March 21, 2002 Houston 'Candyman' Suspect Becomes National Fugitive A Houston man is the subject of a nationwide manhunt for his role in the Candyman child pornography sting, federal officials told News2Houston in an exclusive story Wednesday. Hecter Azeda, a mortgage banker, was listed as a fugitive, which means he knows he's wanted but he has not turned himself in to FBI agents. Officials believe he fled to Mexico after telling some friends that he was too embarrassed to face charges. Prosecutors told News2Houston that two Candyman suspects would never face charges because they committed suicide right after they were served with a warrant. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/kprc/20020320/lo/1127126_1.html - - - - - - - - Hackers attack sites in infancy Under construction page replaced with reference to hackers. Hackers attacked an unknown number of undeveloped Web domains registered with VeriSign Inc.s Network Solutions unit Tuesday, replacing under construction pages with a message referring to a Brazilian hacker group, company officials said. http://www.msnbc.com/news/727465.asp http://www.vnunet.com/News/1130307 - - - - - - - - Comdex Attendees' Personal Data Exhibited On The Web A security flaw in an online registration system for the world's biggest computer trade shows exposed the personal data of some users, Key3Media Events officials acknowledged today. The system, accessible from the company's Web site, enables visitors to register online for events produced by Key3Media Events, including Comdex, NetWorld+Interop, Seybold Seminars and JavaOne. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175386.html - - - - - - - - 'Microsoft' E-Mail Trojan Harvests New Victims Flaws in the W32/Gibe mass-mailing worm have prevented it from becoming anything like the Internet epidemics of Melissa and LoveBug. But the recent malicious code has introduced a new technique that could help future worms spread fast and wide, experts said Tuesday. Gibe, which masquerades as a security update from Microsoft, is the first Internet worm to harvest e-mail addresses of potential victims from online directories, according to researchers at McAfee's Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team (AVERT). http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175360.html - - - - - - - - U.S. pulls 'sensitive' info off the Web Government agencies have been ordered to clear their Web sites of sensitive information about weapons of mass destruction that could be exploited by would-be terrorists, according to memos released on Thursday. Critics said that White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card's request for an "immediate re-examination" of all public documents could result in the government withdrawing thousands of papers, records and reports that have been available for years. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-865865.html http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0302/032102tdam1.htm http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175385.html http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/03/21/web-sites-attacks.htm - - - - - - - - FBI considering changes to cyber-security unit The FBI is considering important changes to its premier cyber-security unit, responsible for protecting the nation's most important computer networks, but indicated Wednesday it won't dismantle the unit as some in Congress and the Bush administration have feared. FBI Director Robert Mueller has outlined a plan on Capitol Hill in recent weeks to break up the $27 million- a-year National Infrastructure Protection Center, formed in February 1998 to watch over the nation's systems controlling banking, water, power, telecommunications and government, congressional and administration sources said Wednesday. They added that they expected Mueller to make a formal decision as early as next week. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/2901719.htm http://www.msnbc.com/news/727372.asp http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/03/21/fbi.cybercrime.ap/index.html http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/16894.html http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/03/21/cybercrime.htm Senator urges FBI not to eliminate computer security center http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0302/032102j1.htm - - - - - - - - Lieberman quizzes Ridge on federal IT security Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) has asked Tom Ridge, director of the homeland security office, to explain how his office is protecting the countrys critical infrastructure and the security of federal information systems. Lieberman, chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee, this week sent a letter to Ridge with four questions about critical infrastructure and four questions about securing government information systems. He also asked Ridge about the organization of homeland security offices. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/18229-1.html - - - - - - - - Copy Protection Bill Introduced Sen. Fritz Hollings has fired the first shot in the next legal battle over Internet piracy. The Democratic senator from South Carolina finally has introduced his copy protection legislation, ending over six months of anticipation and sharpening what has become a heated debate between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51245,00.html - - - - - - - - New Zealand 'Interception' Laws To Cover ISPs New Zealand telecommunications network operators and Internet service providers will be legally obligated to install a system that will allow police or the secret service to eavesdrop on phone calls or e-mail messages, the New Zealand government has confirmed. Many will also have to pay for the capability, Associate Minister of Justice Paul Swain said today. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175371.html - - - - - - - - Experts Doubt Pennsylvania Kiddie Porn Law Will Work The Pennsylvania state legislature's attempt to reduce online child pornography by requiring Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to objectionable Web sites has gotten low marks from legal and online experts. Two of those experts today told Newsbytes the new state law is at best an extra expense unfairly imposed on ISPs, and at worst is unconstitutional. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175358.html - - - - - - - - Software pirates face brig time Critics say punishment for recreational piracy is too harsh. The U.S. software industry says it has a big problem, and it believes it has a solution: putting Robin Rothberg and some of his friends behind bars. Not everyone agrees. http://www.msnbc.com/news/727382.asp - - - - - - - - Scots warned: Don't be fooled by .sc Scottish companies were warned this week over the promotion of the .sc top level domain (TLD) as a Scottish identity on the Internet. U.K. registry Nominet, which oversees the .uk domain name, said Scottish businesses that are attracted by the offer of a .sc domain name should be aware that they may not be getting what they think. The .sc domain in fact denotes a Seychelles business. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-865993.html - - - - - - - - Ebay Backs Down On Privacy Policy Clause After consulting with Internet privacy organizations, online auctioneer Ebay modified language in its privacy policy, a company spokesman said today. Last month, Ebay informed its users of proposed changes to its privacy policy. The addition of a "conflict of terms" section near the end of the new policy drew the ire of Jason Catlett, president of privacy advocacy firm Junkbusters Corp. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175359.html http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/313759p-2695979c.html - - - - - - - - Watchdog unveils Net filter for safer surfing The IRCA has released a free, downloadable filter to block access to adult-themed sites, which it hopes will help children surf the Web more safely. A non-profit group aiming to protect children from unsavoury material on the Net has introduced a Web browsing filter that blocks access to sites promoting, among other things, sex, drugs and hate speech. The filter can be downloaded from the ICRA Web site. The initiative comes from the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA), a small organisation with an enormously ambitious goal. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2107113,00.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/24526.html - - - - - - - - Excite in web mail hijack drama Portal leaves users' mail exposed. Security watchers have identified a vulnerability in the web mail service of internet portal Excite that allows for the hijacking of a user's account. According to the experts, when a user logs in to their account through Excite's web interface, the session is authenticated by a unique URL. By sending an HTML email which includes an image based on another server to the victim, an attacker can easily get the unique URL from the referrer field in the HTTP header. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1130317 - - - - - - - - Spam: It's completely out of control Chris Lewis walks a tightrope every day as leader of a spam-eradication team at a major telecommunications company. He is the guardian of roughly 45,000 employees' e-mail in-boxes, protecting against unsolicited commercial messages that are nearly doubling in number every five months--and costing an estimated $1 per piece in lost productivity. But perhaps just as important is Lewis' ability to field the bad mail without discarding the good, such as potential business leads. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-865442.html http://news.com.com/2009-1023-864815.html Stop Paying for E-mail Spam http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2855964,00.html - - - - - - - - Spam Showdown at Battle Creek The small city of Battle Creek, Michigan, wants to lock up an anti-spam activist who it believes crashed its mail server. Never mind that the town government was using a buggy version of the Lotus Domino e-mail server, and that newer releases have fixed the problem. And never mind that anti-spammers may have been conducting a routine scan for possible sources of bulk e-mail. Battle Creek, a town of 54,000 best known as the headquarters of the Kellogg's cereal company, is on the warpath. Robert Drewry, a Battle Creek detective, said on Wednesday he was hoping to file felony charges of computer intrusion against the person at the Orbz anti-spam service who contacted the Domino server, and caused e-mail to crash for 24 hours. "If we can identify the person responsible, yes, we will prosecute," Drewry said. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,51218,00.html - - - - - - - - Securing W2K Communications with IP Security Filters With the release of Windows 2000, a new feature, IP Security, was added to allow for more granular control of IP-based traffic over the previous Windows NT4 packet filter option, TCP/IP Filtering. Originally, when the TCP/IP Filtering option was enabled, it was applied to all network adapters on the host system and could only affect the protocol used. For example, there was no provision to allow NetBIOS only from select hosts while allowing HTTP from any host. http://online.securityfocus.com/infocus/1559 - - - - - - - - Web services: Security nightmare? The hype surrounding Web services has reached crescendo proportions. That's not surprising given how eager some big information-technology companies are to find some sort of recurring, high-margin business in a down tech economy. But in their rush, an important data security issue is being ignored: Confidential information is vulnerable to malicious employees or hackers because customer data, which gets stored in applications or databases operated by the Web services provider, still exist in clear or unencrypted form. http://news.com.com/2010-1075-866021.html - - - - - - - - Security Warnings About Job-Search Site Prove Incorrect The ClearedPeople.com Web site seemed innocuous enough, offering to match defense employees with private-sector jobs requiring workers with security clearances. But a Defense Department agency and an Air Force office sent e-mails last week that soon spread to U.S. defense installations across the nation, warning workers to stay away from ClearedPeople.com. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175380.html - - - - - - - - Finding Pay Dirt in Scannable Driver's Licenses ABOUT 10,000 people a week go to The Rack, a bar in Boston favored by sports stars, including members of the New England Patriots. One by one, they hand over their driver's licenses to a doorman, who swipes them through a sleek black machine. If a license is valid and its holder is over 21, a red light blinks and the patron is waved through. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/21/technology/circuits/21DRIV.html - - - - - - - - Army tests base security app The Army next month will begin testing a security system that uses radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to enhance how military police screen vehicles and personnel at Fort McPherson, Ga. Military police will begin a pilot project April 1 in which all vehicles authorized to enter the base are tagged with RFID decals, said Hugh Wiley, deputy director of public safety at Fort McPherson/Fort Gillem. Each tag is mounted in the upper, driver's-side portion of the windshield and is coded based on the vehicle owner's security clearance, said George Moss, director of government business solutions at Intermec Technologies Corp., which is providing the RFID technology. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0318/web-army-03-21-02.asp - - - - - - - - 3G phones become crime-fighting tools Police officers believe that smartphones can be used by the public to capture video footage of criminals in action. Japanese police are encouraging third-generation (3G) mobile phone users to assist them in their fight against crime. Thursday's edition of the Mainichi Daily News reports that officers in Osaka have set up an emergency videophone hotline. They hope that 3G phones users who witness a crime will be able to email an image, or even a video clip of the action, to the Osaka police. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2107155,00.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.