NewsBits for March 8, 2006 sponsored by Digital Investigation - The International Journal of Digital Forensics & Incident Response - www.digitalinvestigation.net ************************************************************ Porn Billing Leak Exposes Buyers Seventeen million customers of the online payment service iBill have had their personal information released onto the internet, where it's been bought and sold in a black market made up of fraud artists and spammers, security experts say. The stolen data, examined by Wired News, includes names, phone numbers, addresses, e-mail addresses and internet IP addresses. Other fields in the compromised databases appear to be logins and passwords, credit-card types and purchase amounts, but credit-card numbers are not included. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70356-0.html - - - - - - - - - - Debit card fraud spree linked to security breach Police investigate OfficeMax connection... A spate of fraudulent debit card charges in Massachusetts, New Mexico and Bermuda is being linked to a case that led some West Coast financial institutions last month to replace 200,000 cards. Citibank, a major issuer of debit and credit cards, has "detected several hundred fraudulent cash withdrawals in three countries", according to a spokesman. The bank told customers the thefts are a result of an information breach at a "third-party business" that it did not name. http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39157043,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Railroad Loses $116,000 After Responding to E-Mail Pitch Railroad giant CSX Transportation Inc. has lost its bid to collect almost $116,000 from a company whose name appeared in the domain name of an unsolicited e-mail that offered to buy old railcars for scrap. http://news.findlaw.com/andrews/bt/cmp/20060307/20060307csx.html - - - - - - - - - - Arrest leads Edmonton police to child porn ring An Edmonton man who said he looked at violent child porn "to make the feelings go away" was a key figure in an international child pornography ring, police said. Carl Edmond Treleaven, 49, pleaded guilty to distributing child porn last month after police raided his home. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060308/child_porn_060308/20060308 - - - - - - - - - - Fontana Sex Arrest Stems From MySpace Several teenage boys lured a suspected child molester into police custody at a Fontana park after posting a fake profile of a 15-year-old girl on the website MySpace.com as a joke, authorities said Tuesday. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-myspace8mar08,1,7348191.story - - - - - - - - - - Former Episcopal priest indicted in child-porn case A former Episcopal priest and foster father has been accused in federal court of receiving, possessing and distributing child pornography. Donald George Shissler, 72, of Denver, already faced state charges of molesting three boys. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4523025,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Man Accused Of Having Child Porn Deputies on Tuesday arrested a 56-year-old day laborer suspected of having several movies of child pornography on his computer. Detectives served a search warrant Dec. 1 and seized Walter McCormick's computer from a home at 130 Lauri Circle. Detectives found numerous images and movies of children engaged in sexual acts or lewd positions, according to an arrest affidavit. http://news.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB0ZAG2JKE.html - - - - - - - - - - Charlotte Man Arrested On Child Porn Charge The FBI says a Charlotte man is in jail on a charge of distributing and possessing child pornography. Derek Dyda was arrested last Friday and is being held in the Mecklenburg County jail. He's is scheduled to appear in federal court Thursday. http://www.wsoctv.com/news/7781519/detail.html http://news.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB0ZAG2JKE.html - - - - - - - - - - Child porn site shut down An elderly Sydney man has been issued with a court summons regarding pornographic material of children posted on a website. Officers from the Australian Federal Police and NSW Police raided 72-year-old Geoffrey Leonard's home in Hornsby, in Sydney's north, yesterday and seized computer equipment. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/child-porn-site-shut-down/2006/03/08/1141701555592.html - - - - - - - - - - City child porn investigation could take some time It will be some weeks before any further action will be taken regarding two seizures in Galway in a nationwide child porn inquiry. Three computers were seized in Galway City last week as part of Operation Iron, a national investigation into the downloading of child pornography. http://www.galwayindependent.com/news/6632.html - - - - - - - - - - New debate for French piracy law Consumer groups think legal downloaders are short changed. The French government is trying again to push through a measure cracking down on file-sharing on the internet. Enemies of the move in France's National Assembly passed an amendment in December allowing users to download as much as they like for a small fee. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4785288.stm http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/08/france_to_introduce_download_license/ - - - - - - - - - - Google says click fraud settlement near Under a proposed $90 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit over alleged click fraud, Google said Wednesday that it would offer advertising credits to marketers who claim they were charged for invalid clicks and not reimbursed. The total amount of credits, including attorneys' fees, will max out at $90 million, Nicole Wong, associate general counsel at Google, wrote in a Google blog posting. http://news.com.com/Google+says+click+fraud+settlement+near/2100-1030_3-6047717.html - - - - - - - - - - U.K. clamps down on online child porn The number of web-based child abuse images hosted from U.K. servers has plummeted from 18 percent in 1997 to just 0.4 percent today, according to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) 2005 Annual Report. http://www.scmagazine.com/uk/news/article/545406/uk-clamps-down-online-child-porn/ Reports of child porn sites on web leap up by 78% THE number of internet child pornography sites reported to police rocketed by 78 per cent last year, a new report showed today. Members of the public sent 23,658 reports of suspicious content to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), up 37 per cent from 17,000 in 2004. http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=351292006 US and Russia urged to 'stem tide of child pornography' A leading children's charity has called on the Governments of the US and Russia to do more to combat online child pornography. According to the latest stats from the UK's Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), 40 per cent of the online child abuse content it investigates is traced to the US, while 28 per cent of online images are tracked back to Russia. At the same time, the amount of child pornography hosted in the UK is just 0.4 per cent. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/08/iwf_report/ - - - - - - - - - - Just in time, U.S. attorney tosses the book at local sexual predators Thats the message the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri sent yesterday by elevating the sexual predator Internet stings conducted by Boone County Detective Andy Anderson to a whole new level. For a couple of years now, Anderson has become a sexual predators worst nightmare. He typically poses as a 14-year-old girl in popular teen chat rooms on the Internet and stalks his prey. They come running to him - or is that her? - every time. http://www.columbiatribune.com/2006/Mar/20060307Feat003.asp - - - - - - - - - - New IM Worms Delete Files, Hijack PCs An anti-virus vendor warned Tuesday that two new worms spreading on Microsoft's and America Online's instant messaging networks delete files and leave systems open to hijacking. http://www.securitypipeline.com/news/181501635 - - - - - - - - - - Top 50 malicious code samples reveals secrets Symantecs latest Internet Security Threat Report found an increase in threats designed to facilitate cyber crime. While past attacks were designed to destroy data, today's attacks are increasingly designed to silently steal data for profit without doing noticeable damage that would alert a user to its presence, the company said. http://www.crn.com.au/story.aspx?CIID=35661 - - - - - - - - - - Internet security firm braces for new wave of cyber crime One of the world's leading Internet security firms expects a spike in criminal activity involving zombie computers in the next six to 18 months. Vulnerabilities in Microsoft's popular media player and a component of Mozilla's Firefox Web browser left users vulnerable to malicious code from dubious websites until the companies released patches to close the loopholes. http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Business/2006/03/08/1477705-sun.html - - - - - - - - - - Firefox Whips Internet Explorer In Vulnerability Tally Symantec has changed how it spells out Firefox and Internet Explorer browser vulnerabilities in reaction to complaints last September from Mozilla Firefox users and developers. "How we did it before wasn't a fair comparison," said Oliver Friedrichs, the senior manager of Symantec's security response group. "It wasn't an apples to apples comparison." http://internetweek.cmp.com/news/181501793;j Firefox to get phishing shield http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6047610.html - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft fixes can cause Windows Media Player trouble If you've noticed your Windows Media Player acting strange, Microsoft has an explanation. A trio of updates for the media player software, including a recent security patch, can cause the software to malfunction, the software maker said in a technical support article published on its Web site earlier this week. Microsoft late Wednesday e-mailed notices alerting the support page. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6047762.html - - - - - - - - - - OS X security contest ends without incident A new Mac OS X security contest reported on yesterday has ended early, but without incident. The contest was started on March 6th in response to an article published by CNET News.com and ZDNet of a previous OS X hacking contest. The article initially failed to indicate that contest participants were given local user- level access to the system via SSH - highly unlikely in a real-world setting. http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/159 Second hack-my-Mac compo goes ballistic http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39157042,00.htm University nixes Mac hacker contest http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6047735.html - - - - - - - - - - 'Computer terrorist' Mitnick teaches hacker blocking He can find George Bush senior's Social Security number and Leonardo DiCaprio's mother's maiden name in under 15 seconds, and led the FBI on a three-year manhunt as he hacked his way into the world's biggest firms. "Computer terrorist" Kevin Mitnick is one of the world's most famous computer hackers and became a cause celebre after breaking into networks and stealing software at companies including Sun Microsystems and Motorola. http://news.com.com/Famed+computer+terrorist+teaches+anti-hacking/2100-1029_3-6047245.html http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6047245.html http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/03/08/tech.hacking.reut/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Service To Remotely Wipe Data From Lost Laptops Pre-installed software will automatically locate and alert the machine to delete sensitive data the next time the laptop connects to Everdream's desktop management hosting service through the Internet. http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;j?articleID=181501616 - - - - - - - - - - Internet "cloaking" emerges as new Web security threat Terrorist organizations and other national enemies have launched bogus Web sites that mask their covert information or provide misleading information to users they identify as federal employees or agents, according to Lance Cottrell, founder and chief scientist at Anonymizer of San Diego. http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/40075-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Phishing fraudsters aim to outpace site shutdowns Cybercrooks have developed new techniques in response to increasingly aggressive moves to identify and shut down known phishing sites. In a move designed to ensure potential phishing victims always link to a live website, fraudsters have developed so- called "smart redirection" attacks. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/08/smart_redirect_phish_attack/ - - - - - - - - - - Government security expert warns of insider threats One idea, says Michael Theis, is to devise some kind of worker profiling. Michael Theis, chief of cybercounterintelligence at the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), sat down today with Computerworld to discuss why companies must protect themselves from insider threats to their networks. Theis, who spoke here earlier at the Computerworld Premier 100 IT Leaders conference, also talked about a new public-/private-sector study that will look at the use of profiling to try to identify insider security threats -- much as the FBI now creates profiles for criminals. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/hacking/story/0,10801,109311,00.html ************************************************************ Digital Investigation is the international journal of digital forensics and incident response. To apply for a free sample copy visit: http://www.digitalinvestigation.net *********************************************************** 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.