-=[ SecureRoot News ]=-

IBM launches wireless security software, services
Contributed by huan - 00:58 10/10/2001
NEW YORK -- International Business Machines Corp. is due to launch on Monday new services and software aimed at making wireless networks and communications more secure and widely used, the company said on Sunday. IBM, based in Armonk, New York, said it put together a broad-based offering by its services division, Global Services, that helps companies assess, plan and implement ways to make their wireless applications and transactions more secure.
More information: Reuters

Privacy and protection
Contributed by huan - 00:57 10/10/2001
In the wake of last month's terrorist attacks, lawmakers are considering legislation that could greatly expand the electronic surveillance powers of police and ratchet up penalties relating to certain computer crimes.
More information: CNET

Zero-Knowledge pulls the mask off
Contributed by huan - 00:56 10/10/2001
Online privacy takes a hit as Zero-Knowledge Systems announces it will close its flagship anonymity network, which let people surf the Web and send e-mail with almost complete privacy. The company that pushed encryption and networking technology to the limits to enhance people's privacy said Thursday that it has decided toclose its flagship anonymity network and focus on security software forhome users.
More information: ZDNet

Microsoft steps up software security
Contributed by huan - 00:55 10/10/2001
SAN FRANCISCO -- Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday announced a new initiative to help customers improve the security of their networks after a string of high-profile viruses targeted Microsoft software used to run Web sites.
More information: Reuters

Computer Industry Takes on Viruses
Contributed by huan - 00:53 10/10/2001
WASHINGTON -- The FBI is teaming with the computer industry to help American companies and regular Internet users prevent the 20 worst computer threats - from the Code Red worm to the Melissa virus.
More information: AP

Cyberterrorists: our invisible enemies
Contributed by huan - 00:53 10/10/2001
We are already engaged in an escalating confrontation that holds frightening consequences for our economy--it's called cyberterrorism. Rob Fixmer says the numbers of our invisible enemies are growing each day.
More information: ZDNet

Cyber Security Key to New U.S Initiative
Contributed by huan - 00:52 10/10/2001
Federal and other officials say that cyber security will be a key component of the new Office of Homeland Security -- but some computer security experts worry that more bureaucracy will bog down protection.
More information: NewsFactor

Making Your Computer More Secure
Contributed by huan - 00:52 10/10/2001
The increased security nationwide after the terrorist destruction of New York's World Trade Center has moved the antivirus software folk to remind us that it's important that your computers be secure, too. And, oddly enough, they have just the thing to do the trick.
More information: AP

TECHNOLOGY -- Databases and Security vs. Privacy
Contributed by huan - 00:51 10/10/2001
The debate about whether or not the U.S should or would adopt a national identification-card system has emerged with a jolting intensity. Jolting because even through world wars and a cold war, in which the U.S. feared an enemy within the country as much as the armies outside, Americans resisted the creation of a national ID that they would carry to prove their citizenship. Now, however, public surveys, congressional speeches, and remarks by high-profile CEOs are bringing the issue to the forefront, causing everyone to consider whether America is ready to adopt a card ID system -- like those widely used in other countries -- at the expense of our privacy.
More information: BusinessWeek Online

Symantec locks out small-biz hackers
Contributed by huan - 00:47 10/10/2001
With small businesses now more alert to the threat of Net attacks, Symantec launches a line of network appliances designed to connect branch offices and small companies more securely. Security software maker Symantec announced Monday a new line of drop-in network appliances to protect companies against Internet attackers and to secure communications between offices.
More information: ZDNet News

Anti-terror hi-tech plans edge closer
Contributed by huan - 00:45 10/10/2001
A law giving greater powers to US police to track the phone and internet activities of suspected terrorists has moved a step closer after a powerful Congressional committee unanimously approved a compromise version of the bill. But the revised anti-terrorism legislation omits a controversial clause that would have made computer hacking a federal offence, punishable by life imprisonment.
More information: BBC

Under Pressure, Microsoft Moves to Tighten Security
Contributed by huan - 08:02 10/06/2001
Feeling the competitive heat, Microsoft is moving quickly to shore up security of its network software after being repeatedly targeted by hackers and virus makers. In a statement, the company said that it is "incumbent on Microsoft, being in the leadership position," to help close unwanted security breaches.
More information: NewsFactor

Zero-Knowledge Cuts Anonymous Web-Surfing Service
Contributed by huan - 08:01 10/06/2001
MONTREAL -- Security and privacy software vendor Zero-Knowledge Systems on Thursday said it would discontinue its Freedom Network services that enable users to surf the Web and post messages or email anonymously.
More information: Reuters

Hacked Site Carries Anti-U.S. Slogans
Contributed by huan - 08:00 10/06/2001
BUDAPEST -- Local hackers broke into the Hungarian National Security Office's (NSO) internet site late on Monday and published anti-globalization remarks aimed at the United States.
More information: Reuters

Microsoft Helps Fight Viruses
Contributed by huan - 08:00 10/06/2001
SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday it will offer free customer support to combat computer viruses, and streamline the way users can download current software patches. Previously, corporate customers had to pay Microsoft to get their virus-related questions answered and were required to check the company's Web sites regularly for any updates.
More information: AP

Federal grants fund security research
Contributed by huan - 07:59 10/06/2001
With an eye to protecting the nation's power and communications systems, the National Institute for Standards and Technology awards $5 million to nine research efforts. The federal government's technology standards agency announced on Tuesday that nine grants totaling $5 million were awarded to research data security technologies.
More information: ZDNet News

Uncle Sam Should Learn to Hack
Contributed by huan - 07:58 10/06/2001
With the specter of the World Trade Center and Pentagon disasters looming large in the minds of lawmakers, the cry to ban U.S. exports of sophisticated encryption
software has risen anew. Encryption, or cryptography [crypto for short], is the science of devising codes that cloak messages in secret language. It involves using complex algorithms to mix characters of a message with other characters or values in a seemingly nonsensical way. The result is gibberish that even the biggest supercomputers struggle to decode.
More information: BusinessWeek Online

Hackers Urged Not to Deface Middle East Web Sites
Contributed by huan - 07:57 10/06/2001
SAN FRANCISCO - Cyberangels, an offshoot of the Guardian Angels groups that patrol city neighborhoods to prevent crime, has launched an effort to protect the Internet from hackers angry at Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
More information: Reuters

Data Security: From Paranoia to Necessity
Contributed by huan - 07:56 10/06/2001
Patrick Sweeney's lifeblood is defense. A former commercial real estate executive, Sweeney founded ServerVault in 1999 to cater to businesses in search of the ultimate in data and network protection. Short of a nuclear blast or a meteor strike, Sweeney has you covered. The company places 8-foot wrought-iron fences that can withstand a direct hit from a pickup going 30 mile per hour around its data-center compounds. Armed guards stand at the entrance to windowless, bomb-resistant buildings designed by a former Navy demolition expert. Computers holding customers' Web sites and corporate data sit inside German-made Lampertz vaults that are impervious smoke, water, fire, electromagnetic waves, and infrared pulses, among other threats.
More information: BusinessWeek Online

Computer Security Companies Take a Hit
Contributed by huan - 07:55 10/06/2001
SAN FRANCISCO -- The weight of economic reality has caught up with major computer security companies, erasing the gains that followed the attacks on New York and Washington and the renewed attention on protecting key networks, analysts said.
More information: Reuters

New "war vote" virus deletes computer files
Contributed by huan - 07:54 10/06/2001
SAN FRANCISCO -- Computer security experts on Monday warned of a new virus that deletes files while masquerading as a program that will allow people to vote on whether the United States should go to war over the Sept. 11 hijacker attacks.
More information: Reuters

Hackers direct their anger online
Contributed by huan - 12:57 9/27/2001
Claiming they are patriots and not vandals, hackers have begun attacking Web sites perceived--or misperceived--to be somehow linked to terrorism, prompting federal authorities to urge computer systems administrators to step up security.
More information: Chicago Tribune

Hackers, Spammers May Be Punished as Terrorists
Contributed by huan - 12:57 9/27/2001
A coalition of privacy and civil liberties groups are stressing the need to preserve individual rights and limit government authority as officials seek broadened powers to fight terrorism. But legislation saying that hackers and spammers can be punished as though they were terrorists has so far aroused little negative reaction.
More information: NewsFactor

New Ads to Target Hacking
Contributed by huan - 12:56 9/27/2001
NEW YORK -- A new type of public service announcement featuring one of the Internet's founding fathers is targeting hackers who might consider cyber-retaliation for the Sept. 11 attacks their patriotic duty.
More information: AP

Virus Shuts Down Fairfax County's Website
Contributed by huan - 12:55 9/27/2001
Fairfax County has shut down it Web site until each of the county's nine-thousand computers and 300 servers has been screened for the "Nimda" virus. Technicians say it could be several days before the county reopens its Web site, which receives more than a million hits a day.
More information: WJLA

Hacker Alters Yahoo! News Pages
Contributed by huan - 12:55 9/27/2001
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The dangers of Internet worms and viruses are well known, but security experts are warning of a more pernicious and potentially more damaging kind of attack - the manipulation of content on trusted Web sites.
More information: AP

Hacker group condemns hacks on Taliban sites
Contributed by huan - 12:54 9/27/2001
SAN FRANCISCO -- In the days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, hackers have waged war against sites linked to Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, while an anonymous virus pretending to offer new information on the mayhem is infecting computers, experts said on Monday.
More information: Reuters

Hackers Mobilize for War Against Islamic Web Sites
Contributed by huan - 12:53 9/27/2001
With the FBI, the CIA and most of the free world lined up against them, Afghanistan and other Arab online communities are also having to deal with another kind of foe -- the international hacker community.
More information: NewsFactor

New Internet Worm Targets Network
Contributed by huan - 12:53 9/27/2001
WASHINGTON -- Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) Tuesday warned computer users about a new Internet threat that could slow the global network worse than the "Code Red" worm that struck earlier this summer.
More information: AP