NewsBits for May 23, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Norway police capture alleged movie pirates Four employees of Norwegian technology firm Eterra, which provides communications platforms, are under police investigation for illegal distribution of movies and music on the Internet, Oslo police said on Friday. Police said they had confiscated more than 1,000 music and video files on a server at the offices of Eterra, a unit of Norwegian information technology group Merkantildata. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105_2-1009448.html - - - - - - - - - - Former prison employee admits looking at child porn at work A former prison employee admitted looking at child pornography on a work computer. Stephen Bennett, 49, of Clay, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one felony count of possessing a sexual performance by a child. Judge William Walsh sentenced him to a three-year conditional discharge. Prosecutors accused Bennett of visiting child pornography Web sites Aug. 8 at Onondaga County Correctional Facility in Jamesville, where he worked as a stock clerk. Though he did not download the pictures, the computer stored them automatically as he viewed them, said Assistant District Attorney Gary Dawson. A computer technician discovered the images. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny-brf--prison-pornog0521may21,0,7166620.story - - - - - - - - - - Police snare man in Internet investigation Royal Oak police arrested Robert Neal Bisgeier, 51, of West Bloomfield, on Friday for attempting to solicit sex from a minor via the Internet. In April, ROPD Detective Gordie Young posed as a 14-year-old boy and met Bisgeier in a chat room. They exchanged more than 12 messages, in which Bisgeier allegedly solicited sex. They agreed to meet at 3 p.m. Friday at a convenience store parking lot at the corner of 11 Mile and Campbell. ROPD detectives and undercover officers of the Directed Patrol Unit were waiting when Bisgeier arrived. They arrested him without incident. Later, officers searched his home and confiscated a large amount of computer equipment. The investigation is ongoing. http://hometownlife.com/news/royaloakmirror/Default.asp?Page=5-22-2003/FullStory/PolicesnaremaninInternetinvestigation.htm - - - - - - - - - - Tough California anti-spam bill passes state Senate The California State Senate Thursday approved a bill that would make it illegal to send unsolicited e-mail advertising and allows people to sue so-called spammers for $500 per unwanted message. If the bill, which now goes to the California Assembly, becomes law, it would be one of the strictest anti-spam measures in the country. Gov. Gray Davis has taken no position on the measure. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-05-23-spam-ca_x.htm http://www.msnbc.com/news/917231.asp http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2135137,00.html http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-spam23may23,1,5755646.story Putting the heat on spam (Series of Articles) http://news.com.com/2009-1029_3-1009022.html http://zdnet.com.com/2251-1110-1009486.html - - - - - - - - - - Japan Passes Privacy Protection Law Japanese lawmakers voted into law Friday a set of privacy protection bills that have been criticized as potentially restricting freedom of speech. The legislation gives individuals the right to obtain information companies have collected about them and puts restrictions on the use and sharing of such personal data. Government bureaucrats are similarly regulated. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-05-23-privacy-japan_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Credit card firms 'profit from Net fraud' A class action lawsuit against credit card firms alleging merchants are unfairly left to shoulder the burden of credit card fraud has begun in the US. The suit, filed by North Carolina-based law firm Triangle Law Center, in the US States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, alleges all manner of misdeeds on the part of credit card companies. Visa, MasterCard International, American Express and Discover Financial Services are all named in the suit, which certainly doesn't pull its punches. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/67/30849.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/917088.asp - - - - - - - - - - Feds to appoint new cybersecurity chief The Bush administration plans to appoint a new cybersecurity chief for the government inside the Homeland Security Department, replacing a position once held by a special adviser to the president. Industry leaders worry the new post won't be powerful enough. The move reflects an effort to appease frustrated technology executives over what they consider a lack of White House attention to hackers, cyberterror and other Internet threats. Officials have outlined their intentions privately in recent weeks to lawmakers, technology executives and lobbyists. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/5931697.htm http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/896692p-6246912c.html http://www.securityfocus.com/news/5069 - - - - - - - - - - County Police Take A Bite Out of Fraud Scott Wyne, a detective for the Montgomery County police fraud squad, is in the middle of investigating the biggest case of identity theft in the Washington region. All around his Rockville office are software, computers and the machines to emboss holograms and official-looking Visa stickers on blank credit cards, all seized from the tony home of Francis E. Fletcher Jr. and Michele Cameron Fletcher, both of whom have been arrested on identity theft charges spanning at least two years. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17636-2003May20.html - - - - - - - - - - Identity theft in Russia has got an epidemic character And it is just the one of many threats related to information. On statistics data in 2002 there were registered 3 371 cybercrimes in Russia. Computer hacks are the most popular (about 90 %) among all registered computer crimes related to illegal information resources access. Earlier the attention of hackers has been drown to the western firms, but now they are interested in Russian firms engaged in the sphere of e-commerce and banking. So, on January 30, 2003 in Tula's bank $19 000 have been stolen from the personal account through the Internet. According to Department of Internal Affairs of the Tula region, it is not the first case of hacking the bank computer networks. http://www.crime-research.org/eng/news/2003/05/Mess2301.html - - - - - - - - - - EarthLink Has New Way To Put a Lid on Spam E-mail EarthLink says the system, which is already available from several small companies for free, will be optional and free for its 5 million subscribers. One of the USA's largest Internet service providers is about to deploy what may be the best line of defense so far in the war against unwanted e-mail. EarthLink on Tuesday will introduce anti-spam technology, dubbed challenge- response, that could prevent spammers from flooding the Internet and corporate e-mail systems with billions of automatically generated e-mail messages. If successful, the technology could put a lid on those annoying ads hawking home mortgages, pornography and miracle drugs that account for more than half of all e-mail. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/21590.html - - - - - - - - - - Trend Micro bug preys on "P" Trend Micro's antispam software recently took issue with the letter "P." A bug, which appeared in an antispam rule update, began blocking and quarantining all incoming and outgoing messages containing the letter "P," depending on how customers had configured the software. The flaw affected a Trend Micro product designed to filter content, block unsolicited commercial e-mail, and report and monitor the type of information that enters or leaves a company's network. The problem affected Cupertino, Calif.-based Trend Micro's eManager product, an e-mail security product. A company representative said the number of customers who reported being affected was in the low double digits. http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-1009483.html http://computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/groupware/story/0,10801,81493,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Big brother eyes students A NATIONAL ID number for students and a new computer system to track them has been compared with the failed Australia card bid in the 1980s. It has also raised the issue of privacy and how much access government should have to personal information on students. But Education Minister Brendan Nelson said privacy would be protected with the "full force of the law". http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,6466302%5E16123%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Flaw discovered in Windows Server 2003 backup A storage flaw in Microsoft's new server operating system means tape backups cannot be read by earlier versions of Windows. Microsoft is working to solve an incompatibility issue that prevents backups made with Windows Server 2003 from being read on previous versions of Windows. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2135131,00.html http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-1009378.html - - - - - - - - - - PGP hints at secure instant messaging The chief executive of PGP Corporation, Phillip Dunkelberger, has hinted the company will release a secure instant messaging (IM) application following the re-launch of the brand in June last year. During a phone interview, Dunkelberger made reference to IM as an area that has significant potential for innovation. "Messages of all types need to be secure," he said. The company was founded following the buy back by its original founders in June last year, after Network Associates decided to sell the brand after five years of limited success. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-1009453.html - - - - - - - - - - Students offered virus writing course A university course in Canada teaching students how to create computer viruses has been met with derision by angry industry watchers, who believe it will create a pool of future virus writers. The 'Computer Viruses and Malware' course will begin next autumn at the University of Calgary. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1141141 - - - - - - - - - - The bugs stop here This past winter, a worm known as Slammer rattled the Internet violently enough to become what you might call a "CNN-level virus" -- that is, it burrowed its way into the national consciousness. Nearly everything about the SQL Slammer was old. It was an old hack that exploited a year-old vulnerability found in an old target, Microsoft Corp. software. There was a patch to block Slammer that was six months old, and that patch suffered from an old patch problem: It was so kludgy to install that the patch needed a patch. Above all, the reaction to Slammer -- the call to use the event to build security awareness -- was so old it called Bob Hope "kid." But this much was new: Everyone agreed that Slammer was your fault. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,81440,00.html - - - - - - - - - - New face of hacking: Irate workers Furious that he'd been fired from the travel agency where he worked, James O'Brien waited months before allegedly springing his carefully plotted revenge. Just before Christmas 2000, according to federal prosecutors, O'Brien hacked into his former employer's computer system and canceled 60 customers' airline tickets. The move cost the agency $96,000 and left dozens of would-be holiday vacationers stranded at airports. O'Brien's alleged crime, according to federal law enforcement officials who brought charges against him last month, is the new face of hacking: Irate workers who in the old, low-tech days might have simmered or spread slander about their ex-bosses now instead are wreaking havoc on their former workplaces by infiltrating their computer systems. http://www.saljournal.com/stories/052203/tec_hack.html - - - - - - - - - - Biometrics to catch 'fake' asylum seekers The Home Office is deploying a facial recognition system to fight fraudulent asylum applications. The government is set to use digital images and facial recognition technology when screening asylum seekers in the UK in an attempt to further clamp down on fraudulent applications. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2135167,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Radio ID chips may track banknotes Radio tags the size of a grain of sand could be embedded in the euro note if a reported deal between the European Central Bank (ECB) and Japanese electronics maker Hitachi is signed. Japanese news agency Kyodo was reportedly told by Hitachi that the ECB has started talks with the company about the use of its radio chip in the banknote. The ECB is deeply concerned about counterfeiting and money- laundering and is said to be looking at radio-tag technology. http://news.com.com/2100-1019_3-1009155.html - - - - - - - - - - Lawmakers wary of new terrorist threat center Several key lawmakers have warned an independent commission assembled to study the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that the CIA should not oversee a new anti-terrorism center designed to integrate domestic and foreign intelligence data. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0503/052303td1.htm - - - - - - - - - - What Is Smart Dust, Anyway? Facial-recognition cameras are so 2001 - at least when it comes to stirring up paranoia among privacy hand-wringers. The bogeyman of the moment is smart dust, a network of speck-sized machines that can suss out whether sarin is in the air, enemy troops are around the corner, or the mean temperature on Mars has dropped. Smart-dust particles are designed to float through the air as innocuously as dandelion seeds, gathering and transmitting data in real time. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.06/start.html?pg=10 - - - - - - - - - - New research looks inside the brain to catch liars in the act Scientists are turning to cutting-edge technology, from MRIs to near-infrared brain scans, in an attempt to answer what courts and corporations have long wanted to know: How can you prove that someone's lying? Scientists are turning to cutting- edge technology, from MRIs to near-infrared brain scans, in an attempt to answer what courts and corporations have long wanted to know: How can you prove that someone's lying? http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2003-05-23-liar-liar_x.htm *********************************************************** Computer Forensics Training - Online. 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