February 25, 2002 Longmont Man Arrested in Internet Sex Crimes Case arrested in Colorado Springs after arranging to meet a 14 year old girl for the purpose of a sexual encounter after communicating on the Internet. Michael Mahan, 40, from Longmont had been communicating with who he thought was a 14 year old girl on the Internet since the end of January. He traveled to Colorado Springs on Friday, February 22nd with the intention of meeting her for a sexual encounter. The meeting was at a local fast food restaurant. When he arrived and identified himself, he was taken into custody without incident by members of the Colorado Springs Police Department and the Pueblo Children Task Force. http://www.springsgov.com/NewsResults.asp?NewsID=287 - - - - - - - - Figurines dealer missing amid investigation into eBay auctions A ceramic figurines dealer has disappeared as police and the FBI investigate whether he defrauded at least 100 eBay auction buyers. The customers say their purchases from a December online auction were never delivered by the seller, Stewart Richardson, 60, who disappeared Jan. 17, police said. The Lladro's, Hummel and Wee Forest Folk ceramic figurines the customers bought were worth tens of thousands of dollars total. No charges have been filed. Richardson left his White Lake business - Retired Figurines Exchange - after reportedly withdrawing more than $200,000, police said. His wife filed a missing persons report. http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/267516p-2463331c.html - - - - - - - - AOL accused of charging customers for unwanted goods America Online Inc. was accused of charging thousands of its customers for merchandise they did not buy, according to a federal lawsuit made available Monday. The suit claims that the AOL Time Warner Inc. subsidiary ``unlawfully charged and collected money for this unordered merchandise and shipping and handling charges from subscriber's credit card, debit card and checking accounts.'' http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/2744946.htm - - - - - - - - Voyeurdorm sees major court win The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will not hear a case involving an attempt to shut down an adult Web site by the city of Tampa, Fla. The city had tried to shut down exhibitionist site Voyeurdorm.com, which provides 24-hour live Webcasts of a residence full of women while they "study, work out, bathe and live the lives of college co-eds." The city said the Tampa residence violated city zoning ordinances regulating the location of sexually oriented businesses. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-844436.html http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174754.html http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,50656,00.html http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/02/25/court-webcam.htm http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/268901p-2473951c.html - - - - - - - - Napster Down but Not Out Judge rules song swapping service needs more time to decide who owns the rights to musical works. A federal judge handed Napster a small victory on Friday, giving the once high-flying song swap service time to gather evidence before ruling on a recording industry request for summary judgement in its copyright infringement lawsuit. US District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel agreed with Napster that more time was needed to decide who owns the rights to musical works involved in the recording industry's lawsuit against Napster. She also allowed Napster to gather evidence of the record labels' alleged misuse of copyright to monopolize the digital distribution market, saying the potential harm to the public could be "massive." http://www.techtv.com/news/politicsandlaw/story/0,24195,3373569,00.html http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174737.html Napster Wins Two Legal Victories http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/16490.html - - - - - - - - Home piracy sends music business into funk The music industry's worst nightmare may be coming true: Tech-savvy music fans using CD burners to pirate songs by their favorite artists rather than pay up to $20 for a new CD at their local record store. Data released Monday by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) showed U.S. shipments by record companies slid 10.3 percent to 968.6 million units in 2001 from 1.1 billion in 2000. The dollar value of all music product shipments slipped by 4.1 percent to $13.7 billion from $14.3 billion over the same period, with the more expensive CDs and music DVDs accounting for an increasing proportion of shipments. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/2744988.htm RIAA blames Web pirates for loss http://news.com.com/2100-1023-844910.html http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174732.html - - - - - - - - Risks Prompt U.S. To Limit Access to Data The letter from the government told Joy Suh to destroy he CD-ROM of the nation's water supply data "by any means." Suh, the documents librarian at George Mason University, immediately asked her assistant to get out her scissors and cut the silver disk into tiny shards. Suh was eager to do her part to help protect the country. But as someone who has dedicated her life to sharing information with the public, she worried that this directive signaled the beginning of a more secretive period in American society. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174727.html - - - - - - - - Energy Firms Move to Thwart Cyberattacks Energy industry giants are preparing to make a major push into the information-sharing arena, hoping that a sophisticated alert system will protect the nation's critical fuel infrastructure from physical assaults and cyberattacks. Following a model used in the financial services and high-tech industries, oil and gas companies have formed the Energy Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC). The center began operating in November among founding members, including Conoco Inc., Duke Energy Corp., ChevronTexaco Corp. and BP PLC. The group intends to push the center as an industry-standard defense mechanism. http://www.computerworld.com/storyba/0,4125,NAV47_STO68585,00.html - - - - - - - - Computer forensics: The latest enterprise security tool The phone call came early one winter morning last year. The caller spoke of corporate espionage and theft of trade secretsexplaining that a former employee might have stolen internal client information just before he joined another company. The client data was valued in the millions and the theft posed a potential legal and liability nightmare for an international bank, explained the caller, who then introduced himself as the banks counsel. He then asked if there was a way to confirm the theft. http://www.techrepublic.com/article_guest.jhtml?id=r00520020225mmv01.htm&fromtm=e101-3 - - - - - - - - Experts back 'rules' for bug fixes Vendors must acknowledge bug reports within seven days. Security experts last week submitted a proposal to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) on standard procedures for the reporting and fixing of security vulnerabilities. The Responsible Disclosure Process internet draft is being fronted by two well known industry names: Steve Christey, lead infosec engineer at defence company Mitre; and Chris Wysopal, director of research and development for @stake. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1129464 - - - - - - - - Terror alert system on the way Tom Ridge, head of the Office of Homeland Security, said the federal government would unveil a national alert system in a "couple of weeks" to better share intelligence information about possible acts of terrorism with states and territories. The former Pennsylvania governor spoke at the National Governors Association's winter meeting in Washington, D.C., Feb. 24. Ridge called the national alert system an "imperfect system" that will need improvement. He said the federal government will not mandate use of this system, and he asked for input from state and territorial governments. He asked the governors to take a look at it, compare it with their systems and make recommendations. http://www.fcw.com/geb/articles/2002/0225/web-nga-02-25-02.asp - - - - - - - - Online Porn Purveyors Get Under E-Mail Users' Skin While many affiliate programs have policies against sending spam, some affiliates break the rules, trying to make more money through referrals. Few things sell quite like sex, but the sales strategy of some online porn purveyors is getting under the skin of e-mail users. Their complaint: pornographic spam, that particularly vexing form of junk e-mail that is increasingly infecting computers. "Spam is so bad that I can't even let my kid have an e-mail account because of the nature of the material," said Wayne Crews, director of technology policy studies at the Cato Institute, a non-profit public policy research foundation in Washington, D.C. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/16495.html - - - - - - - - MS warns of 'critical' flaws Microsoft has released patches for two security holes in its Internet software that could allow hackers to read files off a user's computer or information in Web pages that they visit. The company also patched server glitches that could let attackers crash Web servers or take over computer networks attached to Microsoft Web servers. Three of the four alerts were classified by Microsoft as 'critical.' http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-844318.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2105023,00.html - - - - - - - - Beware of Gator bug The popular Gator application, used for filling in Web forms, contains a security flaw that puts users' files at risk. Gator, a popular application that fills in Web site passwords and forms, contains a security flaw that puts users' computer files at risk, security experts said. According to a security warning issued this week from Eyeonsecurity.com, the ActiveX plug-in used to download Gator can be manipulated by a malicious programmer to install back-door software, including a Trojan horse virus. The company said it became aware of the security vulnerability on Friday morning and has issued a patch on its Web site. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2104937,00.html - - - - - - - - IBM neutral on Passport vs. Liberty IBM is not going to choose between Sun and Microsoft's authentication technologies, says the company's e-business director. While the two companies wrangle, Big Blue's increasing alliances with Microsoft in the area of Web services are not a final decision, according to Bob Sutor, IBM's e-business director. "We're still neutral re: Passport and Liberty," Sutor told ZDNet UK. The Liberty Alliance is a group initially set up by Sun to encourage a standard method for computer users to identify themselves on the Internet, through passwords or authentication technology. Liberty, which has not yet chosen a specific technology, is a response to Microsoft's Passport, included with Windows XP. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-844610.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2105025,00.html - - - - - - - - Plan to give government more say over Net attacked Public interest groups and other Internet watchdogs Monday denounced a proposal that would give the world's governments a greater say in how the Internet is run. Under the plan to overhaul the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, representatives chosen by governments would replace ones directly elected by the Internet community at large. The proposal, issued Sunday by ICANN President Stuart Lynn, would drop the U.S. government's original objective of transitioning to the private sector the policy decisions over domain names and other issues. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/2745051.htm - - - - - - - - CIA bankrolls Web search profiles The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has invested in a software company that aims to help businesses manage data by searching documents and the Internet more intelligently. Stratify, founded by Indian-born technology experts in the United States, says its software ferrets out relevant documents by building up a profile of the user. For agents of the CIA, such software could be of use in tracking down vital information or studying patterns. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-844566.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2104931,00.html - - - - - - - - MP3 Files Not Always Safe A quirk in media players from Microsoft and RealNetworks could enable attackers to hijack Web browsers and run scripts on the computers of some MP3 music fans. The trick has apparently been discovered by pornography sites and spammers, which have been seeding some music file trading services with bogus MP3 music files. One such MP3 file, ostensibly containing the music of the Los Angeles- based rock group Lifehouse, launched a pornographic video and generated a "massive" amount of pop-up ads when played back on the Windows Media Player from Microsoft, according to one newsgroup report. http://online.securityfocus.com/news/338 http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174747.html - - - - - - - - Cyberterrorism - the new Cold War Heightened security will change the Internet, and the network on which you work. Here's what to think about as you endure the great network lockdown of 2002. During the next few years, heightened security will change the Internet, and the office network on which many of you work. In fact, you'll probably see changes first at the office as companies try to "harden" their information assets against a wide variety of threats. Some of these efforts will be successful, some will be laughable, and most will tick you off. Many of you will come to see security as getting in the way of convenience. Since many companies will be tightening security on a learn- as-you-go basis, you and your colleagues will often have a point. http://www.anchordesk.co.uk/anchordesk/commentary/columns/0,2415,7111799,00.html - - - - - - - - Are wireless viruses looming? Last year's wave of new virus attacks could be duplicated this year -- on wireless devices. "This is probably the future of all threats and viruses," says Leo Chan, product manager for Network Associates International in Hong Kong. Like their wireline cousins, wireless viruses can erase data or damage devices including mobile phones, PDAs, and laptops hooked up to wireless local area networks. One of the first reported wireless viruses was aimed at the Palm OS, developed by Palm Computing, and released in September 2000. Subsequent viruses have been transmitted via short messaging service, and have targeted phones manufactured by Nokia and some SIM cards, says Chan. http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/02/24/wireless.virus.idg/index.html - - - - - - - - Anti-Virus's Control Fetish New York's anti-censorship lawsuit against Network Associates exposes one of the anti-virus industry's most deeply rooted character defects. "Network Associates would never sponsor nor condone attempts to censor anyone anywhere." Uttered for Forbes by NA el Jefe Gene Hodges and published February 4th in an article in which he denied the company had tried to churlishly prevent my colleague Rob Rosenberger from going forward with a commentary embarrassing to the firm, it is my favorite quote this month. Why? It's unparalleled, even ballsy, meretriciousness. What guts it must have taken to say it, knowing that someone could peremptorily clothesline you publicly over the issue of censorship, but betting that they would not! http://online.securityfocus.com/columnists/63 - - - - - - - - Courts starting to validate electronic fine print Read the fine print, and you'll discover you can't use Microsoft's logos and cartoons to belittle the software giant. Nor should you use Opera's Web browser to pilot an aircraft or a nuclear facility. Web sites often carry similar restrictions: Viewing ads is obligatory at Stories.com and you may not link to The Financial Times if your site "could be construed as distasteful, offensive or controversial." http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/02/25/electronic.fine.print.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - Increasing number of parents spying on kids' Web wanderings Over three-bean salads and wheat-grass smoothies, mother and daughter are debating tough love. "I'll come out and say it: I read my daughter's e-mails and I check to see what Web sites she's visited," says Dorothy Peltier, as her 17-year-old suppresses a "don't embarrass me" scowl outside the Baja Fresh Cantina here. "I think the times demand it," says Peltier, an unemployed broker. http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/267700p-2439568c.html - - - - - - - - Cutting edge P2P, crypto comes to your PC The wonderful CodeCon conference that took place in San Francisco last weekend is now available as an audio stream. And in keeping with the true hackish nature of the event, the audio stream is a cross- platform DIY project in its own right. CodeCon gathered together much of the most interesting bleeding-edge R&D work on distributed networks and crypto, and we'll give you a few pointers on where to move your WinAmp dial below. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/24183.html - - - - - - - - Enhanced 'smart' ID cards would require no central database. Embedding small computer chips into identity cards to hold fingerprints and other data could be a way to increase security in the post-Sept. 11 world without raising privacy worries, a privacy advocate said Monday. Most proposals raised recently involve connecting the chip-containing "smart cards" with a central database of biometric information, such as fingerprints and retinal or face scans. This concentration of data has raised red flags in the privacy world, since a security breach would compromise hundreds or thousands of individuals' IDs, said Ari Schwartz, an analyst at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington. http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/269751p-2478282c.html - - - - - - - - Cafe Owners or Porn Police? Those wishing to ban Internet pornography are waging an improbable battle, but it's not for lack of effort. If a special committee set up by the Mumbai High Court gets its way, proprietors of cybercafes will be forced to police their premises in the name of protecting minors from "unsuitable Internet material" and cyberstalkers. The six-member committee wants the High Court to issue a binding "direction" that would make all cafes in the state of Maharashtra (of which Mumbai is the capital) responsible for requiring customers to show photo-identity cards, recording their personal details, maintaining logs of all the sites the users have visited, and restricting minors to machines that do not have cubicles. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50615,00.html - - - - - - - - Satellite cops to patrol UK streets? Britain's motorists could be charged for using busy roads with satellites monitoring their every move under plans to be announced by the government's "transport czar" on Monday. The proposals by Professor David Begg, chairman of the government sponsored Commission for Integrated Transport, will include plans to fit cars with a black box which would be tracked by global positioning satellites (GPS). "It's good for Britain, there's significant reductions in congestion, there will be less pollution because a lot of pollution is caused by queuing traffic," Begg told BBC Television. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-844060.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2104998,00.html *********************************************************** 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. 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