April 15, 2002 Software pirates face ten years in jail Government backs tougher penalties for those who deal in illegally copied material, including software, as part of a counterfeiting crackdown. The House of Commons has agreed to bring in significant changes to the copyright law that will mean someone convicted of software piracy could face ten years' imprisonment and an unlimited fine. The move is an attempt to crack down on those who create and sell counterfeit goods -- a practice that is estimated to cost the UK billions of pounds and thousands of jobs each year. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2108386,00.html - - - - - - - - Judge To Rule On Motions In E-Book Case U.S. District Judge Ronald M. Whyte is expected to rule today on motions to dismiss the government's case against a Russian software firm. Attorneys for Elcomsoft, a company charged with violating U.S. copyright laws by selling computer software capable of bypassing the security in Adobe's eBooks, are slated to appear before Whyte in a San Jose, Calif. court. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175864.html - - - - - - - - FTC Sues To Stop 'Inbound Telemarketing' Scams The Federal Trade Commission said today it is suing nearly nearly a dozen groups allegedly involved in fraudulent "inbound telemarketing" offers, wherein consumers are prompted to call companies based on classified ads, Internet banners, and other solicitations. The FTC actions target five companies that profited from allegedly bogus work at home medical billing scams, and four companies that offered so-called "advance-fee" loan programs. http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175886.html - - - - - - - - European Parliament says no to Web-site blocking The European Parliament has voted against blocking access to Web sites as a way of regulating content on the Internet, instead pushing self-regulation and filter and rating systems. The vote was 460-0, with three abstentions, to adopt a report on the protection of minors and to respect human dignity that addresses many media, including the Internet. The European Parliament's report isn't a legislative document but is in response to a previous evaluation report by the European Commission. http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/04/15/eu.site.blocking.idg/index.html - - - - - - - - Korean firm offers hackers $100K prize A Korean company is offering $100,000 in a 48-hour hacking competition, to be run this week. Korea Digital Works (KDWorks) will launch the competition, which will involve gaining root access to a server, on April 16 at 11 a.m. Korean Standard Time. The competition is aimed at demonstrating the resilience of KDWorks' World OK Security (WOKS) solution, according to Justin Kim, an attorney with U.S.-based Mike Choi International Consulting, who is helping to promote the event. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-882787.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2108316,00.html http://news.com.com/2100-1001-882663.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/738956.asp - - - - - - - - Nanny-Cam May Leave a Home Exposed Thousands of people who have installed a popular wireless video camera, intending to increase the security of their homes and offices, have instead unknowingly opened a window on their activities to anyone equipped with a cheap receiver. The wireless video camera, which is heavily advertised on the Internet, is intended to send its video signal to a nearby base station, allowing it to be viewed on a computer or a television. But its signal can be intercepted from more than a quarter mile away by off-the-shelf electronic equipment costing less than $250. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/14/technology/14SPY.html - - - - - - - - Internet crime-prevention company aids law enforcement When CitizenObserver.com launched its crime prevention Web site early last August, company executives believed they had a strong product filling an important niche. A month later came the terrorist attacks. As law enforcement officials started sorting out how their duties might change, the company started hearing that its Web site linking police departments to residents and delivering e-mail crime alerts suddenly had new relevance. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/3064490.htm - - - - - - - - Spammers hide behind a friendly face The latest advertising gimmick is to send junk emails that appear to have been sent by someone known to the recipient. Spam's newest pitches are coming to you courtesy of friends and co-workers -- or so it might seem. In one of the latest marketing gimmicks circulating the Net, the sender comes disguised as a corporate network administrator with the subject line: "Your mailbox is over its size limit." Once opened, however, the email's message lewdly invites the recipient to view adult material. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2108342,00.html - - - - - - - - Classroom bullies harnessing Net power Playground bullies are harnessing the power of technology to persecute their victims around the clock, a U.K.-based children's charity warned Monday. NCH, one of the United Kingdom's leading children's charities, said the latest generation of schoolchildren is without refuge from a phenomenon that all too often drives vulnerable children to suicide -- with one in every four suffering bullying by text-message or e-mail, or in Internet chat rooms. "The crucial difference from traditional bullying is that in the past kids who are being bullied could go home and find a safe haven," said NCH Associate Director John Carr. "But if they're bullied on their mobile (phone) or on the Internet, then it's ever-present." http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-882613.html http://news.com.com/2100-1023-882576.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/24848.html Web chatrooms leading to barroom brawls? http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-882478.html - - - - - - - - New cumulative Microsoft patch fixes two critical threats At the end of March, Microsoft released Security Bulletin MS02-015. This is a cumulative patch that includes new patches for two critical threats, including the CodeBase Localpath vulnerability I described two weeks ago. The bulletin refers to this vulnerability as Local Executable Invocation via ObjectTag, but its the same as the CodeBase Localpath vulnerability. http://www.techrepublic.com/article_guest.jhtml?id=r00220020415mco01.htm - - - - - - - - Restraints relaxed in anti-copy tech SunnComm is adding a spoonful of sugar to its anti- copying medicine. The Phoenix, Ariz.-based copy- protection company has been the target of consumer outrage over its technology, which is designed to stop people from shifting music tracks from CDs to their computers. On Thursday, it offered a compromise, adding a feature that lets people e-mail songs from protected albums to family and friends. SunnComm said a file expires after the recipient listens to the song a certain number of times. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-882806.html - - - - - - - - HP voice mail theft gets Silicon Valley's attention It's the talk of Silicon Valley: How did someone break into the voice mail of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s chief financial officer, capture a sensitive message from his boss, Carly Fiorina, and leak it to the local newspaper? HP executives were shocked. But experts in phone systems and computer security say they're not surprised - largely because voice mail is digital and is stored on computers. http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/358943p-2912064c.html - - - - - - - - Policing the net Peter Robbins takes over as chief executive of the Internet Watch Foundation at a time when the self-regulatory group is facing increasing charges of censorship. Sarah Left asks: how will this ex-cop respond? Peter Robbins admits he does not know much about the internet. Aged 50, he retired as chief superintendent at Hackney police earlier this year, and picked up a copy of the Guardian's Society jobs section. And there it was: an ad from the Internet Watch Foundation, the self-appointed, self-regulatory body that polices child pornography online. http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,681957,00.html - - - - - - - - Experts: Insider threat may be harder to detect Recent findings that insiders constitute the primary threat to enterprise security are being challenged by experts who insist the greater threat to security remains external. Only 38 percent of respondents to the latest computer crime survey sponsored by the FBI and the San Francisco-based Computer Security Institute said they detected insider attacks during the preceding 12 months. That's down from 49 percent reported a year ago and 71 percent reported in 2000. http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/04/15/insider.security.idg/index.html - - - - - - - - COMPUTER SCIENCE - Defending Your Desktop Some recent media reports would have you believing that, thanks to modern connectivity, monsters can crawl through the computer screen and into your home--eating bank accounts and spewing pornography as they go. Most of us know it's not all that bad. But computer networks do present the layperson with some security threats. "The Internet is constantly being attacked and probed even by our allies," says Jim Davis of Iowa State University. "That's the environment in which we live." http://www.sciam.com/news/092100/4.html - - - - - - - - Q&A: Meet the new spam buster Groove Networks CEO Ray Ozzie hates spam just as much as the next guy. But unlike that next guy, he's offering a potential way out for corporate- networking chiefs troubled by unsolicited e-mail. When his company first introduced its collaboration software in October 2000, stopping spam wasn't its chief selling point. But on Monday, when Groove flips the switch on its first upgrade, the company will be able to make a plausible claim that it offers at least one answer to managing spam. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-882566.html - - - - - - - - Security concerns push tech growth The need to positively prove identity in the world left changed by Sept. 11 is driving technology designed to help people clear security checkpoints at airports and elsewhere. It turns out that one of the methods to which experts have turned is also one of the oldest -- the fingerprint. In one example, Giesecke & Devrient, a German firm, recently unveiled a "smart" identity card that will contain two of the owner's digitalized fingerprints on an embedded chip. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-882472.html U.S. boosts funding for face recognition http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-882475.html - - - - - - - - Ashcroft orders more info sharing Declaring that "information is the friend of prevention," Attorney General John Ashcroft has instructed six federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to do a better job of sharing information as they fight the war against terrorism. Information from databases, such as names of terrorism suspects, fingerprints, photographs and biographical data, should be regularly available to a wider range of law enforcement agencies, Ashcroft said. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0415/news-doj-04-15-02.asp http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/175861.html - - - - - - - - FBI study: Hanssen had easy access to case files The FBIs failure to secure its case files made it possible for Robert Hanssen tofreely and without detectiongain access to data for his espionage activities, a new report concludes. Whats more, according to the independent commission that conducted the review, the FBI still fails to adequately control its case files. Hanssens espionage demonstrated in a public and convincing way that the bureaus information systems security controls are inadequate, noted the report from the commission headed by former FBI and CIA director William H. Webster. The unclassified portion is available on the Web at; www.usdoj.gov/05publications/websterreport.pdf. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/18403-1.html - - - - - - - - A Top-Secret, One-of-a-Kind Mac In a drafty shed in rural northern California is perhaps the rarest Macintosh ever made: an electronically shielded Mac used by a spy or military agency. The machine appears to be unique, and is so secret, no one knows anything about it. Sitting on a dusty shelf in an old Boulder Creek, California, barn owned by programmer and author Bruce Damer, the Macintosh SE 30 1891 ST at first appears to be a standard all-in-one Mac from the mid-1980s. http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,51670,00.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. 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