NewsBits for July 25, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Russian computer hacker gets 4-year term A Russian computer hacker was sentenced to four years in federal prison for running a fraud and extortion ring that victimized dozens of financial institutions and Internet service providers. Aleksey V. Ivanov was arrested with an accomplice after being lured to the United States by the FBI in 2000. An indictment accused them of hacking into U.S. banks and e-commerce sites, and then demanding money for not publicizing the break-ins. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/6533 http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030725.whack0725/BNStory/Technology/ - - - - - - - - - - SA police arrest man in Absa Net bank fraud case South African police have arrested a man on suspicion of the fraud involving the illegal transfers of hundreds of thousands of rand from Internet accounts held at Absa, the country's largest bank. The case involves the unauthorised removal of R500,000 (PS41,300) from bank accounts run by an estimated ten separate Absa customers in South Africa's Western Cape province. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/31981.html - - - - - - - - - - PayPal to pay $10 million to settle online gambling charge Online payment service PayPal Inc. and its parent, eBay Inc., have agreed to pay a $10 million fine to settle allegations they aided illegal offshore and online gambling. According to the settlement, PayPal between mid-2000 and November 2002 transmitted money in violation of federal and state online gambling laws. As part of the settlement, PayPal must maintain a corporate compliance program for at least two years. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6385173.htm - - - - - - - - - - Sex.com Domain Name Owner Can Sue The owner of "sex.com," once considered one of the Internet's hottest addresses, can seek payment from the company that improperly transferred the domain to a "con man" who later fled to Mexico when ordered to pay $65 million, a court ruled Friday. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that "computer-geek-turned-entrepreneur" Gary Kremen can hold VeriSign Inc.'s Network Solutions unit liable for handing the sex.com Web address over to a "con man." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47042-2003Jul25.html http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5055771.html http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59788,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Evidence of piracy allegedly destroyed Evidence at the centre of a court battle between major music labels and Australian universities has allegedly been destroyed. The music industry is urgently seeking a court hearing after being advised by lawyers for Australian universities involved in legal action over alleged online music piracy that evidence subject to a court order has been destroyed, a piracy investigator said. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2138165,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Australia considers sending spammers to jail Australia's new anti-spam legislation may in the future be tweaked to include criminal penalties, according to a member of its advisory group. A member of the advisory group charged with helping develop the new anti-spam legislation does not feel the final document goes far enough in punishing people found guilty of spamming. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2138164,00.html - - - - - - - - - - UK police build massive child porn database A computer image database which police hope will greatly speed the identification of paedophiles and their victims is being launched in the UK this week. The database, called Childbase, includes 220,000 photos and images of approximately 20,000 children obtained during police investigations into paedophile abuse. Many of the images in Childbase come from Operation Cathedral, an international investigation of a international paedophile ring, called the Wonderland Club, which led to more than 100 arrests in 1998. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31953.html - - - - - - - - - - Cybercrime wave INTERNET access has opened crime floodgates in child pornography, stalking, identity theft, online fraud, hacking and criminal damage by virus and other attacks, dramatically increasing police workloads, according to a Victoria Police report. In just a few years, technology-linked crime has increased the Victoria Police Computer Crime Squad workload by hundreds of per cent, the report says. The squad's workload is expected to more than triple again by 2007-8, the service says in a submission to a parliamentary cybercrime inquiry. http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,6787309%5E15302%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Young men fingered in online porn study Young, techno-savvy middle class men are most likely to be found peddling in e-porn. So says a new study from New Zealand, which looked into the backgrounds of 106 people investigated by the country's Censorship Compliance Unit. It found that all but one of those investigated for possessing illegal material was male, most were Caucasian and the average age was 30. Around a third of those collared were students. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31978.html Parents ignore online safety for kids http://www.vnunet.com/News/1142591 - - - - - - - - - - Code could unleash Windows worm Hackers release code to exploit flaw announced last week. A hacker group released code designed to exploit a widespread Windows flaw, paving the way for a major worm attack as soon as this weekend, warned security researchers. The warning came Friday, after hackers from the Chinese X Focus security group forwarded source code to several public security lists. The code is for a program designed to allow an intruder to enter Windows computers. http://www.msnbc.com/news/944368.asp http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5055759.html http://www.securityfocus.com/news/6534 Week in review: Cracking codes http://news.com.com/2100-1083_3-5055050.html - - - - - - - - - - Credit card hackers swap tricks online Chatrooms used for sharing hints and tips in growing business of ID theft. Thieves are using chat rooms to sell stolen credit card details and advise others how to hack websites containing credit information, security experts have warned. Groups using internet relay chat (IRC) are playing a growing role in online credit card fraud. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1142582 ISP alleviates risk of unauthorised bank account access http://196.30.226.221/sections/internet/2003/0307250929.asp - - - - - - - - - - Japan cancels computer hacking contest after public criticism Japan canceled a national computer-hacking contest scheduled for next month after the government came under fire as encouraging cybercrime, a government official said Friday. The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry had planned the Aug. 11-12 contest as a way of fostering computer expertise among high school and vocational college students. Teams of up to three students would have tried to hack into opponents' computer systems, while protecting their own. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6383958.htm - - - - - - - - - - RIAA blocks attacks with TST-Secure-OS It's time for would be RIAA attackers to run for the hills. The pigopolists have installed TST-Secure-OS on their Web servers. This Web server brand is not well know to hacker neophytes. Those in-the-know, however, tremble in fear when TST's rock-solid software rears its ugly head. The code was developed as part of a ten-year, government funded engineering effort to block hackers from unpopular Web sites. Well, not really. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31983.html RIAA declares war on silver surfers http://www.vnunet.com/News/1142598 RIAA, Colleges Seek Piracy Fix http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,59743,00.html - - - - - - - - - - A virus ate my exam results The West Bengal Education Minister, Kanti Biswas, has blamed a computer virus after students received incorrect marks in Higher Secondary examinations this week. Biswas told the State Assembly in Calcutta that an unnamed virus attacked computer systems earlier this year, resulting in a number of errors on mark sheets. Nineteen separate cases of irregularities in marking were discovered, and blamed on the mystery infection. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/31974.html - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft studying multilevel security desktops The effort is seen as critically important to homeland security and information-sharing efforts Microsoft Corp. is working with the government in studying one of the most pressing challenges in federal information security, one that is critically important to future homeland security and information sharing efforts: multilevel security workstations. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,83465,00.html Despite IT advances, terrorism info sharing still a problem for states http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,83466,00.html - - - - - - - - - - MandrakeSoft withdraws 'unsafe' Linux update The Linux distributor has advised users not to install a recent update to the Mandrake Linux 9.1 kernel, after discovering a serious flaw MandrakeSoft has advised users of its Mandrake Linux 9.1 operating system not to install a security update released on Sunday due to a serious security bug in the update. If users have already installed the update, MandrakeSoft urged them to downgrade to a previous version if possible. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2138195,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Security experts question DOD cybersecurity Military relies too much on commercial, off-the-shelf software, experts say. The U.S. military's use of commercial, off-the-shelf software has yielded fast improvements in software and cost-savings benefits for U.S. taxpayers over the last 20 years, but such software has its downside, said Professor Eugene Spafford, director of the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security at Purdue University. http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/07/24/HNdodsecure_1.html - - - - - - - - - - Why do-not-spam lists are a bad idea Following the success of do-not-call anti-telemarketing lists, the idea of do-not-spam lists has suddenly caught on with politicians. Big mistake. In June, a Michigan do-not-spam-list bill was passed into law. Earlier that month, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer [D-New York] introduced a bill that would create a national "do not e-mail" registry. Under the auspices of the Stop Pornography and Abusive Marketing (SPAM) Act, Schumer has proposed that unsolicited commercial e-mail must include "ADV" (for "advertisement") in its subject line. That's another bad idea. (For starters, not all e-mail is in English.) http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2914363,00.html - - - - - - - - - - E-mail ruse cooks up 'Naked Chef' An hoax e-mail was circulating around the Internet on Friday purporting to be a new cookery book from British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver dishing up recipes from sushi rolls to fish and chips. Penguin Books, the UK publisher for Oliver's books, said it was trying to track down the e-mail's author. It contained a 121-page Microsoft Word document attachment replete with color photos, scores of recipes and a fictitious title, "The Naked Chef 2." http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/07/25/internet.jamieoliver.reut/index.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. 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