NewsBits for March 2, 2005 ************************************************************ Computer Disk Led to Arrest in Killings, Pastor Says In the end, the B.T.K. serial killer's downfall may have been his own love of sending letters, poems and packages out to the world. Michael G. Clark, the pastor of Dennis L. Rader, the man now charged with 10 counts of murder in the strangulations that terrorized a city, said Tuesday that one item in the killer's most recent mailing to a local television station helped finally crack the case: an ordinary computer disk. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/02/national/02btk.html Amateur Cybersleuths Flocking to BTK Case http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64778-2005Mar2.html http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7065902/ - - - - - - - - - - 8 Arrests Follow Tech Heists A 'very sophisticated' ring took $2 million in goods from businesses in three counties, including O.C. Eight suspected members of an organized crime ring that stole more than $2 million in electronics from businesses in Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties were arrested last week, officials said Tuesday. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-seizure2mar02,1,4984303.story - - - - - - - - - - Woman's Spam Conviction Thrown Out A Loudoun County judge yesterday dismissed a North Carolina woman's conviction on felony spamming charges, saying there was insufficient evidence that she flooded tens of thousands of America Online e-mail accounts with unsolicited bulk advertisements. But the judge upheld the conviction of the woman's brother, who had been found guilty of the same crime. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64551-2005Mar1.html http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/02/spam.trial.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - - - COMPUTER CRIME An Idaho State University student is facing several charges, both on and off campus, for an alleged computer crime provoked by a parking violation. Ticket writer Cale Myers says his computer account was accessed unlawfully and falsely altered. Tammy Scardino met with Myers, who's concerned for the privacy of his fellow classmates. http://www.kpvi.com/print/printnews.cfm?ID=2200 - - - - - - - - - - Nab teach in kid sex Web sting A popular Benjamin Cardozo High School teacher pleaded guilty to sending pornography to a person he thought was a 14-year-old boy, prosecutors said yesterday. Anthony Laufgraben, 34, of Fresh Meadows, was snared in an Internet porn sting after sending explicit pictures through E-mail and then arranging a tryst with an undercover cop. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/story/281568p-241271c.html http://www.timesledger.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14026477&BRD=2676&PAG=461&dept_id=542515&rfi=6 - - - - - - - - - - Ex-PMH nurse faces drug charge & child molesting The nurse at the centre of Princess Margaret Hospital's paedophile scandal is facing drug charges and has also been questioned over the discovery of child pornography. Fremantle detectives will charge the 44-year-old man by summons with allowing a property to be used for taking amphetamines. The former PMH nurse was taken in for questioning after detectives raided a Beaconsfield home this week. During the raid they seized a computer, which is being analysed by experts and which The West Australian understands contained pornographic material involving children. http://www.thewest.com.au/20050226/news/general/tw-news-general-home-sto130566.html - - - - - - - - - - ChoicePoint Had Earlier Data Leak Scammers accessed personal financial information five years ago in a scheme similar to a recent case. Scammers penetrated ChoicePoint Inc.'s vast online database of personal records five years ago in an operation similar to a more recent case that has triggered a national furor over privacy, court records show. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,66767,00.html http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-choicepoint2mar02,1,3974948.story - - - - - - - - - - Bagle.dldr Trojan runs riot Security researchers at antivirus company McAfee have today upped their risk assessment of the Bagle.dldr Trojan, which is spreading rapidly. The company has raised its assessment after spotting more variants of the worm, and said that its Avert virus response team has received "more than 100 distinct reports of these variants in the wild". http://www.vnunet.com/news/1161606 - - - - - - - - - - Mass-mailers oust Trojans as main threat While internet users were troubled by fewer Trojan-based malware attacks last month, there was an increase in mass-mailing worms, according to research by security company Fortinet. The firm detected over 1,000 pieces of malicious code in February, of which 40 per cent were Trojans and backdoors, 10 per cent mass-mailer worms and 20 per cent internet worms which spread through networks via shares and instant messaging. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1161613 Christmas number one virus plays on The Christmas card worm -- Zafi.d -- is still dominating the virus charts, as people continue to report having run the program thinking it was a seasonal greeting. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39189767,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - BitDefender bug bites GFI GFI's Mail Security anti-virus product threw a wobbler Wednesday afternoon (2 March) when an update to BitDefender Engine Module caused it to delete the body content of every incoming and outgoing message. The engine - one of three used by GFI MailSecurity along with components from Kaspersky Labs and McAfee - detected all emails as corrupted zip files. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/02/gfi_beserker/ - - - - - - - - - - Lost charge card data raises ire of Senate leader The recent admission by Bank of America that it had lost tapes containing government charge card account information has drawn congressional attention, with harshly worded letters from a key senator to the heads of the bank and the General Services Administration. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0305/030205p2.htm - - - - - - - - - - Senate Democrat Introduces Phishing Bill A senior Senate Democrat on Tuesday introduced legislation to impose tough penalties against persons convicted of launching "phishing" scams -- a form of online fraud in which criminals use deception to trick computer users into giving up their personal and financial information. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63749-2005Mar1.html - - - - - - - - - - Court Is Urged to Shield File-Sharing Companies An array of companies, musicians and academics from across the political spectrum urged the Supreme Court to uphold an appellate ruling last year in favor of companies behind the popular Grokster and Morpheus file-sharing networks. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-rup2.2mar02,1,7805604.story Tech industry outlines file-sharing argument http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-03-01-file-share-usat_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - CA pioneering identity theft laws aren't enough, experts say Law enforcement officials attending the state's first summit on identity theft asked Monday for more money to combat the crime in California, the only state believed to have more than 1 million victims last year. Authorities sought assistance from politicians, businesses and consumer advocates in their quest to prevent identity theft and crack down on thieves. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/10583 - - - - - - - - - - CA plugs holes in licensing software Software giant Computer Associates released patches on Wednesday for buffer overflow vulnerabilities in its licensing software. The flaws affect a common component, which runs across a range of CA software on open- source, Microsoft Windows and Apple Computer's Mac platforms. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5595233.html CA to launch identity management tools http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5596185.html - - - - - - - - - - IT executives say cybersecurity is top concern Leading federal information technology executives say that cybersecurity is their chief concern, according to an information technology vendor's survey. Forty-three percent of federal executives surveyed at a conference this week in Orlando, Fla., said information technology security was their highest priority for 2005. More than two- thirds listed it is one of their top three concerns. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0305/030205p1.htm - - - - - - - - - - Plan for federal ID badges gets mixed reviews A new government standard for federal identification cards is getting mixed reviews from identification industry executives and privacy advocates. The standard, released Feb. 25, sets rules for an ambitious "smart card" to be worn by all federal employees and contractors beginning in October. The cards will include photographs, agency serial numbers, personal ID numbers, two fingerprints and cryptographic keys. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0305/030105tdpm1.htm - - - - - - - - - - A sense of insecurity Last year was a bad year for the Secure Hash Algorithm. This year has been worse. A key technology used in digitally signing documents and programs, the Secure Hash Algorithm, or SHA, is used by U.S. federal agencies and by corporations. It's used to reduce long documents to a smaller unique digital fingerprint, or hash, which is then signed using public-key encryption. http://news.com.com/A+sense+of+insecurity/2008-7355_3-5595238.html - - - - - - - - - - Apache 2 with SSL/TLS: Step-by-Step, Part 3 This article concludes our three part series dedicated to configuring Apache 2.0 with SSL/TLS support -- for maximum security and optimal performance of SSL based e-commerce transactions. Part one introduced key aspects of SSL/TLS and then showed how to compile, install and configure Apache 2.0. The second part discussed the configuration of mod_ssl and authentication issues, and then showed how to create web server's SSL certificate. http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1823 - - - - - - - - - - Collective Detective Police Work When a 9-year-old Florida girl disappeared from her bedroom last week, the sheriff's office coordinating the search for her immediately posted a front-page alert on its website. In the following days, countless sites around the country -- charitable organizations, churches and other groups -- joined the search for Jessica Lunsford. The sheriff's department received at least 300 tips, and dozens of sites posted details about Jessica on the web in the form of brief alerts or, in some cases, lengthy and regularly updated discussions of her case. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,66684,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Internet viruses aid flea researchers The way viruses spread on the Internet is helping ecologists decipher how pests move in the real world. Jim Muirhead and Hugh MacIsaac, ecologists at the University of Windsor in Ontario, have been using network theory to work out how the Russian spiny water flea will travel through Canada's lakes. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5596218.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.