Privacy: IP addresses could become “personal information” in Europe
January 30th, 2008 by Shanmuga
"Could IP addresses soon be considered "personal information" in Europe? The question was discussed yesterday at a hearing before the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee, where European data protection authorities and privacy advocates backed the idea. Google, not surprisingly, wasn’t as thrilled.
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"According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), the number of "vishing" complaints received by the center is increasing at what it calls "an alarming rate." Vishing and phishing are related, and both rely on e-mail as a means of delivering bait, but the two use different hooks in order to snag user data.
"Security experts have warned users to focus on securing their whole online lifestyle in 2008. Care should be taken in all aspects of online services, including bill payments, shopping and stock trading, and not just in the use of social networking and gaming sites.
"The malware threat landscape is changing rapidly and it spells tremendous opportunities for McAfee Inc, the leading antivirus and computer security firm. India is likely to play a great role to help the company meet its challenges, McAfee president and CEO David DeWalt on his first visit to India after assuming office at the Santa Clara-headquartered firm last year.
"…Microsoft Excel files are being used to exploit a zero-day (previously unknown/unpatched) vulnerability and plant keystroke loggers on select (.gov?) networks…bugs in Microsoft Office applications emerged over the last year as standard weapons for criminals conducting corporate espionage and computer attacks against military targets. Last summer, Microsoft’s Office team struggled to keep pace with flaw discoveries and, after a brief lull, it looks like we’ll see much of the same this year.
"Personal information on about 650,000 customers of J.C. Penney and up to 100 other retailers could be compromised after a computer tape went missing. GE Money, which handles credit card operations for Penney and many other retailers, said Thursday night that the missing information includes Social Security numbers for about 150,000 people.
"It’s not science-fiction. It’s a real technology and it cannot be allowed to happen or privacy will vanish. In Microsoft’s vision of tomorrow’s office, according to a report in the London Times, our computers will be constantly monitoring us with wireless sensors. There’s nothing new about Big Brother software. Programs that measure how many keystrokes we make per minute are old hat. If you work in an office and think for one moment that your e-mail, instant messaging or Web-browsing habits are in some way secret, you’re a fool.
"A security researcher has claimed that Yahoo’s system for blocking automated access to its systems - the CAPTCHA image-recognition system - has been effectively cracked. CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) systems are used by Yahoo, as well as Google, Microsoft and others, to stop automated systems from registering web-based email accounts, filling blog comments sections with spam and guessing passwords.
"Microsoft has warned that an unpatched vulnerability in older versions of Excel is being actively exploited by hackers. The bug, which has become the subject of targeted attacks, affects older versions of Excel. Newer versions Excel 2003 SP3 and Excel 2007 are said to be immune. Details of the vulnerability beyond what packages might be affected remain sketchy at best.
