NewsBits for March 10, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Arrest at UK's spook station after NSA UN bugging claim An employee at the UK's top secret listening post, GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) has been arrested following the Observer newspaper's publication of what it claimed was a leaked 'dirty tricks' email from the US NSA last Sunday. Today's paper reports the arrest by Gloucestershire police of a 28 year old woman, and says that more arrests are expected. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29658.html - - - - - - - - - - Lawyer cleared in Bloomberg extortion case Charges against a Kazakhstan lawyer imprisoned for more than two years on charges of extortion against Michael Bloomberg were dropped last weekend, after a judge ruled key evidence was inadmissible. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/29674.html http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/797405p-5690067c.html - - - - - - - - - - Cortez ex-teacher gets 200 years for owning child porn A former Cortez High School teacher convicted last month of possessing child pornography was sentenced Friday to 200 years in prison. Judge Ruth Hilliard of Maricopa County Superior Court sentenced Morton Robert Berger, 51, to 10 years for each of 20 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor in connection with possessing 20 images of child pornography. The sentences must run consecutively. Phil Wooten, Berger's lawyer, tried to get the charges dismissed in December arguing that Arizona's child pornography law has been declared unconstitutional by one Superior Court judge on grounds that it is vague on the definitions of child pornography. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0308wvberger08.html - - - - - - - - - - Man convicted of porn charges gets seven years A 46-year-old Longview man who claimed he obtained child pornography to help counsel a friend who had been sexually abused as a child was sentenced to seven years in prison Friday. Prosecutor Lance Larison described Regan Vance Welborn's claims as bogus, bizarre and "baloney." Welborn, arguing he was the sole support for his three children whose mother died last year, hoped for probation when he pleaded guilty before District Judge David Brabham to charges of promotion of child pornography and child porn possession. He could have been sentenced to a maximum 20 years in prison. http://www.news-journal.com/news/newsfd/auto/feed/news/2003/03/08/1047100737.00353.3135.1247.html - - - - - - - - - - Jupiter man arrested on child porn charges A Jupiter man who served as a Sunday school teacher and received awards for his volunteer work with the American Cancer Society was arrested Wednesday evening by U.S. Customs agents on a charge of possession of child pornography. According to police reports, David Deyo of 1000 Mohawk St. was taken into custody at his home. Police said investigators discovered more than 100 pornographic pictures on Deyo's personal computer and digital pictures of an underage girl. Representatives for U.S. Customs said additional charges of child pornography possession, production and trafficking are expected to be filed next week. They said the arrest was part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's ongoing national child pornography crackdown, "Operation Candyman." http://www1.tcpalm.com/tcp/jc_local_news/article/0,1651,TCP_1114_1796045,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Teacher charged in child porn A mathematics teacher at an elite private school was arrested early Friday after a school employee found child pornography on the laptop computer he used for school, authorities said. James N. Nafus, 25, a teacher at Far Hills Country Day School, was charged with fourth- degree endangering the welfare of a child after police searched his home late Thursday night, said Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne J. Forrest. Detectives began investigating Thursday after school officials told borough police they found pornographic images involving children on Nafus' laptop, which he also used for school business, Forrest said. Nafus was having technical problems with the computer and had taken it to another school employee who found the images while repairing the malfunction Forrest said. The employee notified school officials, who then gave the computer to police. http://www.dailyrecord.com/news/03/03/08/news4-0308teacher.htm - - - - - - - - - - Child porn helped him cope, man says A Washington Township man, who pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography, said Friday that he retreated to those images as a way to deal with his anxieties, isolation and lack of a social life. "I was having a tough time in school and I wasn't getting along with my family too well," said Jason Kammerer, 26, of Washington Township. "All these factors made me depressed with myself." More testimony will be heard on March 18, the third continuation of Kammerers sentencing hearing. He faces a maximum of five years in prison. Spotted by an off-duty police officer because he was hovering around children, Kammerer was arrested in the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Deptford. Police later obtained a search warrant for Kammerer's home in the first block of Orchard View Drive in Washington Township. A collection of 856 images of child pornography, stored on disks, was found and led to pornography charges in Gloucester County. http://www.southjerseynews.com/issues/march/m030803f.htm - - - - - - - - - - 419 scammers take US con artist for $750,000 A businessman in Winona, Minnesota, has been taken for a cool $750,000 by Nigerian 419 scam artists, the Winona Daily News reports. Nothing new there, you might think, but $250,000 of the cash did not actually belong to victim Carl Fratzke. Incredibly, Fratzke had pulled a scam of his own and defrauded seven friends to raise the capital. The balance came from his own savings. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/29673.html - - - - - - - - - - MS shuts down site over XP P2P leak, but keeps on leaking Microsoft's temporary closure of Neowin Neowin over a Windows XP Peer to Peer SDK leak has taken on an Alice in Wonderland quality. First, the hole the Microsoft take-down notice was intended to plug is still, as far as we can see, open, and second, one Andrew G Tereschenko has been emailing the world's press claiming responsibility. People do tip off software companies over the posting warez software, NDA breaches and the like, but telling the world afterwards is a new one on us. First though, the hole itself. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/29659.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29643.html - - - - - - - - - - Japanese company warns of new computer virus A Japanese software maker said today it has detected a new computer virus that could enable hackers to enter computers and delete settings. Tokyo-based Trend Micro Inc. said that 45 cases of the virus, Worm--Deloder.A, had been reported in Japan by Monday evening. The virus attacks computers operating on Windows 2000 and Windows XP by testing a batch of built-in passwords under the username ``Administrator,'' the company said on its Web site. Once successfully logged in, it allows hackers to access information stored on the computer. http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/5358440.htm http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-991712.html http://news.com.com/2100-1002-991844.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2131631,00.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/29680.html - - - - - - - - - - 'Pleeease read': Legislation aims to trash Internet scams The e-mail pleads: "PLEEEASE READ! It was on the news!" It goes on to tell the reader that Microsoft founder Bill Gates is paying people who forward the e-mail to friends because he's running a test of an e-mail tracking system. He's not. And he's not sharing his fortune. It's a hoax that's been circulating for years, says James R. Golder, who handles Internet consumer complaints and "dot cons" for the Federal Trade Commission's Southwest Region in Dallas. Internet-related fraud complaints made up 47% of all complaints to the FTC's national Consumer Sentinel last year, Golder said. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2003-03-10-net-scams_x.htm Threats abound on the World Wide Web http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kimkomando/2003-03-10-komando_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Risk of cyberattacks from hackers and terrorists grows. Just two days after the Department of Homeland Security officially opened its doors, government-and business-security managers scored a victory of sorts with a successful public-private effort to combat a potential threat to more than 1.5 million E-mail systems around the world. The work served as a dress rehearsal for the kind of cyberattacks the government expects will increase as geopolitical tensions rise and a war with Iraq looms. http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20030309S0005 - - - - - - - - - - URU joins authentication service fray The URU Web service will identify individuals online without invading their privacy - and says it can alert people to attempted identity theft. A service is being developed that will help businesses check the identity of people they are dealing with -- without increasing the number of places where personal data is stored. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2131644,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Survey uncovers basic Apache flaws Security issues may lead administrators to stick with version 1.3. Basic security problems surrounding Apache Web Server 2.0 for Windows are likely to dissuade users from migrating to the upgraded version of the software. In its latest survey of web servers, UK-based Netcraft reported "a string of security problems in the Windows [and other non-Unix] versions that may undermine confidence in the suitability of Apache for these platforms". http://www.vnunet.com/News/1139314 - - - - - - - - - - Porn 'Filter' Uses Peer Pressure Frustrated with the shortcomings of conventional software designed to block out pornographic websites, Brandon Cotter is urging moralistic Web surfers to take matters into their own hands. As founder of the nonprofit monitoring service, NetAccountibility, Cotter, 33, is pushing what he calls the "accountability approach" for Internet porn addicts, religiously inclined Net users and others seeking to curtail their exposure to the Web's tawdry side. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,57962,00.html - - - - - - - - - - One printer, one virus, one disabled Iraqi air defence Did U.S. infowar commandos smuggle a deadly computer virus into Iraq inside a printer? Of course not. So why does it keep getting reported, George Smith asks. A creepy enthusiasm for tales of weird weapons rises as war approaches. Denied substantive information by the Pentagon and grasping for eye-grabbing news, journalists and pundits speculate daily about what might be used in Iraq. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/29665.html - - - - - - - - - - Twins crack face recognition puzzle For a fleeting moment, Mohamed Atta appeared on an airport security camera minutes before he boarded one of the planes which crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Was there any way the camera or its operator would have been able to identify Atta as a suspect before he hijacked and flew the first of two planes into the twin towers? http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/03/10/israel.twins.reut/index.html http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,57984,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Smart-Mobbing the War You can find America's new antiwar movement in a bright yellow room four floors above the traffic of West 57th Street -- a room so small that its occupant burns himself on the heat pipe when he turns over in bed and can commute to his office without touching the floor. Eli Pariser, 22, tall, bearded, spends long hours every day at his desk hunched over a laptop, plotting strategy and directing the electronic traffic of an instantaneous movement that was partly assembled in his computer. During the past three months it has gathered the numbers that took three years to build during Vietnam. It may be the fastest-growing protest movement in American history. (NY Times article, free registration required) http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/09/magazine/09ANTIWAR.html *********************************************************** Computer Forensics Training - Online. An intense, 150 hour, instructor lead program that teaches you computer forensics and helps prepare you for the Certified Computer Examiner exam. For more information see; www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu *********************************************************** 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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