Vladimir Zdorovenin, a Russian national, was sentenced to 2 years in prison by the New York court for a series of cybercrimes involving the theft of personal details and credit card information. The hacker committed crimes remotely from Russia, targeting American citizens.

Zdorovenin and his son used phishing and viruses since 2004 to steal the personal details of credit card holders. Apart from carding and other types of online fraud, Zdorovenin was also interested in the stock exchange market – he attempted to make money by manipulating stock prices and closing deals on behalf of people whose details he had previously stolen.

He was arrested in Zurich, Switzerland in March 2011 and extradited to the U.S. following an official order. The fraudster pleaded guilty to two charges.

This conclusion was made by Microsoft after an extensive international research that analyzed the behavior of users online and their perception of online security. Users from over 20 countries, including Russia, took part in the research.

According to this study, only 36% of Russian users fully recognize the importance of keeping their browsing history confidential, but over 63% are confident that the Internet must be safe.

The results are slightly different on the global scale, but the figures as still in the same brackets. Users called page loading times, user-friendliness of browsers and privacy the next most important aspects of comfortable Internet surfing after security and protection from viruses.

Around 60% of all users would not want anyone else to have access to their browsing history, and 20% are afraid of this actually taking place.

The sites that users would not want seen in their browsing history are mostly online banking sites and porn sites.

Antivirus companies have recently discovered a virus aimed at infecting QIWI payment system terminals. Analysis of the virus’s code showed that it was intended to penetrate the terminal’s operating system (Windows) and change the account number to where money is being transferred.

The virus has been given the name Trojan.PWS.OSMP.

It was not discovered in the terminals themselves but openly on the internet (only their owners have access to the terminals), so it is impossible to describe the level of danger posed. All that can be confirmed is that the virus exists and it can only infect terminals manually, through physical access to the device.

Shortly afterwards a modification to the virus was discovered, also aimed at payment terminals. However, it works differently. It tries to steal the terminal’s configuration files, which would theoretically give criminals the possibility to take money by imitating the terminal on their own computer.

The company that runs QIWI announced that this is already the 20th version of this virus and nothing particularly new. It was discovered and neutralised by the terminals internal antivirus system on 20 February and does not pose any danger at all.

Payment system representatives explained that their terminals use an effective multilevel defence system, which stops viruses from causing serious damage. Any account which receives a large number of transfers from different sources is checked by specialists and can be blocked. In addition, the terminals defence system would not allow anyone to imitate their signal, even if configuration files and encryption keys were obtained.

Two of the largest private forums used by professional credit card fraudsters and spammers were hacked on 18 February.

Forum topics, information on thousands of registered users and private correspondence were all stolen and passed on to leading companies combating online fraud (RSA, Anti Money Laundering Alliance, IISFA) and to European, Russian and American law enforcement agencies.

The first forum to be hacked was the well known cybercrime forum “MAZA.la” (also known as “MAZAFAKA”). The forum members main activities and the topics discussed can be put into the following categories:

• document forgery,
• sale of stolen internet service records,
• spam,
• virus creation,
• laundering of illegally gained money.

It seemed to be impossible to enter this forum. It was completely private, and it was only possible to register if you had several authoritative backers who were already registered. The forum was protected by the most up to date security solutions: digital security certificates, an anti phishing filter and the server was located in Taiwan.

On 18 February the forum was attacked by hackers and the forum’s database (more than 2000 users) was stolen and handed over to law enforcement agencies.

Following this another similar forum, “Direct Connection”, was also successfully attacked.

Analysts now suggest that a struggle has begun between Russian carders and spammers for influence in the cybercrime world. However, there are no details or any evidence that this may be the case.

The recruiting company HeadHunter carried out research in 2010 where they questioned 1600 employees of Russian companies on information security.

The research showed that the management of most companies worry about this issue: 75% of companies have strict rules on working with internal information and the larger the staff the stricter these rules are.

• The management of more than 30% of companies had experienced information leaks.
• More than 30% of those employees questioned know that their personal correspondence and blogs are monitored.
• 68% of those questioned admitted signing agreements on information disclosure on joining their company.
• 52% are aware that special software tracks their computers and 24% that memory sticks are banned.

Despite this, 51% of those questioned believed that they could tell one of their friends or relatives office secrets, while 30% have already done so. Among those questioned were also people who had passed on secret information to competitors.

According to the data from this research, the presence of a company security service makes almost no difference.

The analytics company InfoWatch, which has gathered statistics on information leaks since 2004, estimates the loss due to leaks in 2010 at $200 million. Their statistics show that the internet was the third major source of information leaks after mail and various mobile, data storage and paper media.

It is also interesting that, according to InfoWatch data, that the most popular method, blocking staff access to social networks, does not in any way correlate to the probability of information leaks.

Japan has always been notorious for the industriousness of its people and the amount of time they spend at their workplaces, as well as ignorance of privacy-related matters both among employers and employees.

Employee monitoring using GPS-enabled mobile devices has been commonly practiced here for years. The technology is used for tracking the location of truck drivers, sales agents and even flight attendants.

This time, KDDI Corporation of Japan suggests using built-in phone accelerometers for more accurate recognition of users’ activities. The system correctly identifies such actions as walking up and down the stairs and room cleaning operations, for example.

The solution can be used practically anywhere. For instance, it can automatically send a notification to a company’s manager that a janitor or loader is having an excessively long break.

Russia is still pursuing the nation-wide integration and acceptance of its own navigation system, GLONASS, although without considerable success. Its developers plan to use it for child, employee, prisoner and vehicle monitoring. Russian mobile carriers have already started offering navigation services allowing companies to track the location of vehicles and employees using satellite navigation devices and mobile phones.

In the meantime, Russian bloggers suggested a rather original method of employee monitoring. To use this method, a company would need to hire a courier equipped with a digital camera, a wireless headset and a 3G-enabled mobile phone.

Once the “video courier” arrives at a construction site, for example, he or she can simply turn the camera on and show the management around the place – directly and without using fancy satellite equipment.