MyDoom Is Aimed at SCO; 911 Panel Questions FAA Security; Inspector Finds 17 Rights Cases in Anti-Terror Probe; Microsoft Says It Will Put Security First

MyDoom Is Aimed at SCO

Computer security experts reported that a new e-mail-generating computer worm dubbed “MyDoom” was responsible for as many as one of every nine Internet messages sent around the world yesterday, slowing networks and flooding some in-boxes with the nuisance, according to a story in the Washington Post. The Post reports that the malicious code appeared to be sparked in part by anger over the efforts of a Utah technology company called SCO Group Inc., which has been filing lawsuits claiming it owns the rights to, and should be paid for, code used in the freely available Linux operating system. 911 Panel Questions FAA SecurityThe commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks repeatedly questioned government aviation officials yesterday why stronger security measures that could have averted the hijackings were not in place, according to a story in the Seattle Times. The story reports that the three former FAA officials insisted that whatever warnings had reached the agency were too vague or had been judged inaccurate by intelligence agencies.Inspector Finds 17 Rights Cases in Anti-Terror ProbeReuters reports that the U.S. Justice Department’s inspector general said Tuesday he had identified 17 civil rights complaints for further scrutiny as part of his oversight of controversial anti-terror legislation adopted after the Sept. 11 attacks. Reuters reports that the inspector found that although the complaints included verbal abuse of Muslim inmates, none involved allegations of misconduct by Justice Department employees over their use of substantive provisions of the Patriot law in the latest six-month period.Microsoft Says It Will Put Security FirstComputerworld reports that Microsoft said that it will devote a larger part of its massive $6.8 billion research and development budget to making its software more secure and reliable. According to the story, co-founder Bill Gates recently said that Microsoft wants to boost the number of secure computers by updating software automatically via the Internet. The company will set the automatic update feature as the default in its new applications. Users currently have to download updates manually.