June 21, 2002
Agents Pursue Terrorists Online
According to one analyst, al-Qaeda leaders prefer
to use a Web site to communicate with followers,
rather than telephones or mass e-mails that are
much easier to trace. U.S. officials are searching
the Internet for the reappearance of a Web site
that they believe has been used by al-Qaeda to
deliver messages, including possible instructions
for its next attacks, to its operatives around
the world. The Arabic Web site, recently known
as alneda.com, is a "mouthpiece for al-Qaeda
in exile" and one of the terrorist group's main
instruments in its effort to regroup, senior
U.S. law enforcement officials here say.
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18331.html
- - - - - - - -
School hackers may face Secret Service
Students at universities in four states may have
been monitored by "spyware" placed on computers
by online criminals to capture passwords and
credit card numbers, a public safety officer
at one of the schools involved said Thursday.
A month ago, agents with the U.S. Secret Service
notified Arizona State University officials that
some of their computers may have been compromised,
said Lt. John Sutton of the university's Department
of Public Safety. The Secret Service seized almost
20 hard drives from computers at the university
and is analyzing them for clues as part of the
investigation, he said.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-938235.html
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2112233,00.html
http://www.msnbc.com/news/770458.asp
- - - - - - - -
Kremlin's new Web site: Hacker-proof?
Almost 100 hackers have tried to break into
Russian President Vladimir Putin's new Web site
in the first 24 hours of its existence, but none
has yet succeeded, the Kremlin said Friday. And
after three months of checks by the Federal Agency
for Government Communications and Information, the
presidential administration is certain the site,
unveiled Thursday, is almost hacker-proof.
http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105-938341.html
http://www.msnbc.com/news/770480.asp
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/06/21/kremlin.internet.reut/index.html
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,53412,00.html
- - - - - - - -
Internet mapping points to serial killer
Alleged serial killer Maury Troy was apprehended
after law enforcement was able to track him through
his computer. Troy had sent an Internet map to a
St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter indicating where
the body of a slain prostitute could be located.
Microsoft told the FBI the Internet protocol
address of the only person who had mapped the
area, while WorldCom was able to pinpoint the
physical location of the address. Civil libertarians
are worried about the ability of law enforcement
to easily track people through the Internet without
the public knowing how simple the process is.
http://home.post-dispatch.com/channel/pdweb.nsf/6e56f5328304fd5685256a0f005e
d358/86256a0e0068fe5086256bda003f88c2?OpenDocument
The story of a killer ended abruptly, left much unrevealed
http://home.post-dispatch.com/channel/pdweb.nsf/da37732b0078d6c285256ad500494df3/86256a0e0068fe5086256bda004c7ea6?OpenDocument
- - - - - - - -
Seattle man removes Web site in free-speech dispute with judge
Paul Trummel, who was thrown in jail for 111 days
in a free-speech standoff with a judge over his Web
site, has taken down the site rather than face more
jail time. Trummel, 68, posted an ``apologia'' in
which he said he would continue to fight for his
First Amendment rights in court, but did not want to
undermine the efforts of his attorneys ``by creating
diversions that could persuade the appellate court
that I lack seriousness in my pursuit of justice.''
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/3512281.htm
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,53392,00.html
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/06/21/web-jailing.htm
http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/441465p-3532160c.html
- - - - - - - -
Apache exploit on the warpath
'May God have mercy on our souls,' say hackers
A hacker group today declared "may God have mercy
on our souls" after releasing a "very friendly"
exploit for the potentially devastating Apache
flaw reported here on vnunet.com. The hackers,
calling themselves Gobbles Security on the BugTraq
mailing list, warned: "Attached is a remote Apache
1.3.X exploit for the 'chunking' vulnerability.
This version of the exploit works only on OpenBSD.
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1132865
Apache Web Servers at Risk - Patching Urged
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18342.html
http://www.idg.net/ic_877484_1794_9-10000.html
- - - - - - - -
Harry Potter at the mercy of pirates
Copy protection on some new DVDs seems to have
disappeared, raising questions about the film
industry's anti-piracy plans. Technology that
prevents people from copying DVDs to videotape
has disappeared from some versions of Warner Bros.'
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," raising
new questions about Hollywood's anti-piracy plans.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2112237,00.html
- - - - - - - -
House lawmaker expects cybersecurity bill to pass before recess
The outlook for congressional passage of cyber-
security legislation looks good this year,
despite the short time remaining in the session,
House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert,
R-N.Y., said Thursday. The New York Republican
hopes final action on his House-passed bill, to
authorize research and development for computer
and network security and research fellowship
programs, will occur by the August congressional
recess.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0602/062102cd1.htm
- - - - - - - -
US prepares for cyber terror
Government looks to push companies into action
US companies are preparing for a new government
report that will set out how they will be expected
to protect their networks against hackers and cyber
terrorists. Although cyber attacks have generally
been the preserve of amateurs, the administration
is concerned that sponsored terrorist attacks are
increasingly possible. The new National Strategy
for Securing Cyberspace aims to set out how best
to protect systems against such attacks and, after
years of consultation, is expected to be published
in the next few weeks.
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1132852
- - - - - - - -
Are hackers in hiding or aiming at new targets?
U.S. government figures indicate that hacker attacks
have dropped significantly since September of 2001.
Other numbers show that hackers are still creating
as much havoc as ever. Despite the discrepancy,
it remains clear that enterprise system attacks
launched by hackers are still a serious threat.
The size of the threat is up for debate. Hack
attacks are slowing downThe Federal Computer
Incident Response Center (FedCIRC) reported
a total of 15 attacks in December of 2001,
down from 53 during December of 2000.
http://www.techrepublic.com/article.jhtml?id=r00620020326hoo01.htm
- - - - - - - -
Bush: Bring Back Library Filters
News that the Bush administration is planning to
take its library filtering battle to the Supreme
Court didn't come as much of a surprise to
advocates on either side of the controversy.
The Justice Department on Thursday notified the
Supreme Court that it planned to appeal a May
U.S. Court of Appeals ruling striking down the
Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which
required public libraries to install filters on
computers to keep children from viewing porn
sites or lose federal funding.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,53389,00.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19122-2002Jun20.html
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/06/20/library.filtering.ap/index.html
http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/441313p-3531095c.html
- - - - - - - -
Anti-spam service battles bugs
SpamNet, the anti-spam service launched this
week, is suffering from usability problems,
including issues with working where a firewall
is installed. A new anti-spam service launched
with much fanfare this week is facing some
technical hurdles out of the gate and
frustration from the community it relies
on to fight junk mail.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2112233,00.html
- - - - - - - -
DOT seeks smart card tech
The Transportation Department released a broad
agency announcement June 20 soliciting information
on technologies, such as biometrics, that could
enhance the department's smart card program in
the future. DOT is in the first phase of its
Transportation Worker Identification Credential
(TWIC) system. "The functional objective of the
TWIC is to provide one standardized, common
credential, supported by a single integrated
and secure network of databases, to manage
transportation worker access into secure
transportation areas and operations,"
according to the announcement.
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0617/web-dot-06-21-02.asp
- - - - - - - -
DMS passes final test for all but intelligence users
The latest release of Defense Message System
software has passed operational testing and
evaluation for the Defense Departments general
service areas. But testers found the 3.0 release
unsuitable for intelligence workthe area for
which its security features were designed.
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/19105-1.html
- - - - - - - -
Big Brother at the office
Software makes it easy for the boss to spy on your
Net usage. How much do you think your employer
would pay to make sure that you did not spend half
your day browsing an online book store, watching
sports, or downloading music files and that you
never spent your working hours at a porn site?
http://www.msnbc.com/news/769455.asp
- - - - - - - -
Open, closed source security about equal?
Proprietary programs should mathematically be as
secure as those developed under the open-source
model, a Cambridge University researcher argued
in a paper presented Thursday at a technical
conference in Toulouse, France. In his paper,
computer scientist Ross Anderson used an analysis
that equates finding software bugs to testing
programs for the mean time before failure,
a measure of quality frequently used by
manufacturers. Under the analysis, Anderson
found that his ideal open-source programs
were as secure as the closed-source programs.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-938229.html
- - - - - - - -
Foiling the fools and the fraudsters
The keyboard: Tool of choice for some criminals.
Despite all the stories and scares about malicious
hackers, computer criminals and destructive web
worms, the biggest threat to the security of a
company does not come from outside. Instead, it
is employees on the inside who are most likely to
cause security breaches by inadvertently spreading
viruses, defrauding their employer, wasting time
on the net or downloading inappropriate material.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2053000/2053716.stm
- - - - - - - -
FBI technology upgrade more than a year away
FBI agents wont have user-friendly, integrated
computer programs to manage their investigations
until December 2003, FBI Director Robert Mueller
said Friday. Mueller said the bureau will have
the basic building blocks of a modern technology
system in place by the end of this year, when
FBI offices throughout the country should have
new computers and monitors and be connected to
each other by fast networks.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0602/062102b1.htm
- - - - - - - -
High-tech scanners look for lies
The world is becoming a trickier place for people
who tell lies even little white ones. From
thermal-imaging cameras, designed to read guilty
eyes, to brain-wave scanners, which essentially
watch a lie in motion, the technology of truth-
seeking is leaping forward. At the same time,
more people are finding their words put to
the test, especially those who work for the
government.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/770594.asp
http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/442387p-3539963c.html
***********************************************************
Search the NewsBits.net Archive at:
http://www.newsbits.net/search.html
***********************************************************
The source material may be copyrighted and all rights are
retained by the original author/publisher. The information
is provided to you for non-profit research and educational
purposes. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however
copies may not be sold, and NewsBits (www.newsbits.net)
should be cited as the source of the information.
Copyright 2000-2002, NewsBits.net, Campbell, CA.