NewsBits for August 31, 2004 ************************************************************ Police question report of India code theft The president of Jolly Technologies hasn't filed a formal complaint, they say. Police officials investigating the alleged theft of source code at Jolly Technologies' Mumbai development center are questioning aspects of the security incursion reported by the company. Jolly lacked a security policy at its Mumbai center, according to investigators examining the alleged theft of company code by a development center employee. http://computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/story/0,10801,95615,00.html - - - - - - - - - - E-mail record undermines prosecution Laci Peterson may have been checking her e-mail and searching the Internet for garden items about 8:45 the morning of the day she disappeared, a computer forensics expert acknowledged Monday at the Scott Peterson murder trial. The admission by computer forensics detective Lydell Wall undermines a prosecution theory that Scott Peterson killed his pregnant wife the night before. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/laci_peterson/9542579.htm - - - - - - - - - - DOD reveals viral infection A virus infected two computers managed by the Army Space and Missile Defense Command operating on the Defense Department's classified Internet recently, according to Lt. Gen Larry Dodgen, head of the command. Dodgen, speaking here at the Army Director of Information Management (DOIM) conference said two computers in the Space and Missile Defense command connected to the DOD Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNET) were infected because they did not have any virus protection. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0830/web-siprnet-08-31-04.asp - - - - - - - - - - Hackers hijack federal computers Hundreds of powerful computers at the Defense Department and U.S. Senate were hijacked by hackers who used them to send spam e-mail, federal authorities say. The use of government computers was uncovered during the Justice Department's recent cybercrime crackdown. It adds another wrinkle to the use of so-called zombie PCs, which number in the millions and have bedeviled consumers and universities the past year. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2004-08-30-cyber-crime_x.htm - - - - - - - - - - High School Team's Web Site Becomes Porn Site There's action all right, but not the gridiron variety on the Web site of a high school football team's booster club. It seems the Fort Walton Beach, Fla., High School Touchdown Club let its Internet domain name lapse. The Web address was picked up by a sex site. There had been a link on the school's home page. Principal Alexis Tibbetts said the school killed the link as soon as officials found out about it. http://www.wnbc.com/education/3692854/detail.html - - - - - - - - - - Web posting of delegate info under probe The Secret Service is investigating the posting on the Internet of names and personal information about thousands of delegates to the Republication National Convention, officials said Monday. The probe focuses on anonymous postings on a Web site operated by the Independent Media Center, which describes itself as a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate and passionate tellings of the truth. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5868542/ - - - - - - - - - - Bush Forms Civil Liberties Board In an executive order issued on Friday night, President Bush responded to a key 9/11 commission recommendation by creating a civil liberties board composed of high-level government officials tasked with making sure their agencies' programs do not violate privacy and civil rights laws. Civil liberties advocates blasted the board, comparing it to the proverbial "fox guarding the hen house," and questioned how it could be effective without outside appointees and independent investigative powers. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,64784,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Australian cybercops win new powers An international cyberpolicing network setting out to snare paedophiles. Australian police acting as part of an international "cybercop" network will be able to trap paedophiles who use the Internet to "groom" or lure children for sex, under new laws passed by parliament. Justice Minister Chris Ellison said it was important that children were better protected from online sexual deviants and that the Internet did not become a pipeline of depravity. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39165028,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Report casts doubt on IRS hacking-detection system The problems found raise questions about the agency's modernization plans. An Internal Revenue Service system designed to detect hacking on the agency's modernized systems isn't working as it should, according to an audit report released this month by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's inspector general for tax administration. And that problem calls into question all of the IRS's modernization plans, the report said. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/cybercrime/story/0,10801,95616,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Inside crimes reap millions Unsophisticated criminals on the inside pose a greater threat than expert external hackers, according to a US study. The US Secret Service and security body Cert last week urged firms to tighten defences against employee-driven IT crime, after a two-year investigation provided extensive detail on staff fraud in the finance sector. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1157715 Security to be an outside job http://www.vnunet.com/news/1157716 - - - - - - - - - - Army CIO asks for better security The Army's chief information officer wants service and industry information technology officials to do a better job of protecting networks and building more secure products. "Guys, this is eating us up," said Lt. Gen. Steve Boutelle, the Army's CIO, speaking here today at the Directorate of Information Management/Army Knowledge Management Conference sponsored by AFCEA International. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0830/web-armycio-08-31-04.asp - - - - - - - - - - Organized Crime Invades Cyberspace Once the work of vandals, viruses and other malware are now being launched by criminals looking for profits. Antivirus researchers have uncovered a startling increase in organized virus- and worm-writing activity that they say is powering an underground economy specializing in identity theft and spam. "The July outbreak of MyDoom.O was yet another reminder that spammers are now using sophisticated, blended threats that mix spam, viruses and denial-of-service attacks," according to Andrew Lochart, director of product marketing at Postini Inc., an e-mail security services provider in Redwood City, Calif. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,95501,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Microsoft's War on Bugs These days, every Windows computer is a war zone of viruses, Trojans, spyware, and other malicious code trying to exploit security holes in Internet Explorer. One of the scariest of all, Download.Ject, discovered in late June, worked to log keystrokes (usernames, passwords, PINs). All this despite Bill Gates' 2002 declaration that security is his top priority. We asked Stephen Toulouse, Microsoft's security program manager, if Redmond is fighting a war it can't win. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/view.html - - - - - - - - - - Nokia goes security crazy Two new standards to save us from Microsoft. Nokia is putting its weight between two new security standards for mobile devices in the hope of attracting businesses to its products and away from Microsoft. It has signed up with Pointsec Mobile Technologies to develop encryption technology for smart phones based on its Nokia Series 60 and 80 models, which run on Symbian. It has also announced it will work with Vodafone in creating a new spec for an open standards- based mobile Java services architecture. http://www.techworld.com/mobility/news/index.cfm?NewsID=2151 - - - - - - - - - - McAfee adds intrusion prevention McAfee has pumped up network protection in its VirusScan Enterprise 8.0i software with the addition of intrusion prevention and firewall features more often associated with all-in-one security appliances. The 8.0i version protects against buffer-overflow attacks for many commonly used and exploited applications and Microsoft Windows operating system services, including Microsoft Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, Outlook and SQL Server. http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105_2-5330998.html - - - - - - - - - - E-mail sender authentication: It works but doesnt stop spam A growing number of companies are using e-mail authentication protocols to help verify the Internet domain in an e-mail senders address, but that is not keeping spam out of mailboxes. Those are among the findings in an analysis of millions of e-mails by CipherTrust Inc. of Alpharetta, Ga. The study focused on the effectiveness of Sender Policy Framework, a protocol supported by CipherTrusts IronMail e-mail security appliance. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/27124-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Know your enemy: the author of Netsky/Sasser speaks I'm often asked who writes computer viruses. The stereotype is of an antisocial, unathletic male loner sitting in a basement late at night. But Sarah Gordon, virus writer profiler for Symantec Corporation, has written that the typical teenage virus writer is more than likely to be the typical boy next door, with a girlfriend and often on good terms with his parents. There have also been several female virus writers. A recent profile in the New York Times Magazine sheds further light on the once-secret daily lives of a diverse gang of virus writers. http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/AnchorDesk/4520-7297_16-5501940.html - - - - - - - - - - DHS clarifies rules for virtual border system The Homeland Security Department today issued an interim rule covering its plans for extending the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology system to the 50 busiest land ports of entry by the end of the year. The department already has fielded the virtual border system at 115 airports and 14 seaports, where it has led to the exclusion of 196 criminal aliens from the country. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/27123-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Cops Put Brakes on Bike Protest Two days before a yearlong project to create a Wi-Fi-enabled bicycle-mounted dot-matrix printer could spray anti-Bush messages in chalk on city streets, it came to a grinding halt. On Saturday, New York City police confiscated the gadgetry-laden bike following the arrest of its inventor, who had just concluded an interview with MSNBC. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,64782,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Handheld computers aid convention security Submachine gun, check. Semiautomatic pistol, check. Personal digital assistant, check. In addition to their usual weaponry, some officers responsible for securing federal buildings at the Republican convention are armed with devices such as handheld computers. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/wireless/data/2004-08-31-gop-wireless_x.htm *********************************************************** 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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