Friday, July 9, 2010

Facebook Can Get You Killed


"WHNT NEWS 19 is tracking down new details on a murder-suicide in South Huntsville including information that shows the shooter and victim were friends at one time.

"Alan Brown is the man police say shot and killed another man before taking his own life. A friend of Brown says he leaves behind two children, a teenage son and a young daughter.

"The murder-suicide happened at an apartment off South Memorial Parkway. Witnesses in the area say they heard the two men arguing before hearing gunfire.

"WHNT NEWS 19 has uncovered a string of internet activity that links Brown to Lowhorne. It's on the social networking site, Facebook. We found postings from April made by Brown on Lowhorne's business page on Facebook. The comments were in a joking nature indicating the two may have been friends.

"There is also a recent picture on Lowhorne's personal Facebook page showing him with Alan Brown's wife, Christine, atop Lookout Mountain. Other postings on the page point to Lowhorne and Christine Brown having a romantic relationship. The page also show just a matter of hours before his death, Lowhorne had just changed his status on Facebook to `in a relationship.`

"WHNT NEWS 19 spoke with one of Brown's friends. Adrienne Griggs said Alan Brown, Christine Brown, and Ben Lowhorne were indeed friends. She also says her friend never showed he had the ability to kill anyone. The same friend believes something set Brown off.

"`I just couldn't see him doing anything like this. He was an extremely nice person,` said Griggs."


From WHNT News...

Microsoft: Sleeping With The Enemy... Again


"Microsoft has signed a deal to open its Windows 7 source code up to the Russian intelligence services.

"Russian publication Vedomosti reported on Wednesday that Microsoft had also given the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) access to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft SQL Server source code, with hopes of improving Microsoft sales to the Russian state.

"The agreement will allow state bodies to study the source code and develop cryptography for the Microsoft products through the Science-Technical Centre 'Atlas', a government body controlled by the Ministry of Communications and Press, according to Vedomosti."


More at ZDNet UK...

Monday, July 5, 2010

IT Contractor Of The Month


"A former IT worker for the Bank of New York has admitted to stealing personal information of 2,000 employees and using it to steal more than $1m from charity bank accounts, city prosecutors said.

"Adeniyi Adeyemi, 27, used his position as a contract computer technician at the bank's headquarters to steal the personal identifying information of 2,000 employees, most of whom worked in the IT department. Over an eight-year span, he used the information to set up dummy bank accounts in the employees' names and then transfer stolen funds from at least 11 charities throughout the world.

"Adeyemi used publicly available routing numbers for the charities to initiate wire transfers through financial sites such as ETrade and Fidelity and deposit them into the dummy accounts. To better cover his tracks, he then transferred the funds to a second layer of dummy accounts, according to a press release issued by the New York City District Attorney."


From The Register...