NewsBits for November 9, 2004 ************************************************************ Risk rating raised on latest Mydoom variant Users warned to be very wary of W32/Mydoom.ah@MM Security experts today increased the risk assessment assigned to the recently discovered W32/Mydoom.ah@MM worm, also known as Mydoom.ah. According to McAfee's Avert antivirus research team, the latest Mydoom mutant is a mass-mailing worm that makes use of a previously undocumented attack method to target a Microsoft Internet Explorer Iframe buffer overflow vulnerability. http://www.vnunet.com/news/1159262 'Swiss Army knife' virus appears in a weekend The latest MyDoom variant may be something entirely new - a hybrid worm that combines many different security attacks in one. It also appeared with remarkable speed. A new 'Swiss Army' worm initially thought to be MyDoom is exploiting a vulnerability discovered just five days ago. The worm combines multiple attack techniques in an innovative way: spamming, social engineering, virus infection and Trojans. It has also appeared in record time. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39173014,00.htm Double MyDoom for Internet Explorer flaw http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5445179.html New MyDoom draws on IE flaw to spread http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5443828.html http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39172997,00.htm http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=New-Risks-from-Latest-Mydoom-Worm&story_id=28278 - - - - - - - - - - $1 million bond set for alleged spammer's freedom Alleged spammer Jeremy Jaynes must pay $1 million in bail for sending as many as 15 million junk e-mails a day and bilking recipients of millions of dollars, a Virginia judge ordered this week. Circuit Court Judge Thomas Horne of Leesburg, Va., set the record $1 million bond Monday on the condition that 30-year-old Jaynes wear a GPS leg monitor and not use a computer. http://news.com.com/1+million+bond+set+for+alleged+spammers+freedom/2100-1028_3-5445486.html - - - - - - - - - - Conn. man charged with selling secret Windows code A Connecticut man was arrested today on charges that he illegally sold secret source code used for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 programs, federal prosecutors said. The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office said William P. Genovese Jr., 27, was charged with unlawfully distributing a trade secret, a charge that carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years and a $250,000 fine if he is convicted. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/cybercrime/story/0,10801,97373,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Morgan Stanley fixes online password security flaw Customers won't be allowed to use 'Autocomplete' anymore Morgan Stanley has moved to close a security loophole that could potentially have compromised the passwords of some customers using its online credit card service. The problem centred on a password-saving feature in Microsoft Windows, which allows users to save login and password details so they are automatically filled in by their PC when prompted for the information. http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39125747,00.htm http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5445309.html http://www.vnunet.com/news/1159273 - - - - - - - - - - Trojan infects PCs to generate SMS spam A Trojan which uses infected PCs to send spam messages to mobile phone users has been discovered. Delf-HA Trojan horse sends spam SMS messages by using the free "Send a text message" facility found on the websites of several Russian mobile network operators. Infected PCs download instructions on the content of junk SMS messages from a separate website. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/09/sms_spam_trojan/ http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1293&e=1&u=/pcworld/20041109/tc_pcworld/118535&sid=95612664 http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5445406.html - - - - - - - - - - Norton AV flaw may put PCs at risk of virus attack A vulnerability in Norton AntiVirus can allow some malicious scripts to infect a machine if the user has admin rights - which would apply to most home- based PCs http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39173002,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - Coalition Asks Justices to Take Piracy Case A disparate group of state attorneys general, labor unions, retailers, professional sports leagues and others urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a claim brought by the recording and film industries against two Internet file-sharing firms. In several legal briefs filed with the court, the petitioners stressed that the justices should finally resolve conflicting lower court rulings on file sharing, said Steven Marks, general counsel for the Recording Industry Assn. of America. (LA Times article, free registration required) http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-rup9.1nov09,1,325330.story P2Pers ask Supreme Court to reject RIAA ban request http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/09/p2p_vs_riaa_mpaa/ - - - - - - - - - - Panel raises questions about government data sharing A group of experts in technology policy and civil liberties pondered the problem of government information sharing Tuesday and raised more questions than they answered. The panelists included Jim Dempsey, executive director ofthe Center for Democracy and Technology, Tim Edgar of the American Civil Liberties Union,and Kim Taipale of the Center for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology Policy. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1104/110904tdpm2.htm - - - - - - - - - - Military powers use the Internet to spy, Clarke says The world's most advanced military powers are using the Internet to spy on their enemies and prepare digital attacks against rogue targets, a leading cybersecurity expert said. "When there's a major cyber incident it's very difficult to prove most of the time who did it," said Richard Clarke, former White House adviser on national security and cyber threats in a speech last week. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,97356,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Finding your weakest link Although concrete barricades block physical access to many roads and buildings throughout the Washington, D.C., region, a Federal Computer Week team discovered that information and systems at many defense and civilian agencies are left exposed through wireless networks. http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/1108/feat-wifi-11-08-04.asp - - - - - - - - - - Patch in for Microsoft server spoofing flaw A flaw in Microsoft's security server software could allow an attacker to fool business users into thinking that malicious content can be trusted, the software giant warned Tuesday. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5445588.html - - - - - - - - - - Spammers curb their habits Brief: Symantec Brightmail's latest spam statistics show that the amount of junk mail sloshing around the Internet is levelling out. The rate at which spammers are sending junk mail around the Internet appears to be stabilising. For the last three months, the amount of spam sent around the world has evened off at 66 percent of all email, according to statistics from Symantec Brightmail. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39173123,00.htm - - - - - - - - - - CA takes on spyware with PestPatrol products The eTrust PestPatrol packages are aimed at saving enterprises, SMEs and consumers from the menace of spyware. Computer Associates International launched its first set of anti-spyware products on Monday, retooling the applications it acquired from PestPatrol for both corporate customers and consumers. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39173000,00.htm http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=Computer-Associates-Launches-PestPatrol-Technology&story_id=28282 - - - - - - - - - - Storage vendors to roll out data-protection wares A half-dozen storage vendors this week are expected to announce enhancements to products that help IT professionals better archive, back up and manage data on Fibre Channel and IP storage-area networks. http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/recovery/story/0,10801,97366,00.html - - - - - - - - - - Stealing movies: Why the MPAA can afford to relax Another great hullabaloo has been going on this week over the fact that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) plans to start the same kind of debilitating legal actions against illegal file sharing of movies, that the recording industry has been filing for the past year. Online music file sharing is measured in billions of files downloaded, but the MPAA says that under 150,000 movie titles are traded each day in the US on file sharing services. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/09/movie_file_sharing/ - - - - - - - - - - Who nabbed Indymedia's computers? The freewheeling network of Web sites has a history of clashing with authority. But usually it knows who is trying to shut it up. Hep Sano is remarkably calm. Sipping an iced tea at a brewpub in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, she dispassionately recounts Indymedia's alarming situation -- the unexplained seizure of two of the media organization's computers by an unknown government at the behest of the FBI. http://salon.com/tech/feature/2004/11/09/indymedia/index_np.html - - - - - - - - - - Boom times ahead for IT security profession The information security workforce will expand by an estimated 13.7 per cent annually to reach 2.1m workers by 2008. Approximately 680,000 of this expanded workforce will work in Europe. The (ISC)2 2004 Global Information Security Workforce Study found the wider use of internet technologies, a dynamic threat environment and increasingly stringent government regulations are driving the growth of the profession. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/09/isc2_security_job_survey/ *********************************************************** Search the NewsBits.net Archive at: http://www.newsbits.net/search.html *********************************************************** The source material may be copyrighted and all rights are retained by the original author/publisher. The information is provided to you for non-profit research and educational purposes. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however copies may not be sold, and NewsBits (www.newsbits.net) should be cited as the source of the information. Copyright 2000-2004, NewsBits.net, Campbell, CA.