data2know.com Data INTERNET & ONLINE INTELLIGENCE Information Knowledge Volume 1, Issue 1 Summer 2000 Introductions Are in Order In This Issue Welcome p.1 ata2Know is brought to you by member that Internet sites change Introductions p.1 Hetherington Information Ser- often and unpredictably. vices LLC. You are encouraged to pass this Hetherington Saves D Client $10,000 p.2 Cynthia Hetherington, MLS, is newsletter around to your friends president of Hetherington Informa- and colleagues. You can copy it, or Should You Beware of tion Services LLC (HIS, LLC). Ms call Data2Know for another copy. Flesh-Eating Bananas? p.2 Hetherington has been working with However, copyright law prevents Industry Undercover p.3 private investigators and law en- your posting any of the articles on forcement professionals since 1993. your Web site or using them in your New to the Net p.4 Using her traditional training in li- own newsletter. Please call A data2know publication brary science, combined with over 15 Data2Know if you need more infor- years of computer experience, she mation about this policy. r has found a niche in the investigative Welcome to industry assisting members of the Meet Cynthia— Data2Know trade in online and Internet research. Since 1998, she has been lecturing to Upcoming Conferences elcome to the premier State and National private investiga- Cynthia Hetherington speaks at con- issue of Data2Know, the tion and police associations about ferences and seminars on the topics WInternet & Online Intel- online research. She is also an active of competitive intelligence, business ligence Newsletter. We have contributor to continuing education research, investigator resources, In- taken the best minds in the in- programs, and conducts all-day semi- ternet tracking and more. Here’s a formation business and have nars on Internet tracking, business re- schedule of her upcoming lectures. focused their expertise on the search, and online intelligence. Visit investigative industry. the www.data2know.com Web site June 17th—National Association Without adding to the al- for a complete biography. of Legal Investigators in Colorado ready burgeoning pile of pro- For this newsletter, Cynthia has fessional journals and trade decided to work with BiblioData, a July 11th—Long Island Chapter, well-established publisher in the magazines undoubtedly dou- Association of Certified Fraud field of research, to assemble the con- bling as your coffee table, we Examiners tent. BiblioData publishes the news- mean to follow this three-rule letter The CyberSkeptic’s Guide to In- August 24th & 25th —Indiana State quota: “Be Brief, be Brilliant, ternet Research. The various authors and be Gone.” & Local Police Continuing Educa- of the articles are research profession- tion on Internet Investigations This newsletter will show als, using the Internet as one of their up in your mail quarterly with tools. Cynthia has chosen articles for October 10th—Iowa State Police serious professional content this newsletter that she feels will be about online and Internet re- Association Continuing Educa- of particular interest to her clients. tion on Internet Investigations r search. Let us share with you She does, however, want them to re- this free newsletter about the latest Web sites of interest, pub- lic records online, and database services. r Hetherington Information Services, LLC —Cynthia Hetherington PO Box 360 201-925-3795 Email: [email protected] Elmwood Park, NJ 07407 201-794-3025 (fax) [email protected] www.data2know.com Hetherington Information Services LLC Saves Client $10,000! by Cynthia Hetherington etherington Information Services LLC (HIS LLC) re- At this writing I’m tracking down cently saved a Florida PI over $10,000 of his own in- a person who has been posting bad Hvestment money. Solicited by a ‘too good to be true’ news for a company on a Yahoo bulle- con artist, the local PI contacted me and said, “Do a little tin board. Since PI’s have a hard time background search in the newspapers on this fellow, Cyn.” getting log files from companies without the legal pa- Overnight I found enough damning news stories with titles perwork the ISP’s require, we have to find legal and cre- such as “Ex-Convict Launches 63-City Seminar Tour.” For ative ways to track down and capture the identity of the three years, he was known as federal prisoner 29501-[xxx] originating poster. Let me stress “LEGAL” here. Under to his probation officer in New York. The ex-convict was no circumstances does HIS LLC compromise their name, an expert con artist who could entice even the savviest of the names of their clients, or the industry. We are here to business persons and investigators. A fast search on his prove that this work can be done with enough technical name saved my client a $10,000 investment. know-how and persistence. Hetherington Information Services LLC can be your Who Wrote that Email? backup when you are too busy to conduct your own litera- The biggest increase lately in our business has to be ture searches, Internet background checks on individu- online tracking. Many investigators aren’t prepared for the als, and in-depth business research. Many investigators new venue of email tracking and online undercover work. are uncomfortable sitting in front of the computer for I spend a good deal of my time now tracking down nefari- hours on end conducting Boolean queries against expen- ous emails and newsgroup postings. The investigators no sive databases. HIS LLC is fully equipped to handle these longer have to turn away technical cases because they are sorts of online investigations. Our rates are reasonable, not equipped to handle the time and technical costs. and turn-around time is usually next day. Call us today! Should You Beware of Flesh-Eating Bananas? by Ruth Orenstein o any of the following sound fa- usually, in this case, in the form of a Chain Letters miliar? Beware of flesh-eating warning. If it appears enough times, A chain letter, strictly speaking, Dbananas; Disney will give away people start to believe it. The story asks you to send something to some- free trips if you sign the email track- always happens to “somebody else’s one in the hopes you will get some- ing list; women in Afghanistan are friend’s cousin,” not to the writer thing back yourself. You are sup- being maltreated. These are some of the himself. posed to forward it to everyone you chain letters and hoaxes that have been going around the Net. continued on page 4 Hoax Viruses Sites that Track Hoaxes, Legends & Chain Letters The Department Virus Urban Chain of Energy’s Com- Site Hoaxes Legends Letters Extras puter Incident Advi- Symantec yes no no Discusses definitions sory Capability site www.symantec.com/avcenter (CIAC) claims, “we McAfee yes no no Glossary, calendar of “strike” dates find that we are http://vil.mcafee.com for real viruses spending much more time de-bunk- Hoaxkill yes yes yes Will send mail to all addresses who www.hoaxkill.com got chain letter warning them about hoax ing hoaxes than han- dling real virus inci- CIAC yes yes yes Computer security articles dents.” http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html Kumite yes no no Specializes in analyzing virus hysteria Urban Legends www.kumite.com/myths Urban legends are a form of collec- Korova no yes yes Investigates the background of the tive mythmaking, http://korova.com/virus/hoax.htm message 2 www.data2know.com — Internet & Online Intelligence SUMMER 2000 I N D U S T R Y U N D E R C O V E R BUSINESS/FINANCE TECHNICAL/MEDICAL Online Banking Report Resources PubCrawler http://www.onlinebankingreport.com/resources http://www.pubcrawler.ie Listing of true Web banks and the 100 largest Web Provides a free alerting service that scans daily up- banks. Search by name, location, service provider, type dates to PubMed (medical literature from the National of institution and whether the bank is Internet-only or a Library of Medicine’s Medline database) and GenBank traditional bank with Web accounts. Links to fee-based (DNA Sequence database). Use Boolean search strategies newsletter on Online Banking industry. View archived to formulate saved searches. Get results delivered daily tables of contents for free. to a Web page or email address. E-Commerce Times Regsource.com http://www.ecommercetimes.com http://www.regsource.com Portal for ecommerce. Links to news with real-time Offers regulatory information on drugs/biologics and headlines updated 24 hours per day. Updated financial medical devices. Sources include warning letters, regu- and stock price info on the “E-Commerce Top 10.” Spe- latory forms, Federal Register notices, and adverse event cial Reports on topics of interest including privacy, trust, reporting. Links to many international regulatory sites. politics. Also includes case studies on “Success Stories” News section reports on company, financial and indus- in the ecommerce world. try news. NEWS/MEDIA LEGAL/GOV’T Ananova The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) http://www.ananova.com http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/index.html Even if you don’t want to go to the Web to listen to The NRC wants to provide more timely, detailed, and news read by a manufactured humanoid image, you understandable information on nuclear power plant should spend some time at this site—far from speedy, safety performance assessments. Detailed information but full of tidbits of hard and soft news and humor from includes explanation of the revised reactor oversight pro- the British perspective. Voice-activated by RealPlayer, cess, list of scheduled public meetings, and FAQ. you can read sections on Business, Politics, lots of Enter- tainment, Sport and Funny Old World. Selected headlines Employment Discrimination and text from today’s British newspapers; site search by http://wwwsecure.law.cornell.edu/topics/employment_ words, phrases or natural language, with relevance or discrimination.html date sorting and limits by date; register for email alerts The Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School on multiple preselected topics.