contributed by Brian Martin
The response to Brian Martin's previous article Is it Worth It proved so overwhelming that a more thorough article was warranted. This time Mr. Martin takes an in depth look at just what laws apply and who investigates web page defacements.

Buffer Overflow

contributed by Evil Wench
W95.Babylonia seems to be a breakthrough in virus/worm technology. It is the first known 'extensible worm' which allows the author, or anyone else, to remotely change the capabilities of the software after infection. According to Symantec, the virus was authored by a group calling itself the 29A (666 in hex) virus writing group. The primary means of infection so far has been through IRC where it poses as a fix to the Y2K bug. More than 20 instances of infection have been reported so far. There have been four plug-ins discovered that the worm can download to extend its capabilities.

Wired
ZD Net

contributed by Weld Pond
New Denial of Service tools, such as Trinoo and TFN, have security experts concerned. These new tools can launch a crippling attack on an Internet server with an overwhelming number of requests from several machines at once. CERT plans to release a report on this 'distributed attack' method later this week. Currently there is no simple fix or patch.

USA Today

contributed by Turtlex
Michael Vatis, director of the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC), has said that the FBI would be on alert during the new year changeover. He explained that agents would be looking for malicious activities directed against Internet sites although they had no hard evidence of any planned attacks. (Hmmm, I think the key words here are "no hard evidence".)

Reuters - Via Excite News

contributed by Weld Pond
The Internet Operators Group (IOPS.ORG) is planning to coordinate real-time communications between major global ISPs, equipment vendors and government officials to handle any Y2K Internet problems that may arise. IOPS will sponsor a telephone conference bridge to keep major ISPs in continuous contact in order to report on and resolve any Internet related incidents. The telephone conference bridge initiative, named "Silent Night," will begin before midnight on December 31, New Zealand time and stay open for at least 48 hours.

PR Newswire

contributed by Dr. Mudge
Rumors regarding color copier IDs have been circulating for a long time. While it has been well known fact for years that invisible IDs are inprinted on all color copies it has not been widely reported and has even reached the status of myth in some laymen circles. A recent report in the PRIVACY Forum Digest indicates that every color photocopier and printer does in fact include a unique identifier stegonagraphicly embedded into the image as background noise.

PRIVACY Forum Digest, December 6, 1999

contributed by Mark
Recently blamed for for a massive attack on the Australian Republican Movement website the long time underground group Halcon Technologies has remained unusually quiet. Now one of the groups members Valiant has offered the first interview from the group to explain just what the hell went on down under.

QuadCon #1

contributed by Fran
2500 one and two person teams will once again be able to compete for scholarships to Florida State University by Surfing the Web. Registration for is now open for the third annual Florida State University Online Scholar Challenge. The competition pits teams of high school students against one another in finding answers to tough questions online.

FSU Online Scholar Challenge

contributed by Valiant
We aren't sure what to make of this but it would appear that the Australian government is out to silence certian individuals. While we have nothing to go on for verification of this story, other than this web page, we are hoping that some more resourceful individuals can gather additional information.

Big Brother -is- Watching!