Working with police and security agencies around the world, the FBI has cracked a major cyber-crime network, making tens of arrests in the US alone, as part of Operation Trident Breach. The cyber thieves targeted small and medium-sized companies, municipalities, churches, and individuals, infecting their computers using a version of the Zeus Botnet. The US Attorney General says those arrested in the US, who provided bank accounts for the criminals to deposit stolen money in, have been charged with conspiracy to commit bank-fraud and money laundering.
The suspected members worked as mules for fraudsters based in Eastern-Europe who stole around $70 million from companies and consumers in the US. The original goal was $220 million, but the criminals only managed to steal less than a third of that. They used the the malware's obtained usernames and passwords for bank account details.
The Operation Trident Breach investigation began in May 2009 when FBI agents noticed a string of suspicious bank transactions: automated clearing house batch payments were made to 46 separate bank accounts throughout the US. The large-scale organized cybercrime operation was active in several countries outside of the US, including the Netherlands, Ukraine, and the UK.
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British ISPs granted delay in anti-piracy court battle
A top UK broadband provider has been granted a delay in its fight against releasing users' personal data to copyright groups. British Telecom (BT) sought the adjournment to give the court time to consider the case at hand and render a proper decision. The ISP challenged anti-P2P groups saying that accusations of illegal file sharing needs to have "some basis" and that blindly releasing user data undermines subscriber confidence and causes "unnecessary worry" for British consumers.
Concern in the UK is high after last month's leak involving PlusNet, another British ISP, where unencrypted user data was released. Customer names and addresses were matched with pornographic content that was allegedly downloaded by subscribers. The data was found in an email from ACS Law, one of the UK's top anti-file sharing firms, which seeks to use the IPs to target and prosecute users who downloaded content illegally. An investigation is already underway to determine if ACS Law's security (or lack thereof) was at fault for the leak. Furthermore, a coordinated legal response has been launched by consumers who feel the firm has wrongly targeted them as copyright violators, an action that could be classified as harassment.
Obviously BT and PlusNet want to put the concerns of their subscribers to rest. The UK Guardian reported, "Most, if not all, of the internet service providers served with court orders brought by ACS:Law have now said they will challenge the obligation to disclose customer data to law firms, prompting fresh spotlight on the disputed evidence-gathering techniques used to prove that a broadband user has shared copyrighted material." Pretty interesting considering the US government's recent push to require built-in backdoors for monitoring user activity, although the focus is more on criminal behavior and not piracy control.
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XP still represents 66% of all Windows PCs
Windows 7's one year anniversary is rapidly approaching, and despite being hailed as the quickest selling operating system, Windows XP remains number one in global usage. According to stats provided by Net Applications, XP holds 60.03% of the market, down slightly from last month's 60.89% and last year's 70.48%. Naturally, those numbers factor in rival platforms, but XP currently represents 66% of all Windows machines.
Vista's overall share slipped from 14% to 13.35% during the recent sequential period, which equates to 14.66% among Windows users - much lower than its all-time high of 20.35%. Windows 7 gained about 1.25% on-month, moving from 15.85% to 17.10%, or 19% of all Windows systems. Microsoft's OS share as a whole has fallen by nearly 1% over the last nine months, but it's not clear what platform has benefited from Redmond's loss.
StatCounter, another research firm, puts XP at 53.99%, Vista at 16.59%, and Windows 7 supposedly holds 22.04% of the total market. That breaks down to 58%, 18%, and 24% of all Windows computers.
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