Scene Of The Crime... Twitter

An Oklahoma City man, Daniel Knight Hayden, 52, was arrested earlier this month by the FBI for allegedly issuing death threats on April 11th. The threats were in the form of tweets on his Twitter account (http://twitter.com/CitizenQuasar) which is still active, particularly disturbing are the posts of April 11 and 12. “The WAR wWIL start on the stepes of the Oklahoma State Capitol. I will cast the first sotne. In the meantime, I await the police.” and "After I am killed on the Capitol Steps, like a REAL man, the rest of you will REMEMBER ME!!!" There is also a direct threat to police which I'll refrain from posting...

Source: Globe and Mail

Parents Vigilance Leads To Arrest Of Preditor

RCMP Const. Francine Hiebert said Wednesday that the vigilance of the parents of an Airdrie, Alberta child in their monitoring of internet use lead to the discovery of "concerning" material on the child's computer and a call to police. Their actions and an investigation by RCMP led to the arrest of a 51 year old Airdrie man on Tuesday, charged with using the internet to lure a child under the age of 16 for the purpose of facilitating a sexual offence. The RCMP offer these warning signs for parents:

• Your child spends lots of time online, especially at night.
• He or she receives phone calls long distance or from numbers you don’t recognize.
• Your child receives mail, gifts or packages from a stranger.
• Your child turns off the monitor or quickly changes what is on the screen when you enter the room.
• There is pornography on your child’s computer.

CBC story here.

Spanish Police Arrest Hackers

Five hackers being described as "being among the most active on the internet" have been arrested by Spanish police. The BBC is reporting that "Police say they co-ordinated attacks over the internet and hacked into 21,000 web pages over two years." Two of those arrested are said to be 16 years of age. The arrests took place in Barcelona, Burgos, Malaga and Valencia, the result of an inquiry that began in March after a Spanish political party's site was disabled.

Quebec Police Break Up Hacking Ring

Quebec Provincial Police made arrests on Wednesday breaking up a hacking ring that is said to be responsible for $45 million in damages to computer systems. The 17 arrested where from about a dozen different communities and included 3 minors. According to this InfoWorld article, the ring installed "botnet" software on unsuspecting victims' computers in order to run phishing and spamming operations, said Capt. Frederick Gaudreau, of the Surete du Quebec. The botnet network infected 39,000 computers in Poland, 28,000 in Brazil, and 26,000 in Mexico, and over 100,000 computers in all were affected. I'm curious... why Poland, Brazil, and Mexico? Were the hackers of Spanish and Polish decent or did they acquire e-mail addresses from these countries? Did they create websites that would be of interest to people who come from these countries?