NewsBits for October 15, 2004 ************************************************************ Four charged in landmark UK phishing case Four eastern Europeans appeared in a London court yesterday charged with defrauding online banks of hundreds of thousands through an elaborate 'phishing' scam. The two men and two women from Russia, Estonia and Ukraine are allegedly leading members of a gang that siphoned cash from ebanking accounts after conning consumers into handing over confidential banking details. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/15/phishing_charges/ http://www.vnunet.com/news/1158764 - - - - - - - - - - Top Korean Hacker Arrested A man thought to be one of the most flagrant hackers in Korea has been apprehended. The Cyber Terror Response Center (CTRC) of the National Police Agency on Monday arrested a 30-year-old man identified as Lee, a former employee of an information security company, on suspicion of hacking into 1,152 public and private computer systems since March, 2003. The number represents the most successful hacking attempts by an individual in this country. http://www.crime-research.org/news/15.10.2004/716/ - - - - - - - - - - China jails four for running mucky site Four men have been jailed for peddling porn as China continues to wage its war against online smut. The four men - Liang Hongbin, Li Yufei, Yu Jianhong, and Chen Dong who are all in their twenties - have been jailed for between 12 months and two-and-a-half years. According to state media, the men rang up a profit of 16,000 yuan (PS1,070) during the couple of months their site was online. During that time it attracted some 16,000 hits as punters paid to watch mucky movies. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/15/china_porn/ - - - - - - - - - - 6m South Koreans exposed in slam and spam scam South Korean police want to question 15 mobile phone workers and brokers over allegations they traded the personal information of an estimated six million people in the northeast Asian country. The group netted 360m South Korean Won ($314,0000) by allegedly selling the personal details of an estimated one in five of south Koreas 30m net users. Police are still investigating exactly how the group obtained the sensitive data but some details are already emerging. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/15/s_korea_info_theft/ - - - - - - - - - - Studios sue suspended LAPD captain over bootleg DVDs Major motion picture studios on Thursday sued a suspended Los Angeles police captain for alleged copyright infringement in her scheme selling pirated and counterfeit DVDs. Capt. Julie D. Nelson, 52, was arrested in December after police found hundreds of bootleg movie DVDs in her car, her home and a friend's apartment. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-10-15-police-pirate_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Law clear on child porn THE law was clear in supporting child porn charges against 30 people that were challenged by the NSW Opposition leader, Premier Bob Carr said today. State Opposition leader John Brogden yesterday accused detectives from the Child Protection and Sex Crimes Squad of botching the cases by failing to have photographic evidence classified by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC). http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11079958%255E1702,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Industry asks Congress for help on DHS cybersecurity role An alliance of major IT trade groups is seeking to boost the status of a federal cybersecurity chief within the Homeland Security Department. Five business groupsthe Cyber Security Industry Alliance, the Business Software Alliance, TechNet, the IT Association of America, and the Financial Services Roundtablesigned an Oct. 14 letter to the House and Senate conferees working to reconcile the two versions of H.R. 10, the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/27640-1.html New intelligence chief might oversee data-sharing system http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1004/101504tdpm1.htm DOJ writes to share http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/1011/web-doj-10-15-04.asp Feds see need for info-sharing assertion http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/1011/web-iac-10-15-04.asp - - - - - - - - - - Instant messaging could land bosses in jail UK firms could be breaking compliance laws by using instant messaging, and banning the applications may not be successful. UK companies are fretting that employees using IM applications could be breaking compliance laws. Lawyers said this week that more companies are consulting them over the use of IM because they are unsure of its legal implications. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39170374,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Michael Jackson used as virus bait Security experts at Sophos Canada have warned that a file posing as a home movie of pop star Michael Jackson is infected by a malicious Trojan. Thousands of messages posted to Internet newsgroups Since Wednesday are encouraging computer users to download a file supposedly containing pictures of Mr. Jackson abusing a young boy. In reality, no such photographs are present but the file can open computers up to attack from hackers. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041015.gtjacko1015/BNStory/Technology http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39170461,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Netsky variant uses compression trick McAfee has upped its warning level for the latest version of Netsky, which appears to have a Portugese flavour. Virus hunters at McAfee have identified a new variant of the Netsky virus and rate it as a medium risk. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39170369,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Oracle warns of exploits for latest DB flaws Oracle Corp. is warning customers to apply software patches it released in August, citing the availability of malicious code that can exploit unpatched vulnerabilities in its software. The company acknowledged in a recent security alert describing the vulnerabilities that it has received notification that there are published exploits for "some of the issues" addressed in the alert. The company didn't provide information about the exploits. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/holes/story/0,10801,96707,00.html - - - - - - - - - - BlackBerry can be bitten by DoS attacks A flaw that could cause denial-of-service attacks on Research In Motion's BlackBerry handheld devices has been discovered. The vulnerability affects smart phones running RIM handheld software version 3.7, Service Pack 1, and possibly older versions. The flaw has been fixed in version 3.8 and later, the company said in an advisory posted to its Web site Thursday. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-5412263.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/mobile/0,39020360,39170463,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Online auction fraud doubles THOUSANDS of people are thought to have been affected by internet auction fraud, which more than doubled in the past year. Officers from Strathclyde's internet crime unit have recorded almost 200 incidents this year in the west of Scotland compared with fewer than 100 last year and they believe these reported cases may be the tip of the iceberg. Officers say internet auction fraud has become one of a number of ways criminals target the public online. http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/26114.html - - - - - - - - - - Dell backs spyware education drive Although as many as 90 percent of U.S. home computers have been infected with spyware at some time, a majority of PC owners don't know how to solve the problem, according to a poll released Friday. The findings come in a report from the newly formed Consumer Spyware Initiative, a joint effort by Dell Computer and the nonprofit Internet Education Foundation that aims to increase awareness of spyware. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5410568.html http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6256720/ - - - - - - - - - - Are Hackers Now Gunning for the Mac? Macs still have fewer bugs than Windows PCs, but Apple moves to plug security holes before problems crop up. In early October Apple released a small series of patches for Mac OS X version 10.2 and later. Most of the fixes in this group blocked possible denial-of-service problems that are, to date, theoretical. For example, one addresses vulnerability in a Unix printing system that might expose passwords to hackers, in uncommon situations. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,118128,00.asp - - - - - - - - - - Forensic experts track printer fingerprints Researchers at Purdue University have developed image analysis techniques that may one day help tie counterfeit money and forged documents to the printers that produced them. In lab experiments, the researchers examined documents that came from 12 different models of printers and were able to correctly link a document to its printer 11 times. The techniques currently let forensic investigators match a document with only a specific printer model, but will be honed so that a document can be matched to a particular printer. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5410790.html - - - - - - - - - - Users buoyed by monthly patch releases Microsoft Corp.'s move to a monthly patch-release cycle one year ago this month has made it easier to install security updates for Windows and other products, IT managers said this week -- even as they were greeted with a barrage of new fixes, many for flaws that were given "critical" severity ratings by Microsoft. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/holes/story/0,10801,96721,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Privacy Eroding, Bit by Byte First there were security cameras, sprouting like mushrooms on street corners and buildings. Then came shopper cards, offering discounts in exchange for details about buying habits. In recent years, we've seen the emergence of electronic tags or "cookies" on the Internet, software that monitors e-mail, GPS devices that pinpoint our position on the planet, and a growing number of machines that capture finger- and face-prints. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34098-2004Oct14.html Group posts surveillance camera locations http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/surveillance/2004-10-15-surv-maps_x.htm Subcutaneous RFID tags upset privacy advocates http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/wireless/0,39020348,39170368,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - A Tribute to Spam, the Meat Spam: It's evil, wicked and nasty. It's been legislated against and filtered out, its senders have been banned and busted, and it still keeps on coming. With its evil sidekicks -- spyware and viruses -- spam is the bane and blight of the internet. http://www.wired.com/news/roadtrip/riverroad/0,2704,65167,00.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.