Information Security News mailing list archives
Many pieces!
From: mea culpa <jericho () DIMENSIONAL COM>
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 06:31:26 -0700
From: "Vanna P. Rella" <vamprella () chickmail com> 15 November 1999 New NT Virus An insidious new NT virus, designed to avoid detection, attacks the NT file security system, allowing all users access to all files. http://www.currents.net/newstoday/99/11/15/news2.html 15 November 1999 Government Agencies will Wait to Buy New Hardware and Software Many government agencies have put a freeze on the purchase of computer hardware and software until March, 2000, to avoid problems with systems which may not recognize the year 2000 as a leap year. http://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1999/1115/fcw-newsy2k-11-15-99.html 15 November 1999 Hong Kong Highways Dept. Site Defaced Hong Kong's Highway department web site was defaced last week, and was repaired within two hours. A number of other Asian government sites have also been attacked recently. http://www.cnnfn.com/news/technology/newsbytes/139366.html 15 November 1999 Bubbleboy Virus The Bubbleboy worm infects systems without requiring an attachment to be opened. This new technique launches the self-replicating worm when a user (or certain clients that open mail for, e.g., purposes of alerting the user) opens the mail message. Formerly, attacks were launched only when attachments were opened. An embedded Virtual Basic Script replicates by sending itself to the user's entire address book and could tie up a great deal of time and energy as did Melissa. Otherwise, as currently implemented, Bubbleboy performs no other attacks. Experts fear that copycat versions could harbor more destructive payloads. http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,1018067,00.html http://www.computerworld.com/home/news.nsf/all/9911103bubble http://www.currents.net/newstoday/99/11/15/news3.html 15 November 1999 Banks Encouraged to Define Privacy The president of the American Bankers Association is calling for financial institutions to establish strong privacy policies in order to allay customer concern with the newly enacted Banking Reform Bill which will ease the way for financial institutions to merge with one another and increase the likelihood that personal information about customers will be shared. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/feed/a1260-1999nov15.htm 13 November 1999 Hidden Web-Use Monitoring Tools Subject of FTC Inquiry Consumer behavior tracking software, buried in web site code, can e combined with cookies to build extensive dossiers on Web users. The FTC is concerned enough to have begun an assessment of their impact on consumer privacy. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/business/A58127-1999Nov12.html 12 November 1999 Chinese Cracker Gets Jail Time A former employee of a Chinese trust firm will spend three years in jail for cracking the company's stock trading system and manipulating stock prices to his advantage. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19991112/tc/china_hacker_1.html http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,500057111-500094072-500360224-0,00.html 12 November 1999 IETF Says No to Wiretap Standard The Internet Engineering Task Force has rejected the idea of protocols supporting Internet wiretapping capability, but the FBI believes that the law requires such capability be built in. The IETF recognizes that some "protocol features that fulfill a commercial need" could also be used for wiretapping by law enforcement agencies. http://www.computerworld.com/home/news.nsf/all/9911125ietf http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,32455,00.html 12 November 1999 Shanghai Hacker Challenge A Shanghai company challenged computers crackers to infiltrate their site's security, but all attempts met with failure. http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/technology/afp/article.html?s=singapore/headlines/991112/technology/afp/Shanghai_website_challenges_world_s_hackers.and_wins.html 11 November 1999 GUIDs and Privacy Global Unique Identifiers (GUIDs) in and of themselves are not bad; it's what's done with them that matters, claim sites that use them. See also the 10 November story below about RealNetworks. http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,32389,00.html 11 November 1999 Cracking Suit Filed Against Law Firm A private company that conducts investigative research for law enforcement has filed a lawsuit in US District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that an employee of a Washington law firm tried repeatedly to crack its computer systems. http://www.computerworld.com/home/news.nsf/all/9911114hacksuit http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,32488,00.html 11 November 1999 Computer Trouble at Royal Doulton A computer problem caused Royal Doulton to lose almost $19 million in sales. The British company denies newspaper reports that the problem is Y2K-related. http://www.computerworld.com/home/news.nsf/all/9911114doulton 9 November 1999 Hotmail Filters E-Mail to Reduce Spam Hotmail has begun using the Mail Abuse Prevention System's (MAPS) Realtime Blackhole List (RBL), comprised of servers frequently used by spammers, to reduce the amount of spam its users receive. http://news.cnet.com/category/0-1005-200-1433577.html 9 November 1999 House Approves New Digital Signature Bill The House approved a revamped Digital Signature Bill. The proposed legislation faces White House opposition and concern from consumer advocates regarding the possible erosion of consumer rights. http://news.cnet.com/category/0-1005-200-1433810.html ISN is sponsored by Security-Focus.COM
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