May 31, 2002
Police in internet porn raids
Up to 500 Irish police officers have raided dozens
of addresses across the Republic of Ireland in a
crackdown on internet child porn trafficking. No
arrests have yet been made but computers and
software have been seized by Garda officers
during the dawn raids. Detectives say Operation
Amethyst is part of an international investigation
into the trafficking of paedophile images.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_596441.html
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Young sex offender's mom jailed in FBI child porn sting
FBI agents recently arrested an Oak Harbor couple
during a child pornography sting, raising the profile
of a family that already included a well-known sex
offender, several law enforcement officials said
yesterday. Tracey L. Wright, 29, is being held in
federal custody and is scheduled to have a detention
hearing today in Seattle. Agents also arrested her
husband, James L. Wright, 30, in last week's raid.
Court documents say agents found hundreds of child
pornography images on one of their home computers.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/72746_pornbust31.shtml
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Aerospace workers arrested for hacking
Firms temporarily banned from NASDA bids. Three
workers at a major Japanese aerospace company
were arrested Thursday for allegedly hacking into
the computer network of Japan's space agency to
spy on a rival company, a Tokyo Metropolitan
Police spokesman said. Shunsuke Migita, 28,
Shoichi Motohashi, 44, and Masao Amano, 40 --
all employees at NEC Toshiba Space System Co.
-- were charged with illegally obtaining Mitsubishi
Electric Corp.'s antenna designs for a high-speed
Internet satellite from a computer at the National
Space Development Agency in December, the spokesman
said on condition of anonymity.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/05/31/japan.space.hackers.ap/index.html
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Security bug closes Inland Revenue site
Security fears have forced the Inland Revenue to
shut its Self Assessment Online service. An Inland
Revenue spokeswoman said that the service was
suspended after users reported seeing information
about other taxpayers. "The security of our customers'
data is of paramount importance to us," she told
the BBC. The spokeswoman stressed that the number
of people reporting the problem was small, but
that it was decided to temporarily withdraw the
service until the glitch is repaired. The
Revenue did not say how long this would take.
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1132269
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EBay auction of Air Force equipment prompts probe
Parts sold used in SR-71 spy plane and F-16 fighter.
The Air Force is looking into the Internet auction
of sensitive government aircraft communications
equipment. THE SALES ON EBAY, which were reported
by Newsweek, were of parts used in aircraft like
the SR-71 spy plane and F-16 fighter. It is
actively under investigation by the Air Force
Office of Special Investigations, an Air Force
spokesman, Capt. David L. Englin, said Sunday.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/760852.asp
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,52921,00.html
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Appeals Court Overturns Law Blocking Sex-Site Access
Public libraries cannot be forced to use Internet
filters designed to block pornography, three federal
judges said Friday in overturning a new federal law.
In a 195-page decision, the judges said the Children's
Internet Protection Act went too far because the
filters can also block access to sites that contain
protected speech. ``Any public library that adheres
to CIPA's conditions will necessarily restrict
patrons' access to a substantial amount of protected
speech in violation of the First Amendment,'' the
judges wrote.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Internet-Filtering.html
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/3373419.htm
http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/25535.html
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-929553.html
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18025.html
http://www.msnbc.com/news/759858.asp
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40127-2002May31.html
http://www.itechnology.co.za/index.php?click_id=31&art_id=qw1022880961125B253
Justice reviewing Internet screening ruling, may appeal
http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/05/31/justice.internet.screening/index.html
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FBI: Cybersecurity is priority No. 3
Further organizational changes announced Wednesday
by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
included honing its focus on combating computer-
related crimes, the federal agency said Wednesday.
In a top ten list of priorities detailed during
a press conference at the FBI's headquarters in
Washington, D.C., FBI Director Robert Mueller
pegged cybercrime prevention as its third-most
important priority behind battling terrorism
and espionage, a spokesman for the FBI said.
http://www.idg.net/ic_868760_5055_1-2793.html
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EU vote relaxes e-privacy rules
The European Parliament has endorsed new rules
on protecting the privacy of communications in the
Internet age, which civil liberties advocates and
telecommunications companies say includes sweeping
powers for police to monitor telephone calls,
Internet communications, faxes and other kinds
of data. The bill on Thursday was the final
element of a broader package of measures aimed
at modernizing European Union telecommunications
law and boosting confidence in e-commerce.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-929605.html
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1132301
EU whams spam with ban
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1132292
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'Porn-napping' is rubbing users the wrong way
Harvard student Ben Edelman was searching on the
Internet for a bicycle repair shop, but stumbled
instead onto "Tina's Live Webcam," a hard-core
pornography site. There was no mistake: Edelman
had clicked through to www.bicyclebill.com, but
the website registration of the local bike shop
had expired, and was quickly grabbed by the
Canadian operator of the sexually explicit
website.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw1022734800721B225
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Study: Open source poses security risks
A conservative U.S. think tank suggests in an
upcoming report that open-source software is
inherently less secure than proprietary software,
and warns governments against relying on it for
national security. The white paper, Opening the
Open Source Debate, from the Alexis de Tocqueville
Institution (ADTI) will suggest that open source
opens the gates to hackers and terrorists.
"Terrorists trying to hack or disrupt U.S.
computer networks might find it easier if the
federal government attempts to switch to 'open
source' as some groups propose," ADTI said in
a statement released ahead of the report.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-929669.html
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2111240,00.html
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BSA warns on downloading copyright dangers
A survey of Web users indicates that more than
half have downloaded software without paying,
even if the product is copyrighted. The Business
Software Alliance, a trade group that represents
the major software makers, says that more than
half of all Web users have downloaded software
they have not paid for. In a study of 1,026 Web
users released on Wednesday, the group found
that 57 percent of respondents never or seldom
pay for copyrighted works they download. And
12 percent admitted to pirating software.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2111206,00.html
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Klez-H tops virus charts - again
Variants of the Klez worm were by far the most
common viruses circulating on the Internet this
month. Again. That's according to monthly statistics
from managed services firm MessageLabs, which
stopped 524, 507 copies of the virus in May,
compared to 422,507 in April. MessageLabs reports
that virus infection rates are currently running
at around one per 200 emails, which compares to
one in 30 infected emails at the heights of the
Goner and Love Bug epidemics.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/25542.html
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Exchange 2000 flaw allows DoS attacks
Hole could tie up mail servers indefinitely Microsoft
has admitted that its Exchange 2000 email server
software has a "critical" flaw that could enable
a denial of service attack to bring down any servers
running the application. The warning came as the
company posted a patch for system administrators
to fix the flaw on Exchange 2000 servers. According
to Microsoft, the weakness in its Exchange 2000
server software could allow an attack that would
tie up mail servers indefinitely.
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1132291
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Some breaking music CD copy protection
Some music fans are trying to fake out CD copy
protection technology with the stroke of a felt-
tip pen. The tactic is being used in Europe, where
Sony is trying out a copy protection method. That
model won't be coming to America, the company says.
The crack in the copy protection is the talk of
the town on Internet message boards, though
Digital Audio Disc Corporation, Sony Corp.'s
CD manufacturing unit, is not amused.
http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/419302p-3341929c.html
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Giga Defines Emerging Chief Security Officer Role
More than 200 companies in the U.S. have named chief
security officers, but the roles, qualifications,
and pay for this new IT title vary widely, according
to a new report from Giga Information Group. The
importance of a more secure enterprise has grown
in recent years, with drivers ranging from increased
hacker activity to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11,
Giga said. The role of the CSO, a relatively new
title, is "wildly diverse" today -- but the position
is growing to be a crucial, executive level title at
many companies, according to Giga security expert
Steve Hunt.
http://www.internetweek.com/breakingNews/INW20020529S0010
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Senator's Spam Making the Rounds
The e-mail from Sen. Joseph Lieberman took a decidedly
high-tech tone, calling for a deployment of a "national
broadband Internet strategy." Unfortunately, it came
in a low-tech package. Since Tuesday, the Connecticut
Democrat's office has been straining under the
unrelenting embarrassment of an e-mail that will not
stop replicating itself. Up to 400 reporters nationwide
have been receiving dozens of copies of the e-mail
release, the result of an outdated system called
cc: mail. A large recipient list and several attachments
apparently were too much for it to handle.
http://www.newsday.com/business/printedition/ny-bzspam312726574may31.story
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Instant Messaging Enterprise Security Ramps Up
Research firm Gartner has estimated that there
are now more than 100 million IM users worldwide,
and that by 2005, IM will be used more often than
e-mail. The attractions of instant messaging (IM)
are obvious: The software knows when others are
online, enabling employees to avoid engaging in
time-consuming "phone tag." Analysts call IM
"real-time e-mail."
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18008.html
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High-tech piracy
High-tech pirates are exploring new territory,
as new chips promise to defeat Xbox copy-protection
features and an Eminem CD becomes a most-played
hit way before it goes on sale. The Xtender,
a "mod chip" intended to be added to the main
circuit board of the Xbox, purportedly allows
the console to play illegally copied game
software. Will this inspire a Napster-like wave
of copy infringement? Probably not, analysts
say. For starters, using the mod chips requires
disassembling the Xbox case and affixing the
chip to the circuit board, a task that can
require more than 20 soldering connections
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-929942.html
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When hacking competitions go wrong
A hacking contest that promised $100,000 as first
prize appears to have been weighted so heavily
against competitors that some decided to hack the
competition rather than the target server. What
do you do when you enter a hacking competition
only to discover that the target server is running
a cut-down operating system running with almost
all services switched off so that it does not
resemble a "real-world situation"? Simple. You
hack the competition itself.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2111243,00.html
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Fans kick back at Mac hack flak
Apple keeps mum as Macintosh users defend OS.
Following vnunet.com's article exploding the myth
that Mac users are not totally invincible to viruses
and hack attacks, our post bag has been full. Mac
evangelists from around the world have written in
to state that MacOS is a more secure alternative
to other operating systems. Despite numerous
requests for comment from Apple in both the US
and the UK, the company has not yet provided
a spokesman to comment on the issue.
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1132303
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Farewell to a Net Freedom Fighter
Stanton McCandlish, the Internet's first full-time
activist, is retiring. McCandlish, 33, left his job
at the Electronic Frontier Foundation last month
after spending nearly nine years exhorting Internet
denizens to pay more attention to legal threats to
their freedoms. It was tiring work. "I think to
a large extent, I just became burned out on it,"
McCandlish said. "That kind of work carries a lot
of the weight of the world on your shoulders."
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,52915,00.html
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Aussie women give a XXXX about cyber sex
Worse than watching strippers and porn, say
Sheilas Australian women believe that cyber sex
constitutes more serious cheating than going to
a strip club or watching pornography. A survey of
1,117 internet users conducted by a lecturer at
the College of Social and Health Sciences at the
University of Western Sydney showed that people
see little difference between virtual and regular
relationships. Almost all surfers ranked cyber sex
as cheating which, although not as bad as being
physically unfaithful, is much worse than watching
a stripper or pornography.
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1132285
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Congress takes a first leap into biometrics
An office within the House of Representatives
has become the first congressional office to
use biometric access technology. After recently
completing a four-month pilot, the House Office
of the Legislative Counsel this week began using
iris recognition technology for network access.
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/18863-1.html
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Using fingerprints to buy groceries
Wider use of technology brings convenience,
privacy worries. "It doesnt feel so much like an
invasion of privacy, but is more like a convenience,"
says customer Christopher Conrad of a fingerprint
system at a Seattle grocery. Christopher Conrad
cuts off telemarketers on the phone, regularly
reminds direct-mail associations to keep him off
their lists and diligently opts out of mass e-mail
lists. But the Seattle commercial photographer
didnt hesitate to give his fingerprint, credit
card information and phone number to a company
he had never heard of.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/760026.asp
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U.S. Considers Requiring Cameras Providing Cabin Views
The Sept. 11 hijackings have left pilots wanting more
knowledge about activity in the passenger cabin,
without stepping through their newly fortified doors.
Now the Transportation Department, with encouragement
from Congress, is considering requiring video cameras
that will provide images of passengers to the cockpit.
(NY Times article, free registration required)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/31/national/31SECU.html
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