Malware alert while seeking child abuse images at work earns US man 5 years in jail

Over 170,000 people are part of the Sophos community on Facebook. Why not join us on Facebook to find out about the latest security threats.

Hi fellow Twitter user! Follow our team of security experts on Twitter for the latest news about internet security threats.

Already using Google+? Find us on Google+ for the latest security news.

A five-year jail term has been handed to a US man found downloading and watching child abuse imagery at work.

Investigators at the Seattle branch of the Social Security Administration where he worked were apparently alerted to his activities when his company computer was hit by a malware attack.

Thomas J. Barrett, 50, of Lynnwood, WA, seems to have been seriously addicted to grotesque photos and videos of underage girls being assaulted, with over 3,700 items found on his system.

In between browsing for fresh material for his collection, he also researched possible penalties for such activities, and alternated between porn and work time to keep his habits from his colleagues, indicating at least some awareness of just how wrong his behaviour was.

On one of his trawls through the seedier side of the web, a malware alert brought administrators' attention to what was going on, and subsequent investigations included setting up a spy camera monitoring his workstation.

The investigators were then exposed to the unedifying sight of Barrett "fondling himself" at his desk. He was arrested in January, but remains free on bail until his sentence comes into force.

Barrett's defense team claimed his time in the US Army sparked his addiction, with a visit to Europe opening an "evil door" in his delicate mind.

This is the second time in as many weeks that we've reported on malware playing a significant part in bringing paedophiles to book.

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, there's nothing noble about being a malware author or purveyor; it's still a nasty and criminal business, just perhaps not quite as nasty as these chaps.

Follow @VirusBtn

Follow @NakedSecurity

Image of man surfing web courtesy of Shutterstock.

View the original article here

Japan to test phones which will alert if it sounds like you are being scammed

Over 170,000 people are part of the Sophos community on Facebook. Why not join us on Facebook to find out about the latest security threats.

Hi fellow Twitter user! Follow our team of security experts on Twitter for the latest news about internet security threats.

Already using Google+? Find us on Google+ for the latest security news.

Fujitsu and the Nagoya University will begin field trials for phone scam detection technology sometime this month, the organisations announced on Friday.

The scam detection system, which was first announced in March, claims to be able to recognise a phone scammer by combining voice intonation analysis with keyword recognition.

Japan's elderly population is frequently victimized by phone scams, with criminals often posing as acquaintances or authority figures such as police or lawyers.

When criminals pose as acquaintances, they often try to convince their targeted victims that they're in trouble and need money transferred to an account to bail them out.

The system works by detecting the changes in the voice pitch and levels that are common in the intonations of stressed-out victims, by recognising typical words used by voice scammers - "indebtedness," "compensation," "debt," or "repayment," for example - and by alerting family members or others that something's up.

Fujitsu and Nagoya University will equip landlines with detection devices in 100 Okayama Prefecture homes.

When a possible scam occurs, the alarm messages will go out to family members, the police, the bank, and Fujitsu.

On receiving the message, family members will contact the participant and ask what happened, to determine whether the call was in fact a scam.

Meanwhile, the police will immediately visit the participant's house to assess the situation.

Simultaneously; the bank will temporarily halt payment transactions from whatever account was designated by the participant for use in the trial. .

The trials will be carried out in collaboration with the Okayama Prefectural Police, the Okayama Pref. Information Communications unit of the National Police Agency's Chugoku Regional Police Bureau, and The Chugoku Bank.

The voice recognition part of the system might sound like eavesdropping, but Fujitsu promises that it's not.

Rather, the software ignores everything except the number of times a caller uses typical scam words, based on a keyword list provided by Japan's National Police Academy and on recordings of actual remittance-solicitation phone scams.

The technology is designed to recognise a condition known as "overtrust."

Overtrust occurs when victims are overwhelmed with distressing information and lose their powers of judgment.

Aa Fujitsu has described it, there are limits to human powers of perception and judgment. When overwhelmed with distressing information, some people, without knowing it, lose the capacity to objectively evaluate information provided by another party.

When overtrust occurs, victims tend to believe everything they're told - a situation that makes them vulnerable to getting fleeced by scammers.

It's not just the elderly who are susceptible, of course. The quick flash of a toy plastic police badge once caused me and a companion to hand over our wallets when we were touring Athens.

Fortunately, our scammers were overly greedy: they wanted more money than the pittance we had in our wallets and handed them back, asking to see our "hidden" money.

Our intonations and voice levels were likely steeped in stress.

Would you opt for a scam detection system? Would it feel intrusive?

I likely would, particularly were they to come up with a version I could wear around my neck when visiting foreign lands, where I emit the unmistakable aroma of clueless tourist.

Follow @LisaVaas

Young girl on the phone image from Shutterstock.

View the original article here