Septermber 19, 2002 Feds smash 'date rape' drug ring Hundreds of federal law enforcement officials in several states and Canada Wednesday began arresting operators and customers of an alleged Internet-based drug ring that illegally sold three popular chemical depressants widely known as "date rape" drugs, government sources said. All of the major suspects are in custody, sources said. http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/09/18/drug.ring/index.html http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/daterape020919.html Authorities announce progress against Internet drug dealers Attorney General John Ashcroft announced a major crackdown on Internet drug traffickers Thursday, disclosing that 115 dealers of the "date rape" drug GHB had been arrested in 84 cities in the United States and Canada. "This takedown is a dose of harsh reality for drug traffickers who seek to exploit the vast markets and anonymity of cyberspace," Ashcroft said. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2002-09-19-internet-drug-dealers_x.htm - - - - - - - - Programmer faces terror charge 32 year-old arrested under Terrorism Act 2000 A computer programmer is due to appear in court today charged with allegedly collecting information that could be used by terrorists. Mohammed Abdullah Azam will appear at Bow Street Magistrates' Court under the Terrorism Act 2000. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1135170 - - - - - - - - Linux rootkit hacker suspect arrested in UK A 21-year old from Surbiton, Surrey has been arrested on suspicion of writing and distributing the T0rn rootkit, which dumbs down the process of hacking Linux servers. Officers from Scotland Yard's Computer Crime Unit arrested the man for alleged offences under Computer Misuse Act 1990 earlier this week, as part of a joint FBI/Scotland Yard investigation into the creation of the T0rn rootkit. A search warrant was served and computer equipment seized from his house. Today the man was released on police bail until October pending further inquiries. The T0rn rootkit has been a hazard for system admins since its creation two years ago, most particularly when the rootkit was bundled as the backdoor component of the Lion worm, released in the middle of last year. http://online.securityfocus.com/news/703 - - - - - - - - Two years' jail for internet pornographer A paedophile had one of the country's biggest collections of pornography when police raided his home. As revealed in later editions of last night's Chronicle, Clive Cairns, 44, was jailed for two years at Newcastle Crown Court after he admitted making and possessing indecent photographs. Detectives thought he was making and selling copies of computer games on the black market when they raided his Sunderland home but instead, he had spent years amassing internet images of boys. http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100local/page.cfm?objectid=12211968&method=full&siteid=50081 - - - - - - - - Soham pair on US child porn list a year ago Intelligence that could have led to the arrest on child pornography charges of two policemen who played key roles in the Soham murders case has been known to the British police for a year. The information that would have led police to Det Con Brian Stevens and Pc Anthony Goodridge was passed to the National Criminal Intelligence Service by authorities in the United States last September. Their names were allegedly on a list of 7,272 UK-based subscribers to websites selling images of children as young as five being sexually abused. American investigators have had the list since 2000. http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/09/19/nfen19.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/09/19/ixhome.html - - - - - - - - Bush's computer 'culture of security' relies on users Declaring that government alone cannot protect the nation's computer networks, top White House officials Wednesday presented a sober assessment of the nation's preparedness for cyberattacks and called for ``a new culture of security.'' Before several hundred industry and government officials gathered at Stanford University, Bush administration officials unveiled a largely voluntary plan for computer users and employers to fend off cyberattacks, but refused to call for new regulations or specific incentives. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/4106012.htm http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35812-2002Sep18.html Cybersecurity plan lacks muscle http://news.com.com/2100-1023-958545.html Experts slam cybersecurity plan http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/09/19/cybersecurity.ap/index.html http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0916/web-cyber-09-19-02.asp Administration official defends cyberspace security plan http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0902/091902td1.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/27211.html - - - - - - - - Davis signs bills to stop unwanted faxes and text messages Gov. Gray Davis signed three bills Thursday he called a package of ``leave-us-alone legislation'' -- including bills that ban unwanted faxed advertisements and unsolicited text messages on cell phones. With his signature, Davis eliminated California's law against sending unsolicited faxes to allow a stronger federal law to take effect. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/4110927.htm - - - - - - - - National surveillance centre suffers delay Spooks' snoop shop put on hold till next year The UK government's new internet surveillance centre, due to be in use from this month, will not be operational until next year, vnunet.com's sister title Computing can reveal. The National Technical Assistance Centre (NTAC) has been decrypting seized computer data since summer 2001 from its base at MI5 headquarters. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1135157 - - - - - - - - SCHOOLKIDS BARRED FROM TERRORISM' WEB SEARCHES An Internet filter on the city Department of Education's computer system has barred high- school students from gaining access to Web sites that discuss "terrorism," teachers charged yesterday. Students at Murry Bergtraum HS near Ground Zero - students directly impacted by the Sept. 11 attacks - were blocked from Web links using the word "terrorism" during searches on their classroom computers. "Access denied," the filter says. "Terrorism is on the list of forbidden words. I was surprised," said Bergtraum social-studies teacher John Elfrank-Dana. http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/57328.htm - - - - - - - - Hey Filters, Leave the Kids Alone A small group of activists gathered in front of Mission High School on Wednesday to protest federally mandated Internet filtering in public schools. Several students, a school librarian and a representative from the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation kicked off a campaign to raise awareness about the Children's Internet Protection Act, which requires that schools use filtering technology to block access to obscene websites -- or lose federal funding. http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,55243,00.html Internet filtering software 'damages educational opportunities' http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/27190.html - - - - - - - - Fighting Back: Dissatisfied Online Shoppers Take Action The hard part is tracking down fraudulent sellers and making them refund money. EBay must depend on the FBI and local authorities to prosecute. Peeved consumers, who claim online auction sites are unresponsive to fraud, are increasingly taking matters into their own hands. The cyber- vigilantes are filing more police reports, attempting more often to track down merchants on their own and putting up more Web sites to warn others of merchants they say are unscrupulous. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/19455.html - - - - - - - - Wireless hitchhikers branded as thieves Take advantage of this and you could be stealing Phone maker Nokia has come down strongly against warchalking. It has condemned as theft the placing of chalk symbols on walls and pavements at places where people can use wireless net access. An advisory issued by the handset maker said anyone using bandwidth without the permission of the person paying for it was simply stealing. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2268224.stm - - - - - - - - Can Bon Jovi Foil the Pirates? Hair-rock mastodons Bon Jovi may have actually done something cool this decade. The 1980s megastars have a new, Web-based scheme to discourage their soon-to-be-released disc from being pirated. And computer security experts think the program just might work. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,55246,00.html - - - - - - - - Piracy commonplace - and hard to fight - on the Web, experts say If imitation is the highest form of flattery, Web-design firm Hesketh.com must have been blushing when a virtual facsimile of their corporate Web site turned up this summer as the Web site for an online banner-ad company across the pond in the United Kingdom. "Not only did they steal the visual design, they also stole the technical design, the underlying code that drives the site," says Michael Tucker, Raleigh-based Hesketh's chief relationship officer. http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/542285p-4287065c.html - - - - - - - - EasyInternetCafe faces gag in CD-burning row The British music industry mobilises its lawyers as the argument over copyright infringement at EasyInternetCafe's stores rumbles on EasyInternetCafe has been threatened this week with a gagging order as the ongoing piracy dispute between the company and the British music industry remains unresolved. Lawyers acting on behalf of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) contacted EasyInternetCafe on Tuesday, warning that they plan to apply for an injunction that would stop EasyInternetCafe talking to the press about the row. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2122548,00.html - - - - - - - - Wager Works makes inroads in online gambling The future may be cloudy for Internet gambling, but legal and technical issues have not dampened the mood at Web site designer Wager Works, which has won over two of the industry's premier names in its brief lifetime. Based in San Francisco, the young private company recently emerged on the fledgling Internet gaming scene to become one of the industry's top players, with a Hard Rock Casino site that went live two months ago and an MGM Mirage site set to be running by the end of this year. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/4110935.htm - - - - - - - - Two flaws embitter Microsoft's Java Microsoft released an advisory Wednesday night warning all users of its Windows operating system of two new critical flaws that could allow a malicious attacker to take control of a victim's PC. The critical flaws occur in the software giant's implementation of the Java Virtual Machine, which allows platform-independent programs to run on a PC. http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2880707,00.html http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-958547.html Flaws in Microsoft VM. Fix now Microsoft has alerted the world+dog to a trio of vulns in its implementation of Java Virtual Machine. The most serious enables an attacker to gain "complete control" over a victim's system. So get patching now. In an advisory, the company warns that the flaws to Microsoft VM, which ships as part of most versions of Windows and IE, are a critical risk to users. http://online.securityfocus.com/news/704 http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2122536,00.html - - - - - - - - MS silently fixes password sniffing bug with XP SP1 Keystrokes, including passwords, can be sniffed when using Windows Terminal Server or the XP remote control feature. MS has rolled a fix silently into SP1 without making any public statement on this serious problem. The cause of the keystroke-sniffing feature is a design mistake in Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) which leaks information about the contents of encrypted packets through their checksums. This is because packets with the same plaintext have matching checksums throughout a particular session. http://www.theregus.com/content/55/26352.html - - - - - - - - Crypto-chip boosts ID security Epoxy token could make smart cards tamper-proof Neil Gershenfeld of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ravikanth Pappu of ThingMagic LLC demonstrate a physical one-way function, using an epoxy token containing glass spheres that scatter laser light. The function works as a tamper-proof type of cryptography. http://www.msnbc.com/news/810083.asp - - - - - - - - Security: Stop ignoring the obvious mistakes The FBI is taking one of the key goals of the just released draft of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace to heart. The law enforcement agency, best known for its Most Wanted list and inept use of information technology, is hoping to build awareness about cybersecurity and promote good security hygiene. In his recent ZDNet News commentary on keeping hackers at bay, Arvind Krishna, vice president of security products for Tivoli Software at IBM, quoted from the FBI's list of five common mistakes that leave company and employee data vulnerable: http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2880660,00.html - - - - - - - - A Gathering of Big Crypto Brains In a lush country hotel 20 miles south of Dublin, the barroom conversation turns to steganography and database vulnerabilities, encryption algorithms and biometric scanners, SWAP files and cookie poisoning. Not your average pub denizens, the speakers are some of the best-known names in cryptography and security, gathered for one of the industry's best-kept secrets: the annual COSAC conference, held every fall in Ireland. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,55209,00.html - - - - - - - - The rise of P2P worms--and how to protect yourself It's been exactly a year since the Nimda worm first took the Internet community by surprise. Though last year many antivirus vendors predicted a wave of Nimda-mimics, the original remains in a class by itself; the virus-writing community simply didn't play along. But now that school's back in session, and new viruses are starting to appear again after their usual summer hiatus, we're starting to see a new strain that's completely different from Nimda. http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2880466,00.html - - - - - - - - A cybersage speaks his mind An associate professor at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Sorkin in 1995 was one of the first academics to offer a course on cyberlaw. But when it comes to legislating our way to Internet nirvana, Sorkin remains a skeptic. In fact, he says the law governing the offline world is equipped to handle most online disputes, and cautions that attempts to address Internet problems such as spam are only going to make matters worse. http://news.com.com/2008-1082-958576.html - - - - - - - - Lawrence Lessig's Supreme Showdown Lawrence Lessig helped mount the case against Microsoft. He wrote the book on creative rights in the digital age. Now the cyberlaw star is about to tell the Supreme Court to smash apart the copyright machine. What's left of a dream is stored at the Stanford Law School library in 12 fat green loose-leaf binders and several legal boxes of supporting documents and briefs. They chronicle the 54 days that Lawrence Lessig, the Elvis of cyberlaw, helped Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson with the mother of all tech litigation: Department of Justice v. Microsoft. It was to be Lessig's greatest moment. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.10/lessig.html - - - - - - - - Homeland Security expo unveils protective gadgets It was a gee-whiz gadget fair with the grimmest of undertones: an exposition full of technology aimed at protecting Americans from unspeakable horrors. In one corner sat a massive $100,000 passageway that detects bombs and other explosives. In another aisle was a display of plastic masks that protect wearers from radiological, chemical and biological weapons. Elsewhere, an airline ticket kiosk that takes your picture and fingerprint, issuing boarding passes emblazoned with your smiling mug. http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/542625p-4288867c.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. 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.