Wednesday News Feed 6/11/08

Out of cycle patch here:
Internet Explorer "substringData()" Memory Corruption Vulnerability - Highly critical - From remoteIssued 1 day ago. Updated 11 hours ago.
A vulnerability has been reported in Internet Explorer, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system.






OpenOffice 2.4.1 Out - Fixes One Vuln





CitectSCADA Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
If you don't know what SCADA systems are then read this and change your underwear...





The TSA has a new photo ID requirement:
Beginning Saturday, June 21, 2008 passengers that willfully refuse to provide identification at security checkpoint will be denied access to the secure area of airports. This change will apply exclusively to individuals that simply refuse to provide any identification or assist transportation security officers in ascertaining their identity.

This new procedure will not affect passengers that may have misplaced, lost or otherwise do not have ID but are cooperative with officers. Cooperative passengers without ID may be subjected to additional screening protocols, including enhanced physical screening, enhanced carry-on and/or checked baggage screening, interviews with behavior detection or law enforcement officers and other measures.

That's right; people who refuse to show ID on principle will not be allowed to fly, but people who claim to have lost their ID will. I feel well-protected against terrorists who can't lie.

I don't think any further proof is needed that the ID requirement has nothing to do with security, and everything to do with control.






Apple QuickTime Multiple Vulnerabilities - Highly critical - From remote
Issued 2 days ago. Updated 8 hours ago.
Some vulnerabilities have been reported in Apple QuickTime, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system.





Boycott spotlights antivirus testing issues Robert Lemos, 2008-06-09 Security firm Trend Micro refuses to apply for future VB100 certifications, highlighting a debate over how to best test antivirus software.





Safari flaw enables Windows attack






"Google largely conquered the Earth — now it is taking aim at space. At least co-founder Sergei Brin is. Brin today said he put down $5 million toward a flight to the International Space Station in 2011. Brin's space travel will be brokered by Space Adventures, the space outfit that sent billionaire software developer Charles Simonyi to the station in 2007. Computer game developer (and son of a former NASA astronaut) Richard Garriott is currently planning a mission to the ISS in October 2008. Garriott is paying at least $30 million to launch toward the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship according to Space Adventures."







"Researchers at Ohio State University and the University of California, Irvine conducted a telephone study by randomly surveying individuals employed full-time who use computers in an office environment at least five hours per week. They netted 912 respondents, of which 29.8 percent claimed to use IM in the workplace 'to keep connected with coworkers and clients.' Neither occupation, education, gender, nor age seem to have an impact on whether an individual is an IM user or not. The study theorizes that using IM enables individuals to 'flag their availability.' Doing so can limit when IM interruptions occur. Even if an IM interruption comes when it is not necessarily convenient to the recipient, it is 'often socially acceptable' to ignore an incoming message or respond with a terse reply stating that the recipient is too busy at the moment to properly respond."

Also another study recently found that water is wet, and a third study found that most studies waste money.






Overview of the Windows Server 2008 Firewall with Advanced Security Part 2: Inbound and Outbound Firewall Rules
by Thomas Shinder
Articles / Firewalls & VPNs
The inbound and outbound firewall rules that you can create to control incoming and outgoing connections to and from the Windows Server 2008 computer.







Dancho Danchev: Fake ImageShack site serving malware, links distributed over IM







Father's Day gifts for gadget freaks






Openoffice vs Microsoft Office







Microsoft has applied for a patent on a system for "device manner policy" (DMP). Basically, such a DMP system would restrict the use of certain features in certain locations. So, for example, a mobile phone that has the DMP technology might not be able to ring in a movie theater, but would instead shift to vibrate.






WILMINGTON, DEL. (CN) - LandSource Communities Development, whose assets include the 15,000-acre Newhall Land and Farming Co. north of Los Angeles, have filed for bankruptcy, listing more than $1 billion in debts. The California Public Employees' Retirement System, or CalPERS, owns 68% of LandSource; Lennar Corp. and Cerberus Capital Management's LNR Property each own 16% of it, Reuters reported.






This is not a phishing site. Now, be a good victim and enter your login credentials in the form!







Kaiser Permanente partners with Microsoft on health records
Sue Marquette Poremba June 10, 2008
Kaiser Permanente and Microsoft are partnering on a new pilot program to provide patients with better access to their medical records.







Faster, cheaper iPhone portends IT security headaches
Jim Carr June 09, 2008
While the throngs are going crazy about the new iPhone's lower cost and faster download speeds, IT professionals are gearing up for more security headaches from the Apple's latest smart phone.






Tuesday, June 10, 2008 11:52 AM
MS08-036: PGM? What is PGM?
This morning we released MS08-036 to fix two denial-of-service vulnerabilities in the Windows implementation of the Pragmatic General Multicast (PGM) protocol (RFC 3208). You probably have never heard of PGM. Only one engineer on our team had ever heard of it and he previously worked as a tester on the core network components team. PGM is a multicast transport protocol that guarantees reliable delivery from multiple sources to multiple receivers. It is a layer 4 transport protocol, peer to TCP and UDP.






Secret Spy Court Repeatedly Questions FBI Eavesdropping Network









Tech Problem Stumps Yahoo, Forces Mail Features RollbackPC World - Tue Jun 10, 9:10 PM ET
Yahoo is rolling back security and anti-spam enhancements to its Webmail service because they interfered with users' ability...







Hacker Pleads Guilty to Attacking Anti-phishing Group PC World - Tue Jun 10, 7:00 PM ET
A California hacker pleaded guilty to launching a computer attack last year that almost knocked the Castlecops anti-phishing...







10 Tips To Keep Your Kids Safe Online By Grey McKenzie Today





Russian Drug Maker GlavMed Teams Up With Spammers To Make Millions By Grey McKenzie Today





Canadian Law Enforcement Partners With Microsoft To Deal With Cyber Security By Grey McKenzie Today





Electronic Audit Trails From 259,761 High-Risk Consumers Prove Consumer Participation Can Virtually Eliminate New Account Fraud By Grey McKenzie Yesterday





FBI Charges Blind Phone Phreak With Intimidating a Verizon Security Official By Grey McKenzie Yesterday






Police Routinely Gain Access to Cellphone Information
Law enforcement rarely have trouble gaining access to cellphone information from service providers. If the request for information comes within the cellphone service providers retention period then it is often shared with police.
Law Enforcement Use of Cell Info Raises New Privacy Concerns, Heartland Institute, (June 8, 2008)








Cellphone Users' Locations Tracked by Study
A study that used data on 100,000 cellphone users' locations was published in "Nature." The study found that 75% of those tracked remained within a 20-mile radius of their home. Participation in the study was nonconsensual. The research involved information provided by cellphone service providers on its users. Similar tracking of US cellphone customers is technically possible be illegal without the user's permission.
Study tracking people via cell phone raises privacy issues, CNet News.com, June 5, 2008







Researchers Link Storm Botnet to Illegal Pharmaceutical Sales - 6/11/2008 10:10:00 AM Prescription drug spammers are bankrolling botnet's growth, IronPort study says






Major Security Vendors' Sites Could Be Launchpads for Phishing Attacks - 6/10/2008 10:45:00 AM McAfee, Symantec, and VeriSign sites all found to contain cross-site scripting flaws






Safari 'carpet bomb' attack code released






Microsoft hires antiphishing crusader
June 10, 2008 (IDG News Service) Microsoft Corp. has hired Paul Laudanski, the man behind the antiphishing CastleCops.com Web site, to help with the software company's phishing and spam investigations.

Laudanski, a former volunteer firefighter, announced the move on CastleCops.com last week, saying that he's looking to find someone else to run the site that he founded in 2002.
With his new job at Microsoft, he simply doesn't have time to keep up with the CastleCops work, he said in an interview on Tuesday. "I won't be able to ensure the same kind of support that I was able to provide in the past," he said. "I won't be able to do it justice."

CastleCops had been a full-time job for Laudanski and his wife, Robin, since 2005.

At Microsoft, he will work as an Internet safety investigator for Microsoft's live consumer services group. Microsoft has a large Internet safety enforcement team that works with law enforcement to fight spam, viruses, botnets, typo-squatting and even child pornography on the Internet.

At CastleCops, Laudanski managed a team of about 120 volunteers who processed user-submitted spam, phishing and malicious code reports. The group worked as a clearinghouse for complaints and was often active in taking down malicious Web sites and servers. On a typical day, it processes about 1,000 phishing attempts, Laudanski said.

CastleCops clearly has the attention of the bad guys.

Last year, it was attacked by Gregory King, a 21-year-old hacker who operated a botnet network of 7,000 hacked computers. On Tuesday, King pleaded guilty to attacking CastleCops with a distributed denial-of-service attack and is facing a two-year prison sentence.