Cybercriminals can call on an extensive network of specialists for "business" expertise, including people who train and recruit, launder money, and provide escrow services, according to HPE.The cybercriminal underground includes people who provide human resources functions, like recruiting and background checks, but also specialists who help market and sell exploit kits and compromised data and others who serve as middlemen in anonymous transactions, says The Business of Hacking white paper from Hewlett Packard Enterprise.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cybercriminals can call on an extensive network of specialists for "business" expertise, including people who train and recruit, launder money, and provide escrow services, according to HPE.The cybercriminal underground includes people who provide human resources functions, like recruiting and background checks, but also specialists who help market and sell exploit kits and compromised data and others who serve as middlemen in anonymous transactions, says The Business of Hacking white paper from Hewlett Packard Enterprise.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google could face a record fine of up to €3 billion (US $3.4 billion) as soon as early next month as part of a six-year European Commission antitrust investigation into the company's search engine dominance, according to a news report.A fine in the European Commission's long-running investigation, launched in November 2010, is expected by summer, according to a report in The Telegraph, which cited anonymous sources. The $3.4 billion fine cited in the report would be less than the maximum allowed, which is 10 percent of Google's worldwide revenue, or about $7.5 billion.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A U.S. senator will introduce legislation to roll back new court rules that allow judges to give law enforcement agencies the authority to remotely hack computers.Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, will introduce a bill that would reverse a court procedure rules change, approved by the U.S. Supreme Court last month, that would allow lower judges to issue remote hacking warrants.The rules change, requested by the Department of Justice, expands the geographical reach of police hacking powers beyond local court jurisdictions now allowed through court-ordered warrants. Previously, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure prohibited a federal judge from issuing a search warrant outside his or her district.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The personal banking information of about 160,000 U.S. residents walked out the door of the federal government's bank insurance agency on removable media of employees departing in recent months.During the last seven months, seven departing employees at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) have left with personal banking information on thumb drives and other removable media, agency officials told a congressional subcommittee Thursday.The FDIC, which provides deposit insurance to U.S. bank accounts, considered the data breaches as "inadvertent" copying of personal banking information that happened when departing employees were copying personal information to removable media, Lawrence Gross Jr., the FDIC's CIO, told the House of Representatives Science, Space, and Technology Committee's oversight subcommittee.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The personal banking information of about 160,000 U.S. residents walked out the door of the federal government's bank insurance agency on removable media of employees departing in recent months.During the last seven months, seven departing employees at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) have left with personal banking information on thumb drives and other removable media, agency officials told a congressional subcommittee Thursday.The FDIC, which provides deposit insurance to U.S. bank accounts, considered the data breaches as "inadvertent" copying of personal banking information that happened when departing employees were copying personal information to removable media, Lawrence Gross Jr., the FDIC's CIO, told the House of Representatives Science, Space, and Technology Committee's oversight subcommittee.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Congress should limit the ability of the FBI and other agencies to search for information about U.S. residents in a database of foreign terrorism communications collected by the National Security Agency, privacy advocates say.The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act, which allows the NSA to collect foreign Internet communications, expires in late 2017, and Congress should require that the communications of U.S. residents swept up in the controversial Prism and Upstream programs be protected with court-ordered warrants, privacy advocates told a Senate committee Tuesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Congress should limit the ability of the FBI and other agencies to search for information about U.S. residents in a database of foreign terrorism communications collected by the National Security Agency, privacy advocates say.The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act, which allows the NSA to collect foreign Internet communications, expires in late 2017, and Congress should require that the communications of U.S. residents swept up in the controversial Prism and Upstream programs be protected with court-ordered warrants, privacy advocates told a Senate committee Tuesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The founder of now defunct virtual currency Liberty Reserve has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for using his company to run a huge money laundering scheme catering to cybercriminals.Arthur Budovsky, 42, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, with Judge Denise Cote also ordering him to pay a US $500,000 fine.In January, Budovsky pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit money laundering. During sentencing, Cote noted Budovsky ran an "extraordinarily successful" and "large-scale international money laundering operation."The long sentence shows that "money laundering through the use of virtual currencies is still money laundering, and that online crime is still crime," Leslie Caldwell, assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division, said in a press release.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The founder of now defunct virtual currency Liberty Reserve has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for using his company to run a huge money laundering scheme catering to cybercriminals.Arthur Budovsky, 42, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, with Judge Denise Cote also ordering him to pay a US $500,000 fine.In January, Budovsky pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit money laundering. During sentencing, Cote noted Budovsky ran an "extraordinarily successful" and "large-scale international money laundering operation."The long sentence shows that "money laundering through the use of virtual currencies is still money laundering, and that online crime is still crime," Leslie Caldwell, assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division, said in a press release.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
U.S. presidential candidates should embrace encryption and narrow government access to Internet users' data as part of a comprehensive technology agenda, IT trade groups say.While the FBI and some lawmakers have pushed in recent months for encryption workarounds in criminal investigations, presidential candidates should "recognize encryption as a critical security tool," 13 tech trade organizations said in a set of tech policy recommendations released late Wednesday.By narrowly targeting governments' access to consumer data, the next president can promote global trust in digital goods and services, said the groups, representing hundreds of tech companies. Trade groups signing the letter included the Telecommunications Industry Association, the Consumer Technology Association, and BSA.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
U.S. presidential candidates should embrace encryption and narrow government access to Internet users' data as part of a comprehensive technology agenda, IT trade groups say.While the FBI and some lawmakers have pushed in recent months for encryption workarounds in criminal investigations, presidential candidates should "recognize encryption as a critical security tool," 13 tech trade organizations said in a set of tech policy recommendations released late Wednesday.By narrowly targeting governments' access to consumer data, the next president can promote global trust in digital goods and services, said the groups, representing hundreds of tech companies. Trade groups signing the letter included the Telecommunications Industry Association, the Consumer Technology Association, and BSA.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A new South Dakota law may end up determining whether most U.S. residents are required to pay sales taxes on their Internet purchases.The South Dakota law, passed by the Legislature there in March, requires many out-of-state online and catalog retailers to collect the state's sales tax from customers. The law is shaping up to be a legal test case challenging a 25-year-old U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prohibits states from levying sales taxes on remote purchases.+ PAST STORY: US residents oppose Internet sales tax +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Television stations have volunteered to sell off 126MHz of "beach front" wireless spectrum to mobile carriers in an ongoing U.S. Federal Communications Commission auction, potentially bringing higher speeds and more reliable networks to customers.The 126MHz of spectrum was the highest amount anticipated by the FCC in the so-called incentive auction, agency officials said Friday. In most areas of the country, the agency will be able to auction 10 blocks of 10MHz to mobile carriers and other interested bidders.This low-band spectrum, in the 600MHz band, is highly coveted by mobile carriers because it can cover long distances and penetrate walls and other obstacles. Mobile carriers have pushed for more spectrum as their customers' network use keeps growing, and the low-band spectrum will help carriers roll out faster 5G service, supporters say.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Television stations have volunteered to sell off 126MHz of "beach front" wireless spectrum to mobile carriers in an ongoing U.S. Federal Communications Commission auction, potentially bringing higher speeds and more reliable networks to customers.The 126MHz of spectrum was the highest amount anticipated by the FCC in the so-called incentive auction, agency officials said Friday. In most areas of the country, the agency will be able to auction 10 blocks of 10MHz to mobile carriers and other interested bidders.This low-band spectrum, in the 600MHz band, is highly coveted by mobile carriers because it can cover long distances and penetrate walls and other obstacles. Mobile carriers have pushed for more spectrum as their customers' network use keeps growing, and the low-band spectrum will help carriers roll out faster 5G service, supporters say.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cloud providers hosting blockchain secure transactions technology should take additional steps to protect the records, IBM says.IBM's new framework for securely operating blockchain networks, released Friday, recommends that network operators make it easy to audit their operating environments and use optimized accelerators for hashing -- the generation of numbers from strings of text -- and the creation of digital signatures to pump up CPU performance. Along with the security guidelines, IBM announced new cloud-based blockchain services designed to meet existing regulatory and security requirements. The company has worked with security experts to create cloud services for "tamper-resistant" blockchain networks, it said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cloud providers hosting blockchain secure transactions technology should take additional steps to protect the records, IBM says.IBM's new framework for securely operating blockchain networks, released Friday, recommends that network operators make it easy to audit their operating environments and use optimized accelerators for hashing -- the generation of numbers from strings of text -- and the creation of digital signatures to pump up CPU performance. Along with the security guidelines, IBM announced new cloud-based blockchain services designed to meet existing regulatory and security requirements. The company has worked with security experts to create cloud services for "tamper-resistant" blockchain networks, it said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. and its allies should be concerned about cyberattacks from ISIS-affiliated groups, but the hackers are poorly organized and likely underfunded, at least in the short term, according to a new report.Several pro-ISIS hacking groups announced this month they are joining together to form the United Cyber Caliphate, but the groups seem to have limited abilities, according to a report from security intelligence research group Flashpoint. Still, with new coordination, "even limited success could inflate their notoriety and enable them to continue to grow their capabilities and attract talent," Flashpoint said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. and its allies should be concerned about cyberattacks from ISIS-affiliated groups, but the hackers are poorly organized and likely underfunded, at least in the short term, according to a new report.Several pro-ISIS hacking groups announced this month they are joining together to form the United Cyber Caliphate, but the groups seem to have limited abilities, according to a report from security intelligence research group Flashpoint. Still, with new coordination, "even limited success could inflate their notoriety and enable them to continue to grow their capabilities and attract talent," Flashpoint said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. House of Representatives, in a rare unanimous vote, has approved a bill to strengthen privacy protections for email and other data stored in the cloud.The Email Privacy Act would require law enforcement agencies to get court-ordered warrants to search email and other data stored with third parties for longer than six months. The House on Wednesday voted 419-0 to pass the legislation and send it to the Senate.The bill, with 314 cosponsors in the House, would update a 30-year-old law called the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). Some privacy advocates and tech companies have been pushing Congress to update ECPA since 2011.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Grant Gross