SQL worm squirms through servers. A new worm that targets Microsoft SQL Server software has begun squirming through the Internet, experts said on 21 May. Called DoubleTap by vulnerability analysis firm SecurityFocus, the worm has already managed to infect 1,600 servers that run the software, said Elias Levy, chief technology officer for the San Mateo, California, company. Despite the spread, Levy added that the virus shouldn't pose too much of an overall threat. "We don't expect it to become widespread," he said. The self-propagating program has also been named Spida.a.worm by antivirus firms Symantec and Network Associates and has been labeled SQLSnake by the Systems Administration Networking and Security (SANS) Institute. It has been infecting servers since 20 May. (CNET News, 21 May) Comment: The NIPC is closely monitoring both variants of this worm and will advise of changes in its status as necessary. Major U.S. anti-virus vendors are rating this worm as Low and have removal instructions posted on their Web sites. Airline Association: Post 11 September trans-atlantic air traffic down 22.6 percent, slowly returning to previous levels. The 28-member Association of European Airlines reports scheduled air traffic between the U.S. and Europe is down 22.6 percent for the period since the terrorist attacks compared to a year earlier. Traffic across the North Atlantic, key to the financial health of major airlines, is off by almost 31 percent compared to the same period in 2000. Since 1 January the decrease narrowed to 14.9 percent. In the week ending 12 May, the last for which the association had figures, traffic was off by 10.1 percent compared for the same week the year before. (Associated Press, 21 May) Certification deadline draws near. In an effort to improve the security of the commercial software it buys, the Defense Department beginning in July will prohibit the military services from purchasing information assurance products that have not met a third-party security evaluation. Under the rule, DOD will not buy commercial software that has not yet been certified by the National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP). The group formed by the National Security Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology is not directed at only information assurance products, such as firewalls or intrusion-detection systems, but also at "information assurance-enabled products" such as Web browsers, operating systems and databases. (Federal Computer Week, 21 may) State Department virus exposes system flaw anyone could have sent messages to U.S. travel warning list. The recent computer virus that the State Department sent out last week was sent to an e-mail list devoted to travel warnings. This exposed a larger shortcoming in the agency's security. The State Departments list was set up to allow anyone to send a message to all recipients --including journalists, foreign diplomats, and overseas nationals. The virus proved it would have been easy for someone to send out a fake global travel warning in the name of the State Department. (MSNBC, 21 May) Hackers still ahead of IT departments. Hackers Still Ahead of Security Gurus Hackers are still at least one step ahead of even the best funded and most sophisticated IT departments in the world. Hackers, at least for the moment, are way ahead of corporate IT departments, and are even outpacing the top cybercrime fighters in federal law enforcement. "A lot of people depending on the Internet for commerce are putting their privacy at risk," Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) director Marc Rotenberg told NewsFactor. Indeed, it seems they are risking more than just their privacy -- consumers are putting their most critical data within reach of elusive cyber thieves. (NewsFactor.com, May 21)
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