Is Former Federal Informant the Nation's Biggest Identity Thief?
(AP)
Albert Gonzalez, 28, broke his own record for identity theft by hacking into retail networks, according to prosecutors, though they say his illicit computer exploits ended when he went to jail on charges stemming from a previous case.
Gonzalez is a former informant for the U.S. Secret Service who helped the agency hunt hackers, authorities say. The agency later found out that he had also been working with criminals and feeding them information on ongoing investigations, even warning off at least one individual, according to authorities.
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Black Man Becomes Obama-Hating White Supremacist on Facebook
(AP PHOTO)
The U.S. Attorney's Office says 20-year-old Dyron L. Hart of Poplarville pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to making a threat in November 2008.
Hart admitted creating a name and using a white supremacists' photo to pose as a white man who planned to kill blacks because Barack Obama had been elected president.
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iPerv: Track Sex Offenders with iPhone
(Apptism.com)
NEW YORK (CBS) Wanna know where the nearest sex offenders live? The information is already public, but now you can call up the list of local sex offenders on your iPhone.
A new iPhone application called Offender Locator lets users locate and list nearby registered sex offenders using the phone's built-in Global Position System (GPS).
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Congressman: File-Sharing Endangers National Security
(CBS/iStockphoto)
Sensitive or confidential information that is now freely available on file-sharing networks include a safe house location for the First Family, information about the electronics on the President's helicopter, financial information for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, social security numbers and family information for every master sergeant in the Army, classified FBI files, including surveillance photos of an alleged Mafia hit man, and the medical records of some 24,000 patients of a Texas hospital.
That's according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
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Boston Student Learns Price of Sharing Music: $675K
(AP Photo/Bizuayehu Tesfaye)
BOSTON (AP) A federal jury on Friday ordered a Boston University graduate student, who admitted illegally downloading and sharing music online, to pay $675,000 to four record labels.
Joel Tenenbaum, of Providence, R.I., admitted in court that he downloaded and distributed 30 songs. The only issue for the jury to decide was how much in damages to award the record labels.
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Autistic Genius Hacked Military Computers in Search of Alien Eco Tech
(John Stillwell/PA Wire)
NEW YORK (CBS) An autistic computer genius, space aliens and Pretenders legend Chrissie Hynde are all wrapped up in what the federal government says is an effort to contain the most prolific computer hacker in American history.
The case focuses on Gary McKinnon, 42, a British citizen who, depending on your point of view, is either a brilliant, but harmless, autistic man searching for UFOs or a dangerous hacker who brainstormed his way into high-security computer systems at NASA and the Department of Defense.
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Your Antivirus Software May Actually Be a Virus
(CBS)
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/CNET) As if keeping viruses from your computer isn't hard enough, there are new reports that tens of millions of people might be installing fake antivirus software that doesn't protect their computers, installs its own viruses and charges the unsuspecting user for the privilege.
All that good news is in a report released Wednesday from PandaLabs, an antivirus software maker.
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Erin Andrews Angry 911 Call - "I'm Being Treated Like (Bleeping) Britney Spears"
(Newman Lowrance/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (CBS) "I did nothing wrong and I'm being treated like f***ing Britney Spears and it sucks." Those are the angry words of glamorous ESPN sports reporter Erin Andrews, 31, who was illicitly filmed in a peephole video showing her naked in a hotel room.
The former University of Florida dance team member, referred to as "Erin Pageviews" because of the Internet traffic she can generate, made the statement to 911 operators last week after "paparazzi" were lurking outside her Georgia home.
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Share Music? You Might Owe the Record Industry $1 Million
(Webpage of Joel Tenenbaum)
A Boston University graduate student is being taken to court by a powerful coalition of record companies for downloading music from the Internet. If he loses, he could be forced to cough up $1 million in fines for downloading dozens of songs.
Think it can't happen?
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Cyber Force or Farce: U.S. Unprepared for Wave of Computer Attacks?
(AP / CBS)
The study describes a fragmented federal cyber force, where no one is in charge of overall planning and government agencies are "on their own and sometimes working at cross purposes or in competition with one another."
The report, scheduled to be released Wednesday, arrives in the wake of a series of cyber attacks this month that shut down some U.S. and South Korean government and financial Web sites.
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