June 10, 2002 Software piracy grows last year, trade group reports Software piracy grew last year, breaking six years of progress by software companies to stamp out illegal use, according to a trade group report. Enforcement efforts by software makers resulted in 44 settlements with American companies in 2001. A report being released Monday by the Business Software Alliance, which includes companies such as Microsoft, Apple Computer and Adobe, attributes the shift to growing computer markets in countries that traditionally have high piracy rates, such as Vietnam, China and India. "The number of people using PCs in (these) countries are exploding," said the group's president, Robert Holleyman. "The numbers of legal software sales are not keeping up." http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/429218p-3433078c.html http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/06/10/software-piracy.htm http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18151.html http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/industry/06/10/software.piracy.ap/index.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/764320.asp http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22987-2002Jun10.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/51/25646.html http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/3437465.htm Empty pockets make software pirates http://news.com.com/2100-1001-934629.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2111582,00.html - - - - - - - - Private Effort to Fight Digital Theft MEMBERS of a ring suspected of Internet credit card theft received rude surprises last week when they opened U.P.S. packages to look for loot they had ordered online at Laptops4Now.com. Instead of the Sony Vaios and Microsoft Xboxes they had ordered, they received old John Grisham paperbacks and other random items signifying that they had just been caught in a sting. The twist is that this sting operation was carried out not by law enforcement groups, but by a private antifraud company called CardCops.com, one of a small but growing number of private organizations acting as digital security forces against cyberthieves. (NY Times article, free registration required) http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/10/technology/10ECOM.html - - - - - - - - Swedish programmer cracks password A Swedish game programmer won the race to discover the password to a Norwegian history museum's database, the museum's director said Monday. The password had been lost when the database's steward died without revealing it. Ottar Grepstad, director of the Ivar Aasen Center for Language and Culture, said in an interview that Joachim Eriksson, a programmer for Swedish game company Snowcode, sent the correct password just five hours after the museum's call for help. The center had posted the database file on its Web site, asking for help in opening it. http://news.com.com/2100-1001-934653.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2111572,00.html - - - - - - - - Bush seeks 'big picture' Homeland Security Department would serve as central data clearinghouse. If it works as envisioned, the Homeland Security Department will be the center of a torrent of intelligence data. At least eight major agencies and numerous smaller ones will funnel information to the Homeland Security Department, which will serve as a "central clearinghouse to collect and analyze" data related to terrorism, according to the Bush administration. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0610/news-bush-06-10-02.asp House puts terrorism information sharing bill on fast track http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/18920-1.html State, local officials praise Bush plan http://www.fcw.com/geb/articles/2002/0610/web-local-06-10-02.asp - - - - - - - - Hyperlinking takes center stage in court case Nicolai Lassen considers linking such a fundamental element of the World Wide Web that he sees nothing wrong with creating a service around linking to news articles at more than 3,000 other sites. Danish publishers, however, equate such linking with stealing and have gone to court to stop it. The case, scheduled for hearings in Copenhagen later this month, is among the latest to challenge the Web's basic premise of encouraging the free flow of information through linking. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/06/10/web-links.htm http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/3438820.htm - - - - - - - - Police to spy on all emails Fury over Europe's secret plan to access computer and phone data. Millions of personal emails, other internet information and telephone records are to be made accessible to the police and intelligence services in a move that has been denounced by critics as one of the most wide-ranging extensions of state power over private information. Plans being drawn up by Europol, the police and intelligence arm of the European Union, propose that telephone and internet firms retain millions of pieces of data - including details of visits to internet chat rooms, and of calls made on mobile phones and text messages. http://www.observer.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,730091,00.html - - - - - - - - Vivendi-News Corp. deal ends fight High-profile hacking suit dropped as part of Italy pay-TV pact. Vivendi Universal agreed during the weekend to sell its Italian pay-TV operations to Rupert Murdochs News Corp. in a move that solves problems for both companies. The French media and utilities conglomerate said it plans to sell Telepiu, the Italian arm of its loss-making pay-TV unit Canal Plus, to its Australian rival, ending of a year of uncertainty about the Italian companys future. The deal, if completed, will end litigation between the two firms, including a $1.1 billion lawsuit that saw a Murdoch firm accused of corporate-sponsored computer hacking. http://www.msnbc.com/news/764330.asp - - - - - - - - Roll credits on Film88.com Movie-streaming site raised ire of industry A court order obtained by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has shut down the latest incarnation of a contentious Web site that offered streaming movies over the Internet for just $1. In mid-February, a site called Movie88.com based in Taiwan began allowing people to stream popular movies to their computer. The films could not be downloaded or saved to a hard drive, but were instead offered as rentals, viewable for a period of a few days for the $1 or $1.50 fee. http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/06/10/film88/index.html - - - - - - - - The Future of Online File Sharing The Yankee Group's Michael Goodman said that many of the companies running P2P file-trading sites are moving their operations offshore, out of easy reach of prosecution. Despite the demise of online file-sharing pioneer Napster and the recording industry's focus on prosecuting any online music trader that aims to replace it, experts say that Internet song swapping is here to stay. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18099.html - - - - - - - - New product secures instant messaging, peer-to-peer A San Diego company announced a product on Monday designed to make instant messaging and peer-to-peer file sharing applications safer to use by blocking viruses and preventing data from leaking out and back doors from being installed. Privately held Akonix Systems developed Akonix L7 specifically to address the security concerns that are arising from the widespread use of programs like AOL Time Warner's Instant Messenger (AIM) and the Kazaa peer-to-peer programs. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2111566,00.html http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-934558.html http://www.totaltele.com/view.asp?ArticleID=52676&pub=tt&categoryid=626 - - - - - - - - Web businesses, users both fail to protect privacy Consumers are concerned about the privacy of personal information they submit online, but most have no clue how companies use and misuse that information, according to a new report by an Internet research firm. Nearly 70 percent of consumers worry about keeping their information private, but only 40 percent read privacy policies posted on business Web sites, a Jupiter Media Metrix survey said. http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/427583p-3414627c.html - - - - - - - - Vietnam steps up fight against anti-government materials on Web Authorities in Communist Vietnam's largest city have stepped up their fight against anti-government materials on the Internet, state-controlled media reported Saturday. Ho Chi Minh City's Communist Party organization ordered local government agencies to strengthen controls on the Internet, including tighter blocking of sites containing anti-government materials targeting Vietnam, the Phap Luat (Law) newspaper said. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/3428762.htm - - - - - - - - Making Spam Go Splat Sick of Unsolicited E-Mail, Businesses Are Fighting Back. The e-mail with the titillating subject line -- "funny sexy screensaver" -- arrived one recent afternoon in the computers of at least 100 politicians and businessmen. It claimed to be from R. James Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency. But Woolsey didn't send it. It was generated by a "spam" virus, the kind that hijacks someone's online account and sends out messages in the owner's name. "It was like a small version of identity theft," Woolsey, now a partner with Washington law firm Shea & Gardner, said in an interview. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15849-2002Jun8.html - - - - - - - - The Perils of Beaming Credit Card Numbers "Credit card issuers, merchant banks and payment processors will be the ones to enforce such security standards when WLAN-enabled point-of-sale devices are approved for deployment." As concerns surface about the security risks of using wireless local area networks (WLANS) in retail settings -- including the possibility of credit card numbers and other sensitive data getting intercepted by hackers lurking in the store -- the good news is that there are plenty of resolutions available. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18134.html - - - - - - - - Cloaking Your Movements in Cyberspace While you can't hide completely, you can find plenty of ways to make your e-mail and Web surfing trails a lot less visible. At the tender age of eight, Kon Leong learned a valuable lesson about privacy. He was living with his Chinese parents in India when the Indo-China War broke out in 1962, shattering diplomatic relations between the two countries for the next 16 years and placing Chinese who lived in India under suspicion for espionage. With every move his family made subject to surveillance, Leong realized the less others know about you, the better. http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2002/tc2002065_1287.htm - - - - - - - - Web Services to aid DOS attacks The development of web services standards allows us to contemplate the creation of business applications that are based upon collections of loosely-coupled components served up by a variety of third parties. The question that arises is just who it is that is going to expose themselves to denial of service attacks in this way. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/23/25655.html - - - - - - - - Old Windows code is security threat Microsoft will more quickly retire old code in its Windows operating system and other software as a result of the companys four-month-old trustworthy computing initiative, the companys lead bug basher said in an interview. http://www.msnbc.com/news/764662.asp http://news.com.com/2100-1001-934363.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2111565,00.html http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-934426.html - - - - - - - - Xbox hackers preview movie player Console capable of playing back DivX films. Further Xbox hacks have shown what the machine is really capable of, as hackers reveal a prototype DivX player for Microsoft's games console. Only weeks after Xbox mod chips hit the streets, allowing developers to run home-brew code on the device, reports of a working movie player have appeared on the internet. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1132473 - - - - - - - - Simple hack yields free Times Web content I don't normally read Establishment gazettes like the London Times or the Sunday Times, but whilst trawling the Web yesterday I spotted a link to a story which I thought might interest me. Imagine my disappointment when I attempted to access it and learned that only those Netizens located in the UK are permitted to read the Times for free. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/25648.html - - - - - - - - The Commoner's Virus Despite its virulence, the Klez worm is ignored by the newspapers and dismissed by the digerati. Could the demographics of its victims be a factor? Klez comes ever in the rearward of fashion. Repeatedly dubbed the most common virus ever in recent reports from on-line newsmongers, it has yet to break into print in any interesting way. A box of news clippings near my desk, most taken from the front pages of daily newspapers, proclaim the arrival of Melissa, Loveletter, Code Red, Nimda and even Kournikova. However, nothing for Klez or its equally press-shy older brother, SirCam. http://online.securityfocus.com/columnists/87 - - - - - - - - Programmers enroll in political training It's not every computer science class that opens with a poem. But on a recent June day at Stanford University, khaki-clad senior Jeff Keltner stood before his classmates, cleared his throat, and recited verse about a Hollywood-led crackdown on technology that can transfer digital books to different devices. The final lines went something like this (to the beat of Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham"): "I want to read this book I bought, but people tell me I ought not. They say I will be locked away because of the D-M-C-A." http://news.com.com/2100-1023-934543.html http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-934602.html - - - - - - - - Computer System That Makes Data Secure, but Hard to Find The origins of the F.B.I.'s computer problem go back in part to the long history of paper records at the bureau, and its reliance on secure computer systems of its own creation instead of the standardized systems that make the Internet so easy to search, say former Justice Department officials and others familiar with the technology. In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, lawmakers heard of limitations on the computer system from both Robert S. Mueller III, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Coleen Rowley, the whistle-blowing special agent from Minneapolis, that left them agog. The law enforcement officials described a system so hamstrung that anything more than the simplest searches could not be performed. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/08/politics/08COMP.html - - - - - - - - Cops rev training with 3-D slides They got no kick in Champaign when police officers booted up tired old Microsoft PowerPoint educational slide showsthat is, not until the Illinois citys police department started adding 3-D talking characters to the slides. Lt. Michael Paulus, who manages training and development, said police presentations now feature cartoon figures from the Vox Proxy add-in for PowerPoint, sold by Right Seat Software Inc. of Golden, Colo. http://www.gcn.com/21_13/tech-report/18822-1.html - - - - - - - - Thieving chimp is no chump Monkey makes off with mobile phones. Police in Hackney, London, are hunting a monkey that may have been trained to steal mobile phones. Officers believe that two people may have been victims of the monkey business over the weekend after two burglaries were reported in as many hours. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1132462 *********************************************************** 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.