April 1993 Computer Fraud & Security Bulletin

“Encryption laws are outdated. There really is no reason that the hackers should be made to show how they did the encryption unless it is going to be used by a US or foreign government.” Murphy has said he will submit the algorithm for testing.

Mike Moeller

US airlines charged with rigging computerized fare lists

The US Justice Department has charged eight US airlines with violating antitrust statutes. The carriers are alleged to have used the computerized system maintained by the Airline Tariff Publishing Company to communicate illegally among themselves and to fix air fares. Without admitting or denying any guilt, two of the carriers - United and USAir - have agreed to end their part in this process. The other carriers insist that they have done nothing wrong and plan to fight the charges.

The Justice Department claims that the scheme was based on the advance listing of fares in the Airline Tariff Publishing Company system. The Department contends that these entries were used by the carriers to signal their marketing plans - including anticipated fare discount promotions -to their competitors. About a year ago this same system was the subject of a class action law suit by airline customers. This lawsuit was settled when six airlines agreed to distribute $458 million discount coupons to their passengers.

Be/den Menkus

Fight the smugglers to beat the pirates

Robert H, Chen, the chief counsel of

intellectual property for Acer Inc, has commented

that although the ROC government has made

strenuous efforts to control computer software piracy, the chief difficulty which remains is

controlling the smuggling of software. According to a report in The China Post, Chen commented

that the US should understand the problem of

01993 Elsevier Science Publishers Ltd

smuggling pirated software in Taiwan, as the US

itself fails to control the smuggling of prohibited

drugs into its own country. Chen said that the US only has a software import inspection system,

whereas Taiwan has set up a comprehensive

software export inspection system. Chen suggested that Taiwan should establish an

intellectual property institute to assist local

companies in tackling software piracy.

Hacker needed money for university education

Kim Jae-yol, an unemployed 23-year old Korean, has been arrested on charges of

attempted fraud and forging official documents,

according to a report in Korea Newsreview. Kim

is accused of hacking into systems linked with Chong Wa Dae and numerous financial

institutions. He is thought to have used private

passwords and altered the Chong Wa Dae secret

ID code to gain access to confidential bank records. Kim asked Dacom to have the

presidential office’s ID number changed, which

Dacom then proceeded to do without checking

with Chong Wa Dae officials. Kim told

investigators that he had planned to withdraw large sums of money to pay for his tuition at the

University of Chicago, which was to accept Kim

as a student.

Marketplace

Cylink has launched SecureFX, a standalone

facsimile encryptor which protects sensitive documents sent by any Group 3 fax machine. The

encryptor works within the fax ‘handshaking’

procedure to secure incoming and outgoing faxes

and claims not to degrade the speed or performance of the machine. The system can be

configured to receive encrypted data only, thus eliminating ‘junk’ faxes. The encryptor utilizes a

Secure Electronic Exchange of Keys (SEEK) system, which automatically transfers encrypting keys between CIDEC encryptors. For further information contact David Moseley on +44 (0)256

468186.