NewsBits for July 18, 2005 ************************************************************ Misawa airman busted one rank, docked pay for hacking An airman first class with the 35th Communications Squadron was sentenced to 10 days of confinement and reduced in rank to E-2 for trying to hack into personal computer files on base. James A. Stout, formerly a technician in the bases Network Control Center, also will forfeit two-thirds of his pay and allowances for one month. http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=29586 - - - - - - - - - - Nigeria jails woman in $242M e-mail fraud case A Nigerian court has sentenced a woman to two and a half years in jail after she pleaded guilty to fraud charges in the country's biggest e-mail scam case, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said on Saturday. Amaka Anajemba, one of three suspects in a $242 million fraud involving a Brazilian bank, must also return $48.5 million to the bank, hand over $5 million to the government and pay a fine of $15,000, the agency said. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/cybercrime/story/0,10801,103307,00.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39209667,00.htm http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5792425.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/18/nigeria_jailed_scammer/ - - - - - - - - - - Mozilla marketing site hacked A Web site used to promote the Firefox Web browser was hacked early last week, potentially compromising personal information about thousands of volunteer supporters of the open-source software. The attack, which shut down the spreadfirefox.com Web site for several days, was disclosed Thursday in an e-mail message sent to Spread Firefox members by The Mozilla Foundation, which develops the browser and runs the Web site. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/hacking/story/0,10801,103304,00.html http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2139906/firefox-support-site-hacked - - - - - - - - - - Judge throws out 100 counts of child porn against Elk County man A judge threw out 100 counts of possession of child pornography on the grounds that police illegally searched the defendant's computer after his live- in girlfriend gave them the password. Dennis B. Hubbard Jr. of Brockway, was acquitted by Elk County Judge Richard Masson in a non-jury trial June 27. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05198/539342.stm - - - - - - - - - - Retired police sergeant accused of accessing child porn at office A retired South Texas police sergeant is accused of downloading child pornography on a city-owned computer while he was on duty.Santiago Salinas, 48, was indicted on child pornography charges by a state grand jury June 22, court records show. He has until Aug. 10 to surrender to authorities, the Brownsville Herald reported in today's edition. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3267288 - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft warns of remote access protocol flaw A flaw in the software used to remotely access computers running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system could leave users vulnerable to a denial-of-service attack, the company said in a security advisory Friday. The vulnerability doesn't allow attackers to gain control of Windows systems, but they could use it to repeatedly cause affected computers to crash. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/holes/story/0,10801,103312,00.html MS probes Win XP SP2 kernel bug http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/18/winxp_dos_bug/ IE and MSN Messenger open door for attackers http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39209575,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Malware maelstrom menaces UK Lock up your email servers - there's a blizzard of Windows malware out there. Email security firm MessageLabs has blocked more than a thousand copies of an email worm called Breatel-A (AKA Reatle or Lebreat) which attempts to launch a denial of service attack on security vendor Symantec and opens up a backdoor on infected PCs. The virus is being sent with multiple attachment types, including many .cpl files (Windows Control Panel Files) that may not automatically be blocked by some content filters and firewalls as they are not widely used by virus writers. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/18/malware_blitz/ - - - - - - - - - - Big danger from Small Trojan Over 120,000 emails containing a downloader Trojan named Small.bdq have been sent to a highly targeted group of UK businesses since 9.10pm on 15 July, security experts warned today. http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2139900/big-danger-small-trojan - - - - - - - - - - Sasser's heirs spread slowly Several variants of a mass-mailing worm that exploits the same vulnerability as the Sasser worm have been picked up making their way across the Web. A double-edged threat that attempts to hijack Windows PCs has surfaced in at least three variants, security companies warned on Friday. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39209573,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Banks fight off hacker attacks Banks across the UAE were hit by a wave of hacking attacks last month, with at least two banks reporting they had fought off the hackers. National Bank of Dubai (NBD) and Mashreqbank have both confirmed to IT Weekly that such attempts have been made on their systems in the past few weeks. http://www.itp.net/news/details.php?id=16773 - - - - - - - - - - Cost of computer attacks down, says survey by CSI, FBI While the cost of fending off hackers appears to be dropping for U.S. companies, attacks that involved unauthorized access to information are becoming much more costly, according to a survey by the Computer Security Institute (CSI) and the FBI. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,103301,00.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/18/csi_fbi_security_survey/ - - - - - - - - - - Prosecuting online child porn not easy Eleven pornographic images - some girls, some boys, some of both, one from Missouri, 10 from around the world, all graphically sexual in nature. A 48-year-old Bradenton man, officials say, was trading them online like baseball cards. And that's how he got caught. When Robert C. Cox used his AOL screen name to e-mail one of the images, the transmission was picked up by Internet Service Provider America Online. http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/12153766.htm - - - - - - - - - - Between phishers and the deep blue sea Gavin Reid, trying to shut down a phishing Web site, found one thing was making the job that much harder: The attack was coming from India. Businesses in that country were finishing up for the day when he arrived for work at his U.S. -based employer. That made coordination difficult for Reid, leader of a security incident response team at a Fortune 500 technology company, as he scrambled to fix the problem for a customer. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5790349.html - - - - - - - - - - Lost Laptops Sink Data Lost backup tapes may be the IT security issue du jour, but stolen laptops are a bigger and more intractable problem. Critical business data walks out the door every day on notebook computers. Increasingly, those devices are going missing. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,103190,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Bringing Spammers to Their Knees Blue Security hopes you'll join thousands of others in an army capable of crippling spammers' Web sites. Is your PC running malicious code that may have turned it into a spam-spewing zombie? Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool scans, identifies, and extracts threats. Symantec also offers a free online virus detection service and a software program that identifies existing problems on your PC and determines how safe it is from potential online threats. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121841,00.asp - - - - - - - - - - President takes rough road on Patriot Act An expected vote on the Patriot Act this week will test whether Congress has the political fortitude to stand up to President Bush. Key portions of the vast law, speedily enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, are set to expire at the end of 2005. The president and his Justice Department, of course, want those portions to be made permanent. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5793173.html - - - - - - - - - - Online private eyes draw privacy complaints Want to find a long-lost college buddy? Think your husband or wife is cheating on you? Numerous Web sites make being a private investigator as easy as double clicking. There's Yahoo People Search, which allows people to type in a name and get an address and phone number. Typing a phone number into Google can bring up phone book results including addresses. Other common directories include Switchboard and WhitePages.com http://news.com.com/Online+private+eyes+draw+privacy+complaints/2100-1038_3-5790691.html - - - - - - - - - - Video game sex hack puts focus on industry-run rating board Shooting. Killing. Vehicular mayhem. Sexual conquests. Teenagers can experience it all through today's almost-anything-goes breed of video games, primarily among those rated ``M'' for mature. The Entertainment Software Rating Board is responsible for that rating system, and this self-regulating videogame industry group has suddenly found itself on the hot seat. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/12162372.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.