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Ghost jailed for piracy
news 40% never test their plan at all. A forum to promote business continuity has been formed by a collection of interested parties. They have produced a Business Guide to Continuity Management in order to advise businesses on how to progress their contingency plans. The guide is available from www.bgcm.co.uk.
Ghost jailed for piracy A group of CD-ROM software pirates has finally been sentenced after a five year case. The pirates responsible are a group known on the black market as Ghost. Police seized £6 million worth of pirated software on CD-ROM in West Yorkshire, UK, in 1995. The handing down of a custodial sentence after half a decade sends out the clear message that criminal piracy is under close scrutiny. The heist involved searches of 14 business premises. The leader of GHOST, the notorious Donald Cannar, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison. It is suspected that he was at the top of a nationwide pyramid of CD pirates. Cannar pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the software industry. Another member of the group received a 12-month sentence and a third was fined. Anti-piracy group spokesman, Laurence Westwood of the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) said, “The sentences handed down sent a message to all would-be
criminals that the software industry will not tolerate piracy.” FAST was involved in the arrest and subsequent court case both as expert witnesses — presenting the technical evidence — and as advisors to the police. Westwood explained that “crackers do it for prestige, it’s a bit of fun for them”. He said, “We believe [that Ghost], were the first CD pirates operational in the UK and started in 1993...Ghost got hold of one of the first CD writers.” According to FAST, the group would burn compilations of software, often worth £20-30 000, onto CD and sell them for less than £100. Ghost were also in competition with other software piracy groups, but were by far the most successful. Copies of Ghost’s copies “kept popping up all over the UK,” making it difficult to discover where the CDs were compiled and who the originators were. With the wide availability of CD writing hardware, software piracy is a large fear for the industry. Westwood pointed out, “It can happen within a company, and so there are concerns for the corporate sector.” If a member of staff uses or sells pirated software at work, then that company is liable.
Smart card takeup set to double Schlumberger’s annual survey on smart cards predicts that
the use of “corporate and IT security smart card applications is expected to more than double. It will form a ‘high spot’ for the industry.” The reason for this was stated to be the emergence of intranet and Internet network security. Smart card security tokens are supported in Windows 2000. This should help to increase take-up. Schlumberger estimate that by 2003, smart cards will be used to secure almost half of online transactions. The report also said that the major growth area of 2000, SIM cards for mobile phones, is set to continue. It will also diversify to include powering M-commerce and other commercial wireless applications. The smart card industry has been greatly helped by the application of a system of open standards, including those administered by EMV — a collaboration of Europay, Mastercard and Visa. The shortage of silicon was named as a major limiting factor to the industry in 2000. See www.slb.com.
Internet News
Auction sites attract fraud The online auction site is a growth sector which is actually making money. Auction sites are also the most likely places on the Internet for fraud to occur. According to a study by Meridien Research, Online Card Payments: Fraud Solutions Bid to Win, the use of anti-fraud technology is capable of stemming the
trend. Because auction sites are leading the way financially, they should also take responsibility for leading the field in the elimination of fraud, it says. Online fraud tends to be opportunistic in much the same way as mail fraud, however, “the same scams that work over the telephone work even better over the Internet”. So the crimes are not new ones, but they require different measures to overcome them. One crime that is particularly suited to the Internet is ‘friendly fraud’, where a relative or other person known to the cardholder uses the Internet to make a card purchase without permission. This accounts for “as much as half of chargebacks” and can be difficult to detect. Smartcards or biometric measures would solve the problem, however solutions which require a modification in user behaviour are often unpopular — especially in countries like the US, where consumer liability for fraud is set at zero. Meridien points to three possible solution methodologies: 1.Neural networks — this solution can learn to recognize patterns. 2.Rules-based — can use IFTHEN-ELSE logic to determine whether the transaction requires further investigation before the dispatch of goods. 3.Logistic regression — uses mathematical equations to evaluate statistical risk (the probability of a transaction being fraudulent) in various situations. The proportion of merchants using an advanced 3
Ghost jailed for piracy A group of CD-ROM software pirates has finally been sentenced after a five year case. The pirates responsible are a group known on the black market as Ghost. Police seized £6 million worth of pirated software on CD-ROM in West Yorkshire, UK, in 1995. The handing down of a custodial sentence after half a decade sends out the clear message that criminal piracy is under close scrutiny. The heist involved searches of 14 business premises. The leader of GHOST, the notorious Donald Cannar, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison. It is suspected that he was at the top of a nationwide pyramid of CD pirates. Cannar pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the software industry. Another member of the group received a 12-month sentence and a third was fined. Anti-piracy group spokesman, Laurence Westwood of the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST) said, “The sentences handed down sent a message to all would-be
criminals that the software industry will not tolerate piracy.” FAST was involved in the arrest and subsequent court case both as expert witnesses — presenting the technical evidence — and as advisors to the police. Westwood explained that “crackers do it for prestige, it’s a bit of fun for them”. He said, “We believe [that Ghost], were the first CD pirates operational in the UK and started in 1993...Ghost got hold of one of the first CD writers.” According to FAST, the group would burn compilations of software, often worth £20-30 000, onto CD and sell them for less than £100. Ghost were also in competition with other software piracy groups, but were by far the most successful. Copies of Ghost’s copies “kept popping up all over the UK,” making it difficult to discover where the CDs were compiled and who the originators were. With the wide availability of CD writing hardware, software piracy is a large fear for the industry. Westwood pointed out, “It can happen within a company, and so there are concerns for the corporate sector.” If a member of staff uses or sells pirated software at work, then that company is liable.
Smart card takeup set to double Schlumberger’s annual survey on smart cards predicts that
the use of “corporate and IT security smart card applications is expected to more than double. It will form a ‘high spot’ for the industry.” The reason for this was stated to be the emergence of intranet and Internet network security. Smart card security tokens are supported in Windows 2000. This should help to increase take-up. Schlumberger estimate that by 2003, smart cards will be used to secure almost half of online transactions. The report also said that the major growth area of 2000, SIM cards for mobile phones, is set to continue. It will also diversify to include powering M-commerce and other commercial wireless applications. The smart card industry has been greatly helped by the application of a system of open standards, including those administered by EMV — a collaboration of Europay, Mastercard and Visa. The shortage of silicon was named as a major limiting factor to the industry in 2000. See www.slb.com.
Internet News
Auction sites attract fraud The online auction site is a growth sector which is actually making money. Auction sites are also the most likely places on the Internet for fraud to occur. According to a study by Meridien Research, Online Card Payments: Fraud Solutions Bid to Win, the use of anti-fraud technology is capable of stemming the
trend. Because auction sites are leading the way financially, they should also take responsibility for leading the field in the elimination of fraud, it says. Online fraud tends to be opportunistic in much the same way as mail fraud, however, “the same scams that work over the telephone work even better over the Internet”. So the crimes are not new ones, but they require different measures to overcome them. One crime that is particularly suited to the Internet is ‘friendly fraud’, where a relative or other person known to the cardholder uses the Internet to make a card purchase without permission. This accounts for “as much as half of chargebacks” and can be difficult to detect. Smartcards or biometric measures would solve the problem, however solutions which require a modification in user behaviour are often unpopular — especially in countries like the US, where consumer liability for fraud is set at zero. Meridien points to three possible solution methodologies: 1.Neural networks — this solution can learn to recognize patterns. 2.Rules-based — can use IFTHEN-ELSE logic to determine whether the transaction requires further investigation before the dispatch of goods. 3.Logistic regression — uses mathematical equations to evaluate statistical risk (the probability of a transaction being fraudulent) in various situations. The proportion of merchants using an advanced 3