Targeted e-mail attacks spoof DOJ, business group

This article from the November 21st issue of the BNA Internet Law News talks about how two e-mail attacks were launched 2 weeks ago targeting different corporations. The first attack was sent to about 400 people in different institutions and seemed as though it was a complaint from the U.S. Department of Justice sent specifically to that individual. A second attack just a few hours later was similar but claimed to the coming from the Better Business Bureau. The attachments in these e-mails would send out a Trojan virus and take over their system. A security analyst claims that once these were installed that they could use that machine for basically anything. These e-mails are very hard to detect because they seem to be coming from legitimate sources. One big issue with these are the number of attacks has increased drastically in the past few years.

I feel like this is a big issue. If these are hard to detect and hard to trace back to the source that they came from, how do we know that people aren't extracting valuable resources that they can actually hurt out country. For instance if a terrorist group sends out on of these attacks and is able to take over some of our systems, how do we know that they won't receive valuable information that is supposed to be confidential. This case may be a little extreme, but in these attacks people's identities may also be taken which is a serious issue. I feel the United States need to come up with another smart system that will be able to detect and track any of these viruses.

Internet Gambling Disbute could Cost U.S. Billions

This article from the November 21st issue of the BNA Internet Law Highlights talks about how two little Carribean nations of Antigua and Barbuda are trying to sanction the United States for Billions of dollars because the United States are trying to withdraw for a World Trade Union accord recognizing the legality of Internet gambling. Antigua is seeking sanctions of about $3.4 billion and possibly may they may claim more by becoming a harbor of for pirated material as well, for such things such as pirated music and musical recordings. If this were the case they would try to sanction the United States for almost $100 billion. The United States argues that this would not happen.

I find this outrageous. I think it is crazy that a small nation would try to sanction the United States for this much money just for withdrawing from a World Trade Union. The reason the United States is withdrawing is to try to prevent Internet gambling which is seen as a serious issue in our country. I feel that unless the United States has some sort of contract with this union, (which it doesn't say in the article) that they should be able to withdraw whenever they feel. The United States are doing it to protect our country in certain ways and I feel we shouldn't be penalized for it.

Radio host tried to lure girl for sex

The article I read was about a sexual predator on the Internet. The article told the story of a radio personality who tried to lure a 14 year old girl into having sex. Little did he know, the 14 year old girl he was talking to in the chat room was really an undercover detective. Apparently they talked for two days, then they decided to meet up. Mr Fox, the radio station personality showed up at the place they decided to meet at 9:30pm with a box of condoms, beer, and quilts covering his floor in his SUV. He was arrested on the spot and Mr. Fox didn't argue at all.

This story completely disgusted me. I suppose i hear it a bunch how there are a ton of sexual predators all around the Internet, including myspace and websites such as those. But after reading that article its disgusting, the man knew she was 14 years old. That's awful! Parents should be keeping a closer eye on who their children are talking to on the Internet. Also, I think that is good that there are a lot of detectives online to try and trap these sexual predators because clearly it is an issue and it needs to be prevented as much as possible.

UK Court Orders Disclosure of Blog Poster Identities

I read an article from the BNA Internet Law news about how people have been keeping their identities hidden on the Internet. The article talks about how people have been posting inappropriate things on the Internet but making them anonymous. Someone can create a website or a blog and keep it anonymous from others finding out who created it. This has been a problem as of late because people have been pushing the limit on what they are actually saying. For example the article talks about some "disgruntled fans from Sheffield vented their dissatisfaction with the football clubs bigwigs in anonymous Internet postings. What was posted what completely inappropriate and the owner of the site was forced to reveal their identity and will now face expensive libel claims.

In my opinion, this is a problem that needs to be fixed. It worked out in this case because because the owner of the website was forced to reveal his identity, but that may not be true in all cases. There could be more serious things that people may post or say on the Internet that should be regulated. If someone posts something that poses any type of threat or about an issue that is completely inappropriate, there should be consequences. Just because people can stay anonymous doesn't give people the right to pose threats to others just because they don't think people will find out who they really are. Hopefully this problem can be resolved in the near future.