NewsBits for September 2, 2005 ************************************************************ Suspected worm author to be tried in Morocco An 18-year-old maths student will go on trial in Morocco this month for unleashing computer worms that disrupted networks of major U.S. firms, a Justice Ministry official said on Friday. The FBI announced last week Moroccan Farid Essebar's arrest in Rabat and that in Turkey of 21-year-old Attila Ekici, both suspected of releasing the Zotob worm that hit the Internet three weeks ago. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9175734/ - - - - - - - - - Senior citizen pleads guilty to 1 count of child porn A Fallon senior citizen who faced 95 counts of possessing child pornography entered into a plea bargain agreement with the Churchill County District Attorney's Office that reduced the charges to one count. James Arthur Collins, 66, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of possession of visual pornography of a person under the age of 16. Collins faces one to six years in prison and a $5,000 fine when he is sentenced Nov. 15. He must also register as a sex offender. http://www.lahontanvalleynews.com/article/20050902/News/109020014 - - - - - - - - - - Computer techs report child porn A convicted child molester was being held without bond Thursday after technicians found 1,000 pornographic pictures of children on his damaged computer and notified police. Robert Bruce Miller, 56, of Winder was arrested Wednesday and held on five counts of sexual exploitation of children and one count of computer pornography, according to the Gwinnett Sheriff's Department. http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/0905/02porn.html - - - - - - - - - - Man paid for child porn on credit Credit card payments by Camp's Bay businessman Andrew Stofberg, allegedly for child pornography, formed part of an international investigation by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cape Town Magistrate's Court has heard. However, by the time the FBI's Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), monitor of credit card trade in child pornography, alerted Western Cape police to Stofberg's alleged transactions, he was already under investigation, Superintendent Jan Swart told magistrate Herman van der Merwe. http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/zones/sundaytimesNEW/newsst/newsst1125637682.aspx - - - - - - - - - - Duke student sues after finding her term paper for sale online Blue Macellari wrote the term paper back in 1999 while studying abroad, so the Duke University graduate student didn't understand why it was found on someone else's Web site -- or why it was for sale. Now, she's suing the operator of Web sites where she said her paper was offered for sale. She is seeking more than $100,000 for copyright infringement, invasion of privacy and damage to her reputation. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/12547215.htm - - - - - - - - - - Blizzard wins lawsuit on video game hacking A federal appeals court has ruled that computer programmers do not have the right to reverse- engineer Blizzard Entertainment's video games to improve their playability. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled Thursday that federal law--specifically, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act--disallows players from altering Blizzard games to link with servers other than the company's official Battle.net site. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5845905.html - - - - - - - - - - Netsky number one again But Zotob is nowhere to be seen in August's chart of the most prolific viruses. Old timer Netsky.P last month regained its position at the top of the table of most reported malware, making up nearly 15 percent of all reported viruses in August. Despite the fact that Netsky.P has increased its share of the most reported viruses according to antivirus firm Sophos, up from 14 percent in July, the Mytob family of worms remains a threat to PC users everywhere, taking up seven out of 10 chart places and making up more than half of all reported viruses. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39216096,00.htm http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2141780/mytob-dominates-august-virus Netsky and Mytob in turf war battle http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/77004/netsky-and-mytob-in-turf-war-battle.html - - - - - - - - - - Phishing plummets in August IT SEEMS our friends the phishers and virus writers take holidays like the rest of us. According to security outfit Postini, there was a 90 per cent reduction in the number of phishing emails in August and the number of viruses dropped by 30 percent from July. http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=25857 - - - - - - - - - - 'DVD Jon' targets Media Player file encryption A Norwegian programmer has developed a tool for removing some encoding surrounding the Windows Media Player, in a move to give open-source media players a chance to access the streams. Jon Johansen, also knows as DVD Jon, posted details about the tool on his blog on Wednesday. Johansen is also known for such hacks as tweaking Google's Video Viewer and reopening Apple Computer's iTunes backdoor. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5847488.html http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2141796/dvd-john-does-again - - - - - - - - - - FlatNuke 'id' Parameter Discloses Files to Remote Users Impact: Denial of service via network, Disclosure of authentication information, Disclosure of system information, Disclosure of user information, Execution of arbitrary code via network, Modification of user information. Exploit Included: Yes Version(s): 2.5.6. Description: rgod reported several vulnerabilities in FlatNuke. A remote user can view arbitrary files, conduct cross-site scripting attacks, and cause denial of service conditions on the target system. http://securitytracker.com/alerts/2005/Aug/1014824.html - - - - - - - - - - Educate IT law enforcers: Nasscom Nasscom has already set up two cyber crime labs in Mumbai and Thane for facilitating cyber crime investigation training. Expressing satisfaction over the IT laws in the country, Nasscom vice president Sunil Mehta stressed on the need to educate the enforcers. According to him, the enforcement agency and the judiciary should be adequately aware of the existing technologies in order to investigate and prosecute better. http://www.ciol.com/content/news/2005/105090111.asp - - - - - - - - - - Are cybercops browser-challenged? All Web browsers aren't created equal, law enforcement officials said at a conference this week. But should technical differences between Internet Explorer, Opera and Firefox really pose that much of a hurdle to cybercops? Bloggers and readers commenting on CNET News.com say no. Police and other investigators who examine PCs to uncover Web surfing history just aren't looking in the right places, they say. http://news.com.com/2060-11199_3-0.html - - - - - - - - - - Windows Vista to 'freeze dry' PCs before patching The next version of Microsoft's Windows operating system will include new patching technology that reduces the number of required restarts and stores user data before reboots. Code-named "Freeze Dry," the technology uses a new restart manager in Windows Vista, a Microsoft representative said in a statement Friday. In most cases, consumers won't have to restart Windows Vista when installing or updating an application, according to Microsoft. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5846234.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.