See ...
Copyright aspects of hyperlinking and framingWhile hyperlinking among webpages is an intrinsic feature of the web, some websites object to being linked to from other websites; some have claimed that linking to them is not allowed without permission.
Contentious in particular are deep links, which do not point to a site's home page or other entry point designated by the site owner, but to content elsewhere, allowing the user to bypass the site's own designated flow, and inline links, which incorporate the content in question into the pages of the linking site, making it seem part of the linking site's own content unless an explicit attribution is added.Methods of website linkingThis article pertains to methods of hyperlinking to/of different websites, often used in regard to search engine optimization (SEO). Many techniques and special terminology about linking are described below.A reciprocal link is a mutual link between two objects, commonly between two websites to ensure mutual traffic. For example, Trish and Roger have websites. If Roger's website links to Trish's website, and Trish's website links to Roger's website, the websites are reciprocally linked. Website owners often submit their sites to reciprocal link exchange directories, in order to achieve higher rankings in the search engines. Reciprocal linking between websites is an important part of the search engine optimization process because Google uses link popularity algorithms (defined as the number of links that lead to a particular page and the anchor text of the link) to rank websites for relevancy.[citation needed]
Resource Linking
Resource Links are a category of links, which can be either one-way or two-way, usually referenced as "Resources" or "Information" in navbars, but sometimes, especially in the early, less compartmentalized years of the Web, simply called "links". Basically, they are hyperlinks to a website or a specific webpage containing content believed to be beneficial, useful and relevant to visitors of the site establishing the link.
In recent years, resource links have grown in importance because most major search engines have made it plain that—in Google's words-- "quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating."[1]The engines' insistence on resource links being relevant and beneficial developed because many artificial link building methods were employed solely to "spam" search-engines, i.e. to "fool" the engines' algorithms into awarding the sites employing these unethical devices undeservedly high page ranks and/or return positions.Despite cautioning site developers (again quoting from Google) to avoid "'free-for-all' links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines (because) these are typically useless exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines[2] -- at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive,"[3] most major engines have deployed technology designed to "red flag" and potentially penalize sites employing such practices.Forum signature linkingForum signature linking is a technique used to build backlinks to a website. This is the process of using forum communities that allow outbound hyperlinks in a member's signature. This can be a fast method to build up inbound links to a website; it can also produce some targeted traffic if the website is relevant to the forum topic. It should be stated that forums using the nofollow attribute will have no actual Search Engine Optimization value.See also:
Backlink: incoming links
Deep linking: linking directly to a page within another website.
Inline linking: linking directly to content within another website.
Page Rank http://www.justice.gov/criminal/cybercrime/reporting.htm#ip
June 9, 2011China and the US: Sizing up for cyber war?
Senior US officials call cyber attacks 'acts of war', but critics think the tough talk is a smokescreen for censorship.
As senior US officials warn that cyber attacks on vital systems would be considered "acts of war" eliciting a real world military response, one professor at the National Defence University surmises that battles of the future might be fought by guys hunched over keyboards in dark basements, rather than strapping lads toting M-16s.
In light of recent cyber attacks on Google apparently launched from China, online tensions - the possible precursors to outright conflict - have been spreading from chat rooms, to Gmail accounts and into the meeting rooms of military decision makers in recent weeks.
"We operate in five domains: air, land, sea, outer space and cyberspace," says Dan Kuehl, a professor of information operations at the National Defence University in Washington. "An ever increasing amount of what we do has dependencies on cyberspace; a guy typing on a computer is one of the new faces of war," Kuehl told Al Jazeera, stressing that he is not speaking for the US government or his elite military university.
"A response to a cyber-incident or attack on the US would not necessarily be a cyber-response. All appropriate options would be on the table," Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said recently.
Tough talk and phishing trips
One US defence official told The Wall Street Journal newspaper: "If you shut down our power grid, maybe we will put a missile down one of your smokestacks," in rhetoric likely aimed at China. For its part, the Chinese government categorically denied any involvement in the cyber attacks, which Google reported to the US state department and media outlets last week.
The reason for this sort of digital tough-talk is related to basic military strategy. "There is value in ambiguity," Kuehl said. "You don't want your adversary to think 'I can go up to that red line but I can't cross it'. You want them to think 'I won't do anything in the first place'," for fear of old fashioned physical reprisal.
Phishing attacks recently launched against Google's mail service targeted the personal e-mail accounts of some senior US officials, along with Chinese journalists, human rights activists and South Korea's government.
These attacks are similar in form to the scam e-mails most people receive from, say, the widow of a Nigerian millionaire who asks the user to open a message so they can claim their $14m reward for being a nice person. Once the message is opened, the victim's computer is compromised.
"This was a pretty straight forward phishing attack, other than the more sophisticated social engineering where the e-mail seems to come from someone who you know,” says Richard Stiennon, the chief research analyst at IT-Harvest and author of Surviving Cyberwar, referring to recent actions against Gmail.
"The Chinese have the early advantage in executing cyber warfare. If you have a large information gathering operation, knowing even the personal data of officials can be valuable," he told Al Jazeera. If data is stolen from personal accounts it is likely dumped into massive data banks for processing, crossing referencing and analysis.
WikiLeaks documents indicate that US diplomats are concerned about China's government recruiting top hackers to launch cyber war campaigns.
"There is a strong possibility the PRC [People's Republic of China] is harvesting the talents of its private sector in order to bolster offensive and defensive computer network operations capabilities," said a secret state department cable from June 2009.
Tampering with logistics
Since 2002, cyber intruders, apparently from China, have exploited vulnerabilities in the Window's operating system to steal login credentials in order to gain access to hundreds of US government and defence contractor systems, according to a 2008 cable.
China, for its part, says it is ready for online conflict should it arise. "Of late, an internet tornado has swept across the world... massively impacting and shocking the globe. Behind all this lies the shadow of America," said a recent article published in the Communist-Party controlled China Youth Daily newspaper, signed by Ye Zheng and Zhao Baoxian, who are scholars with the Academy of Military Sciences, a government linked think-tank.
"Faced with this warm-up for an internet war, every nation and military can't be passive but is making preparations to fight the internet war," the article said.
That attacks apparently came from China does not, onto itself, implicate the Chinese government. Internet or IP addresses which delineate where a computer is physically located can be compromised, allowing users in one country to take over a computer somewhere else to launch attacks.
"How do you know where to strike back? You don't," says Bruce Schneier, a technology expert and author of several books who The Economist magazine describes as a "security guru".
"You don't have nationality for cyber attacks, making retaliation hard," he told Al Jazeera.
But the nature of the Chinese state, where information is closely controlled, most corporations are linked to the Communist Party apparatus and dissidents are crushed, means the government likely had some knowledge of what was happening, Stiennon says.
And, even if the Google attack was carried out by rogue hackers, American defence planners haven't been taking any chances. One possible scenario involves a Chinese move to re-take Taiwan - an island which China views as a renegade - despite the US and UN considering it a sovereign country.
"The Chinese have looked at their biggest potential military adversary, the US, and decided that their biggest weaknesses are that they are far away and dependent on computers," says Kuehl from the defence university. He thinks likely Chinese strategies are twofold: The obvious "degrading enemy military apparatuses in the theatre of war" and "preventing the enemy from getting there". Cyber attacks, targeting battle ship deployments and logistics, would play decisively in the latter.
"The threat, from a military perspective, isn't data denial, it is data manipulation," Kuehl says. "What do you do when the data on your screen is wrong and air traffic controls, money, deployment orders and personnel have all been tampered with?"
Misdirection and censorship
Regardless of China's broader aims or involvement from the Chinese government in recent cyber mischief against Google, there is nothing new or impressive about recent cyber attacks, even though the international media has focused on them, Schneier says. "Millions of these kinds of attacks happen all the time," he says. To him, recent phishing operations against Google are not even worthy of a blog post, as such events happen so frequently.
Chris Palmer, the technology director with the Electronic Frontier Foundation advocacy group, thinks recent rhetoric about cyber war is a "smokescreen to limit freedom of speech on the internet".
"If I was being cynical, this campaign [about cyber security] is being launched by defence contractors to drum up a threat and get money from it," Palmer told Al Jazeera.
The US state department's tough talk about physical reprisals is not the way to defend American infrastructure from attacks, he says. The solution is much simpler: Taking sensitive data off the internet entirely.
Gaining access to military documents or networks controlling physical infrastructure like water treatment plants and nuclear facilities "should be like Mission Impossible, requiring a physical presence". In the film, Tom Cruise has to sneak into a heavily guarded room to physically access a computer with secret information.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, power plants, for example, ran on private networks where the censors would talk to the controllers, Palmer says. "Now things that are supposed to be private have become virtually private, going over the same lines as internet traffic." As getting online became cheaper, and operating private networks became more costly and cumbersome compared to using the standard internet, companies began using the regular net.
"Not being on the internet costs more for dollars and opportunity cost," he says. "The design and the reality don't match anymore, but the design was supposed to be private." And this semi-public link to the broader net leaves vital systems potentially open to attack.
While military contractors propose new products to defend against online threats, commercial cyber crime - where companies seek data on competitors and rivals try to steal industrial secrets - may be a bigger issue than fears of nation to nation conflicts spilling onto the internet.
"The [US] defence department, just like everyone else, is struggling with the rapid rise of cyber threats," says Richard Stiennon, the security analyst. "It is all new. They don't have a basis in international law or jurisdictional avenues from which to build a cyber response."
And, the need for better international norms for governing cyber conflict is one of the few points of agreement between analysts. "The big thing here is that there is nothing magic about cyberspace," Schneider says."Everything that is true is still true when you put the word 'cyber' in front of it."
Some may say that international laws are often worth little more than the paper on which they are printed. And, sadly, the ability to exert force still determines the international pecking order. But, it may still be better to have an unenforceable framework for online conflict than none at all.
As Bruce Schneier puts it, "I think a UN conference on cyber war would be a great thing to do".
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/201168204035985818.html
June 3, 2011
MI6 hits al-Qaida in 'Operation Cupcake'
LONDON, Britain's cyberwar against al-Qaida took a sweet turn when intelligence officials hacked into a Web site, subbing bomb-making plans with a cupcake recipe.
The cyber operation was undertaken by MI6 and and Britain's Government Communications Headquarters to disrupt efforts by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to recruit so-called lone wolf terrorists with the English-language Inspire magazine, The Daily Telegraph said.
The British publication did not indicate when the cyberattack on Inspire occurred. British and U.S intelligence had planned separate operations after learning the magazine was about to launch in June 2010, developing a number of cyber countermeasures, including computer viruses.
When visitors tried to download the Webazine, instead of getting instruction about how to "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom" by "The AQ Chef," they got garbled computer code that was a Web page of recipes for "The Best Cupcakes in America."
Among other things, the substituted text produced by Main Street Cupcakes in Hudson, Ohio, included recipes for a mojito cupcake and a rocky road cupcake, the Telegraph said.
The text was supposed to be a recipe for making a lethal pipe bomb with household items, intelligence officers said.
The cyberattack also deleted an article called, "What to Expect in Jihad," by now-deceased al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Telegraph said.
Inspire is produced by the radical preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, a leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula who lived in Britain and the United States, and an associate.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/06/03/MI6-hits-al-Qaida-in-Operation-Cupcake/UPI-86971307102683/#ixzz1OECeCoUA
May 14, 2011
Cyber scams rife at social networks: Microsoft
Social networks are "lucrative hot beds" for cyber scams as crooks endeavor to dupe members of online communities, according to a Microsoft security report released on Thursday.
"Phishing" attacks that use seemingly legitimate messages to trick people into clicking on booby-trapped links, buying bogus software, or revealing information rocketed 1,200 percent at social networks last year, it said.
"We continue to see cyber criminals evolve attack methods such as a significant rise in social network phishing," Microsoft malware protection center manager Vinny Gullotto said in the Security Intelligence Report.
Phishing using social networking as a "lure" represented 84.5 percent of all such trickery in December as compared with 8.3 percent at the start of 2010, according to the report.
Microsoft analyzed data gathered from more than 600 million computer systems worldwide from July through December of last year for the semi-annual study.
"The popularity of social networking sites has created new opportunities for cyber criminals to not only directly impact users, but also friends, colleagues and family through impersonation," the report said.
"These techniques add to an existing list of social engineering techniques, such as financial and product promotions, to extort money or trick users into downloading malicious content."
Social engineering is a reference to fooling people to access machines or data instead of trying to hack into networks using software skills.
Microsoft noticed a "polarization" of cyber criminal behavior and a surge in the use of "marketing-like" deception tactics to steal money from people.
"On one side, highly sophisticated criminals skilled at creating exploits and informed with intelligence about a target’s environment pursue high-value targets with large payoffs," the report said.
"On the other side, there are cyber criminals using more accessible attack methods, including social engineering tactics and leveraging exploits created by the more skilled criminals, to take a small amount of money from a large number of people."
Criminals used malicious software to trick people with false advertisements, fake security software, and pay-per-click schemes that generate cash when Internet links are activated, according to Microsoft.
Detections of software crafted to infect machines with pop-up advertisements meanwhile rose 70 percent from the middle of last year to the end of December, the report indicated.
"With more consumers and devices coming online every day, cyber criminals now have more opportunities than before to deceive users through attack methods like adware, phishing and rogue security software," said Graham Titterington of Britain-based analyst firm Ovum.
"It’s becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to decipher legitimate communications and promotions given the sophistication of tools criminals are using."
Rogue security software, referred to as "scareware," was one of the most common ways for cyber criminals worldwide to bilk people out of money and steal information from computers.
The ploy seeks to dupe Internet users by pretending to find viruses and other problems on computers and then offering to sell a program to fix the situation. The software being hawked is a virus.
Computer users were advised to guard against threats by keeping programs updated, using reputable security software, and not clicking links or opening files without making certain they are safe.
http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/gopa.detail.php?article_id=50089&cat_id=27
Related article ~ May 26-27 ~ Internet Titans to Meet, Advise G8 ... 
May 13, 2011
White House to unveil cybersecurity strategy
The White House plans to unveil its policy proposals next week for international cooperation in cyberspace.
The White House said Friday that it plans to release a policy document -- "US International Strategy for Cyberspace" -- at an event on Monday.
"This first-of-its-kind policy document offers our comprehensive vision for the future of international cooperation in cyberspace," the White House said in a statement.
It said the document outlines the US agenda "for partnering with other nations and peoples to ensure the prosperity, security, and openness that we seek in our increasingly networked world."
The State Department said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has made Internet freedom one of her priorities, will deliver keynote remarks at the event.
"The strategy lays out a comprehensive, principled vision for the future of cyberspace," the State Department said.
It said Clinton's remarks "will address the role of cyberspace in advancing the full range of US interests and the importance of international cooperation in advancing cyberspace as a foreign policy priority."
The White House said other top officials attending the event will include John Brennan, President Barack Obama's counter-terror chief, Attorney General Eric Holder, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
The announcement came a day after the White House proposed draft legislation aimed at toughening the defenses of government and private industry against the growing danger from cyberattack.
Obama has identified cybersecurity as a top priority of his administration and the White House legislation joins some 50 cyber-related bills introduced during the last session of Congress.
The White House bill would require critical infrastructure such as the power, financial and transportation sectors to come up with plans to better protect their increasingly Internet-connected computer networks.
The White House is hoping for action by Congress on the bill this year.
http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.php?articleId=98678276&channelId=2951&buyerId=newsmeatcom&buid=3281
Monopolizing The Currency Market
Monopolizing a market is done by creating multiple blog spots and/or Forums which all link back to a Master Forum. This generates add revenue for the Master forum. Most of these sites are flagged for unethical as well as illegal activitity including Wire fraud, Mail fraud, and Violations Committed under the unlawful sales of securities pursuant to 11 51 301
One of the many lawsuits under investigation ... http://www.dora.state.co.us/securities/pdf_forms/enforcement/amiraq-verified-petition.pdfData Being collected @ http://www.iraqidinarmoney.com/theiraqidinar/___
Foreign Exchange Investment Fraud ~ Link ~ Crimes of Persuasion__
Foreign Exchange Scam
The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions is warning consumers about potential scams regarding Iraqi Dinar currency exchange services. While foreign exchange scams are not new, the sudden popularity with the Dinar and resulting consumer complaints to our banking partners is concerning. Consumers can read about the investment-related risks in our previously-released consumer alert ...“Forex: Risky Business?” at link Several websites have recently begun advertising investment opportunities in Iraqi Dinars, the currency of Iraq. These websites are asking the consumers to send a check, wire, money order, or pay cash upon delivery of the Dinars.
Continues ..
April 18, 2011
S. Korea bank probed over "cyber-attack" shutdown
SEOUL: Regulators launched an inquiry Monday into South Korea's largest banking network in terms of branches, after a suspected cyber-attack left many customers unable to access their money for three days.
A system crash that started on April 12 left customers of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, or Nonghyup, unable to withdraw or transfer money, use credit cards or take out loans.
Financial Supervisory Service and central bank officials visited the bank's Seoul headquarters Monday to investigate whether it had complied with computer security rules.
The bank's services were partially restored after three days, but some -- including an advance cash service -- were still unavailable Monday. Some 310,000 customers have filed complaints and nearly 1,000 called for compensation.
The major technical glitch also temporarily deleted records of some of Nonghyup's 5.4 million credit card customers, leaving the firm unable at present to bill customers or settle payments to retailers.
Nonghyup, which has about 5,000 branches, said it suspected the problem was caused by cyber-attackers, who entered commands to destroy computer servers and wipe out some transaction histories.
"The latest incident was conducted internally...the meticulously designed commands entered through a laptop computer owned by a subcontractor company were carried out to simultaneously destroy the entire server system," Nonghyup official Kim You-Kyung told a briefing.
The bank pledged full compensation for any damages and stressed there was no leak of personal data.
It was the second major glitch at a financial firm this month, after Hyundai Capital said a hacker broke into its computer system and stole customer data.
Hyundai Capital, which has about 1.8 million customers, said it lost data on 420,000 customers such as names, residential registration numbers and mobile phone numbers.
About 13,000 passwords also appeared to have been hacked from customers' loan accounts, said Hyundai Capital which is also under investigation by regulators.
Consumer rights groups said they may file class action suits against the two firms.
"We have already enough people to qualify to file suits, but laws are not favourable to consumers in a case like this," Cho Nam-Hee, chief of the Korea Finance Consumer Federation, told AFP.
Cho said the level of protection that financial firms must by law maintain on its online systems is relatively low, and courts usually impose fairly light punishments.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific_business/view/1123478/1/.html
Copyright aspects of hyperlinking and framing
