City Almost Loses 450K to Keylogger

SierraPete writes "The city of Carson, California (a suburb of Los Angeles) was the target of a 6-digit theft of cash. The LA Times reports that information taken from a keylogger was used to attempt to steal $450K from the city's treasury. Quick work by the city froze most of the funds, but it drives home the importance of keeping good anti-spyware and anti-virus software updated on both corporate systems as well as systems being used from home."

Comments

Not everything is shit like M$. AV==Snake Oil

[twitter]

Saying that GNU/Linux and Mac have the same problems Windoze does is a serious insult. I'm tired of hearing people tell me how much my OS needs an antivirus and spyware checker.

It's bullshit anyway. The pros can get through anything. Starting off with an OS that 99% of script kiddies can't own is a much better option than dragging down your computer's performance with snake oil. An OS like Debian, without Flash and other useless and insecure junk, is more appropriate for an office than Windoze with it's IE, Outlook and WMP burden. After that, AV can be done for mail servers and intrusion detection at the network level. Everything else is just so much busy work and waste of money.

Re:Not everything is shit like M$. AV==Snake Oil

[twitter]

Perhaps I should have spelled it out and ended my first sentence with "if you run Windows" but I thought that goes without saying in a community like Slashdot.

I can only read what you write. Mind reading is something I gave up long ago, it just never worked.

GNAkA

[Anonymous Coward]

very sick and i7s So that you don't

Re:Physical Keylogger

[StikyPad]

Ummm... how exactly would you place a physical keylogger on a laptop?

Did you read the fscking article?

Re:Obligatory...

[poolmeister]

"We're trying to find something good out of the bad here," Avilla said. "There's got to be more than one way to fight this. They get us in so many ways. There's got to be a way for us to get them."

..Stop using Windows?

ha ha.

[twitter]

twitter run himself silly keeping up with kernel "patches", point released updates and other completely ineffective "products" sold to them by slashdot posters who'd like to keep him in the dark about real security.

apt-get update; apt-get upgrade

Done, no need to reboot. A managed GNU/Linux desktop is even easier. Free software is easy because it lacks restrictions. The end result for the user is a system that incorporates the best security practices with next to no effort. Effort for the developer is also reduced by code sharing, each is free to concentrate on the thing they enjoy while the rest takes care of itself.

Silly Microturd AC, no one believes your bullshit. Bill Gates can spend ALL of his money making Slashdot carry his message, but no one will believe it. The game is over because the lies are so transparent. Windoze can't win the security, features or ease of use race. Hardware makers have realized that and the M$ domination is ending. Soon it will be over and your favorite OS will sink to the market share it deserves. If you think Vista lacks improvements and features a normal person would expect from five years of development, just wait till you see what M$ comes up with when they lose their monopoly rent revenue. Non free is dead.

$hit $hit $hit, that's correct.

[twitter]

Yes, AC, "shit" is how M$ is pronounced.