NewsBits for December 3, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Former worker ordered to prison In one night of alcohol-fueled revenge, Kenneth Patterson went from being a law-abiding computer whiz to one who committed crimes that will send him to federal prison. Patterson, 38, of Greensburg, was sentenced to 18 months in prison Tuesday for having infiltrated the computers of American Eagle Outfitters in Marshall Township, Allegheny County. He caused his former employer at least $70,000 in losses, officials said. http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/pittsburgh/s_168046.html http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/7405298.htm - - - - - - - - - - Police raid home of alleged eBay thief Police had some "negative feedback" for an alleged eBay thief a raid at his house and criminal charges. Karl Hansen, 43, of 119 Wolf Harbor Road was arrested Saturday about 9:15 a.m. and charged with five counts of sixth degree larceny. Police said he sold books and sports cards on the Internet auction site, but did not deliver the goods on at least 15 occasions. Hansen was released on a promise to appear in court on Dec. 16 and police spokesman Vaughan Dumas said "investigation is continuing with other victims." http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1281&dept_id=517514&newsid=10603996&PAG=461&rfi=9 - - - - - - - - - - Covert P2P network fails to hide users Two users of a Japanese file-sharing network that promised anonymity have been arrested. A Japanese peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing network which claimed to keep user identities untraceable has failed to work -- two users in Japan have been arrested. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39118255,00.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34304.html - - - - - - - - - - Former professor sentenced to jail, sex treatment A former Chicago professor who came to Hamilton to meet a juvenile for sex was sentenced Monday to 90 days in jail and ordered to complete a six month sex- offender treatment program. Scott Sinnock, 57, had no prior record - not even a speeding ticket. However, in August that changed. He was arrested by Hamilton police in an Internet sex sting after traveling from Chicago to Hamilton to meet what he thought was a 14-year-old girl. It turned out to be an undercover officer. http://www.journal-news.com/news/newsfd/auto/feed/news/2003/12/01/1070337587.20005.2626.1083.html - - - - - - - - - - MARSHALL MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO PRODUCING CHILD PORN The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas announced Tuesday that a 30-year-old Marshall man pleaded guilty to the production of child pornography. Duncan Woodford, U.S. Attorney spokesperson, said Richard Alexander Parrot pleaded guilty Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Caroline Craven. "According to information prosecutors presented in court, Parrot enticed a female under the age of 18 to engage in sexually explicit conduct. Between the end of March 2002 and June 2002, Parrot admitted he enticed the girl to pose for pictures, which he stored on a computer disk," he said. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10603471&BRD=1994&PAG=461&dept_id=341384&rfi=6 - - - - - - - - - - Sex Offender Caught An Illinois man thought he was courting an underage girl but it turned out to be a Des Moines police officer. Neil Davidson was arrested at a Des Moines hotel. Police say he went there to have sex with a teen he met online. But the fingers on the keyboard were not those of a 13-year-old girl... instead it was Sgt. Barry Arnold. Davidson posted bond on Saturday. He was charged with enticing a minor. The FBI is also investigating him as well. http://www.whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1548467&nav=2HABJRjR - - - - - - - - - - Teacher disputes search that led to child porn conviction A FORMER Kingston High School teacher who admitted in court that he downloaded child pornography onto a home computer could return to teaching with a clean record if his conviction is overturned on appeal. Todd O'Brien pleaded guilty in January in Ulster County Court to three felony counts of promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child, 12 felony counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child and a single misdemeanor count of obscenity. O'Brien, a 25-year-old town of Ulster resident, admitted he intentionally downloaded the images, saved them on his computer and revisited the saved files later. He also admitted he was aware the images depicted children under the age of 17. http://www.dailyfreeman.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1769&dept_id=74969&newsid=10603347&PAG=461&rfi=9 - - - - - - - - - - Former NYPD officer faces 2 years in prison after child porn conviction A former city police officer was sentenced to two years and three months in prison by a judge who said he deserved no special treatment after he was found in possession of 50 images of child pornography. John Hudak, 41, of Manhattan, must begin serving the sentence on Jan. 6 after a federal child pornography conviction. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Southwell said the defendant had received more than 50 images of sexually abused children as part of his subscription to a child pornography Web site. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--officer-childporn1203dec03,0,7385092.story - - - - - - - - - - Domain registry site gets hacked The Global Name Registry confirmed that its .name Web site was hacked over the weekend, blaming the attack on the company's move to relaunch its services. GNR representatives said the site, which administers registration of .name Web domains, was attacked sometime Saturday afternoon and remained corrupted until the problem was fixed Sunday morning. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5113073.html - - - - - - - - - - Worm Hits Sites Operated by Disney, Anti-Spam Groups Internet sites operated by Walt Disney Co. and anti-spam organizations including the Spamhaus Project are being targeted by a new strain of the MiMail computer worm, security software makers said Tuesday. http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-dizworm3dec03,1,5971928.story http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3287965.stm http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5112997.html Mimail family rampages across Internet http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/internet/2003/0312030616.asp - - - - - - - - - - 'Tis the Season for RIAA Lawsuits More people are on the recording industry's naughty list: Another 41 music traders have been slapped with copyright-infringement lawsuits, and 90 more are being warned that they will be next. http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,61454,00.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-12-03-music-downloading_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - How Much Is Privacy Worth? The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday over whether the federal government should reimburse individuals whose sensitive data was disclosed illegally, even if no harm can be proven. At issue before the court, according to privacy advocates, is how valuable privacy really is. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,61439,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Sobig-F tops annual virus chart Sophos has announced its chart of virus activity for the year 2003, with August's Sobig-F accounting for 19.9 per cent of reports. Hot on the heels of Blaster and Nachi, Sobig-F proved so rapacious that Sophos was receiving 400,000 copies a day - and not reports from worried users, but cases where a Sophos email address was in an infected computer's contact list. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=51062 Firms fight 500 internet attacks a month http://www.vnunet.com/News/1151137 - - - - - - - - - - Heavy squalls of blended worms to hit next year Net users can expect a growth in attacks of Unix systems next year, not to mention more Blaster-style worms capable of infecting computers without using email. The growing trend of virus writers and spammers apparently working together (evidenced by worms like Sobig and Mimail) can also be expected to continue into 2004, according to security firm Sophos, which predict little let up in mass-mailing viruses next year. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/34326.html - - - - - - - - - - Police database an easy target, hacker says For months, access to a massive database of police files was available to anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of computers and an Internet link, according to a man who said he looked up files on the system several times. The man told legislators his story, anonymously by phone, during a hearing Tuesday on the Multiple Jurisdiction Network Organization (MJNO). http://www.startribune.com/stories/789/4245418.html - - - - - - - - - - Cooperate on security or face new rules, Ridge tells tech firms Technology companies must cooperate in the battle against cyberterrorism -- or submit to government- imposed security regulations -- Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and other senior officials said Tuesday. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/7405011.htm http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,87779,00.html Tech Execs Fight Computer Security Regulations http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1401660,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594 http://www.msnbc.com/news/1000828.asp http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/12/03/computer.security.ap/index.html Computer security in focus As George Bush makes national security the watchword of his presidency, some Silicon Valley leaders worry cybersecurity seems to have slipped off the administration's radar screen. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7402121.htm http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31089-2003Dec3.html Top Security Pros Head to National Cybersecurity Summit http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1401335,00.asp http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5112896.html Crypto firms team on product bundling http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=126998 - - - - - - - - - - Expert: One-third of spam is homemade One-third of all spam circulating the Web is relayed through PCs that have been compromised by Remote Access Trojans (RATs), according to corporate spam and antivirus company, Sophos. Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant for Sophos, said on Wednesday that the increasing use of broadband Internet connections and a general lack of security awareness have resulted in around one in three spam e-mails being redirected through the computers of unsuspecting users. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5113043.html http://news.com.com/2100-7355_3-5113080.html http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,61457,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Look it up: A common language for vulnerabilities Mitre Corp., which hosts the Common Vulnerability Exposure List, a federally funded standard dictionary of software bugs, is developing a standard language to use in searching for these vulnerabilities in computer systems. The Open Vulnerability Assessment Language is the next step in standardizing vulnerability management, said Robert A. Martin, CVE compatibility lead for Mitre, of Bedford, Mass. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/24331-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Search Engines Limit Ads for Drugs but Ease Rules on Sex Drugs are out and sex is in, at least when it comes to advertising on Internet search engines. Yahoo and, most recently, Google have moved to restrict ads from unlicensed pharmacies in attempts to address concerns about illegal sales of drugs online. But those efforts to police drug advertisers do not carry over to restricting online sex ads. In fact, Yahoo and America Online have changed their policies to earn more money from Internet searches related to pornography. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/02/technology/02drug.html - - - - - - - - - - Playing it safe while shopping online If the thought of fighting the mall crowds makes you want to run screaming in the other direction, you're not alone. I know plenty of people who would much rather pick up the phone or click that mouse to get their holiday shopping done. http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/12/03/hln.wired.online.shopping/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Debian's Response Things got pretty exciting in the Linux world recently, when the Debian Linux distribution announced that a cracker had broken in to four debian.org machines, escalated privileges to root, and installed rootkits on several of the servers. http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/202 - - - - - - - - - - 'Justice for all' upgrade fails to meet target The government will miss the first deadline for its PS1.2bn programme to upgrade criminal justice IT systems. In its 'Justice for All' White Paper published last year, the government said that all criminal justice system professionals would be able to securely email each other by the end of 2003. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1151178 - - - - - - - - - - US gyms place blanket bans on mobiles Fears of camera phones invading gym goers' privacy are increasingly prompting cellphone bans. Mobile phones with embedded cameras have created privacy concerns that have seen them banned from a growing number of athletic club locker rooms. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/mobile/0,39020360,39118247,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Andrews AFB enhances video surveillance Andrews Air Force Base is enhancing its video surveillance network to automatically detect unusual behavior, the software provider for the project said today. The upgrade is part of a larger effort to improve the bases physical security infrastructure, according to Lt. Col. David Branham, director of public affairs for the base. Andrews, in Washingtons Maryland suburbs, houses the presidential plane, Air Force One, as well as aircraft for Congress, the cabinet and visiting dignitaries. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/24330-1.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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