March 27, 2002 EarthLink investor to plead guilty to fraud. Reed Slatkin, a key early investor in Internet service provider EarthLink, who is accused of defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars, has agreed to plead guilty to 15 federal charges, prosecutors said Tuesday. Prosecutors said the 15 charges would carry a theoretical maximum of 105 years in prison, but Slatkin is expected to face between 12 and 15 years under federal sentencing guidelines when sentenced. http://news.com.com/2100-1033-869136.html - - - - - - - - Senior Activist Jailed For Web Rant A man who posted on the Web details of what he asserts is an investigative report into alleged improprieties at a Seattle residence for senior citizens has been in jail for a month - with no end to his incarceration in sight, his attorney said today. Paul Trummel, 69, was for approximately two years a resident of Council House, a residence in the Capitol Hill section of Seattle whose construction was funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175514.html - - - - - - - - Air Force fights off probes An unusually high number of electronic probes were made against the computer network at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, last week, but the system was not hacked, according to the Air Force. About 125,000 attempts were made between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. on March 22, said Lt. Tana Hamilton, a public affairs officer at the Aeronautical Systems Center. She confirmed earlier media reports that the probes originated outside the United States, but said she could not detail any of the Air Force's subsequent security or investigation procedures. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0325/web-af-03-27-02.asp - - - - - - - - Judge Orders FBI To Turn Up More Carnivore Data A federal judge this week ordered the U.S. Justice Department to turn over more information about a controversial FBI e-mail surveillance device known as "Carnivore." Responding to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the FBI last year turned over more than 1,600 pages of material on Carnivore, which can sift through thousands of e-mail messages to find incriminating evidence. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175507.html - - - - - - - - Gilmore warns of threat to information systems If terrorists strike the United States again, their targets could be information systems or critical systems infrastructures, former Virginia governor James Gilmore said yesterday. Cyberattacks or attacks on critical infrastructures are the most likely next attacks, Gilmore said at a panel discussion sponsored by Johns Hopkins Universitys Information Security Institute in Laurel, Md. He is chairman of the National Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/18260-1.html - - - - - - - - DVD Wants Calif. Supreme Court To Reverse DeCSS Ruling The DVD Copy Control Association Tuesday asked the California Supreme Court to reverse a lower court's decision that blocked the publication of the source code for DeCSS technology, which circumvents digital copy protection systems. DeCSS is a computer program designed to defeat an encryption-based copy protection system known as the Content Scramble System, or CSS, which is employed to encrypt and protect the copyrighted motion pictures contained on DVDs. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175512.html - - - - - - - - Smut Filter Snags Non-Smut, Too All Emmalyn Rood wants is the right to explore the Internet in her hometown library. But because Rood is only 16 years old, the U.S. Congress has tried to guarantee that she only view websites through the shutters of filtering software that may block far more material than just what's legally verboten for minors. On Tuesday, Rood took the witness stand in federal court to testify that her attempts to research her sexuality in the public library before coming out as a lesbian would have been prohibited by smut-filtering technologies. Rood, who lives in Portland, Oregon, is a plaintiff in the ACLU's attempt to overturn a library-filtering law. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51339,00.html - - - - - - - - Survey says Internet sites collecting less personal data Internet sites appear to be collecting less personal information from consumers and doing a slightly better job explaining how Web sites use such sensitive data, according to a survey by an opponent of new privacy laws. The Progress and Freedom Foundation, a Washington think tank, said Wednesday that its survey of 300 Web sites picked at random and 85 more of the Internet's most-popular sites showed about eight in 10 of the most-popular collected personal information from consumers other than e-mail addresses. A similar study in 2000 showed a higher number. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/2946016.htm http://news.com.com/2100-1023-869668.html http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175508.html http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/03/27/online.privacy/index.html - - - - - - - - Feds info policy evolving As part of its evolving strategy for handling tips about potential terrorist threats, the federal government is developing new policies for classifying information and for sharing it with state and local government, according to the staff director for the Office of Homeland Security. As part of its new Homeland Security Advisory System, the government has created the designation "sensitive homeland security information" to denote information that should not be generally distributed, said Col. John Fenzel. http://www.fcw.com/geb/articles/2002/0325/web-ridge-03-27-02.asp - - - - - - - - D.C. anti-piracy plans fuel culture clash It's not quite open warfare between Hollywood and Silicon Valley, but the peace talks aren't looking good. Entertainment executives are accusing big technology companies of turning a blind eye to rampant online piracy. High-tech executives say that's ridiculous. But in an effort to prove their good faith, some are now scrambling to show public support for new anti-piracy plans that would have a significant effect on the way consumers watch and share movies, music and TV shows. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-869902.html - - - - - - - - Napster delays relaunch The once-popular music-swapping service could remain offline for another nine months as copyright negotiations continue - and its rivals will reap the benefits. Napster, the once high-flying song swapping service that has been grounded by legal squabbles, has postponed its planned relaunch, the company has said. A statement on the Napster Web site said the company is "taking some more time to make sure we get the very best deals we can" from major music labels before it reopens for business. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2107465,00.html http://news.com.com/2100-1023-869491.html http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175506.html - - - - - - - - Virus Industry's Research Center Runs Out Of Money From his home in the high desert of southern Nevada, Shane Coursen maintains one of the largest collections of active computer viruses in the world. Although the anti-virus industry depends heavily on his definitive list of "in-the-wild" viruses, Coursen, the chief executive of WildList Organization, says he no longer can afford to keep the roof over his head. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175509.html - - - - - - - - Disney chief Eisner recruits Abe Lincoln in piracy fight Disney CEO Michael Eisner has recruited Abraham Lincoln, Vaclav Havel, Douglass North and Sigmund Eisner (relation) for his campaign against intellectual property pilfering on the Internet. And we want some of whatever his speech writers are smoking. In a piece published in today's Financial Times, Eisner announces that Lincoln would have been thrilled by the Internet, describes him as a "great patenter," and finds some favourable comment from Lincoln on patenting. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/24594.html - - - - - - - - Canadian Singer Reclaims Domain Lost In Registrar Snafu Canadian pop star Lara Fabian has reclaimed an Internet address her lawyers say was lost when domain-name registrar Network Solutions bungled its transfer. But the Belgian-born singer who now hails from Montreal, Quebec, didn't retrieve LaraFabian.net from the Herndon, Va., arm of Verisign Inc., whose databases hold the lion's share of Internet addresses. Instead, Fabian had to turn to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to wrest the address from a cybersquatter who scooped it up while the singer's handlers were trying to transfer the address from a new media advertising agency to her own record label. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175496.html - - - - - - - - Net Filters 'No Substitute For Good Parenting' While all Australian Internet service providers (ISPs) have for some time been required by an industry code to offer government-approved Web filtering software to their customers, the first comprehensive report into the filters' effectiveness was just released on Tuesday. CSIRO, Australia's national scientific research agency, conducted the investigation into Web filtering software at the behest of the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA), the country's broadcasting and Internet content regulator. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175487.html - - - - - - - - Drive-by hacking linked to cyberterror The most comprehensive study of the insecurity of wireless networks in London to date has discovered that 94 per cent are leaving their networks open to drive-by hacking. This possibly worthwhile survey is undermined by the cyberterrorism FUD spin put on the release. A seven-month investigation of 5,000 wireless systems was conducted by IT security specialists Digilog, in collaboration with the International Chamber of Commerce's Cybercrime (ICC) Unit, who are using the survey to promote an anti-hacking service. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/24611.html - - - - - - - - Information warfare is within reach for the educated terrorist THE terrorist incident of 11 September reminded governments around the world that there are extremist factions with the capability to do major damage to all levels of the economy. However, it is not just the real world which needs protection from those with evil intent. Information attacks by terrorist organisations - or even state-sponsored attacks - with the potential to wreak havoc for governments, commerce and industry, academia and even home users are now a technical possibility. http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/business.cfm?id=332232002 - - - - - - - - Next Virus Exploit: Media Player? Security experts believe Windows Media Player could soon be targeted by malicious virus writers who are now all but shut out of attacking another Microsoft product, Outlook 2002. They have discovered that the program allows malicious hackers to easily bypass Outlook's new security features, which block delivery of dangerous e-mailed attachments and turn off active scripting by default. A downloadable security update from Microsoft adds the same protections to Outlook 2000. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,51361,00.html - - - - - - - - Frequent fliers: The biometric guinea pigs Before he starts work every morning, Oscar Carranza waves to a guard, swipes a magnetized card through a computer, and places his hand in a biometric scanner that traces the contours of his palm and compares them to digital records in the airport's central office database. The high-security ritual contrasts starkly with Carranza's low-tech job loading and unloading luggage from United planes at San Francisco International Airport. But Carranza, who has been a baggage service operator for two years, is happy to jump through extra security hoops. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-869437.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2107450,00.html http://news.com.com/2100-1017-869622.html - - - - - - - - Facial Recognition Coming To Cops' Cell Phones Crooks and fugitives have one more thing to worry about in their quest to keep one step ahead of the law. The age-old police dragnet will soon have the help of a 21st-century tool that enables cops to see the faces of wanted criminals in their mobile phones via a new facial recognition application. Developed by identification technology company Visionics and powered by Birddog, software made by Wirehound LLC, the system was demonstrated on a Java-enabled Motorola Micro Edition phone at a Java conference this week. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175510.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.