January 30, 2003 Worm attack heightens Net terrorism concern The Internet attack that froze bank ATM networks, canceled airline flights and shut down computers at a 911 emergency center last weekend probably wasn't the work of an enemy government or cyberterrorist, security experts and government officials say. Although Saturday's Slammer worm was more damaging than most cyberassaults, the world's computer networks are pricked and probed by intruders an average of 1,500 times a week, with only a tiny fraction of attacks causing serious damage. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5062103.htm Slammer may not feed on Microsoft alone http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-982683.html In Net Attacks, Defining the Right to Know (NY Times article, free registration required) http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/30/technology/circuits/30secu.html Full Slammer Coverage: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,,t281,00.html http://news.com.com/1200-1001-982780.html - - - - - - - - Researcher linked to attack software reconsiders disclosures The British computer expert whose research was linked to the weekend's damaging Internet attack pledged Wednesday to reconsider publishing blueprints for attack programs that exploit flaws he discovers in popular software. Leading researchers have concluded that the software in Saturday's attacks was modified by unknown hackers from blueprints published months earlier by David Litchfield of NGS Software Ltd. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/5064656.htm http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/01/30/attack.disclose.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - Arrests raise concern over tech spies The case of a Chinese businessman charged with illegally shipping missile guidance technology to China's military has intensified concerns about foreign espionage in Silicon Valley. Qing Chang Jiang, who was arraigned last week, is at least the fourth Chinese native indicted since October on charges involving the shipment of equipment or trade secrets to China from the nerve center of the U.S. technology industry. http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/01/30/silicon.spies.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - Canada's biggest Identity theft? IBM has lost a hard drive containing the records of 180,000 clients of an insurance company. Details include "names, addresses, beneficiaries, social insurance numbers, pension values, pre- authorized checking information and mothers' maiden names", according to wire reports. Anything else? Oh yes, their bank account details. But is it carelessness, or is it theft? No-one knows yet, but the hard-drive was stored in a supposedly secure facility in Regina, SK, at ISM Canada, an IBM subsidiary. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/29117.html - - - - - - - - Tackling identity theft A fourth man has been arrested as part of the largest identity theft case in U.S. history. Federal officials say Emanuel S. Ezediaro is charged with buying and selling credit reports of tens of thousands of people. If convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy, he could get up to 35 years in prison and more than $1 million in fines. One of his alleged co-conspirators, Philip Cummings, will be arraigned on Wednesday. http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/11/26/hln.wired.id.theft/index.html - - - - - - - - Man Arrested For Possessing Child Porn Pleads Guilty A man who is accused of possessing child pornography pleaded guilty to the charge today. George Pisarek was arrested last March in part of a government sting operation called Operation Candyman. When he was arrested last March, Pisarek possessed a number of child pornography pictures that he had downloaded from the Internet. Pisarek is facing a maximum sentence of five years in jail and a fine of $250,000. http://www.wnbc.com/news/1946755/detail.html - - - - - - - - Man pleads guilty to propositioning child Charles Black went to a McLean County service station last April expecting to meet the 12- year-old girl whom he'd met online and targeted for a sexual encounter. Instead, he was confronted by police officers alerted by the child's mother after she learned Black had propositioned her daughter in an Internet chat room. Black, 22, of Walton Place, Normal, pleaded guilty Wednesday to indecent solicitation of a child. Prosecutors dismissed another count of indecent solicitation and a child abduction charge. http://www.pantagraph.com/stories/013003/new_20030130038.shtml - - - - - - - - Sex offender charged with more crimes A registered sex offender was charged with 14 counts of possessing child pornography and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy and is being held on $50,000 cash bail in the county jail. Hector Munoz, 36, of Waukesha, faces 19 counts in Waukesha County Circuit Court for alleged child sex crimes committed between August 2001 and Monday. The charges include second-degree sexual assault of a Waukesha boy he met through an Internet personals site. http://www.gmtoday.com/news/local_stories/January_03/topstory52.asp - - - - - - - - Student charged in child-porn case A 19-year-old University of Massachusetts Lowell student faces child-pornography charges after allegedly downloading images of children in sexual acts and poses and broadcasting them on a dormitory computer network. Prosecutor Steven Hoffman alleges that on Sept. 2, UMass Lowell police were called to the Fox Hall dormitory after a resident assistant noticed some suspicious computer files on the "shared files" of the hall's computer network. Shared files allow access to any network user. The files had names that suggested they were of a sexual nature. http://www.lowellsun.com/Stories/0,1413,105%257E4761%257E1146783,00.html - - - - - - - - Prosecutors: Repairer Found Child Porn On Man's Computer An Indianapolis man accused of having sexually explicit images of boys stored on one of his computers pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 20 child pornography possession charges. Police said they arrested Sean O'Neill, 39, last week after a computer-store employee allegedly noticed the images were on a computer that O'Neill had left to be repaired. http://www.theindychannel.com/news/1941346/detail.html - - - - - - - - Man accused of breaking into church to view online porn A volunteer with a religious-based scouting program and with the children's ministry at a Hampton church was charged with breaking into the church to view pornographic Internet sites. Michael Robert Quinn, 32, of Fort Eustis in Newport News, was arrested by Hampton police at Warwick Assembly of God. Police said Quinn was caught red-handed in front of a church computer. http://www.pilotonline.com/breaking/br0129porn.html - - - - - - - - Minister admits to being sex addict' A Trotwood minister, whose lawyer said he has been a "sex addict" since age 10, sought treatment rather than face trial in a Brookville police-run Internet sting that presented a virtual 14-year-old boy in a chat room. But a Montgomery County judge denied his plea for treatment Tuesday. http://www.activedayton.com/ddn/local/daily/0129turner.html - - - - - - - - Appeals court to hear child porn case The Texas Attorney General is seeking to overturn the 6th Court of Appeals opinion that let a Red River County man walk away from possession of child pornography charges. The state is asking the highest Texas criminal court to consider the case. Clayton Leydon Taylor, a former Rivercrest band director, was convicted of nine counts of possessing child pornography in 2001. His conviction was overturned in October 2002 after the 6th Court of Appeals found the trial court erred on numerous charges, including not changing the trials venue from Red River County. http://web.theparisnews.com/story.lasso?-datasource=paris&-table=paris&-keyfield=ID&-op=eq&ID=10744&-search - - - - - - - - Home Office defiant on data retention ISPs will be forced to save all traffic data. The government is to press ahead with plans to make internet service providers (ISPs) retain communication traffic data, despite opposition from MPs. A report by the All Party Internet Group (APIG) said that government plans to force ISPs to retain traffic data in order to aid law enforcement agencies needed rethinking. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1138357 - - - - - - - - Net hack activity worsening Researchers found that a 'dummy' server was attacked nearly 500 times on the day of its installation. The level of hacking activity on the Internet has been revealed after one company set up an anonymous "dummy test" server -- and found it was maliciously attacked 467 times within 24 hours of being installed. The server, which contained no data and had no public profile, was attacked every single day over the next three weeks. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2129592,00.html Net Attacks Down, But Sophistication Is Up http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109095,00.asp - - - - - - - - "Crime Is Soaring in Cyberspace" Cybersecurity consultants such as Ponemon Institute Chairman Larry Ponemon report that cybercrimes are increasing exponentially, yet quantifying losses is difficult because victimized companies are reluctant to publicly disclose electronic theft for a variety of reasons, including fear that it will inspire other hackers to attack them, shake the confidence of their customers and investors, or make them the target of rival businesses' ridicule. (NY Times article, free registration required) http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/27/technology/27ECOM.html - - - - - - - - Cybercrime, they just don't mention it Cybercrime, long a painful side effect of the innovations of Internet technology, is reaching new dimensions, security experts say. Spurred by a tightening economy, the increasing riches flowing through cyberspace and the relative ease of such crimes, technically skilled thieves and rank-and-file employees are stealing millions if not billions of dollars a year from businesses in the United States and abroad, according to consultants who track cybercrime. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/30/1043804447447.html - - - - - - - - "New Lab Will Teach Cyber-Policing Statewide" Gateway has donated a wireless mobile computer lab so that the College of DuPage (COD) can give cyber investigation classes to law enforcement officers across Illinois. Randolph James, director of the school's Suburban Law Enforcement Academy, notes a lack of expertise among police in computer investigation techniques. Bartlett Deputy Chief Dan Maloney emphasizes the importance of optimizing computer resources. The COD classes will be especially beneficial to officers in rural jurisdictions. http://www.dailyherald.com/search/main_story.asp?intID=376443 - - - - - - - - DOD looking ahead on security The Defense Department already is considering how to protect information in a network-centric environment, according to the department's deputy chief information officer. Priscilla Guthrie, DOD's deputy CIO, said a white paper is circulating within the department that attempts to lay out the department's information assurance (IA) requirements in the envisioned network-centric environment, in which data would be made available as quickly as possible to those in the organization or on the battlefield who need it. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0127/web-guthrie-01-30-03.asp Pentagon identifying net-centric core http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0127/web-core-01-30-03.asp NIMA working on standards center http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0127/web-ncgis-01-30-03.asp NIMA, NSA increasing collaboration http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0127/web-nsa-01-30-03.asp - - - - - - - - Symantec chief defines security paths Better coordination between systems administrators, responsible for keeping up to date with patches, and security operators, charged with protecting networks, will help thwart cyberattacks such as the recent SQL Slammer worm, according to John Schwarz, president and chief operating officer of Symantec Corp. Organizations can take two paths to secure their networks: religiously update software patches when vulnerabilities are discovered and install the right level of protection, Schwarz told Federal Computer Week. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0127/web-sym-01-30-03.asp - - - - - - - - EU: Microsoft agrees to retool Passport Microsoft has reached an agreement with the European Union to implement a package of changes in its .Net Passport online authentication service, to prevent the service from running afoul of EU data protection laws. Although the changes came about as a result of a yearlong dialogue between the company and the European Union, they will be implemented globally, said Matt Lambert, director of government affairs for Microsoft in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-982719.html http://www.vnunet.com/News/1138387 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-01-30-microsoft-eu_x.htm http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/742252p-5393528c.html - - - - - - - - $1m hacking challenge' product is flawed AlphaShield's "unhackable" consumer security device isn't unhackable, Spanish white hat hackers claim. In a post to BugTraq, Infohacking.com reports that AlphaShield's appliances are prone to a flaw that could allow a cracker to inject packets into an established session. Potentially, this compromises the security of the device. Infohacking.com recently evaluated the AlphaShield device. Faced with little technical information it took apart the device. Upon scraping off the black enamel, the organisation found the appliance was using three Realtek's RTL8019 (Ethernet interface) and Ubicom's SX52BD chip. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/29118.html - - - - - - - - Messenger Pop-up Spam makes us sick In recent days, pop-up spam has begun appearing, by way of Windows Messenger, on the home computer of a Reg staffer. Mostly, the messages promote porn sites. Last October, we revealed that a firm called DirectAdvertiser had worked out a way of using the Windows RPC (Remote Procedure Call) function to send spam messages which pose as system alerts. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/29121.html - - - - - - - - Should Enterprises Dump Outlook? One alternative, Novell GroupWise, supports the Outlook interface for administrators who do not wish to foist a new client on end users. It also implements instant messaging and a Web interface. Bad things happen to good software. In particular, security transgressions happen to very popular software, more because it presents a big target than because of an inherently frail constitution. Such is the case with Microsoft's widely installed enterprise e-mail solutions, Exchange and Outlook. http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/20617.html - - - - - - - - Privacy International cries foul over ID cards Civil liberties group Privacy International lodged a complaint of maladministration with the parliamentary ombudsman on Thursday against the government over its handling of the consultation into entitlement cards. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2129659,00.html - - - - - - - - FBI director: New system might have helped catch hijackers FBI Director Robert Mueller defended a new agency computer system that congressional critics claim is costly and "gold-plated," saying Thursday it might have provided important clues to the Sept. 11 attacks if it had been in place. Lost amid all the intelligence data before the attacks was a memo from an FBI field agent in Phoenix raising questions about suspected terrorists taking flight training in the United States. The new computer system would see that such a memo got to the proper people, FBI officials said. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-01-30-fbi-system_x.htm - - - - - - - - Tech flaws hold back terror hunt Fragmented Special Branch systems 'inadequate', says report. Police investigations into terrorist threats in the UK are being seriously restricted by inadequate IT systems used by Special Branch officers. A report from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has severely criticised Special Branch technology, which does not allow access to information beyond regional force boundaries. "The inadequacy of current arrangements cannot be overstated," said the report. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1138376 - - - - - - - - CIA Wins Control of Terrorist Data Mining Program The White House released additional details Wednesday about President Bush's new initiative to create a data mining Terrorist Threat Integration Center under the direction of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to close the "seam" between analysis of foreign and domestic intelligence on terrorism. The center will have access to all intelligence information from raw reports to finished analytic assessments available to the government. http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/1576771 - - - - - - - - Concerns remain over readiness of INS Net-tracking system After Thursday, when a new federal computer system to track foreign students would go online, the school would be set to transmit all the information required by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. But as late as Wednesday, the question among Columbia officials was whether the INS was ready to accept all that data. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-01-30-ins-tracking_x.htm - - - - - - - - Sneaky Toolbar Hijacks Browsers It's the most evil thing on the Internet, according to some of its victims. But it's not a virus, a scam or a raunchy porn site. It's a browser toolbar that some swear is doing "drive-by downloads" -- installing itself without users' permission -- then taking over their systems and making it impossible to uninstall. http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57467,00.html *********************************************************** 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. 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