FW: Security In The News - June 17, 2002

[Howell, Paul]

 

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Subject: Security In The News - June 17, 2002

Security In The News
LAST UPDATED: 6/17/02
This report is also available on the Internet at http://news.ists.dartmouth.edu/todaysnews.html ,

Homeland Defense Shifts Focus to Secure Nets

Electronic Engineering Times, 6/14/02

Congress ready to move on homeland security

CNN, 6/16/02

Also - Washington Post, 6/14/02

Also - Government Computer News, 6/14/02

NSA gets Linux secure

The Register, 6/17/02

Airport security tech scrutinized

Federal Computer Week, 6/17/02

Ships, ports called vulnerable to terrorists

Government Executive, 6/14/02

Better encryption systems give FBI new challenges

U-Wire, 6/14/02

Firewalls and VPNs drive security spending

vnunet.com, 6/16/02

Don't Fight Security Cancers With Aspirin

InfoWorld, 6/14/02

FoxNews.com disabled by attack

C-Net News, 6/14/02

Also - Fox News, 6/16/02

Hackers break into eMap website [Israel]

Ha'aretz, 6/17/02

Best Buy reactivates wireless LAN cash registers

Computerworld, 6/14/02

IBM software aims to shut down "drive-by hacking"

C-Net News, 6/16/02

Police find first illegal DVD lab on West Coast

SiliconValley.com, 6/14/02

Touts Hack World Cup Computers

OSAC Cybernews, 6/17/02

Committing to IT Security

eSecurityPlanet, 6/14/02

Bush Said to Green Light FCC

Internet News, 6/17/02

Beijing orders internet cafes to close after fatal fire

Ananova, 6/17/02

Also - BBC, 6/17/02

Also - Reuters, 6/17/02

Also - nando times, 6/17/02

Europe data laws to cover media player 'spyware'

The Register, 6/17/02

Military happy to be excluded from homeland security department

Government Executive, 6/14/02

Microsoft accidentally distributes virus

C-Net News, 6/14/02

Also - Computerworld, 6/14/02

Also - Reuters, 6/14/02

Also - MSNBC, 6/14/02

Darpa awards next-generation computing contracts

Electronic Engineering Times, 6/14/02

State issues ID card plan

Federal Computer Week, 6/17/02

DOD is on track to add biometrics to Common Access Card

Government Computer News, 6/12/02

IM'ers Get a Secure Chat Room

Wired News, 6/17/02

Security Threat Or False Alarm?

Information Week, 6/17/02

Also - BusinessWeek, 6/13/02

Virus threat: India in the line of fire

Economic Times [India Times], 6/16/02

Staff take security exams

vnunet.com, 6/17/02
Cyberterrorism-Infrastructure Protection

Source: Electronic Engineering Times

Date Written: June 14, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Homeland Defense Shifts Focus to Secure Nets

Information security is a priority to be addressed by the new Homeland Defense Department. Paul Kurtz of the White House Office of Cyberspace Security indicated that the critical infrastructures of the United States are possible targets for those wishing to attack the U.S. Any attack against the United States is likely to involve attempts to destroy or disrupt the information, financial, and transportation networks. An executive order was passed October 2001 that mandates securing U.S. information networks against network disruptions. The national strategy for hardening the critical infrastructures includes building security into future networks and maintaining secure network protocols. Additionally, the government is funding cybersecurity research and development solutions, while attempting to reduce redundant research projects.

http://www.eetimes.com/sys/news/OEG20020614S0093

Source: CNN

Date Written: June 16, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Congress ready to move on homeland security

Congressional leaders have indicated that they intend to create a Homeland Security Department by September 11, 2002. Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) believes that speed is essential, and not only is the need for the department is a matter of national security, but the computer systems of the U.S., essential to addressing and analyzing threats, are also in critical need of being updated immediately. The House will approach the proposal by assigning established committees to conduct hearings, and the Senate will amend a bill that was recently approved by the Governmental Affairs Committee. Not only will jurisdictional issues and organizational culture issues need to be addressed, but the massive scope of the department will also require a great amount of coordination. Homeland Security Adviser Tom Ridge has indicated that he is unlikely to head the new department.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/06/16/homeland.security/index.html

Also - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48135-2002Jun13.html

Also - http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/18993-1.html

Source: The Register

Date Written: June 17, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: NSA gets Linux secure

The National Security Agency of the United States has been developing a security module designed to work with Linux systems. The prototype is called Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux), and has been designed to incorporate mandatory security features, such as mandatory access control to validate access, with the basic features of an operating system. Some analysts believe that NSA's focus on open source software is the beginning of a trend by U.S. government agencies to move away from commercial software, such as Microsoft. The U.S. government reportedly spends $1 billion per year on license fees.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/25746.html

Source: Federal Computer Week

Date Written: June 17, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Airport security tech scrutinized

A report by a task force assigned to examine current and emerging technologies that could improve airport security in San Jose California will be submitted June 17, 2002. Symantec's CEO John Thompson lead the task force and indicated the report will be submitted to the San Jose City Council and to the Transportation Security Administration. The report has assessed the security needs of San Jose's Norman Y. Mineta International Airport. There are three key areas of development: technology that will help protect the perimeter of the airport and its buildings, trusted employee programs with specific clearances and authentications (this program can be expanded to incorporate trusted passengers as well), and a network which links all airports together to eliminate the airport's isolated operability. Airports across the country can utilize the recommendations in the report, which included a research and development focus on security technologies, to improve security.

http://www.fcw.com/geb/articles/2002/0617/web-jose-06-17-02.asp

Source: Government Executive

Date Written: June 14, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Ships, ports called vulnerable to terrorists

Due to the recent reports that al-Qaida has been using commercial vessels to smuggle arms and agents into the United States, current merchant marine policies are being brought into question. House Armed Services Special Merchant Marine Oversight Panel Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-California) plans to initiate new merchant marine policies in an effort to deter the owner's of U.S. merchant vessels from the "flag of convenience." Thus, American-owned ships would have to register their vessels in the U.S., and not in 'flag of convenience' nations like Liberia and Panama. Key Coast Guard officials commented that even if the new regulations are implemented, and ships entering the U.S. are subjected to "effective anti-terrorist scrutiny," there will still be no guarantee that the Coast Guard will detect incoming arms and agents.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0602/061402cdam1.htm

Source: U-Wire

Date Written: June 14, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Better encryption systems give FBI new challenges

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is attempting to address the need to intercept electronic communications and the growing use of sophisticated encryption systems. The USA PATRIOT Act expanded the surveillance capabilities of the FBI to facilitate the interception of communications between terrorists, supporters of terrorist organizations, and other criminals, but did not contain provisions regarding encryption. A public information representative of the FBI has indicated that increased resources are being allocated to any issue related to national security, and it seems that in the 16 incidents of intercepting encrypted information in 2001, the FBI was able to obtain plain text from confiscated files.

http://www.uwire.com/content//topnews061402002.html

Source: vnunet.com

Date Written: June 16, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Firewalls and VPNs drive security spending

The growing awareness of the threat of cyberterrorism seems to have induced investment into cybersecurity technologies and systems. A report entitled "Global Network Security Markets: An Evolving Market" predicts that countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa will spend $6.2 billion next year on security technologies. Last year, expenditure on firewalls and VPNs was $2 billion, and is expected to increase to $7.5 billion by 2005. The report predicts that outsourcing to security management companies will become more common.

http://www.vnunet.com/News/1132583

Source: InfoWorld

Date Written: June 14, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Don't Fight Security Cancers With Aspirin

This editorial states that the inability to properly secure cyber assets is due to the fundamentally weak infrastructure in place today and the lack of effective management of end-user access to resources. There are fundamental inter-operability issues, and the patchwork approach to security may address one hole while creating another elsewhere. The author indicates that this approach is not even sufficient to address every cyberattack by untrained hackers, much less a dedicated and concerted attack by cyberterrorists or a nation. Investment in a new infrastructure rather than various security solutions will be more effective, and could even save money in the long term.

http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/02/06/17/020617opnoise.xml

Cybercrime-Hacking

Source: C-Net News

Date Written: June 14, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: FoxNews.com disabled by attack

The Fox News homepage was struck by a denial-of-service (DoS) attack on June 13, 2002 and June 14, 2002. A spokesperson for Fox News stated that during the attack, it seems that the Web site was defaced, and various graphics and advertisements were missing from the page. Additionally, the DoS attack prohibited web surfers' access to the site at various times. Walt Disney's ABCNews.com and ESPN.com also experienced complications with their websites on June 13, 2002. Although Kim Kerscher, a Disney representative refused to comment on the issue, sources associated with ABCNews.com and ESPN.com stated that the sites had experienced DoS attacks. A denial-of-service attack targets a website's critical network hardware (i.e., its server) in order to disrupt a website's ability to handle the volume of incoming traffic. As the volume of packets directed to the server becomes more than the servers can handle, legitimate user access to the web site will be denied. CERT C/C is reportedly looking into the incident.

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-936084.html

Also - http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,55380,00.html

Source: Ha'aretz

Date Written: June 17, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Hackers break into eMap website [Israel]

The Israeli eMap website was targeted by a number of cyberattacks, the third of which left the main HTML page defaced with the words "Back Evil." The eMap site is one of the most popular in the country, and hackers were able to exploit known flaws in Microsoft's IIS 4.0 to deface the site. The attack came June 13, 2002, and no damage was caused to the rest of the eMap services.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=177007

Source: Computerworld

Date Written: June 14, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Best Buy reactivates wireless LAN cash registers

Best Buy Co. has resumed its wireless LAN (local area network) cash register service. The WLAN registers were taken off-line when a report stated that cashiers were transmitting personal data of customers throughout the store, and the information was highly vulnerable to unauthorized access. In one of the cases, hackers in the parking lot using the drive-by-hacking method intercepted the information. The registers have been updated with "beefed up" security measures.

http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,72024,00.html

Source: C-Net News

Date Written: June 16, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: IBM software aims to shut down "drive-by hacking"

IBM has developed software for Linux users that would help scan and shut down rogue access points to wireless LANs (local area networks). The rogue points can allow for "drive-by hackings," or a method of hacking that will allow a remote user to intercept unencrypted data transmissions from a nearby location. A Windows version is being developed.

http://news.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-20046073-0.html

Source: SiliconValley.com

Date Written: June 14, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Police find first illegal DVD lab on West Coast

Benoni Lugo was pulled over for driving an unlicensed vehicle, and upon searching the car, the officer found pirated DVDs. Lugo was immediately arrested. A search of his home revealed a lab capable of producing 1200 pirated DVD videos, thousands of blank DVDs, and a DVD burner capable of burning six DVDs simultaneously. The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) claims that pirating of movies costs the film industry $2.5 billion worldwide.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/3470278.htm

Source: OSAC Cybernews

Date Written: June 17, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Touts Hack World Cup Computers

Hackers are breaking into the ticketing service for the World Cup, and are using programs to jump to the front of the line and reach the ticketing agencies faster than regular phone customers. Once tickets are acquired they can be sold for up to 150,000 yen (US$1200).

http://www.ds-osac.org/edb/cyber/news/story.cfm?KEY=8341

Politics-Legislation

Source: eSecurityPlanet

Date Written: June 14, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Committing to IT Security

The National Information Assurance Acquisition Policy will take effect on July 1, 2002. This policy states that software acquired for a government agency must have been evaluated and validated by particular criteria prior to purchase. Specifically, the policy states that "all Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) Information Assurance (IA) and IA-enabled IT products to be used on systems entering, processing, storing, displaying, or transmitting national security information shall be limited only to those which have been evaluated and validated in accordance with these criteria, schemes, or programs: The International Common Criteria for Information Security Technology Evaluation Mutual Recognition Arrangement; The National Security Agency (NS)/National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) Evaluation and Validation Program, or; The NIST Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) validation program." The article provides further information and resources on the policy and related guides.

http://www.esecurityplanet.com/trends/article/0,,10751_1366361,00.html

Source: Internet News

Date Written: June 17, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Bush Said to Green Light FCC

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering the possibility of deregulating the region bell companies, "Baby Bells." The Baby Bells have complained that the federal guidelines requiring the sharing of high speed DSL lines stifles competition. Currently, cable companies control the major broadband market and are not required to share networks with their competitors. The Baby Bells are asking the FCC to allow them to close their networks to competitors in order to have more incentives in developing broadband access. President Bush has told the FCC that deregulation of the Baby Bells is what he would like to see. Critics feel that deregulation will lead to inflated prices and weakened services.

http://www.internetnews.com/isp-news/article.php/10797_1366611

Source: Ananova

Date Written: June 17, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Beijing orders internet cafes to close after fatal fire

The 2400 Beijing Internet cafés have been closed after a fire in an unlicensed café killed 24 people. The unlicensed boutique had one entry/exit that was bolted shut and the windows were barred. The fire started around 3am where about 30 students were taking advantage of the cheaper late night rates, the café seated 100. Witnesses reported the smell of gasoline and a plume of black smoke that prompted an investigation of the basement. The city government closed the cafés after the fire and plans to reopen 200 establishments that currently have the proper licenses. After the new guidelines are published, the boutiques will be forced to reapply for licenses. Many Beijing residents feel the fire is an excuse to shut down the last bastion of free expression left in China. Chinese law forbids its citizens to access foreign news sites, sites dealing with human rights, and sites critical of communism and the Chinese government in particular. The unlicensed Internet cafés provided access to these sites. The Great Firewall of China is China's high tech police force that watches the Internet around the clock and enforces the state mandated standards. The owner of the web parlor has turned himself over to the authorities and faces stiff penalties.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_609056.html

Also - http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_2049000/2049061.stm

Also - http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=internetnews&StoryID=1097031

Also - http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/437081p-3499358c.html

Source: The Register

Date Written: June 17, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Europe data laws to cover media player 'spyware'

The law that sparked a European Investigation into Microsoft's Passport service is being extended to media players; Microsoft and Real Media are the main focus. The EU feels that media players could violate user privacy through spyware, which sends personal information back to the parent company.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/25757.html

Source: Government Executive

Date Written: June 14, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Military happy to be excluded from homeland security department

Historically, since the end of Reconstruction in 1878, the United States military seems to be less and less to be involved in domestic affairs. During the 1990s the DoD has transferred the training of fire fighters and counter-drug border patrols to the Justice Department. It therefore seems appropriate to some that the Department of Defense has been left out of the proposed Department of Homeland Security. Nonetheless, the military will play a crucial role in fighting terrorism both abroad and by mobilizing thousands of professionals to assist in the event of a disaster or terrorist attack, which will be facilitated by the formation of the Northern Command to coordinate the support.

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0602/061402nj3.htm

Malware

Source: C-Net News

Date Written: June 14, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Microsoft accidentally distributes virus

The software giant Microsoft has released a version of the Nimda worm into the South Korean market only six months after announcing its "trustworthy computing campaign. The worm infected the software when a contractor translated Visual Studio .Net into Korean. The Nimda worm created its own file in Visual Studio .Net, which allows it to be bypassed by scans of known files. Visual Studio .Net only works with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, and Nimda exploits only version 5.5 of IE. All registered users will receive a free clean copy of the software, a patch will also be released. Microsoft will attempt to contact not-yet-registered users as well.

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-935994.html

Also - http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/virus/story/0,10801,72021,00.html

Also - http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=internetnews&StoryID=1092708

Also - http://www.msnbc.com/news/767054.asp

Technology

Source: Electronic Engineering Times

Date Written: June 14, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Darpa awards next-generation computing contracts

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has chosen to complete a cost efficient upgrade of their "high-end computers" as soon as 2007. The High Productivity Computing Systems (HPCS) program means to acquire advanced and "scalable" computer technology to fill the U.S. Department of Defenses technology gap. DARPA has contracted out four computer developing firms to accomplish the agencies assigned goal. Cray Inc., IBM Corp., Silicon Graphics Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. will each receive $3 million US dollars with their first 12 month contract.

http://www.eetimes.com/sys/news/OEG20020613S0070

Source: Federal Computer Week

Date Written: June 17, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: State issues ID card plan

The U.S. State Department will start issuing smart cards to all its employees of the State Department and all the agencies under the DoS's charge, around 35,000 workers. There will be a year of transition where old and new IDs will be worn, and foreign service workers will be issued cards as they return to the United States.

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0617/mgt-state-06-17-02.asp

Source: Government Computer News

Date Written: June 12, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: DOD is on track to add biometrics to Common Access Card

The U.S. Army hopes to have a fully integrated biometrics access card by 2005; the first in the U.S. government. The Smart cards will have data from hand geometry, fingerprints, or facial scans embedded in them. There have been 12 field tests of such products in addition to 56 commercial evaluations. The cards will be used to authenticate or validate an identity.

http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/18936-1.html

Source: Wired News

Date Written: June 17, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: IM'ers Get a Secure Chat Room

IMPAsse is a program that will allow users of AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), MSN Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger, to encrypt messages before they are transmitted into cyberspace. Recipients of encrypted messages will also need the software to decrypt the data. IMPasse meets growing market concerns over business being conducted through insecure IM messages. The company is remaining objective about encryption, and understands that law enforcement will need to monitor electronic communications, but maintains that only the users will hold the decryption keys to the software.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,53223,00.html

Vulnerabilities

Source: Information Week

Date Written: June 17, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Security Threat Or False Alarm?

CERT Coordination Center has warned on June 11, 2002 (an update of a warning released February 12, 2002) that SNMP implementations of multiple vendors contain vulnerabilities that may allow "unauthorized privileged access, denial-of-service attacks, or cause unstable behavior." Abstract Syntax Notation One, or ASN.1, is a communication protocol that is widely used in SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). ASN.1 is used in "key parts of the Internet, phone systems, and the electrical power grid," and next generation air traffic control systems. Experts are worried that the extent of the vulnerability could affect many aspects and proper functioning of the critical infrastructure assets of the United States. Lucent Technologies, Inc. is attempting to determine the extent to which ASN.1 is used in its products, but Cisco is waiting for more information. President Bush was personally briefed on this matter, and the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection Board created a full-time "Cyber Interagency Working Group" to discover the extent to which the government is vulnerable to ASN.1 security holes. Their report is due during June 2002.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020614S0019

Also - http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2002/tc20020612_2981.htm

Source: Economic Times [India Times]

Date Written: June 16, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Virus threat: India in the line of fire

The private sector of India remains reactive to vulnerabilities and threats of cyberattacks. According to the recently published survey, Information Security Survey 2002-03 by CII-PriceWaterhouseCoopers, more than 80 percent of industries in India have been the target of cyberattack or some form of information security breach in the last year. Damage caused by malware is reportedly the most chronic of all security breaches, but two-thirds of all incidents were reportedly caused by hackers and unauthorized users. Denial of service attacks are reportedly on the rise, and the most frequent method of attack was the exploitation of known vulnerabilities. Average downtime due to a cybersecurity breach was 29 hours, 8 hours above the international average. Additionally, 47 percent of Indian companies operate without a formal security policy, and only 40 percent of the respondents believe that their company employs highly effective cybersecurity. Respondents also indicated that there is a critical lack of funding for cybersecurity initiatives, and most companies do not see cybersecurity as a high priority.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=13101535

Source: vnunet.com

Date Written: June 17, 2002

Date Collected: June 17, 2002

Title: Staff take security exams

There is a growing need for qualified, experienced cybersecurity experts. Corporations with effective cybersecurity policies have indicated that a chief security officer (CSO) is necessary to oversee strategies, even when security management is outsourced. There is a trend to certify the qualifications of a cybersecurity professional, and certification programs have been established, including: the "Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) course, the Security Certified Network Professional (SCNP) course, and the Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC) course." Among the issues that are covered by these courses are intrusion detection, firewalls, hacking techniques, and integration and business related issues.

http://www.vnunet.com/Analysis/1132682

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