The Moroccan authorities said yesterday that an airport security officer in Casablanca and two other Moroccans had been arrested as part of an investigation into a suspected Al Qaeda plot to attack American and British ships in the Strait of Gibraltar and set off bombs inside Morocco. Full Story

The United States became the first country to take a formal stand on the leadership battle for control of this politically divided island nation, recognizing Marc Ravalomanana as the legitimate president of Madagascar, the U.S. ambassador here said Wednesday. Full Story

The safety of the Royal Family and top politicians is at risk because classified security details are being published on the internet, it has been revealed. Radio scanning enthusiast Paul Wey is intercepting Special Branch and other communications and publishing their details on internet news groups, BBC Radio 4`s Today programme has learned. Full Story

Australia had to some extent anticipated the impact on strategic thinking of the September 11 terrorist attack, Defence Minister Robert Hill said yesterday. Senator Hill told a conference in Canberra that dealing with what the military called “asymmetric threats”, such as terrorism, had been anticipated in the Defence White Paper 2000. Full Story

Britain is adopting the U.S. anti-terrorism model by putting a new security chief at the heart of government to counter the threat of major attacks like those of Sept. 11. Prime Minister Tony Blair`s office said in a statement that Sir David Omand, a former senior Defense Ministry official, would become Britain`s security and intelligence…

Russian-linked computer crime, reported earlier this month to have occurred at Arizona State University, also appears to have sprung up at two institutions in Southern California. Full Story

It seemed like an ambitious undertaking when FBI Director Robert Mueller announced in January that he wanted to hire 900 more special agents by Sept. 30. At the top of his list were computer and information technology specialists. Full Story

A survey sponsored by the Business Software Alliance of private-sector IT professionals found little confidence in the government’s ability to defend itself against a major attack on its cyberinfrastructure. Full Story

In Washington state, a Tacoma company has invented a computer program that could stop terrorists from using a plane as a missile. An Auburn firm has tested a device that might have allowed air traffic controllers to track the planes headed for the World Trade Center towers. And a Bellevue company has invented a smart…

Disheartened by an industry sales drought, makers of computers and related gadgets were hoping to lure back consumers with the best of their new wares at the three-day TechXNY trade show that opens Tuesday. Full Story

Thousands of broadband internet modems are being installed with default passwords, making them vulnerable to hackers who can use them to surf the net at the owners` expense. Full Story

A “worrying” number of European websites could be at risk from hijack due to inherent security glitches in the Ripe internet address databasing system. Full Story

The government has issued an alert about identity and credit card theft on U.S. campuses, saying individuals linked to the Russian mob tried to tap into at least five college computer systems. The warning, which was issued Friday, followed the arrest a Russian-born man at Pasadena City College and another incident at Arizona State University.…

Malicious attacks on corporate computer systems are growing increasingly sophisticated, resulting in reported financial losses to U.S. companies of nearly half a billion dollars, according to experts at Carnegie Mellon University and the Computer Security Institute. Full Story

Demon Internet has suffered a major attack from spammers, resulting in email problems for many customers. Demon customers said the email delays and web problems have lasted for a week, with the mail problems escalating during the past two days. Full Story

British-based business consultant Ernst & Young advised Indonesian companies to implement plans to anticipate and handle computer viruses and worms, warning that such disturbances could seriously harm their businesses. Full Story

Microsoft Corp. has disclosed an ambitious new project to improve security by creating within its Windows software a virtual “vault” where customers would conduct electronic transactions and store sensitive information. Full Story

Unlike an Ethernet network, which connects its users through cables, a wireless network sends data through the air on radio waves. This makes the information traveling through the network more vulnerable, because anyone with a wireless network card could conceivably tap into those radio waves, log on to an unprotected network and intercept personal data.…

Indigenous, anti-Western Bolivian subversive organization. Frequently attacks small, unprotected targets, such as power pylons, oil pipelines, and government offices. Has targeted Mormon churches with firebombings and attacked USAID motorpool in 1993. Full Story and More Reviews

The World`s Most Dangerous Places, 4th Edition by Robert Young Pelton is one of the most fascinating books I`ve added to my library this year. Pelton provides an overview of the world`s hot-spots (over 30 countries) that is so unique it has earned this book a spot on the CIA`s required reading list. Pelton`s insights…

06/25/1950The Korean War began with the North`s invasion of the South. 06/25/1964Mozambique – The Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) was founded. 06/25/1996Saudi Arabia, United States – Khobar Tower BombingThe explosion of a fuel truck set off by terrorists outside the northern fence of the Khobar Towers complex near King Abdul Aziz Air Base,…

This Public Announcement is being issued to alert Americans traveling and resident in Norway of the potential for disruptions caused by demonstrations planned to coincide with the World Bank Conference to be held in Oslo from June 24-26, 2002. The World Bank`s Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics – Europe (ABCDE-Europe) is scheduled to take…

Half of the people in a new poll say they think neither the United States and its allies nor the terrorists are winning the war on terrorism, a substantial shift from May when they were slightly more inclined to say the United States was winning. Full Story

New York City needs at least $10 billion to protect itself from future terrorism attacks, according to a report released yesterday by Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Queens). Full Story

A federal judge has dismissed the Justice Department`s case against seven people accused of funneling charitable donations to an Iranian military group deemed partly responsible for the 1979 takeover of the United States Embassy in Tehran and still labeled a terrorist threat. Full Story

LaGuardia Houses tenants are waiting. For the 2,600 tenants of the lower East Side`s LaGuardia Houses, federal disaster aid has come at a painfully slow pace. More than nine months after the World Trade Center attacks spewed contaminants in the air, many of the public-housing tenants are still trying to get enough money to buy…

The United Nations` nuclear watchdog Tuesday warned that radioactive materials needed for a “dirty bomb” could be found in almost every country and more than 100 states had inadequate controls to prevent their theft. Full Story

The United States needs to establish an in-depth counterterrorism program to protect essential services, from energy delivery to information systems to emergency medicine, according to an analysis by a scientific panel. Full Story

Across the nation, FBI investigators are quietly visiting libraries and checking the reading records of people they suspect of being in league with terrorists, library officials say. Full Story

Villagers directed American forces to three large weapons caches near their homes in what a U.S. official said Tuesday was a sign of civilians` increased desire to rid southeast Afghanistan of hidden arms. Full Story

Zacarias Moussaoui was called back to federal court to answer a slightly revised indictment charging him with conspiring to murder thousands on Sept. 11. Full Story

A heavily guarded shipment of plutonium on its way here is part a national debate over transporting nuclear material in the new age of terrorism. Full Story

The nation`s electric power grid, telecommunications and computing infrastructure are among the weakest links in homeland security and require immediate steps to protect them against terrorist attacks, says a report released Monday by the National Research Council ( news – web sites). Full Story

Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz was fired up. It wasn`t bad coffee or even his lackluster Seattle Sonics basketball team that had him exercised. It was violence in Israel and anti-Semitism worldwide. Full Story

The upper house of the Spanish parliament, the Senate, has passed a new law, which the government sees as the first step towards banning the political wing of the Basque separatist group, ETA. Full Story

As holidaymakers flocked to southern Spanish beaches to bask in yesterday`s scorching sunshine, police and tour operators feared that Eta, the Basque separatist group, might place more bombs to scare tourists away and damage Spain`s mighty tourist industry. Full Story

Protestant extremists lobbed a nail-packed grenade into the home of three Catholic university students Monday, damaging the rented building but leaving no one injured. Full Story

US forces are helping the Philippine military search for the body of an Abu Sayyaf leader said to have been slain in a clash last week, the commander of the American forces deployed in the south of the country said Monday. Full Story

Tribal leaders giving `our Muslim brothers` safe haven. For $100, the two barbers in this border village will trim a traveler`s hair, shave his beard, give him a set of clothes and help him slip pass checkpoints manned by Pakistani police. Since March, all of their customers — an average of 14 a week —…

Myanmar`s ruling junta accused Thailand Monday of giving sanctuary to ethnic minority Shan guerrillas, the latest salvo in a simmering row between the neighbors that has battered bilateral relations. Full Story

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has reiterated his pledge to the US to end the infiltration of militants into Indian-administered Kashmir. Reports said he gave the assurance to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who telephoned him at the weekend. Full Story

A veteran campaigner for an independent Kashmir accused Pakistan on Tuesday of bowing to what he termed “Indian blackmail” by promising to stop militant incursions in the divided Himalayan region. Full Story

Decorated veteran Sen. John Kerry blasted President Bush`s handling of the Afghan war yesterday, charging that crucial mistakes let 1,000 Al Qaeda fighters escape. Full Story

Uganda rebels have killed three people and abducted another 14, say local officials in northern Uganda. Fighters from the Lord`s Resistance Army (LRA) launched two separate attacks on Monday around the town of Gulu. Full Story

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri was expected to meet his Saudi counterpart at the sidelines of an Islamic meeting in Khartoum this week to discuss normalizing ties between the two countries, well-informed Iraqi sources told United Press International Monday. Full Story

State information technology managers have proposed creating an organization through which its members can share information about cybersecurity issues. Full Story

POLICE have doubled the size of Greater Manchester force`s computer crime unit in a bid to crack down on hackers whose security breaches have pushed some firms to the brink of closure. Full Story

Success in reorganizing the FBI to effectively prevent terrorist attacks depends to a great degree on the bureau`s ability to solve its information technology problems, FBI Director Robert Mueller told a House subcommittee June 21. Full Story

I have spent most of the last week attending a training course on ethical hacking. A course like this is bound to raise a number of eyebrows, but the agenda is harmless enough, and covers the kinds of misconfigurations and programming bugs which are exploited by hackers and their worms. Full Story

FBI agents won’t have user-friendly, integrated computer programs to manage their investigations until December 2003, FBI Director Robert Mueller said Friday. Mueller said the bureau will have the basic building blocks of a modern technology system in place by the end of this year, when FBI offices throughout the country should have new computers and…

Sophos has received an increasing number of reports in the past few days of the W32/Yaha-E worm infecting user`s computers. Many of the reports have come from the Netherlands and Switzerland, although there have been submissions to Sophos`s support department originating from other countries. Full Story

Sometimes all malicious users do is place a script inside the username, address, or search query field on a Web page. And sometimes they get help from the sites they target. Error messages from unprotected servers can provide attackers with vital clues about the security on the back end, as well as the type of…

Geographic information system-based analysis is a hot topic in government circles, but there are few places government employees can go to get accredited training. That`s one of the reasons Virginia`s George Mason University believes its certification program in crime mapping and analysis has proven to be so popular. Full Story

Australia had to some extent anticipated the impact on strategic thinking of the September 11 terrorist attack, Defence Minister Robert Hill said yesterday. Senator Hill told a conference in Canberra that dealing with what the military called `asymmetric threats`, such as terrorism, had been anticipated in the Defence White Paper 2000. `The emerging trends and…

Three federal agencies formed an alliance to improve information technology security for small businesses. The FBI`s National Information Protection Center, the Small Business Administration and the Commerce Department`s National Institute of Standards and Technology signed a partnership agreement to help small businesses identify information security vulnerabilities. Full Story

Thousands of broadband internet modems are being installed with default passwords, making them vulnerable to hackers who can use them to surf the net at the owners` expense. But when Auckland computer programmer John Burns tried to warn people that their modems were insecure, he was threatened with legal action. Full Story

Social engineering focuses on the weakest link of the information security chain, and considered a big security threat, according to CERT. One of the basic laws of information security is that `Client-Side Security Doesn`t Work`, or more precisely, as Scott Culp says: “The basic problem with client-side security is that the person sitting physically in…

The ex-hacker details his past control of Las Vegas` telecom network, and raids his old storage locker to produce the evidence. Kevin Mitnick shook up a hearing on the call-tampering allegations by detailing years of his own illicit control of the company`s Las Vegas switching systems, and the workings of a computerized testing system that…

Despite new sophisticated antivirus software, computer bugs are proliferating at twice the rate of last year, according to British security company MessageLabs. With over 60,000 different kinds of listed viruses and worms (self-propagating viruses), one wonders if we are losing the war to the mad hackers of the world. Full Story

There probably isn`t a reader of this column who hasn`t received the Klez virus or its offspring: Klez.A, Klez.E, Klez.F, or Klez.H. There are a number of interesting aspects to this thing. One is that it sends out a large variety of messages. It spoofs addresses found in address books and usually has an idiotic…