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A Russian computer hacker was sentenced to four years in federal prison for running a fraud and extortion ring that victimized a New Jersey financial services company, among others. Aleksey V. Ivanov was arrested with an accomplice after being lured to the United States by the FBI in 2000. An indictment accused them of hacking into dozens of U.S. banks and e-commerce sites, and then demanding money for not publicizing the break-ins. Ivanov, 23, of Chelyabinsk, Russia, was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford, Conn., following a joint investigation by federal prosecutors in Hartford, Newark,...

WASHINGTON -- It's all a contest among Internet hackers, and the results could be devastating. Both government and private experts have warned that hackers had planned to attack thousands of Web sites Sunday during the loosely-coordinated contest. They've also urged Web administrators to be alert. Organizers had established a Web site for the event, which was shut down last Wednesday evening. Before it was removed, the site listed the rules for hackers who might be taking part. FBI spokesman Bill Murray says "The FBI is taking this very seriously...hacking is a crime and those who participate in this activity will...

<p>NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- A Tennessee middle school allowed security cameras to film children undressing in locker rooms and then stored the images on a computer accessible through the Internet, according to a lawsuit filed by a group of angry parents.</p>

Tallahassee - The War began silently this morning at around 2:00 AM EST. Complaints to Internet Service providers are up, and it's all because of a handful of people who have nothing better to do than attempt to destroy our normal way of life. The Computer Dudes in Tallahassee are in a bit of a tizzy this afternoon. While preparing for the launch of their new Web Communications Tool, they were caught off guard early this morning by what seems to be an cyber attack. "This is a serious attack, and these hackers are just practicing today. It's going to...

By TED BRIDIS AP TECHNOLOGY WRITER WASHINGTON -- The government and private technology experts warned Wednesday that hackers plan to attack thousands of Web sites Sunday in a loosely coordinated "contest" that could disrupt Internet traffic. An early-warning network for the technology industry, operating with the Department of Homeland Security, notified companies that it received "credible information" about the planned attacks and already has detected surveillance probes by hackers looking for weaknesses in corporate and government networks. "We emphasize that all Web site administrators should ensure that their sites are not vulnerable," wrote Peter Allor of Internet Security Systems Inc.,...

Man accused of hacking into university The Associated Press 6/21/2003, 8:37 a.m. ET RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A 21-year-old student was arrested for allegedly hacking into a university computer system during student elections to cast hundreds of votes for a made-up candidate he named American Ninja. Shawn Nematbakhsh, a computer science major at the University of California, Riverside, was arrested Friday for investigation of drug possession and altering computer data without permission. If convicted, he could face up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He was being held Saturday on $10,000 bail. Arraignment was set for Tuesday....

COMPUTERS are rare and internet access is almost nonexistent for most people in North Korea, yet the isolated communist country is suspected of training computer hackers for cyberterrorism, US and South Korean officials say. Sitting in a glass-fronted building in Seoul, Cho Kyong-won, a young South Korean who looks more like a hip youngster with long hair than the serious computer scientist that he is, considers the prospect of Pyongyang's digital warriors and concludes there is no reason to think they would be incompetent just because their country is poor. "They could be good," says Cho, 25, an cybersecurity expert...

The Americans had tried almost everything, but they just couldn't crack an encrypted message they came across while investigating the 9/11 attacks. Finally, they approached a 17-year-old boy in Delhi about whom The New York Times had done a feature. Over the next 10 days, Ankit Fardia hunkered down in his room in Delhi and came up with the key to crack the message. The worst fears of American investigators came true — Al-Qaeda was using a sophisticated technology, called steganography, to communicate. It involved sending encrypted messages concealed in a photograph or series of photographs. “I was lucky in...

North Building Up Hacking Capability by Yoo Yong-won (kysu@chosun.com) North Korea has been strengthening its cyber-terrorism capability, and is training more than 100 persons a year to be expert hackers, Song Young-keun, the nation's defense security commander, said Friday. Song, speaking at a seminar on changes in the intelligence environment that was attended by 400 experts and military officials, said that his command had been concentrating on ensuring the protection of Korea's defense intelligence systems. He warned, though, that the risks the nation faces in this area cannot be eliminated by his agency alone. It is very unusual for high-ranking...

Watch out. Email is going to look like this: From: Microsoft Internet Public Assistance **(notice, it is Java Script, the real address is masked)** Subject: Internet Security Patch To: "Microsoft Corporation Client" < > Note that the FROM: e-mail address doesn't show microsoft.com, but some spoofed e-mail address. The attached file is patch717.exe and is 2 bytes long. It's a "bootstrap" program and will bring in really bad news for you. If Microsoft really wanted you to have a patch, they'd publicize it and direct you to their Web site. Since most people tend to use their head as a...

WASHINGTON -- Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday warned about a serious flaw in almost every version of its popular Windows software that could allow hackers to seize control of a person's computer when victims read e-mails or visit Web sites. Microsoft assessed the problem's urgency as critical, its highest level, and urged customers to download a free repairing patch immediately from its Web site, www.microsoft.com/security.

George W. Bush has backed plans to launch a cyber-attack on Iraqi computer networks if war breaks out, while raising the US terror alert to 'high'. George W Bush: the US is resolved to act The US president signed a secret directive last July ordering the Government to develop guidelines to determine when and how to disrupt enemy computer systems, a strategy which military analysts believe could dramatically reduce war causalities. Invading foreign computer networks could enable the military to shut down radars and electrical plants, and to disrupt phone lines without firing a shot. The news came as the...

<p>OSLO, Norway -- A Norwegian teenager has been cleared of DVD piracy charges in a landmark trial brought by major Hollywood studios.</p> <p>The Oslo court said Jon Johansen, known in Norway as "DVD Jon," had not broken the law when he helped unlock a code and distribute a computer program enabling DVD films to be copied.</p>

Teenager Prosecuted for Watching His DVDs on Linux Computer Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Advisory Oslo, Norway - The criminal trial against Jon Johansen, a Norwegian teenager who watched his DVDs on his Linux computer using a DVD descrambling program called DeCSS, will start in Norway this Monday, December 9. The trial is scheduled to last until Friday, December 13. After a request from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Norwegian Economic Crime Unit (ØKOKRIM) charged Jon Johansen for unscrambling DVDs using DeCSS in 1999 when he was 15 years old. Johansen is charged with violating the Norwegian Criminal...

A federal judge has ruled that law enforcement officials went too far when they tried to use evidence gathered by a known hacker to convict someone of possessing child pornography. The decision, handed down earlier this month, is believed to be the first to say that hacking into an Internet-connected home PC without a warrant violates the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. "This makes it clear that law enforcement needs a search warrant to do this," said Orin Kerr, an associate professor at George Washington University Law School. Kerr said the ruling was the first of...

According to a report published November 12 by Aberdeen Group^, "Security advisories for open source and Linux software accounted for 16 out of the 29 security advisories - about one of every two advisories - published for the first 10 months of 2002 by Cert (www.cert.org^, Computer Emergency Response Team)." Aberdeen says Microsoft products have had no new virus or trojan horse advisories in the first 10 months of 2002, while Unix, Linux, and Open Source software went from one in 2001 to two in the first 10 months of 2002, that in the same 2002 time period "networking...

I have noticed (so have others) that the FR forum has been acting "funky" lately. Sometimes the website is slow, sometimes can't get in at all. While the powers that be are working on the problem, I have a comment. Remember Election 2000? If you recall, the National GOP Website, Drudge Report, and other conservative leaning websites were hacked just in time for election day. While I doubt that many people go searching for information on election day to decide their choices, remember that democrats will do ANYTHING (legal, ethical, or not) to win. If anyone here hosts a conservative...

On the afternoon of July 17, a self-proclaimed expert in biochemistry composed an e-mail message to Saddam Hussein. The message, sent from an MSN Hotmail account on a computer in China, recommended the use of methyl bromide, an agricultural pesticide, as an effective chemical weapon against the U.S. Army. "For weapon use, have function: no color, no smell, will let person dead in a few second," wrote the e-mail's author, who provided the phone number and address of a distributor in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from which the toxic chemical could be purchased "in cylinder or in can." The chilling electronic...

Intentia, a Swedish IT group, will on Monday file criminal charges against Reuters after the UK news agency published the company's third-quarter results before they were officially announced last week. The Swedish company has accused Reuters of breaking into its IT systems without authorisation last Thursday, the day it published the figures. Reuters also published third-quarter figures from three other Nordic companies last week before the results were officially released. They comprised Nordea, the region's biggest bank; Fortum, the Finnish energy group; and Sweco, a small Swedish consultancy. The disclosures are likely to prompt other groups to tighten their internet...

By John Leyden Posted: 10/24/2002 at 06:51 EST Canadian convicts have taken advantage of prison PCs to produce escape plans, make fake IDs and conduct scams. These are among the revelations from an internal report by Canada's Correctional Service (CSC), obtained by the National Post, which warns of the risk of cons spreading viruses or hacking into the prison service's network. A temporary moratorium on new computers has been imposed by the service. However inmates who already have PCs are been allowed to keep them (at least temporarily), despite a recommendation in the "threat and risk assessment" report for...