NewsBits for September 21, 2004
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Norway to block child porn sites
Norwegian police and a state-controlled telecommunications
group on Tuesday announced a joint project to block access
to child pornography websites on the Internet. Starting
next month, the Telenor ASA group will filter hundreds
of sites that the national crime police, Kripos, deem
to contain child pornography. Anyone in Norway attempting
to access such illegal sites will instead see a page
informing them about the filter, and a Web link to Kripos.
http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040921.gtchildsep21/BNStory/Technology/
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Court Overturns PA Law Aimed at Blocking Child Porn on the Web
A Pennsylvania law-unique in the nation-that forced
Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access
to child pornography web sites was struck down by
a federal court on the grounds that it also forced
the ISPs to block a range of other sites. The law
says that the state attorney general or any county
district attorney can ask a local judge for an order
declaring certain Internet content may be child porn
and thus requiring any ISP serving Pennsylvania
citizens to block the content.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA454108?display=NewsNews&industry=News&industryid=1986&verticalid=151
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Ex-teacher jailed over child porn
A former PE teacher and cricket coach from Sussex
has been jailed for four-and-a-half years for
distributing child pornography on the internet.
Peter Watts, 37, of Upper Dicker, near Hailsham,
admitted nine charges of distributing the images
and 35 of making indecent images of a child.
Police found more than 3,500 child porn images
on his computer when they raided his home, Lewes
Crown Court heard. He was given a non-custodial
sentence for similar offences in 2001.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/southern_counties/3674280.stm
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Teacher in child porn case dismissed
Gary C. Mochnick, the Lakeland high school teacher
suspected of downloading sexually explicit images
of children on his computer, was fired, according
to a letter from the Polk County School Board. The
termination came after Mochnick of Wakefield Drive
in the Hill n' Dale section of Hernando was arrested
on Friday and charged with possession of child
pornography, a third-degree felony. In a letter
dated Friday, Polk County school superintendent
Jim Thornhill wrote that he was exercising his
option to fire Mochnick, 52, before his
probationary period ends.
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/09/21/Hernando/Teacher_in_child_porn.shtml
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CONMAN'S CHILD PORN
A CLERK who stole PS300,000 from his accountancy
firm to live the high life was only caught when
child porn was found on his computer. Over six
years Justin Barber, 32, siphoned the money from
his bosses to buy fast cars, luxury holidays and
pay his bills. But he was arrested in the Operation
Ore crackdown on child porn last July and sacked
by accountants Larking Gowen of Norwich, Norfolk.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/tm_objectid=14665404&method=full&siteid=50143&headline=conman-s-child-porn-name_page.html
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Police search residence for child porn
Village of Hartland - Police seized more than 100
videotapes, more than 60 CDs, and a computer hard
drive that may contain child pornography from
a residence Sept. 15. According to a search warrant
filed Sept. 15 in Waukesha County Circuit Court,
police received an anonymous phone call Aug. 23
stating a 34-year-old man who lives on North Avenue
was in possession of child pornography. The anonymous
caller stated she had a friend who had been at the
residence recently and saw a picture of two young
children engaged in a sexual act, the warrant said.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1399&dept_id=173065&newsid=12965163&PAG=461&rfi=9
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Child porn charges filed against orthodontist
King County prosecutors filed child pornography
charges Friday against a man whose job has him
around children all the time. The charges against
Mark Joondeph come after several months of
investigation by sheriff's detectives rising out
of complaints from young girls. "He asked me if
I had a boyfriend," one 11-year-old told KING 5
News. The girl said Joondeph made lewd comments
to her last year. "He also asked if I would like
having an old guy as my boyfriend," she said.
Investigators say he made inappropriate comments
to young girls both online and in person. Three
of the girls were Joondeph's patients.
http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_091704WABchildpornchargesJK.128e0776e.html
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Housing boss had child porn
The longtime executive director of the Lehigh
County Housing Authority was charged Friday with
having hundreds of images of child pornography on
his office computers. John C. Seitz, 56, of Indian
Creek Road, Upper Milford Township, faces 12 counts
of sexual abuse of children for allegedly having
the images and 12 counts of criminal use of a
communication facility for allegedly using his
office computers to search for and get images
of nudity or sex acts involving minors.
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_5housingsep18,0,1920197.story
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House takes on piracy, 'video voyeurism'
The U.S. House of Representatives approved on
Tuesday legislation aimed at curbing software piracy
and stopping "video voyeurism." The first bill makes
it a crime to sell "counterfeit labels" attached to
copyrighted material including DVDs, CDs or computer
programs. The second bill, already approved by the
Senate, punishes those who "capture an image of
a private area of an individual without their
consent."
http://news.com.com/Briefly+House+takes+on+piracy%2C+video+voyeurism/2009-1014_3-5219580.html
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AOL to Sell Security Devices to Members
America Online, a unit of Time Warner Inc., signed
a deal with Internet security company RSA Security
Inc. to launch its AOL PassCode, a service designed
to add an additional layer of protection to member
accounts. PassCode users will be provided with
a small hand-held six-digit numeric code key.
To log on to an AOL account equipped with the
service, users will have to type in six digits,
which refresh on the device every 60 seconds,
on top of using the regular password.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0904/092104c1.htm
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-rup21.5sep21,1,6169509.story
AOL now offering one time passwords
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?ContentId=3401
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Anti-spam firms hit back at Gartner claims
Gartner's claim that the level of unsolicited bulk
email is falling has been rejected by users and
anti-spam companies. Anti-spam vendors hit back
on Tuesday against analyst firm Gartner's claims
that the level of spam is falling.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39167412,00.htm
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Academics get NSF grant for Net security centers
The National Science Foundation announced Tuesday
that it has granted more than $12 million to
academic researchers for the creation of two
centers to investigate infectious code and study
the Internet's ecology. The funds set aside for
the centers are part of the NSF's Cyber Trust
program, through which the foundation has
granted a total of $30 million to 33 projects
focused on researching ways to provide
better information security.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5376474.html
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Hackers are after your money, warns Symantec
Unpatched and vulnerable systems are open to
hackers seeking financial gain, Symantec has
warned in its latest report. E-commerce has
emerged as the "single most targeted industry"
according to the latest Internet Security Threat
Report from security software provider Symantec,
with hackers now appearing to be motivated by
economic gain rather than notoriety.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39167302,00.htm
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USPTO expands signature options
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officials issued
a final rule today that would allow two alternatives
to traditional signatures on patent documents.
The regulation includes 140 pages of policy changes
meant to simplify patent filing procedures. Among
other things, the rule not only permits electronic
signatures for applications filed using USPTO's
electronic filing system but also allows for
s-signatures, in which the signature is typed
between two forward slashes.
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0920/web-uspto-09-21-04.asp
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Merger creates world's biggest IT security services firm
IT security firms TruSecure and Betrusted are
to merge in order to create the "biggest security
services company in the world". Ubizen, Betrusted's
mostly owned subsidiary, is also folding into
the new company, which is to be called Cybertrust.
Subject to regulatory approval the agreement
is expected to finalise within the next 30 days.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/21/trusecure_betrusted_merge/
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=TruSecure--Betrusted-Merge-To-Form-Cybertrust&story_id=27085
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Will cell numbers be listed with 411?
Cell phone owners currently enjoy a kind of privacy
through obscurity: Wireless numbers aren't listed
with directory assistance. But now that Cingular
Wireless, Sprint, Nextel Communications and other
large carriers are planning to compile a publicly
accessible list of certain wireless phone numbers,
politicians in Washington, D.C., are threatening
to step in and regulate any such effort.
http://news.com.com/Will+cell+numbers+be+listed+with+411/2100-1039_3-5376592.html
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WLANs go feral in corporate undergrowth
Frustrated employees are taking IT into their own
hands by installing DIY Wi-Fi access points (APs)
in their offices while their IT departments don't
even notice, according to Gartner. A rogue access
point can leave an organisation's network wide open
and once on the network, an unauthorised user could
go undetected. Speaking at the IT Security Summit
in London yesterday, John Girard, Gartner research
veep, told delegates that organisations must make
sure that employees or hackers do not install
unauthorised wireless APs on their networks and
that their APs are configured securely. Monitoring
WLAN traffic "in the air" is the most effective
means of detecting unauthorised systems, he added.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/21/diy_wifi_security/
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Would you hire a hacker?
The news that teenage hacker Sven Jaschen may
have got a job at a German security company won
mixed reviews at Gartner's IT Security Summit
in London. The 18-year-old virus writer facing
criminal charges for creating the Sasser worm
has been offered a job by a German IT security
firm, a move that divided the opinion of security
industry experts at Gartner's IT Security Summit
in London on Tuesday.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39167417,00.htm
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OpenOffice: A legal Trojan horse--but for whom?
The Internet went all abuzz last week when a report
by Todd Bishop of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
posited that Microsoft was keeping open its legal
options against licensees of OpenOffice.org.
Commonly known as OpenOffice, the software is
a freely downloadable open source productivity
suite that constitutes a significant portion
of Sun's commercially offered StarOffice. It
also exemplifies the threat that the open-source
movement poses to Microsoft.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5375070.html
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When outsourcing, don't forget security, experts say
When it comes to outsourcing IT operations to
countries such as India and China, companies
often focus on slashing costs and gaining
productivity but fail to take into account
cultural differences that may affect their
security, according to experts attending
the Gartner IT Security Summit in London
today.
http://computerworld.com/managementtopics/outsourcing/story/0,10801,96074,00.html
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Government will order airlines to turn over passenger data
Everyone who took a commercial flight within
the United States in June will have his travel
information turned over to the government so it
can test a new system for identifying potential
terrorists, federal officials announced Tuesday.
The Transportation Security Administration plans
to order airlines to turn over the information
in November. Passenger names will be checked
against watch lists maintained by the Terrorist
Screening Center, which is administered by the
FBI, as part of a new screening system called
``Secure Flight.''
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/9723490.htm
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5376365.html
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0920/web-tsa-09-21-04.asp
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0904/092104c1.htm
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Former CIA director sees slow creep toward nationwide fingerprinting
American citizens face the prospect of having
to submit fingerprints to the government to make
it easier to fight terrorism, former CIA director
James Woolsey says. Taking a high-level overview
of the challenges facing the United States
in pursuing terrorists globally, Woolsey said
biometric technologies will play a key role in
striking a balance between security and liberty.
Woolsey, a vice president with Booz Allen Hamilton
Inc. of McLean, Va., spoke yesterday at the 2004
Biometric Consortium Conference in Arlington, Va.
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/27362-1.html
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Pro-Chechen websites targeted
September 14, 2004 leading websites of Chechen
separatists Chechen Press and Caucasus Center
became unavailable to visitors. It happened after
Lithuanian government refused a Russian request
to shut down a pro-Chechen Web site that published
a $20 million reward for assistance in the capture
of Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying it
cannot take action without a court order. Servers
of Chechen Press were hacked on September 4,
the next day after the assault on a school in
Beslan, where terrorists held more than 1,200
of hostages for more than 2 days.
http://www.crime-research.org/news/21.09.2004/643/
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