An e-mail purporting to be from Apple alerting users to a billing problem is, in fact, a phishing scam that’s targeting users of Apple’s online service, Macworld has learned.

The e-mail, forwarded to Macworld by a reader, looks like an official communication from Apple regarding MobileMe, the company’s subscription service that provides users with a personal e-mail address, Web hosting, file sharing capabilities, and online data synchronization between Macs, iPhones, and other devices. The e-mail states: “We were unable to process your most recent payment. Did you recently change your bank, phone number or credit card?” Users are then invited to click on a link to enter that information—but that link opens a Web page in your browser that does not appear to be affiliated with Apple or MobileMe (the other links in the e-mail do point to pages on Apple’s official Web site).

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August 11, 2008 (Computerworld) A pair of critical vulnerabilities in Sun Microsystems Inc.’s Java technology for mobile devices could be used by hackers to surreptitiously make calls, record conversations and access information on Nokia Series 40 cell phones, a Polish researcher said today.

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O assunto ganhou uma dimensão estarrecedora nas declarações de dois ministros. Tarso Genro, da Justiça: “Temos que nos acostumar ao seguinte: falar ao telefone com a presunção de que alguém está escutando”. José Múcio Monteiro, das Relações Institucionais: “Meu celular virou uma rádio comunitária”, e acrescentou: “Mas é só ser responsável e não dizer coisas que gerem dupla interpretação.” (Ricardo Noblat, O Globo, 28/7/2008, pág. 2). E Noblat: “O maior perigo não está no grampo – e sim, no tradutor dele”.

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Nos últimos anos o Brasil vem demonstrando uma excessiva tolerância diante das violações à liberdade e à privacidade das pessoas em no-me do combate à corrupção. A espionagem clandestina, uma praga histórica no país, está deixando de ser uma atividade de bandidos para transformar-se em rotina institucional que não poupa ninguém – nem o presidente da República. Há um ano, uma reportagem de VEJA revelou a atmosfera de preocupação que envolvia os ministros do Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF) – alguns deles convictos de que eram alvo de escutas ilegais patrocinadas pela polícia com o propósito de intimidação. Partindo de onde partiu, a simples suspeita, por si só, já seria de uma monumental gravidade. Agora, descobre-se que as desconfianças não eram produto de paranóia. O gabinete do presidente do STF, Gilmar Mendes, foi alvo de um monitoramento criminoso. Um documento reservado obtido com exclusividade por VEJA mostra que espiões, instalados do lado de fora do tribunal, usaram equipamentos para tentar interceptar as conversas do ministro e de seus assessores dentro da mais alta corte de Justiça do país. Que tenham tentado já é um evento sem precedentes e de conseqüências funestas se não for esclarecido – e contido. Caso tenham conseguido realmente ouvir as conversas dos ministros, está-se diante de um grave e inaceitável ataque à democracia.

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BY DONNA HOWELL

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted 8/4/2008

Running risk could be a big event at the Beijing Olympics.

Visitors going to China could easily have their data stolen, copied during a customs check or spirited away by cyberspies, security researchers warn. And fans back home need to beware of bogus Olympics Web sites and offers.

China has been a hotbed for online attacks. The arrival of the Olympics on Friday, with an expected 500,000 foreign visitors, provides a particularly rich target environment. But international travelers in general face increasing — sometimes surprising — dangers to data safety elsewhere too, tech industry figures say.

“Before they go, they’ve got to ask whether they need as much electronics as they usually carry with them,” said Phil Dunkelberger, chief executive of encryption firm PGP Corp. “Most companies today are stripping down traveling computers to a bare minimum. And a cell phone — do I need one, or can I pick one up over there? Maybe you just need a single-use cell phone.”

Dunkelberger says a friend recently went to China and powered up a new Palm (PALM) Treo smart phone that was soon badly infected.

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Plans to compress internet (VoIP) phone calls so they use less bandwidth could make them vulnerable to eavesdropping. Most networks are currently safe, but many service providers are due to implement the flawed compression technology.

The new compression technique, called variable bitrate compression produces different size packets of data for different sounds.

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Off the cuff remarks by Austrian government officials suggest that Skype conversations might be intercepted.

Speaking at a recent meeting on lawful interception between ISPs and Austrian regulators, an unnamed “high-ranking” official at Austria’s interior ministry said that listening into a conversation over Skype presented no particular problems, Heise security reports.

The opinion contrasts with the view of Joerg Ziercke, president of Germany’s Federal Police Office (BKA). At a meeting last November Ziercke said that the inability to decipher the encryption used by Skype in order to intercept VoIP calls had become a problem in counter-terrorism investigations. Weeks after this, leaked documents outlining plans by German firm Digitask to develop software to intercept Skype VoIP communications and SSL transmissions, along with related costing and licensing proposals, surfaced through Wikileaks.

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There’s growing speculation coming out of Europe that there’s a backdoor in Skype that allows remote eavesdropping of telephone conversations.

A report in the reputable Heise Online says the issue was discussed at a meeting with ISPs last month where high-ranking officials at the Austrian interior ministry claims “it is not a problem for them to listen in on Skype conversations.”

The report said a number of others at the meeting confirmed that claim.

Heise Online said Skype officials declined to give a detailed response to specific queries as to whether the popular Internet telephone service contains a backdoor and whether specific clients allowing access to a system or a specific key for decrypting data streams exist.

The response from the eBay subsidiary’s press spokesman was brief, “Skype does not comment on media speculation. Skype offers no further comment at present.” There have been rumors of the existence of a special listening device which Skype is reported to offer for sale to interested states.

Because the vendor has not revealed details of its proprietary Skype protocol or of how the client works, questions as to what else Skype is capable of and what risks are involved in deploying it in an enterprise environment remain open, the report said.

It also cited public broadcast reports that Austrian police are able to listen in on Skype connections.

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3 de julio de 2008, 06:25 PM

MEXICO DF (Reuters) - Un influyente senador de la oposición de México, clave para las negociaciones de una reforma energética propuesta por el presidente Felipe Calderón, denunció el jueves haber sido víctima de espionaje y sospecha que el autor fue el Gobierno.

El coordinador de los senadores del opositor Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), Manlio Fabio Beltrones, dijo que tiene en su poder un documento que contiene información sobre él y de algunos políticos allegados, pero no dio más detalles de su contenido.

Beltrones dijo que el espionaje estaría buscando “vulnerabilidades para someter a un legislador de oposición.”

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HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nine more firms, including telecom operators “3″ and TIM, have lined up to support the new open mobile software alliance Symbian Foundation, the world’s top cellphone maker, Nokia, said on Thursday.

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