November 23, 1999 White House hacker says his crime no 'big deal' Hacker Eric Burns wandered on the Web where few had gone before him. He even made an illicit electronic visit inside the computers at the White House earlier this spring. Now, at age 19, the hacker known on the Internet as "Zyklon" is facing 15 months in prison and orders to repay his victims $36,240. He also won't be allowed to touch a computer for three years after his release. http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,500060584-500100049-500415296-0,00.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Alleged bomber was tracked through e-mail account The suspect accused of planting bombs and extorting money from Lowe's Home Improvement stores was tracked to his Greensboro home by his use of an Internet e-mail account, according to an FBI affidavit. Investigators say George Rocha slipped up when he accessed an e-mail account he had created with a fictitious name with his home computer instead of using public computers at libraries, his normal practice. http://www.charlotte.com/click/wiretech/pub/lowes.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Only you can prevent computer intrusions Feds campaign to teach kids cyberethics. Pure boredom drove "flipz" to start fiddling with computers as a preteen. "I didn't like watching TV, so I figured out I wanted to be a hacker," says flipz, who gives his age as 15. Last month, he embarked on a prodigious hacking spree, defacing the Web pages of a submarine base, a missile range, and the government of Singapore, where he left the simple message: "Site edited by flipz. Why? Because I can." http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/991122/hack.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The growing threat of internet fraud The workload is spiralling - regional agencies may be needed. BBC TV's Money Programme has investigated the growing problem of internet fraud - its disturbing findings should make every shopper think twice before punching their credit card details online. Visa International says that half of all credit-card disputes are about internet transactions. That is despite online transactions making up just 2% of Visa's overall business. Money is increasingly frequently being wrongly charged to people's credit-card accounts thanks to the internet. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_529000/529640.stm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Net opens window of opportunity for crime Data, data, data. It comes from every direction and can build up like a mountain of bubble-wrap. All too easily, you can overlook the fact that some of it is valuable and sensitive, and forget that, somewhere out there in cyberspace, lurk hackers, with a well-positioned packet sniffer, can damage your business. Digital crime is growing faster than any other kind - one American newspaper equated it to the combined might of the Tiger economies of Asia - but prosecutions for data theft are rare. http://www.technologypost.com/enterprise/WEEKLY/19991122190652646.asp - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hacker threat alert DISGRUNTLED employees, criminals, commercial espionage, computer hackers and cyber terrorists pose threats to Australia, says the Federal Attorney-General, Daryl Williams. "Australia's security is open to compromise in ways that may be less obvious than a terrorist attack, but are certainly no less significant," he told the Security in Government conference. http://www.it.fairfax.com.au/industry/19991123/A57746-1999Nov22.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Online bookseller charged in intercepting e-mails Alibris, an online rare bookseller pleaded guilty to intercepting e-mails between its clients and online retail giant Amazon.com , the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston said Monday. Alibris agreed to pay $250,000 to settle criminal claims by U.S. Attorney Donald Stern that it intercepted e-mail messages to its clients from Amazon.com. Alibris, of Emeryville, Calif., said it no longer offers clients e-mail service, but its corporate predecessor, Interloc Inc., did. http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/010382.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Father Poses as Son to Catch Suspected Molester A father posed as his underage son to help detectives trap a man suspected of having sex with the boy after they met online, police said today. Sheriff's deputies assigned to an Internet task force on sex crimes arrested the suspect at the victim's suburban Detroit house on Saturday, police said. A sheriff's spokeswoman said the 25-year-old man came to the boy's home thinking that the father had gone away on a hunting trip. http://www.apbnews.com/newscenter/breakingnews/1999/11/22/sexbust1122_01.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Fund Set Up to Benefit Accused Software Pirates A legal defense fund has been set up for a group of computer users who face a lawsuit claiming they traded pirated software in an online chat room. The grass-roots effort is in response to a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) in early November against 25 individuals in six states and Canada. They allegedly used a chat room called "warez4cable" to trade pirated software and tips about where to find it. This is believed to be the first time that legal action has been taken against participants in an online chat room for allegedly dealing in pilfered software. http://www.apbnews.com/newscenter/internetcrime/1999/11/22/software1122_01.html?s=daily - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Teen fined for illegal Net access STOLEN-PASSWORD CASE: A STUDENT who accessed his school's Internet accounts by sneaking a look over the shoulder of a computer coordinator was fined $2,000 yesterday. Tan Koon Wei, 19, and four of his fellow students at North View Secondary had conspired to steal the password from computer coordinator David Chia Hock Boon in early 1997. http://straitstimes.asia1.com/cyb/cyb1_1123.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - IE 5 bug could let Web hackers see files Microsoft has acknowledged a security problem with its Web browser that could let a malicious Web site operator rifle through visitors' files. Internet Explorer 5.0 could, under specific circumstances, allow a malicious Web site operator to view "fragments" of certain files on the computer of a visiting user, according to Georgi Guninski, a programmer who first reported this bug. Guninski has reported numerous bugs in browsers from both Microsoft and America Online's Netscape unit. The software giant said it is investigating the issue. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1462259.html?tag=st.ne.1002.bgif.1005-200-1462259 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Privacy group in email gaffe An electronic magazine devoted to privacy on the Internet mistakenly exposed dozens of subscriber names and email addresses this morning, ironically repeating the sort of gaffe it normally criticizes. PrivacyPlace, a start-up magazine launched at the beginning of this month, sent out a newsletter to some 79 subscribers notifying them of new articles and updates to its Web site. But instead of sending "blind carbon copies" to each of the recipients, the company listed names and addresses in the "to" field. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1462019.html?tag=st.ne.1002.thed.1005-200-1462019 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Privacy advocates rally against DoubleClick-Abacus merger Consumer advocates are making a last-ditch effort to hinder the $1 billion merger of Internet advertiser DoubleClick with market researcher Abacus Direct, charging that the deal will be an assault on personal privacy. Although privacy groups have sent letters asking the companies' shareholders to reject the merger and have complained to the Federal Trade Commission about the privacy implications, approval of the deal is scheduled to be voted on tomorrow. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1461826.html?tag=st.ne.ron.lthd.1005-200-1461826 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Crypto could force government hacking To get access to encrypted messages, GCHQ may have to resort to illegal hack tactics, says an expert. The increased use of cryptography could be leading the government into a legal trap where it comes to electronic surveillance, according to a British cryptography expert. http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/1999/46/ns-11678.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Security firm creates cybercrime unit Threat Lab will attempt to foil computer crime before it happens. Computer security firm Content Technologies is to create a new crime-fighting laboratory at its UK headquarters dedicated to scouring the Internet for new forms of electronic deviance and mischief. The new Threat Lab will search for new developments in hacking, virus writing and the distribution of "malicious or obscene content" in an attempt to predict the activities of computer outlaws. http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/1999/46/ns-11645.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cambridge Net users: they're watching you The Net isn't such a fun place after all when you're being watched, find Cambridge students. Internet download activity at Cambridge University's Jesus college came to a standstill recently after the computer department revealed that it is regularly sent lists of precisely what sites people are visiting and what data they are downloading. http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/1999/46/ns-11681.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - DOD mulls banning ‘mobile’ code Security issues may preclude Java, ActiveX from military sites The Department of Defense is considering banning all JavaScript and other mobile code from military Web sites because the tools could pose a security risk to its computer systems. http://msnbc.com/news/338190.asp?cp1=1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Warning raised about Prilissa computer virus Antivirus software vendors have issued alerts about a computer virus dubbed Prilissa. The virus spreads via Microsoft Outlook Mail and carries a dangerous payload that can wipe out the data on the victim's hard drive on Christmas Day. Officially called W97M.Prilissa.A, the virus spreads itself much in the same fashion as the well-known Melissa virus: once the message attachment in the form of a Word document is opened, it propagates by sending itself to the first 50 addresses in the victim's Outlook address book. http://www.networkworld.com/news/1999/1122prilissa.html http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/11/23/BU90107.DTL - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - US Digital Theft Penalties Hiked The No Electronic Theft (NET) Act received another amendment late last week, with both the House and Senate quickly approving changes to make the digital theft deterrence law more effective. The House on Thursday and the Senate on Friday passed the Copyright Damages Improvement Act, H.R. 3456, which toughens the current penalties for digital misappropriation that exist under the NET Act. The Act specifically increases individual penalties across a variety of digital theft crimes from $500 to $750, from $20,000 to $30,000 and from $100,000 to $150,000, by amending Title 17 of US Code. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/99/139766.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Groups Sue FCC Over Wiretaps Following separate lawsuits filed by the US Telecom Association (USTA) as well as the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) also said they will take the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to court because of wiretapping regulations. The CDT and CTIA said they would appeal the FCC's decision to impose additional wiretapping requirements on telephone companies, challenging the rulemaking on a Fourth Amendment basis. The series of lawsuits come after the 1994 passage of the generally accepted Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which requires telephone companies to provide assistance to law enforcement for tapping phone lines for justified law enforcement purposes. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/99/139769.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cryptic crypto rules uncloaked With billions of dollars in high-tech encryption tools at stake, U.S. companies have been eager to know the details of new export regulations proposed last September. The industry got a first glimpse yesterday, when the Clinton administration released a draft of the new rules. http://www.thestandard.net/article/display/0,1151,7836,00.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Safe Internet Foundation Launch The Internet Society of the Netherlands (ISOC.NL) has launched the Safe Internet Foundation. As the name implies, the global Internet group aims to foster and promote safe Internet usage, removing problems such as pornography from the near horizon. http://www.currents.net/newstoday/99/11/23/news6.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Network-Based Virus Protection US West has announced that customers can now prevent their computers from being infected by viruses hidden in e-mail attachments, as well as from viruses hidden within e-mails themselves. According to Audry Thompson, director of new product development for Internet services for US West, the new Anti-Virus Service began on Oct. 21 and since that time, to her knowledge, no US West subscriber to the Anti-Virus Service has suffered from being infected by a computer virus. http://www.currents.net/newstoday/99/11/23/news7.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Intrusion Detection Experts to Conduct Free Seminar On Best-Practice Enterprise Security; CyberSafe To Sponsor Free Half-Day Seminars in North America. CyberSafe Corporation, a leading provider of enterprise network security solutions, announced today that it is sponsoring a national seminar series on best-practice intrusion detection and response strategy and solutions. The free half-day sessions, designed exclusively for security professionals, will outline key elements for providing proactive around-the-clock security protection of networks from harmful threats inside and outside of the organization. The seminar series will kick off November 23 in Ottawa, Canada, with subsequent stops in Dallas, Chicago and New York. http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?day1/193260063&ticker= - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Palm Pilot Fingerprint ID According to the New Jersey-based firm, the system has an amazingly low power consumption, making it eminently suitable for portable applications in the e-business, access control, security, personal communications, and financial markets. http://www.currents.net/newstoday/99/11/23/news14.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - PC security for the masses Burall Infosys has announced the release of B_Safe, a PC security system that allows multiple users to work on the same PC without risk. The system allows for the selective encryption of files for different users and also restricts Internet access. Burall used its expertise in Smart card technology to build the system. A card reader is attached to the PC's serial port and in conjunction with an installed software program locks unauthorised data. http://www.theregister.co.uk/991123-000024.html