Star wars security or where did those micros go?

Computers and Security, Vol. 7, No. 3

United States. Among the topics planned for the coming meeting are message integrity, network security, fmancial systems and electronic banking, judicial aspects of security, computer fraud, security o f microcomputer systems and other related topics. The congress held earlier this year made world-wide news with the arrest of two of its speakers by the police at the Paris airport. Hans Gliss, editor in chief o f Datenschutz-Berater, and Steffen Wernery, a journalist with West Germany's Bildschirmtext videotext system and a member o f the Computer Chaos Group from Hamburg, were on their way for the special session about computer viruses. Herr Gliss was released after several hours but Herr Wernery was detained for 66 days. Worldwide press attention was also given to the Congress held in 1985 in Cannes, France. It was at that meeting that I chaired the session at which Wim van Eck o f The Netherlands P T T presented his now famous paper on electromagnetic evesdropping. (See section on

ElectromagneticEavesdropping Revisited.) For information about the 1989 conference, communicate with Mr. Peter Hazelzet SECURICOM '89 8, rue de la Michodiere 75002 Paris, France Telephone: (1) 47 42 41 00 FAX: (1) 47 42 40 30 Telex: 250 303

ISDN in Europe is an international conference that will be held in The Hague, The Netherlands, from April 25 to 27, 1989. The conference is oriented to-

wards an examination of the impact o f Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDNs) on all aspects of computer communications in Europe. Some o f the topics to be addressed include business needs for ISDN, security and transborder data flow, integrity and integration o f voice and data in local and over a wide area. Sponsored jointly by the International Council o f Computer Communications (ICCC) and the International Federation for Information Processing's Technical Committee 6 on data communications, the conference will be hosted by The Netherlands PTT. Additional information is available from Ir. A. Boesveld PTT Hoofddirectie Technische Zaken P.O. Box 30 000 2500 GA The Hague The Netherlands Telephone: +31 70 433 378 FAX: +31 70 433 293 Telex: 31111 ptt nl

IFIP/SEC '90 is the Sixth International Conference and Exhibition on Information Security and will be held May 23rd through 25th, 1990, at the Dipoli Conference Center in Espoo (Helsinki), Finland. Sponsored by IFIP Technical Committee 11 on Security and Protection in Information Systems, the conference will be hosted by the Finnish Computer Society. It will be the first such conference held in Europe since the Fourth Conference held in 1987 in Monte Carlo. The Fifth Conference was held at the Gold Coast in Australia this past May and was attended by well over 420 security specialists

from 18 countries with more than 50 attendees from Sweden. It may be the last conference in Europe for a few years with others planned for the Far East. A Callfor Papers will appear in the Journal in the near future. Despite this long-advanced ano nonncement, we strongly recommend readers to note the dates on their calendar. Those interested in presenting papers and/or attending the conference are advised to write to Mr. Juhani Saari T T Innovation OY Meritullinkatu 33 00170 Helsinki, Finland Telephone: 358 90 177 901 FAX: 358 90 658 094

Star Wars Security or Where Did Those Micros Go? Two microcomputers were stolen from the Pentagon's office for developing a defense against attacking nuclear missiles. According to The New York Times report on June 26th, the two machines were stolen on two separate nights, April 9th and 10th. Although officials stated that the thefts did not compromise any dassified programs, it was unofficially reported that one microcomputer was U.S. government property but the other was privately owned. Wonder if the owner would have been able to transfer programs and data to his/her own microcomputer and take the unit out o f the Pentagon? According to a local television station in Washington, DC, WJLA, the thief or thieves entered the offices by sabotaging the secu-

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H.J. Highland/Random Bits & Bytes

rity system. Videotape cameras, used for area surveillance, did not record the thefts; they were unloaded. According to the broadcast this lapse was a common one at the Pentagon. Secretary o f Defense Frank Carlucci was on public television several days later. Although he was discussing another topic, fraud and bribery in Pentagon procurement, he noted that security in any system depends upon the human factor.

No Comment We have over the past several years included special items that we wanted to share with our readers. Here is one from Insight, a magazine, from an article byJeffShear published April 18, 1988. "Software writer Peter Norton, a leading authority on personal computers, compares the clamor regarding digital viruses to the hysteria during Orson Welles's 1938 'War o f the Worlds' radio broadcast. 'This isn't a computer science problem,' he says. 'It's a so-

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ciological problem. We're dealing with an urban myth. It's like the story o f alligators in the sewers o f New York.

Everyone knows about them, but no one's ever seen them. Typically, these stories come up every three to five years.'"

Companies Mentioned in this Column ARC System Enhancement Associates 21 New Street Wayne, NJ 07470, U.S.A.

NortonUtilities Peter Norton 2210 Wilshire Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90403, U.S.A.

PcTools Central Point Software 9700 S.W. Capitol Highway, #100 Portland, OR 97219, U.S.A.

REFEREE Persoft, Inc. 465 Science Drive Madison, W153711-9380, U.S.A.

WindowDOS WindowDOS Associates Box 300488 Arlington, T X 76010, U.S.A.