Thursday, February 20, 2003

Teenaged girl social engineers the hacker who ripped off her dad. A teenaged girl who, at 12, was duped into installing a trojan on her father's PC by a flirty Lothario, has run the little fraudster to ground. The hacker used the trojan to acquire her father's credit-card number and run up charges, and then came back for more. The girl flirted back, sending her crooked suitor a quiz that asked for his personal info, a successful social engineering hack that resulted in his arrest. "I told him I wanted to see if we matched up. I was laughing when he e-mailed me back with all his details. He gave his name, address and even his mobile phone, which I had not asked for." Danielle passed on this information to the police who were able to track him down to Moffat, near Dumfries in Scotland, through the email address he used to flirt with the young Nottingham girl. Link Discuss [Boing Boing Blog] This is the type of people we need more of!  You go Girl! 5:22:57 PM    comment []

businesstoday.com ( Boston Herald ) - Fed allows banks to gather personal data: Rule change affects nonmortgage loans. Housing advocacy groups praised the Federal Reserve's move yesterday to end a ban that has kept lenders from tracking the race and other characteristics of applicants for nonmortgage loans. Advocates said the move could help heighten awareness of lending practices and help avoid discrimination. ``It's a step in the right direction,'' said Abbey Cook, of the Boston chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. ``How can we detect discrimination if we don't really know exactly what is going on?'' But Cook said she would like the Fed to require the banks to report the data to the public. The Fed's rule change, effective April 15, merely lets banks collect personal information about nonmortgage loan applicants - it doesn't require it. The banks that collect such information could choose to release the data or keep it, a Fed spokeswoman said. The Fed has banned banks it regulates from inquiring about or noting the personal characteristics of nonmortgage loan applicants since 1976. The Fed eased the ban yesterday to help lenders examine their own policies and make sure they comply with federal lending laws. [Privacy Digest] 5:20:30 PM    comment []

Why Iraq Probably Has Smallpox. As war with Iraq approaches, there are reports circulating about whether Iraq has weaponized smallpox. Today there exists no solid evidence for that proposition. However, the indirect evidence is very alarming... In 1995, with the defection of Saddam's son in law, the world learned that Iraq had successfully been hiding a massive bioweapons program from the inspectors. Hints were found that smallpox was one of the weapons: an empty freezer was found marked "smallpox;" Iraqi's claimed to have been experimenting with camelpox - which makes no sense except as a proxy for smallpox. Smallpox samples were commonly kept in countries... [Useful Fools] 4:52:49 PM    comment []

Banks attempt to cover up worst PIN vulnerability yet. As summarised on Cryptome, a new vulnerability (PDF) has been discovered in the crypto co-processors used by banks worldwide which allows insiders to trivially find out PINs of any or all of that bank's customers. The attack was discovered by Ross Anderson and Mike Bond in the course of their investigation into a "Phantom Withdrawal" court case where a bank customer had money debited from their account but denied that their card or PIN was used. In a new twist Citibank has applied for a court order (PDF) which could prevent public disclosure of this flaw. Ross Anderson has produced a response (PDF) opposing such an order. [kuro5hin.org] 4:49:29 PM    comment []

Jet Blue Redefines "on Hold" "Clive sez: I was supposed to fly to San Francisco on Jetblue this morning, but the northeast blizzard has grounded all flights. So I'm on the phone to Jetblue trying frantically to get rebooked -- when I discover they have the finest 'hold' message on the planet. Here's my transcription of it: 'You know, everyone seems to think being on hold is a bad thing. Let's re-examine this, shall we? Don't look at it as being on hold. Look at it as being held! Because we all like to be held -- don't we? For example, when you're sitting in front of a fire with someone special, being held is very comforting. Or when you're upset about something, being held can make you feel a whole lot better. Or when walking in the park with our significant other, we like our hands to be held. Or even coming home from school and having your books held. You see? It's not all that bad. So remember. Don't look on it as being on hold. Look on it as being held!' " [Boing Boing Blog] [The Shifted Librarian] 4:42:52 PM    comment []