CRIME FW: [Information_technology] Daily News 08.25.03

From: George Heuston (GeorgeH@private)
Date: Mon Aug 25 2003 - 08:55:05 PDT

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    -----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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