November 15, 2002 Child porn 'librarian' jailed for 2 years A computer clerk who ran an online library of child porn was jailed for two years at the Old Bailey this week. In a four-day period, almost 3,000 people visited the free website of 20-year old Londoner Darren Guest. He had collected more than 2,000 images, including children having sex with each other and penetrative sex with adults. Interestingly, Guest's house was raided by Greater Manchester's obscene publications unit after 'routine monitoring of the Internet'. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/28119.html - - - - - - - - BSA whacks two UK firms for piracy Web site tip-offs to the Business Software Alliance (BSA) have led to heavy software piracy fines for two UK companies. Liverpool IT outfit Amaze Ltd paid PS28,000 to the BSA after an investigation uncovered unlicensed copies of computer software on its corporate network. In addition to the fines, the company spent PS24,000 on the purchase of software licences to make sure it operated within the law. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/28129.html - - - - - - - - Dot-Mil Hacker's Download Mistake Gary McKinnon, the Briton indicted this week for hacking into scores of U.S. military computers, left behind few clues on the compromised systems of his victims. But download log files from a Wisconsin software firm may have led investigators straight to his London door. In an apparent effort to avoid detection, McKinnon, 36, installed copies of a commercial remote- access utility called RemotelyAnywhere on Navy and other military systems he allegedly hacked last year. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,56392,00.html - - - - - - - - Cadence, Avant settle trade-secret suit Chip-design software maker Cadence Design Systems agreed to settle its civil lawsuit against rival Avant for $265 million, closing the chapter on a long-running case that centered on stolen trade secrets. Under the terms of the settlement, the two companies and individuals named in the suit have agreed to dismiss all pending claims and counterclaims, which date back to 1994. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-965890.html - - - - - - - - Congress OKs cybersecurity R&D bill The House yesterday passed by voice vote the Senate-amended version of the Cyber Security Research and Development Act, clearing the bill for the presidents approval. The bill, HR 3394, and would authorize $903 million over five years for systems security research under the aegis of the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/20456-1.html - - - - - - - - Congress Creates Kids' Internet Area Congress approved legislation Friday to create a safe haven on the Internet for children, where parents can be assured Web sites are free of pornography and other material not suitable for youngsters. The measure would make a ".kids.us" Internet domain that would be available within a year and monitored by a government contractor to ensure the material is appropriate for children under 13. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/4530132.htm - - - - - - - - U.S. won't support Net "hate speech" ban The Bush administration said on Friday that it will not support a proposed treaty to restrict "hate speech" on the Internet. Last week, the Council of Europe approved an addition to a controversial computer crime treaty that would make it illegal to distribute or publish anything online that "advocates, promotes or incites hatred (or) discrimination." http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-965983.html - - - - - - - - Work begins on homeland security architecture An enterprise architecture model for federal homeland security efforts is under development, the infostructure director of the Office of Homeland Security said. Lee B. Holcomb, who recently ended a five-year turn as NASAs CIO to join the homeland security team, said his office is committed to rolling out the first piece of the architecture within 90 days. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/20507-1.html - - - - - - - - Officials defend data-mining as anti-terror tool Two top Justice Department officials Friday defended the need for government agencies to aggregate large amounts of personal information in computer databases for both law enforcement and national security purposes. Speaking on two separate panels about privacy and civil liberties at the Federalist Society, Assistant Attorney Generals Viet Dinh and Michael Chertoff both said information is a key weapon in combating terrorism. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1102/111502td1.htm - - - - - - - - Privacy Groups Turn Screws on DOJ Privacy advocates want to know the how and why behind U.S. government surveillance done in the name of the USA Patriot Act. On Wednesday, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Privacy Information Center asked a federal court judge to force the Justice Department to respond to their Aug. 21 Freedom of Information Act request for documents related to the Patriot Act's surveillance provisions. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,56423,00.html - - - - - - - - WH may use procurement process to push computer security The nation's cyberspace chief on Friday told members of the Bush administration's National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) that the White House may wield the federal procurement process as a means to encourage greater computer security in the private sector. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1102/111502td2.htm - - - - - - - - e-Authentication prototype awaits e-gov projects The federal government has an operational prototype of the e-Authentication gateway, one of the Office of Management and Budgets 25 Quicksilver e-government projects, that is managing access to two applications. Now, its up to the managers of the other 24 e-government projects to catch up and use the gateway, said David Temoshok, director for identity policy and management in the General Services Administrations Office of Governmentwide Policy. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/20505-1.html - - - - - - - - Consortium demos secure network A public/private consortium in Oregon is developing a secure information network that was created as a direct result of homeland security concerns. The consortium responsible for developing the Oregon Trial of Emergency and Security Technology (O-TEST) demonstrated the model in Washington, D.C., Nov. 13. "It is a protocol of communication that is IP-based and lives on top of a public network that provides a secure point-to-point data interchange," said Wyatt Starnes, president and chief executive officer of Tripwire Inc. and a member of the board of directors of RAINS the Oregon Regional Alliance for Information and Network Security. http://www.fcw.com/geb/articles/2002/1111/web-oregon-11-14-02.asp - - - - - - - - "Noisy light" is new key to encryption Scientists at Northwestern University say they have harnessed the properties of light to encrypt information into code that can be cracked only one way: by breaking the physical laws of nature. This high-speed quantum cryptography method allowed the scientists to send encrypted data over a fiber-optic line at 250mbps (megabits per second), which the researchers said was more than 1,000 times faster than what was achievable with existing quantum technology. http://news.com.com/2100-1001-965957.html - - - - - - - - Wi-Fi Encryption Fix Not Perfect The biggest security risk for "Wi-Fi" wireless Internet networks is that users sometimes fail to turn on their encryption software. But even the responsible ones who use the encryption program -- Wired Equivalent Privacy -- aren't immune to malicious attacks. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56350,00.html - - - - - - - - Study: Linux' Security Problems Outstrip MS Even more security advisories will be released for open source products in the future, while the number of Microsoft security vulnerabilities will remain flat or decrease, Aberdeen's Eric Hemmendinger predicted. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/19996.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/28118.html - - - - - - - - Security concerns hinder remote access Security concerns are hampering to roll- out of remote access, particularly to those working for smaller firms. A survey from In-Stat/MDR, released this week, which found companies are evenly split, more or less, between those who allow remote access to the corporate LAN and those that do not. In-Stat/MDR notes that larger companies more likely to allow remote access than smaller concerns. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/5/28124.html - - - - - - - - Life to hackers! Hackings, viruses and unwanted intrusions into your PC are illegal, right? Well, yes--and no. A last-minute addition to a proposal for a Department of Homeland Security would punish malicious hackers with life in prison. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the bill, which would reshape large portions of the federal bureaucracy into a new department. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-965930.html - - - - - - - - The government wants you -- to be a cyber-security soldier The Bush administration has re-energized its push for a Department of Homeland Security. In addition to ``traditional'' security measures, the proposed department would work to safeguard the Internet. The need for cyber-security was underscored last month by an attack on servers that maintain the directory of domain addresses on which the Internet depends. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/4522607.htm - - - - - - - - Security training for IT managers In my first column, I wrote about how IT managers must think intuitively about security in the enterprise. In the broadest sense, there are two ways that an IT manager can acquire this needed wisdom: through on-the- job training and through formal and informal learning. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,75940,00.html - - - - - - - - Hacking the Xserve Mac Observer editor Brian Chaffin said an administrator must know what he or she is doing because the default configuration renders the Xserve secure -- and effectively useless. Perhaps the only server impervious to hackers is the one still sealed in its packing box. Once a server is plugged into its grounding source and running on a network, it immediately becomes a target. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/19994.html - - - - - - - - P*orn Plague Have you looked at your e-mail in-box lately? If you don't have every filter set up right (or even if you do), you're likely faced with all kinds of appalling p*orn e-mail. Columnist John C. Dvorak is sick of it. And he's just this close to saying, "Freedom of speech be damned!" He doesn't say that, of course. But he thinks we need to take a closer look at what these freedoms really mean and find a way to stem the flow of garbage into our in-box. http://eletters1.ziffdavis.com/cgi-bin10/flo?y=eSuo0DlMDl0EvR0sHz0AP - - - - - - - - JFK first to use eye-scan technology on employees John F. Kennedy International Airport has become the first airport in the nation to use iris scanning technology to prevent employee security breaches. Kennedy has been testing the technology on about 300 employees working at Terminal 4 for two months, although the program is not mandatory for now. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/4527173.htm - - - - - - - - Cameras on cars can see things humans can't Cameras that see in the dark farther than the human eye are available on cars, and cameras that eliminate blind spots may not be far behind. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/4527613.htm - - - - - - - - FBI data management a tough case With snipers picking off people in the Washington, D.C., area in October and police pleading with the public for information, the FBI set up a phone center to receive tips and rolled out its Rapid Start Information Management System to help sort them. It sounds like an efficient, technology-driven process until described in more detail. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/1111/web-fbi-11-15-02.asp - - - - - - - - Industrys emerging role in homeland defense Commercial technologyincluding Web portals and voice over IPwill play a key role in the Herculean task of smoothing the flow of information among federal, state and local agencies involved in homeland security, an Air Force IT leader said today. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/20485-1.html - - - - - - - - Internet blamed for marriage break ups More and more spouses are blaming the Internet for the break up of their marriages. Two-thirds of lawyers meeting at an annual conference in Chicago said the Internet has played a significant role in divorces they had handled during the past year. Meeting a new lover online and an "obsessive" interest in pornography were the top two problems cited in many Internet-related divorce cases. Other reasons that have led to the break down of marriages include excessive use of the Net and chat rooms. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/28122.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.