NewsBits for March 5, 2004 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Hacking Incident Riles Democrats A poorly protected computer system and two zealous Republican staff members were to blame for computer files written by Democratic staff members being handed over to conservative interest groups and the media, a Senate investigation has determined. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-na-hacker5mar05,1,1348701.story Lax security left Senate files wide open http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/25196-1.html http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,62561,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Jail for man who groomed child for sex A man "groomed" a child for sexual purposes by making her look at pornographic images on the internet, a court heard today. Jeremy Long, 48, was sentenced to nine years in prison after admitting two serious sexual offences, four charges of indecent assault on a girl under 13 and one count of child cruelty. He also pleaded guilty to four charges of making indecent photographs of the same child, who cannot be named for legal reasons. http://www.edp24.co.uk/content/News/story.asp?datetime=05+Mar+2004+17%3A01&tbrand=EDPOnline&tCategory=NEWS&category=News&brand=EDPOnline&itemid=NOED05+Mar+2004+17%3A01%3A57%3A320 - - - - - - - - - - GM Manager Allegedly Solicits Sex With Child Online A General Motors technology expert is accused of trying to solicit a 13-year-old girl online.Barry Sutherland, 49, thought he had set up a date with the girl, Local 4 reported. When he arrived for the date, police were reportedly waiting with handcuffs to arrest him. Sutherland was arraigned Thursday afternoon on three counts of illegal use of the Internet, according to police. Investigators said Sutherland, a father of two children and information technology manager, was conducting his chats while at work at the GM Technical Center in Warren. His computer was reportedly seized as evidence. GM representatives said they are working in cooperation with police. http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/2899233/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - Net sting nabs man on sex charges An Internet sting by police resulted in the Monday arrest of a 33-year-old Dodge County man on eight charges related to the attempted sexual assault of a child. Police said Timothy D. Dopke of Lowell was arrested after he came to meet a 15-year-old girl. The girl he was talking to through an Internet chat room was really a 26-year-old male police officer, said Police Chief Kevin Wilkinson. http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local_15049147.shtml - - - - - - - - - - Salina man arrested on sex charges Justin D. Wires, 33, 2213 Roach, was arrested Thursday in connection with an investigation into Internet child pornography. Salina police Lt. Mike Sweeney said officers searched Wires' home Thursday night after being notified by the Wichita Police Department that a Salinan was using his computer to upload and download photographs of children in sexually explicit poses and images of adult males molesting children. http://www.saljournal.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/1341/format/html/displaystory.html - - - - - - - - - - Former Coach Tried To Have Sex With Students An arrest warrant was issued Friday for a former Central Ohio basketball coach for allegedly trying to have sex with young girls, NewsChannel 4's Nancy Burton reported. A Franklin County grand jury indicted Donny Spiller, who was a girls' basketball coach at Hamilton Township Middle School. Hamilton Township police said Spiller tried to have sex with three 13-year-old girls who are students at Hamilton Township Middle School, Burton reported. Spiller was hired as the seventh-grade basketball coach in November. According to the indictment, Spiller allegedly made sexual comments to the girls at school, on the Internet and during phone conversations. http://www.nbc4columbus.com/news/2901160/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - Fort Hood Soldier Arrested In Internet Sex Crime Investigation Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today announced the arrests of the two servicemen on Friday. The arrests come after investigators posing as teenage girls in Internet chat rooms arranged meetings with adult males. Kenneth Brzoznowski, 27, of Fort Hood was arrested Thursday at a fast food restaurant in Copperas Cove. He was taken to the Coryell County jail in Gatesville where he's held awaiting bond. Second Lt. Christopher P. Barton, 26, of Randolph Air Force Base was arrested Feb. 20 at a fast food restaurant in Buda. He's held on a $250,000 bond. "While my office has a powerful crime deterrent in the Cyber Crimes Unit, it's clear that some individuals will risk their livelihoods, families and futures in an attempt to meet a child for sex," said Abbott in a prepared statement. "We are putting our law enforcement tools to work with other crime- fighters in communities across Texas to see that this does not happen." http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/619921.html - - - - - - - - - - Charges May Follow Sex Sting Prosecutors are investigating whether charges should be filed against a Philadelphia TV news channel that lured several men seeking sex with teenagers to a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood a half-mile from an elementary school. Residents of this Philadelphia suburb are in an uproar over the local NBC affiliate's ratings-week story in which the station teamed with an Internet vigilante group to lure three men to a beige Cape Cod house the station rented so its reporters could surprise the men on camera. The men, lured on Internet chat sites, were expecting to have sex with 14-year-old girls, who didn't exist. http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/3504-nbcsexsting.html - - - - - - - - - - Despite Alton police sting, Internet sex cases languish Alton police have been eager to move against men who use the Internet to solicit young girls for sex. But while their sting operations have yielded 13 arrests since 2001, few have been resolved. The case of Kevin T. Coan, a former St. Louis Election Board official, is typical. Three years and 25 continuances after he was arrested, Coan, 42, is still awaiting trial on a felony charge of indecent solicitation of a child. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/St.+Louis+City+%2F+County/D7BE3C1AF7A0EA6886256E480075D126?OpenDocument&Headline=Despite+Alton+police+sting,+Internet+sex+cases+languish - - - - - - - - - - Child sex abuse back in focus The "trial of the century" of four people in Belgium on child kidnapping, abuse and murder charges has once again focused attention on child sex abuse and worldwide child pornography rings. Last week police raids in 10 countries smashed a series of Internet child porn networks. Thursday's operation, codenamed "Operation Odysseus" and run by the European police organization Europol, was hailed as one of the biggest and most successful operations of its type. http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/03/02/child.porn/ - - - - - - - - - - Pranksters snow TV weather announcement system A Raleigh, North Carolina cable news channel shut down a Web application designed to allow local schools and businesses to report weather-related closings last week, after a handful of puckish university students discovered they could use it to add textual graffiti to the station's newscast. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/8191 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/36043.html - - - - - - - - - - 419 gangs sting Brits for PS12m More than 120 Britons have been tricked out of a total of PS12.6m by so-called 419 scams in the past 15 months. Police have recorded 97 incidents of people falling for advance-fee email scams in 2003, with a further 32 cases so far this year. The victimslost an average of PS98,000 each. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1153271 - - - - - - - - - - Student Accused Of Making Fake $20s To Buy Lunch Police say a high school student used his home computer to make copies of $20 bills that he and another student then used to buy lunch in the school cafeteria. The suspect student, who was identified only by his initials, "W.V.," was charged with forgery, uttering forged money, and theft by deception, and released to his parents. http://www.wnbc.com/education/2899206/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - Californian ISP sues Bob Vila site for spam Californian ISP Hypertouch is taking home improvement website BobVila.com and its marketing agency to court for alleged violations of America's CAN-SPAM Act. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/36059.html http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5170631.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-03-05-vila-spam-suit_x.htm Your computer could be a 'spam zombie' http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/02/17/spam.zombies.ap/index.html Spam turns ten today http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/36062.html - - - - - - - - - - Virus writers in malicious code hide-and-seek A fresh angle of attack by virus writers is challenging new anti-virus techniques. The latest versions of the Bagle worm spreading this week contain a malicious payload hidden in a password-protected zip archive. This is the first time the trick has been used to spread the virus in the wild, though the ruse has been seen in lab copies of viral code (e.g. Fearso), dating from last Summer. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/36049.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39148066,00.htm Antivirus vendors unzip encrypted email viruses http://www.silicon.com/software/security/0,39024655,39118922,00.htm Antivirus firm secures lists after virus leak http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5170277.html Wave of viruses confirms writer gang war on http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14531 http://www.crime-research.org/news/05.03.2004/115 Worm Wave Rolls On http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=74&ncid=1212&e=10&u=/cmp/20040305/tc_cmp/18202007 - - - - - - - - - - States join spyware battle The drive to control "spyware" and other software that hijacks personal computers without owners' permission is spreading to state legislatures, turning up pressure on PC pests. Late on Wednesday, Utah apparently became the first state to pass a law regulating spyware and other advertising software, although the bill has yet to be signed by the governor. Lawmakers in Iowa and California also have introduced their own spyware control proposals in the past several weeks. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5170263.html Lawmakers take aim at spyware http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5169440.html - - - - - - - - - - Swiss Turn Up Heat On Cybercrime A special Internet police unit is being swamped by tip-offs from the public denouncing suspected criminal websites, swissinfo.org reported. Since the beginning of the year, 3,600 complaints have been lodged with the Swiss Coordination Unit for Cybercrime Control (Cyco). Half of the complaints concerned websites carrying pornographic content. Other objections addressed spam emails, racist and extremist sites and infringement of copyright. Spokesman Philipp Kronig told swissinfo that many complainants were "well-informed surfers, with a feeling for what is acceptable on the Internet. http://www.iran-daily.com/pdf/5.pdf - - - - - - - - - - The law and the Net Legislators are taking note of technology meant tofoil illegal file swapping and of the spreading "spyware" threat. A new political battle is brewing over Net music swapping, focusing on a company that claims to be able to automatically identify copyrighted songs on networks like Kazaa and to be able to block illegal downloads. Audible Magic has been making the rounds of Washington, D.C., legislative and regulatory offices for the past month, showing off technology it says can sit inside peer-to-peer software and automatically stop swaps of copyrighted music. http://news.com.com/2100-1083_3-5170336.html - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft calls for antivirus education Government and business should work together to improve user knowledge in order to limit the spread of computer viruses, according to Stuart Okin, Microsoft's UK head of security. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1153285 IT staff offered fast-track hacker course http://www.computing.co.uk/News/1153280 What's Good About Computer Viruses http://www.technewsworld.com/perl/story/33045.html - - - - - - - - - - Firms Look to Limit Liability for Online Security Breaches In the face of ongoing attacks by computer hackers, some companies that store their customers' personal data are adopting a new defensive tactic: If your information is stolen, they're not legally responsible. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31874-2004Mar4.html?referrer%3Demail http://www.securityfocus.com/news/8197 - - - - - - - - - - Piracy disputes still tough to resolve in China courts When Cisco Systems sued rising Chinese tech star Huawei Technologies last year for intellectual property theft, it made a strategic decision to bypass China's courts and take action in the United States. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/world/2004-03-05-chinese-piracy_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - IIS 6.0 Security The popularity of web servers as a prime target for crackers and worm writers around the globe made IIS a natural place for Microsoft to focus its Trustworthy Computing Initiative. As a result, IIS has been completely redesigned to be secure by default and secure by design. This article discusses the major default configuration and design changes incorporated in IIS 6.0 to make it a more secure platform for hosting critical web applications. http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1765 - - - - - - - - - - Library officials grilled on plan to put trackers in books San Francisco library officials hosted a public forum Thursday night to take up the thorny issue of radio frequency identification tags, small, paper-thin devices that the city's library system wants to put in books to improve inventory control. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-03-05-library-rfid-hearing_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Al Qaeda boss confused phone SIM with cloaking device Al Qaeda's technological expertise is perhaps somewhat less than it's cracked up to be, we note from a New York Times report on events surrounding the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Karachi a year ago. Mohammed, and indeed other Al Qaeda operatives, seems to have used a Swisscom 'anonymous' mobile phone card under the quite weird misapprehension that its insertion in a phone somehow, er, anonymised the phone. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/36060.html - - - - - - - - - - Background-check kit hits retail shelves Beyond the gallon jars of mayonnaise and the office furniture, shoppers browsing the aisles at some Sam's Club stores will find something that isn't usually sold at retail -- an employee background check in a box. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/8115897.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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