January 14, 2003 Internet suicide chat room killer held A would-be Internet killer is behind bars and facing 20 years' jail after offering to dispatch a woman he met in a suicide chat room, the Houston Chronicle reports. Edward Frank Manuel, 55, of Houston, apparently arranged to strangle the Wisconsin woman during sex, place a yellow rose on her chest and then bury her in a Texas forest. http://212.100.234.54/content/6/28856.html - - - - - - - - Police nab fugitive in eBay fraud case Federal authorities say they've finally found a fugitive who was indicted more than two years ago on charges related to the auction of a fake Richard Diebenkorn painting on eBay. Kenneth Fetterman was arrested Saturday by Sedgwick County sheriff's deputies in Wichita, Kan., on charges of marijuana possession and driving without a license. He was initially pulled over for driving with a broken windshield. http://news.com.com/2100-1017-980601.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/859335.asp - - - - - - - - Townshend let go after child porn arrest Pete Townshend, the legendary rock guitarist and co-founder of The Who, was arrested yesterday on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, police said. Townshend has said he visited an Internet subscriber-only network that provided a gateway to child pornography sites around the world, but insisted he was not a pedophile and was only doing research for an autobiography dealing with his own suspected childhood sexual abuse. http://www.canada.com/entertainment/story.asp?id=%7B9E782A3A-7583-49CF-B29B-9CF94F01DE2D%7D - - - - - - - - Cadet given 5 years for child porn An A&M student and Corps of Cadets member was sentenced Dec. 13 to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography, said University Police Department (UPD) director Bob Wiatt. Stephen Michael Johnston, 22, a senior psychology major from Brownsville, was arrested this March as part of a nationwide FBI sting called "Operation Candyman." http://www.thebatt.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/01/13/3e23555215393 - - - - - - - - Man sentenced for luring girl to area for sex A 27-year-old man who thought he was using an Internet chat room to lure a 15-year-old girl to the area for sex will spend eight months in jail and serve five years probation. The 15-year-old girl actually was an undercover police officer, but that didn't stop Benjamin A. Benson of West Salem, Wis., from being charged with using a computer with intent to have sexual contact with a child under the age of 16. http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2003/01/14/news/z05chat.txt - - - - - - - - University computers crippled by electronic bomb Ohio State University computers were clogged for several days last month after someone sent an electronic bomb of 11 million e-mail messages into the system, officials said. The sheer volume crippled Internet access and delayed the distribution of e-mail for several days. Fortunately, the bomb came while students were on winter break. But for some graduate students trying to line up work after graduation, the delay came at a bad time because they were expecting job-related messages. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-01-14-ebomb_x.htm - - - - - - - - Orange SPV MS smartphone cert security cracked The Orange SPV has achieved the dubious distinction of being the first Microsoft smartphone to have its security cracked. Orange as set the phones up so they will only run Orange-certified applications, but as yet hasn't got much further than promises when it comes to telling people how you develop for it, get apps certified, get development systems and so on. http://212.100.234.54/content/59/28857.html - - - - - - - - SoBig worm brags its way onto the web Yaha-style mass-mailer contains infected .pif attachments. A new worm, similar to Yaha, has been discovered in the wild, mainly in the UK and The Netherlands. 'SoBig-A' affects PCs running Windows 95 onwards. It contains an SMTP engine to mail itself out to all addresses on the PC, and can spread through network shares. The worm is easy to spot, with just four subject headers and attached file names. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1138009 - - - - - - - - BBC in ironic virus infection The BBC fell victim to the latest variant of the ExploreZip worm, and a certain amount of hubris, last week. The worm infected some of its machines, a BBC spokesperson confirmed to us today. However she wasn't prepared to go into details of the incident beyond saying that she was able to use her own email as normal. The corporations systems are now completely virus free, she assures us. http://212.100.234.54/content/56/28860.html - - - - - - - - RIAA calls hacking claim a hoax Claims that the music industry hired a group of hackers to create a worm to infect peer-to-peer networks are being dismissed by security experts. In an advisory posted to security mailing lists, a group called Gobbles Security delivered its latest vulnerability--a real one found in a relatively unknown MP3 player--wrapped in an apparent joke aimed at the Recording Industry Association of America. The main part of the advisory consisted of Gobbles' claims that its programmers had created a "hydra"--a worm capable of spreading in a variety of ways--that infects all major music software. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-980649.html - - - - - - - - Aust ISPs hose down reported US copyright attack Local Internet service providers (ISPs) have doused reported attempts by a US digital copyright solutions company to force them to terminate the Internet contracts of customers suspected of breaching copyright rules. http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/security/story/0,2000024985,20271225,00.htm - - - - - - - - Child porn: Even surfing can mean jail Even so much as clicking on a Web site featuring child pornography could result in a jail sentence of up to five years in the United Kingdom. And if you host a Web site or forward an e-mail containing images of children -- who are or seem to be under the age of 16 -- being abused, you could face imprisonment of up to 10 years. http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/01/14/porn.surf/index.html - - - - - - - - Experts name top Web site security flaws A group of security experts on Monday released a list of Web site flaws that it believes are the primary culprits in undermining the security of online applications. In a 23-page report, the Open Web Applications Security Project said that the OWASP Top Ten is intended to help developers and corporate security administrators close the holes that allow attackers into many companies. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-980536.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2128692,00.html http://www.vnunet.com/News/1138017 http://212.100.234.54/content/55/28862.html - - - - - - - - Credit card fraud help policies vary Victims find Visa offers refunds on PayPal, Discover doesnt. Last month, both Charles Bowman and Kelly Smith were scammed out of $2,200 by the same eBay con artist. Both paid for a new laptop computer that never came. Both used PayPal to send the money. But Smith got a full refund a few days later, while Bowman is still out $2,200. The only difference? Smith used a Visa card to fund her PayPal account, while Bowman used a Discover card. And thats only one point of confusion surrounding credit card transactions and PayPal fraud. http://www.msnbc.com/news/858786.asp - - - - - - - - More computer viruses seen in '03 Anti-virus firm expects 600-700 new viruses a month to target e-mail instant messaging systems. Computer users should brace for a new onslaught of viruses this year, especially worms deployed into instant messaging systems that allow users to chat quickly and cheaply across the Web, an anti-virus expert said Tuesday. U.K.-based Sophos Plc, the fourth- largest anti-virus technology firm, said it sees more viruses and their cousin, the self- propagating worm, infecting computers in 2003, but their occurrence was not expected to accelerate significantly. http://money.cnn.com/2003/01/14/technology/cpu_virus.reut/index.htm - - - - - - - - Trend Micro beefs up antivirus strategy Security company Trend Micro announced on Tuesday an expanded antivirus strategy that it hopes will help customers manage their cyber-defenses better and respond more quickly to virus outbreaks. While antivirus providers have done well at creating signatures for known viruses during the initial phases of an attack, businesses are unlikely to prepare for such attacks and few analyze the incidents afterward, said Steve Quane, director of enterprise marketing at Trend Micro. http://news.com.com/2100-1001-980612.html - - - - - - - - Music, technology groups agree on copyright plans The leading trade associations for the music and technology industries, which have been at loggerheads over consumers downloading songs on the Internet, have negotiated a compromise they contend will protect copyrights on movies and music without new government involvement. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/4939711.htm http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-980540.html http://news.com.com/2100-1023-980633.html http://news.com.com/2100-1023-980540.html http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/01/14/downloading.music.ap/index.html http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57205,00.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-01-14-copyright-two_x.htm http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/718089p-5269736c.html - - - - - - - - Better data protection code needed, warns CIPD Employers' body calls for simple code of conduct on workplace monitoring. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is calling for a simple code of conduct on workplace employee monitoring for all businesses. Plans for a simplified version of the code of conduct on data protection, aimed specifically at small companies, have been welcomed following warnings by employers that they are in danger of unwittingly breaking the law because the code is unnecessarily bureaucratic. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1138026 - - - - - - - - Transmeta designs security in a chip Update Chipmaker Transmeta will help notebook owners tighten the security of their personal data by incorporating into its Crusoe line features that protect sensitive information. Transmeta said Tuesday that it is building several security features, including an encryption engine and the ability to store digital certificates and encryption keys, into its chips for the first time. The addition of the security features to the TM5800 chip will let notebook makers build machines that make their owners' passwords and other data more resistant to theft. Transmeta envisions the security features being used to mainly to protect data for notebooks used on wireless networks, the company said. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-980521.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2128686,00.html http://news.com.com/2100-1001-980521.html http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20460.html - - - - - - - - New Outlook for Enterprise Security Forrester analyst Laura Koetzle recommended Zone Labs' Integrity and Intercept software, which can monitor behavior of an individual PC. If the PC behaves in an abnormal fashion, these products can detect and halt the questionable operations. The beginning of the year always brings a flurry of new product announcements from marketers eager to jump-start sales. The computer security industry is no different from other sectors in this respect. Vendors have arrayed a virtual smorgasbord of new security products for the enterprise. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20456.html - - - - - - - - Spread of handheld devices raises security questions Wireless security is a major concern for agencies that deal with ever-more tech-savvy employees bringing to work handheld devices that dont mesh with federal security guidelines, said CDW Government Inc. president James R. Shanks. As agencies are working to bolster network security, the proliferation of wireless devices is raising new security challenges, said Shanks, whose company is a subsidiary of IT reseller CDW Computer Centers Inc. of Vernon Hills, Ill. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/20869-1.html - - - - - - - - Counting the cost of forgotten passwords Forgetting a password doesn't seem so trivial when faced with the fact that each related IT helpdesk call costs a business around PS15. Up to 80 percent of calls received by helpdesk staff are from end users who've forgotten their passwords -- and with each support call costing organisations around PS15, the problem is not as trivial as it may sound. Over 35 percent of respondents to a survey carried out by service management software specialist Axios Systems said that password queries accounted for between 40 and 60 percent of all calls received by their company's IT helpdesk. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2128691,00.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. 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