QuickLinks - Computer crime

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Issue no. 213 - 11 November 2001

• USA - Justices Weigh Law Barring Virtual Child Pornography (New York Times)
  The Supreme Court heard the government's defense of a recent federal law that treated "virtual" child pornography - computer-generated images of children or productions using young-looking performers who were really adults - as if it were the real thing.

Issue no. 211 - 20 October 2001

• Spain - 6000 pédophiles piégés par un faux site internet (Planet Internet)
  L’association humanitaire espagnole Anesvad a pris au piège 6.000 pédophiles en mettant en place un faux site internet de pornographie infantile. Le site n’était autre qu’un moyen de repérer les personnes qui se connectaient.

• UK - Catholic Dean held over child porn (This is London)
  The Roman Catholic Dean of Reading was arrested in a dawn raid on suspicion of importing child pornography.

• UK - Scotland - Judges restrict child porn sentences (BBC)
  Scottish judges have ruled that people convicted of downloading child pornography from the internet should not face more than a year in prison. However, the judges also rejected an earlier ruling that the offence could be viewed as a victimless crimes.

• UK - Secrecy surrounds £25m Barclaycard blackmail case (Guardian)
  Fear of information leaking about the computer security system protecting Britain's 8m Barclaycard holders has led to unprecedented secrecy in a £25m alleged blackmail case. Two court hearings have already taken place in camera. The draconian measure of holding criminal proceedings behind closed doors is usually only reserved for espionage or intelligence-related cases involving national security. Lawyers cannot recall the procedure being used before in cases involving commercial secrets or blackmail threats against companies.

• USA - Supreme Court Set to Consider 'Virtual' Child Porn (New York Times)
  A hard-fought legal debate over the constitutionality of a federal law designed to punish 'virtual' or computer-generated child pornography will echo through the courtroom of the United States Supreme Court in two weeks, when the justices are scheduled to hear oral arguments in the matter, Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition

• USA - Tech-Savvy Texas Judge Cracks Down on Sex Offenders (Reuters)
  A Texas judge has deployed special screening software to stop convicted sex offenders from surfing Internet pornography sites. Three paroled offenders have been sent back to jail after software he ordered them to install on their computers alerted probation officers that they were trying to view online pornography in defiance of his orders.

Issue no. 210 - 14 October 2001

• Court: German TV Must Return Hacked Bank Account Info (Newsbytes)
  HypoVereinsbank, one of Germany's largest banks, has won a court order forcing a popular consumer high-tech TV show to hand over customer account information that hackers were able to download from the bank's computers.

• Web site stands up to extortion (MSNBC)
  In August, WebCertificates.com had to admit to its 1 million customers that an intruder had cracked their systems and stolen some personal data. The criminal has now begun e-mailing customers about the break-in, following through on a threat because Ecount refused to pay $45,000 in extortion payments.

• France - Inauguration de l'office de lutte contre "la criminalité sur la toile" (Libération)
  Le ministre de l'Intérieur Daniel Vaillant a inauguré à Paris le nouvel Office central de lutte contre la criminalité liée aux technologies de l'information et de la communication, créé pour "lutter contre les dérives criminelles qui se véhiculent sur la toile" (OCLCTIC), que les policiers ont déjà baptisé "le Clic". Avec lui, la police nationale dispose d'un "outil performant qui utilise les nouvelles technologies pour lutter contre ses usages dévoyés", que ce soit dans les domaines bancaire et financier, à des fins pédophiles, terroristes ou attentant aux systèmes eux-mêmes.

• France - Les mesures de Jospin contre le cybercrime (transfert)
  Le gouvernement a déposé, mardi 9 octobre, ses amendements destinés à "lutter contre l´utilisation criminelle" des réseaux informatiques. Voir aussi Les ONG effarées par les mesures Jospin (transfert), France - Traque au terrorisme sur le Net (Libération) eti Lutte anti-terroriste: fichiers cryptés et conservation des données (AFP).

• UK - Internet 'grooming' legislation faces delays (ZDNet UK)
  Groundbreaking laws proposed to protect children from Internet paedophiles are likely to be shifted down the legislative timetable, to make way for the introduction of new terrorist laws. Speaking at the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference in Brighton, Beverley Hughes, the Home Office minister and chair of the Internet Taskforce on Child Protection, implied that new "grooming" laws could be delayed by an urgency to update terrorist laws as quickly as possible.

Issue no. 209 - 1 October 2001

• Earthlink Suing Over Spam-Filled ISP Arteries (Fulton County Daily Report)
  Earthlink is suing two men it calls "Internet criminals." The Atlanta-based Internet service provider alleges the two have disrupted the company's networks by engaging in illegal e-mail campaigns with stolen credit cards and passwords.

• 'Kournikova' virus creator gets community sentence (Reuters)
  The Dutch creator of the "Anna Kournikova" virus, which infected computers worldwide, was sentenced to 150 hours of community service.

• France - La lutte contre la pédophilie sur le Net s'organise (01net)
  Quatre ministères se sont associés, sous la houlette du ministère de la Famille, pour créer un site Internet de lutte contre les sites pédophiles. D'ici au 21 octobre, le site Internet-mineurs.gouv.fr sera officiellement lancé. Consacré à la lutte contre la pédophilie, il aura nécessité trois ans de travail.

• Italia - Pedofilia on line, chieste misure urgenti (Internetlex)
  (Mozione 20.9.2001) Un intervento urgente per combattere la pedofilia on line. E’ quanto ha chiesto il gruppo Ccd-Cdu al Governo, con una mozione presentata alla Camera il 20 settembre 2001, annunciando una proposta di legge sulla materia.

• USA - EFF - Hackers, Spammers Could Face Life Under Terrorism Law (Newsbytes)
  By including computer crimes among the misdeeds that can be construed as "federal terrorism offenses," U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's proposed anti-terrorism package could expose hackers, Web site vandals and unsolicited e-mail marketers to life in prison. See also EFF alert.

Issue no. 208 - 24 September 2001

• Extraordinary session of the Justice & Home Affairs and Civil Protection Council (Press Release)
  Conclusions (PDF format). The Council requests the European Commission to submit proposals for ensuring that law enforcement authorities are able to investigate criminal acts involving the use of electronic communications systems and to take legal measures against their perpetrators. In this context, the Council will be making a particular effort to strike a balance between the protection of personal data and the law enforcement authorities' need to gain access to data for the purposes of criminal investigations. see also Euro civil liberty campaigners urge restraint (IDG).

• Hong Kong Expands Cyber-Police Force (Newsbytes)
  The Hong Kong police force has more than doubled the number of officers dedicated to technology and computer-related crimes. Hong Kong's Commercial Crime Bureau recently set up a new Technology Crime Division?

• International cybercrime treaty gets go-ahead (ZDNet)
  The Council of Europe Ministers' Deputies have approved the first international convention on cybercrime, which will set a common criminal policy on the misuse of computer networks and electronic information for terrorist or illegal activity. The draft will be presented to a meeting of foreign affairs ministers in Strasbourg on Nov. 8, with the so-called "opening for signature" by member states taking place at an international conference in Budapest at the end of November. voir aussi L´Europe est sévère avec le cybercrime (transfert)

• UK - Social worker jailed over child porn (icCoventry)
  A social worker and former scout master from Coventry who confessed to hoarding thousands of obscene images of young children was jailed for 18 months.

Issue no. 207 - 18 September 2001

• Indonesia - Lack of expertise delays cyberlaws (Total Telecom)
  The Indonesian government will not complete drafting a law on cyber crime until 2004 because of the lack of legal draftsmen and information technology expertise.

• NASA hacker sentenced to prison (AP)
  A young hacker was sentenced to four months in prison for breaking into computers at a NASA lab that oversees unmanned space missions.

• Suisse - Contre les sites Internet à caractère pédophile (Communiqué de presse)
  Le Conseil fédéral va mettre sur pied, en collaboration avec les cantons, une cellule de monitoring d'Internet pour rechercher systématiquement les contenus pénalement répréhensibles. Une unité de clearing devra par ailleurs être constituée. Deutsche Fassung: Gegen pädophile Inhalte im Internet.

• UK - Army policeman jailed over child porn (BBC)
  A military policeman has been thrown out of the army and jailed for two months after he admitted downloading child pornography from the internet.

• UK consider change in law to tackle "grooming" activity (Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties UK)
  Home Office Internet Task Force on Child Protection. Preliminary Proposals on creation of new criminal offence "Meeting a child with intent to engage in sexual activity" and new grounds for applying for a civil order against child molesters. Documents obtained under the Open Government Code of Practice.

• Canada - 'Mafiaboy' hacker jailed (BBC)
  A Canadian hacker nicknamed Mafiaboy has been sentenced to eight months in a youth detention centre.

• EU - Les eurodéputés contre la conservation des logs (transfert)
  Dans une recommandation adoptée le 6 septembre, le Parlement européen pointe les risques induits par certaines dispositions du projet de traité sur la cybercriminalité

• Netherlands - Anna virus writer goes on trial (CNET Asia)
  Jan de Wit, the 20-year-old who wrote the Anna Kournikova virus, went to trial on Thursday, but the prosecutor asked for a relatively light sentence with no jail term -- 240 hours of community service.

Issue no. 206 - 3 September 2001

• Costa Rica Gets Tough on Kid Porn (Wired)
  A Canadian man was sentenced in Costa Rica to 23 years in prison for sexually exploiting underage girls and distributing their pictures over the Internet.

• Hong Kong Police Arrest Porn Site Webmaster (Newsbytes)
  Hong Kong police have arrested a 29-year-old Webmaster suspected of operating a pornographic Web site, a crime that could land the man in prison for three years.

• India - Country's first Cyber crime police station opens (Times of India)
  India's first cyber crime police station was inaugurated at the CoD headquarters in Bangalore.

• Indonesia hunts child pornographers (South China Morning Post)
  Police in Indonesia are confident of tracking down Indonesians involved in a global Internet child pornography ring but were not sure whether the country's laws could secure a conviction.

• Internet child sex perverts escape justice (Daily Telegraph)
  Operation Cathedral, the international police inquiry into the so-called Wonderland Club, the world's largest child pornography ring trapped only a fraction of its members and may have left hundreds of thousands of depraved images in circulation on the internet.

• New Zealand - Teacher fined for keeping child pornography (NZ Herald)
  A teacher caught with 1000 child pornography images on his home computer has been fined $1100, with his former school now moving to have him struck off the teachers' register.

• Scotland - Shop find snares child porn man (Edinburgh Evening News)
  An Edinburgh pawnbroker reported a computer operator to the police after staff found child pornography on a laptop he had offered in order to receive a loan.

• SMS bombs nominated for crime-fighting prize (IDG)
  The text message bomb, a weapon invented by the Amsterdam police force to prevent mobile phone theft, has been nominated for a crime prevention prize sponsored by the Dutch Ministry of Justice.

• UK - Internet paedophile jailed (BBC)
  A paedophile who filmed sex sessions with underage girls he met in internet chatrooms has been sentenced to eight years in jail.

• UK - Man jailed for child porn snaps (Chester Chronicle)
  A former Vauxhall worker has been jailed for three-and-a-half years after he admitted taking 'nasty and disgusting' pictures of two young children.

• UK - Suspended Sentence For Consultant In Child Porn Case (Ananova)
  A hospital consultant has been given a six-month suspended jail sentence after he pleaded guilty to downloading child pornography from the Internet.

• US - Child Pornography 'Addict' Sentenced (AP)
  A man who admitted possessing child pornography received less prison time than federal guidelines call for because the judge found him addicted to pornography. Federal sentencing guidelines called for 21 to 24 months in prison for Michael Bethard, but the judge gave him 13 months Friday and recommended he be treated in prison.

• USA - Child pornographer jailed for 1,335 years (Ananova)
  A Texas man who ran an internet child porn business with his wife has been jailed for 1,335 years. Thomas and Janice Reedy ran the company, called Landslide Incorporated, from their Fort Worth home.

• Australia - Canberra clamps down on online perverts (Australia Industry Standard)
  The Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly has amended its Crimes Act, aimed at protecting children under 16 years of age from "depravity" and stalking. According to the legislation, if a person uses electronic means - e-mail, chat rooms, SMS and applications such as ICQ, for example - to encourage a young person to become involved in sexual acts, they can find themselves imprisoned for up to five years.

• Austria - Immer mehr Hinweise auf Kinderporno (Kurier)
  Österreichs Internetuser werden umsichtiger. Die "Cybercops" des Innenministeriums im Kampf gegen Kinderpornografie im Internet registrieren immer mehr Hinweise. Im vergangenen Jahr gingen sie 1.706 gemeldeten Fällen nach. In der ersten Hälfte 2001 waren es schon 1.396.

• Canada - Child Pornography Seizure and Arrest (Prese Release)
  Ontario Provincial Police have arrested and charged two men following a child pornography investigation.

• Germany - Internet: Wort und Totschlag (Spiegel)
  Loreen Leistner lernte ihren mutmaßlichen Killer nicht in Nachbarschaft oder Bekanntenkreis kennen. Die 19-Jährige traf ihn in einem Chatroom. Es ist der erste Fall in Deutschland, bei dem virtuelle Sympathie in derart reale Brutalität umschlug.

• Russia - Police Seek Rules for Porn Busts (Moscow Times)
  Moscow police are stepping up their fight against illegal pornography, shutting down underground studios and child-pornography web sites, but they are having trouble deciding exactly what pornography is.

• UK - Calls for cybercrime database (BBC)
  Business leaders are calling on the government to set up a national database to combat internet fraud. Modelled on the United States Internet Fraud Complaint Centre, the Centre for Cybercrime Complaints in the UK would channel complaints to the relevant investigating bodies.

• UK - Ex-MI6 agent put porn on police computer (Times)
  A former MI6 agent is facing prison after he admitted downloading pornographic images of children on to his office computer while working at a police headquarters.

• UK - 'How I lured paedophiles online' (BBC)
  The controversial TV satire proigramme Brass Eye has again raised the issue of paedophiles on the net. But how do they really operate online? Rachel O'Connell of the ONCE project tells how she posed as a chatroom child. See also Ministers attack TV paedophile satire

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