NewsBits for February 20, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Nigerian diplomat killed over e-mail scam A Czech pensioner who had been defrauded by a criminal gang operating the notorious Nigerian e-mail scam has been arrested on suspicion of shooting dead a Nigerian diplomat, according to reports. Michael Lekara Wayid, Nigeria's consol in the Czech Republic, was shot and killed at the Nigerian embassy in Prague on Wednesday, and an embassy clerk was also injured. A 72 year-old man was arrested at the scene and taken into custody. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105-984938.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2130821,00.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29410.html - - - - - - - - - - FBI probing credit card theft The FBI is investigating a recent computer hacking incident in which as many as eight million credit card numbers may have been stolen from a company that processes transactions, investigators said on Wednesday. Omaha, Neb.-based Data Processors International , which processes transactions involving Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover Financial Services for merchants, said in a statement that it had "recently experienced a system intrusion by an unauthorized outside party." FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said, "We are aware of the matter and looking into it. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105-985210.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2130765,00.html Firm's System Hacked to Tap Credit Data http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-rup20.11feb20,1,6568363.story http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/02/20/credit.hack.ap/index.html http://www.securityfocus.com/news/2552 http://www.securityfocus.com/news/2537 - - - - - - - - - - Airman guilty of possessing child porn A staff sergeant caught in an Air Force Internet sting pleaded guilty Feb. 10 to attempting to take indecent liberties with a minor and possessing child pornography, the Air Force announced Tuesday. Staff Sgt. Gery B. Cook was sentenced to 18 months' confinement, reduction in rank to E-1, forfeiture of all pay and allowances and a bad conduct discharge, the service said. According to an Air Force statement, information from local authorities in North Carolina led the Air Force Office of Special Investigations to investigate whether Cook was communicating sexually explicit language and photographs via e-mail with someone he believed to be younger than 16. In fact, the Air Force said, Cook was communicating with an undercover AFOSI agent posing, via e-mail, as a 14-year-old girl. http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=13177 - - - - - - - - - - Long Island man faces child porn charges A Long Island man was ordered held in the Ontario County Jail after local State Police investigators arrested him on child pornography charges. Steven Munar, 31, of Centereach, Suffolk County, has been charged with promoting an obscene sexual performance of a child, a felony. His arrest followed an investigation by the State Police in Lyons, Wayne County, and a member of the departments local Cyber Terrorism Unit. http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/0219story12_news.shtml - - - - - - - - - - Teens parents sue official in Greene over nude photos The parents of a 17-year-old girl who received e-mailed nude photos of a Greene County sheriffs deputy sued the former deputy and Greene County Sheriff Jerry Erwin. The lawsuit charges the deputy sent images of his deputys badge and also induced the girl to engage in phone sex. Erwin said in September that Sgt. Peter Tobias was fired for using his home computer to communicate with a 15 year-old girl in an Internet chat room meant for people older than 18. Erwin said in September that his office learned of Tobias February 2001 acts in July, when contacted by the FBI. http://www.activedayton.com/ddn/local/daily/0219tobias.html - - - - - - - - - - Pennsylvania forces ISPs to block access to porn Web sites Pennsylvania is forcing Internet providers to block Web sites that include child pornography, a new legal strategy that technology and civil liberties experts worry will unintentionally interfere with legitimate surfing. In a precursor to a possible courtroom challenge, lawyers from the Center for Democracy and Technology will try to compel Pennsylvania's attorney general to disclose new details about the state's tactics. They are worried other states may follow Pennsylvania's practice. http://www.salon.com/tech/wire/2003/02/19/internet_filters/ http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/5222575.htm http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-02-20-net-porn_x.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29418.html - - - - - - - - - - UK crack down on prescription drug ads on the Web The Government is set to target the UK Internet industry in a bid to crack-down on sites illegally advertising and selling prescription medicines such as the male anti-impotence drug Viagra. In effect, the whole of the UK Internet industry is being warned to comply with the existing law concerning the advertising and sale of prescription only medicine or face legal action. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29407.html - - - - - - - - - - Nintendo seeks US trade sanctions to fight piracy Following the seizure of over a quarter of a million pirated Game Boy Advance software units in China last month, Nintendo of America is lobbying for trade sanctions to help it bring organised large- scale piracy under control. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/29417.html - - - - - - - - - - Piracy Battle Shifts to Bertelsmann Two world-renowned songwriters and two independent music publishers sued Bertelsmann for $17 billion Wednesday, accusing the German media conglomerate of deliberately helping users of the wildly popular Napster song-swapping service violate millions of copyrights. Opening a new front in the war on Internet file-sharing, the suit in New York federal court seeks class-action status for about 160,000 songwriters and their publishers and is based largely on evidence that emerged in Napster's bankruptcy proceedings last year, including memos from Bertelsmann executives who concluded Napster was breaking the law. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-napster20feb20001447,1,3736642.story http://news.com.com/2100-1023-985285.html Fighting piracy with P2P blocking http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-985027.html Fingerprinting P2P pirates http://news.com.com/2100-1023-985027.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/875205.asp Silicon Valley spars with Hollywood http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/772843p-5556518c.html Compromise copyright bill in works http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2130774,00.html http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,57746,00.html - - - - - - - - - - THE QUESTIONS THAT CAUGHT A HACKER It Was the most innocent of ploys to entrap the most cunning of deceivers. And it was, perhaps, an ironic end for a teenage hacker who had stolen hundreds of pounds by breaking into computers using what is known as a Trojan horse virus. Police had been trying for months to identify the internet fraudster known to them as Gafferboy - but without success. Yet Andrew Edgar fell for the most naive of traps set by Danielle Athi, then aged just 12. http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=66056&command=displayContent&sourceNode=65583&contentPK=4226039 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/29403.html - - - - - - - - - - New blocker lets you bill the spammer An Australian entrepreneur has created what may be the first antispam service that lets its users charge for the privilege of sending them e-mail. The concept has been discussed in technology circles for the better part of a decade, but Sydney resident Bernard Palmer, 59, has decided to try to turn the concept into a business. "Spammers aren't going to be sending many spams to you if you charge them 50 cents," Palmer said. "A spam would cost them $2 million." http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-985175.html Spam emailers face legal battle http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2130767,00.html Some Call It Trash http://www.fortune.com/fortune/smallbusiness/skeptic/0,15704,419106,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Symantec explains its 'we spotted Slammer' claim Symantec finally stepped in last night to clarify its handling of the discovery of the prolific SQL Slammer worm. Last week Symantec raised hackles in the security community by claiming that it discovered the prolific worm "hours before it began rapidly propagating". http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/29406.html - - - - - - - - - - XP Hole Plagues All Similar Apps A significant security flaw was discovered in Microsoft software this week, but this time Microsoft isn't to blame. Well, not completely. The most recent security problem uncovered in a Microsoft product is a genuine threat, security experts say, but it isn't a problem particular to the Windows XP operating system. http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57739,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Open Source security manual and training for ethical hacking The Open Source Security Testing Methodology Manual (OSSTMM) has become an international open standard, according to its creator, Pete Herzog. It is used by large organizations like the U.S. Treasury Department, Home Depot, Verisign, and IBM, although Herzog says that he has a hard time getting entities that use the manual to talk much about it. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/53/29416.html - - - - - - - - - - DOD prepares for biometric-embedded smart card pilot The Defense Departments Biometrics Management Office plans to complete its last proof of concept for a biometric-enabled Common Access Card by the end of April and start a pilot as early as this summer. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/21180-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Cyberwarfare presents dangers of its own Recent news reports state that the National Infrastructure Protection Center of the FBI has warned that escalating friction between the United States and Iraq could lead to cyberattacks between both countries. This follows closely on the heels of reports that President Bush has executed a secret order permitting the U.S. government to promulgate guidelines pursuant to which the Defense Department could launch cyberattacks against computer systems in other countries. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/ericjsinrod/2003-02-20-cyberwarfare_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Confidence in IT Security Growing JUDGING FROM THE RESULTS of a survey CSO conducted late last fall, a high percentage of respondents (from among nearly 800 CSOs and other top security executives) may feel more of an allegiance to their former colleagues in law enforcement than they do to their enterprise's customers. In answer to our questions about their willingness to rat out various stakeholders and under what conditions, 24 percent of respondents said they would give up information about customers to government or law enforcement agencies without a court order. When it came to their trading partners and employees, the percentages were 23 and 37, respectively http://www.csoonline.com/csoresearch/report49.html - - - - - - - - - - A CIO's Guide to New Antivirus Tech From blended threats to backdoor trojans, the latest antivirus technologies help companies wrangle the evolving threat of malicious code. It sounds like a chat-room joke: How many script kiddies does it take to crank trojans out of a malware kit? But this is no joke. The current plague of viruses, worms and trojans can be described as an expanding social, rather than technical, phenomenon. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20799.html - - - - - - - - - - Going Wireless Without Broadcasting Your Secrets Unsecured wireless networks expose an organisation's internal networks and data to anyone from bandwidth freeloaders looking for free, high-speed internet access, to potentially malicious hackers. Each week vnunet.com asks a different expert from the antivirus world to give their views on recent virus and security issues, with advice, warnings and information on the latest threats. http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20811.html - - - - - - - - - - Flying to the US? Give US.gov all your personal data The European Commission has tamely agreed to airlines handing over personal details of all passengers flying to the US, in the name of 'homeland security.' These details could include all sorts of stuff the airline happens to have on record for you, including credit card numbers, phone numbers, special dietary requirements, and any other comments it has entered on the Passenger Name Record (PNR). http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29408.html - - - - - - - - - - Mobile phones to join war on crime Mobile phones could soon become important tools in disaster prevention and the fight against crime, industry experts are predicting. Applications such as terrorist alert services, burglary prevention tools and surveillance technology could become commonplace mobile technology within the next few years. http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/02/20/3gsm.cannes4/index.html - - - - - - - - - - New weapons in wartime U.S. forces are expected to unsheathe several new weapons and tactics in Iraq, including devices still under development. Military officials and analysts say the new weapons would target Iraqi armored vehicles, communications networks and the chemical and biological weapons the Bush administration believes Iraq still cradles. http://washingtontimes.com/business/20030220-9797648.htm *********************************************************** Computer Forensics Training - Online. An intense, 150 hour, instructor lead program that teaches you computer forensics and helps prepare you for the Certified Computer Examiner exam. 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