30th June 2001 Archive
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BT panicks consumers into getting more phone lines
Advertising Standards not interested though
BT is running a misleading and panic-inducing ad on its site in which running too many products on a phone line causes a fire. The animated gif shows three plugs connected to one phone line with the tag "Suffering from socket overload?" It then shows some smoke and it bursts into flames before the message "Get an additional …
Bootnotes 30 Jun 2001, 09:01
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Green light for Euro data retention plans
Law N'Order lobby victorious
The EU body representing the fifteen member governments has blessed plans which will allow police to demand ISPs and telcos retain transmission records for seven years. Currently ISPs and telcos retain the records for several weeks only for billing purposes. A meeting of the Telecommunications Council of the Council of the EU, …
Music and Media 30 Jun 2001, 11:33
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BT preps wires-only ADSL
More modem choice
Broadband users are to be given greater choice over which modem they use in the UK with the introduction of a "wires-only" version of ADSL from BT Wholesale. Tom Saville, broadband marketing manager at BT Wholesale, claims a wires-only ADSL connection by BT would reduce the overall cost to customers of installing broadband. …
Telecoms 30 Jun 2001, 11:38
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Hotmail, Yahoo! guard against virus-spreading flaw
Whew!
Hotmail and Yahoo! have patched their web-based email services to guard against becoming vectors for the spread of mass-mailing viruses. As reported last week, a security researcher discovered that cross-site scripting vulnerabilities make it possible to replicate Melissa-type worms through Web mail services. Matt Parcens, the …
Malware 30 Jun 2001, 11:40
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If restaurants functioned like Microsoft…
Waiter, waiter, there's a fly in my soup!
This one has possibly been doing the rounds for a while, but it still tickled our fancy: Patron: Waiter! Waiter: Hi, my name is Bill and I'll be your Support Waiter. What seems to be the problem? Patron: There's a fly in my soup! Waiter: Try again, maybe the fly won't be there this time. Patron: No, it's still there. …
Malware 30 Jun 2001, 11:40
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Readers' Letters The death of Vulture Central
Reg AMD impartiality presages integrity meltdown
Down the years we've been accused of just about every sort of bias going. One minute we're doing a hatchet job on MS, the next we're Bill gates' running dog lackeys. You think we're anti-Intel? Not this week - they just bought the company. Never, however, have we been condemned for showing no bias whatsoever. Until now. Take it …
Malware 30 Jun 2001, 11:40
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Ultimate in Internet security or anti-hacker hype?
Backlash against security firm founded by ex-KGB chief
A security firm headed by a former KGB agent has come under fire for claims its forthcoming products provide the ultimate solution to computer security problems. Invicta Networks, is developing security products that attempt to foil cracking attacks by using constantly changing IP addresses, which it claims "has the ability to …
Security 30 Jun 2001, 12:01
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UK govt poised to embrace open source for PKI standards
Credibility transplant for e-Envoy?
The UK government e-Envoy, he of the Microsoft-only Government portal, seems to have got religion after all. In what unkind individuals might term one of the great u-turns of our time, an open source approach to PKI currently looks very close to being adopted for the second round of PKI interoperability trials, to be conducted …
Security 30 Jun 2001, 12:02
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Type Me Your Password
Wireless keyboards = boon for hackers
Wireless keyboards are insecure and hackers can sniff-out every password you type on them. This is the verdict of a warning posted on Bugtraq by German security outfit Daten-Treuhand. The company has tested Logitech's Cordless Desktop product and outlined how a hacker could intercept a users' keystrokes. You connect your …
Security 30 Jun 2001, 12:02
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Network ICE hits back over Gibson jibes
BlackICE Defender is not a firewall
Network ICE has responded angrily to claims by security consultant Steve Gibson that its product, BlackICE Defender is "lame" and claims that it is "actually good for something fly in the face of logic and reality". Gibson made the strong comments during a widely-read piece on his grc.com Web site concerning DDoS attacks he was …
Security 30 Jun 2001, 12:02
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Network ICE CTO responds to further BlackICE criticisms
The jury's still out
The CTO of Network ICE, Robert Graham, has been in touch to support his BlackICE firewall product following recent criticisms by security consultant Steve Gibson that it's not up to the job. Graham initially responded (in a personal capacity) that Mr Gibson misunderstood BlackICE as simply a firewall - and that it's …
Security 30 Jun 2001, 12:02
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MS patches Exchange 2000 email spy bug
Outlook Web Access flaw
Crackers could ferret their way into a victim's email by exploiting the way that Exchange 2000 allows users to access their in-boxes over the Web. Microsoft has issued a patch; the flaw revolves around the interaction between Outlook Web Access and Internet Explorer in handling message attachments. If an attachment contains …
Security 30 Jun 2001, 12:02
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Risk managers run scared of online cockups
The buck stops somewhere over there
Companies are frightened about the risk to their reputations when they embark on e-commerce projects. A survey of risk managers at the annual conference of the Association of Insurance and Risk Managers (Airmic) also found unearthed concerns that it's difficult to get adequate insurance cover. The Financial Times reports that …
e-Business 30 Jun 2001, 12:02
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Miss World Virus finds few takers
Thinking with heads, for a change
Internet vandals have created an email-borne virus which attempts to trick users into spreading it by promising pictures of Miss World candidates. The Miss World bug is yet another mass mailing worm, which uses exactly the same tricks as the Anna Kournikova virus, Hompage bug (et al) to spread. The latest bug contains a highly …
Malware 30 Jun 2001, 12:03
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Michael Hauben, Netizen, dies
Our tribute
We learned today that Michael Hauben, who coined the term Netizen, died suddenly in New York on Wednesday. Michael had used BBSs as a boy from the early 1980s, and with his parents Ronda and Jay, contributed to the pioneering grassroots computer literacy efforts that followed the cancellation of programming classes for hourly …
Music and Media 30 Jun 2001, 12:04
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Hoax alert mimics real virus threat
Email warning about MS backup utility creates confusion
Anti-virus firms are fielding a large number of calls after a message warning of a virus called SULFNBK.EXE began circulating in large numbers on the Internet. An email doing the rounds on the net tells users to search their hard drives for a file called SULFNBK.EXE which, the message states, should be deleted because it is …
Malware 30 Jun 2001, 12:05
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Why Hotmail could spread viruses even faster than Outlook
Javascript exploit looks really nasty
A flaw in the web-based email services run by the likes of Yahoo! and Hotmail makes them conduits through which mass mailing email viruses can rapidly spread over the Internet. That's the serious warning contained in a posting to the BugTraq security mailing list by a security researcher who said that cross-site scripting …
Malware 30 Jun 2001, 12:05
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FOTW Beware of Greeks bearing email
Drew Cullen blows UN Secretary General post
Microsoft! Beware of Greeks (reading maps) Reg Editor Drew Cullen is renowned in the world of IT for his internationalist and multi-cultural sentiments. It's sad, then, to see a man who is commonly heard - in stark contrast to the opinions of many of his compatriots - to give forth on the richness of German and French culture …
Letters 30 Jun 2001, 12:14
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European police ill-equipped to tackle cybercrime
More Clouseau than Poirot?
Europe's police forces lack the equipment and training needed to tackle cybercrime, Interpol claims. Juergen Storbeck, who is head of Europol, the European branch of the international police agency Interpol, told a conference of law enforcement officers last week that police need more equipment, better training and more …
Letters 30 Jun 2001, 12:15
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@Home's mis-configured proxy Excites hacker
But only for three months
A single misconfigured server exposed broadband provider Excite@Home's internal corporate network to hackers for at least three months, making its customer list of 2.95 million cable modem subscribers accessible to anyone with a Web browser and a modicum of cyber smarts, SecurityFocus has learned. An Excite@Home spokesperson …
Letters 30 Jun 2001, 12:15
