Clips October 31, 2002

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips October 31, 2002

ARTICLES

FCC head urges airwave changes
Digital copyright law on trial [DMCA]
NASA Defrauded Dozens of Times
Wireless Network Industry Eyes Tighter Security
Making the Web Child-Safe
Texas Sophomore Casts a Webwide Net in Seeking Help With College Costs
Post Newsweek's 15th Annual Gala honors IT community
Michigan tunes personnel software development
NSA and NIST complete profiles for security needs
Report praises federal e-gov efforts, but urges agencies to measure results
Open source seeks growth in government market
Closing a Bridge Over the 'Digital Divide'
New voting tools make Texas a place to watch [E-Voting]
Flaw leaves Windows open to DoS attacks
Terrorism suspects in bio-database
US Voters Surfing Web Ahead of Election Day
We must secure ourselves
****************************
Mercury News
FCC head urges airwave changes
By Jennifer Files
Mercury News

The nation's top communications regulator said Wednesday that he favors 
giving companies more flexibility to use the airwaves in providing 
telephone, Internet, television and other services.

New rules for the management of spectrum would let broadcasters, wireless 
service providers and other companies react more quickly to consumer demand 
-- without necessarily getting permission from the Federal Communications 
Commission, Chairman Michael Powell said in a speech at the University of 
Colorado in Boulder.

A Spectrum Policy Task Force that Powell created is expected to provide 
more specific recommendations to the FCC within weeks, and in December the 
agency will start a rule-making process seeking public comment on changes 
to spectrum management.

Under current rules, the FCC has auctioned airwaves for pre-set uses, such 
as wireless phone calls, and companies can't use them for other purposes. 
``Today's marketplace demands that we provide license holders with greater 
flexibility to respond to consumer wants, market realities and national 
needs without first having to ask for the FCC's permission,'' Powell said.

Among other changes, Powell said he favored easing rules intended to 
prevent signal interference altogether, and instead supports new policies 
ensuring interference stays within acceptable levels.

The president of the trade group representing mobile-phone companies 
praised Powell's efforts but said too much flexibility in how the airwaves 
are used could create problems. ``There is a legitimate role for government 
in preventing spectrum anarchy where the absence of rules increases 
interference and degrades the consumer experience,'' said Tom Wheeler, 
president of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association.
**************************
CNET News.com
Digital copyright law on trial
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
October 30, 2002, 3:39 PM PT


A security researcher asked a federal judge Wednesday to let a challenge to 
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act continue.
Attorneys for Ben Edelman, who specializes in investigating flaws in 
blocking software, filed a 26-page document arguing that his work is 
imperiled by legal threats from N2H2, a filtering company based in Seattle.

N2H2 has asked a Massachusetts judge to dismiss the case, which the 
American Civil Liberties Union brought in July to let Edelman create and 
distribute a utility that decrypts N2H2's secret list of forbidden Web 
sites. The ACLU wants a court to declare that Edelman's research is not 
barred by the DMCA, by N2H2's shrinkwrap license, trade secret laws or 
other copyright laws.


"We're confident that the court will deny the defendants' motion to dismiss 
since they clearly intend to pursue their legal rights against Edelman if 
he goes forward with his research," said Ann Beeson, an ACLU staff attorney.

By suing on behalf of Edelman, who is a researcher at Harvard Law School's 
Berkman Center and a first-year law student there, the civil liberties 
group hopes to prompt the first ruling that would curtail the DMCA's wide 
reach.

After the DMCA was used to pressure Princeton professor Ed Felten and his 
colleagues into abandoning a presentation last year, the law became an 
instant magnet for criticism. But so far, every judge has upheld the DMCA's 
broad restrictions on the "circumvention of copyright protection systems."

N2H2 has dismissed Edelman's concerns as "hypothetical," but the company 
also said in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission 
that it intends "to assert all of our legal rights against Edelman if he 
engages in future activity that violates the agreement of our proprietary 
rights."

An N2H2 spokesman said he would have to read the ACLU's filing before he 
could comment on it.

The ACLU is suing under a federal law called the Declaratory Judgment Act, 
which permits a judge to rule on the rights of "any interested party 
seeking such declaration" when there is an actual controversy taking place.

N2H2 says that because it has not directly threatened to sue Edelman and 
because the Harvard student has not actually gone ahead and investigated 
N2H2's products, there is no current legal controversy. U.S. District Judge 
Garrett Brown ruled last November that Felten had no realistic threat of 
being sued and dismissed the case.

"N2H2 has repeatedly demonstrated its intent to use all available legal 
remedies to prevent the public--and Edelman specifically--from obtaining 
access to its block list," the ACLU's brief says. "Were Edelman to engage 
in his constitutionally protected research, N2H2 would undoubtedly sue him."

Last week, Google admitted, in response to Edelman's work, that it has 
quietly deleted more than 100 controversial sites from some search result 
listings. Edelman also testified as an expert witness in another ACLU case 
challenging a library filtering law.

A controversial law
The ACLU's lawsuit seeks permission for Edelman to do three things: decrypt 
N2H2's blacklist, publish the decrypted blacklist, and distribute the 
decoding utility.

In October 2000, the Library of Congress said the DMCA's general 
prohibition on "circumvention" of technology did not apply to research that 
decoded "lists of Web sites blocked by filtering software applications." 
But it does not permit a researcher to distribute a decryption utility.

Because the DMCA has been used to threaten security researchers, it has 
become wildly unpopular among technologists and academics. In July, 
Hewlett-Packard used the DMCA in a letter threatening a team of researchers 
who publicized a vulnerability in the company's Tru64 Unix operating system.

Earlier this month, Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Va., and John Doolittle, 
R-Calif., introduced a bill called the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act 
that would amend the DMCA and offer more protection to researchers.
*************************
Reuters
E-Government Plan Aims to Cut Software Clutter
Wed Oct 30, 7:57 PM ET
By Lisa Baertlein

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. government is cleaning house on the 
technology front much in the same way large businesses are, said Norman 
Lorentz, who is helping spearhead President Bush (news - web sites)'s 
e-government initiative.

The federal government -- along with many major corporations -- bought too 
much software and has too many different and disconnected systems in place, 
said Lorentz, chief technology officer for the Office of Management and 
Budget's Office of Information Technology and E-Government.

Like the departments of many big companies, federal agencies now are 
charged with finding ways to be more efficient, to standardize technology 
as much as possible, and to move tasks to the Web.

"There are places where we have (a technology) oversupply ... and there are 
places that are dying for it and we don't know it," Lorentz told attendees 
at the RBC Capital Markets software conference here on Wednesday.

As federal agencies look to save money and cut the number of software 
vendors they use, they also are armed with an information technology budget 
of $56 billion -- up from about $52 billion in the fiscal year ended 
September.

That number has captured the attention of software makers, many of whom are 
hoping Uncle Sam will help them offset slumping sales to big companies.

While there are no guarantees that the president's e-government plan -- and 
coming Homeland Security efforts -- will be a boon for the software 
industry, companies such as customer service software maker Siebel Systems 
(NasdaqNM:SEBL - news) and PeopleSoft (NasdaqNM:PSFT - news), which makes 
software to manage business activities like accounting and human resources, 
are devoting more resources to government sales.

THE GIVE AND TAKE

One clear growth spot is security-related software.

"Spending on security is up on an agency level," Lorentz said.
**************************
Associated Press
NASA Defrauded Dozens of Times
Wed Oct 30, 3:27 PM ET
By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer

From faulty parts for the International Space Station (news - web sites) 
to the theft of moon rocks, the nation's cash-thin space agency was 
defrauded dozens of times over the last year by contractors  and sometimes 
by its own employees, investigative reports show.



Some of the problems discovered by NASA (news - web sites)'s inspector 
general office involved faulty parts, improper repairs and fake test 
results that could endanger the safety of astronauts and others, the 
internal watchdog said. It said NASA should significantly improve its 
oversight of contractors.


"We are particularly concerned with product substitution fraud that can 
impact safety," said Paul Shawcross, executive officer for the inspector 
general. "When we get a fraudulent parts case, we notify the safety people. 
If there's any risk, those parts will be immediately taken out of service."


An Associated Press review of inspector general records found that in the 
past year, the internal watchdog cited more than 50 individuals and nearly 
three dozen instances in which the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration was victimized by improper actions, mostly involving 
criminal and civil fraud. Six cases involved the faulty parts or false 
certification of test results. Other investigations found breaches of 
NASA's computer system by hackers. There was no indication that lives of 
astronauts or anyone else was endangered from the faulty parts.


NASA says such problems are taken seriously but that the dollar amounts of 
fraud represent a small part of the agency's overall budget, which in 2002 
was $14.8 billion. A total of the fraudulent amounts was not available.


"With that amount of money involved there's going to be fraud, bad 
procedures and unintentional mistakes," NASA spokesman Robert Mirelson 
said. "We're not really seeing any kind of a trend where there's an 
attitude that here's an agency easy to defraud.


"We certainly do not accept that we have to live with safety violations and 
fraud. When we find it we will correct it and take appropriate action," he 
said.


No case was more bizarre than the July 13, 2002 theft of a 600-pound safe 
filled with lunar samples from every Apollo mission.


A week later authorities arrested four individuals, three of them student 
employees at the Johnson Space Center in Houston where the theft took 
place. The arrests came after undercover agents received an e-mail tip and 
started communicating with a person offering "priceless moon rocks" 
collected by Apollo astronauts in 1969 and the early 1970s, the FBI (news - 
web sites) said.


In another case, a NASA contract worker pleaded guilty to accepting $27,000 
worth of collect telephone calls from prison inmates, and her company 
billed the cost to the Hubble Space Telescope (news - web sites) program.


The chairman of the House Science subcommittee that oversees NASA, Rep. 
Dana Rohrabacher (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif., said, "It is clear 
that there are some fundamental errors in the NASA system. I would hope 
that NASA Administrator (Sean) O'Keefe pays attention to these fundamental 
systemic problems."

Cutting dollars lost to fraud is important at NASA, an agency that has 
acknowledged its major project, the International Space Station, was 
heading for overruns that could reach $600 million or more.

Examples of fraud cited by the inspector general:

_Key Enterprises Inc. of Oilton, Okla., and company official Christopher 
Key were charged in U.S. District Court in Tulsa on May 24 with making a 
false statement, aiding and abetting and mail fraud. The indictment said 
the company improperly repaired Pratt & Whitney JT8D engine parts used by 
NASA, and then improperly certified the repair as conforming to 
manufacturer specifications. A trial is pending.

_On Sept. 4, Herco Aircraft Machine Inc. and its owner, Heriberto Cortez, 
were indicted in U.S. District Court in San Antonio on charges of 
conspiracy and mail fraud. The indictment said Herco manufactured 
substandard parts in T-38 jets, used by astranaut-pilots to maintain their 
flying proficiency and to transport NASA crew members. A trial is set for 
December.

_Police in Milan, Italy on July 31 arrested 14 members of the "Reservoir 
Dogs," a computer hacking crew that used NASA computers at the Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., to chat on the Internet.

_On July 8, 2002, Copeland Manufacturing Corp. of Tulsa was sentenced in 
Oklahoma on July 8 to five years probation, fined $251,722 and ordered to 
pay $68,048 in restitution for making false statements. The company's 
aluminum battery alignment guides, used for replacing batteries on the 
International Space Station, were found to have unauthorized weld repairs.

_The U.S. attorney's office in New Haven, Conn., on April 12 announced a 
civil settlement with Chromalloy Gas Turbine Corp. for conduct relating to 
improper certification of aircraft engine balancing tests by a former 
subsidiary in Newington, Conn. Chromalloy, headquartered in San Antonio, 
agreed to pay $150,000, but did not acknowledge a violation of law.

_On March 4, 2002, former NASA contract worker Douglas F. Starfield pleaded 
guilty in U.S. District Court in Clarksburg, W. Va., to one count of 
transmitting communications containing threats to injure someone. While 
employed at NASA's Independent Verification and Validation facility in 
Fairmont, W.Va., Starfield admitted sending a threatening message to the 
chief executive officer of Boise Cascade Corp. He was sentenced to three 
years probation.

_On Feb. 1, 2002, a juvenile computer hacker known as "Pimpshiz" was 
sentenced in Contra Costa County, Calif. after pleading guilty to replacing 
a NASA web page at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., with 
his own web page protesting a lawsuit against the Napster (news - web 
sites) music sharing web site. His sentence included forfeiture of his 
computer, restricted computer use to e-mail only for two years and a 
prohibition that he may not use the "Pimpshiz" nickname during his 
two-years probation.
**************************
Reuters
Wireless Network Industry Eyes Tighter Security
Thu Oct 31, 1:07 AM ET
By Sinead Carew and Eric Auchard

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Short-range wireless computer networks whose endemic 
vulnerabilities to hackers have become an industry joke will receive a much 
needed security boost from new standards to be detailed by a trade group on 
Thursday.

The Wireless Fidelity Alliance, which represents major communication gear 
makers, will detail a standard dubbed Wi-Fi Protective Access (WPA) that 
will replace the notoriously weak security used in today's wireless 
short-range networks.

Wi-Fi has become popular as a way to connect computers to each other 
wirelessly within homes, offices and in public places such as airports or 
neighborhood blocks. Such short-range networks are seen as a low-cost means 
of filling gaps in long-range networks carrying mobile phone calls.

If and when equipment makers adopt the new standards -- a process that is 
likely to take some time -- they could help accelerate so-called Wi-Fi 
networks into far wider corporate use.

"It's hugely important because there have been an ungodly number of stories 
about how weak Wi-Fi was," International Data Corp. analyst Bob O'Donnell 
said.

Existing Wi-Fi technology uses shared security code arrangements that only 
allow authorized users to link their computer to a specific wireless network.

But once potential intruders figured out this code, they could easily snoop 
on computers linked to the network. This can be a trivial task for 
computers with sufficient number-crunching powers to break such codes.

The WPA standard includes more complex codes which are not shared by 
everyone on a network and these codes will be set to change regularly so 
that a potential hacker would have less time to figure out the code before 
it changes again.

SECURITY EMBARRASSMENT

The security push coincides with a week of demonstrations by grass-roots 
computer security activists who are collecting a patchwork of data designed 
to highlight the hundreds of unsecured networks that exist in major world 
cities.

The decentralized event, which is known as the World Wardriving II, is 
taking place in more than 30 cities around the globe -- from Barcelona, 
Spain to Seoul, Korea.

Wardriving is a kind of pub crawl for computer hackers. Instead of seeing 
how many pints of beer they can consume, security professionals and 
hobbyists walk or drive around town keeping count of how many wireless 
networks they can invade.

The new standard, which should make such an event more difficult, includes 
several improvements on today's Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) standard, 
the alliance said.

"Casual tools used to today to snoop on wireless networks definitely won't 
work with the new standard," IDC's O'Donnell added. "It seems like no 
matter what happens people find a way to hack, but this seems significantly 
stronger."

The Alliance, which includes a who's who of 180 commmuications gear makers 
ranging from Cisco to Agere to Texas Instruments, plans to test the 
standard during the next few months and expects to certify products based 
on WPA in February next year.

"We'll see the first certified products in February," Wi-Fi Alliance 
Chairman Dennis Eaton promised, adding that several companies already have 
development projects underway based on the standard.

But analysts said it would take some time for WPA to be widely adopted even 
though it will be possible to upgrade existing wireless products to support 
the new standard.

One drawback is that you cannot mix products using WPA with computers based 
on existing security, O'Donnell said.

"This could be problem if some people drag their feet on upgrading," he 
said of networks that mix different security methods.

Yankee Group analyst Sarah Kim said that even if companies that focus on 
business customers adopt the improved standard quickly the take-up could be 
slowed down by companies that make consumer electronics.

"I doubt that the majority of low-end equipment manufacturers will adopt 
the new standard any time soon," she said.

Part of the problem is that WPA is a taking elements of a security standard 
that the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers hopes to complete 
in about 12 months.

The industry wants to improve security as soon as possible for obvious 
reasons, but companies making consumer gear might wait for the final 
standard before upgrading, Kim said.
*******************************
New York Times
October 31, 2002
Making the Web Child-Safe
By KATIE HAFNER

SEO needs help with her geometry homework. Zara wonders aloud whether a 
pair of khakis are appropriate garb for a visit to Western Michigan 
University. Dig asks if anyone has ever heard of "Fydor something Russian." 
Globe asks if anyone saw "Trigger Happy" on Comedy Central. Zimmy laments 
her glitchy copy of a Sims game.

It's just another happy-go-lucky day at KidFu, a Web site for children 8 to 
14 that could easily qualify as the Pleasantville of cyberspace. Within 
KidFu, as tight a virtual community as you are likely to find these days, 
there are no suggestive instant messages, no suspicious requests for e-mail 
addresses. In fact, one of the many rules adopted with safety in mind is a 
prohibition against sharing e-mail addresses in general.

KidFu is one of the most recent attempts to address a concern raised since 
the Web first took off as a popular medium almost a decade ago: the need 
for an online environment where children feel completely out of harm's way. 
As the Web has become an electronic playhouse, potentially exposing 
youngsters to vulgarity and even danger, such efforts have given rise to 
new sites, new software and even new laws.

America Online and the Microsoft Network, for example, have both made 
stronger parental controls a prominent feature in the latest versions of 
their software, allowing subscribers to limit and even record the online 
travels and communications of young users. The varieties of Web filtering 
software continue to grow. Two and a half years ago, the Children's Online 
Privacy Protection Act went into effect with the aim of keeping personal 
information about children out of chat rooms and off bulletin boards, and 
thus out of the hands of would-be predators.

Now, as online diaries and so-called Weblogs become a phenomenon among 
young people as well as adults, the issue of children's online safety has 
become even more pronounced. Youngsters might think they are alone with 
their thoughts and their computer, when in fact what is often a baring of 
the soul is out there for all the world to see. "The Internet has moved on 
into new territory," said Jean Armour Polly, author of "Net-mom's Internet 
Kids and Family Yellow Pages," who has consulted widely on the topic of 
children and Internet safety. "Strangers can comment on the diaries and 
even e-mail kids advice and comfort."

Far more crimes against children occur as a result of encounters initiated 
in the physical world, of course, and some contend that the online risks 
are overstated. "There are new perils for kids, but no evidence that kids 
are on the whole more endangered today as a result of the Internet," said 
David Finkelhor, a criminologist at the University of New Hampshire who has 
studied Internet-related crime. "There's no sign of an incredible tidal 
wave of mayhem and danger that's washed onto our shores."

That may partly be because a few basic rules of the road have been 
established. Many parents instruct their children not to give out 
information that could identify them and to be as wary of those they meet 
online as they would be of those they meet offline. Many act as something 
of a censor for their children by quizzing them about what they do online.

At the same time, young Web users appear to be growing more alert to danger 
signs. And thousands take refuge in sites like KidFu.

KidFu's chat room is constantly monitored by paid chat jockeys who pipe up 
occasionally to share in a quip, provide homework help or remind someone of 
the rules of behavior.

Yet it is the youngsters themselves who are the most vigilant. All of them 
know the rules and can recite them with ease: no sharing of personal 
information, no rudeness and no impersonating.

Stephanie Adamson, 16, who lives in a small town in Georgia, was 11 when 
she discovered KidFu's predecessor, a site called FreeZone. "I had been 
surfing the Internet and my mother said I couldn't chat because she was 
afraid of sick people," said Stephanie, who is now a regular at KidFu.

It wasn't until she found FreeZone that her mother relented. "Kids are the 
ones who need to be protected, and they're the ones who feel invulnerable," 
she said.

Yet the business challenges for a site like KidFu are great. It relies on 
subscription fees for its revenues, and given how many free sites there 
are, it can be difficult to convince parents that their $10 per month is 
money well spent.

The scarcity of sites like KidFu may be an unintended side effect of the 
very legislation that was designed to protect children, experts say. The 
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, they say, makes it difficult for 
entrepreneurs to make a business out of Web sites aimed at children, 
because the constant vigilance required to comply with the law is expensive.

"Personally monitoring boards is very difficult, because it's costly and 
takes a lot of attention," said Elizabeth L. Lascoutx, vice president and 
director of the Children's Advertising Review Unit of the Council of Better 
Business Bureaus. "Unless you're actually present as a chat jockey, it's 
not so effective."

KidFu rose from the wreckage of FreeZone, which was shut down in April 2001 
by its parent company, Flywheel Media, leaving 800,000 registered users 
stranded and frustrating the many who had come to depend on the site. Many 
former members fanned out to other sites and spread the word about safe 
practices.

"We wanted our kids to understand the rules and to carry the safety mission 
with them elsewhere on the Internet," said Chris Rettstatt, one of a group 
of FreeZone employees who started KidFu last spring. The new site has yet 
to attract more than a fraction of the number of former FreeZoners, but 
membership, now at 5,000, is building steadily, Mr. Rettstatt said.

Herbert S. Lin, a senior scientist at the National Academy of Sciences who 
recently jointly edited a report on the Internet and risks to children, 
affirmed how difficult it is to make secure, compelling sites for children 
into a successful business. "There wasn't a large amount of online material 
or Web sites that were really good for kids,'' he said. "There's just no 
money in doing that. So kids are stuck, wandering around."

In addition to random wandering, many children and teenagers with a need to 
express themselves have begun keeping online diaries and Weblogs, known as 
blogs. They go to places like The Student Center (www.studentcenter.org) 
and Livejournals.com (www.livejournals.com) and post page after page of 
personal chronicles.

The Student Center has more than 1,000 diaries and as many blogs. (Diaries 
tend to be more personal than blogs.) Jeff Edelman, president of The 
Student Center, whose revenues come from advertising, said one safety 
method he uses is to allow diaries to remain completely private, 
essentially providing diary-creation tools.

Yet because of the cost of monitoring to keep personal information off the 
site, Mr. Edelman said, no one under 13 - the age under which the Privacy 
Protection Act applies - is allowed at the site. Nor does LiveJournal 
permit anyone under 13 to visit the site.

Mr. Rettstatt said he planned to offer password-protected online diaries to 
KidFu members by early next year. "There's a definite need for it," he 
said. He said he and his staff would screen all diary contents before 
putting them online, as they do with the rest of the material on the site.

Kevin McGehee, a 13-year-old eighth grader in Silver Spring, Md., who 
migrated to KidFu after FreeZone shut down, keeps his diary on Tripod.com 
password-protected so it can only be read by the people he chooses. He has 
given the password to 15 or so friends. Kevin said he would not feel safe 
doing it any other way, and he thanks his early experience at FreeZone for 
helping him understand that.

"FreeZone helped me realize how important safety was because it helped me 
get the rules into my mind," he said.

Mitchell Young, a 14-year-old high school freshman in Highland Park, Ill., 
keeps a public online diary at The Open Diary (www.opendiary.com) using the 
screen name Crimson Heart.

Mitchell said he had developed radar for unsavory correspondents and 
would-be predators.

He recalls one in particular. "It was someone who started out very friendly 
and nice and cool then started making some weird comment," he said. "So I 
stopped talking to him because I wasn't comfortable."

The wariness of someone like Mitchell leaves experts wondering when the Web 
will catch up to the growing sophistication of its young users.

Dr. Finkelhor, the criminologist, said the same delay was witnessed in the 
development of television.

"In the early stages of TV, there was a sense that good pro-social 
programming for young people just didn't exist," Dr. Finkelhor said. "It 
took a long time, a fair amount of foundation money and a concerted effort 
before we got public TV and the Children's Television Workshop into the act."

In the meantime, sites like KidFu may set an example for others eventually 
to follow.
*******************************
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Texas Sophomore Casts a Webwide Net in Seeking Help With College Costs
By SCOTT CARLSON

Near the end of the summer, Nick Howard read a story in his local newspaper 
about a woman named Karyn who had racked up a $20,000 credit-card debt, 
then set up a Web site to take donations to help pay it off. Her scheme was 
working -- donations were pouring in.

If Karyn could persuade complete strangers to help her atone for her 
addiction to Gucci handbags and pedicures, Mr. Howard thought, why couldn't 
he get people to help pay his college tuition at Texas A&M University? His 
roommate thought it was a good idea, and put up about $180 to pay a 
designer to create the site and to pay for a year of Web hosting.

By mid-September, Mr. Howard, a sophomore, had a simple site called 
SendNick2College.com, which carries the marketing tag, "Make the world a 
better place. Send a kid to college."

So far, he's gotten about $300 through friends and a few strangers -- far 
short of the $40,000 he says he needs to escape college debt-free, but more 
than he thought he would get. The site makes no effort to say that Mr. 
Howard's is any kind of hardship case, although he does promise not to 
spend money he is given on beer. "I would like your money so that I am not 
in debt when I finally finish my college years," he says.

Donors can send a check to a post-office box or use PayPal, an online 
payment service. Most of the contributions have come from Mr. Howard's 
friends. "My grandparents gave me $10," he says.

So why is Mr. Howard's cause better than Karyn's credit-card debt? "Well, 
she misused her credit cards," he says. "I mean, I don't even own a credit 
card. This is going straight to school. ... And there's a good feeling when 
you give something to somebody."

Of course, not everybody has been sold on this feel-good pitch. Lane B. 
Stephenson, a spokesman for Texas A&M, says the university looked into 
SendNick2College.com to make sure that Mr. Howard wasn't using university 
servers or computers for his site. Officials made no formal objections, but 
"the bottom line was that it was not something that the university 
embraced," he says. Texas A&M gives out more than $250-million in grants, 
loans, and scholarships every year. "We think it would be more appropriate 
for students to go through the traditional channels for financial aid."

The press has disapproved, too. The Reporter, a student newspaper at 
Minnesota State University at Mankato, heard about the site and 
editorialized: "How sad that we have a society with people living in the 
streets and struggling to eat and we dish out money to college students who 
either spend money irresponsibly on clothing and the like, or choose to go 
to a school where a four-year tuition tallies at $40,000, and then want 
people to feel sad because he can't afford to go to this school."

An article about the site in the San Antonio Express-News begged: "But 
really, Nick, isn't it all just a tad tacky? In light of the financial 
devastation so many families experienced in the wake of Sept. 11?"

Perhaps Mr. Howard's site is tacky, but it's probably less tacky than the 
crop of cyber-beggars that have popped up since Karyn's plea appeared, 
including one site dedicated to the purchase of a Hummer, the all-terrain 
vehicle. Mr. Howard's site is not even the first of its kind. Two years 
ago, Allyson Levy, who is at Northeastern University, started a site to 
help pay her college tuition. Ms. Levy has since shut her site down, 
however, and said Tuesday that she did not want to comment on it or on 
SendNick2College.com.

Mr. Howard says he has considered the negative reactions to his site, and 
chalks them up to envy. "All my friends would like to have a site like 
this," he says. Still, he has kept pictures of himself off the site because 
he's afraid that people will harass him, either in person or online. 
"People might change stuff in the picture and post it somewhere."

Asked what he plans to do with his degree, Mr. Howard says he'd like to go 
into sports marketing. "I'd like to be a successful entrepreneur -- you 
know, being able to actually see the success from working hard instead of 
seeing somebody else get the results from my hard work."
****************************
Federal Computer Week
Feds offer seed money
BY Dibya Sarkar
Oct. 29, 2002

A senior White House official said the federal government would like to 
initiate relatively low-cost intergovernmental pilot projects with state 
and local governments that would show measurable results within a short time.

By providing such seed money, the federal government can "get something 
going to demonstrate here's the way forward," said Steve Cooper, senior 
director of information integration and chief information officer for the 
Office of Homeland Security. "I'm not really going to get involved in 
worrying about funding a three-year, $200 million initiative to do 
something. I just don't have the luxury."

Such pilots would be three to six months in duration and cost less than $1 
million, he said. But they must produce "tangible, measurable and 
actionable value for intended recipients."

Cross-organizational pilots would include first responders from criminal 
justice, fire and emergency medical services; public safety and public 
health; as well as those involved with corporate facilities security around 
critical infrastructure, he said.

It's a way to "encourage communities of practice to begin to interact with 
one another in a way that, historically, they haven't had to or they've 
chosen not to," he said.

Cooper spoke at the National Association of State Chief Information 
Officers annual conference Oct. 28 in St. Louis. He was trying to encourage 
government and corporate attendees to weigh in and provide assistance to 
the Homeland Security Office.

He offered two intergovernmental proposals under consideration:

* One is a multistate initiative, led by the Florida Department of Law 
Enforcement, that would link federal intelligence information with state 
and local law enforcement. Cooper said it is one of the projects that the 
National Governors Association alluded to several weeks ago.

* Another is a four-state effort in the Southwest that would involve 
federal border security, the U.S. Commerce Department and state economic 
groups. "So what we're doing is we're taking something that has a security 
impact and broadening it in a beneficial way to enhance the economic issue 
to the benefit of the states," he said.

Cooper said he'd like to start such initiatives as soon as possible. "We'd 
be ready to go tomorrow as soon as we get funding from congress," he said.
*****************************
Government Computer News
Post Newsweek's 15th Annual Gala honors IT community

Three executives who had a hand in molding federal IT programs or policies 
over two generations were honored last night at the annual Technology 
Excellence in Government Awards in Washington, D.C.

Ten awards also were presented for innovative IT work at federal, state and 
local agencies.

And Miriam F. Browning, the recently retired principal director of 
enterprise integration in the Army's CIO office, was inducted into the 
Government Computer News Hall of Fame.

The fifteenth annual black-tie awards dinner, which drew 1,000 members of 
the federal and industry IT community, was presented by PostNewsweek Tech 
Media, parent of GCN, Washington Technology and the FOSE trade show.

"It's a big 'we' that win awards, not a singular 'me,'" said Emmett Paige, 
honored as the Government Department of Defense Executive.

Paige, a retired Army lieutenant general who was in charge of installing 
the largest communications system in a combat environment, is now vice 
president of DOD operations at Lockheed Martin Information Technology, a 
unit of the Bethesda, Md., defense and aerospace company.

The former chairman of the House Government Operations Committee, Jack 
Brooks, was presented the Civilian Executive Award. Brooks was the author 
of an act designed to streamline the way the government buys computers, as 
well as the Paperwork Reduction Act. Brooks was inducted into the GCN IT 
Hall of Fame in 1988.

Milton Cooper, the former president of the federal sector of Computer 
Sciences Corp., received the Industry Executive Award. Cooper started in 
the IT industry in 1963 at IBM Corp. following graduation from the U.S. 
Military Academy and service as an artillery officer with the 82nd Airborne 
Division.

Agency awards for excellence in information resource management were 
presented for diverse projects, including access smart cards for soldiers, 
a data warehouse system for Wisconsin's welfare program and a New Jersey 
environmental protection department's government-to-business Web portal.

The winners:


An Education Department effort to update and improve the federal student 
loan program.


An advanced, high-volume weather mapping system for the Navy's Fleet 
Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center.


DOD's Common Access Card program.


Modernization of the Security and Exchange Commission's EDGAR filing and 
data system.


The Army's Information Management Support Center, which rapidly recovered 
after it was damaged in the Sept. 11 terrorist strike on the Pentagon.


Improved IT systems in the Public Works Department of Waterford, a township 
north of Detroit.


Wisconsin's WISDOM Data Warehouse.


A remote Web telepathology system at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.


New Jersey's NJDEP Online system from its Office of Information Resource 
Management.


Improved information sharing systems for Customs Service's Border Security 
Program.

Editors from GCN and Washington Technology selected the 10 winners from 115 
entries.
******************************
Government Computer News
Michigan tunes personnel software development
By Wilson P. Dizard III

Michigan's Human Resource Management Network is working to increase its 
control over software development projects by piloting services automation 
software, which will keep records of time and expense and compare the 
progress and costs of various projects.

The HR network oversees benefits for 65,000 state employees at 35 agencies. 
Managing the state's enterprise resource planning system costs about $2.8 
million annually, said Richard Huneke, HRMN project director.

Since March 2001, the network has used ERP software from Lawson Software 
Inc. of St. Paul, Minn. "We came up first with a basic human resources, 
benefits and payroll package," Huneke said. "Now we are going to build a 
comprehensive network."

The network has about 20 development projects that now will be managed with 
Lawson's services automation software, Huneke said. The state recently paid 
about $120,000 for 100 licenses for the software, he said.
***************************
Government Computer News
NSA and NIST complete profiles for security needs
By William Jackson

The National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National 
Security Agency have completed profiles for recommended security features 
for five of the 10 technology areas the agencies have targeted for profile 
development.

The Protection Profiles, when completed, will be included in the evaluation 
process for Common Criteria certification of IT security products.

"There are going to be a lot of profiles coming out in the next six 
months," said Rex Myers, NSA security architect.

Myers made his comments today at the Federal Information Assurance 
Conference at the University of Maryland.

Protection Profile development began about two years ago as a cooperative 
program between NIST, which develops standards for nonclassified IT 
products, and NSA, which handles requirements for the classified and 
intelligence community. Because the Common Criteria program only evaluates 
IT products against the manufacturer's claims, without required security 
specifications, the Protection Profiles will give users a way to determine 
how robust a product's security features are.

The profiles specify three levels of security: basic, medium and high.

"We don't see a big need right now for the high level," said Stu Katzke, a 
senior research scientist at NIST. "We have been focusing most of our 
attention on the basic and medium levels."

The medium level is considered adequate for mission-critical systems 
handling nonclassified information.

Some Protection Profiles have been approved for operating systems, 
firewalls, intrusion detection systems, tokens and public-key 
infrastructures. Profiles are expected by the middle of 2003 for wireless 
systems, Web browsers, databases, virtual private networks and biometric 
products.
*****************************
Government Executive
October 30, 2002
Report praises federal e-gov efforts, but urges agencies to measure results
By Amelia Gruber

Federal agencies have implemented innovative e-government projects in the 
past year, but need to focus on measuring the success of those initiatives 
to win steady funding from Congress, according to a report released 
Wednesday by an Arlington, Va.-based think tank.

The report, published by the Performance Institute, a think tank that 
studies performance-based management in government agencies, surveyed more 
than 3,000 federal information technology officials to see what their 
departments have done to meet the e-government goals outlined in the 
president's management agenda. Among other things, the agenda directs 
agencies to make government information and Web sites more accessible to 
the public.


Mark Forman, associate director for e-government at the Office of 
Management and Budget, spoke at an event for the report's release, praising 
the results of the report. Forman pointed to Firstgov.gov as an example of 
an initiative that has already produced some tangible results. Launched in 
September 2000, Firstgov allows users to search for information from more 
than 51 million federal and state Web sites and facilitates online business 
transactions with the government.


The Performance Institute report also recognized five agenciesthe IRS, 
Small Business Administration, National Science Foundation and the Labor 
and Navy Departmentsfor making strides in e-government over the past year. 
Labor's GovBenefits.gov initiative, for example, allows citizens to 
determine whether they are eligible for 133 government benefit programs, 
combining information from 11 agencies. The Small Business Administration 
drew praise for developing a Web portal where small businesses across the 
country can locate information to help them understand and comply with 
government regulations.


But the report indicates that most of the approximately $50 billion in 2002 
information technology expenditures was "not justified by mission-aligned 
performance measures. This practice represents a 'high risk' business 
practice that could result in failed information technology projects and 
losses to the taxpayer," the report said.


The 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act and the e-government initiative in the 
president's management agenda require agencies to use performance measures 
to justify IT costs and to manage and evaluate the success of e-government 
projects.


Forman agreed with the report's conclusion that agencies need to focus more 
on defining successful outcomes of e-government projects that are "concrete 
and measurable." In addition to identifying ways to measure performance, 
agencies need to concentrate on fixing underlying technology problems, not 
merely "paving cow paths," Forman said. They also need to make sure they do 
not buy redundant programs or technology and should work on improving 
program management, Forman added. To date, few e-government projects have 
been delivered on time and on budget, he said.


A failure to implement adequate security measures to protect against 
hackers is also holding up many e-government projects, Forman said. 
Agencies often blame poor security and ensuing delays on a lack of funding 
to install complex safeguards. But security is really a "nuts and bolts" 
issue and a question of whether agencies are taking the right steps to meet 
security certification requirements, he added.


The agencies surveyed in the report praised the Bush administration and 
OMB's leadership in encouraging e-government initiatives, but said they 
would like to see more guidance from OMB on meeting the goals outlined in 
the president's management agenda.

And, according to Forman, federal employees are generally receptive to 
information technology projects. "They want a simpler, more modern way to 
get their work done."
****************************
Computerworld
Open source seeks growth in government market
By Gretel Johnston, IDG News Service
OCTOBER 30, 2002

Red Hat Inc. and Dell Computer Corp. teamed up yesterday as the sponsors of 
a conference to "put some facts on the table" about open-source software, 
with the long-term goal of increasing its usage in the public sector.
The open-source Apache Web server software already runs about 2,115 .gov 
Web sites, or about 36% of the total, and about 669, or about 22%, of the 
.mil Web sites, according to a survey by Web server information firm 
Netcraft Ltd. in Bath, England. The Linux open-source operating system is 
being rolled out on government supercomputers that will handle virtual 
nuclear weapons testing, speakers at the conference said.

While open-source promoters can claim some territory in the public sector, 
they want more. One goal of the first-ever Open Source Security Summit was 
to spark debate within the government over the scalability, affordability 
and other attributes of open-source software, said Michael Tiemann, chief 
technology officer at Linux supplier Red Hat Inc. in Raleigh, N.C.

"We are here to put on the table objective facts about security 
vulnerabilities, security solutions, security strengths, security 
architectures, policies which do or don't achieve their objectives based on 
how they are composed," Tiemann said in an interview. If at the end of the 
debate it becomes obvious that government agencies should use more 
open-source software in "the way that it became obvious that seat belts 
saves lives," then the conference will have achieved its goal, he said.

"We are not there yet," Tiemann said. "We are at the beginning."

Citing the use of Linux to run mission-critical applications by financial 
firms on Wall Street, Tiemann said, "Generally speaking, I think that the 
federal government begins to pay attention once there have been 
private-sector commercial successes." Open source's performance on Wall 
Street, he said, gives federal agencies a clear picture of how open source 
can save money and improve performance in large-scale, mission-critical 
systems.

Government agencies are no different when it comes to the challenge of 
having to do more with less, he said.

This year, Linux scored a number of small gains among European government 
agencies when they chose open-source software for various purposes. Deals 
reached with German, French and Finnish agencies are examples (see story). 
Tiemann said one reason those governments are adopting open source is they 
don't like Microsoft Corp.'s End-User Licensing Agreements (EULAs), which 
Tiemann says allow Microsoft to shut down computers if it finds its clients 
are violating other agreements with the company.

"If you are China and you are deploying Microsoft across the military ... 
are you going to choose to deploy software that has an undocumented 
interface that allows systems to be shut down because you've got a dispute 
with an American company that has a monopoly?" Tiemann asked.

National governments are coming up with the same answer, which is they 
don't want to run software that demands they agree to "be hacked" by a 
single American company. Instead they want to run software they can audit 
and control, he said.

But a hurdle for greater acceptance of open source in the U.S. government 
is presented by the National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP). The 
partnership between industry, the National Security Agency (NSA) and the 
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) aims to promote 
software and hardware that have been through the NIAP certification process 
at a federally approved laboratory.

If NIAP were operating perfectly, the government wouldn't be buying or 
using software or hardware that hadn't been certified in the NIAP process, 
said Marcus Sachs, director of communication infrastructure protection in 
the National Security Council's Office of Cyberspace Security. The 
government is trying to migrate toward buying only NIAP-certified products. 
But there are few that are certified, and none is open source.

Linux alone would be difficult to run through the NIAP process because as a 
collaborative creation, it lacks a sponsor to cover the cost of 
certification. Red Hat Linux, for example, would have a sponsor, he said.

"A bigger problem is those [products] that have no commercial wrapper on 
them, like Apache. Who stands up to sponsor them?" Sachs said, noting that 
the NIAP process is costly. "What we are facing is a recognition that there 
are very valid products that aren't commercial that are [open]. They have a 
home within the federal government."

He said the Office of Cyberspace Security is looking at the problem with an 
eye toward open-source products that the government is already using, but 
can't get though NIAP because of the cost or because there's no sponsor.

The NIAP process has to allow a way to certify those products and do so in 
a way that's fair to proprietary products, he said. Currently, the only 
security certification process the government has is NIAP, but others are 
being considered, he said.

"I hope the message is clear that what we want is security built into 
software, whether it's open or proprietary," Sach said. "If you are writing 
software, regardless of which camp you are in, build security in it."

Sachs also said there was some encouraging international news on computer 
security at the close of the recent meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico, of the 
leaders of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group.

The APEC leaders' statement calls on members to enact comprehensive laws on 
cybersecurity, establish high-tech crime task forces and form computer 
emergency response teams (CERT), by the time of the next summit in October 
2003, Sachs said.

"It's the first time we've seen something like that happen where a group of 
countries will all agree that within one year we are all going to raise the 
bar on computer security," he said.
****************************
Washington Post
Closing a Bridge Over the 'Digital Divide'
McLean-Based PowerUp to Shut Doors After Funding Computer Centers Nationwide

By Ellen McCarthy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 31, 2002; Page E05


Lee Betton estimates that nearly 50 kids a day play games and use the 
Internet at the Alexandria community center he manages. The 16 computers at 
that center -- and at 67 centers like it in Maryland, Virginia and the 
District -- were provided by PowerUp, a McLean organization that was 
founded to help bridge the "digital divide" but will close its doors today.

PowerUp spent more than $50 million, using contributions from the Case 
Foundation, the AOL Time Warner Foundation, Cisco Systems Inc., 
Hewlett-Packard Co. and the Waitt Family Foundation, to help familiarize 
children with computers by providing community centers nationwide with 
equipment and training programs. Most of the 957 centers are in low-income 
areas where access to computers may be limited.

"I think we struggled a lot with just exactly what the digital divide is," 
said Betton, clubhouse manager at Alexandria's Gum Springs Community Center.

Kevin O'Shaughnessey, PowerUp's chief operating officer, said that the 
program was never intended to provide ongoing funding and that its 
partners, including the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the YMCA, were 
told earlier this month about the closing.

"The model has always been to provide the initial funding and the guidance 
to help them to become self-sustaining," O'Shaughnessey said. "The PowerUp 
national office's closing is not going to make any of these fail."

Because the Gum Springs center enjoys support from the Northern Virginia 
Technology Council and Fairfax County, Betton said the kids who frequent 
the space will not be affected by PowerUp's demise. That was also the 
reaction across the country.

"We've always known this was a temporary support," said Stephanie Eberhart, 
director of technology at the Woodland Park Boys and Girls Club in 
Anchorage. The Boys and Girls Club of south and central Alaska opened its 
first technology centers with one-year PowerUp grants three years ago, 
Eberhart said, and has been sustaining them with a hodgepodge of local 
funding for the past two years.

Eberhart didn't fault PowerUp for leaving the group in the lurch. She said 
their PowerUp liaison, Arnie Cedillo, has been "awesome" in helping the 
club find new grants and funding opportunities.

PowerUp estimates that more than 200,000 students a week use the 12,000 
computers it provided. Most of the program's funding went to one-time 
contributions for each center, though some training on computer programs 
and fund-raising techniques were provided after the initial investment. 
Participating centers were largely responsible for funding their own 
Internet access, and employees were often associated with the AmeriCorp 
Vista program or hired independently.

In a March 2000 commentary article in The Washington Post, then-America 
Online Inc. Chairman Steve Case wrote that PowerUp would narrow the digital 
divide by "giving young people access to technology, teaching them the 
skills to use it and providing the guidance they need to make the most of 
their potential."

O'Shaughnessey said PowerUp's board members met this summer to discuss the 
fate of the organization and decided to cut the program's funding because 
of the economic climate and interests in other philanthropies. The center's 
14 employees will be let go today.

Staff writer Anitha Reddy contributed to this report.
*****************************
Houston Chronicle
New voting tools make Texas a place to watch
eSlate draws attention of national monitors
By CYNTHIA LEE
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Wariness over Harris County's new electronic voting system 
has helped land Texas on a list of states a national group will monitor on 
Election Day.

The Washington-based Election Reform Information Project said Texas drew 
its attention because it will be the first time the eSlate electronic 
device will be used by so many voters.

"A lot of people will be watching to see what happens in Harris County, to 
see how those machines work ... when a very large jurisdiction switches 
from a punch-card machine to a much more modern machine," said Dan 
Seligson, whose nonpartisan group is affiliated with the University of 
Richmond.

The group said concerns about touch-screen voting machines in Dallas and 
problems related to the design of the ballot in Bexar County also made 
Texas a place to watch.

Election administration is changing rapidly across the country as 
jurisdictions seek to comply with a new law that requires electronic voting 
technology to be implemented by November 2004. States and municipalities 
looking to buy new voting machines also will be watching to see how new 
devices, such as eSlate, perform on Election Day.

Harris County has spent $25 million to buy 8,170 of the eSlate devices, 
which are about the size of legal pads. Voters turn a knob on the side to 
highlight their preferred candidates on a screen and push buttons to make 
their choices.

The new technology has worked fine during early voting, said David Beirne, 
spokesman for the Harris County elections office. He said the county has 
taken several steps to prevent any problems Election Day, including making 
video instruction available at the polling stations, training polling staff 
and launching an aggressive information outreach campaign.

Former Harris County election administrator Tony Sirvello agreed that 
systematic steps were taken to phase eSlate in, but he said some problems 
would be unavoidable.

"Most people in everyday life are so busy ... that they're not conscious of 
the voting process until it's actually right upon them," he said.

An official at the Houston-based Election Center, a professional 
organization made up of election administration employees, said a new 
voting system usually must go through three major elections before the 
voters get used to it.

"Most of these (old) voting systems last in jurisdictions for 25 or 30 
years. By the time you get around to replacing them, you've really got to 
go through a fairly substantial learning curve," said Doug Lewis.

But he predicted the election in Harris County should go pretty well.

"You might have a hiccup here or there," Lewis said. "But the truth is, 
elections in America are under a microscope as a result of Election 2000, 
we're paying far more attention to it than in previous years."

In Dallas, 30 of the 400 touch-screen machines -- an older generation of 
election technology -- have been pulled from use in early voting after 
complaints that some machines had not accurately displayed voter selections 
for candidates.

Safeguards were put in place by election officials when the Dallas County 
Democratic Party said last week it intended to file a lawsuit over the 
complaints.

Election administrator Bruce Sherbet said any machine showing the slightest 
sign of a problem would be taken out of use and that all machines are being 
checked and recalibrated at least once a day, more than in other elections.

"This election is incredibly close and high-strung down here, more than 
I've seen in two decades," he said. "So we put in a bunch of different 
safeguards before voters would be confronted with this."

The Democrats are now appealing a state district court judge's dismissal of 
a lawsuit that asked that the machines be audited independently.

"We wanted to test those machines before early voting ended just to make 
sure ballots weren't being miscast," said Susan Hays, the party chairman.

State District Judge Karen Johnson threw out the suit because she said her 
jurisdiction did not include election procedures, which are under the 
supervision of the county elections administrator.

In San Antonio, Bexar County officials redesigned the election ballot after 
both major political parties and the League of United Latin American 
Citizens filed suit over concerns that the original ballot would make it 
difficult for those wanting to cast a straight party ticket.

The two-page ballot used during part of the early voting period required 
straight-party voters to mark both sheets, which deviated from past 
elections, when the ballot only consisted of a single page.

The Election Reform Information Project also highlighted Florida and 
Georgia among the 13 states on its list, which was selected based on 
election reform, close election races, and early voting controversy.

"All eyes will be focused on South Florida. Because of the problems they 
had in September and because of the state and national attention they've 
had on fixing those problems, that really is the place to see if reform is 
working," Seligson said.

Georgia overhauled its voting system after it was discovered that 10 
percent of its ballots were being thrown out in the 2000 election. The 
state will move to a uniform voting system using the same type of voting 
machine for the first time on Nov. 5.
******************************
Info World
Flaw leaves Windows open to DoS attacks
By Joris Evers
October 31, 2002 5:30 am PT

 A FLAW IN software code that implements a protocol for VPNs (virtual 
private networks) makes Windows 2000 and Windows XP systems vulnerable to 
DoS (denial-of-service) attacks, Microsoft warned late Wednesday.

An unchecked buffer exists in the code that implements the PPTP 
(Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol), a protocol that enables users to 
create and use VPNs that is natively supported by Windows 2000 and Windows 
XP, Microsoft said in security bulletin MS02-063. The software maker deems 
the issue "critical." 
(http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS02-063.asp) [story 
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/10/31/021031hnwindowsflaw.xml?s=IDGNS]
**************************
Reuters Internet Report
US Voters Surfing Web Ahead of Election Day
Thu Oct 31, 9:25 AM ET
By Gary Crosse

NEW YORK (Reuters) - As Election Day approaches, with control of both 
houses of the U.S. Congress and a majority of state governors' mansions 
hanging in the balance, many voters are turning to the Internet to help 
them make an informed choice on Tuesday.
With so much at stake, Republicans and Democrats have been jockeying for 
months now on a variety of issues ranging from national security to Iraq 
and the economy. While most polls suggest that next week's mid-term 
election could see any of a number of close races determining the balance 
of power in Congress, busy voters must often look to the media to sort out 
these thorny issues and learn about candidates.


On average one of every two people in North America and Europe use the 
Internet compared to far fewer users in the developing world, according to 
United Nations (news - web sites) statistics. Experts say that such a 
"digital divide" also exists within the United States between younger and 
older generations as well as between the social classes.


"The digital divide has created a political divide, meaning that Web users 
are more informed than ever in history with the wealth of information out 
there," said Dr. Bruce Cain, professor of political science at the 
University of California, Berkeley. "Then you have a less connected group 
of people who are basically getting no information or only getting their 
information from the local television news."


"You almost have two nations -- a nation of the politically engaged and a 
nation of people that are only peripherally involved or interested in 
politics," he added. "The TV is still an easier way to get your information 
and as a consequence, the more marginal voter is going to depend on the TV."


But major media outlets have slowly learned that the Web is not to be 
feared, but can be co-opted. As technology has improved and proliferated, 
television and radio outlets have come around to using Web sites to 
supplement their respective broadcasts. Audio and video news clips are now 
a regular staple of Internet browsing.


Since the advent of the Internet, when it was feared that the Web page 
might replace the printed page, many newspapers have even seen their 
circulation figures increase.


LIBRARY AT THE FINGERTIPS


While radio and television are still very pervasive media, voters who use 
the Internet have the advantage of a vast, interactive library of 
information at their fingertips.


Nowadays, any candidate for national office without a Web site would be 
seen as a technophobe or a Luddite. With the Internet, voters can assess a 
candidate or incumbent's views on key issues as well as their voting records.

With every branch of the federal government accessible on the net, FirstGov 
(http://www.firstgov.gov) is an excellent place to start, with links to 
agencies as well as all 50 state government sites.

Each member of Congress also has his or her own Web site accessible through 
the main sites of the Senate (http://www.senate.gov) or the House of 
Representatives (http://www.house.gov). E-mails to members of Congress now 
far outnumber the amount of letters sent by constituents via regular mail.

Local governments have been slower to come around to the technology, often 
due to budget constraints or lack of know-how. But it is still possible to 
find voting hours, instructions and election results on state government 
sites.

As for when voting in a U.S. election via the Internet might become a 
reality, it is difficult to say. With security concerns and divergent views 
on election reform in the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election 
scandal in Florida, Americans might just have to settle for improved 
technology at the voting booth instead.

In the area of public policy, the Internet gives nonprofit and public 
interest groups an open forum to express their views. Anti-abortion groups 
do battle with abortion rights groups online as do gun rights advocates and 
supporters of gun control. Simple searches on Internet portals (news - web 
sites) will yield an array of sites dedicated to such causes.

The Enron accounting scandal has also given rise to several sites dedicated 
to corporate responsibility, including The Daily Enron 
(http://www.thedailyenron.com) and Corporate Traitors 
(http://www.corporatetraitors.com).

Even powerful lobbyists and political action committees who have long been 
reputed to prefer back-room dealings to the public nature of the World Wide 
Web are getting into the act.

PUNDITS GALORE

The Web also offers a much wider spectrum of political opinion than is 
available on advertising-driven radio or television. From Ralph Nader (news 
- web sites) to Pat Buchanan (news - web sites), conservatives and 
liberals, moderates and radicals all battle for hearts and minds on the Web.

The Drudge Report (http://www.drudgereport.com) cut its teeth during the 
Clinton impeachment scandal as a news junkie standby that garnered millions 
of hits a day. The site also serves as a bully pulpit for media badboy and 
founder Matt Drudge, who has been assailed by some media traditionalists as 
a gossipy non-journalist.

Nonetheless, Drudge was a pioneer of the political Weblog, of which there 
are several alternatives on the left and the right.

Buzzflash (http://www.buzzflash.com/) offers a different but equally 
sensational perspective on the American political landscape. Even if you 
don't agree with their slant, such sites are useful if only to link to news 
wires, columnists and editorial content from newspapers worldwide that one 
might not have otherwise have come across surfing randomly.

UC Berkeley's Cain prefers more neutral content to the Weblogs. "Like talk 
radio and cable TV, certain Web sites find a niche of people who want to 
hear things that they already believe. That just reinforces the prejudices 
of certain people," he said.

A detailed and balanced daily Weblog is produced by ABC News as The Note 
(http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/politics), which analyzes the latest 
polls, political happenings and their treatment by the media.

For those wondering which way an election race is leaning there are also 
pollsters available on the Web, such as John Zogby (http://www.zogby.com) 
and IPSOS-Reid (http://www.ipsos-reid.com).

One of the more nontraditional forecasters online is Jerome Armstrong, the 
braintrust behind MyDD.com (http://www.mydd.com). After working as an 
options and futures trader, MyDD founder Jerome Armstrong said political 
forecasting was a natural extension of his interest.

Unlike the major network pollsters, he likes having his own Weblog for its 
flexibility and independence.

"With the Weblogs you can change your mind (often) looking at all the 
information out there ... You can make a quick summary of what that race 
looks like from the perspective of locals," he said.

Armstrong does not hide his liberal political bias or the fact he uses 
astrology to analyze some competitive races, but he strongly contends that 
the accuracy of his forecasts take priority over his personal views. For 
the record, he is predicting the Democrats will gain seven seats in the 
House resulting in a 219-216 majority while slightly increasing their 
tenuous majority in the Senate.

Anyone willing to put their money where their mouth is can also do so 
online. Iowa Electronic Markets hosts a real-money futures market where 
according to their Web site 
(http://www.biz.uiowa.edu/iem/markets/cong02.html), contracts pay off 
depending on the outcome of next week's congressional elections.

Of course, another alternative would be to just find your polling place on 
the Web and go down on Election Day and vote.
****************************
MSNBC
Terrorism suspects in bio-database
U.S. military catalogs irises, fingerprints, voices, faces

Oct. 30   The United States is creating digital dossiers of the irises, 
fingerprints, faces and voices of terrorism suspects seized in Afghanistan 
and using such material in screening foreigners at U.S. ports of entry. The 
biometrics data has also been shared with the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation and military researchers say there are plans to extend the 
collection process to Iraq in the event of a U.S. invasion.

       SINCE JANUARY, military and intelligence operatives have used a 
U.S. Army biometric tool kit to create the dossiers of prisoners in 
Afghanistan and at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
       In doing so they have taken biometrics  the measuring of physical 
human features  well beyond its most common use to date: identity 
verification for restricting access to computers or secure areas.
       "We're trying to collect every biometric on every bad guy that we 
can," said Lt. Col. Kathy De Bolt, deputy director of the U.S. Army battle 
lab at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., where the tools were developed.
       "Any place we go into  Iraq or wherever  we're going to start 
building a dossier on people of interest to intelligence," De Bolt said. 
"Even if they get released, we have face and voice clips. When they come 
into one of our checkpoints, we can say 'You're this bad guy from here.'"
       The system, known as the Biometrics Automated Toolset, or BAT, 
consists of about 50 laptop computers equipped with scanners that collect 
biometrics.
       The laptop field units store suspects' information in a central 
database at a U.S. intelligence agency  De Bolt declined to say which 
one  in the Washington area.
       An additional 400 laptops are being prepared for a possible Iraq 
invasion, said Anthony Iasso, a software engineer at Northrop Grumman Corp. 
who leads the project at Fort Huachuca.

CHECKING FOREIGNERS, NOT CITIZENS
       So far, BAT data has been shared with both the FBI and the 
Immigration and Naturalization Service to help them check the identities of 
incoming foreigners and of foreigners arrested inside the United States, 
officials said. Federal law prohibits military or intelligence agents from 
collecting data on U.S. citizens.
       Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis confirmed that the military 
collects biometrics data on terror suspects but would not offer details.
       "Obviously we're doing such things so we know who they are if 
they're released and we encounter them again," he said.

      U.S. military officials at Guantanamo Bay, from which four detainees 
were released over the weekend, would not verify whether the system was in 
use. Nor would officials at U.S. Special Forces Command or Central Command, 
which oversees operations in Afghanistan.
       But a U.S. immigration official, speaking on condition of 
anonymity, said the INS has added the biometric intelligence data to the 
system it uses to check fingerprints of suspicious persons at hundreds of 
locations, including all U.S. entry points, Border Patrol stations and INS 
field offices.
       "Anytime anyone is taken into custody for investigation by INS, 
they're checked against this system," said the official. He would not say 
whether the data has led to any arrests.

TRACKING GLOBAL MOVEMENTS

       De Bolt and Iasso said the BAT system aims to track global 
movements of terrorists. If a person cataloged and released in Afghanistan 
later turns up at a checkpoint in the Philippines  perhaps using a 
different identity  officials might begin investigating the suspect's 
background and links to others, De Bolt said.
       The suspect doesn't have to be apprehended, fingerprinted  or even 
identified by name, Iasso said.
       U.S. authorities are already adding surveillance photos and 
fingerprints gathered from, say, drinking glasses or magazine covers found 
in known terrorist haunts. INS or military officials can query the database 
with a single photo or fingerprint, officials said.
       Besides biometrics, a suspect's dossier might contain text from 
prisoner interrogations, video or sound clips and digital images of scanned 
items seized during a search, Iasso said.
       The system is designed to surmount secrecy hurdles that can prevent 
intelligence agencies from sharing information with police or border 
officials. So while security clearances are required to see terror 
suspects' files, the system allows simple searches to determine whether a 
person is a suspect without divulging sensitive intelligence.
       If a prisoner's thumbprint produces a match, the system might 
simply reply "call CIA," De Bolt said.
       The database, which resides on a computer cluster with a 
terabyte  a trillion bytes  of storage, also allows soldiers to search it 
via satellite telephone from a battlefield, De Bolt said.
       In the Balkans, biometrics on more than 10,500 foreign employees at 
U.S. military camps Bondsteel and Montieth in Kosovo and Camp Able Sentry 
in Macedonia are stored in a BAT database, Iasso said.
       If a foreign worker on a U.S. base is fired, the data ensure the 
person can't assume a new identity and be rehired at another U.S. base.
       In May, a bill was introduced in the Senate that would require the 
Director of Central Intelligence to create a database of known or suspected 
terrorists, and share it with federal, state, local and foreign governments.
       Although the Senate measure makes no mention of biometrics, De Bolt 
said BAT data could find its way into such a system.

       © 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not 
be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
*****************************
Red Herring
We must secure ourselves
Cybersecurity can be achieved through collective action from the public.
By The Editors
October 26, 2002

Cybersecurity czar Richard Clarke took the right approach in September when 
he released the much-awaited draft of the National Strategy to Secure 
Cyberspace. Instead of mandating a heavy-handed set of rules for companies 
and private citizens, the document advocates a voluntary approach toward 
safeguarding the nation's Internet activities and assets. Most important, 
the board announced that it is soliciting public comment. We urge readers 
to provide input before the strategy is sent to President George W. Bush 
for approval later this fall.
[Story http://www.redherring.com/insider/2002/10/cybersecurity102602.html]
*****************************


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