JANUARY 1992 ISSN: 0142-0496

Editor: TINA MONK

US Editor: DR. HAROLD JOSEPH HIGHLAND Compulit Inc New York

Editorial Consultant: DR. KEN WONG P A Consultants London

Editorial Advisors: Professor Henry J. Beket, UK; William A.J. Bound, UK; Dt Jetty Fitzgerald, California, USA; Dt Allan Fox, UK; Hans Gliss, West Germany; Fred M. Gtegutas, California, USA; Alistait Kelman, UK; Dt Les Lawrence, New South Wales, Australia; Gordon Lennox, Belgium; David T. Lindsay, UK; Wayne Madsen, New Jersey, USA; Belden Menkus, Tennessee, USA: Donn B. Parker, California, USA; Michael 1. Sobol, Massachusetts, USA; Peter Sommet, UK; Mark Tantam, UK.

Correspondents: Frank Flees, Melbourne, Australia, John Stetlicchi, California, USA.

NEWS

Joseph POpp is s&t free . . . . . ..I ,...,. 4.I . . . ..I d ,.... t

tn;ggdon closes down bookmaker ~.....,~,......,.,.‘~.~.,,,........,rr-.,.,,~r~,.r.. 2

European lnformationhriarket .~......,.*....,...~2 : Taix return fraud is tadded ,,,....,. .,..;.+ ,.,,..... 3

Richardson catis fur spedal investigation . . . . . . __...* . . .._... ~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~._ _... .A

US army coritinuesvirus research...:... .,.. ..4

Canadian copyright infringement ,......_ +..4

Brain death * . . . . . . ..,.r I r....,.,.,.... d,,.,.>A .,,,.“... *., 4

Oracle imposes ilser tests .,., ..,.. ., . . . . + . . . . . . . . . 5

Dataprote~tion ba~les..,...,,.,.,.,,,.,, .+,+. ,....+.5

tf3M seeks to prodlice betfer code ,+, . . , . . . . ., .5

Marketplace . I ‘.‘i.i.r.,rr.t*.~.+,* ,..... l .+.*....+ ..r,, 4-4 5

CONFEi3ENCE REPORT The CS1 Conference in Miami _.........,..... . ...7

lNSURING COMPUTER RBkS A fwsh start _._I . . . . . ~._ . . . . . . ~ ..,.....,.. ~_~ ._... . . . . . . ...8 ESPIONAGE VIA VIRUSES

The future ri$k? . . . . . . . . _~ . . . . . _..*.,.+_ .,..... . . ...14

BOOK REVfEW

international Money Laundering .._. _ . . . . . . . . . I?

EVENTS . . . . .._........... _ . . . . . . .._.........._ _ . . . ..I . . ..I% ’

NEW PRODUCTS .~,.~.~.“.,.,,~.,...l,.,.,,.....,. 19

STOP PRESS ...d .,.,L.....,...... d .<.,., * . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 )

NEWS

Joseph Popp is set free

Joseph Popp, the author of the ‘Aids diskette’ has been set free by a UK court. After nearly two years of work by UK and US police forces, Judge Geoffrey Riviin QC, of Southwark Crown Court, halted the case after Popp was declared mentally unfit for trial. Judge Riviin

admitted during the proceedings that he was afraid of sending out the wrong message by letting Popp go free. However, his main concern was to “reassure the public”, and that included

returning Popp to the USA, “where he can get proper treatment”. Whether this significantly reassures the British, with the implication that proper treatment cannot be obtained in the UK,

or the Americans, who now have to deal with Popp, is another matter.

The Defence called on the testimony of a London psychiatrist, Paul Bowden who stated, “His condition is deteriorating and we do not have... the resources or the ability to clarify the situation further in the foreseeable future”. He gave examples of Popp’s behaviour that included roiling hair curlers in his beard and

01992 Elseviet Science Publishers Ltd., England.192/$0.00 + 3.00 No part pf this publicatipn may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval syster?, or transmitted by any form or by an mechanIcal, photocopy19 recordI% cover,)

means, eledronic,

see special regulations IIS ed on ba or otherwlse, without the prior permission of the publishers. (Readers in he U.S.A.-please Y

Computer Fraud & Security Bulletin January 1992

wearing bottles over his body, which Popp claimed would defend himself against micro-organisms. Popp has been in a London, UK, hospital since September.

Popp’s charges included blackmail and criminal damage relating to an incident during Christmas, 1989. According to the UK Metropolitan Police, Popp had sent out over

20 000 diskettes containing AIDS information and a Trojan Horse, to various international organizations. Prior to Popp’s extradition to the UK, his US attorney claimed that Popp’s aim was to provide information about AIDS via the PC. “He (Popp) says that it is legitimate scientific research,” said the attorney, who also confirmed that Popp had been prepared to send out some 2 million more diskettes. “We just hope that he doesn’t do it again, and that we won’t hear about him again until his book comes out,” commented the UK prosecutor, Richard Curtis.

Charlotte Klopp and Tina Monk

Investigation closes down bookmaker system

The development and marketing of a bookmakers’ computer system has been stopped after a major investigation. Bookmaking is an illegal activity in the USA. The investigation marked the first time in New York State that a court had ordered access to computer records of betting activity. Ten individuals were indicted as a result of the investigation, nine of these people eventually pleaded guilty to various charges. This ring was alleged to have accepted at least $17 million in illegal wagers and to have laundered more then $3 million. The latter phase of the operation involved the movement of funds through a Fort Worth, Texas, currency exchange. The actual exchanges of currency took place in Las Vegas and other points in the us.

The investigation revealed that the bosses of the bookmaking ring and the currency exchange had collaborated on a computer

system designed to be sold to other illegal

bookmakers. It was designed to keep track of scheduled sporting events, the lines (or odds) on each event, the names of the betters and runners (subordinate bookmakers) involved, the amounts of money wagered on each event, the commissions earned by the various participants in the bookmaking operation, the amounts of money won and lost by each better on each event, and the status of each better’s account.

The system was discovered to include a ‘bail out’ feature. In the event of a police raid on a bookmaking operation, this feature permitted easy transfer of the data from the micro to a system located in Mexico. After the police had left without finding the incriminating information, the bookmaker would have been permitted (for a fee) to retrieve the data from Mexico. Purchasers of the system were promised that in such a situation they could return to doing business as usual in about 20 minutes.

The plan called for selling the system, after it was demonstrated at a Las Vegas wagering convention, to illegal bookmakers throughout the USA. The demonstration was secretly videotaped by the Las Vegas Police Department intelligence unit. The conspirators were unaware of it at the time, but the technician who operated the system during the demonstration was an investigator. Later a system prototype was installed at a Westchester County site. The data that it contained was eventually transferred, not to the computer in Mexico as the conspirators believed, but to a microcomputer located in the District Attorney’s office. The wagering records captured in this fashion supported several of the indictments. They indicated that the ring had taken over $4.5 million in just one four week period in 1990.

Be/den Menkus

European Information Market

A working group entitled ‘European Information Market’ (EURIM), has been launched with the intention of becoming

recognized as an authoritative consultative body on European IT legislation. The EURIM working

01992 Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd