threat

A 16-year old North Carolina teen has been indicted by federal prosecutors on three counts for his role in making false bomb threats via the Internet to Purdue University and a number of other colleges and high schools around the country. The FBI arrested Ashton Lundeby, at his home in Oxford, North Carolina on March 6, 2009 and he has been detained and remains in federal custody.

Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) is threatening to quit Twitter over (not so true) rumors the micro-blogging service had signed a TV deal. His exact Tweet:

Sometimes we get so caught up with hunting down a remote few monsters, we forget about the gangs of gremlins lurking next door. A controversial new study from the Internet Safety Technical Task Force suggests minors face greater dangers from their peers than from predators.

In one of those stories that makes you question humanity, some guy in New York pleaded guilty to posting a video on YouTube in which he claimed responsibility for seeing that millions of jars of Gerber baby food were poisoned. This is one of those stories from the dark side of social media and online video.

So long as it winds up in the trashcan, spam isn't too much of a problem for end users.  Yet security researchers have discovered a way in which spammers could use Gmail to send a massive number of messages straight into inboxes.

The increasing volume of spam isn't the only problem plaguing computer users, as varied threats make clicking the most innocent appearing link a potential attack vector.

A sample of a spam message making the rounds demonstrated how someone used a Google URL, with advanced search operators, to send people to a fake retail site. It could be much worse.

The Middleman may never be terminated, but he is cruisin' for a bruisin' in the digital age. The latest assault will come, surprisingly, from China, as the government unveils plans to produce a 3D virtual world that allows consumers to order directly from the manufacturer.