InSecurity Complex

The U.S. Department of Justice said today that it has uncovered a large, sophisticated Internet scam ring that netted $14 million by infecting millions of computers with malware designed to redirect their Web searches to sites that generated ad revenue.

Six people have been arrested in Estonia and a Russian is being sought on charges of wire fraud and computer intrusion, the FBI said. They are accused of infecting about 4 million computers in more than 100 countries--500,000 in the U.S. alone, including NASA--with malware called DNSChanger. The malware altered the Domain Name Server settings on the … Read more

Following a debate along party lines on Net neutrality today, the Senate will vote tomorrow on whether to repeal a Federal Communications Commission rule banning fixed-line broadband providers from blocking Web sites or unreasonably discriminating against them.

Democrats argue that Net neutrality rules are necessary to make sure that telcos treat Web sites and content providers equally, regardless of the type of data being transmitted, and to ensure that they do not give preferential treatment to those who pay more.

Republicans oppose the rules the FCC adopted by a 3-2 party line vote last December, arguing that the FCC lacked … Read more

Microsoft released a security update to fix one critical and three less serious Windows holes but is still working on a patch for a flaw being exploited by the Duqu Trojan.

The most serious of the updates is MS11-083, which could allow an attacker to take over a computer by sending a large number of malicious UDP packets to a closed port on a target system, the Patch Tuesday security bulletin said. It plugs a vulnerability in the TCP/IP stack in Windows 7, Vista, and Server 2008.

"Since this vulnerability does not require any user interaction or authentication, … Read more

Several U.S. Supreme Court justices hearing arguments in a case today suggested that allowing warrantless GPS tracking of citizens' cars could lead to a Big Brother scenario of constant computerized government surveillance.

"What is the question that I think people are driving at, at least as I understand it and certainly share the concern, is that if you win this case, then there is nothing to prevent the police or the government from monitoring 24 hours a day the public movement of every citizen of the United States," Justice Stephen Breyer told a Justice Department attorney. "… Read more

Some Adidas Web sites remain offline today as a result of a "sophisticated" cyber attack discovered last week, the German sportswear company said.

"On November 3, 2011, the adidas Group found out that it was the target of a sophisticated, criminal cyber-attack. Our preliminary investigation has found no evidence that any consumer data is impacted," the company said in a statement on its news stream site. "But, while we continue our thorough forensic review, we have taken down affected sites, including adidas.com, reebok.com, miCoach.com, adidas-group.com and various local eCommerce shops, in … Read more

Israeli government sites were down yesterday following a threat from online activist collective Anonymous over Israel's interception of a flotilla bound for Gaza. However, an Israeli official said the outage was a system malfunction.

In a YouTube video posted on Friday, Anonymous threatened to "strike back" if Israel continued to block humanitarian boats trying to reach Gaza. Earlier that day, the Israeli Navy boarded a Canadian and Irish ship headed toward Gaza and made arrests.

"Your actions are illegal, against democracy, human rights, international, and maritime laws," the Anonymous video says. "Justifying war, murder, … Read more

Don't worry Facebook users, the sky is not falling--you'll be able to update your status and post those Occupy Wall Street photos tomorrow.

Members of Anonymous fed up with reports that the online activist group is going to take down the social network said today that the threat is not real and was the work of one lone member without any support from others in the group. They said it doesn't make sense to shut down a site they use to get their message out.

"Anonymous is a movement we don't take kindly to when … Read more

Ya basta!

Members of the online activist group Anonymous in Mexico have again (and hopefully for good) called off their threat to expose names of associates of the Zetas drug cartel.

Apparently, the cartel returned the Anonymous member whose kidnap allegedly was the catalyst for the OpCartel plan in the first place.

A statement from Anonymous Iberoamerica says the Anonymous member was freed, "although bruised, we can say he is safe and well." But the cartel, reknowned for its violence and brutality, sent a message back that for every name related to the cartel that is disclosed the … Read more

The most controversial operation the online activist group Anonymous has ever planned appears to be going forward despite the danger it poses.

Anonymous members launched OpCartel last month targeting the Zetas drug cartel, one of the most violent and technologically sophisticated groups in Mexico, in response to the alleged kidnapping of an Anonymous member. In a Spanish-language YouTube video (later released in English), Anonymous said one of its members had been kidnapped while postering in Veracruz. The video demands the return of the alleged kidnapping victim by November 5 and threatens to release information on the organization, as well as … Read more