NewsBits for August 12, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Worm snarls Windows networks worldwide An Internet-borne infection incapacitated tens of thousands of computers on Tuesday, snarling company networks and frustrating home users as it spread across the globe. Security officials said the virus-like worm, variously dubbed LovSan, Blaster and MSBlaster, was part of a coordinated electronic attack that exploited one of the most serious flaws yet discovered in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating systems. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6516871.htm http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5062477.html http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-5062655.html http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22072.html http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1217014,00.asp http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3264053 http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5062524.html http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/internet/2003/0308121055.asp?O=FPT http://news.com.com/2009-1002_3-5062885.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52050-2003Aug12.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46233-2003Aug11.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/951393.asp http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/08/12/windows.worm/index.html http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,59987,00.html Update: Feared RPC worm starts to spread http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,83922,00.html Blaster worm starts European campaign http://www.vnunet.com/News/1142941 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/32286.html MSBlast prevention and cure http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5062532.html Update Windows today - before it gets Blasted http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39115645,00.htm http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0811/web-worm-08-12-03.asp Cleaning up after the MSBlast worm http://insight.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,39020463,39115651,00.htm Warnings did little to stop latest computer outbreak http://www.securityfocus.com/news/6710 Computer infection appears in Asia, Europe http://www.securityfocus.com/news/6702 - - - - - - - - - - Turlock couple held on identity theft counts A couple allegedly took a trip to Disneyland and ran up thousands of dollars in other purchases, all courtesy of relatives who did not know they were being so generous, authorities said. Ricardo and Mary Garcia, ages 35 and 33, of Turlock, were arrested Thursday afternoon and charged with three counts of identity theft, one count of grand theft and one count of elder abuse. Each was being held in lieu of $40,000 bail in Stanislaus County Jail after an investigation by the Sheriff's Department and the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force, which has a satellite office in Turlock. http://www.modbee.com/local/story/7257575p-8183885c.html - - - - - - - - - - Slovenian hacker found shot dead A Slovenian hacker who ran into legal conflict with one of the country's leading banks over an alleged security weakness was found dead last week. Police believe Robert Skulj, 28, killed himself with a shot to the head from a gun found at the scene. Skulj's body was found in his locked apartment in the city of Trzic last Friday. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/32292.html - - - - - - - - - - Massive theft of mobiles and Xboxes sparks hunt Police are looking for a man sporting a beer belly after a lorry-load of handsets and consoles worth PS780,000 vanished on Monday. Police have appealed for help after 7,000 mobile phones and 1,000 Xbox consoles were stolen in Wednesbury, near Wolverhampton, on Monday. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,39020351,39115654,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Man admits online rape-by-proxy attempt The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office negotiated a guilty plea in what they believed to be the first attempted aggravated sexual assault "by proxy" in the case of Jonathan D. Gilberti on Monday. The 24-year-old Wood-Ridge man admitted in court that while online he pretended to be two women who wanted to be raped on two sets of occasions last year. http://pressofatlanticcity.com/news/ocean/081203FANTASY.html - - - - - - - - - - ATM machines rigged High-tech thieves have rigged a number of bank machines around the Kitchener-Waterloo region in Ontario, allowing them to make working copies of customers' debit cards. In the past month, Waterloo regional police say they have discovered five rigged machines two in Kitchener, two in Cambridge and one in Waterloo. http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030812.gtatmm0812/BNStory/Technology/ - - - - - - - - - - Congress targeting outlaw spammers Internet users say theyre choking to death on spam, but they may not get much breathing room from legislation expected to be adopted by Congress this fall. In a test of how well commerce and communication can coexist, the lawmakers appear determined to pass a bill that will target the bad actors of the junk e-mail world but do little to reduce unsolicited pitches from direct marketers and other businesses. http://www.msnbc.com/news/948022.asp Michigan law chief slams 'bogus' anti- spam group http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/32299.html - - - - - - - - - - Viruses, hackers hit a third of Net users About 43 percent of them said they felt vulnerable on their home computers, while 17 percent felt they were vulnerable from viruses and hackers at work. The survey, conducted by Edelman, a public relations firm, questioned more than one thousand adults nationwide. American Internet users were warned by Microsoft last month of a new virus attack. On Monday, the new worm, MSBlast, infected at least 7,000 computers in a matter of hours, according to Symantec. Still, security experts said the spread was slowed because the virus program had several flaws. http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-5062759.html One in five firms to suffer cyber-attack http://www.vnunet.com/News/1142933 - - - - - - - - - - Businesses, Not Law Enforcement, Held Responsible For Cyber-Crime By 2005, one in five enterprises will experience a serious Internet security incident targeting information and intellectual property, Gartner analysts said in a new study. Of those attacks, nearly one in three will be either financially or politically motivated, said the report's author, Richard Hunter, a Gartner vice president and research director. Cybercriminals are taking advantage of users, enterprises, and unsecured systems to usher in high-profit, low-overhead crimes. http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20030811S0013 - - - - - - - - - - Two-in-one ID theft, fee fraud scam debuts Scam artists who dupe users into revealing sensitive financial information have applied the social engineering tricks of 419-fraudsters in a new email scam. Reg readers forwarded us copies of an email they received this morning, purporting to come from US-based e-payment company Swiftpay International, which informs targeted individuals that they have 'won a prize'. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32301.html - - - - - - - - - - House backs more FBI funding but with conditions House lawmakers want to increase funding levels for the FBI to help it combat terrorism, cybercrime and conventional crime, but they also want to put the bureau on a shorter leash, according to the budget plan the chamber passed on July 23. The House passed a bill, H.R. 2799, to fund the Commerce, Justice and State departments in fiscal 2004, and that legislation reiterated the importance of FBI funding by increasing its spending level $424 million. The total FBI budget under the measure would be $4.6 billion, and the Justice Department budget would be about $20 billion. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0803/081203td1.htm - - - - - - - - - - US lawmakers worry RFID will hurt privacy California's legislators will meet later this month to address privacy issues surrounding radio frequency identification tags. Lawmakers in California have scheduled a hearing for later this month to discuss privacy issues that surround a controversial technology that's designed to wirelessly monitor everything from clothing to currency. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/wireless/0,39020348,39115652,00.htm ID chips pressed into laundered clothes http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/chips/0,39020354,39115640,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Postal ID plan creates privacy fears A government report that urges the U.S. Postal Service to create "smart stamps" to track the identity of people who send mail is eliciting concern from privacy advocates. The report, released last month by the President's Commission on the U.S. Postal Service, issued numerous recommendations aimed at reforming the debt-laden agency. One recommendation is that the USPS "aggressively pursue" the development of a so-called intelligent mail system. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5062617.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/951379.asp - - - - - - - - - - NEC Solutions unveils security software NEC Solutions America on Tuesday unveiled a three-layer data security product aimed at health care organizations that face patient privacy rules. Dubbed the "NEC MobilePro Tricryption System," the software is designed to keep sensitive information confidential by encrypting three elements: the actual data, the key needed to decipher the data, and a "key identifier" that acts as a kind of index for the initial key. http://news.com.com/2100-1009_3-5062944.html - - - - - - - - - - Basic IIS Lockdown Using Scripts and Group Policy Microsoft Active Directory and Group Policy have a feature-rich set of tools and processes to help save an administrator time and energy in maintaining security within the domain. Locking down a server requires many steps to complete, and depending on the extent to which the server is locked down, it can take up to several hours. This paper is primarily written for system administrators who want to make their life managing IIS easier using scripts with Active Directory and Group Policy. http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1719 *********************************************************** 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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