The Last Watchdog

on Internet security by Byron Acohido

Iran inadvertantly wages cyber war — on itself
June 18, 2009

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Iran has become the first nation-state to wage cyber war — on itself. At least that’s the notion posited by Computerworld reporter Patrick Thibodeau in this story,  and reinforced by Arbor Networks researcher Craig Labovitz in this blog post.

Arbor’s graph below show the effects of the state-owned Data communication Company of Iran, or DCI’s, move on June 13th to cut off all  upstream Internet traffic providers. The result: a near complete loss of Web traffic into and …More

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Iranian activists use Twitter, proxy servers to deliver news from the streets
June 16, 2009

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iran_protests1What do cyber intruders, privacy advocates and Iranian protestors have in common?

Proxy servers.

The technology that enables hackers and champions of privacy to cover their online tracks is now being used by Iranian activists to subvert government attempts to cut off their access to Twitter and Facebook.

Consider the sequence of events since last Saturday, when protestors took to the streets of Tehran to protest the disputed re-election President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

The …More

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Scareware attacks spreading to Twitter, Google and legit media websites
June 10, 2009

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privacycenter_twittered_crop2My USA TODAY cover story on the proliferation of scareware – and the ostentatious profits earned by top scareware affiliates — has struck a nerve.

Readers’ comments include musings about why banks and credit card companies don’t do more to police the online payment systems they supply for use by scareware traffickers. Some consumers bedeviled by obnoxious scareware promos are beginning to wonder why big media websites and the …More

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How the proliferation of ’scareware’ fuels cybercrime
June 10, 2009

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By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY
Scareware has become the scourge of the Internet.

Find initial version of this article here.

090610_scarewareThose deceptive promotions crafted to panic you into spending $30 to $80 for worthless antivirus protection can hit you just about anywhere you turn on the Web. They arrive as booby-trapped Web links in e-mail and social network messages. They lurk hidden, and set to activate, when you click to popular, legitimate websites.

BLOG: …More

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