July 21, 2000 TX woman, CA man arrested for pilfering online stock accounts A Richardson, Texas, woman and a Los Angeles man were arrested Wednesday on charges of fraudulently using confidential information to drain $1.5 million from online stock trading accounts and various credit card companies. Jeanette Franklin, 29, was arrested by Secret Service agents in Dallas while 35-year-old Babatunde Osiname was picked up in Los Angeles. They are accused of stealing more than $700,000 from the online stock trading accounts of eight U.S.-based employees of Swedish telecommunications giant Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson. The investigation also revealed that at least 25 Ericsson employees had credit cards opened in their names, which were used to open online stock trading accounts. The Secret Service said an additional $840,000 was taken from various credit card companies. Both suspects were charged with bank fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud and identity theft. http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/018058.htm - - - - - - - - - - - Scam artist copies PayPal Web site A scam artist has created an exact replica of PayPal.com, and appears to be using the fake site to pilfer usernames and passwords from customers of the online payment system. The site, deceptively named PayPai.com, is a convincing duplicate of the real thing - but according to Network Solutions Inc., Paypai.com is registered to Birykov Inc. in South Ural, Romania. PayPal users should use care while the scam is still in operation. http://www.msnbc.com/news/435937.asp - - - - - - - - - - - Venture Businessman Held for Hacking Info on 110,000 People A 24-year-old venture businessman has been detained for stealing information on 110,000 online customers of an unidentified marketing agency by hacking the company's servers. The anti-cyber crime team of the National Police Agency said the businessman, identified only as Choi, tried to sell the information to Internet consulting firms. According to police, Choi came to know the user ID of one of his primary school alumni who had been working for the marketing agency on May 25. Then, he logged on to the agency's servers with the user ID and stole a roster featuring names, workplaces, duties, telephone numbers and addresses of 11,000 customers. http://211.169.240.72/search/search.cgi?KW=Hacking&ST=title%2fnews&year1=2000&month1=7&date1=7&year2=2000&month2=7&date2=21&SA=KoreaTimes%3aAll&ON=20&SO=date&MS=1&ISLSTPG=list%5fkthome%5fall&IMGSBMT.x=14&IMGSBMT.y=11&Row=1&TNAME=KL200007&CID=14608&TOT=1 - - - - - - - - - - - HACKER THEORY PROMPTS SECURITY REVIEW CALL The Labour Party must review its electronic security in case the series of damaging leaked memos were captured in cyberspaceby a computer hacker, backbenchers said today. The investigation into the leaks - eight in three months - will almost certainly examine e-mail and other electronic communication between Mr Blair and his closest circle, introduced only over the last few years into Downing Street and Chequers. Labour backbencher Fraser Kemp, a co-ordinator in the party's 1997 General Election campaign, said: "It is certainly the major area of concern that someone is hacking into Downing Street. http://web.lexis-nexis.com/more/cahners-chicago/11407/6088382/1 - - - - - - - - - - - Sega Cracks Down on Software Pirates Sega announced Thursday it had shut down more than 60 illegal web sites and 125 auction sites flogging pirated versions of its Dreamcast games, until recently viewed as one of the most secure digital entertainment systems on the market. "Sega supports a creative community of talented artists. Pirates are parasites that hurt this community and will not be tolerated by Sega," said Peter Moore, Sega of America Inc.'s president and chief operating officer. http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/003303.htm http://www.zdtv.com/zdtv/cybercrime/digitaldisputes/story/0,9955,807,00.html - - - - - - - - - - - Norwegian Teenager Appears at Hacker Trial He Sparked The person who kicked off a huge legal battle involving Hollywood and the Internet is a skinny, 16-year-old Norwegian computer programmer who, with his serious face, wire-rimmed glasses and almost-there mustache, could maybe pass for 17. Yesterday the mild-looking young man, Jon Johansen, was the focus of attention in Judge Lewis A. Kaplan's courtroom in federal court in Manhattan. He calmly admitted, for the first time in a legal tribunal, that he and two other hackers wrote the computer program known as DeCSS. (NY Times article, free registration required) http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/07/cyber/cyberlaw/21law.html - - - - - - - - - - - Lawmakers want employers to tell workers if they are monitored Two conservative House Republicans joined a liberal Senate Democrat Thursday in introducing legislation to require employers to notify workers if they're monitoring their electronic communications at work. Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., and Rep. Charles Canady, R-Fla., sponsored the House version of legislation that would force employers to tell employees if they scan or read their e-mail, monitor their computer keystrokes or Web use or eavesdrop on their telephone conversations. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced a companion bill in the Senate. ``We would never stand for it if an employer steamed open an employee's mail, read it and put it back,'' Schumer said. ``It is the same thing with an employee's e-mail. http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/015940.htm http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/152470.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/435656.asp - - - - - - - - - - - GOP Opposes FBI E-Mail Scrutiny, Plans Hearing The Clinton administration's plans for policing the Internet are running into sharp opposition from Republican leaders in Congress, who say the government is overstepping laws intended to protect citizens' privacy. The controversy focuses on "Carnivore," the FBI-designed e-mail-sniffing system that allows law enforcement officials to sift a suspect's messages out of the full stream of data passing through an Internet service provider. Critics object to the fact that the system sorts through the communications of innocent people in order to monitor suspects. Hearings about Carnivore and another system developed earlier by the FBI, code-named "Omnivore," are scheduled for Monday before the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/152510.html - - - - - - - - - - - House approves privacy amendment The House approved an amendment Thursday directing the Treasury Department, Postal Service and other federal agencies to show how they collect personal information from visitors to their Internet sites. The amendment addresses fears that federal Web sites threaten privacy by tracking a visitor's progress through the site and collecting identifiable data. ``If the federal government is collecting information about our personal habits, we have a right to know about it so that we can stop any inappropriate invasion of privacy,'' said Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., who introduced the amendment. http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/ap/docs/222471l.htm - - - - - - - - - - - Online stalwarts beef up privacy initiatives Trying to quell concern over online profiling, several major Internet players are stepping up efforts to give Net surfers more notice about their privacy online. Microsoft said it will offer an Internet Explorer 5.5 update that gives people the option to manage cookies, which can track consumer preferences and whereabouts on the Web. Also this week, Yahoo launched a new privacy center where visitors can get information on its privacy policy and practices. In addition, Net media services company Engage submitted an enhanced outline of its privacy standard--TrustLabels-- to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), an international community concerned with the evolution and operation of the Internet. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-2307398.html - - - - - - - - - - - FTC Cements Australian Net Consumer Protection Links The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the United States and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) have cemented a partnership in the area of consumer protection in electronic commerce. The agreements, signed at the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, on Thursday, recognize an increasing need for cross-border law enforcement cooperation in an era where Internet consumers are buying and selling across national boundaries. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/152505.html - - - - - - - - - - - Pixel-high privacy spy Big Brother is getting smaller all the time. Spies too small to see are keeping an eye on you while you browse the world wide web. The "web bugs" hide computer codes behind images only a pixel in size to gather information aboutsurfing habits. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_842000/842624.stm - - - - - - - - - - - Murder via the Internet Computer crime originated in the popular imagination as the manipulating of program code or the illegal penetrating of a computer system. The crime was a nonviolent trick by someone who understood the incantations of COBOL, C, C++, or Perl. No one ever got hurt, no blood got spilled. It was a new arena for wayward electrons, not for common-law crimes like murder, robbery, or sexual assault. A new alchemy of crime had emerged. http://www.securityportal.com/topnews/murdervia20000721.html - - - - - - - - - - - New breed' drowning out hacker culture? A lot has changed in the last 10 years since I first poked my head below the surface of the mainstream computer world into the realm of the computer underground. The thing that most intrigued me about this world, and why I stayed, was the huge body of knowledge and ways of looking at things that wasn't taught in schools and wasn't in any books. This incredibly important information about the computers that ran most of the businesses and governments in the world was largely ignored. http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/comment/0,5859,2605327,00.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.