NewsBits for April 20, 2004 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Court upholds sentence for Net fraud A federal appeals court has rejected a defendant's request for a shorter prison term for running an illegal Internet pharmacy. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals last Thursday upheld a 77-month sentence for Louis Nomar, who posed as a licensed physician while on supervised release resulting from prior convictions, concluding that "there is an inherent risk of serious bodily injury in having a person with no medical training dispense controlled substances over the phone." http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1104_2-5195986.html - - - - - - - - - - An ordered through the Internet murder was prevented Officers of the SSU (Security Service of Ukraine) prevented an ordered through Internet murder in Dnepropetrovsk region, Ukraine. This murder was allegedly ordered by a woman, citizen of the Netherlands. A woman, her name is not published, in the late 2003 sent a proposal to commit a number of murders in Belgium and Holland to an e-mail of a Dnepropetrovsk resident, former special service officer, informed press service of the agency. http://www.crime-research.org/news/20.04.2004/221 - - - - - - - - - - Surrey Police raid child porn suspects Police searched 27 addresses in Surrey over the weekend as officers targeted people suspected of downloading child abuse images from the Net. Some 180 officers took part in the raids and seized 86 computer systems and more than 3,000 CD-ROMs and videos. These will now be examined to see if any charges are to be brought against those served with search warrants. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/20/operation_ore_police/ - - - - - - - - - - American man cleared of sex charges RCMP have dropped charges of luring a child using the internet and sexual assault against a Pennsylvania man who was arrested in Moncton on Friday. Daniel Thomas Sylvester, 38 is on his way home a free man. The 38- year old travelled a long way for a date. Sylvester is an American and drove up from Pennsylvania to meet a 14-year Moncton area girl that he met on the internet. RCMP Cst. Michel Mercier says the two were chatting on line for months."From what we know right now, they were put in contact via the internet and the contact started last November." Then, last Friday morning, Sylvester met the 14-year old outside her school. Her parents later notified the police. Following a search, RCMP found the couple at a Moncton motel the same evening. The two had had sex. "He was arrested on the spot and taken to our facilities here. The next morning, he was charged with sexual assault, and also for luring a kid, a child," says Mercier. Sylvester spent the weekend in jail. But Monday, the assault and child luring charges were dropped because the girl is 14 years old - the age of consent in Canada. http://nb.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=nb_droppedcharges20040419 - - - - - - - - - - Court backs Internet predator conviction A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of an Oakland man who used the Internet to contact someone he believed to be a Walnut Creek teen for sex. Jeffrey Meek, 35, pleaded guilty early last year to one count of using the Internet to attempt to induce a minor to engage in sexual activity, and was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong of Oakland to 21 months in federal prison. He's scheduled to be released May 10 from the federal prison at Big Spring, Texas. http://www.timesstar.com/Stories/0,1413,125~1486~2095828,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Silver Spring man pleads guilty in sex sting A 34-year-old Silver Spring man who traded online sex talk with who he thought was a 12-year-old girl last summer and was arrested after arriving to meet her at The Mall in Columbia pleaded guilty yesterday to soliciting a minor and was placed on two years' supervised probation. Oscar R. Banderas took condoms with him for a liaison July 2 with "stephanielf2000" - a female state trooper posing as a child - but hung around the site of the meeting, the mall carousel, for a few minutes before walking away, lawyers said. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/howard/bal-ho.banderas20apr20,0,682085.story - - - - - - - - - - 2 arrested by FBI in online child sex sting The FBI today announced the arrests of two men who allegedly traveled to Atlanta for what they thought would be sexual encounters with minors. On Friday, Riley Edward Ledbetter, 35, was arrested by the FBI's Innocent Images Task Force, according to an FBI news release. Ledbetter, a dock worker from Newport, N.C., traveled to Atlanta after using an Internet chat room to arrange a sexual meeting with a 6-year-old girl, the FBI said. http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0404/19fbisting.html - - - - - - - - - - Officials: Girl was raped forcibly Mobile police said Monday that a missing 12-year- old girl found with a Mobile man Saturday morning at a Slidell, La., motel was held against her will and forcibly raped. William Villar, 52, was arrested at the motel and charged with first-degree rape and enticing a child for immoral purposes, Eric Gallichant, a Mobile police spokesman, said Monday. Mobile police said Villar met the girl over the Internet. Gallichant said Villar had been in contact with her over the Internet prior to her disappearance April 6. http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/108245259748460.xml - - - - - - - - - - Mother indicted on child sex charges A 34-year-old woman was charged with going to Pennsylvania to allow a man she met on the Internet to engage in sexual conduct with her daughter. Angela Larkin faces three charges after being indicted by a federal grand jury. Larkin, also known as Angela McCullen, Martina McCullen and Angela Main, is charged with crossing the state line Nov. 27 with the intent to have a child younger than 12 engage in sexual conduct, federal officials said. She faces two other federal charges for allowing a child younger than 18 to engage in such conduct. Investigators said Richard King Jr., 43, of Mohnton, Pa., met Larkin online last year. http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2004/04/19motherindictedo.html - - - - - - - - - - House scrutinizes spyware A House of Representatives panel is planning to convene a hearing on so-called spyware on April 29, marking the beginning of a process that could lead to legislation targeting the controversial breed of software products that tends to be installed on computers without the owner's explicit consent. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105_2-5195989.html - - - - - - - - - - Bush stumps for Patriot Act extension President Bush has taken to the road to rally support for the controversial Patriot Act. "It's set to expire next year," Bush told a crowd in Buffalo, N.Y., on Tuesday. "I'm starting a campaign to make it clear to members of Congress it shouldn't expire. It shouldn't expire, for the security of our country." http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5196032.html Terrorist threat center to lead intelligence analysis, collection efforts http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0404/042004tdpm2.htm - - - - - - - - - - Sex.com, VeriSign settle domain name suit The original owner of the Sex.com domain name has settled his lawsuit against VeriSign, ending a protracted battle over the transfer of the domain. The settlement comes roughly nine months after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Gary Kremen, who first registered the Sex.com name in 1994, had property rights to the stolen domain and that Network Solutions, then owned by VeriSign, was liable for transferring ownership without proper authorization. http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-5195669.html http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,63142,00.html - - - - - - - - - - RIAA Discontinues Immunity Program The music industry's trade group has dropped a program that offered to spare individuals from being sued by recording companies if they admitted to illegally sharing music online, courts documents show. The Recording Industry Assn. of America said it no longer deems the program useful because it considers the public educated or aware enough now to know that they could be sued for file sharing. http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-rup20.6apr20,1,3351455.story http://zdnet.com.com/2001-11-0.html http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,63133,00.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/music/2004-04-20-clean-slate-dropped_x.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/20/riaa_amnesty_ended/ - - - - - - - - - - Phishers using smarter hooks Groups attempting to trick internet users into revealing bank account details and other sensitive information are stepping up their efforts. According to figures from internet firm MessageLabs, the number of phishing emails it has encountered has increased from 279 in September 2003 to 337,050 in January 2004. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1154522 http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39152445,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Ofcom admits illegal wireless problem The regulations controlling the use of broadband networks running at 5.8Ghz are being flouted, admits the UK communications regulator. But how big is the problem, and can Ofcom really solve it? Ofcom has confirmed that a number of illegal high-speed wireless networks are operating in the UK in violation of its own regulations. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39152468,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Con artists target phone system for deaf Max Andrews' story is typical. He figures his small bridal shop in Dothan, Ala., has been involved in most of the tiny town's weddings for the last 35 years. The boutique, which only has a one-page Web site, never had any designs on international clientele. Still, Andrews Bridal Shop received a surprising $5,500 order four weeks ago. The customer wanted 10 identical wedding gowns shipped to Lagos City, Nigeria, immediately. And that wasn't the only surprise. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4781806/ - - - - - - - - - - TCP flaw threatens Net data transmissions A flaw in the most popular communications protocol for sending data on the Net could let attackers shut down connections between servers and routers, according to an advisory released Tuesday by Britain's national emergency response team. TCP--the Transmission Control Protocol-- contains a flaw that "varies by vendor and application, but in some deployment scenarios... is rated critical," said the advisory, published by the United Kingdom's National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5195909.html http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,63143,00.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2004-04-20-core-exposed_x.htm Internet vulnerable to hackers, researchers find http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/8475522.htm - - - - - - - - - - Meet NetSky-X, the Babel Fish worm NetSky-X, the latest in the ever-expanding series of pesky computer worms, displays a dalliance with foreign languages previously unknown among virus writers. The latest Windows- only nuisance - discovered today - sends messages in either English, Swedish, Finnish, Polish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Italian, French or German. The "polyglot worm" is spreading extensively, particularly in mainland Europe. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/20/babel_fish_worm/ - - - - - - - - - - Latest Phatbot angles for SQL server A new variant may be worming is way towards SQL server ports, according to a warning from the SANS Institute. A new variant of the Phatbot worm may be on the loose and attempting to attack SQL Server ports, according to a warning that the SANS Institute issued on Monday. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39152460,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Hackers insert 'Pink Grandfather Party' into election An attack on an official Web site showing the progress of vote counting saw parties names changed but an attempt to access a data centre failed. Fictitious political factions turned up as forerunners in Indonesia's heated elections, thanks to hacker antics over the weekend. The General Elections Commission (KPU) has confirmed its official Web site, which shows the progress of the country's ongoing vote count after its 5 April polls, was defaced on Saturday evening, reported local daily The Jakarta Post. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39152461,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Security policies fall behind Internet adoption More UK firms are offering employees access to the Internet but many are failing to sort out security policies until it's too late. Most UK companies now provide their employees with Internet and email facilities but this has led to more employees abusing their cyberspace privileges, because firms are not enforcing a security policy, according to a survey carried out on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39152467,00.htm New hacking tool: chocolate A survey of office workers in London found that almost three quarters would reveal their network- access password in exchange for a bar of chocolate. The survey was conducted by the organizers of Infosecurity Europe 2004, a security exhibition to be held in London next week. They offered 172 commuters at Liverpool Street Station a bar of chocolate if they would reveal their corporate password. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5195282.html Brits are crap at password security http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/20/password_surveys/ - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft Picks Up Hackers' Gauntlet Microsoft's chief software architect Bill Gates has vowed to continue to fight the security threats that still plague the industry. In a letter to partners and customers outlining the software giant's security strategy for the coming year, Gates announced several initiatives, such as security changes in Windows XP Service Pack 2, caller ID-style technologies for e-mail and behavioural monitoring of software. http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Microsoft_Picks_Up_Hackers__Gauntlet&story_id=23752 - - - - - - - - - - One third of email now spam The volume of spam received by business has doubled over the last two years and it's going to get worse. Analysts IDC reckons that spam represented 32 per cent of all email sent on an average day in North America in 2003, doubling from 2001. That figure is less than the 50 per cent or more junk mail statistic commonly cited by email- filtering firms like MessageLabs and Brightmail but it still represents a serious problem. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/20/idc_spam_survey/ - - - - - - - - - - Police force enlists digital cams in cars Drunk-and-disorderly calls and other police blotter entries are about to go live and digital in Tyler, Texas, thanks to a new system that puts digital video cameras on the city's police cars and links them through a wireless network. The east Texas city next month will start to install a digital video system designed by IBM to beam TV images of any police action in real time from the police department's 60 cruisers over a wireless network back to headquarters, IBM executives and Tyler police said on Tuesday. http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5195690.html http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/04/20/police.videos.reut/index.html *********************************************************** 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. Copyright 2000-2004, NewsBits.net, Campbell, CA.