Lethal worm spells double trouble
A computer worm that spreads to both servers and PCs running Microsoft software flooded the Internet with data on Tuesday, but the FBI said that, as of yet, it sees no link to last week's terrorist attack. Known as "Nimda" or "readme.exe," the worm spreads by sending infected e-mail messages, copying itself to computers on the same network and compromising Web servers using Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) software. "It is extraordinary how much traffic this thing has created in a couple of hours," said Graham Cluley, senior security consultant for antivirus company Sophos. "As far as we can see, it doesn't seem to be using any psychological tricks because it's all automated."
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Attacks silence privacy concerns
Last week's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon marked a significant turning point in the debate over computer and Internet privacy, giving new weight to calls for broader government surveillance powers. Law-enforcement agencies in recent months have found themselves on the defensive over wiretapping and other intelligence-gathering technology, with Congress and the courts increasingly backing demands for greater accountability and restraint. But last week's terrorist assaults, the worst in U.S. history, may have instantly reversed that trend. Political leaders last week rushed to assure Americans that civil rights and privacy laws would be upheld in the search for the perpetrators. Yet proponents of strict limits on the powers of law enforcement could face a powerful, lasting shift in public opinion over the balance of individual rights and national security.
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Ashcroft: Relax surveillance laws
Associates of hijackers who crashed jetliners into U.S. landmarks last week may be at large in the United States, Attorney General John Ashcroft said on Monday in pressing Congress to expand powers to wiretap telephones, conduct searches and seize assets. "Associates of the hijackers that have ties to terrorist organizations may be a continuing presence in the United States," Ashcroft told a news conference at FBI headquarters. He cited "this current threat assessment" in urging that Congress approve new anti-terrorist legislation that would make it easier for the FBI to tap suspects' telephones, including mobile phones, and to track suspicious movements of money.
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Hackers lash out at Islamic sites
Hackers have begun attacking Web sites connected to Afghanistan's Taliban rulers and to other Islamic nations including Iran, prompting the FBI to issue warnings to system administrators everywhere to tighten up their security. On Monday, hackers outraged at the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center defaced the Web site belonging to the Iranian government's ministry of the interior. The site, at
www.moi.gov.ir, now carries the message "Owned ! Ya biatch !" and several graphics, one of which includes a picture of the Saudi Arabian dissident named last week by the US government as their prime suspect, Osama bin Laden, with two guns to his head and the caption "Osama die".
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Deadline extended for Microsoft filing -- again
For the second time in a week, Microsoft and the government received an extension in an important court filing. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has reset the deadline for a joint status report originally due Sept. 14. That deadline has now been extended until Thursday, and a hearing originally scheduled for Friday will take place on Sept. 28. Both Microsoft and the Justice Department are apparently grappling with the effects of last week's devastating attacks in Washington and in New York. Government buildings in the nation's capital were temporarily evacuated following Tuesday's attacks, and the Justice Department increasingly has been focusing resources on the manhunt for additional terrorists and for accomplices to the 19 who crashed hijacked aircraft into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
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Attacks put new light on Web services
The terrorist disaster last week could prompt businesses to turn toward outsourcing more of their technology needs to ensure their information is safe, analysts say. Outsourced services, such as Web hosting, e-mail and Net infrastructure management, have seen a lack of demand in the past year as corporations spent more carefully amid the U.S. economic downturn. But fears brought on by recent terrorism, and the related potential for lost data, may spur businesses to turn to companies such as Exodus Communications, Digex, Loudcloud, Critical Path and other Internet services firms. "The gravity of the situation is such that it brings home to lots of companies that if you have information you want to protect you need to have it backed up in multiple locations," said Laurie McCabe, a hosting industry analyst and vice president at Summit Strategies.
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Did Bin Laden make a profit on attacks?
Osama bin Laden and those managing his multimillion-dollar fortune are sophisticated enough to have possibly profited in the markets from last week's attacks, U.S. experts said Monday. Financial regulators around the world have indicated they are investigating whether organizers of the attacks sold short shares of companies they expected would lose value afterward. Selling short is a way of profiting from falling share prices. "Based on what we know about how bin Laden handles his money through different organizations, he probably is sophisticated enough to do something like that," said Kimberly McCloud, research associate at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California.
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Nintendo sells 300,000 GameCubes
Japanese video game maker Nintendo said Tuesday that about 300,000 of its new GameCube consoles were sold in the first weekend after launch, disappointing some analysts who had expected the shipment to sell out. Nintendo had targeted initial shipments of 500,000 consoles for its Sept. 14 launch in Japan but said delays in production and transportation forced it to come up 50,000 short. The unit is scheduled to go on sale in North America on Nov. 18. Despite the hiccup, the Kyoto-based game maker said everything was going according to plan. "We are satisfied with the sales figures; they are right on target," said a Nintendo spokesman.
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New text messaging comes with a catch
Finnish telecommunications equipment maker Nokia on Tuesday launched a service for telecommunications operators that would allow subscribers to send and receive enhanced text messages using existing GSM phones. One catch: You'll also need a computer with Internet access. Nokia said as of the fourth quarter that operators could offer subscribers with current GSM mobile phones the chance to send and receive multimedia messages -- enhanced versions of the existing text messages which include graphics and sound. But as GSM phones do not have the capability to display the high-tech messages, GSM users will only get a Web page address and a password.
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U.S. citizens back encryption controls
A poll in the United States has found widespread support for a ban on "uncrackable" encryption products, following proposals in Congress to tighten restrictions on software that scrambles electronic data. The survey found that 72 percent of Americans believe that anti-encryption laws would be "somewhat" or "very" helpful in preventing a repeat of last week's terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The poll, conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates on Sept. 13 and 14, reveals that the question of banning encryption tools without "backdoors" for government interception is under serious debate in the United States.
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The hidden revolution
China winning membership in the World Trade Organization may influence the IT industry more decisively than any other event in the first decade of the 21st century. The effects just won't be dramatically obvious. If, as the WTO expects, China receives membership formally at its general meeting in November, the event will have varied and complex effects, few of which will become clear immediately. China's leaders have long committed not just to integrating China into the global economy but also to making it a fierce competitor. WTO membership will accelerate the process. But it could thereby widen internal political rifts caused by a quarter-century of economic reforms, such as tensions between richer cities and the poorer countryside and between the weaker but still powerful central government and the regions growing in power and wealth.
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Net travel firms feeling airline-industry woes
The online travel industry is bracing itself for waning demand for airline tickets after last week's terrorist attacks, which already have dealt a severe blow to the nation's airlines. Analysts foresee an American public more apprehensive about flying. But others say it is too early to tell what the calamity's effects will be on the $14.5 billion industry. According to Internet research group PhoCusWright, online sales of airline tickets make up about 10 percent of total tickets sold. Several of the online travel agencies reported Monday that bookings of airline tickets were up slightly compared with last week's dismal numbers.
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Researchers build Web archive of attacks
Web archivists are working to preserve Web sites, pages and links related to last week's catastrophic terrorist assaults that destroyed the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. "The Web is ephemeral; it disappears before our eyes," said Steven Schneider, associate professor of political science at the SUNY Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome, N.Y., and director of WebArchivist.org. "But it's important for historical record. It's increasingly a part of the fabric of society, and if we don't capture it, we lose it." WebArchivist.org is working with the Library of Congress and the Internet Archive on the project. Other efforts are under way to create a lasting electronic record of the events of Sept. 11.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7215828.html
Tech leaders form relief initiative
A week after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the technology industry has brought its disparate private relief efforts under one umbrella. Software giant Microsoft, networking heavyweight Cisco Systems and online notables AOL Time Warner, Amazon.com, eBay and Yahoo on Tuesday announced the American Liberty Partnership, an Internet-industry initiative that is using the Web to connect people who want to help to the different companies' relief organizations. On the partnership's Web site, visitors will find ways to support these organizations, as well as general information about how the relief effort is progressing and what needs might arise in the future.
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