NewsBits for April 8, 2004 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Maxim Kovalchuck will be out on bail In the San-Jose circuit court, on a case of Ukrainian Maxim Kovalchuk-Vysochanski accused of committing computer crimes in the USA, a judge rejected his lawyer's offer to release the detainee on a written undertaking not to leave a place. At the same time, judge agreed to consider bail. http://www.crime-research.org/news/08.04.2004/197 - - - - - - - - - - Feds pursuing sellers offering body armor on eBay The government is trying to track down more than 150 people suspected of selling hundreds of pieces of stolen military body armor over the Internet, investigators said Thursday. The outer tactical vests, or OTVs, and protective inserts designed to make the vests more bulletproof, were stolen from the military and sold on eBay for $200 to $1,000 apiece, said Edward T. Bradley, agent in charge of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service's Northeast field office. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/8387078.htm - - - - - - - - - - Amazon.com Facility in France Is Searched Amazon.com Inc., the biggest Internet retailer, said French authorities searched its distribution center in Orleans, seizing DVDs as part of an investigation into sales of such items on its website. The Seattle-based company said it was cooperating with the investigators. The inquiry began last year after a complaint was made by a French group that fights piracy of audiovisual material, Agence France-Presse reported, citing judicial sources. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-rup8.10apr08,1,5120934.story Speaking of Music Piracy .... http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,62995,00.html Downloaders pay up to Wilco http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-wk-quick8.5apr08,1,5208413.story - - - - - - - - - - Netsky damages four sites File-sharing network eDonkey's main Web site has been knocked offline following an attack from Netsky, but Kazaa has survived--so far. Earlier this week, file-sharing Web sites Kazaa and eDonkey and three other Web sites were bracing themselves for a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack launched by variants of the Netsky worm. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5187215.html - - - - - - - - - - FDIC warns of scam targeting consumers' bank accounts Consumers and financial institutions are being warned of a new e-mail scam that purports to be from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and that advises consumers to click on an attached file for more information about alleged fraudulent activity regarding their bank accounts. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/cybercrime/story/0,10801,92050,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Cisco bug could put hackers in driver's seat Networking giant Cisco Systems warned customers on Wednesday about a security flaw that could compromise two products used to manage wireless local area network devices and data center switches. The company said in the warning posted on its Web site that a preset username and password coded into its Wireless LAN Solution Engine (WLSE) and Hosting Solution Engine (HSE) could give attackers complete control of the devices. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-5187233.html http://www.vnunet.com/News/1154178 http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/hacking/story/0,10801,92049,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Tracking the blackout bug A number of factors and failings came together to make the August 14th northeastern blackout the worst outage in North American history. One of them was buried in a massive piece of software compiled from four million lines of C code and running on an energy management computer in Ohio. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/8412 - - - - - - - - - - Email attack could kill servers A crafty way of knocking out any email server using a few carefully constructed emails has been identified by a team of computer security experts. The trick involves sending forged emails that contain thousands of incorrect addresses in the "copy to"fields that are normally used to send duplicate messages. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994858 - - - - - - - - - - Free PC scheme hits the buffers A scheme offering free PCs in return for watching adverts on the computers has hit delays because of fears over fraud. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1154176 - - - - - - - - - - Cyber Terrorism : The new kind of Terrorism Computers and the internet are becoming an essential part of our daily life. They are being used by individuals and societies to make their life easier. They use them for storing information, processing data, sending and receiving messages, communications, controlling machines, typing, editing, designing, drawing, and almost all aspects of life. http://www.crime-research.org/articles/Cyber_Terrorism_new_kind_Terrorism - - - - - - - - - - Is spim worse than spam? Spim - Instant Message spam - is more than just a nuisance: It's a security risk. The recent "Osama Found" adware campaign and Bizex worm attack show how easily IM technology can be manipulated to fool users into opening malicious code. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/08/spim_impact/ - - - - - - - - - - The spyware that loved me The IT department finally came for my computer last week. For weeks I had been investigating companies that claimed to offer spyware-fighting software but secretly distribute spyware or other advertising apps along with their products. Because I wanted to put myself in the shoes of the average computer user, I deliberately let down my protections to load the applications in question. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-5187149.html Cost-cutting firms gamble with IT security http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39151421,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Giveaway of spammer's Porsche draws more than one million entries America Online said its members have submitted more than one million AOL screen names in the Internet company's unorthodox drawing for a spammer's seized sportscar. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/8386972.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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