NewsBits for February 11, 2005 ************************************************************ Man accused of trying to set up mass suicide in chat room Investigators are subpoenaing Internet chat room records to try to contact more than two dozen women, including a mother with two children, who were in contact with an Oregon man organizing a mass Valentine's Day suicide, authorities said Friday. ``Our primary goal is to try to locate where these endangered children might be,'' said Klamath County Sheriff Tim Evinger. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/10877954.htm http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/10/valentine.suicide/index.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/11/net_suicide_pact/ - - - - - - - - - - Man charged in DEC hacking affair A man who is alleged to have attempted to hack into the Web site of the DEC, the charity coordinating relief efforts for the Asian tsunami, has been charged under the Computer Misuse Act. A London man is to appear in court next week after being charged with attempting to hack into a charity Web site set up to raise relief funds for victims of the Asian tsunami disaster. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39187593,00.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/11/dec_hack_charges/ http://www.scmagazine.com/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=newsDetails&newsUID=e12eb7aa-c9a9-4759-a8bf-a2441a6aa78b&newsType=News - - - - - - - - - - Ex-cop's guilty in kid sex sting A former NYPD detective arrested in an Internet pedophile sting in Westchester County has pleaded guilty to trying to hook up with a 14-year-old boy. Michael Lapine, 37, pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempting to disseminate indecent material to a minor after a judge promised him a light sentence of no more than six months of weekends in a county jail. Lapine, of Ronkonkoma, L.I., was busted last August after arriving in Hartsdale for a sexual liaison with a "boy," only to find the Westchester County district attorney's office and NYPD Internal Affairs waiting for him. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/279968p-239647c.html - - - - - - - - - - SL Woman Helps Girl Out of Dangerous Situation A Salt Lake City woman is credited with helping get an 11-year-old girl out of a dangerous situation. Her actions also helped put an internet pedophile behind bars. It happened in Redlands California, where police busted in on 53-year-old Walter Neely, catching him in the act of sending nude pictures of the girl over the internet. It was a Salt Lake woman who got authorities involved. Then police in California and Utah set up a sting operation. http://4utah.com/local_news/local_headlines/story.aspx?content_id=8600183C-C84A-4CB9-B1DA-B929C93C1029 - - - - - - - - - - Dating scammers fined PS68k Five companies have been fined a total of PS68,000 for running bogus telephone dating services. Some 400 people complained about the con after receiving a spam telling them they had an admirer. People were then invited them to call a premium rate number to find out who it was. Despite claiming that the identity of the alleged admirer would be revealed on calling the service, premium rate regulator ICSTIS found that this was not the case. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/11/dating_scammers/ - - - - - - - - - - Hollywood studios settle copyright lawsuit against Web site operator Hollywood movie studios have settled a copyright lawsuit against a Web site operator they say had helped people find pirated copies of films for download. The Web site, LokiTorrent.com, hosted "torrents," or file markers used by online file- swapping programs like BitTorrent to comb the Internet for other computer users sharing a given file. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/10877566.htm http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-piracy11feb11,1,4749664.story - - - - - - - - - - Scammers hijack company identities A loophole in the system for registering company details is allowing scammers to hijack organisations' identities and fraudulently obtain goods and services. The '287 scam', named after the change of address form used by Companies House, was flagged up by credit-card fraud prevention specialist Early Warning after several of its clients fell foul of the ploy. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1161172 - - - - - - - - - - Norway proposes digital-age copyright law Norwegians would be able to duplicate their CDs but not convert them for use on MP3 players under a copyright law proposed Friday. The government's proposal, which requires parliament's approval, calls for fines and a maximum penalty of three years in prison for violating copyrights and engaging in computer piracy. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/10877752.htm - - - - - - - - - - Clarke joins latest cyberterror debate Proposals for a World Security Organisation to tackle cyberterrorism continue to alarm experts, including former White House cybersecurity chief Richard Clarke. Richard Clarke, the former White House cyber security advisor, has criticised a UK company for using the term "cyberterrorism". http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39187582,00.htm Industry wants administration to focus on cybercrime http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/35051-1.html CTOs call for cybercrime commission http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/cybercrime/story/0,10801,99709,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Commons passes ID Card Bill The bill that would see the large-scale introduction of ID cards in the UK has passed its latest reading in the House of Commons, but looks set for a fight in the Lords. Political opposition to the ID Card Bill has crumbled as the controversial legislation took a significant step towards becoming law. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39187740,00.htm http://computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/technology/story/0,10801,99723,00.html - - - - - - - - - - UK ISPs threaten action over spamming tools MCI could be shunned by its peers if allegations that it is hosting the Send Safe spamming tools are proven. The London Internet Exchange (LINX) has threatened tough action after MCI, a prominent ISP, was accused of hosting a bulk mailing software application called Send Safe. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39187581,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Mailman flaw gives away passwords A flaw in the popular open source mailing list management application Mailman has led to the theft of the passwords of the users of a well- known security discussion group. A previously unknown vulnerability in Mailman, a popular open source program for managing mailing lists, has led to the theft of the password file for a well-known security discussion group. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39187574,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Browser holes, hackers and rampaging botnets This week we found out, all over again, that clicking on links can be a dangerous business. As John Leyden wrote on Monday, "A security loophole in Mozilla and Firefox browser could be used to spoof the URL displayed in the address bar, SSL certificate and status bar. The vulnerability also affects Opera and Konqueror." http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/11/letters_1102/ - - - - - - - - - - Virus warning hits Windows Media Player Computer users have been warned to be on their guard when viewing images after the discovery of a vulnerability affecting the processing of PNG (Portable Network Graphic) files by popular applications including MSN Messenger and Windows Media Player. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1161185 Microsoft: Watch out for rogue code http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5573195.html Microsoft probes spyware system attack http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2005-02-11-ms-sw-attacked_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - F-Secure flaw opens door to intruders F-Secure has released a patch for a serious flaw in its antivirus products, the second time this week a security company has warned of a risk in its software. The security hole in the antivirus library affects 18 products for desktops, servers and gateways, with the network products at "critical" risk, F-Secure said in a bulletin Thursday. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5573165.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/11/f-secure_patch/ - - - - - - - - - - Is your TV virus-proof? The kitchen has long been considered a breeding ground for germs, but you probably don't expect your toaster to infect your cell phone. A variety of consumer products--from smart phones to digital theater boxes, and from car navigation systems to home security gear--have gone digital. In addition, wireless connectivity has become a cheap add-on for gadgets. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5571752.html Survey: Phones, car engines face security threats http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,99719,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Teenage boys biggest viewers of child porn The largest group of people caught viewing child pornography are teenage boys who are seldom prosecuted, the Department of Internal Affairs says. There have been 155 convictions in New Zealand. An additional 120 teenage boys have been caught offending since 1997, but only 20 had been prosecuted, the department's gaming and censorship regulation director Keith Manch said today. http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3184837a11,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Click fraud looms as threat to search engine ad growth Like thousands of other merchants, Tammy Harrison thought she had struck gold when hordes visited her Web site by clicking on the small Internet ads she purchased from the world's most popular online search engines. It cost Harrison as much as $20 for each click, but the potential new business seemed to justify the expense. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/10877754.htm - - - - - - - - - - U.S. info-sharing initiative called a flop Nearly a year after its launch, a federal office created as a conduit for corporate America to provide the government with sensitive information about critical vulnerabilities has been all but rejected by the technology industry that helped conceive it. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/10481 - - - - - - - - - - IT execs seek weapons to fight spyware Tools designed to fight off a spyware "epidemic" are expected to get close scrutiny from corporate users at next week's RSA Conference in San Francisco. Spyware, which was a low-priority item on many IT security agendas a year ago, has quickly evolved from an annoyance to a substantial security and support burden, users and analysts said. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,99727,00.html Study: Anti-spyware market to boom in 2005 This may be a good year to be an anti-spyware vendor. Sixty-five percent of businesses--big and small--surveyed by Forrester Research said they plan to put money into protecting their systems from malicious and prying software programs in 2005. Technology decision makers from 185 North American companies of all sizes participated in the survey. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5572950.html - - - - - - - - - - HP tools would limit virus damage Hewlett-Packard on Friday released its newest form of antivirus software, a set of damage control applications meant to stem the spread of attacks once they've already been launched on a network. Labeled HP Virus Throttle software, the package is designed to speed the rate at which companies can find and address threats present in their IT systems. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5572686.html - - - - - - - - - - Liberty Alliance update steps up security The Liberty Alliance has released the second version of its standards for identity verification for Web services. The Internet security consortium said on Friday that the public draft release of ID-WSF 2.0 extends its technical specifications to include support for SAML 2.0, the second version of Security Assertion Markup Language. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5572847.html - - - - - - - - - - Cisco readies security product blitz Cisco is preparing to announce a major overhaul of its security portfolio next week, with upgrades to several of its existing products. On Tuesday, at the RSA Conference in San Francisco, the company plans to announce the largest set of upgrades to its security products in three years, sources say. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5573255.html - - - - - - - - - - Free Expression Can Be Costly When Bloggers Bad-Mouth Jobs Under the pseudonym of Sarcastic Journalist, Rachel Mosteller wrote this entry on her personal Web log one day last April: "I really hate my place of employment. Seriously. Okay, first off. They have these stupid little awards that are supposed to boost company morale. So you go and do something 'spectacular' (most likely, you're doing your JOB) and then someone says 'Why golly, that was spectacular.' then they sign your name on some paper, they bring you chocolate and some balloons. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15511-2005Feb10.html *********************************************************** 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 2000-2005, NewsBits.net, Campbell, CA.