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Hijacked Web site regroups after infamous attack
It started with an e-mail, the kind of nasty missive that e-commerce CEOs dread. The sender, describing himself as a 19-year-old Russian named ``Maxim,'' claimed to have pilfered 300,000 credit card numbers from CD Universe, a music retailing Web site. Maxim offered to destroy the stolen files in exchange for around $100,000. http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/046221.htm
U.S. sees progress, albeit slow, in hacking probe
U.S. officials said Tuesday they were making headway in probing a wave of cyber attacks on some of the Internet's flagship sites, but finding the hackers responsible still requires a major undertaking. The attacks disrupted major commercial Web sites, including Yahoo, eBay and Amazon.com, for several hours earlier this month by hijacking third-party computers to flood the sites with so many information requests that legitimate users could not log on. ``We are making progress,'' Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder told a joint hearing of the House and Senate crime subcommittees. ``Once caught, we will prosecute these people to the fullest extent we can.'' http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/009874.htm http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/144719.html
House, Senate to address hacker attacks
A joint committee from the House and Senate today will hear testimony from investigators, government officials and industry executives on the recent wave of attacks that temporarily crippled some of the Web's most popular sites. The hearing will examine the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks that took down Yahoo, Amazon.com, eBay, E*Trade and others for hours at a time earlier this month. In a DDoS attack, hackers use any number of computers to send a flood of information requests to servers that host Web sites. The overwhelming stream of information often clogs a server network and paralyzes the site it hosts. Today's hearing, conducted by the House subcommittee on crime and the Senate criminal oversight subcommittee, will consider whether additional laws should be introduced to fight computer crimes and will examine the FBI's proposed budget increase to beef up its resources for computer crime investigations. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1560238.html
Mr. Mitnick Goes to Washington
A little over one month after his release from prison, famed hacker Kevin Mitnick will testify before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs on Thursday morning, in a hearing planned to address the security of the federal government's computer networks. Committee chairman Fred Thompson (R-TN) and ranking member Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) announced the hearing last Wednesday - one of a flurry of congressional hearings to follow this month's crippling denial of service attacks on various high-traffic Internet sites. The witness list was made public this afternoon, and also includes James Adams from computer security company iDefense, Cisco's Ken Watson, and two government experts. http://www.securityfocus.com/data/news/klp022900.html
Strategic Command cyberpartnership battles national vulnerabilities A growing partnership between U.S. Strategic Command information security professionals and the Omaha community is helping to eliminate vulnerabilities in the nation's critical computer infrastructure. The partnership began last May during a USSTRATCOM-sponsored Cybersecurity conference. That conference spawned several computer security initiatives that have yielded encouraging results, said David Mike, chief of the command's Information System Security Policy and Accreditation branch. "The conference brought together more than 100 chief information officers and security managers from critical infrastructure companies and state and municipal governments to focus on computer security threats," said Mike. "As a result of the conference, Nebraska became the first state with a computer (emergency) response team, called "NebraskaCERT." Also, a monthly Cyber Security Forum was established to share information among interested individuals and companies, he added. http://www.af.mil/news/Feb2000/n20000229_000306.html
Military sets up anti-hacker unit: Team of 14 based in Ottawa The Department of National Defence has declared war on Internet hackers by creating a new unit to help hunt down cyberspace intruders. A team of scientists and computer specialists has been formed at Defence Research Establishment Ottawa to devise new protective measures. To that end, they will imitate the hackers, creating new computer viruses to study and then design defences against. At the same time, they will develop new ways to track down hackers, said Prakash Bhartia, director-general of the facility. http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/pages/000228/3668175.html http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2000/02/28/hackerteam000228
Free speech or cyber-slander?
Cyberspace has become less anonymous as companies use libel suits to find and unmask their online critics, but now some cyber-chatters are fighting back. The chatters claim a First Amendment right to post messages on electronic bulletin boards using pseudonyms. They have scored some success in challenging attempts to pry loose their identities from Internet service providers. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/060/business/Free_speech_or_cyber_slander_+.shtml
Increased online security does not a draconian surveillance network make: Despite a recent spate of DoS attacks that caused a few hours of discomfort at places like Yahoo, Amazon, and eBay, the technology industry is a bit reluctant about increased government involvement in online security. While Congress appears eager to propose broader computer crime laws, the industry worries that increased government involvement in security issues might result in draconian surveillance networks... Congressional hearings to discuss the matter are scheduled to begin today. (New York Times stories; free registration required) http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/02/cyber/capital/29capital.html http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/02/biztech/articles/24spy.html
New Generation Gap: Hackers
The recent wave of denial-of-service attacks has revealed a generation gap among hackers. Many hackers have denounced the recent cyber assaults as the work of clueless virtual vandals, not legitimate hackers. Most hackers also said the attacks required few real skills or in-depth knowledge. For some hackers that lack of skill is equated with age. "All of a sudden, the big push is on to distance yourself from the bad guys -- those kids, and they always say 'kids' -- who did the DoS attacks," said Schmoe, a 21-year-old hacker from the Northeast. "All of a sudden, it's good hackers talking about bad hackers and old hackers pointing fingers at young hackers." http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,34617,00.html
Study: 200,000 hooked on web porn
At least 200,000 Internet users are hooked on porn sites, X-rated chat rooms or other sexual materials online, researchers say in one of the first studies to estimate the number of ``cybersex compulsives.'' http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/ap/docs/265076l.htm http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/news/breaking/internet/docs/265116l.htm
Survey - Web-savvy Folks Fret Over DoS Attacks
An increasingly Web-savvy population is concerned about readiness to ward off deliberate denial of service (DDoS) attacks and wants solid leadership in information security to come from the industry, a survey has found. The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) survey released today found that 90 percent of respondents perceive that the average e-business may be unprepared to fend off such attacks. Another 55 percent seem to agree that the problem places the "electronic economy" at risk. "The survey points up the enormous impact that the recent series of attacks had," ITAA spokesman Bob Cohen told Newsbytes. "This series has really been perceived as a watershed type of event. It's their wakeup call." http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/144715.html
Space Rogue Interviewed About Recent Hack Attacks
Newsbytes.com Correspondent Kevin Featherly discusses hacking issues with a person who should know: former hacker "Space Rogue," who is now editor of Hacker News Network. The interview is part of a series of special reports to introduce the new washtech.com site. Kevin and Space Rogue discuss the recent hack attacks and what characterized them, as well as what type of person is motivated to conduct such break-ins. They also discussed what companies can do to prevent attacks and whether the media coverage of the event has caused awareness of the weaknesses, generated copycat attacks, or both. The interview is available at; http://washtech.com/news/extra/631-1.html
Interesting case in Minnesota, where suspects are charged with possession of burglary tools, for using L0phtcrack in their computer crime. http://www.channel4000.com/news/stories/news-20000217-164727.html