Hacking Sparks Need for Complex Passwords

Yahoo! News - Hacking Sparks Need for Complex Passwords: "As more Web sites demand passwords, scammers are getting more clever about stealing them. Hence the need for such 'passwords-plus' systems.

To access her bank account online, Marie Jubran opens a Web browser and types in her Swedish national ID number along with a four-digit password.
For additional security, she then pulls out a card that has 50 scratch-off codes. Jubran uses the codes, one by one, each time she logs on or performs a transaction. Her bank, Nordea PLC, automatically sends a new card when she's about to run out.
Scandinavian countries are among the leaders as many online businesses abandon static passwords in favor of so-called two-factor authentication.
'A password is a construct of the past that has run out of steam,' said Joseph Atick, chief executive of Identix Inc., a Minnesota designer of fingerprint-based authentication. 'The human mind-set is not used to dealing with so many different passwords and so many different PINs.'"

Is Your Apple Rotten?

Is Your Apple Rotten?: "May 24, 2004
Is Your Apple Rotten?
The Mac OS X operating system is almost undeniably one of the most stable and secure out there. However, even being one of the most secure doesn't mean that it is invulnerable. A recent flaw is considered to be exceptionally serious because it could allow an attacker to assume complete control of a target system. Apple Releases Patch For Extremely Critical Security Flaw "

Yahoo! News - Apple Says OS X Vulnerable to Security Breach

Yahoo! News - Apple Says OS X Vulnerable to Security Breach: "SEATTLE (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq:AAPL - news), long considered to be relatively immune to the security holes and viruses that plague longtime rival Microsoft Corp.'s Windows, said on Friday a security hole in its software leaves users' computers vulnerable to attack."

Yahoo! News - Microsoft, Reward-Seekers Help Nab Sasser Creator

[more]: "By Stephane Nitschke and Stefan Braun

HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - A tip from reward-seekers and information from Microsoft led to the arrest of an 18-year-old suspected of creating the 'Sasser' computer worm, German police and the software giant said on Saturday.
Spokesman Frank Federau for Lower Saxony police said police were certain they had the man behind one of the Internet's most costly outbreaks of sabotage.

Yahoo! News - New worm possibly infecting millions of computers:

Yahoo! News - New worm possibly infecting millions of computers: experts: "STOCKHOLM (AFP) - A new Internet worm is spreading worldwide and has probably already infected millions of computers, a Finnish anti-virus expert told AFP.



The Sasser worm can infect any computer that is switched on and connected to an Internet service provider, and unliked most other worms or viruses is not spread by email, said Mikko Hyppoenen, head of anti-virus research at the Finnish Internet security firm F-Secure.
'This is one of few worms that spreads automatically. It is enough for your PC to be on,' he told AFP in a telephone interview from Helsinki.
The worm typically shuts down the computer then automatically re-boots it, repeating the procedure several times. Hyppoenen said computers behind a firewall should be spared from the attack.
He stressed that the worm, while inconvenient, was otherwise harmless and other experts said it was relatively simple to destroy."