December 4, 2002 Bush signs child Net safety law President George W. Bush on Tuesday signed into law legislation to create a new kids-safe "dot-kids" domain on the Internet. "Every site designated 'dot-kids' will be a safe zone for children," Bush said in a small Roosevelt Room signing ceremony for the domain legislation. "We must give our nation's children every opportunity to grow in knowledge without undermining their character. ... We must give parents the peace of mind knowing their children are learning in safety." http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/12/04/kids.internet.ap/index.html http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56703,00.html http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/659378p-4947354c.html - - - - - - - - L.A. man charged with scamming eBay buyers A Los Angeles man was charged Wednesday with defrauding eBay buyers on six continents in what prosecutors called one of the largest Internet auctions scams uncovered. Chris Chong Kim, 27, was charged with four counts of grand theft and 26 counts of holding a mock auction for allegedly failing to deliver the high-end computers and computer parts he sold on his eBay business site, Calvin Auctions. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/4664869.htm http://www.msnbc.com/news/843312.asp http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2002-12-04-ebay-scam_x.htm - - - - - - - - UK government minister joins pirate raids The culture minister has joined a raid by Trading Standards on a suspected distributor of pirated games software UK culture minister Kim Howells has attended a dawn raid on an address used to distribute pirated games software. In the early hours of Wednesday morning Kim Howells, culture minister for the UK, joined a raid being led by Cardiff Trading Standards on an address in Cardiff, Wales. Further raids have also been conducted across the UK today at addresses in Barking, London, Oldham, and Blaenavon. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2127032,00.html - - - - - - - - Gov't: ElcomSoft software for thieves A government attorney kicked off the ElcomSoft trial Tuesday by characterizing the company's software as a tool for thieves. "This case is about selling a burglar tool for software in order to make a profit," assistant U.S. attorney Scott Frewing told jurors in a federal courtroom in San Jose, Calif. The Russian company is charged with five counts of offering and marketing software designed to crack Adobe's eBooks, actions prosecutors say violate digital copyright laws. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-975916.html http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56703,00.html - - - - - - - - Backed by court order, Danish anti-piracy group bills file-swappers A Danish anti-piracy group has sent invoices to hundreds of people whose names it obtained by court order, demanding payment for music, movies and games they downloaded from the Internet. The AntiPiratGruppen, a Copenhagen- based organization funded by Danish entertainment companies, billed more than 150 private users, schools and companies that it said downloaded material from file-sharing sites like KaZaA and eDonkey last month. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/4659175.htm http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2127007,00.html http://www.vnunet.com/News/1137330 http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/12/04/file.sharers.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - Random House settles e-book lawsuit Random House has settled a lawsuit against an e-book publisher that was selling digital versions of Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle and seven other popular titles. RosettaBooks will continue publishing the disputed works, which predate the rise of the Internet, and will collaborate with Random House on additional books. But the settlement announced Wednesday leaves unresolved the issue of whether authors or publishers control e-rights to books when the contract has no specific language about the electronic format. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2002-12-04-ebook-rights_x.htm http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/659194p-4946407c.html - - - - - - - - A Move to Muzzle E-Mail A court may decide if a fired employee's mass messaging to Intel workers is legal or electronic 'trespassing' on the firm's system. Ken Hamidi lost his job at Intel Corp. after a long fight over a worrkers compensation claim, but he did not go quietly. The engineer, 55, formed a support group for current and past Intel workers. He then sent six waves of e-mails critical of the company's labor practices to thousands of the firm's employees. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-email4dec04004441,0,483904.story - - - - - - - - "Security warning" ads draw lawsuit Web advertisements that masquerade as pop-up "security alert" windows generated by a surfer's computer or browser are the subject of a new class- action lawsuit, which aims to rid the Internet of the deceptive banners. The lawsuit, filed Nov. 25 in the Superior Court of Washington State, is one of the first to bring public discontent over some type of Internet advertising to the courtroom. It charges San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based Bonzi Software with hoodwinking millions of Internet users into clicking to its Web site via the ads. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-976090.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/843365.asp http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/28422.html - - - - - - - - Burglars target 'out of office' emails Thieves using 'out of office' auto-reply emails to find empty homes. Thieves are using information contained in 'out of office' auto-reply emails and cross-referencing it with publicly available personal information to target empty houses. The warning comes from UK blue chip user group The Infrastructure Forum (Tif), which uncovered details of the scam from a meeting of its members. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1137316 - - - - - - - - 16 U.S. agencies flunk computer security review In a scathing report released Friday, the U.S. congressional Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations flunked 16 federal agencies on their computer security efforts, while giving barely passing grades to a host of other agencies. "It is disappointing to announce that the federal government has received a failing grade on its security efforts," Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Stephen Horn (R-Calif.) said in his opening remarks upon presenting the annual computer security report card. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,65589,00.html - - - - - - - - Preparing the Net for terrorist attacks The Internet's resilience after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks may make the system appear invincible to physical damage, but experts warn that the Net must be a part of any disaster recovery plan. While Americans struggled with jammed telephone networks, backup systems compensated for crucial Internet facilities damaged in the attack in Manhattan, and e-mail and Internet traffic flowed well, says a report released in late November by the National Academy of Sciences, a private, nonprofit research group. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,76371,00.html - - - - - - - - Security Firm Rewrites Rules on Disclosing Flaws After being criticized for releasing information too early, Internet Security Systems will change the way it reports software problems. Internet Security Systems, which has been criticized for publicly releasing information about security problems in software before giving application developers time to deal with holes, has issued a revised set of guidelines for how it will handle security warnings. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,107573,00.asp - - - - - - - - Sybase patches three security holes Sybase Inc. has issued a security patch for three vulnerabilities affecting the newest versions of its database software that could allow a malicious hacker to gain control of a Sybase server and run arbitrary code on it. Sybase said it wasn't aware of any systems that have been affected by the problem, but advised customers to download and install the patches, which were made available on its Web site last week. http://www.idg.net/ic_968602_5055_1-2793.html - - - - - - - - 'Jurassic Park' author wins control of Internet name Best-selling author Michael Crichton, who wrote Jurassic Park and created the television series ER, has won control of the Internet name www.michaelcrichton.com in a ruling by a United Nations panel. The panel ordered the transfer of the domain name to Crichton after he complained to the World Intellectual Property Organization that it was being used illegally. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2002-12-04-crichton-site_x.htm - - - - - - - - Vendors complete tougher ICSA 4.0 firewall tests ICSA Labs, which provides one of the most important certifications firewall vendors strive for, said yesterday it has completed the first wave of tests of product against version 4.0 of its certification criteria, writes Kevin Murphy. For the first time, ICSA has also split its certification into three categories and is awarding three different certification logos - for residential, small and medium business, and corporate firewall products. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/28417.html - - - - - - - - Does Cybercrime Still Pay? Jeff Moss, a.k.a. The Dark Tangent and founder of DefCon, the largest annual hacker convention in the United States, said companies no longer hire hackers who have a police record. It is the stuff of IT lore -- a hacker Latest News about hacker is caught breaking into a company's systems and is given two options: Take a job with the company or face prosecution. But are such tactics still in use, or do malicious hackers now face nothing but a career dead end? http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20146.html - - - - - - - - Holiday E-Cards: Handle With Care As an experienced intellectual property lawyer, Thomas Parent is no stranger to the perils of computer viruses sent through e-mail. Usually he won't bother to read an attachment if it comes from an unfamiliar source, fearing that the e-mail may be corrupted. This time, however, Parent let his guard down. When he received an electronic greeting card recently from one of his trusted clients, he opened it immediately and clicked on the end-user agreement without reading the fine print. http://www.wired.com/news/holidays/0,1882,56462,00.html - - - - - - - - An Inside Look at China Filters We now know what China's "Great Firewall" looks like, brick by brick. As expected, pro-democracy, Taiwanese and Tibetan sites are strictly off-limits to Chinese Internet users. So are health sites, Web pages from U.S. universities, online comic books and science-fiction fan centers and the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg's Internet home. "We found blocking of almost every kind of content," Edelman said. "If it exists, China blocks at least some of it." http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,56699,00.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. 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.