NewsBits for December 20, 2004 ************************************************************ Pregnant-slay probe followed cyber trail In the end, it wasn't a fingerprint or a blood spatter that led authorities to the woman suspected of strangling a mother-to-be and cutting the baby from her womb. It was an 11-digit computer code. Police zeroed in on Lisa Montgomery in the most 21st century of ways, by trolling computer records, examining online message boards and most important tracing an IP address, 65.150.168.223, to a computer at her Melvern, Kan., home. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-12-20-mo-slaying_x.htm Abducted baby found; woman charged with kidnapping A missing baby who was cut from the womb of her slain mother was found safe Friday at a rural Kansas home, and federal authorities charged a woman who lives there with kidnapping. Lisa M. Montgomery, 36, of Melvern, Kan., south of Topeka, is charged with kidnapping resulting in death. The charge stemmed from the abduction of the child and the killing of her mother, Bobbie Jo Stinnett, U.S. Attorney Todd Graves said. Authorities could not say whether anyone else would be charged. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/10449152.htm http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/10447485.htm - - - - - - - - - - Chinese man sentenced to 2 years for Silicon Valley fraud A Chinese business consultant was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison after pleading guilty to unauthorized access into a computer network and intent to defraud a Silicon Valley company. The sentencing is the latest in a string of cases in Silicon Valley_ most still winding their way through the courts - that revolve around the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 or attempts by Chinese-born businessmen to defraud U.S. companies. In one of the most high- profile cases, Chinese natives Fei Ye and Ming Zhong were arrested at San Francisco International Airport in 2001 with suitcases allegedly crammed with trade secrets and at least $10,000 in equipment stolen from U.S. tech companies. Prosecutors say the men stole microchip blueprints and computer aided design scripts from Sun Microsystems Inc., NEC Electronics Corp., Transmeta Corp. and Trident Microsystems Inc., and they planned to start a microprocessor company with the Chinese government. Thursday's sentencing hinged on whether Yan Ming Shan, 35, broke into computer networks to steal corporate secrets. http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/10442610.htm http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2004-12-18-corp-spy_x.htm http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/yeIndict.htm - - - - - - - - - - Man Gets 6 Months in NASA Hacking Case A Portland man was sentenced to six months in federal prison for breaking into a NASA computer systems in 2001 and causing more than $200,000 in damage. Gregory Aaron Herns, 21, was a 17- year-old computer whiz at an alternative high school in southeast Portland when he hacked into the computer system at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/10449042.htm http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/20/nasa_cracker_jailed/ - - - - - - - - - - Teenage British Trojan distributor escapes jail A 16 year-old Briton was convicted last week for releasing the Randex trojan, which was used to relay spam through infected PCs. The teenager had his six-month sentence suspended on probation by the South Cheshire juvenile court in Crewe. He belonged to a group of juveniles from the US and Canada, which offered spammers access to a botnet of compromised PCs in change for money. Because all suspects are juvenile, none will have to serve a prison sentence, according to Heise Online, the German website. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/20/uk_randex_worm_teenager_escapes_jail/ - - - - - - - - - - eBay executive's arrest sparks debate over India's cyber laws Officials in India's technology industry expressed anger and concern over the jailing of the CEO of eBay's Indian subsidiary because of the online sale of a sex video involving teenagers. The U.S. State Department has also made inquiries about the case. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/10459986.htm http://computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/story/0,10801,98414,00.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/20/ebay_india_scandal/ http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-12-20-india-ebay-arrest_x.htm http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6738069/ - - - - - - - - - - US ISP wins $1bn damages from spammers A small US ISP has been awarded damages of $1bn against three spammers by an Iowa judge. The surreal size of the award was arrived at under an Iowa law which fines spammers $10 for each unsolicited emai they send. CIS Internet Services supplies email services for 5,000 customers in and around Clinton, Iowa. At one point in 2000 the ISP was receiving up to 10 million spams a day - mostly directed to non-existent email addresses. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/10163 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/internetprivacy/2004-12-19-spam-suit_x.htm http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6732329/ UK's biggest spammer charged with more offences http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/20/more_charges_for_uk_spammer/ - - - - - - - - - - Dutch companies fined 7k for eBay typosquatting Dutch graphic design company JustDesign and customer J. van Dalen have been ordered by The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to pay a fine of 7000 for registering the domain name e-bay.nl. The name was used for a website with information on Van Dalen, a company which inspects buildings. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/20/dutch_firms_fined_for_ebay_typosquatting/ - - - - - - - - - - Popular BitTorrent site shuts down after flurry of suits One of the Web's most popular file-sharing sites has shut down less than a week after Hollywood announced a flurry of lawsuits against operators of such Internet servers. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/10166 http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5498326.html http://news.com.com/BitTorrent+file-swapping+networks+face+crisis/2100-1025_3-5498326.html http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/technology/10461249.htm The BitTorrent P2P file-sharing system http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/18/bittorrent_measurements_analysis/ Popular file-sharing site shuts down http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6738716/s - - - - - - - - - - Cyber crime takes Bhubaneswar by storm Obscene mails seems to be the order of the day in Bhubaneswar, for now a prestigious management institute has lodged a cyber crime complaint with the police. The Xavier Institute of Management has reportedly told the police that its students and staff are being flooded with obscene e-mails from anonymous senders. http://www.webindia123.com/news/arch_showdetails.asp?id=55582&cat=India&year=2004 - - - - - - - - - - Punters warned over 'matrix' web scam UK consumers are being warned to be on their guard against a new scam offering "free" electronic gadgets in return for buying low-value products over the web. Described as "matrix schemes", shoppers are promised the chance of getting a valuable "free gift" - such as a mobile phone, ipod,or PDA - if they cough up, say, PS20 for a mobile phone signal booster or a CD-ROM containing ringtones and games. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/20/oft_scam_alert/ - - - - - - - - - - Google: We've fixed desktop search tool flaw Google says it has fixed a flaw that could have allowed hackers to search the contents of PCs running the company's desktop search tool. According to a statement issued Monday by the Web search company, it has rolled out a fix for the vulnerability. The flaw in the tool was discovered in late November by a Rice University computer scientist and two of his students. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5497885.html http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,98417,00.html http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/20/google_desktop_flaw/ http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Security-Hole-in-Google-Desktop-Search&story_id=29151 - - - - - - - - - - Security vendors facing the big squeeze Figures on the past quarter's enterprise security market show the extent to which security and networking are mixing, to the disadvantage of companies producing traditional standalone security devices. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1160166 - - - - - - - - - - Next-generation security blueprint on the presses A blueprint for the next-generation of network security is close to release. The plans are for a policy-based security architecture of the future, pitched at becoming an industry model. The Network Applications Consortium (NAC), which includes major IT corporations such as Bechtel, Boeing, GlaxoSmithKline and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance will be publish on 1 January, and is the result of more than a year's worth of work. It is titled: "Enterprise Security Architecture: A Framework and Template for Policy-Driven Security." http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?NewsID=2841&Page=1&pagePos=6 - - - - - - - - - - Increased security measures create a password overload Before she begins work each morning, Kate Prior must enter eight computer passwords. Each must contain at least eight characters, and most require letters and numbers. Every three months, she must change them all. How does the 28-year-old monitor of drug trials remember her passwords? Easy: They're written on a blue Post-it note affixed to her computer. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,98426,00.html - - - - - - - - - - The chip and PIN insecurity card A supposedly more secure method of authorising credit cards transactions in the UK may play into the hands of fraudsters, a leading IT security expert warns. A banking industry organisation says such fears are misplaced. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/20/pin_security_warning/ Government keeps the secrets on ID scheme legal advice http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/20/goldsmith_idscheme_advice/ - - - - - - - - - - We were sold into porn slavery, cry African islands The government of the tiny African islands Sao Tome and Principe has made a terrible discovery - it has been sold into porn slavery. The country' infrastructure minister, Deolindo Costa de Boa Esperanca, was intrigued to find out what this Internet thing was when the Net's overseeing organisation ICANN held its annual meeting in South Africa earlier this month. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/20/sao_tome_denounces_own_domain/ - - - - - - - - - - New Computer? Six Steps to Safer Surfing To see the e-mail I get every day from readers about security issues is to develop a deep discomfort with the state of computing today. Keeping a Windows PC safe can demand a high degree of vigilance -- if cars needed the same constant care and feeding, the Beltway would revert to a country byway. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9658-2004Dec18.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.