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Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 14:57:14 +1000
From: Nathan Cochrane <ncochrane_at_theage.fairfax.com.au>
Organization: The Age newspaper
To: Declan McCullagh <declan_at_well.com>
Subject: P2P Hacking Redux
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Hi Declan
Please ignore the previous post; I hadn't quite finished it when it barfed
from my machine.
You may remember last year there was much talk around the RIAA's alleged
proposals to hack PCs to see if there was pirate music on them. It occurs
to me that the RIAA doesn't really have to do anything. The P2P networks
are so inherently insecure they are their own worst enemies.
September 25, 2001
Alleged e-mail from RIAA CEO Hilary Rosen to entertainment industry
executives published December 25, 2001.
"It is time to get coordinated and aggressive with the new round of peer to
peer services. We need to discuss:
1. Spoofing and/or interdiction methods for existing peer to peers -
(perhaps by adding promotional messages about the launch of various new
systems)"
http://www.dotcomscoop.com/print.php?sid=40
October 16, 2001
"Look out, pirates: RIAA wants to hack your PC
By Declan McCullagh
An RIAA-drafted amendment, according to a draft obtained by Wired News,
would immunize all copyright holders -- including the movie and
e-book industry -- for any data losses caused by their hacking efforts or
other computer intrusions 'that are reasonably intended to impede or
prevent' electronic piracy."
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02656.html
October 24, 2001
RIAA denies to Declan McCullagh that it wants to hack PCs:
"The answer to whether our proposal would permit a copyright holder to hack
computers and delete information is: No, absolutely not."
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02704.html
April 30, 2002
"KaZaA users brace for hijack
By Nathan Cochrane
'I have concern about their (KaZaA Media Desktop owner, Sharman Networks)
security protocols for activating the client and running programs that
utilise idle resources . . . If someone finds out that, anybody can request
your machine to do what they want, which is scary,' (said distributed
computing researcher, Rajkumar Buyya.)"
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/04/26/1019441306209.html
May 18, 2002
"Worm Crawls Into The KaZaA Network
The KaZaA file exchange network takes its turn as a virus victim.
Kaspersky Labs, an international data-security software developer,
announces the detection of the network worm "Worm.Kazaa.Benjamin" - the
first malicious program to spread through the KaZaA file exchange network."
http://www.kaspersky.com/news.html?id=738605
May 20, 2002
"Benjamin Worm Means Well
By Brian McWilliams, Newsbytes
The creators of a new worm that targets users of the Kazaa file-trading
network say they released the code to frustrate Internet users searching
for pirated software and child pornography.
'After a few months it could be that there are more Benjamin files in p2p
networks than warez files ... Within a few days Benjamin has spread very
far in these illegal networks,' said (virus creator Paul) Komoszki."
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:H4D_By_NUPkC:www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176684.html+kazaa+virus&hl=en&ie=UTF8
--
Nathan Cochrane
Deputy IT Editor
:Next:
The Age and Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.next.theage.com.au
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Received on May 31 2002
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