NewsBits for September 13, 2005 ************************************************************ Spyware Creator Facing Up to 175 Years in Prison The Department of Justice has indicted a man who allegedly created a spyware program designed to break into computers and illegally intercept the electronic communications of others. Carlos Enrique Perez-Melara, whose whereabouts are unknown, is facing up to 175 years in prison and $8.75 million in fines if convicted on each count of a 35-count indictment handed down by federal prosecutors Aug. 26. http://news.findlaw.com/andrews/bt/ebl/20050912/20050912perezmelara.html - - - - - - - - - - MA Teen Convicted for Hacking into Internet A Massachusetts juvenile pled guilty in federal court and was sentenced Thursday in connection with a series of hacking incidents into Internet and telephone service providers; the theft of an individual's personal information and the posting of it on the Internet; and making bomb threats to high schools in Florida and Massachusetts; all of which took place over a 15-month period. Victims of the juvenile's conduct have suffered a total of approximately $1 million in damages, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office. http://www.govtech.net/magazine/channel_story.php/96608 - - - - - - - - - - Zotob suspect appears in court A Moroccan magistrate questioned an 18-year-old science student in court on Tuesday about his alleged role in unleashing computer worms that disrupted networks across the United States last month. Farid Essebar appeared before the investigating magistrate in Rabat for three hours of questioning about the Zotob worm, his lawyer said. The worm caused computer outages at more than 100 U.S. companies, including major media outlets like CNN and The New York Times. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5863339.html http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/09/13/morocco.worm.reut/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Teacher faces new charges More than 80 sex-related charges were added to the allegations against an Oshawa teacher yesterday in what one investigator said was the largest child porn cases inDurham Region history. Jeremy Raymond Pike, 33, was formally charged with an additional 27 counts each of sexual assault, sexual interference and making child pornography against several young victims. http://torontosun.com/News/Canada/2005/09/13/1214804-sun.html - - - - - - - - - - Two Singapore bloggers charged for racist remarks Two men were charged in a Singapore court on Monday with violating the city-state's sedition laws by posting anti-Muslim comments on their Internet homepages, police said. The two ethnic Chinese men, aged 25 and 27, face charges for promoting ill-will and hostility between ethnic communities on their personal websites, or "blogs," in June. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050912/wr_nm/crime_singapore_blogs_dc_1 - - - - - - - - - - Hackers hit U.S. Army computers Thieves stole computer equipment from Fort Carson containing soldiers' Social Security numbers and other personal records, the Army said Monday. Post spokeswoman Dee McNutt said she did not know how many soldiers' records were involved but that no cases of identity theft had been reported. http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050913.gtarmysep13/BNStory/Technology/ - - - - - - - - - - Feds promise crackdown on Katrina scams Thousands of Web sites could be fake, experts warn. As weather forecasters tracked the approach of Hurricane Katrina, Alan Paller, a computer security expert with the Sans Institute, tracked another gathering storm the rush to register Internet sites containing the name "Katrina." "Most of them," says Paller, "appear to be just plain thieves." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9329968/ Katrina victims face identity crisis http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9316512/ Scammers 'Donate' to Katrina Relief Effort http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2005/09/scammers_donate.html - - - - - - - - - - IT pros more aware of Sexual Offences Act More than half of IT pros are now aware of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and its recent campaign to stamp out illegal content in the workplace. In May, the IWF kicked off its "Wipe it Out" campaign to crack down on child porn in the workplace following the introduction of the Sexual Offences Act (SOA) 2003. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/13/iwf_soa/ - - - - - - - - - - Users play fast and loose with corporate PCs Users are more likely to engage in risky internet behaviour at work because they reckon their IT department will protect them against viruses, worms, spyware, spam, phishing, and other security threats. That's according to a recent online survey of 1,200 corporate end users in the US, Germany, and Japan conducted by net security firm Trend Micro. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/13/unsafe_computing_survey/ - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft rejects S. Korea's demand for continued security patches Software giant Microsoft Corp. has rejected South Korea's intelligence agency's request that a planned halt to security patch releases for a version of the Windows operating system be postponed, according to the spy agency's cyber security team Tuesday. The National Cyber Security Center, affiliated with the National Intelligence Service, said its demands for Microsoft to extend the release of Windows 98 security patches were met with refusals. http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20050913/460100000020050913145408E9.html Microsoft's delay to patch fuels concerns http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11313 Microsoft fixes Windows 2000 update http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5863060.html - - - - - - - - - - Hackers work to exploit latest Firefox flaw Security researchers claim to have found ways to exploit a serious bug in Firefox and Mozilla Web browsers, a sign that attacks could be on the way. The vulnerability, which could let attackers secretly run malicious software on PCs, was disclosed on Thursday by security researcher Tom Ferris. The Mozilla Foundation, which distributes and coordinates the development of the Firefox and Mozilla browsers, responded swiftly and released a temporary fix on Friday. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5863451.html - - - - - - - - - - Phishers cast net for CompuServe users Spoofed email message seeks account information CompuServe subscribers are being targeted in a phishing scam based on a spoofed email message claiming that their CompuServe account has expired and will be frozen if their account information is not updated. The scam was reported in an alert from Websense Security Labs. The spoofed email includes a link to a US-based phishing site that attempts to collect the user's screen name, password, billing address and credit card information. http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2142186/compuserve-targeted-phishers - - - - - - - - - - Bot herder websites in internet take-down Bot herder websites that specialise in dumbing down the process of managing zombie networks of compromised Windows PCs are under attack. High profile bot sites such as ryan1918.com and 0x90-team.com have disappeared, reports anti-virus firm F-Secure. Another such site, known as "Neo, The One" (neo-theone.com.ar), which was hosted in Argentina, went offline on Friday (9 September). http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11311 - - - - - - - - - - McAfee, Inc. Extends Deployment Assistance Program to Include Secure Content Management Appliances McAfee, Inc, the leader in Intrusion Prevention and Security Risk Management, today announced that it has extended its Deployment Assistance Program to customers and select McAfee(R) SecurityAlliance (TM) partners deploying McAfee's new family of Secure Content Management (SCM) appliances. http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-13-2005/0004105965&EDATE= - - - - - - - - - - Uk.com wildcard raises Net stability worries A decision by British company CentralNic to make all unregistered domains ending with "uk.com" direct to its own webpage has raised concerns over the future stability of the Internet. CentralNic owns a series of valuable dotcoms including uk.com, us.com, eu.com and de.com and sells third-level domains e.g. www.theregister.uk.com to anyone for PS32.50 a year. It runs around 100,000 domains. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/14/centralnic_wildcard/ - - - - - - - - - - Wireless Web surfers beware: There are pirates about Naga Jayadev loves the freedom of connecting from a Westport coffeehouse to his corporate office in McLean, Va., using only his laptop computer and a wireless Internet network. Like Jayadev, more than 10 million computer users have joined Americas Wi-Fi revolution. http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/12629077.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.