June 14, 2000 Huge Securities Bust: Five Mob Families Hit the Net Members of five organized crime families, two chain restaurant officers, and a long list of brokers were charged on Wednesday in a mammoth securities fraud case demonstrating the mob's determination to infiltrate Wall Street. As part of the overall fraud, the Internet was used to promote stocks, and companies were falsely touted as dot-com companies to induce investors to capitalize on the Internet boom, prosecutors said. http://www.zdnet.com/zdtv/cybercrime/internetfraud/story/0,9955,2587796,00.html http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-2077962.html http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/150643.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - Philippine president signs law to punish computer crimes President Joseph Estrada signed an electronic commerce law Wednesday, spurred by criticism the Philippines had no system to punish perpetrators of last month's ``ILOVEYOU'' computer virus. Under the law, which went into effect immediately, hackers and those who spread computer viruses can be fined a minimum of $2,350 and a maximum ``commensurate'' with the damage caused, and can be imprisoned for up to three years. http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/030004.htm http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2076049.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - HK Government Web site attacks show up lack of awareness Two attacks within 24 hours on a popular Hong Kong Government Web site had exposed security weaknesses and officials' lack of awareness of computer hacking, legislators said on Monday. The interactive home page, offering investment advice and traffic details, was still suspended last night pending a full-scale review of ways to strengthen protection. http://technology.scmp.com/internet/DAILY/20000613082007849.asp - - - - - - - - - - - - - Gorton campaign accuses Cantwell of Web 'hacking' As she launched a TV ad campaign touting Internet privacy, Democratic Senate candidate Maria Cantwell found herself accused by the campaign of her opponent, Republican Sen. Slade Gorton, of computer hacking. A picture posted by Gorton's campaign on its newly minted Slade2000.com Web site suddenly showed up last Friday on the Cantwell2000.com Web site, illustrating a press release excoriating the GOP senator. Gorton's campaign charged that it had been "hacked" and "hijacked." Identifying Cantwell as the culprit, it charged: "Maria had inappropriately connected her home page to our system and inappropriately used a picture from our site." http://seattlep-I.com/local/cant14.shtml - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hotmail users missing old email, address books Some Microsoft Hotmail users unable to check their email since last week got an unwelcome surprise today when they finally gained access to their accounts. Although their new mail was intact, their personal folders, address book entries and saved mail had been deleted. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2079919.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - Security firm warns of outdated software Outdated and untested software used to run the Internet address system has undermined online security, an Australian company is warning. Sydney-based DeMorgan said 30 percent of the computers controlling the ".com" domain name system (DNS)--including several of the highest level root servers--are vulnerable to "denial of service" and other attacks because they are running software that is outdated or was never meant for commercial release. Such attacks, which overwhelm a server with bogus requests for information, recently crippled several large e-commerce sites. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2073583.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - Napster says it's OK to share MP3 files Napster Inc. has responded to the latest record industry legal salvo against it with a new and dramatic argument: that it is perfectly legal for consumers to share music files, even copyrighted ones, over the Internet. The defense of the controversial Napster service came in an interview with Hank Barry, CEO of the San Mateo, Calif., company, the day after the Recording Industry Association of America filed a new legal brief claiming that Napster is used almost exclusively to pirate music and that the service is hurting CD sales. http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2587837,00.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - Energy asking for millions for security The Energy Department is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in the fiscal 2001 budget to dramatically increase security at its defense facilities. Even before the latest breach of security was disclosed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, chief information officer John Gilligan said the request was part of the appropriations process to make major security improvements at strategic locations. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/0612/web-funding-06-14-00.asp - - - - - - - - - - - - - Federal cybersecurity efforts outpace private sector The federal government is one step ahead of private sector companies when it comes to computer security, an industry expert said Tuesday. Federal agencies typically know where their technology security problems lie, while private companies are unaware of their vulnerabilities, said Jim Gerretson, director of operations for information assurance at ACS Defense Inc. ACS is one of 27 prime contractors on a series of information security contracts administered by the General Services Administration. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0600/061400j1.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - House passes e-signature Legislation Businesses will soon be able to seal multimillion dollar mergers and consumers will be able to buy a car, apply for a loan or close a mortgage with the tap of a computer key -- no scrawling in ink. Legislation passed by the House on Wednesday would give electronic signatures the same legal status as a penned ``John Hancock'' on a paper document. http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/ap/docs/98169l.htm http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-2077981.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - House committee OKs anti-spam bill Federal anti-spam legislation passed a key test today, as the House Commerce Committee voted to approve a bill limiting junk email. The Unsolicited Electronic Email Act would place restrictions on email marketers. Those limits include requiring spam to include a valid reply address and forcing people and companies to stop spamming upon request. "This legislation weeds out fraudulent spam and eliminates the burden" of deleting unwanted email, Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, said in a statement. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2077968.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - Michigan A.G. goes after Web cookies Michigan Attorney General Jennifer Granholm has threatened legal action against four World Wide Web publishers, alleging that each site fails to warn customers that they are being tracked by a third party. Granholm said these sites fail to tell customers that a third-party company is placing "cookies," or small programs that automatically upload on the individual’s computer that track the visitor’s surfing. http://www.civic.com/civic/articles/2000/0612/web-1ag-06-14-00.asp http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/150620.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - AMA passes guidelines for doctor/patient e-mail The American Medical Association has adopted a set of guidelines for making e-mail a more effective means of communication between doctors and patients, while staying mindful of privacy issues and possible technical glitches. http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/06/14/medical.email/index.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - Data protection chief swipes out at spying Bill Britain's data protection commissioner Elizabeth France hit out at the government's controversial cyber-surveillance bill Wednesday. Speaking at a conference in London, France says there should be far greater accountability for those given powers to monitor email and browsing under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers(RIP) Bill, currently at committee stage in the House of Lords. http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/23/ns-15999.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - Experts Debate Who's Responsible For Internet Security When a group of security experts debated the question of who is responsible for Internet security, the possibilities ranged from software vendors to everyone. The panel discussion, held here on Tuesday in conjunction with NetSec2000, was sponsored by Palo Alto, Calif.-based Recourse Technologies Inc. and Sunnyvale, Calif.-based SonicWall Inc. "Vendors, I would point the finger at them," said Eugene Schultz, trusted security advisor and research director at Global Integrity Corp., a security-services firm based in Reston, Va. "They give us [garbage] from a security standpoint." http://www.crn.com/dailies/digest/breakingnews.asp?ArticleID=17498 http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2587581,00.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - Cyberangels watch over kids online The Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which regulates how commercial sites can interact with young surfers, is almost impossible for the Federal Trade Commission to enforce alone. To help out, a citizens’ group called Cyberangels is taking a systematic look at sites that collect information about children and blowing the whistle on those that do not comply. http://www.civic.com/civic/articles/2000/0612/web-3angel-06-14-00.asp - - - - - - - - - - - - - Internet Game Teaches Kids to Avoid Sex Predators With sexual predators prowling the Internet, often digitally disguised as friendly teenagers or modeling agents, it may no longer be enough to admonish children not to talk to strangers. Pedophiles who once lurked on street corners or near schoolyards have taken their sinister hunt into cyberspace, a tough-to-police world where candy and tales of lost kittens have given way to more sophisticated temptations. http://www.zdnet.com/zdtv/cybercrime/viceonline/story/0,9955,2587765,00.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - Software allows stealth monitoring Beware, corporate snitches loose with company secrets -- your boss may have a new tool to track what you do with your computer. Lexington-based defense contractor Raytheon Co. claims its ``SilentRunner'' software is the vanguard of network monitoring. http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/ap/docs/98494l.htm http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/00/06/14/000614hnraytheon.xml - - - - - - - - - - - - - Computer hackers ride into town today It's billed as the Midwest's largest computer security convention, but when the three-day RootFest opens in St. Paul's RiverCentre today, think of it simply as hackers' heaven. Heaven, after all, is supposed to be fun, and, in this case, for good hackers. And that's what RootFest hopes to promote -- hackers as the guys in the white hats who actually improve security on the Internet as they light up brain cells and hard drives trying to poke holes in computer security systems. http://www.pioneerplanet.com/yhoo/mtc_docs/020426.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hackers 2000 calls for Net security HACKERS 2000, a seminar organised by the Trade Fair and Conferences International drew a diverse crowd, from college freshers who boasted about their hacking abilities to old software hands and the presentations were equally diverse. http://www.economictimes.com/today/14tech01.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - Reliable Software Technologies releases patch for Outlook Microsoft Outlook users hoping to shore up their client software against virus attacks now have another option to the patch Microsoft released last week. Reliable Software Technologies of Dulles, Va., has developed a free program that stops viruses from automatically propagating by exploiting Outlook. The JustBeFriends.dll installs on desktops and blocks calls to Outlook by monitoring the Visual Basic Scripting Engine. The patch, however, will not prevent a virus from damaging files on a user's hard drive. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2000/0614outlook.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - 20 Year Old Successful Internet CEO Releases New e-commerce Security Tool Reducing Online Identity Fraud As the e-commerce pie gets bigger and bigger, merchants are facing up to a very basic stumbling block. The problem? Trust. And it cuts both ways. Until now, reports have focused on the consumer confidence necessary for online credit card order to happen. But merchants need to be able to trust credit card users, too. http://www1.internetwire.com/iwire/release_clickthrough?release_id=11293 - - - - - - - - - - - - - Yes, Mac Attacks Are Possible The "I love you" virus infected millions of computers worldwide. Not one of them was a Mac. Should Mac enthusiasts rejoice? Only if we want to end up crying in our beer. The truth is that we in the Mac community have been lucky. Lucky in that Macs aren't prevalent in the big corporate computer networks hackers love to attack. There's not much warped glory in taking down a school or a small art shop -- in short, the heart of Mac market. http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/june2000/nf00614b.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Death of Unencrypted Connections? Over the last few years "hacker" tools have become much more widespread and available to malicious attackers. Combine this with the ease of getting operating systems - almost anything a corporation has short of a mainframe OS you can download from the Internet and run on your Intel PC. http://www.securityportal.com/closet/closet20000614.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, NewsBits.net, Campbell, CA.