Fashionista Hacker Pays $12,5K to Settle Conde Nast Copyright Claim

An Ohio man has given the term black hat new meaning: According to The Smoking Gun reports, fashion-obsessed Ross Ulrich hacked into a Condé Nast computer system to snatch photos and pages from several upcoming issues of fashion magazines to later post them on his blog FashionZag.

The 22-year-old graphic design student said he fessed up to his crimes as agents executed a search warrant at his family’s Columbus…

Spamhaus Suffers Possible Revenge DoS Attack

Anti-spam nonprofit Spamhaus has recovered from a denial of service attack over the weekend, but the cyber whodunit was not linked to WikiLeaks supporters as initially believed, according to The Register.

Speculation was that Spamhaus may have been attacked in response to its warning that a WikiLeaks mirror called WikiLeaks.info was being hosted by a Russian bullet-proof hosting outfit Webalta, which also housed phishing, carding and malware…

Fannie Mae UNIX Engineer Gets 41 Months for Planting Logic Bomb

Computer programmer Rajendrasinh Babubhai Makwana was last week sentenced to 41 months in prison for planting a logic bomb on Fannie Mae’s computer servers.

Montgomery County, Md., resident Makwana was a contractor working at Fannie Mae’s Urbana facility from 2006 to 2008. A UNIX engineer, he worked on the organization’s network of nearly 5,000 computer servers.

According to testimony and evidence presented at trial, Makwana was fired…

Phishers Use UPS, FedEx as Bait to Hook Consumers

Consumers have reported receiving emails claiming to be from UPS and FedEx, warning them that a package went undelivered and asking for information, WalletPop reports.

“While the rest of us are pulling the decorations out of the attic, scammers are blowing the dust off of their tried and true holiday scams,” said Edward Johnson, BBB President and CEO, in a statement. “We can all help…

Disgruntled Neighbor-turned-Hacker Admits Email Threats to Joe Biden

A Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to hacking into his neighbors’ Wi-Fi to send a threatening email to Vice President Joe Biden.

Barry Ardolf stopped his trial to plead guilty to two counts of aggravated identity theft, possession and transmission of child pornography, unauthorized access to a protected computer and making threats to the vice president, according to TwinCities.com.

The Associated Press reported that in…

Retail Marketer Genesco Inc. Suffers Cyber Attack

Genesco Inc., a wholesale and retail marketer of footwear, headwear and accessories, said today it had suffered a cyber attack on its system that processes payment card transactions for its United States Journeys, Journeys Kidz, Shi by Journeys, Johnston & Murphy, and Underground Station stores.

Although the extent of the compromise is currently unknown, Genesco CEO Robert J. Dennis said in a statement he does not…

Hacker Ring Busted in Romania

Romanian authorities have uncovered a cyber-crime network blamed for causing more than 13.5 million dollars in losses to firms in the United States, Britain, South Africa, Italy and Romania, AFP reports.

Police arrested 42 people and took them into custody Tuesday while several computers and hard disks were seized, according to a statement from the prosecutor’s office.

Ring members allegedly stole confidential Voice over IP…

Prison Time for Man Peddling Bootleg Copies of Anti-Virus Software, DVDs

A 55-year-old California man was sentenced yesterday to four years in prison for selling counterfeit anti-virus software, DVDs and CDs.

Julius Chow Lieh Liu of El Cerrito was convicted by a federal grand jury in June for criminal copyright infringement and trafficking in counterfeit labels. During the trial, evidence showed he had engaged through his company, SuperDVD, in the large-scale infringement of thousands of copies of…

$4 Million Price Tag to Clean Up after OSU Hacker Attack

It can be costly to clean up after a security breach, just ask Ohio State University. After hackers broke into a school server that housed students’ names, Social Security numbers and other personal data, officials spent $4 million to pay for the forensic investigation and credit-protection services for those affected by the compromise.

In October, the university discovered a hacker had logged into an Ohio State…

Inquisitive Spammer Fills up Inboxes with Phishing Campaign

A new phishing campaign may be harder to detect than ever, with its personal appeal and reference to several popular search terms.

According to AllSpammedUp.com, the emails have just enough sense of legitimacy they could trick potential victims to respond. The message appears to be from a person doing research on a popular website, application, or other Internet trend.

In the email, the scammer indicates they came across the user’s…