NewsBits for June 22, 2004 ************************************************************ Hackers attack Taiwan ruling party website Suspected Chinese hackers have attacked the website of Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), officials said. The party's homepage was replaced with pro-China pictures and digitally altered images of Chen and his Vice President Annette Lu, a DPP official said. One photo shows a Chinese People's Liberation Army soldier aiming his rifle at a target while another shows two men raising the Chinese national flag. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1212&e=10&u=/afp/20040622/tc_afp/taiwan_china_internet&sid=96001018 - - - - - - - - - - Music industry files 482 more song-swapping suits The music industry filed copyright infringement lawsuits against 482 computer users Tuesday, the latest round of litigation by recording companies against suspected online music file-swappers. The cases were filed against 213 people in St. Louis, 206 in Washington D.C., 55 in Denver and eight in New Jersey, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, the Washington-based trade group that represents the major recording companies. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/8985274.htm RIAA takes hundreds more 'John Does' to court http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5243587.html Turn in film pirate, get $500 http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movies/06/22/film.piracy.reut/index.html Tech heavies support challenge to copyright law http://news.com.com/Tech+heavies+support+challenge+to+copyright+law/2100-1028_3-5242774.html - - - - - - - - - - Child Porn Sentence Patrick Stoner of Sioux Falls will spend the next 37-years in the South Dakota State Penitentiary. Stoner pled guilty to four counts of possession of child porn after being caught trading pictures with an undercover police officer in Texas earlier this year. Stoner was originally charged with 26 counts, 22 of them were dismissed. Although Stoner was not making the photos or selling them, Judge Keen said Stoner is just as guilty as those who do. He added that it's people like Stoner who download these pictures that create a market for this kind of filth. http://www.ksfy.com/Global/story.asp?S=1958179&nav=0w0jO5Tx - - - - - - - - - - Official Pleads Guilty To Child Porn Charges Prosecutors say a former Franklin County constable pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to 19 counts of child pornography charges. 59-year-old Hugh Russ Campbell of Frankfort was arrested in December and indicted in January after undercover FBI agents found he distributed child pornography over the Internet. http://www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?S=1959054 - - - - - - - - - - Man gets probation for having child porn A former Catawba Nuclear Station supervisor and scoutmaster received five years probation Monday after admitting he downloaded 14 child pornography videos to his work computer. John Mark Smith, 46, of Gaston County, N.C., faced up to 71 years in prison after pleading guilty at the Moss Justice Center to 14 felony counts of third degree sexual exploitation of a minor and a single misdemeanor charge of computer crime. http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/3655405p-3257724c.html - - - - - - - - - - More child porn charges for Meron Clayton James Meron, awaiting sentencing on child pornography charges from last year, has been charged with further offences. Meron was in court to face charges Tuesday afternoon. The charges are related to new incidents since the initial seizure of evidence last October. They cover a period from March 1 to last week. Police seized a variety of computers, computer equipment, DVDs, disks, tapes, hard drives, digital cameras, and digital video cameras. Police say some images are of very young children, and they're convinced they are pornographic. http://pei.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=pe_meron20040622 - - - - - - - - - - Internet crimes in Armenia Most of computer crimes in the banking sphere of Armenia are committed through the Internet, Olga Safaryan, legal expert of "Internews" told during seminar "Legal Field of Information Technologies and Their Correspondence to European Standards". She said that these crimes are not solved in Armenia, like anywhere in the world, because banks try to avoid announcing such information; they fear to incur reputation damage. Olga Safaryan informed that these crimes haven't been prosecuted yet hence they have no special organization to fight computer crimes in Armenia. http://www.crime-research.org/news/22.06.2004/441/ - - - - - - - - - - MasterCard tackles phishing Credit card giant MasterCard announced on Tuesday a new initiative aimed at fighting the growing problem of online fraud, specifically the emerging threat of "phishing" schemes. Purchase, N.Y.-based MasterCard, the second-largest provider of credit cards in the United States, said it is teaming with NameProtect, a maker of security software, to pursue individuals involved with various forms of Internet scams. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5243302.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39158375,00.htm http://www.vnunet.com/news/1156082 http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/cybercrime/story/0,10801,94024,00.html Watch out for the bogus invoice man http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/22/bogus_invoices/ - - - - - - - - - - Child porn cops get boost in funds The Ontario Provincial Police unit that combats child pornography will get a $1-million boost to $2.4 million a year, Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter confirmed yesterday. The money will be used to hire five new detectives for Project P, bringing the total number of officers to 19. It will also be spent on updating computers and other equipment used to track down producers and distributors of child porn. http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2004/06/22/509022.html - - - - - - - - - - U.K. tests child-porn blocker Canada's major Internet service providers are prepared to work with law enforcement agencies to help combat online child pornography, but they won't commit to the large-scale blocking of known child-porn sites. The idea of preventing Internet subscribers from accessing specific Web sites has generally been resisted by North American service providers and civil liberties activists, who argue there's too much potential for blocking legitimate information in a society that cherishes free speech. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1087855810178&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467 - - - - - - - - - - Alliance turns up heat on spam A coalition of top Internet service providers on Tuesday advocated a set of technical guidelines designed to stem the tide of spam. Yahoo, Microsoft, EarthLink, America Online, British Telecom and Comcast announced a proposal of best practices for filtering and sending e-mail. Among the recommendations are technical methods for authenticating e-mail senders by Internet Protocol address or with digital content signatures. That way, ISPs and e-mail providers could help prevent e-mail fraud, one of the chief frustrations for antispam fighters. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5243727.html http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/06/22/tech.spam.reut/index.html Spammers use your cat's name to sell you Viagra http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39158374,00.htm Blind Get Earful of Spam Daily http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,63934,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Privacy advocates ask FTC for RFID technical review Privacy advocates yesterday called for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission or other government agencies to begin a comprehensive assessment of the potential effects of radio frequency identification technology. The requests came during an FTC workshop on RFID. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/privacy/story/0,10801,94019,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Network admins get peek at Microsoft's security Microsoft's top network security manager appeared at a company road show Tuesday to let other administrators know what the software giant is doing to help keep corporate networks safe. Speaking at Microsoft's Security Summit, a 20- city tour to showcase the software giant's latest technologies regarding Internet threats, Richard Devenuti, corporate vice president for Microsoft's Services and IT unit, highlighted improvements in the company's software and told how those improvements had been incorporated into Microsoft's own networks. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5244035.html - - - - - - - - - - Bookies stand firm against attacks and user demand The UK's raft of online bookies are performing well despite the twin pressures of extortion gangs threatening denial of service attacks and a bet-mad public throwing their hard-earned cash behind Wayne Rooney and the England football team. silicon.com gave web monitoring firm Empirix a list of leading bookmakers' websites to test and the research revealed most were coping with large volumes of traffic during the first week of Euro 2004 - but there are some which would definitely receive a report stating 'could do better'. http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39121587,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Feeling sluggish? It might be spyware If you've ever wondered how software got on your computer, and spent even more time wondering how to get it off, chances are you've encountered spyware. Below are a few simple steps to remove spyware from your PC. http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/06/22/spyware.qa.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Have 419ers bled Africa dry? It appears that the days of riches beyond the wildest dreams of avarice pouring forth from Africa are finally over. Let's face it, the well had to run dry eventually. After Mariam Abacha had taken her cut, and the multiple relatives of Liberia's Charles Taylor had left the continent with suitcases bulging with what was left after Nigerian civil servants had plundered the oil project underspend booty, well, see for yourself... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/22/skint_419er/ - - - - - - - - - - Delay in passenger-screening system aggravates senator Privacy concerns have indefinitely derailed Bush administration efforts to implement a computer system for pre-screening airline passengers, a senior official said Tuesday. But a key senator took issue with the delay. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0604/062204tdpm1.htm - - - - - - - - - - Logan Airport using BlackBerries for background checks Long a popular gadget for lawyers and businessmen, the BlackBerry wireless handheld device from Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) has now been drafted into the U.S. war on terrorism. Massachusetts State Police officers patrolling Boston's Logan International Airport are using BlackBerries to perform background checks on suspicious individuals, according to LocatePlus Holdings Corp., which makes the AnyWhere RIM BlackBerry product used by police for the checks. http://computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,94025,00.html *********************************************************** 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.