NewsBits for March 3, 2005 ************************************************************ Indiana man indicted in eBay robbery scam A federal grand jury indicted an Indianapolis man on charges he auctioned vintage muscle cars that he did not own on the Internet site eBay, then had two partners rob would-be buyers at gunpoint when they came to pick up the autos. Dewan A. Horne, 24, was being held Wednesday night in the Marion County Jail. His alleged accomplices were still at large, according to prosecutors. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/11042894.htm - - - - - - - - - - A Kid Released Worm That Attacked Microsoft Web Site A second person, a juvenile, has been sentenced in connection with the release of a computer worm in August 2003 that attacked the same vulnerability in computer software as the Blaster worm did. The worm -- often referred to as the RPCSDBOT worm -- directed infected computers to log in on a computer (i.e., an Internet Relay Chat channel) that the juvenile controlled. On August 14, 2003, the juvenile directed the infected computers to launch a distributed denial of service attack against Microsoft's main web site causing the site to shutdown and thus became inaccessible to the public for approximately four hours. The juvenile was 14 years old when the activity occurred. http://www.crime-research.org/news/03.03.2005/1000/ - - - - - - - - - - Hacker helps business school applicants get early decision A computer hacker gained access to internal admissions records at Harvard, Stanford and other top business schools, then helped applicants log on and learn their fate weeks ahead of schedule, officials said Thursday. Few of the people who followed the hacker's directions managed to find out if their applications have been accepted, according to school officials. But many of them could end up getting rejected now that the schools are checking to see who tried to exploit the security breach. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/11044063.htm - - - - - - - - - - Judge Dismisses Spam Conviction A judge dismissed a felony spamming conviction that had been called one of the first of its kind, saying he found no "rational basis" for the verdict and wondered whether jurors were confused by technical evidence. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/03/sister_cleared_in_aol_spam_case/ http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-spam3mar03,1,3394040.story - - - - - - - - - - Lawmakers call for ChoicePoint investigation They fear terrorists could use information from commercial databases. A group of Democratic U.S. lawmakers called today for a federal investigation on how terrorists could use information from commercial databases, such as the compromised records thieves obtained from ChoicePoint Inc. http://computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,100161,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Auto download adware carries vicious payload First adware using the Exploit/LoadImage vulnerability Security experts issued a warning this morning after detecting infections caused by Searchmeup, the first adware to use the Exploit/LoadImage vulnerability which downloads itself onto computers without the user's permission. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1161651 - - - - - - - - - - Firefox Browser Fixes Security Flaw A new version of the Mozilla Firefox browser fixes a flaw that made users vulnerable to online fraud. The flaw allowed fraudsters to set up fake Web sites with names indistinguishable from legitimate companies. http://www.securityfocus.com/elsewhere http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/03/03/mozilla.security.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Security patches issued for RealPlayers RealNetworks has released patches for its audio- video players in an effort to prevent attacks via buffer overflows. RealNetwork's patches, released Tuesday, address vulnerabilities in the software that could allow an attacker to run arbitrary or malicious code on a person's computer when a malicious WAV or SMIL file is processed. Secunia, a security information company, rated the vulnerabilities as critical. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5598064.html - - - - - - - - - - Anti-Phishing Act Introduced Some phishers and pharmers could be prosecuted under current wire fraud or identity theft statutes, Senator Patrick Leahy says, but such prosecutions would take place only after victims were defrauded. "For most of these criminals, that leaves plenty of time to cover their tracks." http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Anti-Phishing-Act-Introduced&story_id=30886 - - - - - - - - - - ID fraud rife in the UK - Which? A quarter of UK adults have had their identity stolen or know somebody who's been a victim of growing crime, a study by Which? published Wednesday reveals. The Consumers' Association magazine reckons identity fraud is the country's fastest growing crime, costing the economy an estimated PS1.3bn a year. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/03/which_id_fraud_survey/ - - - - - - - - - - Security firm in email deletion fiasco It's a case of 'you had mail' for companies who use GFI's email security service, after a BitDefender bug scuppered a service update. Was the update tested properly? An email security scanning company has accidentally deleted thousands of its customers' emails. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39189933,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Security fears fail to hold back Wi-Fi Despite security fears, the market for wireless Lan gear will roughly double in value and triple in unit shipments by 2009, largely thanks to next-generation technology delivering higher throughput, longer range and greater capacity. According to a newly published report by Datacomm Research Company, soaring demand for wireless home entertainment technology will help drive the boom. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1161666 - - - - - - - - - - India's cybercafes log customers' details Hundreds of Internet cafes in India's technology hub of Bangalore have started to record personal details of their visitors to comply with a new rule aimed at tracking perpetrators of online fraud, virus attacks and terrorism. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/internetprivacy/2005-03-03-cafe-privacy_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Spam for the soul Who would have dreamed that spam holds the keys to enlightenment? Like many ignorant humans, I used to consider junk e-mail a nuisance. But once I opened my mind as well as my inbox, I discovered an amazing truth: All I really need to know I learned from those weird proverbs and quotations in spam messages. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-wk-here3mar03,1,2996229.story - - - - - - - - - - Internal Threats To Security Are Increasing Enterprises are watching employees and employees are watching employers with increasing unease on both sides. In our global economy with its fluid workforce, in which longstanding relationships of trust are difficult to establish and maintain, the temptation for businesses is clear: monitor every employee, all the time. http://www.crime-research.org/news/03.03.2005/999/ *********************************************************** 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. 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