NewsBits for September 13, 2004 ************************************************************ New Hampton mayor pleads guilty to child porn charges The former mayor of New Hampton pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal child pornography charges. A federal grand jury indicted Richard Warner, 52, in April. Appearing before U.S. District Judge Fernando Gaitan in Kansas City on Wednesday, Warner admitted he used a minor child to make sexually explicit material between Sept. 16, 2002 and Oct. 4, 2002. He also admitted sending and receiving child porn over the Internet and agreed to hand over a hard drive from his home computer. http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/9611704.htm - - - - - - - - - - Teacher Charged with Child Pornography On the cusp of the school years start, shock and disbelief were two of the sentiments expressed by one colleague of Monmouth Regional High School math teacher Cecelia Schneider, who remains in jail on child pornography charges. Schneider, 50, a 25-year veteran teacher with the Monmouth Regional district, was charged on Aug. 24 with one count of aggravated sexual assault, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child (with the production and distribution of child pornography), and one count of endangering the welfare of a child (with the performance of a sexual act on a juvenile), according to the Ocean County Prosecutors Office. http://www.crime-research.org/news/13.09.2004/630/ - - - - - - - - - - Talking worm attacks Windows users A Turkish worm that contains an embedded audio message has been bending the ears of Windows users. A virus writer has released a worm that speaks to its victims. The Amus worm uses the Windows Speech Engine, embedded on Windows XP, to play the following message: "How are you. I am back. My name is mister hamsi. I am seeing you. Haaaaaaaa. You must come to turkiye. I am cleaning your computer. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. 0. Gule. Gule [bye bye]." http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39166409,00.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/13/amus_worm/ - - - - - - - - - - MyDoom offshoots add anti-removal code The inclusion of anti-removal code in the latest MyDoom offshoots is a sign of worse to come, say experts. Security experts warned on Friday that several new versions of MyDoom have surfaced on the Internet, suggesting that worm writers are taking a stab at improving the venerable virus. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39166396,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Online ID numbers cause for concern in N.H. Some county registrars could seek a state law allowing them to keep Social Security numbers and other personal identifying information off government Web sites, to help prevent identity theft. Several New Hampshire counties put land deeds, mortgages and other real estate documents online last year to make the information more accessible to the public. Some counties also post death certificates and other public records. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-09-13-nh-ssn_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Russia: 80% of software is illegal Russia: the situation with the pirated software in Russia become settled, director of Non-commercial Software Products Suppliers Partnership Dmitri Sokolov said at the briefing in Kaliningrad. He connected a sensible change for the better with more close than 3 years ago cooperation of the partnership, engaging 160 of IT companies, all across the country and law enforcement to fight violations of copyright and adjacent rights. http://www.crime-research.org/news/11.09.2004/629/ - - - - - - - - - - Identity fraud crisis spirals out of control The UK has the highest level of fraud in Europe, and the nation's fastest-growing problem is identity fraud. That was the claim made by APACS, the umbrella body for the UK banking industry, at a PKF event in London last week. According to the organisation, identity fraud, whether company or individual, grew by 45 per cent in 2003, and card not present (CNP) fraud grew by six per cent. However, the number of crimes committed using counterfeit credit cards actually fell by 28 per cent over the year. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1157999 - - - - - - - - - - Laptops, tech toys drive rise in dorm room thievery College dorm rooms used to be places for hanging out. But in a world of laptops and other pricey digital doodads, they're becoming places to loot. The result: the emergence of a multimillion-dollar industry for dorm room security. Students can cart $3,000 or more in gear to campus just by toting their laptops, digital cameras, MP3 players, PDAs and DVD players. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-09-12-dormsecure_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Latest Internet Peril: Cyber Bullies The U.S. leads other technologically advanced nations in the reported incidences of cyber bullying, the latest trend to threaten youngsters who use the Internet. The effects on the victim are devastating, according to cyberspace attorney Parry Aftab. Parents' tend to worry about the obvious Internet dangers, such as porn, sexual predators and, to a lesser extent, misinformation. According to new studies by a non-profit group, Wired Safety, there is now another cause for alarm: cyber bullying. http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Latest-Internet-Peril--Cyber-Bullies&story_id=26909 - - - - - - - - - - Beware of malformed MIME artists The UK's top UK security co-ordination agency today warned of a series of vulnerabilities involving implementations of the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) protocol within email and web security products. In a series of eight technical advisories the UK's National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre (NISCC) explains how malformed MIME constructs might be exploited to allow attackers to bypass content checking and antivirus tools. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/13/mime_vuln/ - - - - - - - - - - Linux developers insist on high level security Nine of ten companies developing Linux claim that their systems have never been infected by a virus, while four of five companies assert that their systems haven't ever been down due to hacking. http://www.crime-research.org/news/13.09.2004/605/ - - - - - - - - - - SP2 Fights Worms, Has Bugs After a rough couple of years of embarrassing and serious hacker attacks hitting the Windows-using world, Microsoft Corp. struck back in August with the security-minded upgrade it dubbed Service Pack 2. The release is widely regarded by tech pundits as a major milestone for the operating system. With SP2 in place, Windows XP should be more effective at stopping viruses, worms and browser hijackings by including security features that people previously had to install or figure out on their own. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13436-2004Sep11.html - - - - - - - - - - Security flaws found in hundreds of email filtering tools Hackers could exploit content checking and antivirus products... The body responsible for protecting the UK's critical national infrastructure against electronic attack has issued an urgent alert to users about eight serious new security flaws affecting hundreds of email gateway products. http://software.silicon.com/malware/0,3800003100,39123925,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - NIST looks at forensics tools for handheld devices As crime goes high-tech, investigators need to be familiar with techniques and tools for gathering, preserving, analyzing and documenting data from digital devices. Handheld devices, such as personal digital assistants, are a distinct class of computers that are becoming increasingly common and offer their own forensic challenges. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/27273-1.html - - - - - - - - - - McAfee aims at small firms with e-mail service McAfee on Monday unveiled a new security service designed to let small companies outsource their e-mail security to the antivirus software maker. Managed Mail Protection is a spam-filtering service that can detect and quarantine infected e-mails before they enter a customer's network, the security company said. Subscribers to the service can obtain detailed information on quarantined e-mails via Web-based management reports. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5363642.html - - - - - - - - - - VPN secures Citrix users Netilla Networks, a maker of network access devices, will today introduce a virtual private network (VPN) appliance that enables client-less access to Citrix MetaFrame applications for remote users. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1158020 - - - - - - - - - - I Spy With My Little Eye Forget Congress' myopic efforts to outlaw spyware. What we really need is better enforcement of existing computer crime laws. In Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll's Humpty Dumpty tells Alice, "When I use a word, ... it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less." "The question is," replies Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things." http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/266 - - - - - - - - - - Want more secure software? Then give your vendor hell Software holes will mean security-related downtime will triple by 2008, unless IT managers take matters into their hands. According to analyst house Gartner, downtime linked to security problems will rise from five per cent to 15 per cent of all downtime, due to the influx of mobile working technologies and a growing dependence among businesses on the internet and web services. http://management.silicon.com/itdirector/0,39024673,39123926,00.htm Security glitches could lead to downtime tripling, says analyst http://www.vnunet.com/news/1158032 - - - - - - - - - - Law enforcement given a visual notebook From identity theft to gang warfare, law enforcement agents and other investigators face the monumental task of collecting and correlating forensic evidence, witness reports and other paper documents to solve their cases. But i2 Inc. of Springfield, Va., recently released new investigative analysis software called Visual Notebook with the aim of helping law enforcement officials solve cases by mapping the relevant information in a visual format. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0913/tec-law-09-13-04.asp - - - - - - - - - - Ridge: Integration of people, technology helps secure nation Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on Tuesday touted the Bush administration's use of technology to protect the homeland over the last three years, but the secretary was careful not to strike a partisan chord amid the political background. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0904/090704tdpm1.htm Panel reviews integration of communications systems http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0904/090804tdpm2.htm - - - - - - - - - - TSA refines passenger-screening efforts The Transportation Security Administration is forging ahead with a revamped screening program for the bulk of airline passengers and honing plans to speed vetted travelers through security checks. TSAs next-generation passenger screening program, Secure Flight, will replace of the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System II. The agency scrapped CAPPS II earlier this year in the face of criticism from privacy advocates and others who condemned it as overly invasive. http://www.gcn.com/23_27/news/27240-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Pentagon Revives Memory Project It's been seven months since the Pentagon pulled the plug on LifeLog, its controversial project to archive almost everything about a person. But now, the Defense Department seems ready to revive large portions of the program under a new name. Using a series of sensors embedded in a GI's gear, the Advanced Soldier Sensor Information System and Technology, or ASSIST, project aims to collect what a soldier sees, says and does in a combat zone -- and then to weave those events into digital memories, so commanders can have a better sense of how the fight unfolded. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,64911,00.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.