia is in trouble with the law after she allegedly cut off Internet service to neighboring Armenia by severing fiber-optic cables with a shovel, AFP reported.

Internet service for Armenia was down for hours March 28 after the fiber-optic cables were severed. A Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman said the senior citizen…

Epsilon Data Breach Could Net Increased Phishing Victims

The Better Business Bureau is warning businesses and consumers to be cautions of potentially malicious emails stemming from what some security experts consider as one of the biggest data breaches in U.S. history.

Epsilon’s parent company Alliance Data Systems Corporation yesterday reaffirmed that no personal identifiable information was compromised, …

Australian Public Transport Site Back Up after Cyber Attack

The Adelaide mass transit website has been restored after it was taken offline following an attack by hackers, according to Australian news siter City Messenger.

The Transport Department issued a statement that said customer names, email addresses and contact numbers were not believed to have been compromised. An older version of the site had been restored while the attack was investigated, however, that site seemed to be…