NewsBits for February 12, 2004 sponsored by,
Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu
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'Hackah Jak' trial could reveal FBI ties
The criminal case against a well-known computer hacker
moved closer to trial Wednesday when a Cincinnati judge
refused to dismiss the charges against him. Jesse Tuttle,
better known as "Hackah Jak," is accused of storing
child pornography on his computer and is charged with
breaking into Hamilton County's computer network.
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/02/12/loc_tuttle12.html
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ERIE COUNTY MAN CHARGED WITH POSSESSING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today announced the
arrest and arraignment of an Erie County man charged
with possessing pornographic images of children. The
defendant, Douglas Nail, 47, of Depew, was arrested
on January 23 and charged in Depew Village Court with
a single count of Possessing a Sexual Performance by
a Child. Pursuant to an investigation conducted by New
York States Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC)
Task Force, a warrant was obtained authorizing the
search of Nails residence and seizure of certain
electronic evidence. It is alleged that during the
execution of the warrant, evidence was discovered
containing images of children engaged in sexual
conduct.
http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2004/feb/feb11b_04.html
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Two caught in underage sex sting
Two men who drove to Alton, allegedly intending to
have sex with a 15-year-old "girl" they met online,
found they were looking for love in the wrong place
just before Valentines Day. Instead of hooking up
with a cute teenage girl named "Samantha," the mens
planned noon hour liaisons ended up as surprise
encounters with Pfc. Mike Bazzell, information
technology officer at the Alton Police Department,
Deputy Police Chief Jody OGuinn and Pfc. Manuel
Espinoza.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10948513&BRD=1719&PAG=461&dept_id=25271&rfi=6
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3 Expected to Face Charges of Illegally Copying Movie Prints
Federal authorities are expected to seek criminal
charges against three employees of a Los Angeles
motion picture postproduction facility, alleging
that they illegally copied prints of movies such
as "The Passion of the Christ" and "Kill Bill:
Vol. 1" that eventually ended up on the Internet.
(LA Times article, free registration required)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-piracy12feb12,1,616300.story
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Killer-for-hire Web site prompts arrest
Police arrested a 25-year-old college senior
Wednesday on charges of conspiring to murder for
operating a killer-for-hire Web site and taking
thousands of dollars from his customers. In one
case, the student, identified only by his surname
Kim, received the equivalent of $8,600 from a
22-year-old woman who wanted her ex-boyfriend
and his wife murdered, said Chung Dong-yul,
a police investigator in the city of Daegu.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/02/12/killer.site.ap/index.html
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Mob charged with phone sex rip-off
Mobsters ripped off users of telephone sex lines
and dating services to the tune of $200 million
in what U.S. officials said was a new method by
organized crime families to make money illegally.
Indictments announced by the U.S. attorney in
Brooklyn on Tuesday said Gambino crime family
members advertised "free" samples of phone sex,
horoscope or dating services but once customers
made the call, a $40 monthly fee would be
automatically added to their telephone bills.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/02/12/mob.phonesex.reut/index.html
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Nachi variant wipes MyDoom from PCs
A new variant of the Nachi worm which attempts to
cleanse computers infected by MyDoom and download
Microsoft security patches to unprotected computers
has careened onto the Net this morning. Nachi-B
(AKA Welchi) uses the same security vulnerability
exploited by the Blaster worm to spread.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/35524.html
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14111
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1152735
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/?http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=53533
SCO waits for MyDoom attacks to end
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5158340.html
MyDoom dies today
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/35516.html
Do you believe in DJ virus
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=53538
Firms put the SWAT team on viruses
http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040212.wkapi0212/BNStory/Technology/
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Viral adware annoys IM users
Security watchers are warning users to beware
of adware programs that can turn instant messaging
(IM) fans into unwitting spammers. Currently, an
adware program known as BuddyLinks is reported
to be spreading through the AOL instant messaging
community.
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1152734
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Microsoft tracks possible Windows code leak
Microsoft is investigating the possibility that
a file posted to several underground sites and chat
rooms contains some protected source code to Windows
2000. The 203MB file contains the code that appears
to be from Microsoft's enterprise operating system,
but the code is not complete, said Dragos Ruiu,
a security consultant and the organizer of the
CanSecWest security conference, who has
examined the file listing.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5158496.html
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GE Energy acknowledges blackout bug
A programming error has been identified as the cause
of alarm failures that might have contributed to the
scope of last summer's Northeast blackout, industry
officials said Thursday. Ralph DiNicola, spokesman
for FirstEnergy Corp., said the utility has since
applied fixes developed by the system's vendor,
General Electric Co., and has accelerated plans
to replace GE's XA/21 with a system from French
nuclear engineers Areva SA.
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/8032
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FTC, international coalition crack down on misleading Web sites
The Federal Trade Commission and more than two
dozen consumer protection agencies around the world
are participating in a three-day sweep to identify
and crack down on Web sites that mislead consumers.
The International Internet Sweep, which began
Tuesday, is being coordinated by the Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
The sweep is focusing on what the agencies call
too-good-to-be-true Web sites that prey on
consumers by offering them bogus get-rich-quick
schemes, work-at-home schemes, and free offers
that are anything but.
http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,90162,00.html
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DDoS attacks go through the roof
The growing prevalence of criminally motivated
DDoS attacks calls for a fundamental rethink
in how enterprises approach security. Companies
typically bolster the security infrastructure
only after they are attacked. But this approach
is misguided and costly, according to Paul Lawrence,
EMEA general manager at security outfit Top Layer.
Lawrence is fed up with ambulance chasing ("its
a strain on our resources") and is urging companies
to become more pro-active in shoring up their
defences.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/35531.html
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Cisco develops WLAN security protocol to defeat password attacks
Cisco Systems Inc. has developed a new wireless LAN
security protocol designed to defeat brute force
dictionary attacks that capture a user's passwords,
and it submitted a draft of the protocol to the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) on Monday.
http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,90163,00.html
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IBM Centralizes Security for the zSeries Mainframe
Continuing its broad strategy of infrastructure
simplification, IBM Thursday introduced new security
features for its latest mainframe operating system
software to help centralize control of an environment
that requires several tiers of security.
http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3311951
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Peril in Microsoft's Laxity
Microsoft's announcement Tuesday that it will warn
consumers about a "critical" problem in its Windows
software more than six months after it learned
about the flaw illuminates the danger of leaving
national cyber-security largely unregulated and
unwatched.
(LA Times article, free registration required)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-ed-microsoft12feb12,1,6639988.story
PC Advisor readers hacked off with patching
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/index.cfm?go=news.view&news=3819
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Automating Windows Patch Management: Part I
Patch management could easily be called the bane
of every administrator's existence, the pain in
the rear of system management, or that never
ceasing headache that pounds at CIOs everywhere.
And I use the term "management" loosely.
http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1760
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Bugwatch: The emergence of convergence
Each week vnunet.com asks a different expert to give
their views on recent virus and security issues, with
advice, warnings and information on the latest threats.
This week Natasha Staley, information security analyst
at MessageLabs, considers the sinister and growing
trend of spammers and virus writers incorporating
each others' tactics.
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1152727
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ACLU urges halt to CAPPS II
Congress should stop development of a controversial
passenger screening system until many planning
issues are addressed, privacy advocates said today.
In a report released today, officials at the General
Accounting Office found serious flaws in the planning
of the Transportation Security Administration's
Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System II
(CAPPS II).
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0209/web-aclu-02-12-04.asp
GAO sees CAPPS II delays
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0209/web-cappsII-02-12-04.asp
http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,90157,00.html
Congress Slams CAPPS II
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,62270,00.html
Government rethinks ID database plans
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1152725
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Dealer Conned Into Shipping $123,000 BMW To N.J. Teen
By posing as a banker, a teenager was able to induce
an Ohio dealership to deliver a $123,000 BMW to his
high school, and then order a second luxury vehicle,
police said. The second one was never shipped, and
the first car, with "black sapphire metallic" paint
and a heated steering wheel and seats, was found in
Raleigh, N.C., Detective Scott Davis of the Dublin,
Ohio, police said Thursday. "He apparently sold the
car, and it ended up in a dealership in North Carolina,"
Davis said. The teen was arrested at his Jersey City
home after Midwestern Auto Group in Dublin learned
from its bank that the payment was never made, police
said. "I don't think we have ever had one like this.
It's unique," Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor
Gregory Tomczak told The Jersey Journal of Jersey
City in Thursday editions.
http://www.wnbc.com/money/2842494/detail.html
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D.C. police, EMS to get broadband
Washington, D.C., is launching the nation's first
broadband data network for emergency crews, an
important step toward arming rescuers with the
latest communication technology. The many benefits
of the proposed high-speed wireless network include
allowing emergency room doctors to see live video
of a patient still in the ambulance, or police
helicopters to stream live video to patrol cars.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-02-11-dc-ems-broadband_x.htm
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