August 22, 2003
Computer Problems Hit N.Y. Times HQ

By Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP)—The New York Times asked employees at its landmark midtown headquarters on Friday to shut down their computers because of system difficulties.

Spokesman Toby Usnik declined to discuss the type or scope of the problems, but said the newspaper would publish a Saturday edition.

By John Schwartz

In the abstract, fighting a war is simple. The enemy and the targets are generally identifiable. But in the war against hackers and virus writers, the combatants are harder to know.

The attacker might be a 14-year-old in Canada, or a co-worker in the accounting department. "You'll have every type of person" practicing the dark arts of programming, said Sarah Gordon, a senior research fellow with the security technology developer Symantec.

As industry and government seek to repel the attacks for which the Internet is a launching pad, much of the effort involves understanding those who unleash malicious code and jiggle digital doorknobs. In the world that emerged after the Sept. 11 attacks, after all, understanding an elusive enemy has become a growing part of confronting a threat.

NEW ORLEANS--Microsoft, IBM and VeriSign have teamed to create security specifications for Web services, a move analysts say will help drive adoption of the hyped but still emerging technology.

The three companies on Thursday will release a new specification, called WS-Security, which will encrypt information and ensure that the data being passed between companies remain confidential. The companies, which are announcing the new security initiative at Microsoft's Tech Ed developer conference, also plan to build five more security specifications in the next 12 to 18 months that will provide additional security measures that businesses may need for Web services.

The New York Times' corporate Intranet and Web-based applications that handle everything from payroll accounts to the newsroom's source database were penetrated.