NewsBits for July 23, 2004
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Osama 'death' pics hide Trojan threat
Hackers prey on surfers' morbid curiosity to deliver
Hackarmy malware. et.com. ITInternet users have been
warned that messages about the 'suicide' of Osama Bin
Laden posted on internet message boards and usenet
groups are hoaxes masking an attack on their computer.
The messages attempt to persuade readers to download
a file which contains the Hackarmy Trojan.
http://www.vnunet.com/news/1156861
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-5281604.html
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/emergingtech/0,39020357,39161518,00.htm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5499484/
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/07/24/virus.binladen.reut/index.html
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,64333,00.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/23/hackarmy_trojan/
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2004-07-23-osama-trojan_x.htm
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Bin-Laden-Used-As-Trojan-Horse-Lure&story_id=25997
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,64333,00.html
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US criticised over cyber-security
Homeland security has become a key issue in the US.
Efforts by the US authorities to counter cyber-crime
and terrorism have been criticised in an official
report. It said the Department of Homeland Security's
cyber-strategy suffered from poor coordination and
communication, as well as an inability to set
priorities. The internal report warned that the US
"still faces a number of challenges to address long-
term cyber-threats and vulnerabilities." It described
cyber-terrorism as one of the US's top five security
threats.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3921515.stm
http://news.com.com/Report%3A+Federal+cybersecurity+effort+needs+improvement/2100-1009_3-5281898.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5494089/
Inspector general: DHS' cybersecurity efforts only partly successful
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0719/web-dhsig-07-23-04.asp
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Potato Chip Deliveryman Charged In Internet Sex Sting
A potato chip deliveryman from Brooklyn has been charged
with setting up meetings for sex with whom he thought was
a 14-year-old girl. The girl was actually a New York City
police detective. Todd Hudson, 36, was charged in an
Internet sting operation with attempted dissemination
of indecent material to a minor, attempted child
endangerment and attempted criminal sexual act.
http://www.wnbc.com/news/3563122/detail.html
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Government auditors slam IRS for IT security risks
Reports cite insufficient oversight of contractors,
unauthorized use of PDAs. Auditors from the U.S.
Department of the Treasury have issued two reports
about IT security risks at the Internal Revenue
Service, one saying that contractors working on
IRS systems "committed numerous security violations"
and the other taking the agency to task over
unauthorized use of PDAs.
http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,94741,00.html
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New Virginia strike force to prosecute cybercrime
Federal, state and local law-enforcement authorities
are linking up in a new operation that will investigate
and prosecute child pornography, fraud and other crimes
perpetrated through use of computers and the Internet.
U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty and state Attorney General
Jerry W. Kilgore yesterday announced the formation of
the Virginia Cyber-Crime Strike Force.
http://www.crime-research.org/news/23.07.2004/514/
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Porn filters ineffective against Tribbles
Letters This Friday's post bag was bulging with
comments about the number of child porn sites blocked
by BT's new CleanFeed filter, ISPA's subsequent call
for clarification, and BT's response. For anyone just
back from an extended holiday in Cuba, the only way
you could have missed this one, this is the story
that BT kicked off by reporting that in the last
three weeks, it has blocked nearly a quarter of
a million attempts to access kiddie porn.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/23/letters_2307/
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Completely secure networks get one step closer
Single photon research means quantum cryptography
may soon become a reality. A joint research project
between Fujitsu and the University of Tokyo may have
discovered a way to provide complete data security
between two networks. The two have been working on
a viable quantum cryptography system that would
allow two parties to share encryption keys via
telecommunication networks with full confidence that
they have not been compromised en route. The team
has succeeded in generating and detecting a single
photon at wavelengths useful for telecommunications,
said Yasuhiko Arakawa, director of the Nanoelectronics
Collaborative Research Center at the University of
Tokyo and leader of the research project.
http://www.techworld.com/networking/news/index.cfm?NewsID=1970&Page=1&pagePos=5
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They've got your number
Cutting-edge technologies work as tattle-tales
for a surveillance-minded state, Canadian privacy
advocates warn Many Canadians became aware that
late-model cars are equipped with "black box"
technology during a recent high-profile trial
in which a motorist was jailed in the death of
a university student in Montreal. Black box data
showed that Eric Gauthier was driving at 157
kilometres an hour just seconds before he struck
and killed Yacine Zinet. The trial marked the
first time that car data recorders have been
accepted as evidence in a Canadian courtroom.
http://www.canada.com/technology/story.html?id=e061566b-bd5b-4fb8-858e-ffb59d17f7b6
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Eye spy with my little network
Closed circuit surveillance systems are going
digital, which will not only reduce costs but
lead to a dramatic increase in the scope of
coverage. Ken Young reports. Closed circuit
television surveillance is big business. In
2001, there were about a million CCTV cameras
in use in the UK: today, that figure is more
than 4m. It may grow even faster now that the
industry is waking up to the benefits of using
digital recording with internet protocol (IP)
cameras, instead of traditional analogue
cameras and tape storage.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1268192,00.html
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Portuguese pooches to get radio-tagged
Once a tech industry darling, radio frequency
identification tags have officially gone to the
dogs. Actually, RFID remains a hot topic in hardware,
software and retail markets, but other applications
of the technology, which marries microchips with
radio antennas to foster easier tracking of inventory,
have taken wing, or at least paw. On Friday, Digital
Angel, which sells RFID scanning and communications
tools for tracking everything from airplanes to farm
animals, announced that it had won a $600,000 deal
to start affixing radio tags to dogs in Portugal.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5281608.html
http://news.com.com/Portuguese+pooches+to+get+radio-tagged/2100-7343_3-5281608.html
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Police to retain DNA records of cleared suspects
Police will be able to keep DNA and fingerprint
records of innocent people on file indefinitely
following a landmark legal ruling yesterday. The
House of Lords, the highest court in England and
Wales, upheld earlier rulings by the High Court
and Court of Appeal against two people who wanted
their records destroyed by South Yorkshire Police
after separate criminal investigations against
them were dropped. Five law lords unanimously
ruled that the need to solve crimes outweighed
civil liberties concerns.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07/23/police_dna_retention/
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