NewsBits for April 15, 2005
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Polo Ralph Lauren says software glitch resolved
Clothing retailer Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. said
Friday that a glitch in its software that set
off an alert about the theft of credit card
information has been repaired. Spokeswoman
Nancy Murray said that the New York-based
company was notified last fall that fraudulent
charges were showing up on some credit cards.
Bank card issuers, she said, asked Polo Ralph
Lauren to check its records.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/11405508.htm
Ralph Lauren, HSBC in data breach debacle
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/15/ralph_lauren_loses_data/
ID theft stirs lawmakers
http://www.fcw.com/article88597-04-15-05-Web
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Hacker invades Anchorage airport Web site
A hacker broke into the Web site of the Ted
Stevens Anchorage International Airport and
replaced arrival and departure times with
a waving Turkish flag. Screens also displayed
a steely eyed man's face in the lower right
corner. Beneath it was a message crediting
a Turkish hacker who goes by the handle
"iSKORPiTX" for the cybervandalism.
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2005-04-13-ala-airport-hacking_x.htm
Vietnamese Web sites attacked, Turkish hacker takes blame
The defaced homepages of Web sites have been
left with the phrase: Hacked by iSKORPiTX
SELAMLARINI SUNAR (Turkish hacker)-DUNYA
MARKASI TAKLITLERINDEN SAKININIZ best regards
to all the world. The hacker calls himself
iSKORPiTX. After the attacks, he posted
a list of hacked Web sites on the Internet
at http://www.zone-h.org. He said that five
Vietnamese Web sites were hacked into in just
one day on April 11, including some government
Web sites with the domain names gov.vn and
edu.vn.
http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/?catid=3&newsid=6150
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Japan suspects cyber attack on sites
Japan's police and defence agencies said
on Thursday they had come under cyber attack,
amid reports a Chinese website was calling for
the jamming of Japanese servers amid a heated
bilateral row. "Access to the homepage of the
National Police Agency was hampered from around
9pm (1200 GMT on Wednesday) to 3am (1700 GMT),"
the national police said in a statement.
http://cooltech.iafrica.com/technews/432506.htm
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Security websites taken down by unhappy hackers
Unable to take criticism, code writers resort
to DDoS attack. Two prominent websites that
specialise in remote access software have been
taken offline by a DDoS attack orchestrated
by a group of hackers who have taken offence
at comments posted about them. Rootkit.com,
an established website run by security expert
Greg Hoglund, has been offline for almost a week.
http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?NewsID=3465
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GEORGIA FEDERAL COURT HALTS INTERNET TAX SCAM
The Justice Department announced today that a
federal court in Atlanta, Georgia has permanently
barred Jonathan D. Luman of Stockbridge, Georgia
from selling a tax scam known as The TaxBuster
Guide. The court also ordered Luman to provide
the government his customers names, mailing and
e-mail addresses, and phone and Social Security
numbers; to notify his customers of the injunction;
and to post a copy of the order on his website.
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2005/April/05_tax_190.htm
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A milky hacker
A worker of the Nizhegorodski milk plant,
Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia, put information on
his colleagues on the Internet, including data
on their salaries. He was fined 400 Russian
rubles (~$15) for infringing the right of
inviolability of private life and personal
secret.
http://www.crime-research.org/news/15.04.2005/1157/
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IM worm hits Reuters
Reuters was temporarily forced to shut down
its instant messaging service Thursday after
a computer worm spread across its network.
The culprit - Kelvir-U - is a variant of a worm
family that targets MSN and Windows Messenger
clients and previously posed no risk to Reuters'
tightly-controlled messaging network. This is
the first incident where a virus has targeted
a privately controlled user community,
IM security firm IMlogic reports.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/15/im_worm_runs_amok/
Reuters shuts down messaging system to fight Kelvir worm
http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,101124,00.html
Kelvir IM worm spreading fast
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39195196,00.htm
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Cybersecurity officials turn tables on congressional graders
Federal computer security executives, who have been
given an overall grade of D+ from a congressional
committee for their efforts to secure information
technology systems, have returned the favor with
tough grades of their own for the rating process.
Each year, the House Government Reform Committee
issues grades on agencies' compliance with the
2002 Federal Information Security Management Act.
The grades are based on information reported by
each agency and federal inspectors general to
Congress and the Office of Management and Budget.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0405/041505p1.htm
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Evans stresses security standards
A greater emphasis on uniform security practices
might be necessary to strengthen federal information
systems' security, an Office of Management and
Budget official testified at a recent congressional
hearing. Karen Evans, OMB's administrator for
e-government and information technology, told
members of the House Government Reform Committee
last week that a new cybersecurity line-of-business
initiative could become a basis for the next wave
of security improvements.
http://www.fcw.com/article88595-04-15-05-Web
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Network to stalk kid porn predators
A city cop is warning child porn predators they're
under renewed attack after the province announced
yesterday plans for an integrated team of police
to battle the sickos. "I hope they're turning on
their heels. We're coming," said Det. Randy Wickins
of the Edmonton Police Service's Internet Child
Exploitation (ICE) team, an existing mini-version
of what the province now plans to set up Alberta-
wide.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/EdmontonSun/News/2005/04/15/998291-sun.html
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Argentina cracks down on kiddy porn
Argentine police cracked down Tuesday on a child
Internet porn ring that operated across Latin America
and Spain, La Nacion reported. Authorities raided
private homes and cyber cafes in five provinces,
including Buenos Aires. There were no immediate
reports on the number of people arrested or their
names, as officials were still trying to apprehend
other suspects. Officials did say, however, there
were more than 20 different Tuesday police actions.
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=97347
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Internet child porn arrests rocket
ARRESTS and convictions for internet child porn
offences have more than quadrupled in just two
years. Figures published last month showed 2,234
were cautioned or charged with crimes in England
and Wales in 2003, compared with 549 in 2001 -
a rise of 307%. Children's charity NCH pointed
out 2003's figure was 64 times the 35 offences
recorded in 1998, the year when the legal
framework for child pornography was established.
http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/men/news/s/153/153212_internet_child_porn_arrests_rocket.html
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U.N. urges companies to crack down on child porn
Credit card companies and technology firms should
do more to combat child pornography on the Internet,
a United Nations expert said Wednesday. Credit card
companies may unwittingly process illegal Web
transactions, Juan Miguel Petit, U.N. special
rapporteur on child pornography said. "Credit card
companies shouldn't wait for the problem to arrive,"
Petit said at a news briefing. "The international
credit card companies and also the manufacturers
of hardware and software...surely know more than...
governments about these problems and how to fight
them."
http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5669179.html
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Small firms plagued by security fears
Hacking and viruses top concern for UK's small
and medium-sized businesses. Security has been
identified as the number one IT concern for the
UK's small and medium-sized businesses, research
published today has claimed. The first annual
IT Issues Survey, conducted by PC World Business,
found that almost 60 per cent of British businesses
admitted to being generally unprepared and under
resourced to handle security and virus threats.
http://www.vnunet.com/news/1162510
UK banks failing the security challenge
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39195199,00.htm
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New game helps kids stay safe on Internet
Having trouble navigating cyberspace, kids?
Never fear George Jetson is here. Jetson,
Kim Possible and other pop-culture characters
are part of a new interactive game designed
to help children understand and stay safe
on the Internet. Called MySecureCyberspace,
the game was the result of a collaboration
between Carnegie Mellon University's Cylab
and its Information Networking Institute.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7508280/
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As spam filters improve, attention shifts to containment
There's a new strategy in the spam battle: Call
it containment. Filters for blocking junk e-mail
from inboxes have improved to the point that
doing much more will needlessly kill legitimate
e-mail, said Carl Hutzler, America Online Inc.'s
anti-spam coordinator. So e-mail gatekeepers are
shifting gears. Now they're getting more aggressive
at keeping spam from leaving their systems in
the first place. EarthLink Inc., for instance,
is phasing in a requirement that customers'
mail programs submit passwords before it will
send out their e-mail.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/11404602.htm
Stopping spam at the source
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7515809/
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Security, Privacy, Reliability Among Risks Of VoIP
After four years of pondering, Bruce Stevens is
finally ready to buy a service for making phone
calls cheaply over the Internet. The New Orleans
graphics designer just isn't ready yet to rely
on it as his sole means of communications: He'll
keep his cell phone, even if it means an extra
$60 a month.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1293&e=10&u=/cmp/20050415/tc_cmp/160900207&sid=95573432
Microsoft silent over IP vulnerability claims
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39195206,00.htm
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Controversial terrorism database shuts down
A three-year-old crime and terrorism database that
came under fire for sharing and collecting personal
information was closing down Friday because a federal
grant ran out. Elements of the Multistate Anti-
Terrorism Information Exchange -- Matrix -- may
live on if individual states decide to fund it
on their own, said Bob Cummings, executive vice
president for the Institute for Intergovernmental
Research in Tallahassee, which helped coordinate
the Matrix network.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/11405499.htm
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Tips to Avoid Phish Hooks and Prevent Identity Threats
According to the Gartner Group, about 57 million
consumers have received fraudelent yet seemingly
legitimate e-mails, and 11 million of these users
have been scammed into going to Web sites posing
as financial institutions. From there, these sites
try to get users to reveal personal information
such as credit card numbers, PINs, Social Security
numbers and more.
http://www.eseminarslive.com/article2/0%2C2290%2C1775963%2C00.asp
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Student ordered to stop posting old tests
A University of Wyoming student who tried
to sell copies of old tests over the Internet,
then gave them away, has been ordered by the
school to remove the material from his Web
site. Aaron Narva also was charged with
violating university regulations; a hearing
was scheduled for April 20.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/04/15/old.tests.website.ap/index.html
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Virus writers have girlfriends - official
The stereotype of virus writers as spotty nerds
who can't pull is well wide of the mark, according
to an expert on the psychology of virus writers.
Sarah Gordon, senior principal research engineer
at Symantec Security Response, said that the more
recent idea that virus writing activity is focused
mainly around money-making scams is inaccurate.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/15/vxers_have_gfs/
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Tempe man warns of Internet scam that led to heartbreak
The Russian brunette he met online appeared
to be everything Steven Coffman was looking
for. An Internet dating service sparked their
whirlwind romance. She professed her love
through dozens of emails and they discussed
the future, their families, and visiting each
other in letters and phone calls. "With every
your letter I feel that we becoming more closer
and closer," she wrote once. "Every time, when
I reading your letter, my mood become well and
my heart is knocking so strong!"
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0414russian-ON.html
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