Bush Seeks Three New Laws on Terror; Former Enron Exec Jailed; Good Riddance to Sobig.F; Microsoft Issues Patch for New Windows Flaw

Bush Seeks Three New Laws on Terror

Speaking to Homeland Security and law enforcement officials at the FBI Academy, President Bush pushed Congress yesterday to pass three new laws to combat terrorism, including legislation that would expand the federal death penalty to include more people convicted of certain terrorist acts; allow investigators trying to prevent attacks to use subpoenas issued without the approval of a judge or a grand jury; and automatically deny bail to defendants charged with some terrorism-related crimes. According to The Boston Globe today, the White House distributed a 23-page “progress report on the global war on terrorism” as Bush was giving his speech. The report proudly points out that two-thirds of Al Qaeda’s leadership has been killed or captured over the past two years. But even as Bush spoke, television stations were airing a videotape (not yet analyzed by U.S. intelligence experts) that showed two bearded men who appeared to be Osama bin Laden and a top deputy, and promised more attacks on Americans. The New York Times coverage of the speech calls Bushs proposals a hard sell. Former Enron Exec JailedHouston Chronicle. He was charged with 24 counts of money laundering, fraud and conspiracy. In addition to his prison term, Glisan faces three years of supervision after his release, during which he cannot be employed in a fiduciary role nor can he have a position of trust at a publicly traded company, and he forfeited any claim to more than $900,000 the government has already seized, plus $412,000 in taxes he has paid on that money. Glisan also agreed not to make any money off his story. Glisan, who had been indicted on 24 charges, did not enter into a cooperating agreement with prosecutors. But, says the Chronicle, the fact of his imprisonment may prompt other suspects to consider plea bargains themselves.

Former Enron treasurer Ben Glisan Jr. was sentenced to five years in federal prison yesterday, becoming the highest-level company official to plead guilty and the first executive to be incarcerated, according to a story in todays

Good Riddance to Sobig.FThe Register, the prolific Sobig-F virus stopped spreading yesterday, marking the end of arguably the worst single email-borne viral epidemic to date. Sobig-F, first detected on August 18, is the sixth variant issued in the Sobig series and appears to be the most sophisticated to date. It was programmed to stop spreading on Sept. 10. Sobig-F outstripped the infamous LoveBug, Klez and Kournikova viruses in prevalence but its overall impact is arguably less than that of Internet worm like Slammer and Blaster. According to the Register, one antivirus company blocked the virus a staggering 16.5 million times during its month-long spread. At the height of the epidemic, one in 17 e-mails the firm scanned were viral (other companies say the situation was even worse).

According to a story in

Microsoft Issues Patch for New Windows FlawSeattle Times, Microsoft has found new security flaws in the same area of the Windows operating system that was exploited by Blaster. The new flaws, which Microsoft gave its most severe rating, may enable a hacker to write a worm as serious as Blaster, according to outside security experts. Microsoft also says the hole, which effects most recent versions of Windows, including Windows 2000, 2003 and XP, may let a hacker take over computers or networks. Microsoft ‘s own review also found additional problems that the company has corrected in a the security update (www.microsoft.com/security), , the Times reports, but a spokesman for the company declined to be more specific. The company urges users to download the new update.

According to a Bloomberg News Service story in todays