Sweden cracks down on web credit checks
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Swedes will no longer be able to snoop through each other's finances anonymously after a popular Web site agreed to tighten the rules on its credit information services, officials said Friday.
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Alternative browser features protection against online scams.
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Swedes earning tax-free money on Internet games such as World of Warcraft and Second Life may have to think again after Swedish authorities said they were planning a clampdown.
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Anyone with a "permissible purpose" can peruse your credit history.
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(InfoWorld) - Swedish police are expected to decide later this week whether a criminal case is warranted against 10 major music and movie companies over their alleged efforts to disrupt the Pirate Bay, one of the largest file-sharing search engines. If Swedish police decide to pursue a criminal complaint, the Pirate Bay will be spared the time and expense of pursuing its own civil suit against the companies, Peter Sunde, one of a small circle of volunteers in Sweden that runs the Web site, said on Tuesday. The Pirate Bay, with an estimated two million daily users, is a search engine for torrents, or small files used to trade content between computers via a peer-to-peer (P-to-P) network. Media companies say the site is used mainly to enable the illegal trading of copyright files and have sought its closure. But the Pirate Bay struck back last Friday, filing a criminal complaint in Sweden against content companies that hired MediaDefender, a company that specializes in disrupting P-to-P networks. The Pirate Bay alleges that MediaDefender attacked its operations by distributing fake torrent files and other methods. It is charging the media companies, which include the Swedish subsidiaries of Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures and Sony BMG Music Entertainment, with infrastructural sabotage, denial of service attacks, and other hacking and spamming offenses, according to its blog. The complaint followed the damaging release of thousands of internal MediaDefender e-mails, which described in part how the company tries to foil file-sharing services. MediaDefender uses a software program that sets up fake user accounts and then distributes fake torrent files, which are designed to reduce the volume of copyright files being traded, Sunde said. The source code for that software, as well as the internal e-mails, are now being widely circulating on file-sharing networks. The software can read "captchas," the strings of distorted numbers and letters designed to ensure that real people are using a Web site rather than an automated program. The Pirate Bay says it matched IP (Internet protocol) addresses for some of the fake torrents to some of the internal e-mails, providing compelling evidence that MediaDefender was sending out fake torrents, according to Sunde. The Pirate Bay blacklists IP addresses associated with fake torrents and also shares those lists with other torrent search engines, Sunde said. "We are very proactive when it comes to spam handling, but it's still a problem when they [MediaDefender] do it," he said. Despite complaints from media and content companies, the Pirate Bay has continued to operate in Sweden. In May 2006, Swedish police seized at least 25 servers after a raid on five locations, but have yet to file charges. Swedish prosecutors have until Oct. 1 to file a criminal case, but Sunde said he expects the government attorneys to file for an extension. Sunde maintains that the Pirate Bay is just a search engine and doesn't actually store any files, merely directing users to where files are located. "We are quite sure the Pirate Bay is legal in Sweden," said Sunde, who is based in Malmo, in the south of Sweden, and also runs a Web site consulting business. As a precaution against future police action, Sunde said he knows the location of only one of the 40 or so servers currently powering the Pirate Bay. Some of those servers are now in countries outside of Sweden, he said. Â
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Much ado about nothing? Swedish prosecutors have launched another invesigation into suspected child pornography, shared through the controversial bittorrent site The Pirate Bay. However, this time police aren't theatening to blacklist the Swedish website. "The Pirate Bay are not suspects," prosecutor Cathrine RudstrÃ¶m told Swedish newssite The Local. Police have requested logs from The Pirate Bay, including IP addresses.â¦
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Bots operators face jailtime too Denial of service attacks (DDOS), where targets are deluged with requests for information, will be made a criminal offence in Sweden from 1 June.â¦
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A Swedish government security plan would allow a defense intelligence agency to monitor -- without a court order -- e-mail traffic and phone calls crossing the nation's borders. By the Associated Press.
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By John Reid Blackwell, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.  Jun. 7--Another local credit union is being targeted by phishers -- people trying to steal personal information online.
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A new law allows consumers to check their credit once a year without charge
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GADFLY ALREADY the internet age has given us 'phishing', when criminals use emails to persuade you to give them your bank details.  Now it seems we have the less crooked but nonetheless enraging online experience of 'philfing'  an acronym for 'purposely hiding what I'm looking for'.
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A Swedish prosecutor filed charges on Thursday against four people suspected of running one of the world's most popular websites for illegal downloading of films, music and computer games.
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From Russia without love Security watchers have discovered a string of malicious websites that install Trojan code, allowing hackers to compromise end-user banking credentials for more than 50 financial institutions and ecommerce websites.â¦
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Increasingly, consumers are finding that their checks are being electronically converted by banks, retailers, credit card companies and other businesses paid by check.
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The Pirate Bay's days are increasingly looking numbered as Sweden will move this week to press charges against its owners for copyright infringement.
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New federal regulations designed to speed up the processing of checks went into effect on Thursday, and consumer advocates advised Americans to be more vigilant about monitoring their accounts.
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Law enforcement authorities on both sides of the Atlantic have arrested 28 people on suspicion of operating Web sites that were allegedly designed to steal, sell and forge credit cards and identification documents.