NewsBits for May 6, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Man Apologizes For Teen's Sex Death Saul Dos Reis, the 25-year man convicted of manslaughter and sexual assault in the death of a 13-year-old girl he met on the Internet was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in state prison. Sniffling and speaking so softly that Judge Patrick L. Carroll III had to ask him several times to speak up, Dos Reis apologized for killing Christina Long of Danbury. "I wish words could express the deep pain I feel at every moment," he said. I have not had a single night of sleep." http://www.wnbc.com/technology/2183806/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - Knoxville Man Charged with Attempted Child Rape The Knoxville Police Department's Internet Crimes against Children Task Force has arrested another suspected online predator. Officers say 41-year-old Kenneth LaGrow, of Knoxville, is charged with attempted rape of a child. He was arrested Monday night at an East Knoxville hotel. The task force says it had been corresponding with LaGrow since April 15th, after he asked a local 12-year-old girl to have sex on the Internet. LaGrow was found with digital video cameras and nylon rope in his motel room. http://www.wate.com/global/story.asp?s=1265813 - - - - - - - - - - TEACHER NABBED A WEB PERV A 38-year-old Long Island teacher was busted for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old boy he met on the Internet, cops said yesterday. Joseph Acosta, a Spanish teacher at Bellport Middle School in Suffolk County, was charged with one count of sodomy and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child after he allegedly wooed the boy online and then lured him to a sex session, cops said. http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/75103.htm - - - - - - - - - - Clinton man faces porn charges Joseph Aurora, a freelance bowling and tennis instructor, says on an Internet Web page that he loves to take his Pontiac GTO to car shows to inspire in kids an interest that could become a lifelong hobby or career. The hot car and the relationships made as a bowling instructor also were devices police say Aurora has used, in conjunction with the Internet, to seduce and film countless young boys in sexual encounters. The 42-year-old Clinton man was arrested Friday by New Hampshire police as he awaited a 14-year-old boy he believed he had met over the Internet and was preparing to film in a Keene motel, police said Monday. The 14-year-old boy instead was a Keene detective, running an Internet sting operation that has resulted in the arrest of 330 people in 46 states and 15 foreign countries on child sex and pornography charges since its inception in 1996. http://www.middletownpress.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7922573&BRD=1645&PAG=461&dept_id=10856 - - - - - - - - - - Macalester Student Investigated For Sending Child Porn Using School The Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force has served a search warrant at Macalester College. A student is under investigation for using the college's computer system to send child pornography over the Internet. The student under investigation has an email address with Macalester. http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_126134057.html - - - - - - - - - - Legality Of Child Porn Search Questioned The owner of a Pottstown karate institute accused of possessing child pornography claims police searches of his home and workplace were illegal. James Thomas Marzolf's lawyer, Robert L. Stauffer, has asked a judge to prevent prosecutors from using the evidence against Marzolf at trial. "The affidavit of probable cause has not established that (Marzolf) was in fact in possession of any child pornography at the time the warrant was issued," Stauffer wrote in court papers made available Monday. Marzolf, whose karate institute advertised training for "tots and children," was initially arrested on nine counts of sexual abuse of children in December based upon a November search of his home that allegedly yielded a computer and computer disks containing child pornography http://kyw.com/Local%20News/local_story_126105730.html - - - - - - - - - - SCO site suffers DDoS outage The Linux company, which is currently suing IBM for infringing its intellectual property, saw its Web site taken offline by a 'well-orchestrated' denial- of-service attack. An avalanche of data blocked access to the SCO Group's Web site for several hours on Friday, said the company, which has come under fire from Linux fans for an ongoing lawsuit against IBM. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2134275,00.html http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1054790,00.asp - - - - - - - - - - ISS misses a spot, but hackers don't Network protection firm Internet Security Systems missed an insecure spot in its sweeps, but a group of online vandals didn't. On Tuesday, the firm acknowledged that a group of Web defacers known as the Unix Security Guard, or USG, had managed to digitally tag a single page on its Web site, replacing it with an antiwar message that dismissed the leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105_2-999843.html http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=9600021 - - - - - - - - - - Racist E-mail attacks stun NYU biz students Hate-filled E-mails targeting African-Americans, Arabs and Muslims flooded the inboxes of undergraduate students during a recent hacking spree at NYU's Stern School of Business. More than 100 messages were sent to the school's 1,600 students. Many used the N-word liberally and included lengthy arguments in support of stereotypes. http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/81294p-74369c.html - - - - - - - - - - South Korean Group Sues Microsoft Over Slammer In a sign of users' increasing frustration with the security shortcomings of many software applications, a civic group in South Korea has made good on their threat to file a lawsuit against Microsoft Corp.'s Korean subsidiary, a Korean ISP and the country's Information Ministry. The suit is the direct result of the havoc caused by the SQL Slammer worm in January. The worm infected thousands of machines all over the world running Microsoft's SQL Server 2000 software, but it hit South Korea particularly hard. Some ISPs in the country were knocked off-line for extended periods of time thanks to huge amounts of network traffic generated by the worm. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1054790,00.asp - - - - - - - - - - Offshore coding work raises security concerns IT professionals are raising serious questions about the U.S. software industry's reliance on overseas software developers, arguing that the practice puts companies and the U.S. economy at risk. A recent study by Gartner Inc. predicts that by 2004, more than 80% of U.S. companies will consider outsourcing critical IT services, including software development, to countries such as India, Pakistan, Russia and China. But some users said the trend needs to be given a sanity check in light of recent changes in the global security environment. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,80935,00.html - - - - - - - - - - UK plots security initiative The government is to step up its efforts to promote better IT security. The government aims to draw up a list of recommended products and assess firms' digital defences to improve information security in the UK. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1140642 - - - - - - - - - - Apple Store security tightened Apple on Friday mended a security hole that could have enabled hackers to hijack Apple Store accounts to make fraudulent orders, Wired reports. The flaw could have resulted in customer passwords being accessed to control victims' account data. Information at risk included names, addresses, telephone numbers, order histories and credit- card information, though not credit-card numbers. To access the information, attackers required only a victims' email address, after which an attacker could place orders. http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/main_news.cfm?NewsID=6292 - - - - - - - - - - ICQ flaws open PCs to attack A security company has released an advisory detailing six flaws in the ICQ communication software, two of which are serious vulnerabilities. Two serious flaws in America Online's ICQ software could allow an online attacker to take control of a person's PC, a Boston security firm warned in an advisory released on Monday. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2134273,00.html http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-999870.html - - - - - - - - - - Ferreting Out Software Piracy The Business Software Alliance has adopted a cartoon ferret to help teach kids about software piracy. The software industry has deployed the latest high-tech weapon in its fight against the billion-dollar scourge of software piracy -- a cartoon ferret. Decked in baggy jeans and a tight T-shirt, the grinning critter is the mascot of Playitcybersafe.com, a new Web site aimed at stopping kids before they make their first forays into software theft. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19677-2003May6.html Would Lower CD Prices Cut Internet Piracy? http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-le-hoffine6.2may06,1,3021558.story - - - - - - - - - - The movie industry fights off the pirates If you are one of the lucky few invited to see an early screening of The Matrix Reloaded, beware: Big Brother is watching. With infrared binoculars. And you could be searched. You may have to walk through a metal detector. Expect your cell phones to be checked at the door. Got a tape recorder? You're out of there. And that's just what the movie studio is willing to reveal about the steps it is taking to prevent pirates from illegally getting their hands on and making copies of its impending blockbuster. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-05-06-movies-piracy_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Safety Net for kids Stop Crime The Internet has been a powerful educational tool, offering children libraries full of information right at their Web-surfing fingertips. But there are dangers lurking online also. "As wonderful as the Internet is, it also has a side effect where it becomes difficult in many situations," said Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating. The Dedham Middle School Parent Group will host "Internet Safety for Parents," a workshop by staff members of Keating's office aimed at preventing Web-based crimes. http://www.crime-research.org/eng/news/2003/05/Mess0605.html - - - - - - - - - - Gates says new security technology to benefit, not stifle users Consumers shouldn't be worried that Microsoft Corp.'s new security technology will wrest control of their PCs and give it to media companies, Bill Gates said Tuesday. They can always choose not to use it, he said. The Microsoft co-founder expects consumers as well as governments and businesses to embrace the system, which hard-wires security into silicon chips rather than just software. It's designed to offer unprecedented levels of protection against hacking and eavesdropping. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/5798718.htm http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/879885p-6133437c.html http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,58746,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Hacked Wi-Fi security standard faces axe Wi-Fi Protected Access to replace Wireless Equivalent Privacy security protocol. Corporate fears about wireless local area network (Lan) security may be quelled by the Wi-Fi Alliance's decision to improve security and encryption interoperability for a number of 802.11 products. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1140649 - - - - - - - - - - Ideal security focus recognised Ideal Hardware's focus on security is gaining momentum after the company was named best performing distributor for 2003 by security software and appliance maker Symantec. http://www.pcw.co.uk/News/1140634 - - - - - - - - - - Fingerprint reader can help navigation DigitalPersona plans to announce on Tuesday a fingerprint scanner for laptops and handhelds that doubles as a jog dial. The desktop security company plans to sell the scanner, named the U-are-U Firefly, to laptop and personal digital assistant makers that want to allow users to protect their data with a fingerprint scan. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2134282,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Blocking a cyberterror attack Stop Cybercrime In the abstract, fighting a war is simple. The enemy and the targets are generally identifiable. But in the war against hackers and virus writers, the combatants are harder to know. The attacker might be a 14-year-old in Canada, or a co-worker in the accounting department. "You'll have every type of person" practicing the dark arts of programming, said Sarah Gordon, a senior research fellow with the security technology developer Symantec. http://www.crime-research.org/eng/news/2003/05/Mess0604.html - - - - - - - - - - Radio ID chips to come with kill switch Manufacturers and a key industry group expect to introduce a kill switch for controversial radio frequency identification tags before the inventory- tracking chips are shipped in products to retail shelves. The Auto ID Center, which is helping to develop the radio frequency identification (RFID) specification, said last week that chips incorporating a kill switch are due this summer from manufacturers including Philips Semiconductor, Alien Technology and Matrics. http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-999794.html - - - - - - - - - - Senate panel demands merged terror watch lists The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence last week unanimously approved an intelligence authorization bill for fiscal 2004 that calls for increased information sharing and data consolidation. The committee met in a secret session to approve the bill. The bill provides the funding necessary to establish a single, government- wide terrorist watch list. It also increases funding to standardize databases to facilitate access to information, according to a committee statement. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/22007-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Aggregating data doesnt equate to sharing it, one expert says Gathering information alone will not result in intelligence agencies meshing data and sharing intelligence, one intelligence analyst says. Whats more, having knowledge superiority doesn't necessarily mean that the best knowledge is being captured and put to good use, said Richard L. Haver, special assistant to the secretary of Defense for intelligence. "I can load all the data into one place, and that's where it'll stay," Haver said today at the TechNet International 2003 show in Washington. "I'm interested in decision superiority." To achieve that requires using IT to "merge information quickly, putting it in the hands of those that need it," he said. Government policy is moving in the right direction, Haver said. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/22010-1.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. 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.