contributed by Maxim.Glory
Belgian electricity provider Electrabel has been threatened by an an unknown assailant. The cyber intruder has threatened to turn off all power in the country sometime between 1:30 and 3:30 pm CET on Wednesday. According to an Electrabel spokesperson the system controlling Electrabel's distribution of power is custom made and the connections are therefore extra protected. (Oh yeah, security through obscurity, that always works.)

Svenska Dagbladet - Swedish
Excite News
Electrabel

Late Update 0830
contributed by Yaxmon
Minutes after we went to press HNN learned that the attacker who goes by the name ReDaTtAcK 2, has withdrawn his threat and now says that he will not be turning off the power. (Of course now people will wonder if he ever could have and this person who did nothing more than make a phone call will forever be labeled as a 'hacker'. Thanks.)

Reuters

contributed by cult_hero
Lou Cipher discusses his experiences of confiscating computer equipment and B&E all without a warrant. This information security 'professional' claims to have tracked cyber intruders to their homes and then paid them an unannounced visit complete with baseball bat. Claiming that 'self defense' is the only option available to him and the companies he works for Lou Cipher brazenly takes the law into his own hands with little regard for the consequences.

HNN has serious doubts about the validity of these claims. We would like to hear from anyone who has been the target for any such illegal home invasion.

MSNBC - Bob Sullivan on September 28, 1999

CNN - Original Story by Winn Schwartau on January 12, 1999

contributed by grendel
Adam Peneberg takes a close look at John Vranesevich, founder and web master of AntiOnline. The article offers a close examination of previous threats of litigation by Mr. Vranesevich and discovers just how easy it is to become a 'reliable media source'. Mr. Peneberg calls his bluff and issues a challange to 'Go Ahead and Sue".

Forbes

CyberWire Dispatch August 1999 - Refered to in Forbes Article
Ottawa Citzen - Mirror Refered to in Forbes Article

contributed by bradcc
Bruce Schneier, chief technology officer at Counterpane Internet Security, offers some comments on Back Orifice 2000. Is it an evil 'hacker tool' or remote adminstration software?

PC World

contributed by no0ne
A group of international researchers, using approximately 195 computers from all over the world, after 40 days of computation, has been awarded 1st prize in the latest round of the Certicom ECC Challenge for successfully recovering a 97-bit ECC key. Results bolster Certicom, ANSI X9, and NIST's recommendation that strong security can only be achieved by using a minimum of a 163-bit ECC key. Furthermore, result data proves that the 97-ECC is harder to crack compared to the 512-bit RSA which can still be found on many commercial products today.

Computer World

contributed by Weld Pond
Mr. John Tritak, director of the Federal Government's Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office will be conducting a live webcast and discusion on information security for the financial services industry. Preregistration is required. The discusion will take place on Thursday, September 30, 4 - 5 p.m. EST

Broadcast.com

contributed by Ted
An energy appropriations bill passed yesterday by the Senate omits $35 million requested by the Department of Energy for cyber Security. The $35 mil was to be used for real time intrusion detection for 70 Energy Department sites. Members of the Senate said they want management reform first, then they will approve funding.

Washington Post