NewsBits for January 21, 2004 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Prison time for unlucky phisher An Ohio woman who used forged e-mails from "AOL security" to swindle America Online subscribers out of their credit card numbers was sentenced to 46 months in prison Tuesday, after a federal judge in Virginia rejected her plea for a reduced sentence. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/7871 - - - - - - - - - - Court upholds conviction of man arrested because of e-mail The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a man who says police should not have monitored his e-mail and instant messages without obtaining a court order. The case involved a former police officer, Robert Proetto, who was convicted of using the Internet to solicit sex from a 15-year-old girl. Proetto, a former officer with the Colonial Regional police in Northampton County, is appealing his conviction. The Supreme Court issued an order that merely affirmed a lower court's decision without comment. http://pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1074694141293801.xml - - - - - - - - - - 'Bagle' E-Mail Virus Slows, Fuels Naming Debate Anti-virus technicians said on Wednesday that "Bagle," the latest e-mail virus to hit global computer users, was in decline and no longer considered a major threat. But as the contagion runs its course, some anti-virus technicians are asking whether there might be a better way of naming such viruses so as to alert the public. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=technologyNews&storyID=4178039 http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39119240,00.htm Keep those virus definitions updated http://www.knxv.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=TECHTALK-01-21-04&cat=AS You say 'bagle,' I say 'beagle' http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5144776.html http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,89264,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Man is guilty of exposing a child in an Internet chat room A judge has ruled an Ames man is guilty of exposing a child in an Internet chat room via Web camera. Michael Lee Hurt, 37, will not serve time in jail but will live in a treatment facility, undergo a mental health evaluation and register with the Iowa Sex Offender Registry. Hurt was found guilty of pulling a child's pants down on Aug. 11 and exposing the child's genitals and then broadcasting the live feeds on the Internet. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=2035&dept_id=238095&newsid=10844157&PAG=461&rfi=9 - - - - - - - - - - Jail term for child porn trader pleases investigators Child pornography investigators are pleased with the jail term handed down to a Christchurch man yesterday for copying and possessing images of adults sexually abusing children, incest and bestiality. The Internal Affairs Department polices illicit publications, including images traded on the internet. Clifford James Robinson, 38, was yesterday jailed for seven months for trading a three-minute movie of a baby girl being sexually abused and 22 other charges relating to objectionable images, transcripts, and movies. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/latestnewsstory.cfm?storyID=3544951 - - - - - - - - - - Van Buren Man Gets Probation In Child Porn Case A Van Buren man accused of using his neighbor's computer to surf the Internet in search of child pornography has been sentenced to probation. Christopher Wade Ooms, 20, pleaded no contest Tuesday to one count of pandering or possessing visual or print medium depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child. Ooms was arrested in April after a neighbor contacted police and said that she found sexually explicit material on her computer after Ooms used it. http://www.swtimes.com/archive/2004/January/21/news/child_porn.html - - - - - - - - - - Carbon County man busted in online pedophile sting, police say A 49-year-old Carbon County man who used the Internet to arrange a sexual tryst with what he believed was 12-year-old girl sped off from a store when he saw he was about to be arrested, and was stopped only after a detective fired bullets into the car, according to court documents. No one was injured. Ernest R. Gudzyk of 3 Spring Valley Farms, Weatherly, was arrested when he drove up to a King of Prussia grocery store where he had arranged to meet the girl, actually a Montgomery County detective posing as a child to catch online pedophiles, the documents said. http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b3_1cyberpervjan10,0,4631594,print.story - - - - - - - - - - Gresham teacher investigated on sex abuse charges A teacher and coach at a middle schol in Gresham is on administrative leave after his arrest by the FBI and local police on charges of trying to use the Internet to solicit a boy for sex. The "boy" was actually an undercover federal agent. Agents arrested 42-year-old John McPartland Friday at his apartment. He is a math teacher and basketball coach at Clear Creek Middle School. The investigation was done by the FBI's Innocent Images Task Force, which focuses on child pornography and people who use the Internet to prey on children. http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=63779 District plans sexual predator training http://www.oregonlive.com/metroeast/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/metro_east_news/1074690400175700.xml - - - - - - - - - - Record Industry Files 532 Suits Against Music Downloaders The recording industry on Wednesday sued 532 computer users it said were illegally distributing songs over the Internet, the first lawsuits since a federal appeals court blocked the use of special copyright subpoenas to identify those being targeted. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/21/business/21WIRE-MUSIC.html http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5144558.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36795-2004Jan21.html http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4018675/ http://money.cnn.com/2004/01/21/technology/riaa_suits/index.htm http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,61989,00.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-01-21-music-suits_x.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/35038.html Fight ends over European music downloads http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39119247,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Danes fine spammer A Danish court fined a local telecoms equipment firm a record $67,990 Wednesday for sending over 15,000 unsolicited e-mails, a rare conviction against a peddler of spam. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105_2-5144420.html http://news.com.com/2100-1030-5144533.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/35028.html - - - - - - - - - - Class-action lawsuit filed over data shared by airline Northwest Airlines is being sued on behalf of passengers angered that the company shared passenger data with the government after the 2001 terror attacks. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul, contends that the airline violated its own privacy policy as well as federal and state laws with the disclosure. http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/01/21/northwest.privacy.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Bush pushes for expansion of surveillance law The US President wants to renew the Patriot Act, which gives police far-reaching powers over electronic data. President Bush on Tuesday evening called for the renewal of the USA Patriot Act, the controversial law that expanded Internet surveillance powers for police but partially expires next year. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39119239,00.htm http://antiwar.com/article.php?articleid=1748 - - - - - - - - - - Mikerosoft.ca magnifies Microsoft's PR nightmare Microsoft showed its human side on Tuesday when the company admitted to overreacting by allowing its lawyers to threaten Mike Rowe over his MikeRoweSoft.com Web site. However, the company is unlikely to be so kind to another Mike, also from Canada, who is embroiled in a similar trademark battle with the software giant over his domain. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39119249,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Attorney General pushes to outlaw Internet child stalking A bill that would make enticing children using the Internet illegal in South Carolina was unanimously approved Wednesday by a House subcommittee. If passed by legislators, it would be the first law in the state barring adults from luring children to have sex or commit crimes. The bill makes it easier to prosecute these crimes by expanding the state grand jury's authority to investigate them, state Attorney General Henry McMaster said. Sexual cybercrimes often cross state lines because the Internet enables predators to contact children in practically any part of the world. http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/7762250.htm - - - - - - - - - - Consumers deluged as fake e-mails multiply Even experts say telling real mail from phish can be difficult "We regret to inform you, that we were unable to charge your card," the e-mail begins. "Click here to continue payment verification process." Is it real, or a fake? Should you fill it out, or delete it? The question seems to be vexing more Internet users every day. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3784331/ - - - - - - - - - - NIST releases incident response guidelines The National Institute of Standards and Technology has published guidelines for responding to security breaches in government computer systems. Prevention is better than response, the authors say. But not all incidents can be prevented. An incident response capability is therefore necessary. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/24679-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Open Source thieves stealing my American code - SCO boss SCO Group chief executive Darl McBride has attempted to nudge the Homeland Security Advisory alert back up towards Red, by accusing foreign interests of undermining US national security in a draft letter to Congressmen. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/35042.html - - - - - - - - - - Secret cyber-terror test is now revealed A mock cyber-terrorist attack temporarily took over the flow of electricity in a large section of northwest Nueces County late last year but only became public this month. Tension between the public's right to know and the shared government/public interest in national security has taken local meaning in the days since the simulation was revealed by the private company that was paid by the Texas Department of Information Resources to conduct the test. http://www.caller.com/ccct/local_news/article/0,1641,CCCT_811_2589623,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Security experts give e-voting thumbs down Four computer security experts warned proponents of Internet voting that such systems cannot be secured against fraud. The experts--three computer science professors and a former IBM researcher-- on Wednesday said that creating an e-voting system that both guarantees each person votes once and protects the voter's identity is impossible on the current Internet system. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5144903.html http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3217961/ http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/01/21/internet.voting/index.html Pentagon's Online Voting Program Deemed Too Risky http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36875-2004Jan21.html - - - - - - - - - - Rabbi offers prayer for Web porn surfers An Israeli rabbi has composed a prayer to help devout Jews overcome guilt after visiting porn sites while browsing the Internet. "Please God, help me cleanse the computer of viruses and evil photographs that disturb and ruin my work ..., so that I shall be able to cleanse myself," reads the benediction by Shlomo Eliahu, chief rabbi in the northern town of Safed. http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/01/21/offbeat.porn.prayer.reut/index.html - - - - - - - - - - NASA plans smart-card pilot, agencywide rollout NASA in May will begin testing a smart-card program for access to facilities and information systems. If successful, the program would be rolled out to the entire agency, officials said. Employees at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will kick off the first trial. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/24671-1.html http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0119/web-nasa-01-20-04.asp GSA moves forward with 'smart card' initiative http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0104/012104tdpm1.htm UK plays asylum card to expand visa biometric scheme http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/35034.html - - - - - - - - - - Privacy--a right or a privilege? In the science fiction novel The Light of Other Days, authors Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter depict a world void of privacy where people can spy on each other without any chance of detection. In the non- fictional world we live in, unfortunately, there are numerous examples of privacy erosion. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107_2-5144722.html Privacy group files complaint over data shared by Northwest http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-01-20-epic-vs-nwa_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - A Visit from the FBI Well, it finally happened. Right before Christmas, I had a little visit from the FBI. That's right: an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation came to see me. He had some things he wanted to talk about. He stayed a couple of hours, and then went on his way. Hopefully he got what he wanted. I know I did. http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/215 - - - - - - - - - - War against shoplifters goes hi-tech A Birmingham- based crime reduction scheme has developed technology to help retailers to stay one step ahead of shoplifters in the fight against retail crime. Birminghams Retail Crime Operation (RCO) has gone live with a new database system that can predict patterns of criminal behaviour based on past experiences. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/35023.html - - - - - - - - - - NASA's New Antiterrorism Mission NASA researchers are using data gleaned from flight- safety records, including reports of sick passengers, bad weather and sleepy pilots, to build an antiterror database. Under the generic name Data Mining and Aviation Security, computer scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center are developing a program for predicting terrorist threats by integrating "the Internet and classified intelligence data" with information from two flight-safety databases. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,61987,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Netcentric warfare to use more sims Training soldiers to take advantage of network- centric warfare will require more simulations, training sessions and war games in coming years, according to senior Defense Department leadership. As the military becomes a more networked force, it will have to relearn how to fight, and simulations and war games will be the most effective and efficient means of doing so, said Navy Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0119/web-sims-01-21-04.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. 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. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however copies may not be sold, and NewsBits (www.newsbits.net) should be cited as the source of the information. 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