home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Date: 28 Mar 93 15:37:16 EST
- From: Gordon Meyer <72307.1502@COMPUSERVE.COM>
- Subject: File 7--CU in the news
-
- Virus Advert Censored
- =====================
- The British Advertising Standards Authority has asked Total Control
- Ltd (U.K.) to stop running a particular ad for the VIS Anti Virus
- Utilities package. The ad appeared in a March 1992 edition of PC
- Week. ((Moderators' note: yes, 1992)
-
- The ad features two diskettes lying on pillows next to each other
- in bed. The headline read ''Before you put it in...make sure you
- know where it's been!''. The Authority found this to be offensive.
- (Infosecurity News. March/April 1993. Page 8)
-
- Tiger Team Penetrate IRS Computers
- ===================================
- A so-called ''Tiger Team'' of internal security agents has
- successfully
- penetrated two IRS computers, and were active in the system for
- seven
- days without being detected, according to a Knight-Ridder report.
-
- Agents posed as IRS employees ((not too difficult, considering they
- were! just kidding. - Moderators')) and entered facilities at
- Memphis,
- Tenn. and Ogden, Utah locations. Once inside they installed
- programs
- to steal passwords by capturing keystrokes. Later they used the
- stolen passwords to infiltrate the systems.
- (Infosecurity News. March/April 1993. Page 8)
-
- Computer Sabotage By Employees
- ==============================
- The March 8, 1993 issue of Information Week has a lengthy excerpt
- from
- _Sabotage In The American Workplace_. (Pressure Drop Press, San
- Francisco) Although the book has anecdotes from all types of
- workers,
- the Information Week extracts focus on those involving the use of
- computers.
- The following five stories are featured:
- - A programmer who planted a logic bomb.
- - A technician who undermined sales efforts.
- - A technical writer who works on outside projects during
- throughout the day.
- - A system designer who resolves problems by erasing data.
- - A stockbroker who generates random buy/sell transactions
- to see how the market will react.
-
- For more information see "Sabotage: They're Mad, They're Bad, They
- Just Don't Care. Workers Tell How They Use Computers to Strike
- Back". Pages 34-48
-
- Price Waterhouse's Hackers For Hire
- ===================================
- The Big Six accounting firm of Price Waterhouse is offering clients
- a "Security Penetration Study" in which former hackers and computer
- security experts will assess a systems security by attempting to
- break into it. Other services, such as employee awareness
- programs,
- are also offered.
- (Information Week. March 15, 1993. Page 8)
-
- PC's and Households
- ===================
- A Software Publishers Association (SPA) survey of 672 US households
- found that college graduates were twice as likely to have personal
- computers as non-graduates. Of the homes that had PC's, 56%
- boasted
- a household income in excess of $50,000. The survey also found
- that
- 75% of home computers are MS-DOS based, with more than half of
- those
- being 386 or 486 machines. Respondents also admitted that 40% of
- their entertainment software had been copied from friends, work, or
- school.
- {Moderators' Note: We'd speculate that much more than 40% of
- business
- software used at home is copied from others.}
- (Information Week. March 15, 1993. Page 66)
-
- AT&T Collects from Jiffy Lube
- =============================
- A US District Judge in Maryland has ruled that the automobile
- service
- company Jiffy Lube is responsible for fifty thousand dollars in
- unauthorized phone calls placed on its 800-number. Jiffy Lube had
- argued that it shouldn't be held liable for calls it did not
- authorize
- nor place, but the judge found that AT&T's tarrifs specify that
- customers are responsible for all calls.
- (Information Week. March 22, 1993. Page ??)
-
- Piracy Down, Jobs Still Lost
- ============================
- Windows Magazine (March 1993, pg 32) reports that although the SPA
- says business software piracy fell by 41% in 1992, it still
- represents
- a $1.2 Billion loss to the industry. That money is great than the
- cumulative revenue of 81 of the top 100 independent software
- developers.
- The SPA also estimates that stolen software cost 60,000 jobs in the
- industry.
-
- Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253
-