December 13, 2002 PS3m online holiday scam exposed Consumers fooled by an online scam paid thousands of pounds for holiday savings that never emerged. Hundreds of holidaymakers have been conned into paying thousands of pounds in a bid to secure huge -- but bogus -- savings on luxury holidays. The six companies involved in the scam have now been wound up by the High Court following a Department of Trade and Industry investigation, but not before up to PS3m had gone into the coffers of the conmen. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2127510,00.html - - - - - - - - MS staffer accused of $9m software for Ferraris scam The Microsoft store, theoretically an employee- only operation, is a fabled source of improbably cheap goodies, small-time scams and handy licensing loopholes - but $9 million worth of software? For just one employee? Over nearly a year? Well, OK, it's not the Microsoft store as such Daniel Feussner has been accused of stealing $9 million worth of software from, it seems to be another internal store, allegedly used as some kind of do it yourself stock options program, as it were. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/28564.html - - - - - - - - Norwegian DVD buster says he had no choice to view movies A Norwegian teenager who gave Hollywood a bigger fright than a scary movie acknowledged in court that his DVD cracking program could be used illegally, but said developing and distributing it was no crime. Jon Lech Johansen said his software, DeCSS, was necessary to unlock the copy-protection on DVDs so he could watch movies he already owned. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/4734495.htm http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2002-12-13-dvd-cracker_x.htm http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/673286p-5025525c.html RIAA in a spin over CD copying bust http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/28574.html Music industry blames swappers for off-key sales http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/4734096.htm http://online.securityfocus.com/news/1811 - - - - - - - - E-fraud costs retailers millions Internet fraud will cost US on-line retailers $500 million this Christmas, as fraudsters devise more sophisticated scams to obtain credit card information. Research firm Gartner said on Wednesday that an estimated $160 million will be lost this holiday season to fraud and approximately $315 million will be lost in sales due to suspect transactions. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/28559.html - - - - - - - - Research Firm Predicts Cyberterror in 2003 Cyberterrorists will launch a major attack in 2003, according to research firm IDC, which has released a laundry list of predictions for the coming year. The offensive will involve a network intrusion or a distributed denial-of-service attack -- or perhaps even an attack on the Internet's physical infrastructure Relevant Products/Services from IBM. This act of cyberterror will completely halt online traffic for a full day or longer and will seriously affect the economy, IDC forecast. "We've already seen some evidence of this," IDC analyst Dan Kusnetzky noted. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20242.html - - - - - - - - Snooping laws caught in catch-22 Not even Joseph Heller could have dreamt this one up: two laws break a third, but plugging the hole would be illegal. Meanwhile, ISPs face mounting costs. ISPs want the government to plug a loophole in the law that lets government agencies demand access to customer data -- and which could leave ISPs out of pocket and open to prosecution. The trouble is, say legal experts, that plugging this loophole would be illegal under human rights legislation. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2127529,00.html - - - - - - - - Data retention: Who's watching you? The scale of requests from government authorities already accessing communications data in the UK has been revealed during a parliamentary inquiry. Numerous government agencies are already requesting communications data from ISPs, even though the relevant parts from two laws designed to regulate the practice have yet to come into force. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2127532,00.html - - - - - - - - Protect yourself when paying online Tips to make your Internet holiday shopping safe and secure. That jingle you hear may be the merry sounds of holiday shopping in full swing, but the jangle in the background could be the sound of consumers being defrauded out of millions of dollars. The FBI and National White Collar Crime Centers Internet Fraud Complaint Center received complaints totaling $17.8 million for all of 2001; the National Consumers Leagues Internet Fraud Watch has received complaints totaling $7.2 million in the first six months of 2002. http://www.msnbc.com/news/847135.asp - - - - - - - - Passwords too easy to crack Computer users are still using passwords that are too easy to crack because they have too many to remember. A survey of 500 people at Victoria Station by security testing company NTA Monitor found that nearly half of all questioned wrote down their passwords and 84 per cent picked passwords because they were easy for them to remember - rather than difficult for someone else to crack. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1137600 - - - - - - - - Data privacy concerns over PCs for the disabled The configuration of a PC supplied to a British dyslexic student by MicrolinkPC has raised privacy concerns about the company. Like many dyslexic university students, our correspondent (who wishes to remain anonymous) obtained a cut-price PC from MicrolinkPC on the recommendation of her local education authority following a successful application for Disabled Students Allowance. MicrolinkPC specialises in supplying computer technology to disabled students. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/28568.html - - - - - - - - Experts warn of wireless target While the security risk posed by poorly encrypted, or unprotected, wireless local area networks (WLANs) are widely known, security experts are warning of potential leaks from a new source-- wireless LAN bridges. According to Ross Chiswell, CEO of wireless networking reseller Integrity Data Systems, companies who have been careful to protect their WLANs from attack may be at risk when using wireless bridges to transmit information between buildings. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-977854.html - - - - - - - - Spam headaches bring more pain In the days before Christmas the amount of spam e-mail being sent and received looks set to soar as marketing machines and e-greetings firms go into seasonal overdrive. As well as being inundated with the perennial spam e-mails about scams and financial services, computer users are also facing the added inbox burden brought about by Christmas. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-977809.html - - - - - - - - Sprint pushes tougher security policy for vendors Sprint Corp. is crafting a policy that would require all software vendors that wish to sell their wares to the global telecommunications company to first conduct a series of security tests and then provide Sprint with the results of those tests. http://www.idg.net/ic_989432_5055_1-2793.html - - - - - - - - CERT warns on Sun server flaw The latest CERT advisory has warned of a serious vulnerability in the RaQ 4 Server appliance. Users of Sun's RaQ 4 Server appliance have been warned in the latest CERT advisory of a serious vulnerability affecting the units. "A remotely exploitable vulnerability has been discovered in Sun Cobalt RaQ 4 Server Appliances... may allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code with superuser privileges," the CERT advisory said. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2127493,00.html - - - - - - - - More security flaws Microsoft acknowledged twice in one week that it had underestimated the threats posed by two different software flaws, raising more criticism of the company's security policies. The software giant said it plans to change the severity rating of a vulnerability in software common to Internet Explorer and other Windows applications from "important" to "critical." The move was prompted by an in-depth analysis written by the security researchers who found the flaw. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-977789.html http://news.com.com/2100-1083-977789.html http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_727084.html Microsoft upgrades flaw to "critical" http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-977123.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2127481,00.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/847134.asp http://www.vnunet.com/News/1137591 *********************************************************** 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. 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