NewsBits for December 15, 2004 ************************************************************ Lowe's hacker sentenced to nine years One of three Michigan men who hacked into the national computer system of Lowe's hardware stores and tried to steal customers' credit card information was sentenced Wednesday to nine years in federal prison. The government said it is the longest prison term ever handed down in a computer crime case in the United States. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6719246/ http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/10423998.htm http://www.securityfocus.com/news/10138 - - - - - - - - - - Dutch raid against eDonkey sites, seize servers Dutch anti-piracy organisation BREIN, along with FIOD-ECD (Economic Inspection Service of the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service), has raided two popular sites in the Netherlands that offered links to allegedly copyright-infringing content. FIOD-ECD has arrested eight people and seized eleven servers. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/15/dutch_raid_against_edonkey_sites/ - - - - - - - - - - Man downloads child porn to spoil boss' career! A Sydney judge has reduced the jail sentence of a former employee of a leading childcare provider, Communicare, after accepting the man's defence that he downloaded child pornography to sabotage his boss's career and spoil his reputation. David Peter Allan Jubb, 24, was sentenced by Magistrate Robert Abood to 12 months of imprisonment after charges were proved that he had downloaded more than 100 pornographic images in a laptop computer issued by the company. http://news.newkerala.com/india-news/?action=fullnews&id=47688 - - - - - - - - - - Antispam law ruled unconstitutional A Maryland judge has tossed out a lawsuit against an alleged spammer, saying a state law restricting unsolicited e-mail is unconstitutional because it unfairly restricts interstate commerce. Durke Thompson, a trial judge in Montgomery County, ruled that the Maryland law unduly discriminates against out-of-state commerce, a restriction that's generally prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5491683.html - - - - - - - - - - Polyglot virus is Xmas party pooper An email worm which poses as a Christmas greeting began spreading widely yesterday. Zafi-D comes as an infectious attachment to emails written in a variety of different languages,including English, Spanish, Russian, Swedish and Hungarian. Anti-virus firms believe the worm was created in Hungary. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/15/zafi-d_worm/ Merry Virus to You http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Merry-Virus-to-You&story_id=2014.58546980 http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/12/15/holiday.worm/index.html http://software.silicon.com/malware/0,3800003100,39126556,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Net stores get ready for Santa cons A couple of days before Thanksgiving, mom-and-pop e-tailer Tina Koenig's phone kept ringing with calls from people verifying they'd won a laptop. The only problem: Koenig had no idea what they were talking about. Cybercriminals had used her online gift store in a "phishing" scam, which set up a fake version of the site to try to extract visitors' credit card information. An e-mail enticed victims to the fake site by telling them they had a prize. The lure was a free Hewlett-Packard laptop computer. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5491389.html - - - - - - - - - - 'Phishing' attacks rocket in November Fraudsters ramped up "phishing" attacks by 29 percent in November, according to a new report. The number of phishing sites, or fake Web sites set up to fool victims into handing over personal information, reached 1,518 last month, the Anti- Phishing Working Group said in a report released on Wednesday. The total was up almost a third over October and three times the level in September. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5491794.html - - - - - - - - - - Business PCs riddled with porn Workplace porn in the UK is rife. More than 70 per cent of firms have disciplined staff in the last two years as a result of workers viewing pornographic images on company PCs, a survey published this week reveals. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/15/workplace_smut_survey/ - - - - - - - - - - Five important fixes in MS December patch batch Microsoft's regular monthly patch delivery slipped into port yesterday carrying five new patches, each described by Redmond as "important". First up there's a flaw (MS04-041) in WordPad that potentially allows malicious code to be executed. All flavours of Windows (XP, 2000, 2003 and NT) need patching. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/15/ms_december_patch_batch/ - - - - - - - - - - Home Office calls for cybercrime shakeup The government has warned that police and law makers need to step up their efforts to fight crime on the internet. A Home Office report called The Future of Netcrime Now, which it began work on two years ago and published last week, said that police need to try and get ahead of the growing problem of cybercrime if they are to successfully tackle it. http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39126539,00.htm http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/internet01.htm Police must be trained to fight net crime http://www.vnunet.com/news/1160092 Cyber-crime: how to fight back http://www.crime-research.org/news/15.12.2004/848/ Businesses failing to recognise cybercrime dangers http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/15/businesses_fail_to_recognise_cybercrime/ IT industry's 12-point cyber-security plan http://www.vnunet.com/news/1160087 - - - - - - - - - - New agreement will strengthen network security In an initiative to secure computers and networks worldwide, Air Force officials entered into an agreement with Microsoft to purchase software and support for more than a half-million computers. Under the agreement, in partnership with Dell Computer Corp., all existing Air Force software and support contracts will be combined into one. The resulting contract will affect about 525,000 computers, officials said. http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123009418 - - - - - - - - - - Cryptography Research wants piracy speed bump on HD DVDs Analysis Just about a year from today, if not sooner, if we believe the outpourings of both the DVD Forum and the Blu-Ray Disc Association, we will be able to go out to the shops and buy blue laser, high definition, high density DVDs in two completely different designs. We will also be able to buy the players and recorders by then, as well as studio content from virtually every major studio in the world, on one or the other system. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/15/cryptography_research/ - - - - - - - - - - An Indonesian's Prison Memoir Takes Holy War Into Cyberspace After Imam Samudra was charged with engineering the devastating Bali nightclub bombings two years ago, he taunted his police accusers in court, then greeted his death sentence with the cry, "Infidels die!" So when Samudra published a jailhouse autobiography this fall, it was not surprising that it contained virulent justifications for the Bali attacks, which killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists. But tucked into the back of the 280-page book is a chapter of an entirely different cast titled "Hacking, Why Not?" There, Samudra urges fellow Muslim radicals to take the holy war into cyberspace by attacking U.S. computers, with the particular aim of committing credit card fraud, called "carding." The chapter then provides an outline on how to get started. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62095-2004Dec13.html - - - - - - - - - - Wireless worries: Unauthorized hot spots and rogue warriors Many businesses and educational institutions have their own wireless networks-- but are often faced with policing rogue wireless hot spots brought in by employees or students. The rogue hot spots can be a security risk and possible can conflict with their own networks. In this ZDNet audiocast, we'll look at the issue of rogue wireless security, what can be done to detect and block unwanted hot spots, and address specific wireless security solutions for protecting wi-fi access points. http://itpapers.zdnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=112518&promo=200010 - - - - - - - - - - Bush prepares for possible shutdown of GPS network in national crisis President Bush has ordered plans for temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites during a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology, the White House said Wednesday. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/10140 - - - - - - - - - - UK police upgrade biometric identification tech A PS122m deal will allow UK police to 'continue the good work' in biometric identification such as facial imaging and palm print recognition. The Police IT Organisation (PITO) has teamed with Northrop Grumman in an eight-year, PS122m deal to create next-generation biometric identification technology for UK police. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/emergingtech/0,39020357,39181344,00.htm *********************************************************** 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.