contributed by altomo and William Knowles
On Friday Zyklon (Eric Burns) plead guilty in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., to a single felony count of intentionally breaking into one computer, but admitted involvement in numerous other electronic attacks. He has been sentenced to 15 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $36,240 in restitution. In addition he will be banned from using a computer for three years after his release. Zyklon has denied being directly involved with the defacement of the White House web page earlier this year. He said he knew who was behind the defacement but that he would not reveal their identities. Prosecutors claim that Zyklon caused $40,000 damage to government and business web sites. Zyklon is expected to report to prison in four to six weeks.

HNN Mirror of White House Defacement

Herald Net
The Straits Times
Associated Press - Via Yahoo

contributed by lowearthorbital
A company known as Interloc, a rare used book dealer based in Greenfield MA, had been charged with 10 counts of unlawfully intercepting e-mail messages and one count of unauthorized possession of passwords with intent to defraud. Prosecutors said that between January and June of 1998, Interloc used an altered electronic mail program to automatically intercept and store thousands e-mail messages from Amazon.com that were intended for book dealers. Interloc has settled out of court and has agreed to pay a $250,000 fine. (It is hard to tell from these articles exactly how this happened but it looks like Interloc owned the ISP from which it stole the emails. Glad the reporters cleared that up.)

Boston Globe
Nando Times
Wired

contributed by Simple Nomad
A large number of CEOs and other business leaders from numerous U.S. software and technical companies have signed a letter sent to White House Chief of Staff John Podesta imploring him to stick to the promises made last September regarding relaxing the export of encryption technology. TechNet, the lobbying group, is worried that the White House may alter their original plans and include rigid definitions that would limit the effectiveness of the entire initiative.

Computer Currents

contributed by rootxs
Telenor Nextel, Norway's largest telecommunication provider, had one of their servers compromised. The system contained information on the company's 500 business partners. The electronic intruders could read and alter information regarding customers. They gained access to the information of 20 of thier customers. No altering of database information was reported. The accounts are now closed, and Telenor has control over the situation. (We apologize for the choppy information but our Norwegian isn't what it used to be.)

TV 2 hovedside" - Norweigen

contributed by Simple Nomad
The FBI is hoping that the Information Sharing Initiative currently stuck in Congress will provide it with much needed funding to boost its information security. They are claiming that they are relying on outdated computers and networks. If funded the initiative will give investigators quick access to numerous databases and computer files now scattered on systems across the agency.

federal Computer Week

contributed by Space Rogue
The Department of Defense is reportedly considering banning ActiveX and JavaScript from military computers citing security concerns. (I have it turned off, and life continues. At least they are doing something.)

ZD Net

contributed by Space Rogue
Yesterdays Buffer Overflow article "Is It Worth It" has prompted so many questions that the author will be writing a follow up article. So if you have questions be sure to send them in to the author. We also have a response from the other side. An active web page defacer, YTCracker, has told us why he does it. Look for both articles next week.

Buffer Overflow