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London, Monday, July 1, 2002
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INFOCON News
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[News Index]
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[1] Pressure to create new agency by Sept. 11 pits politics vs. policy
[2] DOD officials push real-time intelligence
[3] Homeland HR plan criticized
[4] Companies prep slew of homeland security solutions, but wait for feds to get
the money to buy them
[5] Web site exposes credit card fraud
[6] Security analysts dismiss fears of terrorist hackers
[7] Veracity of JPEG virus questioned
[8] Failed dot-coms to live on in digital archive
[9] CNet Networks to Cut Almost 200 Jobs
[10] Senate passes bill to create e-government office
[11] Book by celebrated outlaw hacker describes tricks of the trade
[12] Singapore bank accounts raided by hacker
[13] MS security patch EULA gives Billg admin privileges on your box
[14] Spain's new e-commerce law worries privacy advocates
[15] 'Nokia' loses nokia.me.uk cybersquatting case
[16] ICANN board adopts reform plan, ditches elections
[17] E-learning site to debut next month
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News
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[1] Pressure to create new agency by Sept. 11 pits politics vs. policy
By Siobhan Gorman, National Journal
When it comes to homeland security, President Bush's most valuable congressional
ally may be House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt. By urging Congress to
pass legislation to create Bush's Homeland Security Department by this September
11, the Missouri Democrat demanded a pace so rapid that it would leave lawmakers
little time to put their own imprint on the administration's complicated
proposal to reorganize the government.
Politically, Democrats can't afford to look as if they're standing in the way of
homeland security. "We Democrats can't worry about the details," says one House
member. "We're in the minority. We can't fall on our sword." And calling for
speedy consideration of Bush's plan puts Democrats-especially the ambitious
Gephardt-in a position to take some credit for creation of a department with
responsibility for making the nation safer from terrorism.
If Congress heeds Gephardt's deadline, "the White House is going to get more or
less what they want," predicts Ivo Daalder, a senior fellow at the Brookings
Institution and a former aide to the National Security Council. "There isn't a
willingness on the part of the Hill to take on the president on this issue. It's
like taking on the president on the war-it may be politically risky." Some
members of Congress worry that the rush to respond favorably to the president's
request will have negative side effects. "I worry about this pace," says Rep.
Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif. "It leads me to believe that [lawmakers] care less
about what's in the bill than that there is a bill within that time frame."
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0602/062802nj.htm
----------------------------------------------------
[2] DOD officials push real-time intelligence
BY Dan Caterinicchia
July 1, 2002
Getting the right intelligence information to the warfighters who need it as
quickly as possible is the key to transforming the Navy and Marine Corps and
succeeding in the war on terrorism, according to a pair of service leaders.
"The intelligence aspect of this effort has become of the utmost importance,"
said Rear Adm. Joseph Krol Jr., assistant deputy chief of Naval Operations for
plans, policy and operations, during a June 28 hearing of the House of
Representatives' Special Oversight Panel on Terrorism. He added that sharing
intelligence among the armed services and with U.S. allies has exposed "seams"
that must be addressed.
Krol said that much of the intelligence being collected in Afghanistan in caves
and from computers there has direct relevance to domestic homeland security
efforts. "There's loads of intelligence that needs to be shared across the many
seams because it has an effect on our homeland."
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0701/web-navy-07-01-02.asp
----------------------------------------------------
[3] Homeland HR plan criticized
BY Graeme Browning
July 1, 2002
The part of President Bush's proposal for the new Homeland Security Department
that would create a human resources system with broad authority to hire, retain
and fire employees has drawn the ire of both federal employees' unions and
members of the House and Senate committees studying the proposal. The blueprint
for the new department, which Bush delivered to Congress June 18, would give the
new secretary and the director of the Office of Personnel Management authority
to create "a modern, flexible and responsive [human resources] program."
"Those are absolutely meaningless words," said Jacque Simon, public policy
director for the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). "They're
just code for taking away the entire merit system that's the basic foundation of
the civil service. We're going to do everything we can to take this part out of
this bill."
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0701/mgt-hr-07-01-02.asp
----------------------------------------------------
[4] Companies prep slew of homeland security solutions, but wait for feds to get
the money to buy them
BY Judi Hasson
July 1, 2002
Within hours of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, information technology companies
began remaking themselves.
No longer focused simply on integrating systems, providing online services or
selling software that improves services to the public, private-sector leaders
realized they would need to take a lead role in homeland security.
To do that, some IT companies began recasting their existing security and
integration products as homeland security solutions. Others revved up security
centers established before the attacks to develop solutions. And many companies
went back to the drawing board to develop new products that they hope will meet
agencies' security needs.
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0701/cov-home-07-01-02.asp
----------------------------------------------------
[5] Web site exposes credit card fraud
June 26, 2002 Posted: 10:47 AM EDT (1447 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- An anti-fraud education group that tipped federal authorities
to a major Internet credit card scheme has opened a Web site that will let
Americans check to see if their card numbers are in the hands of thieves.
The database of stolen credit card numbers, which became available on the Web
late Tuesday, was created over the last seven weeks and has already identified
nearly 100,000 credit card numbers, the group said.
The group, CardCops, collected the information from Internet chat rooms where
thieves have been checking whether stolen card numbers are still good to use or
have been deactivated.
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/06/26/identity.theft.ap/index.html
----------------------------------------------------
[6] Security analysts dismiss fears of terrorist hackers
Electricity, water systems hard to damage online
Bill Wallace, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, June 30, 2002
Despite growing government concern that al Qaeda and its allies may try to use
computers to disrupt electrical power grids, transportation systems and
emergency communication networks, many experts on terrorism and computer
security are skeptical about the overall menace of cyber-terrorism.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/06/30/MN1
52350.DTL&type=tech
----------------------------------------------------
[7] Veracity of JPEG virus questioned
Users, competitors say McAfee unnecessarily raised concern about theoretical
threat.
Sam Costello, Boston
Users and antivirus vendors are questioning the seriousness of a virus described
last week by McAfee Security, a division of Network Associates, as well as the
manner in which McAfee proffered details about the virus.
On June 13, McAfee issued a press release about the W32/Perrun virus, which is
the first virus to infect JPEGs (a type of image file), McAfee claimed. Perrun,
which McAfee received from its author, uses an executable file to infect image
files and then tries to spread the infection to other image files in the same
directory, according to McAfee. The virus requires the presence of the
executable and cannot work without it, the company said.
http://www.idgnet.co.nz/webhome.nsf/UNID/90830224C494B788CC256BE1007166AD!opendo
cument
----------------------------------------------------
[8] Failed dot-coms to live on in digital archive
Wednesday, June 26, 2002
By JOHN COOK
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Attention former dot-commers.
A University of Maryland professor needs your disastrous business plans,
pointless PowerPoints and tales of failure.
David Kirsch, assistant professor of entrepreneurship at the Smith School of
Business, has received a $300,500 grant to create a digital archive of failed
dot-com business plans at www.businessplanarchive.org
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/76130_archive26.shtml
----------------------------------------------------
[9] CNet Networks to Cut Almost 200 Jobs
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:54 p.m. ET
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Online technology news provider CNet Networks Inc. on
Thursday said it will shed about 10 percent of its work force, or nearly 200
employees, as part of its latest effort to survive the high-tech meltdown that
has dominated its coverage for nearly two years.
The San Francisco-based company's third major layoff in 16 months will pare its
payroll to about 1,700 workers, still well above the nearly 700 people that CNet
employed at the end of 1999.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-CNet-Job-Cuts.html?ex=1026014400&e
n=b7cdb79fa71efd7f&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVER
----------------------------------------------------
[10] Senate passes bill to create e-government office
By Maureen Sirhal, CongressDaily
The Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a measure that aims to boost
initiatives to make government information more accessible online.
The measure is co-sponsored by Sens. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Fred
Thompson of Tennessee, the chairman and ranking Republican of the Governmental
Affairs Committee, and Montana Republican Conrad Burns. The bill, S. 803, aims
to create a systematic approach to managing technology in the federal
government, both for online services to citizens and in using technology to
enhance business practices.
The legislation would create an office of electronic government under the White
House Office of Management and Budget and authorize $345 million for the office
and its e-government initiatives.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0602/062802td1.htm
----------------------------------------------------
[11] Book by celebrated outlaw hacker describes tricks of the trade
NEW YORK (AP) - Barred by the terms of his probation from messing with
computers, ex-convict hacker Kevin Mitnick has turned to writing about them,
baring the tricks of his former trade in a forthcoming book.
An advance copy of the book, ``The Art of Deception,'' describes more than a
dozen scenarios where tricksters dupe computer network administrators into
divulging passwords, encryption keys and other coveted security details.
But it's all fiction. Or so says Mitnick.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/living/3576919.htm
http://www.msnbc.com/news/774429.asp
----------------------------------------------------
[12] Singapore bank accounts raided by hacker
REUTERS [ SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2002 9:11:23 PM ]
SINGAPORE: Singapore's DBS Bank, the banking unit of DBS Group Holdings, said a
computer hacker had siphoned money from 21 online bank accounts in amounts
ranging from S$200 to S$4,999 ($113.50-$2,837).
The bank declined to comment on the total amount pilfered but said that all 21
cases happened on June 19, when one of its customers raised the alarm.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?artid=14588489
----------------------------------------------------
[13] MS security patch EULA gives Billg admin privileges on your box
By Thomas C Greene in Washington
Posted: 30/06/2002 at 05:56 GMT
If you caught our recent coverage of the Windows Media Player trio of security
holes you may have followed a link to the TechNet download site for a patch, or
you might have activated Windows Update. If you did the former (though, oddly,
not if you did the latter), you would have been confronted with an End User
License Agreement (EULA) stating, most ominously, that:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/25956.html
----------------------------------------------------
[14] Spain's new e-commerce law worries privacy advocates
Copyright C 2002 AP Online
By JEROME SOCOLOVSKY, Associated Press
MADRID, Spain (June 28, 2002 3:52 p.m. EDT) - Opponents of Spain's new
e-commerce law - which requires Internet service providers to keep tabs on
users - vowed Friday to challenge it in court as a violation of constitutional
rights.
But the head of a national Internet users association applauded the protections
it offers for online consumers.
The Law on Services for the Information Society is one of the first to comply
with a European Union directive on regulating the Internet in the 15 member
countries.
The law was adopted Thursday in the Congress of Deputies, the lower house of
Spain's parliament. It is expected to become law over the summer after its
publication in the Official State Gazette.
http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/450481p-3603787c.html
----------------------------------------------------
[15] 'Nokia' loses nokia.me.uk cybersquatting case
By Tim Richardson
Posted: 28/06/2002 at 12:00 GMT
Phone company Nokia has won the first case against a cybersquatter regarding
.me.uk domains. The Finnish phone company wrote to the domain name holder from
London asking him to hand over nokia.me.uk.
However, he wrote back claiming that he had registered the domain name in
question because his nickname was "Nokia".
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/25946.html
----------------------------------------------------
[16] ICANN board adopts reform plan, ditches elections
By ComputerWire
Posted: 01/07/2002 at 10:11 GMT
The board of the Internet Corp for Assigned Names and Numbers on Friday
unanimously approved an internal reform plan that dramatically changes how
directors are selected and how internet domain name policies are made.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/25962.html
----------------------------------------------------
[17] E-learning site to debut next month
By Brian Friel
Federal employees will be able to take free courses about sexual harassment,
diversity, ethics and other topics on a new e-learning Web site that will debut
next month, Office of Personnel Management officials said Thursday.
The new site is an attempt by the Bush administration to use the purchasing
power of the 1.8-million federal employee user base to lower the costs of
training and to reduce redundant training efforts across the federal government.
Norm Enger, OPM's e-government program director, and Mike Fitzgerald, the agency
's e-training director, said OPM and the Transportation Department's
Administrative Services Center plan to launch the new site on July 23. The site
was going to be called the National Learning Center, but officials decided
Thursday to chnage the name to the Gov On-line Learning Center. The site will be
available at www.golearn.gov when it debuts.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0602/062802b1.htm
----------------------------------------------------
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Copyright 2002, IWS - The Information Warfare Site
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