NewsBits for August 29, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Authorities arrest Minnesota teen in Internet attack U.S. cyber investigators arrested a Minnesota teenager Friday who the FBI said has admitted unleashing one version of a damaging virus-like infection weeks ago on the Internet. A court official identified the teenager as Jeffrey Lee Parson, 18, of Hopkins, Minn., known online as "teekid." A U.S. official in Washington also confirmed an arrest was made early Friday. Court papers said FBI and Secret Service agents searched Parson's home on Aug. 19 and seized seven computers, which are still being analyzed. In an interview with FBI Special Agent Eric Smithmier, Parson admitted modifying the original "Blaster" infection and creating a version known by a variety of different names, including "Blaster.B.," court papers said. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/6828 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6647981.htm http://www.securityfocus.com/news/6826 http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1234023,00.asp http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1062153570688_129///?hub=SciTech http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle.jsp?type=technologyNews&locale=en_IN&storyID=3356525 http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5069615.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39116007,00.htm http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64449-2003Aug29.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63691-2003Aug29.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64800-2003Aug29.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/958852.asp http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/08/29/worm.arrest/index.html http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,60241,00.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-08-28-internet-attack_x.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/32559.html http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/virus/story/0,10801,84501,00.html?SKC=home84501 Teen arrested in MSBlast case (series of stories) http://news.com.com/2009-1009_3-5069674.html Six degrees of virus infection http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=11268 - - - - - - - - - - Priest Pleads Guilty on Child Porn Charge A priest accused of keeping child pornography on a church computer pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to receiving pictures of children engaged in sexual conduct. The Rev. Richard Poster, 38 faces a maximum of 15 years in prison and up to $250,000 fine when he is sentenced Nov. 21. Under a plea bargain, another charge of possession of pornography, which carried a five-year maximum term and a similar fine, was dismissed. Poster, who was director of liturgy and an associate publisher of the Davenport Catholic Diocese newspaper, was charged after police said they found child pornography on a laptop computer turned over to them by church officials. http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/ap/ap_story.html/National/AP.V5566.AP-Priest-Charged.html - - - - - - - - - - 40,000 child porn images found A 53-year-old man has pleaded guilty to making a catalogue of indecent photographs of young children. Some of the pornographic images found by the police featured dead children and one even showed a dead youngster lying in a coffin. The court heard how Richard Sugden, 53, of Nottidge Road, Ipswich, downloaded more than 40,000 indecent images of children from the internet and kept them stored of compact discs. Yesterday, Sugden appeared before Bury St Edmunds Crown Court where he pleaded guilty to 15 counts of making indecent photographs of children, contrary to the Protection of Children Act 1978. He pleaded not guilty to a further count regarding an image of a mutilated body, which will be left to lie on file. All the offences occurred over a 21-month period, between February 2001 and 2002. http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/news/NewsStory.asp?Brand=EADOnline&Category=News&ItemId=IPED29+Aug+2003+18%3A08%3A38%3A667 - - - - - - - - - - Cyber-fraud case Over to FIA The first Cyber-fraud case worth US$ 30,000 reported from Multan is being sent to Cyber Crime Wing [CCW] FIA Islamabad for assistance in investigations due to absence of relevant expertise here, said deputy director FIA Crime Cell Multan Rana Irfan on Thursday. The Special Judge Central Multan has allowed five-day physical remand of the four accused, including an alleged hacker, and permission to shift them to Islamabad. http://www.timespk.com/2003/august/29/metro1.htm - - - - - - - - - - SCO website attacked again Disgruntled open source fans suspected as site struck by another DoS. The SCO Group's website, which suffered a denial of service (DoS) attack last weekend, has been down for several hours again today. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1143283 - - - - - - - - - - Google spreads 'virus' Google inadvertently spread the latest curse of the Internet yesterday, the Sobig.F worm that has been plaguing inboxes for more than a week. The worm was contained within an attachment to a message sent to subscribers to Google's media email list. The company soon became aware of the problem, sending a second email saying: 'We sincerely apologise and ask that you please do not open the attachment. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=46754 Week in review: So long Sobig? Not so fast http://news.com.com/2100-1083_3-5069594.html Attack of the worms: Feds get wake-up call http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0825/news-worms-08-25-03.asp Summer of the Worm http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22189.html - - - - - - - - - - Navy investigates NMCI's Welchia outbreak Navy officials want to know how a worm got into the Navy Marine Corps Intranet. Earlier this month, the so-called Welchia worm infected thousands of systems nationwide, including a few prominent government systems such as NMCI, which is designed to connect everyone in the Navy and Marine Corps on a single, secure network. It was the first time NMCI fell victim to a virus since the services started adding users to the system in 2001. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0825/web-worm-08-29-03.asp - - - - - - - - - - Child porn cases may face collapse CHILD porn cases in West Yorkshire could be reviewed after doubts were raised about evidence from a leading prosecution expert. Over the last 15 months, dozens of people across the county have been arrested and accused of paedophile offences as part of Operation Ore. The campaign has seen defendants including teachers, social workers and businessmen either jailed or fined and put on the sex offenders' register after they admitted paying for and downloading child porn from the internet. http://www.leedstoday.net/ViewArticle.aspx?SectionID=39&ArticleID=581022 - - - - - - - - - - After Black Monday, new rules at cyber cafes Beena Nair, a young advertising executive, was in for an unpleasant surprise on Wednesday evening when she decided to check her mail at a cyber cafe at Churchgate. Not only do I have to write my name and full address in the customer log book, but also provide my phone number, she fumed. After much hesitation, Nair did give her office number. I guess this is all done in the name of security, she conceded. http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=61732 - - - - - - - - - - The biggest spam challenge: defining it Whether he knows it or not, Charlie Rose flushed out one of the thorniest issues when it comes to battling spam. During a recent taping of his show on the topic, Rose's first directive out of the gate had to do with defining spam. He turned to me: "David, help us agree on what spam is. http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2914520,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Antivirus industry feeds FUD? Antivirus experts say the metrics surrounding the spread of computer viruses and worms leave a lot to be desired, and have criticized some companies for attempting to capitalize on fear, uncertainty and doubt. Managing director of mail filtering software company Clearswift in Australia, Chy Chuawiwat, told ZDNet Australia some of the data he's seen companies release just doesn't add up. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5069681.html - - - - - - - - - - Securing MySQL: step-by-step MySQL is one of the most popular databases on the Internet and it is often used in conjunction with PHP. Besides its undoubted advantages such as easy of use and relatively high performance, MySQL offers simple but very effective security mechanisms. Unfortunately, the default installation of MySQL, and in particular the empty root password and the potential vulnerability to buffer overflow attacks, makes the database an easy target for attacks. http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1726 - - - - - - - - - - Turn Back the Spam of Time This summer, Dave Hill got a refreshing break from the run-of-the-mill spam that routinely invades his e-mail inbox. Instead of hawking mortgages, penis- enlargement pills or weight-loss products, a message arrived that seemed straight out of a science-fiction novel. The anonymous e-mail offered $5,000 to any vendor capable of promptly delivering a collection of far-fetched gadgets for conducting time travel. Among the mysterious devices sought by the message's author were an "Acme 5X24 series time transducing capacitor with built-in temporal displacement" and an "AMD Dimensional Warp Generator module containing the GRC79 induction motor." http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60141,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Next-gen bar code could tag 'every grain of rice' A new product numbering system has the potential to give every individual item in the world its own ID code. A group of academics and business executives is planning to introduce next month a next-generation bar code system, which could someday replace with a microchip the series of black vertical lines found on most merchandise. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/chips/0,39020354,39116018,00.htm http://news.com.com/2100-1019_3-5069619.html Use of RFID tags raises privacy concerns http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/privacy/story/0,10801,84490,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Response to blackout exposes homeland security weaknesses New York Citys 911 emergency system failed. Then the computer-aided dispatch system for its fire department and rescue squads crashed. The fire department had to monitor its trucks and personnel manually because the computer tracking system couldnt boot up. During the Blackout of 2003, the scene in New York was calm, yetfrom a security perspectiveanything but confidence- inspiring. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0803/082903nj3.htm Blaster worm linked to severity of blackout http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/recovery/story/0,10801,84510,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Groups want input on DHS data sharing Decisions on securing information-sharing processes among agencies and first responders for homeland security must include input from the public, says a group of 75 advocacy organizations. In a letter sent yesterday to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, the group -- which includes representatives for journalists, scientists, librarians, environmental groups and others -- called for public input. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0825/web-priv-08-28-03.asp - - - - - - - - - - NSA seeks signal analysis partners The National Security Agency wants the United States and allied agencies to become more involved in processing and analyzing foreign communications intercepts, the military's top intelligence officer said. The groundbreaking announcement marks NSA Director Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden's third initiative in four years to transform NSA from an agency entrenched in collecting intelligence -- referred to as "signals" in the intelligence community -- from Warsaw Pact countries' land- based systems to the modern task of collecting intercepts transmitted by al-Qaida's Internet, fiber and satellite systems. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0825/web-nsa-08-28-03.asp - - - - - - - - - - NYC tries cell phone finder New York City is testing a new system that will be able to triangulate the location of cell phone callers, the next phase of its wireless 911 emergency services. The rollout, however, depends on ensuring that private cellular communications carriers have implemented certain technologies for pinpointing wireless callers as mandated by the Federal Communications Commission, said Richard Dale, chief executive officer of iXP Corp., based in Lawrenceville, N.J. http://www.fcw.com/geb/articles/2003/0825/web-nyc-08-29-03.asp - - - - - - - - - - Singapore police: Don't SMS and drive Text messaging on a cell phone while driving is an offence in Singapore, a police spokesman has warned. Drivers caught will be slapped with a fine and imprisonment as the act threatens lives, police spokesman Phillip Mah in a letter to The Straits Times. The act can result in a penalty of up to S$1,000 (US$571) or a jail term of up to six months, or both. Also, the convicted offender can also be barred from driving vehicles of all types for up to half a year, he said. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1103_2-5069672.html - - - - - - - - - - NASA employee proposed 'complete scrub' of Web site Just days after the shuttle Columbia disaster, a NASA employee at headquarters proposed scrubbing the agency's safety office Web site to remove outdated or wrong information that could become "chum in the water to reporters and congressmen." "We wouldn't want to be sucker punched by someone based on something we have posted," employee Wilson Harkins wrote in an e-mail released this week by NASA. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-08-28-nasa-scrub_x.htm *********************************************************** 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. 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