contributed by Evil Wench
A joint venture between Acxiom, and Publishing and Broadcasting Limited aims to compile a vast database on the fine details of the Australian population. The database will hold information gleaned from various sources including credit companies, retailers, electoral rolls, post office lists, car sale records, housing purchase records and other sources. Access to the Oracle database, called InfoBase, will be sold to marketing and advertising companies and anyone who wants the low down on their customers or potential employees. It will initially hold more than 15 million records. Acxiom already holds what it claims to be the worlds largest database which holds the personal details of some 330 million Americans. (Scott McNealy, Sun Microsystems CEO, was right, we have no privacy.)

The Australian

contributed by tgallen
The Comet Cursor, a freeware utility given away by Comet Systems, secretly tracks users surfing habits for later analysis by the company. With an installed base of over 16 million Comet Systems says that they are not violating users privacy because they use a random serial number to track the data. Privacy advocates warn that it would be extremely easy to match that number with a real world identity.

Associated Press - Via Yahoo News

contributed by Evil Wench
The US office of Finland based Data Fellows, Inc. inadvertently released the email virus 'FreeLink'. Evidently Data Fellows switched off its virus protection during testing of the virus. The virus then managed to infect Data Fellows' internal systems and mailed itself out to several addresses in the company's contacts list. (It is surprising that an AV company would have its test systems connected to the internet at all.)

VU Net

contributed by Evil Wench
The Government Information Security Act (S. 1993) has been introduced by Senate Government Affairs Committee Chairman Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., and is co-sponsored by ranking member Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. The bill would require that a government-wide set of information security controls be established under the auspices of the Office of Management and Budget. This severely alters the currently disjointed information security system where the NSA secures the classified stuff and NIST worries about the non-classified stuff. The bill would require an annual independent evaluation of information security practices, and mandate that agencies follow "best practice" guidelines derived by the Government Accounting Office.

Government Executive Magazine

contributed by Evil Wench
The National Security Agency seems to be having a hard time in gathering relevant data from the volumes of data they have to sift through. With the increase in digital communications, fax machines, fiber optics, and encryption the Agency is finding it harder than ever to get the intelligence it needs. In addition the mountains of public information available on the Internet that the agency must sift through is stretching its resources.

CNN

contributed by Evil Wench
Yesterday HNN reported on a web hosting company that was 'pressured' by the FBI to remove a controversial video. The fictional video featured government sponsored race riots in Times Square during the New Years celebration. The pressure allegedly applied to the ISP did not come in the form of a warrant but instead with a threatening phone call. After an avalanche of email the ISP, BECamation, decided to do the right thing and has restored the video to the web.

Wired
BECamation - Press Release
Crowded Theater

contributed by Paseante
Several members of SET have discovered severe flaws in the security of Ciudad, an Argentinean portal offering free webmail accounts as well as chat and ICQ-style messaging. The flaw would allow anyone to read other peoples mail and Hijack accounts. It would appear that the incorrect configuration of the EdgeMail system, used to offer mail services through the web, appears to be the cause. It is estimated that over 150,000 accounts could have been at risk.

I Media
Ciudad

contributed by Weld Pond
Stealth Keyboard Interceptor from ANNA Ltd. is a $30 shareware product designed to record all keystrokes on a Windows based system. It is designed to hide completely from the user and won't show up on the task list, task bar, or in the system-tray area. (And guess what, your AntiVirus software does not think that this is a threat.)

ZD Net

contributed by imxenos, the m4niac and cruciphux
Issue #1 of Digital Defiance has been released with articles on DialPad.com, Intercom, COCOTS, and Call Tracing Devices and Services. The Black Code Ravers have released issues #1 of their e-zine BC-Tech. HWA Hax0r News has released a mind boggling issue #44 with their weekly roundup of underground news.

Digital Defiance
BC-Tech
HWA Hax0r News