Security expert and BT chief security-technology officer Bruce Schneier has attacked the US-Visit border-biometrics program, saying it has had "zero benefit" in terms of security.
Speaking to ZDNet UK last week, Schneier said that there was little evidence that the US-Visit program, which takes fingerprints and retinal scans from all visitors to the United States, had made any impact on reducing the threat from criminals and terrorists.
Cloud-computing crimeware means networks of zombie machines can be hired to steal online-banking details for as little as $299 (185) per month.
'Fraud as a service' is opening up computer crime to people with no technical expertise, warned Uri Rivner, head of new technology at security company RSA.
Speaking at the RSA Conference Europe 2008 in London, Rivner laid the pricing bare, revealing how fraudsters offer botnet networks as a subscription service, with patching and upgrades thrown in.
The security team behind the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games has revealed how it found the real risks hidden within the millions of alerts received every day.
Faced with 12 million alerts per day, the team at the Games' worldwide IT partner, Atos Origin, used in-house risk-management technology to reduce the alerts to just 90 critical alarms, focusing on the most serious risks.
Honey traps were also used to trap several hackers, using results terminals with security holes to lure criminals into attempting to install applications.
