October 25, 1999 ABA gives tips on avoiding online rip-offs Consumers are expected to spend billions of dollars shopping on the Internet this holiday season, and the American Bar Association is offering tips on how to avoid getting ripped off. ``We want to encourage people to shop online but do so in an informed manner,'' said Walter Effross, an American University law professor and chairman of an ABA panel on electronic commerce. ``If you don't feel right about buying a specific product online or from a particular Web site ... then maybe you shouldn't.'' http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/news/breaking/merc/docs/061369.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Va. trial on web access underway Six public college professors asked a federal appeals court Monday to throw out a Virginia law barring state employees from accessing sexually explicit materials on computers at work. The professors claim the law impedes their ability to conduct legitimate academic research. http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/news/breaking/ap/docs/1004006l.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Online prowler targets Mass. teens Officials say a 19-year-old quadriplegic from Missouri used an Internet chat room to make ``Columbine-like'' threats to hurt students and teachers at a Massachusetts middle school. Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly said Saturday that the paralyzed teen -- whose name and hometown were not released -- made the threats using an America Online chat room frequented by dozens of eighth-graders from Townsend's Hawthorne Brook Middle School. http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/news/breaking/ap/docs/997900l.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - House speaker quits sitting on COPA In a last-minute scramble, the office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), last week finally announced its appointments to the Children's Online Protection Act Commission. The temporary commission, signed into law as part of the Children's Online Protection Act in October 1998, was to have filed a report to Congress by this Oct. 21 that recommended technologies and methods for reducing access to harmful material by minors on the Internet. http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,1017827,00.html?chkpt=zdnntop - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hackers could soon hold the remote control to your car F1 remote technology will protect cars from malicious attack British computer security firm Oceanus is developing solutions to help protect a new wave of remote automobile radio technology from malicious attack. The technology pioneered by the Formula One teams allows an engine to be monitored in real time and even remotely tuned via a radio connection. The McLaren F1 sports car is currently the only car that comes complete with an on board modem allowing engine information to be sent back to McLaren headquarters and BMW have also hinted that they are working on similar technology. http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/1999/42/ns-10948.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Egg hit by 'security alert' But Prudential's Internet bank says it's just a false alarm. Users of Egg, the Internet banking arm of insurance giant Prudential, were hit with a "security alert" Friday, complete with a large message flashing onto their screens. Users were told that digital codes protecting the site were not valid. But not to worry -- according to Egg, the problem was merely administrative, and did not affect the 50,000 credit card accounts held through the site. While Egg representatives admitted in reports that the message "looks bad", the company said it appeared because a license had not arrived from Verisign, a US security company. http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/1999/42/ns-10943.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - FBI funding bill targets high-tech info sharing program The House and Senate last week approved an appropriations bill that gives the FBI $20 million for building information technology systems that should enable its agents to more easily share information on cases they investigate. But lawmakers on Capitol Hill first want to review the FBI's management plan for the project before the agency can spend any of the money. The plan, according to Congress, must lay out how the FBI will manage the multimillion-dollar high-tech program, which relies on cutting- edge computer hardware and software to enhance the agency's information sharing and crime-fighting ability. http://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1999/1025/web-fbi-10-25-99.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Marines say virus incident not an attack The computer virus that found its way onto the network at Marine Corps headquarters in the Pentagon last week is not the result of a deliberate or sustained cyberattack, officials confirmed Friday. Senior officials involved in intelligence and command and control at Marine Corps headquarters characterized the incident as localized and minor. Officials identified the virus as the ExploreZip worm virus. Worm viruses, such as ExploreZip, replicate themselves quickly throughout infected systems and networks and then delete files critical to the operation of various Microsoft Windows-based applications. http://www.fcw.com/pubs/fcw/1999/1025/web-usmc-10-25-99.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - CIOs say training, staff are the keys to security The biggest challenges for government information security planners are the most mundane: budgets, training and staff. Presidential Decision Directive 63, issued last year, requires executive agencies to establish programs for protecting critical infrastructures, including information systems. But needed resources have been slow in coming, several federal systems officials said last week. http://www.gcn.com/vol18_no35/news/846-1.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - FIDnet will monitor federal, not private, nets, administration says Under continued skepticism from privacy groups, the Clinton administration has reiterated that the new Federal Intrusion Detection Network will monitor only government computer networks and not those in the private sector. House Majority Leader Richard Armey (R-Texas), however, has asked why private networks were included in draft plans for FIDnet. Privacy advocates raised concerns about FIDnet because draft proposals said the network would also review private networks. http://www.gcn.com/vol18_no35/news/859-1.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sen. Barr Slams Electronic 'Trapdoor' Surveillance Plan Conservative firebrand Rep. Bob Barr, R- Ga., weighed in on the e-privacy debate today, urging the international Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to resist overtures by law enforcers to create a "surveillance-friendly" architecture for Internet telephony. Citing the controversial Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) some law enforcers have urged that "trapdoors" be built into Internet communications programs. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/99/138346.html 'Don't Help the Snoops' The Internet's standards body should not craft technology to aid government surveillance, a prominent conservative congressman says. Representative Bob Barr (R-Georgia) said that there is no reason for the Internet Engineering Task Force to support wiretapping in the next generation of protocols and that doing so would be "dangerous." http://www.wired.com/news/print/1,1294,32100,00.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Senators Decry Rise Of Internet Cramming Internet "cramming" is a large and growing problem that costs small businesses tens of millions of dollars a year, expert witnesses told the Senate Committee on Small Business today. In a typical cramming scam, a company will bury charges for unauthorized goods or services in a customer's monthly phone bill. While cramming has been around for some time, crammer scammers are enjoying something of a renaissance in the Web page design arena. http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/99/138336.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Kids Are All Right The online industry is taking many steps to protect children on the Internet, according to a report from the Media Institute to be released today. The report comes in response to a challenge from House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley, R-Va., who at the 1998 Media Institute awards banquet said that he wanted to see evidence that the industry is doing what it can to keep children safe while they surf online. http://www.currents.net/newstoday/99/10/25/news7.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Revised Banking Legislation Raises Concerns About Privacy If Congress votes as expected this week to overhaul the nation's Depression-era banking laws, it will be doing more than paving the way for the creation of one-stop financial supermarkets. It will also be offering companies unprecedented opportunities to amass and share reams of private data about their customers. (New York Times registration required) http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/10/biztech/articles/25priv.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Do secure e-mail sites offer foolproof safety? The notion that free Web-based e-mail may not be secure is a scary thought for users of these services, as they have come to rely on the convenience of logging on anywhere and exchanging up-to-the-minute information. These people don't want to have to lug a laptop around, or worse: wait until they get home until checking their messages. http://www.seattletimes.com/news/technology/html98/inbo_19991024.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hacker Attacks Ky. County's Weather Sirens Activation Tones Cloned to Trigger Alarm The Boone County early warning weather system that alerts residents to a threatening storm or a tornado has been sabotaged by someone who has cloned the tones needed to trigger the alarm. Over the last few weeks, 29 sirens scattered across this rural Kentucky county have gone off, prompting a flood of phone calls to the police, they said. http://www.apbnews.com/newscenter/breakingnews/1999/10/22/sirens1022_01.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Corner is the first macro virus to infect Microsoft Project application. This virus infects both Project and Word and can travel between them. When an infected document is opened to Microsoft Word 97 or 2000, P98M/Corner.A checks if Microsoft Project is running. If it is, it gets infected. The Word part of the virus is a simple class infector. It spreads when an infected document is closed. At this time it sets the Office 2000 security settings to low, disables the "Tools/Macros" menu and turns off the macro virus protection. After that the virus replicates to all opened documents. http://www.data-fellows.com/v-descs/corner.htm - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Russia, hack zone Hackzone is the term Russian hackers use to describe their homeland. There is a monthly devoted to it, a ready market for hackers' services, and a government in no position to fight it. http://www.straitstimes.asia1.com/cyb/cyb1_1025.html