Network Security Roundup for October 31, 2003

Wired News: RIAA Sues 80 More Swappers30-Oct-03 17:00 ET

Story Highlights:“The recording industry sued 80 more music fans for copyright infringement on Thursday. It’s the second wave of lawsuits filed by the Recording Industry Association of America. In September, the music trade group sued 261 people, many of whom said they had no warning that they were targets of legal action for sharing songs on the Internet. In this round, however, the music trade group, which represents the big five record labels – Universal Music, BMG, EMI, Sony Music and Warner Music — alerted people beforehand that a copyright infringement lawsuit was on the way.”

Full Story on Wired News

Story Highlights:“Cliff Stanford, the multi-millionaire co-founder of Redbus Interhouse, is under police investigation following accusations that he hacked into the London-based hosting firm’s email systems. Following a second police interview, Stanford yesterday issued a statement through his solicitor denying hacking into Redbus Interhouse’s network or illegally intercepting company emails, The Times reports.”

Full Story on The Register

Story Highlights:“A teenage computer student has pleaded guilty to hacking into IT systems at an American nuclear weapons laboratory. Joseph James McElroy, 18, a first-year undergraduate at Exeter University, admitted hacking into 17 computer systems at the Fermi National Accelerator laboratory at a hearing at Bow Street Magistrates court in London on Friday.The court heard that the teenager hacked into Fermilab computers on 25 June 2002 and used them to store hundreds of gigabytes of copyrighted film and music files.”

Full Story on ComputerWeekly.com

Story Highlights:“Hackers who cross over into virus-writing territory present the biggest danger to corporate computer systems as they perfect the ‘blended threat’ seen in recent virus outbreaks such as Sobig. That’s the assertion of Sarah Gordon, senior research fellow at Symantec Security Response, who has worked with the White House and the FBI to research the psychological profile of hackers and virus writers.”

Full Story on Silicon.com