NewsBits for August 18, 2004 ************************************************************ Violence Tackled at Online Gaming Parlors Six days a week, teens crowd the Blue Screen Gaming cybercafe to hunt each other down with assault rifles inside virtual computer worlds. In these video game halls, nobody gets hurt. But real-life violence has flared around some of these businesses, prompting municipal crackdowns. Los Angeles is the latest, and largest, California city to impose restrictions. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9025-2004Aug17.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-08-18-cybercafes_x.htm California passes video game bill http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/17/technology/personaltech/videogame_cal.reut/index.htm - - - - - - - - - - California lawmakers back e-mail warning California's Assembly has voted to require the state's employers to inform their workers in writing if e-mail and other Internet activity is monitored at the office. If it becomes law, supporters said the bill would place the state at the forefront of protecting employee privacy online and may serve as a model for similar bills in other states. http://news.com.com/California+lawmakers+back+e-mail+warning/2100-1028_3-5314569.html - - - - - - - - - - Computer information in banks is exposed to infringement Law enforcement detained two perpetrators who intended to steal big money having committed a row of illicit financial transactions on the Internet. Malefactors used restricted information from the bank, one of them had access to it as he was an employee of a finincial institution. A criminal case under the article 362-2 "Theft, Appropriation, Extortion Or Abuse Of Office" of the Criminal Code of Ukraine was instigated. http://www.crime-research.org/news/18.08.2004/569/ - - - - - - - - - - Fake virus texts send Evil message The SMS marketing campaign of Resident Evil has been criticised by security company Sophos for causing virus worries among mobile phone users. Game producers CE Europe are rewarding users for sending text messages and emails to friends telling them they have been infected by a virus. This campaign comes only a week after Symbian's warnings about a mobile phone virus in the wild. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39163891,00.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08/18/t-virus_hoax_spam/ Virus writers and spammers ally to create smarter threats http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39163878,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - ISPs plan to can the spamvertisers UK ISPs have adopted a new policy of closing e-commerce sites that use spam to advertise - but because most such sites are no longer hosted in the UK, they are counting on international bodies to adopt the proposals too. UK ISPs are adopting a code of practice that will enable them to shut down e-commerce sites found to have sent spam, regardless of how and from where the spam was sent. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39163978,00.htm US blamed for 85 per cent of spam http://www.vnunet.com/news/1157415 - - - - - - - - - - Supercomputing, cyberinfrastructure highest R&D priorities The Bush administration has placed supercomputing and cyberinfrastructure among its highest priorities for agency research and development efforts in fiscal 2006. In a memo to agency executives, Office of Management and Budget director Josh Bolten and John Marburger, director of the White House's Science and Technology Policy Office, asked officials to focus their 2006 budget requests on these two areas. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/26975-1.html DISA: Systems too 'brittle' for net-centricity http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/26971-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Firm points to flaws in Windows security update Security researchers say they're starting to find flaws in Microsoft's latest major update for Windows XP. Last week, German company Heise Security announced that two flaws could be used to circumvent the new warnings that Windows XP Service Pack 2, or SP2, normally would display about running untrusted programs, potentially giving a leg up to a would-be intruder's attempts to execute code on a victim's PC. And more revelations about vulnerabilities are on the way, Thor Larholm, senior security researcher with vulnerability-assessment company PivX Solutions, said Wednesday. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5315063.html Another day, another delay for XP SP2 Microsoft has delayed the automatic distribution of a major upgrade to Windows XP Professional for at least another week. The 272MB enterprise version of SP2 was released earlier this month and a smaller consumer version - weighing in at around 80MB - was due to be available through Windows Update on 16 August. Under the latest revision of Microsoft's timetable, the update won't be available to users of XP Professional until at least 25 August, AP reports. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08/18/sp2_xp_pro_delay/ - - - - - - - - - - SAP users warned of false support calls It told customers not to give out confidential information to callers. German business software vendor SAP AG issued a warning to customers not to provide confidential information on the phone to people claiming to be company support staff. "Over the past several weeks, several customers have received calls to provide confidential data such as access codes from groups requesting this information to correct some alleged problems," said SAP spokesman Markus Berner. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,95321,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Vasco joins anti-phishing party Vasco Data Security International has jumped into the anti-phishing pool by adding Digipass Host Authentication to its security offerings. Most Vasco customers use its authentication products in the financial sector, but the company is extending this technology to allow end users to check on whether merchant as well as bank Web sites are genuine. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105_2-5314570.html Digital signatures 'could be forged' http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39163876,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Horizon DataSys vaccinates public access PCs Horizon DataSys has introduced Drive Vaccine, a security solution for public access computers that works by rolling back to an original configuration on restart. Drive Vaccine works on both Windows and Mac operating systems and can operate in a mixed network. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105_2-5314574.html - - - - - - - - - - E-passports to put new face on old documents One of the basic forms of personal identification, the passport, is on the verge of taking on a new, high-tech identity. A number of countries are about to launch trials of passports and visas that incorporate basic biometric information about the document holder alongside the traditional photo and passport number--data such as a digital image of the citizen's face that will be compared to a facial scan taken at the airport. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5313650.html - - - - - - - - - - CBI wants clearer thinking on ID cards UK businesses are calling for more clarity on the aims of the Home Secretary's plan for a national identity scheme. Responding to the Home Office's consultation on the draft ID cards bill, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) says the proposed system is not robust enough to guarantee individuals' identity, and businesses are worried they will 'carry the can' if data held on the central registry proves inaccurate. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1157421 - - - - - - - - - - Japanese bank taps NEC for document security using RFID NEC Corp. has signed a contract with a Japanese bank for an RFID-based document management system, the company said yesterday. The system, which NEC claims is the world's first to use radio frequency identification for this function, will be introduced by Bank of Nagoya Ltd. in April 2005, NEC said. http://computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,95327,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Digital technology to track ad delivery New technology adopted by US television networks could eventually enable advertisers to target individual households - and even be used in conjunction with RFID tracking chips. Top marketers are going digital to track the delivery of commercials into US homes with a system some advocates say will revolutionise advertising the way product codes changed the selling of sliced bread. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/emergingtech/0,39020357,39163887,00.htm http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2004-08-18-rfid-plus-ads_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - How spyware works--and burns The proliferation of advertising programs on the PC is called by many names--most of which involve unprintable language. To the Slashdot crowd, it's spyware and its authors should be burned at the stake. Some in Congress call it "cyber trespass" and want to outlaw specific "deceptive practices." To Claria, the biggest company in the niche, it's extraordinarily profitable to the tune of $90 million in revenue and $35 million in profit last year. To most Net surfers, it's an annoyance they don't understand. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-5313375.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.