October 24, 2002 Prostitutes Steal Secret Software from US Army Prostitutes stole a portable computer with secret software from US Army soldiers currently conducting military exercises in Poland. The computer disappeared when three programmers of the US Army invited prostitutes to dinner and to drink. The men fell asleep rather quickly. However, when they woke up in the morning, they discovered that their computer disappeared; in addition to the computer, the girls also stole a digital camera and a pair of speakers. http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/10/22/38519.html - - - - - - - - FBI seeks to trace massive Net attack As investigators continued tracking the source of a bid to topple the heart of the Internet this week, experts said the attack was neither the most efficient nor likely way to inflict pain on the average Web surfer. "Most people had no idea this was happening," said Hari Balakrishnan, a computer science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "If the top five most-visited sites were down, that's when people will tell you their service was disrupted." http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/10/23/net.attack/index.html http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/588785p-4583202c.html U.S. Still Hunts Cyberattack Culprit http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/19768.html Major Net backbone attack could be first of many http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,75336,00.html Experts: Internet attackers could be hard to trace http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2002-10-24-net-attack_x.htm - - - - - - - - Canadian cons use PCs to hack, forge IDs and spread porn Canadian convicts have taken advantage of prison PCs to produce escape plans, make fake IDs and conduct scams. These are among the revelations from an internal report by Canada's Correctional Service (CSC), obtained by the National Post, which warns of the risk of cons spreading viruses or hacking into the prison service's network. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/27770.html - - - - - - - - Bush Backs New Online Protections for Children President Bush, remarking that it's a "sick world," called yesterday for an increase in federal funding and new legislation to combat online predators who stalk children in cyberspace in hopes of sexually molesting them. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7714-2002Oct23.html President Increases Federal Efforts to Promote Online Safety http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021023-8.html - - - - - - - - Commerce official supports computer security office move Despite opposition to the idea from the technology industry, a senior Commerce Department official voiced support last week for a proposal to transfer the Computer Security Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology to the Homeland Security Department. There's no doubt that the new ... department will require technical competence and the encryption of computer information, Deputy Secretary Samuel Bodman said in an interview, noting that the division specializes in those areas. http://207.27.3.29/dailyfed/1002/102402td1.htm - - - - - - - - No Easy Money Suing Spammers When Ken Pugh sued the Elizabeth Dole for Senate campaign last month for sending him spam, it wasnt money that motivated him. Even if he wins, according to the North Carolina statute hes suing under, Pugh stands to net a whopping $80. That's $10 for each of eight e-mails he received. No, its the principle of the thing, says Pugh, a computer consultant from Durham, North Carolina, who is claiming that the unwanted e-mails constituted an illegal computer trespass. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,55927,00.html - - - - - - - - Labels target CEOs over file swapping Record companies and movie studios are turning an anti-piracy spotlight on corporate America, sending a letter to top CEOs this week warning of illegal file trading going on at "a surprising number of companies." The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and songwriters' associations have drafted a letter expected to be sent Friday to the Fortune 1000 companies, cautioning executives that employees' song- or movie-swapping could put them at legal risk. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-963208.html http://news.com.com/2100-1023-963208.html - - - - - - - - Free speech feels Net copyright chill Rick Sanchez thought the bright folks at Mensa International would agree that his Pets or Food Web site was a joke. He was sure that the site's offers of "freshly clubbed" frozen baby seal meat and "a dozen Doberman flank steaks for a Super Bowl party" were a dead giveaway. If not, then surely the site's frisky description of fictional CEO Sydney Zwibel--a "former animal disposal technician," Mensa member and alternate member of the 1984 Olympic Fencing Team--smacked of parody. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-963122.html - - - - - - - - France battles on for data privacy Been wronged by your phone company? Concerned that your data isn't being kept securely? From January 2003, UK consumers can turn to Otelo for help. She may no longer be the UK's information commissioner, but Elizabeth France is still fighting to make sure that companies don't abuse the privacy of their customers. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2124438,00.html - - - - - - - - Encryption method getting the picture Researchers have created a new way to encrypt information in a digital image and extract it later without any distortion or loss of information. A team of scientists from Xerox and the University of Rochester said that the technique, called reversible data hiding, could be used in situations that require proof that an image has not been altered. Its uses could range from sensitive military and medical diagnostic images to legal documents and photographs of crime scenes. The technique could also be used to encode information within the image itself for cataloging and retrieving from databases. http://news.com.com/2100-1001-963054.html - - - - - - - - "Critical" Kerberos flaw revealed Kerberos has lost some of its bite, according to the US government, which on Wednesday warned of a critical flaw that could allow hackers to circumvent the secure networking system. Kerberos was invented by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is used by many large businesses as a way of keeping their networks secure. It uses strong encryption to verify the identity of any machine using a networked resource. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-963250.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2124437,00.html - - - - - - - - Porn censorship at work shock Pornography is the most censored type of Internet content at work, according to those clever people at Datamonitor. Oh come off it now, is that right? Can porn really be more censored than, say, oh, I don't know, Web content about knitting? Or butterflies? Quite frankly, this piece of research is so unexpected, so out of the blue, it beggars belief. Who'd have thought it? Porn - the most censored content online at work. Sheesh. Oh well, you learn something new everyday. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/27762.html - - - - - - - - Fingerprint science The investigation into the sniper shootings and todays arrest of two suspects draw upon the full arsenal of criminal investigation, from plain old shoe leather to telephone tips to international financial forensics. But fingerprint science is clearly playing a crucial role in tying all the elements of the case together. Over the past few weeks, ballistic fingerprinting has been used to link the shootings to each other, by looking at telltale marks left on bullets as they traveled through the gun barrel. http://www.msnbc.com/news/750150.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. 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