NewsBits for April 15, 2005 ************************************************************ 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 - - - - - - - - - - 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 - - - - - - - - - - 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 - - - - - - - - - - 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 - - - - - - - - - - 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 - - - - - - - - - - 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/ - - - - - - - - - - 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 - - - - - - - - - - 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 - - - - - - - - - - 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 - - - - - - - - - - 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 - - - - - - - - - - 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 - - - - - - - - - - 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 - - - - - - - - - - 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 - - - - - - - - - - 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 - - - - - - - - - - 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/ - - - - - - - - - - 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/ - - - - - - - - - - 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 - - - - - - - - - - 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 - - - - - - - - - - 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 - - - - - - - - - - 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 - - - - - - - - - - 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/ - - - - - - - - - - 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 *********************************************************** 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 2000-2005, NewsBits.net, Campbell, CA.