NewsBits for January 16, 2004 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Spanish police raid Windows XP pirates Spanish police have arrested 14 people for intellectual piracy, including the first-known forgeries of authenticity certificates for Microsoft's Windows XP Professional edition, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday. Investigators found 3,000 perfectly copied and packaged CDs with the operating system software, accompanied by the fake guarantee certificates, in the northern city of San Sebastian, the Ministry said in a statement. They would have been sold as genuine, netting the copiers over $1.52 million, the statement added. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105_2-5142141.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/34935.html - - - - - - - - - - Paedophile gets five-year net ban A predatory paedophile who had sex with a 14-year-old girl has been jailed for 18 months and banned from accessing the internet for five years. The judge condemned as "idiocy" the system whereby he could impose only a two-year maximum custodial sentence, noting that if the girl had been a year younger, Gary Geoffrey Thomas, 37, would be facing a life stretch. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34931.html - - - - - - - - - - Child Porn Customers Included Doctor, Teacher, Minister Two dozen people in New Jersey face charges in a child pornography bust, and some of them worked closely with children. Among the defendants arraigned in Newark today were a doctor, a campus minister, a teacher, and a youth church counselor. More arrests are expected in this ongoing investigation. New Jersey correspondent Jen Maxfield reports from Newark. The arraignments on federal child pornography charges have been going on here all afternoon. Government officials tell us that they arrested who they considered to be the most dangerous suspects first -- those who worked with children. http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?id=8650&siteSection=1 - - - - - - - - - - CONVICTED CHILD MOLESTER ACCUSED OF SECOND CRIME A former Fort Hood soldier has been convicted in Montague for stalking a 14 year old Bowie girl after meeting her on the Internet. While out on bond on that charge, he was arrested for allegedly trying to solicit sex with a 15 year old girl in Bastrop county. That girl turned out to be an attorney general cyber crime unit investigator. http://www.kfdx.com/news/default.asp?mode=shownews&id=4226 - - - - - - - - - - Fairborn arrests Indianapolis man in Internet sex sting A 27-year-old Indianapolis man is to appear in Fairborn Municipal Court on Tuesday on charges he drove his Ford F-150 to that city Thursday to have sex with a 14-year- old girl he met via the Internet. The Fairborn police Internet crimes unit arrested Paul M. Hogan after he arrived at a Dayton-Yellow Springs Road business at 4:09 p.m., Capt. Ron Van Nuys said today. Hogan is charged with importuning and attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. He is out of jail on $7,500 bond. A member of the unit posing as a child communicated with Hogan in an Internet chat room hours before his arrest, Van Nuys said. Hogan asked the "girl" for sex and intended to rent a hotel room, police said. http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/0116hogan.html - - - - - - - - - - Police arrest man in attempt to lure "teen" for sex Tucson police have arrested a 62-year-old Sahuarita man, accusing him of using the Internet to try to lure someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl for sex, a police spokesman said. The girl turned out to be a police detective who set up a meeting at a midtown park where officers yesterday arrested Richard M. Coto, 62, of the 17000 block of South Mann Ave. http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/breaking/011604internetsex.html - - - - - - - - - - Ex-coach arrested in online sex sting A 48-year-old former girls' swim team coach from Brooklyn was arrested last week at the Long Island Rail Road Station in Forest Hills, where he was allegedly trying to meet with a 13-year-old girl to have oral sex, the Queens district attorney said. Ronny Seigle, now a real estate broker for Kingsview Realty Corp. in Brooklyn, was charged with e-mailing digital camera photos of his private parts via America Online to an undercover detective from the New York City Police Department who was posing as a 13-year- old girl in an ongoing online child pornography sting operation, District Attorney Richard Brown said. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10812816&BRD=1079&PAG=461&dept_id=506462&rfi=6 - - - - - - - - - - Taylor Mill man faces sex charge Police say they recovered computer and camera evidence to prove that a 36-year-old Taylor Mill man, arraigned Thursday in Kenton District Court, repeatedly sexually assaulted and photographed a 14-year-old Hamilton County girl he met on the Internet last summer. Jeffrey Allen Fleek was arraigned on a single count of unlawfully using a child under 16 in a sexual performance. http://www.kypost.com/2004/01/16/ksex011604.html - - - - - - - - - - THE LITTLE BROTHER WHO TURNED INTO A SEX BEAST Picked on at school for being skinny and small, John Brewer has spent his life as a loner. The son of a serviceman, Brewer had an unsettled childhood, living in Germany before returning to Britain where he has spent most of life jobless. Most recently Brewer, a convicted paedophile, has spent long hours locked alone in his home in Fairview Avenue, Laira, desperately wooing his American 'girlfriend' over the Internet. It was a bizarre romance that landed Brewer in a US jail after he arranged to meet the woman, Molly Parent, and according to US authorities hatched a plot with her to have sex with a six-year- old girl she claimed was her niece. http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=99746&command=displayContent&sourceNode=98877&contentPK=8514703 - - - - - - - - - - Hackers go all out with PayPal spam phishing scam Trojan A new virus has been found in the wild that manages to combine users' favourite bugbears - spam, phishing, PayPal scams and viruses - in one handy malware package. The virus arrives via an email, which is thought to have been distributed through the usual spamming channels, that purports to come from eBay's online- payment service, with the subject "PAYPAL.COM NEW YEAR OFFER". http://www.silicon.com/software/security/0,39024655,39117828,00.htm http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5142647.html - - - - - - - - - - New MiMail sneaks past filters The latest variant of the MiMail worm is using a software downloader to spread its payload, in an effort to fool anti-virus software http://www.vnunet.com/News/1152072 - - - - - - - - - - PC viruses spawn $55 billion loss in 2003 Trend Micro, the world's third-largest antivirus software maker, said Friday that computer virus attacks cost global businesses an estimated $55 billion in damages in 2003, a sum that is expected to increase this year. Companies lost roughly $20 billion to $30 billion in 2002 from the virus attacks, up from about $13 billion in 2001, according to various industry estimates. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5142144.html - - - - - - - - - - Federal Reserve fights digital counterfeiters The Federal Reserve has helped an international bank group develop and release software code to deter the digital counterfeiting of paper currency. The Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group, made up of the Federal Reserve banks and the central banks of the other G-10 nations, made the code available to the digital-imaging industry free of charge, Fed spokeswoman Susan Stawick said. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/24656-1.html - - - - - - - - - - More money sought for anti-crime network The Bush administration says it will ask for a substantial increase -- 12.7 percent -- in the budget to pay for new efforts to stop terrorist financing and other financial crimes. The money would go to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a Treasury Department bureau for monitoring and cutting off money used in criminal and terrorist activities. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0112/web-treasury-01-16-04.asp - - - - - - - - - - FBI Logo to Grace Music CDs The music industry has won permission to include the agency's logo in CD packaging as a warning against unauthorized copying, sources said. Record labels want to use the logo the way it is used by movie studios, which include an on-screen warning on home videos and DVDs. The deal, hammered out by the Recording Industry Assn. of America and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, comes as record labels try to dissuade Internet users from sharing copyrighted music online. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-music16jan16,1,4433462.story Illegal Music Downloading Climbs The number of people downloading music illegally surged a month after recording companies began suing hundreds of music fans, a marketing research firm said Thursday. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Music-Downloading.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34936.html Did Big Music Really Sink the Pirates? http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2004/tc20040116_9177_tc024.htm Study: Music Piracy Rising http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,61943,00.html - - - - - - - - - - ISPs Ignore RIAA's New P2P Ploy After an appeals court ruled that Internet service providers (ISPs) do not have to hand over names of suspected music pirates to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), ISPs are showing no interest in the RIAA's latest effort to enlist them in its fight against music piracy. http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3300211 Crypto plan to anonymise P2P, thwart RIAA Leading P2P activists have reacted to the prospect of the extension of a legal crackdown on file swappers in the UK with plans to build greater anonymity into their networks. The developers of popular P2P app Blubster, which boasts an estimated four million users, plan to incorporate encryption technology and other techniques to give file-sharers greater anonymity. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/34937.html - - - - - - - - - - Feds seek input on spammer sentencing A formula that would sentence deceptive spammers to more time in prison for each e-mail address spammed is among the proposals under consideration by the presidentially-appointed commission responsible for setting federal sentencing rules, which this week sought the public's input on how to punish violators of the newly-enacted CAN-SPAM Act. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/7846 Study: Most spam not compliant with law Only 10% of junk e-mails comply with a new federal anti-spam law, according to two days' worth of messages analyzed by a spam filtering vendor. The law, which took effect Jan. 1, does not prohibit unsolicited commercial e-mail as long as senders follow a set of rules, including using a correct subject line, a physical mailing address and a way to decline future mailings. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-01-16-spam-compliance_x.htm Open Up a Can of Spam http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,61928,00.html - - - - - - - - - - 'Baywatch' star wins control of Net name Former "Baywatch" star Carmen Electra has won control of the Internet name www.carmenelectra.com in a ruling by a United Nations panel, a U.N. spokeswoman said Thursday. An arbitrator for the World Intellectual Property Organization ordered the transfer of the domain name to the 31-year-old actress, who had complained that it was being used in bad faith to divert Internet traffic to a commercial site, Celebrity1000, said WIPO spokeswoman Samar Shamoon. http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/01/16/electra.domain.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Police warn on domain name letters Cambridgeshire Police has issued a warning about the sales tactics of another Cambridge-based domain name reseller. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1152080 - - - - - - - - - - Tulsa Police's Cybercrime Tip of the Week With the advent of the Internet, the ability of criminals to victimize people has become a gobal issue. In order to address suspects living one location and the victim living in another, most State and Local Police Departments have become members of IFCC which stands for Internet Fraud Complaint Center. www.ifccfbi.gov http://www.kotv.com/pages/viewpage.asp?id=56627 - - - - - - - - - - HP patches critical security holes in Tru64 Unix Vulnerabilities have been found in HP's high-end Unix operating system that could allow attackers to take over a server or knock it offline. Critical security vulnerabilities in HP's Tru64 Unix operating system were patched on Friday after it was discovered that implementations of IPsec and SSH programs, which carry VPN and secure system command traffic, were vulnerable to attackers. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39119149,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Cisco security goes prime time Cisco Systems will air the next phase of its TV advertising campaign focused on its security products during the Super Bowl game on Fox TV this Sunday. The campaign, which features an 8-year-old girl, who inadvertently downloads the "Funny Bunny" worm on her father's computer when he brings her into the office, is designed to make people think more about network security in general, said Jeanette Gibson, a spokeswoman for Cisco. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105_2-5142767.html - - - - - - - - - - SOHO 6 delivers wireless security Wireless access points and DSL connections are essential elements of the telecommuter's dream. But that dream could easily turn into a nightmare without the proper security measures. Although there are a number of companies -- such as Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems Inc., and Netgear Inc. -- that offer low-cost wireless access points, few have the top-notch security features found in WatchGuard Technologies Inc.'s Firebox SOHO 6 Wireless firewall and virtual private network. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0112/web-soho-01-16-04.asp - - - - - - - - - - Spam plays on many mens deepest fear For many American office workers, the day begins with deleting spam. These days, a lot of electronic junk mail hits below the belt by seeking to profit from many mens deepest fear that their penises are too small. From the vague Expand your horizons to the blunt Want to increase your penis size?, the hard sell of penis-enlargement products plays on mens insecurity, experts say. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3979636/ - - - - - - - - - - The shifting sands of data protection law Failure to comply with data protection laws could leave you personally liable for breaches. Owen Warnock advises IT directors to check their organisation's monitoring policies. Employers face considerable difficulties in interpreting data protection legislation as the law beds in. For example, issues such as how far a person's right to privacy should be protected come under constant scrutiny. http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=127439 - - - - - - - - - - Move to IPv6 may damage net security IPv6 has been just around the corner for years but, if it ever becomes widespread, could it actually harm the net? As the European Commission (EC) is preparing to launch the world's first IPv6 network this week, one respected commentator predicts that the new standard will make the internet less secure and slow it down by letting many more devices connect. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1152071 - - - - - - - - - - Thought for the day: Phishing for information If youre a little worried about eating Scottish salmon, then youve probably more reason to be concerned by another type of phishing which is on the increase, that of trying to hook bank account details from the unwary. Last year there was a dramatic rise in the number of phishing attacks against banks, and its increasingly hard to find a financial institution that hasnt been targeted at least once. http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=127567 - - - - - - - - - - Agency posts sex-offender data The San Mateo County sheriff's department began posting information about high-risk sex offenders on a public Web site Thursday, joining a growing number of law enforcement agencies in California aiming to give the public better information than the state does. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/7725194.htm *********************************************************** 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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