Online Security, a global provider of computer forensics and information technology risk mitigation since 1997   Original Source:    http://www.newsbits.net January 30, 2004 - News Author:  Deputy Ron Levine NewsBits for January 30, 2004 sponsored by, Southeast Cybercrime Institute - www.cybercrime.kennesaw.edu ************************************************************ Computer whiz pleads guilty to federal hacking charges A computer whiz and former Los Alamos National Laboratory worker pleaded guilty Thursday to federal hacking charges, admitting that he broke into the networks of companies such as eBay and Qualcomm while he was a graduate student in Wisconsin. www.siliconvalley.com -------------------------- Teen Faces Bank Fraud Indictment A Mission Viejo teenager who paid more than $1.2 million last year to settle federal Internet-fraud complaints has been charged with conspiracy to defraud an Orange County bank of $450,000. Cole Bartiromo, who gained notoriety two years ago when he was alleged to have been one of the nation's youngest Internet con artists, is facing federal fraud charges in an alleged wire transfer scheme at a Wells Fargo Bank in Mission Viejo. (LA Times article, free registration required) www.latimes.com -------------------------- Net Crime Hits Gambling Sites on Super Bowl Eve Organized crime gangs are shaking down Internet betting sites on the eve of American football's Super Bowl, threatening to unleash a crippling data attack unless they pay a "protection" fee, police and site operators said. Britain's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) told Reuters it is investigating a series of attacks and threats of attacks on companies in the United Kingdom. www.crime-research.org www.wired.com www.cnn.com -------------------------- Dutch police arrest 52 in e-mail scam Dutch police have arrested 52 people suspected of defrauding gullible Internet users in one of the largest busts of the infamous "Nigerian e-mail" scam. www.usatoday.com www.cnn.com -------------------------- Reward Offered to Capture Virus Designer A quarter of a million dollar bounty is waiting for anyone who helps law enforcers nab the designer of another new computer virus. The award, put up Thursday by Microsoft Corp., is the third so far as part of a $5 million program the software giant announced in early November to help identify the authors of unusually damaging Internet infections that target the company's products. story.news.yahoo.com www.startribune.com -------------------------- MyDoom Worm Spreads as Hunt for Author Intensifies www.reuters.com -------------------------- Mimail mutant maximises Mydoom misery The devastation created by the Mydoom virus, which is still spreading, has been compounded by the detection of a previously unknown mutant of the Mimail virus. One in every five emails currently transmitted is thought to be carrying Mydoom, with four million infected emails thought to be in circulation. www.vnunet.com -------------------------- Microsoft Prepares MyDoom Defense www.washingtonpost.com -------------------------- Mydoom virus really a spam tool? msnbc.msn.com -------------------------- As victims clean up, Mydoom mail keeps coming computerworld.com -------------------------- Man indicted on child porn charges The operator of the Bellayre Hostel in Pine Hill was indicted last week on charges he was found in possession of child pornography and a weapon, police said. Thomas Pidel, 38, of Hostel Drive, Pine Hill, was indicted Jan. 23 on a three-count federal indictment charging him with receiving and possessing child pornography and possessing a weapon after he had been convicted of a crime. www.dailyfreeman.com -------------------------- Judge sends message to those with ties to child pornography Saying he wanted to send a stern message to those who collect and traffic in child pornography, a judge Thursday sentenced a Reno man to up to eight years in prison for distributing such pictures on the Internet. Jack Wesley Turner, 43, also was sentenced to up to four years for 14 counts each of felony possession of material depicting sexual conduct of a person under 16. But Washoe District Judge Jerry Polaha ran those sentences concurrent with the first charge. www.rgj.com -------------------------- Fire Inspector Arrested In Child-Porn Case A fire inspector in Osceola County, Fla., was arrested Thursday on charges of child pornography, according to authorities. Giovanni Felipe, 50, who is also known as "Dr. Demento," "Detroit" and "Giolatino" online, was reportedly arrested in Kissimmee, Fla., Thursday. About 35 images of children were allegedly found on his home computer in Miami in March 2002. A grand jury in South Florida charged Felipe with child pornography after the images were discovered. www.local16.com -------------------------- Seattle man on trial in Internet molestation case It's as much a cautionary tale for single mothers looking online for dates as it is the tale of a Seattle man accused of using the Internet to prey on one mother's child. Mark A. Black, 32, is on trial in King County Superior Court on charges of child molestation, attempted child molestation and taking indecent liberties after he wormed his way into the life of a woman and her teen daughter and molested the girl and two of her friends, prosecutors said. seattletimes.com -------------------------- Man arrested on suspicion of online enticement of a minor A 37-year-old Reno man has become the 15th suspect arrested since October on suspicion of on-line enticement of a minor by Washoe County sheriff's deputies. Arthur Harold Verrier Jr., a restaurant supervisor, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of using technology to lure a child and was held in the Washoe County Jail in lieu of $8,500 bail. "To have 15 arrests in about three months is pretty high," said Sgt. David Nikoley of the sheriff's Internet Crimes Against Children Unit. www.rgj.com -------------------------- Child porn 'was research' says lecturer A GEOGRAPHY lecturer who downloaded child pornography from the internet yesterday claimed he was involved in researching the subject. Dr Thomasz Delph-Janiurek, 42, is claiming at Swansea Crown Court he had a legitimate reason for viewing 778 images of children. Some showed children as young as four being sexually abused by adults. Delph-Janiurek, a lecturer at the University of Wales, Lampeter, at the time of the alleged offences in 2002, denies 24 charges of possessing indecent images. www.wnbc.com -------------------------- Judge to Rule On Evidence in R. Kelly Case Lawyers for R&B star R. Kelly, who is facing child pornography charges in Polk County and Chicago, have asked a judge to throw out key evidence in the singer's local case, arguing it was seized during an illegal search. In a motion filed last week, Bartow lawyer Ron Toward argued that prosecutors should not be allowed to use the evidence, including a digital camera that investigators said contained 12 nude pictures of an underage girl. The evidence was seized during what Toward described as an illegal search of one of two houses Kelly was renting in the Ridgewood Lakes subdivision near Davenport in June 2002. www.theledger.com -------------------------- Sexual abusers of children often get deals, no convictions When their 14-year-old daughter didn't come home from school two years ago, the girl's frightened parents started calling school friends. And indeed, the news was bad: The Dania Beach teen had been seduced by a man over the Internet and he had flown her to Texas to have sex. Houston police caught Alan Salazar, then 20, in bed with the teenager before anything happened. But that was the end of the family's good fortune. Although the parking valet pleaded no contest to interfering with the custody of a minor, a Broward County judge withheld adjudication, meaning Salazar can say he has never been convicted of a crime. www.miami.com -------------------------- My ordeal with internet pervert A DISTRAUGHT mum today called for a ban on internet chatrooms after a middle-aged paedophile used the web to lure her schoolgirl daughter. "They are a playground for predators," she declared. "Kids think they are chatting to other kids, but they are not. They should all be closed down - they are too dangerous." Eighteen- stone Martin Knight, 43, was today beginning a six-year jail term for having sex with the innocent 15-year-old girl. The depraved lorry driver was actively pursuing at least 10 youngsters, but he was prosecuted over just two, the 15-year-old from Wythenshawe, Manchester, and a 13-year-old from Hull. www.manchesteronline.co.uk -------------------------- Suit against sheriff cost county $50,000 The federal lawsuit filed against San Bernardino County Sheriff Gary Penrod and two others cost taxpayers $50,000 to defend only to be dropped by the plaintiff under a settlement before it went to trial. Gary Vertican's $60 million lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Riverside against Penrod, sheriff's Detective Michael DiMatteo and Probation Officer Melinda Carpenter on Feb. 24 disintegrated for lack of evidence, attorneys for both sides said Tuesday. In the lawsuit, the former Twin Peaks resident accused DiMatteo of planting evidence of child pornography on computer disks seized with a warrant from Vertican's home in February 2002. www.dailybulletin.com -------------------------- Courts close down bogus web directory An investigation by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has led to the winding up of a bogus internet directory which charged UK firms nearly £1,000 for apparently free listings. Online Business Index targeted firms in London and Manchester with offers to advertise their details on its online directory. www.vnunet.com -------------------------- Google, Booble in legal wrangle over trademarks Google, the No. 1 Web search provider, has accused an "adult search engine" named Booble of infringing on its trademarks and wants it shut down, according to the upstart porn-search site launched this month. Booble.com, a Web site that searches the Internet for pornographic content, said it was "intended to be a funny parody of the world's largest and best known search engine." www.usatoday.com -------------------------- 419ers enlist Saddam's daughter ust before last Christmas we were delighted to report that Nigerian 419ers had surfaced in post-war Baghdad and had laid their hands on large quantities of gold and cash, like you do. We now have reason to doubt these extravagant claims, because the latest intelligence - courtesy of reader Dave - suggests Saddam's booty had already left the country: www.theregister.co.uk -------------------------- Maryland e-voting vulnerable to hackers Computers that Maryland voters will use in the March primary contain “vulnerabilities that could be exploited by malicious individuals,” according to programmers who tested the equipment. msnbc.msn.com -------------------------- A How-To Guide for Hackers Already bored with all the presents you got for the holidays? Hack them into new-and-improved presents. Got piles of now-outdated gifts from past festive occasions carefully stashed away because you might need the parts someday? Hack them, too. www.wired.com -------------------------- Digitally Signed Email To Protect Against Phishing Hacker Attacks www.tumbleweed.com -------------------------- FTC launches 'Operation Secure Your Server' www.cnn.com -------------------------- MS drop authentication technique to foil phishing Microsoft has outlined plans to make phishing attacks more difficult by dropping support for a common Web authentication method. Redmond's plans to remove support for handling user names and passwords in HTTP or HTTPS URLs in IE are designed to protect Web surfers from being lured to malicious constructed or fraudulent sites. www.theregister.co.uk -------------------------- Make spammers pay, in money or time, to send bulk e-mails Imagine a world where the government paid all the bills for the postal service, and the cost of mailing a letter was zero. We'd be drowning in junk mail, because marketers could crank out postcards and fliers for a few cents each and send them for free. The humble 37-cent stamp and its bulk-rate cousins, in other words, are barriers preventing abuse of an important public resource. www.siliconvalley.com www.vnunet.com -------------------------- ID fraud preys on technology's immaturity Some people get socks for Christmas. Others get handkerchiefs. But not Jay Heiser. His wife gave him a replica of a Mesopotamian clay tablet this year. Why? Because the Mesopotamians used them as receipts, an early form of security. "That receipt lasted 6,000 years," said Heiser, chief analyst at security risk management vendor TruSecure. www.vnunet.com -------------------------- Mainframe's midlife crisis: Security Twenty years ago, mainframes sat in tight glass houses, accessed by a limited list of select employees. Today, mainframes remain a mainstay of enterprise operations. All predictions of the mainframe's imminent demise have disappeared as quickly as those predicting the end of brick- and-mortar retailing. In fact, industry sources estimate that 30 billion Cobol transactions occur daily; that's more than the number of Web page hits in the same time period. computerworld.com -------------------------- U.S., Canada launch talks on sharing citizen data The U.S. and Canadian governments have started formal negotiations over whether Canada will provide private information on its citizens for U.S. terrorist watch lists and aviation security programs, senior officials from both countries said Friday. www.govexec.com *********************************************************** Computer Forensics Training - Online.An intense, 150 hour, instructor lead program that teaches you computer forensics and helps prepare you for the Certified Computer Examiner exam. 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