Iraq Unlikely to Initiate Attack; Carnegie Mellon Wins Cyberterror Grant; Trojan Horse in Sendmail; Prison Applies Technology for Monitoring, Security

Iraq Unlikely to Initiate Attack

Unprovoked by a U.S. military campaign, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is unlikely to initiate a chemical or biological attack against the United States, intelligence agencies concluded in a classified report given to select senators last week. According to a story in todays Washington Post, the assessment was first made in a classified National Intelligence Estimate, which includes the analysis and opinions of all relevant U.S. intelligence agencies, that was given to the Senate intelligence committee last week. A declassified “white paper” on Iraq was released days later. Carnegie Mellon Wins Cyberterror GrantNew York Times.

The Defense Department will give Carnegie Mellon University $35.5 million to study cyberterrorism and to help develop tools to stop it, according to an article in today’s

Trojan Horse in SendmailThe Register today reports on the malicious files with technical details and a link to the original CERT advisory.

An enterprising computer enthusiast has managed to insert a Trojan in the source code for a recent Sendmail distro and to substitute the malicious package for the real McCoy on the Sendmail.org FTP server.

Prison Applies Technology for Monitoring, SecurityBoston Globe. Ebacher is using the Mobile Assistant V, a top-of-the-line wearable computer with all the functionality of a good laptop PC. It receives feeds from cameras scanning every cell block. The Essex County jail is the first in the world to deploy this system. Navy technicians and FedEx airplane mechanics have used it for years to look up repair data as they work, and relay new information wirelessly to remote data centers. According to the Globe, when Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins saw a Defense Department demonstration of the Mobile Assistant, he wanted to get a few for his jail. With a Mobile Assistant, an officer can look up a convicts disciplinary record, punch in a request for repairs to a cell or call up video feeds from every other cellblock. When prisoners get violent, officers like Ebacher may have to don special body armor, which will have a camera attached. The presence of the camera, it is hoped, will cause both criminals and guards to act with more restraint, aware that every move they make will be recorded.

There are about 1,000 inmates at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Middleton, Mass., and at any given moment, Lieutenant Jason Ebacher has a pretty good idea of what theyre up to, writes Hiawatha Bray in todays