Daily Report Monday, March 5 , 2007

Daily Highlights

The Better Business Bureau System is warning all businesses across the U.S. and Canada of a spoofing scam using the BBB name and a false BBB e−mail address to entice recipients to access potentially damaging hyperlinks. (See item 11)
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USA TODAY reports United Airlines is reviewing why a California−bound flight sat full of passengers for more than seven hours at Chicago O'Hare last weekend during an ice storm. (See item 14)
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Reuters reports rates of diabetes in Ontario −− Canada's most populous, most ethnically diverse province −− have already zoomed past what was predicted for 2030, which suggests the emerging global diabetes epidemic will be far worse than feared. (See item 28)

Information Technology and Telecommunications Sector

35. March 02, Reuters — Sanyo to share battery recall cost with Lenovo. Troubled Japanese electronics maker Sanyo Electric Co. said on Friday, March 2, it would shoulder with China's Lenovo Group the cost of recalling 205,000 Sanyo−made laptop battery packs that can overheat. The ThinkPad battery recall comes during an investigation of loss−making Sanyo by Japan's securities watchdog the Securities Exchange and Surveillance Commission. The lithium−ion extended−life battery packs, jointly designed by Lenovo and Sanyo and tested by Lenovo, can overheat and spark if dropped hard on to the ground, the two companies said.
Source: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2099929,00.asp

36. March 02, CNET News — FCC: Local phone companies must connect Net calls. In a boost to Internet phone providers, federal regulators have ruled that local telephone companies must connect Net−based calls shuttled over broadband lines owned by wholesalers like Sprint Nextel and Verizon Communications. In a 16−page order to local telephony providers issued Thursday, March 1, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) effectively overturned decisions by state regulators in South Carolina and Nebraska that had prevented Time Warner Cable from deploying its voice−over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service there. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said the states had misinterpreted federal telecommunications law. "Our decision will enhance consumers' choice for phone service by making clear that cable and other VoIP providers must be able to use local phone numbers and be allowed to put calls through to other phone networks," Martin said in a statement Thursday. Time Warner Cable, the nation's second−largest cable operator, had petitioned the FCC for relief about a year ago.
FCC's order: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA−07−709A 1.pdf
Source: http://news.com.com/FCC+Local+phone+companies+must+connect+Net+calls/2100−7352_3−6163789.html?tag=nefd.top

37. March 02, ComputerWorld — Feds hope to boost business role in slowing cyberattacks. As reports of cybersecurity incidents grow, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials plan to improve their ability to work on the problem face to face with private−sector experts. The DHS plans to co−locate private−sector employees from the communications and IT industries with government workers at the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US−CERT) facility, said Gregory Garcia, assistant secretary of cybersecurity and telecommunications at DHS. The teams will work jointly on improving US−CERT's information hub for cybersecurity, Garcia said. The agency didn't specify a starting date for the program but said it will begin soon. US−CERT is a four−year−old DHS−run joint effort of the public and private sectors to protect the nation's Internet infrastructure. "It's through this co−location that we are going to build a strong trust relationship, an information−sharing relationship," said Garcia.
Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012132&source=rss_topic85

38. March 01, eWeek — Month of PHP bugs begins. Security expert Stefan Esser has declared war on vulnerabilities in the PHP core with the "Month of PHP Bugs." PHP is an open−source HTML embedded scripting language used to create dynamic Webpages. The month−long effort is an attempt to improve the security of PHP. It follows his contentious departure in December from the PHP Security Response Team, which he founded, after he accused The PHP Group of being too slow to fix problems. Esser stressed, however, that he is not striking back at his old colleagues but is addressing legitimate security issues.
Source: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2099735,00.asp

39. March 01, eWeek — March Madness expected to threaten network security. March Madness may be a great time for college basketball fans, but it can be a nightmare for enterprises when it comes to network security. Earlier in 2007, Super Bowl fans logging on to the Dolphins Stadium site faced an unwelcome surprise −− malicious code embedded in the header on the front page that when downloaded initiated a keylogging program. Researchers at Websense are warning enterprises to expect more of the same, while other security specialists urged companies to be mindful of the Web surfing habits of their employees. "Using current events as a means of deception in order to get people to visit a Website, in itself, is not anything new," said Dan Hubbard, vice president of security research at San Diego−based Websense. "What is compelling here is the potential for another Super Bowl incident, where attackers combine a special event with a compromise. In that case there is no need for the deception lure."
Source: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2099714,00.asp

40. March 01, Information Week — Worm attack: A grudge match with Symantec? A worm is getting an awful lot of attention for a piece of malware that several anti−virus vendors have rated as a "low" threat. The Rinbot worm, which also is known as the Delbot worm, hit the computer network at the Turner Broadcasting System, a division of Time Warner and parent of CNN and CNNMoney.com, according to a company spokesperson. A story on the CNN.com Website said the network was hit on Thursday, March 1. It's not clear how much the worm impacted the network. The worm, which is trying to build a botnet, also was getting quite a bit of play because it targets Symantec, a leading anti−virus software vendor. While the worm does exploit a vulnerability in Symantec client security, it also goes after Microsoft's Windows Server Service remote buffer overflow vulnerability and Microsoft's SQL Server user authentication remote buffer overflow vulnerability. Paul Moriarty, director of Internet content security at TrendMicro, notes that all three vulnerabilities have been patched. The worm can only get a foothold in company networks or individual machines if they have not been updated.
Source: http://www.informationweek.com/security/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=DPMJVDEPAX0MOQSNDLRCKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=197700611

41. March 01, SecurityFocus — Maynor reveals missing Apple flaw. Security researcher David Maynor got some measure of vindication at the Black Hat DC Conference this year. Six months after the security researcher and his colleague Jon Ellch claimed that Mac OS X wireless drivers were vulnerable to attack, Maynor on Wednesday, February 28, revealed the code he used to exploit a native flaw in the platform as well as e−mails showing he notified Apple as to the danger. Maynor said the flaw was in the driver for the Broadcom wireless chip. The flaw affected not only Mac OS X, but any platform that used drivers based on the Broadcom reference driver, he said. While MacBooks and PowerBooks were affected, so were Dell laptops running Windows XP. Apple fixed the flaw on September 21, but did not give Maynor or Ellch credit. The flaw could have allowed a remote attacker to compromise a vulnerable MacBook or PowerBook remotely via an overly long service set identifier.
Source: http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11445