NewsBits for May 2, 2005
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Data for 600,000 Time Warner employees MIA
Personal information for 600,000 current and
former Time Warner employees has been lost,
the company announced on Monday, potentially
setting the stage for one of the largest
cases yet of identity theft.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5692534.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7711667/
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,67409,00.html
http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,101500,00.html
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HK man pleades innocent to sharing movies online
A Hong Kong man on Friday pleaded innocent
to violating copyright laws by uploading
three movies onto the Internet using the
popular BitTorrent file-sharing software.
Chan Nai-ming, 38, was arrested in January
for allegedly uploading the Hollywood films,
"Daredevil," "Red Planet" and "Miss Congeniality,"
onto a Web site so that others could obtain
them - the first such arrest in Hong Kong.
http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/51/04-29-2005/f7ad0006883042bb.html
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Sober worm variant makes the rounds
A new variant of the mass-mailing Sober worm
has been discovered and is spreading among
consumer PC users, security experts said Monday.
Sober.P, which operates in a similar fashion
to other Sober worms, uses a subject header
in an e-mail to try to entice people into
opening an attachment. The virus then harvests
e-mail addresses from the victim and directs
a barrage of spam to those addresses.
http://news.com.com/Sober+worm+variant+makes+the+rounds/2100-7349_3-5692718.html
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Cabir Mobile Virus Spreads Across 20 Countries
The Cabir virus has now been detected in 20
different countries ... including in the U.S.,
China and Russia ... We found the virus in
Luxembourg two days ago and in the Netherlands
two weeks ago," said Mikko Hyppoenen, head
of antivirus research at Finnish Internet
security firm F-Secure.
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=002000001GJM
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More hacking targets iTunes, antivirus wares
Online criminals turned their attention
to antivirus software and media players
like Apple Computer's iTunes in the first
three months of 2005, as they sought new
ways to take control of peoples' computers,
according to a survey released Monday.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5692053.html
http://news.com.com/More+hacking+targets+iTunes%2C+antivirus+wares/2100-7349_3-5692053.html
Hackers aren't just picking on Microsoft: study
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2005-05-02T112914Z_01_N29265580_RTRIDST_0_TECH-TECH-SECURITY-DC.XML
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Netcraft: 5,600 Phishing Sites Since December
Netcraft has tracked and blocked 5,600 known
phishing sites since the December launch of
its anti-phishing toolbar, which it has now
updated with a risk rating feature that warns
users about new sites with phishy characteristics,
based on trends observed in known phishing scams.
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/05/05/02/188202.shtml
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Man indicted on child porn charges
A Concord man suspected of mailing child
pornography hidden in a greeting card to
a federal prison inmate in North Carolina
has been indicted by a federal grand jury
in Oakland. The indictment handed up Thursday
charges William Glenn Olsen, 38, with one
felony count each of distribution by mail
of child pornography and possession of
child pornography. If convicted, he faces
a mandatory minimum of 15 years' imprisonment.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/crime_courts/11542823.htm
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Disgrace for former city councillor
A lawyer and former Queenstown district councillor,
found with hundreds of child pornography images
on his work computer, has been fined nearly $3000.
Wayne McKeague pleaded guilty to two charges
of downloading child pornography after being
caught up in an international investigation by
the American Department of Homeland Security.
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_national_story_skin/531544%3fformat=html
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Trial to start on threats sent to top eBay officials
Last summer, with no fanfare, federal prosecutors
indicted a New York man for sending threats
to eBay and unidentified executives of the San
Jose-based online auction giant. In a case with
an unusual cloak of pretrial secrecy, documents
filed in federal court do not name the targets
of the alleged threats. But as it turns out,
Florin Horicianu, who is charged with sending
the threats in e-mails and other correspondence,
aimed high: He is accused of directing them
at billionaire eBay chairman and founder
Pierre Omidyar and Chief Executive Meg
Whitman, among others.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/11544897.htm
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Business inaction could lead to data privacy laws
U.S. businesses for years have urged the
government to let them set computer-security
standards of their own, but their inability
to do so could now prompt Congress to step
in, experts say. Those who worry that regulation
may stifle innovation say the business community
may have already missed an opportunity to prove
the government's help is not needed.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5691942.html
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Illicit downloading is now tantamount to domestic terrorism
A little sneaky law-making - and suddenly
illicit downloading and file-sharing is
a federal crime in the US. Interesting battle
lines were drawn with the family entertainment
and copyright bill,2005, signed into law by
President Bush last week. American drafters
habitually smuggle in tough regulation under
the skirts of something beguilingly innocent.
On the face of it, the "Family Movie Act"
(which the new measure incorporates) is
all motherhood and apple pie.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1474673,00.html
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Russian piracy is on the rise
Two senators known for carefully taking public
stands have stepped into the intellectual
property arena by calling for the U.S. to
get tough on Russia and China for allegedly
inadequate IP protection. Sens. Richard Lugar
(R-Ind.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) introduced
a resolution on Tuesday -- World Intellectual
Property Day -- criticizing the two countries
for "failing to enforce (IP) laws."
http://www.crime-research.org/news/01.05.2005/1195/
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New list of critical vulnerabilities released for Q1 '05
The SANS Institute of Bethesda, Md., has
begun updating its top 20 list of Internet
vulnerabilities on a quarterly basis in an
effort to give administrators more timely
data to help prioritize patching. Since
new Internet threats are discovered daily,
user organizations that rely on the top
20 list have been asking for more frequent
updates, the organization announced.
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/35719-1.html
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Smart phone owners concerned over security threats
Most smartphone users are aware of the
increasing risk of viruses attacking mobile
devices, but they still store sensitive data
on their phones. That's according to a survey
of 300 American adults by security company
Symantec, which revealed that 73 per cent
of smart phone users know about viruses and
other attacks that target the devices.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/02/symantec_smartphone_secuity_survey/
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Data leak highlights common mistake
Savvy computer users easily uncover secrets
Just a few clicks were enough to reveal names,
training procedures and other secrets the U.S.
military thought it had blacked out from an
electronic report. The data leak resulted from
a type of mistake that is becoming increasingly
common as government agencies and corporations
scrap paper in favor of cheaper, faster
distribution online.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7712290/
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AOL treats emergency e-mails as spam
Frequent alerts mistaken as junk messages
Emergency managers in Indian River County,
hard-hit by hurricanes last year, thought
the best way to get out weather alerts was
by e-mail until they learned that AOL
was tagging the messages as spam. Because
we send out mail in large numbers, it
becomes a pattern for spam senders, said
Basil Dancy, a county computer software
engineer.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7709995/
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-05-02-aol-fla-county_x.htm
http://computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/groupware/story/0,10801,101499,00.html
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Papal succession fuels April religious spam blitz
Junk mail relating to religion has soared during
April, accounting for one in 10 spam emails.
Porn, medicines and financial scams - spam's
unholy trinity - each lost ground to religious
junk mail last month, according to a study by
email management specialist Email Systems.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/02/religious_spam/
Italians Seek to Close Website Showing Pope as Nazi
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=8347984
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New spyware bill needs a rewrite
Spyware's creators must be uniquely bad people.
Anyone who distributes malicious code that
infects your computer and surreptitiously
monitors what you're doing deserves what's
coming to them. The problem is that the
measures in an ostensibly anti-spyware
bill due for a vote in the U.S. House
of Representatives may not be the best
way to punish these folks.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5692376.html
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Top tips to stop spam
It's not big and it's certainly not clever,
but spam is an unfortunate by-product of digital
communication that most email users will have
to contend with on a daily basis. While it's
hard to eradicate spam from your inbox altogether,
there are ways to limit the amount of spam you
have to weed out from the legitimate emails
you receive.
http://www.computeractive.co.uk/features/1162767
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'Cyber theft case rekindled BPO debate'
Jaithirth 'Jerry' Rao cannot predict the future.
But he very nearly did. Some time back at an
India Today event, where he was the moderator,
the Chairman and CEO of MphasiS had this to
say about security at Indian BPO centres. ". . .
when India gets the reputation of having poor
security, the whole industry could get into
trouble. There is no perfect security.
One September day the most unsafe place
was downtown Manhattan. I think we are
at it because we are concerned that it
is a marketing issue."
http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2005/may/02inter.htm
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CNN on the Spam Attack?
The blogosphere is buzzing with rumors about
a strange viral marketing campaign concerning
CNN, that may be promoting the cable channel
or squelching criticism of it -- or perhaps
both at the same time. Earlier this month,
blogger Nick Lewis noticed a strange post
about CNN on his blog. The comment was critical
of some new shows on CNN, but also included
detail about the shows, their show times and
the anchors hosting them.
http://wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,67371,00.html
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iPod blamed for spike in subway crime
The iPod craze has spawned a crime wave in
city subways. Police told the city transportation
board on Wednesday that 50 iPods have been reported
stolen on the subways so far this year, compared
to none during the same period last year. Cell
phone thefts have more than doubled to 165 from
82 last year.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/ptech/04/28/subway.crime.ipod.ap/index.html
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Monitor your home from afar with Web cameras
Wondering what the kids are doing when you're
not home? Traveling and need to see what
triggered your alarm? Whether you're 10
minutes by car or 10 hours by plane from home,
you can see and hear what's happening from
a Web browser. To get started, you'll need
a broadband Internet connection, an 802.11b/g
home network and a camera kit bundled with
the necessary hardware and software.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/2005-05-02-home-monitoring_x.htm
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Who answers 911?
It's the phone number that can help save
a life. But calling 911 and expecting help
to come running is becoming more of a gamble
than ever before -- especially in a tech-savvy
place like Silicon Valley, where people rely
heavily on cell phones and are more likely
to try out a new technology such as Internet
phone service.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/11543832.htm
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