'World's sexiest hacker' to appear in court

Kristina Svechinskaya, 21, is accused of working as a "money mule" for the eastern European gang. She faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted.

Miss Svechinskaya, who was arrested in New York earlier this month, is one of 37 people charged over the alleged fraud, in which hackers allegedly broke into people's computers to steal their money.

It is alleged that they sent victims emails containing Trojan horses, pieces of software which, when clicked, allowed the sender access to the recipients files and passwords.

Miss Svechinskaya, who drew comparisons with the Russian spy Anna Chapman after pictures of her were found online, is charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and the false use of a passport. She has been dubbed the "world’s sexiest computer hacker".

She is accused of helping to provide bank accounts for the hackers, into which $35,000 was fraudulently deposited and $11,000 withdrawn, in return for a ten per cent cut of the stolen money.

It is claimed she opened at least five accounts, some in her own name and others under the aliases Anastasia Opokina and Svetlana Makarova,
She is said to have been among a group of students from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus studying in the US, who were recruited through newspaper advertisements and social networking websites.

Preet Bharara, a US Attorney in Manhattan, said: "The modern, hi-tech bank heist does not require a gun, a mask, a note, or a getaway car. It requires only the internet and ingenuity and can be accomplished in the blink of an eye, with just a click of the mouse." (www.telegraph.co.uk)
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Challenge Facebook, Twitter targeting 1 Billion Users

Twitter cofounder Evan Williams, who had just left the seat of the CEO to focus on product development, said the company’s target is able to capture 1 billion users. Through this goal, Twitter would like to challenge Facebook Inc, which is currently leading in the virtual world of social networking market.

"Twitter will attract one billion members," Williams said in San Francisco on Monday (10/11/2010). Unfortunately, Williams did not say when these targets will be achieved.

Along with the target setting, Twitter already provides a service that allows users to post photos, videos, and street maps last month. This step is done to attract more users.

Currently, Twitter, which has 165 million registered users, competes fiercely with Facebook to attract the users and advertisers. Based on ComScore Inc., Twitter is in the top three among social networking sites, beyond My Space. Facebook is in the first position and the second is Windows Live Profile.

Previously, the founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg said at the beginning of the year, the membership of the world's most popular social networking site would soon penetrate one billion users. That figure is equivalent to 14 percent of world population.(Photo: AP PHOTO)
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Android growth unstoppable

The market share of Google's smart phone platform, the Android, grew fairly rapidly than other platforms in the U.S.. This news is from the data released by comScore MobiLens, earlier this week.

For the period of three months as of August 2010, 234 million Americans are at least 13 years old to use Android-based phone.

In May to August 2010, Android market share in the U.S. grew 51 percent, from 13 percent to 19.6 percent. The growth of Android it's the only positive compared to other platforms that actually minus.
Compare with market control manufacturer of BlackBerry, RIM, which dropped from 41.7 percent in May 2010 to 37.6 percent in the same period. Meanwhile, Microsoft has also eroded the market from 13.2 percent to 10.8 percent.

Apple and Palm have fared the same, which just posted a decline in market share is slim. In May, Apple controls 24.4 percent or thin down in August 2010 to 24.2 percent. Palm also down from 4.8 percent to 4.6 percent

Image: Google
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