Crime-busting with Smith & Wesson`s facial imaging tool

SWAT (Smith & Wesson Advanced Technologies) has donated its newest product, Identi-Kit.NET, to the Maricopa County Sheriff`s Office in America. This facial imaging tool claims to be the first Web-based facial composite sketch tool for investigating and solving crime, reports SACM.

It can produce a sketch in as little as 30 minutes and transmit it over the Internet to other law enforcement agencies across the state, country and around the world.

Smith & Wesson pioneered the facial composite category in 1968 with the original Identi-Kit product. It consisted of acetate overlays with different features that allowed law enforcement officers to piece together the image of the suspect. The next generation of Identi-Kit became software-based and became a popular tool for law enforcement agencies.

Microsoft has issued a bulletin warning users of a flaw in a Windows 2000 Server component that could allow attackers to execute code on vulnerable machines. The flaw does not affect machines running Windows NT, XP or Windows Server 2003, reports Eweek.

The vulnerability lies in the DLL that Windows Media Services (WMS) uses to log client information during multicasts. When WMS is installed on a machine using the add/remove programs option in Windows, the Nsiislog.dll file is installed in the IIS scripts directory and automatically loaded and used by IIS.

The DLL incorrectly handles incoming client requests, and as a result, an attacker could send an HTTP request that would cause a buffer overrun and either crash the server or execute the attacker`s code.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said yesterday that it plans to sue hundreds of people who illegally distribute copyrighted songs over the Internet. Reuters reports the group said it hopes to curb online song-swapping by tracking down the heaviest users of popular peer-to-peer services like Kazaa and suing them for damages that could range up to $150 000 per violation.

The RIAA announcement marks a sharp escalation in the industry`s battle against Internet piracy, which so far has concentrated on shutting down the services.

Meanwhile, Malaysia plans to fight copyright piracy by controlling prices of original movie, music and software discs to make them as affordable as illegal copies, Yahoo Technology News quoted a government official as saying.

And in another resource on the Web, here is everything you ever wanted to know about file sharing, but were too scared to ask, in a report by USA Today.