NewsBits for April 8, 2003 sponsored by,
Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu
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Pyramid scheme shuts down Montana Internet provider
An Internet attack sending 20,000 e-mails an hour
shut down a local Internet provider last week.
Detective Brian Fulford said the strike was part
of an electronic pyramid scheme asking Internet
users to send cash to someone on a list. The payment
would put the sender on the list and, theoretically,
entitle the sender to money from someone else later.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2003-04-08-isp-attack_x.htm
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Software developer wins theft case
An unnamed medical software company has been found
guilty of distributing the work of an independent
developer without a licence. The Federation Against
Software Theft (Fast) is hailing a victory for
a small software developer as evidence that it
isn't just protecting the interests of the handful
of software giants with major financial clout.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2133147,00.html
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Inmate claims he acquired personal info via a prison PC
State prison officials say they want to know
how an inmate got the Social Security numbers
of several prison staffers, but say they don't
think it was from the agency's own files. The
numbers including that of the director of the
state Correction Department, Larry Norris were
provided to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper
in a letter from a person who said he was an inmate
at the prison system's Tucker Unit.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2003-04-08-inmate-hack_x.htm
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TASK FORCE ANNOUNCES INDICTMENT OF DEPUTY SHERIFF
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, State Police Superintendent
James W. McMahon, and Director of Criminal Justice Services
Chauncey G. Parker today announced that a Grand Jury has
indicted a part-time Montgomery County Sheriff's deputy
on three felony counts for attempting to lure a minor
into a sexual relationship. The defendant, William D.
Hanrahan, 53, of Tribes Hill, was arraigned today before
Montgomery County Court Judge Felix Catena. According
to the indictment, on August 27 and September 13, 2001,
Hanrahan engaged in sexually graphic online chat with
a person he believed to be a 14-year-old girl living
in Tennessee. The child actually was an undercover
police officer belonging to the Internet Crimes Against
Children (ICAC) Task Force in Knoxville, Tennessee.
http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2003/apr/apr08a_03.html
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Internet Porn Sting
Police in Michigan say a Perrysburg Township
volunteer firefighter is out on bond today after
being arrested for allegedly trying to have sex
with a 14-year-old boy. Also today the township
suspended the firefighter from his duties. Greg
Beach has been a volunteer firefighter with
Perrysburg Township for the last 10 years. Last
week he was caught in an internet sting run by
the Sterling Heights police. Sterling Heights
police say they lured Beach by posing as
a 14-year-old boy in a chat room.
http://www.13abc.com/index.cfm?Article=7118
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Delray priest sentenced to prison for soliciting teen sex
He spent hours online pretending to be a "youngish
looking" social worker, bragging to a 14-year-old
boy about previous sexual encounters with teenagers.
The Rev. Elias Guimaraes used the cloak of that false
identity to send message after message describing
graphic sex acts with underage boys, all the while
as he sat in a suburban Delray Beach church rectory.
The 43-year-old Roman Catholic priest never imagined
his prey also was lying about who he really was.
Busted by an undercover Delray Beach police detective
posing as a teenager on the Internet, Guimaraes was
sentenced Monday to 51 months in federal prison.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cpguimaraes08apr08,0,3471504.story
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Charity worker admits computer porn charges
A CHILDREN'S charity worker, arrested as part of
a worldwide probe into child computer porn, was
yesterday spared a jail sentence. William Holmes,
62, was placed on probation after pleading guilty
at Liverpool Crown Court to 10 offences of making
indecent images of children. Holmes, of Church
Road, Upton, Wirral, was caught by police acting
on information provided by the FBI in America,
as part of Operation Ore. Neville Biddle,
prosecuting, said police raided Holmes' house
last May and found Holmes' computer contained
121 indecent images of children.
http://iccheshireonline.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/dailypost/page.cfm?objectid=12821858&method=full&siteid=50020
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Sex pics student is caged
AN immature and isolated student downloaded images
of child abuse from the internet and then showed
some of them to a young girl and a boy. Zhang Ning,
20, of Wel-ford Road, Shirley, was sentenced to two
years detention by Judge Richard Griffith-Jones at
Warwick Crown Court and ordered to register as a sex
offender for ten years. But the Judge said that may
be academic because he recommended that Zhang, who
had admitted 18 charges of making indecent images
of children and four of showing them, be deported
after serving his sentence.
http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/page.cfm?objectid=12819098&method=full&siteid=50002
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Murray Convict Sued by Child-Porn Victim
A woman filed a civil suit in 3rd District Court
last week against a Murray man convicted of making
pornographic material he placed online without her
consent when she was a minor. The suit requests
a jury trial and asks for damages totalling $1.4
million for breach of contract, emotional distress,
defamation, invasion of privacy, negligence,
misrepresentation and harming her ability to
make money.
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Apr/04072003/utah/45678.asp
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9th Circuit: Feds Can't Try Child Porn Case
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down
a federal child pornography law Thursday -- at least
for those who don't intend to take the material across
state lines. A divided panel overturned the conviction
of a woman arrested after employees at a U.S. Navy
photo-developing studio reported a single picture
of Rhoda McCoy and her 10-year-old daughter with
their genitals exposed. The court held that under
the Supreme Court's recent Commerce Clause decisions,
the federal government cannot prosecute McCoy.
http://biz.yahoo.com/law/030321/592a2301f6d7079a3f7b43457f26467c_1.html
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Ruling Backs Anti-Spam Activist
Judge Says Web Site Doesn't Have to Be Taken Down
An Internet site that provides personal information
about an alleged purveyor of mass e-mail is not
harassment and does not need to be removed, a
Maryland district court judge ruled yesterday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51721-2003Apr7.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1029-996002.html
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Hacking Attacks Jump 37 Percent
Only about 1 percent of the attacks so far this
year have targeted federal and state government
sites, according to the Internet Security Systems
report. Computer hacking attacks and other Internet
security breaches grew at an alarming rate in
the first quarter of this year, in part because
of sentiments over the war in Iraq. Atlanta-based
Internet Security Systems Inc. Latest News about
Internet Security Systems reported Monday that
the number of hacking attacks increased by 37
percent from the fourth quarter of last year,
the biggest quarterly spike the company has
ever recorded. Over the past six months, the
number of incidents rose by 84 percent.
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/21218.html
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Feds Falling Short on Cybersecurity
Former Cybersecurity Adviser Urges More Resources
to Battle Cyberterror. The new Department of Homeland
Security lacks the resources and expertise to execute
the core elements of the Bush administration's
cybersecurity plan, the president's former
cybersecurity adviser told Congress today.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55783-2003Apr8.html
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/21652-1.html
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0403/040803td1.htm
Jim Clark's Neoteris meets Fed's security standard
http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1104-995999.html
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March sees more spam than ever
March was another bumper month for spam, with the
latest figures revealing a continued increase in
the amount of unsolicited e-mail traffic. Anti-spam
firm Brightmail recorded a 4-percent month-on-month
increase in the amount of spam detected by its Probe
Network. More alarmingly, compared to the same month
last year, the amount of spam detected has almost
doubled.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-996003.html
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Spammers exploit conflict in Iraq
War-related junk mail uses patriotism and fear to
flog gas masks and water filters. Spam exploiting
the conflict in Iraq amounted to more than 10 per
cent of all junk email last month, a vendor study
reported yesterday.
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1140050
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Libraries learn how to protect patrons from Patriot Act
Six weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act,
which, among other things, granted authorities
greater power to obtain records from libraries
and bookstores. Now, in an effort to protect
readers' privacy, libraries in New Jersey
and across the nation are taking steps to limit
the amount of information linking their patrons
to specific books, Web sites or e-mails.
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1049695909282110.xml
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Windows code leak threatens piracy
A key code for installing Microsofts Windows
Server 2003 has leaked onto the Internet,
a loss that could lead to rampant piracy of
the software. A Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed
the leak late Monday and said Microsoft was
investigating the matter. She could offer
not offer any specifics at this time.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/897384.asp
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2133092,00.html
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Samba hit by eight-year old flaw
Samba, the widely used open source technology
for sharing Windows files between Unix and
Linux systems, has suffered its second security
embarrassment of the last few weeks. And the
situation was worsened when a security firm
accidentally posted its internal advisory
featuring an exploit to the vulnerability
that had remained hidden in the code for
eight years.
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1140062
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2133095,00.html
Security firm regrets Samba disclosure
http://news.com.com/2100-1002-995939.html
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Tech giants put chips on security alliance
Death to the Trusted Computing Platform Alliance,
long live the Trusted Computing Group. A bevy
of the biggest computer hardware and software
companies, formerly members of the Trusted
Computer Platform Alliance (TCPA), announced
on Tuesday that they had reconstituted themselves
under a new name: the Trusted Computing Group.
The group will license and market security
hardware and software technology that they
intend to be integrated into every computing
platforms, from PCs and PDAs to mobile phones.
http://news.com.com/2100-1009-996032.html
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Hail to the Online Thieves
Bands can't prevent bootlegging, but they can
control it more than they have so far. Let's say
you front a big-time rock 'n' roll band, and you've
just spent the better part of a year sweating out
your most recent record. It's more or less finished,
and you're now in postproduction: approving art,
planning a tour, getting ready to present the fruits
of your labor to your large audience. Then you find
out that your large audience has it already.
http://www.business2.com/articles/web/0,1653,48598,00.html
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Inside the World of Secure Operating Systems
On a normal system, if an attacker gains root
or administrator access, he or she can run rampant.
Not so on a trusted system -- at least so long
as it is properly configured. Anyone who has been
following the operating system market for long
has probably heard about secure operating systems.
But what exactly does this term mean? After all,
security is purportedly a goal of most operating
systems.
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/21212.html
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Don't Put All Your Data in One Basket
Baghdad's telecommunications infrastructure fell
silent during the first week of April under a rain
of precision-guided bombs. U.S. and British planes
targeted phone facilities and other critical pieces
of the Iraqi communications infrastructure, mirroring
campaigns in Afghanistan and the first Gulf War
to isolate the leadership from the levers of power.
CEOs in the U.S. needn't worry about an F-15 taking
out their data connections. And it's also clear that
firewalls, antivirus systems, and other digital
protective gear all have their places in the best-
laid plans to safeguard a business.
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/3806
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Specter: a Commercial Honeypot Solution for Windows
This is the third installment in an ongoing series
of articles looking at honeypots. In the first two
papers, we discussed the OpenSource honeypot Honeyd,
how it works, and a deployment in the wild. In this
paper we will look at a different honeypot, the
commercially supported solution Specter.
http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1683
Open Source Honeypots: Learning with Honeyd
http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1659
Open Source Honeypots, Part Two: Deploying Honeyd in the Wild
http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1675
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Benetton weighs privacy issues of 'smart tag' use
After a barrage of concern from privacy advocates
and financial analysts, Benetton says it is
undecided on inserting microchip transmitters
in garments that would allow clothes to be
tracked from the factory to the store. Last
month, Philips Semiconductors, a branch of
the Dutch electronics giant, had announced
it would deliver 15 million radio frequency
smart labels to the Italian clothing retailer
this year.
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,58385,00.html
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/5587454.htm
http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/845671p-5939088c.html
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Watching you, watching me in NYC
Bill Brown stands in the middle of a crowded
Manhattan sidewalk, gesturing obscenely toward
the sky. Youve got no right to do this!
I think youre a coward! he shouts at a video
camera staring back at him from four stories
up. Unusual behavior for a New York tour guide,
but Brown is offering a view of the city that
few visitors or natives see. His Video
Surveillance Tour of Manhattan scans rooftops,
storefronts and utility poles for some of the
thousands of surveillance cameras perched
across the city.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/897400.asp
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Texas counties pilot online court filing system
Two Texas counties are currently piloting a Web-
based filing system for state and local courts
that will be jointly developed by BearingPoint
Inc. and Microsoft Inc. The companies are offering
the product as a managed service so attorneys can
file any type of case document, whether criminal
or civil, simple or complex, said Frank Giebutowski,
Microsoft's general manager for state and local
government. Because it's a managed service, courts
don't have to pay major capital investments for
such a system, he said.
http://www.fcw.com/geb/articles/2003/0407/web-texas-04-08-03.asp
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