[iwar] [NewsBits] NewsBits - 01/16/02 (fwd)

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-01-17 06:39:04
Next message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Industry.counters.criticism.of.cybersecurity.info-sharing.bills]"
Previous message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Media.and.War,.Appearance.and.Reality]"
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]
Message-Id: <200201171439.g0HEd5D21067@red.all.net>
To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List)
Organization: I'm not allowed to say
From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com
Precedence: bulk
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 06:39:04 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [iwar] [NewsBits] NewsBits - 01/16/02 (fwd)
Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

January 16, 2002

FBI Warns Internet Companies
The FBI warned law enforcement and high-tech
companies to be on guard for possible terrorist
activity that could use or affect the Internet,
government officials said Wednesday. The alert
warned of possible attacks on or through utility,
municipal and state information systems, said
Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the  White House
office of homeland security.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20020116/pl/terrorism_internet_alert_1.html

DVD Crypto Defendant Appeals To California Supreme Court
A former Indiana resident who is being sued for
participating in an online forum dealing with
digital video disc (DVD) decryption, on Tuesday
formally asked the California Supreme Court to
rule that he cannot be compelled to stand trial
in California.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173709.html

Court: Interior hasn't acted to fix Net problems
Vital Interior Department computer systems
managing law enforcement and fire data are still
not accessible from the Internet, but a court
investigator said Tuesday Interior officials
Interior officials say that a court-ordered
Internet blackout is hindering their efforts
to protect dams and critical facilities from
terrorist attacks, protect visitors to National
Parks, and access important fire, earthquake
and volcano information.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/01/16/interior.internet.ap/index.html

California wiretapping bill dealt legal setback
Gov. Gray Davis' controversial bid to give state
and local law enforcement more power to listen to
private telephone conversations was dealt a setback
Tuesday as the state's legislative counsel concluded
that California does not have the authority under
federal law for such wide-ranging surveillance.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/depth/wirtap011602.htm
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5101818,00.html
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173701.html

Congress Takes Up Cybersecurity
Lawmakers are moving to beef up the nation's
information security with legislation that would
provide more than $870 million over five years
for a wide range of research and education grants.
The Cybersecurity Research and Development Act,
introduced Dec. 4 by Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y.,
and five co-sponsors, would allocate more than
$560 million to the National Science Foundation.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173655.html

InstaKiss Password-Stealing Scam Sites Proliferate
America Online owns the AOL-InstaKiss.com domain,
and American Greetings Corp. holds a trademark
on the term "InstaKiss," but the companies haven't
been able to stop Internet scam artists from
trading on the name. Authorities moved quickly
Tuesday to shut down the latest "InstaKiss" Web
site designed to dupe AOL users into giving up
their account passwords in exchange for an
electronic smooch.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173689.html

Lies, damned lies and anti-virus statistics
Computer Economics has published its assessment
of the damage worldwide caused by malicious code
attacks in 2001 - the figure comes in at a
whopping $13.2 billion. This is 23 per cent less
than 2000, the year of the Love Bug, when damages
from viruses were estimated at $17.1bn. In 1999
the cost to the world was $12.1 billion in 1999,
Computer Economics says.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/23707.html

The New War on Cybercrime
The U.S. government has been quietly taking some
giant steps forward over the past few weeks in the
fight against cybercrime. But just how serious are the
feds in tracking and punishing those who perpetrate
crimes online? In November, the Department of Defense
(DOD) awarded a US$86 million contract to Computer
Sciences Corporation to train DOD cybercrime fighters.
That came just days after the U.S. and 29 other countries
signed an international treaty to fight online crime.
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/15832.html

Standards agency plays up role in homeland security.
Concurrent with the Bush administration's increased
focus on homeland security and the high-tech sector,
the Commerce Department's National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) will receive greater
attention, senior department officials said Wednesday.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0102/011602td1.htm

Computer Security, Biometrics Dominate NIST Agenda
The events of Sept. 11 and the subsequent anthrax
attacks have caused a major shift in priorities for
the National Institute of Standard & Technology,
prompting the agency to double its efforts to develop
new standards for everything from security scanners
to biometrics to computer security, the agency's new
chief said today.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173706.html

Commercial database use flagged
Privacy advocates have filed a lawsuit in federal
court to force the Justice and Treasury departments
to disclose details about buying information about
individuals from commercial databases. The agencies
are generally banned from amassing such information
on their own. Electronic Privacy Information Center
officials said Jan. 15 that the two agencies have
illegally failed to respond to Freedom of Information
Act requests for details about their information
purchasing practices.
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0114/web-epic-01-16-02.asp

Multitasking Viruses Expected
Experts warn worms, viruses will target new
technologies, such as broadband and wireless.
The year 2001 was dubbed, by some, the year
of the virus. And not without good reason,
as it brought the potentially damaging Code
Red and Nimda worms, along with scores of
lesser, more annoying threats into offices
and homes worldwide. If 2001 was the year
of the worm, though, what does 2002 hold
for home users?
http://www.idg.net/go.cgi?id=3D628529

Protecting critical infrastructures by sharing information
Months after the Sept. 11 assaults on the World
Trade Center and Pentagon, America's critical
infrastructure industries remain on high alert.
A pipeline, refinery, oil or gas storage facility,
electricity grid, power station, water treatment
plant, or bridge could be the next target. But the
possibility of physical sabotage isn't all that
concerns infrastructure owners. A successful cyber
attack on the computers that switch the nation's
data and voice circuits could bring America's
banking and financial systems--and the U.S.
economy--to their knees.
http://www.platts.com/features/enron/index.shtml

Software security law call
Windows XP has had security problems since launch.
An influential body of researchers is calling on
the US Government to draft laws that would punish
software firms that do not do enough to make their
products secure. The US National Academy of Sciences
(NAS) has released drafts of a report commissioned
after 11 September to look at the state of America's
computer systems.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1762000/1762261.stm

Microsoft to shift focus toward security
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announced to
employees Wednesday a major strategy shift across
all its products, including its flagship Windows
software, to emphasize security and privacy over
new capabilities. In e-mail to employees obtained
by The Associated Press, Gates referred to the new
philosophy as "Trustworthy Computing" and called
it the "highest priority" to ensure computer users
continue to venture across an increasingly Internet
connected world.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/01/16/microsoft.htm

Microsoft Falling Behind In Browser Security Fixes
With the discovery this week of another serious
security flaw in Internet Explorer, the list of
unpatched vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Web
browser continues to grow. Yet the company will
not disclose its plans for releasing patches, or
even acknowledge the flaws. "The trend is not good
with IE6. I think Microsoft may have pushed it out
the door too soon.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173704.html

.Net breakdown: More to come?
Experts question Microsoft's ability to provide
reliable 'software-as-a-service' after a five-day
.Net outage.  After a five-day outage, Microsoft
fixed a technician's error on Tuesday, allowing
Windows users to once again access critical
operating system updates on the company's Web
site. But the problem--the latest in a series--
had .Net analysts questioning whether the
software giant can deliver the reliability necessary
for its widely touted 24-7 Web services initiative.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2102590,00.html

Breakable
A U.K. security expert is preparing to unveil
a trove of serious vulnerabilities in Oracle's
database products. Can the company redefine
'unbreakable' in time? An Oracle advertisement
emailed last week to InfoWorld subscribers
typifies the software company's newest marketing
campaign. It begins with the unsettling assertion
that annual computer security incidents have
increased ten-fold since 1997, then lists the
ways that the company's database products can
defend the reader against hackers.
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/309

Oracle security claim to be debunked -- expert
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/23709.html
Backing Up Oracle's 'Unbreakable' Vow
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/308

Wireless LANs: Trouble in the Air
As the airline industry scrambles to meet a Jan. 18
deadline to screen every checked bag for explosives,
security experts, analysts and government officials
are raising serious concerns about the security of
wireless technology that's integral to the effort.
http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_STO67344,00.html

Wireless security concerns increase
Wireless security concerns are rising in tandem
with corporate uptake of wireless technologies,
a survey of over 1,200 IT and security professionals
has found. However, the results of the survey also
suggest that the skill sets for securing those
networks may not keeping pace with such uptake.
http://www.securitysearch.net/display_industry_news_article.cfm?id=3D432

Software program tags cheaters
A software program designed by Georgia Tech
professors to detect cheating in students'
computer programming homework turned up 186
possible violators, school officials said.
The students =97 who were enrolled last fall
in either "Introduction to Computing" or
"Object Oriented Programming" =97 will be
investigated by the student dean's office,
Tech spokesman Bob Harty said Tuesday.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/2002/1/16/cheating-software.htm

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Tiny Wireless Camera under $80!
Order Now! FREE VCR Commander!
Click Here - Only 1 Day Left!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/WoOlbB/7.PDAA/ySSFAA/kgFolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

------------------
http://all.net/ 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Next message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Industry.counters.criticism.of.cybersecurity.info-sharing.bills]"
Previous message: Fred Cohen: "[iwar] [fc:Media.and.War,.Appearance.and.Reality]"
Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] [ attachment ]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2002-12-31 02:15:03 PST