(San Francisco Chronicle, 5 April) On Tuesday, Sen. Jon Kyl convened the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information to make the case for new legislation to protect the nation's information infrastructure. Sen. Kyl began by noting that ``denial of service'' hacker attacks on companies such as eBay, Yahoo and CNN should ``serve as a wake-up call about the need to protect our critical computer networks.'' He added that ``the attacks contributed to a 258-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and halted a string of three days of consecutive record- high closes of the technology-laden Nasdaq Composite Index.'' To deal with this problem, Kyl and Sen. Charles Schumer, have co-sponsored S. 2092, which would modify the federal government's ``trap and trace'' authority, so that law enforcers would no longer need to obtain a search warrant in every jurisdiction through which a cyber- attack traveled. (AFP, 7 April) According to a Johannesburg AFP report, hackers have threatened to destroy a South African student web site unless it removes a game in which blobs of oil are squirted on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, a site spokesman said Thursday. A group called "Hackers for the People" made the threats against the Get-a-Life site (www.gAL.co.za) unless the "Squirt Diesel at Bob Mugabe" game was removed by Friday. The group also threatened to destroy other South African web sites as well. The web-site had been hacked 10 times since the posting last month of the game and a student petition calling on the South African government to take a stronger stance against Zimbabwe. (Financial Times, 4 April) The Financial Times (UK) reports that sixty per cent of companies have suffered a recent information security breach costing between 20,000 Pounds and more than 100,000 Pounds, although almost two-thirds have taken no action since, according to a survey. Research carried out for the Department of Trade and Industry underlines the growing threat to businesses from hackers, computer viruses, fraudsters and employee mistakes as internet trading grows. The British Retail Consortium yesterday estimated that credit card fraud in the UK rose by 31 per cent from Pounds 10.3m to Pounds 13.5m - partly because of e-commerce. The survey, to be published in full next week, will form part of a drive by Patricia Hewitt, the e-commerce minister, to increase awareness of data security issues. (South China Morning Post, 6 April) The South China Morning Post reports that a shy teenager who became a computer hacker to find "satisfaction and achievement" was jailed for six months yesterday. Clerk Po Yiu-ming, 19, who was among the first three hackers to be convicted since computer crime-related laws were enacted in 1994, turned to crime because he was a social outcast, a court heard. Restaurant manager Tam Hei-lun, 19, and student Mak King-ming, 18, were both sentenced to a detention center for similar offences. The trio, who had earlier pleaded guilty to a total of 49 computer crime-related charges, appeared before Eastern Court magistrate Ian Candy yesterday. (FBIS, 5 April) China has unveiled a new set of regulations that will help strengthen the security protection of its computer information systems. The Chinese Ministry of Public Security and the State Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision jointly issued the rules that will come into effect on January 1, 2001. The rules, called classification standards of computer information system security protection, will help to tackle computer-related crimes such as hack attacks, computer viruses and the spread of harmful information, officials said. In recent years, computer and information networking have been developing very fast in the country. Official statistics showed that so far, over 3.5 million computers have been connected with the Internet and net surfers reached 10 million. Meanwhile, computer-related crimes have also been on the rise, the officials said. IMPORTANT NOTICE: If you are not using HushMail, this message could have been read easily by the many people who have access to your open personal email messages. Get your FREE, totally secure email address at http://www.hushmail.com.
