-----Original Message----- From: NIPC Watch [mailto:nipc.watch@private] Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2002 7:05 AM To: Daily Distribution Subject: NIPC Daily Report for 24 January 2002 NIPC Daily Report 24 January 2002 The NIPC Watch and Warning Unit compiles this report to inform recipients of issues impacting the integrity and capability of the nation's critical infrastructures. Airline security holes remain. Matching luggage with passengers, especially when a passenger changes planes, continues to be the biggest challenge to airline security. Also, only slightly more than half of the 161 explosive detection machines at airports are running full?time. If passenger screening measures cannot detect explosive materials, suicide terrorists may succeed. (Associated Press, 23 Jan) Canada re-examines preparedness. The Canadian government is concerned about the proliferation and availability of hacker tools and the low skill level needed to launch cyber attacks. Officials believe security at North American critical infrastructures - including the largely interconnected energy, transportation, and financial services - should be beefed up even though many businesses began preparing for cyber incidents ahead of the year 2000. (Yahoo Singapore, 23 Jan) Fight flaws with laws. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is recommending that policy?makers create laws that would hold companies accountable for security breaches resulting from vulnerable products. NAS researchers urged lawmakers to take steps that would increase the liability of software and system vendors and operators for security breaches. The researchers also called for laws that would require software makers to report security problems. (ZDNet News, 23 Jan) Malfunction at Sprint facility interrupts long-distance calls to, from Florida. A malfunction at a Sprint facility caused major interruptions this week to long distance calls to and from Florida. The incident is being reported to the Federal Communications Commission as a major event affecting at least 90,000 calls. Sprint says the problem could be software related, or a bad computer card. (Associated Press, 23 Jan) Russian hacker who broke into New York bank files arrested after US requested probe. A Russian hacker has been arrested after allegedly breaking into the computer network of an unnamed New York bank and extorting money in exchange for not releasing sensitive customer information. (Associated Press, 23 Jan)
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