Briefly noted

ESTA Authorization required for all visa waiver countries as of 12 January

DHS announced that beginning 12 January 2009, eligible citizens or nationals from all Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries must obtain approval through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) prior to traveling to the United States under the VWP. On Monday, DHS will formally announce the addition of seven allies to the list of countries authorized to participate in the VWP.  The seven countries are the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, the Republic of Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia.

Georgia vet school leak kept quiet

The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine did not inform a community liaison committee about potentially serious leaks in a high-security biocontainment building until reporters learned about the leaks.

Microsoft infuses “long awaited” with new meaning

Microsoft on Tuesday released a security update, MS08-068, which addresses an NT LAN Manager reflection vulnerability in the Server Message Block protocol. The exploit was discovered in 2000, and the code was first published back in March of 2001. That means that a known security vulnerability related to a Microsoft authentication protocol sat on your Windows box for more than seven years, waiting for Microsoft to get around to fixing it.