NewsBits for September 9, 2005 ************************************************************ Three elderly people held on child porn charges Three elderly people will appear in the Pinetown Magistrate's Court on Friday on charges relating to the distribution of child pornography, KwaZulu- Natal police said. Superintendent Phindile Radebe said the three -- a couple and their relative -- together with another man were arrested on Wednesday and Thursday after an extensive six month investigation. http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=250520 - - - - - - - - - - Piracy Investigation Leads To Prosecution Of Portland Man Stealing the intellectual property of others is no different from any other form of thievery, said U.S. Attorneys Silsby and OConnor in a joint statement. It is a priority of our offices and the Department of Justice to protect the intellectual property rights of our nations inventors and creators. http://www.cybercrime.gov/brinkPlea.html - - - - - - - - - - Nigerian Scams Spin Katrina Disaster Nigerian-style scams that use the ongoing Katrina disaster are beginning to appear, said a security firm Wednesday. In the typical 419 scam -- so called because of the numbering of the relevant code in Nigerias criminal law, and made popular by Nigerian-based fraudsters -- criminals send out spam promising recipients a share of a fortune supposedly inaccessible to the sender. In return for an upfront fee -- and therein lies the scam -- the recipient is told hell collect millions. http://www.techweb.com/wire/security/170701190 Cyber-Looters Capitalize on Katrina http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1857349,00.asp http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5855545.html Katrina scams mushroom http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/09/pf/beware_disaster_scams/index.htm Katrina aftermath: Beware of e-looters http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/hacking/story/0,10801,104513,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Katrina victims at risk for ID theft, experts say Birth certificates and other sensitive documents left among the waterlogged debris of Hurricane Katrina could put the storms victims at heightened risk for identity theft, experts said Thursday. U.S. officials and consumer advocates said they had not yet heard of any cases of identity theft related to the disaster because the crime usually takes months to unfold. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9241126/ - - - - - - - - - - Computer crime skyrocketing "Individual users are more exposed to computer crime than ever." This statement from Chris Keating, director of the Computer Security Institute (CSI), sums up the results of three recent studies of trends in Internet threats. http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/Business/2005/09/08/1206625-sun.html - - - - - - - - - - Researcher Flags Firefox Code Execution Flaw Officials at the Mozilla Foundation on Friday acknowledged that a potentially dangerous code execution hole exists in fully patched versions of its flagship Firefox Web browser. Partner Resource Center The open-source foundation's confirmation comes on the same day it shipped Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 (code-named Deer Park) and highlights the delicate balancing act faced by Mozilla to market Firefox as a security upgrade over Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1857322,00.asp http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,104504,00.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/09/firefox_security_flap/ - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft Cancels September Patch Day Update Partner Resource Center Microsoft Corp. late Friday cancelled plans to roll out a solitary bulletin with patches for a Windows flaw, citing an unknown "quality issue." The software giant announced on Thursday that a single "critical" bulletin would cover a wormable vulnerability. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1857408,00.asp http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,104498,00.html http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=4369 Selective Disclosure Raises Questions http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1857319,00.asp How to use Microsofts shared computer toolkit http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,104501,00.html Microsoft aims for hack-proof 360 http://www.it-observer.com/news.php?id=5470 - - - - - - - - - - Cisco warns of another IOS bug Cisco Systems Inc. has issued another vulnerability alert for its Internetworking Operating System software. This one involves the Firewall Authentication Proxy for FTP and Telnet Sessions feature in specific versions of the Cisco software. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,104510,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Mac community must wake up to security Apple Macintosh users believe they are immune from security problems and need to wake up to the potential of attack -- before they are rudely awoken by a destructive piece of malware. At the University of Otago in New Zealand, where around 40 percent of the computers are Apple Macintosh systems, IT security manager Mark Borrie has been educating his OS X users in security best-practices. He said many of those users believed they were immune to security problems -- a trap many Mac fans seemed to have fallen into. http://www.it-observer.com/news.php?id=5469 - - - - - - - - - - CIO Jury: ISPs blamed over corporate security threats Internet service providers (ISPs) are failing to do enough to stem the tide of denial of service attacks, phishing scams and spam email bombarding corporate networks and websites, according to UK IT chiefs. http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39152121,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Putting the squeeze on credit card fraud About once a week, travel agent Sue Heffner receives a call requesting a booking for an expensive last-minute airline ticket, often departing from far-flung locations in Africa. The calls appear to come from Nigeria and the callers prefer to use operator-assisted Telephone- Typewriter services meant for the hearing impaired. Heffner, who operates a small travel agency out of the town of Clarksburg, about 30 miles south of state capital Sacramento, doesn't book for these customers. She knows how to spot a scam. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5856625.html - - - - - - - - - - Intel Sets Sites on Security Intel Corp. is moving on multiple fronts to help keep businesses one step ahead of worms and viruses. Partner Resource Center The chipmaker's research arm has stepped up its security focus of late. Earlier this week, Intel researchers released to open source an early version of software called Autograph that helps to quickly identify Internet worms and curb their ability to spread. Its Intel Capital arm, meanwhile, has invested in Grisoft, a security software maker based in Prague, Czech Republic. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1857402,00.asp Building An Encrypted (But Accessible) Archive http://www.it-observer.com/news.php?id=5467 - - - - - - - - - - UK digital rights group sets up A UK-based organisation to preserve digital rights and freedoms has been set up thanks to pledges of money by those passionate about such rights. It says it wants to highlight European and UK legislation which could threaten the rights of digital citizens. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4225938.stm - - - - - - - - - - What mutating spyware reveals about the future of security According to a July report from the Pew Internet & Americal Life Project, more than 90% of Internet users have changed their online behavior to avoid spyware. That is a remarkably high level of awareness, considering the relative newness of the spyware threat. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/hacking/story/0,10801,104457,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Blogging: A double-edged sword Employee blogs can do much to enhance a company's reputation, but they can also cause damage if clear blogging guidelines aren't there PR company Edelman called for more employer guidelines on blogging this week, in order to safeguard both companies and employees from the potentially damaging consequences of blogs for both parties. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,39020369,39217152,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Email spat gets PAs sacked Two Australian legal PAs have lost their jobs over an email row which started over ham and cheese sandwiches. Two legal PAs have been fired after an email argument spiralled out of control. The claws came out after Katrina Nugent sent an email to all the lawyers and support staff at her Sydney law firm accusing an unknown lunch thief of helping themselves to her ham, cheese, and bread. She asked to be reimbursed for her loss. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,39020369,39217322,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Police blotter: Bogus laptop salesman loses appeal "Police blotter" is a weekly report on the intersection of technology and the law. This episode: A bogus laptop salesman lands a "reasonable" two-year prison sentence. What: Appeal by a man who pleaded guilty to pocketing nearly $20,000 in a fraudulent laptop sales scheme on eBay and Yahoo, but not before he threatened to murder officers pursuing him. When: Decided Aug. 30 by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. http://news.com.com/Police+blotter+Bogus+laptop+salesman+loses+appeal/2100-1030_3-5852866.html - - - - - - - - - - Emergency VoIP Gets a Private Line Voice over IP (define) manufacturer VoIP, Inc., launched what it says is the industry's first private network 911 service for Internet-based telephony, officials said Thursday. The service is available today on a trial basis, with general availability of the entire product in October, to be showcased at the CompTel/ASCENT Fall 2005 Convention and Expo in Orlando, Fla. http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3547266 *********************************************************** 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. 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