NewsBits for September 29, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Juvenile arrested in Blaster worm probe Federal authorities have arrested another person on suspicion of creating a variant of the infamous Blaster worm. The youth has not been identified for legal reasons. John McKay, US Attorney for the Western District of Washington, said the accused had been arrested for "intentionally causing damage and attempting to cause damage to protected computers." AP reports that the juvenille is suspected of releasing a variant of the worm known as "RPCSDBOT." http://www.securityfocus.com/news/7087 http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030929.gtarrestsep29/BNStory/Technology/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3148150.stm http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39116717,00.htm http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/09/26/internet.attack.arrest.ap/index.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/33089.html http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/09/26/HNjuvenile_1.html - - - - - - - - - - Child Sex Crime Crackdown Yields Arrests An international investigation into child sex crimes and pornography has resulted in more than 1,000 arrests since its inception July 9, federal authorities said Friday. The crackdown has brought arrests in nearly every state and most major U.S. cities, said Michael J. Garcia, director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency of the Homeland Security Department. The latest arrests came this week in South Florida, where 56 foreigners who had been convicted of crimes involving children were apprehended over three days in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. These aliens, from 18 countries, will be deported, officials said Friday. http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/6871710.htm Thousands demonstrate against paedophilia http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/mon/sep29w29.htm - - - - - - - - - - Local man pleads guilty in federal child porn case A Fulton man pleaded guilty on Friday in federal court to charges of possession of child pornography, the Western District U.S. Attorney's office reported. Mikel P. Sweeney, 33, pleaded guilty to possessing computer files that contained images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. In January 2002, after receiving reports that Sweeney had child porn, investigators searched the man's residence, seizing a computer. Sweeney could be sentenced to as many as five years in federal prison and fined as much as $250,000. A sentencing hearing still is pending. The FBI, Missouri State Technical Assistance Team and Fulton police investigated the case. http://newstribune.com/stories/092803/loc_0928030042.asp - - - - - - - - - - Nude photos e-mailed to teen get Pueblo West man arrested A businessman who was recognized in January as the Greater Pueblo Chamber of Commerce's ambassador of the year has been jailed on allegations that he exposed an underage girl to a pornographic image of himself. Gary James Gould, 62, was arrested Sept. 10 on a warrant for promoting obscenity to a minor, a felony. He remains in county jail in lieu of $100,000 bail. "This is a guy we've been keeping our eye on for at least two years," said Cmdr. Dave Pettinari of the Pueblo County Sheriff's Department's high-tech crimes unit. On Sept. 3, a woman told Detective Keith Ervin that Gould had e-mailed a nude picture of himself to her friend's 17-year-old daughter, according to an arrest affidavit by Pettinari. http://www.chieftain.com/monday/news/index/article/14 - - - - - - - - - - Child porn video lands men in jail Two San Francisco men accused of producing a pornographic video involving a 15-year-old Fairbanks girl have pleaded guilty to federal charges. Aaron Paul DeGlanville and Theodore Zwang Finucane entered their pleas Friday as part of an agreement with prosecutors. DeGlanville, 30, will receive 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of production of child pornography and one count each of conspiracy to produce child pornography, travel with the intent to engage in a sexual act with a minor, possession of child pornography and attempted transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. Prosecutors said DeGlanville and Theodore Finucane, 28, met over the Internet in November 2002 and started making plans to produce a video with the girl, whom DeGlanville had met online a year earlier through live chats and e-mail. http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/4030113p-4051032c.html - - - - - - - - - - Mall Santa Facing Child Porn Charges A man charged with possessing child pornography worked as a Santa Claus at Muskegon's biggest shopping mall. Walter Arthur Johnson, 49, of Muskegon County's Muskegon Township, was arraigned Wednesday on four felony counts of possessing child sexually abusive materials. Michigan State Police say Johnson was employed last Christmas season as Santa Claus at The Lakes Mall in Fruitport Township. Police say none of the charges against Johnson involve his position as Santa Claus. But they say his Yahoo! Internet profile gives his nickname as Santa and lists his favorite quote as "Wanna come sit on my lap, little girl!" Investigators believe Johnson received some pornography from Jeffrey E- Dean of Fruitport Township, who is accused of coercing underage girls to perform simulated sexual acts before a live Web camera. http://fox17.trb.com/news/092703-wxmi-santa,0,2589927.story - - - - - - - - - - Tougher punishment for child porn German officials called on Saturday for tougher sentences for consumers of child pornography after police cracked a huge global child porn network involving some 26,500 Internet users in 166 countries. "The latest investigation successes have shown once again what sort of disgusting acts people are capable of," Fritz Rudolf Koerper, junior interior minister, told Welt am Sonntag newspaper according to a release ahead of Sunday publication. "We must deal with them severely. I propose a coordinated increase of sentences Europe-wide," Koerper said, adding he wanted more international cooperation on fighting the ways such material was spread on the Internet. http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2003/9/29/technology/6380953&sec=technology - - - - - - - - - - Child porn response spoils Poly's image Cal Poly administrators, all the way up to President Warren Baker, have some serious questions to answer about an admitted failure to report a crime against children two years ago. Their conduct appears to run directly contrary to university policies that administrators were instituting at the exact same time. In February 2001, a computer technician allegedly discovered child pornography on a university laptop used by Mechanical Engineering department head Safwat Moustafa. For four months, administrators and staff kept the information to themselves, conducting an internal investigation. http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/local/6882338.htm - - - - - - - - - - Man Is Sentenced for Posting 'Hulk' Film A federal judge sentenced Kerry Gonzalez, a 24-year-old insurance underwriter, to six months of home confinement for posting a rough version of the movie "The Hulk" on the Internet two weeks before the film hit theaters in June. U.S. District Judge Gerard E. Lynch in New York also gave Gonzalez three years of probation, fined him $2,000 and ordered him to pay $5,000 in restitution to Vivendi Universal Entertainment, parent company of Universal Studios, which released the movie. Gonzalez had faced up to three years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for felony copyright infringement. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-rup27.5sep27,1,6940927.story - - - - - - - - - - Dumaru worm twists again The Dumaru worm is continuing to evolve. First appearing only in mid-August, it has now reached its fifth generation in the wild with the Dumaru-E variant. Purporting to come from 'security@microsoft.com', the virus email will have a subject line of 'Use this patch immediately !' and a patch.exe attachment. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=48157 - - - - - - - - - - The Subpoenas are Coming! Citing a provision of the Patriot Act, the FBI is sending letters to journalists telling them to secretly prepare to turn over their notes, e-mails and sources to the bureau. Should we throw out the First Amendment to nail a hacker? Frequent readers of this space know that I am no apologist for hackers like Adrian Lamo, who, in the guise of protection, access others' computer systems without authorization, and then publicize these vulnerabilities. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/33106.html - - - - - - - - - - Law Won't Deter Spam, Experts Say California's attempt to ban all junk e-mail, signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis last week, has as little chance of actually working as the sexual enhancers and get-rich-quick schemes that clutter people's in-boxes. That's the conclusion of a range of experts on the plague of electronic advertising known as spam. They say the new law, touted by state politicians as the toughest in the country, is at best a toothless, feel-good measure and at worst might spur frivolous lawsuits. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-spam29sep29224416,1,4879424.story - - - - - - - - - - IE holes lead to AIM, dial-up attacks Security holes in Microsoft's Internet Explorer have been exploited by hackers to hijack AOL instant messaging accounts and force unsuspecting Web surfers to run up massive phone bills, computer experts cautioned on Friday. Some IE users are also finding that malicious Web sites are secretly slipping Trojan programs onto their computers, which could prove an even more dangerous exploit, said Drew Copley, a research engineer at Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based eEye Digital Security, who discovered the original security vulnerability. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5083234.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39116716,00.htm To fix software flaws, Microsoft invites attack http://news.com.com/2100-7355-5083568.html http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/09/27/microsoft.browser.reut/index.html http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/holes/story/0,10801,85512,00.html IM Security: Don't Get Fooled http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1258813,00.asp Experts warn on 'unpatched' vulnerability http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39116719,00.htm More workers get shut out of e-mail http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-09-29-email_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Linux fights off worms The forthcoming Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 3 suite will include a new feature to thwart worms and hackers. The news arrives as the security of open-source systems comes under increased scrutiny. Less than two weeks ago, several serious security vulnerabilities were revealed in OpenSSH and Sendmail, two popular open-source software packages. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1143925 - - - - - - - - - - Therminator May Squelch Net Attacks "As cyber attacks continue to rise in sophistication and virulence, early indications and warnings are more critical than ever," said Rear Admiral David Ellison, superintendent of the Naval Postgraduate School. Atlanta-based network intelligence company Lancope has teamed with leading U.S. defense organizations to create a new way to terminate malicious network attacks. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22383.html - - - - - - - - - - Motorola builds security into network chips Integrating authentication, encryption into chip will boost performance and lower cost of network gear. By integrating user authentication and data encryption into the new MPC885 PowerQUICC I and MPC8272 PowerQUICC II processor families, the Schaumburg, Illinois, company said it will allow equipment vendors to both boost the performance and lower the cost of their gear. The chips are designed for a variety of devices including VPN (virtual private network) routers, residential gateways, and wireless access points. http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/09/29/HNmotochips_1.html - - - - - - - - - - Feds Muscling Greater Security Out of Tech Firms After years of being criticized for failing to lead by example in information security, the federal government last week for the first time used its unparalleled purchasing power to force technology vendors to improve the security of their products. Days after the U.S. Department of Energy announced that it had signed an open-ended contract with Oracle Corp. that requires the vendor to adhere to a set of strict security stipulations, Microsoft Corp. officials said they are laying the groundwork for similar contracts in the future. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1303343,00.asp - - - - - - - - - - Army deploys PC forensics technology in Iraq Equipment and techniques normally associated with resolving business disputes have made their way into post-war Iraq, where the army is using it to find evidence of war crimes. The British Army has revealed that it is using PC forensics technology in Iraq to search through recovered electronic media to investigate illegal activities undertaken by the previous regime. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39116735,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Report: FBI still lacks IT strategy The FBI still lacks a comprehensive blueprint for modernizing its information technology systems, because the agency has not made crafting such a strategy a priority, according to a new report from the General Accounting Office. Despite nearly three years of effort to develop a plan to upgrade its antiquated systems, and hundreds of millions of dollars already invested in two new systems, the FBI is still in only the initial stages of creating an overall strategy for IT modernization, GAO found. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0903/092903m1.htm - - - - - - - - - - Sit on the check and foil the scam My column last week on a new Nigerian Internet scam brought home a key lesson: Just because you get cash from a check doesn't mean you'll get to keep the money. Banks can make cash available from a check instantly, but it could take several days before anyone learns the check is bogus. http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/business/6886914.htm - - - - - - - - - - Preparing for the worst: Read a banker's post-9/11 playbook "It's kind of ironic," the State of Georgia's commissioner of banking and finance David Sorrell told me. "We put all of these contingency plans in place in the event of a Y2K disaster, and then nothing happened. But if it hadn't been for all that Y2K preparation, most banks wouldn't have been nearly as prepared for 9/11. The investment paid off after all." http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2914732,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Exploiting Cisco Routers (Part One) This three-part article will focus on identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities and poor configurations in Cisco routers. We will then discuss the analysis of the router configuration file and will attempt to leverage this access into other systems. Additionally, we will cover the possibilities of what one may do once access to the device has been achieved. We chose to focus this article on Cisco routers due to their overwhelming market share. http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1734 - - - - - - - - - - Taiwan hands out 22 million ID cards The health identification cards, based on Sun's Java technology, contain microprocessors that can run applications. The Taiwan government has completed the distribution of 22 million Java-based ID cards to its citizens, in one of Asia's largest deployments of such cards. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/emergingtech/0,39020357,39116721,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - One Last City Is Scanning for Faces in the Crowd Twelve feet above the sidewalk, three cameras scan the faces of unsuspecting crowds on Atlantic Avenue. In a police control room a few blocks away, Lt. Dennis Santos sits before a bank of screens, holding a joystick that enables him to pivot the cameras and zoom in or out. With the help of computers, he is looking for terrorists and criminals. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-na-facescan29sep29,1,3077938.story - - - - - - - - - - U.S. readies program to track visas The federal government is about to unveil a blueprint for one of its largest information technology projects ever, a vast automated system that will track every foreigner entering the United States with a visa. The program, which is designed to prevent terrorists and criminals from obtaining visas, is likely to cost $3 billion to $10 billion, analysts said. http://www.msnbc.com/news/973387.asp *********************************************************** 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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