Clips October 30, 2002

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips October 30, 2002

ARTICLES

EMI to Use Audible Magic to Track Web Piracy
China appears to have dropped plan for Chinese-script addresses [ICANN]
CIA warns of Net terror threat
Powell takes path to free up airwaves
With Venture Funds Scarce, Start-Up Firms Turn to U.S.
Verizon, Spam Co. Reach Settlement
There's more than one way to post your message
Windows 2000 gets Common Criteria OK
FIPS testing finds lots of mistakes in crypto IT
Court questions Interior on e-mail destruction
OMB issues draft standards to increase info-sharing, cut IT costs
Defense, cybersecurity officials praise 'open source' software
Virginia DOT fires, disciplines workers for Internet abuse
ICANN critics may create rival Internet administration group
TechNet leader joins Bush administration
Virtual touch achieved
Patch and Reboot: Microsoft's Groundhog Day?
Court helps out cable TV pirates
Politicians, police recruited to talk up IT security


******************************
Los Angeles Times
EMI to Use Audible Magic to Track Web Piracy
By Jon Healey
Times Staff Writer
October 30 2002

Looking for more help battling Internet piracy, EMI Recorded Music 
announced plans Tuesday to work with a Bay Area company that tracks 
unauthorized copying of music online.

The label, home to such artists as the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Garth 
Brooks, expects to launch an anti-piracy project with Audible Magic Corp. 
of Los Gatos this year, the companies announced.

"We're going to use [the technology] to look at different ways of keeping 
track of what's going on with our content, whether it's uses that we've 
authorized or uses that are stealing from our artists," said Jay Samit, 
senior vice president of new media at EMI.

Audible Magic identifies music files as they're passing through the 
Internet, comparing a small sample of each file against the company's 
database of audio "fingerprints," or unique sonic characteristics. Chief 
Executive Vance Ikezoye said the Recording Industry Assn. of America has 
been using his company's technology to gather evidence of copyright 
infringement for its lawsuits against online file-sharing networks.

The technology can't stop people from making unauthorized copies of music, 
Ikezoye said, but it could be an effective deterrent when combined with 
some of the other anti-piracy tools the labels have been exploring. "We can 
be used as a tool to understand both where the opportunities to affect 
[piracy] are and maybe how effective those techniques are," he said.

The monitoring services also could help EMI give its artists a clearer 
picture of what's happening to their music online. Several of the company's 
biggest acts, including the Beatles, have refused to make their music 
available through legitimate online music services despite pressure from 
the label to support alternatives to the unauthorized outlets.

Audio fingerprinting technology also has been used to combat piracy by 
CD-pressing firms. In the latest development, the RIAA announced Tuesday 
that Cinram International Inc. of Toronto, a major CD replicator, has 
agreed to pay $10 million to settle piracy claims.
*****************************
Associated Press
China appears to have dropped plan for Chinese-script addresses that 
threatened to split World Wide Web
Wed Oct 30,12:28 AM ET

SHANGHAI, China - Two years after threatening to split the online world by 
issuing its own set of Chinese-script Web addresses, China appears to have 
quietly dropped such plans.



Chinese officials at a world Internet congress in Shanghai this week say 
the government has no plans to disrupt the integrity of the Web by 
challenging a core component  its centrally administered addressing system.


Hu Qiheng, chairwoman of the state-run Internet Society of China, said 
Beijing would only exercise authority over Chinese-script addresses 
registered with China's ".cn" country suffix. She said that would be an 
extension of its current practice with addresses written in English letters.


"We aren't seeking control of the Chinese-script Internet," Hu said.


Hu spoke briefly to The Associated Press following a panel discussion on 
the use of non-English letters in Internet addresses at a meeting of the 
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, known as ICANN (news - web 
sites), the organization that oversees Net addresses.


Non-Chinese specialists at the conference confirmed that they hadn't seen 
any indication that China was going ahead with its plans. However, they 
said Chinese authorities are still unhappy that their government doesn't 
control registration of Chinese-language addresses.


Such control became a hot issue after China locked horns with VeriSign 
Inc.  the U.S. company that keeps track of addresses with endings such as 
".com" and ".org."


The U.S. company announced in November, 2000, that it would begin 
registering addresses written in Chinese, Japanese and Korean.


That was part of a wider movement to make the Internet domain name system, 
which currently recognizes only English letters, more meaningful outside 
the English-speaking world.


China responded by protesting to ICANN, claiming that only Beijing had the 
right to issue addresses in the ideograms used to write Chinese.


The government unveiled a competing system that had the potential to 
disrupt the system of computers spread around the world that direct traffic 
on the Internet.

Users worried that Beijing might start issuing Chinese-language addresses 
that already were in use by Web sites elsewhere. If that happened, Web 
surfers who typed in the same Chinese address could wind up at different 
sites.

Hu was quoted in Chinese state media at the time as saying the stance was 
justified because Chinese-script domain names had "special cultural and 
historical meanings."

The often nationalistic official media called VeriSign's move an 
infringement on Chinese sovereignty.

Growth of Internet use in China has been spectacular. More than 45 million 
Chinese use the Web regularly and 127,475 domain names had been registered 
under the ".cn" suffix by August.

With those numbers, China wants a say in global Internet policy.

Money also plays a role. VeriSign says it has signed up about 1 million 
addresses in the new scripts  most of them Chinese. At US$6 for each 
registration, it's a lucrative market.

No official statement has been issued about China's current position and Hu 
wouldn't say whether the proposed competing system had been formally 
withdrawn.

If it has, though, technical complexity may be a major factor.

Experts at the ICANN conference warned of chaos if a solution for 
overlapping codes is not found before addresses in Chinese, Japanese and 
Korean enter widespread use.

Differences between the systems of ideograms used to write Chinese in China 
and elsewhere also threaten to complicate the issue.

After the 1949 revolution, China's communist government introduced 
"simplified characters"  ideograms written with fewer strokes. Taiwan, Hong 
Kong, Singapore and other Chinese-speaking communities use either the 
traditional, more complicated characters or a mix of the two systems.

About 20 percent of dot-com names registered in traditional characters 
conflict with those registered in simplified characters, said Vincent Chen 
of the Taiwan Network Information Center.

Given such challenges, it isn't clear whether China could marshal the money 
and skills to put its competing system smoothly into service.
*******************************
CNET News.com
CIA warns of Net terror threat
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
October 29, 2002, 2:15 PM PT

Al-Qaida is not the only terrorist network hoping to wreak havoc on the 
United States through "cyberwarfare," the CIA says.
America's spooks have named Sunni extremists, Hezbollah and Aleph--formerly 
known as Aum Shinrikyo--as other top threats.

"These groups have both the intentions and the desire to develop some of 
the cyberskills necessary to forge an effective cyberattack modus 
operandi," the CIA said in a report to the Senate Intelligence Committee.


The CIA's report, which responds to a list of questions from senators, also 
says that scientific data posted online aids terrorists: "Terrorist groups 
worldwide have ready access to information on unconventional weapons, 
including nuclear weapons, via the Internet."

After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, government pressure to 
self-censor scientific information has grown. It prompted the presidents of 
the National Academies to say in a statement on Oct. 18 that "restrictions 
are clearly needed to safeguard strategic secrets, but openness also is 
needed to accelerate the progress of technical knowledge and enhance the 
nation's understanding of potential threats."

"Aleph, formerly known as Aum Shinrikyo, is the terrorist group that places 
the highest level of importance on developing cyberskills," said the CIA 
report prepared by Stanley Moskowitz, the agency's director of 
congressional affairs. "These could be applied to cyberattacks against the 
U.S. This group identifies itself as a cybercult and derives millions of 
dollars a year from computer retailing."

The Aum Shinrikyo religious group carried out the deadly nerve gas attack 
in a Tokyo subway in 1995, which killed 12 people and sent more than 5,000 
to hospitals. The group is a doomsday cult that believes the end of the 
world is near.

The CIA report, along with two others from the State Department and the 
Defense Intelligence Agency, were prepared in March and April but were not 
made public by the Senate until this month.

In September, the White House released a 64-page report on securing 
networks and thwarting "cyberterrorism." Richard Clarke, an adviser to 
President Bush, said at the time: "We rely on cyberspace, and it is not yet 
secure. We know the vulnerabilities, and we know the solutions. Let us all 
work together."

In the past, some intelligence officials have been criticized for being 
overly alarmist. At an unclassified hearing in February 2001, Adm. Tom 
Wilson, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, predicted that Fidel 
Castro might be preparing a cyberattack against the United States.

Wilson told the Senate Intelligence Committee that Castro's armed forces 
could initiate an "information warfare or computer network attack" that 
could "disrupt our military."

Castro denied the charge as "craziness," saying his nation did not have the 
technical ability to succeed in such an attack even if it wanted to launch one.
************************************
USA Today
Powell takes path to free up airwaves
By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY

The nation's top communications regulator is expected today to fire the 
first salvo in a controversial plan to liberalize the use of the nation's 
increasingly scarce airwaves.

That could free spectrum space for high-speed wireless Internet services 
and revive the telecommunications industry by jump-starting innovation. 
Critics say it also could create interference and disrupt existing services.

In a speech at the University of Colorado, Michael Powell, chairman of the 
Federal Communications Commission, will trumpet the wider use of unlicensed 
spectrum, say people familiar with his plans.

He also will call for relaxing rules on how mobile-phone carriers, 
broadcasters and satellite companies use the licensed spectrum they buy at 
FCC auctions, they say.

FCC officials would not comment, but Powell, a free-market proponent, has 
long signaled his leanings on the subject.

His speech is expected to be followed in the next couple of weeks by the 
release of an FCC task-force report on spectrum policy and, in six to 12 
months, new rules.

Today the FCC earmarks specific blocks of frequencies for, say, TV 
broadcasters or wireless companies, charging billions of dollars for them 
at auction. The agency also makes it tough for companies to lease their 
spectrum to others or use it for different purposes.

Powell is expected to propose loosening those restrictions in a bid to free 
up airwaves.

Also, just a couple of frequency bands are reserved for unlicensed 
services, such as the Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) Internet networks sprouting 
in cafes and airports.

Users of unlicensed bands don't pay for airwaves. Instead, they share them 
with other services, avoiding interference by operating at low power and 
using smart antennas that can pluck out relevant signals and ignore all 
others.

Academics have long argued that more bands should be set aside for 
unlicensed services and that they could even share certain frequencies with 
licensed services without interfering.

Powell is expected to encourage those ideas, paving the way for further 
study and likely action by Powell and the three other FCC commissioners.

Details have yet to be worked out, but Powell's vision would let more 
companies use the USA's fast-dwindling stock of airwaves. It also could 
spur innovation by suppliers, who must now tailor their offerings to the 
few big firms that control the airwaves.

"Entrepreneurs and high-tech companies will be freed up to experiment, 
innovate, invest ... rejuvenating a key sector of our economy," Rep. Ed 
Markey, D-Mass., sponsor of a bill promoting unlicensed services, said in a 
recent letter to Powell.

Early this year, for example, the FCC approved a breakthrough unlicensed 
service called ultrawideband, which can permit wireless home video networks 
and other new services.

But big wireless companies worry about the interference that might result 
if unlicensed services are allowed to share their spectrum.

"People paid billions for their licenses with the expectation of their 
ability to perform," says Tom Wheeler, president of the Cellular 
Telecommunications & Internet Association.
******************************
Washington Post
With Venture Funds Scarce, Start-Up Firms Turn to U.S.
By Shannon Henry
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 29, 2002; Page E01


Seth Murray, president of StreamSage Inc. in Washington, had a promise of 
$3 million from a group of private investors, including venture capitalists 
and a large corporation. Finally, after months of looking for financing, 
someone had come through. But then the corporate investor, a 
telecommunications company, was hit with its own disasters. The deal was 
pulled.

Now, Murray looks back at that moment as good luck. Worried about his 
business's future, he began to hunt for other kinds of funding, and he was 
willing to try anything. One of his employees heard about an opportunity to 
attract some government money. Murray was skeptical at first -- his company 
is no systems integrator. Its software searches and indexes video and audio 
files.

But in October 2001, StreamSage received $2 million from the Advanced 
Technology Program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology 
(NIST), part of the Commerce Department. It's a three-year grant, which 
requires meeting several demanding milestones, but at the end, no one but 
StreamSage owns StreamSage. And Murray is thrilled.

He's not alone. As venture funding has dried up for the earliest-stage 
companies, executives are flocking to the deep well of the federal government.

From 1998 to 2001, the federal grant program saw about 400 to 500 business 
proposals per year. In 2002 so far, it has received 1,075 proposals.

"In the dot-com heyday, people turned their nose up at government funding," 
said Murray. "It's much more accepted now."

The goal of the grant program is to fund ideas and concepts that otherwise 
may never turn into businesses. While many private investors in the 
headiest days of the Internet frenzy also funded such infant companies, 
financiers are now more likely to look for businesses with established 
products and customer rosters.

And NIST is looking for exactly the opposite: the unproven, the unfundable, 
the barely visible question mark of a company. And it's happy to take over 
where venture capitalists are leaving off.

"VCs want to go directly into the market with something that has been 
proven," said Arden L. Bement Jr., director of NIST. "We tend to be more 
patient capital."

Bement said however, that he doesn't think of the technology grant program 
as a competitor to venture capitalists, but as one that serves as more of a 
warm-up stage before VCs come in. Many VCs track companies funded by the 
grants and consider funding them at the end of the program, he said, when 
they are more fully formed.

Since 1991, the federal grant program has been holding competitions, 
usually two a year, to find new investments. About 40 companies receive 
funding in each competition. The U.S. program has a current annual budget 
of about $184 million. Most grants are about $2 million. Companies entering 
the program submit quarterly reports with updates on technical 
achievements, the management team, the business plan, and a budget.

In the past three years, 10 Washington area companies have received the 
federal grants. There is officially no geographical bias, but Murray said 
being close to NIST lets him have a closer relationship with his project 
manager. He drops by often for advice. The types of work the 10 Washington 
region companies are doing -- in areas from circuits to stem cells -- shows 
not only what is new in technological innovation, but how diverse the 
grant-program portfolio has become.

XTremeSpectrum Inc. of Vienna, for example, is creating a radio system 
designed to locate firefighters inside buildings. Conclusive Technology 
Inc. of Vienna is developing Internet data encryption; Iomai Corp. of 
Gaithersburg is working on a cancer vaccine. What these groups have in 
common is that they are developing projects that are unlikely to be funded 
by private equity sources.

To get in the running for a federal grant, a company has to show not a 
complete product or service, but a concept with "scientific merit." The 
main criteria for companies is that they are creating an innovative, 
high-risk technology. It also has to prove to NIST that the creation would 
have an impact on an industry, and that the company intends to eventually 
make the product or service commercially available.

"It's to jump-start novel projects," says Michael Newman, a spokesman for 
NIST. "A venture capitalist would look down on some of these projects."

Still, some have criticized the program for its liberal grant-making. The 
program considers a company a success if it develops a project that has 
impact on the nation. But after the grant period is over, the government 
does not own any part of the business.

"There was concern that this would be corporate welfare," said Newman. "But 
this is definitely not a handout."

There are very few strings, however, to this award, and word is now getting 
out to executives of start-up companies in search of funding. Robert W. 
Schumann, chief executive of Cinea Inc. of Herndon, heard about the program 
after he had made an unsuccessful pitch to an "angel" investing group. He 
began to talk to one of the other presenters, Seth Murray, who told him 
about his own experience with the program.

At first, Schumann, whose company is creating an anti-camcorder technology 
that would stem digital piracy of movies, was leery.

"Your core reaction is 'Oh, God, it's the government,' " said Schumann. But 
now, Schumann said, NIST's advice and $2 million grant, which he received 
earlier this month, have helped his business get off the ground. And the 
process, he said, from initial interviews to cash on hand, was faster than 
he'd seen with venture capitalists.

"There's not a lot of money out there, but there's a lot of great 
technology," said Schumann. "We've learned the government is not a terrible 
abyss."
****************************
Associated Press
Verizon, Spam Co. Reach Settlement
Tue Oct 29, 5:21 PM ET
By MATTHEW BARAKAT, AP Business Writer

McLEAN, Va. (AP) - One of the world's most prolific purveyors of bulk 
e-mail, or spam, has been barred from sending messages to Verizon customers 
under a legal settlement.



Under the agreement, parts of which are secret, Verizon's 1.64 million 
Internet customers in 40 states will no longer receive spam from Alan 
Ralsky, whose Michigan-based company, Additional Benefits LLC, is 
considered one of the largest sources of bulk e-mail.


"It's not like these guys file SEC reports, but as best as folks can tell 
he is one of the bigger spammers out there," said John Mozena, a spokesman 
for the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail.


Verizon filed its lawsuit against Ralsky in March 2001 in Virginia federal 
court after several 2000 incidents in which Verizon Online customers were 
inundated by millions of e-mail solicitations from companies that work with 
Ralsky, said Verizon spokeswoman Bobbi Henson.


The initial lawsuit against Ralsky had sought to shut him down entirely but 
Henson called the settlement a victory.


"People should see this and think twice about sending spam on our lines," 
Henson said. She said Ralsky must also pay an undisclosed fine.


Ralsky's company would send e-mail solicitations for online casinos, diet 
pills, and companies that promise to fix bad credit, among others, 
according to the complaint filed by Verizon.


The complaint said Ralsky broke federal and Virginia law by among, other 
things, clogging Verizon's network with a flood of illegitimate e-mails.


Mozena said most Internet providers work hard to keep spam from their 
customers, using filters and other technology, although the recent telecom 
meltdown has left some cash-strapped providers dependent on money they can 
earn from trafficking in spam.


Occasionally, he said, a provider will file a lawsuit against a person or 
business it considers a particularly egregious abuser of its e-mail network.
***************************
Federal Computer Week
Homeland goes interstate route
BY Dibya Sarkar
Oct. 29, 2002

If you're having a hard time envisioning what the national strategy for 
homeland security would look like, try using the interstate highway system, 
built more than 50 years ago, as an example.

That's what Steve Cooper, senior director of information integration and 
chief information officer for the White House Office of Homeland Security, 
told attendees at the National Association of State Chief Information 
Officers in St. Louis on Oct. 28.

Cooper said that Lois Clark McCoy, president of the National Institute for 
Urban Search and Rescue, told him several weeks ago that "national" wasn't 
the best term to describe the homeland security strategy and suggested 
another description: an "interstate communications expressway."

Cooper said that "national" conjures up a hierarchy, while "interstate 
isn't politically charged to anybody."

In essence, an interstate communications expressway means linking networks 
with each other to create a "network of networks," he said. "So . . . we 
really don't have to start from scratch."

He said the "communications expressway" would be different from the Internet.

"A lot of what we need to do for homeland security needs to be secure. The 
Internet's not. But the reality is that an awful lot of what travels over 
the Internet is lost. It never gets there," Cooper said.

"We would envision something along the lines of a virtual private network 
or some type of secure type of network," he continued. "And we will use 
portions of the Internet, but we will encrypt information and we will add 
capabilities so that what travels across is secure in and of itself as it's 
transmitted."

Cooper said the federal government would help build the "on-ramps" to an 
interstate communications expressway, but that state and local governments 
must have systems adhering to certain national standards and be 
architecturally compliant.

However, Georgia Technology Authority CIO Larry Singer said that to develop 
an interstate communications system, states must have a strong intrastate 
system, requiring a collaboration between government and industry.
******************************
Government Computer News
There's more than one way to post your message
By Patricia Daukantas
GCN Staff

Speakers at yesterday's FedWeb fall conference offered a number of tips for 
delivering online content to audiences who speak little or no English.

Among the suggestions:
Get a search engine that accepts diacritical marks
Watch out for formatting problems
Review document translations carefully
Be aware of regional dialects
Present metadata in the same language as the Web site's.

At the Arlington, Va., gathering, the Social Security Administration and 
Small Business Administration showed off new Spanish-language portals, at 
www.ssa.gov/espanol and www.sba.gov/espanol.

SBA launched its Spanish site in September, said Patricia 
Chavez-Villanueva, a special assistant in SBA's Office of Women's Business 
Ownership. It garnered more than 50,000 hits during the week of Sept. 22, 
she added.

About 10 percent of SSA's clients speak Spanish, but only 1 percent speaks 
other non-English languages, said Lonnie Albright, a webmaster and public 
affairs specialist in SSA's Office of Communications. About 80 percent of 
SSA's Web content is now presented in Spanish, but many of the 14 other 
languages on the site are represented only with basic forms and explanatory 
fact sheets.

The agency presents many forms in Adobe Portable Document Format because 
HTML posed too many font problems with non-Latin alphabets, Albright said. 
A contractor handles most of the non-Spanish translations.

When making a Spanish version of the MedlinePlus service, at 
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/spanish/medlineplus.html, officials at the 
National Library of Medicine chose to put a toggle link on the header of 
each page, NLM systems librarian Paula Kitendaugh said. Readers can search 
for a medical term and then toggle back and forth between English and 
Spanish to the same content in either language.

MedlinePlus in Spanish went online Sept. 9, Kitendaugh said.
***************************
Government Computer News
Windows 2000 gets Common Criteria OK
By William Jackson

Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and desktop operating systems today received 
a Level 4 Common Criteria certification from the National Security Agency. 
The designation, recognized by 15 countries, took three years of evaluation 
and cost Microsoft "many, many millions of dollars," chief technology 
officer Craig Mundie said. "It is a Herculean task to put a product of the 
complexity of Windows through the process."

Windows XP and .Net Server products also will undergo Common Criteria 
evaluation, Mundie said at the Federal Information Assurance Conference at 
the University of Maryland. The evaluations are carried out by third-party 
commercial laboratories, and certified products receive preference in U.S. 
government purchases.

"There is a movement, accelerated in the post-Sept. 11 environment, where 
government procurements may require evaluated products for a significant 
class of systems," Mundie said. "We think this will expand the range of 
applications to which Windows 2000 can apply."

The certification covers Win 2000 components in addition to the OS kernel. 
They include Active Directory, virtual private networking capability, the 
encrypted file system, the network and desktop management mechanisms, and 
the flaw remediation process.

Mundie said Win 2000 shares some features with Win XP and .Net Server, 
which will speed up their Common Criteria evaluations.
************************
Government Computer News
FIPS testing finds lots of mistakes in crypto IT
By William Jackson

About half of the cryptographic modules submitted for Federal Information 
Processing Standard validation have security flaws, a survey by the 
National Institute of Standards and Technology has found. Almost all 
evaluated products had documentation errors, said Annabelle Lee, director 
of NIST's Cryptographic Module Validation Program.

Speaking today at the Federal Information Assurance Conference at the 
University of Maryland, Lee cited the impact the FIPS validation program is 
having on cryptography vendors. She said 80 of 164 crypto modules submitted 
for evaluation had flaws involving physical security, random number 
generation or key management. Of 332 algorithms validated, 88, or about 
one-fourth, had security flaws, and about two-thirds had documentation errors.

Federal organizations must use FIPS-compliant crypto products for sensitive 
but unclassified data. FIPS 140-1 was the operative standard until it was 
replaced last year by FIPS 140-2. Since May, products can be evaluated only 
against 140-2.

Seven commercial laboratories in the United States, Canada and England are 
accredited to do the testing. NIST has simplified revalidation requirements 
to make it easier for 140-1-certified products to be certified under the 
new standard, Lee said. More than 260 validations have been issued for 
about 300 products from 60 companies.
***************************
Government Computer News
Court questions Interior on e-mail destruction
By Wilson P. Dizard III

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has demanded that the 
Justice Department explain why the Interior Department destroyed e-mail 
messages related to a court case over American Indian trust funds despite 
court orders to the contrary. Justice is representing Interior in the case 
of Cobell v. Norton [see story at www.gcn.com/21_29/news/20110-1.html].

Court-appointed attorney Alan Balaran wrote to Justice recently asking why 
Interior destroyed e-mail messages to assistant secretary for Indian 
affairs Neal McCaleb dated between Dec. 1, 2001, and Oct. 1, 2002. Justice 
attorney Sabrina McCarthy replied to Balaran that Interior is investigating 
whether the messages can be reconstructed from backup tapes. Interior also 
has hired document management vendor Zantaz Inc. of Pleasanton, Calif., to 
retrieve the messages.

Balaran told Justice in a recent letter that the destruction of the e-mails 
"suggests the absence of effective policies and procedures that ensure the 
preservation and retention of electronic correspondence.

"It further suggests the absence of any auditing protocols whereby 
incidents of destruction are detected and reported immediately," Balaran 
wrote.

Interior is under court order not to destroy any records related to the 
Indian trust litigation, which has proceeded for six years over the issue 
of mismanagement of Indian funds held in trust by the government.
****************************
Government Executive
OMB issues draft standards to increase info-sharing, cut IT costs
By Tanya N. Ballard
tballard@xxxxxxxxxxx

The Office of Management and Budget issued a draft report last Friday 
outlining federal technology standards designed to increase information 
sharing among agencies and reduce overall technology costs.


"These standards will greatly facilitate the ability to share and reuse a 
common set of technology components, while also leading to reduced 
information technology investment," according to a draft report from OMB's 
Federal Enterprise Architecture Program Management Office, which is charged 
with designing a governmentwide IT plan. The standards discussed in the 
report will initially be applied to 24 technology projects the Bush 
administration plans to fund over the next three years to maximize 
efficiency and improve its service to citizens and businesses.


Federal agencies spend millions of dollars on the development and 
acquisition of technology components, according to OMB, but just a few 
agencies are effectively using those resources. The majority of agencies 
continue to struggle to adopt best practices. Several agencies also 
duplicate efforts by separately collecting and processing identical 
information, instead of just sharing the data they've gathered.


The adoption of standards that describe which products need to be bought to 
support the exchange of data and which technologies should be used would 
also save money. Earlier this month, the Energy Department unveiled a new 
e-signature tool it has licensed for governmentwide use. OMB Director Mitch 
Daniels praised agency officials for allowing the new tool to benefit the 
entire federal government.


Ideally, the enterprise architecture office envisions the use of more 
Web-based solutions to accomplish agency missions, making their systems 
more interoperable. For example, a fictional Border Patrol e-government 
initiative described in the report could theoretically create an 
environment where different agencies share pertinent information with the 
system, ultimately improving their ability to accomplish their individual 
core missions.


Such information might include whether warrants have been issued against a 
driver importing illegal goods (State Department), whether a particular 
animal should be allowed entry into the U.S. (Agriculture Department), 
whether food being shipped is packaged correctly (Food and Drug 
Administration) and whether the driver fits any descriptions of wanted 
suspects (Justice Department).

There are some challenges to creating this interoperable technology 
environment, the office found.


"Agencies often work independently, which has led to a proliferation of 
stovepiped processes that make horizontal and vertical information sharing 
difficult to achieve," the report said. Government and industry 
stakeholders may also be resistant to accepting the group's 
recommendations, according to the report.


To overcome those challenges, OMB plans to put in place incentives for 
adopting its recommendations, including preferential scoring of agency IT 
initiatives that reuse or share technology during budget deliberations. OMB 
also plans to work with agency officials to better understand the obstacles 
agencies face in putting the measures in place.
*****************************
Government Executive
Defense, cybersecurity officials praise 'open source' software
By Drew Clark, National Journal's Technology Daily

A Defense Department technology expert and a White House cybersecurity 
official on Tuesday praised government's use of "open source" software and 
said that its security can be preferable to that of commercial software.

Speaking at a conference sponsored by Dell Computer and Red Hat, which 
distributes the Linux open-source software, the defense and cybersecurity 
officials said they anticipate that government use of the software will 
continue to increase. The source code for Linux and other such software is 
open for public inspection, unlike that of proprietary software.

"Open source allows us the opportunity to have a pro-active and pre-emptive 
identification of security holes by friendly analysis," said Ken Linker of 
the Defense Information Systems Agency. He read the written presentation of 
Robert Walker, the program manager for the agency, which runs the software 
for a large portion of the department's command-and-control systems.

"As a result, this early identification and rapid repair of security 
vulnerabilities has become a major advantage of open source over more 
proprietary approaches to software development," Linker read. The 
presentation was replete with positive references to the security 
advantages of open-source software.

Whether open or propriety software is more conducive to cybersecurity 
recently has become a matter of debate. The Microsoft-supported Alexis de 
Tocqueville Institution has said that use the use of open-source software 
puts the government at greater risk of cyberterrorism.

In his presentation, Walker said Defense has heard three criticisms of open 
source: that it exposes software vulnerabilities, that it could introduce 
"Trojan horse" viruses, and that intellectual property rights are 
jeopardized by the use of the "general public license," or GPL, which is a 
common open-source license attacked by Microsoft for its "viral" nature.

Addressing the first point head on, Walker said the "con" that open source 
"facilities subversion by hostile analysts of otherwise reliable software" 
must be balanced against the "pro" that it "allows pre-emptive 
identification of security holes by friendly analysts." As a result, he 
said open source is superior.

Walker also said the "risk of Trojan software in open source appears to be 
no greater than the risk for proprietary" and may be less because of the 
ability to conduct friendly analysis.

He said Defense's key open-source concern involves the GPL. "For [the 
department], 'capture' of proprietary software is a concern for the areas 
of software development and research support," Walker said. But he also 
criticized Microsoft for "unusually restrictive licenses."

Marcus Sachs, director of the communication infrastructure protection in 
the White House cyber-security office, said "the government isn't going to 
take a position" for or against open source. "I think, personally, there is 
room for both. The two can absolutely work together. The question is, how 
do you make it secure?"

Sachs also said that nearly one-third of all government Web sites use 
Apache, the leading open-source server software. The number of military Web 
sites using it is 22 percent, second to Microsoft's server software, but 
military use of Apache is growing rapidly, he said.
*****************************
Computerworld
Virginia DOT fires, disciplines workers for Internet abuse
By LINDA ROSENCRANCE
OCTOBER 28, 2002

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) earlier this month fired 
17 workers for surfing pornography sites during business hours.
In addition, the agency fired eight contract workers and suspended 61 
others for two weeks without pay, for excessive use of the Internet, not 
including accessing sexually explicit sites, according to VDOT spokeswoman 
Tamara Neale.

Neale said the department's internal auditor began monitoring employees' 
use of the Internet during work hours after several workers complained that 
one worker was spending too much time surfing the Internet and not enough 
time working.

According to Neale, the first internal audit, which was done during the 
week of April 8, identified 86 employees, out of the agency's 10,000 
workers, who were online at nonwork-related sites for two or more hours on 
one day during that week.

She said the auditor then monitored workers' Internet use during other 
weeks and months to determine if there was a pattern of abuse.

Neale said the agency could not tolerate employees who used the Internet 
excessively or employees who were accessing porn sites.

"If an employee wants to pay a bill online, or make hotel reservations, we 
don't have a problem with that. If you use the Internet, do it in 
moderation," Neale said. "When an employee is hired he is made aware of our 
policies regarding use of the Internet, and he is then asked to sign a 
paper saying he agrees with it."

She said the commissioner of the VDOT also let managers know, in no 
uncertain terms, that they needed to pay attention to what their employees 
are doing during work hours and that they would be held accountable for the 
actions of the people they manage.

Neale also said the department may continue to monitor Internet use by 
employees in the future.
***************************
Computerworld
ICANN critics may create rival Internet administration group
By TODD R. WEISS
OCTOBER 29, 2002

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the 
nonprofit group that runs the Internet's Domain Name System, might be 
challenged next year for some of its administrative power by a group of 
dissatisfied top-level domain (TLD) holders who feel ICANN holds too much 
sway.
Rob Courtney, a policy analyst at the Washington-based Center for Democracy 
and Technology (CDT), a nonprofit public policy group, said rumblings of a 
possible challenge to ICANN were raised yesterday at a four-day session 
being held by ICANN in Shanghai to consider changes to its bylaws and 
structure.

Courtney is attending the meetings on behalf of the CDT, which has 
criticized ICANN's recently proposed reforms as not going far enough to 
bring needed changes. In June, the ICANN board unanimously approved the 
proposed reform blueprint.

The idea, Courtney said, is that a number of TLD holders may want to take 
over some of the Internet's administrative work now done by ICANN under a 
contract with the U.S. Department of Commerce. The so-called Internet 
Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) maintains administrative contacts for the 
Internet, updates name servers and completes other administrative tasks, he 
said.

Under an idea being floated at the ICANN meetings, some TLD holders are 
thinking of making their own bid for the next IANA contract, which expires 
at the end of March.

"I think it's potentially very significant," Courtney said of the concept. 
"ICANN has always done those functions and set the policies. Those things 
have always been paired since ICANN's creation in 1998. This would split 
that. It would require a real rethinking of how ICANN operates."

So far, Courtney stressed, it's just an idea, but it could jell into a firm 
proposal before ICANN's meetings conclude on Thursday. "None of the TLDs 
have come up with the detailed proposals needed yet to do such a thing," he 
said.

"The new proposal for the IANA function kind of posits a new world," 
Courtney said. "This is a new idea that has not been put forward before in 
practical terms."

A spokesman for ICANN could not be reached for comment today.

Tomorrow in Shanghai, ICANN will hold a public forum to collect opinions 
about its proposed reforms and other issues related to the group. Comments 
are expected from many parties, including regional internet registries, TLD 
holders and others.

On Thursday, the ICANN board will meet to vote on the proposed reforms and 
changes. The group will then meet in Amsterdam in December to decide how to 
implement the coming changes.

ICANN has been criticized often for its authority and operations in recent 
years. The reform efforts are intended to address some of those concerns, 
though critics say more changes are needed.
**************************************
Washington Post
Md. Plans Broadband Backbone Launch


By Michael P. Bruno
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 30, 2002; 7:09 AM


Maryland officials today will formally launch an Internet backbone network 
aimed at ensuring access to broadband service for every university, school, 
police department and any other public-sector organization in the state.

The $18 million networkMaryland project does not provide Internet service 
itself. Any local government entity that wants to be on the network must 
pay for its own connection via a local Internet service provider. What 
networkMaryland provides is a statewide broadband backbone, or "information 
highway system," connecting the state's four local telecommunications 
networks for data-only traffic.

NetworkMaryland's users so far include the governor's office in Annapolis, 
Frostburg State University in western Allegany County and the Charles 
County government in La Plata, organizers said.

"This brings affordable broadband access to all regions of the state for 
the public sector," said Margo Burnett, networkMaryland's senior project 
manager.

"It's a small step but a significant one," said Renee Winsky, deputy 
executive director of the Maryland Technology Development Corp. and a 
member of networkMaryland's advisory group. "Everyone that is public sector 
can get on it."

Earlier this year, Maryland officials released initial results of a survey 
of broadband service across the state. The eReadiness Maryland survey 
reported an abundance of broadband service availability in the four 
counties between Washington and Baltimore, but a dearth of similar access 
in the western third of Maryland and the Eastern Shore.

NetworkMaryland is part of longstanding effort by the state government to 
bring broadband access to every corner of the state. To create the 
networkMaryland broadband system, officials established four 
points-of-presence, called POPs, on the four local telecom networks in 
Maryland. POPs are connection points to a larger telecom network. Two of 
the POPs on the network are owned and managed by Maryland, while the other 
two are leased from unidentified private vendors, Burnett and Winsky said.

The project started in 1999 but the pace was slow, Winsky said. Early this 
year the legislature demanded results and formed an advisory board to 
oversee a launch this fall.

"Early on, there was an assumption that [networkMaryland] would be 
everything to everyone, and that just won't be the case," Burnett said.

Maryland's projected $1.7 billion budget shortfall could pose problems for 
the networkMaryland project.

"We're not sure what the pricing will be on all of this going down the 
road," Winsky said. "We have to go ask for money and this is going to be a 
tough fiscal year. A lot of this will depend on what the state wants to do."

Virginia also has a project to provide its public sector with broadband 
access, but it works quite differently despite its similar name, 
networkVirginia. Rather than owning or managing any part of its public 
backbone, Virginia acts only as a contract mediator between public groups 
and ISPs Sprint and Verizon.

Jeff Crowder, networkVirginia's project director, said the six-year-old 
system serves 70 percent of Virginia's K-12 schools and every university or 
college in the state. More than 1.5 million users access the network, he said.
***************************
San Francisco Chronicle
TechNet leader joins Bush administration
Correll named to technology advisory role

A top executive at the TechNet public policy group has taken a job in the 
U.S. Commerce Department as an adviser on technology issues, potentially 
boosting Silicon Valley's clout in Washington, D.C.

Connie Correll, TechNet's executive vice president, will serve as counselor 
and senior adviser to Philip Bond, the department's undersecretary for 
technology. She starts her new job Dec. 2.

Correll, who before joining TechNet spent years working on Capitol Hill, is 
but the latest member of Silicon Valley's tech community tapped for a spot 
in President Bush's administration.

Soon after taking office, Bush lured to D.C. another TechNet leader, Lezlee 
Westine, to head his Office of Public Liaison and named venture capitalist 
E. Floyd Kvamme as co-chair of the President's Council of Advisers on 
Science and Technology. Kvamme had helped found TechNet.

Seeding Washington with people who understand the valley's culture and 
issues can only help the industry, said Rick White, TechNet's chief 
executive officer and a former U.S. representative from Washington state.

"When I was on the hill, we used to say it was hard to imagine two worlds 
that were more different -- the tech industry and the government," White 
said Tuesday. "It's important to have people who can explain one to the 
other."

Correll, 33, echoed that point.

"Two years in the valley really gives you a better idea of how the tech 
industry works," she said. "I've really learned a lot, below the surface, 
of what our companies do every day."

Her new job won't necessarily entail pushing the issues championed by 
TechNet, a bipartisan group that includes executives of more than 300 
technology firms. Correll will run both legislative affairs and public 
affairs for the department's technology administration and will report 
directly to Bond, whom she has known for more than five years.

Some of TechNet's issues, however, dovetail with the administration's 
policy goals and may become part of her job, Correll said.

Bond, through a spokeswoman, declined comment on the appointment until 
after Correll has been completely vetted for the post. Spokeswoman Cheryl 
Mendonsa, however, confirmed that Correll already had been offered and had 
accepted the job.

Silicon Valley proved a fertile fund-raising region for both Bush and 
Democrat Al Gore during the last presidential election, and Bush's policy 
positions have often mirrored the tech industry's. He has opposed counting 
stock options as an expense on earnings reports and wants increased foreign 
trade -- two of the issues closest to the valley's heart.

And yet Bruce Cain, director of UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental 
Studies, cautioned that Bush has often been more likely to throw his full 
weight behind economic initiatives that play well in swing states rather 
than in Democratic California. Silicon Valley executives, he said, may find 
that some of their issues aren't foremost on Bush's agenda.

"They'll get some consideration because what happens to Silicon Valley has 
a lot to do with economic recovery in the state," Cain said. "Unfortunately 
for Silicon Valley, they're stuck in a Democratic ghetto."
****************************
Mercury News
Virtual touch achieved
MILESTONE PORTENDS PROGRESS IN MEDICINE, EDUCATION
By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

The world got a little smaller Tuesday after scientists reached around the 
globe via the Internet and touched.

Or rather, the scientists -- in London, Boston and Los Angeles -- picked up 
a virtual cube on a computer screen at the same time and pushed it around. 
The scientists, holding robotic arms, could feel the force being exerted by 
the others as well as the texture of the cube.

Though computers have been able to transmit such sensations in close 
quarters for several years, the distance between the scientists was a new 
milestone that they hope will eventually lead to new collaborative 
applications in telemedicine, education and art.

``I think the most important applications are the ones we don't know yet,'' 
said Mandayam Srinivasan, director of the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology's Touch Lab and leader of the MIT team that developed the 
technology. ``When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, he didn't 
see all the possibilities.''

The breakthrough actually occurred in May and was detailed in a paper 
presented Oct. 9 in Portugal at the conference called Presence 2002: The 
5th Annual International Workshop on Presence. Tuesday marked the first 
public demonstration.

By adding a sense of touch, researchers hope to improve the experience of 
various virtual environments, which are usually limited to sight and sound. 
The field of research involving touch is referred to as ``haptics.''

There were three demonstrations Tuesday. The first occurred between labs at 
MIT and the University College London. Later, links were established 
between the University of Southern California and MIT and with the London 
school. Each team's computer had a robotic arm with a stylus at the end. On 
the computer screen was a blue box. A researcher wrapped a finger around 
the stylus to move a cursor on the screen. When the cursor hit the box, 
which is programmed to ``feel'' like hard rubber, the software transmits 
signals through the arm that vary the amount of tension felt.

When the cursor controlled by the second team touches the box, it changes 
the level of tension felt by the first team. As each team experienced 
different levels of resistance, participants moved the cursors around the 
box and together lifted it up and moved it across the screen.

The robotic arm and the software have been commercially available for 
several years. But the teams altered the software so the program could be 
used across the Internet. Despite the breakthrough, researchers said they 
were well aware of the limitations.

The arms have to be moved very slowly because the transmission of signals 
across the Internet can often be slow and jumpy. Srinivasan said 
researchers will be focused on improving the network performance, the 
processing speed of the computers and the software to fine-tune their work.

``As the software becomes more sophisticated and computers become faster, 
we can have widespread virtual environments where we interact more 
naturally,'' Srinivasan said.
********************************
News Factor
Patch and Reboot: Microsoft's Groundhog Day?

An onslaught of software updates and patches can prove frustrating for any 
system administrator. But this deluge may be particularly vexing for those 
running Microsoft Windows systems, which often must be rebooted after a 
patch is installed, unlike Linux or Unix. Fortunately, the software giant 
is beginning to overcome that Achilles heel.
[Story http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/19817.html]
*******************************
CNET News.com
Court helps out cable TV pirates
By Declan McCullagh
October 30, 2002, 8:59 AM PT

A father-and-son pair of cable TV pirates violated the law but a $30 
million judgment against them should be reduced, an appeals court said 
Tuesday.
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 15-page decision that the 
two Chicago-area men were denied crucial information during their trial 
that could have helped their defense.

A three-judge panel said that Cablevision, which brought the suit against 
Frank Redisi Sr. and Frank Redisi Jr., should have made its chief of 
security available for depositions. The Redisis argued that because 
Cablevision waited until May 1999 to sue them, the two-year statute of 
limitations had expired and the lawsuit should be dismissed.


"As director of corporate security with responsibility for cable theft 
investigations, (Cablevision's Robert Astarita) alone could provide the 
answer to the relevant question of whether Cablevision had knowledge 
sufficient to trigger a duty to investigate more than 24 months before it 
brought suit," the court said.

Federal law prohibits the "manufacture or distribution of equipment" that 
can be used to descramble cable TV broadcasts without authorization. The 
law also says that cable companies must file suit "within two years."

The FBI raided the Redisis in 1992 in an investigation that led to the son 
pleading guilty to one count of distributing illegal descramblers. It 
seemed to have little deterrent effect, and the Redisis continued to sell 
approximately 2,700 decoders over the next seven years.

According to FBI records, Cablevision had been alerted about the Redisis' 
return to the family business by 1995, which could mean the damages award 
would be reduced from $29.8 million to something closer to $3 million 
because of the statute of limitations.

The appeals court also said that Cablevision's method of estimating how 
much money the Redisi family cost the company yielded excessively high 
numbers. Cablevision used the number of people in the Redisis' customer 
database multiplied by an estimate of $154.75 of lost revenue per month.

That was nothing but speculation, the judges said. "If a viewer spent a few 
seconds scanning through 20 or so pay-per-view movies with his remote 
control, and each movie costs $5, Cablevision would assess its damages at 
$100 ... (The law) does not give an injured party carte blanche to provide 
wild guesses at its damages."

But the family won't be getting off the hook; the judges said "even in a 
best-case scenario for the Redisis, we agree with the district court that 
they are liable for sales within the two-year period of limitations. That 
means at a minimum that they must account for their post-May 1997 sales of 
illegal decoders."
****************************
Information Week
Feds Weigh Establishment Of Interstate Communications System
By Eric Chabrow
Oct. 28, 2002

Government will link existing networks to create the system and will pay 
for entry and exit points for those who use agreed-upon standards, White 
House CIO says.

The Bush administration is exploring the possibility of creating an 
"interstate communications expressway," patterned after the interstate 
highway system, to quicken the exchange of homeland-security information 
among federal, state, and local governments, the CIO of the White House 
Office of Homeland Security told attendees Monday at the annual conference 
of the National Association of State CIOs in St. Louis.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021028S0005
****************************
Info World
Politicians, police recruited to talk up IT security
By Bernhard Warner, European Internet Correspondent
October 30, 2002 6:19 am PT

 LONDON (REUTERS) - Politicians, law enforcement and national security 
advisers have descended on London this week for a computer security event, 
covering topics that more reflect surviving global conflict than 
safeguarding computer networks.
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/10/30/021030hnpolice.xml?s=REUTERS
***************************
Sydney Morning Herald
Technology to control what children buy from canteens
Sydney
October 30 2002

Big Brother is set to enter Australian schools with the national launch of 
new smart card technology allowing parents to control what their child buys 
from the school canteen.

When swiped by canteen staff, the prepaid card brings up a photo-ID of the 
child and a a list of foods they are banned from buying and any spending 
limits.

The system also records the purchases made, allowing children to be 
"rewarded" for selecting healthier foods.

The initiative was developed by the milk cooperative company Dairy Farmers, 
in consultation with the Federation of Canteens in Schools, after Dairy 
Farmers was approached by a Sunshine Coast computer software company which 
developed the technology for pubs and clubs.

Dairy Farmers Group marketing manager Andrew Lawrence said the card was 
about improving childrens' health and giving parents peace of mind.

He said it gave parents the opportunity to prevent their children buying 
foods high in fat or sugar, foods a child may be allergic to, or foods they 
should not have for health reasons, such as diabetes.

"With increased attention being given to healthier food choices we are 
proud to be launching a program that provides parents with a practical tool 
to help fight Australia's childhood obesity epidemic," he said.

"The smart card is a simple and effective solution that gives parents peace 
of mind, ensuring their child's healthy eating habits carry from home to 
the school yard."

He said the system would also teach children about budgeting and prevent 
children being bullied for money.

The card has the backing of Nutrition Australia and the Australian Council 
for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.

The NSW Federation of Parents and Citizen's Associations said on the 
surface the card appeared to be a good idea, particularly in relation to 
providing allergy information.

However a spokesman said there were some concerns relating to the 
electronic surveillance of children.

"It really is a case of parents having another technological means of 
monitoring their kids without taking an active role themselves," he said.

"It certainly seems to be a case of Big Brother entering the school canteen."

Sydney high school student Mia Spears, 14, said the idea had good and bad 
elements but was unlikely to change the eating habits of teenagers.

"I suppose the card idea is okay because you don't always have to go to the 
trouble of scabbing money off other people," she said.

"But if your parents decided, 'Oh, you're not allowed to have this', you'd 
be a bit annoyed.

"Being little mischievous people that we are, I think we'd just get our 
friends to buy it for us."
**************************

Lillie Coney
Public Policy Coordinator
U.S. Association for Computing Machinery
Suite 510
2120 L Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20037
202-478-6124
lillie.coney@xxxxxxx