July 9, 2002 'Terror' Web site owner to stand trial A man accused of running a Web site that contravenes new anti-terrorism laws is standing trial in London. A London man has gone on trial under a new terrorism law for running a Web site that prosecutors said offered to send would-be terrorists to the United States to learn about guns. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2118816,00.html http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-942492.html - - - - - - - - Man asks Roanoke judge to let him withdraw plea Guilty plea in child porn case may be altered. Roland David Bailey's lawyer says a U.S. Supreme Court ruling means prosecutors must prove his client viewed real, not "virtual," children on his computer. There is no dispute that police found thousands of images of child pornography in Roland David Bailey's possession. The question is whether those images were of real or "virtual" children, said Bailey's attorney, Sam Garrison. A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that draws a line between the two types of images could mean freedom for Bailey, Garrison said. Bailey - who was arrested after a computer repair shop employee found evidence of illicit material on his computer - otherwise faces up to 200 years in prison. http://www.roanoke.com/roatimes/news/story133186.html - - - - - - - - FBI uneasy about plan to deregulate fast Net A federal plan to deregulate high-speed Internet access might have an unintended consequence: The FBI is worried it could hamper the fight against terrorism. The FBI and Justice Department are concerned that the Federal Communications Commission's decision to classify broadband as an "information" service could disrupt their ability to trace the e-mail and Internet activity of terrorists and other criminals. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/07/09/wiretap-net.htm - - - - - - - - Cyber attacks threaten global commerce Eighty per cent originate in just 10 countries. Based on the number of internet users, 80 per cent of cyber attacks are coming from just 10 countries, according to a security services specialist. The Internet Security Threat Report Volume II, from US security firm Riptech, found that less than one per cent of all internet assailants could be classed as cyber terrorists. Just five countries are deemed by the US to be 'terrorist states'. The report stated that there has been a 64 per cent increase in internet attacks in the past six months. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1133370 - - - - - - - - Federal task force in Sacramento created to handle cybercrime The solicitation that popped up on thousands of computer screens sounded too good to be true. Tri-West Investment Club offered a guaranteed high return with no risk of loss by purchasing "promissory bank notes." Nearly 13,000 people from more than 60 countries jumped at the offer. Instead of becoming rich, they had become victims who had invested $60 million in what would turn out to be one of the largest Internet investment fraud cases in the country. http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/460557p-3686657c.html http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18525.html - - - - - - - - Biker gangs putting Web to deadly use The only thing missing from the hotel room was his laptop computer. Unfortunately, it was the most valuable thing in the room. The OPP officer had just gone for dinner, taking a short break from surveillance of Hells Angels gang members in Sherbrooke, Que. When he saw what had been stolen, he quickly realized that while he was spying on the bikers, they were also watching him. This is just one example of how the Angels and other outlaw biker gangs have grasped the advantages of the information age and how they put that information to use. Within months of the computer theft, an undercover police agent was dead. http://www.thestar.ca/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1025795655491&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News - - - - - - - - Italy blocks blasphemous porn sites Police angered by Catholic imagery on sites hosted in U.S. Italian police closed down five U.S.-based Web sites that had been blaspheming Catholicism with a combination of pornographic pictures and offensive statements about the Madonna, police said Tuesday. Investigators first learned about the sites, with names that translate into phrases including Pig Madonna and Blasphemy, in 2000. http://www.msnbc.com/news/778224.asp - - - - - - - - P45s for Porn Surfers A quarter of UK companies have dismissed employees for Internet misconduct with the majority of sackings for online porn, according to a survey released today by Websens, the Internet censorware outfit. The survey - conducted among 544 human resources (HR) managers and officers from some of Britain's largest corporations, employing an average of 2,500 people - found that 72 per cent of UK firms have dealt with Internet misuse in the workplace. In addition, 69 per cent of all dismissals were associated with online pornography. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/26098.html http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992520 http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2118795,00.html - - - - - - - - Cable in hot pursuit of Wi-Fi mavericks Broadband providers are cracking down on popular Wi-Fi networks, threatening to cut service to customers who set up the inexpensive wireless systems and allow others to freely tap into their Internet access. Time Warner Cable of New York City has given 10 customers less than a week to stop using their accounts to provide a wireless local area network available to anyone within 300 feet. The letters are just an initial volley; Time Warner expects to send additional letters, while AT&T Broadband also is preparing similar letters for some of its customers. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-942339.html - - - - - - - - EBay Says No to PayPal Gambling Online gamblers, most of whom can no longer use U.S. credit cards to fund their habit, are about to lose yet another payment option. Under the terms of its planned purchase of PayPal (PYPL), eBay said Monday it intends to stop offering the payment service for Internet gambling transactions. EBay, which plans to acquire PayPal in an estimated $1.5 billion stock transaction, attributed its decision to an "uncertain regulatory environment surrounding online gaming." With the U.S. House of Representatives reviewing legislation to prohibit Internet gambling, the online auctioneer determined it was too risky to continue offering the service. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,53703,00.html - - - - - - - - NTT DoCoMo accused of reverse domain name hijacking When NTT DoCoMo accused AT&T of hijacking imode.biz, it forgot to mention that it had licensed the name to the US telco. Now the tables have been turned. Japan's NTT DoCoMo was accused by a panel convened by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) of attempting to reverse-hijack the imode.biz domain name after it lost its case to win the name from US telecoms giant AT&T. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2118817,00.html - - - - - - - - MS Passport takes on credit cards Microsoft hopes to extend its Passport online identification system into authorizing credit card payments. The software giant will strike a partnership Tuesday with security-software maker Arcot Systems, which builds online payment systems for merchants and for banks that issue Visa and MasterCard credit cards. Arcot makes the systems behind Visa's own Verified by Visa program as well as a similar program in development at MasterCard. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-942344.html - - - - - - - - License to Hack There are bad ideas, and then there are really awful ideas. Example of a bad idea: the proposed uniform state law called the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA), with its "self-help" provision that lets vendors remotely sabotage software you've bought if they believe you're not conforming to their license terms. That one is such a stinker that three states have actually outlawed UCITA provisions from being enforced. And a really awful idea? Try legalizing malicious hacking. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,72519,00.html - - - - - - - - Imitation nation Is piracy-crazed China a nightmare vision of the future, or just a developing country going through some severe growing pains? In the shadow of century-old plane trees, art deco apartment buildings, gleaming A-grade office buildings and bustling department stores, they ply their trade. Seconds after you step off a bus, out of the subway or onto the curb a young man or woman sidles up to whisper, "Hello! CD? DVD?" http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/07/08/imitation_nation/index.html - - - - - - - - FBI names new CIO FBI director Robert S. Mueller III has named Darwin A. John as the bureaus new CIO. John follows Robert Dies, the agencys former CIO who retired earlier this year, and information resources manager Mark Tanner, who served as acting CIO. John has been managing director of information and communication systems worldwide for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City since 1990. In that job, he led construction of a genealogy Web site that went live in 1999 which has averaged nearly 8 million hits daily against the 900 million names in the system, the FBI said. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/19246-1.html - - - - - - - - House panel laments lack of progress on homeland security technology House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee members Tuesday voiced their frustration that federal agencies have not done more to develop new technologies to improve homeland security. Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Jim Greenwood, R-Pa., said the hearing was a continuation of a 10-month investigation that has shown the federal government has not provided sufficient assistance to entities working on homeland security technologies. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0702/070902td1.htm *********************************************************** 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.