January 23, 2003 Personal Data Is Pirated From Russian Phone Files It is a prime nightmare of the digital age: all of your personal information credit card numbers, home address, Social Security number stolen and passed around, or perhaps even posted on the Internet for anyone to see. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of customers of Mobile Telesystems, a Russian mobile phone company, have been discovering firsthand how that feels. The company acknowledged on Tuesday that it had suffered a huge security breach that led to pirated CD's, purportedly containing its entire database of five million customers, appearing on the streets of Moscow. (NY Times article, free registration required) http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/23/business/worldbusiness/23DATA.html http://www.vnunet.com/News/1138223 - - - - - - - - 20-Year-Old Pleads Guilty To Child Porn Charges A northwest side man pleaded guilty to child pornography charges Thursday and, through a plea agreement, faces 4.25 to 5.25 years in jail. David Malik, 20, is charged with receipt and possession of about 4,000 images of child pornography which he allegedly downloaded with software from "Kaaza" to a portable hard drive. At least 100 of the images and video clips he downloaded featured sadomasochistic abuse of children, the plea said. http://www.nbc5.com/news/1931898/detail.html - - - - - - - - Ketchikan man indicted on child porn charge A Ketchikan man has been indicted on charges of possessing child pornography and fraudulent use of a credit card. The federal indictment handed down Wednesday alleges that Nicolai Jeroen Caymen, 29, used a stolen credit card number to buy a laptop computer last August. The indictment also alleges that Caymen possessed images of child pornography on a personal computer last September. The case was investigated by the U.S. Customs Service and the Ketchikan Police Department and is being prosecuted by the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office. http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~26794~1131282,00.html - - - - - - - - NJ Transit staffer seized on child porn A computer systems specialist for NJ Transit has been arrested for downloading child pornography on his office computer, officials said yesterday. Robert Janiszewski Jr., 33, the information systems coordinator at the NJ Transit office in Newark, was taken into custody Tuesday, said Robert Laurino, Essex County's Deputy Chief Assistant Prosecutor. http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-3/104330598924810.xml - - - - - - - - Norwegian court fines file-swapper A court has fined a Norwegian student over his song-swap Web Site in a ruling hailed by the music industry on Thursday as a victory for giants like EMI and Sony whose revenues have suffered from online music piracy. The case, the first in Norway on downloading of music without copyright holders' approval, followed similar rulings in neighboring Sweden and Denmark in favor of the industry. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1106-981869.html - - - - - - - - Judge bars sending of unwanted e-mail A state judge Wednesday barred a Niagra Falls company from sending commercial e-mails to Internet subscribers without their permission. State Supreme Court Justice Lottie E. Wilkins permanently enjoined MonsterHut Inc., which state officials accused of sending some 500 million unsolicited commercial e-mails and then telling complaining recipients that they had requested it. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/5014148.htm http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-981836.html http://news.com.com/2100-1023-981836.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/863290.asp - - - - - - - - Court: AOL not liable for 'hostile code' In what legal experts describe as a first, a U.S. District Court has upheld a ruling that America Online and other Internet service providers are not liable for "hostile code" sent between subscribers. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said last week that AOL could not be held accountable for a subscriber's sending of hostile code through its service. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-981800.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2129234,00.html - - - - - - - - Net gambling bill fans e-cash fears Critics say legislation could make money laundering easier. After seven years of trying, lawmakers are widely expected to crack down on illegal Internet gambling during the current session of Congress. But in doing so, some observers say, they could breathe life into a greater menace than the one they are trying to strangle an untraceable form of electronic cash that could undermine the ability of governments to tax their citizens and trace the flow of money around the globe. http://www.msnbc.com/news/862204.asp - - - - - - - - Sprint DSL's Gaping Security Hole Sprint DSL customers are at risk of having their e-mail addresses and passwords stolen -- even when their computers are powered off -- due to weak security controls on their DSL modems. Experts warned this week that the security problem could enable Internet vandals to wreak havoc from afar with the ZyXel Communications DSL modems issued by Sprint to tens of thousands of its FastConnect broadband customers. http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57342,00.html - - - - - - - - Insiders pose ID theft threat Disgruntled employees gaining access to customer lists and other information is proving a growing danger, says the US Federal Trade Commission Complaints about identity theft have risen 73 percent from a year ago, according to a new report from the Federal Trade Commission. Identity theft topped the list of consumer complaints in 2002, accounting for 43 percent of all complaints, the FTC said on Wednesday. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2129205,00.html - - - - - - - - Net warfare is 'not just tech' If you think network-centric warfare is just about technology, one member of the Joint Staff has a message for you: "You are wrong." Network- centric warfare seeks to make data available as quickly as possible to those who need it across the organization or on the battlefield, and "it's not just technology," said Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Kellogg Jr., director of command, control, communications and computer systems for the Joint Staff. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0120/web-net-01-23-03.asp - - - - - - - - New lobbying group bolsters tech fight against Hollywood Technology companies and advocacy groups announced a new lobbying organization Thursday to counter Hollywood in the battle over access to digital music, movies and books. Founding members of the Washington-based Alliance for Digital Progress include Microsoft Corp., Dell Computer Corp., Motorola Inc. and the Information Technology Association of America. The goal of the group is to fight Hollywood efforts to require anti-copying technology in digital entertainment devices. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/5015916.htm http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-01-23-lobbying-group_x.htm http://news.com.com/2100-1023-981882.html Digital rights under fire http://news.com.com/2008-1082-981663.html - - - - - - - - New copyright-protection technology may not find big success By Christmas 2003, some recording companies expect to be selling compact discs wrapped in technology from Microsoft Corp. and other companies in an effort to protect both copyrights and the bottom line. But depending on how restrictive the record labels choose to be, consumers may spurn the CDs. And ultimately, Microsoft's latest move to help drive adoption of its newest version of Internet audio and video software risks falling flat, analysts say. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/5015908.htm - - - - - - - - Security flaw found in open-source tool A critical vulnerability has been found in the Concurrent Versions System (CVS), which is used by the vast majority of open-source projects to update and maintain source code, according to an advisory from the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) Coordination Center. CVS allows open-source developers to remotely update and modify the source code to projects while ensuring that collaborative efforts don't overlap. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-981801.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2129188,00.html - - - - - - - - Antivirus Virus Doesn't Help Famous Female Hacker Writes a Code to Fight a Virus. Gigabyte gained attention because she's one of the few highly regarded female virus writers. Only a teenager, Gigabyte gained notoriety last year for writing the Sharpei virus, which can infect .Net files. Clever but Flawed. http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/TechTV/techtv_antivirus_030123.html - - - - - - - - Activist: Ban gay-shooting game A Dutch gay activist is fighting to outlaw the import of a U.S. computer game in which the player can shoot homosexuals, junkies, dogs and cats. http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/fun.games/01/23/gay.game.reut/index.html - - - - - - - - ID cards: Do benefits outweigh risks? The government will struggle to bring in entitlement cards if the independent body overseeing data protection in the UK opposes them. The Office of the Information Commissioner will only support the introduction of an entitlement card if it believes it will be beneficial enough to outweigh the risks to privacy, human rights and social values. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2129246,00.html - - - - - - - - Porn Strategy: Share and Snare The porn industry is learning a lesson the music industry refuses to hear: Piracy doesn't have to be a dirty word. As recording industry officials sing dirges over a 2002 music-business sales slump and press ahead with lawsuits against file-sharing network platforms such as Kazaa, pornographers see an opening. "You can't beat them, so you ought to join them," said Exploit Systems CEO Scott Hunter. "These are your most valued customers, the people who come specifically into your arena and say they want X, Y and Z. This is the most inquisitive, most important community possibly in the history of business." http://www.wired.com/news/ebiz/0,1272,57348,00.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.