2Wednesday 3rd November, 20Wednesday 17th November, 2010Thursday 2nd December, 2010Monday 13th December, 201Friday 31st December, 2010
KATY PERRY'S LIZARD-SKIN SLAYER"People will always grab my hand or grab my shoulder and be like, 'Oh my god, your skin is so soft! It's creepy how soft it is.' And I'm like, 'What are you, a lizard? What's happening with you?' " the star jokes to PEOPLE of her soft arms and legs. Her secret? "I started maybe when I was 10 or 9, using lotion after I got out of the shower single every day."
FIRST STEP TO FLAWLESS"I always do the moisturizer first and let it sink in for a minute," says makeup mogul and teen Beauty Rules author Bobbi Brown of her first step to flattering makeup. "When you put moisturizer on you don’t need as much makeup – and you actually look better."
FERGIE'S BROW MATCH-UPAfter the singer went back to blonde recently, she recruited brow pro Tonya Crooks to take the total look to the next level. "I lightened Fergie's brows about three shades, to a nice dark blonde/light brown color, for a contrast against her skin since she's pretty tan," she says, explaining, "If I went too light with the color, her brows could appear washed out against her tan skin."
FALSE-LASH LASHING"Never use false eyelashes," Jessica Simpson reveals as the best tip she's learned from her longtime makeup artist, Jeannia Robinette. Instead the duo prefers using a Shu Uemura eyelash curler and multiple coats of Dior Show mascara. "It's nice because then you don’t have to feel over the top and made up. Your eyelashes should just look natural."
POST-WORK-OUT REFRESHERTaraji P. Henson keeps her pores clog-free by finishing up her exercise routine with a mint-infused facial cleanser. "I love using it when I shower after a good workout. It wakes me up! Minty tingly fresh," she says of her top choice, Reneé Rouleau Luxe Mint Cleans-ing Gel.
DEAR HEARTLike mommy, like daughter! In comple-mentary shades, Jessica Alba and daughter Honor, 2, arrive at LAX to catch a flight to Cabo San Lucas, where they will reportedly ring in the New Year.
TRAVEL DARLINGSAfter going on a couple of dates with Nikki Sixx, Denise Richards returns to mommy duty preparing for takeoff at Los Angeles International Airport with daughters, Sam, 6, and Lola, 5.
KIM KARDASHIANThe brunette bombshell outshines the decorations at her family's Christmas fête in L.A., in an iridescent one-shouldered Tadashi Shoji gown and coordinating cuff.
Amy Chew in Kuala LumpurThe Star/ ANN
Cyber crimes are evolving. A layperson can now have a go at hack-ing with the advent of ‘attack tool
kits’ sold in the underground economyservers
Malaysian Lin Mun Poo did morethan get himself arrested when heallegedly hacked into the high securitycomputer networks of the UnitedStates’ Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) andthe Pentagon’s security contractor.
He put Malaysia on the map of“super hackers”, on par with those fromChina and Russia, raising concernsfrom US security and intelligence offi-cials.
“How did a hacker in Malaysia man-age to penetrate a computer networkoperated by the Federal Reserve Bank(FRB) of Cleveland?” musedMSNBC.com, the website of the giantUS cable news network NBC, when thenews broke.
“To have the skills to break intohighly sensitive systems like that is animpressive level of criminal activity,”MSNBC.com quoted Kurt Baumgartnerof Kaspersky Lab, a computer securityfirm, as saying.
Lin, 32, has pleaded not guilty tocharges of hacking into the FRB andunlawful possession of stolen credit anddebit card account numbers belongingto individuals. He was denied bail.
Little is known of Lin except that hehails from Ipoh in Malaysia where hehas a business address. It turns out tobe a pub cum karaoke lounge in a com-mercial district of Ipoh.
Malaysian police say Lin has nocriminal record and it appears he com-mits his cyber crimes outside the coun-try.
Describing Lin as “highly profession-al”, a senior police source said Linappeared on US authorities’ radar fouryears ago—in Thailand where he wasalleged to be involved with hacking intoUS-linked corporations.
Cyber crime has evolved from thepast when men and women hacked intocomputer systems of established enti-ties for their five minutes of fame.
“Cyber criminals used to be afterfame. The attacks were noisy, broughtdown systems and were highly visible,”said Nigel Tan, Symantec Corporationprincipal consultant for the Asia Southregion.
Symantec’s Global IntelligenceNetwork has the largest, most sophisti-cated intelligence network worldwide,processing over eight billion e-mailmessages daily and gathering maliciouscode data from 130 million systems.
Today’s hackers are mainly motivat-ed by money. They move silently acrossborders in cyber space and the physicalworld, selling their ill-gotten wares inthe underground economy.
“The attacks have now become moresilent and they are motivated purely byfinancial gains. Their motivation is tosell whatever information they get,”Tan added.
Lin was arrested by the US SecretService on October 21 at a diner inBrooklyn after being caught red-handedselling stolen credit card numbers forUS$1,000. He had just arrived a fewhours earlier on a flight from Europe.
Secret Service agents seized his heav-ily encrypted laptop computer andfound more than 400,000 credit, debitand bank account numbers which hehad allegedly obtained by hacking intovarious computer systems.
In his post-arrest statement, Lin saidthe primary purpose of his trip to theUS was to meet with an individualwhom he believed was capable of regu-larly providing him with a large volumeof stolen card numbers and personalidentification numbers.
Credit card information topped thelist of goods advertised for sale on theunderground economy servers, account-ing for 28 per cent of all goods, accord-ing to the Symantec IntelligenceQuarterly for April-June 2010.
Prices ranged from $1 to $30 depend-
ing on three main factors: the amountof information included with the card,rarity of the card type and bulk pur-chase sizes.
Credit cards that included securityfeatures such as CVV2 numbers, PINsand online verification service pass-words were offered at higher prices.
The Federal Reserve Bank ofCleveland, Ohio was not Lin’s only vic-tim, as it is alleged that he alsobreached the computer servers of majorfinancial institutions and companies.
“The defendant possessed data ille-gally obtained from the computer net-
work of FedComp, a data processor forvarious credit unions in the UnitedStates,” Justice Department prosecutorstold US District Judge Dora L. Irizarryin a letter.
By hacking into FedComp, Lingained access to the data of theFiremen’s Association of the State ofNew York Federal Credit Union and theMercer County New Jersey Teachers’Federal Credit Union, among other vic-tims.
According to the prosecutors, theamount of stolen data found in Lin’spossession is staggering and has led
them to describe him as an “extremelysophisticated and dangerous” computerhacker.
It underscored cyber criminals’ sin-gle-mindedness in searching andexploiting vulnerabilities in the com-puter systems of government institu-tions and corporations.
Lin admitted he made money by“finding and exploiting network vulner-abilities”, or trading and selling theinformation contained therein, accord-ing to the prosecutors.
Symantec warns that it is now easierthan ever to launch a cyber attack,thanks to the advent of a so-called‘attack tool kit’ sold in the undergroundeconomy. The attack tool kit is changingthe landscape of cyber criminals thatwas once dominated by IT savvy indi-viduals.
Now anyone can purchase a cyberattack tool kit and use it to launchsophisticated attacks.
“Attack tool kits are easily availableon the web for reasonable prices. A toolkit allows people to customise a piece ofmalicious code designed to steal dataand other personal information,” saidTan.
“Such tool kits are easy enough toimplement that even people with mini-mal technical knowledge can use themeffectively,” he added.
Two of the most common platformswhere such tool kits are sold are theInternet relay chat (IRC) servers (IRC)and web-based forums, according toTan.
“Both feature discussion groups thatparticipants use to buy and sell fraudu-lent goods and services.”
For as little as $5 to $20, one can pur-chase an attack tool kit, he said.
The tool kit is also sold on a monthlybasis at a subscription rate of $120. Thispackage comes with technical support.
“The market for these tool kits isnow sophisticated enough that updatedversions are released on a developmentschedule, advertising the inclusion ofexploits for the latest vulnerabilitieswhile retaining previous exploits,” Tansaid.
The lowering of barriers for attack-ers to enter into cyber crime is reflectedin the increase in malicious code thatsteals confidential information. Newmalicious codes more than doubled,year-on-year, between 2006 and 2008.
In 2009, it continued the upwardtrend, reaching 2.9 million, according toSymantec.
Efforts to combat cyber crimes on aninternational scale are being hamperedby the lack of agreement in law enforce-ment procedures and cooperationacross international jurisdictions.
Now, EveryoneCan Hack
BY HARISCHANDRA GUNARATNE
Celebrate the dawn of the New Year’s Eve instyle, sophistication and fun at the GaladariHotel and dance to the fabulous sounds of
“Mirage” with Cathay Menezes and “Amazing Grace”.Budrin Musafer will be the master ofceremonies.Prizes and surprises galore.
“Mirage” has been performing at the hottest nightspot in the metropolis “The Margarita Blue” at theGaladari
“Amazing Grace” with Donald, Benjy, Reza andTony joined by Nihal will take the guest spot for onehour. The popular band of yesteryear will be perform-ing in Sri Lanka for the first time after their re-unionconcert in 2005 where the group played to packedhouse at the BMICH.
“Mirage” comprising Donald, Benjy, Derrick,Melantha and Gavin had been the mainstay at the“Magarita Blue” and with their wide repertoire willdishout popular hits of the 60s ,70s, 80s and the mod-ern stuff.
Cathay, the daughter of Micky Menezes has beenspecially flown in for the occasion.
New Year’s Eve at Galadari
“Mirage” at their best: from left. Derrick, Melantha,Benjy, Cathay, Donald and Gavin
“Grace” from left: Benjy,Donald,Reza and Tony
