Anti-Nimda Technology Saved Billions
The hefty damage toll from Nimda could have been far worse, if many Internet users hadn't been running automatically updating anti-virus software, a research firm said today. According to Computer Economics, the worldwide economic impact of the Nimda worm reached about $590 million. But Michael Erbschloe, vice president of research, said the downtime and clean-up costs from Nimda would have been significantly greater if many leading anti-virus software packages hadn't automatically downloaded updated virus definitions to users. "When a new virus hits, the first few hours are critical. Soon after Nimda was first reported, all of the major vendors were pushing updates to their users," said Erbschloe.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170743.html
Congress Likely To Defer Database Protection To 2002
The high-tech industry's denizens agree that intellectual property protection for databases is a must-have item, but Congress more than likely will file away the issue until early next year, according to House committee sources. Before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, staff had been in discussions to reconcile two visions of database protection legislation, but both sides on the issue agree that the waning weeks of the congressional session are unlikely to produce an accord. In addition, no legislation on database protections has been proposed this year. Congress last year saw some heavy debate on how databases should be protected, and that debate has continued to some extent, though mostly in staff discussions.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170742.html
World Becoming More Connected
The worldwide growth of the Internet continues at a staggering rate, according to a new study. TeleGeography, an international telecom statistics and analysis firm, today said international cross-border Internet links - which it defines as general Internet applications such as e-mail or Web page information requests - grew 174 percent from July 2000 to July 2001. Latin America had the biggest jump of any region in terms of total capacity, which increased from 2.7 Gbps (gigabits per second) to 16.1 Gbps, a leap of 479.2 percent. Two carriers built new submarine cable systems from South America to the United States, which accounted for the bulk of the increase, the study said.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170740.html
A Pay-As-You-Go World Wide Web?
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the organization that defines many of the Web's underlying technological standards, is reconsidering the idea that there should be no tollgates at the entrances to cyberspace. A controversial new patent policy under consideration by the W3C would allow companies claiming patents on various World Wide Web technologies to collect royalties whenever they are used. If the policy is enacted, proprietary technologies could be incorporated into Web standards for the first time since Tim Berners-Lee set the new medium loose on the world more than 10 years ago.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170726.html
Check Point Mum On Alleged Sudan Bank Hack
Israeli information technology security firm Check Point says a German's claim that he hacked into a Sudan bank with possible links to Osama bin Laden "cannot be substantiated." The claims were made last week by hacker-turned-terrorism-opponent Kim Schmitz, who said his U.K.-based team of hackers had gained entry into computers installed with Check Point FireWall-1 software at the AlShamal Islamic Bank in Sudan. Schmitz said the hackers collected data on the accounts of the Al Qaeda terrorist organization and on Bin Laden, and that the information was turned over to the FBI.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170724.html
WTC, Bin Laden Still Big Search Targets
Internet searches for news and information related to the events of Sept. 11 remained popular two weeks after the attacks, but there were signs of a shift toward more normal search routines, according to the Lycos 50 report issued today. The number of World Trade Center searches took over the No. 1 spot and Osama bin Laden, the Saudi dissident believed responsible for the attacks, drew the second-highest tally of search requests in the week ending Sept. 29, Lycos said. More traditional topics re-entered the search picture, with Halloween taking sixth place and costumes in the tenth slot, Lycos said. Last week just 13 of the top 50 search topics were related to the attacks, compared to half the list in the week ending Sept. 15, Lycos said.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170721.html
NATO: U.S. provided evidence of bin Laden's involvement
The United States, seeking the full moral backing of its 18 NATO allies, provided "clear and compelling" evidence Tuesday of Osama bin Laden's involvement in terror attacks on New York and Washington, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said. He said the allies have determined that the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were directed from abroad and thus are covered by NATO's Article 5 -- which says an attack on one member is an attack on all.
http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2001/...ato/index.html
Pakistan warns Taliban of U.S. attacks
Pakistan declared Tuesday that Afghanistan's Taliban rulers "don't have much time" to stave off U.S.-led military strikes, the clearest signal yet that the Pakistani government is washing its hands of the Taliban's fate. "Pakistan has conveyed to the Taliban what the situation is, what are the dangers, what the international community is expecting them to do," Foreign Ministry spokesman Riaz Mohammed Khan said. "We have told them they don't have much time." Coming from a country that was once the closest ally of Afghanistan's harshly Islamic rulers -- and which has now pledged itself as a U.S. partner -- the warning carried the weight of finality.
http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2001/...tan/index.html
The Taliban's bravest opponents 
The film footage is wobbly and blurry but stunning: A soccer stadium in Afghanistan is packed with people, but there is no match today. Instead, a pickup truck drives into the stadium with three women, shrouded in burqas, cowering in the back. Armed men in turbans force a woman from the truck, and make her kneel at the penalty line on the field. Confused and unable to see, the woman tries to look behind just as a rifle is pointed against the back of her head. With no fanfare whatsoever, she is shot dead. The shaky video camera captures the cheering crowd as people rise to their feet, hoping to get a better view of the corpse on the ground. The blue folds of the burqa begin to stain red with blood. This public execution is some of the most shocking film ever seen on television; it is perhaps the best document that the West has of atrocities committed by the Taliban.
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/200...ima/index.html
Wanted: Your name and number
Just three days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the FBI released the names of 19 men suspected of carrying out the murderous and suicidal hijackings. Not long after, however, doubts surfaced as to the real identities of the kamikaze terrorists. Days later, a trail of stolen passports and very-much-alive hijack suspects led FBI officials to admit that mistakes had been made. It now appears that at least seven of the Saudi nationals named by the FBI were falsely fingered; these alleged hijackers claim to have been victims of an extreme form of identity theft, known as "identity takeover." You cannot imagine what it is like to be described as a terrorist -- and a dead man -- when you are innocent and alive," said a shaken Saeed Al-Ghamdi, 25, quoted in the The Daily Telegraph. Al-Ghamdi, a Saudi Airlines pilot, was singled out by the FBI as one of the terrorists on the United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/20...eft/index.html
Mixed messages
For an administration desperate to boost consumer confidence and protect the economy from recession, the White House was hardly reassuring during this week's Sunday morning talk shows: Senior officials said Americans should be prepared for still more terrorist strikes at home, including biological, chemical and even nuclear attacks. Was the doomsday message a case of chaotic circumstances creating mixed messages? Not necessarily. Instead, the White House's conflicting themes in recent days (America remains at risk but the country, and the economy, should return to normal) highlight the difficulty of fighting war and recession at the same time.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/20...nce/index.html
Intelligence analysis software could predict attacks
Intelligence analysis software being developed in the US could be used to predict future terrorist attacks, claims the research company making it. When complete, they say it will be capable of sifting through and analysing existing databases of information, both public and private, and spotting suspicious patterns of activity. If such a system had been available it might have been capable of predicting the Oklahoma City bombing, and possibly even the World Trade Center disaster, says Anthony Bagdonis of Applied Systems Intelligence in Roswell, Georgia. "We're trying to predict these events before they even happen," he says.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991368
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