HUA HIN, Thailand - United States President Barack Obama's confirmation of the
death of the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, caused a surge of
activity on the web, not just from people hungry for instant news, updates and
interactive maps, but from cyber criminals eager to make a quick profit or
spread their malicious software.
Micro-blogging website Twitter saw the highest sustained rate of tweets at over
3,000 per second for a couple of hours on the day of the announcement. An image
posted on Flickr depicting Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton and members of the national security team huddled in a
situation room received over 1.6 million views in 36 hours.
Google reported that it saw a 1,000,000% increase in searches for "Bin Laden"
in the hour leading up to the official announcement as news broke on various
websites and thousands took to Google's mapping services to locate the
three-storey compound
hideout in which Osama spent his final moments in the Pakistani town of
Abbottabad.
Scores of web weasels wasted little time in setting up hundreds of fake
websites, online traps, and cyber scams in efforts to lure unsuspecting net
surfers into downloading malware. One of the most popular searches has been in
Google Images for the man himself; several Bin Laden images simply redirected
users to malicious websites that tried to convince them that their computer was
infected with a virus.
The website then prompted them to pay for fake anti-virus software via credit
card (after stealing the details) or offered them free software to clean the
computer - which was actually clean until the fake malware had been installed
on it by the unwitting user.
Facebook has also been flooded with fake ads directed at users sharing Bin
Laden stories; once clicked on, users are directed to scammy websites
requesting personal details in order to qualify for free gifts and prizes.
Researchers at security company Sophos reported a "death video" that had been
circulating virally on the social network. Users who "liked" the video or
shared it with friends opened themselves up to cyber scammers who gained access
to their contacts list and personal information.
Facebook is probably the most dangerous platform out there and one of the
easiest for scammers to manipulate as the nature of it relies on people
trusting content recommended and posted by their friends on the network. That
said, the ease at which cyber criminals can manipulate Google's search
algorithm in order to get their own toxic websites ranking higher than genuine
ones also leaves a lot of questions about the multi-billion dollar company.
Internet
A new department has been born in the People's Republic of China in an effort
to strengthen the management of Internet content to the world's largest online
market. The State Internet Information Office appears to be intended to manage
rivalry among a dozen or so Chinese ministries and agencies with a stake in the
Internet.
China has the world's largest number of Internet users at over 450 million; it
is also a rapidly expanding industry worth billions of dollars, so there is no
surprise that a number of separate government agencies have been squabbling
over the control of it for a seat on the digital gravy train through licensing
and regulation.
The government on Wednesday said the new department would coordinate and
supervise online content management and handle administrative approval of
businesses related to online news reporting. It would also investigate and
punish websites found to be in violation of the ever-tightening censorship
laws, oversee telecommunications service providers, Internet address
allocation, registration of websites, and direct the development of online
gaming, online video and audio businesses according to state run news agency
Xinhua.
China's Internet surveillance system, otherwise known as the "Great Firewall",
requires that websites and companies operating within the country self-censor
or face being taken offline. The government strives extremely hard to control
what its citizens can view on the Internet and it is highly likely that the new
department will be adding a lot more bricks to the wall.
Security
Following last week's catastrophic security breach of Sony Entertainment's data
servers company, chief executive Howard Stringer has publically apologized for
the incident in an effort to reassure Sony's 100,000-strong membership base.
The company also revealed plans to offer customers free identity theft
prevention services for a year. Sony has teamed up with identity-protection
firm Debix to offer a service called AllClear ID Plus, which will alert
customers to unauthorized use of their personal information and offer a US$1
million insurance policy if they become the victims of identity theft.
Cyber security detectives from a number of firms have also been bought onboard
to investigate the security breach which Sony blamed upon online vigilante
group "Anonymous". The company claims that it was distracted by a denial of
service attack launched by the group which enabled hackers to infiltrate their
servers and gain access to personal information of tens of thousands of users.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
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