New Netsky Worm May Be from Different Author; Lucent Fires Top Chinese Execs for Bribery; Security Breach at Port Canaveral; Amish Beliefs at Odds with Border Rules

New Netsky Worm May Be from Different Author

According to a Computerworld story yesterday, new versions of the Netsky e-mail worm are spreading on the Internet and may be the work of a different author than previous editions of that worm, according to antivirus software companies. Like earlier variants, the new Netsky strains target machines running versions of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system, but unlike before, they open “back doors” on machines they infect. The viruses still arrive as files enclosed in e-mail messages that have spoofed sender addresses and vague subjects.Lucent Fires Top Chinese Execs for BriberyNetwork World Fusions website today reports that Lucent fired four executives at its Chinese operations, including the president and COO, for violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the company said in a filing yesterday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Lucent did not name the four executives dismissed, but did say Chinese operations will report to Robert Warstler, the company’s president of global sales, until a new president is named. The company did not disclose details of the FCPA violations , but said it uncovered them at its Chinese operations through an investigation of its operations in 23 countries. That investigation grew out of an unrelated bribery scandal involving the company’s operations in Saudi Arabia.

An IDG News Service story on

Security Breach at Port CanaveralWESH in Florida, 22 people are charged with illegally obtaining security badges at Port Canaveral, a major cruise ship port of call. They were arrested for obtaining badges using fake social security numbers or fake IDs. Eight of those arrested were illegal aliens who had no social security numbers and are not allowed to have badges of any kind. The suspects are employees of a construction company that is building a large cargo facility in Orlando. Agents do not believe the illegal workers had malicious intent, but the ease with which they illegally obtained badges calls into question the other 7,000 badges held by current or former port workers.

According to NBC news affiliate

Amish Beliefs at Odds with Border RulesThe Buffalo News today, Canadian-born Daniel Zehr was barred from returning to the United States from Canada for nearly three months after federal security officials at the Peace Bridge blocked him from re-entering because he lacks photo identification. He had traveled from his current home in a Pennsylvania Amish community to Ontario in December to visit his ill father and tried to return in early January. His attorney, Mark T. Knapp, was finally able to get Zehr back into this country last Thursday on a temporary, parole basis as he awaits an April 20 hearing in federal court. Zehr is married to an American and the couple have a U.S.-born child. Knapp said the Department of Homeland Security’s photo identification requirements infringe on Zehr’s First Amendment rights allowing freedom of religion. “The question is whether the government’s claim of national security can override personal religious freedoms,” Knapp said. “This is a very serious situation for my client. For this man, having a photo taken is a grave sin. While his client’s religious beliefs prohibit the use of photo identification, Knapp said, he would agree to fingerprint identification and possibly retinal scanning or other high-tech identity screening that does not involve photographic images.

An Amish man’s religious beliefs, which prohibit him from having his photo taken, are running afoul of anti-terrorism efforts and have prevented him from returning to his home in the United States after a visit to Canada. According to a story in