NewsBits for March 19, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ E-Bomb Aims to Stun Iraqi Forces U.S. forces may use a new "e-bomb" during the expected invasion of Iraq as part of a 21st century blitzkrieg designed to render Saddam Hussein's forces blind, deaf, dumb and incapable of retaliation. The highly classified bomb creates a brief pulse of microwaves powerful enough to fry computers, blind radar, silence radios, trigger crippling power outages and disable the electronic ignitions in vehicles and aircraft. http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,58122,00.html U.S. forces counting on high-tech tools in Iraq http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2003-03-19-tech-war_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Worm turns on Iraq conflict fears Don't take a Ganda at 'intelligence report' emails, warns antivirus firm. Home PC users have been warned to be on the lookout for a new worm that feeds on fears over the impending invasion of Iraq. The worm, called Ganda, appears to have been written in Sweden and promises images taken from Iraqi spy satellites. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1139574 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/29824.html - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft flaw leads to military hack A previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft's Web software allowed an online attacker to take control of a publicly accessible U.S. Department of Defense server last week, the military confirmed late Tuesday. Contrary to previous media reports, the U.S. Army said the server--or servers--that had been compromised weren't the responsibility of that arm of the military. However, representatives of the armed forces didn't elaborate on which part of the services operated the computer. http://news.com.com/2100-1009-993276.html Army dodged bullet on Win 2000 vulnerability; experts wait for wider attacks http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/21446-1.html - - - - - - - - - - 3 Are Accused of Swindling Visitors to Internet Sex Sites Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn accused three men yesterday of exploiting people's prurient curiosity in what they called an Internet pornography scheme that illegally billed Web users $230 million. Announcing the arrests of the men yesterday, Roslynn R. Mauskopf, the United States attorney in Brooklyn, said the scheme involved pornographic Web sites falsely offering ``free tours'' and then billing visitors as much as $90 a month. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/19/nyregion/19PORN.html http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/68454p-63608c.html http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/71211.htm http://www.wnbc.com/news/2049598/detail.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2003-03-19-porn-sites_x.htm http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/5428200.htm - - - - - - - - - - Security trainee gets 30 months for child porn A federal judge in Mobile sentenced a onetime federal security trainee at Mobile Regional Airport to 30 months in prison Tuesday for possessing pornographic computer images of children. Kaiser, 40, was a screener in training at Mobile Regional Airport last July until co-workers reported him boasting about being able to sneak weapons past checkpoints. He told one of them that he had learned how to make homemade guns from information he got off the Internet, according to an affidavit in the case. Authorities taped one of the conversations. Federal agents seized Kaiser's computer while searching his Tillman's Corner residence for clandestine weapons, none of which were found. Investigators later discovered the child pornography while searching his computer for information on how to make "pen guns" and similar items. http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news/1048069221160630.xml - - - - - - - - - - Councilman charged in Internet sex sting Legal counsel has advised city officials to "let the judicial process run its course'' in the case of an Independence council member charged with soliciting what he thought was a 15-year-old girl for sex via a computer chat room. Otis Ketron, 47, was arrested Friday in Winton Terrace in Cincinnati and charged with one count of attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and five counts of importuning, or sexual solicitation, all felonies. He remains in the Hamilton County Justice Center under $600,000 bond. http://enquirer.com/editions/2003/03/18/loc_kynetsex18.html - - - - - - - - - - 'External attack' under control - Tiscali UK Tiscali UK is prepared to take legal action against those behind yesterday's "external attack" that knocked out the ISP. A spokeswoman for the company told The Register: "If we can identify who the people are behind this then we will pursue prosecution." The comments come as Tiscali UK is continuing to investigate the incident that downed its portal yesterday and created havoc for its users. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29830.html - - - - - - - - - - Text message batters Europe cell phones The wireless e-mail, among the 1 billion sent each day on the continent, can freeze or completely disable two cell phones made by German handset maker Siemens, spokesman Jacob Rice said here on Tuesday. The e-mails contain a single word, taken from the phone's language menu, surrounded by quote marks and preceded by an asterisk, such as "*English" or "*Deutsch," Siemens said. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-993197.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2132143,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Progress on info sharing threatened by changes to FOIA law Technology and security experts are warning that a bill introduced last week in the U.S. Senate could reverse critical progress made by the Bush administration in improving information sharing between the government and private sector. Five leading Democrats, including Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and presidential hopeful Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), on March 12 introduced the Restoration of Freedom of Information Act, popularly known as the Restore FOIA Act, arguing that FOIA provisions passed last year as part of the Homeland Security Act are too broad and could undermine public access to information about the government and public health and safety. http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,79511,00.html - - - - - - - - - - US closes in on Net gambling ban Senators are seeking to outlaw a 'social evil' that they say feeds gambling addiction, while opponents argue regulation would be more effective. US Senate lawmakers on Tuesday said they will try again to outlaw Internet gambling, while some experts say US states should instead try to regulate the $4bn (PS2.5bn) industry. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2132167,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Marking File Traders as Felons During a recent congressional hearing on intellectual property, Congressman John Carter (R-Texas) said jailing college students who download copyrighted music would help stop piracy. "What these kids don't realize is that every time they pull up music and movies and make a copy, they are committing a felony under the United States code," Carter said in an interview. "If you were to prosecute someone and give them three years, I think this would act as a deterrent." http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58081,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Bills failure leaves some sex offenders with a loophole In this age of technology, it happens too often. More times than Division of Criminal Investigation agents care to count, theyve intervened in meetings between adults and the children theyve lured from Internet chat rooms. If you ask people who theyre most afraid of, its those people, Laramie County District Attorney Jon Forwood said. Yet people convicted of the sexual exploitation of a child arent required to register as sex offenders under current Wyoming law. State Senate action last month delayed that necessity for at least one more year with its rejection of House Bill 214. http://www.wyomingnews.com/more.asp?StoryID=6154 - - - - - - - - - - Canada in hacktivist crosshairs Figures from a European cyber-security watchdog indicate that Canadian as well as U.S. servers are in the crosshairs as hackers around the world express their disapproval of U.S. activity in the Middle East. Unlike covert sneak-attacks that typically go undiscovered or are not reported to police, overt attacks refer to situations where a hacker breaks into an on-line system and changes publicly visible components. This includes things such as defacing Web pages or forcing printers to spit out a specific message. http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030319.gtmig2Mar19/GTStory - - - - - - - - - - Smartcards 'pushing credit card crime to Australia' The introduction of security-protected credit cards in Europe and Asia-Pacific could lead to rising fraud activity down under, according to new research. The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) has raised the spectre of Australia becoming a haven for credit card criminals, in its latest research on electronic crime. According the institute's latest research on e-crime displacement trends, Australia is in danger of becoming a hot-spot for magnetic-stripe card fraud, attracting criminals from locations such as Europe and other markets in the Asia-Pacific where take-up rates of cards with more sophisticated security protection features are higher. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2132149,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Leaked Bug Alerts Cause a Stir Riley Hassell was bewildered this week when details from a confidential bug report he had written mysteriously showed up on a popular security mailing list. Hassell, a security researcher for eEye Digital Security, had explained in writing a flaw he discovered in widely used Internet software from Sun Microsystems. The problem was so severe that Hassell had agreed to keep his advisory secret for several weeks until Sun and other vendors could create fixes for the affected applications. But an anonymous person using the e-mail account Hack4life@hushmail.com apparently thought the information shouldn't be kept under wraps. http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,58106,00.html http://news.com.com/2100-1002-993375.html - - - - - - - - - - Windows flaw opens PCs to attack A vulnerability in all versions of Windows could allow attackers to use a malicious Web site or HTML e-mail message to trap victims and take control of their PCs, warned Microsoft. The flaw in the scripting component of the operating system lets attackers run code through the scripting engine as if the program had been executed locally on a PC, allowing them to run their own programs or to take over the system. Microsoft labeled the flaw as critical in its announcement Wednesday. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-993310.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54371-2003Mar19.html http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,58124,00.html http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/816086p-5783640c.html - - - - - - - - - - Programmers find Linux security hole Programmers disclosed a security hole this week in a part of the heart of the Linux operating system that could let users of a machine take it over even if they don't have privileges to do so. The vulnerability affects both the 2.2 and 2.4 series of Linux kernels, the core of the operating system, said Alan Cox, one of the key deputies of Linux founder Linus Torvalds in the programming community that collectively produces Linux. Those kernels are at the center of several Linux products released recently from companies such as Red Hat and SuSE. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-993278.html - - - - - - - - - - Study suggests spam-stopping tricks Want to stop spammers from clogging your in-box with get-rich-quick schemes, invitations from hot girls and Nigerian money-laundering antics? You might want to act like a criminal on the lam: Change your name, use a variety of identities and stay out of sight. In a new study of spamming tactics, "Why Am I Getting All This Spam?" the policy group Center for Democracy and Technology found the most successful methods of avoiding unwanted messages involved obscuring e-mail addresses or hiding them altogether. http://news.com.com/2100-1024-993333.html - - - - - - - - - - Viisage gains on face-recognition defense contract Viisage Technology, a maker of face-recognition technology, said on Wednesday the U.S. Department of Defense expanded its licensing of the company's identity verification system, sending its shares more than 50 percent higher. Viisage, based in Littleton, Massachusetts, said the Defense Department's Combating Terrorism Technology Support Office uses face-recognition technology to help identify terrorists and boost homeland security. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1104-993270.html - - - - - - - - - - Internet forum for police officers criticized An Internet forum used by off-duty police officers that is dedicated to "spurring vigorous debate" is getting positive feedback from Web users. But it has its critics, too. The site, called Domelights, describes itself as being "devoted to the abolition of political correctness." Besides spurring debate, the site says it attempts to find solutions to social problems. One hot topic lately has been the sex scandal that has swept the 15th District. Two of the precinct's former officers are accused of raping a go-go dancer in their squad car in December. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2003-03-19-police-forum_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Virtual reality training for terror Researchers work to better prepare first responders Virtual reality, that computer-driven replacement for the here and now, may offer a versatile proving ground for police officers and emergency crews training to respond to future terrorist attacks. Researchers at the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR) are working to develop just that, an electronic reality replacement that allows emergency personnel more versatility in their training regimes. http://www.msnbc.com/news/887512.asp - - - - - - - - - - In times of crisis, agencies rely on ham radio operators With the possibility of additional terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, emergency management coordinators and government agency personnel say amateur radio operators remain a vital part of the nation's homeland security network. It's a familiar role for the operators, known as "hams," who have established backup radio communications during 9/11, severe weather and other emergencies. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-03-19-ham-crisis_x.htm *********************************************************** 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. 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