-----Original Message-----
From: InfraGard [mailto:infragard@private]
Sent: Monday, August 25, 2003 7:51 AM
To: Information Technology
Subject: [Information_technology] Daily News 08.25.03
August 23, Washington Post - Experts race to beat computer worm.
Computer-security experts working with law enforcement officials
in
the United States and Canada raced Friday, August 22, to contain the
Sobig.F
computer worm before it could launch a new attack. Experts said that
Sobig
instructed infected computers to try to contact one of 20 other
computers in
Canada, South Korea and the United States to download new instructions
every
Friday and Sunday from 3 to 6 p.m. until September 10, when the worm
expires. But the worm either failed to seek those instructions or it was
thwarted from doing so when security experts disconnected 17 of the 20
targeted computers before the anticipated 3 p.m. attack Friday. The worm
is
thought to have been released originally as a photo on Usenet, an
Internet
bulletin board, by someone who had an account at Phoenix-based Internet
service EasyNews.com. People who clicked on the photo had their PC
infected
with the virus, which then began to e-mail itself to every address on
the
infected computer's e-mail address book. Based on the activity from five
previous versions of the virus, experts worry that Sobig could instruct
infected PCs to install back doors and programs designed to steal credit
card numbers, user names and passwords. Users to keep their anti-virus
programs updated.
Source:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34422-2003Aug
22.html
August 22, Federal Computer Week - Cybersecurity agency to improve
patching. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS)
National
Cyber Security Division (NCSD) want to improve the governmentwide
computer
patching service so more agencies use it, a senior official said this
week.
More than 40 agencies have signed up so far for the Patch Authentication
and
Dissemination Capability, which tracks vulnerabilities and patches and
sends
out any tested patches to agencies based on their subscription profile.
However, not all of the agencies that signed up are actually using the
service, and officials in the Federal Computer Incident Response Center
(FedCIRC) are now looking at how to modify the contract, 10 said Sallie
McDonald, a senior official with the NCSD. The primary change will be to
address the shortage of licenses for the dissemination solution. FedCIRC
underestimated the number of licenses that would be required, meaning
that
many agencies are only piloting the solution within small segments of
their
networks.
Source:
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0818/web-circ-08-22-03.
asp
August 22, Washington Post - FCC releases new phone, broadband
rules.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released new rules
Thursday, August 21, designed to promote competition to the major local
telephone companies while deregulating their residential high-speed
Internet
business. Unless they are blocked by the courts, the rules become
effective
30 days after they are published in the federal register -- about six
weeks
from now. At the heart of the new rules is a theory that the local
telephone
market is still dominated by major local phone companies and therefore
needs
continued regulation. The FCC found that the high-speed-Internet sector
is
more competitive and needs less regulation. The cable industry is the
current leader in selling residential high-speed Internet access,
controlling about two-thirds of the nationwide market. For voice
services,
the FCC handed state regulators broad authority to regulate the local
telephone market. But when it came to data, the FCC usurped states'
authority to regulate.
Source:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28763-2003Aug
21.html
Virus: #1 Virus in USA: WORM_SOBIG.F
Source: http://wtc.trendmicro.com/wtc/wmap.html, Trend World Micro
Virus Tracking Center [Infected Computers, North America, Past 24 hours,
#1
in United States]
Top 10 Target Ports: Target Ports 135 (epmap), 80 (www), 445
(microsoft-ds), 137 (netbios-ns), 1434 (ms-sql-m), 36056 (---), 1433
(ms-sql-s), 17300 (Kuang2TheVirus), 38559 (---), 139 (netbios-ssn)
Source: http://isc.incidents.org/top10.html; Internet Storm Center
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