NewsBits for September 27, 2004 ************************************************************ Burnaby man charged after major child porn bust A Burnaby man is facing charges after border agents intercepted a stash of DVDs and videos depicting child pornography in a package sent from southeast Asia. Burnaby RCMP say the contraband was discovered in a shipment supposedly carrying quilts, but concealed at the bottom of the box was a large number of videos. http://www.canada.com/vancouver/story.html?id=25d81c28-c19a-44ef-bb9c-69f8b4d05b91 - - - - - - - - - - HFC bank loses its marbles over customer CC details Customers of HFC Bank, a subsidiary of HSBC, are threatening legal action after an "operator error" exposed personal information in emails from the bank. The bank emailed 2,600 of its Marbles credit card customers with a message marked "Urgent", asking them to contact the bank within 24 hours. But the sender somehow included the entire distribution list in the outgoing mail. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/27/e-bank_email_blunder/ Financial web sites vulnerable to phishing attacks http://www.vnunet.com/news/1158369 http://www.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=48721 - - - - - - - - - - Fake sweepstakes entries sweeping the nation Send in $10, enter the world of telemarketing thieves. The trouble began, Sue thinks, when her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease 10 years ago. Her dad, now 88, slowly became obsessed with having enough money to pay for his wife's health care. To Clyde, answering a few of those promising sweepstakes entries that come in the mail seemed innocent enough. Send in $10, they say, to claim your $10,000 prize -- or some slight variation. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6082875/ - - - - - - - - - - Feds invite comment on VoIP wiretaps The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday (23 Sept.) launched a public comment period on its plan to compel Internet broadband and VoIP providers to open their networks up to easy surveillance by law enforcement agencies. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/26/feds_seek_net_tap_comments/ - - - - - - - - - - Internet has made it convenient for those who exploit children. They don't even have to leave the privacy of their homes to go looking for the smut they de-sire. But, child predators who sexually exploit children should beware. They should beware, because cybercrime law enforcement agents "have their number," and classes are being taught on how to "catch" these exploiters of innocent children. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13000444&BRD=1614&PAG=461&dept_id=161052&rfi=8 - - - - - - - - - - Oz conservatives demand porn-busting net levy A conservative Australian party is demanding a levy on all internet users to fund a AU$45m blockade on smut and general web nastiness at server level, news.com.au reports. Family First - which holds seats in South Australia - has close ties to the Pentecostal Assemblies of God and reckons that: "As a society, we have acknowledged the need to regulate other media and prevent porn peddlers from accessing children and adolescents." The ban would hit "disturbed, aggressive or sexualised behaviour" and would see users stump up AU$7 to AU$10 per year. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/27/net_levy/ New rules cut porn risks http://www.vnunet.com/news/1158365 - - - - - - - - - - Tough new measures to fight child porn Large corporate companies could be prosecuted if any of their staff were caught with child pornography in their emails or attachment folders thought to have been deleted. The Film and Publications Act, which will soon be amended, will see perpetrators face up to 30 years in prison. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20040925100429829C515846 - - - - - - - - - - British Police Arrest Man in Cisco Source Code Theft The Sept. 17 arrest of the person allegedly responsible for stealing internetworking software source code from Cisco Systems Inc. continues a string of recent successes for law enforcement authorities who are looking to catch cybercriminals. The trend is encouraging, analysts said. But they added that the successes still tend to be limited to well-known cases -- not the majority of incidents. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,96184,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft pirates 'cleverer' Microsoft has again warned the channel to steer clear of illegal software after two members of Europe's largest software counterfeiting ring were sent to jail. A German court recently sentenced the father of notorious software pirate Ralph Blasek, himself jailed for five years in July 2003, to 16 months' imprisonment for selling counterfeit software and infringing Microsoft copyright. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1158359 - - - - - - - - - - Hit 'n' trial: Railways detect cyber crime When the Indian railways launched their website for online reservations, little did they know that it would fall prey to cyber crime. In Lucknow, a student of computer applications used credit card numbers belonging to other people to buy train tickets. The transaction was possible because the credit card number did not have to be verified. http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?id=61016&template=Citycrime&callid=1&frmsrch=1&txtsrch=Railways+detect+cyber+crime+ - - - - - - - - - - Virus-free, spam-free, secure email a step closer A British-based startup believes it has found the Holy Grail - safe, secure email that is spam and virus-free. Jeftel says it can solve the problems which have plagued email since it began. Subscribers to the service pay PS25 annual licence fee for the downloaded software. This will enable them to send emails directly to other machines, rather than via a web or email server. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/27/secure_email/ - - - - - - - - - - Avecho tempts fate with PS10,000 hacking challenge Come and have a go - if you think you're hard enough. A small antivirus firm is offering PS10,000 to anyone who can break its product. Fancy winning PS10,000? An antivirus firm is lining itself up for a potential smack in the chops by inviting Internet users to break its product. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,39020351,39167945,00.htm http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5383988.html - - - - - - - - - - Crypto standard set to expire The Data Encryption Standard, or DES, was a mid-'70s brainchild of the National Bureau of Standards: the first modern, public, freely available encryption algorithm. For over two decades, DES was the workhorse of commercial cryptography. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5384208.html - - - - - - - - - - VIA secures mesh networking with on-chip encryption A hardware-based cryptographic technology developed by VIA Technologies could allow distributed wireless networks to transmit encrypted data much faster than before. The VIA PadLock ACE (Advanced Cryptography Engine) runs on top of VIA's C5P Nehemia core processor. It is capable of encrypting or decrypting data at a maximum rate of 12.8 Gigabits per second, and can cope with 128-bit, 196-bit and 256-bit keys. Because it handles the algorithms used in AES (advanced encryption standard), the PadLock ACE is compliant with the US government's cryptographic standards. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/wireless/0,39020348,39168057,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Quiet teen's terror plot stuns school In the real world, he was a shy suburban teenager who lived with his family on a Clinton Township cul-de-sac amid lawn ornaments, tidy gardens and children's play sets. But in the anonymous world of the Internet, police said, Andrew Osantowski, 17, became "Nazi Bot Sadistic," a chat room regular who wrote of his high school's police liaison officer: "Now I'm more than ever determined to blow her head off." http://www.crime-research.org/news/27.09.2004/665/ - - - - - - - - - - Data mining sifts the gems from digital ore Analysis apps become must-have software for many agencies. The Royal Caribbean cruise ship MV Legend of the Seas was steaming from Ensenada, Mexico, toward Hilo, Hawaii, in April of last year when its captain radioed an alarm to federal authorities. Someone had placed a note in one of the ships bathrooms threatening to kill all the Americans on board if the vessel docked in the United States. http://www.gcn.com/23_29/news/27420-1.html - - - - - - - - - - 419ers enjoy a five-finger shuffle Nigerian 419ers' less than perfect command of the English language has in the past allowed us to make merry at their expense. The following bog- standard advance fee fraud email contains all the classic elements - deceased African general, suitcases packed with readies, etc, etc. Not much to provoke a fit of the giggles there, you might think, But read on: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/27/419ers_wang_qin_email/ - - - - - - - - - - 411 hot air--legalized extortion? Members of the U.S. Senate heroically leapt into action last week by preventing cell phone companies from adding your mobile number to directory assistance without your permission. Right? http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-5383419.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. 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