NewsBits for July 13, 2004 ************************************************************ Man Accused of Infiltrating Computer at Verizon Westchester County man illegally infiltrated an internal computer at Verizon more than 100 times this year, forcing the telecommunications company to spend at least $120,000 to retool its security system, prosecutors charged in a federal indictment yesterday. The man, William Quinn, 27, of Eastchester, obtained many passwords to a central computer that Verizon technicians use in repairing telephone lines, according to the indictment, filed in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/13/nyregion/13hacker.html http://www.wnbc.com/news/3523972/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - Conn. Porn Producer Who Involved Kids In Sex Acts Sentenced A Norwalk man charged with producing child pornography and posting it on the Internet has been sentenced to ten years in prison. Brent Reilly, 27, was sentenced Monday, almost a year after being charged with more than a dozen counts of possession and dissemination of child pornography. http://www.wnbc.com/news/3523689/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - Worm sleeps to avoid detection The latest mass-mailing worm, Atak, hides by going to sleep when it suspects that antivirus software is trying to detect it. Atak was first discovered Monday. Although antivirus companies do not expect it to cause much damage, they say it will be a nuisance because it can generate a large amount of spam. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for antivirus company Sophos, said authors of malicious software generally try to make the job of antivirus researchers as difficult as possible by adding confusing code and using evasion techniques. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5267258.html - - - - - - - - - - Companies warn of mass Trojan distribution Antivirus and e-mail security companies sent out warnings today about a new Trojan horse program that they claim is being mass distributed on the Internet using unsolicited commercial e-mail, or spam. The program, called Backdoor-CGT, is a new form of a Trojan horse installed after e-mail recipients using Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook e-mail program follow a Web link embedded in an e-mail message. The Trojan horse is believed to have infected thousands of systems on the Internet since appearing early today, even though antivirus software and up-to-date versions of Outlook are immune to attack, according to Maksym Schipka, senior antivirus researcher at MessageLabs Ltd. in the U.K. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,94515,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Banks to block illegal website payments British banks have been advised not to do business with legally or ethically dubious websites. The Association for Payment Clearing Services (Apacs), the banking trade body, has updated its guidelines for members dealing with online traders. The guidelines advise banks that can accept card payments on behalf of websites not to conduct business with sites that deal in racist, sexually violent, paedophilic or terrorist material. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1156629 - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft issues seven security patches, two critical Microsoft Corp. today released seven security patches covering a wide array of the company's products. Two of those patches fix holes that Microsoft deemed "critical" and warned could allow remote attackers to take control of vulnerable Windows systems. The software updates include fixes for previously unknown holes in the Windows operating system, including critical holes in the Windows Task Manager and HTML help features. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/holes/story/0,10801,94516,00.html http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5268295.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39160285,00.htm IE may share Mozilla 'shell:' flaw http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39160391,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft Releases Virus Removal Tool Microsoft Corp. released a tool on Tuesday for removing a particularly pesky computer virus - but was not yet able to offer a software patch to prevent the infection from spreading. Stephen Toulouse, a security program manager with Microsoft, could not say when the patch to thwart the virus, called "download.ject," might be completed. The virus was discovered in late June and exploits a vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/9143097.htm - - - - - - - - - - Chinese hackers advertise made-to-order virus service Rising, one of China's leading anti-virus software firms, recently discovered that Chinese hackers had opened a new website offering a made-to-order virus service, Rising PR official Lu Lan told Interfax. Although it is not uncommon for hackers to custom make viruses for a price, such services have never before been advertised so openly. This newly discovered website contains a scrolling advertisement that offers to create a new virus capable of bypassing security systems for RMB 100-200 (USD 12.08-24.15). http://www.crime-research.org/news/13.07.2004/487/ - - - - - - - - - - UK military bans iPods The Ministry of Defence has added the music player to its list of banned equipment, citing the danger to networks of USB devices. Music fans, beware: the Ministry of Defence has become the latest organisation to add the iPod to its list of high-tech security risks. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/mobile/0,39020360,39160284,00.htm http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/07/13/britain.mod.reut/index.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/13/mod_bans_ipods/ - - - - - - - - - - Companies adapt to a zero day world Financial institutions with critical systems and cash on the line are reorganizing to deal with the closing gap between the hole and the patch. Zero day exploits are upon us. Case in point, the June 25th Russian attacks that turned IIS servers into delivery platforms for identity-thieving Trojan keystroke loggers. The attacks relied on two vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer that security researchers discovered for the first time weeks earlier on a malicious adware- implanting website. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/9100no - - - - - - - - - - Mississippi invests in secure county systems Of Mississippis 82 counties, only 45 have e-mail capability. But the state is aiming to turn this around with a cybersecurity assessment of its counties that will serve as the foundation for a secure enterprisewide system and provide connectivity with state, local and federal government. Mississippi officials announced yesterday that they had secured $820,000 from the Homeland Security Departments Office of Domestic Preparedness to do a county-by-county cybersecurity assessment. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/26564-1.html - - - - - - - - - - The network is the security Remember computing in the 1980s? This was an era when stand-alone IBM mainframes and VAX minicomputers dominated the computing landscape. Each system ran an application or two for a specific constituency. Application and data integration was so cumbersome that few companies had the skills, budgets or stomachs to attempt it. Mainframes and minicomputers were truly data-processing islands. http://news.com.com/The+network+is+the+security/2010-7347_3-5265714.html - - - - - - - - - - SMS spoofing - new lingo in cybercrime 'You have flunked'. The SMS was enough to unnerve not only Ram, an engineering student, but also his entire family. But the panic was soon found to be unfounded as, within minutes, Ram came to know it was a spoof when his reply to the message bounced back. It was only a prank played by one of his IT-savvy friends and Ram realised he had fallen victim to 'mobile spoofing'. http://www.crime-research.org/news/13.07.2004/488/ - - - - - - - - - - Officials discuss efforts to network crime, terrorism data The Homeland Security Department is working to connect its nationwide information network to existing law enforcement databases, an official told lawmakers Tuesday. The department is working with the Justice Department to make the systems "fully compatible in the short term and [is] developing a common system for the future," Patrick Hughes, Homeland Security's assistant secretary for information analysis, told a House Government Reform subcommittee. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0704/071304tdpm1.htm - - - - - - - - - - Long Arm of the Law Has Become Bionic Mexico has required some prosecutors to have tiny computer chips implanted in their skin as a security measure for access to the Attorney General's Office National Information Center, authorities announced. Atty. Gen. Rafael Macedo de la Concha said his chip, implanted in his arm, also could be used "tolocate me wherever I am." The information center is part of a new anti-crime effort to combat kidnappings, armed robberies and drug trafficking. http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/07/13/mexico.chip.reut/index.html http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fg-briefs13.4jul13,1,546162.story http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,64194,00.html *********************************************************** 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. Copyright 2000-2004, NewsBits.net, Campbell, CA.