June 20, 2002 Man charged with raping teen he met online A 27-year-old man has been charged with raping a 16-year-old girl he met on the Internet, a month after another Connecticut man was accused of killing a 13-year-old girl he met via his computer. Carlos Decarvalho was arrested at his Wallingford home Monday night on a first degree sexual assault charge involving the 16-year-old from Monroe. He posted bond after his arraignment Tuesday in Bridgeport Superior Court. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/06/20/net-crime.htm - - - - - - - - Guilty plea in illegal computer exports case The owner of a Richardson computer company has pleaded guilty to violating a federal order that prohibited him from exporting goods, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Wednesday. Ihsan Elashyi, 42, pleaded guilty this week to four counts of a 39-count indictment returned in April, including charges of money laundering and wire fraud. Elashyi founded Tetrabal, which sold and exported computer and telecommunications equipment. Most of the customers were in the Middle East. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/06/20/computer-plea.htm http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/440689p-3527664c.html - - - - - - - - Two jailed in Nigerian letters fraud George Agbinone and Ovie Ukueku, were sentenced yesterday to prison terms of 3 1/2 years and 12 months imprisonment years respectively. They had pleaded guilty to a PS 1/2 million advance fee fraud through the use of so called Nigerian letters where victims were offered a percentage of a large, but phantom, sum of money for assistance to transfer these sums out of West Africa. http://www.sfo.gov.uk/news/prout/pr_152.asp?id=152 - - - - - - - - Russian mob may have hacked university PCs The tentacles of the Russian mafia may have tapped into the computer system at Arizona State University and at least four other colleges nationwide. A program was apparently installed that allows the students' credit card numbers, passwords and e-mail to be stolen, though it wasn't known if any student accounts had been compromised, according to campus police. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/06/20/russian-mob.htm - - - - - - - - Spammer cracks into AOL search engine Search engines beware: Web spammers are becoming more sophisticated. The latest case occurred Wednesday when America Online's AOL Search and its technology partner Inktomi began displaying thousands of search results that linked to a Web site based in Russia. Web spamming, a term used to describe how sites trump legitimate search results with their own pages, has been going on since the birth of search engines. But this time, Web spammers have found a savvier technique. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-937782.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2112185,00.html http://news.com.com/2100-1023-937624.html - - - - - - - - Inside a Net extortion ring Zilterio wreaks havoc with banks, Web sites Mr. Zilterio is hardly shy about the havoc he wreaks at his computer. Blackmailing is just a hobby for us, not a business. We like to be famous, he says in an e-mail interview with MSNBC.com. For over a year, Zilterio has been hacking into online companies and financial institutions, stealing data, then demanding extortion payments. Nine firms have paid him $150,000 quiet money, he claims. While the money may in fact be a fantasy theres no proof anyone has paid the crimes are quite real, and hes being sought by the FBI for extortion. http://www.msnbc.com/news/768843.asp - - - - - - - - U.S. asks court to decide on Net porn filters The United States asked the Supreme Court Thursday to overturn a federal court ruling that prohibits withholding money from public libraries that don't install computer software to block sexually explicit Web sites. A three- judge panel struck down Congress' third and latest attempt to shield children from Internet pornography last month. http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/06/20/library.filtering.ap/index.html http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,53378,00.html The Librarian's Web Dilemma It seemed, it was plagued with pornography. In the 12 public libraries serving the city and its county in South Carolina, adults were looking for pornographic images online and didn't care who saw them and, by some accounts, were showing the images to children passing by. "We had parents say, `I'll never bring my child back to your library,' " said J. David Sudduth, chairman of the Greenville County library system's board. "It was a very unhealthy environment." After other measures proved ineffective, the board decided to spend $2,500 a month on a filtering service that blocks access to millions of Web pages with adult content. "It just took that last step for us to get the kind of environment we want for our library system," Mr. Sudduth said. (NY Times article, free registration required) http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/20/technology/circuits/20FILT.html - - - - - - - - Taking Security Concerns Private: U.S. Appeals to IT Firms It is the common cry of the federal administrator sitting across the table from the private entrepreneur: "I do not have the staff with the technological experience to do what you do." That was how Sallie McDonald, assistant commissioner of the General Services Administration's Office of Information Assurance and Critical Infrastructure, characterized efforts to protect federal information technology systems and develop rapid national response mechanisms. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13127-2002Jun19.html - - - - - - - - American tech alliance's security plan attacked A leading European computer security and privacy advocate is challenging an effort by the American computer industry to create a standard to protect software and digital content, calling the plan a smoke screen by established companies to protect their existing markets. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/3505238.htm - - - - - - - - New Security Software Gets Jump on Cyberattacks In 2001, the Federal Computer Incident Response Center was notified of 6,683 attacks, ranging from defacing Web sites to break-ins of an agency's central "root" servers. In 2000, the agency that monitors malicious attacks on federal systems was notified of only 586; in 1999, that number was 580. These numbers have many industry and government officials worried whether agencies have enough manpower to keep up with the increasing number of attacks on their computer systems. http://online.securityfocus.com/news/491 - - - - - - - - Gobbles Releases Apache Exploit Tool makes it easy to hack vulnerable Apache servers under OpenBSD. In a move aimed at showing up other security researchers, Gobbles Security on Wednesday released source code to a program that exploits a serious security flaw in the popular Apache Web server. Experts confirmed that Apache-scalp.c, posted to several security mailing lists and online libraries, provides remote attackers with a command shell on unpatched OpenBSD systems running Apache 1.3.x. http://online.securityfocus.com/news/493 - - - - - - - - Game teaches file swappers copyright law With congressional investigations and billion- dollar lawsuits, modern copyright policing isn't exactly child's play. But a group of privacy advocates hopes it can teach consumers about intellectual property and privacy issues with a new online game. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Privacy Activism recently introduced "Carabella," a game designed around Macromedia's Flash animation software. Players assume the role of the title character and guide her through a series of decisions as she tries to acquire new tunes by her favorite band. http://news.com.com/2100-1040-937992.html - - - - - - - - VeriSign backs down over phony alerts VeriSign has agreed to stop sending false notices that tell customers of rival registrars their domain names will soon expire. The company, which is the leading registrar of domain names, signed a federal court order Wednesday saying it will not send bogus messages warning customers that their domain names were about to expire and offering to sign up the Web addresses with VeriSign. The company also agreed not to send other official-looking notices that appear to be from the current registrar in an attempt to convince people to switch to VeriSign. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-937985.html http://news.com.com/2100-1023-937940.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17820-2002Jun20.html - - - - - - - - Staff training is vital for security IT departments must keep other employees aware of security, warns a leading CIO, as laziness can put businesses at risk. Staff disabling virus protection and not bothering to change their passwords are security threats too great to let slide, according to one leading international chief information officer. Security researchers have warned that chief information officers are likely to see more and more blended security threats within the next couple of years. Recent research released by the Computer Security Institute (CSI) in the US has also found that losses could include theft of proprietary information and financial fraud. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2112160,00.html - - - - - - - - Secure Coding Several months ago, Bill Gates announced that security would be the number one priority at Microsoft. Several groups at Microsoft, such as the Trusted Computing Group and the Secure Windows Initiative strive to improve security in Microsoft products and ultimately improve security for individuals and corporations worldwide. http://online.securityfocus.com/infocus/1596 Security Flaws Continue To Be Issue for Microsoft http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18309.html http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/06/20/microsoft-security.htm - - - - - - - - Officials see procurement reform as boon to security The creation of a new Homeland Security Department would give government a chance to create an effective procurement process that helps companies understand government needs and where to showcase their new technologies, speakers said Thursday at the Technology Against Terrorism forum in Washington. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0602/062002td1.htm Homeland Security to rely heavily on technology http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0617/web-bill-06-19-02.asp - - - - - - - - INS urged to expand tracking The computerized system being assembled to keep tabs on foreign students in the United States should be expanded to track other long-time visitors as well, an immigration control advocate told a House subcommittee June 19. And, the names of 4 million foreigners who have overstayed their visas should be added to a national criminal database, said Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies. That would alert local police to their identities and could lead to tens of thousands of arrests and deportations each year, he said. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0617/web-ins-06-20-02.asp - - - - - - - - Report slams criminal justice IT 'Squandered' money could have paid for 3,800 extra police. IT inadequacies have contributed to delays in the criminal justice system that are costing taxpayers an estimated PS80m a year, according to a report from the Audit Commission published this week. The report said that the money, which is enough to pay for an extra 3,800 police officers, is squandered by "delays and inefficiencies throughout the system", including problems with IT systems. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1132849 - - - - - - - - E-policing move reduces bureaucracy A new project will give PDAs to officers on the beat, but the big news is integration between applications - which means fewer forms to fill in Police officers in Wiltshire, who spend around 25 percent of their time on paperwork, will have some of this burden reduced by an effort to integrate databases so information needs to be entered only once. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t295-s2112140,00.html - - - - - - - - For the Spy in the Sky, New Eyes Flying in his helicopter, Sgt. Frank Sheer of the Orange County Sheriff's Department in Southern California can be literally miles from the action. But that does not mean that he and his co-pilot do not know what's going on. In fact, Sergeant Sheer says they often have a clearer picture of a crime scene than the officers who are there. "We'll be tracking a suspect on a hillside from the helicopter," said Sergeant Sheer, the chief pilot in the Orange County force, "and the deputies climbing up it will be saying to us, `There's nobody here.' We've actually had them step on a guy who pulled up a bush for cover." (NY Times article, free registration required) http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/20/technology/circuits/20SPYY.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. 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