Daily Report Monday, December 11, 2006

Daily Highlights


Reuters reports organized criminal gangs are targeting universities, computer clubs, and online forums to hire undergraduates to commit Internet crime for a multibillion−dollar industry that is more lucrative than the drug trade. (See item 10)
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The Food and Drug Administration is continuing to investigate an ongoing outbreak of E. coli O157 infection in consumers, associated with eating food from Taco Bell restaurants in six states. (See item 19)
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The Associated Press reports Derrick Shareef, a Muslim convert, is in custody after planning to use hand grenades to blow garbage cans into clouds of flying shrapnel at the CherryVale shopping mall in Rockford, Illinois, about 90 miles northwest of Chicago. (See item 39)

Information Technology and Telecommunications Sector

33. December 09, New York Times — Senate passes bill to criminalize pretexting. The Senate passed legislation Friday night, December 8, that would make it a federal crime to obtain a person’s telephone records without permission, an act known as pretexting. The measure, which was approved by unanimous consent Friday night and is similar to a bill passed earlier in the House, imposes a fine of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to 10 years for duping telephone companies into divulging the calling records of private individuals. The penalties can go up under special circumstances, like cases involving domestic abuse. Companies convicted under the Senate legislation face fines of up to $500,000.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/09/business/09pretext.html

34. December 08, eWeek — ICANN conference bears much fruit. Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) officials ended a week−long marathon of meetings in Brazil on Friday, December 8, that produced a number of results, including ICANN's first ever Regional At Large Organization (RALO), the approval of the three registry agreements and the birth of the dot−asia top level domain. Chief among the week's developments was the birth of the Latin American and Caribbean RALO, which consists of 22 Internet user groups from across the region that have forged a consensus on how to provide individual user input to ICANN. Starting such regional groups is part of ICANN's strategy to receive input from users. Currently, RALOs are being formed in Africa, Asia, Europe and elsewhere around the world. In addition ICANN's board of directors also approved the registry agreements for the dot−biz, dot−org and dot−info top level domains, which include a 10 percent caps on price increases by registry operators. Those at the conference also witnessed the birth of dot−asia as a top level domain when ICANN signed a contract with DotAsia Organization, Ltd.
Source: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2070433,00.asp

35. December 08, IDG News Service — Microsoft releases Exchange Server 2007. Microsoft on Friday, December 8, finished development on a new version of its Exchange messaging server a week after the company celebrated its launch alongside significant new releases of the Windows client OS and Microsoft Office. The company said it has shipped Exchange Server 2007 to manufacturing. Customers can sign up for a free evaluation of the software. Additional information and technical resources about the software are available at the Exchange Website and the TechNet Website.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007:
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/2007launch/builtinenhancements.mspx?wt.mc_ID=homepage
Source: http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/12/08/HNexchangeserver_1 .html