NewsBits for September 12, 2005 ************************************************************ VoIP provider Packet8 spills customer emails Data leak turns customers into phishing targets Internet telephony provider Packet8 has accidentally disclosed the email addresses of 21,000 of its subscribers. Packet8 sells internet telephony services to consumers and businesses in North America, allowing them to place telephone calls to regular phone numbers at a discounted rate. The VoIP provider as of June 30 had 73,000 subscribers. http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2142205/voip-provider-packet8-spills Phishers cast net for CompuServe users http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2142186/compuserve-targeted-phishers - - - - - - - - - - Web pirate jailed over fake DVDs A man who set up an internet website to sell counterfeit CDs, DVDs and computer games has been jailed for 12 months. Trading standards twice seized Simon Withington's copying equipment but the 38-year-old was back in business just days later, Stafford Crown Court heard. Withington, from Stafford, even registered his new computer in the name of the trading standards officer who was investigating his activities. He admitted 23 offences under the Trademark Act. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/staffordshire/4230658.stm Campaign fights homegrown DVD piracy http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2142155/campaign-fights-homegrown-dvd - - - - - - - - - - Man arrested over Ashes email death threats Police investigating email death threats against members of the Australian cricket squad arrested a 32 year-old from Stoke-on-Trent today. The man was reportedly arrested after being traced through his email address. A police spokesman told the BBC the man was arrested on charges of making threats to kill and released on police bail until 27 October. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/12/ashes_email_death_threat/ - - - - - - - - - - Puebloan gets 5 years for child pornography A Pueblo man who admitted having thousands of still images and video images of child pornography was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison. "From this point on, I will seek help for the problem that I have," Christian Gallardo told U.S. District Judge Walker Miller. Detectives in the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force of the Pueblo County Sheriff's Department contacted Gallardo a year ago after receiving information from U.S. Customs agents that he had been buying subscriptions to Web sites containing child pornography. http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1126275683/15 - - - - - - - - - - Child Porn Arrest The Computer Crimes Section detectives arrested a 45-year-old man on Sept. 2 for possession of child pornography. Suffolk police say Robert Allen of Centerreach used the Yahoo screen name Long_Island_Guy44 and chatted online with an undercover detective from the Monroe County Sheriffs Department that he believed to be a 14-year-old girl. http://www.longislandpress.com/index.php?show=article&cp=217&a_id=5604 - - - - - - - - - - Child porn bust linked to Wpg. daycare centre The arrest of a Winnipeg daycare operator's common-law spouse for possessing child pornography has horrified some parents. "The stuff that goes through your head, it's pretty surreal -- and you don't want to think about it," said one mother whose daughter went to the daycare for seven months in 2004. "You can't trust anybody now," parent Selena Fritsch told CKY News. "You put your trust in these people to take care of your kids all day and you find out stuff like this. I'm scared to put them anywhere." http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1126409512281_4/?hub=Canada - - - - - - - - - - Mobile fraudsters sentenced Four people found guilty of VAT fraud were sentenced for a total of 22 years at Maidstone Crown Court late last week. The four fraudsters engaged in missing trader fraud, where goods are sourced VAT-free from within the EC and sold on with VAT added. The trader then disappears before paying the Inland Revenue the VAT. http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/09/12/fraudsters_sentenced/ - - - - - - - - - - US fertility doc in web Lothario scandal A Manhattan "reproductive endocrinologist" is being sued by two irate net lonely hearts who were duped by the online Lothario into believing he was single, Reuters reports. The women's lawsuits - filed in Manhattan Supreme Court - claim Dr. Khaled Zeitoun, 46, used mind games "to entice them into sexual relationships with tales of past lives", specifically, that he claimed to have been married to his victims in a previous life. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/12/web_lothario/ - - - - - - - - - - Gartner warns against Indian call centre fraud Staff shortage could result in more cases of identity theft. A shortage of skilled labour for Indian call centres increases the risk of fraud and identity theft, analyst firm Gartner warned in a newly published study. The increased risk is the result of a shortage of call centre agents with Indian call centres. The need for trained and qualified call centre workers is set to reach 1 million by 2009, according to study by the Indian government, but by that time about one quarter of those positions will remain unfilled. http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2142204/gartner-warns-indian-call http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/offshoring/0,3800003026,39152178,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Beware using cards online Half of adults used plastic to shop online last year, the UK payments association said on Thursday. A report published by APACS (the Association for Payment Clearing Services) said 22 million adults bought goods and services online in 2004 totalling 16 billion pounds. APACS said it expected that figure to continue to rise over the next decade. http://www.crime-research.org/news/11.09.2005/1485/ - - - - - - - - - - Fury over 'slow' police work on child porn Child rights activists are furious that police have not moved fast enough to apprehend child pornography perverts whose dark and sordid world was exposed on national television last week. The TV3 Special Assignment programme showed that poorer areas were easy hunting grounds for paedophiles wanting to recruit children for sex or pornography. It showed that where poverty was rife young children were easily lured by wealthy men to their homes. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20050910111443682C886387 - - - - - - - - - - Fraud Reveals Workings of Internet Theft The illicit haul arrived each day by e-mail, the personal details of computer users tricked by an Internet thief: a victim's name, credit card number, date of birth, Social Security number, mother's maiden name. One more Internet "phishing" scam was operating. But this time, private sleuths soon were hot on the electronic trail of a thief whose online alias indicated an affinity for the dark side. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050912/ap_on_hi_te/anatomy_of_a_hack - - - - - - - - - - Mozilla Issues Patch for Firefox Flaw Responding to reports this week of a dangerous security flaw in its increasingly popular Firefox Web browser, Mozilla released an interim patch late Friday to fix the problem, which could allow bad guys to infiltrate computers through the browser. Firefox and Mozilla Suite users can apply the patch by visiting this link, and then clicking on "Install now" in the window that pops up. The patch will not be fully applied until you completely close out and restart the browser. http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2005/09/mozilla_issues_.html - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft warns of critical flaw SOFTWARE giant Microsoft has given advance warning that it is planning to release a patch for a critical flaw in Windows. Vole is not saying what the problem might be, but it carries Microsofts critical warning so it will probably be pretty important. http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=26048 - - - - - - - - - - Red Cross Works to Better Protect Its Networks From Attacks, Scams Information security staffers at the American Red Cross, which was hit last month by the Zotob worm, are working overtime to try to protect the organization's networks against attacks amid surges in usage of the networks following Hurricane Katrina. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/hacking/story/0,10801,104539,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Digital rights group to fight data retention The Open Rights Group wants to take on Charles Clarke over ID cards and telecoms data, and help develop fair-use rights for digital content. A digital rights organisation, the Open Rights Group (ORG), has been formed to tackle European and UK legislation which could threaten digital and civil freedoms. ORG will serve as a hub for other cyber-rights groups campaigning on similar digital rights issues and follows in the footsteps of the US group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39217961,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Novell enhances identity management products Networking and Linux firm says it has added new features to beta versions of Novell Identity Manager and Novell Access Manager. Novell has updated its identity- and access-management products in an attempt to help customers to more easily protect their systems. The company announced the additions to its Novell Access Manager and Novell Identity Manager products at BrainShare, its annual user conference, in Barcelona on Monday. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39217820,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Virtual goods, real scams Dan Hunter recognized a familiar scam when he got an e-mail stating that his account in the game "Eve Online" had been suspended due to "unusual activity" and that he needed to click on the enclosed link to enter his login data to regain access. Hunter, an assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School of Business, knew that this type of hoax, a phishing scam, was usually used to get access to PayPal or online bank accounts. But this was a new one to him: phishers targeting an online game player's login data. http://news.com.com/Virtual+goods%2C+real+scams/2100-1043_3-5859069.html - - - - - - - - - - Data dangers dog hard drive sales USB memory keys are a convenient way to transfer data. Many people are taking risks with data on hard drives and memory cards which they are selling via eBay, say experts. Letters, resumes, spreadsheets, phone numbers and e-mail addresses were all found on storage hardware bought and analysed by forensics firm Disklabs. Also recoverable were temporary files from net browsers which contained login details and passwords for websites and even online bank accounts. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4229550.stm Take 4 steps to secure your thumb drive data http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kimkomando/2005-09-11-thumb-drive_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Navy: Dont access personal e-mail at work Navy employees can no longer access personal e-mail accounts, including Yahoo Mail and Microsoft Hotmail, from the services networks without approval. That is one of six rules in the Navys new acceptable use of information technology policy issued in July. http://www.fcw.com/article90710-09-09-05-Web - - - - - - - - - - China Criminalizes Internet Telephony As the biggest fixed line telephone carrier in China, China Telecom is holding talks with a number of software and hardware makers about the issue. At the beginning, China Telecom will carry out its close-down actions in some big cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai and expand it nationwide by 2006. http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=03000000OJG6 - - - - - - - - - - Report: FBI lacks blueprint for technology upgrade Despite past warnings from congressional auditors, the FBI does not have an effective framework for modernizing its information technology systems, according to a new report. The Government Accountability Office report (GAO-05-363) argued that the FBI needs to continue to move towards a fully enforced enterprise architecture, a blueprint used by organizations to guide IT system improvements. http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=32216 *********************************************************** 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.