June 13, 2002 Brit taps into spy transmissions with satellite dish A British satellite enthusiast has discovered that anyone can tune in live to U.S. spy plane photo transmissions over the Balkans. John Locker said the freely available pictures by both manned spy planes and drones can pinpoint a location to within six feet. It's frightening--I am amazed," he told Reuters on Thursday. "Even before September 11, this is not the sort of stuff that should be shown openly." http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105-935609.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2111790,00.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/766299.asp http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/06/13/nato.spyplane/index.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/audiovideo/programmes/newsnight/newsid_2041000/2041754.stm - - - - - - - - Florida man, 20 others charged with 'Net piracy A central Florida man is among 21 people in 14 states facing federal charges in an Internet computer software, game and movie piracy ring dubbed "Rogue Warriorz," authorities in Las Vegas announced Wednesday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Myhre, who outlined the Rogue Warriorz operation during a news conference at the FBI office in Las Vegas, said an indictment was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/3462495.htm http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/06/13/net-piracy.htm - - - - - - - - Tunisian Net Dissident Jailed Tunisia's recent crackdown on cyber-dissidents has taken an ominous turn with the arrest and detention of journalist Zouhair Yahyaoui, founder and editor of the online news site TUNeZINE. Better known under the pseudonym Ettounsi ("The Tunisian"), Yahyaoui was charged Thursday under clause 2 of Article 306b of the Tunisian criminal code for "knowingly putting out false news" and also for "stealing" Internet connection time at a local cyber cafe where he was working. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,53186,00.html - - - - - - - - New computer virus can infect picture files A new computer virus is the first ever to infect picture files, an anti-virus firm reported Thursday, making sharing family photos on the Internet a potentially dangerous activity. The virus, dubbed Perrun, is not currently infecting computers but worries anti-virus experts because it is the first to cross from program infection into data files, long considered safe from malicious data. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/3462524.htm http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-935766.html http://news.com.com/2100-1001-935746.html http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/06/13/virus-pictures.htm http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44917-2002Jun13.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/766434.asp http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/06/13/picture.virus.ap/index.html http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,53196,00.html - - - - - - - - Antivirus vendors warn of Fretheme worm A new virus has surfaced internationally, and businesses are warned to protect themselves before it causes more damage. Antivirus companies have warned users to install patches and signature files to protect against a worm variant that has surfaced in the US and Europe. On Wednesday night anti-virus software vendor Trend Micro issued a yellow (medium) alert for what it refers to as Worm_Fretheme.E. Anti-virus vendors sometimes use different names for worms, and incidents of the W32/frethem.f@mm variant have also been logged in countries such as the US. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2111765,00.html http://www.vnunet.com/News/1132600 http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_607014.html - - - - - - - - Net gambling bill stalls An effort to ban Internet-based gambling was slowed Thursday by opponents who said the bill would hurt dog tracks, intrude on people's private lives and lead to excessive regulation of the global computer network. The debate in the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee showed the difficulty of trying to pass a bill that would ban the unregulated, offshore gambling sites without stepping on the toes of the established, highly regulated domestic gambling industry. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/06/13/net-gambling.htm - - - - - - - - Panel OKs terror data sharing bill The House Judiciary Committee this morning approved by voice vote a bill that would let the FBI and the CIA share classified information about terrorist threats with state and local police. The Bush Administration supports the bipartisan bill, which is headed for the floor of the House. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/18969-1.html http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0602/061302cdam1.htm - - - - - - - - Hill Eyes Shifting Parts of FBI, CIA Congressional leaders are strongly considering granting to a new Department of Homeland Security authority over parts of the CIA and the FBI, a complex and controversial restructuring of the nation's intelligence apparatus that President Bush opposes. Several Republicans and Democrats said yesterday that the best way to avert intelligence-sharing failures is to put the head of the proposed department in charge of the operatives who gather the information, including those now at the FBI and the CIA. Proponents predict it also would prod the leaders of the two agencies to move more swiftly to reorient their operations toward thwarting domestic terrorism. http://online.securityfocus.com/news/478 - - - - - - - - Outdated Systems Balk Terrorism Investigations FBI, for Example, Couldn't Track Flight School Data. When a Phoenix FBI agent became suspicious of Middle Eastern men training at an Arizona flight school last summer, he wrote a now well known memo suggesting a canvass of all U.S. aviation schools. FBI headquarters staff rejected the idea; the bureau didn't have the personnel to do it. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41486-2002Jun12.html - - - - - - - - ID theft--on the rise for e-biz As e-business grows, identity theft will evolve from credit card fraud to corporate identity theft, having profound implications on the company's bottom line and employee behavior, according to IBM's security expert. Stacy Cannady, from IBM's client security product management, told ZDNet Australia corporate ID theft would allow criminals to order goods on company accounts or conduct industrial sabotage. For the victim, this could result in regulatory violation, legal compromise or competitive disaster. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-935740.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2111764,00.html - - - - - - - - Privacy groups take efforts to European level Two British organisations join continental counterparts to oppose EU and Council of Europe incursions into personal data. Ten European privacy and civil rights groups, including two from Britain, have joined forces to create an international body for lobbying at a European level. The move comes as concerns grow over erosion of data privacy by the UK's Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and by European Union regulations. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2111810,00.html - - - - - - - - European Digital Rights launches Ten European Net privacy and freedom groups have banded together to form an international civil rights group. Called European Digital Rights (EDRi), the new organisation will be based in Brussels, where it will "focus its activities towards developments in the European Union and the Council of Europe". This is necessary, because rulings on privacy and interception are coming more and at an EU, and the introduction of new civil rights- threatening regulation is coming at an increasing pace, the group says. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/25712.html - - - - - - - - S.African Internet boss hides domain key abroad The administrator of South Africa's web addresses said on Thursday he had hidden the key to the country's ``.ZA'' domain network abroad to prevent any government interference in access to the Internet. South Africa's parliament has given initial approval to a law that will allow the government to take control of the country's Internet address administration. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/3463007.htm - - - - - - - - MS security hole extravaganza We've got a treat here; it seems MS has been sitting on a number of security holes which it's decided to dump on us all at once. So, what do you want to patch today? The first, and probably the worst due to the number of systems affected, is a little gremlin in IIS 4 and 5 (Internet Information Server aka 'Inherently Insecure Server') running on NT 4 and 2K, but not XP. This is a buffer overflow vulnerability involving chunked encoding in the ISAPI extension that implements HTR, "an older, largely obsolete scripting technology," MS says. It was discovered by Riley Hassell of eEye Digital Security. http://online.securityfocus.com/news/479 Microsoft posts IIS patch http://www.vnunet.com/News/1132589 New flaws jolt Microsoft http://zdnet.com.com/2251-1110-935611.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2111792,00.html http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/06/13/microsoft-flaw.htm http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2111761,00.html http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/industry/06/13/microsoft.flaw.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - File sharing: Innocent until proven guilty An economist says music piracy should be hurting the recording industry, but it isn't -- and he doesn't know why. Stan Liebowitz first began to attract public attention as a debunker of the idea that "network effects" could lock in winners in specific markets. http://salon.com/tech/feature/2002/06/13/liebowitz/index.html - - - - - - - - The moral dilemma of data leaks Are computer geeks obligated to blow the whistle? Dana started like many computer system administrators do, providing tech support to employees. Then, life was simple rebooting computers, installing software, recovering lost data. But one day, Dana discovered that the lost data included customer credit card numbers, and they most likely had been stolen by a computer criminal. Now what? Warn the customers, and lose the job, or quietly fix the problem and hope for the best? http://www.msnbc.com/news/766474.asp - - - - - - - - Leaky Cyber Borders A U.S. shield against foreign spam and hackers: national security or censorship? By the time you read this, I should be filthy rich. I recently received an e-mail that claimed to be from a high-ranking Nigerian official who had discovered some funds stolen by Nigerias former military government. The bank account holding this money, I read, could be used only to transfer the funds abroad. All I needed to do was respond with the name of my bank, my bank account number and some personal information. In return, Dr. Ahmed would wire me 35 percent of the trapped $41 million. http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/garfinkel0602.asp *********************************************************** 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.