July 18, 2002 Notorious eBay crook gets 12 years In one of the toughest sentences for online auction fraud, a US man was sentenced to 12 years in prison for defrauding hundreds of shoppers on eBay and Yahoo! auction sites. Thomas Houser was sentenced this week after pleading guilty to one count of criminal mail fraud. More than 260 people lost nearly $100,000 in the scams after Houser "sold" electronics, paintball guns and other items through what was called the "Houser Family Store," collected the winning bids from auctions, then failed to deliver the goods. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1106-944867.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2119342,00.html http://www.vnunet.com/News/1133661 - - - - - - - - Star phone hacker arrested Angus Deayton phone tapper could be BT engineer. A 34 year-old Hertfordshire man has been arrested over allegations that he hacked into the phone line of television presenter Angus Deayton. The man is thought to be a BT engineer. A number of recording devices were found in a junction box near the north London home which Deayton shares with Lise Meyer and their 18 month-old son. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1133698 - - - - - - - - House homeland bill adds tech position, blocks cybersecurity transfer The version of a bill to establish a Homeland Security Department generated Thursday by the House committee overseeing the legislation's development includes several key provisions sought by the House Science Committee. As amended by the House Select Homeland Security Committee, the draft bill, would add the position of undersecretary for science and technology and block the proposed transfer of the computer- security division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Sources noted that the early draft erroneously contained language on the NIST division's transfer. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0702/071802td1.htm - - - - - - - - The case of the missing code Are al-Qaida terrorists hiding their secrets in eBay photographs? If you were a terrorist schooled in fundamentalist Islam, mass violence, digital cryptography and, not least, the pack-rat ethos peculiar to eBay, in which corner of that vast auction site might you hide your plans for America's end? http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/07/17/steganography/index.html - - - - - - - - Yahoo admits changing e-mail text to block hackers If you ever used Yahoo! mail to ask a potential employer to ``evaluate'' your resume, they might have concluded your grasp of the English language was insufficient for the job. Yahoo! Inc. confirmed Wednesday that its e-mail software has automatically changed certain words -- including evaluate -- in a bid to prevent hackers from spreading viruses. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/3683688.htm http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18665.html - - - - - - - - Tech activists disrupt copyright hearings Enthusiasts of free software disrupted a Commerce Department meeting Wednesday, insisting on their right to debate the entertainment industry over anti-copying technologies. About a dozen vocal tech activists in the audience challenged speakers, including Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), who equated piracy with theft and applauded digital rights management. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-944728.html http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/469113p-3750667c.html Piracy: Labels turn sights on Web radio http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-944850.html http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-streaming18jul18.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dtechnology Record labels chase Chinese pirates http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-944879.html - - - - - - - - Firms tackle cyber-sabotage The shadowy world of internet revenge. Cyber- sabotage is regarded as one of the business world's dirty little secrets. And it's one that is increasingly coming to light in the wake of scandals like Enron, Global Crossing and WorldCom. The US recession and the thousands of lay-offs that have resulted have also forced the issue centre stage. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_2136000/2136494.stm - - - - - - - - Copyright enforcer Ranger Online caught stealing content Internet spyware outfit Ranger Online has taken considerable heat for a little gimmick it's developed which, in the words of MSNBCi columnist Bob Sullivan, "cruises file-swapping networks like Gnutella to find copyrighted materials, hunts down the IP address of the poster, then discovers which Internet service provider is being used. Soon after, the MPAA sends its form letter to the ISP. Under the Digital Copyright Millennium Act, Internet providers are compelled to stop distribution of copyrighted materials when they are notified, so the ISP in turn forwards the note to the user, along with a threat of disconnection." http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/26250.html - - - - - - - - Hong Kong to clamp down on Internet cafes Hong Kong's government has proposed a raft of measures to tighten controls over Internet cafes in a bid to raise safety standards and prevent them from becoming hotspots for crime. Among the proposals was a plan to ban teenagers under 16 from Internet cafes after 10 p.m. and to require operators to install devices blocking violent, pornographic or gambling Web sites, according to a government document obtained on Thursday. The cafes must also be brightly lit, it said. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105-944794.html http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/470864p-3762237c.html Why Countries Make Sites Unseen http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,53933,00.html - - - - - - - - Start-up has locks for Secure Notebook Rop Gonggrijp admits that it's not a promising time to start an Internet privacy company. The founder of NAH6 knows all about flops such as Privada, abandoned software such as PGP and SafeWeb, and struggling firms such as Zero Knowledge. Yet Gonggrijp believes it's possible for his new company to find buyers for its innovative products, which include an encrypted PC, a secure cellular phone and a better way to do secure e-mail. To encourage broad adoption, Amsterdam-based NAH6 plans to release much of its work as open-source software for noncommercial use. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-944726.html http://news.com.com/2100-1023-944715.html - - - - - - - - Dotcom millionaire' pulls out of porn Benjamin Cohen - one-time teenage "dotcom millionaire" - is pulling out of the porn business. He's decided to sell his two XXX search engines, dotadults.com and hunt4porn.com, because they are a drain on resources. Cohen reckons both sites are real goers, for the right person, but he doesn't want to do it himself. Instead, he wants to concentrate on his CyberBritain business, which is currently undergoing "a major restructure". http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/26268.html - - - - - - - - Justifying the Expense of IDS Part One: An Overview of ROIs for IDS A positive return on investment (ROI) of intrusion detection systems (IDS) is dependent upon an organization's deployment strategy and how well the successful implementation and management of the technology helps the organization achieve the tactical and strategic objectives it has established. For organizations interested in quantifying the IDS's value prior to deploying it, their investment decision will hinge on their ability to demonstrate a positive ROI. http://online.securityfocus.com/infocus/1608 *********************************************************** 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.