NewsBits for June 17, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ 30 nations target cross-border Internet scams Thirty of the world's wealthiest nations on Tuesday announced the first multinational pact to fight cross- border fraud, which has grown sharply with the spread of the Internet. The agreement among the industrial nations belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development was a year in the making and was spearheaded by the United States, which has the most victims of cross-border fraud. The 30 mostly European and North American member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development agreed to work together to fight cross-border fraud, beef up their own consumer-protection laws where necessary, and make it easier for consumers to recover damages. "They can run but they can't hide, because our members will ensure there is no safe haven for fraudsters," says FTC commissioner Mozelle Thompson, who helped draft the guidelines. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/2003-06-16-efraud_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Known cyber-hacker charged A Camp Dennison man known in cyber space circles as one of the nation's foremost "hacktivists" -- politically motivated computer hackers -- has been indicted by a Hamilton County grand jury. Jesse Tuttle was indicted Tuesday on six counts of unauthorized use of property and 10 counts of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor. Tuttle, 23, known online as "Hackah Jak," is accused of trying several times to hack into the Web sites of the sheriff and Hamilton County government, and gaining access to the county Web site on May 3. When he hacked into Hamilton County's Web site and gained access to its content, he took a screen shot of the network directories found on the main computer running the county's Web site and e-mailed it to the county. http://www.cincypost.com/2003/06/13/hacker061303.html - - - - - - - - - - Disappearance of Missouri man could be linked to child porn probe A chilling Internet chat describing details of a murder was discovered during a child pornography investigation in Mobile and has given authorities leads into the 2001 disappearance of a 20-year-old Missouri man. The investigation has named Jack Wayne Rogers, 58, of Fulton, Mo., as its only "person of interest" in the disappearance and presumed death of Branson Perry, who was last seen April 11, 2002. Rogers came to the attention of federal agents last year as they searched for child pornography on the computer of Michael Adam Davidson, then a third- year medical student at the University of South Alabama. http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news/1055868351215160.xml - - - - - - - - - - Judge slaps teen sex-ring pimp with 7 1/2 years A Dartmouth man who, for a year, recruited teenage girls to become prostitutes, pimped them out and broadcast images of them performing sex acts on each other over the Internet, insisted he's sorry for his crimes. "I'm so sorry about what I done," Gerald Edward Pickles told Dartmouth provincial court Judge Bill MacDonald yesterday during a sentencing hearing. Pickles, 36, was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in a federal jail for convincing five girls between 15 and 17 years old to join his escort service, Forbidden Fantasies, and then living off the money they brought him. The sentence is nearly four years longer than what was recommended by the Crown and defense lawyers. http://www.canada.com/halifax/dailynews/story.asp?id=1CD04F4A-7BC5-496E-BF1F-D80738872975 - - - - - - - - - - Former federal worker sentenced in child porn case A longtime manager for the Agriculture Department was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison Monday for downloading child pornography onto his government computer at work. Jimmy Todd, 55, of Arlington, a bespectacled balding man wearing a brown suit, did not ask for leniency at his sentencing hearing. He avoided trial with a last-minute guilty plea on Feb. 24, but prosecutors did not offer him a plea bargain. U.S. District Judge Terry Means sentenced him at the lower end of federal guidelines _ the maximum would have been 71 months _ because Todd had no prior criminal history and, aside from this conviction, led an unblemished life, serving in the military and later at the Agriculture Department. Means said he received numerous letters on Todd's behalf asking for leniency. http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/local/6103145.htm http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/metro_state_e3eeebb000efb1c40024.html - - - - - - - - - - Former police chief sentenced on porn charges A former police chief has been sentenced to almost five years in prison for receiving child pornography. The US attorney's office says 60-year-old John Patrick Farrelly of Elizabethtown, former police chief of Radcliff and coordinator of the Hardin County nine-one-one Center, was found guilty in March after a three-day trial in US District Court. Farrelly was also ordered to spend three years on supervised release after serving his sentence. Federal agents found records on Farrelly's work computer from the Hardin County nine-one-one center of child pornography images and Web sites from as far back as 1999. http://www.fox41.com/news/news_detail.asp?id=8810SSion;=2 - - - - - - - - - - Ex-Warren attorney sentenced to prison An Indianola lawyer and former Warren County attorney was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison Monday for distributing child pornography and soliciting a minor for sex on the Internet. Gottschald, who was the Warren County attorney from 1971 to 1974, had been using a computer chat room to correspond with a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl living in Madison, Wis. Authorities charge that he sent a number of pornographic photos to the teen and arranged for a sexual rendezvous. In reality, the person he communicated with from July 2000 until August 2001 was an agent for the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation. http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c4788993/21524118.html - - - - - - - - - - Man gets seven days for having kiddy porn A Parker man was sentenced to seven days in jail Monday for having child pornography. A judge sentenced Thomas Janke to serve four hours and 12 minutes in the Turner County Jail for each pornographic photo he had. About 40 images of child pornography were found on his computer. Janke had been charged with possessing child pornography. But in April, he pleaded guilty in Turner County court to two counts of contributing to the neglect or abuse of a minor. http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/6104182.htm - - - - - - - - - - Dentist from Pompano convicted in Internet child-sex case A federal jury has convicted a dentist from Pompano Beach of using an Internet chat room to attempt to entice a teenage girl into sexual activity, the U.S. Attorney's Office said on Tuesday. Joseph Page Messier, who was convicted on Monday faces up to 15 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 when he is sentenced Sept. 19 by U.S. District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages. Already forfeited in the case were Messier's home computer and a Web camera. At the week-long trial, the government alleged that on Jan. 13 the defendant engaged in a lengthy, sexually-explicit text session over the Yahoo Internet Relay Chat system with an undercover Secret Service agent who was posing as a teenage girl named "Lisa_n_Miami." http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-617internetsex,0,6617248.story - - - - - - - - - - Internet Luring and Child Pornography Seizure and Arrest Members of the Ontario Provincial Police Child Pornography Section (Project "P"), the OPP Electronic Crime Section, in conjunction with the Niagara Regional Police Service, have arrested and charged a 26 year old Welland male following a child pornography investigation. On Thursday June 12, 2003, following a six-week investigation, a search warrant was executed at a residence in Welland, Ontario. Officers seized three computer systems, computer peripherals, CD Roms, floppy diskettes, and other articles pertinent to the investigation. Numerous computerized graphic image files believed to be child pornography, were found during the search. http://www.newswire.ca/releases/June2003/16/c3694.html - - - - - - - - - - Pervert had 338,000 sick images of children A PERVERT faces jail today after downloading more than 338,000 pornographic images of young children from the internet. Brian Thomson, 48, was caught with the second biggest haul of child pornography ever discovered in Britain. Suspended Territorial Army major Thomson, who arranged ranger events for young cadet hopefuls, admitted getting sexual kicks from images of girls as young as seven being raped, tortured and abused. The images included 338,355 pictures, with more than 850 movies of the youngsters. About 250,000 images, downloaded over six years beginning in 1996, were of girls from the age of 12 being raped. http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5016577.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/2997754.stm - - - - - - - - - - Teenager Arrested On Child Porn Charges Orinda police have arrested a 17-year-old boy who allegedly confessed to downloading thousands of child porn images on his home computer. The youth's name was not released because of his age. He told police he began collecting the images when he was in the seventh grade. The boy was arrested Monday and is being held in Juvenile Hall for investigation of felony possession of child pornography. The District Attorney's Office is considering whether to try the teenager as an adult. Police say most of the 22,000 images were of 5- to 8-year-old children. The teen allegedly was involved in a worldwide ring of people who trade child porn http://www.nbc11.com/news/2275555/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - The Nizhnevartovsk hacker has remained unpunished The Nizhnevartovsk Office of Public Prosecutor (Russia) has stopped investigation of the criminal case of "hacking" an official site of the city newspaper "Varta". It was the first case of cybercrime investigation in Nizhnevartovsk. The criminal case has been dismissed in connection with the absence of suspected persons. The fact of site "hacking" has not been proven also. Claimants have not yet acted with demands on continuation of the investigation. http://www.crime-research.org/eng/news/2003/06/Mess1705.html - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft ramps up its global fight against spam Escalating its fight against unwanted spam e-mail, Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has filed 15 civil lawsuits -- 13 in the U.S. and two in the U.K. -- against alleged spammers targeting the company's customers. The U.S. lawsuits allege that the defendants are responsible for flooding Microsoft's customers with more than 2 billion deceptive, unsolicited e-mail messages, according to Brad Smith, senior vice president and Microsoft's general counsel. He spoke at a news conference held by the company this afternoon to explain its latest antispam actions. http://computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/groupware/story/0,10801,82221,00.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/927809.asp http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6109149.htm http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-1018140.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31257.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/2003-06-17-ms-vs-spam_x.htm http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/06/17/microsoft.spam/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Anti-Spam Proposals Get Tougher A bipartisan group of legislators and some citizen groups, concerned that current legislative proposals to combat e-mail spam are inadequate, are engaged in a major push for tougher alternatives. The moves come amid intensified lobbying and political maneuvering over the issue. With outrage over spam at fever pitch, Congress is widely expected to pass the first national anti-spam law this year. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2497-2003Jun16.html - - - - - - - - - - Hatch Takes Aim at Illegal Downloading The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday he favors developing new technology to remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music from the Internet. The surprise remarks by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, during a hearing on copyright abuses represent a dramatic escalation in the frustrating battle by industry executives and lawmakers in Washington against illegal music downloads. During a discussion on methods to frustrate computer users who illegally exchange music and movie files over the Internet, Hatch asked technology executives about ways to damage computers involved in such file trading. Legal experts have said any such attack would violate federal anti-hacking laws. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6526-2003Jun17.html - - - - - - - - - - Bono forms caucus on music piracy and copyrights Rep. Mary Bono, who is forming a new congressional caucus on music piracy and copyrights, sought Monday to defuse speculation over whether she wants to run the music industry's lobbying organization in Washington, saying she isn't actively seeking the job. Bono, R-Calif., said she hasn't considered whether she would accept a prospective offer to replace the departing chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America but stopped short of denying she was interested. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6106124.htm http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-1018373.html - - - - - - - - - - OMB developing rules for IT privacy assessments By late summer, the Office of Management and Budget plans to issue privacy regulations that most likely will affect only new systems. The E-Government Act of 2002 requires OMB to update its existing regulations and codify how the executive branch secures citizen information collected through the Web, said Eva Kleederman, an OMB policy analyst. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/22474-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Secret Service creating team to fight cybercrime The U.S. Secret Service announced Monday that it will form an Electronic Crimes Task Force in its Dallas bureau to combat regional computer-based crimes, including fraud, identity theft and cyberterrorism. Officials said 15 agents would work with the private sector, academia and local law enforcement to investigate computer-based crimes, expanding the capability to battle hackers that attack universities, businesses and government computer systems. "No one has the inside track on cybercrimes. We are hoping that corporations and academia will look to us as forensic experts," said Michael James, special agent in charge of the Dallas district. "Our mission is protecting critical infrastructure and informational systems and minimizing the potential weaknesses we all face." http://www.dallasnews.com/localnews/stories/061703dnmetcrimes.ac9cb.html - - - - - - - - - - Cube protection cracked by pirates? Hackers working on breaking the copy protection systems employed by Nintendo's GameCube have caused a stir by posting binary images of several Cube games to the Internet - but their claims are more than slightly exaggerated. Several sources reported yesterday that online piracy group "StarCube" has effectively broken the thus-far impregnable security systems of the GameCube, with CD images (called ISOs) of popular games being made available online. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/31238.html - - - - - - - - - - Cybersecurity Starts in the Office When the office networks crash and work comes to a halt, there's probably an irresponsible co-worker somewhere in the building to blame. That's the sentiment many employees expressed in a survey on individual cybersecurity competence released today. Sixty-four percent of American workers referred to themselves as "interested and proactive" in protecting their office computer systems, but employees have significantly less confidence intheir peers, according to a survey by the Information Technology Association of America and Brainbench, a Chantilly firm and ITAA member company that sells skill tests online. About 760 people responded to the Internet-based survey distributed in May, including 403 Americans. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2428-2003Jun16.html - - - - - - - - - - Profile of a child pornographer Pakeha men make up 90 per cent of people caught trading in child pornography on the internet in New Zealand. There have been 109 New Zealanders convicted of trading and possessing child pornography since 1996 when the Department of Internal Affairs began tracking internet users. But it's difficult to profile traders of child pornography on the internet, says Auckland's SAFE director John McCarthy. "There is no ideal profile in all child sex offending. There is a sexual interest in children there before they go looking (for images on the internet), and apart from sexual interest in children they also have a computer," Mr McCarthy says. Steve O'Brian, manager of the Department of Internal Affairs' censorship compliance unit, says the average age of offenders is 29 to 33. http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2542923a11,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Privacy in the workplace is a 'myth' Doubts about the effectiveness of regulations designed to safeguard privacy in the workplace have surfaced just days after the long-delayed rules were introduced. Last week the UK Information Commissioner finally announced a code of practice on surveillance in the workplace that requires companies to inform employees if they are monitoring phone calls, emails and Internet use. The Commissioner, Richard Thomas, said the guidelines tried to balance the needs of employers with the rights of employees. However critics argue that the Employment Practices Data Protection Code, more than two years in development, is still too vague. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31253.html - - - - - - - - - - Experts fear hacking scenes in Matrix Reloaded are too accurate Expert BCS members have warned movie fans not to try to emulate the realistic depiction of computer hacking seen in hit film The Matrix Reloaded. The society said many experts were sufficiently concerned about the accuracy of some of the computing scenes that they have alerted young enthusiasts about the illegality of hacking and the tough prison sentences handed out to perpetrators of this crime. http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=122562&liArticleTypeID=1&liCategoryID=2&liChannelID=22&liFlavourID=1&sSearch=&nPage=1 - - - - - - - - - - ISP software tracks down spammers Until May of this year, Carl Shivers was in the habit of getting up in the middle of the night just to make sure spam hadn't brought down his company's e-mail servers. Shivers, a system administrator for Aristotle Internet Access, an Internet service provider in Little Rock, Ark., with fewer than 20,000 customers, was unsure on an hourly basis whether the ISP's servers could handle the amount of spam hitting subscribers' accounts. The volume threatened not only the e-mail servers, but the filters the ISP had originally set up to fight the spam influx. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-1017930.html - - - - - - - - - - Firms Take Different WLAN Security Routes Businesses are adopting wireless networks swiftly, but are taking a selective approach to security, according to a survey at last month's WLAN Event in London. Only 50 percent of the WLANs owned by visitors to the show have password protection, but analysts argued that this and other findings may actually show that the subtleties of WLAN security are becoming better understood. "The fact that people aren't using password protection is not the end of the world," said Michael Wall of analyst firm Frost & Sullivan. "It depends what you can do when you are on the network. A stand-alone WLAN used for browsing the net may not need password protection." http://www.wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/story/21746.html - - - - - - - - - - More firms monitoring Web-surfing workers Big Brother works in an out-of-the-way basement office in Wauwatosa, Wis. When it comes to the Internet wanderings of some 2,400 Children's Health System workers, Charles Klawans is an information security officer with technology tools that make him all-knowing and all-powerful. A growing number of corporations are turning to Internet-control software as worries mount about a dark side of the technology. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6107429.htm - - - - - - - - - - Can anyone stop the music cops? You wouldn't know it from looking on Kazaa or Limewire, where hit songs are flowing as freely as they always have, but trading music online recently became pretty dangerous business. On June 4, a federal appeals court ordered Verizon Communications to hand over to the recording industry the identities of four Verizon customers suspected of illegally sharing songs on peer-to-peer services. It was a significant victory for the record labels, perhaps the biggest yet in their long-running effort to stamp out the MP3 trade online. At least temporarily, the decision allows the industry to easily obtain personal information on virtually anyone who might be sharing copyrighted songs online -- yes, even you. http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/06/17/brownback_bill/index_np.html - - - - - - - - - - Internet-security: interests should be balanced According to the Okinawas Charter of the Global information society, information and communication technologies are the most important factors forming the society in the XXI century. They influence people's lifestyle, their education and job, as well as interaction between the government and civil society. Information technologies favor a quick development of the economy. They also make it possible for all private persons, firms and communities engaged in business to solve economic and social problems in more effective and creative way. Everybody can take huge opportunities. http://www.crime-research.org/eng/library/Saytarly_IS.html - - - - - - - - - - Best Firewalls for Small Businesses Perhaps the most important thing small businesses should know about firewalls is that they are only one piece of a secure network. "They're not a substitution for an intrusion-detection system or a vulnerability assessment," says IDC analyst Chris Christiansen. Firewalls are the cornerstone of Internet security, and for small businesses that might not have in-house security expertise, shopping for one can be difficult. But without a firewall, no one in an organization should be accessing the Internet. http://wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/story/21741.html - - - - - - - - - - Boeing to pilot cargo security system Boeing Co. has received a $4.2 million contract for a pilot project that will demonstrate cargo container security systems by tracking shipments from foreign ports to the United States. Boeing officials announced the pilot contract today while attending the Paris Air Show. The contract is for the Port of Los Angeles, one of the ports designated by Congress to test new technologies for securing containers. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0616/web-boeing-06-17-03.asp - - - - - - - - - - House committee orders study of passenger screening system The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday voted to withhold fiscal 2004 funds for controversial plans to update a computer system for screening airline passengers pending a review of the system's potential effectiveness, accuracy and impact on travelers' civil liberties. "This is a very complicated new system," Minnesota Democrat Martin Olav Sabo said of the Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System II (CAPPS II), which would screen airline passengers' data from various sources and check it against a "no fly" list of suspected terrorists. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0603/061703td1.htm CAPPS II Privacy Notice Revised http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0616/web-capps-06-17-03.asp - - - - - - - - - - Weapons makers come to Omaha to learn about new technology Representatives of two major weapons manufacturers are at the University of Nebraska at Omaha this week to learn about new technology. The three-day workshop is being put on by the UNO's International Academy for Advanced Decision Support. The U.S. Strategic Command asked the academy to put on the workshop, said the academy's director, Jerry Wagner. Officials with weapons companies Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman and government personnel are attending the workshops. The academy represents leaders in new software technologies and methods from around the world, he said. Among the areas of study is new techniques in pattern recognition, which involves using technology to detect trends in databases, Wagner said. Another topic is using animation tools to turn data into movies. Such tools could take data about sending planes to hit a target and create a movie, he said. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2003-06-17-omaha-weapons_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Fort Wayne eyes improved fingerprint-collection system Police will be able to transfer fingerprint data from patrol cars directly into department computers if city officials approve the purchase of a wireless broadband system. The system would allow investigators to transmit fingerprints from crime scenes directly into the city's fingerprint system, allowing investigators to have positive identification of suspects while evidence is still fresh, Fort Wayne Police Chief Rusty York said. Officers will be able to send and receive data by driving within 300 to 400 yards of a police station, said Stan Adams of Indiana Data Center, the broadband provider that would help create the system. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2003-06-17-fingerprints_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Ottawa looks at limits on car guidance devices The federal government is so worried about drivers being distracted by vehicle information systems that it is preparing to regulate the devices, perhaps even forcing automakers to ensure they won't operate when cars are in gear. The growing use of so-called telematics -- which started with cellphones, but are now extending to computer screens offering navigation help and alarms that warn drivers when they're straying out of their lanes -- threatens road safety, Transport Canada warns in a discussion paper published in the Canada Gazette. http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030617.gtufonem/BNStory/Technology/ *********************************************************** 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. 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