Morning Broadband Bytes - Required reading for the masses

Inside Todays Bytes:•"Embarrassed" firms paying off DDoS extortion demands; critical national infrastructure threatened?
•Telcos plan to run VoIP out of town
•CAN-SPAM compliance doubles, but remains negligible
•Internet Explorer hole opens up again?
•Business bosses: Investing in broadband = more productivity and increased profits
•SANS unveils 2004's Top 20 Internet vulnerabilities
•Network gear to speed up broadband services
•More news, plus TidBytes... on the inside!... .

•"Embarrassed" firms paying off DDoS extortion demands; critical national infrastructure threatened?:
The director of research for security organisation SANS said online extortion was rife and that cybercrime was set to get worse. "Six or seven thousand organisations are paying online extortion demands. You don't hear much about it because it's extortion and people feel embarrassed to talk about it." Hackers use botnets to DDoS a victim, then threaten to do it again unless they are paid. The director added he was concerned that the same technique could easily be used to target organisations in the critical national infrastructure.
•Telcos plan to run VoIP out of town:
The traditional phone companies are trying to stifle innovation in next-gen IP services, according to equipment makers. Old-school telecoms are suspected of scheming behind the scenes in an attempt to hamper the new wave of companies offering IP-based telephony services. There is a long and undistinguished history of powerful incumbents across business attempting to block disruptive technologies that threaten them. In the case of VoIP, though, there may be too much momentum driving IP networks for the established telecoms giants to slow it.
•CAN-SPAM compliance doubles, but remains negligible:
Compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act doubled in September over the previous month to hit an all-time high, MX Logic announced Friday. But this is no great feat: even doubled, it's only at a measly 4%, said the message filtering firm. Since the federal anti-spam law went into effect Jan. 1, 2004, compliance by mass mailers has ranged from 1% in January to 0.54% in July to 4% in September.
•Internet Explorer hole opens up again?:
An old, previously-patched security hole in Internet Explorer has suddenly appeared again. The problem was one of six security holes fixed more than two years ago in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-047. Apparently the hole's back again due to lax regression testing - somebody at MS forgot to check the latest patches to see if they re-introduced old problems. The last time this security hole appeared, it took Microsoft six months to fix it.
•Business bosses: Investing in broadband = more productivity and increased profits:
Broadband is the bee's knees, according to business bosses in Britain. More than eight in ten directors admit that investing in broadband has helped boost productivity while two thirds identified a direct link between high-speed net access and increased profits. "Broadband is good for business. IoD members are seizing this opportunity to speed up their communications and boost their customer and competitor analysis. For many companies, broadband is simply transforming the way they work," a senior policy adviser at the IoD said.
•SANS unveils 2004's Top 20 Internet vulnerabilities:
The SANS Institute has released its annual Top 20 list of the most critical Internet-related vulnerabilities. The Top 20 is really two separate lists of 10: one for Windows, the other for Linux/Unix (sorry Apple fans... no list for you). At the top of the Windows chart is Web servers and services, while the BIND domain name system (DNS) headed the list on the Unix/Linux side. Browsers got special attention from the researchers, particularly IE, but "All web browsing applications have had their share of vulnerabilities and bugs that have created security exposures," the researchers concluded. The full vulnerability list can be read on the SANS Web site.
•Network gear to speed up broadband services:
Network equipment manufacturers are plugging new gear this week for telecommunications carriers of all kinds to provide faster, more reliable broadband services. Eight years after the Telecommunications Act promised robust competition by authorizing all carriers, local, long-distance, and cable, to get into one another's businesses, networking technologies are beginning to make it possible. "I think what business users are going to get is higher and higher amounts of bandwidth for less and less money," said the marketing director for NET.com.
•Siemans to develop pre-802.20 wireless broadband products:
Siemens said that it will develop wireless broadband products using FLASH-OFDM technology from Flarion Technologies. The company said it expects to have the equipment ready for wireless operators by the second quarter of next year. Flarion's technology is based on a pre-standard version of the IEEE 802.20 for wireless broadband and is currently being trialed by a host of wireless operators including Nextel and T-Mobile International.
•MS looks to expand PC convergence with new Windows Media Center Edition:
Efforts by MS and the PC industry to expand into to the living room will get a boost next week as they show off technologies that try to balance Hollywood's piracy fears with the appeal of digital media. MS is expected to unveil Windows Media Center Edition 2005 for entertainment computers as well as other software and gadgets that seek to simplify sharing video and music while enforcing copyrights. The industry is touting such systems as the best example yet of the PC's convergence with couch-centric diversions, a goal that has so far proven elusive despite repeated attempts.
•Pittsburgh to get BPL?:
Maryland based Current Communications Group LLC confirmed it is in talks with area electric utility firms to launch BPL service in Western Pennsylvania. Current Communications' CFO said his firm has spoken with both Greensburg-based Allegheny Energy Inc. and Downtown-based Duquesne Light Co. about launching its BPL service in the region. The CFO did say Duquesne's service area, which includes the city of Pittsburgh, is advantageous to a BPL rollout.
•MSN Music falls short of iTunes' high marks:
MS's MSN Music store shouldn't surprise anybody. The company was always the likeliest suspect to launch an online music store. Like other digital-music shops, it charges 99 cents a song and $9.90 an album. MSN Music's catalogue includes about 600,000 tracks, with the goal to pass 1 million. (Apple's store is already there.) MSN Musics features are enough to surpass the Wal-Mart, Napster and MusicMatch stores. But MSN's real competition is iTunes -- a benchmark Microsoft doesn't quite meet.
•BT wholesale broadband price cuts vital to competition: IoD:
Improved competition among high-speed providers in the UK hinges on whether Ofcom forces BT to cut its wholesale broadband prices. Further cuts in BT's wholesale prices "would go a long way" towards promoting competition in the broadband market and encouraging greater take-up, according to research from the IoD. The report's author claimed that Ofcom has indicated that it will look favourably on a formal complaints that BT is in breach of the Competition Act. "The most likely outcome would appear to be a further cut in BT's wholesale prices."
•Commentary: Spam: Leave it to the sender:
"One tiny change in the e-mail model could go a long way to resolving the problem of spam. Consider the message being stored on the sender's server rather than the recipient's. Consider only a tiny notice going to the recipient. You, the recipient, review your notices and decide which messages you want to receive. Further, if you choose to receive the message and then consider it spam, you may inform the sender. The sender cannot be anonymous or spoofed. The recipient must know him to come for his message."

TidBytes:
•Dell Recalls AC Adapters For Notebooks
•Judge orders MS to disclose sensitive details about some of its software, MS wants to use a protected electronic format that is awkward to use and can be viewed only using IE
•Gaming helps traders score big-time
•Rodgers: Its us against the world!
•Feds seize UK media network servers
•Kazaa owner denied office-raid appeal
•Americans Win Counterstrike Gold at World Cyber Games
•Third Parties Fill 'Longhorn' Void

Judge orders MS to disclose details....

DDoS Extortion?

Re: DDoS Extortion?

Swiss Cheese

Dell Power Adapter Recall - Systems affected


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