contributed by Megan A. Haquer
L0pht Heavy Industries has announced that they are developing a line of professional plugins for the robust remote administration tool BO2K. The first of these plugins BOTOOL was released yesterday. BOTOOL allows the administrator to remotely manage files and the remote registry. This allows you to upload and download files securely, as well as copy, rename and delete files and directories. The remote registry editor allows you full registry editing capabilities over the BO2K secure command channel.

L0pht Heavy Industries

found on slashdot
In an obvious ploy to get free publicity Microsoft has set up a Windows 2000 machine on the internet and invited people to break in. Microsoft wants to create the most secure version of Windows ever, which is a laudable goal. It is hoped that this is not a primary testing method. Not only is attacking a system blind over the net probably one the hardest things to do but the people who could actually accomplish this task have more important things to do other than testing Microsoft products for free. Of course a few months from now I'm sure we will hear how Windows 2000 stood up to X number of 'hack' attempts via the internet and is now the most secure version of Windows ever. Phalease.

www.windows2000test.com

contributed by Code Kid
A Chinese military newspaper covering the activities of China's Peoples Liberation Army has called for the recruitment of 'civilian hackers' and for the training of 'cyber warriors' at Army schools.

Internet News

contributed by evilwench
A directive to eliminate unauthorized access to the Non-Classified IP Router Network will soon be issued from The Office of the Secretary of Defense. DOD is cracking down on unofficial connections to NIPRNet in an effort to increase security.

Government Computer News

contributed by Inf0rmant
Over 6 million Americans use the internet to do their banking, pay bills, transfer money, apply for loans, etc. A new report released by the General Accounting Office examined 81 financial institutions and found that 35 of them, about 44 percent, had not taken all the risk-limiting steps regulators had recommended. Unfortunately the report did not examine the client side security of internet banking. With programs like NetBus and BO2K floating around that is where the real danger lies.

Nando Times

contributed by Sarge
Information stored on the National Finance Center's computer systems, including sensitive government personnel and financial information, is at risk of disclosure or destruction. The GAO report found that the NFC, under the Agriculture Department's control, had given legitimate users too much access. The NFC said it has completed some corrective actions and is working on the rest.

Federal Computer Week

contributed by Space Rogue
As mentioned yesterday HNN is making improvements to its systems so as to better serve you. One result of this is that we can not receive mail at the moment. So if you sent us mail and we have not yet replied or it has bounced that is why. It will be fixed soon.