Free Republic

INCREASED MAC OS X HACKING ACTIVITY Current Assessment: Hype Current Assessment Date: 04/06/2005 Executive Summary: The attention devoted to the non-existent Mac OS X malicious code "problem" during the past several days is not warranted. However, it is possible to configure or use a system running Mac OS X in such a way as to make it vulnerable to malicious attackers. Proper configuration and use is critical with all Internet-connected devices. Threat: Low Vulnerability Prevalence: Low Cost: Medium Details: The past several days have seen a rash of technology press stories regarding Mac OS X ("ten") malicious code (malcode) and...

Still trying to find something in English to properly confirm all the details about this, but apparently a French court has ruled that adding anti-copying mechanisms to a DVD violates the rights consumers have to make private copies of media that they’ve bought and paid for. Reportedly the court has given the company that released the film in question one month to provide the guy who sued them with an unprotected DVD; it’s not entirely clear whether this ruling applies to every DVD sold in France or just that one copy of Mulholland Drive this guy was trying to dub....

Mark Hacking Pleads Guilty to Murder , April 15, 2005 SALT LAKE CITY — Mark Hacking (search) has pleaded guilty to charges of murdering his wife. The Utah man admitted shooting his wife, Lori Hacking (search), and dumping her body in a garbage bin. There was speculation after Hacking was arrested that he would plead innocent by reason of insanity, after revelations of a series of bold lies he had told his family and a bizarre incident after he reported his wife missing that led to a stay in a psychiatric hospital. Local newspapers reported that none of the possible...

Millions of wireless access points are spread across the US and the world. About 70% percent of these access points are unprotected—wide open to access by anyone who happens to drive by. The other 30% are protected by WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) and a small handful are protected by the new WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) standard. At a recent ISSA (Information Systems Security Association) meeting in Los Angeles, a team of FBI agents demonstrated current WEP-cracking techniques and broke a 128 bit WEP key in about three minutes. Special Agent Geoff Bickers ran the Powerpoint presentation and explained the attack,...

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...