NewsBits for October 5, 2004
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Florida deputy shoots, kills child pornography suspect
A Hillsborough County Sheriff's detective Thursday
shot and killed a man wanted on a child pornography
warrant after he pointed a gun at deputies. John
Stanley Lewis, 54, died at his home where detectives
had gone shortly after 6 a.m. to arrest him on
a warrant of 30 counts of child pornography.
(Naples News story, free registration required)
http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/florida/article/0,2071,NPDN_14910_3221660,00.html
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Hackers Attack Dutch Government Web Sites
Several Dutch government Web sites remained
offline Tuesday after an attack by hackers
protesting unpopular policies of the right-wing
Cabinet, the government said. In what is known
as a denial-of-service attack, the hackers
continually made fake requests for information
from the Web sites, effectively shutting out
legitimate users, a government statement said.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/9842193.htms
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39169017,00.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6185657/
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Man Arrested After Tornado Reveals Cache Of Child Porn
A man whose house was damaged by a tornado was
in jail Monday after repair workers found a large
amount of child pornography and called police.
Robert L. Medvee, 52, of Frederick, was charged
Friday with 48 counts of creating computer images
of child pornography and 48 counts of possession
of child pornography, Deputy Jennifer Bailey said.
The seized material -- computer discs, videotapes
and photographs -- filled 20 to 24 boxes, Frederick
County State's Attorney Scott Rolle said.
http://www.wnbc.com/news/3783275/detail.html
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eBay 'second chance' fraud reaches UK
Scammers are impersonating eBay sellers in an
attempt to hoodwink users of the online auction
site into handing over payment for non-existent
goods. If the person who wins an auction on the
site doesn't pay up, the second highest bidder
of an auction may be offered the option to
purchase goods at his offer price. These
"second chance offers" are the focus of
the fraudulent scams.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/05/ebay_scam_ruse/
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U.S. court hits "spam" envelope-stuffing scam
A U.S. court has temporarily shut down an
operation that used "spam" e-mail to drum
up customers for a fraudulent work-at-home
scheme, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission
said Tuesday. Gregory Bryant and Nadira
Bryant of Florida promised recipients of
their unsolicited e-mail that they would
earn $4 for each envelope they stuffed
and mailed as long as they paid $24.77
for a start-up kit, the FTC said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6185656/
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S. Korea Claims N. Korea Has Trained 600 Crackers
from the hey-that's-not-cool-man dept. maggeth
writes "The Financial Times is reporting that
North Korea's military and intel services have
trained as many as 600 computer hackers specifically
for attacks against South Korea, Japan, and the
US. South Korea claims that the north has a five-
year university program for hacker training and
cites recent attacks on government computer systems.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/05/0314258
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Microsoft: Firewalls are failing to keep out hackers
Firewalls aren't doing a good enough job of
protecting corporate networks, according to
a Microsoft security expert. Speaking in London
on Monday at a technical briefing on the need
for next generation firewalls, Microsoft security
technology architect Fred Baumhardt outlined
some of the gaps that traditional firewalls
are leaving open.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39168969,00.htm
Microsoft: Firewalls are leaking
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5397525.html
Upgrade for security, Microsoft boss tells customers
http://www.vnunet.com/news/1158578
Microsoft takes aim at malware
http://www.vnunet.com/news/1158571
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Click here to become infected (Part 2)
New spam emails can turn vulnerable PCs into
spam-spreading 'zombies'. The spam has a link
which purports to allow users to opt out of future
emails. However, MessageLabs, an e-mail filtering
company, warns that these links are part of a
scam and, if clicked on, will turn a victim's
PC into a conduit for the distribution of further
spam. The bug uses a drag-and-drop JavaScript
exploit in Internet Explorer to download a nasty
.EXE file.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/05/messagelabs_spam_warning/
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EarthLink finds spyware running amok
The average Internet-enabled PC hosts 26 spyware
programs, according to an audit by EarthLink.
The Internet service provider worked with security
company Webroot's software to scan consumer PCs,
surveying more than 3 million systems between
January and September. The study found 83 million
instances of spyware, a sign of increasing
bombardment by malicious software.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5397333.html
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Windows XP Service Pack 2 heads to retail
After winding its way across the Internet,
Windows XP Service Pack 2 is headed to retail
shelves. Microsoft last week started the process
of swapping out all of the boxed copies of
Windows XP with the updated version, with
a triangle in the upper corner touting SP2
and its security enhancements. Retailer
OfficeMax is among those promoting the change,
advertising that it will have XP SP2 on sale
starting Wednesday.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5397729.html
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Security upgrade at WiFi locations
Starting today, users of wireless broadband
should find it safer to surf the Web from a
T-Mobile HotSpot. Thousands of T-Mobile WiFi
zones throughout the United States and Europe,
including those at Starbucks coffee houses,
Borders bookstores and airport terminals,
have been upgraded with a security system
called 802.1x.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1620&ncid=1293&e=6&u=/sv/20041005/tc_sv/securityupgradeatwifilocations
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Finally, Gates gets serious about spyware
Acknowledging last week that a Microsoft-provided
spyware remedy is on the way, Bill Gates said,
"This malware thing is so bad ....now that's
the one that has us really needing to jump in."
Gates admitted that even his own home systems
have been afflicted by "that crap" spyware.
Perhaps now we know what it takes for something
to get promoted to the top of Microsoft's to-do
list.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5396801.html
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Judge defangs Patriot Act
A New York judge did the right thing last week
when he threw out a USA-PATRIOT Act provision
that forced ISPs to secretly co-operate with
the FBI, and gave them no obvious avenue for
appeal. It is "under the pressing exigencies
of crisis that there is the greatest temptation
to dispense with fundamental constitutional
guarantees which, it is feared, will inhibit
government action."
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/05/us_patriot_defanged/
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Software disasters are often people problems
New software at Hewlett-Packard Co. was supposed
to get orders in and out the door faster at the
computer giant. Instead, a botched deployment
cut into earnings in a big way in August and
executives got fired. Last month, a system that
controls communications between commercial jets
and air traffic controllers in southern California
shut off because some maintenance had not been
performed. A backup also failed, triggering
potential peril.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/biztech/10/05/software.disasters.ap/index.html
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