February 11, 1926 – November 28, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
What's Better Than Turkey on Thanksgiving?
A win over the Cincinnati Bengals by my NY Jets! Yes!
Now looking forward to the Monday Night Football match-up between the Jets and the Patriots on December 6th.
J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets!
- ferg
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
DoJ Seeks to Broaden Patriot Act on Asset Freezes
Joseph Palazzolo writes in the WSJ:
More here.
After two losses in court, the Justice Department is pushing Congress to broaden a provision of the Patriot Act that allows U.S. judges to freeze assets linked to foreign crimes.
In recent cases in New York and Washington, D.C., federal judges ruled the Justice Department acted prematurely on requests by foreign governments for restraining orders against hundreds of millions of dollars in assets allegedly controlled by a Russian businessman and a Brazilian banker, both ensnared in criminal investigations in their native countries.
The cases have raised questions about the extent to which U.S. prosecutors and courts should rely on the legal processes of foreign governments, particularly in countries with unproven or uneven criminal justice systems. The issue has taken on more weight amid a global trend for greater international cooperation in law enforcement, spurred in large part by the U.S.
The courts ruled the department may seek to have assets frozen based on a judgment from a foreign court, but not on allegations of violations of foreign law or temporary orders by foreign courts.
That reading of the law, prosecutors argued in pleadings, could hamper "significant national interests" by undermining the Justice Department's ability to assist foreign governments during—rather than after—criminal investigations.
More here.
Teen Gang Admits Huge Zeus Trojan Fraud
John E. Dunn writes on Techworld.com:
More here.
In a crime story that sounds like an Internet update of the Italian Job, a gang of British teens have admitted being behind an online forum that stole and marketed stolen credit card numbers and bank details worth an estimated £12 million ($18 million).
The main admin of the forum, Ghostmarket.net, is said to have been Nicholas Webber, who was 18 at the time of his arrest in 2009 after he tried to pay a £1,000 hotel bill in London using stolen card details.
After his arrest with an alleged accomplice, 18-year old Ryan Thomas, police examined his laptop and found 100,000 UK and US credit card numbers. The pair subsequently jumped bail before being re-arrested at Gatwick Airport in January 2010, after flying back to the UK from Spain.
Webber and Thomas have now pleaded guilty to running the forum, while a third, Gary Kelly, 20 at the time of the crimes, has admitted culling numbers from botnet PCs infected with the Zeus banking password-stealing Trojan. Two other defendants in their early twenties have pleaded guilty to acting as money mules.
More here.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Escrow Co. Sues Bank Over $440K Cyber Theft
Brian Krebs:
More here.
An escrow firm in Missouri is suing its bank to recover $440,000 that organized cyber thieves stole in an online robbery earlier this year, claiming the bank’s reliance on passwords to secure high-dollar transactions failed to measure up to federal e-banking security guidelines.
The attack against Springfield, Mo. based title insurance provider Choice Escrow and Land Title LLC began late in the afternoon on St. Patrick’s Day, when hackers who had stolen the firm’s online banking ID and password used the information to make a single unauthorized wire transfer for $440,000 to a corporate bank account in Cyprus.
The following day, when Choice Escrow received a notice about the transfer from its financial institution — Tupelo, Miss. based BancorpSouth Inc. — it contacted the bank to dispute the transfer. But by the close of business on March 18, the bank was distancing itself from the incident and its customer, said Jim A. Payne, director of business development for Choice Escrow.
“They said, ‘We’re going to get back to you, we’re working on it,” Payne said. “What they really were doing is contacting their legal department and figuring out what they were going to say to us. It took them until 5 p.m. to call us back, and they basically said, ‘Sorry, we can’t help you. This is your responsibility.”
More here.
Woman Admits Aiding Firm in Selling Fake Chips to U.S. Military
Robert McMillan writes on ComputerWorld:
More here.
A Florida woman has pleaded guilty to charges that she helped her employer sell counterfeit computer chips for use by the U.S. military
Stephanie McCloskey, 38, was an administrator at VisionTech Components, a Clearwater, Florida, company that sold military-grade integrated circuits designed to handle extreme temperatures and the shocks and bumps of battlefield use. McCloskey pleaded guilty Friday to a single conspiracy charge. She faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Prosecutors say that VisionTech did more than $15.8 million in business over a three-year period, doctoring and then selling counterfeit integrated circuits imported from Hong Kong and China.
More here.
SecondShaadi.com
While browsing through some news article on my Google Reader, the following ad caught my eye:
A quick Google search, and I bumped into so many matrimonial sites that cater to divorcees or widowed persons who seek another chance at the altar – SecondShaadi.com, Thesecondmarriage.com, doosravivaah.com, indiaremarry.com, and so many more!
So, is India ready for “I do”, a second time?
I will park aside the age-old debate for and against matrimonial advertisements – It makes for a separate blog entry, if at all. I am a fence-sitter as far as this issue goes – At an obvious level, ads seeking “grooms from respectable families with over 5-digit salary” and “fair, homely and convent-educated girls”, seem to commodify and commercialize the institution of marriage. But then, how is it different from going out to a singles’ club, blind dates or dates fixed by friends etc.?
Society makes marriage a complicated affair – So I will move past this discussion.
Does this spurt in such sites that are tailor-made for second marriages indicate that finally our hypocritical, closed society is trying to open up? Or is it simply a case of market dynamics – websites giving second marriages a fillip?
Whatever be the reason, I see this as a welcome dimension in our society. Inspite of increased awareness and education levels in our society, divorcees, widows and widowers largely remain outcast! If we, as a people, accept that we cannot snatch away the choice of a second innings from someone, I view the growing popularity of these sites as a mark of a more mature social structure that is moving away from the rigid beliefs and traditions and paving way for a much more inclusive community living!
Another interesting article that I came across mentioned that even though the second marriage market appears more skewed to men, there is also a considerable number of single/divorced/ widowed Indian women of the age of 50 and above registered at this site. This is a very heartening fact. Traditionally, re-marriage of women has always been a taboo. But, guess no longer so.
In this age of skepticism, it seems like the value of the institution of marriage, which is nothing but a socially acceptable form of mutual companionship, is here to stay - so what if a little handholding from the marriage portals is required! :)
Friday, November 19, 2010
Tarot Rediscovered
Oddly enough, I rediscovered my old Tarot deck today -- I hadn't touched it in almost 5 years.
It still amazes me how intuitive it is.
Just an oddball comment.
- ferg
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Malaysian Man Hacked into U.S. Fedederal Reserve Bank
A Reuters newswire article, via Bank Systems & Technologies, reports:
More here.
A Malaysian man was charged with hacking into the computer network of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank and possessing more than 400,000 stolen credit cards and debit cards, U.S. prosecutors said Thursday.
The man, identified as Lin Mun Poo by prosecutors in New York City's borough of Brooklyn, was arrested on Oct. 21 hours after his arrival in the United States and is being held pending his case before a federal judge.
"The defendant made a career of compromising computer servers belonging to financial institutions, defense contractors, and major corporations, among others, and selling or trading the information contained therein for exploitation by others," Loretta Lynch, the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, said in a statement.
The statement said he planned to obtain more stolen financial account information from other hackers, which he planned to use and sell. U.S. Secret Service agents seized his encrypted laptop computer.
More here.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Of new feats…
Last weekend was spent in an out-bound training camp at Coorg (Madikeri) in Karnataka and need I say what awesome fun we had!
After a 6-hr train journey (from Chennai), followed by a 6-hr overnight bus journey (from Bangalore), the luscious green of this beautiful hilly district on the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats is a rejuvenating sight.
Here’s a picture of our camp site, taken at around 6AM on the day we reached.
Apart from the regular group activities and games, we really enjoyed jumping endlessly on the trampoline and lazing around on the hammocks.
However, the highlight of the trip was waterfall rappelling (from a height of 120 ft)! I think this is easily the most adventurous thing I have ever done. It was thrilling, a wee-bit unnerving, and physically taxing – I got slightly wounded on the elbows and legs when I lost balance somewhere in the beginning, but then what is a winning warrior without the victory scars :D!
I have been basking in the glory of the achievement ever since, and, yes, it is going to take a while for me to “deflate”:p.
So this is yours truly on the walk to fame….
And, here’s the full view of the very picturesque waterfall…
This was my first visit to a coffee plantation, and I realize coffee plants don’t make as wonderful and grand a sight as tea estates! We tried looking for ripe coffee berries, but apparently this was not the season – most were green or barely turning red (much to J’s disappointment)…
Apart from the rappelling, our constant engagement with the blood sucking monsters during the treks was the defining element of the trip. These bloody leeches were everywhere – their vicious fangs on so many of us. Thank god for A who got salt (the uncrowned hero of the trip) that saved us all!
The splashing in the waterfall in the middle of the trek, and dancing in the bus by every single person, during the return journey, made for some amazing Kodak moments and great memories!
Oh, by the way, there was another (mean) feat accomplished too…climbed onto the roof of our bus at a gas station and was super kicked!!!
Back in Chennai, still reeling from the “hangover” – creaking bones, aching muscles, drooping eyes, all need rest to come back to normal functioning!
Russia Protests Extradition of Viktor Bout
Paul Richter and John M. Glionna write in The Los Angeles Times:
More here.
The extradition of alleged Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout from Thailand to the United States on Tuesday drew sharp protests from Russian officials, who insist the so-called merchant of death is an innocent businessman.
Bout, a former Soviet air force officer who reportedly maintains strong ties to Russian intelligence, had been put aboard a chartered a plane under tight security in Bangkok and arrived in suburban New York in manacles late Tuesday. He faces four federal terrorism charges, U.S. officials said.
Bout is scheduled to appear before a federal judge in the Southern District of New York on Wednesday. According to an indictment unsealed in May 2008, three of the counts carry a maximum life sentence and the fourth a prison term of up to 15 years.
Get dispatches from Times correspondents around the globe delivered to your inbox with our daily World newsletter. Sign up »
Bout, 43, reputed to be one of the world's most prolific arms dealers, was arrested in March 2008 in Bangkok as part of a U.S.-Thai sting operation in which agents posed as arms buyers for the rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
While held in a maximum-security prison in Thailand, Bout fought extradition to the United States. His detention in Thailand was to expire within days.
More here.
Thailand Extradites Russian Arms Dealer Viktor Bout to U.S.
Viktor Bout, in Thailand prison in July 2008. A Bloomberg newswire article, via SFgate.com, reports:
Thailand extradited Viktor Bout to the U.S. to face terrorism charges, ending two years of legal wrangling over the accused Russian arms dealer dubbed the "merchant of death."
Bout left Bangkok's Don Muang airport on a 14-seat U.S. jet at 1:27 p.m. local time, said Supisarn Phakdinarinath, a Metropolitan Police spokesman. The extradition was approved by Thailand's Cabinet today, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said.
The U.S. says Bout, a former Soviet air force officer, ran an air cargo network that shipped weapons to conflict zones from Afghanistan to Rwanda. Bout has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, saying he was framed by U.S. undercover agents who posed as Colombian rebels during his arrest in Bangkok two years ago.
Bout is charged in the U.S. with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, conspiracy to kill U.S. officers or employees, conspiracy to acquire an anti-aircraft missile and conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist group. If convicted, he may face life in prison.
Bout's case has fueled a diplomatic dispute between the U.S. and Russia, with each country pressuring Thailand to follow its version of events.
More here.
Russian Banks Probed for Involvement in U.S. Hacker Attacks
Via RIA Novosti.
More here.
Russia's financial watchdog is looking into the activities of its banks and other financial institutions for possible involvement in hacker attacks in the United States, the head of the agency said on Tuesday.
"We are working together with the Americans. The question we are looking at is whether our Russian financial institutions could have been involved in these [money laundering and hacking] operations," Yury Chikhankin, head of the Russian Financial Monitoring Service, said at a meeting with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
In mid-October, a U.S. court found two Russians, 25-year-old Dmitry Krivosheyev and 24-year-old Maxim Illarionov, guilty of staging a cyber attack on banks and stealing their money.
Krivosheyev and Illarionov were two members of the group behind a scam to penetrate companies' computer networks, steal their bank details and siphon off cash. Their partners in crime have yet to be identified.
In total, the gang fraudulently transferred about $1.3 million from their victims' bank accounts.
More here.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
My Feudal Lord
My Feudal Lord is an autobiography of a woman that transcends the geographical, religious, political and societal context it is based in. Though it is the story of Tehmina Durrani, a member of the Pakistani elite society, set in the highly volatile political milieu of the 1970s, 80s, against the backdrop of a highly radical Islamic community – it is first and foremost the tale of a woman caught in a predominantly patriarchal world that is unfair to her because of her gender and makes her pay dearly for actions that she chooses of her free will.
Though being a Muslim does not help Tehmina’s inherent rebellious streak, her situation is exponentially compounded by her specific background – her rather complicated childhood and problematical relationship with her mother, her latent inferiority complexes, her need to prove her self as a lady befitting the highest echelons of the social pyramid, the tug of war between her hopeful heart and her strong mind, and the final straw – her abusive and traumatic marriage to Ghulam Mustafa Khar, the then Chief Minster and later Governor of Punjab, Pakistan.
Tehmina goes back and forth in time as she constructs the very painful narrative of the 13 years of her marriage in a feudal, woman-baiting society to none other than the Feudal Lord himself. Her silence breaking indictment of the curse that a woman’s life was in the post-colonial era in Pakistan is gruesome, bloody and highly graphical. A victim of domestic abuse – physical, financial, and emotional abuse, a victim of a repressive and racial social structure, a victim of the family need to “keep up” appearances for the sake of social stature, a victim of her own super ego that forces her to mould into the vile of the predominant social ethos, it is rather admiring that Tehmina finally gathers the courage to expose to the world the frailties of the veiled homes.
The book makes you shudder in disbelief at the schizophrenic Mustafa Khar – who is irrationally possessive, insanely aggressive and sick in his highly convenient interpretation of Islam to suit his whims and fancies. Your heart goes out to Tehmina as she tries time and again to break the shackles of marriage only to be each time placated for another chance, by Khar who would resort to every trick the male-dominated and oppressive community bestows him with – subtle manipulation, playing on her insecurities, blackmailing to kidnap her children and open threats of violence.
What is most endearing about Tehmina is that here is a woman against whom the worst profanities have been committed mostly in the name of Islam, yet she is not bitter against the religion. She embraces Islam understanding its true spirit and teachings. The subverted interpretation of the religion by fanatics for their own selfish interests has not disillusioned her. She has picked up the pieces of her life, learnt her lessons, and strives to work for the betterment of Muslim women. Now married to Shahbaz Sharif, brother of Nawaz Sharif, she has been reunited with her children whose custody she lost because of the divorce with Mustafa Khar.
Breaches Cost Health Care Industry $6 Billion Annually
Angela Moscaritolo writes on SC Magazine:
More here.
Despite facing stricter privacy and security regulations, hospitals still are struggling to protect patient information, and breaches cost the health care industry $6 billion annually, according to a new study.
In the survey of 65 health care organizations, conducted by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by data breach solutions provider ID Experts, 60 percent of respondents said they have suffered more than two breaches in the past two years.
The top three causes of breaches were unintentional employee action, lost or stolen computing devices and third-party accidents. The average number of lost or stolen records per breach was 1,769.
The survey found that breaches have cost the U.S. health care system $12 billion over the past two years. The economic impact of a data breach was approximately $2 million per organization over a two-year period.
Moreover, federal regulations have not improved the safety of patient records, the survey found.
More here.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Moldova: Bank Insiders Charged in ZeuS Cyber Crime Smackdown
John Leyden writes on The Register:
More here.
Six corrupt bank insiders turned ZeuS money mule suspects have been arrested in Moldova.
All half dozen of the suspects worked in local banks in the east European country. Investigators reckon the suspects specialised in laundering Western Union and MoneyGram payments received from co-conspirators in the West that can ultimately be traced back to compromised corporate and personal bank accounts.
The arrests in Moldova follow charges against alleged members of a massive cybercrime ring estimated to have raked in up to $70 million by using the ZeuS banking Trojan to steal online banking login credentials and loot accounts. Further arrests may follow in Moldova and elsewhere, Washington Post staffer turned security blogger Brian Krebs reports.
"Altogether, Moldovan prosecutors are looking at 12 suspects, including a government official who is alleged to have provided the group with copies of ID cards needed to open bank accounts," Krebs writes.
More here.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Zeus Trojan Money Mule Suspects Arrested
Brian Prince writes on eWeek:
More here.
Two men sought by the FBI on cyber-crime charges were picked up recently by authorities, ending a month-long manhunt, according to media reports.
Dorin Codreanu and Lilian Adam, both originally from Moldova, appeared in court Nov. 4 in Madison, Wisc., after being arrested a day earlier, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. Both Adam and Codreanu are accused of working as money mules for a cyber-gang that used the Zeus Trojan to infect computers and swipe online banking information.
In September, law enforcement officers arrested scores of suspected members of the ring around the world. In New York, federal prosecutors charged 37 people in connection with the crew, which is alleged to have looted millions of dollars compromised accounts.
According to the complaint, Codreanu served as both a money mule and a manager for the organization who recruit two other mules into the crew. Adam is alleged to have opened at least three accounts into which roughly $14,620 was fraudulently wired from a victim’s account. Some $7,900 of that was withdrawn, the complaint states.
More here.
Hackers Break Into OECD Computer Systems
Andrew Rettman writes on EUobserver.com:
More here.
The OECD, the Paris-based club of the world's 33 richest countries, has been successfully hacked by people looking for sensitive information on money laundering, high-level corruption and tax evasion.
OECD spokesman Stephen Di Biasio told EUobserver by phone from France on Thursday (4 November) that the body first detected "unusual" activity in its IT network in August and is still battling to get malware out of its computers three months later despite calling in help from the French security services and private cyber-defence companies.
"We've got a team trying to close down their points of entry, but we're not in a position today to say we've cleared them out of our system," he said.
"What we know is it's quite a sophisticated attack. We've got quite high levels of security protocols at the OECD and this has been able to bypass those security measures ... What we are seeing is that it's not a destructive attack. It's obviously fishing for information. Because the OECD works in such a broad array of areas, they are searching around to see what they can get."
Mr Di Biasio said the malware appears to have got in via a USB memory stick and that the attacks are coming from "different geographical areas, quite a few points in Asia." He was unable to say if the assault involves a government or a private entity.
More here.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
The potency of the human mind…
…Is frightening to say the least. Leave it unleashed and it obliterates your very existence, but what can tame it – social conditioning, aligning to what others define as “normal” and “acceptable”?
What happens when the chemical concoctions brewing in your brain refuse to assimilate in the proportion they need to for you to be deemed fit for community living?
How do you disassociate with what your psyche perceives as real and ally with what the people around you see?
We as a society are intolerant to any behavior that we recognize “different” from what has been understood as the norm. We are so insecure about our fragile social constructs of “normalcy” that the minute a person behaves even slightly tangential to what we are “used to”, we go on the defensive – our first reaction is to protect ourselves, and the second to “judge” - brandish the person as “mentally challenged” or “flawed in personality or character”.
The more sympathetic among us try to derive logical reasons, try to “sort” thing out, try to find a “cure”.
But, none of us “accept” and “include”.
Our rigid set-ups do not make allowances for an overactive imagination, for a passionately fiery spirit, for an individual who might have a different arrangement of molecules in the grey matter in their system.
Each one of us is unique - yet only to a limited extent, after which we all “conform”. The price for non-conformance is too huge to pay – alienation from society – friends and family.
Like everything else in life, there are no easy solutions to the exclusivity we all practice as part of community living. Acceptance must begin at home, at the level of the family unit. That is our only hope.
(I have not been able to coherently string together the many thoughts that a close association with one such powerfully distinctive mind evoked in me a while back – But, I finally decided to publish this long pending draft to share with you the frustration at our inability to assimilate variations into mainstream – forget assimilation, we refuse to acknowledge the rights of “differently” constructed individuals to lead a normal life – we just give up on them, we subject them to indifference or anger – pushing them into greater depths of estrangement – we make them pay for what is out of their control – the mind – the omnipotent mind that is above the individual.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
