NewsBits for April 23, 2004 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Man pleads innocent to Internet stalking A South Carolina man arrested on an Internet stalking charge has pleaded innocent in U.S. District Court. Robert James Murphy, 38, of Columbia, S.C., would not comment after leaving the courtroom with his lawyer Thursday. He remained free on $50,000 bond. Murphy was arrested earlier this month and charged with 26 counts of using his computer "to annoy, abuse, threaten and harass" Joelle Ligon, 35, of Seattle, who saw him in court for the first time in 13 years. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-04-23-cyberstalking-inocent-plea_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Cyber-cops arrest trio in piracy crackdown The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) has arrested three people in the UK following raids around the globe by law enforcement agencies investigating internet-based piracy. The raids took place late last night as part of Operation Fastlink, which also saw raids in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, Singapore and Sweden. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1154609 http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Cyber_Cops_Arrest_Trio_in_Piracy_Crackdown&story_id=23809 http://computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/groupware/story/0,10801,92599,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Man pleads guilty to using library computers to send child porn A registered sex offender pleaded guilty to using public library computers to download and e-mail child pornography. Richard Edward Brillhart, 24, faces between 15 and 40 years in prison when he is sentenced July 19. He entered his guilty plea Wednesday, one day before he was to go on trial in federal court. Brillhart was arrested in October after using a computer at a Charlotte County public library in Port Charlotte. http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Florida/03FloridaSTAT21042304.htm - - - - - - - - - - Judge arrested over child porn A senior Crown Court judge has been arrested over child pornography allegations. David Selwood was arrested on Wednesday as part of a national paedophile investigation, the Department for Constitutional Affairs said. He was interviewed by detectives over allegations of possessing indecent images of children and released on police bail pending further inquiries. http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/3654455.stm - - - - - - - - - - Man Accused In Child Porn Case Also Faces Murder For-Hire Charge The former SAS software programmer indicted for distributing child pornography over the Internet is now accused of trying to hire someone to kill his wife. A federal grand jury indicted Brian Schellenberger on a charge of using interstate commerce with the intent that a murder be committed for a promise or agreement for payment. http://www.wxii12.com/news/3034623/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - Father accused of photographing nude daughter A 41-year-old Fort Worth man was arrested Thursday on a warrant for child pornography, accused of enticing his 14-year-old daughter to pose for nude photographs in exchange for cigarettes and driving the family car. The girl told authorities she observed the photographs on the family's home computer a few weeks ago, just before the computer began malfunctioning. She stated she deleted many of the pictures but said there were approximately 60 photographs still on the computer in a file titled "Dad's Triple X," according to the affidavit. http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/local/8505826.htm - - - - - - - - - - German postie punts pilfered parcels on eBay A German postman who failed to deliver parcels to his punters has coughed to flogging the items on eBay instead. The 37-year-old postie, who has not been named, was rumbled after a musician - whose clarinet mouthpiece failed to show in the post - stumbled across the item on the e-auction house. The musician bought the item but informed police as well. When officers raided the postie's flat they discovered scores of missing packages. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/23/ebay_germany_postman/ http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/04/23/auctioned.mail.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - - - FDIC Warns Banks About Fraudulent E-Mails The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a warning to banks alerting them that consumers are receiving fraudulent e-mail messages that appear to have been sent from the FDIC. The scam is the third one this year in which e-mails were sent to consumers that appeared to be from the FDIC, but weren't actually sent by the bank regulator. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/8503985.htm http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/23/technology/fdic/index.htm - - - - - - - - - - Child porn remains on the Internet Up to 75% of all child porn production are spread over the Internet. According to law enforcement data, about 90% of international investigative commissions, issued by Interpol, are related to this kind of computer crime. World child porn industry, knowing about gaps in Russian laws, tends to place more and more resources on the Russian Internet. http://www.crime-research.org/news/23.04.2004/231 - - - - - - - - - - U.S. defends cybercrime treaty Critics took aim this week at a controversial international treaty intended to facilitate cross-boarder computer crime probes, arguing that it would obligate the U.S. and other signatories to cooperate with repressive regimes --a charge that the Justice Department denied. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/8529 - - - - - - - - - - Taking a Second Shot at Spammers Spammers who get caught flooding American inboxes with junk mail could find themselves facing prosecution twice -- once at the federal level and once at the state level -- thanks to a largely overlooked clause in the U.S. Can-Spam Act. The clause, noted in 28 words near the bottom of the nation's first federal law against spam, prevents the Can-Spam Act from pre-empting state laws that prohibit "falsity and deception" in commercial e-mails. In other words, states are free to keep certain portions of their existing antispam laws, or even form new ones -- contrary to statements made by critics of the Can-Spam Act. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,63181,00.html Spamhaus breaches great firewall of China http://www.vnunet.com/News/1154602 - - - - - - - - - - Gmail under attack in California Scanning the text of email should be illegal, according to legislation introduced this week. Blasting Gmail as a horrific intrusion into Internet users' privacy, a California state senator has introduced legislation to block Google's free email service. State Senator Liz Figueroa, a Democrat from the Bay Area city of Fremont, said on Thursday that it should be illegal for a company to scan the text of its customers' email correspondence and display relevant advertising -- even if customers explicitly agree to the practice in exchange for a gigabyte of storage. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39152818,00.htm http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,63204,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Senators seek reports on data-mining efforts Two Democratic senators on Thursday asked their colleagues to support a bill requiring all federal agencies to report to Congress about using data- mining technology. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Russell Feingold of Wisconsin sent a "Dear Colleague" letter soliciting support for their measure, S. 1544, which they argued would fulfill lawmakers' obligation to oversee and ensure federal agencies are not undermining privacy and civil liberties by using data-mining technology. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0404/042304td1.htm - - - - - - - - - - Diebold May Face Criminal Charges After harshly chastising Diebold Election Systems for what it considered deceptive business practices, a California voting systems panel voted unanimously Thursday to recommend that the secretary of state decertify an electronic touch-screen voting machine manufactured by the company, making it likely that four California counties that recently purchased the machines will have to find other voting solutions for the November presidential election. http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63191,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Code exists to exploit TCP flaw Symantec has confirmed that malicious code that can take advantage of the Transmission Control Protocol flaw reported this week exists but says that the risk of real problems is remote. Malicious code has been unearthed that can exploit a widely reported flaw in a popular Net protocol and possibly disrupt data transmissions, but experts say the risk of real-world problems remains fairly low. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/networks/0,39020345,39152819,00.htm Week in review: Net threat--or not http://news.com.com/2100-1083_3-5198137.html - - - - - - - - - - Methods of proving guilt of suspects in cases of computer crimes Objective side of crimes provided for by Section 16 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine stipulates not only committing socially dangerous acts (illegal interference with operation of computers; theft and appropriation of computer information), but also socially dangerous after-effects (the damaging, deletion, deterioration, alteration or suppression of computer data without right or mediums, causing damage to the owner of a computer, computer system or network (article 361 part 2.). http://www.crime-research.org/articles/Akhtyrskaya0404 - - - - - - - - - - Autonomy to power Olympic surveillance Software from Autonomy will be helping Greek security forces to look for terrorists at this summer's games. Technology that was originally developed to help companies to organise and access information on their IT systems will play a role in attempting to prevent terrorist attacks on the Olympic Games this summer. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39152827,00.htm http://news.com.com/2100-7355_3-5198924.html - - - - - - - - - - Homeland Securitys R&D center gets Anser Analytic Services Inc. will operate the new Homeland Security Institute, the Homeland Security Departments first federally funded research and development center, or FFRDC. The contract is worth up to $130 million over five years to Analytic Services of Arlington, Va., known as Anser, according to the departments Science and Technology Directorate. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/25723-1.html - - - - - - - - - - XML Encryption Added to Apache Project The Apache Foundation has announced the addition of a beta implementation of XML Encryption to its XML Security Project, another small step towards full implementation of security standards in the pared-down markup language. The XML Security Project, a volunteer unit of the Apache Foundation, focuses on W3C standards for XML security implementation. http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3344041 - - - - - - - - - - NIST: Standardize smart card policy Technical standards in the rapidly evolving smart-card industry fall short in the areas of security and interoperability. But the real barrier to widescale use is policy conflict, a government report said today. The National Institute of Standards and Technology examined the gap between government smart-card requirements and current capabilities. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/25708-1.html More smart card standards, please http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0419/web-nist-04-23-04.asp - - - - - - - - - - Expert: Gaps still pain Bluetooth security The latest specification of Bluetooth, a popular short-range wireless technology, has left serious security issues unfixed, according to a wireless researcher. The glitch in the Bluetooth 1.2 technology is related to how it deals with the personal identification number (PIN) that's used to protect data, Ollie Whitehouse, a researcher for digital security firm @Stake, said at the CanSecWest security conference here on Wednesday. http://news.com.com/2100-1009_3-5197200.html - - - - - - - - - - What is Cyber-terrorism? In the wake of the recent computer attacks, many have been quick to jump to conclusions that a new breed of terrorism is on the rise and our country must defend itself with all possible means. As a society we have a vast operational and legal experience and proved techniques to combat terrorism, but are we ready to fight terrorism in the new arena cyber space? http://www.crime-research.org/analytics/Krasavin - - - - - - - - - - Houdini's lessons on breaking corporate security On 27 November 1906, escape artist Harry Houdini had himself put in manacles, elbow irons and two sets of handcuffs before being locked in an safe that was sealed shut and then fastened with iron bonds. At a signal from his assistant, the safe was lowered from the Belle Isle Bridge into the freezing Detroit River. From ferry boats that bobbed along the river, an eager press corps, along with thousands of spectators, watched as the sealed safe stayed submerged beneath the icy waters for more than 15 minutes, after which Houdini emerged, in dry clothes, once again having defied the odds of serious injury or death. http://www.biosmagazine.co.uk/op.php?id=118 - - - - - - - - - - Going Online Tops Waiting in Line for Court Records The slogan is displayed on posters around courthouses in Los Angeles County: "Don't Wait In Line: GO ONLINE!" The Los Angeles County Superior Court (www.lasuperiorcourt.org) is expanding public access to online court records, part of a nationwide trend to make the justice system more convenient and accessible and to save the court time and money. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-onthelaw23apr23,1,4563516.story - - - - - - - - - - 419er Struck By American Headline Disorder An interesting addition to the 419 email genre has just dropped onto the Vulture Central doormat - apparently written by someone who once trained in the US news industry. Having skilfully resisted the temptation to WRITE EVRYTHING IN CAPS, Abass Aziz obviously decided his missive lacked a certain punch and that it would be more eye- catching If Every Word Began With A Capital. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/23/us_headline_419/ *********************************************************** 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.