June 25, 2002 Nationwide alert warns of university computer infiltration by Russian mob The government has issued an alert about identity and credit card theft on U.S. campuses, saying individuals linked to the Russian mob tried to tap into at least five college computer systems. The warning, which was issued Friday, followed the arrest a Russian-born man at Pasadena City College and another incident at Arizona State University. Schools in Texas and Florida have also been targeted, college officials said. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/3542736.htm - - - - - - - - Teen sued over fake story posted online U.S. regulators on Tuesday sued a 17-year-old who posted a phony story on Internet sites under a Bloomberg journalist's name, hoping to boost the stock price of a drug company in which he had just invested. Benjamin Snyder, from Lawrenceville, Ga., confessed to stealing the pen name of the financial news company's John Rega to try to inflate Viragen International's shares, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said. "He didn't make any profits, but we still sued him because his conduct was outrageous. We will come down hard and fast on anyone who tries to exploit the Internet to defraud investors," said John Stark, the SEC's head of Internet enforcement. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-939162.html http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1106-939274.html - - - - - - - - Mitnick Testifies Against Sprint in Vice Hack Case The ex-hacker details his past control of Las Vegas' telecom network, and raids his old storage locker to produce the evidence. Since adult entertainment operator Eddie Munoz first told state regulators in 1994 that mercenary hackers were crippling his business by diverting, monitoring and blocking his phone calls, officials at local telephone company Sprint of Nevada have maintained that, as far as they know, their systems have never suffered a single intrusion. http://online.securityfocus.com/news/497 - - - - - - - - Bush official urges agencies to upgrade homeland security systems now Federal agencies should not wait for the creation of a new Homeland Security Department to upgrade their information technology systems to better protect the nation, a Bush administration official said Tuesday. "We think we cannot only improve security but improve performance" in airports, at the nation's borders and ports, and elsewhere, Jim Flyzik, White House Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge's senior adviser, told the E-Gov 2002 conference. Flyzik said it is imperative that agencies build from each other's modernization efforts. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0602/062502td1.htm Homeland Security Department may take years to create http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0602/062502cd3.htm - - - - - - - - Lawmaker: Let studios hack P2P networks A California congressman is preparing a bill that would let copyright owners, such as record labels or movie studios, launch high-tech attacks against file-swapping networks where their wares are traded. Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., whose district includes Hollywood territory, said Tuesday that copyright owners needed new legal protections to combat online piracy. Some of the labels' and studios' high-tech techniques for stopping online file traders might be illegal under anti-hacking laws, Berman said. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-939333.html - - - - - - - - Survey finds little confidence in governments cyber-readiness A survey sponsored by the Business Software Alliance of private-sector IT professionals found little confidence in the governments ability to defend itself against a major attack on its cyberinfrastructure. In the online survey of 395 IT professionals conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs of Paris, 49 percent of respondents said they thought it is likely that the government would suffer a major cyberattack within the next year. Seventy-two percent said there is a gap between the threat and the governments ability to defend against it. More than half the respondents, 55 percent, said they thought the danger had increased since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/19113-1.html - - - - - - - - EU queries citizens about data privacy The European Commission is asking citizens whether they think that personal information is sufficiently protected to see if the EU's privacy laws need to be adjusted or their enforcement toughened. Citizens will be able to spell out their views by answering a questionnaire the Commission has published on its official Web site. The poll will run through Sept. 15. Under European Union laws, personal data ranging from sensitive medical records to phone numbers and e-mail addresses can be disclosed or transferred to third parties only after the individual's explicit consent. The privacy rules have put the EU at odds with the United States, which has a more relaxed approached to the issue. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1106-939235.html - - - - - - - - New Windows lock could enable copyright crackdown Microsoft gets together with chipmakers Intel and AMD on a plan to fuse protected software with hardware and so build security into most, if not all, future PCs. It could be a strongbox for data - or a threat to privacy. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2117858,00.html - - - - - - - - Fighting back against PC invaders By day, Paul Kurland runs an innocuous pool maintenance business in Miami, but don't be fooled: Online, he's armed with the digital equivalent of an atomic bomb in the arms race against annoying advertising and spying software. The SpyBlocker program he created can wipe out any targets in its path. In doing so, however, it also completely blocks access to large portions of many popular Web sites. Some call it an overreaction, but Kurland isn't at all apologetic. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-939046.html - - - - - - - - Your PC's Enemy Within The Wild West days of cyberspace are over-- and, like it or not, it's time for government to change its laissez-faire attitude toward the Internet and create laws that clearly prevent unscrupulous businesses from preying on unsuspecting consumers and seizing control of computers. Technologies that "piggyback" on free software available on the Net, often unbeknownst to those who download it, are being used with rising frequency by marketers seeking to pinpoint potential customers. But many of those same programs can be used to spy on an individual's every move and even take over a PC's hard drive--in theory, if not in practice. http://news.com.com/2009-1023-937457.html - - - - - - - - No Stone Unturned, Part Five This is the fifth and final installment of a five- part series describing the (mis)adventures of a sysadmin named Eliot and his haphazard journey in discovering "The Way" of incident response. As we left off last time, Eliot had started putting together a toolkit to help with incident response and analysis. He had had an opportunity to give the kit a quick test and had been satisfied with the results, but the toolkit was not quite finished. http://online.securityfocus.com/infocus/1597 No Stone Unturned, Part One http://online.securityfocus.com/infocus/1550 No Stone Unturned, Part Two http://online.securityfocus.com/infocus/1561 No Stone Unturned, Part Three http://online.securityfocus.com/infocus/1574 No Stone Unturned, Part Four http://online.securityfocus.com/infocus/1584 - - - - - - - - BBC takes big sledgehammer to small nerd Radio scanners are a threat to national security which imperil the lives of the Royal Family and others, thanks to the activities of ne(rd)'re do wells who publicise how to listen into police radio communications. That's the conclusion of a sensationalist piece by the BBC's Today programme which uses unsourced security service contacts and MPs to vilify Hertford-based radio scanning enthusiast Paul Wey. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/25888.html Website spills security service secrets http://www.vnunet.com/News/1132971 - - - - - - - - Science-Technology Drive Is Urged to Fight Terror The United States should begin a program to help fight terrorism through science and technology with a vast range of efforts, including developing better protection for power supplies, improving communications and ventilation systems and creating sensors to detect toxic agents, a report released today by the National Research Council says. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/25/national/25RESE.html http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/fcw2.htm http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0624/web-terror-06-25-02.asp http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/19114-1.html http://news.com.com/2100-1001-939084.html - - - - - - - - FBI sifting through IT applicants It seemed like an ambitious undertaking when FBI Director Robert Mueller announced in January that he wanted to hire 900 more special agents by Sept. 30. At the top of his list were computer and information technology specialists. Now it seems the hard part may be narrowing down the number of applicants. Since launching a $1 million Internet, radio and newspaper advertising campaign in January, the FBI has received 47,000 applications, Mueller told a House subcommittee June 21. Many of the applicants have applied through an electronic form posted on the bureau's Web site. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0624/web-fbi-06-25-02.asp - - - - - - - - Long arm of the law increasingly reaching for a hand-held Sgt. Larry Bryant has the suspects he wants in the palm of his hand. Bryant, who oversees records for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, can use his hand-held organizer to instantly search more than a million mug shots by such variables as eye color, height and even distinctive tattoos. So instead of driving back to the office to pull a file, Bryant can look up a person's booking profile - including color photograph, address and aliases - while out on the street. http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/445711p-3566995c.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 2000-2002, NewsBits.net, Campbell, CA.