Week in review: Data breaches, prison terms and cyber attacks

Here’s an overview of some of last week’s most interesting news, articles and videos:

Security consultant turned hacker sentenced to 13 years in prison
Max Ray Vision, a 37-year-old hacker from San Francisco, has earned himself a 13 year long prison sentence on account of stealing two million credit card numbers from banks, businesses and even other hackers.

Shell’s employee database breached: 170,000 records compromised
Oil giant Shell was unpleasantly surprised when it received news of a database containing contact information of some 170,000 of their workers having been emailed to seven non-governmental groups and one anti-Shell website.

Fake AV with online support service
One of the latest methods used to improve the chances of the victim buying the software was seen in the Live PC Care campaign.

Backup WordPress automatically with Backupify
You backup your computer, but do you backup your online activities?

US cyclist Floyd Landis wanted for hacking
It seems that using forbidden substances to gain an advantage over the other athletes is not the only thing Landis did wrong.

Top 25 most dangerous programming errors
Educating programmers on how to eliminate all-too-common mistakes before software is even shipped.

Malware cause of Blue Screens of Death following latest patch?
Microsoft’s Security Response Center has investigated the issue and came out with the solution in a day.

Mock cyber attack shows US unpreparedness
During the simulated cyber attack one thing became clear: the US are still not ready to deflect or mitigate such an attack to an extent that would not affect considerably the everyday life of its citizens. See also video.

A closer look at System Surveillance Pro 5.5
System Surveillance Pro logs keystrokes, monitors applications, tracks visited websites, records instant message conversations and captures screenshots of the computer desktop.

Global network of infected devices unearthed
A team of Czech researchers has discovered a global network of virus-infected devices that makes it possible to redirect the flow of information coming from the users to servers where “wiretapping” can be set up.

Man gets 309 years in prison for identity theft
Robert Thompson, the leader of a massive identity theft and bribery scheme, was sentenced based on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud, computer fraud, access device fraud, aggravated identity theft, money laundering, and obstruction of justice.

Massive ZeuS compromise discovered
NetWitness analysts have discovered a dangerous new ZeuS botnet affecting 75,000 systems in 2,500 organizations around the world.

Policing your IT police: Proactive security
IT teams need a security solution that is proactive, not reactive: one that is capable of policing itself, and keeping ahead of threats.

Google attacks linked to two Chinese schools
New findings regarding the origins of the January attacks have come to light, and they point to two academic institutions in China. Also, there are indications that the attacks can be dated way back to April 2009.

Fuzzing: Build security in
Fuzzing is a software testing technique, in which unexpected data is fed to the inputs of a system, and the behavior of the system is then monitored.

School allegedly spied student at home via webcam
Some very disturbing news has surfaced regarding an alleged invasion of privacy in a Philadelphia suburb.

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