October 29, 1999 Cops Say E-mail Relationship Led to Abduction A 14-year-old girl who vanished Tuesday with a 44-year-old man who allegedly lured her into a meeting through e-mail correspondence has been found, alive and well, and the man who allegedly abducted her is under arrest. Dale Wayne Scott faces federal charges of kidnapping and interstate transportation of a minor for sexual purposes. http://www.apbnews.com/newscenter/breakingnews/1999/10/28/abduct1028_01.html?s=daily - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Prosecutors See Gang Links on the Net Are violent street gangs moving onto the information superhighway? You might think so if you click on the Bloods.com Web site. In fact, one of America's most respected prosecutors, who inspected the Web site, says it's a recruitment tool for America's most notorious street gang. But the man who runs the Web site -- a father of two living in the Ozark mountains -- says the site, and several others like it, are meant to divert youngsters from the gangster lifestyle. http://www.apbnews.com/newscenter/internetcrime/1999/10/28/gangs1028_01.html?s=daily - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The many uses of the Internet: British police said today they had arrested six people suspected of violence during June's anti-capitalist riot in London after posting images of protesters on the Internet. http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/052149.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cracking, spamming and spreading viruses: Each is a means to disrupt an enemy’s computer systems, and each has been employed by whiz kids, maybe even by governments, in recent international disputes. Especially in Asia, computer nerds have nudged their way to the front line this year, arguing that the Internet is a potent weapon. http://www.economist.com/editorial/freeforall/30-10-99/index_as9668.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Are Viruses Y2K Compliant? As if there isn't enough uncertainty about Y2K, computer virus experts advise extra care to inoculate before the century turns, lest a virus take advantage of Y2K chaos. Their concern? A millennium virus may go unnoticed in the Y2K confusion. A virus set to activate as the calendar rolls over might cause damage that people will blame on Y2K, which would allow the virus to spread more quickly, say some experts. http://www.thestandard.net/articles/display/0,1449,7296,00.html?home.tf - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Supercomputer Export Controls The notification process required by the federal government before any company sells high-performance computers (HPC) was both praised and pummeled before a House committee hearing today. One of the key sticking points among those testifying today was if HPCs are even available from non-US computer companies. http://www.computercurrents.com/newstoday/99/10/29/news14.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Free Filter Service To Schools Hoping to shield kids from pornography and hate sites on the Web, Internet service provider (ISP) this.com announced Thursday that it is providing free Web filtering for all schools in America. This.com, (http://www.this.com ) which also maintains a family portal site, will work with each school's ISP to implement its filtering system. It will also provide all school children with free e-mail addresses. http://www.computercurrents.com/newstoday/99/10/29/news13.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Clinton to address medical privacy President Clinton will announce Friday proposed federal regulations to protect the confidentiality of billions of medical records. "It represents an unprecedented step toward putting Americans back in control of their own medical records," Clinton said in remarks prepared for delivery in the Oval Office Friday morning. Clinton said the new rules would create the first comprehensive national standards for safeguarding medical records. It would apply to all such records kept in computers or transmitted by them. http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2384182,00.html?chkpt=zdnntop - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - UK a nation of pornographers and spammers New Jersey-based ISP blocks all email from Britain One of the biggest ISP's in the US last week took the unprecedented decision to block all email originating from Britain, claiming that we are nothing but a nation of pornographers and spam mongers. A story, which appeared in the New Scientist Thursday, claims the action was taken by IDT, a New Jersey-based provider, in response to a wave of unsolicited and offensive e-mails received by some of its customers. http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/1999/43/ns-11074.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Activists Decry Digital Signature Bills Two fast-moving proposals to give electronic versions of contracts and records the same legal standing as traditional ink-on- paper versions have raised the ire of activists and lawmakers who say they would undermine consumer rights. Opponents argue that the so-called "digital signatures" bills set a lower standard of consumer protection for electronic versions of contracts and records than exists in the world of paper--and largely preempt state laws that try to protect consumers. Laws requiring written notice of important legal matters, for example, could conceivably be circumvented by a company sending the notice to an electronic mailbox. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/99/138606.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hacker's Delight Cable modems are a speedy way to surf, but they're vulnerable-- unless you protect youself I know what gadget I want for my birthday this year. It's the same thing I've lusted after for a couple of birthdays now, and I'd trade in all the socks, ties and humorous cards about aging if only I could have it. Unfortunately, I can't, because it's a cable modem--which lets you traverse the Net at about 20 times the speed of a 56K modem--and cable-modem service is very spotty right now. http://www.pathfinder.com/time/personal/19991101/tech.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Plug-in bug lets fonts crash Communicator Some experts see a security issue, others just a crash Just in time for Halloween, a font stability bug has emerged capable of spooking Netscape Communicator 4.7 into catastrophic page faults. Discovered by network security consultant Max Vision, the bug lurks between Communicator 4.7 and a plug-in built by Bitstream to download and display dynamic fonts that go beyond the Web’s usual repertoire. The trouble is that a hacker can use this bug to turn the Bitstream plug-in against Communicator, forcing an unrecoverable error in NSTDFP32.DLL. http://msnbc.com/news/328813.asp?cp1=1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - INFOSEC by Dummies - Part II Security is a managerial responsibility; in other words, both senior managers and supervisors are responsible for exercising security in their overall and day-to-day operations. For example, is it the shop supervisor's responsibility or the safety officer's at the corporate level if an employee removes safety features off their equipment and then subsequently gets injured? http://securityportal.com/direct.cgi?/topnews/infosec-dummies2.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Pager hoax blamed on hacker Authorities now know the cause of a pesky pager problem in Oklahoma. MetroCall says a hacker broke into its paging system yesterday morning and sent out a page that snowballed into dozens more around the state. The pages went off for more than ten minutes. One of the two dozen numbers sent out in the pages belonged to the Cardiac Central Monitoring Unit at Presbyterian Hospital. It was flooded with calls all morning from pager owners, calling to find out who paged them. MetroCall says the situation has been remedied.