NewsBits for January 24, 2006 ************************************************************ Ex teacher handed six year prison term in child porn case A former special education aide at Hazel Green High School will serve a six year prison sentence on child pornography charges. 35-year-old Bradley Morgan Davis of New Market was sentenced yesterday by Federal Judge Lynwood Smith. http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060124/APN/601240721 - - - - - - - - - - Former State Trooper Pleads Guilty To Child Porn A retired state trooper and former Whitehall-Coplay School Board vice president has pleaded guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges. Investigators found child pornography on his home computer. http://kyw.com/local/local_story_024104742.html - - - - - - - - - - UK.gov repels zero day WMF attack Chinese hackers attacked UK government targets during the Christmas holidays using the Microsoft Windows Meta File (WMF) exploit. The attacks - initiated before Microsoft's patch against the vulnerability was released on 5 January - came in the form of contamination emails that originated in China, according to email filtering firm MessageLabs, whose clients include the UK government. It's unclear if independent hackers or the Chinese government initiated the attack. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/24/uk_gov_wmf_attack/ - - - - - - - - - - Survey finds solid opposition to release of Google data to feds The company is fighting a subpoena seeking search data. A majority of 1,017 Americans, 56%, who responded to a survey by Ponemon Institute LLC said they do not believe that Google should turn over Web search information to the U.S. government. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/privacy/story/0,10801,107993,00.html 77% of Google users don't know it records personal data More than three quarters of web surfers don't realize that Google records and stores information that may identify them, according to a new opinion poll. The phone poll was conducted at the weekend by the Ponemon Institute in the wake of the DoJ subpoenas last week, and sampled over a thousand internet users. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/24/google_privacy_poll/ - - - - - - - - - - DHS promises vigilance in safeguarding NAD database The Homeland Security Department has stepped up assurances that it will maintain the confidentiality of critical infrastructure information submitted to the National Asset Database, according to the newly revised draft National Infrastructure Protection Plan Base Plan version 2.0. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/38087-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Yahoo! phishing warning -- Be careful out there... Websense is warning internet users of a new phishing scam targeting Yahoo! users. Users get a message via Yahoo!'s instant messenger asking them to "click on this website". Following the link takes you to what appears to be Yahoo!'s photo service. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/24/yahoo_phishing_warning/ - - - - - - - - - - Oracle admins admonished over security Sysadmins with responsibility for Oracle systems need to tread very carefully to avoid suffering a major attack, according to Gartner Analyst group Gartner has warned administrators to be "more aggressive" when protecting their Oracle applications because they are not getting enough help from the database giant. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/applications/0,39020384,39248691,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - RCFL NETWORK OPENS 10TH LABORATORY Kerry E. Haynes, Assistant Director of the FBI's Operational Technology Division (OTD), joined with the heads of several Denver area law enforcement agencies today to commemorate the opening of the Rocky Mountain Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory (RMRCFL) in Centennial, Colorado. The RMRCFL is the tenth laboratory to join a national network of FBI-affiliated digital evidence facilities. http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel06/rmrcfl011806.htm - - - - - - - - - - US LEC Launches E-mail Defense US LEC has announced the availability of E-mail Defense, a comprehensive anti-virus and anti-spam service designed to catch malicious and wasteful e-mail before it reaches a business's servers. E-mail Defense applies the latest anti-virus and anti-spam techniques, and takes security and reliability a step further by scanning and filtering malicious files before they can enter a corporate network, improving a business's existing network performance with more available bandwidth and server capacity. http://www.it-observer.com/articles.php?id=1048 - - - - - - - - - - OpenSSL gets NIST certifications Agencies setting up sensitive virtual private networks now have an open-source alternative. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has certified OpenSSL, an open- source library of encryption algorithms, as meeting Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2 Level 1 standards, according to the Open Source Software Institute of Hattiesburg, Miss. http://www.it-observer.com/news.php?id=5660 - - - - - - - - - - ID card bill savaged by the Lords, again Peers have placed further restrictions on the government's ID card plans. The House of Lords has dealt another blow to the government's ID cards bill by voting against making it compulsory for people to have their biometric details included on the National Identity Register (NIR) when they apply for a new passport. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39248909,00.htm Decoupling from passports added to ID Card Bill's woes http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/24/lords_makes_idcards_voluntary/ DHS readies smart cards for Registered Traveler http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/38086-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Hey Bill, why am I still getting spam? Junk mail outlives MS mortality prediction Two years ago today Bill Gates predicted that spam email would be eradicated as a problem within 24 months. The Microsoft chairman predicted the death of spam in a speech at the World Economic Forum on 24 February 2004. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/24/gates_spam_death_prediction/ - - - - - - - - - - Bush allies defend NSA surveillance President Bush and his closest allies are stepping up their defense of a domestic surveillance program in the face of congressional criticism, multiple lawsuits and a Senate hearing planned for next month. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6030518.html http://news.com.com/Bush+allies+defend+NSA+surveillance/2100-1028_3-6030518.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. 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