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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 09 Issue 49
Volume 9, Issue 49 Atari Online News, Etc. December 7, 2007
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2007
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0949 12/07/07
~ Check Scams Thriving! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Internet Over TV!
~ Ron Paul Spam: Botnet! ~ Dumb Cyber-Crook Woes! ~ Dirty Santa Bot!
~ Net Porn Penalties! ~ Online Coupon Scams! ~ 'Chiptune' Artists!
-* PDF: International Standard! -
-* Microsoft Softens Piracy Response! *-
-* Colleges Bring Video Games Into Classroom! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, so much for finishing up my fall clean-up of leaves! It's pretty
tough raking up leaves that are buried beneath a few inches of snow, or
blowing around on top of it! Yep, winter has arrived, and I'm none too
happy about it! In fact, we're getting another batch of flurries right
now. Gee, it's only early-December!
Okay, so it isn't that strange, especially with the holidays rapidly
approaching. And yes, the temperatures have been bone-chilling over the
past couple of weeks. I guess it was inevitable.
So, as I make sure that I'm properly "layered" with warm clothing, I'm
trying to figure out where we stand regarding our holiday shopping. As
far as I can figure, we're just about done. We're not going crazy this
year - not that we go overboard any year - but things are tighter than
usual this year. And everything is going up in price lately, that it's
tough to splurge. Sure, we did get each other something nice, but most
of our gifts will be more "necessity"-related than fun stuff. It usually
works out that way every year anyway. So, maybe one more weekend to pick
up a few last-minutes things and we can stop worrying about it and enjoy
the next couple of weeks comfortably. I have to save my strength for any
more snowstorms that might decide to make their way east!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
'Chiptune' Artists Make Music Of Obsolete Computing
Haeyoung Kim, a classical pianist, took the stage at a hip Manhattan art
space before a crowd of twenty- and thirty-somethings, many shaggy-haired
and wearing T-shirts and glasses.
As her performance began, the room filled with electronic beeps and buzzes
of a 1980's video game pulsing to a danceable beat, as if Mario were
hosting a rave. As heads bopped in the audience, Kim proudly held up her
instrument: a Nintendo Game Boy.
The performance on a recent Friday was part of Blip Festival, a four-day
celebration of music made with obsolete computers and electronics.
So-called "chiptune" or "8-bit" music is building a cult audience among
former Atari jockeys.
"We are the first generation for whom video games and computers played an
important role in our childhood," said Mike Rosenthal, 29, one of Blip
Festival's organizers. "Now that sound has taken on meaning, and many of
us are at an age where we want to take apart our toys and see what else
we can make them do."
Chiptune includes pop, metal and other styles. The electronic, tinny
sound of the first commercial video games has aged enough to feel
nostalgic: The eclectic artist Beck has even released an EP of chiptune
remixes.
The small chiptune community exists largely online through file-swapping
and on bulletin boards, and events like Blip are rare. Some artists came
from as far as Europe and Japan to perform. A few fans traveled that far
to watch.
The scene is informed by the do-it-yourself ethic of punk rock and hacker
culture, and many artists rely on jury-rigged gadgets. Favorites include
the Commodore 64 and Atari 800, but the most popular chiptune gadget may
be the Game Boy, the monochrome handheld device Nintendo debuted in 1989.
The instruments have only a fraction of the computing power of today's
average cellphone, but that's part of the appeal.
"It makes you more creative to work within the tight limitations of the
technology," said Jordi Huguet, one half of the Barcelona-based chiptune
duo Yes, Robot.
"Yesterday's technology tends to get lost. Using it to make something new
is part of the challenge," he added. His gig case contains several Game
Boys, a toy voice changer and a Texas Instruments Speak & Spell with about
a dozen new switches and dials attached.
Proving that chiptune is about more than nostalgia, a few Blip attendees
were too young to remember the gadgets that inspired it.
"I've always liked video game music. I think it's cool," said Long Island
resident Emily Corvi, 13, who was escorted to the show by her mother. "I
didn't even think this music was possible."
There also is an element of subversion; the artists are playing with the
cons of their youth and breaking the boundaries of what the technology
was designed to do.
"People like tweaking the corporate nose. When you make music with a
Nintendo NES, Nintendo isn't telling you what to do with it," said New
York-based Chris Burke, who performs as glomag.
.
"But we love what Atari and Nintendo made. This music is more of an
homage than anything else."
Because chiptune artists' instruments are often more than 20 years old,
they often break down, adding unpredictability to performances. Indeed,
the power cut out several times during Kim's performance, prompting the
crowd to cheer even louder.
Kim, who performs as Bubblyfish, said she discovered chiptune while
studying electronic music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
"When I first heard about making music with a Game Boy, I thought it was
a great, non-traditional way of making music.
"Classical piano is great, but it's someone else's music, and I wanted to
create my own," she said. "I wrote a piece for the Game Boy and tried to
transpose it to piano, but I was only somewhat successful. It sounded a
lot better on the Game Boy."
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - "Terminator" Plans Videogame Assault
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Video Game Mergers "Inevitable"
Group Cites Growing Game Violence
And more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
"Terminator" Franchise Plans Videogame Assault
"The Terminator" will be back on video game consoles.
The Halcyon Co., which owns the rights to the "Terminator" movie
franchise, is forming its own gaming subsidiary and making a game
adaptation of the upcoming film "Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins"
its first release.
The game, which will be available on all formats, including
next-generation consoles, PC and mobile, is expected to hit the
marketplace at the same time as the film, which is slated for release in
summer 2009. (Christian Bale is in talks to star in the film, playing
freedom-fighter John Connor.)
Peter Levin, the acting CEO of Halcyon Games, said the privately financed
parent company opted to form its own game division rather that outsource
the "Terminator" license in order "to control our own destiny."
Like a lot of blockbuster film franchises, "Terminator" has had its share
of licensed games, most of which have done well in the marketplace. In
May, Halcyon announced its acquisition of the franchise rights to
"Terminator" from movie producers Andrew Vajna and Mario Kassar.
Development of the "Terminator" game has been under way for several
months.
"We don't want the game to be the stepchild to the film," said Halcyon
co-CEO Derek Anderson. "They're of equal importance, and we want both to
be of the same quality and be the same compelling experience."
"Terminator" will not be the only franchise in the Halcyon Games stable.
Halcyon created a splash this year when it secured first-look rights to
the works for famed science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. The Halcyon
executives said they are looking at bringing out titles based on the Dick
books beginning in 2010. Previous screen adaptations of Dick's work,
including "Total Recall," "Minority Report," "A Scanner Darkly" and
"Blade Runner," have grossed more than $1 billion worldwide.
Take-Two CEO: Video Game Mergers "Inevitable"
Take-Two Interactive Software Chief Executive Ben Feder said on Monday
consolidation in the $40 billion video-game industry is inevitable as
growth continues.
Feder, whose comment came a day after Vivendi said it would take control
of Activision Inc in a $9.9 billion deal, noted the cost to develop a
game was very close to the outlay for production and marketing of a
Hollywood film in the early 1990s.
The advent of new gaming hardware with high-definition graphics and
online capabilities has sent game production costs soaring in recent
years, with top titles thought to cost $30 million or more.
"I do believe that consolidation ultimately is inevitable," Feder said at
a UBS investment conference.
"Video-game development is not getting any cheaper. It's a
capital-intensive business, and I don't see that going away. That will
drive some of the smaller competitors out."
Shares in Take-Two, which makes the mega-hit "Grand Theft Auto"
franchise, rose 8.7 percent to close at $16.28 on Monday as the
Vivendi-Activision deal boosted investor optimism that other publishers
could be takeover targets.
Group Cites Growing Video Game Violence
Graphic scenes of gunshot victims spurting blood and a man urinating into
a prisoner's cell are included among the 10 video games that a media
watchdog group warns should be avoided by kids and teens under 17.
With the holiday shopping season in full swing, the National Institute on
Media and the Family presented its 12th annual video game report card
Tuesday to help parents decide what games are appropriate for their
children.
"There's an endless stream of new games that will never be suitable for
children," said Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., who joined institute
officials and other lawmakers at a news conference.
Efforts to protect children from the dangers posed by excessively violent
video games have not kept pace with growth of the video game industry,
the institute said.
Institute officials cited "growing complacency" among game retailers,
parents and the gaming industry on video game ratings.
"Unfortunately, we're seeing some steps backwards," said institute
president David Walsh.
Walsh said fewer retailers, for example, are participating in efforts to
educate their customers and employers about the video game ratings.
The institute, a media watchdog group, cited figures showing that nearly
half of kids between 8 and 12 have played M-rated games intended for
those 17 and over.
But the industry's Entertainment Software Rating Board, which assigns
game ratings, defended the effectiveness of its program.
"At a time of year when parents are looking for helpful guidance about
video games, this year's report card does little more than sow unwarranted
doubt about effective tools like ESRB ratings," said ESRB president
Patricia Vance.
Vance said a recent Federal Trade Commission report called the ESRB rating
system useful and informative for parents.
The institute showed gory scenes of sword, gun and knife violence from
several video games. A scene from "Assassin's Creed" depicts an attacker
plunging a knife into his victim's back several times. A man in "Manhunt
2" taunts a prisoner by urinating into the man's cell. A fallen victim's
body is riddled with gunfire as blood spurts across the screen in "The
Darkness."
The group's list of 10 "games to avoid, " all M-rated, are in the video
game report card on its Web site, http://www.mediafamily.org, along with
a list of recommended games for kids and teens.
Universities Bring Video Games Into Classrooms
Many parents wish their kids would spend less time at the computer
playing games and messaging, and concentrate more on homework, sports or
family activities.
One university professor, however, has come up with a combined solution
that would integrate educational role-playing video games into the
classroom.
Doug Thomas, an associate professor at the University of Southern
California's Annenberg School for Communication, is developing a game for
students ages 10 to 12 that aims to teach ideas and skills not found in
traditional textbooks.
"Because games are experiential they might be good at teaching things
that you learn through experience, and that are difficult to teach through
books," Thomas said in an interview.
His game, "Modern Prometheus," uses the story of "Frankenstein" to teach
ethical decision making. The player assumes the role of Dr.
Frankenstein's assistant, who is forced to make a series of difficult
choices that impact the game's outcome.
To complicate matters, Thomas and his team added a twist - the assistant
must help the doctor cure a plague that is threatening the town's
residents. One dilemma is whether or not to steal body parts from a
cemetery - a key requirement for curing the disease.
"Stealing a brain is hard to justify ethically, but doing all this work
that seems kind of shady in the present is actually going to save the town
in the long run," Thomas said.
"We want them to really wrestle with doing things and ask 'Is it good for
me, or is it good for everyone else?' There is no right way or wrong way
to play it," he explained.
The aim, Thomas said, is for students to play the hour-long game
individually, then discuss the choices they made with their teachers and
classmates.
"It's not just a game but also the conversation that happens around it,"
Thomas said. "When kids play games they don't just play them, they also
talk about them with each other. There's a huge amount of informal
learning that goes on."
One challenge for "Modern Prometheus" and other classroom games is
finding teachers willing to incorporate them in their lesson plans.
"It's really hard for teachers to work with an unfamiliar technology that
the kids know more about than they do," Thomas said. "They feel like 'my
job is hard enough already."'
He also acknowledges that the game doesn't quite fit into many
established middle-school curricula.
To overcome that obstacle, Thomas is collaborating with Indiana
University Professor Sasha Barab, whose "Quest Atlantis" game is used by
4,500 students around the world. Currently in beta testing, "Modern
Prometheus" is expected to be in some U.S. classrooms by spring.
The ultimate goal, Thomas said, would be to allow many players to
experience and interact with one another inside the game. That could mean
creating an environment for "Modern Prometheus" in a place like the
virtual world Second Life, Thomas said.
That way, the game could reach a wider audience and potentially appeal to
older teens, who are more fickle about what games they will play.
"It's not 'Halo 3,' but for the age group we are working with now it's
pretty good," Thomas said. "We'd love to have it scale for a wider
audience, but teenagers are the toughest because they are resistant to
everything."
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
PDF Approved As International Standard
Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) 1.7 has been approved as an
international standard by the International Standards Organization (ISO),
according to a company executive.
"Adobe has received word that the ballot for approval of PDF 1.7 to
become the ISO 32000 Standard ... has passed by a vote of 13-1," wrote
Jim King, a senior principal scientist and PDF architect at Adobe, in a
blog post Tuesday.
After announcing its intentions to make PDF a standard in January, Adobe
submitted PDF to the ISO's Technical Committee in July. Previously,
specialized subsets of PDF - PDF/Archive and PDF/Exchange - have been
approved as standards by ISO, and other subsets have been proposed as
standards. The approval of PDF 1.7 will now serve as an "umbrella"
standard that will help unify these different subsets.
The ratification of PDF as an ISO standard means Adobe gives up some
control over the development of future versions. Instead of setting the
future path of PDF on its own, Adobe will just be one of several parties
with a say in how the standard evolves. And that's exactly what King, who
was nominated technical editor of the new standard, hopes to see happen.
"The challenging part will be to get people to participate in the next
release of the standard. Lots of people want standards but it takes a
measurable resource commitment to participate," he wrote.
Young Europeans Prefer Internet To TV
Young Europeans prefer the Internet over television, and nearly half say
they watch less TV because of surfing the web, a poll of 10 European
countries showed Wednesday.
More than 7,000 people were questioned as part of the survey released by
the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA).
For the first time in the survey, the Internet came ahead of television
among 16- to 24-year-olds. Some 82 percent said they go online between
five and seven days a week, while 77 percent watch television that often,
a five-percent decrease from last year.
Forty-eight percent said their TV consumption had dropped as a result of
the Internet.
The research also found that a total of 57 percent of Europeans access
the Internet regularly each week, or 169 million people across the
countries surveyed.
The countries were Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the
Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
The average amount of time spent online among those surveyed was 11.9
hours per week. Italy was the highest with 13.6 hours, followed by Sweden
at 13. The Netherlands was last at 9.8 hours.
Eighty-three percent of those surveyed said they could not live without
at least one online activity, with 32 percent saying email was
indispensable to them.
Seniors and women are increasingly using the Internet, the poll also
showed, with a 12-percent increase among those over 55 and an
eight-percent jump for women.
House Ups Penalties On Internet Porn
Internet service providers would be given specific responsibilities to
report child pornography on their sites and face tough penalties for not
doing so under a bill passed Wednesday by the House.
The House also approved a bill to double spending for the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children, a private, nonprofit group created in
1984 with a congressional mandate to act as a clearinghouse for child
abduction and sexual exploitation cases.
The first bill, passed 409-2, expands the reporting duties of Internet
service providers with respect to violations of child sexual
exploitation and pornography laws. The ISPs would have to inform the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children of the Internet
identity and geographic location of suspected sex offenders and the time
child pornography was downloaded.
They also would have to preserve child pornography images for
investigations and prosecutions.
ISPs that fail to report incidents of child pornography would be subject
to fines of $150,000 per image per day, up from the current $50,000. The
penalty would jump to $300,000, double the current rate, for subsequent
cases.
With this greater accountability, "we have taken the first step toward
supporting parents in their efforts to protect their children; our
combined efforts will help make the Internet a safer place," said Rep.
Nick Lampson, D-Texas, sponsor of the bill and founder of the House
Missing and Exploited Children Caucus.
Lampson was joined at an earlier news conference by John Walsh, host of
the TV show "America's Most Wanted" and founder of the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children. "These two bills will put some teeth
into the battle against child pornography and the people who produce it,
the people who distribute it, the people who buy it and the people who
use it as a form of child abuse," Walsh said.
The second bill, passed 408-3, doubles to $40 million a year through 2013
the amount of federal funds available to the center, which works in
partnership with the Justice Department, the FBI and other federal
agencies to prevent child abuse and aid its victims. Actual money for the
center still has to be determined in annual spending bills.
Since 1984, the center has assisted law enforcement with more than
135,800 missing child cases, resulting in the recovery of some 118,700
children. It also operates the congressionally mandated CyberTipline,
which since 1998 has handled more than 540,000 phone calls and leads
dealing with child pornography, online enticement of children, sexual
tourism involving children and child victims of prostitution.
The House votes Wednesday followed action last month on a half-dozen
bills aimed at making it easier to monitor and prosecute cyber crimes
against juveniles and to educate children about online dangers. All the
bills must be considered by the Senate before going to the president for
his signature.
Microsoft Softens Response to Piracy
Microsoft Corp. is pulling back from a system that disables programs on
users' computers if it suspects the software is pirated, opting instead
for a gentler approach based on nagging alerts.
Microsoft said late Monday it will roll out the new version of Windows
Genuine Advantage with the first "service pack" for Windows Vista, due in
the first quarter of 2008.
When computer users activate a copy of Windows Vista or try to download
certain software from Microsoft's Web site, the Windows Genuine Advantage
system scans their PCs for signs of pirated software. Today, if the tool
finds an unauthorized copy of Vista, the glassy Vista user experience
disappears and other features are suspended.
In the new version, PC users found to have a pirated copy of Vista will
continue to be able to use their computers, but with unmistakable signs
their operating system is a fake. The desktop wallpaper will turn black,
and a white notice will appear alerting users to the problem. Each time
they log in, they will be prompted to buy legitimate software, and every
hour, a reminder bubble will appear on the screen.
Users with a high tolerance for irritation can put off switching to
genuine software indefinitely, but those who relent and buy a real copy
of Windows can do so at reduced prices - $119 for Windows Vista Home
Premium, half the regular retail price.
"We want to make sure unwitting victims get a great treatment," said
Mike Sievert, a corporate vice president in Microsoft's Windows
marketing group.
Windows Genuine Advantage collects several pieces of information about a
PC during the check, including the serial number on the hard drive and
its IP address, but Sievert says none of that can be used to identify
individual PC users.
In August, the Windows Genuine Advantage team at Microsoft accidentally
updated its servers with computer code that wasn't quite ready for prime
time. As a result, Microsoft said "fewer than 12,000" people who tried
to validate software over a two-day period couldn't.
Some found legitimate copies of Windows hobbled after the tool labeled
them pirated, and an outcry spread across Web forums and technology
news sites.
Sievert said the glitch in August was unrelated to the change in how
the Windows Genuine Advantage tool will work.
"Microsoft realizes it has to take a different approach with their
customers," said Chris Swenson, a software industry analyst for market
researcher NPD Group. "If you shut down someone's computer, you're
going to anger customers."
Microsoft also said Monday the package of Vista updates will fix two
holes in the operating system that have allowed pirates to create
counterfeit copies - one that mimics the activation of software by
computer makers before a PC is sold, and one that extends a grace
period given to people who install new software, before they must
activate it.
Sievert said Microsoft plans to offer an update for Windows Genuine
Advantage that will run the piracy check regularly without the
computer user initiating the process.
Microsoft Spikes Dirty Santa Bot
Microsoft Corp. quickly shut down Santa Claus' Web privileges after it
found out the automated elf it created for kids to instant message with
was talking naughty, not nice.
Last year, Microsoft encouraged kids to connect directly to "Santa" by
adding northpole@live.com to their Windows Live Messenger contact lists.
The Santa program, which Microsoft reactivated in early December, asked
children what they wanted for Christmas and could respond on topic,
thanks to artificial intelligence.
The holiday cheer soured this week when a reader of a United
Kingdom-based technology news site, The Register, reported that a chat
between Santa and his underage nieces about eating pizza prompted Santa to
bring up oral sex.
One of the publication's writers replicated the chat Monday. After
declining the writer's repeated invitations to eat pizza, a frustrated
Santa burst out with, "You want me to eat what?!? It's fun to talk about
oral sex, but I want to chat about something else."
The exchange ended with the writer and Santa calling each other "dirty
bastard."
Microsoft spokesman Adam Sohn said the company's engineers tried to clean
up Santa's vocabulary, but even after making changes to the software, the
company wasn't comfortable keeping him online.
"It's not like if you say, 'Hello Santa,' he's going to throw
inappropriate stuff at you," said Sohn.
Sohn said Santa's lewd comment was sparked by someone "pushing this thing
to make it do things it wasn't supposed to do."
Santa is just one of many "agents," or automated IM programs, that
computer users can chat with on Live Messenger. Some are useful -
customer service agents, for example - while others are frivolous, like
an alien that responds to IMs with burbling extraterrestrial noises.
Sohn said some of the bots are programmed to fend off inappropriate
messages.
"If they're meant to be cheeky and have fun with you, they may repeat
certain things back," he said, or respond to certain words with "that's
naughty."
Sohn said Microsoft was not aware that the Santa code included the foul
language, but insisted the company did not suspect an employee prank.
Microsoft disabled Santa Tuesday. On Wednesday, northpole@live.com
appeared to be online in one reporter's Messenger contact list, but
Santa did not respond to her messages.
Dumb Cyber-Crook Leaves Behind ID Clues
When Chris Boyd, senior director of malware research at FaceTime Security
Labs, stumbled upon a collection of stolen credit cards in a Warez forum,
he saw something he didn't expect - a photo.
But not only that, the poster also listed his or her supposed location
underneath his or her forum avatar.
It was a first for Boyd, who said there were about 150 separate pieces of
data in the collection. The poster's location was given as Greece, though
most of the credit card information seemed to come from the United States.
U.S. law enforcement agencies have been contacted, Boyd said.
Assuming the photo and location information is correct, authorities at
least have the "Who" and the "Where" bases partly covered, leaving a more
interesting question to mull over - was this person a professional carder,
or someone trying to prove not all cyber-crime is slick?
The information has reportedly started making the rounds on Warez sites.
The incident, Boyd wrote on a corporate blog, has the makings of someone
who came across a stockpile of sensitive data and was trying to
distribute it quickly - or a pro who messed up badly.
Usually, carders - people who trade in credit card information - tend to
arrange data uniformly, he noted. But here, some of the records included
no more than card details while others featured a name, address, PIN
number and other information, leading Boyd to guess that the data may
have come from a back-end payment system.
Extensive searching on the information contained in the posts turned up
little, save for an e-mail address that led researchers to a pro carding
forum - now offline - where someone was offering up a small sample of
private data at an asking price of $30,000 to $50,000 for UK and U.S.
bank log-ins.
Calling it a case of stupid criminals at work in cyberspace, Boyd
nonetheless told eWEEK that allowing such forums to operate gives
security professionals and law enforcement a chance to keep an eye on
crooks.
"Typically, combining hosts who are happy to profit from illegal activity
with forums using nothing more complicated than secret subsections will
create the perfect environment for criminals to buy and sell data," he
said. "It's hard to gain access, and if you go down the route of
shutting the forums down, you risk them going deeper underground and
losing all your intel sources."
Ron Paul Spam Traced To Ukrainian Botnet
Ron Paul is not a botmaster. Security researchers have shut down a
network of computers responsible for sending out nearly 200 million spam
messages supporting the U.S. presidential candidate last month, and after
analyzing the server's software, it's clear that there is no such thing
as a Ron Paul botnet, according to Joe Stewart, a senior security
researcher with SecureWorks.
"It probably wasn't even set up by a Ron Paul supporter," he said. "This
whole system has been around since 2004. This [spam] somehow just landed
in this underground spam economy."
When spam first surfaced, trumpeting Paul as the winner of a recent
Republican presidential debate, the fact that it was being sent via
illegally infected machines raised eyebrows. The spam messages have never
been directly linked to the Ron Paul campaign, which has denied any
involvement in the incident.
The Texas congressman is considered a long-shot contender for the
Republican presidential nomination, but he has a strong Internet
presence. His videos are popular on YouTube, and Ron Paul fundraisers
recently were able to raise more than $4 million in a 24-hour period.
Stewart published an analysis of the botnet on Tuesday, connecting it to
an Eastern European spammer known as "spm," whose company, Elphisoft,
sends unsolicited e-mail using a network of about 3,000 infected "botnet"
PCs. Stewart believes that spm, and many of the people involved in his
operation, are located in the Ukraine.
The botnet server used to manage the Ron Paul spam was located in the
United States and shut down in mid-November, giving researchers a chance
to examine the software on the machine, Stewart explained.
Apparently spm rented out his botnet to a middleman, a spammer calling
himself "nenastnyj," who has also sent out messages promoting
pornography, online gambling, and male enhancement technology. He
probably paid spm between $100 and $1,000 to send out the Ron Paul
mailing, Stewart said.
It is nearly impossible to figure out who nenastnyj really is, but
Stewart made a few guesses, based on his previous spam jobs stored on the
server. "Nenastnyj appears just to be a small-time spammer who doesn't
write the spam software," he said. "Basically he just makes money by
finding sponsors and then becoming a mailer for them and using someone
else's mail service to send it."
This botnet is one of 16 controlled by spm's servers, which use a
user-friendly, Web-based application called Reactor Mailer to manage
spam mailings. "The interface is pretty slick; it's Web 2.0-enabled,"
Stewart said. "It shows that they really do view this as a business and
they put out a quality product. They are trying to make a lot of money
on this."
The spammers used a malicious Trojan horse program called Trojan.Srizbi
to take control of computers and link them into the botnet.
Experts Warn of Online Coupon Scams
Online shopping scams could become a major security threat in the weeks
leading up to Christmas as consumers eagerly type in credit card numbers,
click on discount coupons and participate in online promotions, security
experts worry.
Instead of moneysaving deals, e-mailed coupons could lead recipients
into "phishing" schemes where the consumer is redirected to a copycat
site, whose real purpose is to siphon the user's credit card information,
passwords and other financial data, IBM Corp. security executive
Christopher Rouland warned.
"That 50-percent-off, one-use coupon could go to a compromised computer
in Kazakhstan," said Rouland, chief technology officer for Internet
security systems at Big Blue, which controls more than 1 million "phish
trap" e-mail addresses that discovered 867,000 scams in the third
quarter. "The quality of malware is very high."
IBM is urging online shoppers not to click on links within e-mails that
appear to come from an online retailer. Instead, open a new Web browser,
go to the retailer's site, navigate to special coupons or promotions
and see if it's there.
Brian Trombley, a product manager for computer security firm McAfee Inc.,
said holiday phishing scams are shaping up to be an "extraordinary
problem" this season.
No single giant retailer has been a particular target of holiday
attacks; eBay Inc.'s PayPal unit is still an overwhelming target of
scammers.
"The scammers are getting more and more sophisticated," Trombley said.
"They're using better English, they're getting better at copying real
sites and making their site look like the real thing."
Check Scams Thrive, Especially Online
Check schemes are spreading across the USA as scamsters exploit the
popularity of online auction, dating and social-networking sites to find
victims.
The scams have grown so prevalent that the Postal Inspection Service has
launched a TV and print campaign - its largest-ever anti-fraud drive -
to alert consumers. Overseas investigators, working with U.S. postal
inspectors, have arrested 77 people this year and intercepted $2.1
billion in counterfeit checks headed for the USA. And the Federal Trade
Commission sued two Canadian companies in October, accusing them of
using fake checks to bilk U.S. consumers.
Even as consumers reduce their use of checks, the creation of fake
checks is booming. Fraudsters are using them to pay for goods advertised
online or to convince people that they've won sweepstakes prizes.
"Fake checks seem to have really peaked in the last couple of years,"
says Steven Baker, head of the Federal Trade Commission's Midwest
region. "When (fraudsters) find something that works, the word
spreads."
If customers lose money because of check fraud, their banks won't bail
them out. But if those customers can't repay, the banks get stuck with
the losses.
No one knows how much money customers have lost from bogus checks. But
last year, banks alone lost $271 million from fake checks - a 160% jump
from three years earlier, according to the American Bankers
Association.
Customers are likely losing much more than that from check fraud,
according to the National Consumers League, because some consumers
present checks at check-cashing centers as well as at banks. All types
of check-related fraud cost banks $969 million in 2006, the ABA says.
Counterfeit checks have become the second-most-common Internet fraud
and the top telemarketing fraud reported to the National Consumers
League since it began tracking such scams in 2003. On average, victims
lose $3,000 to $4,000 per scam, the league says.
In one common scam, fraudsters contact sellers at online auction sites,
saying they want to buy an item. They say they'll give the sellers a
check for more than the sale price, explaining that the excess money
must be wired to a third party who will handle the shipping.
The fraudsters often don't bother to claim the item. They just want
consumers to wire money to them quickly, before their own checks
bounce, says Susan Grant, director of the National Consumers League's
fraud center.
Generally, banks must make funds available to their customers one to
five days after a check is deposited - even if the check has yet to
clear, Grant says. But because it could take weeks for a check to
actually clear, the victim might not find out that the check is a
fake until it's too late.
=~=~=~=
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