Washingtonpost.com: PC Users Play 'Dodge the Hacker'

Byline: Cynthia L. Webb

Using a personal computer these days is like playing virtual dodgeball, but with spam and hacker attacks subbing in for the big red ball.

Microsoft 's Windows operating system continues to be the prime hacking target, especially since it powers more than 90 percent of the world's PCs and is rife with security holes.

The latest hacker flare-ups are going after the same flaw that the Sasser worm exploited. "Sasser put a spotlight on yet another security hole in Microsoft's Windows computer operating system by knocking down business, government and transportation systems around the globe. Now, in what is becoming a familiar pattern, attackers have launched a steady stream of smaller-scale assaults, looking to break into Windows PCs exhibiting the same vulnerability exploited by Sasser," USA Today reported today. "Attackers are having a field day with this one flaw," Ed Skoudis , co-founder of Internet security firm Intelguardians , told the paper.

More from the article: "The weapons of choice: self-propagating worms, more refined and invasive than the fast-spreading, but otherwise relatively benign, Sasser. Attackers also are increasing deployment of powerful stealth programs, called bots, designed to turn a compromised PC into an obedient soldier awaiting orders to broadcast spam or steal log-ins. What's more, hacking specialists, dubbed bot-herders, are assembling bot armies of thousands of compromised machines and using them to extort protection money from gambling Web sites. They do this by threatening to dispatch a bot army to flood a Web site with bogus requests so it can't transact bets." * USA Today: Sasser Inspires Raiders To Jump In

Just this week, Kaspersky Labs "intercepted a new virus threat called Plexus which spreads through local networks and the internet as an attachment to infected emails, according to the Russian anti-virus firm," The Sydney Morning Herald's online edition reported. "The worm spreads in three different ways: as an email attachment, via file-sharing networks and using the LSASS and RPC DCOM vulnerabilities in MS Windows which previous worms like Sasser and Lovesan did, it has warned." McAfee also has information on Plexus on its site, along with a list of newly discovered threats like the Korgo e-mail worm. * The Sydney Morning Herald: New Worm Exploiting Sasser Route

Maybe you didn't read it here first, but read it again anyway: Don't open strange e-mail attachments and if you get something unexpected from a trusted e-mailer, call them or e-mail them to make sure it's not a virus-laden fake . The e-mail subject line "Re: Document" and just plain "Re: Your Photos" is probably not something you want to risk opening. And if you use Microsoft's Outlook e-mail program, at least disable the auto-preview function to avoid opening e-mails willy-nilly. Finally, tell relatives and acquaintances to quit sending chain mail and random attachments that warn of viruses -- it's one more example of the old "crying wolf" cliche.

However, Larry Seltzer of eWeek.com argued in an op-ed earlier this week that mass mailing worms "have seen their best days."

More from Seltzer: "Just the other day Kaspersky Labs wrote up a dire warning about the new Plexus.a worm that combines the usual mail and network share infection routes with exploits of the LSASS and DCOM vulnerabilities. Given that multiple individual worms exist that use these techniques individually, I fail to see why one worm that uses multiples of them is anything new to be scared of... And it's only going to get harder for these worms. As I've written before, some form of SMTP authentication is coming, and one thing it is likely to do is to kill off the existing generation of mail worms, which should no longer even reach the destination mail server. It's conceivable that worm authors could employ new techniques to get their messages authenticated, but it still won't be the same for them. With no spoofing, it will be easier to track them down and alert infected users." eWeek.com has a package of articles on e-mail worms in 2004. * eWeek: The End of the Mass-Mailer Worm Era

Microsoft, meanwhile, is readying an upgrade for Windows XP computers, a service pack with more security bells and whistles, USA Today noted. "We hope SP 2 will mitigate the threats our customers are facing," Stephen Toulouse , Microsoft's security program manager, told the paper.

The company also has been vigilant about hunting down hackers. "When indications of a worm exploiting the LSASS vulnerability in Windows surfaced April 30, the staff at Microsoft Corp.'s Security Response Center didn't hesitate; they knew exactly what to do. Within an hour of the first reports of the worm, which would later come to be known as Sasser, Kevin Kean was on a conference call with the company's internal penetration testers, field representatives and partners in the Virus Information Alliance . The group went over details to determine whether the threat was serious enough to call out the heavy hitters and move into what's known as 'immediate response' phase," eWeek reported. "From there, the chase was on. Microsoft's internal analysts and security and forensics experts worked around the clock with the help of law enforcement officials and outside specialists to analyze Sasser code, searching for any clue that might lead them to the worm's creator. And in this case, after a week of long hours, hard work and not a little bit of luck, the effort paid off with the arrest and indictment of an 18-year-old German man who authorities say has confessed to writing not only Sasser but the Netsky family of viruses as well." * eWeek: Microsoft's Swift Response Nabbed Sasser Suspect

In an article today featuring an interview with a so-called Microsoft "bounty hunter," CNET's News.com said the "Sasser computer worm may mark a turning point for law enforcement's ability to catch and prosecute computer virus authors. The reason: Enticed by a $250,000 reward, an informant came forward to leak information on the person who wrote and released the Sasser worm."

And more: "It's exactly what Microsoft, which agreed to the bounty as part of its antivirus reward program, hoped would happen, said Hemanshu Nigam , an attorney for the Microsoft branch administering the program." When asked about the idea for a reward for hunting down Sasser's creator, Nigam replied: "It is the first time somebody came to Microsoft, specifically, and said, 'I have information for you. I know about your reward program, and I want to talk to you about somebody who has done something that is malicious in nature.' It is the first time that has happened. However, we have seen an increase--and this is something law enforcement has told us--in the number of citizens out there who are calling law enforcement and saying, 'We have information on a cybercrime.' The community out there using the Internet knows things about what is going on and is energized to step forward and do the right thing--even if it is not directly connected to a reward being offered by Microsoft. That, to us, is a success in itself." * CNET's News.com: Microsoft's Bounty Hunter

The explosion of hacker attacks, worms and other cybercrimes has not only created a special team of hacker hunters at Microsoft, but the cybersleuth business overall has increased in popularity. The New York Times wrote about the trend in an article today, focusing on companies that are nabbing the perpetrators of Internet fraud.

"From identity theft to bogus stock sales to counterfeit prescription drugs, crime is rife on the Web. But what has become the Wild West for cybercriminals has also developed into a major business opportunity for cybersleuths. One of the most well-known is Kroll Ontrack , a technology services provider that Kroll , an international security company based in New York, set up in 1985. Others include ICG Inc. in Princeton, N.J.; Decision Strategies in Falls Church, Va.; and Cyveillance in Arlington, Va., all started in 1997," the newspaper wrote. "'As more and more crime is committed on the Internet, there will be growth of these services,' said Rich Mogull , research director of information security and risk at Gartner Inc. ," the paper reported. * The New York Times: Fighting Crime One Computer At A Time (Registration required)

And an interesting side note: "Laptops containing sensitive financial details and all manner of corporate secrets can be snapped up at auctions for a pittance, a security firm revealed on Wednesday. Stockholm-based Pointsec Mobile Technologies said it bought 100 laptop computers from a host of Internet and public auctions over the past two months," Reuters reported. "The exercise intended to demonstrate that the scores of lost or stolen laptops that wind up at auction every day have hard drives with little or no security, giving identity thieves and fraudsters easy access to lucrative data. What it did not expect to find was a cache of corporate laptops too that were as easy to crack as grandma's PC. In all, the firm's technicians were able to pull sensitive details from 70 of the 100 machines it bought." * Reuters: For Sale by Public Auction -- Juicy Laptop Secrets

Spam, I Still Am

Speaking of cottage industries, there is no shortage of junk e-mail to keep anti-spam software companies from laughing all the way to the bank. Even the new federal anti-spam law does not appear to be deterring spammers. "Only 1 percent of the unsolicited e-mail messages circulating on the Internet in May complied with the federal Can-Spam Act , despite several high-profile cases in which junk e-mailers have been sued, convicted and sentenced to jail, according to the report released by Denver-based anti-spam company MX Logic . The figure marks a drop from an average compliance rate of 3 percent during the first four months of the year, the report said," washingtonpost.com reported. * washingtonpost.com: Report: More Spam Violates The Law (Registration required)

And check this out: Home PCs are the top source for spam, not that their owners realize it, The Boston Globe reported. Eighty percent of spam messages "originate from home computers that have been secretly taken over by spammers, a new study found," the article said. It explained that "spammers have created 'worm' programs that can be sent over the Internet to infect unprotected computers, mainly home machines connected to broadband networks. The worms contain ' Trojan horse ' software that can transform an infected computer into a spam relay. The machine will then pump out thousands of spam e-mails without the owner's knowledge or consent. Sending the spam through a relay computer makes it much harder to block the messages." * The Boston Globe: Home PCs Big Source of Spam

Dow Jones Newswires yesterday reported on the joint efforts of Microsoft , Yahoo , America Online and Earthlink . The bigwigs are "working together to come up with standard technologies for authenticating e-mail senders, which the companies say will make it easier for mail recipients to beat back spam, scams and viruses. Internet service and Web e-mail providers and others in the industry say broad agreement on a technology is vital to getting the large-scale adoption that's needed to stop e-mail 'spoofing,' as the use of fake sender names is known. The companies are looking at new technology that could be adopted in the coming months. These include easy and cheap technologies for verifying e-mail senders' domain names, as well as more effective, but also more complicated and expensive, systems for attaching and viewing actual proof of e-mail senders' identities." * Dow Jones Newswires: Subject: No More Spam From Fakes (Subscription required)

The Rosier Side of Technology

The D: All Things Digital conference, put on by Dow Jones & Co. in San Diego, produced some of the latest signs that tech executives are happy campers again. "The swagger is back. Well, sort of. You could almost feel the renewed confidence among the technology movers and shakers at a Southern California resort this week, a distinctly improved mood from the same event a year ago. But I'm glad to say there was relatively little of the 1990s Masters of the Universe routine," San Jose Mercury News columnist Dan Gillmor wrote yesterday. "Of course, there wasn't an abundance of humility from people like Microsoft's Bill Gates , Apple Computer's Steve Jobs , Hewlett-Packard 's Carly Fiorina and Oracle 's Larry Ellison , who were among the speakers at the" conference. "Yet even they reflected the massive changes that have roiled their industry since the bubble days." * The San Jose Mercury News: Tech Executives At Conference Regain Swagger (Registration required)

Leslie Walker of The Washington Post wrote about the conference in her column today. Starting off with one of the featured products at the conference, a digital toilet that has taken Japan by story, Walker mused that at the conference this year "the mood felt playful, it also seemed more get-down-to-business than at the same confab last year. This year, the entrepreneurs and tech titans seemed reenergized and confident about the future. Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates kicked off the event Sunday with a talk in which he seemed more relaxed and personable than usual. Yet his hyper-competitive streak showed when the subject turned to his company's latest arch rival, which he seemed reluctant even to name: Google ." * The Washington Post: In The Future The Going Gets Digital (Registration required)

The Reason Behind the Smile

As for H-P, the company and its leadership have reason to be gleeful these days. The company is hiring again. "HP Chief Executive Carly Fiorina said Wednesday that the Palo Alto company plans to add a net total of 1,400 new employees worldwide by Oct. 31, the end of its fiscal year. She made the remarks in a Bloomberg TV interview," The Mercury News said. Interestingly, Bloomberg's own report on the remarks pegged the hiring at a much higher number. From Bloomberg: "Hewlett-Packard Co. may add at least 5,000 workers globally in the next year as demand rises for its printers, computers and services, Chief Executive Carly Fiorina says. 'We are adding jobs,' Fiorina said in a television interview. The prospect of the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company adding 5,000 employees to its work force of 145,000 is 'not overly optimistic,' she said," the article reported. "Hewlett-Packard is starting to add workers after cutting 26,800 jobs as part of its $17.6 billion acquisition of Compaq Computer Corp. in May 2002." * The San Jose Mercury News: HP To Add 1,400 Jobs (Registration required) * Bloomberg via The Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Hewlett-Packard Growth Could Add 5,000 Jobs

Ask Andreessen

The tech sector's improvement will be among the topics on tap today when I moderate a live chat on washingtonpost.com with Marc Andreessen of Netscape Communications fame. After selling his company to America Online in 1999, Andreessen went on to found software company Opsware . You can ask Andreessen about his thoughts on the tech sector, what technology innovations he's eyeing and other topics-du-jour during the chat at 12:30 ET. Go ahead and submit a question now in advance of the chat. See you online at 12:30.

Apple to the Fifth Power

Apple Computer has polished up its Power Mac G5 computer line. Reuters noted that Apple "rolled out its fastest-ever desktop computer on Wednesday with processors that run as fast as 2.5 gigahertz, but the company fell short of its earlier goal to offer a 3.0 gigahertz chip-based system by this month." Wired said the "fastest model features a new liquid cooling system -- a first for Apple but common among overclockers." Wired cited a MacCentral report that said an Apple laptop powered by a G5 "won't happen before the end of the year." * Reuters: Apple Launches Faster Power Mac G5 Computer * Wired: Apple Touts Super-Cooled G5s * MacCentral: New G5s Announced

Filter is designed for hard-core techies, news junkies and technology professionals alike. Have suggestions, cool links or interesting tales to share? Send your tips and feedback to cindyDOTwebbATwashingtonpost.com . (Yes, those spammers have been having a lot of fun with my e-mail address lately.)