NewsBits for December 15, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Park Hills police say Internet scam spanned the country The Park Hills police station is beginning to look like Santa's warehouse with thousands of dollars of merchandise that would make super holiday gifts scattered around. Major suppliers of merchandise bilked through an Internet scam will be getting thousands of dollars worth of stolen goods back in the next few weeks, thanks to the efforts of the Park Hills Police Department. http://www.mydjconnection.com/articles/2003/12/13/community/news1.txt Finance sector bracing for upswing in Internet fraud http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,88227,00.html - - - - - - - - - - 'Bored' teens blow PS80m in e-shopping spree Three "bored" German teenagers blew a staggering PS80 million (130 million) in just two hours after they ran amok in an online spending spree. Using stolen credit card details the trio bought airplanes, works of art, designer clothes, restaurants, industrial machinery, patents and sound systems. They were arrested by police on Friday more than six weeks after carrying out their astonishing haul. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34510.html - - - - - - - - - - Internet predators A 27-year-old career criminal thought he was on his way to have sex with a 13 year-old girl he met on the Internet. When he arrived, what he found was a member of the Texas Attorney General's Cyber Crime unit waiting for him with a badge and a pair of handcuffs. "That was our first case. It's one of the things that keeps us coming back to the job day after day," said David Boatright, chief of the Criminal Investigation Division for the attorney general in a telephone interview http://www.orangeleader.com/articles/2003/12/14/news/news1.txt - - - - - - - - - - Child Rapist Sentenced To 16+ Years A convicted child rapist will spend more than 16 years in prison. Ray Mota (pictured) pleaded guilty to 12 counts of sexually abusing young children, including six counts of rape and two counts of sodomy. The 38-year-old Hillsboro man was sentenced Thursday to 200 months in prison. He must also register as a sex offender. Detectives say the abuse involved five children between the ages of 6 and 15. The investigation began this summer when the father of a 14-year-old discovered that she was pregnant by a man she met in an Internet chat room. http://www.koin.com/webnews/20034/20031211_mota.shtml - - - - - - - - - - Accountant admits to 'biggest' collection of child porn An accountant caught with what is believed to be the largest collection of child pornography in Britain admitted yesterday that he had possessed almost half a million images of children. Andrew Tatam, 34, of Moulton in Lincolnshire, was ordered to register under the Sex Offenders Act after pleading guilty to making thousands of indecent photographs during a five-year period. He also admitted possessing 495,524 images of child abuse, - as well as attempting to commit a sex act with a dog. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=472824 - - - - - - - - - - Computer child porn shame of college lecturer GLASGOW university lecturer was caught in a police raid after downloading 650 pornographic photos of children on his home computer. Paedophile Alan Upchurch, 48, led a "double life" - teaching accountancy in class and logging on to a sickening internet site at home. Paisley Sheriff Court heard how Upchurch was caught with the "disturbing" photos when his home in the town's Brodie Crescent was raided by police. The swoop followed information being passed to a special investigations unit attached to Strathclyde Police by a team probing internet activity in the US. http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/print/news/5021910.shtml - - - - - - - - - - Former Berks official charged with child porn The former top administrator of Berks County, who resigned earlier this year as a result of sexual- harassment allegations, has been arrested on child- pornography charges. More than 2,000 images of young children and teenagers performing sex acts or posing in sexually illicit positions were found saved on Gary F. Henderson's computer, authorities said. The images were discovered when Henderson, 57, of Upper Uwchlan Township in Chester County, took his computer to a Pottstown business for repairs in February and the company notified police, Chester County Detective Albert DiGiacomo said. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/7492788.htm - - - - - - - - - - Area man indicted on child porn charges A 27-year-old Pataskala man was indicted on child pornography charges Thursday and investigators say the case illustrates a disturbing and growing trend in Licking County. Matthew E. Coe, of 7606 York Road, was indicted on seven counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor, a fourth-degree felony. The images, all downloaded from the Internet, were of girls ranging between 6- and 15-years-old, said Licking County Sheriff's Detective Erik McCort. McCort said the images were recovered from two computers, one belonging to Coe and a computer Coe borrowed and returned to another person. That person notified authorities. http://www.newarkadvocate.com/news/stories/20031213/localnews/29412.html - - - - - - - - - - School board begins firing process for male teacher The Mona Shores school board Friday took the initial steps toward firing a teacher under investigation for viewing suspected pornography on a district-owned laptop computer. The board, in a special meeting, voted to file "tenure charges" against David Rodriguez and continue his paid suspension. Late last month, students using a music-sharing software program on Rodriguez's laptop accessed images that may have shown partially clad underage girls, according to Norton Shores police. A police complaint was filed Nov. 24 after the students brought the matter to the attention of school authorities. http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1071314211131370.xml - - - - - - - - - - Lawyers ask judge to drop child pornography charges Lawyers for a Boardman man facing child pornography charges in three counties tried Friday to have the charges against their client dropped in Mahoning County. Lawyers for Jon Scott Bloyer, 43, of Sigle Drive said in papers filed in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court that pictures seized from their client by Boardman police are not illegal because they do not depict nude teens engaging in any type of sexual conduct. http://www.tribune-chronicle.com/news/story/1213202003_new05Bloyer13.asp - - - - - - - - - - SCO attacks keep coming back More Internet attacks cut off access to the SCO Group's servers this past weekend and again on Monday, as the Unix software company struggled to stop the hackers. After the attacks largely abated Friday, they restarted at 3 a.m. PST Saturday until 11 p.m. Sunday, said Blake Stowell, a spokesman for SCO. The deluge of data, known as a denial-of-service attack, restarted Monday morning, and the company's Web site continues to be inaccessible. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5124190.html SCO Web attacks cease http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39118546,00.htm Now is the winter of SCO discontent http://www.vnunet.com/News/1151577 - - - - - - - - - - Xmas virus on the cards Security experts last week warned that hackers are preparing Christmas card emails that appear to lead to innocent images, but in fact trick users with Windows systems into downloading viruses. To avoid difficulties, firms should check their mail filtering systems to ensure they handle emailed images in the same way as other HTML traffic, and should also educate users about this issue. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1151553 - - - - - - - - - - UK spam law triggers deluge of complaints The public deluged the British agency designated to enforce new anti-spam legislation with complaints of dubious e-mail messages in the first 24 hours of the law's existence, a spokeswoman said on Friday. "We've received a substantial number of inquiries," said the spokeswoman for the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). "It's been everything: phone calls, e-mails, people forwarding on their spam." http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5123684.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39118543,00.htm Top UK sites 'do not comply' with anti-cookie law http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39118545,00.htm Anti-spam directive labelled 'toothless' http://www.vnunet.com/News/1151544 Bush set to OK spam bill--but critics not convinced http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5124724.html - - - - - - - - - - Spooks seek right to snoop on Internet phone calls If a rapid-fire series of announcements from cable and telecom bigwigs last week confirms that Voice over IP (VoIP) has a future as a mainstream consumer technology, it's worth noting that the electronic surveillance mavens in the FBI and Justice Department saw it coming. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/34512.html - - - - - - - - - - Law on parallel imports a grey area Resellers have been urged to start lobbying the European Union over the proposed Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive, which fails to address price undercutting across member states. While grey importers offer goods never intended for sale in the EU, and can easily be prosecuted under existing law, the position is less clear for goods authorised for sale in one member state but not in another. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1151531 - - - - - - - - - - Excel is out for the count Latest Microsoft spreadsheet spits out some unexpected numbers. IT Week Labs has confirmed a flaw in Excel 2003's random number generator that can produce negative numbers instead of values between zero and one. The Rand function was rewritten for Excel 2003. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1151565 - - - - - - - - - - Britain to appoint head of e-government The CIO for the UK will be charged with building government services around citizens rather than departments, and using technology to improve service delivery at the sharp end. The UK government has confirmed speculation that it will appoint a head of e-government next year as part of its drive to improve the deployment of IT within departments. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39118547,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Stop! ID Thief! More than three million people in the United States were the victims of identity-theft-related fraud in the past year, according to a recent survey by the Federal Trade Commission. These people have had accounts opened in their names by scam artists, theyve had their names given to the police by crooks stopped for various infractions, and theyve had their homes sold out from underneath them. Damages to these victims average more than $10,000 per theft. http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/garfinkel1203.asp - - - - - - - - - - China Wi-Fi decision sparks protests A Chinese government decision that anyone wanting to develop Wi-Fi products must work with an authorised local company has caused concern within the wider industry. Some US electronics companies, eager to supply a rapidly growing Chinese market, are protesting a decision by Beijing to regulate the sale of wireless networking equipment inside the country. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/wireless/0,39020348,39118542,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Iran president rejects net censorship slur The list of Iran's heinous crimes against humanity is certainly a long one. As one of the principal members of the Axis of Evil, the Islamic fundamentalist state is doubtless guilty of developing nuclear and chemical weapons, giving succour to al-Qaeda, fomenting holy war against the West and cruelty to defenceless animals. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34506.html - - - - - - - - - - Secure Online Transmissions Can Help Firms Maintain an Edge If a chief executive needs to get a private message to a group of vice presidents around the country, a phone call is probably the safest, if most time-consuming, way to make sure that message is not heard or read by any snoopers. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A236-2003Dec14.html - - - - - - - - - - Valuable role for VARs in SME security boom Resellers set to cash in after e-crime unit issues security advice to SMEs. Resellers stand to gain from a boom in spending on IT security among SMEs, following publication of advice on computer crime from the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU). http://www.vnunet.com/News/1151551 http://www.vnunet.com/News/1151527 E-crime guidelines good for security sales http://www.computing.co.uk/News/1151529 - - - - - - - - - - Migrating to Astaro Security Linux Fed up with expensive, complicated firewalls, e-gaming company opts for open-source security solution. Micah Lloyd, a senior systems administrator for eBet Ltd., knew that he needed to upgrade the security for eBet's distributed network. The company had been using Check Point 4.0 as a perimeter firewall solution for its five offices. The problem was, though, that upgrading to the latest version of Check Point would be a costly and time-consuming proposition. http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7313 - - - - - - - - - - Users Worry About 'Zero-Day' Attacks, Try to Secure Systems So-called zero-day attacks that take advantage of software vulnerabilities for which there are no available fixes are starting to be viewed as a major threat to data security, said IT managers at the InfoSec 2003 conference here last week. More than ever, the threat of such attacks underscores the need for companies to set and then require the use of safe-configuration policies for the packaged software and homegrown systems they use, conference attendees said. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,88201,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Software Legalization in Ukraine Pirated computer software and pirated databases use in Ukraine became recently a critical problem. On one side, legal manufacturers of intellectual goods push the government demanding to stop willfulness of pirates, on another the world community is about to achieve effective measures against distribution of pirated products in territory of Ukraine. In this view in due time the United States of America have entered economic sanctions against Ukraine. http://www.crime-research.org/library/Belousov_nov.html - - - - - - - - - - Network postmortem: Forensic analysis after a compromise If a company has experienced a security breach, it's often difficult to quantify the IT risks to the organization. In the face of a threat to information resources and customer confidence, the company may want to seek the help of forensics experts to contain the breach and find out what happened. Working with a forensics team can give a company a new perspective on where breaches take place, how they occur and how the company should be secured. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,87969,00.html - - - - - - - - - - When Striking Back is The Best Defense It shouldn't be a crime to reach out and hack an infected machine that's attacking your network. When it comes to matters of security, most policies are hastily enacted as a reaction to some pressing force or foe. This is evident when you look at the rash of laws, procedures and policies put in place since September 11. I guess it is only natural-- our fragile human psyche requires immediate comfort in the face of danger; our fears only resting when we know something is being done, even if that "something" equates to nothing at all. http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/203 - - - - - - - - - - Technology can help identify terrorism financing Federal officials in Miami on Monday detailed efforts to stop the illegal financing of terrorist networks and urged the use of technology in the process. "Just as criminals benefit from the enhancements in technology, so must the anti-terrorist financing community," said Lee Jeffrey Ross, a senior adviser at the Treasury Department's executive office for terrorist financing and financing crimes. "Technology holds one of the keys to our success in the financial war on terrorism." http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1203/121503tdpm1.htm GAO: The FBI needs data on terrorism finance http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/1215/web-fbi-12-15-03.asp Advisory panel outlines ideas on homeland security strategy http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1203/121503tdpm2.htm Panel frets over homeland security http://www.fcw.com/geb/articles/2003/1215/web-gilmore-12-15-03.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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