FBI Said to Lag on Terror Tape Translations; Hackers Exploit Microsoft JPEG Hole; Watchdog: Nuclear Facilities Vulnerable to Cyberattack

FBI Said to Lag on Terror Tape Translations

More than 120,000 hours of terrorism-related recordings gathered from wiretaps and other intelligence sources have not been translated by the FBI, the Justice Department said Monday. According to The New York Times, the report also blamed computer malfunctions which may have led the FBI to erase some Al Qaeda recordings. Messages like “Tomorrow is zero hour” and The match is about to begin” were intercepted by the National Security Agency on Sept. 10, 2001, but not translated until days later. The Justice Department investigation found that the FBI faced “significant management challenges” in providing quick and accurate translations. Since 9/11, the Times reports that the FBI received $48 million in additional financing to beef up its language services program.

For more details, read the full article in The New York Times.

Hackers Exploit Microsoft JPEG Hole

Hackers are using pornographic JPEG mages to exploit a recently identified hole in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser. According to a report by IDG News Service for InfoWorld (both are sister companies of CXO Media), hackers are dropping the images with malicious code into Internet news groups that share images. The contaminated images contain code that will allow the hacker to install a program that can hijack the user’s computer through a remote access program. Microsoft has released a patch for the hole.

For more details, read the full IDG News Service article in InfoWorldM.

Watchdog: Nuclear Facilities Vulnerable to Cyberattack

Nuclear industry watchers are growing wary of potential cyberattacks on power plants across the globe. According to a Security Focus article published in The Register, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said last week that it would be developing new guidelines aimed at security networks and control systems at nuclear facilities. Said Jim Davis, director of operations at the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry association, “I think we are taking it seriously… and I think if the industry doesn’t go far enough in this area we’ll see more attention from regulators.”

For more details, read the full Security Focus article in The Register.