contributed by Lady Sharrow
IT security expert Dr Neil Barrett is claiming that a group of "motivated amateurs" is planning denial of service attacks and other disruptions against London based firms who use NT-based systems. The attacks are supposedly planned for January 4, 2000. (We would sure like to know where Dr. Barrett gets his information and how he came up with his time limit on intrusions into bank systems.)

Computer Weekly

contributed by Lady Sharrow, no0ne, and Monkey
100 hours community service and 2 years probation was the penalty imposed upon phreaker Paul Spiby. The UK citizen who rung up £106,000 (or 64 days) worth of free phone time by using a phone link to Nicaragua was commended by the judge for his "technical skills". (Just who the hell do you talk to for that amount of time?)

The UK Telegraph
The UK Register
BBC

contributed by augie01
There has been a lot of hype about a new product by Disappearing Inc. that claims to be able to delete email on a reciever's system after it has been sent. Unfortunately the product is not shipping yet so all we have to go on is the company's word and its press releases. Disappearing Inc. is making some pretty bold claims as to what this new product will be able to do. So bold that we have trouble believing them. We will take the wait and see attitude.

ABC
Disappearing Inc. - Press Release
Disappearing Inc. - FAQ

contributed by no0ne
A new NT specific virus has been discovered in the wild by researchers in Russia. WintNT.Infis is memory resident, acts like a system driver, and is able to infect files running in NT4 with service packs 2 thru 6. Windows 2000 is supposedly immune.

The UK Register
Computer World
InfoWorld
Kaspersky Lab - Discoverers of the Virus

contributed by Bronc
Members of the mysterious hacker lair, New Hack City, have granted an exclusive interview to Bronc Buster. He describes it as 'one of the last few strongholds of the original hack ideals.'

The Synthesis

contributed by Simple Nomad
The top commercial vulnerability scanners have little to no security surrounding their licensing, making them excellent script kiddie tools. These scanners are actively being used by the underground against targets. All that is required is a download of the demo version of a vulnerability scanner from a commercial vendor, and a little bit of time.

Nomad Mobile Research Laboratory

contributed by Zym0t1c
A bill before the Belgium government could make it a criminal offense to disrupt the "confidentiality, integrity and the availability of computer systems and the data stored, processed or transmitted by these systems." The crime would carry a minimum sentence of three months with the possibility of five years if malicious intent can be proved. It has been theorized that recent attacks by ReDaTtAcK have prompted the formation of this bill.

The Belguim Standard - Dutch

contributed by Weld Pond
On the one side we have BO2K, NetBus, and a host of others; on the other side we have PC Anywhere, WinWhatWhere and now SoftEyes. From the web page, "SoftEyes For Home 2.0 records everything displayed on the computer screen, including games, web pages, e-mail, chat rooms and instant messages."

Soft Eyes

contributed by misbah01
A profile of Doctor Nuker and Mr_Sweet, the two members of the Pakistan Hackerz Club, has been posted by CNN. The group has claimed responsibility for defacing over sixty web sites this year. PHC's main goal is to spread the word about the atrocities occurring in Kashmir. Others wonder if this is the proper avenue for their message.

CNN