Stories by Ann Harrison

Webmasters Help FBI Hunt Net Vandals

IT managers at companies victimized by attacks through the Internet are busy submitting logs to government investigators amid calls for closer monitoring of network traffic and malicious code that turns computer systems into unwitting launchpads for cybervandals.

Denial of Service Aftermath

U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno announced earlier this week that the FBI has launched an investigation into the source of the denial-of-service attacks. Reno said the U.S. Department of Justice still doesn't know who instigated the attacks, where they originated, how many computers were involved or the motives of the perpetrators.

New Wave of Denial-of-Service Attacks Hits Web

Online trading site ETrade and Internet news site ZDNet were hit yesterday with another round of denial-of-service attacks, which have blocked traffic to other sites this week. The attacks were similar to the assaults that have pummeled eBay, Amazon.com and Buy.com, Yahoo and CNN.com.

Cyberassaults Hit Buy.com, eBay, CNN and Amazon

The cyberassault that caused outages on Yahoo Inc.'s heavily trafficked Web portal Monday (see story) appears to have been just the start of a wave of denial-of-service attacks on large e-commerce and news sites.

Online Bank: Lax Security Opened Door for Thieves

A start-up Internet banking service has revealed that a flawed security policy that allowed customers to transfer funds without verifying bank account numbers resulted in close to $10,000 worth of illegal transfers.

CERT Puts Out Malicious Scripts Alert

Several computer security organizations today issued a joint warning about the spread of malicious software scripts that can be posted to a Web site without the operator's knowledge.

Lawyers inadvertently release DVD decryption code

Lawyers for an entertainment industry trade group, which claims that a program breaking the DVD Content Scrambling System violates trade secrets, inadvertently made the program widely available as part of its request for a preliminary injunction against Web site operators who posted the software.
The DVD Copy Control Association (DVD-CCA), which licenses digital video disc (DVD) players, successfully petitioned Santa Clara, California Superior Court Judge William J. Elfving to seal supporting exhibits in its preliminary injunction case against 21 defendants.

Visa acknowledges cracker break-ins

Visa acknowledged this week that computer crackers broke into several servers in its global network last July and stole information. The company said that in December, it received a phone call and an e-mail demanding money in exchange for the data.

Visa Reveals July Break-ins

Visa International Inc. revealed last week that computer crackers broke into several servers in its global network last July and stole information. The company said that in December it received a phone call and an e-mail demanding money in exchange for the data.

Government, Industry Discuss Y2K Lessons

Government and industry officials who met here last week agreed that the enterprise risk-analysis models and management practices used to determine potential year 2000 computer failures offer valuable lessons for the analysis of future security and infrastructure threats.

DVD Dispute Targets Norwegian Teen

A 16-year-old Norwegian who helped develop software aimed at making unauthorized copies of digital video discs (DVD) had his computer equipment seized Monday by law enforcement officials who later reportedly interrogated him for seven hours.

Microsoft Vows Windows 2000 is Secure

Microsoft said last week at RSA Security's RSA 2000 conference that it pulled out all the stops to create a secure Windows 2000, including changing its engineering process and having 15 consultants and 100 big users put the operating system to the test. But security experts charged that the sheer size and complexity of the operating system means it will contain a large number of software bugs that could open up security holes.

Judge Bars Posting of DVD Decoding Software

A federal judge yesterday granted a request by eight motion picture studios for a preliminary injunction against operators of Web sites that post a software program that breaks the encoding system used by millions of digital video discs (DVD).

RSA Hopes to Move Digital Certificates Online

Digital certificates have long been used to secure transactions over wired networks. Now RSA Security Inc. is teaming with VeriSign Inc. to provide the same sort of trust and validation services in the emerging wireless world.

[]