Daily Report Friday, February 23 , 2007

Daily Highlights

SC Magazine reports hackers infiltrated network systems −− potentially accessing the personal details of millions of shoppers −− at TJX, the parent of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, for a longer period than the discount clothing retailer initially thought. (See item 10)
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The National Transportation Safety Board has called in a glass specialist to examine the cracked windshields found on at least 14 airplanes at Denver International Airport during a storm last week. (See item 12)
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The Daily Sentinel reports biologists from the Colorado Division of Wildlife continue to puzzle over the possible causes for the deaths of more than 600 waterfowl at several water treatment plants across Denver and Boulder. (See item 26)

Information Technology and Telecommunications Sector

34.
February 22, Federal Computer Week — GSA considers establishing IPv6 program office. With the deadline for agencies to be IP Version 6−ready set for mid−2008, General Services Administration (GSA) officials are considering establishing a program office to guide GSA’s compliance, and according to John Johnson, GSA’s assistant commissioner for Integrated Technology Service, something could develop in the next several months. The Office of Management and Budget mandated in 2005 that agencies have an IPv6−ready network backbone by June 2008. Continuing on an evolution to IPv6−capable IT systems makes the deadline only a starting point, administration officials working closely with IPv6 transitions have said. Officials are mulling over what the office would do, specifically what its goals and objectives would be. They are analyzing the migration’s size and complexity regarding GSA's Networx contract, governmentwide acquisition contract programs and Schedules.
Source: http://www.fcw.com/article97731−02−22−07−Web

35. February 22, InformationWeek — Despite government data losses, security education spending not growing. While laptop and data loss continue to plague government agencies, a new report shows that federal spending on user education remains stagnant. Out of an annual IT security budget of $5.6 billion, the U.S. is spending $140 million to $150 million annually on security awareness and training, according to information security analyst Prabhat Agarwal. That user education number is expected to hold steady through 2012. Agarwal estimates that government employs between six million and 10 million people. In his report, Agarwal says users are the weakest link in the government's security −− much like they are in the corporate world.
Report: http://www.input.com/corp/press/detail.cfm?news=1311
Source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=K1XPX1NPMLYF2QSNDLOSKH0CJUNN2JVN?articleID=197008122

36. February 22, SC Magazine — Former FBI agent: Youth turning to cybercrime for the money. Young technology graduates from developing countries are being drawn into organized cybercrime believing they'll make more money than at legitimate jobs, according to Ed Gibson, chief security adviser for Microsoft U.K. Gibson, who addressed delegates at a security conference organized by Claranet in London Thursday, February 22, warned: "In countries like Ukraine, it is tempting for young people with a technology background to work for these hacking gangs because there is not a lot of money in legal jobs. Even when a person wants out, their family is threatened with violence so they continue to work for these organized criminals." The former FBI agent said that cybercrime gangs are operating in emerging nations−−such as Ukraine and Bulgaria−−to run online fraud campaigns because of lax law enforcement and lack of cooperation between authorities there in the West. "The police here in the U.K. and other developed countries are territorially and jurisdictionally bound," he said. "They can't just go to these emerging countries, where these cybercriminals are working, and liaise with the authorities there."
Source: http://scmagazine.com/us/news/article/635172/former−fbi−agent−youth−turning−cybercrime−money/

37. February 21, Government Computer News — NGA issues standards for geospatial intel interoperability. The National Geospatial−Intelligence Agency (NGA) has publicly released a document outlining the overall National System for Geospatial−Intelligence (NSG) standards baseline. The baseline was developed and coordinated by the National Center for Geospatial Intelligence Standards, or NCGIS, which was formed by the NGA soon after September 11 with other Defense Department agencies, intelligence agencies, standards organizations, civil agencies, private industry and foreign partners. The purpose in establishing the set of standards is to enable data and service interoperability in the context of a service−oriented architecture. “Geospatial Intelligence Standards: Enabling a Common Vision,” issued in November but released to the public February 20, endorses a set of key specifications known collectively as the Open Geospatial−Intelligence Consortium Spatial Data Infrastructure 1.0 baseline. These OGC standards include the OpenGISR Specifications for Web Feature Service (WFS), Geography Markup Language (GML), Web Map Service (WMS), Styled Layer Descriptor (SLD), Catalogue Services (CS−Web) and Filter Encoding Specifications (FE).
“Geospatial Intelligence Standards: Enabling a Common Vision” http://portal.opengeospatial.org/files/?artifact_id=19983
Source: http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/43190−1.html