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Scraping news
The Latest Scrapings
The latest scraping news and incidents from all over the world, commented on by scraping experts from Sentor Managed Security Services.
2010-03-05 - Screen scraping to provide threat 'for next few years'
Online content providers and website operators are forced to deal with a number of IT intrusion and security threats nowadays as cybercriminals' techniques become more advanced. However, one of the long-standing threats with which hackers are increasingly prolific is scraping, as highlighted by news of a massive online ticketing scam which was exposed in the US earlier this week.
2010-03-05 - Ryanair triumphs again in screen-scraping case
Ryanair now has the right to sue screen-scraping companies after winning another court case in Germany, it emerged this week.
2010-02-25 - Facebook Octazen purchase: Scraping troubles ahead?
It recently emerged, through news provider GigaOM, that Facebook had acquired little-known Malaysian start-up Octazen Solutions, but questions have arisen as to why the social networking giant has made the purchase. Some suggestions have hinted that Octazen is a talented web scraping company.
2010-02-15 - Screen scraping: Copyright and intellectual property issues
Safeguarding business data can prove vital to the maintenance of a company. Screen scrapers are a threat to firms' information and can be a danger to their intellectual property (IP) as well.
2010-02-11 - Protecting personal data from screen scraping
Social network data harvesting is something that could be a concern for those scared of screen scraping, but there are simple steps that people can take themselves to stop their information being appropriated.
2010-01-29 - Simplifying screen scraping in 2010
With the turn of the new year, many will take on fresh approaches to aspects of their life and work. Perhaps they will need to take a new stance on their attitudes to data and screen scraping as well in 2010, with some predicting that it will become a more widespread problem in the future.
2010-01-28 - The winners and losers of screen scraping
Screen scraping has affected many companies in both negative and positive capacities. When it is the former, however, there are both winners and losers, as has been seen in the past.
2010-01-27 - Is ASSASSIN the answer for screen scraping battle?
There are other ways besides to blocking screen scraping other than implementing Sentor's ASSASSIN (automated anti scraping surveillance network) software. But how useful are these other methods and what are they?
2010-01-22 - Ryanair celebrates victory in fight against screen scraping
Ryanair is celebrating a victory against screen scraping after the Regional Court of Hamburg ruled that carrying out the action in order to resell the airline's flights is unlawful. The court also banned German website Vtours from screen scraping Ryanair's website.
2010-01-06 - Ryanair screen scraping appeal dismissed
Irish airline Ryanair has had its appeal over screen scraping dismissed by a Spanish court. The carrier took eDreams to court for using screen scraping software in order to offer customers direct information on Ryanair flights.
2009-12-11 - The importance of business data today
Corporate data is of great importance in many ways. As we come to the end of 2009, a year which has seen a number of damaging data breach incidents, information is a valuable commodity.
2009-12-11 - Screen scraping theft and how to stop it
Many people may have innocently copied and pasted content from a website in direct breach with the terms and conditions of companies' websites. Others undertake scraping activity for different reasons.
2009-11-27 - Screen scraping target: B2B portals
While many different firms are a target for screen scraping activity, there are some that are more at threat than others. According to Sentor MSS, online business-to-business portals are particularly at risk and are regular targets for screen scraping.
2009-11-23 - Malware and screen scraping: Double trouble?
There are plenty of threats that companies need to be made aware of. Malware and screen scraping are certainly two of them.
2009-11-11 - The legal implications of screen scraping
There have been a number of cases surrounding the use of data in recent times and issues involving screen scraping have made their way into the courtroom on more than one occasion. While taking legal action could be something of a last resort for some firms, there are implications that companies may want to consider.
2009-11-11 - Social networking and data scraping
Data scraping is often carried out so that the party taking the information can make use of it for its own purposes. It appears this is now happening in the social networking world.
2009-10-22 - Screen scraping target: Directories
Directories can be negatively impacted by screen scraping in a number of ways and those involved in the industry may want to get some better protection than they already have in place.
2009-10-14 - Scraping the news: A potential problem?
News is something that the majority of people read or take in through some format on a daily basis. There are many opinions, however, on how information should be paid for and who has the right to display it and where.
2009-09-30 - Screen scraping: The basics
Many may not be aware of screen scraping - its potential problems, risks and even who is taking the data in the first place. So what are the basics of this kind of data appropriation?
2009-09-29 - Malicious screen scraping: Worth preventing?
A number of recent cases have heightened the profile of screen scraping. But why should firms now be looking out for screen scraping issues that could affect them?
2009-08-20 - Ryanair takes German screen scraping ticket tout to court
Ryanair has taken a German internet ticket tout to court, accusing it of unauthorised screen scraping and reselling the airline's flights at inflated prices.
2009-07-31 - Data scraping 'can be simple or very hard'
It has been suggested, that for those people that carry out screen scraping, it can either be a simple or particularly difficult task.
2009-07-30 - Ryanair to sue screen scraping website
Ryanair is to sue Travelviva AG for engaging in unauthorised screen scraping activity.
2009-07-24 - Cultuzz gets rid of screen scraping
Cultuzz Digital Media has announced that it is to no longer use screen scraping and its interfaces are now XML-based.
2009-07-15 - News scraping levy proposals criticised
Proposals to introduce a levy for scraping online news articles for publication elsewhere have come under fire from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
2009-07-14 - Malware 'can attack' through screen scraping
Once malware is installed on a platform it can be used in a variety of ways to attack a computer, including screen scraping.
2009-07-13 - Data scraping causing problems in social networking industry?
Data scraping is now becoming a problematic issue in the social networking world, as it recently emerged that Power.com is countersuing Facebook. It comes after Facebook sued Power.com towards the end of last year for scraping data from the social networking site. Power.com has now initiated its own lawsuit as it claims it is trying to stop Facebook's attempts to prevent it from assisting users in accessing their own data.
2009-07-09 - Some screen scraping sites 'unreliable on their own'
Screen scraping websites used by people to compare insurance prices are not always reliable as they rely on commercial relationships
2009-07-09 - Data scraping suggested after Pirate Bay acquisition announced
It recently emerged that the Pirate Bay has been acquired by listed software company Global Gaming Factory. Since this development, one man has suggested scraping all of the Pirate Bay's torrents over to a new tracker.
2009-07-09 - Social security numbers can be predicted using 'readily available data'
Social security numbers can be predicted by taking readily available data from governmental sources, commercial data bases or social networks, it has been suggested
2009-07-08 - Anyone 'can be affected by publishing data online'
Anyone who publishes data online may have to deal with security issues in the future, it has been claimed, which could interest firms looking to prevent an IT intrusion
2009-07-07 - Internet 'full of dangers like screen scraping'
The internet is full of dangers such as screen scraping, data stealing malware and hackers, it has been said.
2009-07-06 - Firms note data scraping negatives
2009-07-02 - Stock broker found to use screen scraping code
A screen scraping stock broker had written his own code to screen scrape a major investment bank's application to collect market data so he could improve his trading of stock options.
2009-07-01 - Screen scraping malware 'would benefit' from removing password masking
Malware designed to steal passwords through the use of screen scraping would only benefit by having the classified information in the clear.
2009-07-01 - Gov't to protect against data scraping following MPs expenses issues?
As the UK government introduces the new Cyber Security Strategy it may want to protect against those looking to use data scraping, a method one person used when attempting to look further into MPs expenses.
2009-06-30 - Australian programmers creating data scraping software
Australian programmers have created software that uses data scraping to set up free electronic programme guides, it has been revealed.
2008-07-15 - How CAPTCHA got trashed
Computerworld has an article about how CAPTCHA got trashed. It mentions products used to beat Craigslist anti-spam mechanism and how Cragslist try to fight back against spammers using phone verification.
2008-07-06 - Scraping case in Irish court
The Sunday Business Post reports that Ryanair is taking legal measures against Bravofly arguing that screen scraping violates the terms and conditions of their website. Read more about this and other legal scraping information.
2008-04-14 - More news about broken captchas
The Register has an article about British researchers showing that the MSN captchas are crackable. Using a normal home computer they manage to read them with a high success rate generally destroying their whole purpose. This is especially interesting in the light of the reports from google that spammers have been able to create massive amounts of email accounts on their gmail service.
2008-04-07 - Legal issues with web scraping
Article about the legal aspects of screen scraping. Before moving into the legal area the article goes through defining screen scraping and a couple of the more common countermeasures.
2008-03-18 - Captchas does not stop scraping
Labor cost varies a lot around the globe and this shows how a simple image test is not enough to stop scraping. Humans in low cost countries are hired to break CAPTCHA images designed to protect free services from automatic signups.
2008-02-04 - Scraping and data theft
SC Magazine has an article about scraping and data theft. Some comments on the article.
2007-12-20 - Article about scraping in Wired
A lengthy article in Wired about scraping, Should Web Giants Let Startups Use the Information They Have About You? The article is focused around web 2.0 and scraping showing both sides of it, the smaller start-ups that try to build services around someone else's data and the large existing services working on preventing them from scraping.
2007-12-17 - Facebook Sues Porn Site for scraping
The popular social networking website Facebook has filed a lawsuit against a Canadian company for "unauthorized attempts to access and harvest proprietary information" - Scraping that is.
On more than 200,000 occasions during a two-week period it is said that the Canadian porn company Istra Holdings harvested information from the Facebook site with the help of automated spidering and scraping tools. Read more about the the scraping lawsuit at NewsFactor.
