NewsBits for March 9, 2004 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Ex-Official Admits Arranging Sex With Woman, Supposed Daughters A New Jersey man who arranged online to pay $300 to have sex with a woman and her supposed 7-and 10-year -old daughters last year has pleaded in guilty in the case. Alan W. Haag had faced 20 charges, including attempted rape, after he was arrested May 27 at a drug store in Media, Pa., where he had gone to meet the woman, who actually was an undercover Pennsylvania state agent. http://www.wnbc.com/news/2907503/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - Bust teacher on porn A convicted pervert who somehow got a job teaching math at Brooklyn's prestigious Xaverian High School was busted yesterday for ordering "extraordinarily violent" kiddie porn, prosecutors said. School officials were scrambling to explain how Anthony Cotroneo - who was bounced from city school classrooms after a 1999 kiddie porn conviction - wound up at Xaverian and got an after-school gig running the drama club at a public grammar school. http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/171813p-149853c.html http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/20286.htm - - - - - - - - - - Man to pay $25,000 for posting fake report on Internet A California man will pay $25,000 to settle allegations he posted online a bogus news article that caused a sell-off in the stock of Chinese Internet company Sina Corp. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/8143917.htm - - - - - - - - - - Virus war of words falls silent Netsky and Bagel variants continue to spring up, but virus writers' slanging match cools down. New versions of the Netsky and Bagel worms have emerged in the wild, but neither infection seeks to rekindle the public spat that broke out last week between the rival virus authors. http://www.vnunet.com/News/1153373 Netsky author signs off http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5171743.html NetSky, we hardly knew ye http://news.com.com/2100-7355_3-5171772.html - - - - - - - - - - Transatlantic clampdown to hit extreme Web sites UK and US politicians are taking action against violent online pornographic material. Britain and America have agreed to launch a joint crackdown on Web sites devoted to extreme forms of pornography. The two countries will create a new group devoted to closing down such sites, after concerns that they are responsible for the spirit of lawlessness on the Internet. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,39020369,39148155,00.htm Online porn often leads high-tech way http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-03-09-onlineporn_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - EU passes tough new antipiracy law The European Parliament passed controversial legislation Tuesday aimed at cracking down on copyright pirates, ranging from DVD counterfeiters to illicit Viagra sellers online. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5171833.html http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4488614/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3545839.stm Court puts DVD-copying decision on hold http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1104_2-5170305.html - - - - - - - - - - Meth and ID theft: twin scourges go together Police in the small island town of Port Orchard, Wash., sensed something was wrong when they approached the pickup truck sitting in the town's RV park. To begin with, its occupants were naked. Inside the truck, an even more bizarre scene: Piles and piles of mail. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4460349/ - - - - - - - - - - Card fraud figures show rise in ID theft Credit card fraud resulting from identity theft grew by almost half last year, according to figures released today by the Association of Payment Clearing Services (Apacs). http://www.vnunet.com/News/1153359 http://www.crime-research.org/news/09.03.2004/123 - - - - - - - - - - We're just innocent techies, say accused spammers Lawyers for a Florida firm accused of inundating AOL users with spam have hit back with a motion seeking to dismiss the lawsuit. According to dismissal papers filed yesterday, AOL's lawsuit against Connor Miller Software in Orlando federal court is "essentially the same" as a case "dismissed" by a Virginia judge last December. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/36118.html Md. spam penalties would double with Can-Spam conviction http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/25217-1.html - - - - - - - - - - PayPal forced to apologise for dodgy small print Payment provider PayPal has had its wrists slapped for misleading customers with dodgy small print. The e-Bay subsidiary will pay $150,000 to New York State as punishment and to pay for the states's. investigation. The controversy centres on what happens when customers buy goods which fail to arrive. If such a purchase was made using a credit card, the amount would be charged back to the customer's account. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/36105.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/ecommerce/0,39020372,39148150,00.htm http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/03/08/paypal.fined.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - - - MSN Messenger flaw allows hard-drive access Microsoft has revealed three new vulnerabilities in its software, including the first to affect MSN Messenger 6.0, and is urging customers to patch their systems now. Two of the vulnerabilities are considered medium-level risks, while the third presents a medium- to low-level risk, according to security software specialist Symantec and others. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5171898.html Three more patches from Microsoft http://www.vnunet.com/News/1153378 Cisco beefs up security http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5171842.html - - - - - - - - - - Banks claim progress in fixing PCs to curb counterfeiting The world's major central banks confirmed Tuesday that they collaborated with leading hardware and software companies to keep personal computers from being used to make counterfeit money. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/8144125.htm Security should be the standard http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/internet/2004/0403091230.asp - - - - - - - - - - Online betting sites fight cyberextortion Online gambling sites are betting on tighter security after a recent wave of computer attacks from cyberextortionists plunged several into darkness. Shadowy hackers demand $20,000 to $50,000 for protection from distributed denial-of-service attacks, which flood a Web site with data so that it is overloaded. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/techcorporatenews/2004-03-09-cyberextort_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft's high-risk security strategy Fighting to protect its operating system monopoly by making Windows more secure, Microsoft this year finds itself sitting between the rock of inevitable antitrust oversight, and the hard place of its reputation regarding security. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/36123.html - - - - - - - - - - Why Are Virus Attacks Getting Worse? Why have we seen so many new virus attacks in recent weeks? I believe it's because there has been little effort made by law enforcement officials to find or stop the virus authors. Maybe there is more effort coming from law enforcement than I'm observingbut if that's true, what they're doing is incredibly inefficient, and it's helping to give the green light to every black-hat coder out there. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1544653,00.asp - - - - - - - - - - How much do computer viruses cost? Vladivostok, Russia: One pupil tried to trade computer viruses through the Internet. Officer of Department "K" on fighting crimes in high tech field was his first and last customer, department's official website informs. Early in the year officers took a notice of one advertisement at one regional website: certain young man openly offered CDROMs with computer viruses and hacker software. The insistency of seller was surprising, he posted his ad everyday. He asked only 100 roubles ($3) for each CDROM with malware. http://www.crime-research.org/news/03.09.2004/124 Worms will be $245 million worth for ISP in the USA http://www.crime-research.org/news/09.03.2004/125 - - - - - - - - - - Heading into an era of the PC police INDIVIDUAL computer users may lose control over their PCs as copyright owners enforce tough digital rights management regimes, Sun Microsystems chief security officer Whit Diffie has warned. "There's going to be a tremendous battle between Hollywood and the RIAA and individual users who are now threatened with sometime in the future only being able to buy computers that have built-in machinery for controlling their use," Dr Diffie said. http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,8905801%5E15321%5E%5Enbv%5E15306,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Googling Up Passwords Google is in many ways the most useful tool available to the bad guys, and the most dangerous Web site on the Internet for many, many thousands of individuals and organizations. In my last column, I provided a checklist for Windows users that would help them secure their computers. I created that checklist because it has become increasingly and painfully obvious to me that most home users -- and most small businesses and organizations -- have substandard security practices in place, if they have any at all. http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/224 - - - - - - - - - - Anti-Spam Solutions and Security, Part 2 The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol was never designed for security. SMTP dates all the way back to a 1973 extension to the FTP protocol. [ref 1] In 1973, computer security was not a significant concern, and the Internet architects were not even certain about their implementation of the email protocol. http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1766 Anti-Spam Solutions and Security, Part 1 http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1763 - - - - - - - - - - Ear print database to finger criminals Criminals are used to trying to avoid leaving fingerprints at a crime scene. But now British scientists have developed a computerized system that allows them to identify ear prints just as easily. http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/03/09/science.earprints.reut/index.html FBI's massive DNA database helps ID suspects http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-03-08-codis-db_x.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. 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