NewsBits for July 9, 2004 ************************************************************ Microsoft Employee Suspect In AltaVista Hacking Microsoft employee Laurent Chavet was arrested last week on allegations that he had illegaly accessed former employer AltaVista's computer system. According to a report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the 29- year-old French national copied source code related to AltaVista's crawler technology to his home computer. http://news.com.com/Microsoft+staffer+charged+with+stealing+search+code/2100-1032_3-5264057.html http://www.webpronews.com/news/ebusinessnews/wpn-45-20040709MicrosoftEmployeeSuspectinAltaVistaHacking.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/09/mozilla_bug/ - - - - - - - - - - Man, 28, Accused Of Having Sex With 13-Year-Old Girl A 28-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly having sex with a 13-year-old girl he met on the internet. Nassau County police say Thomas Geed, of Flushing, Queens, was arrested Wednesday for the sexual encounter at a Floral Park motel the day before. Geed allegedly contacted the girl over the Internet and made arrangements to meet her for sex. http://www.wnbc.com/news/3505878/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - Crackdown on sex fiends An El Salvadoran immigrant living illegally in New York is nabbed for allegedly sexually abusing a 6-year-old boy. A circus clown known to children as "Spanky" is arrested in North Carolina on child pornography charges. A Baltimore man is taken into custody after allegedly having sex with boys in the Philippines and Cambodia. Within the past year, federal agents have rounded up 3,247 sex offenders as part of a sweeping Department of Homeland Security crackdown targeting pedophiles, international sex tourists and Internet predators, officials said yesterday. http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/210586p-181395c.html - - - - - - - - - - Iraq domain owner convicted The current owner of Iraq's .iq domain has been found guilty along with his four brothers, of illegally shipping computer parts from the US to Libya and Syria. Bayan, Basman, Ghassan, Hazim and Ihsan Elashi have yet to be sentenced but face 10 years apiece. On top of this, all five of them will face a further trial in September for allegedly dealing in the property a "specially designated terrorist" - namely Mousa Abu Marzook, the ex-head of Hamas' political bureau and their cousin's husband, for which they could face a further 10-year sentence. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/09/iraq_domain_owner_convicted/ - - - - - - - - - - 'Cyberdissident' jailed in Vietnam Communist Vietnam, widening a crackdown on dissent, sentenced a literature professor on Friday to 19 months in prison for using the Internet to criticise its policies. The court ordered Tran Khue's immediate release, however, because of time spent in jail since his arrest in December 2002. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39160088,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Scob code still widespread, says security expert More than 100 web servers are still distributing the "Scob" malicious code, first identified two weeks ago as code used in a widespread attack to plant Trojan horse programs on vulnerable computers. The attack used compromised Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) web servers to distribute the Trojan horse programs. http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=131851 - - - - - - - - - - Lovgate Worm Comes Back to Life A new variant of the Lovgate worm has been discovered infecting PCs globally, according to security bulletins by major security firms including Symantec and McAfee. First discovered in February 2003, the Lovgate worm spreads by e-mailing itself to addresses found on infected PCs. Once inside a machine, the worm opens a "back door" to allow an attacker inside. In addition, Lovgate scans PCs for executables and replaces them with further copies of itself. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116840,00.asp - - - - - - - - - - Security flaw found in Mozilla browser Developers on the open-source browser have released a fix for a vulnerability that affected PCs running Windows XP. Developers at the open-source Mozilla Foundation have confirmed that the latest version of their Web browsers have a security flaw that could allows attackers to run existing programs on the Windows XP operating system. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,39020369,39160016,00.htm http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Mozilla-Security-Nightmare-Begins&story_id=25807 2004: Internet Explorer's year of shame http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39160000,00.htm Buyers don earplugs at upgrade time http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-5263633.html - - - - - - - - - - E-voting stays on hold in Calif. A federal judge this week upheld the California secretary of states decision to decertify current touch-screen voting machines for use in the November general election. The decision means that it is unlikely that the direct-recording electronic machines, used by an estimated 43 percent of voters in the states March elections, will be used in this falls presidential election. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/26554-1.html Ohio election board not concerned, but ready for trouble http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-07-09-ohio-evote_x.htm Lawsuit challenges Florida ballot-recount rules http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,94401,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Inside 'The Loup' It's called The Loup - a supposed safe place for teens to gab over the phone. But the popular telephone chat line, where 13-year-old Tyisha McCoy allegedly met her killer, is really a fertile hunting ground for filth- spewing, cradle-robbing men. A Daily News reporter who dialed into the free service immediately was pelted with X-rated come-ons from other callers looking for sex from underage girls. http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/210563p-181460c.html - - - - - - - - - - Fifth of UK surfers download pirated movies One in five UK internet users claims to have downloaded a pirated copy of a movie, according to research by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The MPAA also said that, despite their protestations to the contrary, 12 per cent of downloaders in the UK are buying fewer DVD movies than before. In Korea the figure is 56 per cent. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1156543 - - - - - - - - - - Computer Security: a handbook for the ordinary user Book review It may seem a little self-referential to review a book by a colleague but Thomas C. Greene's Computer Security for the Home and Small Office is a well-written manual on computer security and online-privacy that's well worthy of your attention. Written with home users in mind, the book aims to demystify computer security and help users to enjoy and a safer and more enjoyable computing experience. The book, though not without its flaws, largely succeeds in this difficult task. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/09/computer_security_review/ - - - - - - - - - - Anatomy of a 419 scam Exclusive Regular readers will be familiar with our ongoing coverage of variations on the 419 advance fee fraud scam. Occasionally, we report on people who have been suckered by the promise of riches beyond the wildest dreams of avarice - and duly fleeced for their trouble. Two oft-posed question from readers are "how could they be so stupid?", and "surely everyone is aware of these scams by now?" Indeed, we have been accused in the past of carrying too much 419 coverage. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/09/419_scam_anatomy/ - - - - - - - - - - Convention security to test new DHS operations center Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge yesterday said new IT systems have been deployed ahead of schedule to ensure that the government is capable of managing any security crisis that might summer's political conventions. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,94443,00.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. 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