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- ==Phrack Inc.==
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- Volume Four, Issue Thirty-Eight, File 15 of 15
-
- PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN PWN
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- PWN Phrack World News PWN
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- PWN Issue XXXVIII / Part Three of Three PWN
- PWN PWN
- PWN Compiled by Dispater & Friends PWN
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- PWN Special Thanks to Datastream Cowboy PWN
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-
-
- CFP-2: Sterling Speaks For "The Unspeakable" March 25, 1992
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- By Barbara E. McMullen & John F. McMullen (Newsbytes)
-
- WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Bruce Sterling, the prime luncheon speaker at the 2nd
- Annual Conference On Computers Freedom & Privacy (CFP-2), fulfilled his program
- billing as "Speaking for the Unspeakable" by taking on three separate persona
- and delivering what might have been their messages.
-
- Sterling, best known as a science fiction writer, spoke for three characters, a
- "a malicious hacker," a Latin American police official, and a Hong Kong
- businessman, who were, in his words, "too venal, violent, treacherous, power-
- mad, suspicious, or meanspirited to receive (or accept) an invitation to
- attend."
-
- Sterling began his speech by introducing himself and then saying, "When the CFP
- committee asked me if I might recommend someone to speak here at CFP-2, I had
- an immediate candidate. I thought it would be great if we could all hear from
- a guy who's been known as Sergei. Sergei was the KGB agent runner for the
- Chaos Computer Club group who broke into Cliff Stoll's computer in the famous
- Cuckoo's Egg case. Now Sergei is described as a stocky bearded Russian
- espionage professional in his mid-40s. He's married, has kids and his hobby
- is fishing, in more senses than one, apparently. Sergei used to operate out of
- East Berlin, and, as far as I personally know, Sergei's operation was the
- world's first and only actual no-kidding, real-life case of international
- computer espionage. So I figured -- why not send Yelsin a fax and offer Sergei
- some hard currency; things are pretty lean over at KGB First Directorate these
- days. CFP could have flown this guy in from Moscow on a travel scholarship and
- I'm sure that a speech from Sergei would be far more interesting than anything
- I'm likely to offer here. My proposal wasn't taken up and instead I was asked
- to speak here myself. Too bad!
-
- "This struck me as rather a bad precedent for CFP which has struggled hard to
- maintain a broad universality of taste. Whereas you're apparently willing to
- tolerate science fiction writers, but already certain members of the computer
- community, KGB agents, are being quietly placed beyond the pale. But you know,
- ladies and gentlemen, just because you ignore someone doesn't mean that person
- ceases to exist -- and you've not converted someone's beliefs merely because
- you won't listen. But instead of Comrade Sergei, here I am -- and I am a
- science fiction writer and, because of that, I rejoice in a complete lack of
- any kind of creditability!
-
- "Today I hope to make the best of that anomalous position. Like other kinds of
- court jesters, science fiction writers are sometimes allowed to speak certain
- kinds of unspeakable truth, if only an apparent parody or metaphor. So today,
- ladies and gentlemen, I will exercise my inalienable civil rights as a science
- fiction writer to speak up on behalf of the excluded and the incredible. In
- fact, I plan to abuse my talents as a writer of fiction to actually recreate
- some of these excluded, incredible unspeakable people for you and to have them
- address you today. I want these people, three of them, to each briefly address
- this group just as if they were legitimately invited here and just as if they
- could truly speak their mind right here in public without being arrested."
-
- Sterling then went on to assure the crowd that he was not speaking his personal
- conviction, only those of his characters, and warned the group that some of the
- material might be offensive. He then launched into the delivery of his
- characters' speeches -- speeches which had the hacker talking about real damage
- -- "the derailing of trains"; the Latin police official, a friend and admirer
- of Noriega, discussing the proper way of dealing with hackers; and the
- businessman explaining way, in the age of high speed copiers, laser printers
- and diskette copying devices, the US copyright laws are irrelevant.
-
- Often intercepted by laughter and applause, Sterling received a standing
- ovation at the conclusion of the speech. Computer Press Association newsletter
- editor Barbara McMullen was overhead telling Sterling that he had replaced
- "Alan Kay as her favorite luncheon speaker," while conference chair Lance
- Hoffman, who had received an advance copy of the speech a few weeks before,
- described the speech as "incredible and tremendous".
-
- Sterling, relaxing after the talk with a glass of Jack Daniels, told Newsbytes
- that the speech had been fun but a strain, adding, "Next time they'll really
- have to get Sergei. I'm going back to fiction."
-
- Sterling's non-fiction work on computer crime, "The Hacker Crackdown" is due
- out from Bantam in the fall and an audio tape of the CFP-2 speech is available
- >from Audio Archives. He is the author of "Islands In The Net" and is the co-
- author, with William Gibson, of the presently best-selling "The Difference
- Engine."
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
- The Bruce Sterling luncheon video tape is now available, sizzling, and
- affordable to the Phrack readers.
-
- $19.95 + $4 (shipping and handling)
-
- Call now: (800)235-4922
- or
- CFP Video Library Project
- P.O. Box 912
- Topanga, CA 90290
-
- Tell them you heard about it from The WELL and you'll get the above price.
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
- CFP-2 Features Role-Playing FBI Scenario March 25, 1992
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- By Barbara E. McMullen (Newsbytes)
-
- WASHINGTON, D.C.-- As part of the "Birds-of-a-Feather" (BOF) sessions featured
- at the 2nd Conference on Computers, Freedom & Privacy (CFP-2), FBI Agent J.
- Michael Gibbons, acting as a live gamemaster, orchestrated the play-acting of
- an investigation by federal agents into allegations of computer intrusion and
- criminal activity.
-
- The scenario, set up by Gibbons to show the difficulties faced by investigators
- in balancing the conducting of an investigation with a protection of the rights
- of the individual under investigation, was acted out with non-law enforcement
- officials cast in the role of investigators; New York State Police Senior
- Investigator Donald Delaney as "Doctor Doom," the suspected ringleader of the
- computer criminals; Newsbytes New York Bureau Chief John McMullen as a
- magistrate responsible for considering the investigators' request for a search
- warrant; and author Bruce Sterling as a neighbor and possible cohort of Doctor
- Doom.
-
- Gibbons, in his role of Gamemaster, regularly intercepted the action to involve
- the audience in a discussion of what the appropriate next step in the scenario
- would be -- "Do you visit the suspect or get a search warrant or visit his
- school or employer to obtain more information? Do you take books in the search
- and seizure? Printers? Monitors? etc." During the discussion with the
- audience, points of law were clarified by Mike Godwin, Electronic Frontier
- Foundation in-house counsel, and Alameda County Assistant District Attorney
- Donald Ingraham.
-
- The role-playing session immediately followed a BOF panel, "Hackers: Why Don't
- They Understand" which attempted to present a hacker view of on-line ethics.
- The panel, moderated by McMullen, was composed of Steven Levy, MacWorld
- columnist and author of "Hackers"; Dorothy Denning, Chair of Computer Science
- at Georgetown University; Glenn Tenney, California Congressional candidate and
- chair of the annual "Hacker's Conference"; Craig Neidorf, defendant in a
- controversial case involving the electronic publishing of a stolen document;
- "Dispater," the publisher of the electronic publication "Phrack"; Emmanuel
- Goldstein, editor and publisher of "2600: The Hacker Quarterly," and hacker
- "Phiber Optik."
-
- During the panel discussion, Levy, Denning and Tenney discussed the roots of
- the activities that we now refer to as hacking, Goldstein and Dispater
- described what they understood as hacking and asked for an end to what they see
- as overreaction by the law enforcement community, Neidorf discussed the case
- which, although dropped by the government, has left him over $50,000 in debt;
- and Phiber Optik described the details of two searches and seizures of his
- computer equipment and his 1991 arrest by Delaney.
-
- In Neidorf's talk, he called attention to the methods used in valuing the
- stolen document that he published as $78,000. He said that it came out after
- the trial that the $78,000 included the full value of the laser printer on
- which it was printed, the cost of the word processing system used in its
- production and the cost of the workstation on which it was entered. Neidorf's
- claims were substantiated by EFF counsel Godwin, whose filing of a motion in
- the Steve Jackson cases caused the release of papers including the one referred
- to by Neidorf. Godwin also pointed out that it was the disclosure by
- interested party John Nagle that the document, valued at $78,000, was
- obtainable in a book priced at under $20.00 that led to the dropping of the
- charges by the US Attorney's office.
-
- SRI security consultant Donn Parker, one of the many in the audience to
- participate, admonished Phiber and other hackers to use their demonstrated
- talents constructively and to complete an education that will prepare them for
- employment in the computer industry. Another audience member, Charles Conn,
- described his feeling of exhilaration when, as a 12-year old, he "hacked" into
- a computer at a local Kentucky Fried Chicken. Conn said "It was wonderful. It
- was like a drug. I just wanted to explore more and more."
-
- Parker later told Newsbytes that he thought that it was a mistake to put
- hackers such as Phiber Optik and those like Craig Neidorf who glorify hackers
- on a panel. Parker said, "Putting them on a panel glorifies them to other
- hackers and makes the problem worse."
-
- The Birds-of-a-Feather sessions were designed to provide an opportunity for
- discussions of topics that were not a part of the formal CFP-2 program.
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
- Computer Revenge A Growing Threat March 9, 1992
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- By Tom Steinert-Threlkeld (Dallas Morning News)
- Article in the Chicago Tribune, Page C3
-
- The "downsizing" of corporate America is not only making companies lean and
- mean.
-
- It's doing the same thing to employees losing their jobs, said Thomas F. Ellis,
- a partner in Arthur Andersen & Co.'s Computer Risk Management Services.
-
- He looks at the latest form of revenge by employee against former employer.
- Fraud, embezzlement and theft of secrets are no longer the only forms of
- frustrated payback. The calling card in the digital age is computer sabotage.
-
- It's an invisible epidemic that corporations don't like to talk about while
- they're trying to convince banks and creditors they are becoming more efficient
- by downsizing, said Ellis and William Hugh Murray, information systems security
- consultant to Deloitte & Touche, another of the Big Six accounting firms.
-
- "A lot of the business trends in the U.S. are really threatening data
- security," said Sanford M. Sherizen, a Natick, Massachusetts computer security
- consultant. "Corporations are paying a huge price for it," without disclosing
- it.
-
- The downsizing has led to inadequate attention to security precautions, argues
- Sherizen. The underlying trend: Fewer and fewer people are being given more
- and more responsibility for information systems.
-
- That breeds opportunity for revenge, said Sherizen. No longer does only the
- supposedly misfit hacker, gulping down Cokes and Fritos in the middle of the
- night, merit watching. Sherizen's worldwide set of clients have found that the
- middle manager wearing the white shirt and tie in the middle of the day also
- deserves scrutiny, he says.
-
- Those managers, if mistreated, find it inviting to strike back creatively. The
- VTOC, for example.
-
- This is jargon for the Volume Table of Contents. This is a directory a
- computer compiles to keep track of where programs and data are stored. A large
- Andersen client was paralyzed recently when a VTOC in its information system
- was scrambled by a downsizing victim, Ellis said.
-
- "If you destroy the VTOC in a mainframe system, then you destroy the computer's
- ability to go out and find programs and data, so you can pretty effectively
- devastate a computer installation by destroying the VTOC, without ever touching
- the programs and data," he said.
-
- But those bent on revenge are not above leaving time bombs in computer systems
- that will go off after their departure, destroying programs and data.
-
- They also are appropriating information from magnetic memories and selling it
- at hefty prices in the burgeoning field known euphemistically as "commercial
- business intelligence," said Sherizen.
-
- Most companies hush up these cases, because they fear copycat avengers will
- strike when their vulnerability is exposed. They also don't like to be
- publicly embarrassed, the security experts say.
-
- Technical safeguards don't hold a candle to human safeguards, said Murray.
-
- The best way to protect against sabotage is to prevent disaffection in the
- first place. Treat as well as possible those who are being fired. Compensate
- fairly those who are staying.
-
- Show appreciation, day in and day out. Most revenge is slow to boil and comes
- >from employees who finally conclude that their contributions are going
- unrecognized, said Murray.
-
- "Saying 'please' and 'thank you' are an incredibly important control" against
- sabotage, he said.
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
- Computer Crime Problem Highlighted March 9, 1992
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- By Oscar Rojo (Toronto Star)(Page B3)
-
- With the growing corporate dependence on computers, "information crimes" have
- become easier to commit but harder to detect, says a Toronto-based security
- company.
-
- "Electronic intrusion is probably the most serious threat to companies that
- rely on computerized information systems," Intercon Security Ltd. says in its
- Allpoints publication.
-
- Allpoints cited a study of 900 businesses and law enforcement agencies in
- Florida showing that one of four businesses had been the victim of some form of
- computer crime.
-
- "While most of the media attention has focused on "hackers," individuals who
- deliberately and maliciously try to disrupt business and government systems,
- one estimate indicates that 75 per cent plus of electronic intrusion crimes may
- be "insider attacks" by disgruntled employees," the publication said.
-
- In Intercon's experience, vice-president Richard Chenoweth said the company is
- as likely to find a corporate crime committed by a disgruntled employee as one
- perpetrated by an outsider.
-
- Intercon said the technology exists to guard against most electronic
- intrusions. "The problem is that many information managers still don't believe
- there is a risk, so they are not making the best possible use of what is
- available."
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
- Criminals Move Into Cyberspace April 3, 1992
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- By Mick Hurrell (The Times)(Features Section)
-
- The hacker and the virus programmer embodied the popular notion of computer
- crime in the 1980s, and they are still the most widely known criminal acts in
- computer technology.
-
- The advent of new technologies over the past decade has created a whole new
- casebook of serious crimes, but they have yet to gain the notoriety of computer
- viruses such as Friday 13th or Michelangelo.
-
- More then 3,000 computer crimes around the world in the past 20 years have now
- been documented by SRI International (SRII), a Californian information security
- consultancy. They include attempted murder, fraud, theft, sabotage, espionage,
- extortion, conspiracy and ransom collection.
-
- Against this disturbing background, Donn Parker, SRII's senior international
- security consultant, is telling businesses they will be under increasing attack
- >from sophisticated criminals using computer technology and from others intent
- on causing disruption.
-
- "New technology brings new opportunities for crime," he says. "We must
- anticipate future types of crime in our security efforts before they become
- serious problems."
-
- His prospective list ranges from the annoying to the fraudulent, and includes
- small computer theft, desktop forgery, digital imaging piracy, voice and
- electronic mail terrorism, fax graffiti attacks, electronic data interchange
- fraud, and placement of unauthorized equipment in networks.
-
- Some of these crimes are more obvious than others. The advanced digital
- imaging systems now being used in the television and film industry to create
- spectacular special effects, for example, could become a new target for crime.
- As digital imaging can alter video images seamlessly, the possibilities for
- sophisticated fraud are numerous.
-
- The theft of small computers and components has already increased. "I think
- it will be worse than the typewriter theft problem of the 1970s and 1980s," Mr.
- Parker says. "We are now teaching information-security people that they have
- to learn how to protect small objects of high value. The content of the
- computers could be more valuable than the hardware itself.
-
- "I do not think the criminal community is yet aware of a computer's value other
- than on the used equipment market, but ultimately some are going to figure out
- that the contents the data are more valuable, which could lead to information
- being used for extortion."
-
- Desktop forgery is another crime that looks certain to boom and plague
- businesses of all types. Desktop publishing software, combined with the latest
- color laser printers and photocopiers, is proving an ideal forger's tool. Gone
- is the dingy cellar with printing plates and press: Forgers can work from
- comfortable offices or their own homes and produce more accurate fakes than
- ever before.
-
- Original documents can be fed into a computer using a scanner, then subtly
- altered before being printed out. Business documents such as purchase orders
- and invoices are obvious targets for the forgers, as are checks. The quality
- of a forgery is now limited only by the paper on which it is printed.
-
- Mr. Parker says: "As the technology gets cheaper and more available, this is
- something that could flourish."
-
- But although many of these new forms of computer crime bring with them the
- possibility of increased business losses, one threat overshadows them all. "The
- big security issues are going to involve networks and the connection of
- computers to many others outside an organization," says Rod Perry, a partner
- with Coopers & Lybrand Deloitte, the consultants.
-
- The fear is that sophisticated criminals will take advantage of a clash between
- the desire for system flexibility and the constraint necessarily imposed by
- security. Mr. Perry adds: "The business need is paramount, and people will
- accept the risk up to a point."
-
- Networks are attractive because they allow information to be easily transferred
- between users, and give free and easy access to data bases from many locations
- within an organization that can extend across countries and continents. Making
- them secure against interference from both outside and within is difficult.
-
- Mr. Parker says: "Today's microcomputers and local and global networks have
- left information security far behind. We are dealing with what we call
- cyberspace. We are connecting our networks so that we now have a single
- worldwide network of data communications.
-
- "We have inadvertently freed the criminal from proximity to the crime. A
- criminal can be anywhere in the world, enter cyberspace by computer, and commit
- a crime anywhere else. The criminal is free to choose the jurisdiction area
- >from which he works, to minimize the punishment if he gets caught."
-
- The great concern, he says, is if technological advances result in an "anarchy
- of conflicting security efforts. Consistent security practices should be
- applied uniformly as well as globally.
-
- "When organizations in different countries with different national laws,
- different ways of valuing information assets, and different national ethical
- customs, use equipment from different manufacturers in their networks, they
- face the problem of matching their levels of security. They use the lowest
- common denominator, which in some instances may be practically non-existent."
-
- Some computer security consultants believe that network security headaches will
- involve some restriction in how they are used. All agree that passwords no
- longer offer appropriate forms of security.
-
- Professor Roger Needham, of the University of Cambridge computing laboratory,
- says: "At the moment, there is a lot of shoddy computer use, but it will
- become more usual to take security seriously. In the world of doing business
- with paper, there are a tremendous number of rules of practice and conduct that
- are second nature; security procedures in the electronic medium will also have
- to become second nature."
-
- SRII is developing software for what it says will be the world's most
- sophisticated detection system, designed to identify criminal users as they
- commit their crime.
-
- Called IDES (Intruder Detection using Expert Systems), it works on the basis
- that a system intruder is likely to show a different behavior pattern from that
- of a legitimate user. IDES is programmed with a set of algorithms that build
- up profiles of how particular employees typically use the system. It can then
- inform the company's security division if it identifies any significant
- deviation.
-
- IDES also monitors the whole system for failed log-in attempts and the amount
- of processor time being used, and compares this with historical averages.
-
- A future refinement will allow the system to profile groups of subjects so that
- it can tell, for example, when a secretary is not behaving like a "typical"
- secretary.
-
- Business crime and computer crime will increasingly become one and the same,
- Mr. Parker says. Security will be increasingly built in to systems and
- "transparent" to the user.
-
- "I think the overall loss to business from computer crime will decrease," he
- says. "But the loss per incident will increase because the risks and the
- potential gains will be greater."
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
- PWN QuickNotes
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- 1. New Law Enforcement Bulletin Board (Government Technology, January 1992,
- Page 17) -- St. Paul, Minnesota -- The International Association of Chiefs
- of Police (IACP) and LOGIN Information Services has announced IACP NET, a
- new computer network that will link law enforcement professionals
- nationwide. The network uses advanced computer capabilities to foster and
- empower IACP's belief that strength through cooperation is the key to the
- success of law enforcement endeavors.
-
- Communications services will be the interaction focus. An electronic mail
- feature allows private messaging among IACP NET members. Exchange of ideas
- will be encouraged and facilitated through electronic bulletin boards on
- general subject areas and computer conferencing on specific topics.
- Anchoring the communications service is the Quest-Response Service, a
- service created and proven successful by LOGIN that allows members to post
- and respond to requests for information in a formatted and accessible
- manner.
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
- 2. ATMs Gobble Bankcards In Colorado (Denver Post, February 19, 1992) -- About
- 1,000 Colorado ATM users had their Visas and Mastercards abruptly terminated
- in February by an out-of-control computer system.
-
- For 90 minutes during the President's Day weekend, the Rocky Mountain
- Bankcard System software told ATMS around the state to eat the cards instead
- of dishing out cash or taking deposits. The "once-in-a-decade" glitch went
- unnoticed because it occurred as programmers were patching in a correction
- to a different problem.
-
- The company is rushing new plastic and letters of apology to customers who
- got terminated.
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
- 3. Minister Denies Hackers Tampered With Licence Records (Chris Moncrieff,
- Press Association, January 27, 1992) -- Allegations that computer experts
- hacked into the records of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in
- Swansea are without substance and are to be retracted, Roads and Traffic
- Minister Christopher Chope said.
-
- He was responding in a Commons-written reply to Donald Anderson (Lab Swansea
- East), who had asked what investigations had been made following a report
- that hackers had been able to erase driving convictions from DVLA computer
- files. Mr. Chope said, "The Agency has discussed the recent allegations
- about unauthorized access to its computer records with the author of the
- original Police Review article, who has confirmed that there is no substance
- to them. "The author has agreed to retract the allegations in his next
- article." Mr. Anderson commented, "The importance of this reply is that it
- underlines the integrity of the system of driver-licence records held in
- Swansea in spite of the allegations."
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
- 4. Software Virus Found At INTEL (New York Times News Service, March 3, 1992)
- -- Intel Corporation said it had stopped shipping a computer network
- software program because some units were found to be infected with the
- "Michelangelo" virus, a program that infects IBM and compatible personal
- computers and can potentially destroy data.
-
- A division of Intel in Hillsboro, Oregon, said it had shipped more than 800
- copies of the program, called LANSpool 3.01, which inadvertently contained
- the virus. The virus is designed to activate on March 6, Michelangelo's
- birthday, and can erase data and programs if it is not detected with
- antiviral software.
-
- The company said it had checked its software with a virus-scanning program
- before shipping it, but that it had failed to detect the virus.
-
- A number of computer makers and software publishers have issued similar
- alerts about the Michelangelo program and a variety of companies are now
- offering free software to check for the virus.
-
- There are more than 1,000 known software viruses that can copy themselves
- from computer to computer by attaching to programs and files.
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
- 5. Army Wants Virii (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, December 1991, Page 5)
-
- "Attention Hackers, Uncle Sam Wants You!"
-
- The U.S. Army has caught the computer virus bug and is now expanding its
- interest in germ warfare to include electronic germs.
-
- The Army Center for Signal Warfare is soliciting proposals for the
- development of a "weaponized virus" or a piece of "malicious software" that
- could destroy an enemy's computers or software (_Technology Review_, October
- 1991). As project engineer Bob Hein explained, "This is the army. We're in
- the weapons business."
-
- Hein said the army first became interested in the potential of computer
- viruses as offensive weapons after Myron Cramer's 1989 article in _Defense
- Electronics_ suggested that computer viruses offered "a new class of
- electronic warfare." But Gary Chapman, director of Computer Professionals
- for Social Responsibility, thinks it is more likely that the army's interest
- was piqued by a French science fiction novel, _Soft War_, describing army
- infiltration of Soviet computers.
-
- Chapman, who called that army's plan to design killer computer viruses a
- "stupid policy," said that any viruses the army comes up with are more
- likely to paralyze the heavily networked U.S. computer system than to
- infiltrate enemy computers.
-
- Hein insisted that the army will develop only controllable and predictable
- bugs that will not threaten U.S. computer users. Chapman pointed out that,
- like the biological agents they are named for, computer viruses are, by
- their very nature, uncontrollable.
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
- 6. BellSouth's MobilComm and Swiss watchmaker Swatch said they will form joint
- venture to market wristwatch pager. The watch will cost about $200 and will
- be sold in department stores. It will bear name of "Piepser," the German
- word for "beeper," using 4 tones to signal the wearer. Each signal is
- activated by a telephone number that owner assigns. In the 4th quarter of
- year, Swatch said it plans to introduce a model that can display telephone
- numbers. (Source: Communications Daily, March 5, 1992, Page 4)
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
- 7. U.S. District Judge Harold Greene denied several new motions by Nynex in a
- criminal case being brought by the Justice Department, charging the phone
- company with violating MFJ (Modified Final Judgment) through subsidiary
- Telco Research. The government also filed a new motion of its own, later
- denied, requesting Greene to hold a pretrial hearing to look into "actual or
- potential conflicts of interest" resulting from individuals to be called as
- witnesses for prosecution being represented by Nynex's law firm, Davis, Polk
- & Wardwell. DoJ said: "It appears that Davis, Polk represents present and
- former employes of Nynex in addition to the corporation." Nynex issued a
- statement saying it's "confident" that the trial would "confirm to our
- customers," shareholders, and the public that it has fully met its
- responsibilities under MFJ. Greene, having dismissed Nynex motions, set
- an April 6 trial date. (Communications Daily, March 24, 1992, Page 5)
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
- 8. US West has formed a subsidiary, US West Enhanced Services, that launched
- its first product, Fax Mail. The subsidiary will develop other products for
- the enhanced-services market, including voice, fax and data applications,
- the company said. Test marketing of Fax Mail was conducted in Boise and was
- product-introduced in Denver. US West described its new product as "voice
- mail for faxes," in that it stores incoming faxes until the subscriber calls
- in and instructs the service to print the waiting fax. Each fax mail
- subscriber is supplied with a personal fax telephone number. When a fax is
- received, Fax Mail can notify the subscriber automatically by depositing a
- message in voice mail or beeping a pager. The service costs $19.95 per
- month, US West said. (Communications Daily, March 24, 1992, Page 6)
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
- 9. Hacker Insurance -- Worried about the integrity of your bank's data network?
- Relax. Commercial banks and other depository institutions can now obtain up
- to $50 million in coverage for losses due to computer-related crime. A new
- policy from Aetna Casualty and Surety Co. offers insurance against computer
- viruses, software piracy, and toll-call fraud, among other high-tech rip-
- offs. The Hartford, Connecticut insurer will also cover liabilities due to
- service bureau and communications failures with Aetna Coverage for Computer
- and Electronic Network Technology. Paul A. Healy, VP of Aetna's fidelity
- bond unit, says "the policy will help institutions manage the risk
- associated with the changing technology." (Information Week, March 30,
- 1992, Page 16)
- _______________________________________________________________________________
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