contributed by Space Rogue
With ABC, C-SPAN, Drudge, and NASDAQ behind them the ULG now has the FBI hot on their trial. NASDAQ has said that they have not found any evidence left behind from the intrusion, which will not give the FBI much to go on. The big question is will The United Loan Gunmen strike yet another high profile media site, or disappear quietly into cyberspace?

The United Loan Gunmen have also claimed to have broken into two boxes on the windows2000test.com subnet last week. Windows2000test.com was established by Microsoft to invite people to test the security features of the next release of the operating system. By violating the rules set up by Microsoft ULG claims to have gotten access to two terminals servers on the same network as the target system. They say that they were then disconnected from the systems and their access was later blocked. HNN has been unable to confirm any of these allegations. (This information provided by a trusted third party who was contacted by ULG)

There have been a few rumors floating around that net that the United Loan Gunmen are actually the same as Hacking For Girlies. HFG claimed responsibility for defacing the NYT web site last year. Most of the 'evidence' presented to support this rumor is purely circumstantial and in reality proves nothing. It is interesting to note that most of sites attacked by HFG were UNIX based while ULG has only attacked NT systems. While this is not concrete evidence either, it does cast doubt on these rumors.

The staff of Attrition.org, in cooperation with HNN, have worked hard to create an accurate analysis and comparison of the few examples of HFG and ULG works. While this analysis is not actual proof it does make a very convincing argument that the two groups are not the same.

Graphics Comparison
HTML Analysis

HNN Defaced Pages Archive - abc.com, c-span.org, drudgerport.com
Attrition Mirror - nasdaq-amex.com

Associated Press - via USA Today
Wired
ZD Net
Reuters - Via Yahoo News
CBS Market Watch

contributed by Netmask
The 'U.S. Only' version of BO2K along with the 3DES plugin, has been discontinued. The reason for this discontinuation was given as the high cost of maintaining the U.S.-only download server. There will now only be one version of BO2K available to anyone world wide. if you want strong crypto there are numerous plug-ins available that where developed over seas and are therefore not subject to the draconian U.S. encryption export controls

BO2K

contributed by Space Rogue
A series of nine seminars focusing on on computer security and virus prevention will be given by the Taiwanese Defense Ministry in an effort to increase the military's ability regarding electronic warfare. The Defense Ministry said that this was a direct result of the increased electronic threat from mainland China.

Inside China Today

contributed by AlienPlague
The Clinton Administration is due to release by the end of the day Thursday recommendations on encryption export controls that are expected to suggest that current restrictions be eased. While agencies like the FBI have pushed to have encryption export controls tightened, it is reported that the President's Export Council Subcommittee on Encryption has advised the President to loosen the restrictions.

Info World