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Daily Report Monday, November 13, 2006
Daily HighlightsFederal Computer Week reports that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a final rule on reporting requirements for various transactions involving radioactive materials that will involve establishing secure, Web−based access to a new National Source Tracking System. (See item 1)· The Associated Press reports that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff marked Veterans Day by helping christen U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf, the first of a new class of ships called National Security Cutters. (See item 12)Information Technology and Telecommunications Sector32. November 08, Age (Australia) — SpamThru and Warezov responsible for rise in spam: MessageLabs report. The number of e−mail viruses targeting Australians is on the rise, with Australia last month experiencing the biggest growth in attacks of any country. One in 84.1 e−mails or 1.2 percent of e−mail traffic contains a virus, up from 0.4 percent of e−mail traffic the month before, MessageLabs' Intelligence Report for October 2006 said. The global ratio was 1 percent of e−mail traffic. This ranks Australia 12th out of all countries, where it was "previously at the bottom of the list," the report said. India remains the hardest hit country, with one in 16 e−mails containing a virus. It was followed by Ireland, Germany, Singapore and Spain. Responsible for much of the rise in viruses is a spam−sending Trojan dubbed "SpamThru," which MessageLabs said had increased global spam levels to almost three out of every four e−mails. The developers of SpamThru have so far managed to avoid detection by traditional anti−virus software, by releasing new strains of the Trojan at regular intervals, MessageLabs said. Another virus, Warezov, is also identified by MessageLabs as a contributing factor to the increase in spam. Like SpamThru, it hijacks the computers of unsuspecting users and turns them into spam distributors.
MessageLabs report: