Note: this is an OCR of a scan of a Fax, so please excause the errors.

    # 93-2
    1. "MacWorld", February 1993, had an intriguing  article  "Data  Guardians".  The
    author, Bruce Schneier, evaluates 24 different security products for the
    Macintosh. I have beard Druce speak  on  cryptography  matters,  partigularly  on
    Public Key schemes, and clearly he appears to know  his  subject.  The  article
    suggests that he is an expert user as well so his comments on  "cracking"  the
    protection mechanisms of specific products  should  be  placed  in  perspective.
    Since I have tested several of the programs identified in the article, and
    since I am somewhat familiar with the marketing literature  of  many  of  the  other
    products, I am unaware of any vendor  which  claims  to  offer  100%  protection,
    100% of the time. Since Bruce used ResEdit,  debugging  tools  such  as  MacsBug,
    and disassembled the code of certain products, clearly he elliployed a  high-end
    technical attack.  The article can be found on pages 145-151.

    2.  Three Mactintosh anti-viral products have developed search strings for the
    newest CPro trojan-. CPAV, SAM, and VirusDetective.  Since  the,  distribution
    pattern of trojan horses is difficult to estimate, this may not be of critical
    concern for every location. Also remember that the authors of the  two  well-
    known freeware programs, Disinfectant and GateKeeper,  have  historically  avoided
    specific signature detection of Trojan Horses.  GateKeeper options would in my
    opinion have detected the malicious activity of CPro and  blocked  it  had  the
    user configured GateKeeper for maximum protection. CPAV  and  SAM  have  various
    ways to distribute new strings; the author of VirueDetective has  sent  the  new
    strings to all registered VD users.

    3.  A brief note of sanity to the discussion of determining information
    sensitivity appears in the latest CSL Bulletin, November 1992.  Under the title
    "Sensitity of Information" NIST lays it on the line:  "NIST  believes  that  it  is
    more important to provide appropriate protection to agency information
    technology (IT) systems than to determine whether or  not  a  'sensitive'  label
    should be applied to particular information or IT systems".  AMEN!

    4. Dr. Gene Spafford has established a  Tripwire  mailing  list.  One  need  only
    send mail to  the  tripwire-request  daemon.  tripwire-request@cs.purdue.edu.  The
    mail message should contain NO text other than lilies of commands.   To  get   a
    full list of commands send a message to the daemon  and  enter  this  command  in
    the body of your message;  help <cr>.  Omit the period!

    5.  Pyramid Development Corporation has changed its name.  Its rename is
    Mergent International (reference Product Test 16, PC/DACS).  The relevant
    administrative data follows.
            Address:  70 Inwood Road, Rocky Hill., Connecticut
            Telephone:  203-257-4223
            FAX:  203-257-4245.