Re: Y2K trojans, and outsourcing...

["Henry" <hsieff () orthodon com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Shappard, Richard, A (Rich) <rashappard () att com>
To: firewall-wizards () nfr net <firewall-wizards () nfr net>
Date: Sunday, July 18, 1999 3:19 PM
Subject: RE: Y2K trojans, and outsourcing...


> The only Trojans that the reporters at NBC know anything about come in
> foil
> packages.  If you rely on the lamestream media for your technology news
> you're in deep trouble.
>
> Did they happen to provide any references to this rumor?

Saw the bit they did;  essentially its a problem of insufficient background
checks for the code crunchers who have been brought in. No exploits have
been found so far, but they had a few fairly respectable professionals
(including someone from l0pht) talking about how they SHOULD'VE been more
careful.

I would have to agree, although I think as usual the media is jumping on the
glamourous hacker chic bandwagon on this one.

The $1 billion figure was a complete "guestimate", and as I said, no one's
actually discovered a trojan or a backdoor.  However, I know of a few
companies where consultants have been hired without the sort of background
checks you would normally give for people who get to directly handle code.
If a company has a decent security policy in place to begin with, it really
shouldn't be a problem.

--
Henry Sieff
Network Administrator
Orthodontic Centers of America
(504) 834-4392 ext. 135

> Rich Shappard
> Client Technical Associate
> Global Client Support Center
> AT&T Solutions
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: R. DuFresne [mailto:dufresne () sysinfo com]
> Sent: Friday, July 16, 1999 7:01 PM
> To: firewall-wizards () nfr net
> Subject: Y2K trojans, and outsourcing...
>
>
>
> The national news for NBC ran an interesting topic
> tonight;
>
> Estimating that some company/industry faces a loss
> potential
> of a billion
> or more at least, due to a backdooring trojan inserted
> by
> one or more
> consultants brought in to fix the Y2K problem...
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ron DuFresne
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>         admin & senior consultant:  darkstar.sysinfo.com
>                   http://darkstar.sysinfo.com
>
> "Cutting the space budget really restores my faith in
> humanity.  It
> eliminates dreams, goals, and ideals and lets us get
> straight to the
> business of hate, debauchery, and self-annihilation."
>                 -- Johnny Hart
>
> testing, only testing, and damn good at it too!