Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Kaspersky shuffles structure ready for IPO
Corporate reshaping prepares company for floatation. Russian security experts Kaspersky Lab have announced the setting up of a board of directors to run the company, as a step along the road to market floatation. While the people at the top of the company remain largely unchanged – Natalya Kasperksy has become Chairman of the Board,…
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Pharmacy spammer gets 30 years
‘Rizler’ convicted on drugs, conspiracy and money laundering charges. Notorious pharmaceuticals spammer Christopher ‘Rizler’ Smith was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment last week, after selling $24 million in illegal medications through websites advertised by spam campaigns. The case broke in May 2005, when Smith’s 85-person company was shut down by the FBI and authorities seized…
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Malware and phishing cost US users $7 billion in two years
Survey finds 1 in 4 risk of being hit by viruses, spyware and scams. US consumer watchdog Consumer Reports has unveiled its annual ‘State of the Net’ study, showing serious numbers being affected by viruses, spyware and online scams. The survey of over 2,000 US households found that 38% had been hit by a virus…
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Major pump-and-dump campaign floods inboxes
Heavy stock scam barrage ups spam levels 30%. A major PDF pump-and-dump campaign has been reported, with massive numbers of mails spammed out. According to spam watchers at Sophos , the campaign has been responsible for a 30% rise in the number of spams spotted in the past 24 hours, and has significantly affected the…
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AOL drops Kaspersky for McAfee
Web giant changes provider of free security software for members. Giant ISP and web services provider AOL is offering a free, special edition version of McAfee security software to users registered with its network. The offer replaces a previous offering based on Kaspersky technology, which was quietly taken offline several weeks ago. The customized product,…
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Spammers sentenced
Sentences for first US spammer to be convicted under CAN-SPAM and Australian mobile phone marketers. The first US spammer to be convicted under the 2003 CAN-SPAM Act was sentenced last month, nearly three years after agreeing a plea deal with federal prosecutors. In September 2004, 40-year-old Californian Nicholas Tombros became the first person to be…
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AV market growth and predictions
Analysts report on industry growth and predict future growth. According to analyst firm Frost & Sullivan , the worldwide market for anti-virus solutions reached US$4.68 billion in 2006 – an increase of 17.1% from the previous year. The analysts expect the market to grow at approximately 10.9% compound annual growth rate for the next six…
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Trojans and worms hiding behind games
Mario latest lure to hook victims on malware. Social engineering techniques used to trick computer users into running malicious code on their systems concentrate around simple pleasures, with sex, gossip and entertainment among the most common lures, and the last few weeks have seen several attacks using the offer of video games to draw in…
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Security for critical infrastructures
DHS details security requirements for automated control systems. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has laid out a set of security requirements for automated control systems to protect the country’s critical infrastructure and key resources against online attacks. The recommendations in the Catalog of Control System Requirements include basic IT security measures such as…
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Worm trashes music files
MP3s targeted for destruction. A new worm has been spotted attempting to delete .mp3 music files from infected systems and attached devices. Once a machine is compromised, the worm, imaginatively named ‘W32.Deletemusic’ ( Symantec ) and ‘W32/DeleteMP3’ ( McAfee ), spreads to all drives, including removable devices such as music players and USB flash drives,…
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