August 30, 2002 Norway Police Charge 160 in Child Porn Crackdown Norwegian police said Thursday they had charged about 160 men with possession of child pornography after a two-day nationwide crackdown, the biggest of its kind ever undertaken in Norway. "Among the confiscated material are computer equipment, videos and pictures which document serious sexual abuse against children, but it will take time before all confiscations are analyzed," the National Criminal Investigation Service said in a statement. http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/news/world/3963462.htm - - - - - - - - Child Porn: Third British Cop Arrested Police have arrested 12 men in a series of raids in a crack-down on people buying "pay-per-view" child porn on the internet. The 12 were arrested at different addresses by North Wales Police who were following up details of internet users who subscribed to paedophile websites. The websites charge customers a set rate which gives access to a library of images for a limited time. http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1062429,00.html - - - - - - - - Electronic evidence raises questions in porn case A former Xerox engineer has been jailed in the US for possessing child pornography, despite evidence that files were added to and deleted from his computer while it was in police custody. A New York federal judge on Thursday sentenced a former Xerox engineer accused of trafficking in child pornography to nearly four years in prison. The US government's prosecution of Larry Benedict, 45, is unusual because all the evidence in the case is electronic, and all of the evidence appears to have been allegedly tampered with or otherwise altered after it was in government custody. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2121563,00.html - - - - - - - - Malaysia to launch piracy crackdown Malaysian officials will begin a nationwide crackdown on the use of pirated software by businesses on Sunday, declaring war on the rampant use of illegally copied programs, the official Bernama news agency reported Saturday. "Operation Genuine" will involve some 300 officers from the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry as well as software experts from the Business Software Alliance (BSA), which represents U.S. software publishers, it said. http://news.com.com/2100-1040-956219.html - - - - - - - - eBay user sues New England Patriots over tickets A former Providence police officer is suing the New England Patriots after the team revoked his season tickets when his wife tried to auction their seats on eBay. John Reis, 47, is an 18-year season ticket holder with three seats in the 34th row of Gillette Stadium at the 50-yard line. Now he finds himself involved in two separate court actions with the team. He's suing the Patriots in federal court for the return of his tickets and damages, and has filed a criminal assault and battery complaint against Patriots security chief Mark Briggs. http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/518689p-4117119c.html - - - - - - - - Domain scam merchants get legs sucked by toothless OFT The Office of Fair Trading has given a stern rebuke to the owners of companies that offered false domain names for $59 - and inadvertently given the green light to hundreds more Internet fraudsters. TLD Network Ltd and Quantum Management (GB), located at 843 Finchley Road in London, have been "stopped from publishing misleading advertisements for website domain names that are difficult to view on the World Wide Web". http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/26882.html - - - - - - - - Did FBI Bungle E-Mail Evidence? The FBI may have overlooked a crucial e-mail account used by Zacarias Moussaoui when agents examined computers known to have been used by the suspected terrorist. Moussaoui, now defending himself against terrorism conspiracy charges stemming from his alleged involvment in the Sept. 11 attacks, recently requested that prosecutors turn over their records of messages sent and received through his Hotmail account. http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,54857,00.html - - - - - - - - Cracking Down on Online Predators How Operation Blue Ridge Thunder has become one of the most successful pedophile sting programs in the nation. You may find it silly to think that a middle-aged policeman spends much of his day pretending to be a teenage girl. But it's serious business for these cops, who are online trying to catch pedophiles. Tonight's "Tech Live" looks at one of the nation's most successful sting operations, Operation Blue Ridge Thunder. http://www.techtv.com/news/print/0,23102,3397013,00.html - - - - - - - - An Avalanche of Child Porn Investigators use the subscription list found in a raid to track down pedophiles around the world. It began on September 8, 1999, when federal agents raided the Fort Worth, Texas, home and offices of Thomas and Janice Reedy. The Reedys had been operating a business called Landslide Productions, which the FBI suspected sold subscriptions to websites offering child pornography. Investigators called the business the largest commercial child pornography enterprise ever uncovered, grossing as much as $1.4 million in just one month. http://www.techtv.com/cybercrime/viceonline/story/0,23008,3359078,00.html - - - - - - - - Cyberattack fears haunt US companies A survey of security decision-makers finds growing fears of a terrorist attack over computer networks Nearly half of corporate security chiefs expect terrorists to launch a major strike through computer networks in the next 12 months, but just over half said in a poll that the US government was better prepared than on 11 September to respond. A total of 49 percent of 1,009 subscribers to a new security magazine, CSO (Chief Security Officer), said they feared a major cyberattack in the coming year by a group like al Qaeda, blamed for the 11 September attacks in the United states that killed more than 3,000 people. The poll was carried out between 19 July and 1 August by the Framingham, Massachusetts-based magazine. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2121535,00.html E-terrorism Doomsday predictions of a "digital Pearl Harbor" have persisted in the year since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. http://news.com.com/2009-1001-954728.html - - - - - - - - Chief Security Officers Speak Out About Biggest Security Risks A new poll of 1,000+ chief security officers (CSOs) and security executives conducted by IDG's CSO magazine reveals top concerns of today's security experts, as well as insight into the emerging CSO job function. The poll, released in tandem with the launch of CSO magazine, reveals 59% of CSOs believe electronic attacks (such as viruses) pose the biggest concern to their company over physical attacks (8%) or electronic attacks with physical consequences (3%). Nearly half (49%) anticipate a major cyber attack by a terrorist organization (i.e., Al Qaeda) will happen within the next 3 months to one year, with only 7% saying it will never happen. http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020829/nyth051_1.html - - - - - - - - Charity caught in anti-spam crossfire A British religious charity found that a legitimate email sent to one correspondent caused its Web site to be taken offline for a week. A religious charity in London recently discovered first-hand the dangers that can accompany new measures to stem the tide of junk email, when the organisation's site was yanked offline without notice. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2121574,00.html - - - - - - - - Smut Fighters: We Have Rights Too A Colorado company Thursday sued 16 Hollywood directors, including Steven Spielberg and Sydney Pollack, seeking the right to edit "objectionable" material such as sex and violence from movies. Clean Flicks of Colorado and Robert Huntsman, who has a patent pending for a new way to edit movies, filed the lawsuit in federal court, seeking a judgment that would declare it constitutional to provide edited movies to the public for private home viewing. http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,54852,00.html - - - - - - - - Anti-spam group blocks Yahoo stores An anti-spam group has put Yahoo's storefronts on its list of suspected junk e-mailers, snarling attempts by some customers to access the storefronts. The Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS) put the IP address for Yahoo's stores in its database Tuesday. The action came in response to a notice that an alleged spam mail that has been circulating since at least February was directing recipients to a storefront on Yahoo. http://news.com.com/2100-1017-956191.html - - - - - - - - Spam blacklist withdraws controversial fines policy A huge row has broken out after the maintainer of a list of spam-friendly insecure sites floated the idea that lax admins should pay a deposit to be removed from the list. Anti-spam campaigner Ron Guilmette, of monkeys.com, maintains a 'blocklist' of sites carrying scripts vulnerable to a formmail pearl scripting vulnerability, which is commonly used by spammers. This list, along with one he maintains on insecure proxies, is used by ISPs and other organisations to block emails originating from particular IP addresses. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/26890.html - - - - - - - - Mobile phone scam kills curious cats NTT DoCoMo has been forced to introduce countermeasures to a mobile phone scam that is causing consternation in Japan. The scam, which is known in Japanese as "wangiri" (one ring and cut), involves a computer using hundreds of phone lines to dial mobile phones numbers at random. After one ring, the call hangs-up, which leaves the number stored in the receiving party's mobile phone. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/26885.html - - - - - - - - Watchdogs rap RIAA's file-trade assault A federal law that the recording industry is using to unmask a suspected Kazaa music-trader is unconstitutional, a coalition of nonprofit groups said late Friday. A dozen consumer and privacy groups filed an amicus brief in federal court here arguing that the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) request for information about a Verizon Communications subscriber should be denied. Verizon has opposed the request on procedural grounds. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-956176.html Copyright fights As copyright wars rage, the battlegrounds are shifting away from courtrooms to new spaces, involving some familiar faces and attracting names that aren't normally associated with the contentious fight. For the second time in a month, the Recording Industry Association of America's Web site was attacked, apparently by opponents of the industry group's efforts to shut down online music trading. A modification contained messages in favor of file trading, and even direct links to downloadable music and to file-swapping service Kazaa. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-956001.htm - - - - - - - - Windows vulnerable to encryption attack A 'critical' flaw allows hackers to delete certificates used to keep data secure. Microsoft says that a security flaw in all versions of its flagship Windows operating system software released since Windows 98 could allow attackers to delete digital certificates. The world's top software maker said on Thursday that an infiltrator could use an email or a Web site to gain entry into a system and delete certificates, the pieces of data that are used to encrypt other data, such as email messages. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2121534,00.html http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/517654p-4109597c.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2002-08-30-windows-flaw_x.htm - - - - - - - - Spyware Trojan sends Hotmail to your boss Here's a piece of software that will make any decent human being vomit. Proudly marketed by spyware outfit SpectorSoft, it's a lowlife Trojan called eBlaster which you can e-mail to anyone in the world foolish enough to use Windows and log their keystrokes, and force their POP mail and Hotmail and Yahoo Web mail accounts to copy you in everything going on. "eBlaster records their e-mails, chats, instant messages, Web sites visited and keystrokes typed -- and then automatically sends this recorded information to your own e-mail address," the company proudly boasts. http://www.theregus.com/content/55/26137.html - - - - - - - - DOD hits smart card milestone The Defense Manpower Data Center handed out its 1 millionth Common Access Card, a multifunction "smart" identification card. Air Force Lt. Gen. Harry Raduege Jr., director of the Defense Information Systems Agency, received the millionth CAC card during a ceremony Aug. 28 at Fort Belvoir, Va. "It is a monumental step in our nation's steadfast determination to accomplish information security and assurance," said Dave Wennergren, Navy's deputy chief information officer for e-business and security. Wennergren is also part of the team in charge of the Defense Department's efforts to distribute the CAC cards throughout the department. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0826/web-cac-08-30-02.asp - - - - - - - - Hackers Being Jobbed Out of Work No too long ago, skilled hackers were rewarded with fat salaries and fancy titles after being busted for their shenanigans. Now, Max Vision -- a world- famous incarcerated hacker-turned- security-expert once making $250 an hour -- is happy to be getting minimum wage. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,54838,00.html *********************************************************** 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. 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