Keefe

The Denver Post        Cagle

29 May 2009
http://cagle.com/politicalcartoons/
 

secure computer network

 cryptography
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1377000,00.html

encode

encoded

computer security
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/computer_security/index.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/security/0,14229,1141803,00.html

internet attack
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/world/asia/22diplo.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/10/technology/10cisco.html

National Cyber Alert System        USA
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-088A.html

security hole

privacy on the internet
http://www.guardian.co.uk/netprivacy/0,2759,329596,00.html

hacking
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/hacking

hack / hack into
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1772203,00.html

hacker
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/20/climate-sceptics-hackers-leaked-emails
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4428270.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/30/gary.mckinnon
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/apr/03/politics.usa
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2005/jul/09/weekend7.weekend2
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/security/story/0,,1891178,00.html
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1772203,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1771714,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1504232,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/security/story/0,14230,1501913,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1078790,00.html

credit card hacks
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/06/15/business/AP-US-TEC-Shoppers-Gamble.html 

pirate
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/cnet/2006-10-04-vista-piracy_x.htm

piracy
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/
internet-users-face-bills-for-piracy-crackdown-1519428.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/12/piracy.politics

Trojan (horse)
An innocent-looking program concealing destructive intentions.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/18/zbot-zeus-trojan-malware
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1504232,00.html

Pharming
Hijacking online bank customers by infecting web browsers.
They are redirected to fake internet sites and asked to disclose account details.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1504232,00.html

Phishing
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/06/gmail-yahoo-aol-phishing-scam
Sending out emails telling online account customers they must reconfirm IDs and passwords.
When they hit reply they are sent to a cloned web page.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/technology/16whale.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1504232,00.html

Key logging
Programs which record keystrokes and can be used to retrieve credit card and PIN numbers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1504232,00.html

Malware
Umbrella term for assorted malicious software programs which sabotage your computer.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/18/zbot-zeus-trojan-malware
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1504232,00.html

Zombies
Online computers that have been infected by trojans and can then be remotely controlled
to churn out spam emails at targeted sites.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1504232,00.html

Bots
Programs used to infect and control computers which are then turned into zombies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1504232,00.html

fraudster

software

beta test release of

flaw

break into computers

break into ...'s system

steal files, delete data or eavesdrop on sensitive information

repairing patch

malwebolence
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03trolls-t.html

email / email

spam / electronic junk mail / junk e-mail
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2008-11-30-cyber-monday-scams_N.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,2008475,00.html
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2006-07-23-sneaky-spam_x.htm
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/spam/story/0,,1756720,00.html
http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4269099

spammer

 software filters

inbox

bombard email inboxes
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1237103,00.html

outbox

cybersecurity
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/technology/14google.html

cyberwar
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/features/timestopics/series/cyberwar/index.html

cyber-gangster

cyberstalker

honey pot

security hole

malicious programs
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/technology/internet/14virus.html
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/wormsviruses/2006-06-12-microsoft-bots_x.htm

worm
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2006-02-02-worm-warning_x.htm

Conficker Worm Targets Microsoft Windows Systems        2009
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-088A.html

e-mail worm
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2006-01-30-email-virus_x.htm

mass-mailing worm

"Conficker/Downadup" worm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/feb/13/microsoft-offers-250k-bounty-conficker-worm

disable anti-virus protection

destroy files

infected PC

tainted e-mail

a program to steal log-ons and passwords

attachment

open

install a back door

spread

infect

overload

ping

gain remote access to a computer

take over the computer

sneak into a computer

program

record the owner's keystrokes

keylogging software

passwords / credit card details

launch a denial of service attack

cyberattack

cyber war
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/07/10/technology/AP-US-Is-This-Cyber-War.html

clog networks

network security expert

computer security software
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/technology/business-computing/06virus.html

patch

virus, viruses
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/17/technology/17virus.html

worm

digital worm

self-replicating computer worm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1132827,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1136924,00.html

worm writer

worm and virus creators

I love you

Melissa

Code Red

propagate

corporate network

incapacitate / confuse / ruin PCs

Trojan horse viruses

bring down

make anti-virus software

anti-virus and anti-spyware tools

install security patches to protect computers

up-to-date virus checker

up-to-date antivirus software

bug

internet firewall

email conmen

the "Marketplace" area of Amazon's site - a cyberspace trading area

baiter

fraudster
http://money.guardian.co.uk/news_/story/0,1456,1335310,00.html

scam-baiting

made-up character
http://money.guardian.co.uk/scamsandfraud/story/0,13802,1086308,00.html

Clinton Urges a Global Response to Internet Attacks

January 22, 2010
The New York Times
By BRIAN KNOWLTON

WASHINGTON — Coupling a salute to Internet freedom with a carefully worded caution to countries like China and Iran, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that countries that engaged in cyberattacks should face consequences and international condemnation.

“In an interconnected world, an attack on one nation’s networks can be an attack on all,” she said in a speech in Washington. “By reinforcing that message, we can create norms of behavior among states and encourage respect for the global networked commons.”

Mrs. Clinton’s comments came in a speech in which she announced a new $15 million effort to help more young people, women and citizens groups in other countries communicate on the Web.

“Given the magnitude of the challenges we’re facing, we need people around the world to pool their knowledge and creativity to help rebuild the global economy, protect our environment, defeat violent extremism and build a future in which every human being can realize their God-given potential,” she said, according to the advance text of a speech at the Newseum in Washington.

Her remarks came at a time when Internet controls have drawn increasing public attention. Limits on Internet searches led to a dispute made public this month between Google and China, and sites such as Facebook and Twitter, which played a critical role in helping protesters in Iran spread news and images of violent crackdowns on antigovernment demonstrations, have been blocked by the authorities in Tehran.

Foreign companies and millions of Chinese Google users have been watching the matter with keen interest.

Google announced on Jan. 12 that it was “no longer willing to continue censoring” search results for its Chinese users, pointing to breaches of Gmail accounts held by human rights activists in China. Tens of other companies had also been targets of hacking, the company found. Google has taken a cautious approach to the dispute, avoiding placing direct blame on the government in Beijing, and the Chinese government has sought to describe the situation as strictly business.

None of the proposals Mrs. Clinton mentioned focused specifically on China or Iran, and the financing is relatively modest.

Still, Mrs. Clinton made an unmistakable allusion to Google and China when she said, “Countries or individuals that engage in cyberattacks should face consequences and international condemnation.

She did not suggest what the consequences should be, though.

Five United States senators, led by Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, have urged Mrs. Clinton to move quickly to support organizations that have tried to make it easier for people in countries like China and Iran to sidestep government restrictions on Internet use.

The senators, in a letter written before the recent Google dispute, urged Mrs. Clinton to quickly spend $45 million earmarked over the last two years for Internet freedom.

Her announcement, while calling for spending just a third that amount, appeared to be otherwise in line with their urgings.

Mrs. Clinton said the new programs would help expand Internet access to women and other groups, put in place programs to train and support civil society groups and nongovernmental organizations in new media technologies; and support pilot projects to increase access, particularly among young people, in the Middle East and North Africa.

Mrs. Clinton paid tribute to the power of the Internet both for opening new forums for the exchange of ideas and for fostering social and economic development. “In this context,” she said, “the Internet can serve as a great equalizer. By providing people with access to knowledge and potential markets, networks can create opportunity where none exists.”

Brett Solomon, executive director of the group AccessNow.org, which promotes digital openness, praised Mrs. Clinton’s speech.

“This is a big couple of weeks for Internet freedom,” he said, mentioning both Google’s stand and Mrs. Clinton’s proposal. “Digital activists across the world may now increasingly see their demands for democracy and justice pierce the firewall.”

    Clinton Urges a Global Response to Internet Attacks, NYT, 22.1.2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/world/asia/22diplo.html

Cyberwar

Defying Experts, Rogue Computer Code Still Lurks
 

August 27, 2009
The New York Times
By JOHN MARKOFF

It is still out there.

Like a ghost ship, a rogue software program that glided onto the Internet last November has confounded the efforts of top security experts to eradicate the program and trace its origins and purpose, exposing serious weaknesses in the world’s digital infrastructure.

The program, known as Conficker, uses flaws in Windows software to co-opt machines and link them into a virtual computer that can be commanded remotely by its authors. With more than five million of these zombies now under its control — government, business and home computers in more than 200 countries — this shadowy computer has power that dwarfs that of the world’s largest data centers.

Alarmed by the program’s quick spread after its debut in November, computer security experts from industry, academia and government joined forces in a highly unusual collaboration. They decoded the program and developed antivirus software that erased it from millions of the computers. But Conficker’s persistence and sophistication has squelched the belief of many experts that such global computer infections are a thing of the past.

“It’s using the best current practices and state of the art to communicate and to protect itself,” Rodney Joffe, director of the Conficker Working Group, said of the malicious program. “We have not found the trick to take control back from the malware in any way.”

Researchers speculate that the computer could be employed to generate vast amounts of spam; it could steal information like passwords and logins by capturing keystrokes on infected computers; it could deliver fake antivirus warnings to trick naïve users into believing their computers are infected and persuading them to pay by credit card to have the infection removed.

There is also a different possibility that concerns the researchers: That the program was not designed by a criminal gang, but instead by an intelligence agency or the military of some country to monitor or disable an enemy’s computers. Networks of infected computers, or botnets, were used widely as weapons in conflicts in Estonia in 2007 and in Georgia last year, and in more recent attacks against South Korean and United States government agencies. Recent attacks that temporarily crippled Twitter and Facebook were believed to have had political overtones.

Yet for the most part Conficker has done little more than to extend its reach to more and more computers. Though there had been speculation that the computer might be activated to do something malicious on April 1, the date passed without incident, and some security experts wonder if the program has been abandoned.

The experts have only tiny clues about the location of the program’s authors. The first version included software that stopped the program if it infected a machine with a Ukrainian language keyboard. There may have been two initial infections — in Buenos Aires and in Kiev.

Wherever the authors are, the experts say, they are clearly professionals using the most advanced technology available. The program is protected by internal defense mechanisms that make it hard to erase, and even kills or hides from programs designed to look for botnets.

A member of the security team said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had suspects, but was moving slowly because it needed to build a relationship with “noncorrupt” law enforcement agencies in the countries where the suspects are located.

An F.B.I. spokesman in Washington declined to comment, saying that the Conficker investigation was an open case.

The first infections, last Nov. 20, set off an intense battle between the hidden authors and the volunteer group that formed to counter them. The group, which first called itself the “Conficker Cabal,” changed its name when Microsoft, Symantec and several other companies objected to the unprofessional connotation.

Eventually, university researchers and law enforcement officials joined forces with computer experts at more than two dozen Internet, software and computer security firms.

The group won some battles, but lost others. The Conficker authors kept distributing new, more intricate versions of the program, at one point using code that had been devised in academia only months before. At another point, a single technical slip by the working group allowed the program’s authors to convert a huge number of the infected machines to an advanced peer-to-peer communications scheme that the industry group has not been able to defeat. Where before all the infected computers would have to phone home to a single source for instructions, the authors could now use any infected computer to instruct all the others.

In early April, Patrick Peterson, a research fellow at Cisco Systems in San Jose, Calif., gained some intelligence about the authors’ interests. He studies nasty computer programs by keeping a set of quarantined computers that capture and observe them — his “digital zoo.”

He discovered that the Conficker authors had begun distributing software that tricks Internet users into buying fake antivirus software with their credit cards. “We turned off the lights in the zoo one day and came back the next day,” Mr. Peterson said, noting that in the “cage” reserved for Conficker, the infection had been joined by a program distributing an antivirus software scam.

It was the most recent sign of life from the program, and its silence has set off a debate among computer security experts. Some researchers think Conficker is an empty shell, or that the authors of the program were scared away in the spring. Others argue that they are simply biding their time.

If the misbegotten computer were reactivated, it would not have the problem-solving ability of supercomputers used to design nuclear weapons or simulate climate change. But because it has commandeered so many machines, it could draw on an amount of computing power greater than that from any single computing facility run by governments or Google. It is a dark reflection of the “cloud computing” sweeping the commercial Internet, in which data is stored on the Internet rather than on a personal computer.

The industry group continues to try to find ways to kill Conficker, meeting as recently as Tuesday. Mr. Joffe said he, for one, was not prepared to declare victory. But he said that the group’s work proved that government and private industry could cooperate to counter cyberthreats.

“Even if we lose against Conficker,” he said, “there are things we’ve learned that will benefit us in the future.”

    Defying Experts, Rogue Computer Code Still Lurks, NYT, 27.8.2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/technology/27compute.html?hp

Cyberattacks Hit U.S. and South Korean Web Sites

July 9, 2009
The New York Times
By CHOE SANG-HUN

SEOUL, South Korea — Cyberattacks that have crippled the Web sites of several major American and South Korean government agencies since the July 4th holiday weekend appear to have been launched by a hostile group or government, South Korea’s main government spy agency said on Wednesday.

Although the National Intelligence Service did not identify whom they believed responsible, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that the spy agency had implicated North Korea or pro-North Korea groups.

A spokesman at the intelligence agency said it could not confirm the Yonhap report, which said that the spy agency briefed lawmakers about their suspicions on Wednesday. The opposition Democratic Party accused the spy agency of spreading unsubstantiated rumors to whip up support for a new anti-terrorism bill that would give it more power.

Access to at least 11 major Web sites in South Korea — including those of the presidential Blue House, the Defense Ministry, the National Assembly, Shinhan Bank, the mass-circulation daily newspaper Chosun Ilbo and the top Internet portal Naver.com — have crashed or slowed down to a crawl since Tuesday evening, according to the government’s Korea Information Security Agency.

On Wednesday, some of the sites regained service, but others remained unstable or inaccessible.

In an attack linked with the one in South Korea, 14 major Web sites in the United States — including those of the White House, the State Department and the New York Stock Exchange — came under similar attacks, according to anti-cyberterrorism police officers in Seoul.

“This is not a simple attack by an individual hacker, but appears to be thoroughly planned and executed by a specific organization or on a state level,” the National Intelligence Service said in a statement, adding that it is cooperating with the American investigative authorities to investigate the attacks.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday night that a widespread and unusually resilient computer attack that began July 4 knocked out the Web sites of several American government agencies, including some that are responsible for fighting cybercrime.

The Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department Web sites were all down at varying points over the holiday weekend and into this week, The A.P. reported, citing officials inside and outside the American government. The fact that the government Web sites were still being affected after three days signaled an unusually lengthy and sophisticated attack, the news agency reported, citing anonymous American officials.

The Washington Post, which also came under attack, reported on its Web site Wednesday that a total of 26 Web sites were targeted. In addition to sites run by government agencies, several commercial Web sites were also attacked, including those operated by Nasdaq, it reported, citing researchers involved in the investigation.

Amy Kudwa, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said that the agency was aware of the attacks on “federal and private sector public-facing Web sites.” The department, she said, has issued a notice to federal departments and agencies, as well as other partner organizations, on the activity and advised them of steps to take to help mitigate against such attacks.

“We see attacks on federal networks every day, and measures in place have minimized the impact to federal websites,” she said.

In the attack, an army of thousands of “zombie computers” infected by the hackers’ program were ordered to request access to these Web sites simultaneously, causing an overload that caused the sites’ servers to crash, South Korean officials said.

Although most of the North Korean military’s hardware is decrepit, the South Korean authorities have recently voiced their concern over possible cyberattacks from the North. In May, South Korean media reported that North Korea was running a cyberwarfare unit that operates through the Chinese Internet network and tries to hack into American and South Korean military networks.

In South Korea, the Blue House reported no data loss or other damage except disrupted access. The Defense Ministry and banks attacked also reported no immediate loss of security data or financial damage.

“The traffic to our site surged nine times of the normal level,” the Blue House said in a statement. “Computer users in some regions still suffer slow or no access at all to our site.”

Hwang Cheol-jeung, a senior official at the government’s Korea Communications Commission, said the attacks were launched by computers infected by a well-known “distributed denial of service,” or DDoS, hackers’ program.

The spy agency said 12,000 computers in South Korea and 8,000 overseas appeared to have been mobilized in the attacks. The Korea Communications Commission reported 22,000 infected computers.

“The infected computers are still attacking, and their number is not decreasing,” Mr. Hwang told reporters in a briefing. The government was urging users to upgrade their computers’ antivirus software.

Denial of service attacks against Web sites are not uncommon, but they can be made far more serious if hackers infect and use thousands of computers. Hackers frequently take aim at the American government: According to the Homeland Security Department, there were 5,499 known breaches of American government computers in 2008, up from 3,928 the previous year, and just 2,172 in 2006, The A.P. said.

The South Korean news agency Yonhap said the police have traced a possible starting point for the attack back to members of a small cable TV Web site in Seoul. But officials said that does not mean it originated there.

Mr. Hwang said South Korean authorities suspected that the hackers used a new variant of the denial of service program to attack the Web sites.

 

Sharon Otterman contributed reporting from New York.

    Cyberattacks Hit U.S. and South Korean Web Sites, NYT, 9.7.2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/technology/09cyber.html

Worm Infects Millions of Computers Worldwide

January 23, 2009
The New York Times
By JOHN MARKOFF

A new digital plague has hit the Internet, infecting millions of personal and business computers in what seems to be the first step of a multistage attack. The world’s leading computer security experts do not yet know who programmed the infection, or what the next stage will be.

In recent weeks a worm, a malicious software program, has swept through corporate, educational and public computer networks around the world. Known as Conficker or Downadup, it is spread by a recently discovered Microsoft Windows vulnerability, by guessing network passwords and by hand-carried consumer gadgets like USB keys.

Experts say it is the worst infection since the Slammer worm exploded through the Internet in January 2003, and it may have infected as many as nine million personal computers around the world.

Worms like Conficker not only ricochet around the Internet at lightning speed, they harness infected computers into unified systems called botnets, which can then accept programming instructions from their clandestine masters. “If you’re looking for a digital Pearl Harbor, we now have the Japanese ships steaming toward us on the horizon,” said Rick Wesson, chief executive of Support Intelligence, a computer security consulting firm based in San Francisco.

Many computer users may not notice that their machines have been infected, and computer security researchers said they were waiting for the instructions to materialize, to determine what impact the botnet will have on PC users. It might operate in the background, using the infected computer to send spam or infect other computers, or it might steal the PC user’s personal information.

“I don’t know why people aren’t more afraid of these programs,” said Merrick L. Furst, a computer scientist at Georgia Tech. “This is like having a mole in your organization that can do things like send out any information it finds on machines it infects.”

Microsoft rushed an emergency patch to defend the Windows operating systems against this vulnerability in October, yet the worm has continued to spread even as the level of warnings has grown in recent weeks.

Earlier this week, security researchers at Qualys, a Silicon Valley security firm, estimated that about 30 percent of Windows-based computers attached to the Internet remain vulnerable to infection because they have not been updated with the patch, despite the fact that it was made available in October. The firm’s estimate is based on a survey of nine million Internet addresses.

Security researchers said the success of Conficker was due in part to lax security practices by both companies and individuals, who frequently do not immediately install updates.

A Microsoft executive defended the company’s security update service, saying there is no single solution to the malware problem.

“I do believe the updating strategy is working,” said George Stathakopoulos, general manager for Microsoft’s Security Engineering and Communications group. But he added that organizations must focus on everything from timely updates to password security.

“It’s all about defense in depth,” Mr. Stathakopoulos said.

Alfred Huger, vice president of development at Symantec’s security response division, said, “This is a really well-written worm.” He said security companies were still racing to try to unlock all of its secrets.

Unraveling the program has been particularly challenging because it comes with encryption mechanisms that hide its internal workings from those seeking to disable it.

Most security firms have updated their programs to detect and eradicate the software, and a variety of companies offer specialized software programs for detecting and removing it.

The program uses an elaborate shell-game-style technique to permit someone to command it remotely. Each day it generates a new list of 250 domain names. Instructions from any one of these domain names would be obeyed. To control the botnet, an attacker would need only to register a single domain to send instructions to the botnet globally, greatly complicating the task of law enforcement and security companies trying to intervene and block the activation of the botnet.

Computer security researchers expect that within days or weeks the bot-herder who controls the programs will send out commands to force the botnet to perform some as yet unknown illegal activity.

Several computer security firms said that although Conficker appeared to have been written from scratch, it had parallels to the work of a suspected Eastern European criminal gang that has profited by sending programs known as “scareware” to personal computers that seem to warn users of an infection and ask for credit card numbers to pay for bogus antivirus software that actually further infects their computer.

One intriguing clue left by the malware authors is that the first version of the program checked to see if the computer had a Ukrainian keyboard layout. If it found it had such a keyboard, it would not infect the machine, according to Phillip Porras, a security investigator at SRI International who has disassembled the program to determine how it functioned.

The worm has reignited a debate inside the computer security community over the possibility of eradicating the program before it is used by sending out instructions to the botnet that provide users with an alert that their machines have been infected.

“Yes, we are working on it, as are many others,” said one botnet researcher who spoke on the grounds that he not be identified because of his plan. “Yes, it’s illegal, but so was Rosa Parks sitting in the front of the bus.”

This idea of stopping the program in its tracks before it has the ability to do damage was challenged by many in the computer security community.

“It’s a really bad idea,” said Michael Argast, a security analyst at Sophos, a British computer security firm. “The ethics of this haven’t changed in 20 years, because the reality is that you can cause just as many problems as you solve.”

    Worm Infects Millions of Computers Worldwide, NYT, 23.1.2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/technology/internet/23worm.html?hp

MySpace and 45 States Team Up to Fight Online Predators

January 14, 2008
Filed at 10:53 a.m. ET
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The New York Times

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- MySpace.com has agreed with more than 45 states to add extensive measures to combat sexual predators.

An official familiar with the multistate agreement said MySpace, the huge online social networking Web site, has agreed to include several online protections and participate in a working group to develop age-verification and other technologies.

The official said MySpace will also accept independent monitoring and changes to the structure of its site.

The agreement is scheduled to be announced today in Manhattan by attorneys general from New Jersey, North Carolina, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement hadn't yet been announced.

The attorneys general have been seeking greater controls for online networking sites to prevent sexual predators from using those sites to contact children.

There was no immediate comment from MySpace, a unit of News Corp.

Investigators have increasingly examined MySpace, Facebook.com and similar social networking sites that allow people to post information and images on the Web and invite contacts from others.

Last year, New York investigators said they set up Facebook profiles as 12- to 14-year olds and were quickly contacted by other users looking for sex.

A multistate investigation of the sites -- announced last year -- was aimed at putting together measures to protect minors and remove pornographic material, but lawsuits were possible, officials said.

''We have to find the best way to make sure parents have the tools ... to protect their children when they're on social networking sites,'' North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said in September.

    MySpace and 45 States Team Up to Fight Online Predators, NYT, 14.1.2008, http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-MySpace-Agreement.html

Man Described as a Top Spammer Arrested

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