August 1, 2001 'Code Red' worm soils Internet Malicious code infects at least 135,000 Web sites. The viruslike ``Code Red'' worm infected computers around the world Wednesday, although the outbreak wasn't as severe as predicted. ``We're still watchful, but for the first time, we're hopeful as well,'' said Alan Paller, research director at the SANS Institute, a computer security think tank working with the government to monitor the Internet. Almost 150,000 Internet-connected computers running Microsoft's NT or Windows 2000 operating system had been infected by Code Red by late Wednesday afternoon, according to SANS data. Although the rate of infection doubled each hour early on, he rate of increase gradually abated. http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/052385.htm http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-08-01-code-red-quiet.htm Code Red On Track To Infect 250,000 Servers - FBI http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/168588.html Code Red hysteria -- $8.7 billion in damage estimated http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/20779.html Code Red Internet worm active, no slowdown so far http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/reuters_wire/1379876l.htm No new effects of Code Red worm seen yet http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/069837.htm U.S. government unaffected by 'code Red' worm http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/reuters_wire/1378497l.htm Worm turns as Code Red Virus fizzles out http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/reuters_wire/1378785l.htm Internet appears normal as 'code Red' awakens http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/reuters_wire/1378425l.htm McAfee chief discounts China theory on 'Code Red' http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/reuters_wire/1378762l.htm Code Red: Alive again and kicking http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5095039,00.html News Roundup: 'Code Red' sets off new alarms http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2092295,00.html From Code Red to Code Dread http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,45760,00.html Who is to blame for the Code Red worm? http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/comment/0,5859,2800509,00.html Web security stocks jump amid 'Code Red' blitz http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/reuters_wire/1377409l.htm Early reports show Code Red as ineffective as Y2K virus http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/GAMArticleHTMLTemplate?tf=globetechnology/TGAM/NewsFullStory.html&cf=globetechnology/tech-config-neutral&slug=UWORMNSB&date=20010801 Rhode Island pulls plug on its Web sites overnight Fear and uncertainty of what the Code Red worm might do to their systems prompted Rhode Island officials to shut down all state Web sites for 12 hours Tuesday night. The virus, which reappeared at 8 p.m. EDT yesterday, attacks only computers running Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or 2000 and Internet Information Server versions 4.0 or 5.0. Rhode Island technical personnel installed patches provided by Microsoft Corp., but officials still believed there was enough risk to validate shuttering all state sites until 7 a.m. today. In all, more than 60 sites went blank overnight. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/4781-1.html - - - - - - - - Ex-Corning scientist accused of espionage A former Corning scientist is accused of taking trade secrets with him when he left for a job at a competing fiber-optics maker, authorities said Tuesday. Xingkun Wu, 40, was being sought by the FBI to face charges of violating the federal Economic Espionage Act. The 1996 act makes theft of proprietary economic information a felony punishable by a $10 million fine and a 15-year prison sentence. FBI agents in Los Angeles, where Wu moved after leaving upstate New York, believe he may have returned to his native China. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-6746982.html - - - - - - - - 5 Indicted in Fraud in Online Auctions Crime: Former Ram Kevin McLain is accused of cheating EBay customers out of $36,000. Former Los Angeles Rams linebacker Kevin McLain and four other people have been indicted on federal fraud charges of failing to deliver goods purchased from them at Internet auctions, the U.S. attorney's office said Tuesday. McLain, 47, of Newport Beach, began selling collectibles over EBay, the online auction site, in 1998 at low prices, earning favorable reviews from Internet customers, according to prosecutors. http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-000062634aug01.story - - - - - - - - LA Courts Deal With College Hack, Online Auction Fraud It was a busy day for the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles, as federal officials released details on several online crimes. According to a news release from the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, Jason Allen Diekman, 20, of Mission Viejo, Calif., today pleaded guilty in federal court in Los Angeles to one count of obtaining information from a protected computer and one count of wire fraud. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/168600.html - - - - - - - - Hackers hit Cuba’s Communist Party newspaper Web page Site back up after three days offline. A Web page version of the Cuban Communist Party’s newspaper Granma was freed up Wednesday after being frozen for three days following an attack by computer hackers. The Web pages of the daily, as well as the digital version of its international weekly edition, were frozen on Saturday. A hacker page appeared on the site with the message: “Own3d by Cr1m1m4L Z0n3.” The hacker page was erased later Saturday, but the site remained frozen until early Wednesday when the newspaper version for that day was posted. http://www.msnbc.com/news/608193.asp - - - - - - - - Justice mysteriously delayed for 'Melissa' author Nearly twenty months after entering guilty pleas in state and federal court, David Smith, the confessed author of the infamous 'Melissa' Outlook worm, remains free on bail with no sentencing date in sight, while the prosecutors who once ballyhooed Smith's arrest as a model of swift and certain information age justice have fallen mysteriously silent. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/20751.html - - - - - - - - Cybersecurity office seeks additional staff, funds A top federal cybersecurity official on Tuesday suggested that the FBI's efforts to counter cyberterrorism and protect the nation's critical infrastructure require additional resources even as he applauding the federal response to a new computer threat. At a press conference to praise the government and private sector for its reaction to the dangers posed by the "Code Red" virus, Ronald Dick, the director of the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Agency (NIPC), told reporters that his agency still faces a shortage of resources and funding, as well as regulatory hurdles, in its quest to allay cyber threats. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0801/080101td2.htm - - - - - - - - FBI accused over Code Red virus confusion UK police say misleading warnings from the FBI led home PC owners to believe that their computers could be infected by the server worm. The Metropolitan Police has criticised the FBI for issuing confused messages about the Code Red worm, which led home PC owners to believe that their computers could be infected by a self-propagating worm that only attacks Internet servers. Last night the FBI was on red alert for an Internet meltdown, due to begin at 1am BST once the malicious worm became active again. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2092329,00.html - - - - - - - - Senator Targets School Hackers Sen. Robert Torricelli claims he wants to put hackers who disrupt school computers in prison. "Computer hackers who prey upon unsuspecting schools, striking fear in the hearts of entire communities with threats of violence, cannot go unpunished," the New Jersey Democrat said this week. But educators, programmers and civil libertarians say Torricelli's recently- introduced School Website Protection Act of 2001 does more than place wrongdoers behind bars. They say the bill is worded so vaguely it would turn commonplace activities into federal crimes to be investigated by the U.S. Secret Service. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45752,00.html - - - - - - - - Senators Postpone Bill To Protect Net Crime Data Sharing Lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee today postponed plans to introduce legislation designed to encourage businesses to share information on cyber-attacks with the government and each other. Sens. Robert Bennet, R-Utah, and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., had been scheduled to introduce a bill on Thursday that would allow private sector companies to share vulnerability information with the government without fear that the sensitive data could be obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. FOIA has long been a tool used by consumer groups and journalists alike to gain access to government documents. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/168595.html - - - - - - - - Software Piracy Takes Toll On Global Scale Despite stronger laws and enforcement, software counterfeiting is worsening from Asia to South America to Eastern Europe. The lightning growth of the high-tech economy has led to a feverish global demand for business and consumer software, whether genuine or fake. And software counterfeiting — fueled by the Internet, organized crime and Third World corruption — has become a multibillion-dollar industry. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/168580.html - - - - - - - - Children's charities pressure Blunket over safety campaign The NSPCC and Carol Vorderman will begin a major crusade this week to get Home Office funding for an Internet safety campaign for children. More than 50,000 NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) campaigners will be bombarding the Home Secretary David Blunkett with postcards this week, pressurising the government into sticking to its election manifesto pledge to make Britain the safest place in the world for children to access the Internet. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2092360,00.html - - - - - - - - Ebay Lawsuit Aims To Curb 'Copycat' Auction Service A lawsuit filed by Ebay claims that, after it warned an upstart competitor to stop copying the look and feel of the popular Ebay Web site, that firm responded by making its own service look even more like that of the Palo Alto, Calif., auction giant. Now, Ebay says, it wants BidBay.com of Tujunga, Calif., to stop using the "BidBay" name, its logo and its Internet address. And, it wants the company to pay yet-to-be-calculated damages under federal law for trademark infringement and dilution and under California state law for various unfair business practices. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/168586.html - - - - - - - - Court case opens new chapter in e-book rights When is a book not a book? That's the question electrifying the publishing world as a David v. Goliath lawsuit over the ownership of electronic book rights makes its way through the U.S. courts. On one side is tiny upstart e-books publisher RosettaBooks, backed by the 8,000 member Author's Guild and the U.S. literary agents Association of Author Representatives. On the other is the world's biggest English-language publisher Random House, part of German media group Bertelsmann, supported by four other major publishing houses. http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/032197.htm - - - - - - - - Secure Text Messaging Technology Prevents Forwarding A new secure method for sending tickets electronically to mobile phones has been unveiled from start-up firm Link77. Known as Ticket Mobile, the system allows for non-standard (non-ASCII) characters to be included in the message header of a text message, a technique that generates a security symbol alongside the message on the recipient's mobile phone. If the recipient forwards the received text message to a second mobile phone user, the header information is lost, and the second users' mobile does not display the security symbol. This prevents any direct duplication of the message. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/168585.html - - - - - - - - Pioneering hacker Wau Holland dead at 49 Herwart Holland-Moritz, one of the world's earliest known hackers and co-founder of the Chaos Computer Club, has died, colleagues said. He was 49. Holland-Moritz, better known as Wau Holland, had suffered a stroke in May and died Sunday in the northern German city of Hamburg, the Web site of the Chaos Computer Club said Wednesday. Holland helped found the club. Holland started hacking in the 1980s and, together with several other early hackers, formed the Chaos Computer Club, or CCC, which fought for the free exchange of information over the data network that would eventually become the Internet. The club later became known for its efforts to increase public awareness about Internet security. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-6741959.html http://www.uniontrib.com/news/computing/20010801-0743-obit-holland.html - - - - - - - - Crackers swallow Swordfish bait Warner Brothers has released a worm to promote its Hollywood hackfest film Swordfish, starring Hugh Jackman as a Kevin Mitnick style hacker alongside Halle Berry and John Travolta. The viral marketing campaign revolves around a Flash game infested with techie throwaway words in which the user must guide a "worm" through a "computer system" to collect "nodes" and "crack" a password within 60 seconds. Unlike the similar sequence in the film, however, the gun against the temple is not part of the experience. And players are thankfully not trying to crack RSA's 128-bit RC5 encryption scheme using little more than a Dell laptop and their own ingenuity. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1124424 - - - - - - - - Hacking into the minds of virus writers If you're using a computer, chances are, you're going to get a virus. At the very least, you're going to get a virus warning. A virus is defined, simply, as a replicating code. Most of us became familiar with names like "Melissa" and the "Love Bug." They taught us that viruses can wreak havoc. But did you know many virus writers intend no real harm? And while the most destructive viruses grab our attention, at any given time there are hundreds of known viruses circulating in cyberspace. So, who is fighting them? Who is writing them? Why? Is there a cure for this epidemic? http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/07/25/index.virus/index.html - - - - - - - - Will your stove be safe from hackers? Today's hackers are trying to mess with your computer. Two or three years from now those same cyberterrorists could be trying to damage your cell phone, your pager or even the appliances in your house. Technology analysts say any device connected to the Internet, particularly those with the ability to send and receive e-mail messages, is a potential host for a computer virus. And as pagers, handheld computers, personal digital assistants and other wireless devices with those capabilities continue to grow in popularity, analysts say they become more vulnerable and more likely targets for hackers' attention. http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/GAMArticleHTMLTemplate?tf=globetechnology/TGAM/NewsFullStory.html&cf=globetechnology/tech-config-neutral&slug=UVIRUN&date=20010801 - - - - - - - - Is distributed computing a crime? David McOwen is losing a lot of sleep these days over his decision to participate in a distributed computing project two years ago. The former computer administrator at DeKalb Technical College in Georgia found out recently that he could face up to 30 years in jail and fines totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars because he installed some distributed computing software on the school's computers. McOwen, who describes himself as "a scientist at heart," said he just wanted to harness wasted computer power and donate it to a good cause. http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5095059,00.html *********************************************************** Search the NewsBits.net Archive at: http://www.newsbits.net/search.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 2000-2001, NewsBits.net, Campbell, CA.