NewsBits for April 11, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Grifter jailed for Mac auction fraud A conniving conwoman who ripped off an estimated $880,000 from almost 350 victims through online auction fraud was sent to jail for four years and nine months this week. Teresa Smith, 25, of Massachusetts, USA, posed as legitimate businesswoman selling Apple computers on auction sites such as eBay for 18 months before she was rumbled. Only a handful of the people who paid for machines ordered from her ever received goods, The Hartford Courant reports. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/30221.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-04-11-ebay-fraud_x.htm Web-Based Con Artists Enjoy Bumper Year http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/21254.html - - - - - - - - - - UTEP student gets 5 years for child porn A UTEP engineering student was sentenced to five years in prison for child pornography, the FBI said Thursday. Javier Perea, 27, was snared last year as part of operation "Candyman" that targeted computer child porn, the FBI said. Agents said Perea had taken sexually explicit photos of a 9-year-old El Pasoan. As part of his sentence, the judge ordered Perea to undergo sex offender treatment in prison, register as a sex offender and not have unsupervised contact with children younger than 18. http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20030411-99331.shtml - - - - - - - - - - Woman pleads guilty to child porn charge A Brookings woman pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to an indictment charging her of possession of material constituting child pornography. Authorities say that from about Dec. 1 to Jan. 22, Carol Fryer, 40, received e-mails from outside South Dakota that depicted minors engaged in various forms of sexually explicit conduct. Those images included still photographs, video clips and movies, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's office in Sioux Falls. Brookings police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1127&dept_id=92761&newsid=7676587&PAG=461&rfi=9 - - - - - - - - - - Lesser charge resolves porn case A former UNC security guard pleaded guilty to accessing computers without permission Thursday after he allegedly downloaded child and adult pornography from two computers where he worked. Travis Jackson Kylander, 21, who now resides in Caswell County, received a 90-day jail sentence and supervised probation for three years. As part of his probation, Kylander will have to undergo psychological treatment. Originally, Kylander faced two felony charges, second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and third degree sexual exploitation of a minor. Second degree refers to copying child pornography, and third degree refers to possessing child pornography, Assistant District Attorney Kayley Taber said. http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-340944.html - - - - - - - - - - 52 arrests in child porn probe A MASSIVE police investigation into child internet porn has led to dozens of arrests across West Yorkshire in just three days. And police have confirmed that Operation Ore is now at an end in the county. Over the last three days police made 52 arrests - some of them in the Huddersfield area. Operation Ore was set up to investigate people who had paid to download images of child porn and sex abuse on the internet. The investigation began in America and spread worldwide with professionals including teachers, doctors, police officers and social workers arrested. People were traced after using credit cards to pay for access to child porn sites in the USA. American authorities alerted British police. http://ichuddersfield.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/page.cfm?objectid=12838032&method=full&siteid=50060&headline=52%20arrests%20in%20child%20porn%20probe - - - - - - - - - - Town official, an ex-con, arrested on computer porn charge State police are accusing the Dix, Schuyler County, town administrator and former Scoutmaster of keeping child pornography on his work computer. Dix Town Administrator Mark Hills, 44, of Beaver Dams, Schuyler County, pleaded innocent Thursday in Schuyler County Court to possessing child pornography. Police arrested Hills on March 13, three days after authorities seized his computer. The Town Board suspended him without pay on March 15. The pictures were found after the Town Board hired a security firm to investigate the source of viruses crashing the computer system. Hills was released from state prison in 1991, after serving three years for sexually abusing a 14-year-old Boy Scout at Darien Lake in 1986. He pleaded guilty in 1988 to sodomy and endangering the welfare of a child. The board appointed Hills as town administrator four years ago. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/0411story102343_news.shtml - - - - - - - - - - NJ County official accused of downloading child porn A town and county emergency management official resigned this week in the face of a looming accusation that he downloaded child pornography off the Internet. William R. Teets Jr. faces the fourth-degree charge after an investigation by the Newton Police Department. He was released from police custody on his own recognizance pending an appearance in state Superior Court of Sussex County on Monday. It was discovered internally, Police Chief John Tomasula said Wednesday, specifying the investigation lasted a few days before Teets was charged. http://www.njherald.com/news/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1049983396,44258, - - - - - - - - - - Mayor: 2,000 child-porn pics found The mayor of the southern German town of Falkenstein is to go on trial after he was found in possession of 2,000 pornographic photographs of children, a local official said on Thursday. An enquiry found that the mayor had downloaded the pictures from the internet and saved them on a compact disc at his townhall office. The mayor, who is married with children, was given the option of paying a 6,600 fine to settle the case, but he turned it down. He has been suspended from office while awaiting trial. http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1346238,00.html - - - - - - - - - - ISU student found with child porn Iowa State University freshman Nicholas Lahr was arrested at his campus dormitory room March 31 for the alleged possession of child pornography on his personal computer. Lahr was released from custody after posting a $30,000 bond on charges of four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, which is an aggravated misdemeanor. He faces a maximum sentence of less than two years in prison and a fine ranging from $500 to $5,000 for each of the four counts of possession. According to Captain of Special Operations Gene Deisinger, one of his detectives ran a keyword search on the university system March 12 to search for pornography; the search returned Lahr's shared folder. http://www.badgerherald.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/04/11/3e9627ebdf2cb - - - - - - - - - - Child-porn tip leads to arrest in Lakewood Lakewood police have arrested a man they suspect of keeping and trading thousands of sexually explicit pictures of children - some only infants. Authorities began investigating 39-year-old Jay Ryder Dehart after receiving a tip from one of his relatives, who found the alarming photos on a family computer. Dehart turned himself in to police Tuesday. In earlier interviews with detectives, Dehart allegedly confessed to keeping and distributing child pornography, according to an arrest affidavit. Police said their investigation of the case is ongoing, and detectives are trying to figure out how many people with whom Dehart may have shared the pictures. http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~1317785,00.html - - - - - - - - - - 'Honest Thief' comes clean on bogus file-sharing venture A Dutch businessman who received international publicity for claiming to have created a way to trade music online without legal challenge now says the whole project was a hoax to drum up publicity. Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, Billboard, CNET and The Hollywood Reporter were among media outlets both in the United States and the Netherlands that reported businessman Pieter Plass' claims for a project he called "The Honest Thief." http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-04-11-honest-thief_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Congress OKs Internet Porn Restrictions Congress passed legislation today that would give jail time to online pornographers who deliberately mask their sites behind innocuous domain names. The House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the Child Abduction Prevention Act, which strengthens penalties for pedophiles, provides funding for a national child-abduction alert system and bolsters prohibitions against child pornography. The proposal is frequently referred to as the "Amber Alert" bill. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4830-2003Apr10.html http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1104-996537.html http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105-996414.html - - - - - - - - - - Legislation curbing junk e-mail introduced in Senate Two U.S. senators introduced a bill on Thursday seeking to cut down on "spam," the unwanted junk e-mail that by some estimates accounts for 40% of e-mail traffic worldwide. The bill, sponsored by Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns and Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, takes aim at a popular spam tactic by requiring Internet marketers to provide legitimate return addresses on their messages. Spammers often hide behind false return addresses to avoid the ire of their targets and to slip through filtering software. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-04-11-spam-bill_x.htm http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/04/11/spam.bill.reut/index.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/898578.asp http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/privacy/story/0,10801,80249,00.html New Yorkers Face Off in Spam Spat http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,58421,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Sparks over US power grid cybersecurity A new measure aims to protect the networks that control electric power distribution throughout North America. But not everyone is juiced over plans to hold utilities accountable to tight security practices, says Kevin Poulsen, of SecurityFocus. The organization responsible for keeping electricity flowing throughout the United States and Canada took its first serious step this week to shoring up cybersecurity on the Byzantine computer networks that control electric power distribution. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/30226.html - - - - - - - - - - Google's porn filters under fire Children using Google's SafeSearch feature, designed to filter out links to Web sites with adult content, may be shielded from far more than their parents ever intended. A report released this week by the Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society says that SafeSearch excludes many innocuous Web pages from search-result listings, including ones created by the White House, IBM, the American Library Association and clothing company Liz Claiborne. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-996417.html - - - - - - - - - - Smart credit on UK cards. Will it cut fraud? UK banks, building societies and retailers are to introduce a more secure method of authorising credit card payments. Designed to combat fraud, the Chip and PIN Programme will see the magnetic stripes on credit and debit cards replaced with smart chips. The huge project will see more than 850,000 retailer terminals, 122 million cards and 40,000 cash machines upgraded by 2005. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/30214.html - - - - - - - - - - Europe bets on mobile gambling Forget about grand casinos and shady bookmakers. Europeans can now satisfy their gambling urges on the spot -- with their cell phones. ``M-gambling'' is gaining speed after a sputtering start in the late 1990s when it relied on a far slower technology called WAP. In the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Britain and Austria, regular mobile phones can now be used to buy lottery tickets, bet on sporting events or enter sweepstakes for prizes. Many countries in Asia are beginning to offer similar services. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/5613370.htm - - - - - - - - - - First e-gov certificate student graduates from NDU The National Defense University today graduated 109 military, civilian and foreign government IT workers from its five certificate programs, including the first federal employee to earn an e-government certificate. Judith Oxman, a contracting officer for the Defense Information Systems Agencys Network Services and Operation Services Contracting Division, completed the nine classes in information management planning, enterprise architecture, security, privacy and access issues and other e-government areas http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/21703-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Honeypots get stickier for hackers If Lance Spitzner has his way, network defenders will get sweeter on the "honeypot"--a traditional method of detecting online intruders. Spitzner and two dozen members of the Honeynet Project hope new changes to the group's open-source honeypot technology will help the method become much more popular among security companies and others. The technology is designed to help users forge their own honeypots--faked computers and networks that serve as decoys for discovering online miscreants. http://news.com.com/2100-1009-996574.html - - - - - - - - - - Code leak spurs Windows Server 2003 piracy A secret code allowing unlimited installations of Microsoft's upcoming server software has leaked onto the Internet. A key code for installing Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 has leaked onto the Internet, a loss that could lead to widespread piracy of the software. A Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed the leak late Monday and said Microsoft was investigating the matter. The code key leak comes more than two weeks before the software's scheduled release on 24 April. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2133092,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Few takers for security outsourcing As one analyst group predicts a boom in outsourcing, another says that few firms are prepared to hand over the security of their IT systems. European firms are still reluctant to hand over the management of key security measures to third-parties, according to research published on Friday. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2133349,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Intrusion prevention touted over detection Next week's RSA Conference 2003 in San Francisco will feature a range of security technologies meant to let corporations more proactively defend themselves against a growing array of cyberthreats. Unlike most traditional firewall and intrusion-detection products, which passively detect problems, the new tools use rules, usage models and correlation engines to enforce authorized network behavior. In some cases, these tools automatically prevent unauthorized or malicious tasks from executing. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,80260,00.html - - - - - - - - - - NYC police to destroy database on protesters New York City police have ended a practice of questioning arrested anti-war demonstrators about their political affiliations and are destroying a database containing the information, officials said Thursday. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said he had been unaware of the practice but that it was stopped after civil libertarians complained that it violated the Constitution. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-04-11-nypd-database_x.htm *********************************************************** Computer Forensics Training - Online. 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