Brian Krebs
Brian Krebs (born 1972) is an American journalist and investigative reporter. He is best known for his coverage of profit-seeking cybercriminals.Perlroth, Nicole.Reporting From the Web's Underbelly. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved February 28, 2014. Krebs is the author of a daily blog, KrebsOnSecurity.com, covering computer security and cybercrime. From 1995 to 2009, Krebs was a reporter for ''The Washington Post'' and covered tech policy, privacy and computer security as well as authoring the ''Security Fix'' blog. Early life and education Born in 1972 in Alabama, Krebs earned a B.A. in International Relations from George Mason University in 1994. His interest in cybercriminals grew after a computer worm locked him out of his own computer in 2001. Chris Krebs is not related to Brian Krebs. Career 1999–2007 Krebs started his career at ''The Washington Post'' in the circulation department. From there, he obtained a job as a copy aide in the Post newsroom, where he split ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alabama
Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 30th largest by area, and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 24th-most populous of the List of states and territories of the United States, 50 U.S. states. Alabama is nicknamed the ''Northern flicker, Yellowhammer State'', after the List of U.S. state birds, state bird. Alabama is also known as the "Heart of Dixie" and the "Cotton State". The state has diverse geography, with the north dominated by the mountainous Tennessee Valley and the south by Mobile Bay, a historically significant port. Alabama's capital is Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery, and its largest city by population and area is Huntsville, Ala ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Online
In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on line" or "on the line") could refer to any piece of equipment or functional unit that is connected to a larger system. Being online means that the equipment or subsystem is connected, or that it is ready for use. "Online" has come to describe activities and concepts that take place on the Internet, such as online identity, online predator and online shop. A similar meaning is also given by the prefixes cyberspace, cyber and e, as in words ''cyberspace'', ''cybercrime'', ''email'', and ''e-commerce''. In contrast, "offline" can refer to either computing activities performed while disconnected from the Internet, or alternatives to Internet activities (such as shopping in brick-and-mortar stores). The term "offline" is sometimes used interchang ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vanity Fair (magazine)
''Vanity Fair'' is an American monthly magazine of popular culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast in the United States. The first version of ''Vanity Fair'' was published from 1913 to 1936. The imprint was revived in 1983 after Conde Nast took over the magazine company. Vanity Fair currently includes five international editions of the magazine. The five international editions of the magazine are the United Kingdom (since 1991), Italy (since 2003), Spain (since 2008), France (since 2013), and Mexico (since 2015). History ''Dress and Vanity Fair'' Condé Montrose Nast began his empire by purchasing the men's fashion magazine ''Dress'' in 1913. He renamed the magazine ''Dress and Vanity Fair'' and published four issues in 1913. It continued to thrive into the 1920s. However, it became a casualty of the Great Depression and declining advertising revenues. Nonetheless, its circulation at 90,000 copies was at its peak. Condé Nast announced in December 193 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stuxnet
Stuxnet is a Malware, malicious computer worm first uncovered on June 17, 2010, and thought to have been in development since at least 2005. Stuxnet targets supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and is believed to be responsible for causing substantial damage to the nuclear program of Iran, Iran nuclear program. Although neither the United States nor Israel has openly admitted responsibility, multiple independent news organizations claim Stuxnet to be a cyberweapon built jointly by the two countries in a collaborative effort known as Operation Olympic Games. The program, started during the Presidency of George W. Bush, Bush administration, was rapidly expanded within the first months of Barack Obama's presidency. Stuxnet specifically targets programmable logic controllers (PLCs), which allow the automation of electromechanical processes such as those used to control machinery and industrial processes including gas centrifuges for separating nuclear material. Exp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Junk E-mail
Email spam, also referred to as junk email, spam mail, or simply spam, refers to unsolicited messages sent in bulk via email. The term originates from a Monty Python sketch, where the name of a canned meat product, "Spam," is used repetitively, mirroring the intrusive nature of unwanted emails. Since the early 1990s, spam has grown significantly, with estimates suggesting that by 2014, it comprised around 90% of all global email traffic. Spam is primarily a financial burden for the recipient, who may be required to manage, filter, or delete these unwanted messages. Since the expense of spam is mostly borne by the recipient, it is effectively a form of "postage due" advertising, where the recipient bears the cost of unsolicited messages. This cost imposed on recipients, without compensation from the sender, makes spam an example of a "negative externality" (a side effect of an activity that affects others who are not involved in the decision). The legal definition and status of sp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Botnets
A botnet is a group of Internet-connected devices, each of which runs one or more bots. Botnets can be used to perform distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, steal data, send spam, and allow the attacker to access the device and its connection. The owner can control the botnet using command and control (C&C) software. The word "botnet" is a portmanteau of the words "robot" and " network". The term is usually used with a negative or malicious connotation. Overview A botnet is a logical collection of Internet-connected devices, such as computers, smartphones or Internet of things (IoT) devices whose security have been breached and control ceded to a third party. Each compromised device, known as a "bot," is created when a device is penetrated by software from a ''malware'' (malicious software) distribution. The controller of a botnet is able to direct the activities of these compromised computers through communication channels formed by standards-based network protocols, suc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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McColo
McColo was a US-based web hosting service provider that was, for a long time, the source of the majority of spam-sending activities for the entire world. In late 2008, the company was shut down by two upstream providers, Global Crossing and Hurricane Electric, because a significant amount of malware and botnets had been trafficking from the McColo servers. History McColo was formed by a 19-year-old Russian hacker and student named Nikolai. Nikolai's nickname was "Kolya McColo"; hence the name of the provider. Malware traffic At the time of termination of its upstream service on November 11, 2008, it was estimated that McColo customers were responsible for a substantial proportion of all email spam then flowing and subsequent reports claim a two-thirds or greater reduction in global spam volume. This reduction had been sustained for some period after the takedown. McColo was one of the leading players in the so-called "bulletproof hosting" market — ISPs that will allow server ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Click Fraud
Click fraud is a type of ad fraud that occurs on the Internet in pay per click (PPC) online advertising. In this type of advertising, the owners of websites that post the ads are paid based on how many site visitors click on the ads. Fraud occurs when a person, automated script, computer program or an auto clicker imitates a legitimate user of a web browser, clicking on such an ad without having an actual interest in the target of the ad's link in order to increase revenue. Click fraud is the subject of some controversy and increasing litigation due to the advertising networks being a key beneficiary of the fraud. Media entrepreneur and journalist John Battelle describes click fraud as the intentionally malicious, "decidedly black hat" practice of publishers gaming paid search advertising by employing robots or low-wage workers to click on ads on their sites repeatedly, thereby generating money to be paid by the advertiser to the publisher and to any agent the advertiser may b ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Estonia
Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Russia. The territory of Estonia consists of the mainland, the larger islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, and over 2,300 other islands and islets on the east coast of the Baltic Sea. Its capital Tallinn and Tartu are the two largest List of cities and towns in Estonia, urban areas. The Estonian language is the official language and the first language of the Estonians, majority of its population of nearly 1.4 million. Estonia is one of the least populous members of the European Union and NATO. Present-day Estonia has been inhabited since at least 9,000 BC. The Ancient Estonia#Early Middle Ages, medieval indigenous population of Estonia was one of the last pagan civilisations in Europe to adopt Christianity following the Northern Crusades in the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Internet Corporation For Assigned Names And Numbers
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization headquartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces and numerical spaces of the Internet, ensuring the Internet's stable and secure operation. ICANN performs the actual technical maintenance work of the Central Internet Address pools and DNS root zone registries pursuant to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) function contract. The contract regarding the IANA stewardship functions between ICANN and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the United States Department of Commerce ended on October 1, 2016, formally transitioning the functions to the global multistakeholder community. Much of its work has concerned the Internet's global Domain Name System (DNS), including policy development for internationalizatio ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Money Laundering
Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds into a seemingly legitimate source, usually through a front organization. Money laundering is illegal; the acts generating the money almost always are themselves criminal in some way (for if not, the money would not need to be laundered). As financial crime has become more complex and financial intelligence is more important in combating international crime and terrorism, money laundering has become a prominent political, economic, and legal debate. Most countries implement some anti-money-laundering measures. In the past, the term "money laundering" was applied only to financial transactions related to organized crime. Today its definition is often expanded by government and international regulators such as the US Office of the Comp ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Carding (fraud)
Carding is a term of the trafficking and unauthorized use of Credit card fraud, credit cards. The stolen credit cards or credit card numbers are then used to buy prepaid gift cards to cover up the tracks. Activities also encompass Identity theft, exploitation of personal data, and money laundering techniques. Modern carding sites have been described as full-service commercial entities. Acquisition There are a great many of methods to acquire credit card and associated financial and personal data. The earliest known carding methods have also included Information diving, "trashing" for financial data, raiding Letter box, mail boxes and Inside job, working with insiders. Some bank card numbers can be semi-automatically generated based on known sequences via a "BIN attack". Carders might attempt a "distributed guessing attack" to discover valid numbers by submitting numbers across a high number of ecommerce sites simultaneously. Today, various methodologies include ATM skimmer, s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |