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The Month: Global snapshots – London is UK fraud capital, Zotob creators jailed, Yahoo sued in China

Ireland - The Bank of Ireland has agreed to compensate phishing victims after customers lost £160,000 through responding to forged emails. Nine customers had threatened to sue the bank for compensation if their money wasn't returned. The bank refused to comment directly, but said in a statement that it was aware of the phishing problem.

UK - A British man has been fined £45,000 for sending spammessages via Hotmail. Instead of using the UK's anti-spam laws, whichcarry a maximum penalty of £5,000, Microsoft, which owns Hotmail,filed a complaint that Paul Fox breached the terms and conditions of itsfree email service. A court order now prevents Fox from repeating theoffence, says Microsoft.

UK - London is the UK's credit-card fraud capital, according to a surveyby fraud tracking company Early Warning. Cardholder not present (CNP)fraud in the capital is much higher than elsewhere in the country andmuch of it is internet-related. Manchester and Kilmarnock in Scotlandcomplete the top three black spots. Nationwide, CNP fraud cost £183 million last year.

China - Yahoo is set to appear in a Chinese court accused ofdistributing malware, according to reports. The China Anti-MalwareAlliance announced that it had filed a suit against Yahoo in a Beijingcourt, seeking a public apology and a symbolic $11 (£6) indamages. Yahoo China plans to fight the case, says a report in the ChinaDaily newspaper.

US - The longest jail sentence for a software pirate has been given toNathan Peterson, sentenced to 87 months for running illegal softwaresite iBackups.net. The site sold copyrighted software at a hugediscount, notching up sales of more than $20 million according toprosecutors. The FBI began investigating the site in 2003 and shut itdown last year.

Morocco - The creators of the Zotob worm, which disrupted computers atCNN, The Financial Times, ABC and The New York Times, have been jailed.A court in the city of Sale sentenced 19-year-old Farid Essebar andAchraf Bahloul, 22, to two years and one year respectively. Lawyers saythe two men plan to appeal.

Malaysia - Microsoft and Cisco went head-to-head at Hack in the Box 2006in Kuala Lumpur, with Cisco showing off its Threat Defense System and MSdefending Vista against all comers. Presentations included "Pen testingWindows' Vista BitLocker drive encryption from the inside" and"Subverting Vista Kernel for fun and profit".

Australia - The Australian Communications Authority has launched aninvestigation into the activities of a man suspected of sending morethan two billion Viagra spam emails. A PC has been seized and is beinganalysed, according to security company Sophos. Sending spam from downunder carries a fine of up to £435,000 per day.

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