November 21, 2000 Nasa hacker gets six months downtime A former computer science student has been sentenced in the US to six months house arrest, two years probation and been banned from using computers for recreational purposes after he hacked Nasa computers last year. Twenty-nine year-old Ikenna Iffih, from Boston, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to charges of defacing a commercial website and wilful malicious interference of communications in June. Iffih repeatedly hacked a Nasa research project during a period of four months in 1999, but apparently did not access any sensitive information. He also owned up to damaging another US government defence agency website and caused thousands of dollars worth of damage to a marketing company's website. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1114257 - - - - - - - - - 'Cyber-Terrorist' Jailed Again Jim Bell is nothing if not determined. Just seven months after being released from prison, the 42 year-old convicted felon whom the U.S. government once dubbed a techno-terrorist is back in jail, this time for allegedly threatening federal officials. Bell was arrested last Friday, a week after the IRS and U.S. Marshals raided the home he shares with his parents in Vancouver, Washington. He has been charged with violating federal stalking laws. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0%2C1283%2C40300%2C00.html - - - - - - - - - SEC, Courts Intervene In Online Stock Investment Scam A federal court in Florida has shut down the operations of two Internet companies that raised more than $2 million from US investors through a fraudulent "high-tech" stock offering, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said today. Following a complaint filed by the SEC, the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida entered multiple restraining orders against Internet Capital Holdings Inc. and Internet Capital Holdings II, Inc., a pair of unregistered investment companies the SEC said fraudulently claimed to have substantial equity positions in various up-and-coming high tech Internet start-ups. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/00/158475.html - - - - - - - - - Swimmer hacked by email intruder Aussie Olympic swimming hero Grant Hackett has been left red-faced and fuming after his email account was used to send around 50 abusive messages to friends and colleagues. The outspoken and sometimes controversial star believes a rival swimmer must be behind the hack attack. "People have sent emails to me and he, or whoever it is, has sent emails back to them being abusive, calling them f-word names and telling them to stop sending me letters. [He's] trying to break up friendships with people I know," Hackett told reporters. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1114260 - - - - - - - - - MS, hacker secretive about meeting Microsoft last week met with Dimitri, the Dutch hacker who recently mocked the software giant by hacking into one of its Web servers twice within one week. Dimitri, a 19-year-old information technology student, visited Microsoft's Dutch office near Amsterdam airport. There he met with the company's public relations manager and three staffers, Microsoft confirmed. http://idg.net/ic_293512_1794_1-483.html - - - - - - - - - Herbless the hacker goes legitimate A UK hacker who made a name for himself cracking commercial Web servers and posting political messages on corporate sites, says that he/she is now keen to move into legitimate security work. "Herbless" says that he (or she) is hoping to land some paid work but has already helped many companies secure their networks -- free of charge. The benevolent ex-hacker claims not to be a malicious individual and says his "black hat", or illegal, activities have never stretched to stealing personal or financial information. http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/46/ns-19189.html - - - - - - - - - Yahoo! will act against paedophiles In an exclusive interview with ZDNet News UK Tuesday morning, Martina King, UK managing director of Yahoo!, confirmed that the organisation is about to employ a Yahoo! "inspector" charged with the responsibility of ensuring that Yahoo!'s Messenger system is not polluted with paedophile content. King also confirmed that she is receiving advice from organisations such as Childnet International and the police. If they recommend that chatrooms should be abolished because of the threat of paedophiles, "I would do it," she said. http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/46/ns-19213.html - - - - - - - - - "Romeo and Juliet" bug spreads on Outlook The Romeo and Juliet virus, also known as "W32/BleBla@mm" by antivirus companies, has not spread quickly and appears to be a low threat to computer users, according to experts. "From what we've seen, it doesn't do much damage if any at all," said Vincent Gullotto, senior director of McAfee's AVERT Labs. "It does exploit some vulnerabilities, but it doesn't (rename) files or erase any files." http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-3802629.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/492672.asp - - - - - - - - - DOJ review clears Carnivore A draft review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Carnivore Internet surveillance system expresses confidence overall in the government's continued use of the eavesdropping software. But it also urges changes in the way agents adjust the program's intricate settings for fear that simple errors could allow the FBI to mistakenly capture e-mail, Web browsing or other data from innocent citizens. The draft study, being released Tuesday by the Justice Department, also will urge FBI engineers to build better mechanisms into Carnivore to detect tampering with digital evidence. But the draft's findings generally represent a victory for the bureau, which had faced a firestorm of criticism over its software's capabilities. http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2656409,00.html http://www0.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/ap/docs/658495l.htm http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/1120/web-carn-11-21-00.asp http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/11/21/cyber.us.carnivore.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - - Scotland Yard, Mumbai police tieup to patrol Web The Mumbai police, in close co-ordination with Scotland Yard, plan to use computers in a big way to acquire cyber crime intelligence, tackle crime and deal with the underworld, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal has said. "As India is making rapid strides in information technology and Maharashtra has made some headway in e-governance, we would like to take precautions against cyber system hackers who could jeopardise the working of railways, water supply and electricity systems," Bhujbal told PTI in an interview here. http://www.timesofindia.com/201100/20info1.htm - - - - - - - - - The Dangers of Digital Dating More and more people are using the Internet to meet potential mates. While many online interactions have blossomed into friendships and romances, not all of them have happy endings. Beth Wadsworth learned this lesson the hard way. When she began exchanging emails with Thomas Abney, she thought she, too, might have found love on the Internet. Instead, what she found was a man wanted to kill her. http://www.techtv.com/cybercrime/viceonline/story/0,9955,3011588,00.html - - - - - - - - - Intel, Broadcom settle trade secret litigation Intel Corp. and Broadcom Corp., rivals in the production of high-speed communications chips, Tuesday said they had settled all claims against each other under trade-secret lawsuits. In a brief statement, the companies ``expressed satisfaction with the terms of the settlement agreement, which are confidential.'' http://www0.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/027588.htm - - - - - - - - - Feds test PKI promise for privacy For electronic government to work, federal IT managers know they must assure the public that business conducted over the Internet can be kept private. More than a dozen agencies are working to solve that privacy problem, said John Dyer, senior adviser to the Social Security Administration commissioner. The most promising answer so far, he said, is PKI - public-key infrastructure. PKI enables individuals to encode messages and transmit them so that only the proper recipient can receive and decode them. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/1120/web-afcea-11-21-00.asp - - - - - - - - - F-Secure Publishes Guidelines On Safe Computing The recent spate of virulent viruses has spurred F-Secure to issue a set of safe computing guidelines which it said will allow PC users to avoid computer worm infestations. Mikko Hypponen, the firm's manager of anti-virus research, said that an up-to-date anti-virus program is still the best protection against worms and other types of viruses. "However, there is a lot the end user can do to make his computing safer," he said, adding that this is why his firm has issued its safe computing guidelines. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/00/158448.html - - - - - - - - - Report warns of global e-security underspending E-businesses are massively underspending on network security, according to a white paper by U.K.-based research firm Datamonitor. The company estimates that $15 billion is lost each year through e-security breaches, while global spend on defenses is only $8.7 billion. The report, eSecurity - removing the roadblock to eBusiness, predicts that this figure will increase to $30.3 billion by 2005 as companies become more knowledgeable about flaws in their existing systems and solutions available to combat them. Virtual private networks (VPNs) and public key infrastructure (PKI) will be the hottest growth markets. http://www.totaltele.com/view.asp?ArticleID=33957 - - - - - - - - - Help, Hackers Stole Our Name! You worked hard to thwart the actions of cybersquatters around the world. Through substantial efforts up to and including litigation, you secured the transfer of domain names identified by your company as mission critical. Like a hunter returning with the spoils of the hunt, you proudly turned the domain names over to your marketing and information technology teams, who then spent millions to build the company's Internet strategy around the names. Confident that your work was done, you turned your attention to other matters. http://www.law.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=law/View&c=Article&cid=ZZZ5VRFTSFC&live=true&cst=1&pc=5&pa=0&s=News&ExpIgnore=true&showsummary=0 - - - - - - - - - Securing Roaming Access Ports on Your Network In this day of the mobile office, a system administrator may have to not only worry about all of the boxes that "live" permanently on the network, but must also now manage hundreds, possibly even thousands, of machines that plug in and out of the network randomly. The people using these roaming machines expect that they will have similar access on their laptops as they do on their desktops, an expectation that can prove to be quite problematic. Each user can theoretically have their own configurations of hardware and software, none of it necessarily having any strong links to the machines that are currently on your network. How then can we still keep a secure network amongst all of this diversity? http://securityportal.com/articles/roaming20001121.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.