Robert Lemos

A major security hole discovered in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer last week has become a golden marketing opportunity for alternative browsers such as Mozilla and Opera that are unaffected by the flaw.
CNET News.com

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For three days, staff writer Rob Lemos covered “MSBlast,” producing several detailed reports for visitors. “MSBlast,” the latest threat to hit the Internet, is a piecemeal compilation of programs cobbled together to do a single job: spread across the Internet. The Frankenstein’s monster of code stitches together a widely available file server, one of several public programs to exploit a widespread Windows flaw, and common techniques for compromising computers.

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is asking companies to send it tips about flaws in the nation’s technological infrastructure under a law that guarantees that the information will be protected from public disclosure.
CNET News.com

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Agriculture epidemics may hold clues to Net viruses
In studying the effects of last summer’s MSBlast worm, some security experts turned to an unlikely source in search of clues to the prevention of computer epidemics: plants. Their idea was inspired by parallels that scientists are drawing between the proliferation of computer viruses and the spread of [...]

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The technology industry has yet to find a blanket solution to the ever-growing list of viruses and worms that constitute the greatest risk to computers on the Internet. Every year, companies lose billions of dollars when forced to halt work and deal with infectious digital diseases, such as Sobig and Slammer.
CNET News.com

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Robert Lemos shared the award with other CNET News.com team members for the five-part series, “Industrial Evolution.” Lemos wrote one of the five parts, “The high cost of the war of terrorism.”

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Control-system specialist Verano has introduced a service and software package to help companies protect their critical infrastructure from digital attacks.
CNET News.com

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Kevin Finisterre admits that he likes to hew close to the ethical line separating the “white hat” hackers from the bad guys, but little did he know that his company’s actions would draw threats of a lawsuit from Hewlett-Packard.
CNET News.com

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Although it is possible for electronic intrusions to damage infrastructure and threaten physical danger, taking control of those systems from the outside is extremely difficult, requires a great deal of specialized knowledge and must overcome non-computerized fail-safe measures. As a result, government and corporate security experts–while careful not to dismiss the gravity of the issue–point [...]

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Law enforcement and intelligence agents may have a new tool to read the data displayed on a suspect’s computer monitor, even when they can’t see the screen. Marcus Kuhn, an associate professor at Cambridge University in England, presented research Monday showing how anybody with a brawny PC, a special light detector and some lab hardware [...]

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