September 26, 2002 Host pulls satire site after police 'incitement' claim A satirical Web site that attempted to parody concerns over child safety has been shut down following the intervention of police. Thinkofthechildren.co.uk was pulled on Monday after officers from the Metropolitan Police Service's Obscene Publications and Internet Unit contacted the site's hosts alleging that that it could incite others to violence. Police said they approached Host Europe after they received a number of complaints about the site from concerned members of the public. Host Europe shut down the site after they failed to contact the site's owner. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/27281.html - - - - - - - - Universal Music sued over PIN code on new Bon Jovi album Vivendi Universal SA's Universal Music Group is being sued by a New York technology company for allegedly infringing upon its anti-piracy technology, setting up a potential roadblock for the release of the new album ``Bounce'' by the band Bon Jovi. DownloadCard Inc., a provider of anti-piracy services, on Wednesday asked a federal court judge in New York to prohibit the world's largest music group from using what DownloadCard says is its proprietary technology. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/4156831.htm - - - - - - - - Internet anti-piracy bill causes a stir in Congress A California congressman on Thursday defended his proposal to give the entertainment industry new powers to disrupt downloads of pirated music and movies. But Rep. Howard L. Berman indicated he might rewrite part of the bill to more plainly outlaw hacker-style attacks by the industry on Internet users. Berman's anti-piracy bill has emerged as one of the most controversial policy debates in Washington affecting the Internet and technology industry. Berman, whose district includes Hollywood, introduced the bill in late July. http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/551913p-4353690c.html P2P foes defend hacking bill http://news.com.com/2100-1023-959774.html Discord over file swapping http://news.com.com/2009-1023-959579.html - - - - - - - - SA Police contemplates e-crime outsourcing The South Australian Police Department is contemplating outsourcing its cybercrime investigations as part of a broad campaign to overcome a resource drain in the fight against e-criminals. Tony Rankine, Superintendent of the Serious Fraud Investigation Branch of the South Australian Police said the move was being contemplated under the Electronic Crime Strategy of the Police Commissioners' Conference Electronic Crime Steering Committee. http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/security/story/0,2000024985,20268576,00.htm - - - - - - - - VA computer systems better, but still vulnerable The Veterans Affairs Department continues to make incremental progress in its effort to overhaul information technology systems, but computer security is still a concern, government officials told House lawmakers Thursday. An audit of VAs information technology program conducted over the last six months found that the department has made some important strides, but has yet to implement key information security initiatives or establish a comprehensive, integrated agency-wide security program, according to VA Inspector General Richard Griffin. Griffin testified before the House Veterans Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0902/092602t1.htm - - - - - - - - FTC enlists turtle to promote online security Aiming to get consumers up to speed on security in fast-paced online world, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) unleashed a new educational initiative Thursday featuring "Dewie the e-Turtle." The initiative, introduced at the Privacy2002 Conference in Cleveland, Ohio, seeks to provide consumers with resources on how to guarantee their security and privacy online with a new Web site featuring tips and information, and, of course, the ubiquitous Dewie. Dewie, described as a "Webwise turtle, designed to appeal to kids and their parents," serves as program mascot encouraging consumers to ensure their online security by using strong passwords, installing firewalls and running antivirus programs, among other measures. http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2002/0926dewie.html http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/20121-1.html - - - - - - - - Judge postpones easyGroup CD burning hearing The BPI (British Phonographic Industry) today failed in its bid to get an injunction gagging easyGroup and its Internet cafe business from talking publicly about its row with the music business. The judge did not see any urgency in the matter and postponed the hearing until next week. A dozen or so people in orange boiler suits - including easyGroup boss Stelios - waved placards outside the High Court in London in protest against the proposed gagging order. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/27305.html - - - - - - - - University bans "illegal" links The University of California at San Diego has ordered a student organization to delete hyperlinks to an alleged terrorist Web site, citing the recently enacted USA Patriot Act. School administrators have told the group, called the Che Cafe Collective, that linking to a site supporting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) would not be permitted because it violated federal law. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-959544.html - - - - - - - - Software security group launches Eleven software makers and security firms announced on Thursday the formation of a group that intends to set down rules regarding how the security community should responsibly release information on software flaws. The members of the group, which first discussed the issues nearly a year ago, hope to bridge the gap between security firms and independent consultants who release information about flaws to grab media attention and the software companies that frequently find themselves with egg on their face over the holes in their applications. http://news.com.com/2100-1001-959836.html - - - - - - - - Most parents don't use Web filters A new UK survey of parents whose children use the Net shows that only a minority employ a filter to restrict access to certain Web sites. The survey found that while nearly 70 percent of parents said they monitored their children's use of the Internet, only 32 percent said they used a technical filter that limited access to certain kinds of Web sites. The survey, conducted late last year by the BBC, the Broadcasting Standards Commission (BSC) and the Independent Television Commission (ITC), concluded that the Internet as a medium raises more concerns and uncertainties than television for parents monitoring their children's media consumption. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/27301.html - - - - - - - - Cyber-turf law hinges on 'hack' If a record label hacks into your computer to disable some MP3 music files, have you been "hacked"? That depends on your definition of hacking. What constitutes hacking is expected to be among the hot issues today during a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the Peer to Peer Piracy Prevention Act, a potential new weapon to protect intellectual property in the age of rampant Net trading. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2002-09-25-hack_x.htm - - - - - - - - Music Biz Lament: Stealing Hurts The recording industry launches a multimillion dollar advertising campaign on Thursday to drive home one simple message: downloading music is bad. The first full-page ads appear in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the congressional paper Roll Call with large, all-caps text that reads "Who Really Cares About Illegal Downloading?" surrounded by quotes from musicians condemning online file trading. Similar television spots will begin airing in the next few months. http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,55393,00.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2894-2002Sep25.html - - - - - - - - Universities tapped to build secure 'Net Amid heightened concerns over the Internet's continued vulnerability to failure or attack, the National Science Foundation is expected to announce Wednesday that it has enlisted five university computer science departments to develop a secure, decentralized Internet infrastructure. The joint project, dubbed Infrastructure for Resilient Internet Systems (IRIS), aims to use distributed hash table (DHT) technology to develop a common infrastructure for distributed applications. http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2002/0925iris.html - - - - - - - - Royalty Relief for Webcasters? Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) introduced legislation on Thursday meant to ease the transition webcasters face as they begin making royalty payments to record companies and songwriters. Since 1998, webcasters have operated with an agreement that they would pay royalties to the music industry when rates were finally determined. That day finally came last July when Librarian of Congress James Billington required webcasters to pay record labels .07 cents each time a song is streamed live and .02 cents for archived or simulcasted streams. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,55411,00.html - - - - - - - - Army honcho says theres more to biometrics than buying scanners Building an enterprise architecture and expanding bandwidth are the first steps toward a successful departmentwide implementation of biometrics technology, said Maj. Gen. Steven Boutelle, director of information operations, space and networks for the Army. We are going into a network-centric environment, Boutelle said at the Biometric Consortium conference this week in Arlington, Va. This is not just about collecting biometrics from individuals. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/20123-1.html - - - - - - - - Canada eyes iris-scanning for airports Canada unveiled plans on Wednesday to let frequent international fliers use their eyes to avoid long customs and immigration lines in airports. Instead of presenting identification documents to a customs official when entering Canada, prescreened travelers will be allowed, beginning next year, to use high- tech equipment that can identify them by scanning their irises. The iris has features unique to each individual, and iris scanning is considered more accurate than technologies such as fingerprinting, retinal scanning and facial scanning, according to Canada's Customs and Revenue Agency. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1106-959511.html - - - - - - - - Microsoft warns of FrontPage flaw Microsoft warned Web site administrators on Wednesday that a flaw in its FrontPage extensions could allow an attacker to take control of their servers or cause the computers to seize up. In its 53rd advisory for the year, the software giant said a vulnerability in the SmartHTML interpreter could be exploited to cause a denial-of-service attack on the Web server if the computer had FrontPage Server Extensions 2000 running. For FrontPage Server Extensions 2002, the flaw could result in the attacker running the code of their choice, essentially taking control of the server. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-959577.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2122878,00.html http://news.com.com/2100-1001-959659.html - - - - - - - - Spam glut spawns a new industry Spam may be a costly and seemingly unstoppable nuisance, but the trend offers an opportunity for companies developing technology to fight it, according to a new report from market research firm IDC. The report, released Thursday, predicts that a growing glut of spam will help propel the worldwide daily volume of e-mail from 31 billion messages this year to 60 billion in 2006. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-959694.html - - - - - - - - Network security gets unified Driven by companies exasperated with managing a slew of security devices that don't play well together, three of the industry's goliaths have this week unveiled unification strategies for their standalone network-protection products. Nortel Networks, Cisco Systems and Check Point Software have all announced initiatives to tie their own separate products together into networks that would allow for things like central management, integrated reporting and single-step updating. http://news.com.com/2100-1001-959721.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.