Quoteworthy -- "Six or seven thousand organizations are paying online extortion demands. The epidemic of cybercrime is growing. You don't hear much about it because it's extortion and people feel embarrassed to talk about it. Every online gambling site is paying extortion. Hackers use DDoS attacks using botnets to do it. Then they say 'pay us $40 thousand or we'll do it again'."
--Alan Paller, director of research for security organization SANS, speaking on Friday at the SANS Institute's Top 20 Vulnerabilities conference at the Department of Trade and Industry in London. Both Paller and a later speaker-- Roger Cumming, director of the National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Center-- went on to speculate that DDoS attacks could easily be used to disrupt organizations in the critical national infrastructure (CNI). The SANS Institute's list of the twenty most critical Internet security vulnerabilities can be viewed at http://www.sans.org/top20/
No More Ads -- Pay per click search engine Kanoodle recently announced that as of October 1st it no longer accepts advertisements for online gambling sites.
New and Improved -- Betting exchange Betdaq has launched a new version of its web site that it claims is faster and easier to use than before. It also offers new features such as a status bar near the bottom of the page that allows a punter to see whether any of his bets are fully matched, partially matched or unmatched.
Moving -- Online betting company Interwetten is moving its sports betting operations from Cyprus to Malta within the next two months. The company's primary motivation for the move is reportedly concerns that the Cypriot government has been taking too long of a time in progressing with legislation to regulate online gambling. Last month British law firm Poppleston Allen announced that it had helped the Cypriot government draft I-gaming regulations that would likely become law within a few months.
SharkPoker -- SharkPoker.com, a new site that uses software from AngelCiti Entertainment's subsidiary Midas Entertainment, reports that it has signed up 1,500 players and processed over $600,000 during its first month of operation. SharkPoker.com is the second company to license Midas' software.