fbi

Full Tilt Poker cheated players out of $300 million, WSJ says

The U.S. Department of Justice accused celebrity poker players Howard Lederer and Christopher Ferguson and other executives who ran the Web site Full Tilt Poker of defrauding players of more than $300 million, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

The U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York amended an earlier civil complaint to allege that the players and two other directors of Full Tilt Poker ran a Ponzi scheme, in which the individuals illegally paid themselves with funds that were deposited by players supposedly for safe keeping.

The Web site's domain has been seized by … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1554: How low will the stock go? (Podcast)

Rafe Needleman joins us on the show today to discuss the dropping stock prices of RIM, Netflix and HP.How low will they go? We take a closer look at Scarlett Johansson's hacking scandal and Rafe shares with us a very special video about taxidermy. All this and more on today's BOL.

FBI investigating hacking of celebrities

The FBI office in Los Angeles is investigating a series of hacking incidents targeting high-profile victims.

"The FBI is investigating a person or group responsible for computer intrusions of high-profile figures," FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller told CNET in a phone interview today.

Eimiller said she couldn't say how many alleged victims there may have been, but estimated that there were "dozens." The investigation has been going on since late 2010, she said.

Yesterday, photos of Scarlett Johansson were posted to BuzzFeed that appeared to have been taken by the star of herself. Johansson asked the FBI to investigate, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The news follows leaks of celebrity photos reported in previous months. In March, Vanessa Hudgens met with the FBI after nude photos of her were allegedly stolen from her Gmail account and released online, TMZ reported at the time.

It's unclear who is behind the Johansson incident and whether all of the reported cases are linked or even legitimate.

Unlike corporations, which typically shun publicity for hacking, celebrities--whose careers seem to rise and fall with headlines--may have a motivation for going public with hacking claims, either to get attention or to deflect bad publicity. Meanwhile, celebrities are an attractive target for headline-seeking hackers. Sometimes it's difficult to link the attack to a specific party. … Read more

This Day in Tech: Net neutrality rules coming soon; AT&T-iPad site hacker fights back in court

Too busy to keep up with the tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET for Monday, September 12.

AT&T-iPad site hacker goes to court. The hacker said in an e-mail: "I did not fold the two previous times when the FBI tried to frame me as a terrorist" for allegedly calling in a bomb threat to a synagogue (a charge he denies). "I will not fold now when they try to libel me as a thief. My indictment conveys a message that I am some sort of identity thief." … Read more

U.S. battery firms reportedly targeted in online attack

The FBI is investigating denial-of-service attacks targeting several U.S. battery retail Web sites last year that were traced to computers at Russian domains in what looks like a corporate-sabotage campaign, according to documents published yesterday by The Smoking Gun.

The October 2010 distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on Batteriesplus.com and Batteries4less.com also targeted other battery-related Web sites and have been used to attack a "wide range" of United States-based businesses, causing combined estimated financial losses of more than $600,000, according an FBI analysis of attack logs provided to the agency by an unnamed network security … Read more

AntiSec hackers target Vanguard Defense exec

The hacktivist group AntiSec says it has released a gigabyte of private documents from Vanguard Defense Industries, including e-mails from an executive connected with a cybersecurity organization it has targeted previously.

In a post on Pastebin this morning, AntiSec said the e-mails belong to Richard Garcia, a senior vice president at Vanguard who is also a board member at InfraGard, an FBI program that teams up public and private cybersecurity efforts. In June, AntiSec affiliate LulzSec hacked the Web site of InfraGard Atlanta, releasing passwords and other sensitive information.

Describing InfraGard as "a sinister alliance," AntiSec gloated about … Read more

Security flaw found in feds' digital radios

Expensive high-tech digital radios used by the FBI, Secret Service, and Homeland Security are designed so poorly that they can be jammed by a $30 children's toy, CNET has learned.

A GirlTech IMME, Mattel's pink instant-messaging device with a miniature keyboard that's marketed to pre-teen girls, can be used to disrupt sensitive radio communications used by every major federal law enforcement agency, a team of security researchers from the University of Pennsylvania is planning to announce tomorrow.

Converting the GirlTech gadget into a jammer may be beyond the ability of a street criminal for now, but that … Read more

Verizon workers go on strike

Comcast offers a $9.95 Internet Essentials service to low-income families, the FBI releases an iPhone app that helps parents with a missing child, and Verizon workers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic go on strike after negotiations fail to produce a contract.

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Verizon workers go on strike HP TouchPad 4G and $50 in the App Catalog Education iMac? AntiSec hackers post police data Comcast $10 Internet Essentials plan FBI Child IDapp in App Store Subscribe: iTunes (MP3) | iTunes (320x180) | iTunes (HD) | RSS (MP3) | RSS (320x180) | RSS HD

The 404 877: Where you learn a lot about people at the beach (podcast)

Jeff's back in the studio after his vacation week, and any positive vibes floating around in the air are obliterated when he tells us about the things you can learn about people just from spending time at the beach.

Unsurprisingly, none of us plan to see "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," despite its 80-percent "fresh" rating on RottenTomatoes.com. We're also ripping a page from the Obvious News section and talking about TV porn sales going down in recent years, and playing a handful of voicemails carefully chosen by Mr. Bakalar.

The 404 Digest for Episode 877

Big surprise: TV porn doesn't sell like it used to. FBI releases child ID iPhone app.

Episode 877 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

FBI releases child ID iPhone app

The FBI has released the FBI Child ID app, the first mobile app created by the bureau. The app is designed to help parents notify authorities in the unlikely event that their child goes missing.

It is currently available only for the iPhone but also works on the iPad and iPod Touch. (A device with a camera is required to use the app to take a photo of the child.)

Parents can use the app to record information about each of their kids and take a photo of each kid from directly within the app. There are also fields for … Read more