Friday, June 8, 2007

Daily Highlights

The Oregonian reports the Bonneville Power Administration's massive electrical substation near the Columbia River has been sabotaged by metal thieves; two Bonneville Power facilities have been hit in the past week. (See item 4)
·
The Associated Press reports a South Carolina man was charged Wednesday, June 6, with threatening to poison the capital city's water system using chemicals he had illegally buried in his back yard. (See item 18)
·
WBRC reports Birmingham and Trussville, Alabama, water customers were notified on Wednesday, June 6, of mandatory water restrictions taking effect in response to the continued drought as Birmingham Water Works moves to its Stage Three water conservation plan. (See item 19)·

Information Technology and Telecommunications Sector


31. June 06, Reuters — IBM to buy Watchfire security software firm. IBM said on Wednesday, June 6, it will buy privately held security and compliance testing software company Watchfire Corp. for an undisclosed amount. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter, IBM said in a statement. IBM said Watchfire's technology would be combined with IBM's Rational software products, which let users conduct performance tests while developing software. Top technology companies including Microsoft Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. and Google Inc. have been acquiring security companies to protect customers from malicious software attacks and spam mail.
Source: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2142284,00.asp

32. June 06, IDG News Service — Google acquires server software company PeakStream. Google on Tuesday, June 5, acquired PeakStream, a developer of software for multicore and parallel processors, the company said. PeakStream's Website was not available following the acquisition. A version of its product page cached on Google's Website described it as the first commercial software product to allow programming of multicore and parallel processors, allowing optimization of these increasingly prevalent chipsets.
Source: http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/06/06/Google−acquires−Pe akstream_1.html

33. June 06, InformationWeek — Critical bugs discovered in Yahoo Messenger. Yahoo is working on a patch for critical Yahoo Messenger vulnerabilities that could enable a remote hacker to take control of a user's system. "We recently learned of a buffer overflow security issue in an ActiveX control," a Yahoo spokesperson said in an e−mail to InformationWeek. "This control is part of the code for Web cam image upload and viewing. Upon learning of this issue, we began working towards a resolution and expect to have a fix shortly."
Source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articl eID=199901856

34. June 06, Agence France Presse — Hoax text message spreads tsunami terror in Indonesia. Thousands of people fled their homes in panic on the Indonesian coast after hoax text messages spread warning them that a tsunami will hit the region, journalists and officials said Wednesday, June 6. "The possibility is that a tsunami may take place on June 7," said part of a short telephone text message (SMS) that is widely circulating in various coastal areas of Nusa Tenggara province, local journalists said. A check of several coastal districts in the province showed that thousands had left their homes on the coast in at least three districts to flee to higher grounds since Tuesday, they said. The regional meteorology and geophysics office said that the SMS warning did not come from their office. "Earthquakes and tsunami cannot be predicted and we have not issued such warning," office head Rivai Marulak told AFP.
Source: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070606101917.31jf2ey b&show_article=1
Thursday, June 7, 2007

Daily Highlights

The FBI's investigation is pointing to an outside hacker who broke into the computer network at the Illinois Financial and Professional Regulation in January and accessed a server that held information on about 1,200,000 people who have licenses or applied for licenses with the department. (See item 9)
·
CBC News reports Canada's skies are vulnerable to another attack against passenger travel unless tougher cargo controls are implemented on the ground, according to an aviation security expert who testified at the Air India inquiry Wednesday, June 6. (See item 16)
·
Information Technology and Telecommunications Sector

33. June 06, US−CERT — Computer Associates release security notice for anti−virus engine. The Computer Associates Anti−Virus engine fails to properly process CAB archives. These vulnerabilities may allow an unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial−of−service condition. US−CERT encourages users to apply the updates as described in the Computer Associates Security Notice: http://supportconnectw.ca.com/public/antivirus/infodocs/caantivirus−securitynotice.asp
Source: Computer Associates Release Security Notice for Anti−Virus Engine

34. June 06, US−CERT — Sun Microsystems releases security advisory for Java Runtime Environment Image Parsing Code. Sun Microsystems released a Security Advisory for the Java Runtime Environment Image Parsing Code. This vulnerability may allow an applet to read and write local files or execute local applications. US−CERT encourages users to examine the resolutions that are described in the Sun Security Advisory as soon as possible:
http://www.sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1−26 −102934−1
More information can be found in US−CERT Vulnerability Note VU#138545:
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/138545
Source: http://www.us−cert.gov/current/index.html#sun_microsystems_releases_security_advisory

35. June 06, US−CERT — Vulnerability Note VU#290961: Microsoft Windows GDI+ ICO InfoHeader Height division by zero vulnerability. Microsoft Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI+) is an application programming interface (API) that provides programmers the ability to display information on screens and printers. GDI+ includes the ability to process ICO (icon) image files. There is an integer division by zero vulnerability in the way the ICO parsing component of GDI+ (Gdiplus.dll) handles ICO files with a Height value of zero in the InfoHeader section of the ICO file. By introducing a specially crafted ICO file to the vulnerable component, a remote attacker could trigger an integer division by zero denial−of−service condition. Windows Explorer has been shown to be vulnerable, however any application that uses the GDI+ library may be vulnerable. US−CERT is currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem.
Source: http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/290961

36. June 06, eWEEK — Mozilla plugs Thunderbird security hole. On June 4, Mozilla released a security−fix Version 1.5.0.12 of its Thunderbird e−mail client, after updating its Firefox browser, a Firefox Google toolbar extension and its SeaMonkey Web application suite. The new Thunderbird 1.5.0.12 replaces 1.5.0.10. The most important fixes include a flaw in APOP authentication (which also affects the Mail & Newsgroups component of SeaMonkey) and a memory corruption bug (which also affects Firefox and SeaMonkey), a spokesperson said. Thunderbird 1.5.0.12 can be downloaded (10.2MB for Linux users) from the older Thunderbird releases Web page or via Thunderbird's built−in software update system:
http://www.mozilla.com/en−US/thunderbird/all−older.html
More details are available in the Thunderbird 1.5.0.12 release notes:
http://www.mozilla.com/en−US/thunderbird/releases/1.5.0.12.h tml
Source: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2142213,00.asp