Designing Security Exam 70-298

<font size="3">Designing Security Exam Now Available</font>
Security specialization exam 70-298 to be released December 15.

Microsoft Learning has released Exam 70-298, Designing Security for a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network, on Monday, December 15. The exam counts as a core exam toward the MCSE on Windows 2003 track and is a prescribed exam for the MCSE: Security on Windows 2003 specialisation.

Full Story: mcpmag.com

Microsoft to cut swastikas from software

<font size="3">Microsoft to cut swastikas from software
</font>
Microsoft Corp. said on Friday that its latest version of Office software inadvertently contained a font featuring two swastikas, and said it would offer tools to remove and replace the offending characters from the program.

The swastika, which was made infamous by Nazi Germany, was included in Microsoft's "Bookshelf Symbol 7" font. That font was derived from a Japanese font set, said Microsoft Office product manager Simon Marks.

"It was discovered by one of our customers a couple weeks ago," Marks said, adding that there was "no indication of malicious intent."

News source: CNN

Internet auction hacker busted for fraud

<font size="3">Internet auction hacker busted for fraud</font>

OSAKA -- A man who hacked into the account of an Internet auction site user, then swindled money from a victim by pretending to sell an expensive plasma television has been arrested, police said.

Read the rest of the story: here

Anti-spam law critics predict failure

<font size="3">Anti-spam law critics predict failure</font>
EU directive will be crippled by countries failing to comply, warn anti-spam experts

The new anti-spam directive which came into force 11-12-2003 will not stop unsolicited email, critics have warned. Under the terms of the European Privacy and Communications Directive, businesses sending marketing emails to consumers will have to obtain express permission from the recipient. It will be illegal to send emails or text messages to mobile phones unless companies can prove an existing customer relationship for similar products and services.

Failure to comply could lead to a £5,000 fine for each offence.

News source: vnunet.com

Flaw could unleash another Slammer

<font size="3">Flaw could unleash another Slammer</font>

A research company warned Tuesday that an attacker could use a recently patched Microsoft flaw to create a fast-moving worm similar to SQL Slammer, which spread rapidly across the Internet a year ago.

For this rest of the story, click here.

Virus hits Windows-based cashpoints

<font size="3">Virus hits Windows-based cashpoints</font>

Cashpoints at two US banks have been infected by viruses, with similar breaches tipped to become more common. Automatic teller machines at two banks running Microsoft's popular Windows software were infected by a computer virus in August, the maker of the machines said on Monday. The ATM infections, first reported by SecurityFocus.com, are believed to be the first of a computer virus wiggling directly onto cash machines.

View: The full story

Hackers steal from pirates, to no good end

<font size="3">Hackers steal from pirates, to no good end</font>

The people who design rogue programs that take over computers from afar are now applying the tactic that made music pirating programs so effective--and the Internet may never be the same.

For the rest of the story, click here

EBay removes ad for sale of human kidney

<font size="3">EBay removes ad for sale of human kidney</font>

Auction Web site eBay removed a listing Thursday from a British man who was attempting to sell one of his kidneys to finance medical treatment for his sick daughter.

Peter Randall had put a reserve price of 50,000 pounds (U.S. $85,000) for the kidney on an advertisement on eBay which described him as a "49-year-old non-smoking male who drinks only socially and who is in good health," and said that the organ could be posted to a buyer in Britain, the Middle East, Asia, Europe or North America.

Randall told The Sun newspaper that he was trying to raise money for special therapy for his 6-year-old daughter Alice, who suffers from cerebral palsy. Randall and his partner, Jennifer Stanbury, 44, say the treatment had given them hope their daughter might walk.

A spokeswoman for eBay said the advertisement, which had been running for a week with no bids,...

Accenture to double India staff to 10,000

<font size="3">Accenture to double India staff to 10,000</font>

The company, based in Bermuda, currently employs 4,300 professionals in India for services such as consulting, system integration and business process outsourcing (BPO) for functions such as human resources management and financial accounting.

Read the rest of the story here

Hacked Gentoo Linux server taken offline

<font size="3">Hacked Gentoo Linux server taken offline</font>
Hackers have forced the Gentoo Linux project to take a server offline.

The attack and subsequent compromise comes after several machines belonging to the Debian Linux project were breached by attackers last month. A forensic analysis of the Debian machines revealed that no software packages or source code offered for download were affected--a claim now being made by Gentoo. The maintainers of the Gentoo Linux distribution released a statement that describes the incident: "One of the servers that makes up the rsync.gentoo.org rotation was compromised via a remote exploit," it reads. "The compromised system had both an IDS and a file integrity checker installed and...we are reasonably confident that the portage tree stored on that box was unaffected."

The Gentoo team claimed that the breach was detected within approximately 1 hour....