November 16, 2001 Police seize $100 million in fake software in L.A. Law enforcement officials Friday announced the largest seizure of counterfeit software in U.S. history, a shipping container of cleverly faked copies of Microsoft's flagship Windows programs valued at $100 million. Federal investigators and police said a well-funded syndicate operating in Taiwan and the Los Angeles area had tried to ship the pirated software here by bribing an undercover agent posing as a U.S. Customs Service official. http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/021437.htm http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-7899626.html?tag=owv http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/2001/11/16/bogus-software.htm http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48478,00.html - - - - - - - - Lacona man got images from computer at college job. Watertown NY police detectives have charged a Lacona man with downloading adult and child pornography from a college computer, then creating a computer disk of the images, Detective Joseph R. Donoghue Sr. said. City police last week charged Leon G. Vaughn III, 39, of 5115 county Route 22 with promoting sexual performance of a child, a felony, and third-degree obscenity, a misdemeanor. http://www.syracuse.com/news/syrnewspapers/index.ssf?/newsstories/20011116_roporn.html - - - - - - - - US Muslim Council hacked The American Muslim Council (AMC) is furious after its website was hacked afew days before the start of its holy month of Ramadan. According to a press release issued by the Council on its website, the hacker got into its mail server and planted the Snow White and Seven Dwarfs virus, which then sent the virus to the Council's entire email list. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1126902 - - - - - - - - Internet An Ideal Tool For Extremists - FBI Modern information technology is facilitating new organizational models used by extremist groups, according to the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC). Technologies such as Internet relay chat (IRC), Web-based bulletin boards, and free e-mail accounts are enabling extremist groups to adopt a structure known as "leaderless resistance," according to an unclassified document published Nov.10 by the NIPC. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172246.html - - - - - - - - High-tech crime unit scared of hackers The police National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) has admitted it is scared of going online because the website will be an obvious target for hackers. The NHTCU's website will be launched imminently but it is currently undergoing strenuous testing to ensure there are no security holes that would embarrass the unit. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1126921 - - - - - - - - Judges Consolidate Aimster Suits, Move Trial To Chicago In a blow against the music file-swapping service, a multi-jurisdictional panel of judges in San Diego today ordered that a bevy of lawsuits against the fledgling Albany, N.Y.,-based Aimster should be tried in a Chicago federal district court. The order is aimed at splitting the distance that music and movie industry litigants must travel while suing Aimster. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172258.html - - - - - - - - Senate Bill Would Alter Supreme Court ID Theft Ruling Senate lawmakers introduced legislation today to clarify that the two-year statute of limitations for identity theft does not start until the consumer becomes aware of the problem. The bill introduced today by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Senate Finance Committee Ranking Republican Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, would alter a Supreme Court ruling issued earlier this week. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172255.html - - - - - - - - Government not prepared to deploy new security technology Reliable biometric technologies that identify people by their unique physical characteristics are on the market today, but federal agencies aren’t taking advantage of them on a wide scale yet, according to industry experts and government officials. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1101/111601h1.htm - - - - - - - - Ex-lawmakers recommend biometric smart cards to track foreign nationals. Three former members of Congress today told the House Government Reform subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations that the United States should track foreign visitors via identification cards that require fingerprint or iris scans. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/17509-1.html Feinstein-Kyl visa bill stresses value of biometrics http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/17505-1.html Congress Reopens Debate On National ID Card http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172252.html - - - - - - - - Emergency data laws 'break Human Rights Act' A Parliamentary committee on human rights has called for safeguards to prevent antiterrorist measures from breaking European laws. Emergency data retention measures are likely to break European human rights laws, a joint Parliamentary committee said on Friday. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2099399,00.html - - - - - - - - Confidentiality Claws Researchers at Imperial College, London are developing mathematical and programming techniques to better assess the extent that systems prevent the leakage of confidential information. Typically, models for confidentiality characterise the absence of information flow by trying to establish non-interference between units of a system. It is notoriously difficult to establish such absolutes in a software system. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/22886.html - - - - - - - - Work needed to minimize threat of attacks on Web, officials say. The Internet's guardians concluded Thursday they can't make the worldwide network immune to terrorism, but they can guard against the most likely risks. Several terrorist-related risks were identified during a three-day meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the organization designated by the U.S. government to oversee the Net's address system. http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/086117.htm - - - - - - - - 'Drive-by' hacking a real threat Wireless networks are vulnerable to hacking - layers of security may be the best defence. X-Force -- an Internet Security Systems anti-hacking team -- takes its job very seriously, even taking to the streets of Sydney for security threat analysis in the form of 'drive-by hacking'. A recent analysis conducted by the X-Force team in Australia tested the security of wireless networks operating within Pitt St, Sydney a major retail and business centre. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2099348,00.html - - - - - - - - IP conference: copyright law has gone too far The recording industry and the Business Software Alliance squared off against the Electronic Frontier Foundation and US Rep. Rick Boucher Wednesday in a debate over laws such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act aimed at protecting large copyright holders, with the hearts and minds of a crowd of Washington, D.C., decision-makers as the prize. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/22876.html - - - - - - - - Cisco routers vulnerable to DoS Cisco has warned that vulnerabilities in its series 12000 routers may allow attackers to denial of service (DoS) the machines. The company said that heavy scanning traffic on a network, perhaps initiated by a hacker, could saturate the router's CPU resources and cause the machine to fall over. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1126889 - - - - - - - - Security world skeptical of Microsoft push to keep flaws quiet. When Oy Online Solutions Ltd. discovered that a flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer could let hackers steal private user information from Web files known as ``cookies,'' the Finnish company faced a difficult decision. Should it whisper the news to Microsoft so the software giant could fix the problem? Or should it announce the so-called ``bug'' to the world so Explorer users could protect themselves before a hacker discovered the same vulnerability? http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/036564.htm - - - - - - - - Close the Window on Virus-Prone Outlook In a perfectly normal and rational world, an epidemic that costs global computer users an average of $10 billion a year might be considered something of a crisis. But because this is a world in which nearly every computer is controlled by Microsoft operating systems and programs, we muddle along--aware of the chaos but unwilling to do anything to remedy the situation. http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-000091345nov15.column - - - - - - - - Effective security starts with policies IT SECURITY POLICIES are the foundation of any security infrastructure, and judging by findings from our 2001 InfoWorld Security Solutions Survey, companies recognize their importance. Of 500 respondents, only 3 percent reported that their companies have no formal security policies. Creating the initial policy, however, is only the first step. http://www.infoworld.com/articles/tc/xml/01/11/19/011119tcpolicy.xml - - - - - - - - Fingerprinting Port 80 Attacks Port 80 is the standard port for websites, and it can have a lot of different security issues. These holes can allow an attacker to gain either administrative access to the website, or even the web server itself. This paper looks at some of the signatures that are used in these attacks, and what to look for in your logs. http://www.cgisecurity.com/papers/fingerprint-port80.txt - - - - - - - - Florida slams feds for not sharing antiterror data Florida’s top law enforcement officer has blasted the FBI for failing to share data essential to tracking down terrorists. James “Tim” Moore, commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, objected to federal data-sharing policies and laws in a recent letter to FBI director Robert S. Mueller III and Homeland Security Office director Tom Ridge. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/17506-1.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.