August 9, 2001 FBI doubts amateurs are behind 'Code Red' As the "Code Red II" virus hit more computer networks and continued spreading overseas Wednesday, the FBI thinks the worm was launched by sophisticated international hackers — not teenage amateurs. According to security experts and federal law enforcement officials, the FBI does not believe so-called "script kiddies" are behind the Code Red attacks that have struck 400,000 to 800,000 server computers since mid-July. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-08-09-code-red-fbi.htm The Hunt For the Worm Writers Internet users have become all too familiar with SirCam and Code Red, but the creators of the two worms that have plagued the Internet this summer remain a mystery. If the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center has its way, the identities of those who wrote and released the malicious little bundles of code into the world will be known soon. "We are very serious about finding the authors of Code Red and SirCam," the NIPC's Debra Weierman said. "Intentional transmission of worms or viruses across the Internet is a felony. This is a major offense, not some inconsequential lark." http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,45956,00.html The Code Red hype Hall of Shame http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/20908.html Microsoft Hotmail servers invaded by Code Red worm http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/reuters_wire/1399878l.htm Worms prompt AT&T to unplug customer Web sites http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/039991.htm Qwest Dogged By DSL, Billing Bugs http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/168878.html 'Code Red' impact felt at major companies http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/08/09/code.red/index.html Hotmail, FedEx infected by Code Red http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5095455,00.html AP news service succumbs to Code Red II http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-6829312.html Code Red continues to disrupt Net http://www.msnbc.com/news/611476.asp?0si=- Microsoft may have been victim of Code Red worm http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/059634.htm New instructions help cure "Code Red' problem http://www.pioneerplanet.com/business/biz_docs/106216.htm - - - - - - - - Adobe Hacker off Hook in Russia A Russian computer programmer accused of circumventing U.S. copyright protections on electronic-book software will not be prosecuted at home if U.S. authorities allow him to return, police said Thursday. Dmitry Sklyarov, 26, is in Northern California awaiting trial, and could face five years in prison and a $500,000 fine if convicted of violating the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. He was released on $50,000 bail Monday after being arrested July 16 at a Las Vegas convention. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45966,00.html http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/075617.htm http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-08-09-russian-programmer.htm - - - - - - - - Web site hacker is sentenced to 6-month term A disgruntled former employee who hacked into a Chicago company's Internet site and littered it with pornography and derogatory comments was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to 6 months in prison. Michael Normington, 32, of Burbank pleaded guilty in April to a federal charge of accessing a computer without authorization. http://chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0108090215aug09.story - - - - - - - - Day trader settles charges of false Lucent postings Fred Moldofsky, a Texas day trader accused of posting fake press releases on the Internet claiming Lucent Technologies Inc. would not meet earnings projections, agreed to settle fraud charges, federal securities regulators said on Wednesday. Moldofsky, a Canadian citizen, agreed to a final judgment permanently enjoining him from future securities violations, the Securities and Exchange Commission said. He did not admit or deny the civil charges brought by the SEC, and he will not have to pay a fine based on his sworn inability to do so, the regulatory agency added. http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/052885.htm - - - - - - - - Compaq accuses brokers of $20m rebate fraud Compaq is sueing three dealer principals for the recovery of $20m in rebates allegedly defrauded from the company. Compaq accuses Harry Martin and Shafiq Ahhmed of Millenium Technology Group, a Virginia-based computer broker, and Stephen Pridemore, of South Carolina Creative Resources Group Inc, of conspiring to "defraud Compaq into paying millions of dollars in unearned rebates and special marketing support funds". http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/51/20899.html - - - - - - - - Judge orders FBI to reveal 'key logger' details Law enforcement's penchant for high-tech surveillance has again collided with the public's right to privacy. This time the question is whether FBI agents can plant a secret monitoring device that records everything typed on a computer user's keyboard. A federal judge ruled Aug. 7 that the FBI must explain to him how a monitoring device called a "key logger system" works. Depending on how the device collects data, its use may have been illegal. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/0806/web-fbi-08-09-01.asp - - - - - - - - Deface Road Runner, Save the Whales? Security at three Web sites operated by AOL Time Warner's Road Runner service was compromised Thursday. An attacker replaced the sites' usual home pages with a message about saving whales. Defaced were the home pages of the cable-based Internet service's sites for users in Austin, Texas, and in Kansas City, as well as a site serving subscribers in Maine. All but the Kansas City defacement were still viewable this morning. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/168863.html - - - - - - - - Futile Quest for Kid Porn Traders Police in Indonesia and Russia said Thursday that prosecuting suspects in their countries linked to a Texas-based online child pornography ring will be difficult, due to loose laws governing the Internet and pornography. Federal officials in Washington said Wednesday that they have arrested 100 subscribers to child pornography websites, which they said had around 250,000 subscribers worldwide and grossed up to $1.4 million a month. Authorities called it the largest child-pornography business ever discovered in the United States. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45965,00.html - - - - - - - - Internet crime big in Japan Crimes in Japan involving the Internet jumped nearly 60 percent in the first half of 2001 from a year earlier, says the National Police Agency. Of the 319 crime cases logged, 46 involved buying sex with minors compared with just one in the same period last year. Internet scams including swindling cash via online transactions more than doubled to 53, with the majority involving online auctions, Kyodo news agency quoted the NPA as saying. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2092868,00.html - - - - - - - - 1m anti-piracy hi-fi nuking CDs hit Europe One million CDs have been released in Europe which are protected by the controversial anti-piracy system Cactus Data Shield. Israeli security business Midbar brags that it has reached the one million milestone and says plans are under discussion for a US invasion. Sony's Music Entertainment division is trialling the technology. The Cactus Data Shield system is controversial because the technology could blow your hi-fi speakers. Like Macrovision's SafeAudio, Cactus adds noise to the music data stored on the CD. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/20919.html - - - - - - - - Napster, RIAA Battle Rages On In what might be the final round of its battle with Napster, the RIAA has asked U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel for summary judgment against the song-swapping company. Lawyers for the RIAA are insisting Napster knew about the copyright violations of its network and was profiting as a result. The RIAA claims Napster benefited financially from the free trade of protected music because the company based its value on the quantity and quality of songs available through its network. http://www.techtv.com/news/politicsandlaw/story/0,24195,3341494,00.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2092897,00.html - - - - - - - - Germans out-sauce Brits in porn hunt One in four UK home Net users visited porn sites in June, according to the latest stats from Internet monitoring company, NetValue. It found that 3.8 million home Net users spent more than 45 minutes sniffing round XXX sites. However, the UK was out- sauced by Net users in Germany. There, 5.3 million home Net users spent more than an hour visiting hot sites, while the research found that 40 per cent of Spanish home Net users visited a mucky site in June. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/20900.html - - - - - - - - New Passport privacy linked to IE 6 Microsoft will soon be offering better privacy and security for online consumers, but at a price: exclusive use--for now--of the company's forthcoming Internet Explorer 6.0 Web browser. Microsoft executives said on Wednesday that the company's Passport authentication service will soon support an emerging privacy standard called Platform for Privacy Preferences, or P3P. The standard is advocated by the World Wide Web Consortium, a Web standards body, and was adopted by Microsoft in June for use in its software. http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5095470,00.html - - - - - - - - Disappearing ink: E-book self-destructs And then there were none. Or at least there will be if readers don't pay RosettaBooks to renew its self- destructing e-book. The e-publisher is releasing the Agatha Christie classic "And Then There Were None" under what it's billing as the first "time-based permit." That is, readers who pay $1 to download the book will get to enjoy it for a cumulative total of 10 hours before the content disappears. RosettaBooks Chief Executive Arthur Klebanoff said the company intended the release of the book to be a humorous play on its title. "Of our list of 100 books, no title was more obvious to dramatize our format," Klebanoff said. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6815857.html - - - - - - - - Security firms want video-surveillance law Facing a growing public backlash, the security industry called on Congress Wednesday to regulate the use of surveillance systems that match faces of people on the street with a database of known criminals. The developer of a prominent face-scanning system, along with the head of the industry trade group, said the federal government needed to step in to ensure that such systems could not be used by police or private corporations to track or compile pro files of innocent citizens. http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/ptech/08/09/privacy.surveillance.reut/index.html - - - - - - - - Driving Away With Wireless Secrets Some nights when they are bored and the traffic is light in downtown Philadelphia, Russell Handorf and a friend take what they call a "war drive" through the city's financial district. They're looking for wireless networks to sniff. Recently this summer, as Handorf, a student at Philadelphia's Drexel University, was on a slow midnight cruise with his friend at the wheel and his Dell notebook across his lap, the computer's wireless network card started to pick up a strong signal - right across the street from the headquarters of a major regional bank. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/168883.html Rogue WLANS - the next security battlefield? http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/20920.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. 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