The JEHM Net News

Four people have been indicted and could face 30 years in prison for a variation on a popular scam in which e-mail senders claim they’re trying to transfer money out of Nigeria, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday.

A grand jury in New York City on Wednesday returned a 10-count indictment against three of the defendants and an 11-count indictment against the fourth. Alleged victims of the four individuals lost more than US$1.2 million, the DOJ said.

Three of the defendants were arrested in Amsterdam by Dutch authorities on Feb. 21, based on a U.S. criminal complaint. They are being held by the Dutch authorities pending extradition to the U.S., the DOJ said. The fourth defendant, a Nigerian citizen, is a fugitive.

(more…)

What’s the best way to rattle employees who are more inclined to nod off during information security training sessions than to absorb tips for keeping their machines safe?

Show them just how vulnerable they may be, speakers suggested Tuesday at a meeting of the Federal Information Systems Security Educators’ Association (FISSEA) just outside Washington, D.C.

Nanette Poulios, director of the information assurance program at Walsh College in Michigan, said she often sets up a PC in the back of the training room during security workshops and asks participants to enter a username and password of their choice to, say, sign up for an e-mail list. Little do they know that the computer is running software that can both crack weak passwords and record keystrokes, instantly sending the results via e-mail to their instructor, who reveals them at the end of the class–”a real eye-opener” to those who thought they trusted the system, she said.

(more…)

The latest version of Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server, introduced at Cebit on Friday, supports enterprise instant messaging and supports the development of applications that mobilize corporate applications, RIM said.

Enterprises that upgrade to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1 can allow mobile Blackberry users to exchange instant messages with users of Microsoft Windows Messenger, Live Communications Server 2005 and IBM Lotus Sametime systems, the RIM said.

(more…)

By: Halstatt Pires

Picking a domain name should be easy, right? Why, I’ll just use my business name. Not so fast, Sparky. A good bit of thought should be given to selecting a domain name.

A Cautionary Note

Picking a domain name is like getting married. You are going to have to stick with it till the bitter end. People that use your site will come to know it by the domain name. Repeat visitors will often simply type in the domain name to get to the site, better known as “type in traffic”. As an example, do you search for “Amazon” when you want to buy a book or do simply type in amazon.com? If Amazon were to change its domain name to Desert, there would be a lot of confusion. The same goes with your domain. Once you pick something, stick with it. (more…)