NewsBits for October 16, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Jail sentence increased for chatroom paedophile A paedophile who sexually abused two teenage girls he met in an internet chat room had his sentence increased yesterday following a protest from the Attorney General. Judges at the Court of Appeal ruled that the three years given to 36-year-old electronics engineer Michael Wheeler at Norwich Crown Court in June was "significantly too lenient" for one of the worst cases of internet abuse. They jailed him for an additional 18 months. Wheeler, described by police as "cold and calculating", was not in court to hear the ruling by Lord Justice Kay, Mr Justice Poole and Mr Justice Treacy. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=453799 - - - - - - - - - - Man admits guilt in Net sex case A Bozeman man admitted Wednesday in federal court he used the Internet to try to coerce a 14-year-old to have sex and that he possessed child pornography. The 14-year-old actually was an undercover FBI agent investigating sexual exploitation of children on the Internet. The agent posed as a young teen in a chat room. Trevor Jason Bjerke, 25, pleaded guilty to one count of coercion and one count of possession of child pornography. Under a forfeiture count, he will give up a cellular telephone and a digital camera. http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2003/10/16/build/local/48-admits.inc - - - - - - - - - - Ex-Band Director Indicted On Sex Charges Against Children A former school band director faces 19 life sentences as part of a 32-count indictment accusing him of sexual involvement with children and pandering child pornography. Kevin Kohler, 39, was indicted in connection with raping children under 13-years-old and sexual battery against students. In late July, allegations arose that Kohler had inappropriate conversations with children -- by telephone and computer -- and sent pornography to them over the Internet. http://www.nbc4columbus.com/news/2555405/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - Charleston man arrested for trying to arrange underage tryst online A Charleston man was arrested Monday, charged with trying to convince a person he believed to be a 15- year-old girl to meet him for sex. US Attorney Strom Thurmond, Junior, says Wilburn Vernon Biggers, 60, met the faux teen in a chat room. The girl was actually played by a law enforcement agent with the South Carolina Computer Crime Center as part of the Internet Crimes Against Children task force. http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1483661&nav=0RaPIYA8 - - - - - - - - - - Former library head enters guilty plea for possession of porn Penn's former library head pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and related charges yesterday. Former Vice Provost and Director of Libraries Paul Mosher, who was arrested in April after roughly 2,000 illicit images were discovered on his office computer, was scheduled for a pretrial conference yesterday morning. At the time of the hearing, he pleaded guilty on charges of sexual abuse of children and unlawful use of a communication facility. http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/10/16/3f8e48578d461 - - - - - - - - - - Defense: Indecent exposure law not relevant in Web sex case The Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District heard oral arguments here Wednesday in an Internet sexual misconduct case appealed from Pettis County Circuit Court. The case involved Clarence K. Bouse, who was convicted Nov. 7, 2002, on three counts of attempted sexual misconduct with a child. Mr. Bouse had sent e-mail photos of his genitals to "Carrie," someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl but who was really Livingston County Sheriff Steve Cox. http://www.sedaliademocrat.com/News/279766386013895.htm - - - - - - - - - - Cold War encryption laws stand, but not as firmly A pioneering attempt to overturn the U.S. government's Cold War-era laws restricting the publication of some forms of encryption code ended quietly Wednesday when a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit--but only after assurances that the anticrypto laws would not be enforced. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel in San Francisco threw out the case after the Bush administration said it would no longer try to enforce portions of the regulations, according to parties involved in the proceedings. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5092154.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39117187,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Davis eyes E-Authentication delays The chairman of the House Government Reform Committee wants an explanation of the problems facing the E-Authentication initiative. In a letter sent this week to Stephen Perry, administrator of the General Services Administration, Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) said he is concerned that delays could have serious effects on e-government as a whole. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/1013/web-gsa-10-16-03.asp - - - - - - - - - - First identity theft laws proposed in South Australia The first laws in Australia to specifically target identity theft have been proposed by the South Australian government. The state government today announced its latest string of law and order initiatives, including planned laws to target identity theft, cyber crime and those who attack police. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/16/1065917520126.html - - - - - - - - - - Lawyers slam Home Office snooping charter Privacy campaigners are claiming that government proposals to force ISPs to retain internet traffic data are illegal. Having asked international law firm Covington & Burling to examine the Home Office proposals, the conclusions are damning. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1144427 - - - - - - - - - - White collar crime is on the rise Economic crime hit 39% of Hungarian companies last year, up from 27% two years ago, with larger firms more likely to be affected, according to a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the international professional services firm. The level of reported economic crime - mostly, but not entirely, equivalent to so-called "white collar crime" - represents a "significant problem" in Hungary, where it is higher than in Western Europe (34%) and in the rest of the world, including Central and Eastern Europe (37%), Roger Stanley, head of PwC's regional investigations and forensic audit services told the media last week. http://www.budapestsun.com/full_story.asp?ArticleId={7E0E49EC38E84F05A07AC61BF1D78613}&From=Business - - - - - - - - - - 3G phones ARMed to fight hackers and viruses "Carriers are worried that someone could download something onto their phone that could take down the entire network..." UK chip firm ARM is designing chips for mobile phones that require less power but contain antihacking and antivirus features. http://www.silicon.com/news/500018/1/6430.html - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft issues yet more patches Redmond warns on seven new vulnerabilities, five of them 'critical'. Microsoft has issued seven software patches to address recently discovered vulnerabilities, five of which it rates as 'critical'. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1144445 http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/internet/2003/0310160904.asp http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22500.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/33428.html Microsoft patches Hotmail after 'potentially crippling' security scare http://www.silicon.com/news/500013/1/6432.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39117172,00.htm Beefed-up firewall, new version of Update for XP SP2 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/33435.html - - - - - - - - - - Hatch: P2Ps Are Child Porno Central In a twisted turn of unintended consequences, the enormous success of the Internet as a distribution vehicle for pornography has created competitive pressures among smut purveyors to provide more depictions than ever of children engaging in violent and deviate sexual conduct. http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/3092661 - - - - - - - - - - Universities win funding to model cyberterrorism Two Californian universities will create a network on which to simulate terrorist attacks against the Internet. The National Science Foundation, working with the Department of Homeland Security, has granted $5.46m (PS3.27m) to two Californian universities to develop a cyber-war test bed aimed at bettering Internet security, the universities announced on Wednesday. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39117178,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - New Toronto Airport WLAN designed for security and growth In a bid to avoid security problems that have plagued wireless LANs at other airports, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) is installing a centrally managed WLAN at Toronto Pearson International Airport that was designed from the ground up to prevent intrusion into key applications such as baggage- handling systems. http://computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,86134,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Oracle secures identity management Oracle's database and application server management products will improve management of access privileges. Oracle introduced on Thursday a security component for its database and application server products that manages access privileges to corporate networks and Web sites. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/applications/0,39020384,39117189,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material is bad business Companies and individuals need to be careful about not distributing copyrighted works, such as newsletters, without authorization. To bring this point home, as reported by the Washington Post, a federal jury in Baltimore just rendered a multi- million dollar verdict against financial services company Legg Mason for distributing unauthorized copies of daily stock market email commentary Lowry's Market Trend Analysis, published by Lowry's Reports, Inc. (Lowry's), to hundreds its broker- dealers for years. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/ericjsinrod/2003-10-15-sinrod_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Use a firewall when you play Question: I recently installed Norton AntiVirus and Personal Firewall. Can these programs interfere with computer gaming? I now get lag time every couple of minutes while playing games. It never happened before I installed the Norton programs. I even tried disabling the programs, and I still get the lags. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/business/technology/7023741.htm - - - - - - - - - - Incident Response Tools For Unix, Part Two: File-System Tools This is the second article in a three part series on tools that are useful during incident response and investigation after a compromise has occurred on a Linux, OpenBSD, or Solaris system. The first article focused on system tools, this one focuses on file system tools, and the next article will discuss network and other tools. http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1738 Incident Response Tools For Unix, Part One: System Tools http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1679 - - - - - - - - - - U.K. retailer tests radio ID tags Retailer Marks & Spencer has begun a trial of radio frequency identification tags in clothes at one of its U.K. stores this week as part of plans to improve stock accuracy and product availability for customers. The tags, criticized by privacy advocates and touted by the technology industry as a bar code replacement, are contained within throwaway paper labels called Intelligent Labels attached to, but not embedded in, a selection of men's suits, shirts and ties at the High Wycombe store in the United Kingdom. The trial will last four weeks, the company said. http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-5092460.html - - - - - - - - - - DHS plans network to link its agencies The Homeland Security Department plans to issue a contract by the end of the year for creating and operating a network for transmitting classified data across its agencies, according to department officials and contractors. The department will issue a task order for the Homeland Secure Data Network under the General Services Administrations Millennia governmentwide acquisition contract, said Jim Flyzik, a partner in Guerra, Kiviat, Flyzik and Associates of Oak Hill, Va. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/23887-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Unclassified documents restored to Pentagon site The Pentagon restored Internet access Thursday to hundreds of unclassified documents that it recently took offline, including directives on myriad topics, from defining policies on conscientious objectors to displaying flags at half-staff. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/7030243.htm http://www.securityfocus.com/news/7227 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36312-2003Oct16.html - - - - - - - - - - Spies Attack White House Secrecy There's a "total meltdown" in America's intelligence services -- and the Bush administration's penchant for secrecy is one of the major reasons why, current and former top U.S. spooks charged Tuesday. George W. Bush's White House has pushed like few before it to put government information out of the public's grasp. Moves to classify documents are up 400 percent from a decade ago, to more than 23 million such actions in 2002, according to the Information Security Oversight Office, a division of the National Archives. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60836,00.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. 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