[pchelpers] News:Lost laptops, zero-day vulns and RFID chips

The year in information security
By John Leyden 
Published Friday 22nd December 2006 15:55 GMT

2006 in review If 2006 had an information security epitaph it would
probably be the year of the missing laptop.

Security breaches that resulted in the disclosure of confidential data,
already a trend in recent years, grew alarmingly - to the point where
security watchers noted that 100 million personal records had been
compromised in the period between February 2005, when ChoicePoint
admitted that ID thieves had swiped information on 163,000 victims from
its database, and December 2006 in the US alone.


Notable breaches this year included laptops stolen from Ernst & Young
and the US Department of Veterans Affairs. The issue has probably been a
problem for years, but was only revealed because of the requirements of
California's information security breach disclosure laws, passed in
2003, which have acted as a template for similar legislation across many
US states.

The year also saw a number of high-profile cybercrime prosecutions,
including attempts to extradite UFO-enthusiast and alleged Pentagon
hacker Gary McKinnon to the US.


Spychips
The inclusion of RFID chips in next-generation US passports sparked a
wave of security concerns. Security researchers were quick to
demonstrate the ease by which these chips might be either cloned or
read.

Lack of adequate security precautions, such as encryption, also proved
to be an issue for "contactless" credit cards that also incorporate RFID
technology.

More here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/22/security_review_2006/
-- 
John Durham
Site http://modecideas.com
Good advice is like good paint. It only works when applied.



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