[iwar] [NewsBits] NewsBits - 01/14/02 (fwd)

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-01-14 19:36:56
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Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 19:36:56 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [iwar] [NewsBits] NewsBits - 01/14/02 (fwd)
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January 14, 2002

Chinese activist jailed for Web site comments.
A Chinese political activist has been jailed
for four years for criticizing President Jiang
Zemin on an American Web site, a human rights
organization said Monday.  Lu Xinhua was
sentenced by a court in the central city of
Wuhan, said the Hong Kong-based Information
Center for Human Rights and Democracy. Court
officials, police and prosecutors in Wuhan
refused to confirm the report.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/2002/01/14/chinese-activist-two.htm

World of Hell back on the warpath
Notorious website defacement group World of Hell
(WoH) issued a warning to the internet community
last week as one of its most prominent members
went on a hacking spree. Current WoH front man
'RaFa' has notched up over 500 defacements since
5 January by hitting a number of Linux-based
machines hosting multiple websites.
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1128276

Ministry of Defence hacked 27 times
Computer systems at the Ministry of Defence
(MoD) have been hacked 27 times since 1999,
and nearly 600 laptops have gone missing.
All the hacking was carried out by insiders,
according to the MoD. Nearly 1400 laptops
have vanished from government departments
over the last five years, according to
figures gathered by Liberal Democrat MP
Paul Burstow, including 594 from the MoD,
419 from the Department for Work and Pensions
and 115 from the Department for International
Development.
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1128265

Ministry of Defense Loses 594 Laptops
Almost 600 laptops have been misplaced or stolen
from Britain's Ministry of Defence over the last
five years, the government has admitted. Opposition
Liberal Democrat MP Paul Burstow obtained figures
through a series of parliamentary questions which
show a total of 1,354 government-owned computers
have gone walkabout over the same period.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/23664.html

Worm posing as Microsoft update moving slowly
A new computer worm masquerading as a software
update from Microsoft Corp. is capable of
deleting all files on the hard drive of an
infected computer but has so far spread
very slowly, an antivirus vendor said Monday.
The so-called ``Gigger'' worm is a low threat
since so few computers have been infected,
said Vincent Gullotto, senior research director
for Network Associates Inc.'s Antivirus Response
Team.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/061193.htm
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2838401,00.html
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-8481954.html
http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/answerstips/story/0,24330,3368084,00.html
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2102458,00.html
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,49726,00.html

.NET virus is .NOT - Microsoft
Last week, antivirus vendors exposed Donut,
supposedly the world's first .Net virus. Only it
isn't a . NET virus, Microsoft argues. Donut is
simply a native executable that elects to modify
only applications written for the Microsoft .NET
Framework in the Microsoft Intermediate Language
(MSIL) PE format, the software firm says.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/23673.html

Computer users take spammers to court
Brightmail sees a 16-fold two-year increase
in spam attacks. Ellen Spertus was outraged
when Kozmo.com still sent her e-mail after
she declined such pitches. So she sued the
online retailer under California's 1998
antispam law. Spertus is among a handful of
individuals who've chosen to fight unsolicited
e-mail in court. They've had mixed success
so far in what many consider only the early
skirmishes of a war on spam.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/01/13/suing.spammers.ap/index.html

2600 Magazine Seeks Another Opinion In N.Y. DeCSS Case
Lawyers for the New York-based "hacker quarterly"
2600 magazine have asked that the full 2nd Circuit
Court of Appeals reconsider a decision by three of
its judges to uphold a ban on publishing software
code that can unlock encrypted video on DVDs.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173635.html

Piracy to push Adobe out of China?
Graphics software giant Adobe Systems may
leave the Chinese market and other Asian
regions due to rampant piracy there,
according to CEO Bruce Chizen. Adobe could
stop producing versions of its products
in Chinese and other Asian languages if
governments in the region don't crack down
on software piracy, Chizen said in a weekend
article in Hong Kong's South China Morning
Post. Adobe representatives could not
immediately be reached for comment.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5101697,00.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/23661.html

Officials urge governments to take responsibility for security
Governments at all levels need to fine-tune
and focus on their cybersecurity plans to
ensure that the nation is be better prepared
for possible attacks, emergency management
officials said Monday. People in law enforcement,
public health officials and others need to be
"visionary thinkers" about potential modern
threats, especially electronic attacks, George
Foresman, deputy state coordinator for the
Virginia Department of Emergency Management,
said at an emergency preparedness conference
sponsored by The Performance Institute.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0102/011402td2.htm

Political hackers on the increase in Britain
The number of defacements affecting UK government
Web sites increased nearly fourfold in the UK last
year. Hacking attacks on political Web sites more
than tripled in the UK during 2001, despite a sharp
fall in the number of defacements around 11 September.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2102501,00.html

Virus-Busters: Worms, Flaws More Than Doubled in 2001
Last year was a banner year -- or maybe red
flag year would be more appropriate -- for
computer viruses and software security gaps,
with both incidents and vulnerabilities more
than doubling in 2001 compared with 2000,
according to the CERT Coordination Center.
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/15764.html

Web attacks up 160 per cent in 2001
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1128250

'Homeland Security' Gun Not Misnamed - Firearms Dealer
Despite the protests of a self-described gun safety
organization, a firearms manufacturer advertising a
shotgun online as a "homeland security" self-defense
weapon says that, in an age of domestic terrorism,
he is not resorting to false advertising.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173626.html

Sen. Wellstone Rips Qwest's Opt-Out Privacy Policy
Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., today urged federal
regulators to require Qwest Communications to adopt
an opt-in policy for gathering and distributing
customers' personal information.  Wellstone called
on Federal Communications Commissioner Michael
Powell to require Qwest to adopt an "opt-in" policy,
obtaining customers' permission before sharing their
personal data with Qwest's business partners.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173627.html

OMB's Forman adds two techie chiefs to his staff
Mark Forman's staff grows by two this month.
The Office of Management and Budget's associate
director for e-government and IT has gained
Norman Lorentz as his chief technology officer.
Forman also has tapped Debra Stouffer, deputy
CIO for IT reform at the Housing and Urban
Development Department, to spend 90 days
drafting a governmentwide architecture proposal.
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/17752-1.htm
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0102/011402h1.htm

Security auditing industry set to grow
The network security insurance auditing industry
is set for major growth as companies are asked
to prove that they are secure against hackers
and viruses, according to security consultant
@Stake. As more companies take out cover against
security threats, insurance companies will want
to see proof of customers' compliance with best
practice on security.
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1128237

Strong results seen for computer Security firms
Most computer security companies, particularly
those that sell anti-virus and intrusion detection
software and services to protect against malicious
hackers, are on track to report strong fiscal
results, analysts said. ``Many security vendors
will meet or exceed expectations and will likely
provide positive guidance over the next period,''
said Kevin Wagner, an analyst with Adams,
Harkness & Hill Inc.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/reuters_wire/1731392l.htm
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-8480750.html

Every Man a Cyber Crook
Federal anti-hacking law permits cybercrime
victims to sue their attackers. So why is
that software companies, webmasters and
computer makers are the ones being hauled
into court? Shortly after it enacted the
federal computer crime law, Congress amended
it to allow victims to sue their attackers
in federal court for damages. It is now
proving to be a costly mistake.
http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/51

State motor vehicle officials seek national ID system
State motor vehicle officials plan to ask
Congress today for up to $100 million to
create a national identification system
that would include high-tech driver's
licenses and a network of tightly linked
databases of driver information.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/005065.htm
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173630.html
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173603.html

Privacy Watchdogs Howl Over National ID Database
Amid a howl of privacy concerns, the American
Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators
(AAMVA) on Monday called for a national
driver's license system for the U.S. The
organization sought the funds and
congressional legislation to create ID cards
and a state-of-the-art database for tracking
license holders.
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/15775.html

Palm Beach Airport To Scan Fingerprints, Faces
Palm Beach International Airport is going high
tech, both by digitizing background checks it
performs on its employees, and by adopting a
controversial face-recognition technology
aimed at rooting out terrorism suspects.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/173636.html

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