NewsBits for February 3, 2005 ************************************************************ CA defense contractor warns employees following computer theft Thieves stole several computers containing personal information on 45,000 current and former shareholders of defense contractor Science Applications International Corp., which began alerting those people on Thursday. SAIC is one of the nation's largest employee-owned companies. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/10419 http://www.saic.com/cover-archive/announce/012805.html - - - - - - - - - - First French P2P 'pirate' fined 10,200 A French teacher was yesterday fined 10,200 ($13,300) in France's first major illegal file- sharing prosecution. Alain Oddoz, 28, was arrested on 18 August 2004 following an investigation into music-sharing information site France Barter by French law enforcement agencies. The teacher, one of 302 regular users of the site, was accused of sharing 30GB of music files, Le Monde reports. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/03/france_first_p2p_case/ - - - - - - - - - - Sex crime Web site not to set up dates Important notice to all the state's registered sex offenders: The now publicly available Megan's Law Web site is not an online dating service. Glen Westberg, 35, of Cupertino, a convicted child molester, recently found that out. He's expected to be charged today with a misdemeanor for trying to set up trysts with other convicted sex offenders he found by searching the database, available on the Internet since December. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/the_valley/10804909.htm - - - - - - - - - - New Bropia worm rated "code orange" Korean security specialists at Globeal Hauri are warning of a new variant of the recently discovered Bropia worm, which is more dangerous than its predecessor. http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050203.gtbropia0203/BNStory/Technology/ Worm packs double whammy http://news.com.com/Worm+packs+double+whammy/2009-7349_3-5562141.html - - - - - - - - - - MSN Messenger hit by double-whammy worm Trend Micro is warning of a new variant of the Bropia worm that uses MSN Messenger to spread. The Bropia.F worm is packaged with a second, more damaging worm that tries to exploit poorly patched computers, the antivirus company said on Thursday. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5562129.html - - - - - - - - - - Saddam Hussein 'death' photos used as worm bait Photos of a "dead" Saddam Hussein are the lure for a new mass-mailing worm, Sophos warned on Thursday, in the latest instance of attackers using well-known figures as bait. The Bobax.H worm purports to offer photos that show that the former Iraqi leader was killed while attempting to escape from custody, the antivirus company said. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5562279.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/03/saddam_worm/ - - - - - - - - - - Worm uses funny face to distract from danger A new e-mail contains a picture of an old man pulling faces--and a dangerous Trojan. This worm, dubbed Wurmark-F, travels as an e-mail attachment and affects systems running Microsoft Windows. When opened, it displays a photo of a man "gurning"--a British tradition of pulling silly faces. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5562293.html - - - - - - - - - - Root kit surfaces after Jabber attack The Jabber Software Foundation (JSF) - the open source instant messaging organisation - has advised developers to check their code, after discovering that a hack attack against its website was more serious than first suspected. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/10409 - - - - - - - - - - DEC warns of fake tsunami appeal website Charitable webusers are being warned away from website masquerading as that of the Disasters Emergency Committee. The site, which looks like an older version of the official DEC page, claims to be collecting money to help the victims of the boxing-day earthquake and tsunami. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/03/email_dec_fake_site/ - - - - - - - - - - Hackers at mercy of US judges A landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision last month giving judges more leeway in deciding federal prison terms could be good news for computer intruders who don't fit the classic criminal mold, legal experts say. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/03/judges_sentence_hackers/ - - - - - - - - - - Law needed for all-out war on Internet porn PROPONENTS of a pending cyber-crime measure said that an all-out war against Internet pornography remains futile without a specific law supporting it, industry observers said Tuesday. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared on Monday an all-out war against Internet pornography, calling on the public to report suspected operations of so-called "cybersex dens" to the police. http://news.inq7.net/infotech/index.php?index=1&story_id=26359 - - - - - - - - - - E-crime to rocket in 2005 Online shopping and online fraud are to increase in equal measure during 2005, according to payment service CyberSource. It estimates that UK ecommerce revenues will grow by 36 per cent this year with 20m shoppers spending PS17bn online. By 2009 as much as 25 per cent of UK shopping will be done via the internet. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/03/ecrime_to_rise/ - - - - - - - - - - Windows glitches to get fixes A bumper crop of Microsoft patches will be released next week, including nine fixes for Windows flaws. At least one of the updates for the Windows operating system is rated "critical," its highest rating, Microsoft said Thursday in a posting to its TechNet site. The forewarning is part of the company's program to give regular computer users notice of monthly security bulletins before the patches themselves are released. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5562678.html - - - - - - - - - - Spammers turn to directory harvest attacks Have you been done by a harvester before? Spammers are increasingly turning to directory attacks against company email servers, according to research carried out by email management company Postini. Of the 14.7 billion emails monitored by the company last month, spam accounted for 88 per cent and a significant proportion of that spam consisted not of targeted emails but of so-called directory harvest attacks. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1160987 - - - - - - - - - - Botnets strangle Google Adwords campaigns Security researchers have discovered a way to shut down or seriously impair a Google Adwords advertising campaign by artificially inflating the number of times an ad is displayed. By running searches against particular keywords from compromised hosts, attackers can cause click-through percentage rates to fall through the floor. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/03/google_adwords_attack/ - - - - - - - - - - New spammer tool foils filters The most notorious automatic spam-sending software on the Internet has introduced a new feature that stealthily gets around key anti- spam filters. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6908979/ - - - - - - - - - - Spam Equals Money Time wasted deleting junk e-mail costs American businesses nearly $22 billion a year, according to a new study from the University of Maryland. A telephone-based survey of adults who use the internet found that more than three- quarters receive spam daily. The average spam messages per day is 18.5 and the average time spent per day deleting them is 2.8 minutes. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,66493,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Prototype printer fails to satisfy e-voting activists Three months after the presidential election, one of the nation's biggest makers of touch- screen voting machines has created a companion printer that spits out paper records. The prototype that Diebold Inc. is now touting is exactly what some critics of the ATM-like machines have been demanding for several years. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/10810218.htm http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6909775/ - - - - - - - - - - Pensioners pioneer Internet security Survey: Retired people are leading the charge to repel hackers and viruses. Silver surfers are leading the way in protecting their computers from hackers and viruses. According to a three- year study, 40 percent of home computer Internet security purchases are made by retired people. Women lead the way, making up 53 percent of all 60 years-olds who buy these products. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39186539,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - The commercialisation of malware Each week vnunet.com asks a different expert to give their views on recent virus and security issues, with advice, warnings and information on the latest threats. This week David Emm, senior technology consultant at Kaspersky Lab UK, warns of the increasing threat from virus writers seeking to make mony from their creations. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1160995 - - - - - - - - - - ID cards labelled as human rights threat The government's Joint Committee on Human Rights has criticised the current the national ID card plan, and the way that the issue has been handled up to now. The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) has published its report into the implications of the Identity Cards Bill -- and says the legislation "raise[s] a number of serious questions" on human rights. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39186544,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - FBI should scrap or overhaul new computer system, report says A $170 million computer system intended to allow the FBI to better manage criminal and terrorism cases will have to be scrapped or require a lot of additional work, the Justice Department's inspector general said Thursday. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/10808550.htm http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0205/020305tdpm1.htm http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6908855/ FBI rapped over 'antiquated' software http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5562447.html http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/03/fbi.computers/index.html Justice IG says FBI will contract for new case management system in April http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/34976-1.html Mueller: No decision yet on VCF http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2005/0131/web-mueller-02-03-05.asp *********************************************************** 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. 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