NewsBits for August 18, 2004
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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
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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
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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/
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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
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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
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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
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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/
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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