Daily Report Monday, November 20, 2006

Daily Highlights


The Los Angeles Times reports the two largest known tunnels on the border that link Nogales, Mexico, with Nogales, Arizona, remain an ongoing tactical problem for authorities to monitor. (See item 14)

The Washington Post reports a new plan to improve information sharing about terrorism establishes a Washington−based threat assessment group that includes federal, state, and local officials, and restructures the way intelligence and other information is handled. (See item 30)

The Associated Press reports three people were shot during what appeared to be a gangland−style confrontation in the food court of the Westfield mall in Annapolis, Maryland. (See item 40)

Information Technology and Telecommunications Sector

35. November 16, eWeek — Exploits surface for MS Patch Day flaws. Proof−of−concept exploit code offering step−by−step instructions to attack worm holes in Microsoft Windows have started appearing on the Internet, prompting a new round of "patch−now−or−else" warnings from computer security experts. The exploits, publicly released on the Milw0rm Website and privately available to partners of penetrating testing firm Immunity, target a pair of critical vulnerabilities patched by Microsoft on Tuesday, November 14. The Milw0rm exploit, released by a hacker called "cocoruder," takes aim at the high−severity bug covered in the MS06−070 bulletin and can be used to launch a network worm against unpatched Windows 2000 systems. Amol Sarwate, manager of the vulnerability research lab at Qualys, is strongly urging businesses running Windows 2000 to test and deploy the MS06−070 patch because of the ease in which a hacker could launch an exploit.
Milw0rm Website: http://www.milw0rm.com/
Source: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2060481,00.asp

36. November 16, Network World — Researchers seek disruption−tolerant nets. Researchers are creating mobile networks that can sustain communications even in the face of broken links and long delays. The quest for such disruption−tolerant networks (DTNs), is being driven by military, scientific and emergency−response wireless networks, which typically lack the connectivity, stability and predictability of conventional wired networks. Instead, researchers say, the hallmarks of a DTN are the very problems that quickly bring a conventional wireless network to its knees: frequent and unpredictable disconnects, changing nearby nodes and very long delays. The trade−off: it takes a lot longer to send and receive data over a DTN.
Source: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/111606−dtn.html

37. November 16, IDG News Service — Gartner meeting sees big network role. IT professionals and Gartner Inc. analysts are looking beyond networks to the whole enterprise this week at the research company's Enterprise Networking Summit in Las Vegas. Everything system and application administrators want to do affects networks, especially now that voice and other forms of communication are moving onto IP data networks, participants said Tuesday, November 14. That trend toward unified communications, along with richer Web−based applications and a proliferation of consumer−oriented devices, is among the key issues emerging for enterprise networks in the next few years, Gartner analyst David Willis said in a keynote address. Another looming trend is virtualization of IT resources, which Cisco Systems Inc., Microsoft Corp. and IBM all want to dominate, he said. Together, it spells more chaos on networks, which have always been chaotic, he said. Don't rush into IP telephony, Gartner analyst Jeff Snyder warned attendees in a breakout session. They should have a good reason, such as replacing aging phone systems or building a distributed contact center, before moving in that direction, he said. But network experts will take on a bigger role in overall corporate strategy as the new technology comes in, he added.
Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewA
rticleBasic&articleId=9005143&intsrc=news_ts_head