NewsBits for March 4, 2005 ************************************************************ ID theft gang smashed Police in Scotland have charged 28 people accused with involvement in an ID theft scam that netted almost PS2m. Scottish police have charged 28 people over a sophisticated ID fraud racket that swindled almost PS2m from over 100 private bank accounts. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39190120,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Cape Cod police officer facing Internet sex charge quits force A police officer charged with soliciting sex from a minor over the Internet has quit the force, according to the police chief. Michael N. Caico, who was assigned to work with schoolchildren in this Cape Cod town, is charged with trying to solicit a Hollis, N.H., police officer who was posing online as a 14-year-old girl. http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=71189 - - - - - - - - - - BLM employee arraigned on child porn charges A U.S. Bureau of Land Management employee pleaded not guilty to child pornography charges during an arraignment hearing Friday afternoon. Richard Bower has been charged with one felony count of possession of child pornography with distribution and several misdemeanor child pornography possession charges, said Deputy District Attorney Deborah Owen. Bower was arrested as the result of an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation into a child pornography Internet ring, explained Owen. ICE agents reportedly arrested Bower in early January after a search resulted in the alleged discovery of child pornography on his home computer. http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2005/02/27/news/news05.txt - - - - - - - - - - Limp Bizkit lead claims hackers stole his sex video A lawsuit filed on behalf of Limp Bizkit lead singer Fred Durst alleges that the same people who hacked Paris Hilton's cell phone were able pull a homemade sex video off Durst's computer. The Smoking Gun has obtained part of Durst's complaint against various web sites that posted portions of Durst's sex romp with a former girlfriend. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/04/fred_durst_suit/ - - - - - - - - - - Hacker helps applicants breach security at top business schools Among the institutions affected were Harvard, Duke and Stanford. A computer hacker helped applicants to some of the nation's best business colleges and universities gain access to internal admissions records on the schools' Web sites. Using the screen name "brookbond," the hacker broke into the online application and decision system of ApplyYourself Inc. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/hacking/story/0,10801,100206,00.html http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21575 - - - - - - - - - - BPI nails 'music pirates' UK music fans have agreed to pay thousands of pounds in compensation for distributing music illegally via peer-to-peer networks, the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) announced Friday. Music fans paid up to PS4,500 each in a series of 23 settlements and agreed to accept injunctions against them illegally uploading music again. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/04/bpi_fileshare_settlements/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/04/software_piracy_actions_2004/ - - - - - - - - - - eBay scrambles to fix phishing bug eBay is fighting to repair a software glitch that opens the door to phishing attacks using one of its own legitimate URLs. The online auction giant is working on a fix for the problem, and it hopes to distribute that fix among its Web pages in the next several days, a company representative said on Friday. The problem, described by the company as a "software bug," could be exploited by criminals to create an actual eBay link that redirects customers to a malicious site, the representative said. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5600372.html - - - - - - - - - - Companies resist nuclear cyber security rule Two companies that make digital systems for nuclear power plants have come out against a government proposal that would attach cyber security standards to plant safety systems. The 15-page proposal, introduced last December by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), would rewrite the commission's "Criteria for Use of Computers in Safety Systems of Nuclear Power Plants." http://www.securityfocus.com/news/10618 - - - - - - - - - - UK police struggling to fight cybercrime A Home Office report has found that police are struggling to cope with the weight of Internet child porn cases, due to under-resourcing and insufficient training. Police are suffering increased workloads, under-funding and a "lack of relevant training" in their fight against Internet paedophilia, according to research released on Friday. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39190133,00.htm Police push for dedicated paedo-protection unit Police are proposing a new dedicated unit to tackle internet child pornography - staffed by officers, charity workers and computer experts - with resources to monitor suspect internet activity 24/7 and carry out covert ops against net paedophiles. Stuart Hyde, of the Association of Chief Police Officers, told the BBC that "law enforcement agencies, children's charities and internet service providers are united in calling for a national centre" in the face of the apparently burgeoning market for child pornography. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/04/uk_internet_safety_centre/ - - - - - - - - - - Singapore to fight cyberterrorism Singapore law enforcement start a wide-scale action to counteract cyberterrorism. It will be a 3-year program with a $ 23 million budget, Reuters informs. In his Friday speech, vice prime minister Tony Tan said that the plan involves raising awareness of cyber threats, developing a pool of security professionals skilled in combating cyber terrorism, and establishing the Cyber-Threat Monitoring Center. http://www.crime-research.org/news/04.03.2005/1004/ - - - - - - - - - - Panel targets cybercrime The ChoicePoint scandal that released 4,500 Colorado residents' sensitive financial information to a fraud ring is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cybercrime in Colorado, according to Dave Mahon, the supervisory special agent of the Cyber Crime Squad for the Denver division of the FBI. The results of an FBI survey mailed three weeks ago to businesses across the country will reveal that the number of reported cybercrimes cases in Colorado will double the 2,500 reported cases in 2003. http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~33~2741386,00.html ChoicePoint faces inquiry, will curtail data sales Facing an SEC inquiry over its business practices, ChoicePoint says it will exit some parts of the personal data business and sell information only in situations where specific criteria are met. The inquiry and the planned business changes, announced Friday, both come on the heels of a scandal that left thousands of consumers vulnerable to identity theft. http://news.com.com/ChoicePoint+faces+inquiry,+will+curtail+data+sales/2100-1029_3-5599516.html - - - - - - - - - - It's official: Spammers are hijacking ISPs MessageLabs says it has found powerful evidence that spammers are using new tricks to get around blacklists. An email security company says it has found evidence that spammers are tricking Internet service providers into helping them evade anti-spam security measures. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39190123,00.htm Spammers adopt slippery tactics to bypass ISP defences Spam levels are rising even though the percentage of junk mail spewed out from compromised PCs directly is on the slide. Tests by email security firm MessageLabs on 90,000 inbound connections to its honeypot servers on 1 October 2004 revealed that 79 per cent of the connections came from "open proxy" computers or zombies (computers typically compromised by a virus or Trojan infection). http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/04/spam_tactics_survey_messagelabs/ - - - - - - - - - - Domain Owners Lose Privacy The U.S. Commerce Department has ordered companies that administer internet addresses to stop allowing customers to register .us domain names anonymously using proxy services. The move does not affect owners of .com and .net domains. But it means website owners with .us domains will no longer be able to shield their name and contact information from public eyes. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,66787,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft takes a patch breather Microsoft plans to forgo its regular monthly patch release next Tuesday, after having taken the more unusual step of issuing a dozen updates in last month's release. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5599841.html - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft products fail spyware tests After two months of promising to update its media player and block the threat of malware infection in it, Microsoft officials on Tuesday admitted that WMP 9 users are exposed to the risk. When the first flaws were detected in the beginning of January, Microsoft made it clear that the use of rigged .wmv files to exploit the DRM (digital rights management) mechanism was not a software flaw. http://www.crime-research.org/news/04.03.2005/1002/ - - - - - - - - - - 'One in four' touched by ID theft Experts recommend shredding documents, not putting personal information online and being careful when sending CVs to recruitment sites. A quarter of adults have been a victim identity theft or know someone who has been affected by it, an investigation by Which? magazine has found. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39190122,00.htm ID theft cons UK public out of PS1.3bn http://www.vnunet.com/news/1161705 - - - - - - - - - - Tracking PCs anywhere on the Net A University of California researcher says he has found a way to identify computer hardware remotely, a technique that could potentially unmask anonymous Web surfers by bypassing some common security techniques. Tadayoshi Kohno, a doctoral student, wrote in a paper on his research: "There are now a number of powerful techniques for remote operating system fingerprinting, that is, remotely determining the operating systems of devices on the Internet. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5600055.html - - - - - - - - - - Computer sleuths dig deep to solve crimes For experts, 'delete doesn't mean gone' John Mallery says his current job as a computer forensic expert has some parallels to his former calling as a comedian, juggler and knife thrower. "I've thrown knives around my wife. If I'm not in shape and I don't practice, I put her at risk," he said. "If I'm a forensic examiner and I don't keep up with my skills, bad guys get away." http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/03/04/computersleuth/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Homeland Security picks up missing-kid tech The Department of Homeland Security plans to try out updated Amber Alert technology, which is used to help recover abducted children, in a program to improve the U.S. warning system. The department's Federal Emergency Management Agency has been involved in a pilot program with public TV broadcasters, cell phone operators and Internet service providers in the Washington metropolitan area to see if extra digital spectrum from public broadcasters could be used to transmit alerts to cell phones. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5600459.html - - - - - - - - - - Mitnick: Security depends on workers' habits Famed ex-hacker Kevin Mitnick is warning against security strategies that focus on technology. Rather, teaching your staff to say no will help keep your network secure, he says. Mitnick, a cyberspace legend known for having penetrated the networks of such companies as Motorola and Nokia, spoke Thursday at Toshiba's MobileXchange conference in Melbourne, Australia. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5600202.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39190119,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Security Gets Under Your Skin Joseph Krull, former intelligence officer and present security expert for Virtual Corporation, recently let VeriChip implant a small RFID chip under the skin of his right arm. VeriChip, a company that produces automatic identification ware for identifying pets, livestock and food products -- and humans seem to be its next market. http://www.crime-research.org/news/04.03.2005/1001/ - - - - - - - - - - Bells ringing in Net phone 911 TrackBack Print E-mail TalkBack. A 17-year-old girl's call to 911 earlier this month after both her parents were shot by intruders never got through to police. Rather, the Houston teen got a recording from the Net phone company her family recently began using telling her that 911 service wasn't available. She managed to escape to summon authorities and an ambulance from elsewhere--with a phone that did provide 911 connection. http://news.com.com/Bells+ringing+in+Net+phone+911/2100-7352_3-5600445.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. 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