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IRS offers security assurances

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Despite a critical report revealing security gaps in the Internal Revenue Service's electronic filing system, the IRS is confident that the problems have been fixed, and the system is being upgraded.

Anthony Pell
Mar 20, 2001

National Infrastructure Protection Center Warnings - 2001 Predictions

The National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) is releasing this notice to provide system administrators developing information about a potential new network security vulnerability. The NIPC is still reviewing this information both for accuracy and to determine the level of threat. Further . . .

Anthony Pell
Mar 19, 2001

Digitized force to face cyberwar

The Army will allow an opposing force to conduct cyberwarfare against the first digitized division when it demonstrates the combat capabilities of the information technology-dependent force in April. The Army came under fire from critics within its own ranks, in Congress . . .

Anthony Pell
Mar 19, 2001

GAO knocks computer-export controls

A congressional investigator said Thursday the Clinton administration, in rules issued in its final days, failed to justify a decision to significantly relax controls on exports of high-performance computers. The Jan. 10 decision "fails to address all militarily significant uses for . . .

Anthony Pell
Mar 16, 2001

NIST tool analyzes security

The National Institute of Standards and Technology released draft guidance last week for agencies that are attempting to perform self-assessments of their information security programs. The draft Self-Assessment Guide for Information Technology Systems is a questionnaire that builds upon the Federal . . .

Anthony Pell
Mar 15, 2001

Feds escalate warning about e-commerce hacks

The federal government's central computer-crime bureau reported today that there is an ongoing and organized series of hacker attacks against e-commerce Web sites that has resulted in the theft of more than 1 million individual credit-card numbers.. . .

Anthony Pell
Mar 12, 2001

Carnegie Mellon, EIA Join Forces On Computer Security

The Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) has formed a new alliance with the nation's top federally funded computer security group in an effort to help companies evade computer security threats online.. . .

Anthony Pell
Mar 08, 2001

NSA and FBI big winners at Big Brother awards

The great and the good, when it comes to privacy invasion, have been "honoured" for their efforts to mess up life for the rest on us online. Privacy International last night handed out "Big Brother" awards to government agencies, companies . . .

Anthony Pell
Mar 08, 2001

FBI roots own systems to find spy's backdoor

The FBI is systematically searching for evidence that suspected double agent Robert Hanssen, who has computer programming skills, compromised systems at the Bureau and/or the State Department with some manner of malicious backdoor, according to an unnamed source quoted in Monday's . . .

Anthony Pell
Mar 07, 2001

Carnivore, cybercrime take prime time

Carnivore, cryptography and cybercrime are just a few of the topics on tap this week at a high-profile conference concerning recent developments in Internet policy and civil liberties. The Computers Freedom and Privacy Conference 2001 kicks off in Cambridge, Mass., . . .

Anthony Pell
Mar 06, 2001

Cyber-terrorism poses new threats to national security, and U.S. defense policy must anticipate the

You wake up one morning and realize that your power is out. The phone that acts as your lifeline to the world is also inoperative. The entire infrastructure on which you depend has been attacked and reduced to shorted circuits. Does . . .

Anthony Pell
Mar 06, 2001

Germany skeptical on US plans for Internet firewall

German industry and the German government responded with skepticism to the news of US plans to build a national defense shield, or firewall, against attacks on data networks. The spokesman for the German Interior Ministry, Rainer Lingenthal, said the process . . .

Anthony Pell
Mar 06, 2001

Uncle Sam: Where's the e-security?

Thirty-three months after a presidential order mandated that government agencies work to protect the United States' critical infrastructure, most have merely taken a few baby steps toward securing the country's computers and networks, according to a White House report. . . .

Anthony Pell
Mar 05, 2001

Congress examines hot-button Net privacy issue

Lawmakers and policy advisers convened Thursday at a hearing to examine privacy issues for the first time during the 107th Congress. A subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce met in Washington, D.C., to gain a broader understanding of . . .

Anthony Pell
Mar 01, 2001

US cyber-defense on track - report

Three years after declaring cyber-defense a national security priority, the United States government has won the trust of a once-skeptical tech industry, fortified security on military networks, and "created effective public-private partnerships" to combat computer attacks, according to a report released . . .

Anthony Pell
Mar 01, 2001

Tough Measures For Hackers, Surfers

Tough penalties for cyber-criminals are recommended in a new Australian review. The review, sought by federal, state and territory attorneys-general, recommends tough penalties for cyber-crime to deal with computer hacking, spamming, viral attacks, trespassing and data theft. It proposes jail terms . . .

Anthony Pell
Feb 27, 2001

Government e-security measures inadequate

The Government's attempt to fight hackers through the latest anti-terrorism legislation is flawed, according to legal and network security experts. Critics claim that the legislation covers attacks on utilities and hospitals, but has no provision for the prosecution of a . . .

Anthony Pell
Feb 27, 2001

DoJ sticks its nose in 2600.com DeCSS appeal

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has been granted permission by the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene in the case of Eric Corely aka Emmanuel Goldstein, publisher of hacker zine 2600 which got into hot water for posting, . . .

Anthony Pell
Feb 25, 2001

Justice Department sides with film industry

Uncle Sam is siding with the movie industry in a case that prevents a magazine from posting and linking to software that makes it possible to decrypt DVD security. In a filing submitted to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals . . .

Anthony Pell
Feb 23, 2001

US praises DeCSS non-publication decision

In an appeals court filing, the US government praises a lower-court ruling that bans the hacker magazine from posting the DeCSS decryption code Uncle Sam is siding with the movie industry in a case that prevents a magazine from . . .

Anthony Pell
Feb 23, 2001

German State Abandons Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

White House Warns: Move to Memory-Safe Languages

European Court of Human Rights Declares Backdoored Encryption Illegal