The Blaster worm has been smashing its way through RPC buffers, overrunning networks and generating as much traffic as a lingerie preview. How much would it cost to prevent this kind of attack, how much does the disruption cost business? It appears that we've yet to solve the network security problem.

Two major conferences were held in August, and we have a report on Usenix Security from Jeremy Epstein and Sven Dietrich, and a few of Richard Schroeppel's impressions of Crpyto.

The field of information security has matured to the point of including many women as high profile leaders. Information Security magazine, int their September issue, recognized 25 outstanding women in the field.

This issue contains, in addition the usual assortment of announcements, reports, and reviews, an extended book review by Fred Cohen. He reviews a book by Michael Howard, a leader in security practices at Microsoft. Howard was an invited speaker at the Security and Privacy conference in May.

News snippets, readers guide material, and conference reports are welcome at all times. Please send material to cipher @ ieee-security.org , and note that Cipher does not accept advertising.

I extend my editorial gratitude to our colleagues who contribute to Cipher!