New MyDoom Virus Spreading; California Lawmaker Introduces RFID Bill; Microsoft to Share Technologies to Fight Spam; Intelligence Chiefs Map Security Threats to U.S.

New MyDoom Virus Spreading

Security experts issued fresh alerts over a new, file-deleting version of the MyDoom e-mail worm that was targeting computer users with greater ferocity on Wednesday. According to a Reuters report today, the new outbreak, called MyDoom.F, is programmed to infect personal computers and use them to unleash a crippling digital barrage known as a denial-of-service attack on select Web sites belonging to Microsoft Corp. and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). While it was not spreading as fast as its MyDoom predecessors nor as rapidly as last week’s Netsky.B outbreak, MyDoom.F is considered a growing risk as it deletes random Microsoft Word and Excel files, plus photos and movies stored on an infected computer, Reuters reports. California Lawmaker Introduces RFID BillCnet News.com, a California state lawmaker introduced Senate Bill 1834 yesterday, to address consumer privacy concerns related to the commercial use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. The law would apply to any business or state government agency using radio frequency identification (RFID) systems to track merchandize or people. The bill proposes that businesses and agencies be required to notify people that they’re using an RFID system that can track and collect information about them. It would also require consumers to give express consent before businesses or agencies could track and collect information about them via RFID. Lastly, the legislation requires retailers to detach or destroy RFID tags on merchandize before consumers leave the store with , News.com reports.

According to

Microsoft to Share Technologies to Fight SpamBoston Globe, the backing of the world’s largest software company could go a long way toward full-scale deployment of the new technologies. The plan features a new “e-mail caller ID” technology, which Microsoft has developed and will share at no charge with other Internet companies. The system will let e-mail systems check incoming messages to make sure they came from the sender listed on the message, the Globe reports.

Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., yesterday unveiled a campaign to establish technology standards that could make it easier to filter out the billions of unwanted e-mail messages that flood the Internet every day. Gatess Coordinated Spam Reduction Initiative features ideas that have long been discussed by antispam specialists, but, according to a story in todays

Intelligence Chiefs Map Security Threats to U.S.Atlanta Journal-Constitution today, he also warned that Islamic extremists pose a serious threat to the nation “for the foreseeable future, with or without al-Qaida in the picture.” Tenet was joined by Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, who heads the Pentagon’s intelligence gathering, and FBI Director Robert Mueller in the annual presentation to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence came in an open session, then a closed meeting.

CIA Director George Tenet told a congressional panel Tuesday the United States is safer now than a year ago, but despite successes against al-Qaida, the terrorist network remains “the greatest threat to our homeland and our overseas presence.” according to a story in the