http://www.castlecops.com CastleCops News Copyright © 2002-2005 2008-07-05T15:45:27-05:00 http://www.castlecops.com/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://www.castlecops.com/article-6914-nested-0-0.html http://www.castlecops.com/article-6914-nested-0-0.html Web Site Defaced 2008-06-28T16:21:44-05:00
I really do not like failure, and being a scientist and being rather prone to introspection, I have often revisited a basic premise that my good friends and I shared in our endeavor to redefine Team CastleCops. That premise can be readily articulated: citizen participation can indeed contribute positively and substantively to the advancement of scientific research.]]> http://www.castlecops.com/article-6913-nested-0-0.html http://www.castlecops.com/article-6913-nested-0-0.html Team CastleCops 2008-06-26T17:04:45-05:00
The Electronic Frontier Foundation weighed in this week on the Jammie Thomas file-swapping case, where the judge has asked for public comment on whether just making a file available for download on a P2P network should count as copyright infringement. In its filing, the EFF goes for the jugular, seeking to show that the RIAA's entire approach to file-swapping cases is flawed.

Not only does the Copyright Act not grant a making available right, the EFF said, but trade groups also shouldn't be allowed to claim that an actual distribution took place based solely on downloads from their own investigators. Together, this two-part theory would effectively eviscerate the RIAA's current legal campaign by making it nearly impossible for copyright holders to show that infringing distributions to the public have taken place over P2P networks.

As published by Nate Anderson | June 22, 2008 - 09:03PM CT.
]]> http://www.castlecops.com/article-6912-nested-0-0.html http://www.castlecops.com/article-6912-nested-0-0.html General News 2008-06-25T12:59:52-05:00
Online media company Revision3 says that it is the victim of a cyberattack launched by MediaDefender, a company that fights illegal peer-to-peer distribution of media on behalf of major entertainment companies.

Revision3, the host of Internet shows such as Diggnation, was inaccessible over the weekend. Company CEO Jim Louderback blames the outage on a denial-of-service attack initiated by MediaDefender. Louderback says the FBI is investigating, and he is critical of MediaDefender\'s vigilante approach to fighting copyright piracy.]]> http://www.castlecops.com/article-6911-nested-0-0.html http://www.castlecops.com/article-6911-nested-0-0.html Cyber Security 2008-06-13T13:55:54-05:00
China today denied allegations from two U.S. congressmen that the nation had cracked their way into congressional computer systems. In fact, says China\'s Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang, China doesn\'t even have the skills to do so.

That\'s right. In this news story, the AP quoted Gang as saying Is there any evidence? ... Do we have such advanced technology? Even I don\'t believe it.

We\'re supposed to believe that a nuclear-armed superpower, with a growing space program, who has more Internet users than the U.S. doesn\'t have the people with the necessary skills or technology needed to give cyber-snooping a whirl?]]> http://www.castlecops.com/article-6910-nested-0-0.html http://www.castlecops.com/article-6910-nested-0-0.html Gov't Security 2008-06-13T13:51:10-05:00
Kaspersky Lab is reporting that they have intercepted a new variant of a malicious virus that encrypts important files on an infected desktop and demands payment for a key to recover the data. they refer to it as Gpcode. But this time it is using the RSA encryption algorithm with a 1024-bit key! This makes it impossible to crack this Ransomware, without without the author’s key.

The author did bide his time, waiting almost two years before creating a new, improved variant of this file encryptor. Gpcode.ak does not repeat the errors found in previous versions of the virus. Back in 2006 when Kaspersky detected the first versions of Gpcode using RSA, it sounded an alarm: we warned that we wouldn't be able to help decrypt encrypted files if the virus writer implemented the RSA encryption algorithm correctly. It would be a case for law enforcement; encrypting files in this way is tantamount to a cybercriminal copying user files to his own machine, and deleting them from the users infected machine without consent – an illegal action.

Via WinVistaClub]]> http://www.castlecops.com/article-6909-nested-0-0.html http://www.castlecops.com/article-6909-nested-0-0.html Cyber Security 2008-06-11T04:55:09-05:00
There\'s a new report out by a company which shows that there might be thousands of sites which have weak sanitation policies. The report details how conesfree.com seems to have injected scripts via the search functionality on these sites to direct users to their content. This is a classic XSS/CSS attack, the surprising thing is the scale. Also, pretty well known sites are listed in the report.

A short and interesting read :-)

]]> http://www.castlecops.com/article-6908-nested-0-0.html http://www.castlecops.com/article-6908-nested-0-0.html Security Hole 2008-06-11T04:50:27-05:00
A network printer should not be the target of a DMCA takedown notice from US copyright holders, but researchers at the University of Washington have shown just how simple it is to frame any particular IP address as an infringing BitTorrent user. The researchers used their technique to attract nearly 500 DMCA takedown notices, all of them bogus and some of them targeting nonsensical devices. Their work shows how difficult it can be to pin down Internet pirates.

The researchers were able to show that indirect detection is still widely used. By using 13 different machines on the University of Washington campus, the researchers were able to advertise our presence as a potential replica without uploading or downloading any file data whatsoever. Despite having no infringing content on their machines, the takedown notices poured in, meaning that direct detection could not have been used in these cases.

more can be found here
]]> http://www.castlecops.com/article-6907-nested-0-0.html http://www.castlecops.com/article-6907-nested-0-0.html General News 2008-06-09T04:46:26-05:00
Effective May 16th I have accepted a new opportunity as a full time Internet Safety Investigator for Microsoft's Live Consumer Services. My areas include investigations into phishing, spam, and other Live service abuses.

Managing the CastleCops network has come at a cost both personally and financially. Since I can no longer sustain the level of support required that makes CastleCops successful, I am working on finding new management and making the transition to them.
 
My family and I are very energetic and enthusiastic about these new changes in our lives. Going forward I will be operating as a Microsoft employee.
 
Thank you,

Paul Laudanski  

Forum Thread]]> http://www.castlecops.com/article-6906-nested-0-0.html http://www.castlecops.com/article-6906-nested-0-0.html CastleCops 2008-06-04T17:41:03-05:00
Microsoft is investigating new public reports of a blended threat that allows remote code execution on all supported versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista when Apple’s Safari for Windows has been installed. Safari is not installed with Windows XP or Windows Vista by default; it must be installed independently or through the Apple Software Update application. Customers running Safari on Windows should review the Microsoft Security Advisory 953818.

An attacker could exploit the vulnerability by tricking a user into visiting a maliciously crafted Web site, which would initiate the download of malware without requiring the victim to take additional actions, according to Microsoft.

Via WinVistaClub]]> http://www.castlecops.com/article-6905-nested-0-0.html http://www.castlecops.com/article-6905-nested-0-0.html CastleCops 2008-05-31T19:16:25-05:00