NewsBits for April 6, 2005
************************************************************
eBay fraudster lands six-year prison term
A federal judge in Maine sentenced a man to more
than six years in prison for conducting Internet
scams on eBay. U.S. District Judge George Singal
rejected on Monday a plea bargain from Charles
Stergios, 21, because of the man's failure to
attempt to make restitution with his victims,
according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Halsey Frank,
who represented the state of Maine in the case.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5657244.html
- - - - - - - - - -
Mississippi joins list of colleges leaking data
Surfer stumbles on 700 names, Social Security
Numbers. Ray was just surfing the Internet looking
for information on an old friend. Instead, he found
a gold mine for identity thieves -- a Web site full
of documents listing hundreds of student names and
Social Security Numbers. It was posted right on the
University of Mississippi's Web site, there for
anyone to see.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7407401/
- - - - - - - - - -
Tyndall Airman convicted of possessing child porn
An Airman was convicted of possessing child pornography
during a recent court-martial here. A military judge
sentenced Airman 1st Class Axel Acevedo, a 325th
Operations Support Squadron air traffic controller,
to five months confinement, reduction to airman basic
and a bad conduct discharge. Airman Acevedo said he
used an Internet file-sharing program to search for
images of young boys, which he then downloaded and
burned to a CD. The Airman said he knew the pictures
were of real boys younger than 18. He showed the
pictures to two other Airmen, one of whom subsequently
reported him to the authorities.
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123010203
- - - - - - - - - -
Trojan horse takes down smart phones
A Trojan horse has been created that causes
smart phones to crash, security software maker
F-Secure has warned. The Finnish company posted
details of the Trojan horse, which they've named
Fontal.A, on Wednesday. Fontal.A affects Nokia
Series 60 handsets running the Symbian operating
system. The advisory did not say whether any
infections had been reported.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5657724.html
New mobile malware wipes phones
http://www.vnunet.com/news/1162340
- - - - - - - - - -
Latest smart phone virus targets Symbian
Mabir.A can spread as an MMS message and over
Bluetooth, but it's unclear whether the mobile
virus is in the wild yet. Symbian is looking
into reports of a new mobile phone virus that
targets smartphones running its operating
system. The worm, dubbed Mabir.A, appears
to be a variant of the Cabir virus --
recognised by security experts as the
first smartphone virus.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39194129,00.htm
- - - - - - - - - -
Security flaw found in Firefox
A flaw has been discovered in the popular
open-source browser Firefox that potentially
could release sensitive information stored
in memory, according to a report by security
information company Secunia. While the flaw
is only rated as "moderately critical," the
rapid adoption of the open-source browser
may put a growing number of users at risk.
Prior to the release of version 1.0, downloads
of earlier versions of the browser had reached
eight million within the first 18 months.
http://software.silicon.com/malware/0,3800003100,39129316,00.htm
- - - - - - - - - -
Hacker law change gets 'elevator pitch' in parliament
Measures to reform UK hacking law were aired
in parliament yesterday. But a lack of mainstream
political interest means that changes in the
law are unlikely for some time. Derek Wyatt MP,
chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Internet
Group (APIG), moved a 10 Minute Rule Motion
calling for amendments to the Computer Misuse
Act (1990) in parliament on Tuesday.
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/10832
Election sparks calls for cybercrime minister
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39194001,00.htm
- - - - - - - - - -
Internet giants sued over click fraud
A Texarkana gift shop that advertises on the
Internet has filed a lawsuit against America
Online, Google, Yahoo and other Web-centered
companies alleging they knowingly overcharged
the shop and other companies for "pay per click"
advertising. Lane's Gifts and Collectibles says
in a Miller County lawsuit that the Internet
companies charged it for advertising traffic
not generated by bona fide customers. Lane's
Gifts hopes to represent numerous other
companies in a class-action lawsuit against
the Internet companies.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7398421/
- - - - - - - - - -
Identity thieves' new ploy: `pharming'
First online crooks went ``phishing,'' and now
they're getting into ``pharming'' to reap their
harvest of potential identity-theft victims.
Pharming is a new scam that automatically directs
computer users from a legitimate Web site to
a fraudulent copy of that site -- without any
warning signs. The fraudulent site collects
passwords, credit card numbers or other private
information for potential misuse. Security experts
say such attacks are rare so far but could grow
in the coming months in much the same way phishing
scams have exploded.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/local/11324938.htm
Bigger phishes ready to spawn
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5656070.html
- - - - - - - - - -
Homeland Security panel picks controversial chief
A federal privacy board on Wednesday appointed
a prominent champion of government data-mining
as its first chairman. The Department of Homeland
Security's privacy board chose as its chairman
Paul Rosenzweig, a conservative lawyer best
known in technology circles for his defense
of the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness
project. Bowing to privacy concerns, Congress
pulled the plug on the program two years ago.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5657746.html
http://www.fcw.com/article88505-04-06-05-Web
- - - - - - - - - -
Schmidt: More cops needed for high-tech beat
Howard Schmidt, the former cybersecurity adviser
to the White House, has warned that there aren't
enough trained police officers in the world to
tackle cybercrime effectively. Schmidt, now the
chief security strategist at auction site eBay,
told delegates at the e-Crime Congress in London
on Wednesday that the issue needs to be addressed
as high-tech law-breaking becomes more widespread.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5657381.html
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39194007,00.htm
- - - - - - - - - -
Russian hackers 'the best in the world'
Russians who once hacked for fun are now
teaming up to get rich through cybercrime,
according to police. The Russian police's
cybercrime division, known as Department K,
has warned that Russian hackers are the best
in the world. "Everyone knows that Russians
are good at maths," said lieutenant general
Boris Miroshnikov of Department K. "Our
software writers are the best in the world,
that's why our hackers are the best in the
world."
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,39020369,39193999,00.htm
- - - - - - - - - -
Clarke confirms disappearance, and reappearance, of ID cards
Home Secretary Charles Clarke has confirmed that
controversial legislation to introduce ID cards has
been shelved. But he said the ID card bill would be
included in the Labour Party's manifesto, published
early next week, and would be an early priority for
the next Parliament should Labour win the election.
Clarke blamed the Tories for the failure of the bill.
He said their lack of support forced him to ditch
the bill. The Tories rejected this and pointed out
that the government chose how much legislation
to include in the Queen's speech as well as
the date of the General Election.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/06/clarke_ditches_cards/
Clarke pledges to push on with ID cards
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39194132,00.htm
- - - - - - - - - -
First responders to get biometric IDs
About 200,000 first responders in the Washington
region will be issued biometric smart card IDs
under a new program to be deployed by the Homeland
Security Department, in partnership with state
and local agencies in the Washington region,
Lee Holcomb, DHS chief technology officer,
said today. The initiative will involve police,
fire and emergency response agencies in the
District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland and
Pennsylvania, Holcomb said at a forum on
interoperability at the FOSE trade show
in Washington.
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/35473-1.html
- - - - - - - - - -
Texas bill would replace vehicle inspection stickers with RFID tags
A Texas legislator has filed a bill that would,
in part, call for the state to replace vehicle
inspection stickers with radio frequency
identification (RFID) tags, otherwise known
as transponders. But the idea does not sit
well with some privacy experts. The tags
would be used by law enforcement to ensure
compliance with the state's insurance laws,
according to Larry Phillips, the Republican
state representative who proposed the bill.
http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/privacy/story/0,10801,100892,00.html
- - - - - - - - - -
Defeating Honeypots: System Issues, Part 2
This paper will explain how an attacker typically
proceeds in order to attack a honeypot for fun
and profit. In part one we compared honeypots
to steganography and then looked at three common
techniques for virtualizing honeypots. For each
of these methods, which included User Mode Linux,
VMware environments, and chroot/jail environments,
we looked at weaknesses that lead to their
detection.
http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1828
- - - - - - - - - -
Web bookies demand higher security standards
Giving all Internet users decent firewalls
would go a long way towards preventing DDoS
attacks,says Internet bookmaker Blue Square.
Online gambling companies are urging ISPs to
do more to prevent hackers disabling computers
with distributed denial-of-service (DDoS)
attacks. An industry forum made up of the UK's
biggest Web gambling firms has been lobbying
Internet service providers for several months
to provide all their customers with better
security.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39193981,00.htm
***********************************************************
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.