NewsBits for October 26, 2004 ************************************************************ Hacker defaces 200 government Web sites Anti-government messages have been left on a large number of Web sites in Brazil. A hacker defaced more than 200 Brazilian government Web sites this week what appears to be a political protest. According to security experts, the attacker penetrated a single Internet service provider that hosts all the government Web sites. The hacker left abusive anti-government messages on some of the sites and a photo of a woman's eye on others. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,39020369,39171540,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Spanish MP3 Web Site To Pay $10.5M Settlement Operators of a Spanish-based online music Web site, Puretunes.com, have agreed to pay $10.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by several record labels. The site was accused of selling music for which it did not hold the licenses. http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Spanish-MP--Web-Site-To-Pay------M-Settlement&story_id=27897 - - - - - - - - - - Music Piracy Lawsuit Settled The men behind the Grokster file-sharing network have settled a piracy lawsuit filed by the major record companies against an ill-fated online music store based in Spain. The settlement announced Monday called for Grokster founder Daniel Rung of Palm Springs, his brother Michael Rung, his son Matthew Rung and former Grokster President Wayne Rosso to pay a total of $500,000. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-puretunes26oct26,1,3405781.story - - - - - - - - - - Defendants accused of flooding AOL with spam Three people who allegedly sent America Online customers millions of junk e-mail messages touting penny stocks and other Internet gimmicks went on trial Tuesday in the nation's first such felony case. The defendants are being tried under a 2003 Virginia anti-spam law that prosecutors say is the harshest of its kind in the nation. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/10019356.htm http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/10/26/spam.trial.ap/index.html Four million email addresses: yours for PS29.95 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/26/spam_spammers/ - - - - - - - - - - Internet Sex Surfer gets five years in prison A 46-year-old New Hampshire man who Connecticut officials say was surfing the Internet for a sex slave has been sentenced to nearly five and a-half years in federal prison. Prosecutors in New Haven federal court say Bradley Sweeney cruised the Internet to try to lure a 13-year-old girl into being his sex slave. http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=2433923&nav=3YeXS1ocg - - - - - - - - - - Hackers use Google to defeat anti-spam measures Fraudsters running a phishing scam are using Google redirects to beat anti-spam tools and claim new Yahoo email accounts for themselves. Antivirus experts have discovered a phishing email that redirects users three times through Google to a fraudulent registration Web site in order to beat antispam technology. http://insight.zdnet.co.uk/itp/hacking/ - - - - - - - - - - eBay worm spreads The Myfip worm that was first noted in the wild over a month ago is beginning to spread, according to Messagelabs. An email that claims to have been sent by online auction company eBay's webmaster contains a worm that attacks poorly-protected network drives http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39171361,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Mac worm sparks security concerns OS X users must not be complacent about security, warn experts. Anti-virus experts have warned Mac users and sysadmins against becoming complacent about security after the discovery of a worm targeting the Mac OS X operating system. http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?NewsID=2493 - - - - - - - - - - Trojan Horse uses war as cover After a spat of celebrity-related Trojans that spread through social engineering techniques the latest one preys on potential victims' curiosity about the ongoing conflict in Iraq. Antivirus companies warned of a new worm on Monday that is sent by email and appears to contain photographs of the Iraq war. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39171362,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - NRC yanks online docket amid terror concerns The Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday suspended public access to its online docket, following reports that terrorists could use information from the database to steal radioactive materials and make dirty bombs. NRC spokesman Dave McIntyre said the agency would keep the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System offline for about three weeks while employees check its content for information terrorists could use. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/27743-1.html http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/1025/web-nrc-10-26-04.asp Keeping data sources confidential http://www.gcn.com/23_31/news/27691-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Insecurity begins at home Spyware is rife and virus infection commonplace yet many home users reckon they are safe from online threats. An AOL/National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) Online Safety Study - conducted by technical experts in the homes of 329 typical dial-up and broadband computer users across the US - found that most computer users think they are safe but lack basic defences against viruses, spyware, hackers, and other online threats. Only half of broadband consumers used a firewall. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/26/us_home_security_survey/ 80 per cent of home PCs infected - survey http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/26/pc_petri_dish_city/ - - - - - - - - - - Rise up against globalisation of child porn "Child protection services were never discussed, in spite of the system being close to collapse" ... Our election campaign started and finished with crimes against children. In the early days, the news was dominated by the massacre of children and adults at a school in Beslan, Russia. The story, from so far away, was almost too painful to watch. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/14/1097607364709.html - - - - - - - - - - Cisco upgrades IP telephony security New privacy features have been added to CallManager, says Cisco, as the company attempts to tackle fears over VoIP security Cisco Systems says that it has improved security on its Internet Protocol telephony products. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/networks/0,39020345,39171359,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Today @ PC World It was a case more suited to a Raymond Chandler novel than the annals of computer crime, but that's neither here nor there: Computer cops in the U.S., the United Kingdom, and in Russia worked together to arrest several members of an online extortion ring, who had been netting hundreds of thousands of dollars from Internet businesses by threatening to shut them down. http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/000284.html - - - - - - - - - - Web server takedown called Internet speech threat Devin Theriot-Orr, a member a feisty group of reporter-activists called Indymedia, was surprised when two FBI agents showed up at his Seattle law office, saying the visit was a "courtesy call" on behalf of Swiss authorities. Theriot-Orr was even more surprised a week later when more than 20 Indymedia Web sites were knocked offline as the computer servers that hosted them were seized in Britain. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/9805 - - - - - - - - - - Porn pumps the wireless net The market for porn and other adult content on handsets will grow to around $90m in the US and $1bn globally by 2008, according to a study by analysts Yankee Group published yesterday.Yankee reckons that many carriers are true prudish and risk missing out on a slice of the lucrative market because of misplaced fears. Child protection concerns are real enough but can be managed it concludes in the report Child Protection Unlocks Wireless Adult Content Market. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/26/handheld_porn_market/ *********************************************************** 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.