NewsBits for February 26, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ U.S. Takes Over Bootleg Web Site The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday it had seized a rogue Web site that offered information on bootlegged video games and movies, as the owner faces sentencing for copyright violations. The site remained available to many Internet users hours after the announcement, but Justice Department officials said they would gain complete control as Internet traffic computers were updated to reflect its new address. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7063-2003Feb26.html http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,57822,00.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29491.html - - - - - - - - - - Hacker convicted in extortion scheme against Bloomberg A jury Wednesday convicted a Kazakhstan man of trying to extort $200,000 from Mayor Michael Bloomberg by threatening to reveal secrets stolen from Bloomberg's financial information company. Bloomberg was the star witness against computer hacker Oleg Zezov, 29. Zezov, who yelled obscenities at prosecutors and made other outbursts during his trial, drooped his head as the verdict was read. The computer specialist could get 20 years in prison at sentencing May 23. http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/782449p-5609308c.html - - - - - - - - - - Singapore police conduct biggest piracy raid Singapore police netted their biggest-ever haul of pirated software and music CDs in an island- wide raid, arresting 17 people and seizing S$1.7 million ($973,600)worth of goods, authorities said Wednesday. Police in the strictly controlled city-state confiscated more than 124,000 pirated compact discs containing games, software and music Tuesday in a three-hour raid on 10 shops and an apartment and said more arrests were expected. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105-986076.html http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,57816,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Former HISD teacher sentenced for possession of child porn A former HISD second grade teacher has been sentenced to almost four years in prison for possession of thousands of images of child pornography. Alfredo Martinez Alvarado was working as a teacher at Benavidez Elementary School when he was arrested in November of 2001. A search of his home and computer turned up more than 100,000 pornographic images depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/22503_local_teacherporn.html - - - - - - - - - - Valparaiso man gets 41 months for child porn A Valparaiso man indicted on child pornography charges was sentenced has been sentenced to 41 months in federal prison per a plea agreement reached in November. Richard J. Gilmore, 37, pleaded guilty to a count of sexual exploitation of a minor. In exchange for his guilty plea, two other counts were dismissed - another count of sexual exploitation of a minor and a count of making false statements to a federal agent. Customs agents traced Gilmore through a Web site in Auckland, New Zealand. http://www.post-trib.com/cgi-bin/pto-story/news/z1/02-25-03_z1_news_19.html - - - - - - - - - - Former fire marshal sentenced in child porn case Former Fire Marshal Lloyd Hayes will have to wear a monitoring device on his ankle for nine months after pleading guilty to possessing obscene material involving children. Hayes had been charged in January 2002 with three counts of possession of obscene matter and seven counts of unlawful distribution of obscene matter after investigators said they found pornography on his office and home computers. Hayes, who entered the plea in November before Lauderdale County Circuit Judge Mike Jones, was sentenced to 30 months in prison. Under a split sentence arrangement, he will wear a monitoring device for nine months and serve two years probation, according to court records. Hayes was also ordered to pay $810 to Vision Technologies, a company that extracted images from Hayes' computer. http://www.al.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?j5752_BC_AL--FireMarshal-Porn&&news&newsflash-al - - - - - - - - - - FBI HELPED SNARE CHILD PORN MAN-UK A Man who downloaded child pornography from the internet was snared as part of a worldwide FBI- led operation, a court heard. Clerical worker Andrew Ward paid with his credit card to access the site for seven days in 1999, Mid Staffordshire Magistrates Court was told. He downloaded 16 indecent images of girls posing but not involved in sexual activity. David Bell, prosecuting, said Staffordshire Police acted on information received from the United States postal service as part of Operation Ore - the international crackdown on internet child porn. http://www.thesentinel.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=67725&command=displayContent&sourceNode=67252&contentPK=4363742 - - - - - - - - - - Man arrested on child porn charges A Clewiston man is in custody for allegedly possessing thousands of child pornography photos. Buddie Darrell Edwards, Sr., 48, is in the Palm Beach County Jail while awaiting extradition to Hendry County, where he faces eight felony charges Authorities say the investigation started after Edwards' son got a computer from him. The son realized something was wrong with the machine - something concerning one of the computer's deleted files. Investigators say the troublesome file contained some 16,000 sexually explicit pictures of children. Edwards was in some of the pictures with the victims. http://www.nbc-2.com/News/stories/022503-childporn-edwards.shtml http://www.wtev.com/news/state/story.aspx?content_id=0B6874CE-E1D8-4D4F-B1B5-54F79B59F22F Child porn investigation goes nationwide http://www.nbc-2.com/News/stories/022603-childporn-nationwide.shtml - - - - - - - - - - Fayette writer faces computer porn charges A Peachtree City man who writes a humor column for a Fayette County newspaper was arrested Wednesday on computer pornography charges. Peachtree City police said they investigated Billy Murphy, 45, after finding out he communicated through the Internet with a 13-year- old student at a junior high school. Police searched Murphy's house and seized two computers. http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/metro/fayette/0203/27charges.html - - - - - - - - - - Ex-LSU officer admits having child porn on computer A former police lieutenant at Louisiana State University has pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography on his work computer. Robert J. Jones, 41, of Denham Springs, admitted Monday to having pictures and videos of girls younger than age 15 involved in sex acts. U.S. District Judge Frank Polozola ordered that he remain in custody until sentencing. Jones faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/newsflash/get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?n3799_BC_LA--Officer-Pornograp&&news&newsflash-louisiana - - - - - - - - - - Former missionary accused of having sex with teen he met online A former Church of Nazarene missionary living in Hermitage has been arrested in Idaho after, federal authorities say, he had a tryst with a teenager he began to seduce in an Internet chat room. William Richard Knox, 48, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Boise. Then he was nabbed by law officers Friday when, they say, he returned to the Idaho city, thinking he was meeting the girl again. The FBI had been keeping tabs on Knox's e-mail, federal search-warrant affidavits show, after the girl's parents alerted Boise police. http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/03/02/29347128.shtml?Element_ID=29347128 - - - - - - - - - - Suicide of child porn suspect An advertising firm employee charged with participation in an Internet child pornography ring apparently hanged himself early yesterday in the Athens police headquarters where he had been detained since Saturday. Alexandros Kallias, 55, was found hanged in a toilet that served the detention cells on the seventh floor of the Alexandras Avenue complex, during the change of guard just after 5 a.m. He had used the strap of his overnight bag. http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100013_26/02/2003_26888 - - - - - - - - - - Internet Sex-Crimes Detective Accused Of Planting Evidence An Internet sex-crimes detective was accused in a $60 million federal civil rights lawsuit of planting evidence in an attempt to frame a man for possessing child pornography. The U.S. District Court suit filed Monday by Gary Robert Vertican Jr., 34, of Crestline, Calif., said the possession of child pornography case against him was manufactured. Vertican had a prior conviction in 1998 for attempted child molestation. Vertican's suit seeks general and punitive damages from Detective Michael DiMatteo of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, Sheriff Gary Penrod and Probation Officer Melinda Carter. http://www.nbc4.tv/news/2003437/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - Cryptome Hacked Cryptome.org was hacked yesterday (February 25) and all files on the site deleted. A message on the site says the files will be restored later today. This replaces a brag posted by the very destructive hacker: hacked by bighawk of hackweiser (bighawk@kryptology.org) (the message is posted at this blog. It's got to be the US government, hasn't it? http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/29489.html - - - - - - - - - - You got Flowers! Email scam targets AOL users Andrew Goodwill, who runs Early Warning, a scheme to warn UK retailers of credit card fraudsters, has uncovered a new email scam targeting AOL users. It's a weird one, which appears to be set up simply for harvesting AOL account details through false pretences. What for? Identity fraud maybe? The scam appears to have been in operation for no more than a couple of days, Early Warning says. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29490.html - - - - - - - - - - State Law Blocks Out Kiddie Porn A law that blocks Pennsylvania Internet users from logging on to child-pornography sites has sparked a debate over whether the strategy is a viable method for dealing with the Internet's darkest side. Proponents of the law believe that shutting off access will eliminate the demand for such material, thereby putting website operators out of business. However, some legal experts and anti- child-pornography activists fear the law could inadvertently help traffickers in such material by allowing legislators to believe they've done something useful while the trading in kiddie porn continues -- out of sight and out of most people's minds. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,57804,00.html - - - - - - - - - - California High Court refuses to interject in Sex.com case The High Court of California yesterday refused to be dragged into the ongoing legal battle between the owner of Sex.com, Gary Kremen, and domain registration giant Verisign. It had been asked by the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to consider the legal issue of whether a domain can legally be deemed as property. It refused to do so and so the issue will now be considered by the appeal court. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/29480.html - - - - - - - - - - Congress targets P2P campus pirates Key politicians chided universities on Wednesday for not doing enough to limit peer-to-peer piracy, calling unauthorized copying a federal crime that should be punished appropriately. Members of the House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees copyright law said at a hearing that peer-to-peer piracy was a crime under a 1997 federal law, but universities continued to treat file-swapping as a minor infraction of campus disciplinary codes. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-986143.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/877786.asp - - - - - - - - - - Home Office caves in on privacy plans Agencies with access to phone, internet and email records will now be limited to those with a crime- fighting role. The Home Office has backed down over plans to give a wide range of government agencies and local authorities access to telephone, internet and email records. Details of a consultation paper leaked to The Guardian reveal that the number of agencies with access to the data will now be limited. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1139055 - - - - - - - - - - Fairfax Finds Partner for Child-Porn Fight Diane Beatty's father was arrested about three years ago for trying to seduce a 13-year-old girl during an Internet chat. Beatty, who had been molested by her father, approached the police to offer help. Beatty was surprised that Fairfax County had only one detective handling Internet sex crimes and that many departments have none. The Burke resident set out to change that. Yesterday, Fairfax police announced a partnership with Beatty's nonprofit ChildSafeNet group to try to raise $10 million to hire 16 additional detectives and administrators to battle child pornography and abduction on the Internet. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62667-2003Feb24.html - - - - - - - - - - UK businesses are virus incubators SMEs not updating antivirus software regularly enough, warns expert. Viruses like Klez and Bugbear are still in circulation even though fixes have been available for months - and the UK's small businesses may be to blame. A survey of UK small and medium-sized enterprises by antivirus vendor Sophos found that fewer than half (46 per cent) of the businesses questioned had any virus protection at the gateway to their networks, and that only 42 per cent updated their antivirus software more than once a week. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1139077 - - - - - - - - - - Mobile phone hacking expected to spread United States-based security company @stake has released a security advisory detailing a Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerability in the Nokia 6210 GSM mobile phone, and although the flaw isn't serious it could be a sign of worse things to come. The advisory, posted to the bugtraq security mailing list, describes how a prankster could use the vulnerability to crash a potential victim's phone. "There is a vulnerability which allows an attacker to send a malicious vCard to a handset, causing (it) to crash," the advisory said. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-986083.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2131098,00.html - - - - - - - - - - ACLU Admits Another Privacy Gaffe Protecting personal information on the digital frontier remains a tough task, even for the most ardent privacy activists. That's the lesson the American Civil Liberties Union learned this week after sending out an e-mail newsletter that inadvertently contained the names and e-mail addresses of the hundreds of groups and individuals who received it. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/2684 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2355-2003Feb25.html - - - - - - - - - - SIP vulnerable to hacking, testing shows Testers recently found a vulnerability in the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), an emerging standard used for connections between devices in IP networks such as voice-over-IP phones. But several vendors and analysts said today that they have heard no reports of significant problems from users. The CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh reported the vulnerability last week, citing a discovery by the Oulu University Secure Programming Group (OUSPG) in Finland. The OUSPG found that when a certain SIP test is applied to SIP clients and proxy servers, it causes unexpected system behavior or a denial of service. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,78831,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Chipping Away at Workers' Privacy At a casino in Atlantic City, an infrared sensor system keeps a computer log that tracks each time an employee fails to wash up after using the bathroom. At a state college in Massachusetts, a secretary learns that a camera installed to deter after-hours intruders has in fact captured her changing clothes in her own office during the day. At a porn site in California, an employee is fired after his employer discovers he's spent too much time on eBay and not enough doing his job, which, ironically, consists of looking at porn. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,57774,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Lawmakers seek a clear role for terror threat center Members of the Senate Government Affairs Committee today peppered witnesses from the CIA, FBI and Homeland Security Department with questions about how the new Terrorism Threat Integration Center would avoid overlapping the functions of existing threat centers and about who would be in charge of intelligence analysis. Committee chairwoman Susan Collins (R-Maine) asked, "How will the integration center be an improvement over the existing intelligence structure? http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/21262-1.html Senate appropriations panel reorganizes to accommodate Homeland Security http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0203/022603cdam2.htm State, local officials seek better info from feds on terrorist threats http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0203/022603td1.htm Homeland Security cedes intelligence role http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0203/022603h1.htm Agencies urged to set standards for electronic records http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0203/022603td2.htm - - - - - - - - - - Freed sexual predator will be tracked by GPS When serial child molester Brian DeVries is released somewhere in San Jose, every move he makes will be tracked by a Global Positioning System device he will wear as an electronic tamper-proof ankle bracelet and carry like a lunchbox. Authorities say if he walked toward an elementary school playground, the portable tracking device -- about the size of two VHS tapes sandwiched together -- would sound a silent electronic alarm sent through a satellite in space. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5266395.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. For more information see; www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu *********************************************************** 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.