Sunday, June 25, 2006

Sealand devastated by fire, sole human on site injured. Xeni Jardin: The "independent state" of Sealand, home to data havens and pirate radio operators, was ruined yesterday by a massive blaze. Snip from a local news report: The so-called Principality of Sealand, seven miles off the coast of Felixstowe and Harwich, was evacuated at lunchtime yesterdayafter a generator caught fire. Thames Coastguard, Harwich RNLI lifeboat, Felixstowe Coastguard rescue teams, firefighting tug Brightwell, the RAF rescue helicopter from Wattisham and 15 Suffolk based firefighters from the National Maritime Incident Response Group (MIRG) were all called into action to tackle the blaze. One man, believed to be a security guard, was airlifted from the scene and taken to Ipswich Hospital with smoke inhalation but no one else was on the Second World War gun emplacement. Link. Michael Bates of Sealand's royal family vows to rebuild: Link. No word yet on exactly how the fire happened, or whether foul play may have been involved, but: There have been at least seven attempts by raiders to try to seize it from the Bates family with petrol bombs, shotguns and hand-to-hand fighting. (thanks, Jake) [Boing Boing] Oddly, I can't locate via Google the earlier stories here at A blog doesn't need a clever name concerning Sealand and HavenCo. 11:13:30 AM    comment []

Luring people with SMS. CNET News.com reports "hackers are trying to lure people to a malicious Web site using cell phone text messages,a security company has warned.The blended attack uses social engineering techniques in its attempt to trick people to the site,security vendor Websense said in an advisory.An SMS text message is sent to the targets' cell phones,thanking them for subscribing to a fictitious dating service.The message states that they will be automatically charged a fee of $2.00 per day via their phone bill,unless their subscription is cancelled online.The same message has also been sent multiple times to the comments section of numerous bulletin boards,Websense said.The attack began on Thursday in the U.S. and was first detected by Sunbelt Software,a security software vendor,Websense said.Once victims visit the purported dating site to unsubscribe, they are prompted to download a Trojan horse program. (A Trojan horse is malicious software that disguises itself as another kind of application.) The attackers provide instructions on how to bypass security warnings in Internet Explorer,Websense said.After the Trojan horse--a variant of a program Websense calls "Dumador"--is installed,it turns the computer into a "zombie," allowing it to be remotely controlled by the hackers.The compromised machines then become part of a "bot" network,which can then be used to launch distributed denial-of-service attacks". Zombie builders send out phone texts [Smart Mobs] 11:13:22 AM    comment []