NewsBits for September 9, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ New York Times hacker turns himself in on federal warrant A nationally known itinerant computer hacker surrendered in California Tuesday on a federal arrest warrant from New York, authorities said. Adrian Lamo, 22, turned himself in to marshals at the federal courthouse in Sacramento, said FBI spokeswoman Karen Twomey Ernst. His surrender was filmed by an independent camera crew that had been following him for days for a documentary. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6729500.htm http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5073426.html http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60365,00.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2003-09-09-lamo-surrenders_x.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/32726.html http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/hacking/story/0,10801,84758,00.html Lamo released, banned from computers http://www.securityfocus.com/news/6907 - - - - - - - - - - Song Swappers Face the Music Vonnie and Scott Bassett say they try to set good examples for their children. On Monday, though, the major record companies sought to make examples out of the Bassetts. In their most aggressive and controversial bid to stamp out online piracy, the labels on Monday sued Vonnie Bassett and 260 others around the country who allegedly offered large libraries of songs for copying on five popular file-sharing networks. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-riaa9sep09003421,1,5808406.story Piracy Gets Mixed Reviews in Industry http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-words9sep09,1,1337212.story Legal Effort May Slow but Not Stop Music Revolution http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-options9sep09,1,1229148.story Surprise Is a Common Reaction of Those Sued http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-profiles9sep09,1,4630150.story Will file traders face the music? http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5073312.html File-sharing lawsuits: Are you next? http://www.msnbc.com/news/963684.asp File-swap suits strike a nerve (series of stories) http://news.com.com/2009-1032_3-5073343.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/964154.asp http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/09/09/music.swap.settlement/index.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32740.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32731.html Fear May Not Spur CD Sales http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60350,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Dos Reis gets 25-year federal sentence A former Greenwich man was sentenced to 25 years in prison Tuesday on federal charges related to the killing of a teenage girl he met on the Internet. Saul Dos Reis is already serving a 30-year sentence on state charges for the death of 13-year-old Christina Long of Danbury. The 26-year-old strangled the sixth-grader in May of last year as they were having sex in his car at the Danbury Fair Mall. Dos Reis, who said Long's death was an accident, was convicted of two federal charges of traveling in interstate commerce to engage in illegal sex with a minor. http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/state/hc-09194030.apds.m0217.bc-ct--intesep09,0,4554101.story - - - - - - - - - - Musician jailed over porn A WORLD-renowned musician has been jailed for two years after being caught with more than 50,000 images of child pornography. Music teacher Gary Maxwell Featherstone, 53, wiped away tears as he was led away last week to serve his sentence in protective custody. Judge Ronald Solomon quashed a two-year suspended sentence earlier imposed by Magistrate Pat O'Shane, agreeing with the DPP, who had appealed against the sentence, that it was inadequate and out of step with community standards. http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1260&storyid=156759 - - - - - - - - - - Sex offender back in jail for solicitation of minor A 4th District judge set a $10,000 cash-only bail Monday for a 26-year-old man who was arrested for soliciting sex from a minor in an undercover sting over the weekend. According to police, Leon N. Lavender of Roy contacted an undercover officer with the Utah County Sex Crimes Task Force, who was monitoring local chat rooms and posing as a 13-year-old girl, on Aug. 16 and requested to have different sex acts performed on him. http://www.harktheherald.com/article.php?sid=94357 - - - - - - - - - - Local Child Pornographer Arrested in Multi-State Sting A Wichita Falls man is in jail Monday night for allegedly peddling child porn over the internet. Police say Elvis Roberts emailed pornographic pictures of little boys to whom he thought was a young boy in New Hampshire. But guess who was on the other end -- an undercover New Hampshire Police Officer. The officer then passed Roberts' name and the evidence along to the Wichita Falls Police Department. http://www.kauz.com/home/headlines/457802.html - - - - - - - - - - U.S. Army Reserves Major Charged With Plans For Sexual Encounter With Minor A judge set bond Tuesday for a U.S. Army Reserves major charged with traveling from Hawaii to Chicago with plans for a sexual encounter with an underage girl. U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin Ashman ordered Anthony Roy Castro, 42, of Mangilao, Guam, released on a $4,500 recognizance bond, despite a prosecutor's attempts to have the defendant detained. Castro was charged in a criminal complaint under the federal Mann Act, which bans crossing state lines for illegal sex. Members of the Cook County sheriff's police Child Exploitation Unit arrested Castro at about 8 p.m. Friday outside the JC Penney store at Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, as he was about to meet an undercover officer who had been posing as a 14-year-old girl in an Internet chat room, a criminal complaint stated. http://www.wbbm780.com/asp/ViewMoreDetails.asp?ID=27746 - - - - - - - - - - Porn-Blocking Law Taken to Court Two civil liberties groups sued Pennsylvania's attorney general Tuesday, claiming his tactics to stop child pornography also cut subscribers across the country from legitimate websites. The groups, in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, accused Attorney General Mike Fisher of creating a "system of secret censorship" that goes unchecked by state courts. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60361,00.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-09-09-penn-isps_x.htm http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Business/ap20030909_2307.html - - - - - - - - - - Judge: Pop-up ads a 'burden' but legal A federal judge has rejected a legal challenge by truck and trailer rental company U-Haul to pop-up Internet advertisements, in a ruling that could embolden providers of the ads. http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/09/09/judge.popups.reut/index.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-09-08-popup-suit_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Hackers jump through holes in Microsoft patch Security experts are warning Microsoft Corp. customers about silent Internet attacks that exploit a security flaw in the Internet Explorer Web browser that potentially allows remote attackers to run malicious code on vulnerable machines. The vulnerability is similar in scope to those exploited by devastating worms such as Nimda, Badtrans and Klez, according to one security company. And, to make matters worse, the flaw is one Microsoft said it fixed weeks ago. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/holes/story/0,10801,84756,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Counterfeiter shares an ID fraud tale Youssef Hmimssa tells Senate hearing on security how easy it is to fake an ID. Master counterfeiter Youssef Hmimssa sat behind a 7-foot panel wall, completely hidden from public view at the Senate hearing on Tuesday. Hmimssa was there for pure shock value. Two years ago, just days after Sept. 11, he was caught furnishing fake visas and other ID documents to a suspected terrorist cell in Detroit. http://www.msnbc.com/news/963986.asp - - - - - - - - - - RIAA: Child porn rife on P2P networks The Recording Industry Association of America appears to be expanding its fight against online piracy by encouraging a legislative crackdown on peer-to-peer networks, warning they are infested with child pornography. On Tuesday, one day after filing the landmark series of lawsuits, RIAA President Cary Sherman cautioned the U.S. Senate that Kazaa could be a tool for adults to lure children into having sex. http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5073817.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/964077.asp http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=233 - - - - - - - - - - Database gaps make ID fraud easier, GAO says Wide-ranging weaknesses in government agencies ability to prevent identity fraud are made worse by flawed databases used to check identification documents, according to federal investigators. In testimony for a hearing today before the Senate Finance Committee, the General Accounting Offices Robert J. Cramer described how auditors successfully used a variety of false IDs to enter the country, purchase handguns, acquire drivers licenses and roam federal buildings. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/23446-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Child porn tip line gets results A Manitoba cyber tip line aimed at fighting Internet child pornography has shut down 97 websites since it was launched a year ago. Tips have also resulted in several arrests outside of Manitoba and about a half dozen ongoing investigations by the sex crimes and child abuse units of the Winnipeg police. Operated by Child Find Manitoba, the tip line is the only one of its kind in the country, say its sponsors. http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030908.gtpornsep8/BNStory/Technology/ - - - - - - - - - - UK government to open an e-file on every child in England THE UK GOVERNMENT has announced plans to keep an electronic file on every child in England in a range of new child protection measures announced by prime minister Tony Bliar. The children's files together with their unique e-number will be managed by local authorities in a "local information hub". The file will contain the name, address and date of birth of each child, together with the name of the school attended and whether the child is known to such agencies as the police, social services or educational welfare. Where multiple agencies are involved the file will denote which one profesional will have overall reponsibilty. http://inquirerinside.com/?article=11464 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32733.html - - - - - - - - - - Anti-spyware software targets Gator Just days after a federal judge ruled that software makers are within their rights to deliver ads over Web sites, a technology company is arming consumers with a way to stop them. interMute, a software maker based in Braintree, Mass., on Tuesday widely introduced SpySubtract, an application that scans a user's PC for software known as "spyware," or "adware," and automatically removes it. http://news.com.com/2100-1024_3-5073826.html - - - - - - - - - - IT departments strapped for cash Companies are beginning to spend on IT again, but CIOs still cannot get the funding for urgent upgrades, according to IDC. Chief information officers are still having to fight for every penny of IT funding, and are planning to focus their spending on badly-needed infrastructure upgrades for the near term, according to a new study. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39116207,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Magazine Rates Firms on Workplace Privacy IBM Corp. is least likely to snoop on its employees, whereas drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. is the most aggressive "Big Brother" boss, a magazine reports. The technology magazine Wired surveyed watchdog organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Privacy Foundation to determine which large publicly traded companies were the best and worst for workplace privacy. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-privacy9sep09,1,54087.story - - - - - - - - - - Breakthrough? China launches spam attack China has woken up to the problem of spam e-mail and blocked 127 servers which were identified as being the source of high volumes of unsolicited e-mail. The move is likely to send shockwaves through the international community of spammers who previously had regarded China as a safe haven in which to base their operations. Many spammers had based their servers in and around Beijing because they believed they were safe from the long-arm of Western law and of very little interest to the Chinese authorities. But if that situation is now changing a drastic rethink may be in order. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5073338.html http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5073441.html Antispam Companies Raking It In http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60327,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Experts say culture hinders single smart card The technology exists to create a governmentwide smart card program, but cultural issues and a lack of top-level management support stand in the way of implementation, experts testified today. A single government smart card is possible, but managerial and policy differences create difficulties, said Joel Willemssen, managing director of information technology issues at the General Accounting Office. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0908/web-smart-09-09-03.asp Passport deadline may be stretched http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0908/web-state-09-09-03.asp Agencies face hurdles in implementing 'smart cards' http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0903/090903td1.htm - - - - - - - - - - Did Blaster worm play a role in August 14 blackout? Last Thursday's NewsForge report about power grid security prompted an outpouring of response from readers, industry experts, and government officials. Experts hastened to point out that the grid is robust and relatively immune to hacker attack even as attention focused on the role that a suspiciously frozen computer in the control room of grid operator FirstEnergy played in the Aug. 14 blackout that left 50 million people without power. http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/09/09/1526221 - - - - - - - - - - Security forces--act before you must react Information security is a reactive world. The next intrusion, vulnerability or worm is always right around the corner. With critical issues arising everywhere, the typical CISO and IT security organization spend most of their time reacting to outside forces and not nearly enough time getting ahead of the curve. One way out of this downward spiral is to get proactive with a system security policy and a method of ensuring compliance. This can change the environment from scrambling to planning, increasing the value and reducing the cost of security. But how can this be accomplished without time, resources and a radical change in the environment? http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5073159.html - - - - - - - - - - The Virus of Youthful Irresponsibility College kids just don't pay enough attention to computer security. Thank goodness adults on campus are prepared to force the issue. Hey, college students, it's time for a pop quiz: If an attachment arrives in your inbox with a suffix of .exe, do you (A) click on it? (B) click on it only if it promises you free stuff? or (C) always click on it if it appears to be from your best friend? http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2003/tc2003099_6173_tc047.htm - - - - - - - - - - The Roomba is a tempting hacker target: Big payload, multiple onboard sensors. But its cleaning duties get in the way. When artificial intelligence was all the rage in the 1980s, researchers joked that by the turn of the century, smart vacuum cleaners built in Japan would be cleaning smart tanks built in the United States. As it turns out, though, a few years into the new century the vacuum bot that is grinding across the floors of gadget freaks around the nation is American-designed. http://www.popsci.com/popsci/computers/article/0,12543,480872,00.html - - - - - - - - - - First responders need national standards, says former lawmaker Local "first responders" to emergencies will not be able to effectively react to a terrorist attack until they have a standard for response, a former senator said on Tuesday. "What we need is a mandate for national minimum standards for homeland security for first responders," former Republican Sen. Warren Rudman, N.H., told members of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations. "You cannot establish priorities until you know what the standards are." http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0903/090903td2.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. 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