NewsBits for September 29, 2004 ************************************************************ Warspammer guilty under new federal law A Los Angeles man who used other people's wi-fi networks to send thousands of unsolicited adult- themed e-mails from his car pleaded guilty to a single felony Monday, in what prosecutors say is the first criminal conviction under the federal CAN-SPAM Act. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/9606 - - - - - - - - - - Chinese IT student jailed for running XXX site A 22-year-old Chinese computer student has been jailed for four years for running a porn site. State media reports that the student - known only by his surname Xie - was arrested in July for flogging XXX flicks. The court heard how Xie, a student at the east China's Zhejiang University of Technology, had earned more than 160,000 yaun (PS10,700) from his porn site which attracted some 1,500 subscribers. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/29/china_jails_student/ - - - - - - - - - - UK policeman arrested over phone tap claims Six men - including a serving Metropolitan Police officer - have been arrested today concerning the alleged illegal interception of private phone calls carried out for clients of a central London detective agency. The Met police's Anti-Corruption Command arrested the men this morning following a tip-off by BT earlier this year. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/29/phone_tap_arrests/ - - - - - - - - - - Ha, ha you're infected A new version of the infamous Bagle worm series is spreading widely across the net. Bagle-AS (AKA Bagle-AZ) normally arrives in emails with a price or joke-related (infected) attachments with exe, cpl, scr or com extensions. Subject lines are picked one of a series of innocuous greetings such as Re: Hello, Re: Thank you! or Re: Hi. Open these on a vulnerable Windows box and you get the pox. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/29/bagle_joke_worm/ - - - - - - - - - - S.J. library computers snarled by worm, virus A pair of computer bugs has played havoc since for the past week with some computers at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Main Library in San Jose, but library information technology officials said today that the problem has had minimal effect on public services. Library technology officials said a virus and a worm somehow got into the system Wednesday sometime, and that by last Thursday afternoon the foreign code had begun to generate so much traffic that it overloaded the system. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/9791810.htm - - - - - - - - - - Court strikes down USA Patriot Act provision Declaring that personal security is as important as national security, a judge Wednesday blocked the government from conducting secret, unchallengeable searches of Internet and telephone records as part of its fight against terrorism. The American Civil Liberties Union called the ruling a "landmark victory" against the Justice Department's post-Sept. 11 law enforcement powers. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/9613 Judge disarms Patriot Act proviso http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5388764.html Part of Patriot Act Struck Down http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,65136,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Amazon, Microsoft File Internet Fraud Suits Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. filed lawsuits against U.S. and Canadian companies they claim had used their names to commit fraud on the Internet. One suit accuses Gold Disk Canada Inc. of online forgery known as spoofing by sending e-mails that appear to come from Amazon.com and Microsoft's Hotmail.com, the companies said. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-09-29-amazon-sues-spammers_x.htm http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-rup29.1sep29,1,1315256.story http://www.vnunet.com/news/1158431 http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/27484-1.html http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6126679/ http://www.vnunet.com/news/1158431 http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Amazon--Microsoft-Suit-Caps-Busy-Two-Weeks&story_id=27267 - - - - - - - - - - JPEG exploit could beat antivirus, says expert Security experts say that a JPEG exploit could pass through antivirus software. Anti-virus software looks as if it will struggle to protect corporate networks from the latest Windows vulnerability - innocent looking JPEG files that contain security attacks. According to director of antivirus research for F-Secure Mikko Hypponen, antivirus software will strain to find JPEG malware because by default it only searches for .exe files. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39168250,00.htm http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5388633.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/hacking/2004-09-29-jpeg-hack_x.htm Hackers use porn to target Microsoft JPEG flaw http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,96227,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Good news: 'Phishing' scams net only $500 million The online cons known as "phishing" have cost U.S. consumers $500 million, according to a study released Wednesday. In addition, the study found that three- quarters of wired Americans have noticed an increase in phishing incidents during the past few months, with one-third saying they've receiving e-mails sent under fraudulent pretenses at least once a week. The study, sponsored by Truste, a nonprofit privacy group, and NACHA, an electronic payments association, surveyed 1,335 Internet users across the United States. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5388757.html http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Phishing-Tab-To-Reach------Million&story_id=27279 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/29/phishing_survey/ - - - - - - - - - - Pedophiles, kids: Beware of Internet At 2:30 p.m. on school days, Connecticut FBI Special Agent Tom Veivia hits the keys. It's a dark time in law enforcement circles: Between 2:30 and 5 p.m., thousands of children nationwide are virtually unsupervised, many with access to computers. "The bad guys out there know that," says Veivia's boss, Supervisory Special Agent Joseph Dooley. In a brand- new lab of eight flat-screened, state-of-the-art computers in the FBI's New Haven offices, Veivia is about to become pretend prey -- or perhaps bait -- to a cyber-pedophile. With a few quick keystrokes, he logs on to a chat room known to be frequented by pedophiles. http://www.newbritainherald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13008461&BRD=1641&PAG=461&dept_id=10110&rfi=6 - - - - - - - - - - Police turn forensic skills on handhelds Handhelds are likelier to lead to handcuffs for techie criminals following the release of a report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The report details software tools to aid in the extraction of data from handhelds. NIST, a nonregulatory federal agency, said the purpose of the report is to teach law enforcement, incident response teams and forensic examiners how to acquire information from handhelds using PalmSource's Palm OS, Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS and Linux. http://news.com.com/Police+turn+forensic+skills+on+handhelds/2100-1047_3-5388859.html - - - - - - - - - - Keeping out the bugs Want to make life miserable for your company's network support staff? Just plug your virus- infected laptop into the corporate network and let the digital bug do its dirty work on dozens or hundreds of other computers.Then forget about getting invited to the boss' holiday party. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/9787870.htm - - - - - - - - - - IT bosses eye up biometric security Firms prepare to introduce iris scans and fingerprint recognition in the workplace. Most firms are gearing up for the introduction of biometric security devices, according to new research. Nearly two thirds (65 per cent) of companies surveyed by Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) said they expected workplace iris scanning and fingerprint recognition technology to be used sometime in the future, with 44 per cent expecting to see it used within two years. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1158422 - - - - - - - - - - RFID spreads with feds Defense Department officials envision using radio frequency identification technology to harvest information about the durability of parts used by forces in the field. Meanwhile, Food and Drug Administration officials can see the day when even small doses of drugs will come marked with RFID tags. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0927/web-rfid-09-29-04.asp Speakers debate RFID benefits, challenges http://computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/technology/story/0,10801,96259,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Linux, the pirate's friend, says Gartner We in the press find recalls and corrections a big help. We get a hell of a lot of junk that we assume is dull and therefore throw away without reading, often without even noticing, but the shrill words RECALL!!" or "CORRECTION!!!!" signify to us that there is something somebody has decided they'd rather not have said, or that they'd rather we didn't read. We dive straight into the trash, and although frequently the original remains very dull indeed and is immediately retrashed, sometimes it isn't. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/29/linux_windows_piracy_cover/ - - - - - - - - - - Cyber terrorism - terrorism of future As civilization more and more uses technologies, we should be sure that there is enough degree of control in order to protect those who use these technologies. http://www.crime-research.org/news/29.09.2004/669/ - - - - - - - - - - Data validity, security issues can arise during BI rollouts But business intelligence software can yield major benefits, they say. Companies can see major improvements in operations using business intelligence software, but numerous technical, cultural and process challenges must be overcome first, according to users at this week's Business Intelligence Perspectives conference here. http://computerworld.com/databasetopics/businessintelligence/story/0,10801,96258,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Camera phones banned by religious edict in Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia's highest religious authority has barred the use of mobile phones with built-in cameras, blaming them for ``spreading obscenity.'' The edict, which follows a failed ban on the sale and import of the wildly popular devices, is the most sweeping attempt by any nation to prevent the voyeurism invited by the new technology. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/9791177.htm *********************************************************** 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.