January 10, 2003 Three accused of operating fraudulent auto parts business Authorities have charged three people who operated an online auto parts business with using the Internet to steal money from unsuspecting customers in at least seven states including Idaho. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-01-10-alleged-web-scam_x.htm - - - - - - - - Judge faces charges in child porn Two men, one an Circuit Court judge, are to face charges next week in connection with police raids last year in an international crackdown against child pornography. The Irish judge will appear in an Irish District Court at Tralee, Co Kerry, next Wednesday, and the second accused, a businessman and tv personality, will be charged in a district court at Midleton, Co Cork, the following day. Charges against the pair will relate to alleged offences under Ireland`s Child Pornography Act. http://u.tv/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=27597&pt=n - - - - - - - - Man convicted in child-porn case Fourth Circuit Judge John Bastian sentenced a Belle Fourche man to 45 days in jail Thursday and placed him on two years of supervised probation after finding him guilty of possessing child pornography. John Byron Martin, 63, will also have to register as a sex offender. Judge Bastian found Martin guilty of 10 counts of possessing child pornography Dec. 5 in Belle Fourche. Martin was arrested June 13 as part of Operation Avalanche, according to Todd Love of the South Dakota Attorney General's Office. http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2003/01/10/news/local/news07.txt - - - - - - - - Techs who accused professor in child porn case set to sue Two computer technicians, fired from New York Law School after reporting that they found child pornography on a professor's computer, filed a $15 million whistle-blower lawsuit Thursday. Dorothea Perry, 35, of Brooklyn, and Robert Gross, 26, of Staten Island, say in court papers that they were consistently praised for their work until they reported child porn on Professor Edward Samuels' computer at the law school on June 3. http://www.thedailyjournal.com/news/stories/20030110/localnews/742364.html - - - - - - - - New Lirva worm variants increase infections Security experts are warning the recently discovered Lirva worm is spreading rapidly, thanks to the release of two new variants. Panda Software is warning of two new variants to the Lirva worm, Lirva.B and Lirva.C. The new variants are very similar to the original Lirva worm which began infecting computers on January 6, with differences in the size of the infected file. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-980101.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/856695.asp Auntie's bloomer lets in nasty virus The BBC has become the first organisation to admit falling victim to the latest variant of the 'ExploreZip' worm, which was only detected yesterday. The infection occurred at about 2pm yesterday and BBC staff were alerted with an email headed 'Major Incident Warning 38'. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1137952 Avril Lavigne worm a hit in virus charts http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2128469,00.html http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20437.html Three new viruses on the loose http://www.vnunet.com/News/1137943 Quartet of new Internet worms discovered http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/711570p-5236449c.html - - - - - - - - New Senate chair voices concerns on information sharing, cybersecurity New Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, has deep concerns about the privacy implications of the government's movement toward the use of combined government databases to help fight terrorism. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0103/101003td2.htm - - - - - - - - DOD examining health records security Following the theft of computers from an Arizona- based medical records contractor, the Defense Department has formed a task force to evaluate security and is taking steps to make health information systems more secure. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0106/web-med-01-10-03.asp - - - - - - - - Philippines on piracy: Many arrests, no convictions The Philippines is unlikely to get off a U.S. piracy watch list soon after it ended last year without a single conviction in about 280 cases filed in the courts, a senior U.S. official said on Friday. William Lash, U.S. assistant secretary of commerce for market access and compliance, told reporters the Philippines has to step up enforcement of its intellectual property right (IPR) laws and speed up passage of a proposed optical disc law before it can be taken off the watch list. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1106-980072.html - - - - - - - - Silver Health Scams Spread Online Rosemary Jacobs' skin turned gray when she was a teenager and has stayed that way for five decades. She suffers from a rare skin condition called argyria, which she contracted after taking nose drops containing silver salts to treat nasal congestion in the 1950s. Once widely prescribed, silver-based remedies went out of vogue after modern antibiotics such as penicillin became available. But the silver elixirs left a permanent mark on many people who took them: skin stained in colors ranging from light blue to cadaverous black as the metal accumulated in their epidermis. http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,57119,00.html - - - - - - - - Does cyberwar start with scholarships? A sustained digital attack on critical U.S. infrastructure wouldnt be easy to execute, but there are indications that some groups might be investing in the human resources such an attack would require, a consultant told Washington law enforcement and intelligence officials today. "We really haven't seen an act of cyberterrorism," said Matthew G. Devost, president of the Terrorism Research Center of Burke, Va. "I don't know if we would recognize it if it happened. Its more difficult to execute than you have been brought to believe." http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/20859-1.html - - - - - - - - EFF blasts controversial copyright law A controversial digital copyright law is quashing free speech and choking innovation, according to a new study by longtime critics of the measure. In its new "Unintended Consequences" report released Thursday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) lists a variety of cases triggered by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a law passed in 1998 designed to bring copyright law into the digital age. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-980112.html - - - - - - - - IT will spend on security, but not services A survey of IT decision makers has revealed their spending priorities for 2003 focus heavily on security and VPNs. While IT spending on security and virtual private networks (VPNs) is expected to increase substantially this year, it's bad news for the services sector with many technology decision-makers planning cut-backs in IT outsourcing and consultancy. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2128488,00.html - - - - - - - - How Secure Is Secure Shell? Despite its vulnerabilities, SSH is far better than its unsecure cousins, including Telnet, the "r" commands and FTP, which transmit usernames and passwords -- and everything else, for that matter -- as clear text. The conventional wisdom for several years has been that if you were using SSH (secure shell) to connect to a server from a remote client, rather than Telnet or another unsecure protocol, you were safe. However, a few vulnerabilities have been revealed recently in versions of SSH, leading some IT administrators to wonder just how secure this vital standard really is. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20432.html - - - - - - - - See how one new user became a security nightmare As administrators, we often devote a lot of energy to external security. We install firewalls to protect the network from outside hackers. We use encryption to protect the data we send over the wire. We use group policies to control who has access and when. However, too often, we forget that the greatest threats can come from those who already have access to the network. I'm going to share the story of how one administrator dealt with an internal attack on her network and how it caused a reevaluation of internal security in her organization. http://www.techrepublic.com/article.jhtml?id=r00220020106gcn01.htm - - - - - - - - When a best practice isn't best for your organization Several months after a security audit, a client re-engaged my firm, CQUR IT, to review the planned responses to a number of the audits findings. One of the recommendations that came out of our audit was that the company institute a formal password policy. But when the client showed us the policy, we thought it might be too restrictive (at least at the time). Ill show you how we worked to balance the clients security needs with the practicality of the solution that they had proposed. http://www.techrepublic.com/article.jhtml?id=r00720030108JXV01.htm - - - - - - - - How to toughen the weakest link in the security chain The guiding tenet of computer security is that an organization's overall security is only as strong as its weakest link. While organizations around the globe routinely employ the use of powerful firewalls, antivirus software and sophisticated intrusion-detection systems to guard precious information assets, they often neglect the most important and vulnerable security component: the human element. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,77360,00.html - - - - - - - - FBI expanding info-sharing test Following a successful proof of concept demonstration of a law enforcement information-sharing project in St. Louis, the FBI is starting to test the initiative in more than seven cities across the country. Although it is now funded as part of the agency's homeland security efforts, the Joint Terrorism Task Force Information Sharing Initiative began prior to Sept. 11, 2001, and is intended to help federal, state and local law enforcement work together on all kinds of criminal cases, said Bill Eubanks, manager of the initiative. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0106/web-isi-01-10-03.asp - - - - - - - - National labs seek edge in homeland security technology When James Bond needs a high-tech edge in his battle against the latest supervillain bent on world dominion, 007 invariably turns to the beloved Q and his laboratory full of customized weapons for British secret agents. In the deadly serious war against terrorists armed with weapons of mass destruction, Tom Ridge, secretary- designate of the new Department of Homeland Security, will increasingly look westward for his own technological edge, toward the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0103/011003nj1.htm *********************************************************** 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 2000-2003, NewsBits.net, Campbell, CA.