MSNBC has a horrible story on ID theft up.

This is the worst-case scenario for identity theft victims. Losing your clean credit history is one thing; losing your freedom is another. And victims of America’s fastest-growing crime are discovering they often have much more to worry about than the hundreds of hours of paperwork necessary to clean up the financial mess associated with ID theft. Sometimes, they have to worry about ending up in jail — again and again.

posted by mt at 10:35

Probably a good idea for now.

Concerned that sensitive information might leak out, some units of the United States military are starting to clamp down on e-mail communication from their soldiers and sailors, who have been using it from ships, major bases and even desert outposts around Iraq to stay in touch with family and friends.

posted by mt at 09:16

A student accused of supporting terrorism was in the cybersecurity program at the Universtiy of Idaho.

Al-Hussayen was one of about 30 students at U of I´s Center for Secure and Dependable Systems, a research group that often is hired by companies and government agencies to help design programs to decrease threats from hackers and cyber terrorists.

posted by mt at 09:13

I have a basics article on IP Spoofing up at Security Focus. Check it out.

Criminals have long employed the tactic of masking their true identity, from disguises to aliases to caller-id blocking. It should come as no surprise then, that criminals who conduct their nefarious activities on networks and computers should employ such techniques. IP spoofing is one of the most common forms of on-line camouflage. In IP spoofing, an attacker gains unauthorized access to a computer or a network by making it appear that a malicious message has come from a trusted machine by “spoofing” the IP address of that machine. In this article, we will examine the concepts of IP spoofing: why it is possible, how it works, what it is used for and how to defend against it.

posted by mt at 08:28