Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have charged 19 people with being part of an identity theft ring in the Bronx that obtained at least $7 million in federal tax refunds by filing thousands of fraudulent income tax returns.

The scheme relied in part on a corrupt tax preparer in the Bronx who used stolen Social Security numbers to create the fake returns, the office of United States Attorney James B. Comey said yesterday.

The tax preparer eventually agreed to cooperate with federal authorities, and continued to carry out the fraud while the government secretly recorded conversations and gathered other evidence, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in United States District Court in Manhattan. The tax preparer, who has not been identified, has pleaded guilty as part of a deal with the government, the complaint said.

InfoStructure News from Wired News - Xupiter Mongers Deal Spam, Scams.

Content on the Yomtobian sites varies, covering topics ranging from sexual success training, interspecies romance, Internet advertising firms and even Tibetan children demanding the return of the Dalai Lama. Virtually all have one thing in common: On arrival, users are presented with an option to download the Xupiter toolbar.

Many people insist that Xupiter mugged their computers, installing itself without permission.

Some security experts say it's impossible for Xupiter to install itself sans users' approval on a computer, while others point to known flaws in older versions of Internet Explorer that allow malicious code on a website to be downloaded and executed automatically.

Users of the most recent versions of IE, and those who have patched older versions, should be safe from Xupiter auto-installs. But even the most up-to-date software may not be enough to save users from Xupiter's wrath.

Technical support representatives at Microsoft's help center said Xupiter is "breaking" some installed versions of Windows XP.

"It can actually break the entire system, making it impossible for you to open My Computer or other directories on the computer," claimed one rep, who requested anonymity. "It's worse than a minor inconvenience; it causes major issues with the system. We're getting a lot of requests for help with this."

Peter Gutmann at cs.auckland.ac.nz - The Crypto Gardening Guide and Planting Tips.

There has been a great deal of difficulty experienced in getting research performed by cryptographers in the last decade or so (beyond basic algorithms such as SHA and AES) applied in practice. The reason for this is that cryptographers don't work on things that implementors need because it's not cool, and implementors don't use what cryptographers design because it's not useful or sufficiently aligned with real-world considerations to be practical. As a result, security standards are being created with mechanisms that have had little or no security analysis, often homebrew mechanisms or the standards editor's pet scheme. The problem is a lack of communication: Cryptographers often don't seem aware of the real-world constraints that their design will need to work within in order to be successfully deployed. The intent of this document is to cover some of those real-world constraints for cryptographers, to point out problems that their designs will run into when attempts are made to deploy them. Also included is a motivational list of extremely uncool problems that implementors have been building ad-hoc solutions for since no formal ones exist

Slashdot | Developers - The Crypto Gardening Guide and Planting Tips.

ncostigan writes "Peter Gutmann of cryptlib fame has written a very readable paper on real-world constraints for cryptographers, and points out problems that their designs will run into when attempts are made to deploy them. Also included is a motivational list of extremely uncool problems that implementors have been building ad-hoc solutions for since no formal ones exist."

Harvard Political Review - Valenti's Views.

The MPAA president and former LBJ aide opens up on a range of topics

[ ... ]

In recent years, Valenti has become an outspoken leader in the fight against piracy on the Internet. Known for his sharp rhetorical abilities, Valenti always speaks about piracy in calamitous terms, prophesizing the eventual death of the movie industry. To defend its copyrights, MPAA successfully sued publishers of a program that undermined the copy prevention technology on DVDs and is currently suing several file-sharing services. In addition, Valenti has taken his case to Congress, pushing for mandated copy prevention technologies in all digital devices that play movies, music, and other media.

But many people have criticized Valenti's hard-line stance, calling it anti-technology and anti-consumer. These critics assert that Valenti's copy prevention mandates will harm innovation, forcing all technologists to ask the MPAA's permission before creating the next generation of amazing gadgets. Copyright holders have always fought new technologies, from Marconi's radio to cable television to VCRs, and in no case have their apocalyptic visions come true. Furthermore, copy prevention technologies will go beyond ending piracy by limiting how consumers can make personal use of their legally purchased movies.

After delivering a speech on "Persuasion and Leadership" at Harvard's Institute of Politics, Valenti sat down with the HPR to discuss his side of the digital debate and his life in politics.

Slashdot | Your Rights Online - Jack Valenti's Views On The Digital Age.

ditogi writes "The Harvard Political Review did a quick interview with the lord of darkness himself, Jack Valenti. He gives his thoughts on government mandated copy prevention, fair use, and lobbying. In response to his famous 'VCR is [to the movie industry]...as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.' quote, he responds, 'I wasn't opposed to the VCR.' And what does he think of his current job? 'I think lobbying is really an honest profession.'" --- My favorite quote: "In the digital world, we don't need back-ups, because a digital copy never wears out. It is timeless."

kuro5hin.org || Advice Sought: Dealing with Spam Bounces/DDoS (Internet).

There are many HOWTOs and expository texts on how to protect your users against unwanted spam, as well as how to secure your server against relay rape by spammers. But what do you do if your server becomes flooded with bounce messages because someone decided to forge your domain in the From: header?

Jeremy Zawodny's blog: A SPAM DoS Attack and Corporate Responsibility.

MotherJones.com | Cognitive Dissident . John Perry Barlow Interviewed by Tim Dickinson

John Perry Barlow, the man who popularized the term 'cyberspace', discusses the Total Information Awareness project, online activism, file sharing, and the prospect of a digital counterculture.

Slashdot | Your Rights Online - Cognitive Dissident: Interview with John Perry Barlow.

Bob Hellbringer writes "Mother Jones Magazine has an online interview with John Perry Barlow of the EFF, on the things that all slashdotters love: 'the Total Information Awareness project, online activism, file sharing, and the prospect of a digital counterculture.'"

Boston Globe Online / Magazine - A Nation of Voyeurs .

How the Internet search engine Google is changing what we can find out about one another - and raising questions about whether we should

[ ... ]

Dazzlingly fast, vast, and precise, Google has made our lives appreciably easier. The first tool truly to make sense of the white noise that is the Internet, Google has become essential research for everyone from sales people calling on new accounts to single people taking another spin with blind-date roulette. It's reconnected long-lost biological brothers and battalion buddies. And who dials 411 anymore, when it's cheaper and faster on Google, and you don't have to explain to some headset-wearer in Terre Haute how to spell Worcester? Google saves time, saves face - it may even save lives. Instead of calling their doctor, some people type their symptoms into Google; a few have learned they were in the early stages of a heart attack.

[ ... ]

You don't have to have a rap sheet from deep in your past to be affected by the long arm of Google's Web crawler. Maybe it was a stupid fraternity prank or a careless posting to an Internet newsgroup in college. Perhaps you once went on a rant at a selectmen's meeting or signed a petition without stopping to read it. Or maybe you endured a bitter divorce. You may think those chapters are closed. Google begs to differ.

While most of your embarrassing baggage was already available to the public, it was effectively off-limits to everyone but the professionally intrepid or supremely nosy. Now, in states where court records have gone online, and thanks to the one-click ease of Google, you can read all the sordid details of your neighbor's divorce with no more effort than it takes to check your e-mail.