Nethappenings News Headlines & Resources

<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>
NetHappenings Mailing List ©1993
Subscribe - Unsubscribe - EmailPreferences http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/NetHappenings.html

Educational CyberPlayGround Community Mailing Lists http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/
Advertise NetHappenings Guidlines
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/Subguidelines.html
<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>



Hi all,

Nethappenings News Headlines & Resources

enjoy,

<Karen>



1)
Brazilian police bust hacker gang
http://www.theage.com.au/news/breaking/brazilian-police-bust-hacker-gang/2006/02/15/1139890794432.html
Brazilian federal police arrested 41 hackers today accused of using
the internet to divert millions of dollars out of other people's bank
accounts.
Some 200 federal police were deployed in the operation to serve 65
arrest warrants against a gang of hackers mostly operating in Campina
Grande, some 1,800km north-east of Rio. Arrests also were made in six
other states.
Police said over the past three months the gang invaded some 200
accounts in six banks, stealing 10 million reals ($A6.38 million)
using a so-called Trojan horse virus sent via email.

2)
Chinese Internet censors face 'hacktivists' in U.S.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06045/654754.stm
Surfing the Web last fall, a Chinese high-school student who calls
himself Zivn noticed something missing. It was Wikipedia, an online
encyclopedia that accepts contributions or edits from users, and that
he himself had contributed to.
The Chinese government, in October, had added Wikipedia to a list of
Web sites and phrases it blocks from Internet users' access. For Zivn,
trying to surf this and many other Web sites, including the BBC's
Chinese-language news service, brought just an error message. But the
17-year-old had had a taste of that wealth of information and wanted
more. "There were so many lies among the facts, and I could not find
where the truth is," he writes in an instant-message interview.
Then some friends told him where to find Freegate, a tiny software
program that thwarts the Chinese government's vast system to limit
what its citizens see. Freegate -- by connecting computers inside of
China to servers in the U.S. -- allows Zivn and others to keep reading
and writing to Wikipedia and countless other sites.

3)
Hacker fights US extradition
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,18154675%255E1702,00.html
A BRITISH computer enthusiast accused by the US government of the
world's "biggest military hack of all time" has begun a court fight
against extradition to the US.
Gary Mckinnon was arrested last June following charges by US
prosecutors that he illegally accessed 97 government computers
including Pentagon, US army, navy and NASA systems.
Prosecutors said he hacked into sensitive networks over a one-year
period from February 2002 and caused $US700,000 ($950,828.58) worth of
damage, after crippling US defence systems in the wake of the
September 11, 2001 attacks.

4)
Romanian hacker breaks in to UA journalism computers
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/115789
Hackers broke into the computer system of the University of Arizona
journalism department, and students were unable to use the computers
Monday.
All of the department's Apple Macintosh computers were affected and
have been logged off the server and the Internet until the problem is
solved, said Jacqueline Sharkey, head of the department.
No information has been lost so far, she said.
It was unclear Monday how long it would take to fix the security leak,
she said. "It's a very serious issue, and we took action immediately,"
Sharkey said.


5)
Microsoft issues seven security patches
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,108700,00.html
Microsoft Corp. today released seven software patches, including fixes
for security flaws in Internet Explorer (IE) and Windows Media Player
that were given a critical severity rating by the company.
But security researchers said that the latest monthly batch of patches
from Microsoft isn't particularly ominous.
"These are seven of the most boring patches I've ever seen," said Russ
Cooper, a senior information security analyst at Cybertrust Inc. in
Herndon, Va., and editor of the NTBugtraq mailing list. "I think they
were being nice to us on Valentine's Day so no one would be bogged
down applying seven [patches] tonight."
"There's definitely no super-serious, freak-out vulnerability," agreed
Mike Murray, director of vulnerability research at nCircle Network
Security Inc., a security software vendor in San Francisco.

6)
The man behind Cisco's security
http://news.com.com/The+man+behind+Ciscos+security/2008-1082_3-6038999.html
Cisco Systems drew the ire of the hacking community last summer when
it decided to sue a security researcher.
The lawsuit was retaliation for disclosing research into the security
of software that runs Cisco routers and switches. The networking giant
was already a target for cyber attacks, but that move probably put even
more heat on its security team.
For example, shortly after Cisco sued, and settled, with the
researcher, its Web site security was breached. The company alerted
customers and advised them to change their passwords.

"HACKER ETHIC" White Hat - Grey Hat - Black Hat Hackers
Curious if Unconventional Researchers - Michael Lynn / Bill Gates
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/ethics.html


7)
Gates says security boils down to four focus areas
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/021406-gates-keynote-rsa-security.html
Bill Gates Tuesday opened the annual RSA Security Conference with an
overview on the state of security that was long on vision and broad
with its details.
Gates, Microsoft's chief software architect, said the industry must
meet a set of four high-priority initiatives in order to improve
security in an ever increasing digitized world that is working more
and more over the Internet.
Gates started off light saying he was glad to be keynoting at RSA
because his other invitation "was to go quail hunting with Dick
Cheney. I'm feeling really safe right now," he said.
Gates then launched into the importance of security going forward and
categorized a set of priorities under four headings: trust ecosystem,
engineering for security, simplicity, and fundamentally secure
platforms.

8)
Security titans weigh in on buyout environment
http://news.com.com/Security+titans+weigh+in+on+buyout+environment/2100-7350_3-6040297.html
SAN JOSE, Calif.--Psst buddy, got a security company to sell?
Security companies that are privately held and in the business of
protecting information from espionage and offering up secure access
are attractive among potential buyers, a panel of security titans and
bankers said here Thursday during the RSA Conference 2006.
The panel, speaking to a standing-room-only crowd, addressed the
current mergers and acquisition environment for security companies, as
well as what it takes for them to gain interest in potential buyout
candidates.
The current valuation for privately held security companies, based on
projecting out future revenues, is a mean of slightly more than 6.5
times those revenues. But valuations for publicly traded security
companies are substantially lower, said Rob Owens, vice president of
equity research for Pacific Crest Securities and panel moderator.

9)

Morgan Stanley offers $15M fine for e-mail violations
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/recovery/story/0,10801,108687,00.html
NEW YORK -- U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley has offered to pay $15
million to resolve an investigation by U.S. regulators into its
failure to retain e-mail messages, according to a regulatory filing.
The Wall Street firm said it had reached "an agreement in principle"
with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of
Enforcement to resolve an investigation into its preservation of
e-mails.
The fine would be one of the largest penalties ever imposed on a Wall
Street firm for failing to preserve records.
U.S. market regulators had threatened to fine Morgan Stanley for
failing to keep e-mails in several recent cases brought against the
brokerage.

10)
Where does Windows XP Media Center Edition
(XP MCE) 2005 store recorded TV files?
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/Print.cfm?ArticleID=49380
By default, XP MCE 2005 stores all recorded programs in the
Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV
folder on the system drive. Recorded programs are stored in
DVR-MS format, which is a Microsoft format based on digital
video recording (DVR) technology. The content is encoded as
MPEG-2 video stream, and the files can be very large, an
hour show can use 3.5GB of disk space. Part of the reason
for this large space is that a live video stream can be paused,
time shifted, played, and recorded without interrupting the stream.
The XP Media Center Recorded TV (.dvr-ms) format also allows
for the storage of metadata about the content. For example,
.dvr-ms files often contain complete show title, date and time
of broadcast, and various data classifications,
which isn't possible in a regular MPEG file.

11)
Security Breach Reported in N.H. Computers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/15/AR2006021502764.html
CONCORD, N.H. -- New Hampshire's state computer system was breached,
possibly by a hacker seeking residents' credit card numbers, Gov. John
Lynch said Wednesday.
The breach involved online and in-person transactions in various
locations, including motor vehicle offices and state liquor stores.
"We felt it was important to alert the public that there is at least
the possibility that some credit card information may have been
accessed," Lynch said.

12)
Homeland Security Spells Out Coming Online Threats
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=180202429
The top Internet threats for 2006 will include more attacks through
instant messages and cell phones, as well as a boost in identity hacks
against online brokerage accounts, the Department of Homeland Security
and the National Cyber Security Alliance predicted Wednesday.

13)
With Cheny killing quail and all
Tom Lehrer said it all in 1959 (!). I couldn't resist this...
Cheney gets to shoot someone, albeit accidentally, and the only
consequences are a few lousy jokes made at his "expense," so to speak.
The consequences to others are far more serious.
 Now a man will live with leadshot in his body, "upland game birds" are
living, dying, or dead with leadshot in them, raptors and carrion feeders
have ingested or will ingest lead on the far from pristine
property that is a hunt site for the rich.
One of the most galling aspects is realizing who paid for
Cheney's pleasure trip to kill birds.  You got it, you and I did.
What surfaced during his latest hunting trip was that Cheney
travels with a medical team and no doubt a slew of bodyguards,
and at least to one hunting destination, he arrived in grand
style on Air Force Two.
http://wildlifeprotection.net/

14)
Whistleblower says NSA violations bigger
http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060214-053955-9494r
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- A former NSA employee said Tuesday there
is another ongoing top-secret surveillance program that might have
violated millions of Americans' Constitutional rights.
Russell D. Tice told the House Government Reform Subcommittee on
National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations he
has concerns about a "special access" electronic surveillance program
that he characterized as far more wide-ranging than the warrentless
wiretapping recently exposed by the New York Times but he is
forbidden from discussing the program with Congress.

15)
Patent Pirates vs. Patent Trolls
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Technology/database.html
I've seen what happens when a patent thief steals from the
public domain.  Innocent victims like myself, who put their
patentable ideas into the public domain, find their ideas
stolen and put into somebody's pocket.

16)
UK holds Microsoft security talks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk_politics/4713018.stm
UK officials are talking to Microsoft over fears the new version of Windows
could make it harder for police to read suspects' computer files.
Windows Vista is due to be rolled out later this year. Cambridge academic
Ross Anderson told MPs it would mean more computer files being encrypted.
He urged the government to look at establishing "back door" ways of getting
around encryptions.

17)
325,000 Names on Terrorism List
Rights Groups Say Database May Include Innocent People
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/14/AR2006021402125.html?referrer=email&referrer=email>
The National Counterterrorism Center maintains a central repository of
325,000 names of international terrorism suspects or people who
allegedly aid them, a number that has more than quadrupled since the
fall of 2003, according to counterterrorism officials.
The list kept by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) -- created
in 2004 to be the primary U.S. terrorism intelligence agency -- contains
a far greater number of international terrorism suspects and associated
names in a single government database than has previously been
disclosed. Because the same person may appear under different spellings
or aliases, the true number of people is estimated to be more than
200,000, according to NCTC officials.

18)

Experts envision mobile phones converging rapidly with RFID
and Near Field Communications (NFC) solutions.
Some of the current initiatives
http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/worksem/rfid/program.html
Audio archives + http://www.itu.int/ibs/ITU-T/rfid06/index.html
Cellphone could crack RFID tags, says cryptographer
http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=180201688
"I haven't tested all RFID tags, but we did test the biggest brand and
it is totally unprotected," Shamir said. Using this approach, "a
cellphone has all the ingredients you need to conduct an attack and
compromise all the RFID tags in the vicinity," he added.


19)
MOTIVATE TEACHERS TO USE THE INTERNET
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Reasons_to_play_here.html>
If you want to learn about how to play on the net,
this is where to start.  Don't know how to turn on your
computer? Hate this stuff? Is this is totally freakin' you out?
Then You're one of us.  Playing around is the key to learning.
relax, you can start here, we take baby steps.

20)

Interent Tutorial for Beginners - Put your parents here!
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Read_This_First.html

<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>
Copyright statements to be included when reproducing
annotations from NetHappenings the largest
and oldest K12 Education Mailing List exploring and using the World Wide Web. 


The single phrase below is the copyright notice to be used when
reproducing any portion of this report, in any format:

EDUCATIONAL CYBERPLAYGROUND http://www.edu-cyberpg.com
NetHappenings copyright
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/NetHappenings.html 

FREE EDUCATION VENDOR DIRECTORY LISTING
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Directory/

HOT LIST REGISTRY OF K12 SCHOOLS ONLINE
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Schools/
<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>

Other related posts: