Google: complete privacy 'does not exist'

Google has argued in a court submission that there can be no expectation of privacy in the modern world. The search giant is being sued by a Pennsylvania couple after their home appeared on Google Street View. The couple's house is on a road clearly marked as private property.

"Today's satellite image technology means that even in today's desert, complete privacy does not exist," said Google's submission.

Ominous indeed.

Kiwi hacker to work for police

Eighteen year old New Zealand hacker, Owen Thor Walker, who is accused of writing malware that could have stolen millions of pounds, has walked free from court and may be recruited by the local police.

Although Walker pleaded guilty to several charges of interfering with computer systems, the case was discharged so that he will not have a criminal record.

The court said that it had taken the unusual step so that Walker could work with local police in fighting online crime.

While Walker did not take money directly from people's bank accounts, he was paid $30,000 by persons unknown to write the malware and could give an insight into the world of cyber criminals.

Data leaks worst security threat

Data leaks are catching up with viruses as the worst IT headache for companies in the US, UK, Germany and Japan.

A Trend Micro poll of 1,600 corporate end users revealed the loss of proprietary company data and information as the second most serious threat at work after viruses.

While six per cent of end users admitted to having leaked company information, 16 per cent believe that other employees caused data leaks.

UK businesses still don’t ‘get’ security

UK

businesses are still failing to implement internal security procedures despite growing awareness of the potential consequences, according to independent research released this week.

The security division of value added distributor, Bell Micro found that when asked about password protocols, 56 per cent believed colleagues passwords commonly reflected either the names of family members or favourite sports teams (41 per cent), all of which can easily be gleaned from social networking sites - which 41 per cent of respondents are permitted to visit by their respective companies.

Storm worm fabricates news

Researchers are reporting a new round of spam messages tied to the Storm network which touch on fake, sensationalized news stories. The emails contain such headlines as 'Eiffel Tower damaged by massive earthquake' and 'Donald Trump missing, feared kidnapped.'

The bodies of the emails contain links which claim to provide further information on the story. However, the links direct to a page designed to resemble adult video site Pornotube. When users click on one of the supposed video links on the page, an executable is launched which installs the Storm malware.

Road warriors leaking secrets

Over two thirds of Brits travelling on business have eavesdropped on someone else's confidential business conversation, and over a third have caught sight of sensitive information on laptops.

Out of a survey of 1,000 UK and US mobile workers, over 10 per cent of those catching snippets of information admitted that they have been able to use the data for their own business purposes.

Cyber-crooks sting South Africa for £13m

A cyber-crime syndicate is believed to have defrauded the South African government of more than £12.8m in a series of spyware frauds.

The fraud went undetected for three years.

The fraudsters appeared to use a sophisticated combination of attacks that consisted of a physical device and a malware component, as witnessed by the fact they have been getting away with their crimes for nigh on three years, according to Tier-3.

Geoff Sweeney, chief technology officer at IT security vendor Tier-3, warned that, in common with more sophisticated IT security attacks, frauds of this nature are very difficult to stop using a traditional single line of defence.

"Companies need to rethink their strategy in the light of the increasing sophistication on the part of the fraudsters," he said.

Public wants data breach legislation

Public demand for EU or UK legislation mandating the disclosure of data breaches is growing.

The results of a survey from Symantec and Ipsos Morishowed that 96 per cent of the general public would want to be notified in the event of their personal details being lost or stolen. The loss of bank account details topped the list for notification at 85 per cent, followed by passport number at 52 per cent.

Hong Kong becomes most dangerous domain

The Hong Kong .hk domain has jumped 28 places to the most dangerous domain to surf and search on the web according to security experts this week.

Antivirus firm McAfee said Hong Kong takes the mantle from Tokelau, a tiny island of 1,500 inhabitants in the South Pacific.

According to the vendor, 19.2 per cent of all web sites ending in the .hk domain pose a security threat to web users. China (.cn) is second this year with over 11 per cent.

By contrast Finland (.fi) remains the safest online destination for the second year with 0.05 per cent, followed by Japan (.jp).

Scammers targeting LinkedIn

We've been hearing about this for a while already, but Sophos is warning that scammers, particularly of the 419 variety are using LinkedIn to send their messages.

The trick is that using LinkedIn allows scammers to bypass corporate spam filters.