Three indicted for Comcast hack last year

Three hackers have been indicted for redirecting the Comcast.net Web site to a page of their own making in 2008. When Comcast customers visited the Comcast.net site during the attack on May 28, 2008, they were redirected to a Web site that displayed a message attributing the attack to members of the Kryogeniks hacker gang. At that time, about 5 million people connected to the Web site each day, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement. Because the site redirected to that page, customers were unable to access their Comcast e-mail accounts through the Comcast.net site.

Instead of the Comcast page, customers saw the message: "KRYOGENIKS Defiant and EBB RoXed COMCAST sHouTz to VIRUS Warlock elul21 coll1er seven." Immediately after Comcast was able to address the hack, the ISP (Internet service provider) and Network Solutions, the registrar, said they didn't know how the hackers managed to get the passwords necessary to switch the DNS servers and redirect the site. The suit said that one of the defendants, Christopher Allen Lewis, made two phone calls through which he got the information that he and his friends used to access Comcast's DNS information. The indictment sheds only a bit of light on how they did it. Another of the defendants, Michael Paul Nebel, allegedly logged onto a specific Comcast e-mail account that allowed him to communicate with Comcast's DNS registrar. During the attack, one of the defendants, Lewis, called a Comcast employee at his home and asked if the company's domains were working properly, the indictment alleges. Lewis was then able to sign onto Comcast's account at the registrar and point the Comcast.net Web site to the page he and the others made, according to the filing.

Comcast claims that it lost US$128,578 due to the attacks. The men are charged with one count each of conspiracy to intentionally damage a protected computer system. James Robert Black Jr. is the third defendant named in the indictment. The charges were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Thursday. If convicted they each face a five-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine.

Google Voice Frees Your Voicemail, and Your Number

Until yesterday, signing up for a Google Voice account required you to pick a new phone number - not a pleasant option for those who have kept the same digits for years. When you sign up for Google Voice - which is still not widely available to the public (you need to get an invite or request one) - you can either choose Google one-stop phone number or keep your own for a more pared-down experience. Now Google has enabled users to keep their existing phone numbers and get (most of) the features Google Voice offers, including Google's excellent voicemail service. Keeping your old digits gives you: Online, searchable voicemail Free automated voicemail transcription Custom voicemail greetings for different callers Email and SMS notifications Low-priced international calling Going for the full-throttle Google experience gives you all of the above plus: One number that reaches you on all your phones SMS via email Call screening Listen In Call recording Conference calling Call blocking If you already have a Google Voice number, you can add the voicemail option to any mobile phone associated with the account.

Happily, Google circumvented this problem earlier this month. Some of the awesome benefits are explained in Google's YouTube explanation: Since voicemails are transcribed and placed online, even made publicly available for sharing purposes, there has been some danger of said voicemails appearing in search results. These new features are both freeing and limiting: you can keep your number but sacrifice some of the goodies that make Google Voice a powerful contender in the telephony business. Follow Brennon on Twitter: @neonmadman Full number portability is likely coming in the future, after, of course, Google deals with AT&T, Apple, and the FCC. But some have high hopes that eventually the opposition will grow to accept and embrace Google Voice.

Beware BlackBerry Browser Bug Until Carriers Offer Updates

BlackBerry smartphone users who frequently surf the Web via handheld will want to keep checking with their wireless carriers for BlackBerry Handheld Software updates in the coming weeks. The BlackBerry Browser dialog box informs the BlackBerry device user when there is a mismatch between the site domain name and the domain name indicated in the associated certificate, but does not properly illustrate that the mismatch is due to the presence of some hidden characters (for example, null characters) in the site domain name." The flaw relates to the BlackBerry software's certificate-handling functionality. That's because a new bug found in most current versions of Research In Motion's (RIM) device software, which makes it easier for malicious parties to execute "phishing" attacks on unsuspecting smartphone users, has been addressed via handheld software updates from RIM. From RIM's online security advisory: "This advisory relates to a BlackBerry Browser dialog box that provides information about web site domain names and their associated certificates.

A hacker could potentially recreate, or "spoof," a site commonly visited by BlackBerry users, such as RIM's BlackBerry.com, by purposely adding "null characters" to the site certificate's Common Name (CN) field. CVSS is a vendor agnostic, open standard for the security industry meant to depict the seriousness of vulnerabilities, according to RIM. The BlackBerry-maker recommends that all BlackBerry users running handheld OS 4.5 or higher check in with their wireless carriers to see if device software updates are available. The recently discovered flaw keeps the BlackBerry Browser from correctly identifying mismatched site certificates due to an inability to render said null characters. (See screenshot below for an example of how the BlackBerry Browser box should look when it encounters site certificate issues due to the presence of null characters in site CN fields.) The flaw was rated 6.8 (Medium Risk) on a Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) scale of one to ten, with one representing little or no risk and ten representing very serious risk. The problem: I just did a quick search of both AT&T and Verizon's BlackBerry download pages, but in a number of cases I could only locate earlier software versions than those recommended by RIM. Here's a list that specifies which software should be updated and to which new versions. If you encounter a BlackBerry Browser dialogue box like the ones shown in this post, you should choose to close the connection rather than subject yourself to potential phishing-related risk, according to RIM. More information on BlackBerry security can be located on the company's website. Current Software Version * BlackBerry Device Software v4.5.0.x to v4.5.0.173 or later * BlackBerry Device Software v4.6.0.x to v4.6.0.303 or later * BlackBerry Device Software v4.6.1.x to v4.6.1.309 or later * BlackBerry Device Software v4.7.0.x to v4.7.0.179 or later * BlackBerry Device Software v4.7.1.x to v4.7.1.57 or later Until you're able to sit down and update your device-or while you wait for your carrier to issue an update-RIM says to use caution when clicking unknown links in SMS text or e-mail messages, even if they're from what appears to be a trusted source.

Defunct airport fast-pass program may be revived

Tens of thousands of subscribers to a registered air traveler program, who were left feeling scammed when the company offering the service abruptly went out of business, may soon get a break. Subscribers to the Clear service, some of whom had signed up for two years or more of service just before VIP went out of business, will be offered a chance to continue their subscriptions after the deal goes through. A new investment group based in California has signed a letter of intent with Morgan Stanley, the defunct company's largest debt holder, according to the New York Times . Under a proposed plan, the investment firm will be allowed to buy the assets of Verified Identity Pass Inc. (VIP) and restart the Clear fast-lane security service, the Times reported, quoting the owner of the Emeryville, Calif.-based investment banking firm, Henry Inc. If an individual chooses not to, any personal data on that individual that had been collected by VIP for Clear, will be permanently destroyed, the Times said quoting the investment banker.

VIP was one of seven companies approved by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to operate a registered traveler program, which lets air travelers get through airport security checks faster. The news is likely to provide some comfort to thousands of customers of VIP who were left in the lurch when the company in June abruptly announced it could no longer offer the Clear service because it had run out of cash. It offered the service at 21 major airports, including New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, La Guardia, Boston's Logan International and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airports. To sign up for VIP's Clear service, customers had to submit to background checks and provide identifying information, including Social Security and credit card numbers, home address, date and place of birth, phone numbers and driver's license number. More than 200,000 customers had signed up for the service when the company went out of business.

They also had to provide fingerprints, iris scans and digital images of their faces. The company made matters worse by hinting that it would sell the data it had collected to fulfill its debt obligations. VIP's decsion to shut the service raised concerns about the fate of the data that had been collected by the company. Many participants were left feeling scammed when VIP announced that it couldn't refund their subscriptions because it had run out of money. The motion was in response to a lawsuit brought by concerned customers.

Days after the company's closure, the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security asked the TSA to ensure that all information collected by VIP was properly protected and destroyed . In August, a federal judge in New York issued an injunction prohibiting VIP from selling, transferring or disclosing to any third-party the data it collected while operating the Clear service. The injunction, however, was later lifted on a technicality. For the moment, the purchase does little to alleviate the major complaint in the lawsuit, which is that VIP's customers didn't get a refund from their subscriptions. "That is something that they are entitled to regardless of whether or not other companies" purchase VIP, he said. Todd Schneider, an attorney with Schneider, Wallace, Cottrell, Brayton, Konecky LLP, a San Francisco law firm representing one of the parties in the lawsuit, today said he was unclear on the ramifications of the reported purchase of VIPs assets by the investment banking firm. A hearing in the case has been scheduled for Oct. 16, where Schneider plans to again ask the judge to bar VIP from selling its data assets to any third party.

News of the proposed purchase comes as the House Committee on Homeland Security is scheduled to hold a hearing today on the future of the registered air traveler program.

Sybase smooths enterprise path for iPhones

Sybase is extending its Afaria mobile-device management platform and database software to the Apple iPhone, taking advantage of new enterprise features in Version 3.1 of the iPhone's software to give IT departments more control and capabilities on the popular handset. Going on sale in the middle of this month, Sybase's Afaria 6.5 will finally give administrators the kinds of controls they have had previously for mobile platforms such as Symbian, Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1, Research In Motion BlackBerry and PalmOS. Apple's recent iPhone 3.1 release added the capability to lock down certain settings on a device so the user can't change them using the phone's configuration utility, said Mark Jordan, senior product manager for Afaria. Though many enterprise employees bring iPhones into the office and rely on them for personal communications, the device originally caught on as a consumer gadget for music, Web browsing and entertainment applications, and has only gradually made inroads as a workplace tool. That allowed Sybase to give enterprise IT departments the power to do things such as block applications, define the required password strength and lock down Wi-Fi and VPN (virtual private network) settings.

With the new Afaria, enterprises can make and change settings on employees' iPhones over the air based on overall policies for certain departments, job descriptions and other criteria. Administrators can now establish a trusted relationship between Afaria and the employee's phone using a certificate, he said. Among other capabilities, they can also require device authentication for access to a corporate directory and set up compliance reporting on the employee's use of the phone. Also on Tuesday, it announced tools for the Sybase SQL Anywhere database to be used for synchronization of data between an iPhone application and a back-end database. Sybase announced Afaria's iPhone capabilities on Tuesday at the iPhone Developer Summit in Santa Clara, California.

Using SQL Anywhere, internal developers and software vendors can build in bi-directional synchronization between an on-device app and relational databases including Sybase, Oracle, SQL Server, DB2 and MySQL. This frees employees from having to depend on the cellular data connection to get work done while on the road, Jordan said. Also on Tuesday, the company's Sybase 365 subsidiary introduced a turnkey system for mobile banking on the iPhone. There is a beta test program now open for SQL Anywhere for iPhone. With it, banks can allow their customers to check balances, transfer funds among accounts, securely communicate with bank representatives, find branches and automatically dial the bank, Jordan said. The Sybase mBanking 365 iPhone platform is available now and is already deployed by BBVA Compass as the BBVA Compass Mobile application.

Cisco results top estimates

Cisco Systems on Wednesday posted first-quarter results that far exceeded Wall Street's expectations, though revenue and profits were down from a year earlier. Likewise, earnings per share for the quarter came in $0.05 better than expected, at $0.36. The non-GAAP figure excludes expenses, charges and other one-time items. Revenue for the quarter ended Oct. 24, the first of Cisco's fiscal year, was US$9.0 billion, compared to the $8.74 billion expected by financial analysts, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

Sales in the quarter were down 12.7 percent from a year earlier. On a sequential basis, revenue was up 6 percent from the fourth quarter, while earnings per share were up 16 percent. "Our Q1 results continued to reflect strong sequential growth trends that meet or exceed expectations during normal economic times," Cisco CEO John Chambers said in a statement. "We view the improving economic outlook, combined with solid execution on our growth strategy, as creating unparalleled opportunity to drive more value into the core of the network. The non-GAAP earnings per share were also down, by 14.3 percent. Simply said, we believe that key market transitions across collaboration, virtualization and video will drive productivity and growth in network loads for the next decade, and are evolving even faster than expected. "A new model of productivity based on collaboration is clearly emerging, and we believe this may be the most profound opportunity for businesses in our 25 years as a company," Chambers added. Cisco's board had previously authorized up to $62 billion in stock repurchases.

Cisco also said its board of directors authorized up to $10 billion in additional repurchases of its common stock. There is no fixed termination date for the repurchase program. The remaining authorized amount for stock repurchases under this program, including the additional authorization, is approximately $13.1 billion.