NewsBits for November 17, 2004 ************************************************************ Studios Sue More Than 200 in Online Piracy Fight Hollywood studios sued more than 200 alleged online movie pirates Tuesday, seeking damages of up to $150,000 for each film offered or downloaded on file-sharing networks. The Motion Picture Assn. of America disclosed few details about the suits, which were the first such actions by the industry. The suits were brought against "John Does" across the country. Some defendants were accused of sharing only one film. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-mpaa17nov17,1,1303792.story http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/17/court_mpaa_suits/ - - - - - - - - - - US company fined for UK rogue dialler scam A company based in New York has been fined PS100,000 ($185,500) for ripping off UK punters with a premium rate number scam. Some 850 people complained to watchdog ICSTIS that B&B Services LLC had caused them to run up huge phone bills while connected to the internet. People claimed that dialler software installed on their PCs made repeated internet calls without their knowledge or consent. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/17/icstis_fine/ UK data protection laws are 'chaotic' http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/17/data_protection_laws_chaotic/ - - - - - - - - - - Petco settles with FTC over cyber security gaffe Pet supply retailer Petco Animal Supplies Inc. will be on a short cybersecurity leash for the next 20 years to settle a Federal Trade Commission action over a security hole on it's e-commerce site that may have left as many as 500,000 customer credit card numbers exposed to hackers. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/9957 - - - - - - - - - - Arafat worm exploits new MS vuln A worm which exploits curiosity about the death of Yasser Arafat is the first to exploit the known Extended MetaFiles vulnerability. Aler is a network worm that was widely bulk-mailed with the subject "Latest News about Arafat!!!". These infected emails had two attachments, one a clean JPEG file and the other an infected EMF file, according to anti-virus firm F-Secure. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/17/arafat_worm/ - - - - - - - - - - Caught in a phishing trap Faced with an online test that presents him with 10 different e-mails, some of which are examples of phishing scams, his answer is to label every single one a fake. Three turn out to be the genuine article--but in the engineer's mind, he's passed the test either way. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5453203.html Phishing scam forces NatWest services offline http://www.vnunet.com/news/1159481 Microsoft's answer to phishing: Two IDs http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5457381.html - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft re-releases security patch Microsoft has re-released a security patch for Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server after a major code revision. The updated patch, first released on 9 November, is for ISA Server 2000 and Microsoft Proxy Server 2.0. Details can be found here. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1159462 Windows XP SP2: A bandage, not a panacea http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,97574,00.html More security hiccups for IE http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5457105.html - - - - - - - - - - Three new IE vulnerabilities discovered Attackers could exploit two "moderately critical" vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer to bypass a security feature in SP2 and trick users into downloading malicious files, according to Danish security firm Secunia. Secunia said in an advisory Wednesday that a researcher known as cyber flash discovered two vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci1026465,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Piracy alert on Santa's software The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has warned consumers that buying software online from unauthorised dealers could seriously damage the health of their computers. In the run up to Christmas, the BSA said that it has received increasing reports of apparently legitimate software being sold by online auction sites and small software vendors. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1159466 - - - - - - - - - - MPAA Unveils New P2P 'Spyware' The new initiative by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to nab those engaged in online film piracy was met with some concern. "Just because someone has P2P software on a computer doesn't mean he or she is engaging in illegal activity. The documentation should be clear on what to look for." Another possibility that the documentation should cover, he adds, is spyware. "It can install all kinds of applications on a PC." http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=MPAA-Unveils-New-P-P--Spyware-&story_id=28498 - - - - - - - - - - Piracy funds terror, Guardian lesson tells schools Education about copyright and "digital piracy" has arrived quietly in UK schools, under the banner of, would you believe it, The Guardian. Yesterday's issue of Education Guardian carried a feature on the subject tied into The Guardian's subscription-based schools resources operation, Learnpremium, which is offering curriculum activities on the subject of "digital piracy" to schools. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/17/graun_piracy_lessons/ - - - - - - - - - - Internet fraud scares off seniors Elderly people have so much to gain from the internet, but they are being scared off by internet fraud and fake emails, according to a man who has introduced scores of older local people to the web. Recently a 75-year- old Port Macquarie woman was caught by an email scam. Emails purporting to be from Citibank and SunTrust asked the recipient to confirm their banking credit card and banking details. She replied to an email and three withdrawals totalling $9000 were made from her account in a three-hour period, according to police. http://www.crime-research.org/news/17.11.2004/796/ - - - - - - - - - - SBC Unresponsive to, Identity Theft, Internet Fraud, Complaints After receiving multiple email containing what was clearly internet fraud with links leading to web pages cleverly disguised as eBay with the sole purpose of identity theft, SurfSafely.com founder Mark Brasche leapt into action. With sophisticated software designed to trace the origin of the rogue web site Mr. Brasche quickly learned that the pages were being hosted on a home computer somewhere in San Francisco connected to the Internet by way of a DSL modem using SBC Internet Service. http://www.crime-research.org/news/17.11.2004/797/ - - - - - - - - - - IT security spend: firms switch focus IT security budgets are set increase by ten per cent next year as spam, identity fraud and regulatory compliance move higher up the business agenda. But the priorities of IT departments are changing, with half of every security-related pound being invested in staffing and external services, such as vulnerability audits and risk assessments. http://www.computing.co.uk/news/1159473 - - - - - - - - - - Viruses and spam won't halt IM use Despite a growing number of IM-borne menaces such as viruses and unsolicited messages, businesses must not be put off rolling out the technology across the organisation, because the pros far outweigh the cons, says an IM gateway provider. Kailash Ambwani, president and CEO of secure IM gateway provider FaceTime, denies his business will be hampered by a 'once bitten twice shy' aversion to IM based on companies' previous bad experiences with email. http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/im/0,39024995,39125957,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Brits, broadband and smut Brits use their broadband connection for accessing smut, according to research from US-based software outfit SupportSoft. Since this outfit has spent time and money interviewing 349 European broadband users as part of its survey then it must be true. Four in ten Italians said their top use for broadband was for business. Just two in ten said they used it for adult entertainment. Brits, on the other hand, can't get enough of it with four in ten saying high- speed access is great for a virtual grope. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/17/supportsoft_smut_report/ *********************************************************** 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.