South Korea has cracked down on malicious Internet use, Agence France Presse reports. "South Korean police have rounded up more than 2,000 people for spreading malicious rumours on the Internet during a month-long crackdown sparked by an actress's suicide," AFP reports. Eleven people "have been formally arrested and detained for serious legal breaches." It adds that Korea's National Police … [Read more...] about Korean crackdown on malicious Net use
Security
‘Cyber Monday’ alert!
Apparently today is the biggest online shopping day of the year, but everybody needs to be extra alert for spam and phishing scams right through the holidays (not to mention every day). The Monday after the US's Thanksgiving "consumers are expected to spend $821 million this year, up 12% from 2007," USATODAY reports. "But a wobbly economy, combined with a consumer thirst for too-good-to-be-true … [Read more...] about ‘Cyber Monday’ alert!
‘High School Musical’ malware
This is a computer-security problem more likely to affect families with kids and tweens - especially young file-sharers (high school students are a bit old for "High School Musical"). If fans of Disney's High School Musical series uses P2P networks such as eMule or eDonkey, they need to be especially alert, CNET reports. It cites a report from Panda Security that warns of Trojan software called … [Read more...] about ‘High School Musical’ malware
Mobile parenting
I especially liked Nos. 4 and 6 in Marian Merritt's blog post about how parents can help their kids keep mobile phone use safe and affordable. If you use cellphone parental controls (she speaks to those, and I wrote about them last May here), "tell your child you are installing and using parental controls and show them the details on what you'll be limiting." She adds that this is not the time to … [Read more...] about Mobile parenting
New Facebook worm
Tell Facebook users at your house to be very alert when social-network friends seem to say they've just got to check out this or that video. That scenario happens all the time - which is why it's used by social-engineering hackers to infect social networkers' computers. Where the new worm comes in is an extra step for which users need to be on the alert. The way it works is, they get a link … [Read more...] about New Facebook worm