NewsBits for December 22, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Edmond woman accused of Internet fraud An arrest warrant has been issued for an Edmond woman who allegedly violated the state's Computer Crimes Act. Mindy Lynn Cummings was charged Friday with using the Internet to execute a scheme intended to defraud and for the purpose of obtaining money by means of a false pretense and representation. http://www.kfor.com/Global/story.asp?S=1572543 Internet scams heat up during holidays http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/business/2003/12/21internetscamshe.html - - - - - - - - - - Fifteenth suspect pleads guilty in Internet piracy sting A 15th person has pleaded guilty to federal charges in an Internet piracy ring that sold million of dollars worth of stolen computer software, games and movies. The Internet piracy ring dubbed "Rogue Warriorz" included 21 people from 14 states, including Virginia, and Canada. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-12-19-pirate-no15_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Online cannabis shop goes up in smoke In the latest dot-com bust, three people have been arrested on suspicion of selling cannabis through a Web site. Three people were arrested on Monday for allegedly running an online cannabis shop. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/ecommerce/0,39020372,39118732,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Hosp cop slain - ran gay-sex Web site A Brooklyn hospital cop who ran a gay-sex Web site was beaten to death and then mutilated inside his own apartment, law enforcement sources said yesterday. Police were investigating last night whether Nubian Knight's Internet sex business led to his brutal killing, sources said. Knight, 37, was pounded over the head until he died inside his Bedford-Stuyvesant home. His throat was cut after his heart stopped, sources said. http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/148332p-130855c.html http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/14149.htm - - - - - - - - - - DVD hacker acquitted Dealing another blow to the entertainment industry, an appeals court on Monday upheld the acquittal of a Norwegian man charged with piracy for releasing a program that could crack DVD security codes. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/7550101.htm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3341211.stm http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5130503.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34637.html http://www.securityfocus.com/news/7703 - - - - - - - - - - Chats led to Acxiom hacker bust A Cincinnati man who plead guilty Thursday to cracking and cloning giant consumer databases was only caught because he helped out a friend in the hacker community. Daniel Baas, 25, plead guilty Thursday to a single federal felony count of "exceeding authorized access" to a protected computer for using a cracked password to penetrate the systems of Arkansas-based Acxiom Corporation -- a company known among privacy advocates for its massive collection and sale of consumer data. The company also analyzes in-house consumer databases for a variety of companies. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/7697 - - - - - - - - - - Los Alamos Employees Placed On Leave After Security Gaffe Los Alamos National Laboratory employees and managers have been placed on paid investigative leave as a result of security problems that surfaced at the lab earlier this month, a lab spokesman confirmed Friday. http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17000459 - - - - - - - - - - Sober.c more toxic than first thought The McAfee Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team (Avert) has today increased its original low-risk threat assessment of the 'moderately prevalent' Sober.c worm to medium risk status. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1151688 http://www.silicon.com/software/security/0,39024655,39117464,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Virus attacks increase in severity While the number of virus attacks decreased in the last year, the scale and the impact they have had on the Internet have increased significantly, says security software developer, Kaspersky Labs. http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/computing/2003/0312220926.asp China wishes computer users a virus-free Christmas http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/6691_503948,001600380001.htm How safe is your system? http://www.columbian.com/12212003/business/101014.html - - - - - - - - - - Computer-Sleuthing Aids Troops in Iraq U.S. troops battling the shadowy guerrilla insurgency in Iraq have adopted the computer- sleuthing tactics of big-city American police departments to prepare strikes against rebel fighters and their sources of money and weapons. Military intelligence analysts have adopted databases and software used by civilian law enforcers to catalog names, pictures and suspects' fingerprints and to search such for links among guerrilla suspects, said Lt. Col. Ken Devan, the top intelligence officer for the U.S. Army's 1st Armored Division. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-12-21-military-detectives_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Participants' Distrust Exposed in Piracy Battle With the courts making it harder for the music industry to battle online piracy through lawsuits, you might think that the major record labels would be ready to cut deals with the leading file-sharing networks, transforming them from hotbeds of illegality into revenue-generating partners. Think again. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-hate22dec22,1,5834934.story RIAA: Shot Through the Heart? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21215-2003Dec22.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-12-21-riaa-follow_x.htm Refund Unlikely for Sued File Sharers http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-defendants20dec20,1,7869085.story A Very Small Step for Music-Kind http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/205 Film Piracy Still Steals the Show http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,61673,00.html - - - - - - - - - - IE fix mends flawed open-source patch A Web site that published a third-party patch to fix a security hole in Microsoft's Internet Explorer has had to reissue the patch, after the original was found to be flawed. Openwares.org published the second patch Saturday, after the first was found to contain a buffer overflow exploit. This exploit, which allowed an attacker to take control of the patched PC, might have been far more damaging than the flaw the patch aimed to fix. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5130708.html - - - - - - - - - - Apple issues patch for Mac OS X hole Apple Computer has issued a security update that, among other fixes, closes a hole in Mac OS X that could have allowed hackers to take control of a computer under particular circumstances. The patch, which the Cupertino, Calif.-based manufacturer released late Friday, essentially changes the default settings for connecting to a Dynamic Host Communication Protocol (DHCP) server on Mac OS X 10.2.8. (aka "Jaguar"), Mac OS X 10.3.2 (aka "Panther") and the corresponding server versions of these operating systems. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5130853.html - - - - - - - - - - China's Wi-Fi Security Stance Ruffling Feathers China's controversial decision to mandate a proprietary encryption scheme for Wi-Fi systems used within its borders has industry groups, chip makers, OEMs and even U.S. government officials scurrying for answers. While China has a history of going its own way on technological standards, few attempts have aroused the ire of this spec. http://www.securitypipeline.com/news/showArticle.jhtml%3Bjsessionid=MFIPAAGTVTIE0QSNDBCSKHQ?articleId=17000502 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/69/34632.html - - - - - - - - - - Sarnoff software helps guards monitor security cameras Ever wonder how security guards watching banks of video monitors for hours on end can be sure of spotting suspicious activity? Sometimes, they can't because viewing too many images at once simply numbs the human brain. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2003-12-22-security-software_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - How websites misuse your e-mail ID When I was new to the internet about two years ago, I visited a porn website and without realising the consequences I entered my e-mail address on that site. Currently, I am a Net professional. I still receive a lot of junk e-mails from that porn site and because of this it has been difficult to preserve my important mails. Can I take legal action against this site? What does the law say? http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/372172.cms - - - - - - - - - - Can Spam? Or New Can of Worms? On New Year's Day, Americans will wake up to more than a crushing hangover; they will have a new federal antispam law and, according to one commercial group, a new definition of spam. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,61679,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Kev Warwick cyberkiddie no closer to activation Although he's been a bit quiet of late, it's good to see that Kevin "Captain Cyborg" Warwick continues to generate the sort of coverage his ground-breaking work deserves. The abduction and murder of Soham schoolgirls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells prompted the visionary boffin to offer the chance to microchip a child, although the plan never came to fruition. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/34636.html - - - - - - - - - - EU Travel Privacy Battle Heats Up Some European politicians are trying to stop an agreement between Europe and the United States to share travelers' personal information in an effort to screen for terrorists and drug smugglers, announced by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,61680,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Report finds information sharing still a problem for FBI More than two years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the FBI still doesn't sufficiently share information about terrorism within its ranks and with other agencies, according to a report released Monday by the Justice Department's inspector general. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1203/122203h1.htm *********************************************************** Computer Forensics Training - Online. 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