News

Featured Article 9/1/2005

Spam and Phishing: Email users get more spam, but the harmful impact of unsolicited messages is diminishing for them. More than a third of email users have gotten phishing solicitations

 |   | Deborah Fallows

More than a year after the CAN-SPAM Act became law, email users say they are receiving slightly more spam in their inboxes than before, but they are minding it less.

A survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project conducted between January 13 and February 9, 2005, shows the following:

Featured Article 3/22/2005

Parents Step Up Internet Filter Use

By Antone Gonsalves  Courtesy of TechWeb News

 

Over the last few years, parents have been watching their teens' Internet usage more closely, with more than half of them using software filters to keep pornography and other offensive content from their children, a research firm says.

But exactly how much impact parents' increased vigilance has on their children's online behavior is unclear, according to a November 2004 survey of Internet-connected families by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Fully 54 percent of families surveyed used filters in their home computers, compared with 41 percent in December 2000, Pew said in the study released this week. In terms of numbers, that's 12 million families today using programs like ContentProtect and Cybersitter from 7 million in 2000, or a 65 percent increase.

But about 8 out of 10 parents and teens agreed that the latter aren't careful enough when giving out personal information online, and more than 6 out of 10 in both groups said teens do things online that they wouldn't want their parents to know about, the research firm said.

Among youth between the ages of 12 and 17, 87 percent use the Internet, or about 21 million, Pew said in the study released this week. Among those using the Internet, 19 million, or 87 percent, have web access at home, while the rest use computers in such places as schools, community centers, churches, friends' homes or cyber cafes.

In addition to technology, parents are using other means to control their children's online activities. Nearly three-quarters of the teens surveyed said their home computer is located in a public place, and 64 percent of parents said they set rules about their children's time online, Pew said.

Nevertheless, there's a huge gap in perception between parents and teens on how much monitoring is taking place. More than 6 out 10 parents said they checked their children's surfing habits after they have gone online, but only 33 percent of teens said they believed their parents monitored their online activity.

Professionals leading the fight against online child pornography are deeply affected by the agony their victims experience and more determined than ever to stop it.    2/14/05
By Parry Aftab
InformationWeek

Editor's note: The following column by child-protection advocate Parry Aftab contains explicit and graphic descriptions of child pornography encountered during investigation and law-enforcement activities. Readers are advised to use discretion when deciding whether to read this column.

The computer graphic loaded from the side, starting with her blonde silky curls. As it continued to load, her shell-shaped ear came into focus, followed by her flushed cheek and her big blue eyes fringed with thick eyelashes that were almost white, they were so blonde. Her eyes were enlarged with surprise.

He remembered thinking this was one of the most beautiful children he had ever seen. What he saw next explained why he has dedicated himself to protecting children from exploitation and molestation. This big, tough FBI agent and father of two had tears in his eyes as he described his first exposure to online child pornography. He went on, in hushed tones, as the rest of us listened carefully. "Her eyes were enlarged. They displayed her surprise, pain, and shock as she was forced to perform oral sex on an adult male who had just ejaculated all over her face."

This kind of conversation happens whenever child pornography investigators and anti-child-exploitation experts get together. They describe the one image that touched them the most deeply--the one that changed their lives. And anyone working in this field has one. They may have seen thousands of images, but one especially touches their heart and soul. For me, it was an image of a 3-year-old girl.

Within three days of agreeing to run my Internet safety and help group (under its former name), I received a tip from one of our site visitors. The tip indicated that child pornography was being hosted at a site, and it included the URL for the site. The person asked me to shut the site down and put the people behind it in jail.

What happened next changed my life forever. Although I was a recognized expert on child-pornography laws and cybercrimes in general, I had never actually seen child pornography. Being able to describe the typical image and how to identify the age of the child being victimized is a far cry from being exposed to it firsthand.

I clicked on the URL and was taken to a site with names of graphic images. No photos or text appeared other than lists of images, with names like susan4.gif, betsy2.gif, and tyler8.gif. I clicked on one of the hundreds of image links in the directory. An image of a 3-1/2-year-old child slowly opened. It was a little brunette girl who was being graphically raped by an adult male. While all of her and his genitalia were clearly visible, only her face was in the shot. His was hidden. You can understand why this is "my image," the one I will never forget--the one that motivates me every day.

The cameraman had her facing the camera. A flash or special lighting was clearly being used and shone in her face to illuminate the graphic rape. (When I recount this, I have problems looking anyone in the face.) The little girl was not only being painfully molested, she was forced to bear the additional humiliation of being filmed at the same time. Unable to stop the rape, she did the only thing she could do to protect herself: She shut her eyes.

Most parents will be especially touched by this gesture. When our children are very young, they think that by closing their eyes they become invisible. They stand in front of us, thinking that if they can't see us, we can't see them. "Mommy, can you see me?" is the game of the day, and we all pretend that we can't. We call out to them, "Where are you? We can't see you!" pretending to look everywhere for them. The game ends with lots of giggling, tickling, laughter, and hugs. This little girl's attempt to be invisible would end very differently.

At first, I resolved to find that little girl, and my friends in law enforcement helped. But once I began to look, I discovered how many other children were being molested and their molestations memorialized forever in images online and offline.

Then my resolve to help stomp out child molestation and child pornography online grew.

Each year thousands and thousands of children, girls and boys, lose their innocence and much more because of the atrocities forced upon them by pedophiles. There are graphic pictures available of babies being molested at the age of 1 or 2 months. Infants not even old enough to sit up by themselves are being brutally raped or forced to perform oral sex on their molesters. Two-, 3-, and 4-year-old children that are just beginning to discover life have that life ripped away in just one heartbeat. Grade-school children lose their childhood in that same heartbeat. The pain doesn't go away. You can see it in their eyes.

Parry Aftab is a cyberspace lawyer, specializing in online privacy and security law, and she's also executive director of WiredSafety. She hosts the Web site aftab.com and blogs regularly at theprivacylawyer.blogspot.com.

ARE (Acronym-rich environment)
Acronyms are commonly used online, especially among youth in chat rooms and instant messaging. Here are just a few commonly-used acronyms.

121 -- one to one.
A/S/L -- age, sex, location.
DIKU -- Do I know you?
H&K -- hug and kiss.
ILU -- I love you.
IPN -- I'm posting naked.
IWALU -- I will always love you.
KIT -- keep in touch.
KOC -- kiss on cheeks.
KOL -- kiss on lips.
LTR -- long-term relatinship.
LUWAMH -- love you with all my heart.
MOSS -- member of same sex.
MOTOS -- member of the opposite sex.
NIFOC -- naked in front of computer.
PA -- parents alert.
PAL -- parents are listening.
PANB -- parents are nearby.
PM -- private message.
POS -- parents over shoulder.
WTGP -- want to go private?

Full Article Below.

By Donecia Pea...Shreveport Times

Like many parents, Jean Cason of Shreveport thought practicing online safety was a subject more applicable to parents of younger children. Then she attended a seminar on the issue.

"Parents of older kids, my youngest is in high school, think that once they're past that young and naive stage that you don't have to keep a watch on them anymore (when they're on the computer) and that's not the case," Cason said.

Cason is one of many parents who have become more aware of the importance of practicing online safety for children.

Nearly one in five youth between the ages of 10 and 17 received an unwanted sexual solicitation in the past year, according to a national survey of 1,501 youth conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Seventy percent of these unwanted solicitations happened when the youth was using a computer at home and 49 percent never told anyone about it.

The Internet and computers also play a growing role in sex crimes committed against children, according to a 2003 study by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

That study showed law enforcements at all levels made an estimated 2,577 arrests in 2000 for Internet sex crimes against minors. Of those arrests, 39 percent were for Internet crimes against identified victims involving Internet-related sexual assaults and other crimes such as child pornography.

Locally, that number is relatively low -- only two arrests were made last year -- according to local officials. Both cases involved an adult soliciting a juvenile online. However, with the increase in Internet usage among children nationwide -- 73 percent of children ages 12 to 17 use the Internet regularly according to a survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project -- online sex crimes are a problem. That's why Caddo sheriff's deputy Lt. Bill Duncan offers free seminars through the Caddo Parish Sheriff's office for parents and children that teaches them how to be safe online.

"You often have children who generally know more about the computer and Internet than their parents, so this program is mainly to get them acquainted with the Internet and give them a heads up on what they can protect their children from," he said.

Duncan also practices what he preaches. "If my son can't tell me who the person is he's chatting with, then it's time to be concerned." Communication is the key, Duncan said, and don't be intimidated by your lack of computer knowledge. "One of the main things I tell parents is to talk to their kids. That way the child will be more open to tell them what's going on in their lives," he said.

Cason said that was the first thing she did after she attended the seminar Duncan held for the Caddo District PTA. "When I came home, I talked to my daughter about it. She's very computer savvy, as most teens are, but some of the stuff I told her about was news to her too, which surprised me even more," she said.

Parents should also consider keeping their computer in an open area of the house, Duncan stressed. That way no one can hide what they're doing.

Cason's 18-year-old daughter Valerie Cason, a senior at Captain Shreve High School agrees. "Sometimes, when it comes to a teenage kids' curiosity, there's just too much available out there for them to find the wrong stuff," she said. "I've even accidentally typed incorrect information and the wrong stuff came up."

Be cautious of Internet chat rooms, Duncan warned parents. "Sometimes, children include detailed information such as their name, school name, etc. in their profile. The more detailed the profile, the higher the chances that they would be targeted," he said. "Where to draw the line just depends on a parent and the maturity of the child. I would say don't allow your child to even go into chat rooms if they're under middle school age because they're more susceptible to being tricked, but you still need to keep up no matter how old they are."

Valerie Cason remembers a particularly embarrassing incident when she was younger. "When I was in the seventh grade, my friends and I were on the Internet at home, my mom was in the next room, and we were in a teen chat room and somehow it was connected to another chat room and all of a sudden, this very inappropriate picture came up and we couldn't get it off the screen," Valerie Cason said. "But I know a lot of technology has come out since then to prevent that kind of thing from happening as much."

Mariah Underwood of Shreveport often monitors her two grandchildren, ages 6 and 17, while they're on the Internet. "(Duncan) told us how these predators can make sexual approaches to your children even through e-mail and that's one area I was really concerned with because you don't know who they're talking to all the time," said Underwood, president of the Caddo District PTA. "So, I try to screen and see what's going on."

And don't hesitate to utilize parental controls, which most Internet service providers offer either as a free or discounted option.

Valerie Cason said such controls and filtering have really helped on school computers and she believes it's especially important for pre-teens. "At school so many things are blocked on the Internet now and that helps out a lot. Even some things you want to access, you can't, but that's better than accessing the wrong thing.
 

Kids Should Play this Game

 

By DEAN SCHABNER

Jan. 26, 2005 — When Nancy Teasley heard the rumors that two of the girls in her sixth-grade computer technology class at Weatherford, Okla., Middle School, had been propositioned online, she was glad for a game that she'd had her students play.

The computer game is called "Missing." Developed by a Vancouver, British Columbia, company, it is now distributed free in the United States to schools and police departments by Web Wise Kids, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Ana, Calif.

Teasley decided to use the game in her class after learning about it from the Oklahoma Department of Education. "I felt it was something our kids could benefit from."

She said the game provides an up-to-date answer to the age-old problem of how to keep children safe from the cunning people who want to harm them.

"Twenty years ago we talked to our kids about how to protect themselves if they were out playing or in the park," she said. "But with the Internet, it's a different thing, and kids have to learn the dangers are out there."

In Camas, Wash., police Officer Tim Dickerson had been trying to get Camas Middle School to include the computer game in its curriculum. His effort got a boost when the reality of the dangers to children struck close to home.

"A young lady living just outside our town was a victim of an Internet predator," said Dickerson, the school's resource officer. "That wasn't the reason we did it, it was coincidental, but it certainly helped us get the interest of the parents and the school district. Everybody was just ready to jump on board."

Playing With Trouble

The dangers are no secret. According to a Department of Justice report, one in five children under 18 who use the Internet has been propositioned online, and according to Nielson NetRatings there are some 20 million children ages 12 to 17 who surf the Web.

When the Girl Scout Research Institute polled girls about their Internet use, 30 percent said they had been sexually harassed online, but only 7 percent said they told their parents.

According to Pew Internet, nearly 60 percent of teenagers say they have received an e-mail or instant message from a stranger, and half of all teen Internet users say they have sent messages to people they never met.

Despite all this, the same study found more than half of the teenagers online say they do not feel any concern about being contacted by people they do not know.

The game, Dickerson said, should help to change those youngsters' nonchalant attitude. "It's a new approach to a very old problem," he said. "The Internet didn't invent pedophiles, but they use it."

'Kids Need to Be Scared'

Monique Nelson, a spokeswoman for Web Wise Kids, said the game helps to overcome some of the illusions that the Internet allows predators to perpetrate, illusions that were harder to even create when they needed to approach their potential victims in person.

"Kids need to be scared," Nelson said. "They take the Internet, chat rooms and e-mail too lightly. The 'stranger-danger' thing doesn't work with the Internet. As soon as a kid makes a friend in a chat room, that person is no longer a stranger to them."

Dickerson said that in his experience with children at the Camas school this fall, the game succeeds where parents, teachers, police or other adults lecturing fails.

"With kids at the sixth-grade level, when you talk to them about something like that, it's, 'Predator blah blah blah, Internet blah blah blah,'" he said. "We sat them down at the game and it took about six hours and I would say there was about 90 percent total involvement."

Playing Cop

In the game, children play the role of police investigators, trying to capture a predator who has abducted a child before it is too late.

The game starts by showing just how easy it is for predators to pretend to be kids in youth-oriented chat rooms. To begin, kids in the "Missing" game introduce themselves to other chat room user. But when they click on user screen names, one will reveal an adult — and not just an adult, an actual convicted child molester dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit.

Once the predator has identified his target, made contact and then convinced the youngster to meet him in the real world, the chase is on. Children playing the game take the role of police investigators, trying to identify and decipher clues.

When the game is over, the children have to take home a questionnaire to discuss with their parents and together develop an Internet safety plan, including issues such as what to do if a stranger makes contact with them or they are asked to meet somebody in person.

Skirting Controversy

Despite its subject matter, Nelson said the game is "age specific," meaning that while children know that the young victim has fallen into the hands of a "predator," there is no mention of what specifically might be happening.

The all-too-common headlines, though, are there for children to see.

While Teasley's class was working through the program, the body of a girl who had been abducted in Texas was found in a field just 17 miles away from Weatherford.

"It really hit home for them," she said.

Dickerson did not want to leave to chance whether the children using the game would understand what was going on, but he also was aware that the parents in the community might not be pleased to have their children told about sexual predators.

"We wanted to be pretty up-front about what the consequences of getting involved with a pedophile are," he said.

So he had a meeting with a select group of teachers, administrators, community leaders and parents. He gave them the presentation he wanted to give to the students, then had them play the game — and he got their support.

Then he invited all the parents of the children in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades to attend a presentation on the game. He said 40 parents came, and one wanted to be with her child when the game was played, and another did not want her child to play the game in school — but she asked for a copy so they could play it together at home.

"We were all in favor of that," Dickerson said. "The game is very user-friendly."

 

 

Reports Of Child Pornography Continue To Climb



By John Foley      Courtesy of InformationWeek

Reports of suspected child pornography climbed 39% in 2004, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which collects tips about the problem over the Web and by telephone.

The child-protection organization's CyberTipline logged more than 106,000 reports of child-pornography possession, creation, or distribution in 2004, the seventh consecutive year such incidents trended upward since the 24-hour hot line was established in 1998. "The totals have gone up remarkably each year," says Staca Urie, a supervisor with the National Center's Exploited Child Unit.

Urie attributes the increase, in part, to technologies such as digital cameras, peer-to-peer networking, and the Internet that have made it easier to create, distribute, hide, and access illicit images and videos. Yet, the growth in child-porn reports also is a reflection that Internet service providers are complying with federal law that requires them to take action against the problem, Urie says.

The National Center's CyberTipline also tracks child prostitution, online enticement, sexual molestation, and child sex "tourism," where under the Protect Act, made law in 2003, U.S. residents who sexually exploit children while traveling abroad can be prosecuted, as can child-sex tour operators and their co-conspirators. The tipline also tracks child pornography, which is by far the most frequently reported problem. Of all the incidents recorded, about 25% are forwarded to law-enforcement agencies such as the FBI, Justice Department, and Postal Inspection Service. Those reports and the remaining 75% of others are stored in a database that's available to law-enforcement officials.

Homeland Security's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement division announced Tuesday that two executives of an Internet billing company in Belarus have been extradited from France to face child-pornography, money laundering, and other charges in U.S. federal court. Yahor Zalatarou and Alexei Buchnev are the president and marketing director of Regpay Co. Ltd., which is accused of providing billing services for 50 child-porn Web sites and operating its own such sites. The company's technical administrator, Aliaksandr Boika, was extradited from Spain in June to face similar charges.

The extraditions are part of an ongoing investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigations division, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The three Regpay employees were arrested in July 2003. So far, 190 people have been arrested in the United States and hundreds more in other countries as part of the investigation, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Yet, there's no way to track how many of the tips collected by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children lead to arrests or convictions. Some experts believe law-enforcement agencies can't keep up with the scope of the problem. "The number of prosecutions is very small," says Parry Aftab, executive director of WiredSafety.org, a nonprofit organization devoted to online safety. A lawyer, Aftab writes a column on privacy issues for InformationWeek.

Industry groups representing peer-to-peer companies, which are under pressure to curb the use of their products for illegal file sharing, which can include child pornography, have undertaken public-awareness campaigns. "We can and are playing a role in the education process and even in facilitating law enforcement," says Adam Eisgrau, executive director of Peer-to-Peer United. The trade association's Web site, P2PUnited.org, provides a link to the National Center's CyberTipline.

 

EU Wants to Make Internet Safe for Children

"Children are using the Internet more and more and can come across dangerous content. It's essential to inform parents what tools they can use," Viviane Reding, the European Information Society and Media Commissioner, told a news conference.

Around 60 percent of children regularly surf the Internet in Scandinavia and countries such as Britain, the Netherlands, Estonia and the Czech Republic, data issued by the European Commission on Thursday showed.

But most parents are not aware of the potential risks or do not know who to contact when they come across harmful content, Reding said.

The four-year EU program follows up a 38 million euro project that led to the creation of "hotlines" where parents could report illegal content found on the Internet.

West Orange police net child porn arrest  12/4/2004

By Royal M. Hopper III

The Orange Leader

WEST ORANGE - Police cooperation across state lines led West Orange police to arrest a man accused of sending pornography to a 12-year-old in Colorado.

Police in West Orange were contacted by the Colorado Springs Police Department for help in finding a man living in West Orange. The suspect was wanted in a pornography investigation, said West Orange Police Chief Mike Stelly.

The man, whom federal authorities haven't identified yet, was being investigated for sending pornographic photos to a 12-year-old child in Colorado Springs. Police believe he met the child on the Internet.

During their investigation, West Orange police discovered the man was an illegal alien who had been deported several times and had since returned to the country.

The Department of Homeland Security/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement assisted in the investigation and the man was turned over to federal custody after his arrest Thursday afternoon at a residence in West Orange.

Charges

He faces federal prosecution on immigration charges, and the Colorado Springs Police Department is expected to file charges against the man for sending the pornographic pictures to the child there.

Efforts to obtain the man's name Friday from the Beaumont and Houston offices of the immigration service were not successful.

It's not uncommon for "Internet predators" to stalk chat rooms to look for under-age "surfers" or to entice children who answer Web site or Internet postings through e-mail.

Once the predator gets a name or screen name they can work with, they will often use e-mail or instant message services to contact the children, according to officials with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Beaumont.

The predators build a relationship with the child and eventually ask to meet them somewhere outside the parent's site and influence, because it is a parent that usually notices something is wrong.

Study: Spammers, Virus Writers Getting Chummy 8/24/04



 

Before year's end, all E-mail messages will be spam. At least that's the way things appear to be headed, according to a report released Tuesday by MessageLabs, an international provider of managed E-mail services.

The company's E-mail Security Intelligence Report, covering January through June and based on a sample of some 5 billion messages, says 86.3% of E-mail in the month of June was spam. During the first four months of the year, the figure ranged from 53% to 67%. Compare that to the first six months of 2002, when the company identified a scant 1.5% of E-mail as spam.

"We thought it couldn't go much higher when it was at 50%," says Brian Czarny, VP of marketing at MessageLabs.

Just as water-treatment plants remove sewage to make palatable drinking water, spam filters keep users from gagging on the junk flowing toward their in-boxes. And for that reason, Czarny expects spammers to keep turning up the volume to compensate for the diminishing number of messages that are getting through.

The report also finds an alarming rise in the number of viruses distributed via E-mail. In April, May, and June, viruses were found in more than 9% of E-mail scanned. During the first six months of 2002 and of 2003, the company found viruses in only 0.3% and 0.5% of the messages it examined.

The reason for this appears to be an alliance between spammers and virus writers. "There's little or no monetary profit to be gained from simply distributing viruses, but when you combine the capabilities of a virus and the profit that can be earned from spam, suddenly you have an altogether more materialistic proposition," the report says. Examples of this trend include the Fizzer, Bugbear, Sobig, and MyDoom worms.

According to Czarny, virus writers try to compromise PCs in homes with broadband connections and then lease access to spammers. A network of thousands of such compromised machines, or zombies, might rent for $50 to $100 for a few hours--plenty of time to send millions of messages while the unsuspecting owners are away from the keyboards.

Perhaps the answer to the spam problem is as simple as turning your PC off when you're not using it. In the meantime, it's hard to imagine statistics more favorable to the selling of spam solutions.

High court bars Internet porn law enforcement

Ruling sends law down to lower court for trial

From Bill Mears
CNN Washington Bureau
Tuesday, June 29, 2004 Posted: 1:35 PM EDT (1735 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked enforcement of a law intended to protect children from pornography on the Internet, saying the law probably violates free-speech guarantees.

By a 5-4 vote, the high court said 1998 legislation "likely violates the First Amendment."

The court ordered parties from both sides to reconsider the issue in a lower-court trial. The ruling gives the Bush administration a chance to prove the law does not violate free-speech rights.

The case tested the free-speech rights of adults against the power of Congress to control Internet commerce.

The 1998 law, known as the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), never took effect. It would have authorized fines up to $50,000 for the crime of placing material that is "harmful to minors" within the easy reach of children on the Internet, according to The Associated Press.

 

Spam Gets Dangerous   What isn't getting blocked is turning vicious, warn security experts at e-mail conference. Dennis O'Reilly, PC World Thursday, June 03, 2004 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA -- ISPs and spam filters are blocking record amounts of unsolicited messages, but this electronic nuisance is hardly on the decline--and it's getting nastier. Security experts report a growing link between spam and viruses, according to e-mail vendors and analysts at the inaugural INBOX: The Email Event conference here this week. "You can't separate spam and viruses anymore," said Mark Sunner, chief technology officer of e-mail security vendor MessageLabs. "Virtually all the viruses this year have to do with spam," he said, speaking at a conference session entitled "How Serious Is It? The Threats by the Numbers." New Hazards Sunner said two-thirds of global e-mail is spam, and roughly two-thirds of those messages are sent from open proxies. Open proxies are insecure systems that accept connections from any network address and thus serve as gateways for untraceable spam. Open proxies can also allow the placement of a kind of Trojan horse program called a "botnet" on your system without your knowledge. Thousands of these viruses can infect systems and be instructed to launch a denial-of-service attack on a Web site. You can prevent most such worms by keeping your antivirus software up-to-date, but there's always a lag of several hours between the time a virus outbreak is detected and when antivirus vendors post a fix for it. "Because the antivirus industry is reactive, there's always a window of vulnerability," Sunner said. Recent months have seen a tremendous increase in phishing attacks, in which criminals try to steal credit card numbers and other personal information by sending messages that mimic official e-mail from large financial institutions. The links in the falsified e-mail lead to fake but official-looking Web sites. The number of phishing attacks increased 180 percent from March to April this year, and the average monthly increase is 50 percent, according to Dave Jevans, senior vice president at e-mail security firm Tumbleweed Communications. Speaking at the same session, Jevans said "phishers" can rake in $100,000 per attack, and it can cost a company $30,000 to recover from such an attack. He also claimed 30 new phishing attacks occur every day.

Pornography is crack cocaine of emotional world, distorts men's views of women 4/11/2004

From "Southeast Outlook.com"

Somewhere in between games of hide-n-seek, 12-year-old Ryan and another little boy sat down in the autumn leaves in the woods near his Louisville home and opened a magazine filled with photographs of naked women.

They were instantly mesmerized.

As they turned the pages slowly, Ryan's mind unwittingly took snapshots of the images.

About five years later, Ryan started his first job at a grocery store where he met Tyler, a fellow stock boy and bagger. They immediately became friends. Ryan often loaned his old Ford Bronco to Tyler; Tyler often loaned his sole pornographic movie to Ryan. The boys wore out the video cassette tape and longed to see more.

One boring Saturday night, they decided to go to a pornographic bookstore-the one Ryan frequently passed on the way to his aunt's house."

I was always curious but too afraid to go in by myself," Ryan said. "What if I saw someone I knew?"

Ryan's heart raced as he walked the dim aisles of the bookstore."

It was scary but I came out of there hooked."

Away at college, Internet access enabled Ryan to become a regular consumer of porn."

I could look at whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted."

But Ryan said he always felt guilty because through his entire struggle with pornography, he was a Christian.

Daniel Weiss, media and sexuality analyst for Focus on the Family-an advocacy group for family values based in Colorado Springs-said stories like Ryan's are more common than most people realize."

In fact, the most conservative surveys reveal anywhere from 6 to 10 percent of the U.S. population currently has a sexual addiction as a result of pornography," Weiss said.

Weiss describes the five stages of pornographic use.
1. Exposure. "About 95 percent of the U.S. population has seen a pornographic image by age 10," Weiss said.
2. Addiction. "Some are hooked on porn after just one exposure. It becomes a regular part of the user's life."
3. Desensitization. "Users come to the point where graphic images don't arouse anymore."
4. Escalation. "They start looking for more graphic material. What may have at first disgusted the user becomes a turn-on."
5. Acting out. "This is when you have sex crimes, spousal abuse, rape and child molestation."

Weiss stressed that not all users of porn progress through all five stages.

Don Delafield, senior counseling minister at Southeast Christian Church, said pornography use is a symptom of deeper problems."

The attraction to it is steeped in a devaluing of self," said Delafield."

Most of the people I've talked to who have struggled with this end up feeling worse about themselves," Delafield said. "It doesn't make them feel better, and it doesn't satisfy emotional or sexual needs. Even erotically, there are diminishing returns."

Weiss said resear-chers are beginning to better understand what happens in the brains of men who use pornography."

If you're viewing images of grap-hic sex, the brain is storing it as if you were a participant in the sexual act you viewed. It makes a much stronger bond in your mind and body," Weiss said. "Pornography actually changes brain chemistry."Sam Kennedy, a counselor at Focus on the Family, emphasized the addictive nature of pornography in men."

The combination of testosterone and adrenaline from pornography are as addictive as can be," Kennedy said. "And because the gratification from pornography is immediate, it becomes very tempting to pursue it."

  Government works to shut down thousands of child pornography sites  4/11/2004

From "Southeast Outlook.com"

In the last year alone, The United States Internet Crime Task Force (USICT) has helped shut down 50,000 chatrooms and child pornography sites on the Web. They work with Microsoft, with state government, federal government, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and private organizations to monitor and filter the Internet in what proves to be tedious work.

Dave Evangelista, founder and executive director of the three-year-old task force, wanted to enlist the community’s help. Part of the organization’s cause is a complaint department.

“We get complaints from everything from spam to actual criminal offenses. We have to pare down that complaint list. We get a lot of complaints about adult porn. Unfortunately that’s not illegal.”

The task force averages 50 legitimate complaints a month.

As many as nine in 10 children ages, 8-16, have viewed pornography on-line, most accidentally while doing homework, according to the NOP Research Group. Some sites are deliberately misleading in their names, attempting to lure children and teens.

Evangelista wants to make arrests. He is a police officer in Radcliff, Ky., where former Radcliff Police Chief John Farrelly was sentenced for receiving child pornography on a computer.

But Evangelista also wants to head off the problem. He cautions parents to be vigilant, watching over their children’s computer usage, supervising, restricting and checking up.

Not only are unwanted images dangerous for children, but unwanted contact from sexual predators is as well.
 

Local law enforcement agent resigns in wake of FOX 12 sting

02-17-04

From Fox 12 KPTV News.

What kind of grown man would you picture wanting to have sex with a 13 -year old girl?  In this series of special I-Team 12 reports, we found out that those men look like your neighbors or any other person on the street.

It's a shocking story that all begins with a computer chatroom, hidden cameras, and a KPTV crew.  The "bust" house is rigged with cameras, computers, and several volunteers from Perverted-Jusstcie to catch predators online.  Fox 12 rented the house and brought in the team from Perverted Justice, a website designed to expose dangerous people in chat rooms.

Jeff, from Portland, goes into a chat room posing as 13 year old Amy.  Within minutes, men are chatting her up and turning the conversation to sex. One man asked if Amy was a virgin.  Another  asked if she would like to perfom sexual relations.  But it doesn't end with online chatting.  Many want to visit young Amy, who's supposedly home alone while her parents are out.  The volunteers get their numbers and call them back to verify who they are.  

Soon, a meeting time is set up, and within hours, they show up.  A dozen men in just two days, all expecting to hook up with Amy.  But Amy is not alone, and Amy is really our undercover team.

Gresham teacher accused of trying to solicit boy online

01/10/04

A Gresham middle school teacher and basketball coach was arrested Friday evening after an FBI task force accused him of using the Internet to entice a boy to have sex.

He is accused of trying to lure an undercover FBI agent posing as a 14-year-old boy in a chat room into meeting him to have sex, according to a court document.

The investigation started in May, when a 15-year-old boy told investigators in Washington County that a man later identified as McPartlin offered him $200 to have sex, according to the court document. They met but never had sex, according to the FBI.

The court documents also include a chat room transcript indicating the suspect had sex with a 17-year-old boy he met online.

New Mexico man arrested in Reno Internet sex sting

12/11/2003 01:40 pm

A federal sting in Reno led to the arrest of a New Mexico man accused of traveling to Nevada to have sex with a 14-year-old girl he thought he had talked with on the Internet.

Michael Anthony Anaya, 30, Santa Fe, in fact had been conversing with a Washoe County sheriff's deputy posing as the girl on the Internet, authorities said Wednesday.

FBI agents arrested him Sunday when he arrived in Reno allegedly for the purpose of meeting and having sex with the girl. He was arrested on federal charges of suspicion of travel with the intent to engage in a sexual act with a juvenile and enticement of a juvenile.

The local sheriff's office also booked him on suspicion of using technology to lure a juvenile for sexual purposes and attempted sexual assault.

Court records indicate Anaya, a manager at Rio Grande Drywall Supply in Santa Fe, used his work computer to access chat rooms and talk with people from around the country.

In his conversations with the 14-year-old girl, Anaya told her he was afraid that talking to her would get him in trouble. Later, he mailed her six packages using his work address as his return address.

The packages contained a laptop computer, jewelry, lingerie, a digital camera, a cell phone, $600 in cash, perfume, a jar of peanut butter and five cans of vegetables, according to court records.

Anaya was being held in the Washoe County jail in lieu of $100,000 cash bail. He was scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 18.

Online Porn Driving Sexually Aggressive Children
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief
November 26, 2003

Pacific Rim Bureau (CNSNews.com) - Incidents of young children displaying sexually aggressive behavior towards others appear to be on the increase, and exposure to online pornography is a key factor, according to a new study in Australia.

A Canberra-based health unit working with abused and abusive children has recorded a significant rise in the number of children aged younger than 10 who are committing sexual offences, including "oral sex and forced intercourse," against other children.

The child-at-risk assessment unit at Canberra Hospital says that in the mid-1990s, it was seeing as few as three children a year who were engaged in "sexually-abusive behavior."

By 2000 the number had risen to 28, and by the time this year ends, it expects to have seen 70 children in that category during 2003 alone, unit member and social worker Cassandra Tinning told a child abuse conference in Sydney.

The unit manager, Annabel Wyndham, made a copy of the paper available Wednesday.

The report differentiates between sexual behavior in children regarded as normal and developmentally appropriate - the "you show me yours and I'll show you mine" kind of games - and activity that was aggressive, secretive, coercive and usually involved an age difference between the perpetrator and victim.

"We're not talking about kids playing mummies and daddies together," Wyndham said in a phone interview. "We're talking about things like one child holding another child up by the neck in the back of a toilet block and pulling their pants down and doing things to them."

Most of the children seen in this category came from troubled backgrounds, and 40 percent had been abused themselves.

"Children who are doing that sort of thing have to have other things going wrong in their lives," she said. "They wouldn't be doing it otherwise."

Nonetheless, the unit also recorded startling data relating to Internet use.

Of the 101 sexually-abusive children seen over the past three years, almost all had access to the Internet, and 90 percent admitted having seen sexually-explicit material online, the report said.

A full one-quarter deliberately sought out pornography online as their main use of the Internet, while about 40 percent said they used the Internet for other purposes as well as accessing porn.

Twenty-five percent of the 101 children said someone else -- usually an older sibling or an older child or adolescent -- had shown them how to access pornographic images, sometimes exposing them to it against their will.

The unit also found that parental supervision of the children's online sessions was uniformly lacking.

But while the children admitted accessing the Internet at home at a time and in a place where a parent would find it difficult to supervise - usually a study or bedroom - parents questioned separately said they "doubted that their child would access any pornography via the Internet."

Wyndham said her unit did not believe the rise in cases of children behaving in a sexually aggressive manner was merely a matter of increased recognition of a longstanding problem.

"We think this is a new thing of the modern world, because of access to the Net and - to be truthful -combined with some pretty terrible parenting."

The research paper was presented by the Canberra unit and a government-funded body called the National Child Protection Clearinghouse.

One of its child protection experts, Dr. Janet Stanley, said there seemed to be a link between sexually-aggressive behavior among young children seen by the unit and Internet pornography.

"We're suggesting there's an association between the children's exposure to inappropriate material on the Internet ... and their acting out in sexually aggressive behavior, experimenting and modeling what they're seeing."

Stanley called for tighter government regulation of Internet service providers (ISPs) to help protect children.

Computers in the bedroom

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for 2001, nearly half of children aged 5-14 have access to the Internet.

Fears about the risks of stumbling across pornography online were given weight earlier this year in research carried out by a public policy center called the Australia Institute.

It found that among 16-17 year old respondents, 84 percent of boys and 60 percent of girls had come across sexually explicit material on the Internet by accident.

(The survey also found that 38 percent of boys and two percent of girls among the respondents deliberately used the Internet to access pornography.)

Another survey this year found that 75 percent of parent respondents felt the federal government should do more about online porn, and 60 percent felt it should do a lot more.

An anti-censorship group, Electronic Frontiers Australia, said ISPs should not be expected to use mandatory filtering software. Rather, parents should supervise their children's access to the Internet.

Asked about the censorship concerns, Wyndham suggested that adult Internet users should be in a position where they could "opt in" for sexually-explicit material if they wanted to.

"You should have to go and look for it. Why should it be in your face?"

Young Media Australia is a non-profit organization which aims to promote the good aspects of media in childhood development while campaigning against the negative elements.

YMA president Jane Roberts said Wednesday parents, the government and society at large had roles to play in protecting children from inappropriate material on the Internet.

Citing the recent decision by Microsoft to shut down its free, unmoderated chatrooms because of child abuse concerns - a decision criticized by many, for different reasons - Roberts said "from our perspective, any attempt to stop in appropriate access to children should be applauded."

She acknowledged that policing the Internet was very difficult for governments.

Much of the challenge lay in educating parents about both the benefits and drawbacks of the Internet, and encouraging them to develop a sense of trust with their children as well as supervising online use.

YMA argues strongly in favor of ensuring that computers are placed in a public area of the home.

"Kids are often far more savvy about using the technology than their parents are," Roberts said. "You have parents who are happy to have children in their bedrooms with the door closed and the computer on ... the first thing we say is, get those computers out of the bedroom."

Are you Protected?

There are some newer monitoring spy programs designed to search for and disable firewalls, thus being able to send data undetected.  These spy programs are often physically installed by spouse or other person with access to your PC.  The spy then disables the firewall and sends back monitoring reports to the intruder.

Unfortunately the surveillance software companies write code into their software to fool the firewall or rather fool you.  How it works is when your firewall senses the spyware attempting to access the internet, the spyware will trick the firewall into thinking it is say... Internet Explorer.. or some such common program.  The firewall will then ask you if you will allow Internet Explorer to access the Internet. When you click yes, it will send the information it has collected off your machine.  More information on stopping and detecting spyware. 

Web-site porn attracts women by the millions

10/31/03

After putting her daughter to bed, Maggie, 42, routinely sat at her computer for hours, mesmerized by an online world of erotic stories and real- time sexual discussions.

Beth, 33, usually clicked on the most visually graphic sites, disproving the theory that only men are enticed by pornography.

"A lot of people don't realize this happens with women, too," says Beth, who, along with Maggie, asked that their last names not be revealed.

The myth began long ago, perhaps because women were rarely seen walking into seedy adult bookstores.

But in recent years, the accessibility, affordability and anonymity of the Internet have made pornography undeniably attractive to millions of women. While some women simply find it exciting, others have battled addictions and other problems.

Julie Neff, 29, of Mukwonago, Wis., sees nothing but benefits. Internet pornography "is pretty much an adjunct to my regular sex life," she said. She estimates she views it less than an hour a week, and is open about it with her boyfriend.

"We e-mail each other saying, 'Ha- ha, look at this,' or, 'Hee-hee, look at that,' or, 'Ooh, that's good.' It's healthy. If you want to know the mechanics or the logistics of certain things, you can get education and inspiration to do stuff. Plus, I just find it prurient. I like it."

Others think it can lead to problems. There is some evidence that Internet pornography is luring even women whose values oppose it.

Some speculate a forbidden- fruit factor can make it tantalizing for religious women in particular.

The editors of Today's Christian Woman, an evangelical magazine, had heard anecdotes of churchgoing women getting hooked on pornography, so they conducted a survey asking readers of their online newsletter if they had intentionally visited porn sites. Thirty-four percent said they had.

While the frequency of female pornography "addiction" is difficult to measure, psychologists agree that some women, as well as men, do engage in destructively compulsive behavior fueled by the Internet.

Maggie said she began exploring pornography to try to understand what it was that captivated her ex-husband. Soon, she was spending up to 30 hours a week surfing the Web for arousal.

She realized she had a serious problem when "I couldn't wait for my daughter to go to sleep so I could get on the computer. The light went on that I preferred porn to spending time with my child."

The interactivity of the Internet makes it especially appealing to some women, said Al Cooper, a staff psychologist at Stanford University and the author of "Sex and the Internet: A Guidebook for Clinicians."

"We see women all the time who may not feel that attractive, but they get 20 guys going after them at a time in a chat room, e-mailing them instantly. That's affirming to a woman, and it's hard to match when your husband is in the next room drinking a beer, maybe asking you if you're going to exercise next week" because he thinks you're overweight, Cooper said.

When a woman prefers cybersex to real sex or becomes secretive about her online pornography use, those are red flags, said Cooper, director of the San Jose Marital Services and Sexuality Centre in California. But he contends that online erotica can be helpful "if you share this with your partner because you need some variety, need a way to spice things up."

While pornography may rouse a couple's interest for a while, "real women with real varicose veins and real body fat" lose in the end because they can't compete with the image of air-brushed porn queens, said Donna Rice Hughes, president of Enough is Enough, an organization trying to make the Internet safer for families.

"Pornography sells sex without relationships, sex without commitment, sex without consequences, sex without love, sex without children and sex for one's own gratification as opposed to the gratification of the other," said Rice Hughes, whose 1987 relationship with former Sen. Gary Hart, Democrat of Colorado, ended his presidential campaign.

Chicago Pediatrician Arrested With Child Porn

A pediatrician was arrested after thousands of images of child pornography were found on his computers, federal prosecutors said Monday.

Dr. H. Marc Watzman, 37, also had a hidden panel in his car that contained drugs such as morphine, compounds used to induce unconsciousness and a substance used to induce temporary muscular paralysis. Some drugs also were found in the apartment.

Watzman was taken into custody Saturday after agents searched his Chicago apartment.

He was charged with possession of child pornography. He has not been accused of trying to use the drugs on anyone, and federal prosecutors said there have been no allegations that patients were involved.

At a bond hearing Monday, defense attorney Brian Collins said his client worked mainly as an anesthesiologist. The hearing was continued until Friday.

Agents said they found a desktop computer in Watzman's apartment with about 40 images of child pornography and more than 200,000 erased images. They also seized a laptop containing 3,000 to 5,000 images of sexually explicit pictures of children, authorities said.

Tigard man arrested for encouraging child sex abuse

06:12 PM PDT on Thursday, September 25, 2003

HILLSBORO -- A Tigard man faces ten counts of encouraging child sex abuse for allegedly possessing child pornography.

Twenty-six-year-old Michael Forker turned himself in September 24th. He was arrested and lodged at the Washington County jail on a $100,000 bail.

Police say Forker was using the Internet to meet young boys. According to detectives, Forker had at least two boys at a Beaverton apartment, where he lived until recently.

Police won't identify the boys.

They think there may be other alleged victims in the Portland metropolitan area.

Don't Let Your PC Become a Porn Zombie

More than a thousand Windows PCs were hijacked recently, unbeknownst to their owners, to send spam and distribute pornography. This was done via a Trojan known as Migmaf (migrant Mafia) that turned their machines into proxies, or relay points, which hid the real servers involved.

You can protect your machine by learning to recognize the signs that your computer is being invaded. Are the lights on your cable/DSL modem, or network hub flashing wildly when you're not doing anything on the Net? Is your hard drive seeking frantically when the system ought to be idle? Does your system seem sluggish? While none of these symptoms are sure signs that your computer has become a zombie, they merit investigation.

If you're running Windows, try typing netstat-a in a command window. Do you see established connections to other machines, even when your browser and e-mail programs are closed? If so, your computer could be compromised.  (For helpful information on the ports Trojans generally use, check out Pest Patrol.

Finally, learn how to keep your computer from being taken over in the first place. Install patches and updates regularly. New holes in Windows are being discovered all the time, but it's still a good idea to patch the old ones to limit your exposure. Are you running a personal firewall, such as ZoneAlarm? If not, install one, and check to see whether any unfamiliar programs are trying to access the Net.

Have you checked your machine for viruses lately? Is your antivirus software up to date? Have you tested your machine for spyware? If not, you may have missed a malicious program that has taken over your machine.

Remember, most hackers aren't out to get you personally. They want to use your computing resources to hide their activities or attack enemies. But if you protect your PC, they'll gladly use someone else's machine to distribute their porn, spam, warez, and denial-of-service attacks.

Oregon man pleads guilty in online sex case

07:08 AM PDT on Tuesday, October 7, 2003

Associated Press

A man pleaded guilty Monday to a charge that he traveled across state lines in an attempt to have sex with a minor.

The Thomas David James, in Vancouver, Wash., was arrested by FBI agents in May after he used an online chat room to arrange a meeting with a 13-year-old girl. The girl turned out to be an FBI agent posing as a girl, and James was arrested when he went to pick her up in a Portland parking lot.

James, 46, who said little during a hearing in federal court in Portland, has been out of custody since shortly after his arrest and remains so pending his sentencing Jan. 13.

The maximum sentence by federal law is 30 years in prison. But James, who has no criminal record, will be sentenced under federal guidelines that call for a 27- to 41-month sentence, depending on certain findings U.S. District Judge Owen Panner will be asked to make, said Gregory Nyhus, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case.

Mobs Turn Net Into Money Machine

02:25 PM Oct. 07, 2003 PT

But the most active area for the NHTCU, and similar investigative teams, continues to be breaking up child-pornography rings. Nearly half of the 110 arrests made by the unit have been for pedophilia-related charges, Hynds said.

"We are focusing on the organized groups that are making money out of peddling child pornography on the Internet. We are doing that in partnership with business and industry," he said.

"We've deployed officers from this office overseas to physically remove children to places of safety," he added.

International police forces have been tackling the rise of child pornography online with greater success recently. Last week, German police said they cracked a global pedophile ring that involved 26,500 computer users from 166 countries.

05:29 PM PDT on Sunday, October 12, 2003

By ANTONIA GIEDWOYN, kgw.com Staff

Police found a missing teenager from Centennial High School who is believed to have run away with a man she met online last month, authorities said Sunday.

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