February 13, 2002 Five held over handset heist Police last night arrested five men in connection with the theft of PS4.2m worth of Samsung mobile phones. The devices were taken on Sunday from a warehouse in west London. According to the Metropolitan Police, 9,649 handsets were recovered yesterday from a flat in west London and a nearby van, leaving around 14,000 phones still missing. Samsung deactivated all the A300 phones after the theft. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1129214 - - - - - - - - Former tech exec pleads guilty to securities fraud The former president of Critical Path Inc, one of the most prominent companies of the dot-com era, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to securities fraud and said he helped book nonexistent revenue on the company's income statements. In the latest accounting scandal to stem from questionable ways companies record results, David Thatcher said he participated in a criminal conspiracy with other top officers of the company to inflate revenues to meet targets for its financial performance. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/2658512.htm http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-836764.html http://news.com.com/2100-1017-836582.html - - - - - - - - Net thieves find new way to nab cash. Merchant accounts switched to cash with stolen credit cards. Internet thieves have seized on a powerful new way to turn stolen credit card numbers into stolen cash, MSNBC.com has learned. Instead of stealing merchandise by charging it on a stolen credit card, the simple scam involves breaking into Internet merchant computers and virtually returning merchandise. Funds issued as credits to hacker-controlled debit cards can then be withdrawn at cash machines. http://www.msnbc.com/news/705531.asp - - - - - - - - IBM Memory Keys in mystery virus infection A computer virus has somehow infected IBM's 32MB Memory Key, prompting the firm to issue a utility that cleans up the infection. The Memory Key is a removable storage device which plugs into the USB port. Last year, users reported that McAfee's VirusScan had spotted the WYX virus on the devices. This was thought to be a false alarm at the time but subsequent testing revealed it was a real sighting of the rare WYX virus, a stealth, memory resident, Master Boot Record (MBR)/boot sector infecting virus. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/24035.html - - - - - - - - Valentine's Day virus massacre With Valentine's Day almost upon us, computer users are being warned about the dangers of recurring socially engineered viruses. Some of the most successful viruses over the last couple of years have used the promise of love to get users to set off the damaging electronic payload. According to research firm Computer Economics, the 'I Love You' virus caused more than PS6bn worth of damage to computer systems worldwide. Its wide dissemination through the internet was helped by the ingenuity of the email in which it was included. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1129212 - - - - - - - - Microsoft, Justice Department Back Cybersecurity Bill Representatives from Microsoft Corp. and the Justice Department on Tuesday encouraged Congress to pass legislation that could lengthen sentences for convicted electronic criminals. "In the online world, we often face a problem with criminal actions that are not treated as crimes, and with criminals who do not do time," Microsoft attorney Susan Koeppen said in prepared testimony before the House Judiciary Committee's Crime Subcommittee. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/330 http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174450.html Cybercrime may carry stiffer penalties http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-836559.html http://news.com.com/2100-1001-836486.html - - - - - - - - Telecom Network Protection A Priority Post-Sept. 11 The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center caused a significant amount of damage to America's telecommunications infrastructure. According to a new study, protecting the network has become a high priority in the months following the attacks. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174449.html - - - - - - - - Comcast to stop storing Web users' data Bowing to criticism, Comcast said Wednesday it would not store data on customers' Web site usage gathered via its Internet pipelines. The cable company, the third largest in the United States, came under fire Tuesday after reports charged it had installed software that compiled detailed records of its customers' Web usage. The software--part of a newly built high-speed Internet service created in the wake of the Excite@Home bankruptcy--was apparently intended to speed up service and cut costs by "caching," or preloading, sites most requested by its customers. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-836727.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/706455.asp http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/industry/02/13/internet.privacy.ap/index.html http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/16316.html Comcast Says It Doesn't Spy On Web-Surfing Customers http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174474.html - - - - - - - - Enron Still Linked To Junk E-mail Marketer Enron Corp. may be winding down its Internet services business, but the bankrupt company's network has become a burgeoning source of "spam," or junk e-mail. Since around October, e-mails pitching a variety of products and services have emanated from network facilities assigned to Enron, and have been piling up in some Internet users' e-mail in-boxes, according to newsgroup postings. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174475.html - - - - - - - - Will anonymous e-mail become a casualty of war? Ever wonder how to trace the trail of that spam, track its source, and shut it down once and for all? These days, so does the U.S. government. E-mail messages yielded a few clues to the location of abducted Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. But investigators complain the search for Pearl is hampered by difficulties pinpointing where the e-mail originated. Authorities have released few details, but apparently the e-mail was prepared and sent in a way that made it difficult to track. In at least one case, investigators were able to identify three Pakistanis who allegedly had links to a particular PC used to send photos and messages about Pearl. http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/02/13/anonymous.email.idg/index.html - - - - - - - - EPA encouraging data sharing The Environmental Protection Agency has launched a new state and tribal grant program and is seeking proposals for a system to facilitate electronic data sharing. EPA received $25 million for fiscal 2002 -- with $2.5 million set aside for tribes -- for the National Environmental Information Exchange Network Grant Program. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0211/web-epa-02-13-02.asp - - - - - - - - Technology firms eye expanded homeland security pie Sonic Foundry, a Madison, Wis., technology company, opened its doors in 1991, but it never drew the attention on Capitol Hill that firms such as Microsoft, Yahoo and Cisco Systems did. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, however, dozens of small to medium-sized technology firms with security solutions, like Sonic, have been canvassing Capitol Hill--and lawmakers are giving them attention that they did not receive in the past. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0202/021302cdam1.htm - - - - - - - - Icann appoints security tsar The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) has appointed an internet security expert to head up its Security Committee. Dr Stephen Crocker will take the chair of the Standing Committee on Security and Stability. The appointment was proposed at an Icann meeting last November, after the board investigated the stability and security of the root domain servers. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1129232 - - - - - - - - A Novice Tries Steganography With the war on terrorism and the hunt for those responsible for the September 11 attacks mounting, steganography is increasingly in the news. Some experts theorize the al Qaeda terrorists used the Internet to plan the attacks, possibly using steganography to keep their intentions secret. http://www.techtv.com/cybercrime/privacy/story/0,23008,3359041,00.html - - - - - - - - E-Mail Encryption for the Masses The September 11th terrorist strikes in the United States have had a dramatic effect on attitudes toward security. But most people still are not using available tools. By some estimates, well over 900 million people -- nearly one out of every seven people on Earth -- have access to e-mail. Most of them are, or should be, familiar by now with the saying, "Sending e-mail is like sending a postcard over the Internet." http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/16306.html - - - - - - - - PKI - Breaking the Yellow Lock PKI provides Web users with a false sense of security that undermines the security of their on-line information. Before I start this week's column, I thought that I would update some information on my last column, Software Licensing: the Hidden Threat to Information Security, in which I discussed some potential hidden vulnerabilities that software licenses may create for users. Since that article went on-line, weve seen the State of New York sue Network Associates over its software licensing provisions, it has been revealed that the anti- piracy feature of Microsoft Office X presents an application denial of service opportunity for Macintosh systems running the product and it has become public knowledge that Windows XP has some unique Redmond controls your system clauses. http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/60 - - - - - - - - Company shows off ID alternative While government policy-makers debate the merits of ID cards fitted with computer chips and biometric identifiers, a media software company showed off a biometric ID system that it says makes the new cards unnecessary. A computer-based system that uses facial recognition, voice identification and biometric matching all in a matter of seconds could make new high-tech ID cards unnecessary at border crossings, airports, nuclear power plants or other secure facilities, said Rimas Buinevicius, head of Sonic Foundry Inc., a technology company in Madison, Wis. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0211/web-sonic-02-13-02.asp *********************************************************** Search the NewsBits.net Archive at: http://www.newsbits.net/search.html *********************************************************** The source material may be copyrighted and all rights are retained by the original author/publisher. The information is provided to you for non-profit research and educational purposes. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however copies may not be sold, and NewsBits (www.newsbits.net) should be cited as the source of the information. Copyright 2000-2002, NewsBits.net, Campbell, CA.