contributed by Evil Wench and jmaier
At least two programmers involved in creating the DeCSS DVD decryption utility have been contacted by motion picture industry lawyers and have been asked to remove the information regarding the utility DeCSS their Web sites. Members of the Norwegian group "Masters of Reverse Engineering" who came up with the crack have complied with the lawyers request since they can not afford the legal battle. At last count there where over 41 different mirrors in 8 different countries. It is unlikely that the lawyers will be able to shut them all down.

Wired
List of Mirror Sites

Noted Cryptographer Bruce Schneier has called the recent breaking of the DVD encryption a 'good thing'. He goes on to talk about how the DVD encryption scheme was flawed from the start and that it was only a matter of time before someone figured out how to decrypt it.

ZD Net

Late Update 162515NOV99EST

The lawyers are doing what they can. The above list of mirrors has been taken down, however replacements have sprouted up.

Mirrored List of Mirrors #1
Mirrored List of Mirrors #2
Mirrored List of Mirrors #3

contributed by Weld Pond And Lamer
Two class action law suits, one in Pennsylvania and another in California, have been filed against RealNetworks. The suits allege that RealNetworks invaded users privacy by collecting information about them without their knowledge when they used RealJukebox. Such collection of data allegedly violates the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act as well as California business statutes. The California lawsuit reportedly seeks compensatory and punitive damages of $500 per user.

Wired
South China Morning Post

contributed by The Seventh Sign
The Internet Engineering Task Force, the ad-hoc group that decides Internet standards, has categorically rejected the idea of internet wiretaps. Of course companies that make routers and other hardware are still required to include legal wiretap capabilities into their products.

Wired
PC World

contributed by bronc
Sometime today Slashdot.org will be publishing an interview with John Vranesevich of AntiOnline. The interview will consist of questions posted by Slashdot readers.

Slashdot.org

Not sure who John Vranesevich is? Want to know what all the hubbub is about? Check out this new article by Bronc Buster who gives a fairly good chronological account of the events surrounding John Vranesevich and his site.

The Synthesis

And just in case you missed them them first time around here is some background information for you.

Forbes - Go Ahead and Sue
CyberWire Dispatch, August 1999 - Jacking in From the "Pine-Sol" Port
Ottawa Citizen - Spy vs. Spy in the Hacker Underworld
Letter from Ken Williams

And so that people don't think we are playing favorites here is a positive article.

NY Times

contributed by Scores
The most recent media darling virus BubbleBoy, has now been found in the wild. A Japanese web site devoted to collecting viruses has posted BubbleBoy for all to download. It was previously thought that BubbleBoy existed only in the lab. BubbleBoy only effects users on the English and Spanish versions of Microsoft Outlook.

MSNBC

contributed by nvirb
A virus known as FunLove, appears as an executable file, and has already infected a large European company. When an administrator logs onto an infected WindowsNT system the virus grants administrator rights to all users. Descriptions for the virus have been added to Anti-Virus companies definition files.

ZD Net

contributed by skalor
TooRcon Computer Security Expo is proud to announce that the keynote speaker for TooRcon 2000 will be Simple Nomad of Nomad Mobile Research Center. Simple Nomad will discuss the future of hacking as we approach the new millennium.

TooRcon
Nomad Mobile Research Center
HNN Cons Page - more con information

contributed by x-empt
Similar to projects from distributed.net and SETI@Home, this project promises 10,000 Euros (roughly $10,500) to whoever finds the correct encryption key. DCypher.Net, accepting CS Group's CS-Cipher challenge, will attempt to break their 56 bit key using a brute force attack in a distributed computing effort. Currently the Win32 clients are out and a Linux version will be out shortly. (Hmmmmm no one has started an HNN team yet.)

Dcypher.net

contributed by no0ne
The UK based toll-free ISP CallNet 0800 admitted that the financial security of thousands of their subscribers was compromised after the VeriSign digital verification system that was meant to secure their on line transactions did not arrive on time. The online registration which required users to enter their credit card information to make available the discounts in 0800's services, went up last Wednesday and was only taken down this week.

The UK Register

contributed by no0ne
Pang Soon Chen, 19, and David Kok Tuck Whye, 22, of Singapore, have been sentenced for 8 and 22 months in jail respectively after pleading guilty to stealing the user names and passwords of SingNet customers and students at the National University of Singapore. This password theft was apparently accomplished using NetBus. The pair then posted the names and passwords they had stolen to the internet.

IT @ Asia One

contributed by lamer
The Ministry of Law's Integrated Land Information Service in Singapore shut down its web site pending an investigation. The web site was defaced earlier this week. The National Computer Board (NCB) and the Singapore Computer Response Team (SingCert) will work with National Computer Systems (NCS) during the investigation.

IT @ Asia One
Mirror of Defaced Page - provided by Attrition.org

contributed by arab_terrorist9
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) today announced it has launched a new initiative aimed at shutting down illegal trafficking in software on the Internet. As part of the initiative, BSA has filed a lawsuit against twenty-five individuals allegedly participating in the "warez4cable" IRC channel, an Internet forum used to traffic in pirated software. This is the first lawsuit ever filed against individuals for pirating software in an IRC channel.

Business Software Alliance

contributed by no0ne
Once again the mainstream media is a little slow on the uptake. Internetnews.com is finnally reporting on a story that HNN mentioned over a month ago. Moore Publishing of Pennsylvania is seeking more than $10 million dollars in damages from the Washington based legal firm of Steptoe & Johnson. The suit alleges that an employee of Steptoe & Johnson attempted to break in to the computer systems of Moore Publishing. Steptoe has vehemently denied the charges but Moore claims that they have logs that will prove their case. The attacks appear to have been launched as retaliation when Moore Publishing registered the Internet address steptoejohnson.com.

Internet News
HNN Archive for September 28, 1999

contributed by phonepunx and set-fw
Phone Punx Magazine #3 has been released with articles on Caller ID, Trunked radio, ANI and more.

The newest release of the veteran H/P/C/V Spanish ezine Saqueadores Edición Técnica is now available. This issue features articles on Quantum Crypto, Hacking PacketShaper, Tempest, UnderCon and a lot more.

Phone Punx Magazine #3
Saqueadores Edición Técnica

contributed by Space Rogue
HNN is proud to welcome Nether Search to the HNN Search Page. There are now over seven different search engines to choose from.

HNN Search Page