October 14, 2002 Police: Mall bomber used chat room Police in Finland say a chemistry student suspected of carrying out the country's worst bomb attack since World War II used an Internet chat room to exchange tips on home-made explosives. They said they were checking chat rooms to try to find why Petri Gerdt, a 19-year-old student from a middle-class Helsinki suburb, set off a bomb in a busy shopping centre on Friday, killing himself and six other people and injuring about 80. http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/14/helsinki.explosion/index.html - - - - - - - - Rogue mainframe blamed for prison scam Florida jailbirds given thousands of dollars in error. A computer error at three of Florida's hard- line prisons put hundreds of thousands of dollars into the canteen accounts of 186 inmates. While the mistake went undetected for at least 10 months, the convicts ordered cigarettes, sweets, cheeseburgers, tennis shoes, radios, biscuits, chewing tobacco and even televisions. Red-faced computer experts at the Florida Department of Correction blamed the mistake on problems with its mainframe and local systems. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1135938 - - - - - - - - Appeals court OKs fax intercepts FBI agents were not overzealous when conducting electronic surveillance against members of anti- government group the Montana Freemen, a federal appeals court has ruled. In what appears to be the first decision dealing with fax interception, a three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said on Friday that police did not violate federal wiretap laws when spying on the group, whose key members were convicted in 1998 of bank fraud. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961955.html - - - - - - - - FBI to build forensics center in Silicon Valley The FBI is creating a $3 million computer forensics lab in Silicon Valley, using the latest imaging software and high-end computers to sleuth for cyber-clues of child pornography, corruption, murder and more. The 12,000-square-foot Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, at the foot of the Dumbarton Bridge in Menlo Park, will be available to help detectives from San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Alameda counties hunt for digital clues. Investigators can bring seized computers and disks to be searched for incriminating e-mails, encrypted documents and other evidence within suspects' hardware or software. http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/4284974.htm - - - - - - - - Bush advisor: Cybercrime costs us billions Cybercrime is costing the world economy billions of dollars and is on the increase, President Bush's cyber-security adviser said Monday. "We have a great deal of focus nowadays on weapons of mass destruction but we need to be aware of the proliferation in cyberspace of weapons of mass disruption," Howard Schmidt told Reuters in an interview. The criminals range from terrorists to backroom hackers who know no frontiers. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-961933.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2123850,00.html http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/biztech/10/14/crime.cyberspace.reut/index.html - - - - - - - - Terror Czar: The War Is Digital Invading Iraq or silencing Syria won't put an end to terrorism, but according to an influential retired U.S. Army general, figuring out how to effectively disrupt the communications of extremist factions could. Speaking to an audience of security professionals on Wednesday, Barry McCaffrey, a security expert who advises Congress, said that winning against Saddam Hussein will be relatively easy. Protecting civil rights while battling terror will be harder. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,55089,00.html - - - - - - - - Former FBI chief takes on encryption When Louis Freeh ran the FBI, he loved nothing more than launching into a heartfelt rant against the dangers of encryption technology. In dozens of hearings and public speeches, the FBI director would urge Congress to limit encryption products, such as Web browsers and e-mail scrambling utilities, that did not include backdoors for government surveillance. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961969.html - - - - - - - - Visa Australia seeks to stall data fraud Amidst rising concern over online security, Visa International is preparing to trial a set of minimum e-commerce and data security standards for merchants with medium-to-large transaction volumes. Visa's Australian and New Zealand country risk manager, Ian McKindley, told ZDNet Australia exclusively the pilot would kick off with five companies within the next six weeks, before being expanded to 31 companies with e-commerce transaction volumes of more than 10,000 per month by June next year. http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/ebusiness/story/0,2000024981,20269055,00.htm - - - - - - - - Visa Web-porn CC processing regs invite censors Porno paymasters CCBill, iBill and Epoch/Paycom have issued a set of strict credit-card-order handling regulations for adult Webmasters using their services, which they say have been handed down to them from Visa International. The billing service providers, also called processors or aggregators, will now be responsible for a good deal more monitoring and record-keeping related to their clients, which henceforth are to be known as "sponsored merchants". http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/27583.html - - - - - - - - US firms protest EU privacy laws A group of US companies believes that it is making good progress in its attempt to change data protection legislation in Europe. It could be some time before any such amendments come into effect, though. After taking part in a conference that debated the EU Data Protection Directive, the Global Privacy Alliance is hopeful that changes will be made to the way that European countries protect the privacy of their citizens. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-961973.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2123848,00.html - - - - - - - - An Uphill Battle in Copyright Case My sense is that the case could be in trouble," Charles Nesson, the co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, said afterward at a lunch reception. "They saw the problem, but they didn't necessarily buy our solution." Some of the justices expressed what bordered on disdain for the 1998 legislation, which passed after intensive lobbying by the major film studios. "It is hard to understand how, if the overall purpose of the Copyright Clause is to encourage creative work, how some retroactive extension could possibly do that," said Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. "One wonders what was in the minds of the Congress." (NY Times article, free registration required) http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/14/technology/14LESS.html?todaysheadlines http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/27592.html US Copyright Office wakes up to flaws in anti-hacking law http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2123809,00.html Copyright law open for comment http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-961783.html Perspective: The copyright conundrum http://news.com.com/2010-1071-961818.html - - - - - - - - Online Gambling Laws a Good Bet Popular lore proclaims that the two most reliable moneymakers on the Internet target the basic human drives of sex and greed -- that is, pornography and gambling. The reality is likely not that simple, but there's certainly a tremendous quantity of both available on a vast array of websites, as well as in spam, banners and pop-up ads. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,55704,00.html - - - - - - - - Web sites blackout over Spanish monitoring law Spanish Web site operators have taken their sites offline in protest at government proposals to regulate online content. The spontaneous protest comes amidst deep concern among free speech advocates about Spain's "Law of Information Society Services and Electronic Commerce" (or LSSI as it is known in Spain), which became effective on Saturday (October 12th). http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/27589.html - - - - - - - - China clamps down on Net cafes - again China has launched another crack down on Internet cafes this time banning children under the age of 16 from using them. The new regulations - due to come into force next month - were introduced following a fire at a Beijing Internet cafe in which 24 people died and 13 were injured. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/27586.html - - - - - - - - New Vietnamese law requires permission to launch Web site Vietnam has issued new rules requiring businesses and organizations to get government permission before setting up new Web sites, an official said Monday. Worried by the increasing numbers of Vietnamese with access to news from outside sources, officials have been trying to tighten their control on the Internet. The government recently ordered that owners of the country's estimated 4,000 Internet cafes be held responsible for controlling their clients' Web surfing. http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/576479p-4506869c.html - - - - - - - - Outlook Express flaw speeds hacking Microsoft has discovered a problem with MIME within Outlook Express that could pose a real risk to users of the email application. Microsoft has warned Outlook Express users that a software flaw could allow an online vandal to control their computers. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2123807,00.html - - - - - - - - New Xbox security cracked by Linux fans Mod-chip makers and Linux programmers have managed to break through a revamped security system in Microsoft's gaming console, allowing it to run their own software. A group of independent programmers says it has managed to crack a new security system in Microsoft's Xbox gaming console, less than a month after the reconfigured consoles hit the market. Breaking the new system took less than a week, the hackers said. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2123851,00.html - - - - - - - - Check Point claims victory in Firewall/VPN tests Tests of three market-leading firewall/virtual private networking devices by the engineer calibre testing outfit The Tolly Group puts Check Point Technologies Ltd's VPN-1 Pro ahead of rival systems from Cisco Systems Inc and NetScreen Technologies Inc. The tests rated the performance of the $16,000 Check Point product as five times better in a supposedly 'real/world' mix of Layer 7 application traffic tests than the rival $65,000 and $35,000 product lines. UDP firewall benchmark tests and UDP VPN performance tests were also carried out by Tolly. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/27578.html - - - - - - - - Hacktivists Against Censorship Western hackers are developing programs to defeat the Internet censorship barriers of repressive countries overseas -- and you can take part in the effort. Software such as Peekabooty, Six/Four and Triangle Boy marries the peer-to-peer architecture of Napster-style file-sharing services with encryption and other stealth technology. The goal of the "hacktivists" writing these programs is to grant unrestricted Internet access to users in China, Iran and other countries whose governments use filtering or censoring software to control their Internet connection. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15124-2002Oct11.html - - - - - - - - How to hack people Mitnick shortly after his capture in 1995. The biggest threat to the security of a company is not a computer virus, an unpatched hole in a key program or a badly installed firewall. In fact, the biggest threat could be you. So says Kevin Mitnick, and he should know. Mr Mitnick won notoriety as a hacker during the late 80s and early 90s and his exploits regularly became front page news. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2320121.stm *********************************************************** 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.