NewsBits for November 8, 2004 ************************************************************ Australian Imprisoned for Online Scam A Sydney man was imprisoned for more than five years Monday for duping people into sending him millions of dollars in a global Internet ruse known as the Nigerian scam. Nick Marinellis pleaded guilty in the New South Wales District Court to 10 counts of fraud for taking part in the scam promising people millions from Nigerian bank accounts in return for an "administration fee." Prosecutors said Marinellis fleeced his victims of 5 million Australian dollars, or $3.8 million dollars. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/10128315.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/08/aussie_419er_jailed/ http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,65631,00.html http://www.vnunet.com/news/1159246 - - - - - - - - - - 8 eBay Sellers Admit to Phony Bids Eight eBay sellers were ordered to pay nearly $90,000 in restitution and fines after admitting they bid up products online to inflate the prices. New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said more than 120 people will receive restitution in the settlement of the three cases, which wrapped up last week in state courts. Spokesman Darren Dopp said the cases stemmed from specific complaints, but the office has not conducted a broad investigation of the online auction industry and doesn't know how widespread the practice of phony bidding is. http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041107/D867AA500.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32944-2004Nov7.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-11-07-baaaad-ebayers_x.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/08/ebay_auction/ - - - - - - - - - - 2 accused of seeking sex with minors Two men were arrested in San Jose last week for making arrangements over the Internet to molest children, according to the San Jose Police Department. Thursday afternoon, Anthony Brown, 40, was apprehended for allegedly making arrangements with a detective who was posing as the mother of a 12-year-old girl to take her daughter away for the weekend for sex. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/10121594.htm - - - - - - - - - - School's Stolen Computers Found on EBay Two students are arrested in the theft of $50,000 worth of equipment after a teacher spotted the items for sale on the Internet. A Palos Verdes High School teacher guessed this week that whoever took $50,000 worth of computers from his classroom would try to fence them in cyberspace. He guessed right. On a hunch, 39-year-old Alan Evans combed listings on the Internet auction site EBay. "And there they were," he said. "I wasn't surprised." (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-pv6nov06,1,2692713.story - - - - - - - - - - Hot new video games hit by piracy A month before the video game's scheduled release this coming Tuesday, illegal copies of the hot sci-fi action title "Halo 2" were already circulating on the Internet. It's had a lot of company lately. Several highly anticipated games, such as "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" and "Half-Life 2," have fallen victim to copyright theft. Illegal, often incomplete versions have appeared on file-sharing networks, news groups and Web sites. http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/fun.games/11/05/videogametheft.ap/index.html - - - - - - - - - - Pirated U2 album hits Net Pirated versions of U2's new album "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" have emerged on Internet file-sharing networks two weeks before it goes on sale, throwing into question its official release date. A London spokeswoman for the band on Monday would only say that U2 was aware of the illicit copies, but that no decision had yet been made on changing the release date. http://news.com.com/Pirated+U2+album+hits+Net/2100-1027_3-5443143.html - - - - - - - - - - New kind of the Internet fraud represented by Russians Russian spammers represented new kind of Internet fraud. Thousands Australians received messages proposing participate in two-week trainings on the Internet payments. Trainings seemed to be organized by the Credit Suisse Group for involving new potential staff. http://www.crime-research.org/news/06.11.2004/771/ - - - - - - - - - - Iran Jails More Journalists and Blocks Web Sites Iran has continued its crackdown on journalists, with two arrests in the past week, and has moved against pro-democracy Web sites, blocking hundreds of sites in recent months and making several arrests. Mahboubeh Abbas-Gholizadeh, the editor of the magazine Farzaneh and an advocate of expanded rights for women, was arrested Nov. 1 after she returned from London, where she had attended the European Social Forum. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/international/middleeast/08iran.html - - - - - - - - - - Virginia Hopes Spam Verdicts Send Message A new state law makes fraudulent, unsolicited mass e-mailings a felony, and in prosecutors' first conviction, the jury urges prison time. From a nondescript house in a neighboring state, Jeremy Jaynes and his sister raked in more than $24 million from fake Internet offers of penny- stock picker schemes, nonexistent FedEx refunds, cheap drugs and pornography. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-na-spam7nov07,1,2537498.story - - - - - - - - - - 'Project Endurance' tries to tackle online crime Lloyds TSB, Microsoft and eBay have teamed up with the CBI and the Government to launch a consumer education campaign on Internet security. A group of IT vendors and other interested parties have come together to try and change attitudes to Internet security. Project Endurance will be launched at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Conference in Birmingham by Mike O'Brien MP, minister of state for energy and e-Commerce, and Digby Jones, director general of the CBI. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39172941,00.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/08/project_endurance_launch/ Enforcement, not flawlessness, key to security http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/1108/web-security-11-08-04.asp - - - - - - - - - - Cyber laboratory on the anvil There is a plan to set up a cyber laboratory to aid Cyber Crime Cell attached to the Central Crime Branch of the city police to further enhance investigative capabilities, R Natraj, City Commissioner of Police, said today. He was speaking at the inaugural session of the fifth one-day workshop on Combating Counterfeiting organised by Manufacturers' Association of Information Technology (MAIT). The workshop was aimed at sensitising the law enforcement agencies like police, customs and excise on the increasing counterfeit crimes in IT products and services in the country. http://newstodaynet.com/06NOV/LD6.HTM - - - - - - - - - - Contractors struggle with federal security demands Government IT administrators sweat over FISMA compliance, but pity the poor private-sector security officers who find they must meet the same systems security requirements. As the Federal Information Security Management Act is pushed out to government contractors, standards for compliance are a mystery to many, said Todd Fitzgerald, systems security officer for United Government Services LLC of Milwaukee. He should know: His company has had to figure out standards to meet security requirements for its work processing medical claims. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/27856-1.html - - - - - - - - - - Security stats sobering as CSI show opens Several companies will be making product announcements at this week's Computer Security Institute (CSI) show in Washington, but the show opened on an eye-opening note with a new study indicating network attacks are on the increase. According to a research report sponsored by Britestream Networks Inc., 76% of respondents believe their network is more secure than it was a year earlier, but at the same time 81% say that attacks on their network are increasing. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,97343,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Czech virus writer joins anti-virus firm A prominent former virus writer has secured a job developing anti-virus software. Benny, one-time member of the 29A virus writing group, has begun work as the main developer of Zoner Anti-Virus (ZAV), according to an entry on his home page. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/08/vxer_joins_av_zoner/ - - - - - - - - - - Group aims to create hallmark of security Security software rivals are teaming up to set a baseline standard for products designed to protect Web-based applications. The partnership, to be formally announced Tuesday at the Computer Security Institute's annual conference in Washington, D.C., will introduce joint testing of software. The founding members of the group, the Applications Security Consortium, are F5 Networks, Imperva, NetContinuum and Teros, which manufacture network security applications. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5443154.html http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/27857-1.html - - - - - - - - - - CA gives anti-spyware a consumer face Computer Associates International launched its first set of anti-spyware products on Monday, retooling the applications it acquired from PestPatrol for both corporate customers and consumers. The Islandia, N.Y.-based software maker introduced its eTrust PestPatrol Anti- Spyware r5 product in three different packages, aimed at small and medium-size businesses, enterprise companies and consumers, respectively. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5443428.html - - - - - - - - - - McAfee unveils 2005 security suite Building on the notion of defense in depth, McAfee has bundled together its latest security applications into a single suite aimed at home users. MIS 2005, announced Monday, includes upgrades to the company's VirusScan, Personal Firewall Plus, Privacy Service and SpamKiller packages, which are designed to protect computers from viruses, hackers, spam, phishing scams and other online dangers. It also is meant to act as a safeguard against threats targeting instant- messaging software from America Online, Yahoo and Microsoft. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5443389.html - - - - - - - - - - Encryption gets personal Smartcard vendor Gemplus last week announced plans to secure wireless communications by using the name, phone number or email address of the intended recipient as the encryption key. The system is intended to be easier and cheaper to manage than the complex public key infrastructure (PKI) systems currently used for most secure enterprise communications. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1159232 - - - - - - - - - - Web's prowling predators The information age has brought about unparalleled instant connectivity. It has also introduced a scary scenario for the pop cultural narrative: the wide- open Internet, the sleazy pedophile, the attention- starved child, the dangerously naive parents. Innocent chats lead to a meeting, then to the unthinkable. Its played out around the world. Its happening locally. Earlier this month, a 47-year-old Kendallville parochial school teacher was caught in a sting by the sheriffs department in Wayne County, Mich. Allegedly using a school computer, the man thought he was having graphic sexual conversations with a 13-year-old girl. Instead he was scamming on a deputy. That would-be molester was caught. http://www.crime-research.org/news/08.11.2004/773/ - - - - - - - - - - Taking the Leap to PEAP for Wireless Access points are proliferating, but there still are no formal policies or standards in place. Someone has to keep an eye on things. It's strange. Our company has yet to embrace wireless as a global deployment, yet every couple of months, the number of access points seems to double. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,97234,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Counterterror data sharing will rely on XML The Homeland Security Department will tweak the new Data Reference Model to create a data model for the exchange of counterterrorism data. Under Executive Order 13356, DHS data architect Michael Daconta is leading a revision of the Federal Enterprise Architectures 30-page DRM to share counterterrorism data while preserving individual privacy. http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/27854-1.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. 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