September 27, 2002 Raids lift lid on child porn The net has closed in on thousands of suspected paedophiles across Europe who have paid to view child pornography on the Internet. A cross-border European swoop on child pornography rings that hit staid Switzerland this week has revealed a sordid Internet underworld of sexual exploitation which belies the apparent respectability of those involved. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2122965,00.html - - - - - - - - Super Vision awarded $41.2 million in tech theft case A small Orlando company Thursday said a jury had awarded it a $41.2-million verdict for the theft of its technology for making fiber-optic cable. The company, Super Vision International Inc. said the jury found the defendants -- nine individuals and six Chinese companies -- liable on all counts, including fraud, civil theft and conspiracy, Florida's Racketeering Influenced Corruption Act, misappropriation of technology and destruction of evidence. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/4159172.htm - - - - - - - - Online payment service PayPal hit by scam During the past two weeks, online payment service PayPal Inc. has been targeted by scam artists trying to get the personal information of its users, including credit card data, user names and passwords. On Sept. 16, an unsophisticated scam e-mail, slugged "PayPal Verification," was sent requesting users to log into their PayPal accounts "asap" to confirm they were still active users of the service. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,74687,00.html - - - - - - - - China implicated in Dalai Lama hack plot China has repeatedly attempted to crack into the Dalai Lama's computer network, according to its administrators. Over the last month there have been repeated attempts to infect systems used by the exiled spiritual leader. This takes the form of a computer virus which attempts to send information back to China, Jigme Tsering, manager of the Tibetan Computer Resource Centre told AP. http://online.securityfocus.com/news/884 - - - - - - - - Calif. attorney general files spam suit against company California Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed suit against Internet marketer PW Marketing, accusing the company of illegally spamming millions of Californians. The suit, filed Thursday in Santa Clara County Superior Court, alleges the company's owners, Paul Willis of Northridge and Claudia Griffin of Canyon County, violated various California consumer protection statutes that prohibit unsolicited commercial e-mails, known as spam. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2002-09-27-spam-suit_x.htm Anti-Spam Laws a Tough 'Cell' http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,55374,00.html - - - - - - - - Hacker groups declare war on US.gov A record number of malicious hacking attempts were made this month, and anti-American groups are responsible. So says Mi2g, the London-based security consultancy, which notes that US government on-line computers belonging to the House of Representatives, Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, National Park Service, NASA and the US Geological Survey were attacked in September. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/27320.html - - - - - - - - Cybersecurity Challenge Debated Finding, patching vulnerabilities of all types is a huge job, but failure may be devastating, experts say. A real threat to U.S. cybersecurity exists, but it is more difficult to say exactly what sort of prevention should be taken, agreed a panel of experts at a Cato Institute program here. The participants, who included Microsoft's chief security strategist and a representative from the U.S. government's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board (CIPB), were invited by the libertarian public policy research group to speak about how real is the threat to cybersecurity. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,105447,00.asp - - - - - - - - P2P foes defend hacking bill Supporters of a new bill set to thwart peer-to-peer piracy have hitback at criticis, accusing them of using 'scare tactics'. Supporters of a proposed law that would permit copyright holders to assail peer-to-peer networks angrily defended it on Thursday, saying it had been mischaracterised by opponents. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2122962,00.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2002-09-27-piracy-defend_x.htm http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/19526.html http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/09/27/media.piracy.reut/index.html - - - - - - - - FTC pens Dewie the Turtle to promote Internet safety Dewie the Turtle, a symbol for safe Internet practices, today joined Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl in the federal government?s menagerie of mascots for public-spirited practices. The Federal Trade Commission unveiled Dewie, an upbeat green cartoon, at the Privacy2002 conference in Cleveland. The idea is to have Internet security practices become second nature just like looking both ways before crossing the street, said FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle in a statement. http://online.securityfocus.com/news/885 http://online.securityfocus.com/news/883 - - - - - - - - Group seeks curbs on security reports 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://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-959836.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2122949,00.html Software firms team to fight bug leaks A loose coalition of software developers and security companies has come together with the aim of preventing vulnerability information being released prematurely, Kevin Murphy writes. Yesterday, a body calling itself the Organization for Internet Safety, announced its existence, and said it intends to have draft guidelines published early next year. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/27312.html - - - - - - - - Networking titans team for security 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 stand-alone 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://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-959721.html - - - - - - - - Washington Post battles domain claim The Washington Post Co. threatened an anti- abortion activist with legal action on Friday for registering a similar domain name and snatching e-mail messages intended for reporters. Bill Purdy, who lives in South Saint Paul, Minn., has registered WPNI.org, which is similar to the WPNI.com domain name that many Washington Post- Newsweek employees have as part of their e-mail addresses. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-959992.html - - - - - - - - VPN flaw exposes internal networks A suspected vulnerability in Microsoft's popular virtual private networking application discovered Thursday could, if confirmed, leave corporate intranets open to attack, said security experts. A security advisory posted by German security firm Phion Information Technologies to Internet mailing lists and the company's Web site said that the vulnerability affects the point-to-point tunneling protocol (PPTP) commonly used in the VPN software bundled in Microsoft's Windows 2000 and XP operating systems for servers and PCs. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-959659.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2122943,00.html http://www.itworld.com/Sec/2052/020927msvpnflaw/ http://www.vnunet.com/News/1135462 - - - - - - - - New Net project aims to avoid hacking Scientists concerned about the vulnerability of the Internet to failure or hacking envision a next-generation system that would use the collective power of users' computers to become more secure. Researchers exploring that vision at five major U.S. universities got a $12-million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) this week, as part of a program that doled out $144 million to advance computer science. http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/09/27/iris.internet/index.html - - - - - - - - Viruses are dead. Long live viruses! This year has been mercifully quiet on the virus front but anyone who reckons the virus problem has finally been beaten is failing to learn the lessons of history. The problem of computer viruses has been declared "over" before, only to be "reinvented" a few months later, argues David Perry, a marketing manager at Trend Micro. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/27321.html - - - - - - - - Academia becomes target for new security laws Foreign students have helped propel the research for which US universities are famous. New security concerns could limit their ability to contribute. When William Stwalley got word this summer about what had happened to his foreign graduate students, the usually mild-mannered physics professor could barely keep himself in his chair. He was livid. http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0924/p11s02-lehl.html - - - - - - - - Solving crimes from the sky Paroled convicts at the scene of a crime? CrimeTrax knows. For years, law enforcement agencies have experimented with technology that tracks paroled criminals. Well, Seminole County, Fla., has taken the next step. Last month the sheriffs department launched CrimeTrax, which automatically monitors the location of parolees and suspects out on bail. When the people who are monitored are found to be in the vicinity of a newly committed crime, they are picked up and questioned. http://www.msnbc.com/news/813911.asp *********************************************************** 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.