Free Republic

As Mozilla and Microsoft executives argue about which browser -- Firefox or Internet Explorer -- is more secure, fans of the former have numbers on their side, a Belgian security consultancy said this week. According to Brussels-based ScanIT, users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) were "unsafe" 98 percent of the time during 2004, while Mozilla users -- which would include those using Mozilla and Firefox -- were "unsafe" only 15 percent of last year. ScanIT determined the unsafe periods by examining the life spans of vulnerabilities in IE, Mozilla, and Opera -- a Norwegian browser that has a nearly...

As Paris Hilton continues as the poster child for smart-phone security, there are now rumblings that cyber-protection at this year's Academy Awards wasn't all that secure. According to The New York Times, three employees of Flexilis, a rather new hi-tech company specializing in applications utilizing Bluetooth WiFi technology, stood on the sidelines as Hollywood's elite made their way down the red carpet and into the Kodak Theatre. Their mission? To determine if anyone's smart phones were vulnerable to hackers. To do this, one of the Flexilis three carried a backpack containing a laptop, scanning software and an antenna. The results?...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Senate committee will hold hearings on identity theft and information brokers following the revelation that a databank with information on millions of people was accessed by criminals, the committee chairman said Thursday. Democrats, including Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Dianne Feinstein of California and Charles Schumer of New York, have been calling for a Judiciary Committee inquiry into whether more regulation of companies such as ChoicePoint Inc. that buy and sell personal data is needed. "I got a letter from Senator Leahy yesterday on identity theft issue and I immediately said we can hold a hearing,"...

Wouldn't you know, a few days after we signed up for T-Mobile service (they had a good deal for our needs), I hear about this Paris Hilton thing. How does someone hack into your stuff? Is it because they access IM and the internet via the phone? We only use ours for emergency phone calls and never for internet or chat purposes. I am just curious as to how this can happen.

A Cheektowaga teenager, a whiz kid on the computer, has been arrested in Los Angeles and accused of bombarding Internet users with more than a million spam e-mails. Not only is the 18-year-old accused of computer hacking and violating federal spam laws, but he allegedly threatened to wreak more havoc on a California Internet company if it didn't give him exclusive marketing rights to its customers, federal authorities said. Anthony Greco, a former Erie Community College student, is accused of creating thousands of accounts on MySpace.com, an online meeting place, and using them to send about 1.5 million unsolicited commercial...

Dear Sir or Madam, I offer you my congratulations. This afternoon, you successfully hacked CollegeConservative.com, changing her majestic home page to your laughable, never-grew-out-of-my-highschool-spike-haired-skateboard-punk-stage, anarchist-wannabe propaganda. I suspect your method was to exploit a widely known security gap within the phpBB2 bulletin board system. Your intellect is impressive. Your power, humbling. My sarcasm, thick and heavy ... not unlike your mother.

A sophisticated computer hacker had access to servers at wireless giant T-Mobile for at least a year, which he used to monitor U.S. Secret Service e-mail, obtain customers' passwords and Social Security numbers, and download candid photos taken by Sidekick users, including Hollywood celebrities, SecurityFocus has learned. Twenty-one year-old Nicolas Jacobsen was quietly charged with the intrusions last October, after a Secret Service informant helped investigators link him to sensitive agency documents that were circulating in underground IRC chat rooms. The informant also produced evidence that Jacobsen was behind an offer to provide T-Mobile customers' personal information to identity thieves...

Hacker Breaches T-Mobile Systems, Reads US Secret Service Email By Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus Published Wednesday 12th January 2005 09:47 GMT A sophisticated computer hacker had access to servers at wireless giant T-Mobile for at least a year, which he used to monitor US Secret Service email, obtain customers' passwords and Social Security numbers, and download candid photos taken by Sidekick users, including Hollywood celebrities, SecurityFocus has learned. Twenty-one year-old Nicolas Jacobsen was quietly charged with the intrusions last October, after a Secret Service informant helped investigators link him to sensitive agency documents that were circulating in underground IRC chat rooms....

  Postpartum Mountains and Molehills December 30, 2004 Watergate step aside...the newshounds over at the Washington Post dug deep for a rapidly breaking story...”Man Bites Dog!”  In a special three-part series, Pregnancy and Homicide/The Unknown Toll, the Post reported the results of its one year investigation into the murder rate of pregnant women.  As reported, “A year-long examination by The Washington Post of death-record data in states across the country documents the killings of 1,367 pregnant women and new mothers since 1990.”  That comes to a grand total of 97.64 murdered pregnant women and new mothers per year. According to the Centers...

Leftists Stealing Votes That Don't (Really) Count? In a matter of only hours, two left wing blogs - Kos and Atrios - went from the bottom of the pack of blogs and suddenly pulled ahead by a pretty fat margin in the Best Overall Blog category in the Wizbang Weblog Awards. I have a deep suspicion that (ahemm) someone rigged the poll. There is a huge possiblity that someone could have nixed the system, and after roaming at Kos and Atrios, Atrios hasn't even advertised himself in the Weblog Awards! I humbly ask that Mr. Alyward, chairman of the Election...

OREM, Utah -- The family name "Hacking" has been removed from the gravestone of a woman whose husband has been charged with killing her and dumping her body in a trash bin. Lori Hacking's family changed the headstone, which now reads "Lori Kay Soares." Mark Hacking reported in July that his 27-year-old wife had failed to return from an early morning jog, setting off extensive searches by volunteers and police. He later allegedly admitted to his brothers he shot her as she slept and disposed of her body in a trash bin.

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Two men face murder trials for deaths of pregnant wives Article Last Updated: Friday, February 06, 2004 - 3:36:15 AM PST Two men face murder trials for deaths of pregnant wives One gets headlines around the world; the other is largely ignored By Amelia Hansen, STAFF WRITER REDWOOD CITY -- Deep inside the Maguire Correctional Facility, a man accused of killing his pregnant wife and unborn child sits waiting for his day in court. His name is not Scott Peterson. But like Peterson, he is in his 30s, has dark hair, and will stand trial for multiple counts of murder....

Man Bought Mattress Just Before Reporting Wife Missing Mark Hacking 'Person Of Interest' -- Not Suspect -- In Wife's Disappearance SALT LAKE CITY -- Around the time Mark Hacking called police to report that his pregnant wife never returned from her morning jog, he was at a furniture store buying a new mattress, police confirmed Friday. Hacking, 28, has not appeared publicly since Monday, the day he said his 27-year-old wife, Lori, vanished. Family members say he has since been hospitalized for stress. The Deseret Morning News and television station KSTU reported Thursday that police found Hacking at a hotel...

SALT LAKE CITY — Fox News has learned from family and investigative sources that bloodstains have been found all over the apartment of Mark and Lori Hacking (search). Police sources say that when they entered the Hacking apartment earlier in the week, it appeared to have been cleaned. But investigators detected a substantial amount of blood using the forensic chemical luminol (search), which can make even well scrubbed bloodstains glow blue-green in the dark, sources say. Police say they believe the blood is Lori’s and that she was attacked in her apartment. Toxicology results that can confirm whether it is...

Tape Shows Mark After Alleged Murder Monday, August 02, 2004 SALT LAKE CITY — Soon after authorities believe Mark Hacking (search) killed his wife, he is seen inside a convenience store, where he repeatedly checked his hands, pulled something out of his watch and apparently avoided eye contact with other customers. His early morning trip to the Maverik convenience store is captured in a surveillance video, obtained exclusively by FOX News. The tape was taken at approximately 1:30 a.m. Monday, July 19 — the same day Mark's wife Lori Hacking (search) was reported missing. Click here to view the surveillance...

Human beings have been walking upright on this Earth for a few million years. We have preserved the species in large measure by preserving our own tribes. We will battle to the end to protect our own. Blood is thicker than water, right? No, blood is thicker than just about anything. We humans have only considered preserving and perpetuating the larger community for the past 4,000 years. Thank Hammurabi, the Babylonian ruler who produced a black stone tablet with the earliest known code of laws meant to organize and regulate society. Somehow the wise prince knew something. Protect the greater...

Mark Hacking made an initial court appearance Tuesday, facing a murder charge in the death of his wife, whose body he allegedly placed in a Dumpster at the U. — action that may have been captured on video now in the possession of investigators. Mark Hacking appears via video in court as Gil Athay, his lawyer, stands at a podium. Chris Bergin, Associated Press Hacking, 28, is accused of shooting and killing his wife Lori, 27, as she slept and then dropping her body and the murder weapon in separate Dumpsters. On Monday, prosecutors charged Mark Hacking with one count...

For the first weekend in more than one month, searchers with cadaver dogs will not comb a west Salt Lake landfill looking for the body of Lori Hacking, whose remains are believed to be buried there. And they're looking to a Mesa County, Colo., case for hope that the search may be successful. A similar search in the Colorado case discovered the body of one of two murder victims who had been disposed of in the landfill. Beginning next Tuesday, Salt Lake police will launch phase two of the search for the missing woman and comb through more than 4,200...

Mark Hacking Pleads Not GuiltyOct. 29, 2004 Tonya Papanikolas Reporting We've been expecting a "not guilty" plea in the Mark Hacking case and today there were no surprises at his arraignment; Mark Hacking did indeed plead "not guilty." KSL-TV asked Mark Hacking's attorney today if a "not guilty" plea means someone is innocent. He replied, “what it means is the state has to prove its case, prove Mark Hacking killed his wife, beyond a reasonable doubt.” The innocent plea infuriated Lori Hacking's family -- her brother had urged Hacking to "be a man" and accept punishment, and her mother...