contributed by Whoever
A new article in the Buffer Overflow section wonders what the net would be like if security vulnerabilities where not released to the public? If secrets where kept and exchanged only among those who found them what sort of internet would we have?

Buffer Overflow

contributed by McIntyre
The General Accounting Office released a report yesterday (Thursday) that labels 135 of 155 of NASAs mission-critical systems as not meeting the agency's own requirements for security. The GAO enlisted the help of the NSA to simulate an attack on NASA using publicly available tools such as war dialers. Although NASA performed an internal review of its information security policies last May that found many of the same problems identified by the GAO, few of the recommended fixes had been implemented. Satellite command and control systems as well as launch controls are not linked to the internet and where not at risk during these simulated attacks.

MSNBC
Federal Computer Week

Late Update This report is now available online.

GAO Report

contributed by McIntyre
Yet another Cold Fusion hole is responsible for the security breeches of the web site of the state of Vermont. Bob West, the state's deputy chief information officer, claimed the state's computers that contain the home page and other public documents are not considered secure against computer attack. (There are a lot of pretty funny, or pretty sad, quotes in this article.)

HNN Cracked Pages Archive
The Boston Globe

contributed by erewhon
The House Science Committee will soon push to update the 1989 Computer Security Act. The new bill will closely resemble the Computer Security Enhancement Act of 1997 which never made it out of the Senate. This new legislation would tap the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as the lead agency for information security. (What about NIPC, CERT, and the FBI? How many agencies do we need?) The new bill also push for increased federal use of commercial off-the-shelf products for security needs.

Federal Computer Week

contributed by wdef-A
Symantec and Network Associates have posted new definitions to eradicate the 097M.Tristate macro virus. This new virus also known as Triplicate and Crown cross-infects Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations. The virus has the ability to destroy data and removes virus-warning protection from both Excel and Word.

PC World

contributed by The Silicon Sorceror
According to the Toronto Star, "online hackers" used ballot stuffing to spoil an online poll to find the popular winner of Ontario's political candidate debate. The poll was designed so that each person could vote only once, but apparently it wasn't designed well enough and "some political junkies with computer skills had the time to write programs defeating the precautions" (Translation: Somebody clicked their mouse button about 5 times and banged out a script).

The Toronto Star

contributed by Code Kid
The San Francisco Housing and Social Policy Committee will soon classify laser pointers in the same category as spray paint, making it illegal for those under 18 to purchase or posses them. Since limiting the sale of spray paint cans has worked exceedingly well in preventing graffiti in major cities it is thought that a similar ban on laser pointers would be equally effective.

San Francisco Examiner

contributed by {b|4iz3}
DSC v1.01 has been released. DSC is a new e-zine for those who are learning the "first steps" into learning computer security. A Good setup and easy read ablility are among the best parts of this new e-zine. Get yours today.

DSC v1.01 Released (bl4iz3.faithweb.com/hacking)

contributed by Space Rogue
The HNN Search engine has _finally_ been fixed. It is a much better than the previous one, it now returns content as opposed to titles and does result ranking. Thanks to Weld Pond for helping out with that. Also the HNN Store has been updated with a few new products, so check them out.

HNN Search Page
HNN Store

contributed by Anonymous
Cracked
The following have been reported to HNN as Cracked
http://uc.uww.edu
http://www.assassination.org
http://www.compdisk.com
http://askiris.toshiba.com
http://actinic.com