- Email: [email protected]
Fire fighters rescue their own payroll
November
Computer Fraud & Security Bulletin
7992
that are essentially doing the same things”. The response of the SPA to the news was that, “There’s enough of the pie that there can be more than one slice”. At one point in the summer of 1990 it was announced that the BSA and SPA would join forces and become one organization, with the BSA functioning as the international arm of the group. However, according to reports in Computerwodd, it was decided that the two would be ‘happier to just be sister organizations’. The six BSA members concerned will remain members of the SPA, “The SPA is much broader and much larger, it gives us a chance to stay in touch with the software industry as a whole”, said Richards. Meanwhile the BSA has begun investigations into City of London companies and now has sufficient evidence of piracy within the City to apply for court orders to carry out raids on the premises of suspected companies. Bradford Smith, the BSA’s legal consultant, commented, “We have been receiving a large number of complaints concerning the financial sector. We would prefer companies to check their software is licensed rather than to have to get search orders.”
Fire fighters rescue their own payroll Following
a fire on the roof of a UK County
Council’s computer centre, fire crews and IT staff worked through the night to save the computerized payroll system which paid their own wages. The fire, which took place in Nottingham, was under control in 30 minutes, but fire crews then had to prevent water from ruptured air conditioning tanks falling onto the council’s ICL Series 39 mainframe. Emergency services managed to funnel most of the water down a lift shaft and stairwell, enabling IT staff to keep the system in working order. Tony Glew, head of IT in Nottinghamshire, commented, “We were incredibly lucky. There was an inferno, water gushing down the staircase and immense damage to the building, but we did not lose a single minute’s service.”
Halon system self-activates Early on the morning of 29 July a Halon 1301 fire
suppression
Metropolitan
system
Government
at the Police
Nashville Department
Dispatch Centre released the contents of its gas cylinders. There were two problems with this. There was no fire and there was no warning before the gas was discharged. The release
The damaging
occurred shortly after employees had completed maintenance
Form virus
Scotland Yard’s computer crime unit has issued warnings to users of the ‘Form’ virus which has originated in Switzerland and appears to be spreading faster than any of its predecessors. According to a report in Computer Week/y, Form makes clicking noises, leaves an obscene message on monitors and latches onto the DOS boot sectors of floppy and hard disks. In a letter to the publication, Sue Schofield stresses that Form can, and does, damage data, especially on Windows 3.1 installations. Users with Windows 3.1 32-bit disk access enabled should not ignore start-up messages which notify the user of boot sector manipulation - nor should DOS 5 users dismiss messages proclaiming, “1024 bytes in bad sectors” when formatting high density floppies.
01992
Elsevier Science Publishers
Ltd
suppression pressure
system’s
control
gas discharge
of a contractor work on the panel.
dislodged
The high chairs
and
ceiling tiles in the dispatch centre and sent seven of its employees
to area hospitals.
Most of these
individuals complained of chest pains, difficulty in breathing and eye irritation. The gas discharge of the County’s system
interrupted
the operation
E-91 1 emergency
for 15 minutes.
The
telephone
Department
had
provided no backup arrangement for it. Two similar discharges have occurred since 1990 in the Metropolitan Government’s Fire Department Dispatch Centre, which is located in the same building. Be/den Menkus
5
Computer Fraud & Security Bulletin
7992
that are essentially doing the same things”. The response of the SPA to the news was that, “There’s enough of the pie that there can be more than one slice”. At one point in the summer of 1990 it was announced that the BSA and SPA would join forces and become one organization, with the BSA functioning as the international arm of the group. However, according to reports in Computerwodd, it was decided that the two would be ‘happier to just be sister organizations’. The six BSA members concerned will remain members of the SPA, “The SPA is much broader and much larger, it gives us a chance to stay in touch with the software industry as a whole”, said Richards. Meanwhile the BSA has begun investigations into City of London companies and now has sufficient evidence of piracy within the City to apply for court orders to carry out raids on the premises of suspected companies. Bradford Smith, the BSA’s legal consultant, commented, “We have been receiving a large number of complaints concerning the financial sector. We would prefer companies to check their software is licensed rather than to have to get search orders.”
Fire fighters rescue their own payroll Following
a fire on the roof of a UK County
Council’s computer centre, fire crews and IT staff worked through the night to save the computerized payroll system which paid their own wages. The fire, which took place in Nottingham, was under control in 30 minutes, but fire crews then had to prevent water from ruptured air conditioning tanks falling onto the council’s ICL Series 39 mainframe. Emergency services managed to funnel most of the water down a lift shaft and stairwell, enabling IT staff to keep the system in working order. Tony Glew, head of IT in Nottinghamshire, commented, “We were incredibly lucky. There was an inferno, water gushing down the staircase and immense damage to the building, but we did not lose a single minute’s service.”
Halon system self-activates Early on the morning of 29 July a Halon 1301 fire
suppression
Metropolitan
system
Government
at the Police
Nashville Department
Dispatch Centre released the contents of its gas cylinders. There were two problems with this. There was no fire and there was no warning before the gas was discharged. The release
The damaging
occurred shortly after employees had completed maintenance
Form virus
Scotland Yard’s computer crime unit has issued warnings to users of the ‘Form’ virus which has originated in Switzerland and appears to be spreading faster than any of its predecessors. According to a report in Computer Week/y, Form makes clicking noises, leaves an obscene message on monitors and latches onto the DOS boot sectors of floppy and hard disks. In a letter to the publication, Sue Schofield stresses that Form can, and does, damage data, especially on Windows 3.1 installations. Users with Windows 3.1 32-bit disk access enabled should not ignore start-up messages which notify the user of boot sector manipulation - nor should DOS 5 users dismiss messages proclaiming, “1024 bytes in bad sectors” when formatting high density floppies.
01992
Elsevier Science Publishers
Ltd
suppression pressure
system’s
control
gas discharge
of a contractor work on the panel.
dislodged
The high chairs
and
ceiling tiles in the dispatch centre and sent seven of its employees
to area hospitals.
Most of these
individuals complained of chest pains, difficulty in breathing and eye irritation. The gas discharge of the County’s system
interrupted
the operation
E-91 1 emergency
for 15 minutes.
The
telephone
Department
had
provided no backup arrangement for it. Two similar discharges have occurred since 1990 in the Metropolitan Government’s Fire Department Dispatch Centre, which is located in the same building. Be/den Menkus
5