Hackers broke into the Federal Aviation Administration's computer system last week, accessing the names and Social Security numbers of 45,000 employees and retirees.
Unpatched, Virus-Infected Windows To Blame For Grounded French Fighter Pilots And Halt To Traffic Arrests In Houston
Reader Calvin sends in two separate stories of government institutions who apparently failed to patch their Windows machines to protect against the Conficker virus -- despite the patch being available for many months. First, Houston police have stopped arresting people with outstanding traffic warrants and shut down the municipal court system for a few days to try to deal with their computer systems being overrun by the virus.
Virus authors are attempting to hoodwink unwary and lovestruck internet users with malware that poses as Valentine's Day-related games and email greetings.
The hacker tactic is a familiar companion to annual holidays, such as Christmas, New Year's Day and Valentine's Day. McAfee reports that the Valentine’s Day spam links to URLs pushing the Waledac Trojan, a strain of malware that has copied many of its techniques and features from the infamous Storm Trojan.
OpenDNS has added a feature to its Domain Name System (DNS) services to fight a widespread worm, with help from Russian security company Kaspersky Lab.
OpenDNS has its own network of DNS servers that translate domain names into IP (Internet Protocol) addresses so, for example, Web sites can be displayed in a browser. The company says its system is faster than using the DNS servers run by ISPs (Internet service providers) and provides better protection against phishing as well as other features such as Web content filtering.
Comments
Needs Sunlight
2009-02-11 17:14:47
So it's not just now, during the recession that Gates has been putting salt on the wounds, he's also been helping make the cuts, too.
Ty
2009-02-12 03:23:51
So instead of recommending that staff and officials get Linux or even get some Macs so the officials can post on their myspace and facebook pages, the IT security dept just wholesale blocked those sites and others!
Stupid in my opinion!
Quote:
"We realize that this may be an inconvenience and we apologize," Office of Legislative Information Systems Director Michael Gaudiello wrote in a note to the affected parties. "But it is essential that the integrity of the Maryland General Assembly computer systems and facilities are protected."
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-te.facebook07feb07,0,1339786.story
"It puts the General Assembly in the Stone Age" Said Del. Christopher B. Shank (R-Washington).
"This is like China" Said Sen. James C. Rosapepe (D-Prince George's).
http://mobile.washingtonpost.com/news.jsp?key=348270&rc=tech#___1__
Sad. People don't learn.
Roy Schestowitz
2009-02-12 03:30:51
Needs Sunlight
2009-02-12 10:50:17
It's damage by M$ from multiple angles there.
Ban M$ products, and penalize the turds that deployed them, and you clear up 99% of today's security problems. Of course that will mean a greater problem from web 2.0, but throw away all useless client-side scripting, flash and flash-like animations and you will clean up that vector as well.
For years everyone stayed away from client side scripting cause it sucked and was insecure. It still is both. Some say that the only reason web 2.0 is to compensate for the move away from the permeable M$ products and add holes.
Roy Schestowitz
2009-02-12 11:35:53
Ian
2009-02-12 18:00:59
Are you serious, or just goofing around?
USB devices are only present anyway because Windows got into the infrastructure and makes it impossible to have networked file sharing.
Have you ever heard of CIFS or SMB or Samba or Windows shares or NFS or FTP or NCP? You do understand that you can transfer files over a network between two Windows boxes or a Windows box and a Linux box..right?
Ban M$ products, and penalize the turds that deployed them, and you clear up 99% of today’s security problems.
That's an ignorant comment. Does Microsoft have a good history with security? Not really. Will everyone switching to Linux suddenly make admins impervious to leaving services turned on or not configuring firewalls correctly? Don't make the mistake of thinking Linux boxes don't get rooted.
Some say that the only reason web 2.0 is to compensate for the move away from the permeable M$ products and add holes.
That doesn't make any sense. Web 2.0 is nothing more than an evolution of web design. It's not a Microsoft thing, it's not a Novell thing, it's not a Linux thing, it's not even a Google thing.
Look, you hate Microsoft. That's fine. But don't make things up.
Roy Schestowitz
2009-02-12 18:28:00