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Nethappenings Headlines

happy reading,
<Karen>

1)
Ogre to Slay? Outsource It to Chinese
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/technology/09gaming.html
By DAVID BARBOZA  December 9, 2005
FUZHOU, China - One of China's newest factories operates here in the
basement of an old warehouse. Posters of World of Warcraft and Magic
Land hang above a corps of young people glued to their computer
screens, pounding away at their keyboards in the latest hustle for
money.
The people working at this clandestine locale are "gold farmers."
Every day, in 12-hour shifts, they "play" computer games by killing
onscreen monsters and winning battles, harvesting artificial gold
coins and other virtual goods as rewards that, as it turns out, can be
transformed into real cash.
That is because, from Seoul to San Francisco, affluent online gamers
who lack the time and patience to work their way up to the higher
levels of gamedom are willing to pay the young Chinese here to play
the early rounds for them. <snip>

2)
"World's Poorest Don't Want $100 Laptop"
<http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051209/tc_nm/ technology_intel_dc&printer=1;_ylt=Apq1sBouHlw02IPLKOvJu4pU.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE->
By Peter AppsFri Dec 9, 9:48 AM ET
Potential computer users in the developing world will not want a basic
$100 hand-cranked laptop due to be rolled out to millions, chip-maker
Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC - news) chairman Craig Barrett said on Friday.
Schoolchildren in Brazil, Thailand, Egypt and Nigeria will begin
receiving the first few million textbook style computers from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) media lab run by Nicholas
Negroponte from early 2006.
"Mr. Negroponte has called it a $100 laptop -- I think a more realistic
title should be 'the $100 gadget'," Barrett, chairman of the world's
largest chip maker, told a press conference in Sri Lanka. "The problem
is that gadgets have not been successful."

also see
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/NHN/NH24.html
<snip>

3)
The reliabilty of Wikipedia,  of the
content, and the lack of accountability regarding authorship:
<http://news.com.com/A+little+sleuthing+unmasks+writer+of+Wikipedia+prank/2100-1038_3-5990678.html?part=rss&tag=5990678&subj=news>
The article demonstrates how hard it is to keep inaccurate information
out of such an open system. This does not mean that Wikipedia is a poor
resource, but rather that the content needs to be verified against other
sources to be truly useful. I note that in response to this problem,
Wikipedia have said they plan to make it easier to track authorship - a
step in the right direction.

<snip>

4)
Server bug cripples Dublin law firms
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/10/server_bug_cripples_dublin_law_firms/
By ElectricNews.Net 10th December 2005
Solicitors across Dublin fell victim to an accidental mass mailing
that crippled their systems this week, clogging inboxes and causing
widespread disruption.
The problem was attributed to an improper server configuration,
causing five servers to send out more than half a million emails to
Dublin solicitors. The deluge of mail originated with a publishing
company's email marketing message, which was sent to solicitors. When
some solicitors attempted to reply to the mail, a fault in the
solicitors' configuration of Microsoft Small Business Server sent the
original email to their entire email database tens of thousands of
times.
The incident crashed mail servers and caused embarrassment to those
involved. The problem even hit smaller solicitors. One firm told
ElectricNews.net that although the email had caused no serious harm,
it had arrived in one of their inboxes hundreds of times.
Technology firm Enclave Technologies picked up on unusual email
activity on Tuesday, although it pointed out that none of its clients
had been affected by the problem. "We were quickly able to trace
servers that were causing the problem and alert the firms involved.
Our priority then was to furnish the IT support companies who looked
after these servers with the knowledge to halt this spread of email,"
explained Jane Reid, network manager, Enclave Technologies.
<snip>

5)
Code breakers needed
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3513114.html
By GRANT SCHULTE Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau  Dec. 8, 2005
WASHINGTON - Those pesky u-codes - the electronic keys needed to fix
everything from air bags to headlights - were confounding Richard
Mendoza yet again.
Sure, the Houston mechanic had just invested $6,800 in software that
could read a car's computer, pinpointing virtually any problem. And
yes, he could have figured out why the Chevy Impala's air bag light
was on, had he gotten the right digital feedback.
But the information Mendoza needed was hidden by an "underlining
code," a PIN automakers create to protect trade secrets and stop car
thieves. Mendoza, the manager of independently owned repair garage
Auto Check, sent his customer to the manufacturer.
"They normally don't come back," he said. "It leaves the impression
that you can't handle the job."
<snip>

6)
eBay Yanks Listing For Excel Bug
http://www.techweb.com/wire/ebiz/174910093
By Gregg Keizer TechWeb News December 09, 2005
An unknown security researcher tried to sell a vulnerability in
Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet program on eBay, but the online auction
site pulled the listing late Thursday.
The unusual route to vulnerability profit-taking was squashed by eBay
after the listing--offered by someone only identified as
"fearwall"--was bid up to just under $60.
According to the since-yanked listing, the zero-day vulnerability in
Excel had been reported to Microsoft on Tuesday, Dec. 6. "All the
details were submitted to Microsoft, and the reply was received
indicating that they may start working on it," wrote the seller. "It
can be assumed that no patch addressing this vulnerability will be
available within the next few months."
The unpatched vulnerability is in the way that Excel, the popular
spreadsheet included in all editions of Microsoft's Office suite,
validates the data in some worksheets when it parses files.
<snip>

7)
World war on world wide web
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1570499,0035.htm
Mayank Tewari New Delhi December 10, 2005
The battle is virtual and is as good as a real one. It's a fight to
prove how powerful a hacker can be when it comes to breaking into
secure Indian websites and servers. In one corner of the ring stands
the group of international hacker with names like CyberLord, fatal
error and Suicide Scene. In the opposite corner stands the Indian
security establishment with a bunch of unnamed patriotic hackers who
scout the web for any new activity and alert the government.
In the last week of November, international hackers defaced some 230
Indian sites -having domain names ending with .in. A week later more
than 1000 Linux based web servers were hacked ain a single attack by
international hackers. Over 250 of these servers were located in
India.
In the month of August, the websites of four IITs - Mumbai, Guwahati,
Kharagpur and Chennai - were hacked and defaced by a group of
Pakistani hackers who call themselves the Jubni team. The hackers
claimed that some of the members of the group are Majeed, Jubni,
Zohaib, Pak Brain, Mian Walian and Ch33ta.  The ire of the group was
directed towards India, USA and Israel.
<snip>

8)
NSA recognized IA Masters Online
The NSA has designated Norwich University a center of Academic
Excellence in Information Security. Our program offers unparalleled
Infosec management education and the case study affords you unmatched
consulting experience. Using interactive e-Learning technology, you
can earn this esteemed degree, without disrupting your career or home
life.
http://www.msia.norwich.edu/linsec
<snip>

9)
Card fraudsters dupe police chief
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1921802,00.html
By Tosin Sulaiman December 12, 2005
JANET WILLIAMS, the head of Special Branch, has risen up police ranks
by outwitting criminals. Now, after losing up to £5,000 when
fraudsters "skimmed" her credit card, it appears that she has been
outwitted by them.
Ms Williams, the first woman to lead the counter-terrorism unit, had
the money stolen from her card when she used it to pay a restaurant
bill, it emerged yesterday.
She became aware of the crime a few days later when her card was
declined because she was over her credit limit.
A spokeswoman for Scotland Yard confirmed that criminals had made
transactions using Ms Williams's card but declined to go into detail.
<snip>

10)
Hacker disables Kremlin TV
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17548681-23109,00.html
12-12-2005  Reuters
A COMPUTER hacker drove the Kremlin's new English-language television
channel off air today in a major embarrassment for the station just
two days after it started broadcasting.
Russia Today presents news from a Russian perspective and is designed
to counteract what the Kremlin sees as an unfairly critical approach
to Russia in the foreign media. Before going off air, it showed
reports on the new parliament in Chechnya and the Russian
constitution, but broadcasting was dogged by technical glitches.
The screen froze several times, and at least one news package was
played out of sequence.
"There was an attempted invasion of the computer system, which gave
rise to viruses, which led to break-downs in transmission," Margarita
Simonyan, the channel's editor-in-chief, said.
<snip>

11)
ISU reports computer security breaches
<http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051212/NEWS/51212001/1001/SiteMap>
By REGISTER STAFF REPORT December 12, 2005
Someone recently breached the security of two Iowa State University
computers that contain sensitive information, according to a news
release from the university.
One of the computers held approximately 2,500 encrypted credit card
numbers of athletics department donors. ISU information technology
staff who investigated the computer breaks-ins say the intruder could
not have read the credit card numbers because they were encrypted.
The second computer was used to enter time card information for
several university departments and contained Social Security Numbers
of more than 3,000 Iowa State staff. Technology staff members say it's
unlikely that the intruder accessed the files with that information.
"Analysis of both computers indicates the intruder was not looking for
personal data, but for space to distribute pirated movies," said Maury
Hope, associate chief information officer in Information Technology
Services.
<snip>

12)
Security breach at Sam's Club exposes credit card data
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,107014,00.html
By Jaikumar Vijayan  DECEMBER 12, 2005
Sam's Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is investigating a
security breach that has exposed credit card data belonging to an
unspecified number of customers who purchased gas at the wholesaler's
stations between Sept 21 and Oct. 2.
In a brief statement released Dec. 2, the Bentonville, Ark.-based
company said it was alerted to the problem by credit card issuers who
reported that customers were complaining of fraudulent charges on
their statements.
It's still not clear how the data was obtained, according to the
statement. But "electronic systems and databases used inside its
stores and for Samsclub.com are not involved," the company said.
<snip>

13)
Hacker attacks in US linked to Chinese military: researchers
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/12/051212224756.jwmkvntb.html
Dec 12, 2005
A systematic effort by hackers to penetrate US government and industry
computer networks stems most likely from the Chinese military, the
head of a leading security institute said. The attacks have been
traced to the Chinese province of Guangdong, and the techniques used
make it appear unlikely to come from any other source than the
military, said Alan Paller, the director of the SANS Institute, an
education and research organization focusing on cybersecurity.
"These attacks come from someone with intense discipline. No other
organization could do this if they were not a military organization,"
Paller said in a conference call to announced a new cybersecurity
education program.
In the attacks, Paller said, the perpetrators "were in and out with no
keystroke errors and left no fingerprints, and created a backdoor in
less than 30 minutes. How can this be done by anyone other than a
military organization?"
<snip>


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