A vicious cyber-virus is crippling the FBI's computer and e-mail systems -- continuing to jam the G-men's vast communications network more than nine days after being first detected, The Post has learned.

As of Thursday, sources said, FBI agents were still unable to e-mail their counterparts in other intelligence and law-enforcement agencies, a crucial post-9/11 necessity.

"Since the beginning of the week ... the private server has been down, and we haven't been able to e-mail each other," one source said.

Posted by Kyle Reiners at 17:11

Security firm Sophos has revealed that cyber crooks have hacked The Moment, one of the Twitter accounts of the New York Times that used to bring news stories from the fashion blog of the paper.

The hacked account was used to send spam message that stated, "Everyone visit [LINK] for 100% FREE webcam girls/guys doing anything you ask them in the chat, I love it personally."

Sophos' senior technology consultant, Graham Cluley stated that the assault is merely an add-on to the long list of cyber assaults on Twitter accounts. He also said that these high-profile accounts have become the hackers' prime target, as even if a smaller number of Internet users open the malicious link in the spam e-mail, the spammers will be successful in their mission, as reported by Help Net Security on May 14, 2009.

Cluley emphasized that it is extremely essential for a higher number of users to become aware of attacks targeted at high-profile sites. They must make sure that their passwords are so difficult for the hackers to crack.

Posted by Nancy Pursley in Virus & AntiVirus News at 10:51

By: Howard Solomon - Network World Canada (28 May 2009)

A Toronto intellectual property lawyer says the proposed law will cause a lot of trouble for business. However, a law professor and member of the 2005 federal Task Force on Spam says the complaints are overstated

Canadian businesses should be wary of the proposed federal anti-malware law, says a Toronto intellectual property lawyer. Bill C-27, formally known as the Electronic Commerce Protection Act “needs some real re-thinking or amendment,” Barry Sookman of the firm McCarthy Tetrault said in an interview. “It has some fatal flaws in it.”

Introduced last month and about to go before Parliament’s Industry committee for detailed examination, the bill forbids anyone from installing a program on a computer that could send an electronic message without the consent of the owner or user. It also forbids anyone in Canada from sending a commercial message to any electronic address unless the receiver has consented. An exception is if the person sending the message has had a business transaction with the recipient in the previous 18 months. Penalties range from up to $1 million for individual violators to up to $10 million for organizations.

The legislation has the backing of a number of IT organizations, such as the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) and the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance (CATA).

But Sookman said Ottawa has drafted the legislation backwards and it may actually harm IT companies. For example, he said, it could be unlawful for a Web site to automatically install Javascript or Flash applets or HTML code on the computers of visitors without getting express – and not implied – consent. Similarly, the law suggests automatic software updates would be illegal, he said. It would be unlawful for a company sending an e-mail to buy more software licences from a vendor if the last business contact it had was more than 18 months before, Sookman said. Even fledgling software developers sending e-mail queries to distributors they’ve never had a commercial relationship with could be caught, he added.

Posted by Kyle Reiners at 17:23

Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 conflicts with version 4.0 of ESET Smart Security and ESET NOD32 Antivirus. An incompatibily between Service Pack 2 and the 4.0 versions of ESET Smart Security and ESET NOD32 Antivirus prevents the proper functioning of real-time file-system protection. The ESET icon next to the system clock will turn red, notifying users that maximum protection is not ensured. An updated build for version 4.0 ESET security products is currently in development and will be released as soon as possible.

If you are running version 4.0 of either ESET Smart Security or ESET NOD32 Antivirus and have installed the latest update for Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, which includes Service Pack 2, you may be experiencing issues with your ESET security product. To learn more about the incompatibilty and how to resolve it, please click here.

Original Story

Posted by Kyle Reiners at 10:11