[risks] Risks Digest 21.76

From: RISKS List Owner (riskoat_private)
Date: Tue Nov 20 2001 - 09:49:32 PST

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    RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest  Tuesday 20 November 2001  Volume 21 : Issue 76
    
       FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks)
       ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, Peter G. Neumann, moderator
    
    ***** See last item for further information, disclaimers, caveats, etc. *****
    This issue is archived at <URL:http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/21.76.html>
    and by anonymous ftp at ftp.sri.com, cd risks .
    
      Contents:
    Many Federal computers fail hacker test (PGN)
    800 directory "assistance" redirecting calls (Brett Glass via Dave Farber)
    Paperless billing and opening a bank account (Ian Chard)
    Microsoft IE Javascript cookie disclosure vulnerability (Max)
    Metro Headline: "Windows hacked in hours" (Chris Leeson)
    Windows XP accounts by default are administrator, with no password
      (Jonathan Epstein)
    Toaster failures (Tom Hackett)
    Trick the user with Outlook XP and possibly others (Nathan Neulinger)
    Re: Dates in Visual Basic (Nick Brown)
    Re: Excel and non-decimal dots (Mark Brader)
    Porn spam being sent in my name (Nickee Sanders)
    Re: Kids' learning game site becomes porn site (Dan Fandrich, Malcolm Pack)
    Computers & bureaucracy help spread of foot & mouth disease (Charles Shapiro)
    Re: Another SRI-wide power outage (Kelly Bert Manning)
    REVIEW: "White Hat Security Arsenal", Aviel D. Rubin (Rob Slade)
    Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)
    
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 13:15:12 PST
    From: "Peter G. Neumann" <neumannat_private>
    Subject: Many Federal computers fail hacker test
    
    The latest quarterly computer-security report card put together by
    Congressman Steve Horn's House Reform Committee government efficiency
    subcommittee and the GAO and OMB gives the government an F grade (down from
    a D- a year ago), based on lax protection of federal computer networks
    against hackers, terrorists, and others.  Two-thirds of the federal agencies
    flunked this time, including the departments of Defense, Commerce, Energy,
    Justice, Treasury, Agriculture, AID, Education, Health and Human Services,
    Interior, Labor, Transportation, Small Business, and Veterans Affairs.  The
    B+ given to the National Science Foundation was tops, with Social Security
    getting a C+ and NASA C-.  As expected, the GAO found systems with no
    passwords, with ``password'' as password, and with unencrypted accessible
    password files.  [Source: AP Online via COMTEX, 9 Nov 2001, PGN-ed]
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 12:03:56 -0700
    From: Brett Glass <brettat_private>
    Subject: IP: 800 directory "assistance" redirecting calls
    
      [From David Farber's IP
        http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/]
    
    IPers might be interested in something that happened to me today. I am
    planning a trip to Denver, and wanted to stay at the Adam's Mark hotel.  Not
    knowing the toll-free number for the chain, I called 800-555-1212 (toll-free
    information) to ask for the number.
    
    "Toll-free directory assistance, powered by TellMe!" said a recorded
    message. I told the recording that I wanted the number of the Adam's Mark.
    
    However, instead of receiving the correct number for the chain (listed on 
    their Web site as 800-444-ADAM), I received a different number: 
    800-866-5038. This number was not actually the number of the hotel chains, 
    but rather that of a third party room wholesaler in Orlando, Florida.
    
    Calling the correct number, I confirmed that the hotel chain had no idea
    that calls were being diverted to a third party.
    
    As the economy continues into recession, we are likely to see more and more
    instances of "customer hijacking," in which companies -- perceiving their
    markets as a zero sum game -- work to grab customers from one another in any
    way possible, regardless of ethics. "Slamming," and the hijacking of ISPs'
    DSL customers by ILECs, are only two of the many other hijacking techniques
    which are now becoming prevalent in slowly growing, or shrinking, markets.
    
    Brett Glass
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 09:53:48 +0000 (GMT)
    From: Ian Chard <ichardat_private>
    Subject: Paperless billing and opening a bank account
    
    I recently opted for paperless (i.e., e-mailed) billing from both British
    Telecom and my electricity provider, and am now finding that's it's much
    harder for me to convince some financial institutions of my identity.
    
    Many banks insist on a "recent utility bill" [1] as partial proof of ID, and
    the application processing staff seem to be trained to reject anything that
    looks remotely unusual.  Unsurprisingly, they rejected a printout of my
    "e-bill" as well as my (paper) gas bill, as I'm not on mains gas and they
    hadn't heard of the supplier.  The only way I could satisfy them was to ask
    the electricity company to provide a printed copy of my bill (something they
    tried to charge me for).
    
    Ironically, this was an application for a paperless account!
    
    [1]  Of course, this means that the bank have an implied trust in the utility
         companies to do some checking of their own.
    
    Ian Chard, Unix Systems Administrator, European IT, Cadence Design Systems Ltd
    The Alba Campus, Livingston, Scotland  EH54 7HH  +44 (0)1506 595019  
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 12:58:33 -0800
    From: Max <max7531at_private>
    Subject: Microsoft IE Javascript cookie disclosure vulnerability
    
    A flaw was discovered in the way Internet Explorer's about: protocol
    handles javascript requests, enabling a malicious web site to gain
    access to cookie information on the client's hard drive.
    
    http://www.securityfocus.com/cgi-bin/vulns-item.pl?section=discussion&id=3513
    
    MS has set the record for the fastest patch issuance:
    
    http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/ms01-055.asp
    
    I wonder which correlation is better: patch issue time vs. possible
    publicity problems, patch issue time vs. problem solvability, or patch issue
    time vs. problem severity?
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 10:49:44 -0000
    From: "Chris Leeson" <CHRIS.LEESONat_private>
    Subject: Metro Headline: "Windows hacked in hours"
    
    The 01 Nov 2001 edition of Metro (a free newspaper in London) had this
    article on the front page, which began as follows.
    
        "Hackers cracked and copied Microsoft's much-lauded new Windows
         software within hours of its launch, it emerged last night.
    
         Black market copies of the supposedly uncrackable Windows XP,
         which took 16 years to develop, are already on sale for 5 pounds."
    
    After making a reference to Microsoft's advertising, the article goes on
    to mention that:
    
        - Hackers were exploiting two "simple security loopholes"
        - One of these was a security key "now widely available on
          the Internet"
        - Microsoft had admitted that illegal copies were already
          on sale in China.
    
    Not being an expert on such things, I cannot comment on the "security
    loopholes", but I thought that the "16 years to develop" was a classic!
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 16:00:44 -0500
    From: Jonathan Epstein <Jonathan_Epsteinat_private>
    Subject: Windows XP accounts by default are administrator with no password
    
    The Register has an entertaining article:
      http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/22863.html
    which, among other things, points out Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q293834:
      http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q293/8/34.ASP
    whose summary reads:
    
    "After you install Windows XP, you have the option to create user accounts.
    If you create user accounts, by default, they will have an account type of
    Administrator with no password."
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 22:34:03 -0500
    From: Tom Hackett <ThHackettat_private>
    Subject: Toaster failures (Re: Random failures, Brydon, RISKS-21.74)
    
    > The difference with, say a toaster, is that there are far fewer
      interactions and controls to consider, but we still expect it to turn
      bread to toast without error.
    
    I'd like to know where Andrew gets his toasters!  I have been married for
    over thirty years, and we average about five years per toaster (mean time
    between catastrophic failures).  I have yet to own a toaster that will
    reliably produce evenly browned toast day after day.  The more sensors and
    other gadgets the toaster has, the less likely it will be able to produce
    something between soft white and charred black.  (Well, this actually
    supports Andrews overall point, I suppose.)
    
    I've noticed recently that some toasters will actually not turn off the
    heating elements until the toast is successfully "popped," with the result
    that if the bread should get stuck, the risk of fire is significant.  I
    wonder that this hasn't caused become a recognized safety issue.
    
    The only toaster in our house that works satisfactorily is the one given to
    my in-laws for their wedding fifty-three years ago.  It has no "doneness"
    sensors and a completely mechanical timer.
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 14:11:24 -0600
    From: "Neulinger, Nathan" <nneulat_private>
    Subject: Trick the user with Outlook XP and possibly others
    
    Summary: system messages in the bar above the headers
    
    I recently saw a couple messages from a friend that had this yellow bar at
    the top of the message (same place as outlook sticks other system messages,
    like that annoying stuff about extra line breaks, and the "You have replied
    to this message" comments) 
    
    The message said:
    
    	(i) Your mailbox is corrupt. Upgrade your mail software.
    
    Now, obviously, I was a bit disturbed by this. Tracking it down, it is the
    "X-Message-Flag" mail header. 
    
    Seems to me it can be quite dangerous to allow a remote user to cause
    messages to be displayed on your mail client that appear to be generated by
    the system. (Think about what stupid users do when people send them forwards
    saying to do stuff.)
    
    (For reference, I don't use Outlook by choice, and at least I'm running it
    under VMWare on linux.)
    
    Nathan Neulinger, Computing Services, University of Missouri - Rolla
    1-573-341-4841  nneulat_private
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 09:09:50 +0100
    From: Nick Brown <Nick.BROWNat_private>
    Subject: Re: Dates in Visual Basic (RISKs 21.74)
    
    >  #2001-11-08# becomes #11/8/2001#  (2001-11-08)
    >  #11/8/2001#  becomes #11/8/2001#  (2001-11-08)
    >  #8/11/2001#  becomes #8/11/2001#  (2001-08-11)
    >  #15/11/2001# becomes #11/15/2001# (2001-11-15)
    
    > The first has reduced the comprehensibility of the code. The second and
    > third give no feedback that they're not conforming to the current locale.
    > The last two show that VB is not even being consistent in its parsing.
    
    Oh, but it *is* being consistent, if you assume that the algorithm is:
    
    - Find a number which could only be the month
    - Find a number which could only be the day
    - If there is ambiguity, assume the user typed the date in mm/dd order
    
    Now, of course, this is so wrong as to be bordering on the criminally
    negligent (not for nothing is MS sometimes known in France as "Crimosoft").
    It shows what can happen even if you put millions of dollars into
    internationalisation (as MS undoubtedly has), but then hire a short-term
    contractor who has never set foot outside the US and let him or her write
    date validation code unsupervised.
    
    (I remember about 15 years ago seeing a Lotus 1-2-3 manual which proudly
    claimed that the program accepted various date formats, including "the
    international standard, mm/dd/yy")
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 09:17:53 -0500 (EST)
    From: msbat_private (Mark Brader)
    Subject: Re: Excel and non-decimal dots (RISKS-21.74)
    
    These replies were directed to me.
    
    > From mark.lomasat_private  Mon Nov 12 07:57:57 2001
    > From: "Mark Lomas" <mark.lomasat_private>
    > To: <msbat_private>
    > Cc: <magicalat_private>, <davidhechtat_private>
    > Subject: Re: Excel and non-decimal dots
    > Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 12:54:09 -0000
    >
    > In Risks Digest 21.74 you wrote:
    >
    > Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2001 13:43:25 -0500 (EST)
    > From: msbat_private (Mark Brader)
    > Subject: Excel and non-decimal dots
    > >
    > > * From: magicalat_private
    > > * Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
    > > * Subject: Re: Telephone Area Code
    > > * Message-ID: <7bqiutgjqqg1tu29qd6ak615c14pbcfavoat_private>
    > > * Date: Wed, 07 Nov 2001 17:07:08 GMT
    > >
    > > On Wed, 07 Nov 2001 07:54:15 GMT, in alt.usage.english, David
    > > Hecht <davidhechtat_private> created
    > >
    > > > The US convention (AAA)BBB-CCCC is not just evolving into AAA-BBB-CCCC;
    > > > now I'm seeing more and more of the "international" style: AAA.BBB.CCCC
    > > > .  This appears in some "chic" guidebooks.
    > >
    > > I tried using that format, until I pulled a text file into Excel and it
    > > changed all the phone numbers into "real numbers" and deleted terminal
    > > zeros.  Excel also has this annoying habit with IP addresses, changing
    > > 10.0.0.10 to 10.0.0.1.  I can't find a way, in the *import* function, to
    > > define these numbers as "text" so that Excel will leave them alone upon
    > > import.  Sigh.
    >
    > I suspect that you may be using an old version of Excel.
    >
    > I have just tested this using Excel 2000 (version 9.0.3821 SR-1).
    > If I open a text file containing your example, the Text Import Wizard
    > appears.  I accept its first two default suggestions (it correctly
    > deduced how I had delimited fields within the file), then it gives
    > me a choice of General, Text, Date (with six sub-choices), or Skip,
    > for each field; I then select Text for the field in question.
    >
    > There is an alternative way to do this which may work for older
    > versions of Excel.  If you open a new spreadsheet, select the
    > appropriate column(s), then Format Cells Text, you can copy data
    > from a text file (e.g. from within Notepad) and paste it into the
    > cells you have already formatted.  This works because Excel tries
    > to deduce the format of General cells but not Text cells.
    >
    > 	Mark
    >
    > p.s. For completeness, I have just imported the same test file and
    > accepted all of the Text Import Wizard's defaults.  It correctly
    > deduced that IP addresses should be left alone (i.e. formats them
    > as text rather than numbers, even though the Format Cells dialogue
    > shows that they have General format rather than Text).
    > --
    > Mark Lomas <mark.lomasat_private>
    >
    >
    > From neil.mallerat_private  Mon Nov 12 08:26:52 2001
    > Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 08:26:53 -0500
    > Subject: Re: Excel and non-decimal dots
    > From: Neil Maller <neil.mallerat_private>
    > To: <msbat_private>
    >
    > on 11/11/01 9:52 PM, RISKS List Owner at riskoat_private wrote:
    >
    > > Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2001 13:43:25 -0500 (EST)
    > > From: msbat_private (Mark Brader)
    > > Subject: Excel and non-decimal dots
    > > 
    > > * From: magicalat_private
    > > * Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
    > > * Subject: Re: Telephone Area Code
    > > * Message-ID: <7bqiutgjqqg1tu29qd6ak615c14pbcfavoat_private>
    > > * Date: Wed, 07 Nov 2001 17:07:08 GMT
    > > 
    > > On Wed, 07 Nov 2001 07:54:15 GMT, in alt.usage.english, David
    > > Hecht <davidhechtat_private> created
    > > 
    > >> The US convention (AAA)BBB-CCCC is not just evolving into AAA-BBB-CCCC;
    > >> now I'm seeing more and more of the "international" style: AAA.BBB.CCCC
    > >> .  This appears in some "chic" guidebooks.
    > > 
    > > I tried using that format, until I pulled a text file into Excel and it
    > > changed all the phone numbers into "real numbers" and deleted terminal
    > > zeros.  Excel also has this annoying habit with IP addresses, changing
    > > 10.0.0.10 to 10.0.0.1.  I can't find a way, in the *import* function, to
    > > define these numbers as "text" so that Excel will leave them alone upon
    > > import.  Sigh.
    >
    > Mark,
    >
    > You're probably already aware of this, but preceding your would-be text in
    > Excel by a single <'> character (apostrophe) will define it as text and
    > suppress any reformatting. This apostrophe will not be displayed in Excel,
    > although it'll still be there if you export the cell contents.
    >
    > It may not be possible to insert the extra character as part of Excel's
    > import process, but I'm sure you can figure out a way to prepend the
    > apostrophe beforehand. For instance this would be easy in MS Word using the
    > Replace function.
    >
    > We use Excel extensively to compose tables for technical manuals, so face
    > its auto formatting quirks on a daily basis. RISKS of using a spreadsheet
    > program for non-mathematical tasks...
    >
    > Regards,
    >
    > Neil
    
    > From mchinniat_private  Wed Nov 14 11:42:55 2001
    > From: "Chinni, Michael J [AMSTA-AR-CI]" <mchinniat_private>
    > To: "'msbat_private'" <msbat_private>
    > Subject: Re: Risks Digest 21.74
    > Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 11:43:08 -0500
    >
    > Mark,
    >
    > 	Regarding your item in the Risks Digest 21.74 (see below), when
    > importing a text file into Excel (i.e. opening a text file from within
    > Excel) there's a step where you can define the data types for each column
    > (in Excel 2000, it's step 3 of 3 in the Text Import Wizard).  In that step
    > just change the data type for the columns you want left alone to "Text" (the
    > default is General).
    >
    > ...Mike Chinni
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 12:01:13 +1300
    From: Nickee Sanders <njsat_private>
    Subject: Porn spam being sent in my name
    
    I maintain a mail account at deja.com (continued by google), as spam
    protection for my real e-mail account.  Every now and then I log on and
    delete the accumulated spam.
    
    I logged on the other day and found a bounce notification message.  I was
    surprised at this and opened it.  Imagine my surprise to find that the
    original (bounced) message had been spam, apparently sent from me!
    
    It seems that someone had somehow picked my e-mail address to use in forging
    their e-mail header.  Worse yet, the spam was porn spam.
    
    How much worse can things get?  Up till now, I at least had the comfort that
    unsolicited e-mail (spam, viruses, etc) was in my control, and that with a
    little care I could protect myself from most of it.  Now, I don't even have
    that.
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 00:10:38 -0800
    From: Dan Fandrich <danat_private>
    Subject: Re: Kids' learning game site becomes porn site (Smith, RISKS-21.74)
    
    It's refreshing to see that Ernst and Young actually cared enough about the
    problem to do something about it.  Back in May, the same pornographers
    bought up close to 2000 expired domains (that I could tell), including
    domains owned by respectable organizations with hundreds of inbound links,
    such as the TCL Consortium, XIII International AIDS Conference, Evian,
    Universal ADSL Working Group, and Craig's List.  I tracked down the
    original owners of about 60 of these sites with the most inbound links and
    warned them of the problem (this wasn't entirely altruistic as I was
    operating a service at www.moveannouncer.com that could help them bypass
    the worst effects the problem).
    
    Five months later, only three of those 60 sites have done anything about
    their former domains, either buying them back from the extortioners or
    getting links changed to their new sites.  Some of the former owners I
    talked to seem to have trouble seeing that their web sites did not stand
    in isolation, that people outside their organization had links to their
    web site and others had bookmarks and those links attached to their names
    were now serving up porn. I got responses to the effect of "We have a
    new domain name now, so we don't care what happens to the old one."
    
    One certainly takes a RISK in letting one's domain name expire, but when
    the gamble fails and what must be about the worst case scenario occurs,
    the indifference I've seen surprised me.  I find it hard to believe that
    so many people have so little respect for their viewers and customers.
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 10:44:55 +0000
    From: Malcolm Pack <risks3at_private>
    Subject: Re: Kids' learning game site becomes porn site (Smith, RISKS-21.74)
    
    YaBB, a popular PERL web-based forum application, recently moved to
    <http://yabb.xnull.com/> from <www<dot>yabb<dot>org>, which is now
    pure pr0n. I've munged the link. Anyone is welcome to unmung it, of
    course. <puerile snigger>
    
    <http://yabb.xnull.com/community/?board=general&action=display&num=1000638654>
    says it all. Also it implies that the presence of pr0n on the
    "hijacked" site is a blackmail tool, which would explain why so many
    domain names obviously targeted at children become (apparently
    inexplicably) pr0n sites. 
    
    I'd never thought of pr0n as a weapon. Perhaps the new US PATRIOT Act
    <http://www.zdnet.co.uk/itweek/columns/2001/42/bingley.html>,
    ridiculous though it may be, could be diverted against these amoral
    cybersquatters for a while before it gets repealed.
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 08:52:51 -0500
    From: "Charles Shapiro" <cshapiroat_private>
    Subject: Computers & bureaucracy help spread of foot & mouth disease
    
    According to an editorial in the *London Daily Telegraph*, a combination of
    cumbersome bureaucratic systems and inaccurate map databases is to blame for
    the rapid spread of hoof & mouth disease in Britain.  The essay details one
    incident of overreliance on poor quality data which led to a substantial
    loss to a shepherd's flock. It also blames delays and foolish acts on
    centralized decision making.
    
    Risk: Look out at the Big Room from your monitor once in a while.
    
    http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/dt?ac=006527651614093&rtmo=a5d9qChJ&atmo
    =rrrrrrrq&pg=/01/11/12/do01.html
    
    Charles Shapiro <charles.shapiroat_private>
    
      [See also previous Foot-and-mouth virus propagation items,
      PGN, RISKS-21.31 and Ursula Martin, RISKS-21.33.  PGN] 
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 00:31:10 -0500 (EST)
    From: bo774at_private (Kelly Bert Manning)
    Subject: Re: Another SRI-wide power outage (Rowland, RISKS-21.74)
    
    Back in the days of SNA I could tell when the Xerox tech was in to work on
    the Xerox in the basement because both IBM cluster controllers would fail
    simultaneously. They were about a meter away with their Gandalf modems on
    top. The Xerox tech would decide that the the pair of side by side tops of
    the controllers made an excellent surface for him to flop his huge folder of
    tech charts onto, toggling the power switches on both modems off.
    
    Power failures were sometimes an event to take advantage of. Our first IBM
    terminals were installed about the time that our corporate president decided
    that we could convert our largely Honeywell based applications from GCOS 4JS
    et al to to MVS for about $1 million and in less than a year (turned out to
    be not quite done 2 years and $10 million later, but that is another
    risk). We were a bit surprised to see the terminals turned on but blank and
    not responsive, for most of a week, until the power failed for longer than
    the motor generator flywheel could smooth out. The HIS terminals were in use
    within a few minutes of power being restored, but about 25 minutes later the
    MVS terminals all started showing netsol logos for the first time. We got a
    phone call shortly after asking us to confirm that. Apparently SNA at the
    time didn't recognize new terminals until the next IPL, giving rise to the
    short lived line about "if IBM designed the phone system...". Life is much
    more flexible with TN3270 these days.
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2001 08:04:40 -0800
    From: Rob Slade <rsladeat_private>
    Subject: REVIEW: "White Hat Security Arsenal", Aviel D. Rubin
    
    BKWHTHSA.RVW   20010814
    
    "White Hat Security Arsenal", Aviel D. Rubin, 2001, 0-201-71114-1,
    U$44.99/C$67.50
    %A   Aviel D. Rubin rubinat_private
    %C   P.O. Box 520, 26 Prince Andrew Place, Don Mills, Ontario M3C 2T8
    %D   2001
    %G   0-201-71114-1
    %I   Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.
    %O   U$44.99/C$67.50 416-447-5101 fax: 416-443-0948 bkexpressat_private
    %P   330 p.
    %T   "White Hat Security Arsenal: Tackling the Threats"
    
    The distinctive of this book is that it approaches security as a series of
    specific problems or concerns.  The non-distinctive, if you will, is that it
    attempts to address all audience levels; users, IT professionals, academics,
    and administrators.  A series of icons identifies, at the beginning of each
    chapter and at particular sections of the text, who should read the various
    segments of the text.
    
    Part one examines the size and scope of the security issue.  Chapter one
    starts out with perhaps our biggest problem, as security people: the
    insistence on secrecy by companies who get hit, and the fact that this
    obstinate refusal to discuss the facts makes our job, in protecting
    institutions, that much harder.  A brief look at what may be at risk from
    security problems is given in chapter two.  Recent e-mail viruses are
    reviewed in chapter three, but they get an interesting treatment.  The
    material, while technically sound, concentrates on the general security
    attitudes and lessons to be learned, as they apply to computer use in
    general.
    
    Part two looks at information storage.  Chapter four's problem is to ensure
    that information is kept private if an attacker gets hold of your machine,
    and Rubin gives a good introduction to symmetric encryption and provides
    tips on passwords.  If you are concerned about storage at remote sites over
    an insecure network, chapter five touches on passwords again, and asymmetric
    encryption.  Chapter six is supposed to deal with securing backups, but
    seems to get a bit confused, although it does provide some good tips, as
    well as an overview of some online backup services.
    
    Part three considers the problems of data transfers over an insecure net.
    Chapter seven introduces authentication and some of the problems of public
    key management.  Session keys and key exchange are examined in chapter
    eight: it has an academic icon at the top of the chapter, and non-specialist
    users might get a bit confused here.  The aspects of virtual private
    networks are reviewed in chapter nine, and the book begins moving towards
    the usual technology oriented model.
    
    Part four looks at network threats.  Chapter ten explains firewalls while
    eleven discusses a variety of network based attacks.
    
    Part five doesn't really have a central theme.  The title of chapter twelve
    is "Protecting E-Commerce Transactions," but most of the text deals with the
    Secure Sockets Layer for Web browsers.  Privacy, in e-mail and Web browsing,
    is discussed in chapter thirteen, but many areas are left unexplored.
    
    For managers and users who are not specialists in computer and
    communications security, this book provides a readable and accurate
    introduction to a number of important topics.  There are, unfortunately, a
    number of gaps in terms of the total security picture, but that is probably
    to be expected when taking the problem oriented approach.  Rubin does not
    talk down to the audience and does not oversimplify, and this work therefore
    is superior to a number of the introductory books on the market.
    
    copyright Robert M. Slade, 2001   BKWHTHSA.RVW   20010814
    rsladeat_private  rsladeat_private  sladeat_private p1at_private
    http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev    or    http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade
    
    ------------------------------
    
    Date: 12 Feb 2001 (LAST-MODIFIED)
    From: RISKS-requestat_private
    Subject: Abridged info on RISKS (comp.risks)
    
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    ------------------------------
    
    End of RISKS-FORUM Digest 21.76
    ************************
    



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