NewsBits for April 21, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Wave of Indonesian Sellers Figure in eBay Scam Ever seen something up for bid on eBay and thought it looked familiar? Real familiar? That's happened to many dealers lately, and, for some, it's turned into a nightmare of frustrations dealing with a blizzard of e-mails and phone calls from people who wonder why objects on some dealer's Web sites are up for auction on other's. The scam--and it is a scam--runs like this. Someone, usually in Indonesia, copies a photo used by a genuine eBay seller, or a dealer with a Web site, then registers as an eBay seller. The new seller posts his merchandise for auction on eBay, usually the same day he registers, and runs the copied photo with the lot. If there's any description, it is usually copied from the original seller's description. http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/buzz/buzz168.htm - - - - - - - - - - Prosecutors dismiss charges here in child pornography case Conceding defeat in a case racked by an FBI misstep, prosecutors dismissed charges Friday against Gregory L. Strauser of St. Louis County, who at one time had admitted possessing child pornography. The Justice Department also dismissed a New York child pornography case that faced the same problem - findings that an FBI agent used false information to obtain a search warrant. Last month, federal trial judges in St. Louis and New York threw out evidence in both cases. Prosecutors filed appeals but then dropped them Friday. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/069222B90B36F62386256D0D000A02EC - - - - - - - - - - Tennessee man gets 20 years after sex crime convictions A 62-year-old Tennessee man was sentenced to 20 years in prison without parole for trying to lure a child for sex and for using a computer to send child pornography to Alabama. U.S. District Judge C. Lynwood Smith Jr. ordered George Frazier of Kingsport Tenn., to also serve five years of supervised release once he completes his prison sentence. Federal authorities said Frazier propositioned a minor, who was actually an undercover U.S. postal inspector, in a chat room to engage in sex. Inspector James Dormuth assumed the identity of 13-year-old Tommy and had numerous online conversations in May, June and July with Frazier. http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news/1050743793240520.xml - - - - - - - - - - Ex-judge jailed for child abuse is arrested on porn charges A couple of months after completing a prison term for child abuse, a former state administrative judge was arrested at the central Enoch Pratt Free Library Thursday evening on charges of possessing child pornography, authorities said. Marvin Lee Teal, 53, of the 2000 block of N. Calvert St. was arrested after a police officer spotted him viewing sexual images of children on a computer in the library's periodicals section, court documents show. Teal was downloading the images from the Internet, police said. http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-md.porn19apr19,0,5253169.story - - - - - - - - - - Ex-teacher nabbed on child porn allegations A 44-year-old Sterling Heights man, who worked as a middle school teacher in New Baltimore until last week, has been charged with distributing child pornography over the computer. Gerald Alan Archutowski is free on $25,000 bond. Sterling Heights Detective Kevin Miller, assigned to the city's Computer Crimes Unit, said police began investigating Archutowski after New Hampshire police reported that he was distributing child pornography over the Internet Miller said he posed as a typical 14-year-old boy and was contacted by Archutowski one week ago. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7765330&BRD=988&PAG=461&dept_id=141265&rfi=6 - - - - - - - - - - Police say couple lured teens into porn ring A Lake County couple lured children into their home with alcohol and drugs in exchange for using them in pornographic pictures and videotapes - some of which were broadcast over the Internet, police said yesterday. Robert Noda, 53, and Lynette Toth, 35, of Madison Township, were charged yesterday in Painesville Municipal Court with child endangering. Police records say the couple used children under age 18 to act and model for sexually oriented photographs and videos in the couple's home on Meadows Road. "Some of the photographs and tapes were sold over the Internet," DelCalzo said. He said more arrests are likely. http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/lake/1050749909214370.xml - - - - - - - - - - File sharing costs students access to Internet Penn State deprived 220 students of high-speed Internet connections in their dorms after it found they were sharing copyrighted material, the university said Monday. "Basically, we received a complaint," said Penn State spokesman Tysen Kendig, who said he could not reveal who registered the complaint. "Upon investigation, we found that the students had publicly listed copyright-infringing materials on their systems to other members of this network," he added. Music and movie industry groups have urged universities to curb the sharing of copyrighted files and penalize violators. http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/862583p-6029455c.html http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/5683361.htm http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4823-2003Apr21.html - - - - - - - - - - E-mail spoofers target Arab activists Provocative messages sent under their names to others. Arab-American activist Nawar Shora checked his e-mail one day and found scores of angry messages asking why he hated Americans and Jews. The messages were responding to e-mails marked as coming from him. Only one big problem: Shora never sent the hate mail. http://www.msnbc.com/news/902185.asp http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/04/21/hate.email.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Avoid Iraqi Cons Online Mideast conflict puts a new spin on old scams. While the war in Iraq is unprecedented in supporting timely reports from the front lines, much of the online activity surrounding the conflict has a familiar tone. Besides the expected digital humor and free expression, pervasive scam artists are seizing the opportunity to cadge money from unwitting patriots. "The only thing that makes it worse is that they are preying on something that people fundamentally feel should not be preyed upon," said Audri Lanford, who runs Internet ScamBusters, which debunks digital hoaxes. "But I guess you could say the same thing about schemes that prey on the elderly." http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,110343,00.asp - - - - - - - - - - U.S. Sides With RIAA on Disclosing Identities The Bush administration is siding with the recording industry in its court fight to force Internet providers to disclose the identities of people who are illegally trading songs over the Web. A Justice Department brief, filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, supports the effort by the Recording Industry Assn. of America to force Verizon Internet Services Inc. to identify a subscriber suspected of offering more than 600 songs from well-known artists. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-riaa19apr19,1,6813407.story http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-997568.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2780-2003Apr21.html http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,58558,00.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/30337.html DoJ supports RIAA in Verizon P2P privacy scuffle http://www.securityfocus.com/news/4100 - - - - - - - - - - Bill targeting high-tech Peeping Toms praised by victims A bill making its way through the General Assembly would outlaw video-voyeurism, plugging what victims of high-tech peeping say is a troubling hole in state law. At age 19, Ronnie-Lee Palmer discovered her landlord videotaping her bedroom through a camera hidden in an alarm clock. A few months ago, Libby Zorsky and Jessica Feighan learned a friend had been videotaping those showering in their Bonnet Shores apartment. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-04-21-peep-tom_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Parliamentary panel holding inquiry into cybercrime The Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Crime Commission is undertaking an inquiry into recent trends in cybercrime. The inquiry will pay special attention to child pornography and associated paedophile activity, banking, including credit card fraud and money laundering and threats to national critical infrastructure. The committee intends to examine recent trends and any potential limitations in the ACC's ability to perform its duties effectively and examine how well the existing legislative framework is suited to fight cybercrime and related offences. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/21/1050777200798.html - - - - - - - - - - Springs police hope to arrest more online pedophiles Predators hunting online for children in Colorado to be their sex slaves will have more of a chance of getting caught. The state's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force is expected to triple in size when six investigators are added, likely next month. The task force, headed by the Colorado Springs Police Department, has made 66 arrests since forming four years ago. Colorado Springs police detective Rick Hunt said at least one child a day in Colorado Springs gets a sexual solicitation from online predators. Hunt, who portrays a child online, often is sent Webcam images. "Give me 10 minutes, and I'll have some guy showing me a picture of himself, and it isn't his face," he said. "And what people say to me can startle a roomful of cops. That's the nature of it." http://daily.gazette.com/Repository/ml.asp?Issue=TheGazette/2003/04/19&ID=Ar01502&Mode=HTML - - - - - - - - - - THE NEXT BIG HACK? Todays SF Weekly has an excellent and sympathetic profile of Adrian Lamo, the 22-year-old homeless hacker who most famously broke into The New York Times computers last year and harvested all sorts of information to demonstrate their security lapses. The new article says hes preparing to announce his biggest hack yet, into a target he defines as a critical-infrastructure-related company. http://www.msnbc.com/news/767146.asp - - - - - - - - - - NARA releases draft requirements for electronic records The National Archives and Records Administration last week took the first step toward completing its mammoth Electronic Records Archives project, releasing a draft requirements plan. To get comments from industry and federal users, NARA has posted the draft plan on FedBizOpps.gov and listed it in the Federal Register, said Dan Jansen, a NARA project manager for ERA. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/21811-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Tools Promise Better Security Management Central management of multivendor security systems and the data they generate can lead to better risk management and auditing capabilities, users said at last week's RSA Conference 2003 here. And vendors are lining up to tap into that opportunity, with new products offering single-point administration of activities ranging from threat identification and mitigation to identity management, access control and configuration of security systems made up of products from multiple vendors. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,80484,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Inside Cisco's eavesdropping apparatus Cisco Systems has created a more efficient and targeted way for police and intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on people whose Internet service provider uses their company's routers. The company recently published a proposal that describes how it plans to embed "lawful interception" capability into its products. Among the highlights: Eavesdropping "must be undetectable," and multiple police agencies conducting simultaneous wiretaps must not learn of one another. If an Internet provider uses encryption to preserve its customers' privacy and has access to the encryption keys, it must turn over the intercepted communications to police in a descrambled form. http://news.com.com/2010-1071-997528.html - - - - - - - - - - On Cures That Are Worse than the Disease In which your columnist ponders the question, which is worst for the Internet: computer viruses, spam that advertises anti-virus products, or clueless anti-spam solutions. How much electronic annoyance can you take? If you're like me, a lot. Take, for example, spam for anti-virus software. In a sublime and almost beautiful upending of the natural state of electronic affairs, a-v spam overtook and then rocketed past the number of actual viruses arriving at my inbox. Norton, McAfee, Panda Amanda and "Beware the Black Hole Worm Virus, Secure Your PC" -- for the love of God, Montresor, stop! What in Sam Hill, anyway, is the Black Hole Worm virus? http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/155 *********************************************************** 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. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however copies may not be sold, and NewsBits (www.newsbits.net) should be cited as the source of the information. Copyright 2000-2003, NewsBits.net, Campbell, CA.