So…. did The BBC break the law when it bought and implemented a 22,000-strong botnet as part of its Click news reporting? Nick Farrell of IT Examiner reports that Sophos’ Graeme Cluely suggests that they did because the UK Computer Misuse Act makes it an offense in the United Kingdom to access another person’s computer,…
Category: Malware
Stolen-data trove offers look inside a botnet
Jordan Robertson of the Associated Press reports on what researchers from Prevx found on a Ukrainian web site used as to store data from 160,000 infected computers. What they found included data from a Georgia bank that exposed customer details and credentials for the bank’s wire-transfer system, and data from two states’ systems. Read more.
RBS WorldPay statement
In response to my request for a statement, a spokesperson for RBS WorldPay sent this statement: RBS WorldPay received its Payment Card Industry (PCI) Report on Compliance (ROC) in June of 2008 by a qualified assessor. Visa has asked us to obtain a new certification of PCI compliance because of the recent data-security compromise. Visa…
Visa puts Heartland on probation over breach — but what about RBS WorldPay?
Anthony M. Freed of Information Security Resources reports that Visa has put Heartland Payment Systems on probation. As of February 11, 2009 Visa’s Global List of PCI DSS Validated Service Providers had asterisked Heartland Payment Systems as being under review. Heartland is not on the March 12th list. The following quotes from Visa’s announcement are…
USAID.gov compromised, malware and exploits served
Dancho Danchev of ZDnet reportsthat the Azerbaijan section at the United States Agency for International Development (azerbaijan.usaid.gov) has been compromised and is embedded with malware and exploits serving scripts since approximately March 1. He also provides a dissection of the attack. There’s a YouTube video from AVG as well, although it’s either somewhat blurry or…
Bits ‘n Pieces
In the justice system: John Shiefer, the Los Angeles computer security consultant who turned thousands of computers into zombies, was sentenced to four years in prison. More. Four Arizona men accused of spending more than $1 million using stolen credit cards are being held in a Maricopa County jail; they allegedly obtained the card numbers…