NewsBits for November 21, 2003 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Internet fraudsters sentenced to 15 years A London court today sentenced six ID fraudsters to a total of 15 years in jail for using false identities to con banks out of PS350,000. Six men were sentenced for a total of 15 and a half years in jail at Wood Green Crown Court on Friday, after pleading guilty to using the Internet to defraud UK banks to the tune of PS350,000. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39118059,00.htm http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39118046,00.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/34138.html - - - - - - - - - - Man Enters Plea in Threat Case A man who allegedly sent an e-mail to a radio station threatening Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles County Superior Court this week. Frank Raul Torres, 48, was ordered by Commissioner Jeffrey Harkavy to stay 1,000 yards away from Schwarzenegger and not to call or send any e-mails to him. He was being held in lieu of $500,000 bail. Harkavy said the e-mail allegedly described how Torres had repeatedly stalked Schwarzenegger and how he planned to kill him. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-briefs21.4nov21,1,7820669.story - - - - - - - - - - Sentencing postponed in nuclear lab hack case The sentencing of a UK teenager who admits breaking into the network of a US nuclear weapons lab has been postponed until December 19. Joseph McElroy, 19, from Woodford Green in East London, was due to be sentenced today at Bow Street Magistrates Court for hacking into the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in June last year. But pre-sentencing reports in the case weren't ready, so the case was postponed until next month. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/34130.html - - - - - - - - - - Cyber Crime Crackdown Nets 125 Federal prosecutors have charged more than 125 suspected computer hackers, identity thieves and other cyberspace scammers in a nationwide crackdown on Internet crime, law enforcement officials said. Those facing charges include run-of-the-mill counterfeiters and software pirates, as well as a man who illegally tried to sell Medals of Honor online and another man who hijacked the Web site of Arabic-language news network Al Jazeera to display a patriotic U.S. message, authorities said. The investigation, dubbed "Operation Cyber Sweep," has uncovered about 125,000 victims with losses topping $100 million. http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-rup21.5nov21,1,332215.story http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/11/21/crackdown.cybercrime.reut/index.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39118038,00.htm http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-11-20-fraud_x.htm http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2003/11/21/build/business/56-cybercrime.inc Oakridge pair arrested in federal 'Cyber Sweep' http://bend.com/news/ar_view%5E3Far_id%5E3D12521.htm Cybercrime Arrests: Heralding a New Era? http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/22746.html - - - - - - - - - - Man Arrested Over 'Spam Rage' Call it spam rage -- a Silicon Valley computer programmer has been arrested for threatening to torture and kill employees of the company he blames for bombarding his computer with Web ads promising to enlarge his penis. In one of the first prosecutions of its kind in the state that made "road rage" famous, Charles Booker, 44, was arrested on Thursday and released on a $75,000 bond for making repeated threats to staff of an unnamed Canadian company between May and July, the U.S. Attorney's office for Northern California said on Friday. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,61339,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Michigan Wi-Fi hackers 'try to steal credit card details' Federal officials this week accused a third Michigan man of conspiring to steal credit card numbers from the Lowe's chain of home improvement stores by taking advantage of an unsecured wi-fi network at store in suburban Detroit. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/69/34144.html - - - - - - - - - - One sentenced, another pleads guilty in sex case William T. Sandefur admitted today that he had sexual encounters in a restroom near a track at Lafayette High School with an underage teen that Sandefur met on the Internet. Sandefur, 51, a former executive news producer for KSDK (Channel 5) pleaded guilty in St. Louis County Circuit Court of three counts of statutory sodomy. He will be sentenced by Judge Emmett M.O'Brien on Jan. 9. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/4055E1358A56E8A586256DE5006178AD - - - - - - - - - - Ex-Army warrant officer gets 40 years on sex charges Convicted last month of having sex in a Naples hotel room with an underage girl, Jeffery Brantley knew what was coming to him at his sentencing Thursday. Brantley, who served as a U.S. Army warrant officer, said he was prepared to take his punishment. Before his trial, he had rejected a plea offer of 18 years. He took the risk of taking his case to a jury, and he lost. The victim was 14 when she started an Internet relationship with Brantley, who was stationed in Europe. According to testimony, Brantley communicated with the girl online and on the phone for two years before traveling to Broward County to meet her in January 2002. http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/news/article/0,2071,NPDN_14940_2444901,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Cop takes chat too far A Belgian police officer has been jailed for one year for an online sex chat with a 12-year-old girl, according to media reports on Thursday. A judge in the northern Belgian city of Ghent found the 31-year- old man guilty of charges of child abuse, despite his never having touched the underage victim. The man was judged to have lured the girl into "improper conversations", said Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. Pornographic images of children were also discovered on his computer's hard drive. http://www.news24.com/News24/Backpage/BetweenTheSheets/0,,2-1343-1346_1448458,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Delhi man faces child-porn charges A man spotted by police driving naked from the waist down with a laptop computer on the passenger seat is facing numerous child pornography charges. On Wednesday at 5 a.m., Toronto police found a driver going the wrong way on a one-way street in a residential area. On the screen of the laptop computer was an image of a young girl performing a sex act on an older man. The laptop had a wireless adapter card (known as a WI-FI card) allowing the accused to access the Internet through any insecure wireless Internet signal (known as War Driving). http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1069415016955&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968705899037 Police warn of Wi-Fi theft by porn downloaders http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1069439746264_64848946/?hub=SciTech - - - - - - - - - - Immigration Agents Arrest Sex Offenders In Bay Sweep In a sweeping sting operation this week, agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Francisco and San Jose arrested 41 criminal alien sex offenders from the Bay Area to the Central Coast. The arrests were made as part of Operation Predator a national initiative designed to protect children from pornographers, child prostitution rings, Internet predators, alien smugglers, human traffickers and other predatory criminals. http://www.foxreno.com/news/2655793/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - Toy designer arrested in Internet child molestation sting A Long Island man who designs games and novelties for some major toy companies was arrested Friday for allegedly soliciting sex from an undercover detective he thought was a 13-year-old girl, prosecutors said. Richard Trincellito, 39, was charged with attempted rape, child endangerment and dissemination of indecent materials to minors after being caught in an Internet sting operation, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement. http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--internet-sting1121nov21,0,5824898.story - - - - - - - - - - Oak Park library turns off computers The Oak Park Public Library was reworking its computer software Thursday to prevent a repeat of an incident in which a 9-year-old boy viewed graphic sexual images on a computer screen in the library's children's section. The images were apparently downloaded from the Internet by another library user sometime Tuesday and were stored in a computer file that the boy viewed later in the day, 'according to James Madigan, assistant library director. He said the computers in the children's section were turned off Thursday while programmers and technicians looked for ways to prevent the children's computers from gaining access to the file. The children's department computers probably will be restored Friday. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/northshore/chi-0311210293nov21,1,5625795.story - - - - - - - - - - Hunting online predators This is the second part of an ongoing series on Internet pedophiles and the work of the Child Abuse Unit of the Long Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. It's 2 a.m. on a Sunday, and a 55-year-old from Tennessee believes he has been conversing with a 13-year-old from Long Island through Instant Messaging, an America Online feature that allows you to speak electronically with anyone in the world. The man is an administrator at a high school who coaches both a girls' and boys' basketball team. More than two hours after the conversation began, at 11:47 p.m., the administrator clearly has no reservations about talking to someone so young. He offers the girl several scenarios in which they can meet, and raises the possibility of flying her down to Tennessee. http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1601&dept_id=479857&newsid=10543474&PAG=461&rfi=9 Feeling powerless against pedophiles http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10543469&BRD=1601&PAG=461&dept_id=479857&rfi=6 - - - - - - - - - - PayPal spoof e-mail virus spread slowing A virus that poses as an e-mail from online payment provider PayPal and tries to trick people into sending out credit card and social security numbers is slowing its spread, an anti-virus expert said Thursday. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2003-11-21-mimail-slows_x.htm http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39118037,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Congress Poised for Vote on Anti-Spam Bill Congress has reached an agreement on antispam legislation and could vote on it as early as Friday afternoon, a move that would end more than six years of failed attempts to enact a federal law restricting unsolicited commercial e-mail. Negotiators from the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives said Friday that the legislation was a "historic" accomplishment with support from key Democrats and Republicans in both chambers. http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_2100-1024_3-5110622.html http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5110622.html http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,61343,00.html http://computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legislation/story/0,10801,87462,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Barclays plans to pin down online fraud Barclays Bank is to give personal card readers to 10,000 of its customers in an effort to make online and telephone credit card transactions more secure. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1149840 - - - - - - - - - - University software knocks swappers offline University of Florida officials say they're simply enforcing the law. But civil libertarians say the school has itself become an enforcer for the recording industry. In the annals of the online music wars, the university may well go down as one of the Recording Industry Association of America's most loyal allies. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/7320194.htm - - - - - - - - - - Online fraud concerns on rise as holiday season nears The upcoming holiday shopping season promises to be a busy one not just for Internet retailers, but for opportunistic online fraudsters and identity thieves as well. As a result, Internet merchants -- especially smaller ones -- will need to make sure they have adequate fraud- and theft-detection processes in place before the rush begins, industry experts warned. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,87443,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Apple releases security patch for Panther, Jaguar Apple has released an update to the Macintosh operating system that fixes a security flaw. Apple Computer this week issued a security update for the recently released Mac OS X, Panther, and for the preceding operating system, Jaguar. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/mac/0,39020393,39118055,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - CyberGuard Eyes Linux Security Network security company CyberGuard Corp. has its eye on security technology for Linux deployments with its purchase of Australian SnapGear for $16 million in stock and cash. Both companies build special-purpose servers that run protective firewalls and Virtual Private Network (define) connections. http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3112151 - - - - - - - - - - Internet loosening media control in China China's government has long controlled the information its citizens receive through official media, but that may end as the Internet burrows deeper into the fast- changing communist country, a Chinese Internet expert says. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-11-21-china-net-filters_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Legal regulation of the Internet Legal regulation of the Internet and any social relations related to the use of it is an intractable problem. But whether it is possible to do without any regulation in general? United Nations intend to raise a question about establishment of special supervising body under aegis of the United Nations which would be engaged in administration of the Internet. This question is supposed to be raised at UN World Summit which will be held in Geneva December 10-12, 2003. Besides it is planned to discuss problems of fighting cybercrime, computer viruses and spam. http://www.crime-research.org/news/2003/11/Mess2102.html - - - - - - - - - - Security is about more than an image problem Microsoft's latest hacker bounty won't solve the problem - it'll only divert public attention away from the core security problem that users face. Microsoft recently announced rewards in exchange for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those who exploit its flagship Windows product through viruses, worms and other forms of malicious code. http://comment.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020505,39118052,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Democrats issue criteria for integrating terrorist watch lists Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee on Friday issued 10 criteria for the Bush administration to follow when it establishes a new center to unify all federal terrorist watch lists expected on Dec. 1. "We have had a great deal of concern about the failure after more than two years since September 11 to have a unified terrorist watch list," Homeland Security ranking Democrat Jim Turner of Texas told reporters in his office. "We think the failure is inexcusable." http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1103/112103td1.htm - - - - - - - - - - Police: Suspects caught after cell phone left on Can you hear me now, officer? When authorities dialed the number of a stolen cell phone this week, two burglary suspects answered, then apparently didn't know how to turn the phone off. The open cell line allowed an Oklahoma deputy sheriff to listen in as the pair, according to officials, plotted other crimes. It gave law enforcement an inadvertent global positioning system that helped track the suspects down to the Texas Panhandle where they were arrested. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-11-21-dumb-crime_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Elementary, Watson: Scan a Palm, Find a Clue For more than a century, the fingerprint has been the quintessential piece of crime scene evidence. But fingerprints are only a tiny part of the story. All of a person's "friction ridged skin" is distinctively patterned: soles, palms and even the writer's palm, as the outer side of the hand is called. Surveys of law enforcement agencies indicate that at least 30 percent of the prints lifted from crime scenes from knife hilts, gun grips, steering wheels and window panes are of palms, not fingers. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/21/nyregion/21PALM.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. 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. 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