November 13, 2002 British Web designer charged over viruses A Web designer has been charged with sending viruses and having indecent images of children after a tip-off from the FBI. A Web site designer has been charged with sending computer viruses around the globe, including one rated the world's third most prolific, according to Scotland Yard. Simon Vallor, 21, from Llandudno, in Wales, was arrested in February following a tip-off from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2125873,00.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/28077.html - - - - - - - - Brit charged with hacking U.S. military systems A computer administrator from London was indicted today by two federal grand juries on computer fraud charges for hacking 105 computer systems through- out the U.S. military from March 2001 to March 2002. Gary McKinnon was indicted in Alexandria and New Jersey on charges that he deleted files and caused a total loss of Internet access and e-mail service to thousands of users in the Defense Department, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and NASA. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/20478-1.html http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/11/12/military.hacker/index.html http://www.vnunet.com/News/1136796 http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/618155p-4754548c.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/28083.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2002-11-13-hack-suspect_x.htm http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_708839.html Brit Fights Hacking Extradition http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,56360,00.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2125830,00.html http://www.vnunet.com/News/1136807 http://online.securityfocus.com/news/1641 - - - - - - - - Lawyers Pony Up to Bettors' Side Lawyers defending three men accused of collaborating to alter horse race bets -- in what is now being called a $3 million crime -- want to see evidence that a crime was actually committed. But that evidence, assuming bets made on six Breeders' Cup races in Illinois on Oct. 26 were altered, may be very hard to come by. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,56352,00.html - - - - - - - - Law Enforcers Tackle Deceptive Spam and Internet Scams "Spam Harvest" Results Reap Help for Consumers Trying To Avoid Spam. The Federal Trade Commission and 12 federal, state, and local law enforcement and consumer protection agencies today announced a four-part initiative launched to fight deceptive spam and Internet scams. The centerpiece of the initiative is a group of more than 30 law enforcement actions, including three FTC complaints and four settlements with spammers caught in an FTC sting. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/4511689.htm http://www.msnbc.com/news/834800.asp http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2002/11/netforce.htm - - - - - - - - Rural broadband drive 'hit by fraud' Someone is submitting false entries to BT's broadband registration scheme in an attempt to get a local exchange ADSL-enabled, and the practice could be widespread BT's broadband registration scheme, which lets people who can't get ADSL in their area tell the telco they want broadband, is being hampered by people who are submitting false information. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2125883,00.html - - - - - - - - Hackers could be planning major attack, says White House A new computer worm infecting a popular World Wide Web technology is proof that computer hackers have grown more sophisticated and could be preparing a significant attack, according to a senior White House official. Marcus Sachs, director of communication and infrastructure protection at the White House Office of Cyberspace Security, said hackers driven to the back streets and back alleys of the Internet by intense law enforcement scrutiny following the Sept. 11 attacks have quietly been building new threats. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1102/111202h1.htm - - - - - - - - Proposed bill could jail hackers for life A last-minute addition to a proposal for a Department of Homeland Security bill would punish malicious computer hackers with life in prison. The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday evening voted 299 to 121 to approve the bill, which would reshape large portions of the federal bureaucracy into a new department combining parts of 22 existing federal agencies, including the Secret Service, the Coast Guard, and the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center. http://news.com.com/2100-1001-965750.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/834875.asp - - - - - - - - Sex offender registries on the docket Supreme Court wades into complicated issue of registration. The Supreme Court debated Wednesday how far states can go to help the public keep tabs on paroled sex offenders living or working nearby. Some justices seemed concerned that offenders listed on online sex offender registries have trouble finding jobs or a place to live, while recognizing that people want to know about potentially dangerous neighbors. http://www.msnbc.com/news/834695.asp - - - - - - - - Hopes raised for Internet grooming ban The British government plans to update the laws on sexual offences, including taking account of the way that paedophiles are using the Internet to contact children. Internet grooming, the practice by which paedophiles use the Web to cultivate relationships with children with the aim of making contact and abusing them, could soon be made illegal. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2125854,00.html - - - - - - - - Government warns of online scam boom The government is warning that scams using email, text messaging and faxes are on the increase. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said unscrupulous firms are using bogus prize draws and special offers to entice recipients to reply. There is particular concern that children are becoming victims of internet cons. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1136806 - - - - - - - - Global System Would Be Used to Hunt Terrorists A new Pentagon research office has started designing a global computer-surveillance system to give U.S. counterterrorism officials access to personal information in government and commercial databases around the world. The Information Awareness Office, run by former national security adviser John M. Poindexter, aims to develop new technologies to sift through "ultra-large" data warehouses and networked computers in search of threatening patterns among everyday transactions, such as credit card purchases and travel reservations, according to interviews and documents. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40942-2002Nov11.html - - - - - - - - Greeting card virus brings bad tidings Users are getting angry about an electronic greeting card from FriendGreetings that acts like a mass-mailing virus - but a licence agreement may protect the company from prosecution. The FriendGreetings electronic greeting card, which has all the hallmarks of a mass-mailing computer virus and was first reported here, is raising the hackles of the Internet community. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2125848,00.html - - - - - - - - Florida: The cybersecurity state As Florida information technology officials began preparing for the Year 2000 conversion, they also became concerned about cyberterrorism. "We were going to have to worry about worms, viruses, hacking and other acts of cybervandalism and cybersabotage forever, and we felt that we needed a permanent presence to be able to deal with the issues," Scott McPherson, who led the state initiative. "Nobody was thinking about al Qaeda back in those days." http://www.fcw.com/geb/articles/2002/1111/web-fla-11-13-02.asp - - - - - - - - Dells Homeland view: one architecture, one mission With the Homeland Security Department closer to reality, one IT industry executive emphasized the need for an architecture that supports a broad range of information sharing. From an IT standpoint, have architectural consistency mandated across various organizations, said Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive officer of Dell Computer Corp. If you have the challenge of different architectures, youll need extra prayers, Dell said in an interview at the companys Round Rock, Texas, headquarters. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/20483-1.html White House to unveil first homeland security tech blueprint http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1102/111302h2.htm - - - - - - - - Press groups pressure Vietnam to release cyber-dissident The World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum called Wednesday for the release of Vietnamese cyber-dissident Le Chi Quang, jailed for criticizing the communist regime. In a joint letter to Vietnam's president, Tran Duc Luong, the two industry associations said Quang's imprisonment was a "grave violation of his right to freedom of expression." (Nando Times article, free registration required) http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/618689p-4757811c.html - - - - - - - - New flaws expose Net to attacks A network protection firm on Tuesday revealed three new flaws in the software on which the Internet's domain name system relies. All three flaws could lead to denial-of-service attacks on the majority of domain name system (DNS) servers, which act as the address books for the Internet, said Internet Security Systems, which discovered the vulnerabilities. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-965525.html - - - - - - - - New Tools a Spying Boss Will Love Malicious hackers can occasionally ruin a network administrator's day, but it's the lazy or disgruntled employees who are constant threats to security and sanity. By promiscuously downloading any files that happen to catch their fancy, employees open big security holes in networks. And when they blithely purloin copyrighted material, they also open companies up to lawsuits. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,56324,00.html - - - - - - - - Back to the Insecure Future Web services, such as Microsoft's .NET platform, represent a return to centralized computing. They also pose some serious security issues. Each month, I present a lecture to senior military officers here in Washington, DC. The lecture, entitled The Red Pill, takes an unconventional look at information technology, security, and policy, and imparts to the class the need to take a macro view of these items instead of rushing to blindly embrace the latest and greatest quick fix. http://online.securityfocus.com/columnists/123 - - - - - - - - Maintaining Credible IIS Log Files Many network administrators by now have encountered serious Web server intrusions that have resulted in legal action. Often IIS logs are the primary evidence used to track down Web intruders. But what would happen if the credibility of your IIS logs was challenged in court? What if the defense claimed the logs were not reliable enough to be admissible as evidence? I once investigated a serious intrusion as part of a criminal investigation. http://online.securityfocus.com/infocus/1639 - - - - - - - - Fighting The Security War With PR When it comes to protecting software from hack attacks, public relations is no substitute for strong, secure products. Software vendors don't seem to understand that. Witness what occurred when security firm mi2g released a study on operating system security that found Apple's Mac OS, SCO's Unix, and HP's Tru64 Unix the least prone to hacker attacks and damage from viruses. Microsoft immediately fired back with a press release noting that Windows 2000 had received Common Criteria certificationthe highest security rating of any commercial operating system. http://www.techweb.com/tech/security/20021113_security *********************************************************** 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.