Clips May 3, 2002

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips May 3, 2002

ARTICLES

Ashcroft Seeks Tougher Law To Punish Identity Thieves
Key Senator Unveils New Broadband Bill
Building, and Billing, Networks
Privacy Groups Blast Info-Sharing By Financial Institutions
Lawmakers debate 'e-Congress'
Hacker duo say they hack for the sake of national security
How to hack your mobile phone
Hitachi and others break storage capacity barriers
E-government to cost jobs
Tough penalties for mobile phone theft
Servers converge as part of Unisys strategy
Net Guard would function as a virtual National Guard
Court orders video spying
Anti-spam legislation heading to Senate floor
Viruses enlisted as nano-builders
Cyber Scholars
Cell phones you can throw away
Cybersecurity legislation gets mixed reviews
Study claims traffic cameras reduce speeding
Anti-spam legislation stalls
Does P3P promise more than it can deliver?
TV will be 'radically different' in 3 years: report
IBM Software Will Monitor, Repair Problems
Unbreakable Code Could Thwart Cyber Crooks
Cross-strait DVD talks going on


*******************
Washington Post
Ashcroft Seeks Tougher Law To Punish Identity Thieves
By Caroline E. Mayer
Page E02

The Bush administration said yesterday that it will seek speedier trials 
and tougher penalties for crimes involving identity theft.

Alarmed by increasing reports of identity theft -- the nonprofit Privacy 
Rights Clearinghouse estimated that there are 500,000 to 700,000 cases 
annually -- Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said he wants legislation to 
make aggravated identity theft a crime, and to impose an additional two 
years of prison time for offenders in the most serious cases. An additional 
five years would be imposed for terrorist acts involving stolen identities.

"The Department of Justice is committed to seeing to it that criminals and 
terrorists cannot find refuge in the identities of law-abiding citizens of 
this country," Ashcroft said in a news conference.

The request for tougher penalties came as the Justice Department completed 
a nationwide crackdown on crimes that involved stolen identities. U.S. 
attorneys around the country expedited pending investigations and brought 
73 criminal prosecutions against 135 people.

Since Congress established the offense of identity theft in October 1998, 
2,223 criminal cases have been filed against 2,899 defendants.

Among the most recent cases announced yesterday, one individual was charged 
with selling Social Security numbers on eBay. A hospital employee was 
charged with stealing the identity of patients to obtain credit cards and 
another individual was charged with stealing the identity of a company 
executive to exercise options on 176,000 shares of Kmart stock in June 
2001. The stock was sold for a profit of $212,000.

The call for tougher penalties won immediate support from a frequent critic 
of Bush administration policies -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), 
chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on technology, terrorism and 
government. Feinstein is seeking legislation that would limit the use of 
Social Security numbers as identification to make it harder for thieves to 
obtain and use them to create phony documents and credit-card or bank 
accounts. The administration has not yet said if it supports her proposal.
********************

Washington Post
Key Senator Unveils New Broadband Bill
By Robert MacMillan

A powerful senator today is introducing legislation that he said would 
bring high-speed Internet access to rural and "underserved" areas, 
fortifying his ideological bunker for a showdown between two equally 
influential and diametrically opposed telecommunications camps.

Commerce Committee Chairman Ernest "Fritz" Hollings' (D-S.C.) "Broadband 
Telecommunications Act of 2002" would accelerate high-speed Internet access 
deployment throughout the U.S. through existing telephone taxes and 
government funding, rather than deregulating the current telecom broadband 
industry.

According to a Hollings staffer, the bill would use telephone excise tax 
revenues to offer low-interest loans for rural broadband buildout, and 
would authorize the National Institute of Standards and Technology to 
devise the best ways to bring broadband to the rest of the nation.

The bill also would authorize funding for wireless broadband technologies 
in rural and underserved areas, and promote investment in super-fast 
broadband technology projects underway at NIST, the National 
Telecommunications and Information Administration, universities and the 
National Science Board.

Hollings spokesman Andy Davis said that the bill tackles two major 
problems: how to make broadband widely available throughout the U.S., and 
how to develop applications that would drive people to use the technology.

The senator in a letter sent to colleagues earlier today said that 80 
percent to 85 percent of the nation can access broadband technology, but 
only 10 percent to 12 percent do so, mainly because there are not enough 
compelling reasons to sign on for incrementally faster Internet access.

"People need must-have applications," Davis said, noting that the bill also 
funds public and private studies on high-speed applications that are 
practical and useful in everyday life.

Hollings' legislation, along with another bill, S. 1364 that he unveiled in 
August 2001, directly opposes efforts by other Congress members to widen 
broadband's reach by allowing Baby Bells and other "incumbent" telecom 
companies to offer long-distance data service outside of their traditional 
fenced-in markets without having to make their facilities and networks 
available to competitors.

Verizon Spokesman Bob Bishop said that the company has not yet seen the 
bill, and declined to comment on it. The company, and other Baby Bells, 
oppose S. 1364, since it keeps them under the status quo of the current 
regulatory regime.

The Association of Local Telecommunications Services (ALTS), which supports 
maintaining regulations on the Baby Bells, said that Hollings' new bill 
ensures "that rural Americans can receive high-speed services and have a 
choice of competitive carriers."

ALTS President John Windhausen also said that the bill is "the right kind 
of approach to broadband deployment," whether or not his association's 
member companies receive any of the proposed handouts.

While Baby Bells and other incumbent telecom companies want the Federal 
Communications Commission to ease the rules that govern how they offer 
high-speed service, Hollings believes that current laws, which require Baby 
Bells to open up their networks to local competitors before taking the 
long-distance leap, are adequate.

Today's bill and the legislation introduced last August will vie for Senate 
approval at the expense of several other bills introduced by Sens. John 
Breaux (D-La.), Don Nickles (R-Okla), Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Reps. W.J. 
"Billy" Tauzin (R-La.) and John Dingell (D-Mich.).

Breaux' and Nickles' legislation purportedly promotes regulatory parity 
that would make all broadband providers subject to the same regulations, or 
no regulations at all. This move worries Bell opponents because it could 
strip away regulatory requirements on incumbent local phone companies to 
make it equally easy for them to deploy DSL service as it is for cable 
companies to provide their own Internet access.

The Brownback bill, as well as the Tauzin-Dingell bill, also scratch the 
regulatory requirements in the name of increased competition.

Rep. Robert Goodlatte (R-Va.), who supports the Tauzin-Dingell bill, said 
that Hollings' legislation is "a government approach to a problem that free 
enterprise could solve."

"I was interested to see him say that the Breaux bill ... was a Trojan 
Horse. My response would be that his bill's a red herring," Goodlatte 
added. "It avoids the issues and tries to lead people away from confronting 
the fact that we are wasting huge available resources by keeping some of 
the major competitors in that market from being able to fairly and fully 
compete..."

Tauzin spokesman Ken Johnson said that "We prefer more of a free-market 
approach toward solving the problem" than what the Hollings bill offers.

He added that the Hollings bill has its bright side.

"On the one hand, the Hollings bill is a little too regulatory for us, but 
any broadband bill that will get us into conference with Tauzin-Dingell, we 
got to like it a little bit," Johnson said.

"There are clear differences between our approaches, but we both want the 
same thing, and that's competition in the marketplace."
********************

Washington Post
Building, and Billing, Networks
Megisto Systems Helps Providers Charge for Wireless Transactions
By Yuki Noguchi
Page E05

The fine black leather office chairs in Carol Politi's offices are those, 
actually, of another business down the street.

The first owner of those chairs -- a software business -- went bust, which 
is why Politi's own Germantown start-up, Megisto Systems Inc., was able to 
get them for a third of their original price. Megisto also picked up 15 
trash cans for a buck apiece.

Frugality. Value.

In the post-boom era, that's the kind of culture Megisto is cultivating, 
said Politi, a co-founder and vice president of marketing at the 
two-year-old firm, which employs 91 people and still has most of its $67 
million in private funding in the bank. Megisto was founded after the 
market crash of 2000, and it acts like a firm greeted at birth with a 
splash of cold water.

Even its business is trying to reverse the "everything for free" Internet 
culture that ultimately led to the crash of hundreds of dot-com companies, 
and later, the collapse of so many telecommunications carriers that built 
their networks.

Now that wireless carriers offer Internet access over the airwaves, Megisto 
is building equipment that will try to help them charge users for the 
services they get -- so that the Internet finally pays for itself, said 
Gordon Saussy, the co-founder, president and chief executive of Megisto.

The economics of today's Internet simply don't make sense, he said. A 
customer pays for long-distance calls but not to transmit an e-mail across 
the globe. Similarly, your Internet service provider doesn't earn anything 
if you buy something from L.L. Bean online, but your phone company collects 
a fee from L.L. Bean every time you dial the retailer's 800 number.

"The industry cannot afford to be just dumb pipes," Saussy said. Carriers 
need a way to recoup the massive investments -- $30 billion, by some 
industry estimates -- they're making to upgrade their networks to carry all 
that Internet traffic, he said.

Megisto's product essentially allows a wireless carrier to charge a flat 
fee for an online purchase, or to bill the cell phone user by the minute 
for e-mailing a friend. The equipment is attached to a wireless network and 
keeps track of everything that passes through that network -- whether it's 
an e-mail, a video game, an online order or a phone call. By distinguishing 
among the different types of traffic, Megisto's technology allows wireless 
carriers to make money off each type of transaction.

"Now [wireless carriers] are beginning to realize they have problems. The 
fear is that they're not going to be able to charge" for the various data 
services they're starting to offer, said Christine Loredo, an analyst with 
the Strategis Group. A lot of companies are trying to address that need, 
but few are as well-funded and focused on that task as Megisto is, she said.

Pedigreed private investment firms including Bessemer Venture Partners, 
Columbia Capital, Grotech Capital Group, New Enterprise Associates, Norwest 
Venture Partners and Saturn Ventures Partners have funded Megisto. The 
company announced Monday that former Federal Communications Commission 
chairman Reed E. Hundt joined its board of directors.

Coming by that capital was tough, but the benefit of running a new company 
in leaner times is that fewer start-ups get funding in the first place, 
pruning the competition to a few players, Politi said.

"One of the nice things about being a post-boom company is that in 1999, 
there would have been 25 companies" similar to Megisto, Politi said. 
Instead, the stiffest competition it faces is from two other start-ups, 
WaterCove Networks Inc. near Boston and Tahoe Networks Inc. in San Jose.

In Saussy's assessment, the biggest challenge his company faces right now 
is "creating demand" for its products.

For now, Megisto is trying to win the attention of European carriers, such 
as Vodafone, Telecom Italia, T-Mobile (Deutsche Telekom's mobile division) 
and Orange (France Telecom's wireless division), which already offer 
higher-speed Internet services over their mobile networks.

Those same carriers find themselves in a deep financial trough because of 
the billions they spent to buy spectrum licenses for the right to use 
airwaves for advanced wireless services.

That makes Megisto's sales pitch a bit harder but also makes having a lot 
of funding still in the bank reassuring, he said.

"I think being a start-up is always a challenge," Saussy said. "Selling to 
telecom companies that are challenged is a double challenge. The way I 
navigate that is that I worry mostly about building aproductthat solves a 
problem."
*******************
Washington Post
Privacy Groups Blast Info-Sharing By Financial Institutions
Michael Bartlett

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and other privacy groups 
have decried "disturbing" and "abhorrent" practices at financial 
institutions in submissions to a U.S. Department of the Treasury study of 
the industry's information-sharing practices.

The groups criticized practices by some institutions - including the sale 
of personal data - and lamented a loss of individual privacy due to a "lack 
of control over use of sensitive data."

EPIC was joined by The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, U.S. PIRG and the 
Consumers Union. The groups submitted the comments in response to a request 
for comment on a study of the Financial Services Modernization Act, 
commonly known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, or GLBA.

EPIC noted that Congress enacted the GLBA in response to public concern 
about privacy loss. The GLBA required companies to give notice to consumers 
about their information-sharing practices. However, consumers were required 
to "opt-out," or affirmatively respond if they wished to restrict how their 
information is shared.

Largely because of this "opt-out" requirement, EPIC charges, the GLBA "has 
failed to provide the adequate protections for consumer privacy in modern 
financial services."

"Existing privacy protection and regulation under the GLBA does not 
adequately protect the privacy of a customer's information," the groups 
wrote. "Any system to protect the privacy of personal information that 
relies upon silence as agreement has the built-in elements for abuse and 
eventually public outcry."

The GLBA has several inadequacies, EPIC said. First, the institutions have 
a financial incentive to create confusing privacy notices and difficult to 
follow opt-out procedures. Second, it assumes a company has the ability or 
desire to explain a complex legal principle in a way that allows consumers 
to make an informed choice. Third, there are no restrictions on the sharing 
of information about individuals who are not customers.

In addition, the groups charge, the enforcement mechanisms are inadequate 
to ensure companies are complying with "even existing weak privacy 
protections."

According to EPIC, when companies sent the required notices to consumers, 
the notices often were overlooked or thrown away as "junk mail." In many 
cases, it said, financial institutions used the requirement to send a legal 
notice as a pretext for sending a document that appeared to be marketing 
material.

The notices were confusingly written, failed to provide basic information 
about opt-out deadlines or options, and placed an "unfair burden" on 
consumers to understand and respond to privacy policies from every creditor 
or institution where they do business, EPIC asserted.

The solution, the groups insist, is a requirement for consumers to "opt-in" 
to sharing, and therefore have the ability to restrict the use of their 
personal information.

"The danger of the opt-out approach lies in the fact that, because 
customers likely will not read their opt-out notices, there is no assurance 
that any implied consent would be truly informed," the groups wrote.

"Under an opt-in approach, consumers must give the financial institution 
express approval before the company can divulge their personally 
identifiable information, which will minimize any unwanted or unknowing 
disclosure of the information."

If information sharing has benefits, then financial institutions should be 
required to convince customers to allow it, EPIC argued.

Without controls, unlimited sharing of personal financial data can lead to 
identity theft, as well as consumer fraud, the groups said.
*************
Federal Computer Week
Lawmakers debate 'e-Congress'

With discussion sounding more like a science fiction movie than a 
congressional hearing May 1, lawmakers began exploring the idea of creating 
a virtual Congress that could operate in the event of a crippling terrorist 
attack or disaster.

Although the scenario may have seemed futuristic before Sept. 11, lawmakers 
now are determined to come up with contingency plans to keep government 
operating if the Capitol were destroyed or if members of Congress could not 
convene in the nation's capital.

"Our common sense dictates that we prepare for the unthinkable," said Rep. 
Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), ranking member of the House Administration Committee, 
which conducted the hearing.

When hijacked jetliners crashed into the World Trade Center and the 
Pentagon Sept. 11, the Capitol and its office buildings were evacuated 
because officials feared another hijacked plane was heading in their direction.

A month later, the Hart Office Building on Capitol Hill was evacuated 
because of an anthrax attack. Lawmakers and staff members had to find 
makeshift offices for months while the building was decontaminated.

And now lawmakers say the problems are not over, and it is essential to 
prepare for congressional continuity in the event of another attack.

Legislation sponsored by Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), the Ensuring 
Congressional Security and Continuity Act, envisions making it possible to 
keep government operating using the Internet and satellite technology to 
create an "e-Congress."

Langevin's bill, introduced in December 2001, calls for the National 
Institute of Standards of Technology to conduct a feasibility study of a 
solution that would enable members of Congress to log on to a system with 
secure biometrics technology from anywhere in the world.

"The most important thing is for this plan to establish a two-way backup 
communications system," Langevin said. "The e-Congress idea is simply a 
means to facilitate an organized system for congressional continuity if, 
and only if, an attack or disaster strikes again."

However, several congressional experts said creating a virtual environment 
would be illegal because the Constitution declares that Congress must 
assemble once a year.

Other experts cited technological problems, saying that it would be 
impossible to authenticate a congressman on the Internet, and that the 
importance of the face-to-face negotiating that occurs during a legislative 
session would be lost.

"I'm worried about the symbolism," said Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the 
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. "I want Congress 
reconvened as soon as possible [after a disaster]."

Ornstein said he would stop short of endorsing an e-Congress because it was 
not the intention of the framers who wrote the Constitution.

"No matter how advanced the technology, there is no substitute for the 
face-to-face conversations and informal interactionsÖthat are critical to 
genuine institutional and individual deliberation," Ornstein said.

Nevertheless, the panel used a videoconference to show how remote 
technology could work -- one component of a contingency plan.

With his picture beamed behind the panel, Stephen Frantzich, a U.S. Naval 
Academy professor, participated in the hearing from Prague, Czech Republic. 
He told the panel, "Just because you can do something doesn't mean you 
should necessarily do it."
******************
Computerworld
Hacker duo say they hack for the sake of national security
By LINDA ROSENCRANCE

A pair of hackers who have been penetrating U.S. government computer 
systems across the country said they're trying to call attention to 
vulnerabilities in national security.

But analysts said they're probably nothing more than publicity seekers.


On April 24, the hackers, who call themselves the Deceptive Duo, said they 
"started their mission" of breaking into both government and private-sector 
computer systems. In an e-mail interview with Computerworld, they said 
their purpose was "to expose the lack of security within our government and 
other critical cyber components."


They said they have hacked into classified and nonclassified systems, 
including those operated by the office of the secretary of Defense, the 
Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, the Defense Logistics Agency, 
Sandia National Laboratories, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratories, Midwest 
Express Airlines and a number of banks.


"We had access to data and Web servers which included things such as 
pictures from Operation Restore Hope [expanded peacekeeping operations in 
Somalia in the early 1990s] to the personal details of Department of 
Defense employees," they said.


The hackers said they breached the systems in two ways: They got in through 
Microsoft SQL servers, which they said have a default password to log in. 
Some system administrators didn't change the default password when their 
databases were implemented and their systems went live, the duo said. They 
also got in through a NetBIOS Brute Force attack, a method in which the 
hackers repeatedly try to guess passwords to gain entry into a system that 
could exploit the NetBIOS protocol and allow access to sensitive data.


"Once information was acquired, we targeted an appropriate Web site to post 
the screenshots at. For instance, we posted the Defense Logistics Agency 
database on a Web site of the Office of the Secretary of Defense," the 
hackers said in their e-mail.


Richard Williamson, a spokesman for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems 
Command, acknowledged that hackers gained access to the system through SQL 
because the agency had failed to change the default password and 
administrator's user ID.


"We're embarrassed. We didn't change it. We made a mistake," he said.


Williamson said the pair didn't get access to any classified information. 
"It was information any taxpayer is entitled to," he said.


The hackers, who wouldn't reveal their ages, said they believed breaking 
into computer systems was the only way to get system administrators to take 
action to improve security.


"We must take drastic means for them to take this seriously," they said. 
"When notifying a system administrator, the situation often times will get 
brushed away like it was nothing."


The hackers said they have received e-mails from various system 
administrators of the penetrated computers and they fully cooperate with 
them in creating a more secure environment for their systems.


"If we did not, our mission would be incomplete," they said.


Screenshots of the information obtained by the Deceptive Duo, including 
bank databases with customers' personal information and bank account 
numbers, were posted at a security Web site.


Another database screenshot posted at the same Web site showed names, 
passport numbers and other personal information apparently gleaned from the 
U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Logistics Agency.


Lisa Bailey, a spokeswoman for Milwaukee-based Midwest Express, confirmed 
that the pair hacked into the airline's computer system but gained access 
only to customer profiles.


"What they hacked into was not manifest information or anything like that," 
she said. "There was no credit card information [taken]."


Eric Hemmendinger, an analyst at Aberdeen Group Inc. in Boston, said that 
although he didn't know much about the Deceptive Duo, he believed they were 
probably "publicity hounds."


Charles Kolodgy, an analyst at IDC, in Framingham, Mass., agreed. He said 
he didn't believe the pair was on a mission to improve security.


"I think there might be a business reason behind this," he said. "Maybe 
they're trying to sell security products. And they probably just have too 
much time on their hands."
********************
BBC
How to hack your mobile phone

Changing the ID number of your phone is as easy as swapping the font in a 
word processing document.
Software programs that let you alter this 15-digit number can be readily 
bought via the web.

Some sites even sell "chipping" kits that bundle cables and software 
together into one package for less than £50.

With this software and a cable that connects the phone to a laptop or PC, 
the number can be changed in a few moments.

Number game

"It's not very difficult, anyone could do it," said Jack Wraith, head of 
the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum.

He said different chipping programs change different parts of the 
International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number borne by GSM handsets.

The 15-digit IMEI is programmed into a handset when it is manufactured.

It is made up of identifiers that reveal where the handset can be used, 
which factory made it, a unique serial number and a check digit that 
ensures the whole number is valid.

Like credit card numbers, only certain strings of 15 digits are valid, 
Chipping software is built using algorithms that work out valid 
combinations of numbers.

Mr Wraith said the software packages typically change either the last two 
numbers in an IMEI or the entire 15-digit number.

You can check the IMEI number of a GSM phone, which prevail in Europe, the 
Middle East and the Far East, by dialling *#06#.

Mobile networks that do not use GSM technology do not use IMEI identifiers.

Mr Wraith said by the end of the summer all the UK's mobile phone networks 
will be able to block phones by their IMEI numbers.

Currently O2 and Vodafone, which operate the UK's oldest mobile networks, 
are the only ones that cannot block by IMEI number.

Zero value

Laws being introduced in Britain will make it an offence to sell kits that 
allow IMEI numbers to be changed.

"There's no legal reason, or very few legal reasons, for that number to be 
changed," said Mr Wraith.

But he said, the introduction of IMEI blocking may not reduce the number of 
phones being stolen.

"A mugger who takes your wallet isn't going to leave you with a phone to 
call the police," he said.

However, it will reduce the saleable value of a stolen phone to almost 
zero, he said.
*****************
Computerworld
Hitachi and others break storage capacity barriers
By LUCAS MEARIAN

A number of storage technology breakthroughs were announced this week, 
including the doubling of hard disk and tape memory capacity, vendors said.

Hitachi Ltd. in Japan has developed a technology that can more than double 
hard-disk memory density, according to North American spokesman Gerry Corbett.


According to Corbett and a Japanese news report, the company will start 
shipping product samples as early as 2004.


Hitachi's technology, called perpendicular magnetic recording, increases 
storage per square inch of disk space to 107G bits, 7 more gigabits than is 
now possible with that particular recording technology.


David Reinsel, research manager for hard drives at IDC's Minnesota office, 
said the difference between traditional data storage and perpendicular 
magnetic recording is the polarity of the bits.


"The magnetization for the traditional [recording] being left to right, 
where as perpendicular moves that polarity to north to south," he said. 
"Typically, when [the hard drive's head] is entering into the next bit 
there's a transition period. This eliminates that transition that had been 
there. It's going to require a different type of head to read it."


Reinsel said Hitachi's perpendicular magnetic recording breakthrough, which 
was announced a year ago, is significant for the future of storage, but not 
yet "ready for prime time."


"Horizontal technology still has a ways to go," he said.


For example, Fremont, Calif.-based Read-Rite Corp. yesterday announced that 
it has achieved 130 billion bit/sq. in. of hard-disk space using horizontal 
or longitudinal disk technology. That will enable consumers to record 134 
full-length VHS motion pictures on a two-disk personal video recorder once 
the technology reaches the marketplace.


"In less than three years, our skilled team of engineers and strategic 
partners pushed areal density levels over 950%, from 13.5 billion bit/sq. 
in. in July 1998 to today's achievement of 130 billion bit/sq. in.," Mark 
Re, senior vice president of research and development at Read-Rite, said in 
a statement.


Also yesterday, Sony said it has broken the record for tape storage density 
by achieving over 11.5G bit/sq. in. of data storage on 1 sq. in. of tape. 
That nearly doubles the previous record of 6.5G bit/sq. in.


Sony said in a statement that the breakthrough paves the way for its new 
S-AIT storage format, which will feature the industry's highest compressed 
capacity -- more than 1TB per tape -- when it debuts this fall.


"This latest density breakthrough will allow the AIT and S-AIT 
architectures to progress in a parallel manner and achieve our current road 
maps," said Takao Hiramoto, president for the Server Solutions Company of 
Sony Corp.'s Broadband Solutions Network Co. in Tokyo.


In other news, a team of storage networking industry vendors announced this 
week it broke the 2TB/hr. backup barrier.


The performance test, performed on a storage-area network, used equipment 
from Brocade Communications Corp., Emulex Corp., Storage Technology Corp., 
Sun Microsystems Inc. and Veritas Software Corp. The companies were backing 
up an Oracle9i database.


The new benchmark will allow companies to reduce current backup times 
significantly, said Steve Kenniston, an analyst at the Enterprise Storage 
Group.


"Improving backup and restore times at a significant level, based on 
real-world database configurations, will be of great advantage to companies 
who view maximum uptime as an essential business requirement." Kenniston said.
********************
BBC
E-government to cost jobs

Putting government services online could cost up to 20% of civil servant 
jobs over the next 10 years, according to the UK e-envoy Andrew Pinder.
The comments about the jobs cuts, made at a Government Leaders' Conference 
in Seattle, have left other e-government experts baffled.

Mr Pinder said re-organising the way the public sector worked could be used 
to increase staff numbers in the health and education sectors.

The e-envoy is charged with the job of getting all government services 
online by 2005.

More not less

A spokesperson for the e-envoy confirmed that the savings would result from 
the reorganisation of public services over the next decade.

According to Mr Pinder, the savings are based on those already made by the 
private sector.

But Peter Friedman, editor of SupportInsight, a website for the support and 
training industry, is not convinced he has got his sums right.

"I would be very interested to know where Mr Pinder gets that 20% saved by 
the private sector from," he said.

The need for online support has in fact increased job opportunities, he said.

"In the private sector we are seeing the quality of service issue 
potentially increasing the resources devoted to customer relationship 
management."

His comments were echoed by civil service unions.

"My understanding is that there is no definitive answer on how e-government 
will affect civil service jobs," said a spokesman for the Public and 
Commercial Services Union.

"It will certainly change work in the civil and public sector and will have 
an impact on the number of staff but it is too early to say how many."

Redundancies?

According to the union, there is likely to be immense political pressure on 
the government not to close down local benefit and tax offices.

"A significant proportion of the public will still want face-to-face 
contacts," said the union spokesman.

He said the union would work closely with the government to ensure civil 
servants replaced by electronic services were redeployed elsewhere in the 
public sector.

Ex-civil servant Ken D'Rosario, who now works with NextiraOne on public 
service projects, said it was far too early to talk about redundancies.

"E-government is nowhere near where it should be so anyone making 
judgements on staffing levels is being a bit premature," he said.

Mr Pinder declined an interview with BBC News Online about his comments.
***************
BBC
Tough penalties for mobile phone theft

A Bill published by the Home Office on Friday will make it a criminal 
offence to reprogramme stolen phones to create a new number so they can be 
used again.

The new tougher penalties aim to curb the growing menace of mobile phone 
related street crime.

Those found guilty of reprogramming could face jail terms of up to five 
years or unlimited fines.

The new Mobile Telephones (Reprogramming) Bill would also make it illegal 
to own or supply any of the equipment for reprogramming handsets.

The Bill has been welcomed by police and the phone industry.

Home Office minister John Denham said: "Mobile phone thefts have been a key 
factor in rising street crime - stolen mobiles are now involved in 50% of 
all robberies in London.

"The Bill being published today builds on the concerted action being taken 
across government to tackle street crime."

Violent attacks

Tim Godwin, a Deputy Assistant Commissioner (DAC) of the Metropolitan 
Police, said: "Mobile phones are quickly turned into cash by thieves.

"This measure will reduce their value to a thief and therefore we strongly 
support and welcome it."

About 700,000 mobile phones were stolen last year, many in violent attacks.

Mobile phone operators have already agreed to exchange lists of the unique 
15-digit handset identity numbers, known as the International Mobile 
Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers, which are programmed on manufacture.

Thus, when a phone is reported stolen, its number can be recognised by 
other networks and they can refuse to connect it.

Disguise

However, this system alone does not make stolen handsets impossible to use.

Some thieves with specialist software can still change the handset identity 
number, or alter it to disguise its origin.

This makes it impossible for the manufacturers to trace the handsets, and 
they can then be sold on.

Phone security experts have for some time been calling for the changing of 
the IMEI number to be made illegal.

Jack Wraith, of the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum, said the Bill would 
help reduce thefts.

"The activities of individuals involved in the reprogramming of stolen 
mobile devices has, for too long, allowed stolen mobile phones to be 
reprogrammed with impunity," he said.
***************
Computerworld
American University to roll out campus wireless system
By JUAN CARLOS PEREZ, IDG NEWS SERVICE

American University in Washington will roll out a campuswide wireless 
system designed to give students, faculty and employees wireless access to 
university data.

The system is designed to improve voice and data communications in the 
university and reduce the use of traditional phones on campus, American 
University said yesterday in a statement. It's expected to be ready in time 
for the fall semester.


Using wireless devices such as cell phones, personal digital assistants and 
notebook computers, students, teachers and university staff will be able 
to, among other things, connect to the Internet, send and receive e-mail 
messages, and access Web-based university information, such as class 
schedules.


The system will also allow university officials to push out to the users 
university-related information, such as alerts about class cancellations 
and information about campus events. The system has been designed to 
provide wireless connectivity to users who are indoors or outdoors, the 
university said.


IT services provider KPMG Consulting Inc. in McLean, Va., is in charge of 
implementing the system, the university said. The university carried out a 
two-month trial of the system in its business school and one residence hall.


In the current academic year, American University has 5,501 undergraduate 
students, 3,161 graduate students and 1,532 students in its law school, as 
well as a full-time faculty of 566, according to the university's Web site.
****************
Computerworld
Servers converge as part of Unisys strategy
New ClearPath releases aimed at moving users to common architecture
By JAIKUMAR VIJAYAN

With three new releases, Unisys Corp. is building on efforts to migrate 
users of its two proprietary mainframe lines to a common architecture based 
on Intel Corp. and Windows technologies.

The Blue Bell, Pa.-based company last week introduced ClearPath server 
models that offer triple the systems capacity and double the partitions of 
its existing systems, according to the company.

Like their predecessors, the new systems are based on Unisys' Cellular 
MultiProcessing (CMP) architecture, which allows users to mix applications 
running on Wintel technology with those running on proprietary Unisys 
processors in a single box.

The goal is to give users of Unisys' MCP and OS 2200 mainframe operating 
systems a way to take advantage of their investments while offering a 
reliable, mainframe-class system for running newer applications, said Rod 
Sapp, a Unisys director.

The new systems "converge all of Unisys' legacy environments on a single 
technology," said James Cassell, an analyst at Stamford, Conn.-based 
Gartner Inc. "Users are not only going to get better price/performance but 
also increased functionality as a result."

The all-Intel-based ClearPath Plus Server CS 7201 model is targeted at MCP 
users. The system supports up to 32 processors and eight partitions. Users 
can take advantage of the partitions to run a mix of MCP, Unix and Windows 
2000 Advanced Server or Windows Datacenter Server applications.

The two other models introduced last week are aimed at users of the OS 2200 
operating system. The ClearPath Plus Server CS 7402 box supports up to four 
of Unisys' proprietary CMOS chips or Intel processors and allows users to 
combine OS 2200 applications with Windows applications in the same box.

Meanwhile, the new CS 7802 model supports up to 32 of Unisys' CMOS 
processors and is also capable of supporting Intel chips. Like the other 
models, the system can support a mix of OS 2200, Windows and Unix 
applications.

Customer Feedback

Carnival Cruise Lines has purchased a 16-processor CS 7802 to run its core 
reservation and marketing applications, said Doug Eney, vice president of 
systems at Miami-based Carnival. The system is about four to five times 
faster than the water-cooled system it replaces and delivers far greater 
performance, Eney said.

"It's a very hardened, very scalable and very partitionable box," he said.

Carnival's new server is based entirely on Unisys' proprietary CMOS chips 
and is being used to run only OS 2200-based applications, he said. But the 
company is considering taking advantage of ClearPath's CMP architecture to 
consolidate Windows-based applications on such boxes, Eney said.
*****************
Government Computer News
McNealy: We've already lost privacy
By William Jackson

The Transportation Security Administration could guarantee air safety by 
collecting passenger information from public and private databases, 
industry executives said at a Washington forum sponsored this week by the 
Council for Excellence in Government.

"It's not a technology problem, it's a problem of political will, what we 
are willing to give up" in exchange for greater security, said Steve 
Perkins, senior vice president for public-sector business at Oracle Corp.

Oracle formed the Liberty Alliance with Electronic Data Systems Corp., 
PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. of New York and Sun Microsystems Inc. to sell 
the database-mining idea to the government.

"Our goal is to push the bounds of the technology," Perkins said. "I don't 
see a role for the alliance on the policy side." The alliance has proposed 
authenticating passengers through public databases, cross-referenced 
against federal watch lists. Trusted passengers would be issued biometric 
smart cards for faster processing at airport checkpoints.

Sun chief executive officer Scott McNealy downplayed the risks of such a 
system, calling anonymity "a very dangerous weapon. You're not losing 
privacy that you haven't already lost anyway."

Government officials, however, said privacy and security policies require 
industry participation.

"The whole concept of shared databases being at risk is something 
government can't deal with effectively without private-sector partners that 
control some of the most extensive databases," said Mary Mitchell, the 
General Services Administration's program executive for e-government policy.

Chris Israel, deputy assistant secretary of Commerce for technology policy, 
said risks to privacy grow as personal data is gathered and consolidated 
for homeland security.

"The paradigm is going to have to be completely changed," Israel said. 
Biometrics technology is both an answer and a threat to privacy, and 
government policy will have to be retooled to handle the new risks, he 
said. "We're going to be confounded by it going forward."
****************
Government Computer News
Net Guard would function as a virtual National Guard
By William Jackson

Two bills to strengthen the nation's cyberdefenses will come up this month 
before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Sen. Ron 
Wyden (D-Ore.), a sponsor of the Science and Technology Emergency 
Mobilization Act, said his bill would establish volunteer rapid response 
teams to help restore critical infrastructures in the wake of disasters. 
The teams, which would be known as the Net Guard, would function like an IT 
equivalent of the National Guard.

Another bill, the Cyber Security R&D Act that the House passed in February, 
would make more than $1 billion available over the next five years for 
security research and education programs. The bill would fund $743 million 
through the National Science Foundation and $302 million through the 
National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Lance J. Hoffman, professor of computer science at George Washington 
University in Washington, told the subcommittee that information security 
research has been a poor stepchild. It cannot compete with established 
disciplines because "students and faculty have been driven by available 
funding to work on problems that are better known," he said.

Hoffman said background checks should be required for Net Guard volunteers 
under the Science and Technology Emergency Mobilization Act. The national 
Net Guard database would have to be adequately secured to ensure privacy 
and restrict unauthorized access, he said. And the guard as described by 
the act might be too ambitious, he added, whereas local and regional 
programs would be more workable.
*****************
Mercury News
Court orders video spying
SONICBLUE TO SURVEY CUSTOMER RECORDERS
By Dawn C. Chmielewski
Mercury News

A federal magistrate in Los Angeles has ordered SonicBlue to spy on 
thousands of digital video recorder users -- monitoring every show they 
record, every commercial they skip and every program they send 
electronically to a friend.

Central District Court Magistrate Charles F. Eick told SonicBlue to gather 
``all available information'' about how consumers use the Santa Clara 
company's latest generation ReplayTV 4000 video recorders and turn the 
information over to the film studios and television networks suing it for 
contributing to copyright infringement.

``We've been ordered to invade the privacy of our customers,'' said Ken 
Potashner, SonicBlue's chairman and chief executive. ``This is something 
that we find personally very troubling.''

Privacy advocates condemned the ruling which came during the pre-trial 
discovery process of a series of lawsuits against SonicBlue.

In October, the studios and networks accused SonicBlue of permitting 
copyright infringement with its latest digital video recorder.

The plaintiffs asked SonicBlue to turn over information on how individuals 
use the recording devices. SonicBlue said it does not track that 
information. The magistrate, who is supervising discovery, ordered the 
company to write software in the next 60 days that would record every 
``click'' from every customer's remote control.

Four separate lawsuits focus on a pair of features on the ReplayTV 4000; an 
``AutoSkip'' function that allows the device to bypass commercials while 
recording a program; and a high-speed Internet port that allows users to 
download programs from the Internet or send them to other ReplayTV 4000 users.

The suits allege these features effectively deprive networks of the means 
of paying for their programs -- advertising revenue. And they allow people 
who paid for premium programming -- say HBO's ``Six Feet Under'' -- to send 
it to consumers who haven't.

A Disney spokeswoman accused SonicBlue of a ``deliberate and completely 
misleading'' characterization of the court's order. The studios and 
networks are merely seeking access to the same kind of anonymous data that 
SonicBlue's privacy policy says it is entitled to collect about its users, 
she said.

Attorneys for the studios say they need this information to determine the 
extent to which the ReplayTV 4000 allows consumers to steal copyrighted 
movies and television shows.

``None of the data the plaintiffs are seeking identifies any individuals,'' 
said Michelle Bergman, the Disney spokeswoman. ``We respect viewer privacy 
and the order we obtained respects that important right. We are simply 
protecting our copyrighted content and all whose livelihoods are dependent 
on it.''

The court ruling requires SonicBlue to track individual users -- not by 
name, but through ``unique identification numbers.''

``The concern is once you collect information about an individual, the 
individual may be concerned that he or she could be linked to that 
information at some time,'' said SonicBlue attorney Lawrence Pulgram.

``It's an incredible invasion of privacy,'' said Fred von Lohmann, an 
intellectual property expert for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Pulgram said SonicBlue plans to ask the federal district court trial judge 
to review the magistrate's ruling.
*****************
USA Today
Anti-spam legislation heading to Senate floor

WASHINGTON (Reuters)  A measure that would crack down on the unwanted junk 
e-mail known as "spam" will soon head to the Senate floor, Sen. Conrad 
Burns said on Thursday.

The measure enjoys enough support to win the Senate Commerce Committee's 
stamp of approval when is is brought up for a committee vote this month, 
tentatively scheduled for May 16, the Montana Republican said.

"It looks like we're finally going to get some action on spamming," Burns 
said. "I think the bill is in pretty good shape right now."

Burns said he was confident the bill would pass the Senate, although 
Majority Leader Tom Daschle has not yet committed to bring it up for a vote.

While 22 states have passed anti-spam legislation, efforts in Congress have 
stumbled over opposition from direct marketers who say their activities 
would be unfairly limited.

The Federal Trade Commission has since February gone after "spammers" who 
violate existing laws that prohibit false or deceptive trade practices.

Spammers who use deceptive subject lines or do not respond to consumer 
requests to be taken off their contact lists are candidates for FTC action, 
which rarely results in fines or jail time.

Burns' bill, co-sponsored by Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, would not 
impose any new restrictions on commercial e-mail.

Rather, it would strengthen the enforcement authority of the FTC and state 
attorneys general, allowing them to impose fines of up to $30 per e-mail.

Spammers that hide their identities would also face criminal penalties, and 
the bill would allow Internet service providers to sue to keep them off 
their networks.

Burns said spam annoyed Internet users and imposed economic costs on 
businesses whose e-mail networks carried the unwanted messages.

On a personal level, he said his own e-mail account was overrun with spam.

"I bet you there's 50 (unsolicited messages) on there when I get home 
tonight, and not one I recognize," Burns said.
******************
MSNBC
Viruses enlisted as nano-builders

WASHINGTON, May 2   If you want to build a molecular-scale computer chip, 
or a minuscule sensor that detects the slightest whiff of an airborne 
toxin, you're going to need some tiny builders to help put these gadgets 
together. In Friday's issue of the journal Science, published by the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science, researchers in Texas 
show how they hired a virus as their nano-construction worker.

       GENETICALLY ENGINEERED to grab up dots of zinc sulfide, these 
"viral semiconductors" arrange themselves into highly ordered structures 
that may serve as the raw material for future nanoscale devices.
       "We want to build things that are as small as the length across a 
strand of DNA. When you're building things as small as a virus, it makes 
sense to try to use the biology that already works at this size," explains 
Angela M. Belcher of the University of Texas.
       The building blocks of nanotechnology are materials with orderly, 
often repeating patterns on the scale of a billionth of a meter. It's 
nearly impossible for researchers to directly create large arrays of these 
materials with such stunning precision, so scientists seek out systems that 
can spontaneously arrange themselves. Many biological materials, including 
viruses in solution, have this promising "self-assembly" quality.
       Millions of viruses in solution can line up and stack themselves 
into layers, creating a material that flows like a liquid but maintains an 
internal pattern. By changing the solution's concentration or applying a 
magnetic field, scientists can force new patterns and create different 
liquid crystal structures.

DESIGNER VIRUSES
       If tiny semiconductor particles could be attached to these orderly 
viruses, the viruses could do all the tedious and fine work of creating a 
highly organized nanomaterial, Belcher and her colleagues reasoned. So they 
set out to design a virus that would recognize and attach itself to zinc 
sulfide nanocrystals.
       The researchers began by genetically engineering their chosen 
nontoxic virus to carry random bits of protein in its outer coat, and 
comparing each altered virus' ability to latch onto zinc sulfide particles. 
Belcher and the others aren't exactly sure how the different protein motifs 
bind to the crystals, but they suspect that the two hook up much like an 
antibody and antigen.
       "We think it might work like a lock and key, with the two surfaces 
complementing each other," says Belcher.
       After extensive screening, the scientists chose the "best binding" 
virus and allowed it to infect bacteria where it could make millions of 
copies of itself. Added to a zinc sulfide solution, the viruses attached 
themselves to the semiconductor material, grew zinc sulfide nanocrystals at 
their ends, and assembled themselves into a highly ordered hybrid film with 
the piggybacked particles. By tinkering with different solution 
concentrations and applied magnetic fields, Belcher and colleagues were 
able to alter the stacking direction of the film's layers.

DESIGNER DEVICES
      Although the zinc sulfide hybrid is their first complete liquid 
crystal system, the research team has already identified other engineered 
viruses that can bind to other semiconductor crystals, such as cadmium 
sulfide, and magnetic materials.
       The viral films can be stored at room temperature for at least 
seven months without diluting their concentration or affecting the ability 
of viruses to infect bacteria.
       "We've found that this is a reversible process, that you can 
completely disassemble and reassemble these films, which is interesting 
from a biotechnology aspect," says Belcher. The researchers are pursuing 
the intriguing possibility that these films might be a new way to store 
high-density DNA without freezing.
       At this point, the technique is "pretty basic, a way of arranging 
electronic materials where you want them to be," says Belcher. Her team 
will be spending the next year trying to make simple devices out of this 
material, with the hope that these materials can be used in self-assembling 
computer chips, optical devices and sensors that detect biowarfare agents 
or chemicals.
*******************
MSNBC
Cyber Scholars
C++ meets Chaucer, as universities begin to study the digital world

WHAT I FOUND, however, at the Digital Divides conference convened by the 
Pacific Regional Humanities Center at the University of California, Davis, 
was that the academic world has made quite a turnaround. In the 80s and 
early 90s there were a handful of university folk exploring topics like 
hypertext or the social impact of computers, but by now the topic of 
digital change has infiltrated every department from history and 
linguistics to art and psychology. The Digital Divides event was itself one 
of a series of three such conferences within the University of California 
system.
        The conference topics ranged widely. Martin Kenney, a UC Davis 
professor, studies the history of Silicon Valley, tracking the influence of 
the earliest firms on subsequent generations in the same way that literary 
scholars might follow the influence of the Lake District poets. He 
theorized, in fact, that the key to Silicon Valley's success was not so 
much the legendary Hewlett-Packard garage start-up in 1938, but the fact 
that in 1957 a particularly crucial semiconductor firm, Fairchild, happened 
to locate there. The company spawned dozens of "Fairchildren" nearby, 
building the fundamental engines of the digital revolution. Had Fairchild 
happened to start instead near Boston, the history of digital technology 
might well have been written on the opposite coast.

        Alladi Venkatesh, of UC Irvine, looks at the results, rather than 
the roots, of the digital revolution: using ethnographic research 
techniques to study the impact of home networks and highly-wired 
communities on family life. For his research he has focused on a housing 
development called Ladera Ranch, in southern Orange County, where homes 
have "IT nooks," high-speed Internet access and the entire community of 
2000 homes is interlinked with a common intranet. "Unlike other 
appliances," he notes, "Americans haven't yet figured out which room of the 
house the computer belongs in. This will be a very important time to study."
        His findings should interest Lee Rainie, head of the Pew 
Foundation's ambitious Internet and American Life project, which for two 
years now has conducted in-depth polling to study how the Web is changing 
U.S. society. At Davis, Rainie presented some newer findings about the 70 
million Americans currently not online. Of that number, fully 45 percent 
say they don't believe they will ever go online, for reasons that include 
fear, cost issuesand 40 percent who simply say they don't need it. Among 
the offline, 23 percent are disableda number underscoring the importance of 
Web site accessibilityand close to 20 percent are "drop-outs" who once had 
Web access but no longer do. On the connected side, Rainie described the 63 
percent of American teenagers who use instant messaging. Among them, 14 
percent have used IM to ask for a date, 12 percent have broken off a 
relationship with IM, and 20 percent have shared their screen name and 
password with a "best friend." In the last instance, Rainie adds, often 
with unhappy consequences: "Best friends don't last forever in the teen world."
 Rogers: How the Web Will Transform Business

        Perhaps the most symbolic presentation at Digital Divides came 
from a non-academic named Rick McGowan, vice-president of a little-known 
Silicon Valley non-profit company called Unicode. Unicode represents the 
most fundamental fusion of CP Snow's Two Cultures: nothing less than the 
effort to make certain that all of the world's languages can be represented 
in computer form. Unicode began with informal discussions in the late 80's 
at Apple and the fabled research lab Xerox PARC and is now funded by many 
of the major computer and software companies. Unicode's goal is to make 
sure that every form of writing on earth has a unique and universally 
accepted representation as a string of numbers.
       By now there are Unicode representations for 96 forms of writing, 
which in turn represent every language on earth with more than 5 million 
speakers. Available "scripts" range from old standards like Latin, Greek, 
Cyrillic, Hebrew; Arabic, Katakana and Han to Thaana, Devanagari, Khmer, 
Runic, Cherokee and Braille. The goal is to turn every written language 
into code, and McGowan figures there are at least 25 more "minority" 
scripts that remain untranslated into Unicode.
        Unfortunately, as the languages grow more obscure, the battles 
between experts over what is official grows more intense. An early Unicode 
developer coined the rule: "For every expert there is an equal and opposite 
expert." In addition, the rarer the language, the less likely there is much 
of a market for software, and so the companies that fund Unicode show 
increasingly less interest. Linguists used to say that a language was a 
dialect with an army; in the world of Unicode, dialects may turn out to 
need markets more than armies. But that is where the university world may 
ultimately come to the rescue. Academic experts are currently working on a 
Unicode version of Egyptian hieroglyphicsand next on the docket are the 
symbols of the Rosetta Stone.
******************
USA Today
More health insurers let patients file claims online

NEW YORK (AP)  Nearly one in three managed care companies now allow 
patients to file health insurance claims online, a remarkable jump from 
just six months ago, a new study said.

Health care companies are using the Internet to cut through red tape and 
make the health care process quicker and easier, according to a survey 
released Thursday by the consulting firm Cap Gemini Ernst & Young.

For example, nearly 31% of managed care Web sites surveyed allow patients 
to file claims online, vs. only 4% six months ago, the survey said.

It found that 59% of companies let patients track claims online compared to 
27% last summer. Now, 45% of patients can access an explanation of benefits 
online, compared to 25% six months ago.

The automation also benefits doctors. The survey said 58% of plans have Web 
sites that allow doctors to make referrals online, compared to 20% just 6 
months ago. Moreover, 81% of Web sites let doctors check plans' preferred 
drug lists vs. 59% six months ago.

The consulting firm reviewed 78 web sites from November 2001 and January 
2002 and compared the results with a survey conducted from March 2000 and 
June 2001.

However, there is still no way to say how many doctors and patients are 
taking advantage of the technological improvements, said Peter Kongstvedt, 
head of Cap Gemini's managed care practice.

Kongstvedt said automating tasks now done over the fax, phone and mail will 
reduce errors and bring down the cost of health care. He said it takes 
between four years and six years for a company to realize a return on its 
technological investments.

Kongstvedt said managed care companies spend between 14% and 15% of their 
revenues on sales and administration. Automating the administrative process 
should push that down to 8% to 9%, he said.
*****************
MSNBC
Cell phones you can throw away
Intel to provide chipsets for disposable phones

GARDEN GROVE, Calif., May 2  Disposable diapers. Disposable cameras. And 
now, disposable cell phones. Hop-On , based in Garden Grove, Calif., said 
Wednesday that it had struck an agreement with Intel Corp. to provide 
chipsets for its disposable cell phones.

INTEL, THE WORLD'S largest semiconductor company, has a small 
second-generation chipset business, and is more than happy to sell the 
older products, an Intel spokesman said.

     Hop-On said Intel will provide chipsets using the TDMA cell phone 
standard for use in its disposable phones worldwide. Initial target markets 
will be in the United States and Latin America, the company said.
       Hop-On's disposable cell phones, which it says are recyclable, will 
carry an hour's worth of prepaid calling minutes in the United States.
     Hop-On said it "will be distributing its products through some of the 
nation's largest retailers and convenience stores" and will "provide users 
with national coverage through some of the nation's preeminent carriers."
       Hop-On shares trade on the pink sheets for about 17 cents each.

*******************
Government Executive
Cybersecurity legislation gets mixed reviews
By Liza Porteus, National Journal's Technology Daily

Government and industry officials on Thursday hailed a bill aimed at 
ensuring that federal agencies maintain strong information security but 
questioned certain aspects of the measure.
Two House Government Reform subcommittees--Government Efficiency, Financial 
Management and Intergovernmental Relations, and Technology and Procurement 
Policy--held a joint hearing on the bill, H.R. 3844, which would 
permanently reauthorize the Government Information Security Reform Act 
(GISRA) and implement additional computer-security measures for federal 
agencies.
Mark Forman, e-government chief for the Office of Management and Budget, 
said the administration is still developing its position on the 
legislation. He said the continued strong role of the National Institute of 
Standards and Technology in information security is "critical." NIST will 
help agencies conduct security reviews for submission to OMB.
Robert Dacey, director of information security at the General Accounting 
Office, agreed that continuation of GISRA is "essential" but said the 
administration should do more to obtain technical expertise to protect 
computer systems and to make sure sufficient resources are available.
But certain changes should be made to the legislation, some panelists said.
The bill, for instance, calls for an information-emergency response center. 
But Daniel Wolf, information assurance director for the National Security 
Agency, said yet another incident-response center like those housed at NSA, 
the Defense Department and the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection 
Center would add "unnecessary redundancy."
The Commerce Department, meanwhile, does not want the measure to transfer 
authority on security standards from NIST to OMB. Ron Miller, chief 
information officer of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, suggested 
that the bill should include a stronger link between security requirements 
for information technology and the capital planning process, and that there 
should be more focus on retaining IT professionals and individual 
accountability for security.
"It would be very useful if the federal government provided IT security 
training in perhaps the same way that it offers standardized training in 
technology subjects, management skills, leadership development and other 
professional disciplines," Miller said.
Miller also said effective cybersecurity will require a coordinated effort 
with the White House Office of Homeland Security to link the federal 
government with other governmental and industry representatives.
Jim Dempsey, deputy director for the Center for Democracy and Technology, 
also said the measure should not eliminate the Computer System Security and 
Privacy Advisory Board, which has served as an advisory group for the 
federal government on privacy issues.
"At the current time, when there are so many important privacy issues 
facing the government and the private sector, it is inadvisable to reduce 
the federal government's ability to address privacy issues," Dempsey said.
Dempsey said the legislation also would not address enough privacy concerns 
and should include provisions to bring privacy and other aspects of 
information policy into the development of security standards. He said 
government should look to privacy practices currently employed by the 
private sector as a model.
A Davis spokesman said the goal is to get the bill marked up in the full 
House Government Reform Committee within two weeks.
GAO and the subcommittees released a report 
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02407.pdf detailing what other actions are 
necessary to fully implement GISRA and other information security reforms.
****************
USA Today
Study claims traffic cameras reduce speeding

WASHINGTON (AP)  The number of motorists speeding on neighborhood streets 
in the nation's capital dropped sharply after police began using cameras, a 
new study shows.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety measured travel speeds on seven 
streets before the cameras and at the same sites six months after 
deployment. The sites tested were among 60 locations in the city where 
cameras have been used.

The number of motorists traveling more than 10 mph above the speed limit 
decreased significantly at each of the seven sites. The decline ranged from 
38 to 89%.

For comparison, the researchers also observed speeds during the same time 
periods at eight sites in Baltimore County, Md., which does not use 
cameras. In each case, the proportion of speeding motorists stayed about 
the same or increased slightly.

"The research provides clear indication that speed cameras and red light 
cameras cause many drivers who would break the law to abide by it," said 
Richard Retting, the institute's lead researcher.

About 70 communities around the country use cameras mounted at 
intersections to catch drivers who run red lights. Speed cameras, which 
measure how fast a vehicle is traveling, are used in only about a dozen 
communities, Retting said.

The American Civil Liberties Union and others say the cameras infringe on 
privacy rights. Critics also complain the system unfairly assumes the owner 
of the car is the person behind the wheel.

Last month, Hawaii's governor ordered a halt to use of speed cameras amid 
complaints. The next day, the Legislature voted to repeal the three-year 
pilot program.

Proponents say the cameras make the streets safer for law-abiding drivers 
and reduce the number of police chases.

The District of Columbia started using speed cameras last summer. Five are 
mounted on unmarked police cars and rotated among 60 sites. By the end of 
March, 251,474 tickets had been issued and $10.5 million in fines collected.

Washington police spokesman Kevin Morison said the insurance industry study 
mirrors observations made by the department. He said one in three motorists 
passing the cameras last July was speeding, compared with one in eight in 
March.

"Clearly our own results and now this independent study show these cameras 
are having their intended effect, and that's to slow people down," Morison 
said.

House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, is among the harshest critics of 
traffic cameras, saying cities are using them to boost revenue.

Armey spokesman Richard Diamond questioned the objectivity of the insurance 
industry, which he said benefits from tickets because they lead to higher 
rates for policyholders.

"If you are seeing lower speeds, that's often just a result of people 
slamming on their brakes when they realize there is a camera there," 
Diamond said. "It's a common phenomenon, and it's more of a safety problem 
than a safety benefit."

The insurance institute plans to release its study this month
******************
Europemedia.net
Anti-spam legislation stalls
22/04/2002  Editor: Kate Flood

Electronic marketing firms and websites are in for a long wait for European 
anti-spam legislation, after the European Parliament's Citizens' Rights 
Committee voted that it should be left up to member states to decide if web 
surfers should opt-in or opt-out of unsolicited e-mail.

At a second reading of the proposed electronic communication data 
protection directive, the committee voted that individual countries should 
set policies on whether internet users should give permission before being 
sent commercial e-mail (opt-in) or merely have the right to demand that 
they be removed from mailing lists (opt-out).

In December, the European Telecoms Council of Ministers voted in favour of 
a single opt-in policy, which would allow companies that have done business 
with customers in the past to send unsolicited e-mails for similar products.

But committee recently voted to take out the word "similar" from the 
proposed directive, giving companies the option of sending mass e-mails out 
over different platforms, like fax and SMS, and possibly providing a 
legislative loophole for spammers.

The legislation is to return to Parliament for a second reading May 14. 
Amendments need at least 314 votes to pass a second reading, "but as a 
substantial number of amendments were passed by a only slight majority 
within the committee, the result of the plenary vote is uncertain," said an 
European Parliament statement.

If Parliament and the telecoms council can't reach an agreement, the two 
sides are expected to head into conciliation, which could delay the 
legislation further.

The committee also voted that user's personal information may not be stored 
by electronic service providers for longer than necessary for billing 
purposes and data privacy restrictions could only be lifted in order to 
conduct criminal investigations or safeguard national or public security.

As well, the committee said that users should have the right to refuse 
cookies, but rejected Council's opinion that users should receive 
information on the purpose of cookies in advance.
******************
Europemedia.net
Does P3P promise more than it can deliver?
03/05/2002  Editor: Russell Dyas

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recently released the latest version of 
its web protocol, called Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P), which 
promises to change the face of privacy on the web.

But just like when Microsoft releases a version of Windows, these types of 
promises don't usually live up to expectations.

The basic idea behind P3P is that you have web browser that supports the 
protocol, and you set how and what information websites can use about you.

Websites then put a file on their site listing what information they 
require from the user and what that information is going to be used for. If 
that matches your preferences, the websites can get information from you. 
If not, then the platform denies the website access to the information or 
asks you if you wish to view the site.

Sounds great in theory, but in practice it's a different matter. I'll 
examine the protocol's first hurdle by telling you a story. A client of 
mine rang up and said that his computer was displaying a security message 
saying, "you are about to send secure data over a non-secure link."

I have worked in computers for many years so I knew what to do. But this 
person was a beginner, so I explained it to him simply and his comment was: 
"why couldn't have they said that with out all this guff?"

The average user will not spend hours trying to work out how to alter P3P 
settings in a web browser. Chances are users will turn off these settings, 
or even worse, leave a default setting that may end up denying access to 
sites that they want to see (like Amazon.com) . But the users, not 
realising this, could think there is a problem with the websites, not with 
their browser settings.

The next hurdle is that there is no way of knowing if websites actually 
practise what they say in their privacy policy. They may have said that 
your information would not be given to a third party, but you don't know if 
that's actually the case.

In Europe we have a course of action, as there are strict privacy laws such 
as the UK's Data Protection Act, and expected European protection laws. But 
even with these safeguards, you still have to prove that the information 
was misused by the website. But when you consider other countries like the 
US have no data protection laws, it spells bad news for the user.

Take the planned Compaq and Hewlett-Packard merger for instance. Imagine 
that Compaq put P3P on its website and says that it will not use the 
information for advertising. Five years later, it is bought out by a 
little-known company, Macrosoft, and then Technology Corp. buys it four 
years later.

So nine years later Compact still has your information. Can you see them 
honouring a P3P agreement struck years earlier? Before you know it, you 
will have a mountain of junk mail the size of Mount Everest.

The other problem with P3P is that the information that is being collected 
can decrease your privacy. If a website collects your age, it is in fact 
collecting your date of birth, along with your name, which can uniquely 
identify you. That's why you need your date of birth on most official 
forms, from social security to medical records.

But W3C says it is trying to make the protocol more understandable to the 
average user. It describes it as a "social protocol," not a "technical 
protocol," which is a daunting task in itself.

This is one of the reasons it has taken a long time to create the protocol, 
as it has to be in plain English. An average user will know the definition 
of nudity, whereas how many non-technical users know what the words 
"click-stream data," "system administrator," or even "protocol" mean?

I know myself, I am holding back implementing it on any websites that I 
run. At the moment, all I have is a static privacy policy, which users can 
read on the website by clicking on a link at the bottom of every page.

If P3P is taken up by a majority of sites, then it has the potential to 
misrepresent the user. It also has the potential to do well, but its future 
all hangs on how the websites and WC3 market the P3P to the end-users. But, 
as usual, only time will tell.
******************
Europemedia.net  Spain
TV will be 'radically different' in 3 years: report

Television will experience a technological revolution over the next three 
years, according to new research from the Center for Audiovisual Studies in 
the University of Navarra, Spain.

The study forecasts that the main trend is toward medium convergence, which 
is supported by digital technology. The platform, the study says, will no 
longer be relevant and communication entrepreneurs will refer to 
information as the basic element for their businesses.

Another forecasted trend mentioned in the report is the increasing 
popularity of reality shows, which are cheaper than soap operas and more 
appreciated than fiction by the audience.

According to the study, fiction will have to look for continuation in 
interactive applications, which will change the form, but not the content, 
although the viewer will participate more in the scripts.

The study also mentions how broadband connections are becoming the new 
gateway for TV content, and how this will be one of the technological 
pillars of the TV in the future. Small screens will become bigger, and DVD 
will produce new content. Other applications that will introduce more 
changes are video-on-demand and PVR ( personal video recorders).
*****************

News Factor
IBM Software Will Monitor, Repair Problems
By Crayton Harrison
May 03, 2002
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/17577.html

IBM is designing new software and technology tools to create computer 
systems that monitor themselves, fixing what breaks, responding to drastic 
changes in capacity needs, and switching to emergency back-up systems when 
disaster strikes. For the complete story see: 
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/17577.html

************************
News Factor
Unbreakable Code Could Thwart Cyber Crooks
By Lou Hirsh
May 2, 2002

Quantum cryptography could be employed effectively in business security 
systems, particularly those that handle large numbers of financial 
transactions. 'You might want to use this in a business when you have to 
deal with more than one site,' IEEE Spectrum editor Samuel Moore told 
NewsFactor. Complete story: 
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/17553.html#story-start

**********************
Taipei Times
Cross-strait DVD talks going on
STAFF WRITER
Nineteen Taiwanese DVD man-ufacturers are in talks with counterparts in 
China to create a new DVD standard to skirt license fees charged by 
technology owners such as Sony Corp, Chinese-language media reported, 
citing officials of a local research organization.

Discs and players using the new format will be on the market in the third 
quarter, according to Derray Huang (¶À±o·ç), deputy general director at 
Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (¤u¬ã°|).

The Taiwanese companies hope to avoid disputes about DVD technology, such 
as a recent lawsuit filed by Sony against distributor Apex Digital for 
failing to pay license fees.

While the case was settled, Chinese manufacturers that sell through Apex 
will probably seek to avoid license payments to patent holders like Sony 
and Royal Philips Electronics NV, the paper said.

Sony and Toshiba Corp are losing their domination of the market for DVD 
players to Chinese companies such as Sichuan Changhong Electric Co, 
according to market researcher iSuppli Corp. DVD players are the fastest 
growing consumer electronics product with sales of US$3.5 billion last year.
****************

Lillie Coney
Public Policy Coordinator
U.S. Association for Computing Machinery
Suite 507
1100 Seventeenth Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036-4632
202-659-9711