contributed by evilwench
The House Appropriations Committee recently eliminated funding for the proposed federal intrusion detection surveillance system (FIDNet). The White House, however, has found other funding through a $611 million mid-year fiscal 2000 budget amendment. The Office of Management and Budget sent the request to congress which included $39 million for enhancing computer security and critical infrastructure protection within several agencies. $8.4 million of which will be used for the Proposed FIDNet system to be run by the General Services Administration.

Government Executive Magazine

contributed by pchelp
An application distributed by Softseek.com, a ZDNet web site, called WinSec v1.01 claims to be designed to restrict users from accessing certain Windows features. In actuality this program is a Trojan Horse disguising NetBus. NetBus is a remote administration tool that could be used by a malicious attacker to gain control of an unsuspecting users machine. Softseek, has failed to respond to questions about the incident.

PC Help Advisory

contributed by James
Evidently there has been some confusion as to when the Global Jam Echelon day will take place. The now confirmed date is October 21st and not October 18th as previously reported here and elsewhere. Echelon is a vast mythical eavesdropping network set up by various governments including the US, UK, Canada, Australia and others in order to monitor the world's electronic communications (telephone, email, fax, etc.) for subversive keywords. On October 21st netizens around the globe are implored to send out at least one email with at least one of the key words. While the actual list of words is not known it is assumed that words such as these will trigger the system: Kill FBI CIA NSA IRS ATF BATF DOD Militia gun weapon manifesto terrorism bomb Special Forces SOF Delta Force constitution Mossad NASA MI5 revolution terrorist economy

Wired
Global Jam Echelon Day

contributed by spiderus
Considering the technology available for document retrieval it is doubtful that the Global Jam Echelon Day will have any impact if the messages only contain keywords. These links indicate that the NSA's (and probably other agencies) information sorting capability (n-gram analysis) is extremely more advanced than simple keyword grabbing. This technology isn't new either it has been available publicly for license since 1993. Considering the computing power available to high-level government agencies in conjunction with this document retrieval technology it is doubtful that the plan to jam or overflow the Echelon system will have a large effect. (Can't hurt to try though.)

National Security Agency - Technology Overview
Patent on method of retrieving documents by topic

contributed by netmask
Michael Vatis, director of NIPC, told the Senate Judiciary Technology and Terrorism Subcommittee on Wednesday that only eight FBI field offices are adequately staffed to handle computer crime cases. Vatis also said that the FBI has 800 pending cases and their workload doubles every year.

Nando Times

contributed by John Vranesevich
So what exactly is the truth about AntiOnline and John Varensvich? This New York Times article would make it seem like he is on the side of truth justice and the American way. We recommend you read all four articles linked to below before you make up your mind.

NY Times - Tracker of Hackers Goes From Friend to Foe (Registration Required)

Forbes - Go Ahead and Sue
CyberWire Dispatch Aug 1999 - Jacking In From the "Pine-Sol" Port
Ottawa Citizen - Spy vs. Spy In the Hacker Underworld

contributed by Weld Pond
Your software is full of bugs, security holes, and sometimes just plain does not work. Programers are apalled at what they are asked to ship out the door, buggy code, unfinished products, software they would never run on their own machine. Software companies don't care when customers ask why. They turn a blind eye and ask, "Who, me?"

Shift