NewsBits for May 21, 2004 ************************************************************ Media missing at Los Alamos An effort to reduce Classified Removable Electronic Media (CREM) at Los Alamos National Laboratory has yielded what federal officials call an accounting discrepancy and a watchdog group characterizes as a national security breach. Workers discovered the discrepancy in their account May 17 during a reinventory of classified media, according to officials. But laboratory and Project on Government Oversight (POGO) officials present different versions of the circumstances surrounding the missing media. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0517/web-missing-05-21-04.asp http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0504/052104gsn1.htm http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,63553,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Net surrogate mum jailed for two years The British woman who fleeced two childless couples of more than PS2,500 after offering her unborn baby for sale on the Net has been jailed for two years. Moira Greenslade, 33, from Keighley, West Yorkshire, received PS1,000 from Welsh couple Peter and Sharon Robinson-Hudson. Mr Robinson-Hudson was to declare himself the baby's natural father; his wife could then apply to adopt after the birth. She then did a PS9,000 surrogacy deal with GP Dr Mark Johnson and his wife Michelle from the Scottish Hebridean island of Benbecula, taking a PS1,500 downpayment. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/21/net_surrogate_mum_jailed/ http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/05/21/britain.mother.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Shiloh man guilty of trying to lure child for sex Court workers, prosecutors and detectives broke into smiles Friday as a jury found Thomas Stiles, 36, of Shiloh, guilty of using the Internet to lure a 12-year-old girl to have sex with. "Yes," said a female court worker to herself. Almost everyone congratulated former Prosecutor's Office Detective Keith Dunn on a job well done. It was because of Dunn that Stiles was arrested. In Dunn's sting operation, the detective pretended to be "Liz Duncan" while on-line in a Web chatroom called "Ilovemucholdermen," which was visited by Stiles. The truck driver solicited "Liz" for sex and twice tried to meet "her" in Vineland in March 2003 after two conversations on the Internet with "LizD1990," the last four numbers of the screen name being the year she was supposedly born. http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/cumberland/052204STILES2.cfm - - - - - - - - - - A man who sold chid porn nabbed A 20-year-old admitted downloading a stash of child pornography on to his computer before peddling it to other internet users. Nathan Weedall, of Hungerford Terrace, Crewe, kept 176 indecent images and 10 indecent video films of children to be shared online. He gave the images names including Little Ones Nude, Kiddy Child Porn and Five-year-old rape close-up. One picture involved a sadistic act on a young girl. It was rated as the most indecent possible on a five-point scale. http://www.crime-research.org/news/21.05.2004/284 - - - - - - - - - - El Centro city official arrested in child porn case An El Centro city employee was arrested this week on suspicion of possessing child pornography, police reported this morning. Wayne Walker, the city's traffic analyst, was taken into custody Monday following an investigation, said El Centro police Sgt. Jerrold Novak. When asked this morning if Walker was using computers to allegedly access child pornography and if that computer was in Walker's city office, Novak said he could not comment on that at this time. http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2004/05/20/news/news03.txt - - - - - - - - - - DoJ, HOMELAND SECURITY ANNOUNCE CHILD PORNOGRAPHY P2P CRACKDOWN WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Forces today announced a national law enforcement initiative aimed at combating the growing volume of illegal child pornography distributed through peer-to-peer (P2P) file trafficking computer networks. http://www.ice.gov/graphics/news/newsrel/articles/porncrackdown.htm - - - - - - - - - - Hacker group gets dose of own medicine An alliance called Hackers Against America (HAA) as received a dose of its own medicine with its own website having been defaced, according to information at the defacement archive Zone-H.org. The group had its website hosted by a free provider in Russia. According to Zone-H, it had claimed that new members were rapdily joining up, including oneAmerica who had links to the Al Qaeda group. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/21/1085028513015.html - - - - - - - - - - Cisco: Source code theft does not increase risk The publication of some of Cisco Systems Inc.'s proprietary software blueprints does not create an increased security risk to the equipment that powers much of the Internet, the company said. The world's largest maker of networking gear posted a message on its Web site more than a week after a portion of its Internetworking Operating System source code was illegally copied and posted on a Russian site. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/8726058.htm http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,93339,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Recent Software Flaws Bite Into Apple's Security Enthusiastic Macintosh owners brag that the digital plagues of worms, viruses and Trojan horses so common to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system rarely visit their sleek machines. It may be, though, that Apple doesn't fall too far from the PC. Three times this month, Apple Computer Inc. has been accused of failing to warn Mac owners of serious flaws in their software. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-apple21may21,1,1685542.story - - - - - - - - - - New injunction issued against maker of DVD-copying software A California company that specializes in encryption technology has obtained the latest court order barring a Missouri company's sale of popular DVD-copying software. Macrovision Corp. received the preliminary injunction in its patent-infringement lawsuit against 321 Studios Inc., already forbidden by federal judges in recent months from selling its DVD-cloning software. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/8726298.htm - - - - - - - - - - U.S. May Get a Privacy Czar To protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, the federal government may get a privacy czar if two congressional representatives have their way. Reps. Kendrick Meek (D-Florida) and Jim Turner (D-Texas), who are both members of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, introduced a bill Thursday that would establish a federal chief privacy officer position, as well as separate positions at every federal department and agency. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,63542,00.html E-Privacy Measures Head to California Senate http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3357171 Data-mining for terrorists sparks U.S. privacy fears http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5217440.html - - - - - - - - - - Athens Olympics braces for cyberattacks The Athens Olympics organizers are bracing themselves for a wave of cyberattacks once the games are under way, but insist that a physical breach of security still represents the biggest threat. The International Olympics Committee (IOC) outsourced its IT to Atos Origin for the four winter and summer games that began with the Salt Lake City winter games in 2002 and will end with Beijing in 2008. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5217547.html - - - - - - - - - - Surge in phishing attacks prompts calls for change The sentencing this week of a Texas man was a rare victory for the U.S. government in its fight against a form of online fraud known as "phishing." However, a recent surge in such scams highlights the need for more than consumer education, and some computer security experts are calling for major changes in the way sensitive information is exchanged online. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,93300,00.html - - - - - - - - - - FBI plans spammer smackdown It's been nearly six months since President Bush signed the first federal spam law with criminal sanctions--and not one bulk e-mailer has been criminally charged under it so far. But the FBI told Congress on Thursday that it has "identified over 100 significant spammers" so far and is targeting 50 of the most noxious for potential prosecution later this year. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5217299.html Senate Hears Mixed Reviews of Anti-Spam Law http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43622-2004May20.html Spammers get fussy as zombie army grows http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39155483,00.htm One small step against spam. One giant step for Yahoo and Microsoft http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/One_small_step_against_spam.html Now, two-thirds of all e-mail is spam http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5032714/ Spam clogs German government's e-mail system http://computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/groupware/story/0,10801,93338,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Reps. seek biometric delay House lawmakers introduced bipartisan legislation giving visa-waiver countries one more year to include biometric features in their passports. "I believe a one-year extension provides the [Visa Waiver Program] countries sufficient time to meet this deadline while reinforcing the commitment of the Congress and the Bush administration to improving the security aspects of the VWP," said F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) in a press release. He is House Judiciary Committee chairman and the bill's prime sponsor. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0517/web-sense-05-21-04.asp Biometric ID card trial kicks off in Glasgow http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/21/biometric_trial_glasgow/ http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39120846,00.htm USCIS gets new cards http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0517/web-uscis-05-21-04.asp - - - - - - - - - - New Crackdown on Internet Use Vietnam is stepping up its campaign against "bad and poisonous information on the Internet," state media reported, in the wake of a recent string of dissidents who used the Web to criticize the government. Since an April 23 meeting that was led by Deputy Premier Pham Gia Khiem, three ministries Culture and Information, Public Security, and Post and Telecommunications have been ordered to regularly monitor online information and to strictly punish those who abuse the Internet, the Communist Party newspaper People reported. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fg-briefs21.5may21,1,6776678.story - - - - - - - - - - Lack of desktop configuration standards hurting cybersecurity The Office of Management and Budget and other federal agencies are falling short on meeting the most critical provision of the Federal Information Security Management Act, a security expert and Hill staff member said. Bob Dix, staff director for the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census, said OMB has not adequately provided guidance that requires agencies to have minimum security configuration controls for employees PCs and notebooksa key provision in FISMA. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/26018-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Sasser fan club stops rattling tin Supporters of the self-confessed author of the Sasser worm, Sven Jaschan, have abandoned attempts to raise money on his behalf. A brief notice on the support site explains: "Actually, we were unable to get a hold of Mr. Jaschan in a timely manner, so we have decided to stop our fundraiser. Losing the paypal account didn't exactly improve the case either, and it seems all other online payment services have even worse fees." Any dosh handed was earmarked for giving Jaschan a good time before his case comes to court rather than towards paying legal fees. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/21/sasser_fan_club_folds/ - - - - - - - - - - The perils of work-time surfing Personal use of the internet at work is leaving many firms exposed to viruses and hackers. 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 Bob Jones, managing director of Equiinet, warns of the dangers of employees' unauthorised use of the internet and email. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1155315 - - - - - - - - - - Open source under attack (Series of stories) The open-source movement is under fire from SCO, flaws and even itself. Defenders are quick to dig trenches and organize counterattacks. But all is not lost as word spreads that profits can be made. http://zdnet.com.com/2251-1110-5217848.html - - - - - - - - - - Anti-Terror Database Got Show at White House One day in January 2003, an entrepreneur from Florida named Hank Asher walked into the Roosevelt Room of the White House to demonstrate a counterterrorism tool he invented after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Soon to be called Matrix, it was a computer program capable of examining records of billions of people in seconds. Accompanied by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and the state's top police official, Asher showed his creation to Vice President Cheney, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III and Tom Ridge, who was about to be sworn in as secretary of the new Department of Homeland Security, according to people at the meeting. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43608-2004May20.html - - - - - - - - - - Senator undecided over whether to fire aide for sex 'blog' Sen. Mike DeWine said Thursday that he has not decided whether to fire an aide who allegedly posted her exploits in an Internet diary, including accepting $400 from a married man for sex. "We're in the process of completing a review," the Ohio Republican said. "It's a personnel matter." However, DeWine said he expects to make a decision on the aide's job soon. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2004-05-21-aide-blog_x.htm *********************************************************** 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. 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