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Fire destroys Philadelphia high-rise
July 1991
Computer Fraud & Security Bulletin
1991 is the 200th anniversary of the ratification of the first ten amendments to the US Constitution (The Bill of Rights). The current role of the Congress, the Executive and the Judiciary in emaciating some of these rights must be closely scrutinized by those who have the most to lose - the American people themselves. Wayne Madsen
US used reseller is duped The Boston Computer Exchange, which claims to be the first and largest US used microcomputer reseller, has allegedly been duped into helping two individuals dispose of 75 of these devices. Most had been stolen from colleges and schools in nearby New England. The Massachusetts Commonwealth Attorney General has charged Carl Reid and Louis Jatta, who had fled from the Boston area, with receiving stolen property. Reportedly Reid and Jatta sold them to the Exchange, which resold them innocently. Apparently, a lack of suitable ownership records had precluded charging Reid and Jatta directly with theft. Alan Randall, Exchange President, has proposed that microcomputer manufacturers establish a central register of original equipment owner names and device serial numbers as a means for reducing the possibility of future thefts. Belden Menkus
Fire destroys Philadelphia high-rise In February a 18 hour fire gutted eight floors of the 38 floor One Meridian Plaza building in Center City Philadelphia. The building had 27 tenants; the largest was the regional headquarters of Meridian Bancorp, a bank holding organization. Some 200 Philadelphia firefighters were involved in extinguishing the blaze; three of them lost their lives in the effort. The fire reportedly began on the building's 22nd Floor and spread eventually to its 30th Floor, where the blaze finally was stopped by a water sprinkler fire extinguishing system.
©1991 Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd
The building's automatic fire alarm system failed. The structure's two emergency electrical systems were destroyed in the early stages of the fire. This prevented the use of building pumps, lights and elevators by Fire Department crews. Firefighting efforts were also hampered by flow restriction valves that had been placed in the building's internal water distribution system. One Meridian Plaza tenants, along with those of several adjacent high rise structures, were barred from returning to their offices for some time after the fire was extinguished. Most tenants did not expect to reoccupy their space in the building for some time, if ever. It seems that very few of the One Meridian Plaza tenants had developed formal disaster recovery plans. Most were forced to relocate their employees permanently, in at least one instance to another state. Hardest hit by the fire was the Philadelphia Deloitte and Touche Tax Division. It had not yet computerized its operations and, during this fire, it lost all of the massive paper files covering its 1000 corporate and individual clients, including their returns for the 1990 and 1991 tax years. Belden Menkus
Marketplace A communications package for the remote monitoring of OS/2 workstations has been released by the French company Memsoft. Designed for the support and maintenance of large computer systems, such as those operated by finance and insurance companies, Memsoft Teleaction also gives a central master station the ability to take control of any other workstation. For more details contact Antoine Aguado on +33 1 435631 50. Dolphin Software has released Dolphin Encrypt, a data encryption program for systems using MS-DOS 2.1 or later. The software takes 22 seconds to encrypt a 200K file on a 20 MHz 386 PC and uses a private key from 8 to 60 characters in length. For more information contact Peter Meyer on +1 415 644 2651 .
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Computer Fraud & Security Bulletin
1991 is the 200th anniversary of the ratification of the first ten amendments to the US Constitution (The Bill of Rights). The current role of the Congress, the Executive and the Judiciary in emaciating some of these rights must be closely scrutinized by those who have the most to lose - the American people themselves. Wayne Madsen
US used reseller is duped The Boston Computer Exchange, which claims to be the first and largest US used microcomputer reseller, has allegedly been duped into helping two individuals dispose of 75 of these devices. Most had been stolen from colleges and schools in nearby New England. The Massachusetts Commonwealth Attorney General has charged Carl Reid and Louis Jatta, who had fled from the Boston area, with receiving stolen property. Reportedly Reid and Jatta sold them to the Exchange, which resold them innocently. Apparently, a lack of suitable ownership records had precluded charging Reid and Jatta directly with theft. Alan Randall, Exchange President, has proposed that microcomputer manufacturers establish a central register of original equipment owner names and device serial numbers as a means for reducing the possibility of future thefts. Belden Menkus
Fire destroys Philadelphia high-rise In February a 18 hour fire gutted eight floors of the 38 floor One Meridian Plaza building in Center City Philadelphia. The building had 27 tenants; the largest was the regional headquarters of Meridian Bancorp, a bank holding organization. Some 200 Philadelphia firefighters were involved in extinguishing the blaze; three of them lost their lives in the effort. The fire reportedly began on the building's 22nd Floor and spread eventually to its 30th Floor, where the blaze finally was stopped by a water sprinkler fire extinguishing system.
©1991 Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd
The building's automatic fire alarm system failed. The structure's two emergency electrical systems were destroyed in the early stages of the fire. This prevented the use of building pumps, lights and elevators by Fire Department crews. Firefighting efforts were also hampered by flow restriction valves that had been placed in the building's internal water distribution system. One Meridian Plaza tenants, along with those of several adjacent high rise structures, were barred from returning to their offices for some time after the fire was extinguished. Most tenants did not expect to reoccupy their space in the building for some time, if ever. It seems that very few of the One Meridian Plaza tenants had developed formal disaster recovery plans. Most were forced to relocate their employees permanently, in at least one instance to another state. Hardest hit by the fire was the Philadelphia Deloitte and Touche Tax Division. It had not yet computerized its operations and, during this fire, it lost all of the massive paper files covering its 1000 corporate and individual clients, including their returns for the 1990 and 1991 tax years. Belden Menkus
Marketplace A communications package for the remote monitoring of OS/2 workstations has been released by the French company Memsoft. Designed for the support and maintenance of large computer systems, such as those operated by finance and insurance companies, Memsoft Teleaction also gives a central master station the ability to take control of any other workstation. For more details contact Antoine Aguado on +33 1 435631 50. Dolphin Software has released Dolphin Encrypt, a data encryption program for systems using MS-DOS 2.1 or later. The software takes 22 seconds to encrypt a 200K file on a 20 MHz 386 PC and uses a private key from 8 to 60 characters in length. For more information contact Peter Meyer on +1 415 644 2651 .
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