According to the 2005 Global Information Security Workforce Study, sponsored by the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, IT security professionals are gaining increased access to corporate boardrooms. More than 70 percent of those surveyed said they felt they had increased influence on executives in 2005, and even more expect that influence to keep growing.

U.K. DDoS case could see appeal

The U.K.'s Crown Prosecution Service "is considering appealing a judge's decision" to dismiss a case brought against a teenager under the Computer Misuse Act (CMA). The teen allegedly launched a distributed denial-of-service attack in which he deluged his former employer with 5 million e-mail messages. The judge's ruling said the attack described in the case was not illegal under the CMA.

Iowan pleads guilty in phishing case

An Iowa man has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a phishing scam. Jayson Harris conducted a scam between January 2003 and June 2004, targeting Microsoft's Corp.'s MSN customers and duping them into providing credit card numbers to supposedly keep their accounts active. Harris reportedly stole about US$57,000 through the scam. The fraud charge against Harris could bring him a fine of up to $250,000 and 10 years in prison; he faces another maximum fine of $250,000 and up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud. If his crimes affected a financial institution, the penalties could be more stringent.