NewsBits for August 28, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Ex-Sheriff Charged in Child Porn Case A former county sheriff was charged Wednesday with seven counts of possession of child pornography downloaded from an Internet site. Prosecutors allege that Mark French, 54, downloaded the material in April. He is scheduled for arraignment Sept. 10 in Pierce County Superior Court. Attorney Donald Winskill, who represented French when his computer was seized last spring, did not immediately return an after-hours call for comment Wednesday. Winskill told the News Tribune of Tacoma that French was vacationing but knew earlier this week that he was going to be charged. French joined the sheriff's department in 1970 and served as sheriff between 1997 and 2000. The pornography was allegedly retrieved from French's laptop computer, seized April 24 when a warrant was served on the houseboat he shares with his wife. The warrant was obtained after Tacoma detectives were advised in February by Seattle police that a larger federal investigation into child pornography had turned up French's name. http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-child-porn-sheriff,0,6145923.story - - - - - - - - - - WHS teacher is nabbed on sex charges in New York A Watertown High School teacher allegedly looking to meet a 14-year-old boy he met on the Internet for sex was busted when the boy turned out to be an undercover New York City detective. David G. Simonin, 53, of 945 Litchfield Road, and a math teacher at Watertown High School who also volunteered with the SIE-H2O-Bots robotics club, was arrested in New York City on Wednesday, August 20 and was charged with attempting to disseminate indecent material for minors in the first degree, attempted sodomy in the second degree and attempted endangering the welfare of a child. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10070651&BRD=1379&PAG=461&dept_id=162906&rfi=6 - - - - - - - - - - Billings man admits to child porn charges A Billings man who got child pornography from the head of a Russian child porn organization pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges. Jason Mickelson, 38, pleaded to three counts in an indictment, including distribution and possession of child porn and a forfeiture count. He faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the distribution charge and up to five years and a $250,000 fine on the possession count. http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?display=rednews/2003/08/28/build/local/76-child-porn.inc - - - - - - - - - - Cellphone jamming scam exposed A Scottish wide-boy selling mobile phone jamming equipment to hotels has been exposed by local newspaper the Daily Record. Ronnie McGuire was caught selling the illegal devices, which send out radio waves that swamp the signal between base stations and mobile phones, rendering handsets inoperable in the vicinity of the jamming equipment. He was selling the devices, imported from Taiwan, to hotels and bars at PS75 a time. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/68/32531.html - - - - - - - - - - Ring-tone piracy latest trend in Asia Downloaded ring tones are proving popular worldwide, sparking an Asian piracy boom. The boom in the mobile phone download industry in Asia has produced extensive music piracy, and copyright owners are fighting a hard battle to claim royalties, reported wire agency AFP. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39115962,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Bill could strike privacy protections A California privacy advocate called on President Bush and Congress on Wednesday to respect state laws that limit banks' ability to share their customers' sensitive personal information. Standing in front of the White House, activist Jamie Court said Bush was not living up to campaign promises to limit the ability of banks and other financial businesses to trade customers' Social Security numbers and other sensitive information. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5069160.html http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,60215,00.html Gov. Gray Davis signs sweeping financial privacy bill into law http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-08-28-davis-privacy-bill_x.htm Ether replaces paper in personal Web journals http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2003-08-28-web-journals_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - For fiscal 2005, agencies will assess privacy of systems For the first time, agencies must submit privacy assessments of their major IT systems with their business cases, a senior administration official said. Dan Chenok, the Office of Management and Budgets branch chief for Information, Policy and Technology, today said the E-Government Act of 2002 requires agencies to analyze the potential impact of new IT systems or new collections of personal information. OMB expanded that mandate in a recent memo to agencies on implementing the law to include new IT investments and all online information collections. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/23331-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Net anonymity service un-backdoored The Java Anonymous Proxy (JAP) service, a collaborative effort of Dresden University of Technology, Free University Berlin and the Independent Centre for Privacy Protection Schleswig-Holstein, Germany (ICPP), has been allowed to suspend its monitoring of users' IP traffic pending a decision on the legality of back-dooring it. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32533.html - - - - - - - - - - How to catch a cyber crook? Money talks The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies have now joined the hunt to track down the individuals who perpetrated the MSBlast worm and the Sobig.F virus, but the odds for a successful capture are not good. "Protecting the nation's cyber infrastructure is a top priority for the FBI, and we are working with the Department of Homeland Security and with state and local law enforcement on our Cyber Task Force to track down the perpetrators of SoBig and the recent W32/Blaster worm," FBI director Robert Mueller said this week. http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2914568,00.html - - - - - - - - - - For virus sleuths, the clock ticks ever faster Do not talk to Mikko Hypponen about pressure. Within minutes of first receiving a sample of the SoBig.F computer virus last week, he set out to beat the clock. Hypponen and his researchers at F-Secure, a small and little-known computer security company based in Finland, identified the problem, prepared a patch to use against it and distributed the update to their customers, just as dozens of antivirus companies were doing the same thing. http://www.iht.com/articles/108006.html The Ever-Growing Virus http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2003/tc20030826_4386_tc047.htm - - - - - - - - - - Social Security numbers sold on Web Almost everything is for sale on the Internet -- even the Social Security numbers of top government officials like CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft, consumer advocates warned Wednesday. The California-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights said for $26 each it was able to purchase the Social Security numbers and home addresses for Tenet, Ashcroft and other top Bush administration officials, including Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser. http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/08/28/privacy.concerns.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Revealed: How RIAA tracks downloaders The recording industry is providing its most detailed glimpse into some of the detective-style techniques it has employed as part of its secretive campaign against online music swappers. The disclosures were included in court papers filed against a Brooklyn woman fighting efforts to identify her for allegedly sharing nearly 1,000 songs over the Internet. http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/08/28/downloading.music.ap/index.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58140-2003Aug28.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/958219.asp http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,60222,00.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3187695.stm RIAA turns up heat on subpoena fighter http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5069019.html RIAA Foes Know How to Sue, Too http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,60223,00.html Small Webcasters sue RIAA http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5069102.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57837-2003Aug28.html http://www.vnunet.com/News/1143262 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-08-28-riaa-webcast_x.htm Businesses boosting anti-P2P software http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5068950.html To Fight Music Piracy, Industry Goes to Schools http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56352-2003Aug27.html - - - - - - - - - - Air Force picks information warfare contractors The Air Force has chosen six vendors to compete for $252 million to provide offensive and defensive information warfare techniques to support operations, acquisition and testing at the Air Force Information Warfare Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts were chosen last month and announced yesterday. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/23330-1.html - - - - - - - - - - AV bigwigs weigh in on Sobig debate We've had plenty of feedback to our op ed piece yesterday on the wider implications of the Sobig worm. It wasn't easy but we managed to extract your insightful gems from the torrent of junk descending into my mail box. But it was worth it. Most of you agree with our central thesis that the outbreak of Sobig has exposed the weaknesses of current generations of antivirus tools, but there's disagreement about the way forward. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/35/32539.html Preventive Medicine For E-Mail http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56067-2003Aug27.html SoBig boosts IT security spending http://www.vnunet.com/News/1143260 IT security posse seeks quick fixes http://gcn.com/22_24/news/23245-1.html SoBig.F worm a speed demon http://www.sunspot.net/technology/custom/pluggedin/bal-pl.sobig28aug28,0,3860049.story - - - - - - - - - - Public urged to avoid biometric trial Privacy campaigners are urging people not to participate in a Home Office biometric passport trial due to take place this year. Home Office officials have confirmed that the UK Passport Service intends to run a trial of biometric testing, in an as yet unnamed town with a population of around 10,000. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1143264 - - - - - - - - - - Windows Security Tools for Free "If I do release the new version, it will be a far cry from the Brutus of 2000," says developer Greg Jones. "The new Brutus won't just be for passwords; it will be a brute forcer for everything network- based, with a built-in scripting language." The security and reliability of Windows and other Microsoft Latest News about Microsoft products top every network administrator's list of concerns. Commercial products do a good job of protecting enterprise networks, but they should not be the only knife in the drawer. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22180.html - - - - - - - - - - Cloudy, With a Chance of Theft Now we can forcast criminal activity just like the weather. No precogs needed. Most of the time, crime seems utterly random: A stray bullet kills an innocent bystander. The apartment next door is burglarized. A high school kid steals a purse. These acts occur with little or no warning. But what if we could predict the unpredictable? What if a crime wave could be forecast with the same confidence as a heat wave? Armed with this information, police departments could deploy extra patrols to hot spots before crime happens, not after someone gets hurt. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/view.html?pg=1 GAO: DHS losing control of information-sharing efforts http://computerworld.com/databasetopics/data/story/0,10801,84435,00.html - - - - - - - - - - DOD tests apps for battlefield data The Defense Department completed its Quantum Leap I exercise yesterday, testing a portfolio of 13 network- centric initiatives designed to improve intelligence gathering and dissemination, and support to joint military operations on the battlefield. The demonstration took place at several military facilities, including the Defense Information Systems Agency in Falls Church, Va.; Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in Charleston, S.C.; and McKenna Military Operations Urban Terrain Site at Fort Benning, Ga. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/23324-1.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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