"Mystery Virus" Pwns Govt. Nets

"Law enforcement computers were struck by a Mystery computer virus Thursday, forcing the FBI and the U.S. Marshals to shut down part of their networks as a precaution.

"The U.S. Marshals confirmed it disconnected from the Justice Department's computers as a protective measure after being hit by the virus; an FBI official said only that that agency was experiencing similar issues and was working on the problem..."

More at Yahoo Tech...

4Chan YouTube Pr0n Flood

"On the same day it was revealed that users of YouTube, the world's largest video-sharing site, were uploading more than 20 hours of video footage every minute, the site was hit by a porn scandal which threatened to bring the service into disrepute. Over the course of 24 hours, the site was flooded with a number of pornographic video clips rumoured to be in the tens of thousands.

"In what is believed to have been a coordinated attack carried out by the infamous 4Chan group of hackers, clips containing nudity and sexual scenes were made available to the sites tens of millions of users. To circumvent the site's normal moderation policy, they were uploaded with titles referencing such favourite children's entertainers as Hannah Montana and the famous American Christian pop boy band duo, the Jonas Brothers. It is believed YouTube's moderation team have been working around the clock since the attack to try and take down the offending items, though the process may take weeks or even months thanks to the site's laissez-faire approach to content uploading, which relies on users flagging content as offensive before it is viewed by official representatives of the company..."

More at The Independent...

Twits Scammed - AGAIN

"Twitter users who thought friends were directing them to a "funny blog" Thursday ended up experiencing something completely different: a phishing scam.

"Twitter was hit by two different rounds of phishing Thursday, as criminals tried to take control of user accounts and then use them as a springboard to attack others.

"Both Twitter and Facebook have been hit with phishing attacks in recent days. `The social networking attacks are becoming increasingly common,` said Jamie De Guerre, chief technology officer with antispam vendor Cloudmark. `Spammers are really moving to attack social networks because of the popularity of the social networks and also because they're not as well defended as most e-mail platforms.`"

From ComputerWorld...

Blackhat SEO Poisons Google Searches - AGAIN

"A new attack that peppers Google search results with malicious links is spreading quickly, the U.S. Computer Emergence Response Team warned on Monday.

"The attack, which has intensified in recent days, can be found on several thousand legitimate Web sites, according to security experts. It targets known flaws in Adobe's software and uses them to install a malicious program on victims' machines, CERT said.

"The program then steals FTP login credentials from victims and uses that information to spread further. It also hijacks the victim's browser, replacing Google search results with links chosen by the attackers..."

From ComputerWorld...

GARTNER SEZ: Screw Vista

"IT analyst firm Gartner has told businesses to skip Vista and prepare to roll out Windows 7.

"Companies have traditionally been advised to wait until the first Service Pack of an operating system arrives before considering migration.

"However, Gartner is urging organisations that aren't already midway through Vista deployments to give the much-maligned operating system a miss.

"`Skip Vista and target Windows 7,` Gartner analysts Michael Silver and Stephen Kleynhans advise in a research paper. `Preparing for Vista will require the same amount of effort as preparing for Windows 7, so at this point, targeting Windows 7 would add less than six months to the schedule and would result in a plan that is more politically palatable, better for users, and results in greater longevity.`

"Even businesses that are midway through planning a Vista migration are urged to consider scrapping the deployment..."

More at PC Pro...

New York ATM Customers PWN3D

"A band of brazen thieves ripped off hundreds of New Yorkers by rigging ATMs to steal account and password information from bank customers.

"They used the pilfered info to swipe half a million dollars from their victims' bank accounts - the latest twist in increasingly aggressive identity-theft scams, police said.

"`This crew is sophisticated,` said Deputy Inspector Gregory Antonsen, head of the NYPD's special investigations division. `And they are coming up with new ways to steal your identity every day.`"

More at NY Daily News...

Chinese SPAM Startup Cost: $700

"It's a great deal, if you're a spammer.

"You pay US$700 to use a server in China that lets you send all the spam you like. It's called bulletproof hosting, and to the people who fight spam and cybercrime it's becoming a big problem.

"Cybercriminals use these services not just to host servers, but also to register Internet domain names that they use for spam and online attacks. In a three-month period this year, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham traced more than 22,300 domains, all used to send online pharmaceutical spam, to just six bulletproof computers hosted in China..."

More at The Standard...