contributed by David
PC Week has taken a novel step and decided to actually test the security of certain internet products. This attempt should commended. Unfortunately the method they chose isn't very scientific and is designed more for publicity than anything else. With two servers, one NT with IIS and one RedHat with Apache, the editors of PC Week have invited the public to attempt to break in and have offered a measly $1,000 gift certificate to anyone who is successful. Any conclusions PC Week makes from this experiment will not be very indicative of the real world and will give consumers inaccurate information.

Hack PC Week
APB Online
News Alert

contributed by Weld Pond
So Cult of the Dead Cow gets raked over the coals for releasing B02K. Now this company is getting thousands of dollars from high-profile corporations and government agencies for essentially the same thing. This new remote admin tool/trojan is called Investigator 2.0 from WinWhatWhere. Will the Anti Virus vendors add this software to their list of checked for items? Is the difference between a malicious trojan and a helpful program just the price tag?

TechWeb
Wired

contributed by Adam
A lot of people think the Mitnick case is done and over but in legal circles the wrangling is just beginning. With the wacky and unprecedented rulings made by Judge Pfaelzer regarding encrypted evidence legal experts may be studying this case for a while.

Forbes

contributed by Code Kid
A pharmaceutical factory on the southern island of Hainan in China crashed on September 9, 1999. The crash effected 11 systems and 20 platforms. This is the only reported crash that we know of due to this bug.

Inside China Today

contributed by Code Kid
The Information Technology Promotion Agency has reported 2,451 virus infestations so far this year. This has already exceeded the entire number of cases from all of 1997 which totaled 2,391, the most ever recorded. The most prolific viruses reported where Happy99, Melissa and ExploreZip with the highest infection method coming through email.

Asia Biz Tech

contributed by Michelle
After scouring the the alt.sex hierarchy of Usenet the researchers at Network Associates have found and identified yet another Word Macro Virus. The Suppl Word macro virus, which was found in over 25 alt.sex newsgroups, has been given a medium risk rating.

Computer World