Legal and Legislative News

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Who owns your kids? Parents ask full 9th Circuit Court to rehear school sex-survey case

World Net Daily

November 30, 2005

Seven California parents filed a petition with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to set aside its controversial decision declaring they had no right to be "exclusive providers of information about sexual matters."

Ruling on a complaint against a sexually charged student survey, the three-judge panel concluded Nov. 2 parents "have no due process or privacy right to override the determinations of public schools as to the information to which their children will be exposed while enrolled as students."

Cybercrime now bigger than the drug trade

The Sydney Morning Herald

by Reuters

November 29, 2005

Global cybercrime generated a higher turnover than drug trafficking in 2004 and is set to grow even further with the wider use of technology in developing countries, a top expert said on Monday.

No country is immune from cybercrime, which includes corporate espionage, child pornography, stock manipulation, extortion and piracy, said Valerie McNiven, who advises the US Treasury on cybercrime. "Last year was the first year that proceeds from cybercrime were greater than proceeds from the sale of illegal drugs, and that was, I believe, over $US105 billion [$A143 billion]," McNiven told Reuters.

Sony BMG Rootkit Lawsuits

sonysuit.com

by Mark Lyon

November 20, 2005

Mark Russinovich analyzed the behavior of the software contained on some Sony music CDs in his blog entry of October 31, 2005 . His posting pointed out that the poor programming practices at First 4 Internet, the company responsible for the creation of th

Class Action Suits, Small Claims Court cases and other information linked from this site.

Tsunami 'hacker' keeps security job

CNet News

by Graeme Wearden and Dan Ilett

November 11, 2005

When Daniel Cuthbert was convicted last month of gaining unauthorized access to a tsunami fund-raising Web site, many people--including the U.K. trial judge--suspected his career in the IT industry was over. These suspicions were unfounded, though. Cu

Martin O'Neal, director at Corsaire, confirmed Friday that Cuthbert had actually joined the company before his trial. O'Neal, though, isn't worried that one of his employees is a high-profile breaker of the Computer Misuse Act (CMA). "The reason being, we've known Daniel for a long time. He was well known in the security industry, even before the case. His integrity has never been called into question," O'Neal told ZDNet UK on Friday. Cuthbert was found guilty under the Computer Misuse Act of gaining unauthorized access to an appeal site for victims of the Asian tsunami in December 2004. Cuthbert said in court that he had made a donation and then became concerned that he'd fallen victim to a phishing scam. To check, he added "../../../" to the URL in an attempt to access the site's higher directories--an action that triggered an alarm.

Breplibot Stinx

f-secure.com

by F-Secure

November 11, 2005

There are variants of Breplibot (aka Stinx aka Ryknos) trying to hide under the cloak provided by the Sony DRM software. However, none of the variants we have so far analyzed are successful in installing on a machine that has an unpatched Sony DRM running

We wouldn't like to say "we told you so" but unfortunately this is one of those times you just have to do it. We have just analyzed the first malware (Breplibot.b) that is trying to hide on machines that have Sony DRM software installed. Luckily, the bot has a design flaw. If the Sony DRM rootkit is active (hiding) in the system during infection, the bot will not run at all. Moreover, the bot cannot survive a reboot because of a programming error. In any case, this is a very good example of why software should not use rootkit hiding techniques.

Pennsylvania Governor Rendell Says Home-Schooled Children Can Participate in School District Extracurricular Activities

PRNewswire (PA)

November 10, 2005

HARRISBURG - Governor Edward G. Rendell today signed Senate Bill 361, sponsored by Sen. Bob Regola, into law to help the state's 25,000 children who are taught at home participate in extracurricular activities in their local school districts.

"While I have long been an advocate of public education and the need to ensure a world-class public education system in our state, I think the commitment to education demonstrated by homeschool parents has too long been undervalued," said Governor Rendell in his signing letter to the legislature.

Hackers use Sony DRM software to hide Trojan

fergdawg.blogspot.com

by Paul Ferguson

November 10, 2005

A computer security firm said on Thursday it had discovered the first virus that uses music publisher Sony BMG's controversial CD copy-protection software to hide on PCs and wreak havoc.

When recipients click on an attachment, they install malware, which may tear down the firewall and gives hackers access to a PC. The malware hides by using Sony software that is also hidden -- the software would have been installed on a computer when consumers played Sony's copy-protected music CDs.

Sophos develops Sony DRM removal tool

fergdawg.blogspot.com

by Paul Ferguson

November 10, 2005

UK security firm Sophos plans to release a tool which will detect the existence of Sony's DRM copy-protection rootkit on Windows computers, disable it, and prevent it from re-installing.

The move follows the discovery of the first malware (a Trojan called Breplibot) that takes advantage of Sony-BMG's use of rootkit technology in DRM software bundled with its music CDs to mask its presence on infected systems.

California Sues Sony over DRM Rootkit

fergdawg.blogspot.com

by Paul Ferguson

November 10, 2005

Record company Sony BMG Music Entertainment has been targeted in a class-action lawsuit in California by consumers claiming their computers have been harmed by anti-piracy software on some Sony BMG CDs.

The claim states that Sony BMG's failed to disclose the true nature of the digital rights management system it uses on its CDs and thousands of computer users have unknowingly infected their computers, according to court documents.

EFF: Want to particpate in Sony lawsuit?

fergdawg.blogspot.com

by Paul Ferguson

November 10, 2005

If you satisfy the following criteria, we would like to hear from you:* You have a Windows computer; * First 4 Internet's "xcp" copy protection has been installed on your computer from a Sony CD (for more details, see our blog post referenced above or

We have not made any final decisions about filing any legal action, but we would like to hear from music fans who have been harmed by the Sony-BMG "rootkit" copy protection technology.

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