NewsBits for November 3, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Man gets 5 years for Internet, bank scam A Washington man was sentenced to five years in prison for a check kiting scheme involving more than $250,000, money police say was used to run an Internet auction scam. Timothy W. Omer, 38, of Wenatchee, Wash., was charged with wire fraud for allegedly operating a scam on eBay. Police say Omer was part of a ring that took money for electronic equipment the conspirators never possessed or shipped. http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2003/11/01/news/local/news07.txt - - - - - - - - - - Peorian gets prison for computer crime A former Midstate College instructor was sentenced Friday to just shy of five years in prison for trying to solicit sex from a person he thought was a 15-year-old girl last year. Joshua Parrott, 31, of 3315 N. Brook Lane also must pay $750 to the city of Peoria to cover the cost of the investigation. http://www.pjstar.com/news/local/b16njfaq045.html - - - - - - - - - - Turnersville man held in sex assault on Galloway teen A 51-year-old Turnersville man has been charged in connection with the Oct. 11 sexual assault of a 15- year-old Galloway Township boy he met on the Internet, authorities said Sunday. William Charles Farley, of Ternberry Court, was taken into custody Saturday after attempting a second rendezvous with the boy, this time at the Hamilton Mall, according to Atlantic County Prosecutor Jeffrey S. Blitz. "They met on the Internet last month and it happened shortly thereafter," Blitz said of the assault. "It was not forced. Since the child was under the age of 16, he was not able to give consent." http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/atlantic/110303SEXASSAULT1.html - - - - - - - - - - Man Allegedly Solicits Sex With Boy Online A man accused of soliciting sex from a 13-year-old boy over the Internet is expected to be arraigned in court Monday. Oakland County sheriff's deputies arrested the 42-year-old man Sunday afternoon in Orion Township, Local 4 reported. The man arranged a meeting with who he thought was a 13-year-old boy at a Burger King restaurant on M-24, the station learned. The man was reportedly met by the Sheriff's Department instead. http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/2606085/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - Brazilian script kiddie arrested in Japan A Brazilian teenager has been arrested in Japan last Friday on suspicion of membership of an international hacking group. Japanese police believe the unnamed 17 year-old is an active member of a gang of Web site defacers called Cyber Lords, which is blamed for the defacement in recent months of 1,032 Web sites in 33 countries. Japanese investigators have tracked the group's activities since March, following a tip-off from South Korean police via Interpol. Sites in Japan, the US, Taiwan, the Netherlands and South Korea have been hit by the group, according to Tokoyo police, the Japan Times reports. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/33732.html http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2003103110570006 - - - - - - - - - - E-mail virus hits corporate users, heads for homes A new e-mail virus started spreading to corporate computers on Friday and is headed for home computers, but computer security experts said they expect the outbreak to wind down over the weekend. Anti-virus software maker Trend Micro said tens of thousands of its corporate computer users in France and Germany had been hit by the virus, dubbed "Mimail.C". http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/internet/2003/0311030908.asp MiMail worm uses ZIP files to rampage across corporations http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=12445 http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/virus/story/0,10801,86803,00.html http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22612.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39117546,00.htm Virus-writing hackers are biggest threat http://www.silicon.com/software/security/0,39024655,39116705,00.htm Dangerous Mimail variant knocks over anti-spam sites http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/33721.html - - - - - - - - - - Government increases proposed jail terms for Web grooming Those who use the Internet to make contact with children before attempting to sexually abuse them could soon be jailed for up to a decade. Anyone found guilty of establishing contact with a child over the Internet and meeting or attempting to meet them to commit a sexual offence could face a jail sentence of up to 10 years once new legislation is passed by Parliament. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39117573,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - MPs take aim at eBay in gun smuggling report Guns are being smuggled into the UK using online auction sites such as eBay, according to a report by MPs due out this week. Although the sale of weapons is illegal on eBay, the report is expected to say that villains are getting round the barriers by buying component parts, such as barrels, firing mechanism and triggers. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33744.html - - - - - - - - - - They catch cyber criminals When Air Products and Chemicals realized that an outsider was hacking into its computer system, the Trexlertown company knew exactly what to do. As a member of InfraGard, an alliance between private industry and the federal government in the fight against cyber crime, Air Products was able to place a call directly to an FBI agent who specializes in computer forensics. The FBI arrived on scene within an hour and a half and quickly gathered the material necessary to subpoena the suspect, who turned out to be a former employee. http://www.mcall.com/business/local/all-crimenov02,0,3175722.story - - - - - - - - - - Hillsboro's cybercrime unit breaks up The police sleuths move on as funding dries up and the FBI plans its own high-tech crime lab in Portland. The pioneering high-tech team at the Hillsboro Police Department will continue to morph in the coming months as it assists in building an FBI computer forensics lab in Portland. The city in the heart of the Silicon Forest launched its team of specially trained computer sleuths in 1995 to investigate corporate crooks, felonious fraudsters and hackers from Hillsboro to China. http://www.oregonlive.com/metrosouthwest/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/metro_southwest_news/106769158236900.xml - - - - - - - - - - NIST issues draft federal information security standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued an initial draft of recommended security controls for federal information systems and is seeking public comments for the next three months. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1103/110303td1.htm - - - - - - - - - - File Sharing Pits Copyright Against Free Speech Forbidden files are circulating on the Internet and threats of lawsuits are in the air. Music trading? No, it is the growing controversy over one companys electronic voting systems, and the issues being raised, some legal scholars say, are as fundamental as the sanctity of elections and the right to free speech. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/03/business/media/03secure.html?th College kids are thieves, thieves, thieves http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/35/33740.html - - - - - - - - - - In the name of national security Nobody likes to be criticized in public, especially all those politicians in Washington, D.C., who fervently hope to be re-elected. But the Bush administration has taken the desire to avoid critical commentary to an extreme. In incident after troubling incident, federal agencies have been quietly censoring information that previously had been available on their Web sites and otherwise curbing public oversight. http://rss.com.com/2010-1028_3-5101121.html - - - - - - - - - - Data Attacks Strike Spam Fighters Ron Guilmette tried to cleanse the Internet of spam. For his good deed, he got himself cleansed from the Internet. The Roseville, Calif.-based software developer is back online, but only after learning the hard way that fighting the junk e-mail business can be harmful to your financial health. Guilmette lost his Internet access and stood to lose his livelihood. Not only that, he said, local police and the FBI did little more than lend a sympathetic ear. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56072-2003Nov3.html SendMail to adopt Cloudmark's anti-spam tech http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/applications/0,39020384,39117559,00.htm Spam's deluge lifts Surfcontrol http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,39020369,39117553,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Security experts gather for CSI Conference Discussions on network attacks are expected to be popular topics at the conference, as are announcements from a number of companies about technology that can automate attack detection and response, according to show organizers. http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/11/03/HNcsiconference_1.html - - - - - - - - - - CA unveils plans for identity management suite Following recent announcements from competitors about identity management plans, Computer Associates International Inc. said that it will gather six of its eTrust products into a unified identity and access management suite. CA unveiled the first component of the eTrust Identity and Access Management Suite, a new version of eTrust Admin, at the Computer Security Institute (CSI) Conference and Exhibition in Washington today and plans updates for five other products for the CA World 2004 show next May, according to Bilhar Mann, vice president of product management at CA. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,86786,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Wal-Mart, DOD Forcing RFID While analysts say radio-frequency identification tags don't work well enough to replace UPC codes, and costs are still prohibitively expensive, some technology companies, retailers and government entities remain determined to infuse RFID into daily consumer life. "We are at an incredibly early stage of this technology and what it is actually capable of doing. All the promise of real-time supply chain visibility is just that. It's promise," said IDC analyst Christopher Boone, according to a Reuters report. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,61059,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Process, not technology, tightens security Corporate security is more of a strategic issue than a technological battle, and chief security officers should be treated as trusted experts by boards, delegates at the Compsec 2003 were told last week. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1147007 CIOs Share the Blame http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,86730,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Cyber-Attacks: easy to launch Unfortunately, the general computerization and introduction of Internet-technologies have not only positive results for our life. Alongside with ordinary users, there are a lot of cyber-robbers and swindlers of every stripe. Epidemics of computer viruses of August-October, 2003 have shown, that the situation about malicious codes became absolutely unmanageable. The disorder is growing so quick, that Microsoft has been compelled to recognize insufficiency of the policy of vulnerabilities. http://www.crime-research.org/news/2003/11/Mess0102.html - - - - - - - - - - Reeducation Campaign Microsoft's best chance for regaining the revenue lost to security concerns isn't in eliminating bugs, it's in teaching customers how to use buggy software. Exactly two years ago in this very space, I wrote about how security would become critical to the success of Microsoft, and how the challenge of combining "simplicity and security" would represent the highest costs in IT. http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/195 - - - - - - - - - - Camera Phones, Privacy Concerns Not Clicking "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." That was the famous advice given by Scott McNealy, chief executive of Sun Microsystems Inc., to people worried about the implications of new technology in 1999. He was not talking about digital cameras attached to mobile phones, but he might as well have been. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-ft-cameraphones3nov03,1,3734703.story *********************************************************** 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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