Seattle man arrested for p-to-p ID theft
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(InfoWorld) - A Seattle man faces as many as 29 years in prison after being charged with using the LimeWire and Soulseek p-to-p (peer-to-peer) networks to commit identity theft. Gregory Kopiloff was arrested Thursday on charges of mail fraud, accessing a protected computer without authorization, and two counts of aggravated identity theft, said Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington. This is the first case that Langlie's office is aware of that involves p-to-p identity-theft charges, she said. In court filings, federal prosecutors alleged that Kopiloff began the scam around March 2005, using the p-to-p networks to search for victims who had accidentally configured their software to share sensitive documents. Hard drives were searched for "federal income tax returns, student financial aid applications, and credit reports that had been stored electronically," court filings state. Using that information, Kopiloff would fill out online credit card applications, then buy products such as iPods or computer hard drives, which he then resold for cash, typically at about 50 cents on the dollar, federal prosecutors claim. Kopiloff was allegedly able to buy more than $73,000 worth of merchandise using online credit card accounts he'd set up using the identities of at least 83 victims. It's easy for unsophisticated users to accidentally share sensitive information via p-to-p networks, said Christopher Boyd, director of malware research with FaceTime Communications. "Some P2P programs have 'share folder' options and if you accidentally hit it, bam -- it's out there without you even knowing about it," he said in an instant-message interview. But luckily there's an easy fix for the problem. Boyd recommends that p-to-p users place all of their sensitive documents on a stand-alone drive, separate from the main PC. "It's about the best way to ensure you don't accidentally share your life story with the rest of the world via P2P," he said.
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Police said on Monday they have arrested a 20-year-old British man on suspicion of stealing Cisco Systems  source code, the basic instructions for the machines that direct Internet traffic across the globe.
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InfoWorld - California police arrested a man on Tuesday who allegedly sold illegally copied Microsoft and Adobe Systems software on the Internet for seven years, netting him an estimated $750,000.
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By Jim Provance, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio  Jun. 16--COLUMBUS -- A thief made away with a state government computer backup "storage device" containing the names and COLUMBUS numbers of more than 64,000 state employees, prompting Gov. Ted Strickland to issue an alert yesterday.
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QUINCY, Mass. - John Russo has been a victim of identity theft. So when he was asked to fork over a photo ID just to be seated at an IHOP pancake restaurant, he flipped.
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QUEENSBURY, N.Y. - A New York City man has been arrested for the 100th time.  Officials with the Warren County Sheriff's Department in eastern New York said they found Anthony Love, 40, of Brooklyn with $1,300 worth of merchandise stolen from outlet stores in his car.
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UK police have arrested a man on suspicion of stealing source code from networking giant Cisco. The 20 year-old was arrested following Metropolitan Police Computer Crime Unit raids in Manchester and Derbyshire on 3 September.
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A Seattle man has been indicted on charges that he used P2P networks to sniff around other users' computers for personal financial information he could use to steal identities and make fraudulent purchases.
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A man suspected of stealing source code from Cisco Systems has been arrested in the U.K.
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CLINTON, Iowa - A Clinton man arrested for burglary also was charged with theft for taking the handcuffs he was wearing when he escaped from officers, police said. David Lee Griffin, 19, is accused of taking items from cars with two other people early Wednesday.
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A former Boeing engineer was arrested on Monday on charges of stealing trade secrets for China related to several aerospace programs, including the Space Shuttle, the U.S. Justice Department said.
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With a quick imprint of a suspect's two fingers on a handheld device, Columbus police can get instant access to the person's identity without making a trip to the booking office.
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A Connecticut man arrested on charges of selling Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0 source code stolen from a Microsoft Corp. partner faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, according to a complaint unsealed by a New York court.
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A 20-year-old man has been arrested in England in the theft of the proprietary software blueprints used by Cisco Systems Inc.&#39;s networking equipment, police and the company confirmed Friday.
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SEATTLE -- A 27-year-old man described as one of the world's most prolific spammers was arrested Wednesday, and federal authorities said computer users across the Web could notice a decrease in the amount of junk e-mail.
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A man charged in connection with identity theft had his social security number exposed on the court's digital records system.
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Here&#39;s a tip: If you steal a printer used to print driver&#39;s licenses, don&#39;t call the manufacturer asking for driver software.It&#39;s a lesson that Timothy Scott Short learned all too well this month, when he got arrested after placing a couple of calls to Digimarc&#39;s tech support line.Short, 33, is facing felony charges for possession of &quot;document-making implements&quot; in connection with the theft of a Digimarc printer used by the state of Missouri to manufacture driver&#39;s licenses.The printer, along with a PC, were stolen on the evening of Oct. 5 from the St. Charles contract office of the Missouri Department of Revenue, said Trish Vincent, director of the department. These offices are run by individuals who are subcontracted by the department to issue driver&#39;s licenses, Vincent said. The pilfered printer could be used to produce a license, Vincent said.The PC, however, was locked with a key, and because the key was stored in a secure location, the PC was unusable to the thief, said Vincent.So what do you do when you have a stolen driver&#39;s license printer, but can&#39;t use the PC that goes with it? Enter Digimarc&#39;s tech support line.According to a sworn statement by Secret Service Special Agent John Bush, someone who identified himself as &quot;Scott&quot; called Digimarc two days later and asked if he could buy printer drivers for the model of printer that had been swiped from the St. Charles office.The Secret Service agent later listened to a recording of this call and recognized Short&#39;s voice from a prior investigation, Bush said. The caller also gave Digimarc the same phone number Short had used in an unrelated identity theft case, Bush said.Short was charged on Oct. 11, and is facing 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to court filings.&quot;The stolen equipment contains the identifying information and photographs of between 200 to 500 Missouri residents,&quot; Bush said in the statement. &quot;The only use of the equipment is the manufacture of state identification documents.&quot;The state has sent notification letters to those affected by the theft, Vincent said. The computer contained name, address, and date of birth data, but not Social Security numbers, she added.Digimarc declined to explain how the Secret Service ended up listening to its customer support calls. &quot;Because of a confidentiality agreement with our customer and because this is a criminal matter, we are not able to comment on the incident,&quot; said Digimarc spokeswoman Leslie Constans.