Dutch Teen Busted for Virtual Theft

Malware allowed hacker access to fans' computer data

(NEWSER) - Paul McCartney's official web site was infected with malware that allowed hackers to access computer data of fans who logged on, reports the Telegraph. An internet security surveillance firm spotted the LuckySpoilt invasion early this week and purged the site. It's unclear how many users may have been affected. Hits to McCartney's website have skyrocketed since the singer reappeared with Ringo Starr for a benefit concert last Saturday. More»

Next president must find right balance of regulation for internet safegaurds

(NEWSER) - Noting that both candidates have plans to ensure our collective cyber security, Bruce Schneier, in Wired, lays out some essential policy advice for the next president:

• Use the government’s enormous purchasing power to make security software producers do better. Make security requirements for government software high, and those improvements will be included in the security products offered to the public.

Small but significant number of cases vulnerable

(NEWSER) - Oops. Now that millions of people have downloaded encrypted information like credit card and bank account numbers onto the Internet, a team of mathematicians and cryptographers have located a crucial flaw in online encryption. The flaw concerns the way the system generates random numbers to create a code critical to protecting digital information. In the system, randomly-generated prime numbers are used to create a public "key," which is used in a formula to encrypt information. The original, randomly generated numbers are kept secret. But in a small but significant number of cases, the random-number key generation system failed to work properly. The researchers found in certain cases that numbers were not truly random, making it possible to determine the secret keys used to generate the public key. The problem can only be fixed by software and Internet operations, not consumers. More»

Firm is responsible for delivering people to more than half of all websites

(NEWSER) - Hackers managed to break into the servers of a crucial web company responsible for delivering users to more than half the websites in the world. VeriSign doesn't believe the attackers infiltrated its Domain Name System network—which is responsible for directing traffic to .com, .net, and .gov addresses on the Internet—but it can't rule it out. The attacks occurred in 2010, but only came to light today, when Reuters spotted them in an October SEC filing. More»

Once again: 'Password' is not a good choice to beat hackers

(NEWSER) - Lots of people are still lousy at choosing computer passwords. Mashable picks up on the annual list of most-hacked passwords from SplashData. The usual suspects are still at the top:

1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon