In a new twist, web spammers are using images of a stripper named Melissa to dupe naive Windows users into helping them break CAPTCHAs – those “enter this text” images that websites rely on to keep spammers from posting spam on their site. Dubbed the CAPTCHA.a or Captchar.a virus, an infected Windows computer will display a picture of Melissa, who promises to remove an article of clothing for each “puzzle” that the user solves.

The mega popular Facebook site has joined the ranks of social networking sites that trick you into providing your password so that they can steal your AOL , Yahoo, MSN, or other address book, and spam all of your contacts. Only this time it’s with a twist – they are actually spamming your AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) contacts in your Buddy List! The spam starts out like this: “According to his Facebook status, Friend’s Name (their username) is now “Friend’s Nickname”. Friend invites you to join Facebook and keep up with what he and your other friends are doing.” What we want to know is WHY are AOL, Yahoo, and MSN continuing to let this go on?

The security folks who call themselves “creative hackers” over at Gnucitizen have announced that they have discovered a security flaw in Adobe Reader which will allow someone to remotely run programs on your Windows PC. “All it takes is to open a PDF document or stumble across a page which embeds one,” they explain.

When it comes to computer safety and Internet security issues, even the best Internet security and computer Internet security software may be no match for the enemy within. Because it turns out that Microsoft announces an average of two new threats every week to your Microsoft Windows computer safety! And no, automatic Microsoft Windows updates and having Windows service pack 2 isn’t going to protect you.

A new online free sex offender search tool allows you to search a list of “sex offenders in my area.” The free sex offender search cross-references a list for registered sex offenders with an online mapping system, so that you can find any registered sex offender on the sex offenders list anywhere within a 1 to 20 mile radius of any location (such as your home, your child’s school, etc.).

We all knew it was heading in this direction, but we didn’t think it would come from a relative unknown. Zonbu announces the first computer that has everything – except – storage. You store all of your data – all of it – online, on the Zonbu servers.

An independent security research outfit has found a gaping security hole in the iPhone. They have found that someone needs only embed the correct malicious code on a web page, and when an iPhone visits the web page, it will essentially cooperate with any instruction given to it through the code.

An article this week by the Wall Street Journal blares out that “Hackers Can Now Deliver Viruses via Web Ads”. It’s not like the WSJ to go the sensationalist route, so we can only assume that the reporter doesn’t usually cover the Internet security beat. Regardless, this type of fear mongering is irresponsible at best, unforgivable at worst.

A company called Capgemini has been contracted to build an enormous online database of every single child in England, including their address and the telephone numbers. The database, called ContactPoint, is surely the stuff of which the wet dreams of hackers and online paedophiles everywhere is made.

Forget plain old mobile phone tracking. FlexiSpy is a cell phone tapping and spying software that, once slipped on to your cell phone, sends all of the data from your cell phone to the person spying on you. It also allows them to turn on your cell phone’s microphone so that they can remotely listen in on what you are doing, and on your calls! It currently works with all Nokia 60, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile phones, and, according to FlexiSpy, more phones are being added all the time.

A company called WabiSabiLabi (Wabi Sabi Labi – pronounced ‘wobby sobby lobby’ or ‘wobi sobi lobi’) has announced that they have created an auction marketplace where security researchers and companies can buy and sell security vulnerabilities and hacks. Here’s what that means (we mean what “buying and selling security vulnerabilities means”, not what “Wabi Sabi Labi” means – although roughly speaking the Japanese ‘wabi sabi’ means respecting things which are authentic – from nature – by acknowledging their authentic beauty with the recognition that nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect).

The Geek Squad at Best Buy Electronics stores is supposed to help customers with their computers. But some geeks on the geek squad have instead been helping themselves to porn files found on their customers’ hard drives, with one Geek Squad member copying the files to his own thumb drive (issued by employer Best Buy .com).

A computer sytem within the Pentagon, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, was hacked into, and this time

You know you should have a data backup solution to ensure that you have a harddrive backup – and in fact you may already have one or more backup solutions in place. But what about portable backup solutions – what about if you are on a trip, and your hard drive fails (as mine did last week?) Consider an iPod video for your portable backup data storage!

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