Information Security News mailing list archives

AOL 6.0 details leaked on Web


From: William Knowles <erehwon () KIZMIAZ DIS ORG>
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2000 12:46:36 -0800

http://www.theregister.co.uk/000128-000010.html

Executives at AOL are in a frothy lather after a teenager published
details about the company's yet-to-be-released software on his Web
site.

AOL 6.0 -- which is still on the drawing board -- isn't even supposed
to be beta tested until May. It's scheduled for general release in
August.

According to CNET, the youth has already been slapped with a notice
from lawyers to remove the unauthorised material from the site or face
the consequences.

They claim he must have obtained the information from an illegal
source. It seems the confidential information was either hacked or
leaked.

But a message on the site reads: "All information was gained legally
without the use of a third-party source, and without breaking any
laws. The information was posted in a public file library on AOL."

Unfortunately, no one from AOL was available for comment by press time
so there's no way of knowing whether AOL has egg on its face, or
whether it has a genuine case.

Either way, as of 12:35pm (GMT), the offending site was still
available.

If you get a thrill out of seeing under-the-bonnet developmental
screen grabs of new software -- including AOL 6.0's tool bar and
Instant Messaging service -- then have a sneaky peak here

http://www.observers.net/kenton/


==
Some day, on the corporate balance sheet, there will be
an entry which reads, "Information"; for in most cases
the information is more valuable than the hardware which
processes it. -- Adm. Grace Murray Hopper, USN Ret.
==
http://www.dis.org/erehwon/

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