Provided by CommunityDNS, the information in this post consists of news items in the security-based Internet community.

ENISA warns of alarming increase in ATM crime

With a 149% increase in ATM attacks in 2008 ENISA has issued an alert regarding thefts from ATMs and suggestions on what to look for when using ATMS.

While 72% of European ATMs are based in 5 countries, the number of ATMs across Europe increased 6% to almost 400,000.

While taking cash directly from accounts using stolen credentials is the preferred method, the number of incidents reported through “skimming” (obtaining information through small spy cameras, fake machines to false PIN overlays) reached 10,302.

The number is expected to climb as ATMs will be offering other services such as offering stamps and phone top ups.

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UK.biz lax on web app security

The security trend for UK-based corporate websites is that they are getting worse. A UK-based security firm has determined that 27% (up from 17% last year) of all UK-based web applications tested have at least one high risk issue. While web apps fare best in the utilities and legal industry sectors, the service and not-for-profit sectors fare the worst, with the service sector being the worst.

The three basic high risk flaws are:

• SQL injection attacks

• Cross-site scripting (CSS) attacks

• Cross-request forgery attacks

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Worm wiggles through weary WordPress

As the popular blogging platform, WordPress, becomes a more enticing target for hackers, one hack targets holder installations of WordPress; pre 2.8.4 versions. The hack is where hidden spam and malware is inserted into your older posts.

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Congress weighs landmark change in Web ad privacy

Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet is co-sponsoring a bill that would change how information on Internet users is being tracked for marketing purposes. Today people are unaware of the tactics used to track what pages users access and their surfing habit, all with the idea of providing targeted advertising based on their web surfing habits.

The issue at this juncture of the bill is should people be allowed to opt-in before information is gathered, or shall people have the option of opting-out.

The last major Internet-focused bill was one dealing with online privacy in 1986. This will be the first bill that targets Internet advertising.

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“Anonymized” data really isn’t – and here’s why not

As companies compile data on people and thus “anonymize” the data, computer scientists are finding ways to take such “anonymized” or “scrubbed” data and mine details on “identified” people.

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Global broadband connections reach 445 million

A total of 445 million broadband connections reach users globally, according to the recent release of an annual study for the year. The number of connections is an increase of 12.9 million new connections over last year.

70% of all broadband connections are found in the following 10 countries:

• China with 93,549,000 connections

• USA with 86,227, 582 connections

• Japan with 31,085,500 connections

• Germany with 24,086,250 connections

• France with 18,324,300 connections

• UK with 17,838,200 connections

• South Korea with 15,876,992 connections

• Italy with 12,85,463 connections

• Brazil with 10,469,755 connections

• Canada with 9,618,107 connections

Growth in Western Europe dropped in growth over the year while growth increased in Eastern Europe and Asia-Pacific.

DSL accounts for 64% of the connections, cable with 21%, 13% for fiber with wireless and satellite/other accounting for 1% each

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Home fibre plans survive downturn

Newly released survey results show an 18% growth of broadband delivery in Europe to homes over this time last year. With no less than 233 projects currently underway in Europe, it is expected that by 2012 13 million people across 35 European nations will have fibre as their broadband connection with speeds starting at 100 mbps.

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2010 could be the last year for IPv4 as we know it

We currently have 788 million IPv4-based addresses available. So why the rush to move towards IPv6? The current burn rate of IP address requests has shown that the number will be dwindling down to almost nothing within the next couple of years. So why is 2010 a possible date? RIRs maintain a nime month supply of address space. When they dip below that amount IANA issues two new “/8”s to the respective RIR. When IANA reaches the last 5 “/8” address spaces they will each be allocated to a respective RIR. The RIR will then have the responsibility for distributing the IP addresses for its last IPv4 “/8”. APNIC will be expected to rapidly burn through its last “/8” due to China’s growth and its demand for IP addresses. AfriNIC, on the other hand, uses only a couple of million addresses. So while AfriNIC can have IPv4 addresses for years to come, APNIC may find itself completely out of IPv4 addresses relatively soon.

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