Google AdWords can now be paid via WebMoney.Ru - Ukraine

The Ukrainian office of Google has officially confirmed option to pay Google AdWords online payment via WebMoney.Ru.

This is an irony as webmoney.ru is the biggest payment route for spammers, hackers and cybercrime affiliates.

Payment can be made through the site Ukrbuy.com. On the need to specify the sum of say $200 USD, your ID in your AdWords and bank account number is Google, which is associated with your account.

In your AdWords account payment method should be selected "Bank Transfer".Currently, such payments are not instantaneous, as the funds will go to your AdWords account within 2 days.

Cybercrime victim every 7 seconds in the UK

The UK was bombarded by an estimated 3.7 billion phishing emails in the last 12 months, virtually all originating from outside the UK.

This has lead to £1.3 billion in online fraud losses. Is it time for UK industry to be more proactive in the training and education of Internet users? http://henew.com/aaffy

US raises objections over ICQ sale plans

ICQ Goes to Moscow based Digital Sky Technologies -

“Every bad guy known to man uses ICQ,”

FT.com / Media - US raises objections over ICQ sale plans

Cyber Spies or Budget Hype ?

It is somewhat a surprise or for the thoughtful reader maybe not, why such scare reports as 'Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated By Spies' emerge from time to time, and their co-incidental timing with budget preparations. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair is 'again' advising lawmakers of the dire consequences if the Department of Homeland Security is not provided immediately with extra large budget for cyber security.

We should ask, before any further money is spent, what happened to the $17 billion expended to protect such utilities from cyber attack and hackers as from 2001? Quite frankly modern solutions from Free and Open Source IDS (intrusion detection systems) routes would resolve such hacker issues, if they really exist.

That is the crucial question, are the attacks real? In all the recent reports on Chinese government inspired hacking of Western governmental systems, even the authors of such reports who coincidentally are also sponsored by DHS. Within the small print of the reports they are forced to stress there is no proof of such attacks actually coming from the Chinese or any other foreign government source.

See also:

Report Says Hackers Have Penetrated Power Grid

Has the power grid been penetrated by enemies?

DVD and Game Rip Offs Equal Prosperity for the Dutch

The Economic Research and the Institute for Information Law in Holland, showed that there are positive economic effects for illegal file sharing of hacked entertainment products on Dutch welfare, in these tough economic times. They believe the average file down loader buys more DVDs , music, and games than people who never download.

They estimate some 4.7 million Dutch Internet users aged 15 and older in the last 12 months downloaded hacked DVDs, games and music. This would imply a staggering 25% the population of Holland , from the 2008 figure of 16.5 million. Most Dutch apparently see the download and share music, movies and games as socially acceptable.

The report went on to say, that it appeared many were unclear about the legality or illegality of such downloads. Most personally view the download for personal use of copyrighted music and movies is OK, but agreed downloading games is maybe illegal. In the case of the many Dutch operated P2P (peer to peer) networks now mostly based on the USENET, such rip offs are often not only downloaded, but the material is automatically made available to others.

Of course what the report did not cover is much of the 'Warez' or 'Hacking is often associated with organized cyber crime. It is now the case that Holland has now become one of major centers for hosting; rip offs, scams, and other cyber crime. The key Dutch host for badness was originally AS29073 ECATEL as a major center, especially when McColo went down, see "Atrivo, McColo and now Ecatel" or "Ecatel’s harboring of SpamBots and Malware causes BGP Peers to stop peering with them."

However the key hosting currently in Holland for badness is AS16265 LeaseWeb AS Amsterdam, (NL). In a recent case at the Amsterdam District Court, LeaseWeb was ordered to take down such sites, which list bittorrent/edonkey files. This followed international pressure from the Motion Picture Association (MPA) International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the Business Software Alliance, however USENET groups have now proved a useful alternative.

The full 142 page report from The Economic Research and the Institute for Information Law in Holland (Dutch) is available here

Obama Fake Websites Spread Malware

Watch out for the Obama fake website spam campaign centered around the inauguration. The main fake web site was superobamaonline com , which has now been taken offline, however more are likely to appear. Many of the spam emails announce "Barack Obama has refused to be a President"

This domain shows registration via XIN NET TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION of China, however this domain registrar has been primarily used by Russian cyber criminals, for these purposes.

Essentially these fake websites are 'fast-flux' botnet hosted around the globe,the links via spam email point to a file called speech.exe, which is a Waledec malware variant.

Worm - Conficker, Kido, or Downadup,

First discovered in October 08, Conficker, Kido, or Downadup, is a very sophisticated worm, but the updated version from two weeks ago is much more serious. Essentially it becomes part of MS Windows services.exe, and then establishes an HTTP server from the infected PC.

It automatically generates 100's of domain names to fool any tracking, but only one is the real site that downloads the cyber criminals codes or instruction set. It also enables replication via USB sticks and across office networks. It appears to be especially timed to take advantage of the holidays, and lack of IT staff around.

Microsoft has patched, however the ongoing problem resides where many PCs do not have the latest MS patches, i.e. MS patch MS08-067. Estimates vary from 1 - 9 million PCs infected worldwide. "

Thanks to F-Secure who also have a free download for removal