NewsBits for April 4, 2006 ************************************************************ Suffolk cop accused of cyberstalking A police officer seeking revenge against a former girlfriend hacked into the woman's e-mail account, assumed her identity at an on-line dating service and contacted 70 men, inviting some of them for rendezvous at the woman's home, Suffolk prosecutors charged yesterday in a 197-count indictment. http://www.newsday.com/ny-licop0403,0,4541831.story - - - - - - - - - - Mountie resigns over child porn An RCMP officer accused of looking at child pornography at work has resigned. The officer's name can't be released because no charges have been laid against him, but Langley RCMP have confirmed he quit in February. He had been suspended with pay following his arrest last June. The material in question was accessed using an RCMP computer. http://www.cknw.com/news/news_local.cfm?&rem=34671&red=80110923aPBIny&wids=410&gi=1.cfm - - - - - - - - - - Former public servant faces sex charge A LEADING Northern Territory environmentalist has been charged with indecently dealing with a child under 16 years. The former public servant will face the Darwin Magistrates Court today. Defence lawyer Jodi Truman said she expected the matter to go to an oral committal and possibly on to the Supreme Court. http://townsvillebulletin.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,18703805%255E421,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Area celeb jailed for child porn Popular radio show host, recording artist and variety singer Ted Reinhart faces a detention hearing today in Harrisburg after his arrest on federal child pornography charges. Reinhart, also known as Paul E. Reinhart Jr., of Alexandria was arrested at his home without incident about 8 a.m. Thursday after a federal grand jury returned the two-count indictment, FBI Special Agent Jerri Williams said Monday. http://www.altoonamirror.com/articles.asp?articleID=471 - - - - - - - - - - Woman arrested in Haga child porn case Texas authorities announced Monday afternoon that they've arrested a woman in connection with a child exploitation case. This is the same investigation surrounding former Huntsville police officer Kenneth Haga. The woman arrested is 22-year-old Anita Gail Marshall. She lives in Texas. http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=4720013&nav=0hBE - - - - - - - - - - Grandfather pleads guilty to child porn charge A 64-year-old man has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of transporting pornographic photos of his two-year-old granddaughter. Richard Hawes entered his plea March 31 in U.S. District Court in Concord; he faces five to 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. Sentencing was scheduled for August. He faces separate state charges of child pornography possession. http://www.wfsb.com/Global/story.asp?S=4722055 - - - - - - - - - - Ex-teacher gets prison for child pornography U.S. District Judge Dee Benson sentenced Michael Champlain Perry on Monday to 51 months in prison for receiving and distributing child pornography. http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635196743,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Stone gets prison for child porn Prosecutors wanted prison time for Gary Wayne Stone. The defense asked for a probation sentence. Jurors decided to give him both. Stone, 58, was sentenced to two years in prison for one count of possession of child pornography, and 10 years of probation on 14 other counts. Also, Stone was issued a $20,000 fine in a verdict. http://www.herald-coaster.com/articles/2006/04/03/news/top_story/topstory.txt - - - - - - - - - - No jail for child porn Possessing kiddie porn won't mean jail for a Calgary "loner" dubbed a smut addict by his lawyer. Instead, Jeffery Lee Connell will spend the next six months living under a curfew before serving two years of probation, Judge William Pepler ruled yesterday. http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/2006/04/04/1518927-sun.html - - - - - - - - - - Wrigley Co. Worker Charged With Child Porn A 30-year-old man was charged Monday with possessing child pornography after images allegedly were found on a computer at his workplace at the William J. Wrigley Company. Rory Griffin, of the 500 block of West Hawthorne Place, was charged with one count of possession of child pornography, according to police News Affairs Officer Kristina Schuler. http://www.nbc5.com/news/8456763/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - Two area men plead guilty in movie, music piracy case Two Union City men pleaded guilty Monday in San Jose federal court to conspiring to manufacture nearly 200,000 compact discs containing pirated music and software. Ye Teng Wen, 29, also known as Michael Wen, and Hao He, 30, also known as Kevin He, were arrested on Oct. 6, 2005 -- along with another man -- as part of an undercover operation code-named ``Remaster.'' http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/local/14260293.htm - - - - - - - - - - Verizon tentatively settles e-mail suit Verizon Communications (VZ) is proposing refunds to Internet customers who found legitimate e-mail from friends and businesses blocked by the company's spam filters. In announcing a tentative settlement of a class-action lawsuit, Verizon said it has since refined its junk e-mail blockers to reduce such mistakes. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-04-04-verizon-email-settlement_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - After attack, Network Solutions knocked down again For the second time in a week, domain-name registrar Network Solutions Inc. has experienced a disruption of service. The company's Web site was inaccessible for more than two hours earlier today because of an outage at the company's Internet service provider, Savvis Inc. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,110193,00.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/04/network_solutions_glitch/ - - - - - - - - - - Child porn victim to testify before congress Justin Berry was a 13-year-old honor student and class president when he started down a dark and dangerous path. It began with a Webcam that he had hooked up to his bedroom computer with the intention of interacting with other kids his age. Within minutes of hooking it up, Berry had received his first message from a man he would later learn was a child predator. http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1803413 - - - - - - - - - - File-sharers face legal onslaught The music industry has launched a fresh legal assault on people accused of illegal file-sharing. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is taking legal action against nearly 2,000 song-swappers in 10 countries. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4875142.stm - - - - - - - - - - Michigan video game law ruled unconstitutional A federal judge has ruled that a Michigan law that bars retailers from selling or renting violent video games to minors is unconstitutional. http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/fun.games/04/04/mich.game.lawsuit.ap/index.html Study: Violent video games lack proper labeling http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/fun.games/04/04/video.ratings.reut/index.html - - - - - - - - - - GAO: SEC must improve information security It has only fixed eight of 51 weaknesses identified last year. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission needs to bolster its information security to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of financial and sensitive data as well as its information systems, according to a report released late last week by the Government Accountability Office http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/holes/story/0,10801,110196,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Information security policies should focus on top-level goals Companies should avoid a laundry list of compliance items, say panelists at the conference. Focus and simplicity are key to developing and implementing companywide information security policies, according to IT managers at a panel discussion at the Infosec World conference here this week. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,110184,00.html Infosec: Security concerns could slow RFID http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,110190,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Cybercrooks ramp up against antivirus firms--and each other The antivirus provider said Tuesday that as profits from cybercrime grew in 2005, criminals increasingly tried to prevent antivirus providers from developing protection against the latest threats. "Honeypots," or lightly protected systems set up to collect samples of malicious software for antivirus companies, were a prime target, Kaspersky said. http://news.com.com/Cybercrooks+ramp+up+against+antivirus+firms--and+each+other/2100-7349_3-6057654.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39261210,00.htm Spammers take aim at HR departments http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39261426,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Spyware-Powered Click Fraud Traced to Yahoo Anti-spyware activist Ben Edelman has flagged a spyware-powered click-fraud scam using Yahoo's Overture advertising service to fleece advertisers. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1946001,00.asp - - - - - - - - - - Ever-growing arsenal for hacking attacks Dangerous new methods such as distributed reflection denial of service attacks are straining and in some cases crippling existing defences, said experts at the conference for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which manages top-level domains such as .com and .org. http://www.it-observer.com/news/6006/ever_growing_arsenal_hacking_attacks/ - - - - - - - - - - Another Round of Mac Fixes Apple on Monday released another batch of security and stability fixes for its Mac OS X operating system, the fourth such update bundle in as many weeks. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/04/apple_issues_another_round_of_1.html - - - - - - - - - - Developers fast to fix open-source bugs Developers have quickly fixed many bugs in popular open-source packages that were flagged as part of a U.S. government- sponsored bug hunt. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6057669.html - - - - - - - - - - Are Hackers Going Beyond Zero-Day Attacks? We've all, no doubt, heard about phishing attacks, but it's not as likely that most people truly understand what the real danger is. And that lies not so much in the forged emails and websites we've come to associate with phishing attacks, but in the Trojan horse software they're planting on unprotected PCs that are used to wander into these sites or open their emails. http://www.it-observer.com/news/6004/are_hackers_going_beyond_zero_day_attacks/ - - - - - - - - - - Social engineering trumps flaws? Good social engineering can threaten users more than a serious software flaw, Microsoft's Anti-Malware Engineering Team argued in a blog post on Tuesday. http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/178 - - - - - - - - - - Payment processor fears credit card crooks A major online payment provider said Monday that its processing service had been used in an attempt to charge money to stolen credit and debit cards. Several Web hosting companies that use the Authorize.Net service to accept credit cards online saw a sudden spike in transactions over the weekend. The transactions, most for $500 and $700, were billed to Visa, MasterCard and American Express cards that belong to people across the U.S., representatives for three Web hosts told CNET News.com. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6057305.html - - - - - - - - - - Anonymizer looks for gaps in Great Firewall of China Anonymizer has gone live with a service that aims to circumvent Chinese censorship restrictions. The online identity protection firm has released software (initially available at xifuchun.com, an English language site) designed specifically for Chinese citizens, that offers a way around the web filters put in place by Beijing. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/03/anonymizer_china/ - - - - - - - - - - New Software Tool Enhances Evidence Gathering Capabilities of Computer Forensic Investigators and Cyber-Crime Fighters. The first digital forensic software tool capable of automatically reassembling fragments of graphic images, even when information regarding the locations of the fragments no longer exists, has been developed. The tool will greatly enhance the amount of evidence that can be gathered during digital forensic investigations such as those involving child pornography and counterfeiting. http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2006/4/emw367473.htm - - - - - - - - - - Real World Impact of IE Flaw It is easy to write about the latest security flaw in Microsoft's Windows operating system as if it were some abstract threat that hackers may or may not get around to exploiting at some point. But when you have evidence that a single phishing group is using the vulnerability to steal online banking and e-commerce credentials from thousands of victims each day, the threat suddenly becomes a great deal more personal and real. http://www.it-observer.com/news/6007/real_world_impact_ie_flaw/ Keeping up with security http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/ptech/04/04/microsoft.security.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Security Worries Hang Up Mobile Plans New research indicates that many companies are putting a hold on the introduction of new wireless technologies based on concerns over IT security. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1945902,00.asp - - - - - - - - - - Barracuda Spam Firewall Remote Compromise The Barracuda Spam Firewall is an integrated hardware and software solution for complete protection of your email server. It provides a powerful, easy to use, and affordable solution to eliminating spam and virus from your organization. http://www.it-observer.com/news/6011/barracuda_spam_firewall_remote_compromise/ - - - - - - - - - - How Do I Know If My PC Is A Zombie? With the myriad of jargon that technology often spawns, especially concerning security, businesses and consumers could be forgiven for hearing terms like phishing, pharming, worms, zombies and Trojans, knowing that what they represent isnt good, but not really understanding what they mean. http://www.it-observer.com/articles/1100/how_do_know_if_my_pc_zombie/ - - - - - - - - - - Stopping PC Spies at the Gate Although spyware has been called the plague of the Internet, some people still regard the invasive software as a kind of digital Avian flu -- it is bad, and potentially very threatening, but happening to someone else. http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=0100000094EI - - - - - - - - - - Budgeting for security breaches It appears, according to a reliable source, that a national retailer has lost the debit card information from thousands of its customers, but as we go to press, it has still refused to fess up. The debit card numbers are being used to withdraw money from banks in Russia and Eastern Europe, according to Randy Gainer, an attorney at Davis Wright Tremaine. http://www.it-observer.com/news/6008/budgeting_security_breaches/ Building IT security for flexible working http://www.it-observer.com/news/6010/building_it_security_flexible_working/ - - - - - - - - - - Passport rule change anticipates ID refusenik sabotage efforts The new UK Identity and Passport Service, spawned out of the Passport Service after the ID Cards Act became law on Saturday, celebrated its birth by trying to stop people renewing their passports whenever they want to, whether or not the passport is about to expire. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/04/early_passport_renewal_blocked/ - - - - - - - - - - India army boss slams Google Earth Google Inc's free mapping program on the Internet compromises India's strategic infrastructure and the satellite imagery could be used for military purposes by adversaries, its army chief has been quoted as saying. Google Earth, an Internet site launched last year, allows users to access satellite photos that show some sensitive locations in various countries. http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/04/04/india.google.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Online Ads Offer Rooms in Return for Sex In Atlanta, an online ad offers a room in exchange for "sex and light office duty." In Los Angeles, a one-bedroom pool house is free "to a girl that is skilled and willing." And in New York City, a $700- a-month room is available at a discount to a fit female willing to provide sex. On the widely used Web site Craigslist.org, some landlords and apartment dwellers looking for roommates are offering to accept sex in lieu of rent. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/ats-ap_technology10apr04,1,4348663.story *********************************************************** 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.