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CRIMINAL CREDIT CARD WEBSITES SHUT DOWN

THE BEST

Dozens of criminal websites offering credit card details and other private information have been taken down in a global police operation in Australia, Europe, the UK and US. The scheme had been in practise for over two years offering credit card numbers or bank account details of millions of unsuspecting victims. These were sold for as little as £2. According to the news reports, two british men and one from Macedonia were arrested, with 36 sites shut down, but more arrests are expected. Joint operations in Australia, the US, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Romania and Macedonia led to the websites being closed down this Thursday.

Criminal gangs try to recruit the smartest hackers or code-writers to both steal data from unsuspecting internet users, and make their own websites as secure and hard to trace as possible. But many senior figures at the big internet service providers and domain name registration companies are traditionally anti-establishment and can be suspicious of police interference. They are often reluctant to agree to anything that could be perceived as curtailing the freedom of the web, such as preventing anonymous domain registrations.

The authorities say traditional "bedroom" hackers were being recruited by criminal gangs to write the malware or "phishing" software that steals personal information. Other IT experts are used to write the computer code that enables the websites to cope, automatically, with selling the huge amounts of data.

Automated computer programs can register thousands of similar, but different domain names, and it can be difficult to trace them back to their owner. That's the reason authorities are trying to influence the industry to introduce more secure systems so they do know who is registering these sites and they have a more comprehensive customer database, and do more aimed at preventing criminals buying websites and using them for criminal ends.



NO TRUCE IN SYRIA

THE WORST

It became clear this Thursday that the truce in Syria is not holding up. It is estimated that 70 people have been killed in an attack on several houses in the Masha at-Tayyar district in southern Hama, which  were destroyed by a big explosion. The violence comes despite a UN-brokered ceasefire - part of a peace plan proposed by the joint UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.

Searching for survivors after the blast in Hama

Following the blast in Hama, activists posted video on the internet showing a scene of devastation, with bodies being pulled from the rubble. It has been said that the the blast was caused by government shelling or even a Scud missile attack, but no one seems to be sure.

The opposition Syrian National Council has called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting "so that it can issue a resolution to protect civilians". It says nearly 100 people have been killed in Hama in recent days. A UN Military intervention is again being required.