crime

Though Rustock remains down for the count, according to Microsoft, the hunt goes on for the creators of the infamous botnet.

Rustock was taken down this past March by Microsoft and law enforcement officials who used a combination of legal maneuvers and raids to seize control of the servers that ran the notorious spamming network. Since then, Rustock has remained "dead and decaying," said Richard Boscovich, senior attorney for Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, in a blog published yesterday.

But taking down the network itself is only half the battle in keeping botnets like Rustock offline. Tracking down the … Read more

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) today introduced a revised version of a controversial bill that would give the Department of Justice and individuals new powers to enforce copyright and trademark law against "rogue" and "pirate" Web sites that offer unlicensed copies of protected content or which sell illegal knock-offs of brand-name goods.

The new bill was long expected. A late draft leaked out last week.

The proposed law, "Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property" or Protect IP, includes several revisions to a draft introduced last year, known then as &… Read more

A spokesman for Moscow-based antivirus company Kaspersky Lab said the company is not commenting on reports that the son of Chief Executive Eugene Kaspersky has been kidnapped.

"We don't have any information to share at the moment. I'll let you know if that changes," the spokesman said in an e-mail to CNET today.

Ivan Kaspersky, 20, was reportedly kidnapped Tuesday morning on his way to work at InfoWatch, a company owned by his mother, Natalya Kaspersky, according to the English version of Pravda.ru, which cites Russian language site LifeNews. Later that day, someone called the … Read more

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According to the NY Daily News Crime Wire, Officer Richard Quinn of the 71st Precinct in Crown Heights was charged with larceny and suspended from his post for attempting to steal a pair of headphones from the Best Buy Electronics store in Bensonhurst, N.Y.

He was off-duty at the time, NYDailyNews.com reported sources said today, and was caught by a security guard at the store at about 9 p.m. on Thursday, February 17.

No details have emerged as to the make and model of said headphones, although this does confirm … Read more

A new free tool from the makers of Norton attempts to quantify the real-time state of cybersecurity. It makes its debut today alongside the latest version of Symantec's all-in-one consumer security suite, Norton 360.

The Norton CyberCrime Index lies somewhere between a weather report and the United States' threat level advisory system, and Norton 360 version 5 launches with a direct link to it.

The CyberCrime Index uses a statistical model based on information from Symantec's Global Intelligence Network, ID Analytics, and DataLossDB. At the top level, the CyberCrime Index takes this data and creates a number evaluating … Read more

In one of the more bizarre headlines to pop up about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, gossip outlet TMZ revealed late Monday that a restraining order had been issued against a man who had been allegedly stalking the Facebook CEO.

Today, TMZ posted a bizarre letter that it claimed the man, Pradeep Manukonda, had sent Zuckerberg; the handwritten letter begged for financial assistance for the author's allegedly ill mother.

The restraining order, TMZ reported, was issued after Manukonda sent Facebook messages to Zuckerberg, his sister Randi Zuckerberg, and his girlfriend Priscilla Chan, and then attempted to show up at several … Read more

Hard times seem to make people more vulnerable to ploys designed to separate them from their money and personal information. At least half of BBB Online's list of the Top 10 scams of 2010 occur in whole or in part over the Internet.

The best way to avoid being victimized by scammers is to be very careful about who you trust. Here are five ways to protect yourself from attacks on your bank accounts and private data.

Don't pay upfront One thing several recent scams have in common is a request by the scammer for you to pay … Read more

Global Gaming Factory X, a Swedish company that operates Internet cafes but became far more noteworthy for attempting to acquire The Pirate Bay last year, is facing possible bankruptcy. In addition, the company is the subject of a police investigation in Sweden.

Two of GGF's creditors claim the company owes them the combined equivalent of $220,000 and want authorities to put the company into bankruptcy, according to reports in numerous Swedish newspapers. A bankruptcy isn't very exciting, but GGF's owner-operator, the mercurial Hans Pandeya, has a long track record of generating controversy--so things may perk up. … Read more

Facing concerns that it's facilitating child prostitution, a representative of personals listing site Craigslist confirmed in remarks prepared for a congressional hearing Wednesday that it will not be reopening the "adult services" section that it shut down earlier this month after pressure from lawmakers.

William Clint Powell, Craigslist's director of customer service and law enforcement relations, said in the hearing, held by the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, that going after Craigslist would do little good and that "those who formerly posted adult services ads on Craigslist will now … Read more