contributed by Code Kid
Analyzer (Eric Tenenbaum) is still awaiting the final outcome in his trial in Israel after he was accused of breaking into the Pentagon computer systems. While waiting he has teamed up with three college students and hopes to raise 4.5 to 5 million dollars to create a security software package.

Israel Business Globe

contributed by oolong
While John Vranesevich is attempting to discredit his accusers with personal attacks there still has not been a factual response to the accusations that he is in some way involved with attacks against some very high profile sites. OSAII has turned up some contradictory statements between what Mr. Vranesevich told them and what he told Wired. For those that missed them we will provide all of the relevant links.

Attrition Report on John Vranesevich
John Vranesevich Rebuttal
Wired Online
Telepolis- German
Open letter from Bronc Buster
OSAII

contributed by Sinbad
The Software Information & Industry Association has released a report that claims that the US is responsible for $2.9Bil worth of software piracy. The top ten cities alone represented $1Bil of that money. New York City was named the worst offending city with a piracy amount estimated at $259 million. It is kind of interesting how they come up with these numbers.

Wired
Software Information & Industry Association

contributed by oolong
The US Congress and the NSA seem to be butting heads over ECHELON. While all this sounds altruistic, you can bet that it's the beginning of a high level power struggle over who controls the information.

Federal Computer Week

contributed by scaredykat
The fears of a societal collapse on Jan 1st due to the Y2K issue has been a boon to some retailers. Crown Point Ltd. based in Mullins South Carolina the manufacturer of MREs (Meal-Ready-to-Eat) have claimed a 500% increase in sales over the last three months. MREs are prepackages food items with a 10 year shelf life used by the US Military. Mullins says that it sold 42,000 cases of the meals last March, a record for the company. (Hopefully they where not all Chicken-ala-King.)

Nando Times

The US Patent and Trademark office lists over 200 products with "Y2K" in their name. Everything from Y2K Jelly to Y2K Fireworks.

Wired

contributed by Fr3akm4n
Emutronix Phonecard Hacking Products have released their latest version of the Mach Emulation Software. Version 2.1 incorporates an easier working panel and is much more user friendly.

Emutronix

contributed by Anonymous
Cracked
The following sites have been reported as being cracked.
http://kln.gov.my
http://www.landfield.com
http://www.420.net
http://www.me.fau.edu
http://www.zms.or.jp
http://nt.oneworld.org
http://icg.clarkson.edu