Computer security software vendor Symantec released an analysis of cyber crime activity for the 2nd half of 2007. Their findings show that two social networking sites together were the target of over 90 percent of U.S. phishing web sites. The two favorite social networks used by cyber criminals and phishers are, not surprisingly, Myspace.com and Facebook.com.

Hijacked social networking pages are used to host malicious software ( known as “malware” ) or links to phishing web sites that are advertised in messages sent to all of the people in the victim’s social network.

Hackers like to steal user names and passwords for Myspace or Facebook accounts because spreading malware through stolen social network accounts is ideal since people are much more likely to click on a link recommended by someone from their circle of friends than they are a link that is sent in a message from an unknown person.

Online criminals are still mostly interested in stealing financial and personal information that can be resold to identity thieves or converted into cash. Data-stealing computer viruses are still one of the best ways to get that information from people.

Source: Washingtonpost.com

This is an election year - a time when public records requests on politicians and candidates peaks. Wisconsin’s WCCO is reporting on a story involving that state’s Republican Party and its filing of a public records requests on a Democrat county supervisor.

A spokesman for the Wisconsin Republican Party, Kirsten Kukowski, confirmed to WCCO that a request has been made for two years of public records on Brown County Supervisor Jack Krueger.

The public records request is seeking to obtain all communications, including, e-mails, phone records and document files involving Krueger from April 15, 2006 to the present.

Krueger is a member of the Brown County Democratic Party and former chairman of Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District Democrats.

Krueger says that he has no idea what the public records request is ultimately after.

Krueger is also the vice chairman of the Brown County Board. He plans to run for board chairman when the new County Board meets on April 15. Kukowski hopes the public records request will be filled before Krueger takes on any new position.

According to Lynn Vanden Langenberg, director of Brown County’s administration department, most of the requested records have been gathered and sent to Brown County Corporation Counsel John Jacques.

Jacques will review the records, like he does with all public records requests, and then Krueger will review them.

By law, there is a three-day period for elected public officials to review public records that are requested about themselves and make clarifications to those records.

Source: WCCO.com

Technology Review recently reported on a new social network that will allow people to compare their DNA with friends and family.

23andme.com is a new social networking site that allows users to submit a saliva sample for DNA testing and compare it with the DNA of friends, family and people around the world to see how similar their genotype is with others.

23andme.com hopes that the unique social network offering will encourage people to get their DNA mapped while, potentially, creating a valuable research resource in the process.

The site will allow users to network with and search for people that share common genetic traits, possibly locating lost family contacts in the process. If the site ever reaches critical mass, it could be a major resource for family tree and genealogy research.

To join 23andme people will need to pay for the $999 DNA testing kit, send in a sample of spit and then receive a personal analysis of nearly 600,000 genetic variations linked to diseases and physical characteristics like eye color, height, hair color and weight.

In addition, the site will emphasize some entertaining angles to personal genomics, including using visualization tools to look at a person’s ancestral lineage and compare it with that of famous celebrities and historical figures.

Advancing the use of social networking, 23andme.com will offer a genome-sharing tool that allows people to compare their DNA with those of family members, friends, and total strangers, who make their DNA information available on the site.

One of the site’s cofounders, Linda Avey, said “It seems like the first natural curiosity people have is, where do I come from? What are my roots? The next question is, how do I compare to other people?”

At this time, the DNA-sharing tool is mostly for personal entertainment. But the site’s ultimate goal is to create a DNA database large enough to reveal scientifically and medically relevant information about a large collection of people.

You can visit the 23andme social network @ 23andme.com .

Source:Technology Review

The Tennessean is reporting on the growing complexity of public records law in Tennessee and the increasing difficulty involved in obtaining public records in that state.

Tennessee opened government records to the general public in 1957, but lawmakers and judges have taken steps over the last 50 years to close many of those records.

There are currently more than 250 exemptions to the Tennessee Public Records Act on the books.

Proponents of public records argue it should not be easy to close public records in Tennessee. They believe that the exemptions are broadly written, which enables needless government secrecy.

There is even a bill moving through the Tennessee state legislature that would close public records that identify citizens licensed to carry handguns.

The executive director for the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, Frank Gibson, says, “any special interest who has a friend in the legislature can get records closed fairly easily.”

According to Charles Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, Tennessee, compared with other states, falls in the middle in terms of the way it closes public records.

Davis points out that Florida has nearly 1,000 closed records. Although the number seems high, Davis claims that Florida should serve as a model for other states, because each exemption is extremely narrow and specifies the exact part of the record that is being closed from public access. Specific criteria must be met in order for a public record in Florida to be closed.

In comparison, Tennessee public records can be entirely closed when only a small piece of information should be kept secret.

Public records laws differ from state to state, however, it is generally accepted that secret information such as a person’s financial records or medical records should be off limits to the public.

In addition, information on national security or trade secrets are considered closed records. It’s also generally understood that law enforcement professionals need to keep investigations secret while the case is open.

However, some public records exemptions aren’t easy to excuse.

In Tennessee, morbidity and mortality records on nursing home residents is kept confidential.

Gibson says that educating the public on the importance of open records is one of the biggest challenges to changing public records laws.

“The problem is, citizens do not seem too concerned until it is an issue that involves them,” says Gibson. “If it’s emotional enough, like the gun issue, you’re able to argue, ‘Hey, there’s states giving gun permits to convicted felons — are you sure you want to close this?”

Source: The Tennessean

A group of German hackers have threatened to publish German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s fingerprints in protest of the government’s use of biometric information in passports.

The hackers are part of Germany’s oldest and biggest hacker group, called the Chaos Computer Club. Last Saturday the group published German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble’s fingerprints in their magazine.

Schaeubele’s prints were lifted from a drinking glass he used at a public debate.

The group is upset with Merkel over her support for increased use of biometric data.

German passports issued since November 2007 use a biometric computer chip that contains a copy of the owner’s fingerprints which can be used by immigration authorities for identification.

The Chaos Computer Club argues that a person’s fingerprints are a bad choice for identification purposes since they are easy to obtain and reproduce. The CCC’s website publishes a 12-point lesson for creating a fake set of fingerprints.

The CCC does not believe that fingerprints offer increased security benefits, but, rather, are being used to increase the surveillance of everyday citizens.

Source: Breitbart.com

According to a news report from the Times Online there is a new Facebook application that uses positioning technology to pinpoint a person’s location using information retrieved from cell phone communications.

The Social Network Integrated Friend Finder (SNIFF for short) is a software tool that can be used through Facebook or a cell phone to find the location of a friend or family member.

A US company called Useful Networks developed the Sniff application has said that only people who give their permission can be electronically traced by the service. The Sniff software can operate across all cell phone service providers. Sniff users can specify which people can and can not track them, or whether they are willing to be sniffed by any person on the network.

Sniff is the first Facebook tool that charges a premium to peoples’ cell phone bills. The biggest users are currently in Sweden, where wireless-connected members on Facbook have integrated the software into their profile pages.

“Sniffing” works with the same technology used by the law enforcement to track down criminals or missing persons by their cell phones. The phone sends a signal to nearby cell towers. Positioning technology then calculates the persons physical location by using a triangulation measurement.

People who are lost could also use the tool to find their own location by “sniffing” themselves through their cell phone number.

The service could also be used by employers to track workers who use a company’s cell phones as part of their jobs.

The technology could also be used by a spouse or family member to keep tabs on a husband, wife or kid.

The Sniff people finder tool is able to locate a person within a radius of about 650 feet, or 200 meters.

Source: Times Online

The UK’s Times Online is reporting that the CIA is using servers equipped with Google search engine technology to share information gathered on suspects.

US government agencies like the National Security Agency have purchased servers loaded with Google search technology to process information gathered by their network of spies around the world.

Google also provides the search engine technologoy for a Wikipedia-style site, called Intellipedia, where agents can post intelligence information about their targets that can be accessed and modified by other intelligence professionals.

Intellipedia allows agents to post intelligence information to a secured wiki forum that other spies can read, edit, and tag like other Web 2.0 collaboration sites.

Thus far 37,000 intelligence professionals have created accounts on Intellipedia, and the database now contains 35,000 articles.

Intellipedia is hosted by the director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, and is available only to the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency, and other intelligence departments.

Source: Times Online

The Associated Press is reporting on a very unique missing persons story that had a happy ending thanks to an anonymous tip sent on MySpace.com.

Tiffany Rubin found her abducted son Kobe Lee after she received an anonymous tip through her MySpace page. Someone spotted her 7-year-old son along with her ex-boyfriend in South Korea and contacted her throught the popular social networking website.

Tiffany caught a flight to South Korea on Sunday. She then sneaked into her son’s school, found him in class, disguised him with a wig and sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy before she brought him home Wednesday.

She had been looking for her son since Aug. 21, after her ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Salko took off with him after a visit.

At the time of the abduction, her boyfriend had joint custody of Kobe Lee, but was facing six months in jail for not paying child support.

After he ex disappeared with her son, Rubin feared that Salko, born in South Korea, had taken the boy out of the country.

Her fears were realized when she hacked into Salko’s e-mail account, where she found an e-mail he had sent to a friend saying he was flying to South Korea.

The FBI issued a warrant for Salko’s arrest, but Rubin didn’t get her lucky break until January.

She received a message on her MySpace page from a person who had seen her son and knew where he went to school.

Shortly after, she flew to South Korea with Miller and Bazzel Baz, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Association for the Recovery of Children, to find Kobe.

Rubin explained who she was to her son’s teacher and said she needed to speak with him. Then she walked out of the building with Kobe and took a cab to the American embassy.

The next day, Tiffany and Kobe returned home.

The FBI is currently working with South Korean authorities to have Salko arrested and extradited.

Source: Yahoo.com

UBFound.com is a free people search that allows users to post information about the person they are looking for to the website.

Your people search post on UBFound.com will then get submitted to the major search engines in the hope that the person you are looking for or someone they know will find your post and respond.

This is a very passive people search, and I wouldn’t rely on it as the only way to find a person, but it could be one more tool to consider when trying to find someone.

UBFound’s people search service is like a modern day message in a bottle. They broadcast your people search online through the major search engines like Google and Yahoo, hoping that the person you are looking for or someone who knows them finds you through a web search.

Using UBFound’s people search service along with other people finder tools, both online and offline, would definitely be the way to go when looking for someone.

You can visit UBFound’s site at UBFound.com.

Washington Times reporter Bill Gertz is reporting that the US Government’s Printing Office is outsourcing the production of its electronic passports to overseas companies, including one Thailand company that was the victim of Chinese espionage efforts.

The outsourcing of passports raises concerns that the government is putting cost savings ahead of national security.

The Government Printing Office’s decision to outsource the work has proved profitable, allowing the agency to earn more than $100 million in recent profits by charging the State Department more money for blank passports than it actually costs to make them.

US lawmakers said they are concerned by these findings and plan to investigate why U.S. companies weren’t used to produce the state-of-the-art passports, one of the cornerstones of American border and national security.

GPO officials as well as the Homeland Security and the State Departments played down security concerns, saying they are confident that timely audits and other protections in place will stop terrorists and foreign spies from stealing the sensitive information to make fake passports.

However, GPO Inspector General J. Anthony Ogden doesn’t share that confidence. He warned in an internal Oct. 12 report that there are “significant deficiencies with the manufacturing of blank passports, security of components, and the internal controls for the process.”

The electronic passports contain a small computer chip inside the back cover that contains the passport number, photo and other personal information of the holder.

The Netherlands-based company that assembles the U.S. electronic passport covers in Thailand, Smartrac Technology Ltd., warned in its latest annual report that, in a worst-case scenario, social unrest in Thailand could lead to a halt in passport production.

Smartrac divulged in an October 2007 court filing in The Hague that China had stolen its patented technology for e-passport chips, raising additional questions about the security of the US passports.

Stolen blank electronic passports are the most problematic because they are the hardest to detect with current security procedures.

The GPO plans to produce 28 million blank passports this year up from about 9 million five years ago.

Source: WashingtonTimes.com