NewsBits for September 17, 2004 ************************************************************ British police arrest suspect in Cisco code theft British authorities have arrested a man suspected of stealing source code from Cisco Systems in May, a spokeswoman for Scotland Yard confirmed Friday. The 20-year-old man, who has not been identified, was arrested Sept. 3, after the Metropolitan Police Computer Crime Unit searched two residences in Manchester and Darbyshire. The man is suspected of committing "hacking offenses" under that country's Computer Misuse Act of 1990, said Julie Prinsep, a spokeswoman for Scotland Yard. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5371807.html - - - - - - - - - - 11 Indicted in Bootlegged Software Case A federal grand jury in Los Angeles has indicted 11 people on charges of conspiring to distribute nearly $31 million worth of bootlegged software programs. The indictments, handed up Wednesday, stem from a two-year investigation that uncovered a network that replicated more than 10,000 illicit software CDs, licenses and manuals. The defendants allegedly distributed them to warehouses and then processed payments when the counterfeit products were sold, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles. http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Software-Sting-Leads-to-Arrests--Seizures-of-Pirated-Goods&story_id=27022 http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-software17sep17,1,5345364.story http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/17/digital_marauder_charges/ - - - - - - - - - - German lawyer arrested in piracy crackdown German police have arrested a 46 year-old lawyer who, along with two brothers from Thuringen, offered illegal software, games and movies through the high speed download service Ftpwelt.com for over a year. Details will be revealed during a press conference today. The German Society for the pursuit of copyright infringements e.V. says (press release in German here) the police dealt a serious blow to the warez (pirated software) community. The organisation says it also has a list of 45,000 customers who knowingly paid for illegal content and may have to face legal consequences later. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/17/german_lawyer_arrested/ - - - - - - - - - - Two men accused of using the Internet to lure two Texas teenagers Two men accused of using the Internet to lure two Texas teenagers to their Georgia home are facing statutory rape and molestation charges. Richard Mason, 22, and Brandon Self, 25, were being held without bond Thursday in a Georgia county jail. Both men face two counts each of enticing a child, child molestation, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, statutory rape and interference with child custody-interstate. http://www.crime-research.org/news/17.09.2004/649/ http://www.click2houston.com/news/3720684/detail.html http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0904/10rome.html - - - - - - - - - - Putnam pushing Clinger-Cohen security amendment Rep. Adam Putnam may have found a way to push the first major change to the Clinger-Cohen Act into law. The Florida Republican and chairman of the Government Reform Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census will attach the amendment, which would require agencies to include cybersecurity in the planning and acquisition phases of systems development, to a bill that should be passed before the close of Congress, said Bob Dix, the subcommittees staff director. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/27343-1.html http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0904/091704nj2.htm House may act on cybersecurity liability protection http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0913/web-dix-09-16-04.asp - - - - - - - - - - Senate would curb Secure Flight, data mining The Senate version of the Homeland Security Department appropriations bill would put new restrictions on the departments program for screening air passengers and its use of data mining technology. The Senate passed its version of HR 4567 by a 93-0 voice vote on Sept. 14, clearing $32 billion for the department. The House earlier had approved the same overall level of spending. The $32 billion figure stands $896 million above the administrations budget request for DHS. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/27349-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Cash Bounties For Spammers Win Limited FTC Backing The Federal Trade Commission yesterday gave limited endorsement to offering cash rewards to people who help track down e-mail spammers, suggesting that such bounties might work but in fewer circumstances than had been pushed by some anti-spam activists. The agency said that although Internet-savvy sleuths often can crack the technical disguises used by spammers to hide their identities and locations, the amount of information they could gather that would lead to successful prosecutions would be limited. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27220-2004Sep16.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,39020369,39166963,00.htm http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/09/17/ftc.spambounty.ap/index.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/17/spam_bounty_analysis/ - - - - - - - - - - AOL Rejects Spam Plan by Microsoft Add America Online to the growing list of companies and organizations shunning a spam-fighting proposal from Microsoft. AOL cited "tepid support" for Microsoft's so-called Sender ID technology, which seeks to cut down on junk e-mail by making it difficult for spammers to forge e-mail headers and addresses, a common technique for hiding their origins. Thursday's announcement came on the heels of a recent decision by internet engineers to reject a preliminary proposal from Microsoft because of its patent claims. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,64989,00.html http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-rup17.2sep17,1,7807916.story http://www.vnunet.com/news/1158166 http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=AOL-Rejects-SenderID&story_id=27023 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/industry/2004-09-17-aol-shuns-ms-spam-tech_x.htm http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/groupware/story/0,10801,96022,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Cybercrime summit urges international cooperation Pressure is growing on more nations to implement the Council of Europe's anti-cybercrime treaty. European officials met on Friday in a high-level push to persuade more countries to sign up to an international effort combating cybercrime. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39166977,00.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/17/euro_cybercrime_conference/ - - - - - - - - - - Hackers Jump On Windows Vulnerability Hackers are drooling at the thought of exploiting Microsoft's most recent vulnerabilities, security analysts said Thursday. Less than 24 hours after Microsoft released details of the latest vulnerability in Windows, hackers were sharing details and eager to get their hands on exploit code, said Ken Dunham, the director of malicious code research for Reston, Va.-based security intelligence provider iDefense. http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/dailyarchives.jhtml%3Bjsessionid=TCQEJD0Z1V224QSNDBGCKHQ?articleId=47900062 - - - - - - - - - - Security alerts recorded at Olympic Games More than five million security alerts were recorded during 16 days of Olympic competition, according to Atos Origin, the company managing the Games' IT. While there were no proven attacks on the network during the event, Atos Origin did observe some abnormal behaviour. Just over 400 alerts were classed as serious - and 20 of these alerts were viewed as critical. Some of the IT infrastructure was set in an open environment. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1158160 - - - - - - - - - - Symantec to offer Web-based Norton AntiVirus console Symantec Corp. yesterday announced plans to release a Web-based console to help system managers and network administrators centrally administer Mac clients using Norton AntiVirus for Macintosh 9.0. The Web console -- to be made available specifically to corporate and enterprise licensees of Norton AntiVirus software -- will allow administrators to distribute virus definitions and product updates on demand, install the Norton AntiVirus software itself, lock-down settings, push configuration changes and maintain client data in a MySQL database. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,96025,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Symantec to acquire security consultants @Stake Symantec Corp. has agreed to acquire @Stake Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based provider of IT security consulting services. After closing the deal, expected in October, Symantec plans to integrate @Stake's services and applications into its global professional services offerings, the company said in a statement. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,96021,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Faronics to malware: 'Freeze' Faronics this week announced FreezeX, which uses a whitelist technique to prevent unauthorized executables - including spyware, keyloggers, trojans, and viruses -- from installing or launching. http://news.zdnet.com/2110-1009_22-5371104.html - - - - - - - - - - Boeing readies RFID standards for release to suppliers in 2005 The Boeing Co. is on track to issue a set of radio frequency identification specifications to its suppliers sometime during the first half of next year, an executive from the aircraft maker said at the Frontline Solutions Conference and Exposition this week. The specifications will spell out Boeing's technical standards relating to issues such as the frequency, memory capacity and size of RFID tags and labels. Suppliers that ship parts to Boeing will eventually need to label their components with RFID tags that meet the specifications. http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/technology/story/0,10801,95989,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Cisco, Microsoft in security showdown Cisco Systems and Microsoft are headed for a collision over network security, with customers caught in the middle. The two companies have each proposed competing "end to end" security architectures, marking the latest evolution in network defense--an approach concerned not only with scanning for viruses but also with policing networks to deny connections to machines that don't conform with security policies. http://news.com.com/Cisco%2C+Microsoft+in+security+showdown/2100-7355_3-5370427.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.