NewsBits for June 12, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Chip-theft ring boss gets 27-year sentence A San Jose federal judge this week sentenced the leader of a major West Coast computer chip theft ring to nearly 27 years in prison, the longest sentence yet imposed for this type of crime, in a case that dates back to 1990. Nhanh Le Tran, convicted two years ago for conspiracy and other charges, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge James Ware. Tran and six other defendants have been convicted in connection with a series of armed heists at computer components manufacturers, including a 1993 theft at Oki Semiconductor in Portland, Ore., in which millions of dollars in computer chips were stolen. http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/6072399.htm - - - - - - - - - - Al-Jazeera cracker charged A US Web designer has been charged with breaking into DNS servers and rerouting surfers visiting the Web site of Al-Jazeera to a "Let Freedom Ring" patriotic Web site he created, John William Racine II, of Norco, California, is also accused of intercepting Web email sent to the Arab satellite TV network, AP reports. The 24 year-old is out on bail pending a Monday court appearance when he will face charges of unlawful interception of an electronic communication and wire fraud. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/31161.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2003-06-12-jazeera-hack_x.htm http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,59216,00.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/925635.asp http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-1016447.html http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-jazeera12jun12,1,4854278.story - - - - - - - - - - Wayne County teen charged in hacking case Erased school records might give a Marion High School student a criminal one. Clint W. Triou, 17, of 4781 Steel Point Road, Marion, Wayne County has been charged with one count of computer trespass, a Class E felony, and one count of fourth-degree computer tampering, a Class A misdemeanor, in relation to the hacking of the school districts computer system on Friday. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/0612story19_news.shtml - - - - - - - - - - Sex, Lies and Cyber Crime The Cyber Crime Cell of the Mumbai police has arrested P S Mitra for conning an Abu Dhabi resident, Vijay N, to the tune of Rs 95 lakh via e-mail. Vijay became a victim of virtual reality and ended up paying hefty price for it. According to the police Mitra sent a mail to Vijay, under the name of Rita Basu, via the Internet after a brief chat session. In the mail Mitra, who acted as Rita, asked him to become her friend, which an unsuspecting Vijay readily agreed to. http://www.gunaah.com/drafts/article.php3?id=1131&name=SCOOPS&sid=14 - - - - - - - - - - Thai hackers ordered to work for victim University students who broke into a Thai government Web site are to work on the same site as punishment Thai university students arrested for hacking have been ordered to pay for their crime by serving at the very Web site they defaced. According to the daily newspaper The Bangkok Post, the ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) ministry's portal was breached recently. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2135940,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Prison for Penfield man in child porn case A 58-year-old Penfield computer consultant was sentenced Wednesday to more than 12 years in prison for receiving child pornography over the Internet and taking young boys out of state to have sex with them. Joseph N. Trapp was also to undergo five years of probation, forfeit his computer and pay restitution of $28,980 to the victims. Trapp, who faced a maximum penalty of 55 years in jail and a $250,000 fine, pleaded guilty in December to transporting minors between states with the intent to engage in illegal sexual activity. Court documents alleged that Trapp, also known as "Uncle JoJo," may have had hundreds of sexual encounters with minors. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/0612story14_news.shtml - - - - - - - - - - Convicted rapist charged with possessing child porn A college student imprisoned for raping a 16-year- old girl and having sex with other underage teens was indicted Thursday on a charge of possessing child pornography. A one-count federal indictment said a pornographic image was found on James Comfort's computer in April 2002. The computer was seized from Comfort's Greece apartment, near Rochester, during the rape investigation. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny-brf--internetrapes0612jun12,0,2748148.story http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/0612story022305_news.shtml - - - - - - - - - - Kenner Teen Booked for Child Porn Kenner Police have arrested a 16 year old on charges of child pornography. According to police, a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children led to the arrest. The teenager, whose name has not been released because of his age, is accused of creating, controlling and maintaining a Web site depicting children performing sex acts. Police say an initial forensic exam of the teenager's computer hard drive and disks allegedly reveals images depicting children as young as seven. http://www.kplctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1318874&nav=0nqxGLbN - - - - - - - - - - Teacher's aide at Upper Canada College facing child porn charges A teacher's aide at a prestigious Toronto private school has been charged with child pornography offences. The teaching assistant, who has worked at Upper Canada College since 1995, was arrested at home Wednesday by Toronto Police. Officers of the child exploitation section searched the boys-only school and the accused's home, seizing three computers and "a large quantity of child pornography," police said in a news release. Police said the arrest was made in connection with an ongoing child pornography investigation being conducted by American authorities. http://www.canada.com/ottawa/story.asp?id=767D55A1-64B1-423F-805F-940B63971394 - - - - - - - - - - Westbrook man faces child porn charges A Westbrook man was arrested Thursday on multiple charges involving Internet child pornography. Madison Police officers arrested William Wigglesworth, 36, at his work in Madison. In Westbrook, State Police and FBI agents armed with a search warrant went through Wigglesworth's home and took away some evidence. Wigglesworth was arrested on charges of promoting a minor in an obscene performance, importing child pornography and possessing child pornography. http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=1319192&nav=3YeXGLs4 - - - - - - - - - - Kifie-D worm begins overwriting docs on a Sunday. The worm spreads through email as well as peer- to-peer filesharing networks such as KaZaA, and instant messaging systems such as AIM. It copies itself to local drives and performs a Registry edit. It also displays a message box with the text: 'There was a critical error in the application the video driver could not load. If you continue to experience problems try restarting your computer'. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=43141 - - - - - - - - - - Antivirus flaw downs mail servers In the digital equivalent of an autoimmune disease, Microsoft Exchange servers at a handful of companies have crashed because of a flaw in the Network Associates antivirus software designed to protect them. Network Associates confirmed Thursday that in the past two days, four customers have been affected by a problem in its McAfee GroupShield 5.2 antivirus software for Exchange 2000 servers. A fifth company discovered the issue, but didn't suffer a crash, the security software maker said. http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-1016608.html - - - - - - - - - - EC reviews infosecurity regime A set of recommendations for better information security standards in Europe will be debated at an open meeting to be held this Friday (June 13) in Brussels. The recommendations have been produced by the Network and Information Security (NIS) Focus Group. The group includes technical experts appointed by the two European standards organisations CEN (European Committee for Standardisation) and ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute). http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/31159.html - - - - - - - - - - XXX-sites is a finance source for International Terrorism Stop Child Porn Incomes from xxx-sites are used in financing the extremist and terrorist organizations. According to the head of department on fighting cyber crime in Moscow the colonel Dmitry Chepchugov, 75 % of all child pornography is distributed in the Internet; about 90 % of the Interpol search orders on computer crime are devoted to this problem. "Incomes from pornography make an appreciable segment of the shady financial market and are used in financing of traditional crimes and the terrorist organizations" - Chepchugov said. http://www.crime-research.org/eng/news/2003/06/Mess1202.html - - - - - - - - - - Net security worries executives Executives at Canada's biggest companies say they're more concerned than ever about Internet security, but few think their own organizations are at risk, a survey released this week says. Nearly three-quarters of the 150 senior executives who participated in the survey said they were more interested in investing in Internet security systems now than 18 months ago. http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030611.twsecu0612/BNStory/Technology/ - - - - - - - - - - Companies more worried about spam than hackers Though viruses are still your biggest fear... Computer users are far more concerned about the day-to-day impact of spam than they are about hackers. In fact respondents to a survey run among silicon.com readers revealed that almost twice as many of you believe spam is a bigger threat to your business than the actions of hackers. http://silicon.com/news/165/1/4641.html - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft's Antivirus Move Rattles Security Industry With its plan to acquire antivirus technology from Romania-based GeCAD Software, Microsoft is making a move that may have massive ramifications for the antivirus industry. In announcing its acquisition plan Tuesday, Microsoft said it will develop new antivirus solutions, use GeCAD's technology to boost security of the Windows platform, and extend support for third-party antivirus products. http://www.internetweek.com/breakingNews/showArticle.jhtml%3Bjsessionid=M4OG1MW5EWDOKQSNDBCCKH0CJUMEYJVN?articleID=10300837 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2981836.stm Microsoft to kill popular Linux antivirus product http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,82045,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Sun plans digital rights product for cell phones, desktops Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to roll out a digital rights management product this year that will span cell phones, desktops and smart cards. The technology is believed to be initially targeted at protecting content such as Java- based games and could be based on emerging work in the Open Multimedia Alliance. "You will see us very shortly announce product plans for digital rights management," said Jonathan Schwartz, executive vice president of Sun's software group, speaking at the JavaOne conference here Tuesday. http://www.eet.com/sys/news/OEG20030611S0027 - - - - - - - - - - Stolen data! Hacked system! Delete now! Warning: Virus alerts can be hazardous to your Web health. If your e-mail inbox is like mine, then it's often cluttered with Viagra/mortgage/ anatomical enhancement/porn offers, meeting reminders and mailing lists (mental note: unsubscribe). You might also see the occasional missive that warns of the latest e-mail virus, or, your computer might in fact become infected by it. http://edition.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/06/11/hln.wired.virus/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Honeypots: Are They Illegal? Honeypots are a new and emerging technology for the security community. Many security professionals are just now beginning to understand what honeypots are, their different types, how they work, and their value. As with many new technologies, not only are the professionals attempting to learn about them but so is the legal community. As honeypots and their concepts have grown more popular, people have begun to ask what legal issues could apply. http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1703 - - - - - - - - - - DHS seeking alert system The Homeland Security Department is putting together a business case for the fiscal 2005 budget that would finance an alert system for the public. Rosita Parks, the chief information officer at DHS' Federal Emergency Management Agency, said today that the agency is taking an inventory of what technology it has and what kinds of alert systems it could use to warn the public of an emergency. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0609/web-dhs-06-12-03.asp *********************************************************** 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. 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