NewsBits for August 25, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ E-Mail Virus Again Fails to Launch Data Attack The fast-spreading SoBig.F e-mail virus slowed Sunday and failed for a second time to launch a remote data attack using thousands of infected personal computers, computer security experts said. SoBig.F, which emerged Aug. 18, was programmed to unleash a data attack at noon PDT Sunday. http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-sobig25aug25,1,6978932.story http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6599612.htm http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/08/25/virus.slows.reut/index.html http://www.iht.com/articles/107547.html http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22153.html A big battles over, but the worm war continues http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/23289-1.html IT chiefs make it easy for virus writers http://www.vnunet.com/News/1143176 Feared ComputerE-Mail Virus Is Said to Be Contained http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-adna-virus24aug24,1,3403299.story Microsoft offers patch as worms spread http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/08/22/microsoft.patch.reut/index.html Web surfers flock to antivirus sites http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-5067824.html?tag=fd_top http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/holes/story/0,10801,84302,00.html Symantec coughs up latest virus remedy http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5067625.html Survey: Worm infects 30% of China's e-mail users http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/internet/2003/0308250852.asp - - - - - - - - - - Sobig.F started from porn The FBI subpoenaed an Arizona Internet service provider to trace the culprit behind a fast-spreading e-mail virus that security experts said may have first been posted to an adult pictures Internet site. One expert said the Sobig.F e-mail virus was disguised so that anyone who clicked on a link purporting to show a sexually graphic picture became infected with the self-replicating worm, which then spread itself to other e-mail addresses. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5067462.html http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5067494.html http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Aug/08242003/utah/86600.asp Sobig.F worm could have originated on Usenet http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,84326,00.html - - - - - - - - - - SCO Group's Web site target of hacker attack SCO Group Inc., a software developer that is seeking royalties from users of the Linux operating system, has been hit by a coordinated computer attack that has made its Web site inaccessible to many visitors for several days. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6615540.htm http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-5067743.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/techcorporatenews/2003-08-25-sco-hacked_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Taiwan denies hack rumors Taiwan officials have denied rumors that hackers from China broke into a national security Web site. The director of Taiwan's National Police Administration (NPA) Yang Chi-lin, dismissed reports of the alleged attack. The confidential data is strongly protected by multiple usernames and passwords, said the director in a report in The Taipei Times. Also, the data--which includes vehicle registration and ownership information as well as criminal records--were stored in a closed network inaccessible from the Internet, Yang said in the report. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105_2-5067621.html - - - - - - - - - - Southfield Police Nab Alleged Cyber Predator An undercover cyber sting led to the arrest of a 36- year-old man from West Hartford, Conn., on Tuesday, according to police. Southfield police arrested the man on child sexual abusive activities and use of a computer or the Internet to solicit a minor for sex. The man had apparently been communicating -- through chat rooms, e-mail and by telephone - with what he thought was a 15-year-old girl. The communication started on June 2, and ended Tuesday when the man flew in to meet with the girl at the Southfield Plaza. http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/2419564/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - Dismay as international paedophile probe fails THE massive internet child pornography investigation Operation Ore has ended in Scotland without anybody being charged with sex abuse, senior police officers have revealed. Police chiefs are dismayed that no one found to have accessed child pornography on the web is being prosecuted for abuse despite officers having "grave doubts" about the safety of children living with them. According to the senior officers, the 16-month operation, costing millions of pounds and involving all eight Scottish police forces, failed to gather the necessary evidence. The Scottish arm of Operation Ore was wound up three weeks ago after investigating some 350 people north of the Border, about 200 of whom were in Strathclyde and 70 in Lothian and Borders. http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/scotland.cfm?id=932562003 - - - - - - - - - - Police Track Down Suicidal Woman on Web An Italian policeman rescued a woman attempting suicide online, gleaning enough personal details to alert emergency services and save her life, the news agency ANSA reported. The woman announced in an Internet chat room that she was going to kill herself and then began swallowing tablets. Fellow chatters could see the suicide attempt unfolding via Web cam. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fg-briefs24.3aug24,1,816274.story Internet Suicides Plague Japan http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37332-2003Aug23.html - - - - - - - - - - Court: Trade secrets top free speech in DVD crack case The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that courts may block Internet users from posting codes to illegally copy DVD movies, in a case that pitted trade secret rights against free speech. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6614893.htm http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5067665.html http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5067665.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42668-2003Aug25.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/957175.asp http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,60179,00.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-08-25-decss-decision_x.htm Big-Time File Swappers Still at Large http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34980-2003Aug23.html End of an era for file-sharing chic? http://news.com.com/2010-1071_3-5067473.html - - - - - - - - - - Router glitch triggers DoS-like attack A design flaw in a router product has seen the University of Wisconsin's network bombarded with network time protocol synchronisation requests, in an accidental denial of service (DoS) attack. The university's administrators noticed a dramatic increase in in-bound traffic to its time server, and eventually traced the cause to a Netgear router product. A full analysis was posted on the university's Web site. Read the full story on ZDNet Australia. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105_2-5067542.html - - - - - - - - - - Policing cyberspace The Royal Thai Police are working to establish a new branch called the Computer Crime Suppression Centre to oversee the prevention of computer crime in Thailand. The new centre will be officially operating next month, initially with 14 police officers trained in technical matters. http://203.150.224.53/page.news.php3?clid=20&id=19604&usrsess=1 - - - - - - - - - - '100 women' Web scheme raises questions Until the scheme came to a halt earlier this month, buyers on the Internet auction site eBay had been enticed to an auction of actors' photographs with the following pitch: "Where else can you get 100 women in the mail? This is a lot of 100 agency photos, with resumes attached to each one. A mixed bag of actors with a range of experience from none at all to those that have been working for years and years. Some you may know, some may be the stars of tomorrow." http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/08/25/headshots.reuters.reut/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Child porn is a trouble of the Internet Protect Children World community is worried about the Internet which is turning into "the world dump of a child porn", - the head of Hi-Tech Crime Unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow Dmitry Chepchugov informed. In this connection he has noticed that the Russian Law does not allow to fight child porn efficiently. According to Chepchugov, last years the Internet has a growth of pornographic materials related to teens: "The child porn rejuvenates, becomes more and more brutal and refined. There are sexual scenes with violence against children of 3-5 years old, and even the babies". According to psychologists, children are hurted with physical and the mental cruelty; moreover the viewing of such images can provoke immoral conduct and to incite people to crimes. http://www.crime-research.org/eng/news/2003/08/Mess2504.html - - - - - - - - - - Absa hacker saga encourages better IT security The key to avoiding identity theft when transacting online is to practise good PC housekeeping. Making sure you have the latest anti-virus software, a personal firewall and some form of privacy control on your machine is critical for safe Internet banking practice. These are lessons that can be learned from the Absa hacker attacks, where over R500 000 was fraudulently removed from several Absa client accounts. http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/techforum/2003/0308250751.asp - - - - - - - - - - BlackBerry Reveals Bank's Secrets The eBay ad read "BlackBerry RIM sold AS IS!" So Eugene Sacks (not his real name), a Seattle computer consultant who always wanted one of the pager-size devices to check his e-mail, sent in a bid. For just $15.50, he bought the wireless device with 4 MB of memory. The BlackBerry didn't come with a cable, synching station, software or a manual. But it did come with something even more valuable: a trove of corporate data. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60052,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Sites Reconsider X-Rated Domain Spooked by a new law authorizing harsh penalties for deceptive online porn publishers, adult webmasters are reconsidering a proposal for a top-level domain of their own. Although it is not a new idea in porn circles, backers say the proposal is beginning to generate more support as the adult entertainment industry toys with the possibility of greater self-regulation. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,60145,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Handhelds the next virus target? Rapid adoption could spur attacks Symantec will introduce this week Symantec AntiVirus for Handhelds, mobile device-residing software designed to detect malicious code for the Palm and Pocket PC platforms. Despite little evidence that viruses severely affect handheld devices, security vendors want to ensure on-demand AV (anti-virus) infrastructure protection if an outbreak occurs. http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/08/25/33NNsymantec_1.html - - - - - - - - - - RSA Seeks to Fix RFID Worries Researchers at RSA Security Inc.'s lab have come up with a technique they said will eliminate many of the privacy concerns surrounding the use of RFID tags and enable enterprises and consumers to use the technology without worry. The solution, which involves fooling RFID (radio frequency identification) readers into believing all possible tags are present at any given time, is an inexpensive, elegant answer to a number of the privacy and security questions being asked about RFID technology, security experts say. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1229497,00.asp - - - - - - - - - - Rackspace beefs up attack defenses Hosting provider Rackspace on Monday introduced PrevenTier, a new security product that's aimed at reducing exposure to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, which can bring networks to a halt through a deluge of simultaneous data requests. The service, which includes technology from Arbor Networks and Riverhead Networks, attempts to prevent attacks by examining all incoming data and identifying potentially malicious packets. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105_2-5067676.html - - - - - - - - - - Ingram spies potential in surveillance Ingram Micro, a giant distributor of information technology products, has stepped into the surveillance market, in a move to provide one-stop shopping for its vendors and customers. The company announced Monday that it will assemble various security and surveillance products from Cisco Systems, Hewlett- Packard and other companies and offer them up as a single category to resellers and customers in specific industries, from education to retail. http://news.com.com/2100-1009_3-5067798.html - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft Windows: Insecure by Design Between the Blaster worm and the Sobig virus, it's been a long two weeks for Windows users. But nobody with a Mac or a Linux PC has had to lose a moment of sleep over these outbreaks -- just like in earlier "malware" epidemics. This is not a coincidence. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34978-2003Aug23.html Microsoft Exec Vows To Fix What's Broken http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,84297,00.html http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,84305,00.html Users: We can't take much more worm turmoil http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,84303,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Parking tickets go wireless New wireless ticket-writing technology will allow parking enforcers in cities and schools to get up-to-the-minute updates on the status of tickets. T2 Systems Inc., a company that creates parking management software, has developed new wireless handheld ticket-writers for parking enforcers to carry so they can send and receive the most current information about parking tickets. The devices communicate through the increasingly popular Wi-Fi wireless network technology. http://www.fcw.com/geb/articles/2003/0825/web-park-08-25-03.asp - - - - - - - - - - Japan moves ahead with national ID system A national computerized ID system that was criticized for its big-brother overtones when launched last year became fully operational Monday, allowing Japan's 126 million citizens to cut through red tape with an 11- digit number. The online database, which contains every citizen's name, address, birthdate and sex, is the centerpiece of a government initiative to speed administrative procedures such as filing change-of-address forms and applying for passports. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6614147.htm http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-08-25-japan-id-system_x.htm *********************************************************** Computer Forensics Training - Online. 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