A network of Russian malware writers and spammers paid hackers 43 cents for each Mac machine they infected with bogus video software, a sign that Macs have become attack targets, a security researcher said yesterday.

In a presentation Thursday at the Virus Bulletin 2009 security conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Sophos researcher Dmitry Samosseiko discussed his investigation of the Russian “Partnerka,” a tangled collection of Web affiliates who rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars from spam and malware, most of the former related to phony drug sites, and much of the latter targeting Windows users with fake security software, or “scareware.”

But Samosseiko also said he had uncovered affiliates, which he dubbed “codec-partnerka,” that aim for Macs. “Mac users are not immune to the scareware threat,” said Samosseiko in the research paper he released at the conference to accompany his presentation. “In fact, there are ‘codec-partnerka’ dedicated to the sale and promotion of fake Mac software.”

One example, which has since gone offline, was Mac-codec.com, said Samosseiko. “Just a few months ago it was offering [43 cents] for each install and offered various promo materials in the form of Mac OS ‘video players,’” he said.

Another Sophos researcher argued that Samosseiko’s evidence shows Mac users, who often dismiss security as a problem only for people running Microsoft’s Windows, are increasingly at risk on the Web. Find out more…

CHICAGO—September 24, 2009—37signals is now a $100 billion dollar company, according to a group of investors who have agreed to purchase 0.000000001% of the company in exchange for $1.

Founder Jason Fried informed his employees about the new deal at a recent company-wide meeting. The financing round was led by Yardstick Capital and Institutionalized Venture Partners.

In order to increase the value of the company, 37signals has decided to stop generating revenues. “When it comes to valuation, making money is a real obstacle. Our profitability has been a real drag on our valuation,” said Mr. Fried. “Once you have profits, it’s impossible to just make stuff up. That’s why we’re switching to a ‘freeconomics’ model. We’ll give away everything for free and let the market speculate about how much money we could make if we wanted to make money. That way, the sky’s the limit!”

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Johannesburg – Computer security company Symantec said infections of a virus known as Clampi have been detected in South Africa. The virus targets internet banking users and captures usernames and passwords for banking websites.

According to Symantec, the virus was originally detected early in 2008, but infections have increased substantially since July 2009. British news site Times Online reported on Monday that the virus was spreading rapidly throughout the USA and Britain.

Said Times Online: “Once on the computer, the virus sits unnoticed until the user logs on to bank, credit card or other financial websites. It then captures log-in and password information and sends it to a server run by the attackers. They can then tell the compromised computer to send money to accounts that they control, or they can buy goods with the stolen credit card details.”

Find out more…

Recently, the popular social media website Digg released a useful but controversial product: the DiggBar, an iframe toolbar that lets users browse other websites without actually leaving Digg.com. In the last week, we’ve already discussed how the DiggBar could impact the Twitter link-sharing experience and Digg’s response to the recent criticism.

This has done little to quell the controversy surrounding the DiggBar, however. Engadget has now blocked the DiggBar. In addition, one popular article, on how to block the DiggBar, received over 1900 diggs but at the same time was buried, showing how divided the Digg community is over the feature. Some of the controversy has been over the impact of the DiggBar on SEO (search engine optimization) and traffic to people’s website.

This is all a bit of a complicated mess. So we’ve put together this article discussing the pro and con arguments for the DiggBar, especially as it relates to the user and to the website owner. After considering the pros and cons, we want to know whether you will block the DiggBar or keep it active.

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Just hours after Twitter began removing the first cross-site scripting vulnerability that hit its site this weekend, a new modified strain has been found, and according to F-Secure, it’s not the last one we’re likely to see over the next few days.

“This is not over. There’s going to be quite a few modified Twitter worms for a day or two. Be careful in Twitter, don’t view profiles, don’t follow links. It’s beautiful outside, maybe go for a walk instead?” Mikko said on the F-Secure blog earlier today.

According to Breaking News, Mikeyy Mooney, the 17 year-old owner of StalkDaily.com, has reportedly admitted responsibility for yesterday’s attack.

“I am the person who coded the XSS which then acted as a worm when it auto updated a users profile and status, which then infected other users who viewed their profile. I did this out of boredom, to be honest. I usually like to find vulnerabilities within websites and try not to cause too much damage, but start a worm or something to give the developers an insight on the problem and while doing so, promoting myself or my website.”

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A sea change may be coming to cyberspace with Web addresses ending in anything from .a to .z. That has businesses increasingly worried they will have to spend millions to guard their brand names.
The familiar .com, .net, .org and 18 other suffixes — officially “generic top-level domains” — could be joined by a seemingly endless stream of new ones next year under a landmark change approved last summer by the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, the entity that oversees the Web’s address system.

Tourists might find information about the Liberty Bell, for example, at a site ending in .philly. A rapper might apply for a Web address ending in .hiphop.

“Whatever is open to the imagination can be applied for,” says Paul Levins, ICANN’s vice president of corporate affairs. “It could translate into one of the largest marketing and branding opportunities in history.”

Many businesses see more problems than profits — opportunities for scammers to exploit brand names and mislead consumers, or even attack brands.

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A Google Street View car has been chased out of a Buckinghamshire village by angry residents.
The car was taking photographs of Broughton in Buckinghamshire for Google’s Street View service when it was spotted by Paul Jacobs – a local resident.

He warned the car not to enter the village then roused his neighbours, who surrounded the vehicle until the driver performed a U-turn and left.

Jacobs claims residents were worried that the photographs were an invasion of their privacy and would attract burglars.

“My immediate reaction was anger; how dare anyone take a photograph of my home without my consent?” He tells The Times. “This is an affluent area. We’ve already had three burglaries locally in the past six weeks. If our houses are plastered all over Google it’s an invitation for more criminals to strike. I was determined to make a stand, so I called the police.”

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GCHQ bosses want to monitor every email and text message sent in Britain, and keep records of individuals’ internet use.

But the plans have been questioned by Cheltenham community leaders, who believe they would be a massive infringement of human rights.

According to reports, the Government’s surveillance centre, based at the ‘doughnut’ building in Benhall, has already been given up to £1 billion to fund the first stage of what would be the country’s biggest ever surveillance system.

Known as the Interception Modernisation Programme, the scheme would enable GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 personnel, and also police, to access complete information on every text, email and visit to a website made in this country.

It is understood the first stage would see hundreds of secret probes monitoring customers live on internet and mobile phone providers.

GCHQ officials, backed by MI6, have reportedly been attempting to persuade Whitehall to fund the project to its completion, at a potential cost of up to £12 billion.

More details are thought to be included in next month’s Queen’s speech although, the Home Office has stressed no formal decision had been taken.

Conservative councillor Jacky Fletcher, Cheltenham borough member for Benhall and The Reddings, said: “This would be a massive infringement of human rights.

“I am all in favour of policing and I believe there do need to be special measures in place to track terror suspects.

“But those measures already exist. You can get court orders to track messages and other things for limited periods of time.

“I genuinely believe that if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear, but I would like to know why they need to read and store all of these things.

“If this is being considered, I would hope that would be the same question everyone in the world needs answering.”

It is understood MI5 can currently conduct limited email and website intercepts but only under specific warrants from the Home Office.

Those in favour believe the measures are vital to track the so-called “friendship trees” in which separate terror cells make links and communicate with one another. However, many within the Treasury and Cabinet Office fear its cost and believe it could infringe human rights.

There are 18 million broadband internet connections in the UK, while 57 billion texts and three billion emails are sent each year.

Although they can be stored in temporary databases, MI5 claims finding specific information can be like looking for a needle in a haystack – and GCHQ hopes the Interception Modernisation Programme is the answer.

GCHQ was unavailable to comment. POST VIA

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Due to its southern location, Australia has experienced the effects of climate change more rapidly than other parts of the world. Harsh storms and severe droughts have become more and more frequent over recent years. But one side-effect has some heading towards the beach: bigger and better waves.

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