NewsBits for February 28, 2006 ************************************************************ Yahoo sues former workers, alleging trade secrets were stolen Yahoo Inc. sued seven former employees Monday, alleging that the workers stole trade secrets as they defected to MForma Group Inc., which provides entertainment and information tailored for wireless phones. Yahoo's suit in Santa Clara County Superior Court suit alleges San Francisco- based MForma illegally raided its work force as part of plot to swipe technology developed by Yahoo, which runs the Internet's most visited Web site. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/13977150.htm - - - - - - - - - - AOL sues alleged phishing rings America Online has filed lawsuits against three alleged identity-theft gangs, using a new antiphishing law to seek combined damages of $18 million. The online division of Time Warner said Tuesday it had filed three civil suits in Alexandria's U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, charging the three groups with tricking AOL members with fake Web sites of legitimate companies to fool them into giving up personal information. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6043975.html - - - - - - - - - - NASA researcher arrested in Internet porn sting A 23-year old NASA researcher arrested this week in an Internet porn sting was released today from the Lake Worth city jail in North Texas, authorities said. Travis Johnson, of Webster , was charged with a second-degree felony for soliciting sex over the Internet with a police officer posing as a 13-year old girl. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3682081.html - - - - - - - - - - Seville man is charged in Internet porn sting A Medina County man has been charged with using the Internet to try to arrange a sexual threesome with a woman, her daughter and a dog. Andrew Belicka, 52, of Seville, appeared Monday in Columbiana County Municipal Court, where his bond was set at $25,000 cash or surety. http://www.vindy.com/content/local_regional/299141219334892.php - - - - - - - - - - Janitor accused in child porn case fired A Comal County middle school janitor has been fired after being arrested on charges of possession of child pornography, school officials said Monday. Barry Craig Nielson, 53, was arrested last week as part of Operation Predator, a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement investigation that targets people suspected of creating and trading child pornography, as well as adults suspected of seeking sex with minors over the Internet. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA022806.janitor.en.6d9bb087.html - - - - - - - - - - Man charged over child porn images A MAN has been charged over allegedly uploading child pornographic images on to an internet site. Australian Federal Police (AFP) raids on the 46- year-old's Eastwood home unearthed more than 20,000 child porn and child abuse images as well as 1000 child porn video clips on computer hard drives. The AFP was acting on a tip-off from US authorities, who allegedly detected the man uploading the material onto a website. http://www.sundaytimes.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,18305011%5E1702,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Evidence in Cape weapons, child porn case stands Superior Court Judge Carmen Alvarez denied a defense motion to suppress evidence taken during the Dec. 13, 2004, search of the Dennis Township home of Jack Lee Colin Jr. Colin, 52, is charged with two counts of weapons offenses because of prior convictions, and endangering the welfare of children by possessing child pornography. http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/local/capemay/story/5972838p-5966687c.html - - - - - - - - - - Hotline sees rise in reports of child porn on internet The internet service providers association of Ireland (ISPAI), which operates the Hotline service aimed at curbing child pornography online, has said that there has been continued strong growth in the rate of reports to its website. The groups third report, issued yesterday, said there had been a total of 5,102 reports sent to www.hotline.ie over the 30-month period from July 2003 to December 2005. http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single6118 - - - - - - - - - - Senators press for details of NSA spying U.S. senators on Tuesday accused the Bush administration of "stonewalling" a congressional investigation into the legality of the National Security Agency's domestic spying. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary committee, said that the White House apparently believes that "there's no place for congressional or judicial oversight of any of its activities related to national security." http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6044120.html - - - - - - - - - - Accusations Are Traded on BlackBerry Accord Research in Motion Ltd., operator of the BlackBerry e-mail service, and patent owner NTP Inc. traded accusations about their offers to settle a dispute that threatens to ban most use of the hand-held device in the U.S. "RIM's public assertions that NTP has not proposed a license that protects its carriers is both disingenuous and intentionally misleading," Arlington, Va.-based NTP said. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-briefs28.3feb28,1,6580058.story - - - - - - - - - - Report: ExpressPay can be exploited for cash A vulnerability in the FedEx Kinko's ExpressPay system allows an attacker to receive free services or even cash from the stores, according to a post on Full-Disclosure yesterday. The ExpressPay system uses a Siemens/Infineon SLE4442 smartcard to store the pre-purchased value, and a three-byte security code prevents rewriting of the card's data. The method described for obtaining the security code involves using a logic analyzer at a point where the card is written to, and it is reported that this code is the same across all cards in circulation. http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/150 - - - - - - - - - - Viruses plague British businesses Windows viruses are a big problem for lots of firms Computer viruses are the single biggest cause of security problems for UK businesses, a survey by the Department of Trade and Industry shows. The study found almost 50% of the biggest security breaches suffered by companies in the last two years were due to infection by malicious programs. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4755492.stm - - - - - - - - - - PayPal Password-stealing Trojan Mass Mailed Several million copies of a password-stealing Trojan horse were spammed to Internet users late last week, a security company said Monday, and workers returning to the office who open the attachment risk a computer kidnapping. gU.K.-based BlackSpider Technologies said that it had already intercepted more than 3.2 million messages with an attached Trojan, and claimed that it took 52 hours for the first anti-virus vendor to issue a signature that detected and deleted the malware. http://www.securitypipeline.com/news/181400633;j - - - - - - - - - - Virus makes leap from PC to PDA Personal computers Viruses and worms Security threats IDS (Intrusion Detection Systems) Handhelds Microsoft. A group of security researchers claims to have found the first virus that can jump to a mobile device after infecting a PC. The malicious software, dubbed "Crossover," was sent anonymously to the Mobile Antivirus Researchers Association, the group said in a statement released on Monday. The virus is a proof-of-concept bug and was not released in the wild, meaning that it doesn't pose an actual risk for PC and device users. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6044457.html - - - - - - - - - - Russian phone Trojan tries to ring up charges Antivirus companies are warning of new malicious software that can infect any cell phone capable of running Java applications, not just feature- rich smart phones. The Trojan horse was first spotted by Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab, which calls it RedBrowser. The malicious code poses as an application that promises people the ability to visit mobile Internet sites using text messages instead of an actual Net connection, Kaspersky said in a statement Tuesday. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6044266.html New RedBrowser Trojan first to target J2ME http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/cybercrime/story/0,10801,109083,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Oracle patches 11i security flaws Security Databases Enterprise resource planning (ERP) Security threats Security applications/tools Oracle Corporation. Oracle has issued an upgrade to its E-Business Suite 11i diagnostics module containing a number of the security fixes, according to applications security firm Integrigy. In releasing the upgrade, Oracle made an usual move by alerting its users about the security patches, according to Integrigy's advisory. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6044020.html - - - - - - - - - - Analyst Dings Security Vendors For Exploiting Apple Flaws It's no coincidence that not long after security vendors began beating the drum about possible exploits of the Mac OS X operating system, unpatched flaws were uncovered, an analyst suggested Monday. Rob Enderle, principal at the Enderle Group, reacted to the recent news of a pair of worms aimed at Mac OS X and a zero-day vulnerability of Apple Computer's operating system with accusations that the security industry hypes the danger in order to sell more security software. http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;j?articleID=181400660 Triple threat to Mac OS X largely academic http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11378 - - - - - - - - - - U.K. military to trial enhanced RFID tracking tags The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense later this year will test enhanced radio frequency identification tags readable from more than 100 feet to improve tracking of military supplies. These "active" RFID tags will contain a small battery capable of emitting signals that increase the range from which they can be read and the amount of data that can be stored on the chip. Special readers can track these tags from more than 200 feet. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6044061.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 2000-2006, NewsBits.net, Campbell, CA.