NewsBits for November 10, 2004 ************************************************************ Child porn navy doctor keeps job A disgraced Royal Navy doctor convicted of child porn offences will be allowed to keep his job. Dr Stuart Ruthven, 28, from Flixton in Greater Manchester, was convicted of 12 counts of making indecent photographs at Manchester Crown Court last September after he admitted to downloading approximately 5,000 images of child abuse from 1999 until his arrest last year. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/10/cp_medic/ - - - - - - - - - - Child-porn images found on priest's computer More than 5,000 pornographic images and about 150 child pornography movies were found on a church-owned laptop computer used by the Rev. Stephen Fernandes, according to court records. Fernandes was arraigned Monday on one count of possessing child pornography. The Bristol County District Attorney's Office began investigating the 54-year-old pastor of Our Lady of Fatima parish in New Bedford Oct. 27, after a Fall River computer servicing company reported discovering child pornography on his laptop. http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=PRIEST-PORN-11-09-04 - - - - - - - - - - Firms warn of new Mydoom worm McAfee says new e-mail worm spreads via Web links; Microsoft looks into the threat it poses. Anti-virus software maker McAfee Inc. is warning about a new version of the Mydoom worm that infects computers of people who click on a link in e-mail they receive. The new version is a mass-mailing worm that does not contain an attachment, as some earlier versions of the worm program have done. http://money.cnn.com/2004/11/09/technology/mydoom/ MyDoom Uses Money, Sex To Snare Users http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=MyDoom-Uses-Money--Sex-To-Snare-Users&story_id=28294 Bofra worm sets trap for unwary A new family of worms which uses an unpatched vulnerability in Internet Explorer is spreading widely across the net. Bofra-A poses as photos from an adult webcam in an attempt to fool users into clicking on a link. Clicking on the link causes the targeted PC to run malicious script hosted on a previously infected computer. This exploits the discovered IFRAME vulnerability in IE in an attempt to infect the target computer, as explained here. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/9898 Phishers adopt scam tricks from virus writers You know all about phishing scams, right? You know better than to click on a Web link embedded in an e-mail that purports to be from your bank, or to reply to messages requesting your user name and password. But if you think that's enough to protect yourself, think again. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,97401,00.html Viruses exploit Microsoft patch cycle The creators of the latest MyDoom variant, which exploits a recently discovered iFrame vulnerability in Internet Explorer, may have timed the release of the viruses to throw Microsoft's monthly patch cycle into disarray, security experts say. In its latest monthly update on Tuesday, Microsoft was not able to fix a serious vulnerability in the Internet Explorer browser because the flaw was discovered only a few days before the company's regular update was due. http://news.com.com/Worm+exploits+Microsoft+patch+cycle/2100-7349_3-5446624.html Microsoft flaw leaves PCs open to phishing http://www.vnunet.com/news/1159305 New virus sounds phishy http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6455387/ - - - - - - - - - - Trojan spams Russian mobile phones A new Trojan horse is circulating that hijacks PCs and uses them to send SMS-based spam to mobile phones. After a PC has been infected, the Delf-HA Trojan contacts a Web site for details on which spam campaign to run and then randomly generates a series of Russian mobile numbers beginning with the prefix +7921 or +7911. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,97400,00.html http://www.vnunet.com/news/1159302 - - - - - - - - - - EC begins IP enforcement campaign The European Commission has launched a new campaign against piracy and counterfeiting in non-EU countries, in a bid to stem estimated losses of between 120bn and 370bn a year. The commission says the main thrust of the campaign will be to ensure rigorous enforcement of existing intellectual property rights (IPR) laws, focusing on the countries where action is most needed. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/10/counterfeit_crackdown/ - - - - - - - - - - WTO says United States should drop ban on offshore Internet gambling In a ruling that could open the United States to offshore Internet gambling, a World Trade Organization panel Wednesday said Washington should drop prohibitions on Americans placing bets in online casinos. In its final 287-page report, the WTO panel confirmed the preliminary ruling it issued in March in a dispute pitting the United States against the tiny Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, saying the ban represented an unfair trade barrier. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/10146233.htm - - - - - - - - - - Ex-cybersecurity chief calls on feds to step up efforts While progress is being made in the nation's efforts to ensure the security of its cyber assets, a revolution is needed in the federal government's thinking in order to win the "cat and mouse game" with cyber attackers, a former senior cybersecurity official said Wednesday. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1104/111004tdpm1.htm Yoran: DHS has made progress, hurdles remain http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/27871-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Experts fret over online extortion attempts It's the 21st century's equivalent of a ransom note: Pay up or suffer a massive denial of service attack on your Web site powered by thousands of hijacked "zombie" computers. "You have 2 choices," Card Services International was told via e-mail earlier this year. "You can ignore this email and try to keep your site up, which will cost you tens of thousands of dollars ... or you can send us $10K by Western Union to make sure your site experiences no problem. If you choose not to pay for our help, then you will probably not be in business much longer, as you will be under attack each weekend for the next 20 weeks." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6436834/ - - - - - - - - - - FBI: Hidden threat inside cybercrime The hacking and identity theft tools now earning big money for mainly Eastern European organized crime could be used by terrorists to attack the United States, an FBI official said on Wednesday. FBI Deputy Assistant Director Steve Martinez said cybercrime was no longer the domain of teenage geeks but had been taken over by sophisticated gangs. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5447467.html - - - - - - - - - - Banks prepare for ATM cyber crime An international group of law enforcement and financial industry associations hopes to prevent a new type of bank robbery before it gets off the ground: cyber attacks against automated teller machines. This fall the Global ATM Security Alliance (GASA) published what it says are the first international cyber security guidelines specifically tailored to cash machines. Experts see new dangers as legacy ATMs running OS/2 give way to modern terminals built on Microsoft Windows. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/9903 - - - - - - - - - - Wi-Fi vulnerabilities found in public, private sectors Although concrete barricades block physical access to many roads and buildings throughout the Washington, D.C., region, a Federal Computer Week team discovered that information and systems at many defense and civilian agencies are left exposed through wireless networks. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/infotheft/2004-11-09-fed-weakest-link_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Experts clash over anti-spam standards Internet companies have begun to change the way e-mail works in order to weed out spam, but experts Tuesday clashed over whether the underlying technology should be controlled by any one company. At a meeting hosted by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, advocates of open-source technology questioned whether a standard patented by Microsoft should be incorporated into the fabric of the Internet, where free, open-source software has long dominated. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-11-09-anti-spam-clash_x.htm Spammers take aim at Christmas http://www.vnunet.com/news/1159294 - - - - - - - - - - IBM establishing security operation IBM Canada Ltd. said yesterday it would spend $40-million over the next five years to establish an information technology security practice. The company says the practice will serve a market in Canada for information technology security services and software that could be worth about $765-million this year. http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20041110.gtrticker10-15/BNStory/Technology/ - - - - - - - - - - Irritated by spam? Get ready for spit A new strain of spam soon could have consumers spitting mad. "Spit" spam over Internet telephony is beginning to surface as more people make phone calls over the Internet instead of regular phone lines, security experts say. Spit isn't much of a problem now, "But it will be," says Pierce Reid at Qovia, which develops products to manage voice networks. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-11-09-spit_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - My summer of war driving For most people, summer is about taking a vacation with family or heading to a secluded place to get away. Earlier this year, I read an article about the number of wireless hacks that were increasing globally. What I found interesting was that the hacks were pretty basic and that most of the information on how to break into default systems, how to look for Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) being enabled and other wireless steps could be found in a Google search. http://computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,97352,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Kidnap hoax woman gets first mobile ASBO A law student has been handed a five-year anti- social behaviour order (ASBO) banning her from using pay-as-you-go mobiles after calling and texting a former schoolfriend's mother claiming her daughter had been kidnapped, the BBC reports. Angela Sarna, 21, also earned herself a two-year jail sentence after the judge at Leicester Crown Court told her: "I find this a very worrying and disturbing case. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/10/mobile_asbo/ *********************************************************** 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.