CD terminator. CD ROM Inc. has obtained patent No. 6,039,637 for the DX-CDT, the Edina, Minn., company's portable, manually operated CD destruction device. CD-ROMs and recordable or rewritable CDs go into the $2,500 device and emerge with their polycarbonate data layers ground into dust. Their media identification rings, however, remain intact to certify disk destruction. The useless plastic can then be recycled.
CD ROM Inc. has obtained patent No. 6,039,637 for the DX-CDT, the Edina, Minn., company's portable, manually operated CD destruction device. CD-ROMs and recordable or rewritable CDs go into the $2,500 device and emerge with their polycarbonate data layers ground into dust. Their media identification rings, however, remain intact to certify disk destruction. The useless plastic can then be recycled.Total destruction takes about 15 seconds when a user turns the device by hand. The 20-pound portable DX-CDT recently gained Defense Department approval for destruction of classified or sensitive material.An electric office model of the CD killer costs $10,695 and is available on the General Services Administration Information Technology Schedule. Visit to learn more. After completing an article about Linux, a GCN Lab reviewer had quite a struggle moving a file from the Linux test system onto an IBM-compatible floppy disk.'Linux stubbornly refused to mount the floppy so the file could be copied. Browsing several Web download sites netted no utilities that could make a PC running Windows read a Linux-formatted floppy or vice versa.We finally found a small, shell-based set of commands, known as mtools, that let Linux write a file to an IBM-compatible floppy.The command? mcopy/filelocation/filename a:'Even though Linux doesn't recognize a:, the utility does. GCN alerted readers last month to the first security vulnerability discovered after Microsoft Windows 2000's release and to the subsequent patches for the new operating system []. Now comes word from Redmond, Wash., that the patch needs a patch.Microsoft's security team has issued an alert that a second variant of the vulnerability lets hackers read server system logs and data files.If you've already patched the vulnerability in Win 2000's index service or in Windows NT 4.0's Index Server, you should return to security to download a newly updated patch.You might also consider joining Microsoft's e-mail alert service. Sende-mail to to get future alerts sent your way. Here's the newest in high-tech lingo: AWGTHTGTTA. In chat or e-mail, you likely will run across this acronym, which stands for, 'Are we going to have to go through this again?'
CD terminator.
www.cdrominc.com
Linux lessons.
Patching the patches.GCN, March 6, Page 54
www.microsoft.com/
microsoft_security-subscribe-request@announce.microsoft.com
More alphabet soup.
'John Breeden II, jbreeden@gcnlab.com,
and Michael Cheek,
mcheek@gcnlab.com
www.cdrominc.com
Linux lessons.
Patching the patches.GCN, March 6, Page 54
www.microsoft.com/
microsoft_security-subscribe-request@announce.microsoft.com
More alphabet soup.
'John Breeden II, jbreeden@gcnlab.com,
and Michael Cheek,
mcheek@gcnlab.com