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July 18, 2003

Dear Subscribers:

Here's our lineup for this third week of July:


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Subscribers write...

  1. 'Hack the porn hackers' (and the undeniable importance of firewalls)

    Right when the New York Times ran a piece about hackers turning unsuspecting home Internet users into porn purveyors, subscriber Janet in Germany was emailing us a slightly tongue-in-cheek counter-measure that is actually being done. How did you know, Janet?! First the Times piece, which we think serves as a wake-up call to family PC users everywhere:

    "More than a thousand unsuspecting Internet users around the world have recently had their computers hijacked by hackers, who computer security experts say are using them for pornographic Web sites. The hijacked computers, which are chosen by the hackers apparently because they have high-speed connections to the Internet, are secretly loaded [via a Trojan-type of virus] with software that makes them send explicit Web pages advertising pornographic sites and offers to sign visitors up as customers," the Times reports. The Times adds that the victims would have to be very tech-savvy to notice this software running on their systems. It's "invisible to the computer's owner" and neither harms the PC nor disturbs its operation. Reuters picked up on this development too, saying nearly 2,000 home PCs had been hijacked.

    Innocent, unsuspecting PC users are insidiously being turned into porn traffickers, partners of or fronts for pornographers. This way, the porn purveyors can both hide from prosecution and avoid getting shut down by Internet service providers who get complaints about their raunchy content. Investigators are making some headway on finding the perpetrators and computer-security companies will be issuing antidotes to the virus, but experts are concerned about other ways people's PCs will be used - e.g., for distributing child pornography, turning victims into accomplices to a crime.

    Then we heard from Janet: "I have a great idea for a project. How about if somehow, someone contacts hackers and gets them to do a positive project-hack into pornographers' and pedophiles' sites and mess up THEIR files for a change? Send all of their data files to the FBI and put chicken heads on all the pictures? I wonder if there's a hacker's organization willing to do a good turn."

    Turns out, porn purveyors are complaining about something quite like this. They're getting threats and attacks from a hacker called "Deepsy" in an apparent vendetta against online porn, Wired News reports. Deepsy threatens massive denial-of-service attacks against the Web sites. From some s/he's demanded $1,500 payments "or else," but not from all the adult-content publishers who've received the message. As of Wired's July 10 report, three adult sites had been temporarily taken offline, one of them by an attack of 745 million hits in a single day. These attacks are illegal, and some of the porn operators have contacted the FBI. Others, "reluctant to tell the FBI about [their] troubles," have strengthened their defenses, and some have actually threatened revenge not involving computers or lawsuits.

    There are also ethical hackers fighting online porn, but more on the illegal child-pornography part of it. One, Condemned.org, describes itself as "a registered nonprofit organization staffed by volunteers from around the globe" works with police and government agencies "to remove child pornography from the Internet." Here's a not-easy-to-read piece from ABCNEWS.com providing background on anti-pedophilia hackers. The piece ran in 2000, so some of the groups mentioned may have dispersed.

  2. Filtering in schools

    After our reporting on the Supreme Court's CIPA decision (6/28), subscriber Mark in Louisiana emailed us with a comment about schools, filtering, and the Children's Internet Protection Act (the case and resulting decision concerned only public libraries, but CIPA covers schools as well):

    "The best filtering schema within a school environment we have seen is one that blocks everything and allows selected content to pass through. AOL@School offered this approach to us at our school from 2000-2002 (AOL still offers this free product today). It was effective and our school district wanted us to return to their ineffective Internet service and filter.

    "Schools are selective in the curricula, books in their libraries, content over their PAs and closed-circuit TVs, VCRs, DVDs, etc.

    "Why is there such an outcry about allowing every little item found on every little Web site from everywhere? There seems to be a mindless panic that states, 'Web filters are blocking the good stuff and destroying free speech. When a child and teacher is limited to brief periods of Internet access each day, why this insistence to expose them to tons of information - some of it pure porn or perverted descriptions of Web sites in search engines?

    "The purpose of Internet in school is to support the curriculum. The purpose of the school among other missions is to protect the child from harm. We do this partially with filtration of other electronic content and printed material. Why the hypocrisy over filtering Web content?

    "We are fighting a school district in federal court over exposing me and my kids to porn and whistle blowing over CIPA [for more on the Supreme Court's decision to uphold CIPA, please see the 6/27 issue]. We are very excited that the Supreme Court sees the value of protecting children over someone's 'right' to mess with their minds and spirits by upholding the constitutionality of CIPA. The free speech-ers are yelling fire in a crowded theatre and our kids are being trampled to death."

    Editor's note: Tell us what you think about filtering in schools. Or schools vs. libraries. Should it be handled differently in environments serving different constituencies? Email us your comments via feedback@netfamilynews.org.

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Web News Briefs

  1. File-swappers' counter-measure

    From the "There's Always a Work-Around Department," an interesting new development in the RIAA vs. file-sharers battle: anonymous file-sharing. Apparently in response to the recording industry's announcement it would sue individual file-swappers, the latter have noticed they can file-share undetected on anonymous WiFi networks. "Wireless Net access through free, open, or publicly available hot spots is proving to be a last bastion of privacy on an Internet where the veil of anonymity can now easily be pierced," CNET reports, going on to explain that "WiFi access points give anyone who possesses the appropriate computer equipment within a radius of about 300 feet the ability to reach the Internet. Traditional ISPs give each subscriber a unique, if temporary, identification number while they're online. Wi-Fi access points don't, and that makes it difficult for the RIAA or anyone else to pinpoint exactly who is doing what using these nodes on the Net."

    That's not to say file-swappers haven't been spooked by the RIAA, and there are widely reported numbers to prove it now. "Kazaa and Morpheus - two of the most popular file-swapping services - said they had 15% fewer users the week beginning 6 July" - the week after the RIAA announced its new litigation plans, the BBC reports. CNET and the Washington Post weighed in on this too. BTW, the RIAA has been true to its word. For example, Chicago's Loyola University has responded to an RIAA subpoena and turned over records of student file-sharers, according to a Chicago Tribune report picked up by CentreDaily.com in Pennsylvania. The BBC has the latest on such subpoenas. Our thanks to BNA Internet Law for this news.

  2. Jail time for file-sharers?

    This one merited a separate item. Two US congressmen proposed a bill this week that would land a person in prison for five years and impose a fine of $250,000 for uploading a single file to a peer-to-peer network, Wired News reports. The bill was introduced by Reps. John Conyers Jr. (D) of Michigan and Howard Berman (D) of California. The Electronic Frontier Foundations says the bill (available in full here) is poorly written, casts too broad a net, and criminalizes the placement of any copyrighted work on a computer network. Here's the Washington Post's survey of all coverage of this news.

  3. Net chat as tool for credit card theft

    Online chat, particularly an old, non-Web technology called Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is playing "an important and growing role in credit card fraud," the New York Times reports, citing a recent report by Internet security experts. "Online credit card fraud has generally been carried out by hackers operating on their own, without much organization or automation of their fraud schemes ... but that appears to be changing," according to the Times. The article leads with a check of the #ccpower IRC channel, on which one user was selling credit card numbers for $.50-$1 apiece, another was talking about other credit-card-number sellers "cheating," and a third was seeking lessons on hacking into sites containing credit card data. It's important to note that there are many legitimate IRC channels. Anyone can participate once s/he's found the channel through a search engine and downloaded the readily available, free IRC software that provides access. With the software installed, users can chat with individuals or everyone on the channel who's logged in at the time. There are also private channels behind passwords given only to members, such as the music channel 17-year-old Steve and his friends use, #Sellouts, described in our interview with him in May.

  4. AOL joins blogging fray

    First Google, now AOL - and the Washington Post says the world of blogs may never be the same after America Online makes blogging a free service for its 34 million subscribers this summer. Called "AOL Journals," AOL's blogging (or Web logging) service will do the usual: provide personalizable pages where members can put their own stream-of-consciousness commentary and links. But there will also be phone and instant-messaging tools, with the audio feature available at a premium. With the "AOL by Phone" service, members will be able to leave voice messages that will automatically be posted on their blogs as MP3 sound files. The IM service, which will undoubtedly be popular among teenagers, will not carry an additional cost. It will allow members (only AOL subscribers, not AIM users out in the general public) "to send a text message to an IM software 'bot' - or automated script - that will post the message to the user's blog," the Post reports.

  5. French teen hacker allegedly defaced sites

    A French high school student is under investigation for allegedly hacking into and defacing some 2,000 Web sites in multiple countries, the Associated Press reports. French investigators say the student put political messages on home pages published in France, Britain, Australia, and the US - mostly government and military ones in the US during its invasion of Iraq. Even so, investigators said they think his motive was more to show off technical skill than to make a political statement. He faces a maximum of three years in prison and about a $50,000 fine. Our thanks to BNA Internet Law for pointing this item out.

  6. 'Digital shoplifting' in Japan

    This Japanese story was picked up all over the world (probably because we can all see it coming): mobile phones as tools for a newly coined crime, "digital shoplifting." You've heard of picture phones - cell phones that take digital photos. Well, they're reportedly ubiquitous in Japan, and people are using them in bookstores to photograph magazines rather than buy them. "Japan has a long tradition of allowing people to leaf through publications, a tolerance made easier because thumbed copies can be returned to the publishers. But digital shoplifting has taken this to a new and costly level," especially during tough economic times, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Japan's Magazine Publishers Association estimates that "the average bookstore loses about 2.1 million yen [about $18,000 US] a year to digital shoplifters," the Morning Herald adds. This story was covered by South Africa's Independent Online, Toronto's CNEWS, as well as in a number of techie news outlets.

    The Associated Press ran a broader piece about picture phones and other types of bad behavior, picked up in Wired News. We recently ran an item about picture phones as a potential aid for pedophiles (see "Picture phones and kids," 6/27). The phones are also used to fight bad behavior, such as when a women snapped a picture of man molesting her on a commuter train for evidence when she called the police - a case cited in the AP article.

  7. Search engine for slow connections

    With an eye to helping surfers in developing countries, MIT is working on a search engine for computers with slow Net connections. The catch is the 24-hour- delay it spells for its users. According to the BBC, "someone using the software would email a query to a central server in Boston. The program would search the Net, choose the most suitable Web pages, compress them and email the results a day later." It's hard to imagine people having to wait yet another day if they have to repeat the process because the results the automated program turns up aren't what they're looking for! If the BBC's got it right, the rationale behind this seems quite a generalization: "The thinking behind the TEK search engine is that people in poor countries are short of money but have time on their hands, whereas people in the West are cash-rich but time-poor." But tell us what you think of the idea.

  8. Filter companies, ALA to talk

    Responding to the American Library Association's invitation, Seattle-area filter makers said they will meet with the ALA on August 14, the Seattle Post Intelligencer reports. Seeing it as a business opportunity, N2H2 and BioNet Systems say "they will work with the nation's 16,000 public libraries to help librarians understand and control that software and to adapt it to libraries' needs." The ALA called for the meeting after the Supreme Court rejected its objections and upheld the Children's Internet Protection Act requiring libraries to install filters on computers with federally subsidized Net connections (see our coverage, 6/27 and "Libraries call for filtering talks," 7/11). The ALA wants filtering companies to understand libraries' needs, to ensure their products can easily be turned off by librarians, and to better disclose the criteria they use for choosing which sites to block.

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That does it for this week. Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Anne Collier, Editor

Net Family News

 


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