NewsBits for January 7, 2004 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Mississippi man denies Best Buy blackmail A Mississippi man pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges that he threatened to reveal security weaknesses in the Web site of electronics seller Best Buy unless the company paid him $2.5 million. Federal prosecutors charged Thomas E. Ray III with two counts of extortion for allegedly sending threatening e-mail messages to Best Buy under the guise of "Jamie Weathersby" between Oct. 16 and Oct. 30 last year. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5136932.html http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/4304797.html - - - - - - - - - - 'Helpful' Hacker Readies Guilty Plea Adrian Lamo, the hacker who made a name for himself by breaching the security of large companies and then offering to help them fix the vulnerabilities he found for free, is expected to enter a guilty plea on a federal hacking charge later this week. http://www.internetwk.com/breakingNews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17200453 - - - - - - - - - - Man charged with sex assault on local girl, 13 A Continental Airlines flight attendant will not be returning to his wife and three young daughters in Florida anytime soon after being arrested Saturday night in connection with the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl he met online, investigators said. Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's deputies arrested James Alan Louden, 44, of Oldsmar, Fla., after they were tipped off by the girl's father. Louden has been charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child and is being held in the Harris County Jail. The girl's father contacted the constable's office Dec. 23 and said he became aware of the relationship after coming across chat text between the pair, who met on a romance Web site, investigators said. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2335496 - - - - - - - - - - Arrests Made for Child Sex Solicitation North Little Rock police have arrested two men in the past ten days for soliciting sex with minors. The busts bring the total to 35 arrests in the past three years for a special investigations unit. Members of the unit pose online as juveniles to lure those looking to have sex with minors. Last Friday, police arrested Robert Kimball Combs, a curator of a U-S Army museum in South Korea, and in December, Garrett Jason Weems of Chandler, Arizona, was arrested after flying to Little Rock. Police say the used the ruse to convince each of the men they were meeting a mother and a daughter willing to have sex. http://www.kait8.com/global/story.asp?s=1588719 - - - - - - - - - - Former Clark County employee arrested on child porn charges A former Clark County employee has been arrested on charges of downloading more than 400 images of child pornography on his computer at the county Public Works Department. Carl Stanley Lobsien, 50, faces 25 counts of possession of child pornography. He was being held at the Clark County Detention Center on $75,000 bail. A county employee since 1978, Lobsien was fired Sept. 9 from his job as an engineering technician after officials found the images on his computer, said county spokesman Erik Pappa. http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2004/jan/07/010710095.html - - - - - - - - - - Authorities: Scam took IDs of deceased Authorities call the identity theft scam both widespread and disturbing. Most of the victims, like Billie Crane's brother, had two things in common they had good credit and were recently deceased. These people should get the death penalty, Crane said. They've stolen my brother's identity. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3899283/ - - - - - - - - - - Bogus FBI warning file contains malware Virus writers are attempting to trick music fans into opening malicious code with a message purporting to arise from an FBI investigation into illegal file trading. Recipients of the bogus warning are told they are under investigation. Infectious emails contain an attachment allegedly containing evidence against the 'accused' which actually contains Windows malware, the Melbourne Age reports. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/34755.html - - - - - - - - - - Ten Colo. music swappers settle lawsuits for up to $4,000 At least 10 Coloradans accused of illegally downloading music have settled lawsuits brought against them by the recording industry, some paying as much as $4,000. "The only reason I did was because I'd spend that much money in attorney's fees," said Brad Wise, a Highlands Ranch resident who settled his copyright suit for $2,814.30. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/music/2004-01-07-colo-riaa-suits_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - ACLU challenges 'misguided' Pennsylvania law on online porn The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania asked a judge to throw out a state law aimed at fighting Internet child pornography, arguing it also blocks access to thousands of legitimate Web sites. The group, along with the Washington- based Center for Democracy & Technology, filed a federal lawsuit in September, and the case went to trial this week. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/7653729.htm http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39118929,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Court: HP had right to fire employee who posted anti-gay messages Hewlett-Packard had the right to fire an employee who posted anti-gay messages at his cubicle to protest the company's diversity policy, a federal appeals court ruled. HP had fired Richard Peterson, who worked in the company's support division in Boise, Idaho, after he displayed passages from the Bible about making gay sex punishable by death. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/7654634.htm - - - - - - - - - - Device for DVD Movies Raises Legal Issue Hollywood's bid to control how its movies are copied, stored and played is being tested by an unlikely source: a former French oil engineer in an out-of-the-way Paris suburb, Wednesday's Wall Street Journal reported. Henri Crohas's company, Archos SA, makes a small hand-held device, like a bulky Palm Pilot, that can record and then play back scores of movies, TV shows and digital photos on its color screen or a TV set. http://money.cnn.com/2004/01/07/technology/hand.held_device.dj/index.htm - - - - - - - - - - Sober December for viruses The Sober C worm topped the infection charts for December, with a late burst of activity after its release on 21 December. Despite this, the many MiMail variants dominate the top 10 viruses for last month, according to figures released by security software firm Sophos. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1151841 - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft releases Blaster clean-up tool Microsoft this week released a tool to clean up systems infected by the infamous Blaster worm and its sundry variants. The software should eradicate the worm from infected Windows XP and Windows 2000 machines. However, users will still have to apply the original patch to prevent re-infection. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/34751.html - - - - - - - - - - 'Unfixable' Word password hole exposed A simple hack to Word's password-protection feature means documents may not be as secure as users believe. No fix is on the way, says Microsoft. Microsoft Word documents that use the software's built-in password protection to avoid unauthorised editing can easily be modified using a relatively simple hack that was published on a security Web site last Friday http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/windows/0,39020396,39118935,00.htm Word's password feature 'not a security tool' http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/windows/0,39020396,39118945,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - New applet to expand Common Access Cards controls The Defense Departments Common Access Card Office plans to introduce a new software applet to the card that will increase the ways users can be identified, said Mary Dixon, director of the CAC Office of the Defense Manpower Data Center. It will change the way we do business, Dixon said. It will allow us to use more access control rules than we use now. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/24571-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Spam Keeps Coming, but Its Senders Are Wary On a garish exhibition floor at Internext, the main trade show for Internet pornographers, Catherine Kouzmanoff handed out cards with a summary of the new federal law banning unwanted commercial e-mail. She explained to passers-by how her company's software, Robomail, can help high-volume e-mailers comply with the Can Spam Act by inserting their postal address in the mail and by keeping track of recipients who ask to be removed from the sender's mailing list. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/07/technology/07spam.html - - - - - - - - - - Inaccurate databanks pose challenge for new tracking system The Homeland Security Department is undertaking a massive effort to integrate more than two dozen criminal and terrorist databanks as part of a new immigration tracking system, but some immigration advocates fear inaccurate information will cause problems for people entering the country. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0104/010704c1.htm - - - - - - - - - - Scottish police forces to share data Police forces in Scotland are introducing a new IT system to share up-to-date information on criminals. The Scottish Intelligence Database (SID) will provide officers in eight forces and the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency with a single source of data. Roll out started in August and will be completed by November. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1151867 *********************************************************** 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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