November 17, 1999 FBI arrests suspect in Web porn sting FBI agents arrested a man suspected of child pornography crimes as he waited early Saturday morning at the Santa Barbara bus station for a 14-year-old female he invited to town via the Internet. Unbeknownst to William Robert O'Brien, 43, of Oceano, that girl was actually an undercover detective in Pueblo, Colo., according to the FBI. http://news.newspress.com/local/1114briefs.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - MP3 Crackdown The Recording Industry Association of America has been busy, busy, busy lately. Thanks to its recent letter-writing campaign to ``educate'' universities about the dangers of illegal MP3s, a lot of students are finding that their beloved collections of ripped tunes are disappearing into the ether. http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/news/breaking/internet/docs/1093906l.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Security Lawsuits To Replace Y2K Litigation Lawsuits involving computer security in e-commerce will explode after Y2K litigation runs out of steam, which could be quicker than originally believed. It appears that the deluge of Y2K lawsuits will not happen because of legislation that protects companies that share information about their Y2K vulnerabilities and limits on litigation related to problems caused by Y2K computer glitches. Instead, lawsuits may be in response to computer security guarantees that failed or lapses in security within a network because some of those responsible may not know enough, said Fred Smith, an attorney at Panagakos and Wirth, Santa Fe, N.M. http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19991117S0005 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Police net powers switched There are no details yet of the controversial area of law enforcement The UK Government appears to have given in to pressure to amend controversial legislation about the internet and e-commerce. The Electronic Communications Bill was announced by the Queen in her speech to Parliament on Wednesday, but without the most heavily criticised part of the draft bill published in July. Instead, that part has been recycled into a new Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_524000/524659.stm http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/1999/45/ns-11556.html Surveillance: Privacy versus policework - the debate The police say access to email and Net traffic is necessary in the fight against crime. Civil libertarians say, leave the Internet alone. What is the real nature of surveillance on the Net and what are the implications for personal freedom? In one corner is Keith Akerman, head of CID in Hampshire and chair of ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officers) computer crime working group. http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/1999/38/ns-10228.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - And justice for all: A German court today overturned the 1998 conviction of the former head of CompuServe in Germany for failing to block access to child pornography sites on the Internet. http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/053582.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Glitter Convicted in Online Porn Case 1970s rock idol Gary Glitter is off to the big house after a conviction for possession of child pornography. His defense? "I didn't know it was wrong." 1970s rock legend Gary Glitter met a 1990s court ruling Friday when he was convicted of 54 counts of possessing pornographic pictures of children that he had downloaded from the Internet. Glitter was convicted in a U.K. court in Bristol. Like much of the rest of the European Union, the U.K. has strict laws against the possession of child pornography, and downloading images from the Internet is an offense that carries jail time. http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,7689,00.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - In China, 'cybercops' clamp down on dissent Deep within China's secretive Ministry of State Security, just east of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, agents are bent over computer screens, monitoring the Web travels of everyone from Chinese dissidents to American diplomats posted in this Asian nation. In the nearby Ministry of Public Security, newly minted software designers at the Computer Surveillance Division track the electronic correspondence of suspected Falun Gong members or would-be hackers, says a Western official who closely tracks China's "cybercops." http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,500058258-500095994-500375216-0,00.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Youth hacked into NTU server He hacked into password files of NCB and MOE as well, acquired passwords and used them to access accounts. A JUNIOR college student studying for his A-level examinations admitted in court yesterday that he hacked into the computer systems of the National Computer Board (NCB), Ministry of Education (MOE) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU). http://straitstimes.asia1.com/cyb/cyb1_1117.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Teen admits defacing Mediacity website A YOUTH pleaded guilty yesterday to 17 charges of hacking into a Television Corporation of Singapore (TCS) website and defacing it. Student Edwin Lim Zhaoming, 18, admitted to breaking into the website, Mediacity, and renaming it Mediashity on June 15. The district court will sentence him at a later date. http://www.straitstimes.asia1.com/cyb/cyb8_1116.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - British telecoms chooses N2H2 for Web filtering British Telecommunications Plc, the largest phone company in Britain, said on Wednesday it chose N2H2 Inc. as its preferred provider of Internet content filtering and communication services for its customers in the United Kingdom. http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/news/breaking/reuters/docs/1093158l.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Interview with an online pornographer Are you like me? Have you ever been hunting for something on the Web, punched in a domain name on your browser only to flush with panic as a porn site pops up? Not a great feeling, to be sure, especially when you're at work. It's happened to me and to colleagues of mine. In this age of sexual harassment litigation, productivity monitoring and political correctness, pulling up a porn site at work can result in a range of actions, from a minor warning to outright dismissal. http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/comment/0,5859,1018149,00.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Their eyes were watching "Echelon": The American Civil Liberties Union has trained its eye on a global electronic surveillance system said to be code-named "Echelon" that allegedly monitors regular citizens. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,32586,00.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft posts Windows NT patch Microsoft has posted a patch for the flaw in Service Pack 6 for Windows NT 4.0. The "hotfix" can be downloaded from Microsoft's support Web site. http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q245/6/78.asp - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Protecting An NT Website United Loan Gunmen (AKA Hacking for Girliez) have been making the news with their hacks of web sites such as NASDAQ. Their most recent victims have all used implementations of Windows NT's IIS 4.0 web server that can be hacked by running a Perl script against -them that was written by Rain Forest Puppy. http://www.antionline.com/features/quick_tips/ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Fashionable Fingerprints Motorola and Identix unveiled Tuesday a next-generation fingerprint-based security system that would be small enough to fit into mobile telephones and laptops. The new product would allow consumers to access computer networks, programs, and information with a fingerprint, instead of a password or personal identification number. http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19991116S0027