In an effort to reduce mobile phone related crime, the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum (MICAF), along with all five major UK mobile networks, have vowed to block 80% of stolen phones, within 24-48 hours of being reported.

MICAF are now making the phone networks take full accountability for the theft of mobile phones. Backing the incentive, Home Secretary, John Reid has pledge £1.35 million in order to form a new “National Phone Crime” unit.

It is likely that the IMEI will be blocked in order to render the phones useless, but many people fear that this may lead to an increase in stolen phones as thiefs will be likely to use the phoen for 48 hours and discard it in place of another.

The Mor-Pah Project have just released version 2.3 of their Command Line MSN Messenger program.

CLI-MSN is an Open Source project that enables users to logon to the MSN network and carryout both public and private chat sessions. Design for nix based systems, CLI-MSN incorporates SSL secure login and runs on the latest MSN protocols.

For more information, check out download page at www.mor-pah.net

The Internet Crime Complaint Center has reported a new form of scam in the 419 category. Unsuspecting mobile phone users are recieving text messages thanking them for their subscription to a bogus dating agency and notifying them that $2.00, per day, will be charged to their phone until such a time that the subscription is cancelled.

A link to www.irrealhost.com is provided which, upon visiting, requests the users phone number and offers a cancellation tool. Once run, this malware edits the host file to prevent access to common anti-virus sites and lowers Windows security settings, effectively turning the machine into a zombie.

Currently, there are no reports of this type of scam occuring in the UK.

Source : Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)

Its almost that time of year again when we all don our Red Hats and Slacks and make our way to London. This years LinuxWorld Expo will offer 26 hours of Open Source topics as well as 16 top name industry speakers, by the likes of Bruce Perens, Alan Cox, Ian Pratt and Chris DiBona.

For more information and registration, please follow this link for the LinuxWorld Expo 2006

A Niue website is offering unlock codes for numerous models of Nokia and Samsung mobile phones. Whilst I havent checked it out yet, it’s probably worth a quick look. The Nokia side of things presents a small form to fill in, requiring the IMEI of your phone and the serial number. The Samsung page is pretty much the same and, although in Maori(?), is fairly straight forward to follow.

Nokia Unlock Procedure
Samsung Unlock Procedure

Slashdot is reporting that the encryption in the Galileo GPS signal has been broken. The pseudo random number generator used to obscure the information stored in the Galileo GPS signal has been broken. From the article: ‘Members of Cornell’s Global Positioning System (GPS) Laboratory have cracked the so-called pseudo random number (PRN) codes of Europe’s first global navigation satellite, despite efforts to keep the codes secret. That means free access for consumers who use navigation devices — including handheld receivers and systems installed in vehicles — that need PRNs to listen to satellites.’”

Source: Slashdot - Cracking the GPS Galileo Satellite

“School administrators in Framingham MA have implemented a policy allowing them to not only confiscate cell phones, but also to search through students’ cell phone data as part of their anti drug/violence efforts. Students claim that the policy is an invasion of their privacy.”

Source: Slashdot - School Admins Demand Access to Students’ Cellphones

The extradition of “Pentagon hacker” Gary McKinnon has been approved by Home Sectretary John Reid.

He is accused of causing more than $700,000 of damage to federal computer systems used by the Department of Defense. McKinnon now has 14 days from July 4 to appeal appeal the decision, which was a rubber stamping of a district judge ruling in May.

A Home Office spokesman told the BBC: “Mr McKinnon had exercised his right to submit representations against return but the secretary of state did not consider the issues raised availed Mr McKinnon.”

He was arrested by the UK’s National Hi-Tech Crime Unit in 2002.

Glasgow-born McKinnon has said he broke into the networks to look for evidence of a cover-up of extraterrestrial technology. His lawyers have claimed the US could imprison McKinnon at Guantanamo Bay for terrorism.

Source: TheRegister

HD DVD movies can be copied, and all it takes is the presses of a single button on any PC’s keyboard. Well, lots of presses. Lots and lots of presses. Lots and lots and lots of presses.

Yes, keep hitting that Print Screen button and, according to Germany’s c’t magazine, one the movie’s finished playing, you’ll have enough screen grabs to reconstruct the film - illegally of course - in all its high resolution glory.

And in case you think Blu-ray is any safer - the c’t guys tried the same technqiue out on a Sony Vaio fitted with a BD drive. The HD DVD unit was in a Toshiba Qosmio G30. Both computers were running bundled copies of WinDVD.

That said, it’s a tiresome way to copy a movie, much like photocopying a book page by page. But c’t warns it’s possible to automate all that furious Print Screen pressing. Until, of course, Intervideo patches WinDVD.

Source: TheRegister

BT’s Bluebell Hill exchange in Chatham, Kent, caught fire on Wednesday, putting 20,000 lines in jeopardy.

The blaze began at around 11am and caused extensive damage to the power room, though the actual telecoms gear escaped relatively unscathed. When the mains was lost, back-up generators quickly cut-in, but were themselves consumed by the flames.

Battery power waned through the afternoon, and phone and broadband punters using the exchange gradually lost service. Engineers were able to assess the damage once fire chiefs declared the building safe several hours later. A mobile diesel generator was shipped in and lines were juiced back up early on Thursday.

Techies continue to monitor Bluebell Hill for “wrinkles” in the network. BT is still counting the cost of the fire, and cannot say when a permanent power supply will be restored.

Investigations by BT, its electricity supplier EDF and the fire brigade are ongoing. A spokesman for BT told The Reg there is no indication of suspicious circumstances at this stage.

Chatham is, of course, famed as the mothership for the so-called “chav phenomenon”, whereby everyone has a good laugh at poor people for swearing, pushing prams, wearing hoodies and driving souped-up Vauxhall Novae.

Source : TheRegister