CRIME FW: NIPC Daily Report 21 December 2001

From: George Heuston (GeorgeH@private)
Date: Fri Dec 21 2001 - 07:02:53 PST

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    -----Original Message-----
    From: NIPC Watch [mailto:nipc.watch@private] 
    Sent: Friday, December 21, 2001 6:32 AM
    To: Daily Distribution
    Subject: NIPC Daily Report 21 December 2001
    Importance: High
     
    NIPC Daily Report, 21 December 2001
    
    NOTE:  Please understand that this is for informational purposes only and
    does not constitute any verification of the information contained in the
    report nor does this constitute endorsement by the NIPC or the FBI.
    
    Significant Changes and Assessment - The National Infrastructure Protection
    Center (NIPC) issued Advisory 01-030, "Universal Plug and Play
    Vulnerabilities."  The NIPC is tracking what Microsoft refers to as a
    critical vulnerability in the universal plug and play (UPnP) service in
    Windows XP, Millennium Edition (ME), and Windows 98 or 98SE systems.  UPnP
    is a service that identifies and uses network-based devices.  This
    vulnerability could lead to denial of service attacks and system compromise.
    Microsoft has released a patch for this vulnerability at:
    http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/
    bulletin/MS01-059.asp.
    <http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security
    /bulletin/MS01-059.asp. >   There are two known vulnerabilities in the UPnP
    service.  Further information and the advisory can be found by visiting
    http://www.nipc.gov/warnings/advisories/2001/01-030.htm
    <http://www.nipc.gov/warnings/advisories/2001/01-030.htm> .
    
    General - Microsoft and Oracle, acknowledged flaws in major products that
    could leave users vulnerable to hackers.  Both Windows XP and Oracle's 9i
    application server had been heavily marketed for their security features.
    Microsoft and Oracle each offered online patches to fix the problems.
    Microsoft admitted that the newly released Windows XP operating system,
    touted as the most secure version of Windows ever, suffered from a critical
    vulnerability that exposed any user who connected the Internet to a possible
    hijacking of their computer.  Meanwhile, Oracle's 9i application server was
    afflicted by a similar vulnerability, known as a buffer overflow, that would
    have let an attacker execute remote commands.   (Mercury News, 20 December)
    
    RSA Security and Hifn produced a patch for the Wireless Equivalent Privacy
    (WEP) protocol.  This patch, called "Fast Packet Keying," a new technology
    based on the RC4 algorithm, is designed to secure the WEP encryption
    standard by generating a unique key for each data packet sent over the
    wireless LAN.  It is designed to avoid the similarities in the packet keys
    by providing a rapid way to derive unrelated RC4 keys from a shared secret.
    The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 802.11 committee has
    approved the Fast Packet Keying technology.  It will be distributed as a
    software or firmware patch by vendors.  Device makers are upgrading their
    software.  (Security Wire Digest, 20 December)
    
    Electrical Power - According to a panel, the Texas telecommunications
    industry and electric grid are vulnerable to terrorist attack unless
    communication, threat assessment, and intelligence are improved.  "Nobody
    plans for the kinds of circumstances we now must anticipate," said the chief
    executive officer of TXU Corp, a Dallas-based electric company.  "We are now
    vulnerable to well-financed, what I would call fanatical, attacks."  TXU
    Corp. was among a group of businesses from the electric, airline,
    telecommunications, and petroleum industries meeting at Rice University's
    Baker Institute for Public Policy.  They were discussing how to protect
    infrastructure such as computer systems that oversee transportation,
    telecommunications, energy, and water sources throughout Texas. (Associated
    Press, 20 December) 
    
    An estimated 118,000 customers in parts of four northern Utah counties were
    without power for two hours on 19 December due to a problem at the Ben
    Lomond substation.  The power went out about 5:30 p.m. and was restored by
    7:45 p.m., spokesman Kimball Hansen said.  He said the exact cause had not
    been determined but it involved the substation, which is near Great Salt
    Lake's Willard Bay and Interstate 15.  (Associated Press, 20 December)
    
    Transportation - Mary Schiavo, former inspector general for the Department
    of Transportation, said the federal government and private industry still do
    not seem to understand that strengthening and enforcing transportation
    security measures would boost public confidence and business. "Security is
    commerce and without it, there isn't any," Schiavo, an aviation disaster
    attorney, told attendees at a homeland defense conference in Washington,
    D.C.  The security problems, a disregard for laws, the existence of
    disparate enforcement throughout the country and a reliance on technology,
    have contributed to a lax system not just in the aviation industry, but in
    all forms of transportation, she said, including trucking, trains and oil
    pipelines, which fall under the DoT's control.  (Federal Computer Weekly, 20
    December) 
    



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