Hi-tech crime is quickly becoming an important issue for the world’s law enforcement. This means more and better training is needed for police forces across the globe. A new European initiative is seeking to bridge the existing knowledge gap, identified several years ago, by setting up a new IT training course for police officers. The first courses in this program will be held in Ireland in October and November this year, using the expertise of the Computer Crime Investigation Unit of the Irish Police or Garda. The idea for the course stems from the successful Falcone program that operated between 1998 and 2002, which aimed to increase cooperation and educational exchange between EU law enforcement bodies. (more…)

New research by a team of scientists from Indiana University has revealed that the success rate of phishing attacks might be much higher than previously thought. The research was published in a paper titled “Designing Ethical Phishing Experiments: A Study of eBay Query Features” and reported a real-life study of phishing practices using eBay and its users as a test site. Researchers Markus Jakobsson and Jacob Ratkiewicz chose eBay (which for legal reasons they call “rOnl” in the paper) because it is currently one of the largest phishing targets in real life, and has millions of users, representing a huge statistical sample. (more…)

The latest phishing activity and trends report released by the Anti-Phishing Working Group has highlighted the fact that cybercriminals do not view summer as a holiday period. The report for the month of August has shown a rise in the number of unique phishing reports received by the group, although the number of actual malicious sites has dropped from a staggering 14,191 to a more “usual” 10,091, roughly the same as in June and more or less in the same trend as in the last eight months. The number of brands hijacked by cybercriminals in their phishing activity has also remained at roughly the high levels set in July, with 148 brands copied by phishers, compared to the 154 of July. (more…)

‘Which?’ consumer group criticized Tesco this Thursday for letting scammers get away with it at self-service checkouts in some 200 stores belonging to the supermarket chain in Britain. The problem is down to the fact that Tesco has not yet made these tills compatible with chip-and-pin technology. This makes it possible for thieves to use stolen cards when paying for goods without entering a PIN or even signing the receipt. (more…)

Six men have been charged by a Connecticut grand jury with obtaining private financial information by means of using an online scam, ID theft and financial fraud. Of the six four were from Connecticut and two from Florida. The indictment was actually returned last week, on September 20, but made public this Wednesday, after three of the men pleaded guilty. (more…)

A four-party centre-right coalition won last Sunday’s election in Sweden, but the result was marred by a high-profile hacking scandal, when the Social Democratic party complained its private computer network was accessed from the outside. Several officials from the Liberal Party, member of the winning coalition, were officially charged and its general secretary resigned a fortnight before the elections, prompting the media in Sweden to debate if the party leader, Lars Leijonborg, was to step down as well. (more…)

The owner of a pirate website was sentenced to 87 months of prison in a Virginia court last Friday, making it the longest prison sentence for computer piracy in US courts. U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III also ordered Nathan Petersen, 27, from Los Angeles, to pay back more than $5.4 million in restitution. (more…)

Adware-supported ‘online media company’ Zango has had accusations of using spyware dashed by a Chicago, Illinois court. The class action case, brought a little under a year ago, has been dismissed without chance of appeal.

Zango, sued under former name 180solutions, serves up video, music, games and other entertainment content using a proprietory display tool, which also serves up ads as part of what it calls its ‘content economy’. The company claims to ‘engage’ over 20 million people, and to sign up 200,000 users per day. (more…)