Wednesday, 27. November 2002
California Firm to Settle Net Porn Scam
A California billing firm has agreed to give up $1.6 million to settle charges that it improperly billed thousands for Internet pornography, the F.T.C. said. [New York Times: Technology]
Feds crack huge identity theft ring
Three men have been arrested in the bust, which so far has resulted in more than $2.7 million in losses, according to a statement issued Monday by James Comey, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. The scam is believed to be the largest involving identity theft in U.S. history.
The FBI arrested Philip Cummings, who is said to have started the scam while working at the help desk of Teledata Communications Inc. (TCI). The Bay Shore, N.Y.-based company provides banks and other entities with credit reports, combining information collected by credit rating agencies Equifax Inc., Experian Information Solutions Inc. and Trans Union LLC.
Beginning in 1999, Cummings had access to the passwords and codes used by TCI's customers to access credit reports, authorities said. During that time, Cummings is alleged to have given passwords and codes to a co-conspirator and collected roughly $30 for every credit report obtained using the stolen codes.
One man, Linus Baptiste, has been charged with wire fraud in relation to the case. A second man, Hakeem Mohammed, has pleaded guilty to charges of mail fraud, authorities said.
With the illegally obtained credit reports, some victims reported having their bank accounts depleted, while others reported having credit cards, checks and ATM cards sent to unauthorized locations.
The passwords and codes stolen for use in the scam belonged to various entities that request credit reports for their customers. Those entities included banks, credit services and an apartment complex.
Ford Motor Credit Corp. is expected to be one of the hardest hit. Authorities allege that as many as 15,000 credit reports were illegally obtained using a password and code from the creditor's branch in Grand Rapids, Mich (see story). Ford Motor Credit said it had been receiving complaints from customers who had been victims of identity theft and fraud.
Other compromised passwords and codes belonged to Washington Mutual Finance Co. in Crossville, Tenn., and Washington Mutual Bank in Florida, as well as various banks around the country. All the systems that allegedly were breached belonged to TCI customers, according to the statement.
One observer said Monday that the crime was only partly a technology problem.
"It was technology-assisted, but the real problem was that this help desk employee was given access to a token that was the launchpad for fraud," said Jerry Brady, chief technology officer at Guardent Inc., a security research company in Waltham, Mass. "There are certainly good practices to control the authority of help desk personnel. It sounds like they weren't being used."
In 2000, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission reported that approximately 500,000 people were victims of identity theft, according to data provided by Kroll Inc., a security consulting company in New York. In 2001, that number rose to approximately 700,000, Kroll said. [Computerworld]
American Airlines Website Disclaimer
An anonymous reader writes "American Airlines are nominated for the 'longest website enduser agreement' category with customers requiring to accept this mammoth 'I accept' dialog before using their site. The tale of the tape includes: 181 paragraphs; 3482 words; and 22411 characters. However even mentioning this is probably in violation of the text."
China accused of jailing net users
Human rights group Amnesty International says Beijing has created a new form of political prisoner - those who express their views online. [BBC News Online]
OnStar Nav. System Used to Track Bank Robbers (GPS?)
Looks like companies and/or authorities really do use car navigation systems to track us despite their indignant denials. [Slashdot]
"Blasphemous" Spanish computer game censored
The Spanish newspaper Diario de Sevilla reports that a computer game written by a professor of computer science for a Spanish rock band has been censored by the "Guardia Civil" for being offensive to the Catholic faith. Few people are aware of the fact that many European jurisdictions, including Italy, Germany, and, apparently, Spain, still have anti-blasphemy laws, usually from the 19th century. In this case a programmer had distributed a game where the player had to shoot monk-zombies with a pistol. The game apparently used symbols of the religious order Nuestro Padre Jesús del Gran Poder. The order complained to the police, which had the game taken down from the website where it was hosted (the URL was apparently "http://chaopula.com/matanza/matanza_cofrade.htm", not in the Archive unfortunately). The author may face prison time of up to one year for blasphemy and up to two years for trademark violation. (Since I don't speak Spanish, I gathered the information from this German sumary, if anyone can add more details, please post below.) [infoAnarchy]
nadian Lawful Access Legislation
"In Canada, existing legislation covers access to telephone records, disclosure of customer information in accordance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and other means compelling the release of information. However, the laws regulating access to these networks for Canadian law enforcement and national security groups are only under development. The Department of Justice has released their Lawful Access Consultation Document to get feedback from all the stakeholders including industry, civil liberties groups, and the legal community." [Slashdot]
SEC ./. Super Spammer Rodona Garst
The SEC has instituted administrative proceedings against Super Spammer Rodona Garst. For those of you who don't know already, Ms. Garst was allegedly hacked by someone furious that she had forged his domain name on repeated spam mailings. Lots of pretty embarrassing stuff (including photos!) were subsequently posted to the net. The original site is down, but the link above should work. [Slashdot]
disLEXia, a research project by Maximillian Dornseif
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