Malicious

Is the plural of militia--malicious? CLAIRE WEINBERG Mission Hills

As it closes in on 1 billion users, Facebook has formed partnerships with five security software outfits to crack down on pfishing schemes. Facebook said Wednesday that Microsoft, McAfee, Trend Micro, Sophos and Symantec will join the fight to keep its users from sharing links to sites that install malware. Facebook also has its own tools in its arsenal and a vast database of malicious URLs. Facebook users, who number more than 900 million, post a ton of links, some from blacklisted sites.

The last raspberry of 1985 goes to the Los Angeles film critics who voted "Brazil" best picture of the year. It's a malicious film with hardly an ounce of human understanding, or worse, entertainment value. If I was Universal, I wouldn't want to release it, either. KEVIN IRVINE Los Angeles

Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro said he is aware that Lakers Coach Mike Brown wants the NBA to review power forward Blake Griffin's two-handed shove of Lakers guard Darius Morris late in the first quarter of Saturday night's game. Del Negro said Griffin's act was not "malicious. " Morris was going up for a dunk during a dead ball after being fouled by point guard Chris Paul when Griffin extended both hands and pushed the Lakers rookie while he was in the air. Brown had to be restrained by Lakers assistant coaches from coming onto the court.

So, it turns out that white landlords are not the only people who do not want to rent to people who do not look like them ("Mi Casa No Es Su Casa," Nov. 21). Even Mexicans from different states in the same country will discriminate in leasing homes or rooms. Jews turn down Latinos, Latinos turn away blacks, Armenians refuse to rent to non-Armenians--yet with all that, Shanna Smith, the executive director of the National Fair Housing Alliance, still has the gall to say that this is nothing like the "malicious kind of white racism we see against people of color."

Although I agree completely with Larry Stewart's assessment of Trevor Denman as an outstanding race caller, we old-timers know that there is only one track announcer who belongs in the same category as Vin Scully, Chick Hearn, and Bob Miller -- and that would be the longtime voice of Santa Anita, Joe Hernandez. Joe began his career at Santa Anita in 1934 and compiled a streak of 15,587 races called before his death from heart failure while in the middle of a race in 1972. Although his calls of Seabiscuit's Santa Anita Handicap wins are legendary, I always think back to his calls of the ultimate come-from-behind router, a mediocre horse named Malicious.

If Bob Burns is correct, terrorists may betray themselves someday by jiggling on a Nintendo Wii balance board, blinking too fast, curling a lip like Elvis — or doing nothing at all. Burns and his team of scientists are researching whether video game boards, biometric sensors and other high-tech devices can be used to detect distinct nonverbal cues from people who harbor "mal-intent," or malicious intent. "We're looking pre-event," said Burns, the No. 2 at the Homeland Security Advanced Research Project Agency, a counterpart of the fabled Pentagon agency that developed Stealth aircraft and the Internet.

The never-ending stupidity of bureaucrats in general and the Los Angeles Unified School District in particular sets my teeth on edge. The recorded list of fires, vandalism, trashing and malicious destruction in our school system is beyond outrageous. The Sun Valley Junior High School fire is another sickening example of the shortsighted, callous disregard for the taxpayer's money. Estimated loss--$350,000. It has been suggested to the school district time after time that they keep janitorial personnel on school premises overnight.

Security researchers Nick DePetrillo and Don Bailey have discovered a seven-digit numerical code that can unlock all kinds of secrets about you. It's your phone number. Using relatively simple techniques, this duo can use your cellphone number to figure out your name, where you live and work, where you travel and when you sleep. They could even listen to your voice messages and personal phone calls — if they wanted to. "It's really interesting to watch a phone number turn into a person's life," DePetrillo said.

Want to fool merchants with a fake ID? Hack someone's text messages? Or how about tracking where your co-workers are, without their knowing it? There's an app for that. The explosion in smartphone and tablet applications that enable people to check the weather, follow their stocks and play Words With Friends has a dark side: apps that facilitate questionable if not outright illegal behavior. Apple's App Store, for example, offers Drivers License software that promises "unlimited access to realistic-looking licenses" for all 50 states.

Drivers with shovels and rakes in the beds of your pickup trucks, beware. Devotees of the Virgin of Guadalupe, be on the lookout: That reflective sticker of the mother of Jesus you have on your car's rear window could make you a target. That's the warning that comes to us from the National Lawyers Guild, which earlier this month released a report that says some LAPD officers stop drivers who look like immigrants just to check and see if they're licensed. Undocumented immigrants can't get driver's licenses.

For roughly 24 hours, Facebook's news feed was not a family-friendly place. Facebook acknowledged Tuesday that the social networking site was briefly infested with a mix of hard-core pornographic images, doctored pictures of celebrities in sexual situations, photos of extreme violence and even a picture of a beaten dog. Facebook said it had identified the problem — if not the culprit. During the attack, users mistakenly downloaded programming language that resulted in their sharing offensive images on Facebook without knowing it, a company spokesman said, adding that the website's engineers were working on a fix. Facebook said it built mechanisms to quickly shut down the malicious pages and will put users who were affected by the offensive spam through "educational checkpoints" so they know how to protect themselves.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Social Security — Thieves have been impersonating Social Security Administration employees in an attempt to steal seniors' personal information, the AARP said in a recent bulletin. The con artists contact seniors by telephone, claiming to be updating their records. They ask for seniors' Social Security numbers, birth dates and bank account numbers, the AARP said. Consumers should never disclose such information over the telephone to strangers, the AARP said.

It seems you can surf the Internet and check your email from virtually anywhere these days — in coffee shops, hotel lobbies, airport terminals and airplane cabins. More places are making it easier to turn on your laptop or tablet computer and connect to the Internet through free public WiFi hot spots. But much like leaving your diary on a park bench, connecting to the Internet using a public WiFi allows anyone with the right software to see what you are doing. Worse, you risk being hit with malware and other virulent programs that can turn your computer into botnets controlled by hackers to attack websites.

The online interest in Osama bin Laden's death has attracted numerous cyber-scammers who are baiting Facebook and Google users by claiming to offer pictures of a deceased Bin Laden. But when users click on the links, expecting to find a shocking video, they are instead treated to malicious software, spam or a trick that re-posts the phony link to their own profile. "The reported death of Osama bin Laden is just too good a lure for cybercriminals and scammers to pass up," McAfee Inc. security researcher David Marcus said in a blog post.

The U.S. moved to disable an international "botnet" that infected more than 2 million computers with malicious software as part of a "massive fraud scheme," according to the Justice Department. The department filed a civil complaint, obtained criminal seizure warrants and issued a temporary restraining order in an effort to disable a malicious software known as Coreflood, which allows someone to remotely control another computer and record keystrokes and private communications.

Herbalife Ltd. said its feud with billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has been more costly than it anticipated, prompting speculation that the company is bracing for potential government investigations. The Los Angeles nutritional products company estimates it will spend $25 million to $40 million this year on legal and advisory fees to defend itself against Ackman's allegations that the company runs a pyramid scheme in which most of its independent salespeople lose money.

A federal jury Wednesday awarded $1.7 million to the parents of an autistic man killed by a Los Angeles police officer. Joseph Cruz, who was later fired from the LAPD for dishonesty in an unrelated case, killed Mohammad Usman Chaudhry early on a March morning in 2008. Cruz and his partner had encountered the 21-year-old man laying in the bushes alongside a Hollywood apartment building. Cruz has insisted that Chaudhry tried to attack him with a knife and that he fired his gun in self-defense.

The Lane Kiffin era at USC is off to a litigious start. The Tennessee Titans on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Trojans' first-year coach and USC over the hiring of Titans assistant Kennedy Pola as offensive coordinator. The lawsuit, filed in Tennessee's Davidson County Chancery court, accuses Kiffin and USC of "maliciously" intending to induce Pola to breach his contract with the Titans. Pola, a former USC fullback and assistant who spent the last five seasons working for the Jacksonville Jaguars, was hired in January as running backs coach by Titans Coach Jeff Fisher.