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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

DDoS attack from Russian hackers... again


1) http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1533&tag=nl.e550
2) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/georgia/2539157/Georgia-Russia-conducting-cyber-war.html

To confirm my point of view regarding Russian hackers and their employers, read the article above.
The actions described in the article are clear demonstration of knowledge in cyber security used to suppress the web site of a defined enemy (in this case, Georgia - former USSR republic). There are no doubts in my mind that it was pre-designed by the Russian Government. ShadowServer.org mentioned that there is no proof that the Russian Government was behind that attack. However, ask yourself why would you try to suppress the Georgian President's web site unless it's your enemy's web site?

As you can see, when the war began, all weapons in your dispositions are used. The cyber hacking or DoS attacks are the new battlefields, and it must be taken seriously.

Finally! Cheaters are punished... kind of...


Please read my comments below regarding this article from InfoWorld.

Microsoft sues site to stop certification test leaks



Microsoft claims Freetech Services was selling actual exam questions on its certification test help-site

* By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service
August 18, 2008 | http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/08/18/Microsoft_sues_site_to_stop_certification_test_leaks_1.html

A federal court in Connecticut has ordered a certification test help-site to stop publishing Microsoft-related materials after the software maker sued the company, claiming that it was selling actual certification exam questions.

In a preliminary injunction signed Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Warren Eginton ordered Pass4sure.com and its parent company, Freetech Services, to stop distributing the materials.

Pass4sure sells "high quality IT exam practice questions and answers," according to its Web site. The company promises a full refund to anyone who does not pass an IT exam on their first try after using its testing engine.

However, Microsoft says that the company is selling actual exam answers. Company investigators downloaded the Pass4sure practice exams for a variety of tests in early May and found that they were "identical or substantially similar" to Microsoft's own certification exams, Microsoft said in court filings.

Pass4sure sells questions for many certification tests, including those offered by Cisco Systems, Oracle and IBM. The tests cost between about $80 and $125.

These kinds of professional certifications are an important measurement of professional advancement amongst IT professionals and can translate into bigger salaries for those who earn them.

Although Pass4sure no longer lists Microsoft tests on its Web site, cached pages linking to dozens of tests can be found on Google.com.

[My Comments] This company along with several others like TestKing are long due to panishing for unfair practice, stealing the revenue from competitors by engaging in the provocative Search Emgine Optimization technique (using the competitors products' keywords), cheating the Google and Yahoo with saturating their pages with hundreds of keywords related to their own products, selling the programs that repeat actual exams questions, and even selling the IT Certification certificates for a nominal fee. In order to stop their activity and bandit methods to conduct business, they have to be panished financially.

I can almost guarantee that they will announce a new web site under a new name and will do the same! Why am I so sure? They have already created the web sites with the Microsoft exams numbers as the domain names. All the links are being redirected to pass4sure.com and testking.com or testking.name (Example: www.640-802.net). I guess, Cisco must follow the Microsoft's steps.