contributed by omega
The cDc, writers of BO2K, have publicly challenged Microsoft to voluntarily recall all copies of its Systems Management Server network software and have requested the AV industry to respond with signature scanning for SMS files. The premise for this challenge is that Microsoft has labeled Back Orifice 2000 a malicious tool. cDc claims that if BO2K is malicious then SMS must also be, by definition, malicious. Both programs do the exact same thing and have almost identical feature sets.

The Cult of the Dead Cow

contributed by Code Kid
While Defcon made it into the popular press and gathered all the attention The BlackHat Briefings is where a lot of the security industry traded secrets. Infoworld's Stuart McClure and Joel Scambray give a pretty good overview of the goings on at the conference and describe a growing sentiment within the industry that you can't secure the world.

InfoWorld

contributed by Staff
The Attrition.org staff has decided to stop updating the Negation section of their web site. The Negation section covers the activity of John Vranesevich of AntiOnline. The Attrition staff claim that they have accomplished what they set out to do which was to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that AntiOnline and John Vranesevich are a fraud. The Attrition statement says that they have also proven John Vranesevich guilty of libel, repeated copyright violation, paying people to break into systems, idle threats to stifle competition, and serious errors in supposed "factual news". The Negation section will remain posted for all to see, it will just no longer be updated.

Negation

contributed by Weld Pond
Just like any tool these have both good and bad uses. ISS has announced three prototype tools, Telephony Scanner, a wardailing program, Attacker Tracker, a log file analysis tool, and SQL Cracker, for auditing SQL passwords. Free demos are available.

ISS Protoworx

contributed by Weld Pond
The proactive Security project at IBM is producing some interesting results. There are white papers and demos available. Definitely a site worth looking at.

IBM

contributed by GothstaiN
Good news for the non-english crowd. InET Magazine issue #3 has been released and it only comes in Spanish.

Intrusos