The Department of Justice has indicted 49 y.o. Lori Drew and unnamed co-conspirators on charges of "one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress". The charges stem from the suicide of 13 y.o. Megan Meier following an online hoax in which the middle-aged Drew and others allegedly created a fictitious MySpace account under the name Josh Evans and subsequently used that account to first win the 13 y.o.'s affections and then publicly humiliate her.

In an original statement to Missouri police, Drew admitted to instigating the hoax, as well as monitoring, reading, and typing the communications between the fictitious Evans and Megan Meier. (Read the original police report). At the time, there were no applicable laws and no charges were filed. Since then, Missouri and 26 other states have adopted cyberbully laws and in March 2008, the U.S. Senate passed a cyberbully bill inspired by the Megan Meier tragedy.

In yesterday's announcement of Drew's indictment, U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien issued the following statement, "This adult woman allegedly used the Internet to target a young teenage girl, with horrendous ramifications. After a thorough investigation, we have charged Ms. Drew with criminally accessing MySpace and violating rules established to protect young, vulnerable people. Any adult who uses the Internet or a social gathering Web site to bully or harass another person, particularly a young teenage girl, needs to realize that their actions can have serious consequences."

As malware has become far more serious - and far more pervasive - technologies formerly reserved for government and corporate enterprises have begun moving into mainstream, home-user-friendly products. Chief among these are host intrusion prevention systems (HIPS) and behavioral analysis. Here's an overview of these two technologies and the types of users for whom they might best be suited. >> Full Story

When it comes to package delivery, there's no name that elicits more trust than the FedEx brand. And that's undoubtedly why scammers are sending a blend of Nigerian 419 and lottery scams in an email that pretends to be from "FedEx Courier". The email claims the recipient has won an international lottery and the "cheque" is sitting at FedEx waiting to be delivered. The scammers instruct the recipient to send them their name, address, and phone number - along with a 'processing fee' to satisfy alleged taxing and other requirements. Those who fall for the scam and send the processing fee are often contacted with another tall tale - this time that other winners of the same lottery have been declared ineligible and now the winnings are even greater. Thus the victim is instructed to send even more money to satisfy the alleged increase in taxes and processing fees. Of course, there are no winnings - the only money that ever changes hands is the money the scammer collects from the victim.

The elderly are particularly prone to such scams. In many cases, they are even being deliberately targeted. This may be due in part to their having lived in a more protected time, a time prior to the international explosion of the Internet. A time when Uncle Sam was still able to police business practices and crackdown on the unscrupulous. In other words, the elderly may fall victim not due to any lapse in cognitive abilities, but rather because they've never been exposed to a world in which these sorts of scams were able to occur.

The 72-year-old Ann Mowle was one such victim. A single mom and experienced bookkeeper, she put three children through college and managed to tuck away a tidy sum for retirement. She planned to travel and to contribute to her grandchildren's continuing education. Instead, she was taken in by lottery scammers and eventually took her own life as a result.

Talk to your parents, your aunts, your grandparents, your elderly neighbors. Let them know the laws that once protected them aren't enough to keep today's scammers at bay. Talk to them about lottery scams, advance fee fraud, phishing, and other challenges presented by today's borderless world. Because if you don't talk to them, chances are a scammer will.

Every 3.5 seconds in the United States, someone's identity is stolen. Unfortunately, many view identity theft as an 'online' only problem. It's true that phishing scams, Trojans, and other forms of cybercrime are a factor, but there are also far more low tech means of identity theft - including digging through your garbage or stealing your wallet or purse. You can minimize your risk by following these ten tips. >> Full Article

System Safety Monitor from System Safety adds a much needed extra layer of defense against today's malware attacks. The behavior and rules based controls provide critical insight into the otherwise invisible workings that - left undetected - can too often allow infection to occur. Learning mode can help clean systems stay clean and comprehensive reporting can help ferret out and block malware on already infected systems. >> Full Review

At first glance, the virus name designated by an antivirus scanner may seem a bit cryptic. But there's a method to the madness which, if properly understood, sheds valuable insight into the category of threat, the platform it targets, and possibly even what it does. >> Full Article

Researchers at TippingPoint have successfully diverted a large number of bot-infected systems to their own command and control servers. But now what do they do with them? If they shutdown the bots, are they effectively becoming a botmaster? If they do nothing, are they somehow complicit to the malicious activities the bots carry out? Dennis Fisher, executive editor of SearchSecurity takes a closer look at the dilemma faced in his article, "Botnet disruption raises ethical concerns among researchers".

One pet peeve with the article: Fisher holds the Welchi (aka Nachi) worm up as an example of a 'good' worm but fails to mention that Welchia spontanteously rebooted infected systems every few minutes, effectively launching a local denial of service attack. In that respect, Welchia was worse than the Blaster worm it was allegedly designed to remove. Indeed, Welchi serves as the poster child for the argument that there is no such thing as a 'good' worm.

Also see: "Are you in a botnet?"

Except in the case of rootkit-enabled malware, it's often possible to remove an infection (at least the active components) by removing their startup points. Here's a list of the autostart entry points in Windows, including startup folders, registry keys, and ini files. >> AutoStart Entry Points in Windows

Attackers are increasingly using greeting card scams to foist trojans on the unsuspecting. Fortunately, there are some tell-tale signs and tips to follow that can help you avoid becoming a victim. >> Full Story

Sometimes, despite our best efforts, something happens that causes Internet Explorer to become unstable. Fortunately, Internet Explorer 7 offers an easy-to-use feature that deletes all temporary files, disables add-ons, and resets changed settings back to their defaults. Here's how to reset Internet Explorer v7 settings.