Security Log

Computerworld - Laptops Stolen From Contractor
U.S. government contractor Science Applications International Corp. last week reported that laptop computers containing personal information about the company's stockholders were stolen during a break-in at its corporate offices in San Diego. The Jan. 25 incident occurred in a building that houses administrative staff, so the company's outsourcing business wasn't affected, according to SAIC officials.

Worm Shows Up on U.S. Phones
The Cabir worm, which infects mobile phones running Symbian OS with the Series 60 user interface, has surfaced in the U.S. A Symantec Corp. engineer spotted two Nokia handsets with a variant of the worm on display in a shop window in Santa Monica, Calif., according to Mikko Hypponen, director of antivirus research at F-Secure Corp.

Security Bookshelf
• Troubleshooting Linux Firewalls, by Michael Shinn and Scott Shinn (Addison-Wesley Professional, 2004)
Despite the title, I found this book better suited as a how-to guide for building Linux-based firewalls. If you're looking for a robust firewall but don't want to buy a commercial product, Linux is for you. And you'll want to pick up this book, which describes the planning, designing and building of Linux-based firewalls. The authors' expertise is immediately apparent, from a nicely written overview of IPTABLES and NETFILTER to command-line arguments and step-by-step procedures. Especially useful are their frequent suggestions, explanations of tools and sample firewall rules with detailed explanations. -- Mathias Thurman

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