Really Secure E-Mail
To be an effective business tool, e-mail must be controlled so that messages are secure and misuse is minimized. Here, we look at two products for doing just that: One uses digital rights management (DRM) and the other, acceptable usage policy (AUP).

 Russian Computer Hacker Indicted in California for Breaking into Computer Systems and Extorting Victim Companies
A federal grand jury today indicted a Russian computer hacker on a host of federal charges for allegedly breaking into computer systems, stealing credit card information and attempting to extort payments from the victim companies for "computer security services."

The Emperor's Codes: The role of Bletchley Park in breaking Japan’s secret ciphers
American hi-jacking of history did not start with the film U-571, as Michael Smith makes clear in this sequel to Station X, his revelations about the pivotal role of GCHQ’s Bletchley Park codebreakers in winning the Hitler war. While Alan Turing and his fellow boffins were applying their mathematical genius exclusively to cracking codes like the U-boats’ ‘Shark’ – in line with the Anglo-American agreement to give the European war theatre precedence – the US Navy’s cryptographers were effectively denying their British opposite numbers vital information on the war in their own Pacific ‘preserve’.

SANSFIRE
Welcome to SANSFIRE, a SANS conference with an emphasis on Forensics, Investigation, Response and Education. SANS has a tradition of offering theme based conferences to meet special needs of the defensive information community. Often, bringing security workers with a common problem together will result in a number of breakthroughs. Perhaps you recall SANS ID’99, the seminal gathering leading to the advanced intrusion detection techniques we employ today. Now, perhaps you are asking, “why do we need a forensics conference”?What do you do when you detect an unknown pattern on the network? When you see outbound packets leaving your system, how do you determine what process is causing the activity? If your disk light starts flashing furiously and you aren’t running anything, how do you check it out? When the boss directs you to toss one of the organization’s computer systems, how do you go about doing it? System, security, and network administrators need tools and techniques to face these challenges.
We will offer case studies that illustrate exactly how various tools and processes solved common problems, mini-tutorials on seizure, evidence collection, system and network forensics, data recovery, and product selection. Preceding the Technical Program we will offer five days of leading edge, in-depth courses taught by the highest rated teachers in the world, including leaders in forensics.

NSA Releases Win2K Security Recommendation Guidelines
The US National Security Agency (NSA) has released a set of guidelines and templates to assist in securing Windows 2000 systems. The materials contain 5 templates to use with Microsoft's Security Configuration Editor, 17 guides to secure various aspects of the OS, and 3 supporting documents with indepth defense coverage and particulars about various popular software packages.


The templates include configuration settings for domain controllers (DCs), domain policy, and server and workstation settings. The guides are available in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) and cover a broad range of topics, including network architecture, Group Policy, file and disk resources, Encrypting File System (EFS), DNS, Active Directory (AD), Microsoft IIS, Kerberos, public key infrastructure (PKI), Windows NT and 9x clients, Outlook, and routers.

Information Operations
The AOC is on the front lines of an undeclared information war. The defense of Army networks across the world is imperative. It is obvious that no “out-of-the-box” security tool will suffice to protect the integrity of the Army’s digital domain. Consequently, Army network managers need to do a lot more in terms of Enclave Site Defense. For guidance, they can turn to the Army’s standard doctrine. A shown in this paper, defending a network enclave is not much different than defending a hilltop in the jungle. The same principles of war apply. As seen in FM 100-5, the Army does not rely on weapon systems alone to guarantee success on the battlefield. Instead, commanders deploy weapons systems in conjunction with some time-honored tactics that favor offensive over defensive operations. The same should be true for Enclave Site Defense. Defending a site is more than just deploying the weapon systems. It is also about detecting the attack and reacting to it. This paper will discuss these very issues.

Computerworld Resource Center: Security
Computer World's Security site with a lot of articles. Good reading!

Hacking Into Wall Street
On March 10, 2000, the Nasdaq reached an all-time high, breaking the 5000 mark for the very first time. Internet Trading Technologies (ITTI) wasn't participating in the market upswing, however. The company was too busy working to fend off an online attack.

Hacking threat rises with layoffs
When someone cracked Slip.net's computer system, altered customer accounts and deleted important databases, the Internet service provider didn't need to look far to find the attacker.

It wasn't a criminal outfit seeking credit card numbers, and it wasn't a scrawny whiz kid hacking away for a challenge in his dark bedroom.

It was Nicholas Middleton, a former computer administrator for Slip.net, who had been unhappy at the San Francisco company and recently quit. Middleton fought the resulting criminal charges on a legal technicality but lost and got three years' probation.

U.S. Considered Sharing Security Secrets With China, Syria, Pakistan
Newly declassified documents show that America considered sharing secret computer security code "keys" with foreign powers including China, Syria and Pakistan.

The documents include a secret 1993 CIA cable on the "Clipper" project, a computer security chip developed by the U.S. government. The Clipper chip contained advanced "key recovery" surveillance technology, allowing the government to secretly tap phone conversations and monitor computer communications.

HoneyNet Project
The Honeynet Project is a group of thirty security professionals dedicated to learning the tools, tactics, and motives of the blackhat community and sharing those lessons learned. The team collects this information on their own time with their own resources. The primary method for obtaining information is through the use of a Honeynet. It is our hope and intent to develop the security community in the two following ways.

Raise awareness.
To raise awareness of the threats and vulnerabilities that exist in the Internet today. We raise awareness by demonstrating real systems that were compromised in the wild by the blackhat community. Many people believe it can't happen to them. We hope to change their mind.

Teach and inform.
For those in the community who are already aware and concerned, we hope to give you the information to better secure and defend your resources.

Pentagon plans to X-out data on old computers
The Pentagon believes it has found a way to give its old computers away to American schools and still protect information locked in the machines' hard drives.

Hackers attempted to breach California power grid
As Californians suffered under rolling blackouts last month, computer hackers were trying to breach the computer system at the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO), which oversees most of state's power transmission grid.

Foreign spies serious threat to U.S.
A 30-year veteran of the intelligence field says most Americans "almost ignore ... the power of intelligence and counterintelligence" in this country, despite the danger foreign intelligence agents pose to the nation's security.

Secure E-Mail Alternatives
E-mail messages sent over the Internet are not private. Messages are sent in readable form, replicated at various points, and then copied whenever backups are made. Clearly, such messages can represent security risks and potential legal liabilities. For those of us who like privacy, finding ways to make e-mail more secure makes sense.

The hi-tech spy
The American spy plane forced to land in China was chock-full of electronic surveillance equipment. Today, espionage is all about who has the best technology.

Adware, Spyware and Advertising Trojans - Info & Removal Procedures
Adware, Spyware and other unwanted "malware" - and how to remove them.

Osama Bin Laden
This is the Central Intelligence Agency's unclassified fact sheet on Osama bin Laden, the cave-dwelling lunatic suspected of ordering the August bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Disguise manual
Take a look at this excerpt from a once-secret 1944 manual prepared by the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the CIA. In this chapter, spooks are schooled on quick changes, how to alter your body type, and the use of props. And don't miss the hilarious tips designed especially for the ladies.

Lesson 16: Assassinations using poison and cold steel
Here are two excerpts from a 180-page how-to manual that investigators believe has been used by followers of Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden. The document, "Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants," was seized last year at the Manchester, England home of a bin Laden disciple. Federal prosecutors in New York recently introduced the 18-chapter manual, written in Arabic, at the trial of four men accused of involvement in the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania (an English translation was also placed in evidence). The terrorism manual offers jihad members detailed pointers on everything from forged documents to kidnapping techniques. TSG may soon post the whole incredible document, but