Elderly Amish Man Caught on Film With Prostitute, Blackmailed
When a 75-year-old Amish widower slept with a prostitute, he -- we feel certain -- felt pretty bad about it the next morning. As if that guilt weren't enough for the old man, the prostitute and her boyfriend demanded $67,000 from him, claiming that they had filmed the scene with wall-mounted cameras and would upload the recording to the Internet. The pair was later arrested and, we can only imagine, the Amish man abhorred technology more than ever.
Bank Robber Gets Away With the Help of Craiglist
In October, a bank robber -- wearing a safety vest, blue shirt, face mask and goggles -- eluded police with the help of Craiglist. Just outside the bank, while the robbery was in progress, stood a group of men who were responding to a Craiglist day labor opportunity. As the advertisement required, they were all wearing safety vests, blue shirts, face masks and goggles.
Nude New Zealander Arrested After Responding to Fake Sexy Text Message
Late in 2007, a Wellington, New Zealand man received a racy text message from two anonymous "ladies," giving him only an address and a request that he show up naked. Well, he indeed showed up naked... at the home of one appalled, unsuspecting New Zealander. Both the nude Romeo and the sadistic texter were arrested, though neither were prosecuted.
Fake Craiglist Ad Costs Man Most of What He Owns
Last Spring, a post appeared on an Oregon Craigslist board stating that the owner of a specific house was leaving all of his worldly possessions (still in said house) to whoever wanted them. When homeowner Robert Salisbury rushed home -- on a tip from a woman suspicious about the offer of a free horse -- he found his house being ransacked by 30 strangers. We suggest he take that horse and collect some vengeance Clint Eastwood-style.
17-Year-Old Jailed for Stealing Virtual 'Furniture'
When a 17-year-old Dutch boy hacked into several accounts on the Second Life-style site 'Habbo' in 2007, the the law got involved. The boy was discovered to have stolen $5,800 worth of virtual furniture and knick-knacks. Apparently, crime -- whether actual or virtual -- does not pay.
Phishers Going After Your Phones in New 'Vishing' Trend
Over the past year, sneaky spammers have begun to forsake the worn-out territory of e-mail in favor of cell phones' fertile frontier. The result? "Vishing." Get it? Voice mail phishing. It might be more ominous if it didn't sound like a James Bond villain saying, "Wishing."
Burglars Break Into Restaurant, Steal HDTV, Leave Money / Food Behind
Around Halloween of last year, a truckload of thieves drove into -- that's right, into -- a Pennsylvania Mexican restaurant, where they -- apparently uninterested in the cash register -- stole a mid-grade 47-inch HDTV and fled the scene. We've all heard about how this generation is lacking in ambition, but this generation's thieves, too?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Shieldzee said 10:57AM on 3-28-2008
Um, let's see - 40,000 identified viruses for Windows, zero viruses on Macs, and a very smart security guy socially engineers someone to click on a malicious link to gain control of a machine? As a Mac user, I will continue to use Safari and I will remain smug.
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Common Sense said 11:15AM on 3-28-2008
Let's see...the only security here is "obscurity". If you are going to hack, you will target the strongest. I'm a windows user out of common sense. More functions/apps/etc. Macs are for people that just want to be different for the sake of being different;. Get outside once in a while.
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Jack said 11:24AM on 3-28-2008
Well my smug days are over.
I will never again allow hackers who have direct access to my computer to navigate to any sites that I am not familiar with.
Other than that I still feel pretty secure.
Jack
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Linda W said 2:04PM on 3-28-2008
The fact that you have to visit a outside link is all that it takes for most non-tech savvy windows users too.
This wasn't a test to see if hackers could break in, -- that was on day 1. Day 2 was seeing if a local user could easily break security with only the system's pre-installed tools. It was a test for what could happen to a "naive" user with standard, included software. The fact that Vista wasn't also a hacked may lie in its current market penetration and ease of use by a 'naive' user than in its security.
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Tchalvak said 5:56PM on 3-29-2008
The normal actions of predators imply the you -do- attack the weakest of the herd, not the strongest, to get the most meat. By the implication of the distribution of viruses, that is Windows security.
Similar logic can be applied to Safari; Charlie Miller chose it for that weakness, as the other safari security flaw references imply, and webcode that can take advantage of that weakness can be spread around. If you think you're secure because you're not going to "navigate to sites I'm not familiar with" you've got a sadly naive view of internet security.
I think that it takes a loss of security to truly see the merit of using a rock-solidly secure OS and a rock-solidly secure browser. At very least avoid Windows and Internet Explorer, above all else.
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babycakes said 6:10AM on 3-30-2008
My son put Firefox on my Mac :) No Safari worries!!!
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Armand B said 7:10PM on 3-31-2008
It is what it is. Macs are for the most part virus proof for now but who would want to hack only 10% of the market anyway. A Dell computer is still faster than a Mac even when it's bogged down with virus software. and don't even get me started on all of the tons of software you can use on a pc. Macintosh users work in such a small world. I have to wait 3 hours for the FAST G5s here at work to print a file that my bogged down pc will print in 3 min. do the math. Macs are for women and gay men anyway. (not that there's anything wrong with that)
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Brandon B said 10:09PM on 3-31-2008
Anything can be hacked, and just because hackers haven't focused much on macs doesn't mean they're any more secure. I agree with Armand Macs are for girls and gay men (not that ther is anything wrong with that), most of the world runs on PCs and why would a hacker attack someone's little pictures or videos when they could attack a company and steal all their personel files.
Therefore, the security of Macs is based on entirely on their unpopularity.
Besides any gamer can tell you that PCs are faster, more customizable, and generally better. :P
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Crl Williams said 2:25PM on 4-16-2008
I must be a girl or gay, or maybe even both, 'cos I use a MacBook. Nothing wrong with that.
I get around the Safari security issues with a combination of Firefox and Linux.
There are technically worse security holes, but browser vulnerabilities score a good hit rate for "hackers" 'cos everyone uses a browser and most are a bit careless. Some people even use Internet Explorer! Couple that with a great fondness among the immature male WinGaming market for porn sites and it must be like fish in a barrel.
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