March 1, 2002 **************** TRAINING ANNOUNCEMENT **************** Techno-Security 2002 April 7-10, 2002 Wyndham Myrtle Beach Resort, Myrtle Beach, South Carloina The 4th Annual International Techno-Security Conference will be presented this year by Enterasys Networks and will be held in conjunction with the Internet Security Alliance Conference. This one-of-a-kind conference is intended for corporations, government and law enforcement decision makers and technical enthusiast in the fields of Information & Network Security, Operational and Physical Security, Auditing, Cyber-Crime and its prevention. For more information, please see; www.TECHSEC.com *********************************************************** Search continues for eBay seller suspected of fraud Green packing popcorn, large boxes and a note saying "closed for inventory" are nearly all that is left of a ceramic-figurine store whose owner went out at lunchtime one day and never returned. Now, Stewart C. Richardson's wife, the FBI and more than 100 customers who bought items like miniature statues of frolicking mice from him on eBay want to know where he went and what happened to the money they say he collected for merchandise he never sent. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/03/01/ebay-fraud.htm - - - - - - - - Oops! Britney email worm wiggling thru cyberspace Britney Spears can add one more notch to her soaring global popularity: the perky pop star has become the inspiration for a potentially destructive email worm touring through cyberspace, security experts said on Friday. The bug, labelled variously as ``VBS/Britney-A'' and ``VBS-BRITNEYPIC.A,'' is considered low risk because it has infected a small number of computer users in Europe since it was initially detected on Thursday morning, computer experts said. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/2771879.htm http://www.techtv.com/news/security/story/0,24195,3374336,00.html http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174902.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/717887.asp http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/03/01/britney.worm.reut/index.html http://www.vnunet.com/News/1129655 http://www.vnunet.com/News/1129601 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/24259.html Week in review: Diet of worms http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-849566.html - - - - - - - - Sharpei virus hits C# note Virus writers took another shot at Microsoft's .Net vision. On Friday, antivirus companies received a copy of a worm called Sharpei, which is partially written in Microsoft's newest computer language, C#, and designed to infect computers loaded with the .Net framework. Antivirus company Network Associates gave the infectious program a "low" rating for risk but highlighted it as the second example of a virus writer attempting to infect parts of the .Net framework. http://news.com.com/2100-1001-849642.html http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174895.html - - - - - - - - Ashcroft Asks Telcos To Help Track Terrorists U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft shopped the Bush administration's anti-terrorism agenda to the nation's regional telecom providers today, urging them to press ahead with reforms that would make it easier for the government to intercept terrorist communications. He also said asked for the industry's support for a bill that would allow companies to share sensitive data with the government without fearing that federal law would require the government to release it. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174905.html - - - - - - - - War Against Online Terrorism Martin interviews cybersecurity advisor Richard Clarke The world has yet to witness the maximum destructive power of a well-timed, expertly executed digital assault. Juvenile denial-of-service attacks and infectious worms are a hassle, but neither compare to the possible damage inflicted to our critical infrastructure by a professional grade, coordinated Internet onslaught. Richard Clarke -- often dubbed the "Cybersecurity Czar" -- is officially titled the special adviser to the president on cyberspace security. His job is to assess the threat of online attacks both domestic and foreign and to do whatever is necessary to prevent them. http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/story/0,24330,3374341,00.html - - - - - - - - Cyber security given new emphasis Hacking attacks in the US more than doubled in a year Following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington last September, security is the buzzword. For the high-tech industry the emphasis on shoring up networks from hacker attacks could not come at a more opportune time. US President George W Bush has put the issue centre stage by proposing a $1.5bn increase for computer and network security. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1840000/1840702.stm - - - - - - - - Senators talk tough on digital piracy Sen. Fritz Hollings told electronics companies and copyright holders Thursday that if they cant agree on a solution to digital piracy, the government will. At a hearing over a proposed bill that could require security technology on computers and other digital devices, the Senate Commerce Committee chairman gave technology and media companies a deadline for working out their differences. http://www.msnbc.com/news/717894.asp http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/16580.html - - - - - - - - Email interception law faces more delays Technical issues are delaying the far-reaching Regulation f Investigatory Powers Act from being put into place, as ISPs call for government advice A key part of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) that will force ISPs to store Internet traffic including Web addresses visited and emails is facing a major delay. The delay is causing uncertainty among the UK's Internet Service Provider (ISP) industry over what technical measures they have to take to comply with the law, how much this will cost and how much the government is prepared to contribute. The law has been unpopular, receiving widespread criticism during its passage through parliament for its Big Brother-type measures; but ISPs say that now that it is unavoidable, they need guidance. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2105354,00.html - - - - - - - - Rights Groups Press Council Of Europe On Cybercrime Treaty More than 30 privacy and civil liberties groups are urging the Council of Europe to turn over information about a new protocol to the global cybercrime treaty on terrorist e-mail messages. In a letter to Council of Europe Secretary General Walter Schwimmer, members of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign demanded the release of documents related to the insertion of a new protocol on the decoding of terrorist messages to the cybercrime treaty signed by more than 30 nations last November. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174911.html - - - - - - - - Lawmakers Urge Russians To Beef Up Piracy Enforcement A group of U.S. lawmakers earlier this month urged Russian authorities to take software piracy and intellectual property theft more seriously. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told Newsbytes that the lawmakers wanted to convey the message that piracy prevention is "not just important to the United States, but also to industry in their country." "They have a small but budding Internet business (but) they're not going to be able to grow those businesses if they let their own citizens rip off whatever they develop," Goodlatte said. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174908.html - - - - - - - - Native American Suit Winds Down After six years, a multibillion-dollar lawsuit filed by Native Americans against the federal government may be nearing an end. The lawsuit resulted in a court-ordered closure of government websites and networks in December for security reasons. It seeks to recover funds from the Individual Indian Money (IIM) accounts that are managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50711,00.html - - - - - - - - Court Decision Could Gag French Security Site Kitetoa Antoine Champagne has been offered thanks and even job offers from high-profile Web site owners whose insecurity he's exposed. But from now on, any more white-hat hacking by "Kitetoa" could cost him. Last month, a French court fined Champagne 1,000 euros (US$865) for publicizing at his Web site, Kitetoa.com, security holes he found at Tati.fr, the homepage of a Paris-based clothing retailer. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174910.html - - - - - - - - U.S. Court Hands Barcelona.com To Spanish City A U.S. court has declared that the operators of a tourism portal at Barcelona.com are cybersquatters, and that the Internet address they registered in 1996 should be awarded to the Spanish city of Barcelona. The decision, from a U.S. District Court Judge in Alexandria, Va., effectively upheld one of he most controversial rulings in a two-year-old dispute resolution procedure adopted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which has now dispatched thousands of squabbles between trademark holders and registrants of Internet addresses. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/174903.html - - - - - - - - Battling paedophilia Annethe Ahlenius spends eight hours a day poring over hardcore child pornography. Her computer is filled with thousands of sexually explicit emails and photographs, meticulously organised into folders depending on the activity depicted . But for this mother of two, it's all in a day's work. Ahlenius is an inspector with the Swedish National Criminal Intelligence Service and her role is to identify paedophiles using the internet to distribute child porn. http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,658949,00.html http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105-848761.html - - - - - - - - Copyright buzz: They just don't get it A series of apparently unrelated comments at the WCIT 2002 signal an increased questioning about the legitimacy of current intellectual and copyright laws in the digital age. The first came as Don Tapscott, futurist and author, ferreted through his collection of IT gadgets to demonstrate the increasingly diverse range of digital devices carried by the average IT professional. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-848606.html - - - - - - - - iPod at core of 'virtual shoplifting' case Youth steals PS417 worth of software with his music player. Apple's recently released iPod handheld computer can be used as a virtual shoplifting device, according to reports. While Apple was never aware of the iPod's potential as an aid to music theft from PCs or via download from the internet, the reason behind the 'Don't Steal Music' sticker on all new iPods, application piracy is a new one. According to a report in Wired, a youth armed with only an iPod walked into a US computer store and walked out with hundreds of pounds worth of Mac software. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1129644 Have iPod, Will Secretly Bootleg When Apple introduced the iPod, the company was aware that people might use it to rip off music from the Net or friends' machines. Each new iPod, in fact, is emblazoned with a sticker that warns, "Don't Steal Music." But it is unlikely that Apple imagined people would walk into computer stores, plug their iPod into display computers and use it to copy software off the hard drives. http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,50688,00.html - - - - - - - - Pa. government computer resold with private data The state government sold at least one used computer containing Social Security numbers and worker's compensation information at a surplus sale, WHTM-TV reported Thursday. The government has sold up to 2,500 hard drives once used by state employees but officials are uncertain how many may contain private records, said Samantha Elliott, a spokeswoman for the Department of General Services. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/03/01/penn-computers.htm - - - - - - - - Steal This Internet Movie According to analysts, U.S. broadband penetration is hovering between just 10 percent and 16 percent. Even in areas where cable, DSL (digital subscriber line) or satellite modems are available, penetration has not surpassed 25 percent, in part due to the cost of broadband, which often sells for more than twice the price of dial-up Internet access. Nevertheless, movie studios and distributors are concerned. Broadband access enables the downloading and pirating not only of MP3 files, but also of entire movies -- including some films that have yet to reach the local Cineplex. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/16541.html - - - - - - - - Online book-sharing service for the blind borrows a page from Napster Bookshare.org is borrowing a page from Napster, but hoping for a happier ending. Much like the ill-fated music-sharing service, Bookshare lets computer users share copyrighted material -- in this case, books -- over the Internet. Empowered with a special exemption from copyright law, Bookshare hopes to avoid the bitter legal fight that bogged down Napster and prove Napster's subversive technology can be applied for social good. Bookshare, based in Palo Alto, is building an online library of books scanned into audio and Braille formats for the exclusive use of the blind and people with reading problems such as dyslexia. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/2772946.htm - - - - - - - - Linux flaw opens door in firewalls Programmers have found a vulnerability in Linux that could allow protective firewall software to grant malicious computer users access to protected networks. The flaw, which affects versions 2.4.14 through 2.4.18-pre9 of the Linux kernel, is in a component of the Netfilter firewall software. The component is involved when two computer users chat directly with each other using the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) system. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-848518.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2105323,00.html - - - - - - - - Spider Webs Inspire New Security Researchers at Penn State University are close to commercially licensing a new high tech security fence, or "smart fence." Under development for the past year, the enclosure uses sensors connected to taught wires that are highly sensitive to vibrations -- similar to a spider web. David Swanson of Penn State's Applied Research Lab was watching a nature show when inspiration struck. http://www.techtv.com/news/scitech/story/0,24195,3374261,00.html - - - - - - - - All quiet on the malware front Incidents of email-borne viruses were markedly down last month but old favourites like SirCam and BadTrans-B are refusing to die a decent death. That's according to monthly statistics from managed services firm MessageLabs, which stopped 135,523 viruses in February, compared to 241,609 in January and almost 480,000 last December. MessageLabs reports that virus infection rates are running at less than one in 1,000 emails, compared to one in 30 infected emails at the heights of the Goner or Love Bug epidemics. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/24254.html - - - - - - - - Looping e-mails: Scourge of the Net? When Roman Drahtmuller saw the volume of complaints his company was receiving from disgruntled e-mailers, some of whom had suddenly received hundreds of spam e-mails from the same source, he knew something was wrong. "We are in trouble," wrote the security expert, who works for Linux distributor SuSE in Germany, in a reply to the spam victims. He proceeded to explain why. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-848901.html - - - - - - - - Spam--it's worse than ever Do you need a penis enlargement? How about a cool million bucks, courtesy of a too-good-to-be true deal with the son of one of Nigeria's most powerful families? Anyone with an e-mail account has doubtless received sundry similar pitches. Ranging from the simply annoying to the truly bizarre, spam was bad enough a year ago; it's that much worse today. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-848713.html - - - - - - - - Why sex still leads the net Porn websites are making millions. Now mainstream dot.coms are asking them for advice. Sara Gaines reports. Danni Ashe is a somewhat incongruous figure at internet conferences. It's not the coiffured blonde hair and cleavage-hugging suits that raise eyebrows, as women are hardly rare in this business. What does cause surprise is the subject of her speeches: how I made a fortune selling nude photos of myself. http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,659159,00.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. 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.