- Email: [email protected]
More problems for NASDAQ
Computer Audit Update
NEWS Small insect holds back rocket Japan's first heavy-lifting rocket, capable of carrying a 2 tonne satellite into orbit, was grounded possibly by a dead insect reports New Scientist. The H-2 rocket failed six seconds before take off when the two solid fuel booster rockets did not ignite, after the main LE-7 engine had fired up to full thrust. The National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan found the cause of the problem to be a faulty circuit board in the ground control computer. The circuit board should have relayed a signal to ignite the boosters after the computer registered the main engine firing. Shingo Nakamura, a spokesman for NASDA said "We suspect the problem may have been some dust or a small insect inside the circuit board",but added "We're still investigating". NASDA hopes that replacement of the rouge circuit board will correct the problem and restore their tarnished image. Surprisingly, NASDA have no plans to change their pretake-off checking procedures to avoid similar occurrences in the future.
Oil rig's software gets the all clear Shell Expro's Nelson oil rig platform has finally had its safety-critical software approved reports Computer Weekly. The North Sea rig, one of the largest in the region producing around 16 000 barrels of oil per day, is one of the first to rely on software rather than solid-state controls for its fire, gas and process shutdown systems. Although the platform came on stream in February, the tailor-made software, which uses the most up-to-date programmable logic controllers for its shutdown systems, has only recently been approved. The software has been tested over the last three years and was found to contain many "discrepancies, ambiguities and omissions". The independent Centre for Software Engineering (CSE) pin-pointed more than 400 potential problems with the software, the majority of which have been eliminated. CSE project
22
September 1994
manager, Robert Harrison commented that the main aim was that "as far as possible, there could be no repeat of the Piper-Alpha disaster." Harrison added,"it's not possible to guarantee that any system is totally error free" but suggested that the prolonged tests should reduce the likelihood of any problems occurring to a reasonable level.
LANs doomed by Doom Doom, the multiplayer shoot 'era up games software, can seriously affect the performance of local area networks reports Computer Weekly. A bug has been identified in the software of the early 1.1 versions of Doom which can overload a network with data traffic when several players are networked into the software. In some cases a network can completely shutdown. The problems arise due to the gluttonous requirements of the 1.1 version which sends out a huge 240 K bytes per second (Kbps) in data packets looking for players to join in the game. The average network handles broadcasts of around 56 Kbps and, consequently, is unable to deal with the large quantities of data sent out by Doom. The bugs in the 1.1 versions of Doom have been fixed in later issues of the game but there are still many faulty copies in use. Fprint, the UK PC audit specialists, discovered that around 25% of all computers have Doom installed using up nearly 10 Mbytes of disc space on each system, and commented that "Doom is eating away at valuable resources". Even though later copies of the game have been corrected, the Doom problem is set to continue when the games designer, ID software, releases Doom Ih Hell on Earth.
More problems for NASDAQ Incorrect prices for at least 30 New York Stock Exchange stocks were reported recently due to a stock trader's error on the NASDAQ computer system, reports the Democrat & Chronicle, Rochester, NY. The mistake involved a trader's misuse of NASDAQ's automated confirmation transaction system, which is a price
©1994 Elsevier Science Ltd
September 1994
reporting service of the NASDAQ market, and happened after a close of week trading session. Consequently, the error could not be rectified by NASDAQ's market surveillance staff in time for the deadline to transmit stock to a central industry computer system. The system, the Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC), serves vendors like The Associated Press that provide stock tables to the nation's newspapers and broadcasters. Due to the error, SIAC received incorrect last-sale prices for many companies ranging from General Motors Corp. to Walt Disney Co., which appeared in hundreds of newspapers the following day. This mistake comes on the back of a series of technical setbacks, ranging from software problems to cable-hungry squirrels, that have plagued the NASDAQ market this summer. The Securities and Exchange Commission staff have initially commented that the latest problem was most likely down to human error and does not represent a weakness in NASDAQ's surveillance systems. Lynn Nellius, director of market surveillance was keen to defend NASDAQ's injured pride adding "We have an elaborate system to check the accuracy of these reports".
Trillion release new audit and security software tool A latest version of Trillion Software's PC-DEC-AUDIT 2.12 has been released. The program uses a stand-alone PC to produce reports that highlight weaknesses in the security of DEC VAX computers running VMS. The unusual feature of this software is that the user's PC need not be connected to the DEC computers under review nor are any privileges or a user-ID required on the system. A single file copied from the DEC to a floppy disk is reviewed on a stand-alone PC. Therefore, the reviews can be performed on DECs from anywhere in the world without even having to visit the site.
For further information contact: Alastair Coxall on +44 (0) 1483 274001, fax: +44 (0) 1483 274017.
@1994 Elsevier Science Ltd
Computer Audit Update
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TK.NOLOOVNEWS LNOUSTWY roWS
4 ~ICHNnCAC mE~EW 5 ¢E~TAL~RV
MANAOING WAN SEC~IrY
pROpUCT NEWS NET I E ~ R T $
6
~7 IS
CYB~RNETINPUT FVENTS
The new international newsletter devoted to solving your network security problems Worldwide news, regular industrycolumns, in-depth feature articles, product reviewsand more, ensure you stay firmly in control of your network securitymanagement. • networksecurity • ISDN management • OSI network • LAN and WAN security security • Telecomms • PacketSwitched Networks and more...
PLUS: The hot news twice monthly via NETSEC News FREEE-Mail update For full details contact: Debra Smart, Elsevier A d v a n c e d T e c h n o l o g y , PO BOX 150, K i d l i n g t o n , O x f o r d , O X 5 1AS, U K Tel: + 4 4 (0) 8 6 5 8 4 3 6 4 2 / 8 4 3 8 4 8 Fax: + 4 4 (0) 8 6 5 8 4 3 9 7 1 E mail: [email protected]
ELSEVIER
ADVANCED
TECHNOLOGY
23
NEWS Small insect holds back rocket Japan's first heavy-lifting rocket, capable of carrying a 2 tonne satellite into orbit, was grounded possibly by a dead insect reports New Scientist. The H-2 rocket failed six seconds before take off when the two solid fuel booster rockets did not ignite, after the main LE-7 engine had fired up to full thrust. The National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan found the cause of the problem to be a faulty circuit board in the ground control computer. The circuit board should have relayed a signal to ignite the boosters after the computer registered the main engine firing. Shingo Nakamura, a spokesman for NASDA said "We suspect the problem may have been some dust or a small insect inside the circuit board",but added "We're still investigating". NASDA hopes that replacement of the rouge circuit board will correct the problem and restore their tarnished image. Surprisingly, NASDA have no plans to change their pretake-off checking procedures to avoid similar occurrences in the future.
Oil rig's software gets the all clear Shell Expro's Nelson oil rig platform has finally had its safety-critical software approved reports Computer Weekly. The North Sea rig, one of the largest in the region producing around 16 000 barrels of oil per day, is one of the first to rely on software rather than solid-state controls for its fire, gas and process shutdown systems. Although the platform came on stream in February, the tailor-made software, which uses the most up-to-date programmable logic controllers for its shutdown systems, has only recently been approved. The software has been tested over the last three years and was found to contain many "discrepancies, ambiguities and omissions". The independent Centre for Software Engineering (CSE) pin-pointed more than 400 potential problems with the software, the majority of which have been eliminated. CSE project
22
September 1994
manager, Robert Harrison commented that the main aim was that "as far as possible, there could be no repeat of the Piper-Alpha disaster." Harrison added,"it's not possible to guarantee that any system is totally error free" but suggested that the prolonged tests should reduce the likelihood of any problems occurring to a reasonable level.
LANs doomed by Doom Doom, the multiplayer shoot 'era up games software, can seriously affect the performance of local area networks reports Computer Weekly. A bug has been identified in the software of the early 1.1 versions of Doom which can overload a network with data traffic when several players are networked into the software. In some cases a network can completely shutdown. The problems arise due to the gluttonous requirements of the 1.1 version which sends out a huge 240 K bytes per second (Kbps) in data packets looking for players to join in the game. The average network handles broadcasts of around 56 Kbps and, consequently, is unable to deal with the large quantities of data sent out by Doom. The bugs in the 1.1 versions of Doom have been fixed in later issues of the game but there are still many faulty copies in use. Fprint, the UK PC audit specialists, discovered that around 25% of all computers have Doom installed using up nearly 10 Mbytes of disc space on each system, and commented that "Doom is eating away at valuable resources". Even though later copies of the game have been corrected, the Doom problem is set to continue when the games designer, ID software, releases Doom Ih Hell on Earth.
More problems for NASDAQ Incorrect prices for at least 30 New York Stock Exchange stocks were reported recently due to a stock trader's error on the NASDAQ computer system, reports the Democrat & Chronicle, Rochester, NY. The mistake involved a trader's misuse of NASDAQ's automated confirmation transaction system, which is a price
©1994 Elsevier Science Ltd
September 1994
reporting service of the NASDAQ market, and happened after a close of week trading session. Consequently, the error could not be rectified by NASDAQ's market surveillance staff in time for the deadline to transmit stock to a central industry computer system. The system, the Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC), serves vendors like The Associated Press that provide stock tables to the nation's newspapers and broadcasters. Due to the error, SIAC received incorrect last-sale prices for many companies ranging from General Motors Corp. to Walt Disney Co., which appeared in hundreds of newspapers the following day. This mistake comes on the back of a series of technical setbacks, ranging from software problems to cable-hungry squirrels, that have plagued the NASDAQ market this summer. The Securities and Exchange Commission staff have initially commented that the latest problem was most likely down to human error and does not represent a weakness in NASDAQ's surveillance systems. Lynn Nellius, director of market surveillance was keen to defend NASDAQ's injured pride adding "We have an elaborate system to check the accuracy of these reports".
Trillion release new audit and security software tool A latest version of Trillion Software's PC-DEC-AUDIT 2.12 has been released. The program uses a stand-alone PC to produce reports that highlight weaknesses in the security of DEC VAX computers running VMS. The unusual feature of this software is that the user's PC need not be connected to the DEC computers under review nor are any privileges or a user-ID required on the system. A single file copied from the DEC to a floppy disk is reviewed on a stand-alone PC. Therefore, the reviews can be performed on DECs from anywhere in the world without even having to visit the site.
For further information contact: Alastair Coxall on +44 (0) 1483 274001, fax: +44 (0) 1483 274017.
@1994 Elsevier Science Ltd
Computer Audit Update
C
O
N
T
E
N
T
S
w*N ~wws
2 TIOUe~ON~ l nm~mv SlCU~INODECmT
lS 1S
~ L ~ O M S N~W$
4
TK.NOLOOVNEWS LNOUSTWY roWS
4 ~ICHNnCAC mE~EW 5 ¢E~TAL~RV
MANAOING WAN SEC~IrY
pROpUCT NEWS NET I E ~ R T $
6
~7 IS
CYB~RNETINPUT FVENTS
The new international newsletter devoted to solving your network security problems Worldwide news, regular industrycolumns, in-depth feature articles, product reviewsand more, ensure you stay firmly in control of your network securitymanagement. • networksecurity • ISDN management • OSI network • LAN and WAN security security • Telecomms • PacketSwitched Networks and more...
PLUS: The hot news twice monthly via NETSEC News FREEE-Mail update For full details contact: Debra Smart, Elsevier A d v a n c e d T e c h n o l o g y , PO BOX 150, K i d l i n g t o n , O x f o r d , O X 5 1AS, U K Tel: + 4 4 (0) 8 6 5 8 4 3 6 4 2 / 8 4 3 8 4 8 Fax: + 4 4 (0) 8 6 5 8 4 3 9 7 1 E mail: [email protected]
ELSEVIER
ADVANCED
TECHNOLOGY
23