NewsBits for April 4, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Teen charged with breaching Yale computer system A Texas teen is accused of breaking into Yale University's computer system from home. Jason Jarrell, 19, who lives with his mother in Coppell, Texas, was arraigned in New Haven Superior Court Thursday and charged with six counts of computer crime. He is accused of tapping into computers at five university centers, including two computer systems used to research AIDS, cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's disease. Damage is estimated at $150,000, based on the time the computers were down and the time needed to restore the systems, state prosecutors said. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-04-04-yale-hack_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Four convicted for running unlicensed Internet pharmacy A restaurant owner, two of her sons and another man were convicted Friday of running an unlicensed Internet pharmacy that filled orders nationally from a suburban home. The four were accused of dispensing drugs without prescriptions from Betty Gorman's Pembroke Pines home on sales generated by two Internet sites, which have been dismantled. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/5561369.htm http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/841073p-5912388c.html - - - - - - - - - - Students accused of piracy RECORD SUIT SEEKS $150,000 PER SONG The recording industry filed copyright infringement lawsuits Thursday against four college students, accusing them of setting up Napster-like file-swapping services on their campus networks. The civil suits claim the students exploited academic resources to illicitly trade as many as a million songs without permission from record labels or artists. Then, they publicly bragged about their exploits. ``This is a particularly flagrant way to illegally distribute millions of copyrighted works over the Internet,'' said Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America, the industry's trade association. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23933-2003Apr3.html http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/839825p-5905332c.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-04-03-music-suits_x.htm http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,58351,00.html http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-995429.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2132961,00.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2133006,00.html RIAA attacks the future of America http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/30097.html Record Industry and Webcasters Agree on Royalty Rates for Online Music http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25404-2003Apr4.html http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/04/04/internet.radio.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Task force arrests man for contact with teen boy FBI agents arrested a Phoenix man who allegedly traveled to Tuscarawas County last summer for a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy, and planned to come back in July. Clifford J. Dodd, 26, was arrested on federal charges of interstate transportation with the intent to engage in sexual activity with a minor. It is the latest arrest by a special FBI task force that has area police officers posing as teens in Internet chat rooms. Police officers establish relationships with men who are seeking teens for sexual relationships. So far, the task force has arrested six men most of them from outside the area for trying to have sex with juveniles. http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?Category=15&ID=92755 - - - - - - - - - - State board suspends doctor's license Move comes after Internet sex sting. The Arizona Medical Board summarily suspended the license of Dr Tom A. Francis on Wednesday after he was arrested in Tucson in an Internet child-sex sting operation. Francis poses an immediate danger to the public, said Lisa McGrane, a spokeswoman for the Medical Board. "They thought that if he would go back to practice, there would be a strong propensity for him to commit this kind of crime again," McGrane said. Tucson police said Francis arranged to meet a person, whom he believed was a 14-year-old girl, at a fast-food restaurant to have sex. The "girl" was really a male detective who exchanged messages with Francis for about a month, said Tucson police spokesman Sgt. Marco Borboa. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0403nedoctor03.html - - - - - - - - - - Suspect in child porn case leaves to face Fla. charges The Milford man accused of using the Internet to transmit graphic child pornography to an undercover police officer in Florida is headed to that state to face charges. Florida law enforcement officials arrived at Superior Court here at about 3:15 p.m. Thursday to take custody of Lawrence Fulgieri, 30, of 15 Washington St., Apt. 10. Fulgieri waived his extradition rights at his March 23 arraignment. He is charged with 16 counts of transmission of child pornography, and has been held in lieu of $400,000 bail since his last court appearance. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7603105&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=7568&rfi=6 - - - - - - - - - - 'Diaperdad' guilty of possessing child porn A former Saskatoon resident who had moved to Calgary pleaded guilty yesterday to three counts of possessing child pornography. Joseph Paul Vanderauwera, 47, who is currently out on bail, was charged by Saskatoon police in March 2001 after a technician found suspicious material on his computer while doing repairs. Soon after his arrest, he was released from custody with the Crown's consent provided that he stay away from children and not access the Internet. Court was told Vanderauwera breached those conditions by going to an online chat room using the nickname "diaperdad," where he was speaking about his diaper bondage" fetish. http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonNews/es.es-04-04-0049.html - - - - - - - - - - Man pleads guilty to porn charge Appellate decision forces prosecutors to drop 75 additional counts. A Baldwin County man Thursday pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography, even though investigators had found dozens of illicit images on computer disk. Jose Roberto Souza, 30, originally was charged with 76 counts of possession of child pornography with intent to distribute. But an Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals ruling last year on an earlier Baldwin County case held that multiple images gathered from the same arrest can only be treated as one offense. As a result of the decision, prosecutors said, they had no choice but to deal Souza down to one count. Circuit Judge Charles Partin scheduled sentencing for May 22. "It's like having a book with 500 pictures. It's still one book," said defense attorney Danny Mitchell. http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news/1049451555278540.xml - - - - - - - - - - Akamai declines to assist Al-Jazeera site The Web site of Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera was refused assistance this week when it sought help from Akamai Technologies Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., in dealing with hacking attacks and massive interest from Web users. "We think it's political pressure," said Nabil Hegazi, deputy managing editor of Al- Jazeera's English-language Web site. Akamai rents out a network of 12,600 servers that help customer Web sites deal with unexpected traffic, hacker attacks and Internet bottlenecks. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/world/iraq/2003-04-04-akamai_x.htm http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/840616p-5909745c.html http://news.com.com/2100-1035-995525.html http://news.com.com/1200-1033-993571.html Al-Jazeera under attack from all sides http://www.vnunet.com/News/1139984 - - - - - - - - - - Former hacker testifies to Congress about computer security A convicted computer hacker told lawmakers Thursday that many attacks on companies that hold consumer financial information go undetected because of poor security. Kevin Mitnick, whose federal probation on hacking charges ended in January, said businesses need to better protect their computers from newly discovered security flaws and train employees to spot the tricks of identity thieves. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-04-04-mitnick-congress_x.htm http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/839724p-5904624c.html - - - - - - - - - - Government developing child porn database to locate victims The U.S. government may soon be the owner of the world's largest collection of child pornography. As part of its effort to combat the proliferation of kiddie porn on the Internet, the Justice Department is overseeing development of a computerized catalog of thousands of illicit pictures seized from suspects and collected from the Web. Once complete, the Child Victim Identification Program will allow law enforcers around the country to use advanced image-recognition software to compare digital pictures like an analyst matches fingerprints. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-04-04-porn-database_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Online phone monitoring sticky for FBI Wiretapping takes on a whole new meaning now that phone calls are being made over the Internet, posing legal and technical hurdles for the FBI as it seeks to prevent the emerging services from becoming a safe haven for criminals and terrorists. The FBI wants regulators to affirm that such services fall under a 1994 law requiring phone companies to build in surveillance capabilities. It is also pushing the industry to create technical standards to make wiretapping easier and cheaper. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,58350,00.html http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/840612p-5909700c.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/895013.asp http://www.securityfocus.com/news/3711 Government surveillance of online phone calls sparks controversy http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-04-04-phone-monitor_x.htm Anti-terror agencies win anti-privacy awards http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0403/040403td2.htm - - - - - - - - - - Spam suits seek poetic justice Call it the case of the hijacked haiku. Antispam company Habeas is suing bulk e-mailers, accusing them of using its poetry without permission in an unusual use of trademark law to clamp down on spammers. Habeas, headed by lawyer and antispam activist Anne P. Mitchell, puts a new twist on spam prevention by inserting some trademarked haiku lines into the header of an e-mail. The haiku is supposed to indicate to spam filters that the accompanying message is not spam in an effort to make sure that legitimate messages get through to recipients. Habeas' haikus are recognized by the antispam filters and technology of companies including Spam Assassin, AOL and Juno. http://news.com.com/2100-1024-995568.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/30109.html - - - - - - - - - - Security attacks jump 80 percent Security 'events' - ranging from minor network probing to major hack attacks - were dramatically up in the first quarter of 2003, boosted by the Slammer worm. The number of security events detected by companies in the first quarter of 2003 jumped nearly 84 percent over the preceding three months, according to a report that network-protection firm Internet Security Systems plans to release on Monday. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2132972,00.html http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,80049,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Military Battling Junk E-Mail Unsolicited ads pester troops checking for messages from home. Some advertisers use patriotism to lure the unsuspecting. When the 5,500 sailors aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in the Persian Gulf get their daily half-an-hour allotment of Internet time, they savor each precious second to connect with the world back home. Apparently, it's a world full of folks cooking with the ultimate pasta pot, making six-figure incomes selling junk on EBay and using anti-snoring spray to sleep quietly through the night. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-war-spam5apr05,1,2647916.story - - - - - - - - - - DOD intelligence unit will begin operating in June Stephen A. Cambone, the Defense Departments former director of program analysis and evaluation, will on June 1 set up an organization to better share intelligence information across DOD and with other federal agencies. Cambone was sworn into his new post as the militarys first undersecretary of intelligence in mid-March after Senate confirmation. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/21632-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Traveling? Take Big Brother Along It provoked protests from privacy advocates and high-flying executives. People boycotted and bad- mouthed it. People from all corners hate the idea of the passenger-profiling system called Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening II program, better known as CAPPS II. But CAPPS II is not travelers' biggest privacy threat, according to Edward Hasbrouck, a travel agent and author. CAPPS II is only one possible use -- and perhaps not the most invasive -- of the Transportation Security Administration's proposed Aviation Security Screening Records database. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,58344,00.html - - - - - - - - - - UK police launch 'most wanted' site Scotland Yard has taken a leaf from the FBI's book and launched a Web site naming the criminals it most wants to catch. Scotland Yard has named four suspected murderers, a man accused of stealing thousands of rare maps and a drink-driver in a list of their top 10 most wanted. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2132968,00.html *********************************************************** 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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