Clips November 13, 2002

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips November 13, 2002

ARTICLES

Dates set in computer tampering cases
Bush's Security Bill Foes Give Up
November 13, 2002
Airport Managers Say Deadline for Screening All Checked Bags Can't Be Met
Briton Indicted as Hacker
Telecom giants wage ad battle over network sharing
HHS sets deal for intrusion detection service
Hackers could be planning major attack, says White House
Report urges agencies to use more wireless technology
New Tools a Spying Boss Will Love
Israel develops secure army phone
Pirated Potter II film appears online?
Snubbed suitor takes revenge on the Net

******************************
Hannibal Courier-Post
Dates set in computer tampering cases
November 13, 2002

The three former students at the Hannibal Career and Technical Center at 
Hannibal High School who are charged with computer tampering will have 
preliminary hearings on the same day, on Monday, Dec. 23.

The first preliminary hearing will begin at 9 a.m. in the Andrew P. Yochum 
case. Dirk Alan Sinclair and Joshua Thomas Wright are both scheduled for 
hearings at 1:30 p.m.

Their cases were heard Friday in Associate Circuit Court at the Marion 
County Courthouse in Hannibal. All three have private defense attorneys.

They are facing Marion County felony charges that were filed after computer 
problems at the school occurred over a period of several months, according 
to the Hannibal Police Department.

The school has since installed equipment to prevent the possibility of this 
type of crime occurring in the future, according to John Bringer, the 
school superintendent.
********************************
Los Angeles Times
Bush's Security Bill Foes Give Up
Democratic opposition to labor provisions of an anti-terror homeland agency 
erodes in light of GOP electoral gains. It's a win for the president.
By Nick Anderson and Richard Simon
Times Staff Writers

November 13 2002

WASHINGTON -- A much-delayed bill to create a new domestic security agency 
gained key congressional support Tuesday and appears all but certain to 
become law, a development that would hand President Bush a long-sought 
legislative victory.

As Congress returned for a lame-duck session, support for the president's 
proposed Department of Homeland Security fell rapidly into place as 
Democrats concluded they could no longer resist Bush in a dispute over the 
rights of government employees who would move into the agency.

House Republican leaders planned to force a vote as early as today on a 
final version of the bill that would give Bush most of the management 
powers he wanted, including the right to waive labor agreements when the 
president determines national security is at stake.

A critical stumbling block in the bill's approval has been whether the 
administration could revise civil service rules and void labor agreements 
to boost the president's ability to respond to terrorist threats.

The Senate was poised to act within days despite the misgivings of senior 
Democrats, as the erosion of opposition reflected Republican electoral 
gains. The GOP will maintain control of the House and take over the Senate 
in the next Congress.

"There is no doubt that the supporters of [Bush's bill] are in a better 
negotiating position following the elections of last week," Sens. Ben 
Nelson (D-Neb.), John B. Breaux (D-La.) and Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) 
acknowledged in a joint statement.

The three centrists announced that they plan to vote for a slightly 
modified version of the Bush bill, giving the White House position a small 
majority. Most Republicans back the president on the issue; most Democrats 
oppose him.

Democrats could still mount a filibuster to block the bill, but an aide to 
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said such maneuvering was 
unlikely to succeed.

A filibuster could damage the reelection hopes of another Senate Democrat 
in a runoff election in Louisiana. Democrats do not want to force Sen. Mary 
Landrieu to explain a homeland security impasse as she campaigns in her 
Dec. 7 runoff against Republican challenger Suzanne Haik Terrell.

In addition to giving Bush a major legislative victory, the bill's 
enactment would clear the way for a belated adjournment of the 107th 
Congress. Other legislation remains to be settled, including bankruptcy 
reform, terrorism insurance and annual government spending, but homeland 
security had been the predominant outstanding issue.

The bill would create a mammoth new Cabinet department, with roughly 
170,000 employees drawn from 22 federal agencies. Thousands more workers 
could be heading into the department as the fast-growing federal aviation 
security force takes shape.

The final push came after months of stalemate. The House passed its first 
version in July with a large bipartisan majority, an action Bush praised. 
The bill then bogged down in the Democratic-led Senate as the two parties 
failed to reach agreement on worker rights. With White House support, GOP 
senators filibustered a Democratic version of the bill before the election.

After the Republicans gained enough seats in last week's election to take 
full control of Congress, Bush pressed his advantage. He called for passage 
of the bill during the lame-duck session despite the initial suggestion 
from Senate Republican leaders that the bill be held over until next year.

Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who will soon become majority leader, called 
Nelson on Friday night to begin negotiations. On Sunday, staff members of 
Nelson, Breaux and Chafee met with those of Lott and the White House. Lott 
then vetted the proposal with House GOP leaders. Afterward, the three 
centrists met and reluctantly agreed Tuesday to give their support.

Government unions denounced the labor-management provisions in the bill. 
They said Republicans had yielded little to their demands for a stronger 
union role in the new civil service rules and a stronger check on the 
president's national-security waiver power.

"The modifications are so negligible as to be meaningless," said Beth 
Moten, legislative director for the American Federation of Government 
Employees. She said the union would "strongly oppose" the bill. Colleen 
Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, also was 
opposed. The two unions represent nearly 50,000 of the workers heading into 
the new department.

Many details of the final bill were not immediately known Tuesday night. 
But a 450-page draft circulating on Capitol Hill contained these 
provisions, according to congressional aides:

The secretary of the new department could revise civil service rules to 
give the president more latitude to hire, fire, demote and promote the 
workers he wants. If government unions object, they could seek changes and 
ask a federal mediator to step in. But the mediator's recommendations would 
not be binding. The president could also waive collective bargaining rights 
of government employees if he notifies Congress that national security is 
in jeopardy.

Much of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms  not previously 
affected by the legislation  would move from the Treasury Department to the 
Justice Department.

A Homeland Security Council would be established within the White House to 
coordinate domestic response to terrorist threats  somewhat analogous to 
the National Security Council's role in foreign affairs.

Airline pilots would be permitted to carry firearms as a last defense 
against hijackers. Also, there would be a potential extension of up to one 
year of a deadline for airports to ensure that all checked baggage is run 
through bomb-detection machines. The deadline is Dec. 31, but many airports 
are likely to fail to comply.

The bill, however, apparently omits a proposal to establish an independent 
commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks.

Daschle was not won over by the compromise, even though it appears likely 
he will not seek to kill the bill through filibuster.

"We all recognize the need for a fundamental overhaul of the way in which 
we approach America's homeland security," Daschle said in a statement. He 
said he favored a preelection proposal offered by Nelson, Chafee and Breaux 
that would give workers more power and would not support "any attempt to 
weaken that compromise."

Daschle added: "There may be differences of opinion on different components 
of the legislation, but there is no disagreement that we need to complete 
our work on this bill promptly."

Bush met with Republican leaders and the new interim senator from 
Minnesota, independent Dean Barkley  who was sworn in Tuesday to fill out 
the term of the late Democrat Paul Wellstone  to push for final approval of 
his plan.

"I'm going to press people right now in a very gentle way in saying let's 
get a homeland security bill done  one that enables this country to be able 
to respond to threats, one that enables the president to be able to put the 
right people at the right place at the right time," Bush told reporters.

At its core, the department would be an anti-terrorist 
organization  spearheading defense of the nation's borders, airports and 
seaports from sudden attacks. It would include the Coast Guard, the Customs 
Service, the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency, the Secret Service, the Border Patrol and many other 
agencies.

It would be the third-largest federal department, following Defense and 
Veterans Affairs.

Conceived in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the department was 
first pushed by Democrats. Bush embraced the idea last June and then shaped 
it to his liking. If the bill is enacted, he would preside over the most 
significant government reorganization since President Harry S. Truman 
oversaw the creation of the modern Pentagon and national security agencies 
after World War II.

Advocates said the reshuffling would bring a much-needed focus to an 
often-scattershot government response to terror. "Finally, we will have a 
strategy to protect the homeland," Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) said. "This 
is the beginning of the solution to homeland vulnerability. It will become 
law  I'm hoping this week."
******************************
New York Times
November 13, 2002
Airport Managers Say Deadline for Screening All Checked Bags Can't Be Met
By MATTHEW L. WALD

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 12  A significant number of airports cannot meet the 
Dec. 31 deadline for screening all checked bags for bombs, airport managers 
say, adding that they are counting on Transportation Security 
Administration waivers to sidestep the timing set by Congress.

Delays will paralyze the air traffic system if federal officials insist on 
full screening, the managers said.

With seven weeks to go, the security administration is already screening 
all bags at a few airports, but at others no one has been hired and no 
machines have been installed.

"I'll be amazed if they make it work, without serious impact to the 
system," said Gina Marie Lindsey, the director of the aviation division of 
the Port of Seattle, and first vice chairwoman of the Airports Council 
International-North America, which is meeting here this week. Managers from 
250 airports are attending.

At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Ms. Lindsey said, the security 
agency has not hired any baggage screeners, let alone trained them, and has 
not even said how many machines it will need.

In Washington, however, a senior official of the Transportation Department, 
who would talk only on condition of anonymity, said nearly all of the 
design work and planning for the bag screening equipment was done, 
potential employees had been identified and screened, and machines and 
personnel would be rolled out quickly.

"The number of places where there are really difficult problems is but a 
small handful, for a small percentage of the bags," the official said.

The transportation secretary, Norman Y. Mineta, responded to a question 
with a statement released by a spokesman saying that all deadlines thus far 
had been met, that another key deadline, to replace all passenger screeners 
with federal employees by Nov. 19, would be met and that the checked 
baggage deadline would be met, too.

"From the beginning, the naysayers and skeptics had said it couldn't be 
done, but we've done it," Mr. Mineta said. "And we'll meet the next goal, 
screening all baggage as required by the law, without wrecking the havoc 
that our critics predict."

Airport managers are skeptical. They say that the agency has made terrific 
progress toward the goal set by Congress a year ago, but that the time is 
coming to acknowledge that the system is not yet in place.

"We will find on Dec. 31 or Jan. 1, for most passengers at most airports 
most of the time we will meet that deadline of 100 percent bag screening 
with explosive detections systems," said David Z. Plavin, president of the 
Airports Council International-North America.

But for airports that do not have enough people or equipment to screen all 
the bags at peak periods, he predicted, some will be cleared to load on 
aircraft by unspecified "other means." As laid out in the law, "other 
means" could be hand searches, but these take 8 to 10 minutes a bag, 
experts say. Sniffer dogs are faster, but the dogs cannot work more than a 
few minutes at a time.

But some airport executives expect that in some places, some bags will be 
allowed through unscreened, at least in the early weeks of 2003.

Mr. Plavin said Congress should allow exceptions to its deadline. House and 
Senate Republicans agreed on Monday on language for a new domestic security 
bill that would allow some exemptions.

The Transportation Department is facing conflicting priorities. One is to 
meet the tight deadline placed on it by Congress, which fears suicide 
bombers on planes. Another is to maintain public confidence not only that 
air travel is secure, but also that security arrangements will not make 
flying impossibly cumbersome.

Airport managers have raised the prospect of people waiting to check bags 
in lines that extend out of the lobby into the parking garages, and 
airplanes delayed or even canceled while bags are checked.

Some airports have systems in place. Salt Lake City, for example, has been 
screening all bags since January 2001, said Barbara Gann, a spokeswoman for 
the city department of airports.

There have been some problems, Ms. Gann said. In winter, explosives used to 
create preventative avalanches on ski slopes show up on skis and ski bags, 
she said, and in dry weather, glycerin hand lotion packed in luggage 
confuses some machines.

Jeffrey P. Fegan, the chief executive of Dallas/Fort Worth International 
Airport, said: "There are no building permits issued; the designers are 
still working on solutions. We had a plan last March, we submitted it, we 
didn't get a decision."

At the end of the year, Mr. Fegan said, "something is going to have to give."

The senior Transportation Department official said the plan always called 
for accomplishing a large fraction of the work in the last few weeks. "It 
is perfectly understandable the anxiety that every airport director has, 
until they actually see it working," he said.
***************************
Washington Post
FBI to Review Reported SEC Security Breach


By Kathleen Day
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 13, 2002; Page E02


The Securities and Exchange Commission asked the FBI to review the evidence 
behind the forced resignation this summer of an SEC employee accused of 
sending secret information on U.S. high-technology companies to China, 
government sources said.

The SEC's inspector general asked for the review this week after the 
Washington Times wrote about the resignation of the employee, Mylene Chan, 
and quoted unidentified sources suggesting that she had engaged in an act 
of "economic espionage" that was "covered up" by the SEC.

The FBI review is to make sure that the SEC did everything it should have 
in its inspector general's investigation, and to determine if information 
about the incident was improperly concealed, government sources said.

The inspector general reviewed Chan's activity at the SEC's Division of 
Corporate Finance, where she was an employee for less than a year, then 
sent the information to a U.S. attorney's office, either in the District or 
in Virginia, a source familiar with the matter said.

Justice Department prosecutors issued a "declination," which meant they 
decided it was unlikely that Chan's actions were criminal, sources said. 
The conclusion was that "whatever was done was done inadvertently," the 
source said.

Chan has left the agency, but her telephone voice mail at the SEC still 
operates. She could not be reached for comment.

The SEC's inspector general, Walter Stachnik, declined to comment yesterday.

Chan was reported to have sent to China confidential information that 
companies submitted to the SEC to help agency staff understand financial 
statements.
*****************************
Washington Post
Briton Indicted as Hacker
Entry to U.S. Military Systems Called Biggest Ever Detected
By Brooke A. Masters
Wednesday, November 13, 2002; Page A11

An unemployed British computer system administrator was indicted yesterday 
in Alexandria and New Jersey on eight counts of computer fraud for alleging 
penetrating about 100 U.S. government computers, shutting down networks and 
corrupting data in what U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty called "the biggest 
hack of military computers ever detected."

From February 2001 to March 2002, two federal grand juries alleged, Gary 
McKinnon, 36, of London, exploited a known security problem with Microsoft 
Windows NT and Windows 2000 to break into 92 computers at NASA, the 
Pentagon, and more than a dozen military installations in 14 states.

Using software available on the Internet, he hacked into system 
administrator accounts, deleted files and accessed "sensitive" information, 
said McNulty, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. The 
attacks culminated in a February break-in that shut down 2,000 computers at 
the Military District of Washington for three days, officials said.

McKinnon has not been arrested, but McNulty said his office is working with 
Britain's national high-tech crime unit to extradite him to the United 
States. If the British courts agree to send McKinnon here, he would be the 
first person to be extradited to face hacking charges, said John Lynch, 
senior counsel at the Justice Department's computer crime unit.

Authorities believe McKinnon, who used the screen name "Solo," acted alone 
and was not connected to a terrorist group.

Federal officials said they believe McKinnon was looking for information 
rather than simply causing damage, but they said they believe he was not 
able to access any of the military's classified computer systems. The 
damage and lost productivity caused by his intrusions cost $900,000, 
officials said.

The case should send a message to hackers, McNulty said. "You cannot act 
anonymously on the Internet," he said. "If you hack us we will find you. We 
will prosecute you and we will send you to prison."

McKinnon is charged in Alexandria with seven counts of computer fraud and 
in New Jersey with one count of causing intentional damage to a protected 
computer for a 2001 break-in that forced the shutdown of the computer 
network at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Colts Neck, N.J. If convicted on 
all counts, he faces a maximum of 10 years on each one. He could not be 
located for comment.

The case "shows the far reach of computer crime and law enforcement's 
commitment to tracking it down," said Ralph J. Marra Jr., first assistant 
U.S. attorney for New Jersey.

McKinnon is accused of scanning more than 65,000 computers, seeking systems 
where administrators had failed to install a protective patch to the 
Windows program that had been publicly available for years. Once in, the 
hacker would exploit weak security -- users who left the word "password" or 
their sign-on name as their passwords -- to access individual accounts. He 
also installed a commercial software program called "Remotely Anywhere," 
that allowed him to tap into the systems and use the government's more 
powerful computers to scan other computers for weaknesses.

"The lesson we learn from this one and every previous one that we just 
don't heed is that you've got to be vigilant. You've got to scan for 
vulnerabilities and fix them when you find them," said Mark D. Rasch, 
senior vice president of Solutionary Inc., an Omaha computer security firm. 
"Check to make sure the doors are locked."
********************************
Mercury News
Telecom giants wage ad battle over network sharing
By Joelle Tessler

The latest clash in the arcane, long-running battle over how to regulate 
the Baby Bell phone companies is being played out on television screens and 
in newspapers across the country.

In a series of rancorous ads running from San Jose to Washington, D.C., the 
giants of telecom are going toe to toe over rules that require the Bells to 
share their monopoly local phone networks with rivals such as AT&T and MCI.

On one side, San Antonio-based SBC Communications, parent of Pacific Bell, 
claims that state and federal regulations that force it to lease its lines 
to competitors at wholesale rates below its own costs have shrunk the 
company's revenue and left it with no choice but to slash 11,000 jobs, 
including 3,000 in California.

Among the ads SBC is running, one shows a service technician who warns that 
``local phone competition won't work if I can't.'' Another compares the 
company's rivals to parasites who are sucking SBC's network dry.

On the other side of the media battle, a coalition of competing carriers 
called Voices for Choices argues that SBC does recover its costs from 
renting its lines to rivals and is simply using the threat of layoffs to 
strong-arm regulators into eliminating rules it does not like. Voices for 
Choices -- which includes AT&T and MCI parent WorldCom -- maintains that 
even as SBC warns regulators that it is on a path to ruin, the company is 
telling Wall Street that it is raking in billions of dollars in profits.

One Voices for Choices ad features a picture of a man with his mouth 
stuffed with cash. The message: ``SBC shouldn't talk with its mouth full.'' 
Another ad accuses SBC of pleading poverty to win a government bailout.

Target of ads

The propaganda blitz may leave many consumers who don't understand telecom 
regulation scratching their heads. According to Lora Watts, president of 
external affairs at Pacific Bell, the campaigns are largely targeted at 
regulators and legislators.

``With some of these ads, there is no way the average consumer would 
understand the issues at stake,'' she said.

What is at stake is the question of how to bring competition to the local 
phone market -- a market dominated by the four Bells, which control the 
proverbial ``last mile'' of wires going into customers' homes. Under the 
1996 Telecommunications Act, the Bells must open those lines to rivals 
before they can sell long distance.

At the federal level, SBC and its rivals are aggressively lobbying the 
Federal Communications Commission, which is in the midst of a regular 
review of the state of local phone competition. The FCC, which is expected 
to complete its review early next year, sets the guidelines used by the 
states to determine the prices the Bells can charge rivals for access to 
their lines.

In California, the Public Utilities Commission is in the process of setting 
the permanent wholesale rates that Pacific Bell can charge for pieces of 
its network, after sharply lowering the interim rates in May. That 
decision, which paved the way for AT&T and MCI to enter the state's local 
phone market, was a major defeat for Pac Bell. But it also set the stage 
for Pac Bell to finally win regulatory approval to sell long distance in 
California.

The PUC in August gave Pac Bell a tentative green light to sell long 
distance. The company's application is before the FCC. Now, however, 
Pacific Bell is pushing the PUC to set the permanent wholesale rates for 
access to its local connections at almost $30 a line a month -- roughly 
double the interim rates now in place.

According to Watts, the current network rates are as much as 60 percent 
below what Pac Bell spends to maintain and operate its lines in California. 
This leaves both Pacific Bell and its competitors with little incentive to 
invest in their systems because Pac Bell must share its network with its 
rivals at cut rates, Watts said.

Cause of slowdown

SBC blames a $1 billion-plus drop in revenue in the first half of this year 
as well as spending cuts and the coming 11,000 layoffs in large part on low 
wholesale rates in a number of states, including California.

But Wayne Huyard, president of MCI Mass Markets, argues that the real cause 
of the slowdown at SBC is the weak economy and competition from wireless 
carriers.

SBC's rivals also contend that even if growth is slowing, the company is 
not hurting financially -- particularly compared with others in the 
struggling telecom industry.

Ken McNeely, president of AT&T's California operations, sees Pac Bell's 
tactics in California as particularly duplicitous. On one hand, he said, 
SBC is pointing to the low interim rates set in May to argue that the local 
phone market is open to competition and that the company should be allowed 
into long distance.

At the same time, Pac Bell is lobbying the PUC to raise the permanent 
network rates. MCI, for one, warns that it will pull out of the local phone 
market in California if the PUC gives Pac Bell its way. But by the time the 
permanent rates are set, probably next summer, Pac Bell will likely already 
be selling long distance, McNeely said.

The PUC last week opened an investigation into how the SBC layoffs and 
spending cutbacks will affect service quality in California.
******************************
Federal Computer Week
Career Channels
Federal IT job openings
Nov. 12, 2002

Computer Assistant
Series/Grade: GS-335-7
Location: Tucson, Ariz.
Announcement #: 03-028
Closing Date: Dec. 2, 2002
Contact: Department of Veterans Affairs, HR (9-05), 3601 S. 6th Ave., 
Tucson, AZ 85723; 520-629-1803

Information Technology Specialist
Series/Grade: GS-2210-14
Location: Palo Alto, Calif.
Announcement #: VA-1-03-0046
Closing Date: Dec. 2, 2002
Contact: Department of Veterans Affairs, 11301 Wilshire Blvd., Building 
258, Room 128, Los Angeles, CA 90073; 310-268-4150

Statistician
Series/Grade: GS-1530-9
Location: West Haven, Conn.
Announcement #: 2-403-WH
Closing Date: Nov. 20, 2002
Contact: Department of Veterans Affairs, VA DEU (05B), Ann 2-403-WH, 200 
Springs Road, Bedford, MA 01730; 203-932-5711 X2392

Agricultural Statistician
Series/Grade: GS-1530-13
Location: Washington, D.C.
Announcement #: NASS-M2M-4115
Closing Date: Nov. 21, 2002
Contact: Department of Agriculture, ARS, 1400 Independence Ave. SW, MS 
0308, Washington, D.C. 20250; Elizabeth V. Suggs, 202-690-3694

Information Technology Specialist
Series/Grade: GS-2210-13
Location: Washington, D.C.
Announcement #: 02-EOUSA-80
Closing Date: Nov. 29, 2002
Contact: Department of Justice, Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, 600 E 
St. NW, Bicentennial Building, Room 8017, Washington, D.C. 20530; 202-616-6812

Assistant Internet Design Coordinator
Series/Grade: GS-2210-13
Location: Washington, D.C.
Announcement #: M/P-02-165
Closing Date: Dec. 31, 2002
Contact: U.S. Information Agency, 330 Independence Ave. SW, Washington, 
D.C. 20237; 202-619-3117

Applications Developer
Series/Grade: GS-2210-14
Location: Washington, D.C.
Announcement #: 020285
Closing Date: Nov. 25, 2002
Contact: Library of Congress, 101 Independence Ave. SE, Staffing and 
Recruitment Group, LM-107, Washington, D.C. 20540; 202-707-5627

Information Technology Specialist
Series/Grade: GS-2210-13
Location: Washington, D.C.
Announcement #: 2002-75
Closing Date: Nov. 21, 2002
Contact: Court Services and Offender Agency, 808 17th St. NW, Suite 820, 
Washington, D.C. 20006-3944; 202-220-5600

Computer Assistant
Series/Grade: GS-335-7
Location: Nordman, Idaho
Announcement #: R104-007-03F
Closing Date: Nov. 19, 2002
Contact: Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, 12730 Highway 12, 
Orofino, ID 83544; 208-476-8393

Information Technology Specialist
Series/Grade: GS-2210-11
Location: North Chicago
Announcement #: BG-DEU-03-2338
Closing Date: Dec. 3, 2002
Contact: Department of the Army, SFCP-NC, Asa (Mra) NCCPOC 1, Rock Island, 
IL 61299-7650; Sheri Bolte, 309-782-4853

Information Technology Specialist
Series/Grade: GS-2210-13
Location: Rock Island, Ill.
Announcement #: NEHT03I083825
Closing Date: Nov. 21, 2002
Contact: Department of the Army, NE Staff Division, 314 Johnson St., 
Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005-5283; Stacey Enderton, 410-306-1777

Supervisory Statistician
Series/Grade: GS-1530-14
Location: Chicago
Announcement #: CKC-BLS-03-001-B
Closing Date: Nov. 18, 2002
Contact: Department of Labor, 230 S. Dearborn St., Room 1026, Chicago, IL 
60604; L. Smith, 312-886-5379

Information Technology Specialist
Series/Grade: GS-2210-11
Location: Cadillac, Mich.
Announcement #: R9-1389-02G
Closing Date: Dec. 2, 2002
Contact: Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, 310 W. Wisconsin 
Ave., Suite 650, Milwaukee, WI 53203; Kim Kinlow, 414-297-3347

Computer Engineer
Series/Grade: GS-854-12
Location: Fort Monmouth, N.J.
Announcement #: ALU300208
Closing Date: Nov. 21, 2002
Contact: Department of the Army, NE Staff Division, DEU, 314 Johnson St., 
Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005-5283; 410-306-0031

Computer Engineer
Series/Grade: GS-854-14
Location: Fort Monmouth, N.J.
Announcement #: ALG03147259
Closing Date: Dec. 5, 2002
Contact: Department of the Army, NE Staff Division, 314 Johnson St., 
Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005-5283; Ann White, 410-306-0270

Statistician
Series/Grade: GS-1530-12
Location: Brooks Air Force Base, Texas
Announcement #: 02JUL276409
Closing Date: Jan. 9, 2003
Contact: Department of the Air Force, Personnel, HQ AFPC/DPCTDC, 550 C St. 
West Suite 57, Randolph Air Force Base, TX 78159-4759; 800-699-4473
**********************************
Federal Computer Week
Roster Change
Government IT personnel moves
Nov. 12, 2002 Printing? Use this version.
Email this to a friend.

Samuel Bonasso has been named deputy administrator of the Research and 
Special Programs Administration at the Transportation Department.

In this position, Bonasso will have significant responsibilities for the 
safe movement of hazardous materials by all transportation modes, rapid 
response to emergencies by government agencies, training for transportation 
safety professionals, and applying science and technology to meet national 
transportation needs.

He is a former secretary of transportation for West Virginia.

***

Lara Vande Walle has been selected as president of the Washington DC 
Technology Council (www.dctechcouncil.org), organization officials 
announced Nov. 7.

She will replace John Sanders, who has been serving as interim president 
since August 2002.

Most recently, Vande Walle served as director of membership and business 
development for the Technology Council of Maryland.

As the council's president, Vande Walle will work to promote the 
development, growth and recognition of Washington, D.C.'s technology community.

***

Andras Kournai has been named chief scientist and Mark Eichin has been 
selected as technical lead of MetaCarta Inc. The company is the provider of 
a new management platform that intersects textual data with geographical 
information and allows analysts to filter and visualize documents 
geographically.
*****************************
Government Computer News
Congress OKs cybersecurity R&D bill

By Wilson P. Dizard III
GCN Staff

The House yesterday passed by voice vote the Senate-amended version of the 
Cyber Security Research and Development Act, clearing the bill for the 
president's approval.

The bill, HR 3394, would authorize $903 million over five years for systems 
security research under the aegis of the National Science Foundation and 
the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

For its part, NSF is supposed to establish centers for computer and network 
security research at universities and provide doctoral fellowships. The 
bill directs NIST to negotiate and oversee university-industry partnerships 
for cybersecurity research.

The House first passed the bill in February by a vote of 400 to 12. The 
Senate last month cleared a slightly revised version. President Bush is 
expected to sign HR 3394 into law shortly.

Sen. Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Science 
Committee, said yesterday at a press conference on Capitol Hill that he 
would work closely with homeland security director Tom Ridge, presidential 
security adviser Richard Clarke and congressional appropriations chiefs to 
assure that fiscal 2003 appropriations complement HR 3394's authorization 
levels.
****************************
Government Computer News
HHS sets deal for intrusion detection service
By Dipka Bhambhani

Through a new task order for security services, the Health and Human 
Services Department has kicked off an effort to consolidate many IT 
services across its bureaus.

The department this month signed a five-year task order with Northrop 
Grumman Corp. for intrusion detection software, servers and vulnerability 
scanning services for all 12 of its bureaus.

"Fifteen months ago, the secretary challenged us in the IT community to 
develop an IT plan for HHS with explicit goals and consolidation" plans, 
said Jim Seligman, CIO for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
and one of the project managers for IT consolidation at HHS.

At HHS, each bureau had created its own security program and set up its own 
systems and applicationssome weaker than others, Seligman said. The idea is 
to create a more standardized security approach, he said.

"No single security prevention is going to protect you absolutely," 
Seligman said. "The core reason [for the task order] was to pull all 
agencies up to a minimum high-level baseline for security."

The security project is just one of 10 consolidation initiatives HHS plans 
to undertake. During the summer of 2001, department and bureau chiefs 
identified 21 potential consolidation projects.

Based on CIO audits and reviews and general trends in industry and 
government, HHS in October 2001 culled the list to 10 projects, Seligman said.

"One of those 10 projects was to do a consolidated standardized contractual 
service for intrusion detection and routine vulnerability scanning 
services," Seligman said.

Signed under a General Services Administration schedule contract held by 
Northrop Grumman, the deal has one base year and four one-year options. The 
company will integrate the RealSecure Protection Platform, from Internet 
Security Systems Inc. of Atlanta, on the HHS bureaus' systems.

All of the bureaus have agreed to use the new service, either to replace or 
to enhance their existing security measures, Seligman said. There is no 
requirement that the bureaus replace their hardware if it can use the new 
intrusion detection program. For now, each bureau will maintain its own 
hardware and software, he said.

The first task for Northrop Grumman is to inventory the existing security 
software and hardware and make an assessment about what new hardware and 
software will be needed.

Initially, the department expects to spend about $2.16 million on the 
project, but the total cost will depend on the hardware HHS will need to 
buy and on any software upgrades necessary to run the ISS detection app.
********************************
Government Executive
Hackers could be planning major attack, says White House
By Shane Harris
sharris@xxxxxxxxxxx

A new computer worm infecting a popular World Wide Web technology is proof 
that computer hackers have grown more sophisticated and could be preparing 
a significant attack, according to a senior White House official.

Marcus Sachs, director of communication and infrastructure protection at 
the White House Office of Cyberspace Security, said hackers driven to "the 
back streets and back alleys of the Internet" by intense law enforcement 
scrutiny following the Sept. 11 attacks have quietly been building new 
threats. The new worm, widely known as Slapper, is a prime example of their 
abilities, he said.


Officials believe millions of devices are vulnerable to Slapper, which is a 
computer code that burrows into a server, the program that provides the 
files that constitute Web pages. It enters through a well-known weakness in 
the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) that connects servers to the Internet. Once 
inside, the worm forces the server to seek out other infected machines, 
forming an army of so-called "zombies" that could bombard Web sites with 
bogus requests for information, causing a massive traffic jam on the Internet.


The attack method, known as a distributed denial-of-service attack, has 
been used to disrupt service on sites such as Yahoo! and eBay. Attacks last 
year by other worms, such as Code Red and Nimda, caused billions of dollars 
in damage and targeted some government Web sites, including a White House 
server.


The Slapper worm was identified two months ago, but federal officials still 
are concerned that many infected or at-risk organizations and individuals 
haven't taken adequate steps to protect themselves. The FBI's National 
Infrastructure Protection Center has found four variants of the worm, and 
notes that rates of new infection have declined. However, the agency also 
has warned that between 25,000 and 30,000 servers have already been 
infected. A steady buildup of infections preceded the Code Red and Nimda 
attacks.


Sachs said Slapper represents a "double barrel" feat of hacker engineering, 
because it targets two well-known devices that have long been considered 
quite secure. The Apache server the worm attacks and the hole in the SSL 
connection through which it enters are open source products, meaning their 
design is publicly available. Sachs said there has been a longstanding myth 
that open source technologies are safer than proprietary systems because 
their design can be improved by anyone who wants to examine them. The 
Slapper worm is helping to dispel that notion, he said.


The SSL vulnerability exists on a number of products, but Slapper is 
infecting only Apache servers that use the device.


Computer security experts believe Slapper is an evolution of previous worms 
and viruses because it includes some of the capabilities of its 
predecessors. It allows a remote attacker to hijack and command the 
infected system, and it may cause network disruption when the zombie 
systems communicate with one another, according to the Computer Emergency 
Response Team Coordination Center, a federally funded security research 
organization run by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.


Some believe Slapper is a sign of threats to come. "These types of worms 
have the potential of becoming the much bigger problem out there," said 
Vincent Weafer, senior director of the Symantec Anti Virus Research Center 
in Santa Monica, Calif., who worked with the FBI to investigate Code Red 
and other worms.


Advisories from the center < 
http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2002-27.html> and the FBI list a number 
of steps to protect systems < 
http://www.nipc.gov/warnings/assessments/2002/02-003.htm> against Slapper.
*****************************
Government Executive
November 12, 2002
Report urges agencies to use more wireless technology
From National Journal's Technology Daily

Government agencies should encourage their employees to use personal 
digital assistants and other wireless devices as part of a long-term plan 
to incorporate more wireless applications into their e-government 
initiatives, according to a new report released Tuesday by the IBM 
Endowment for the Business of Government.


The report, authored by professors from the National Defense University's 
Information Resources Management College and the University of Maryland's 
Robert H. Smith School of Business, recommended that federal, state and 
local governments provide their employees with basic training in the use of 
wireless technologies.


The report also recommended that agencies launch pilot programs to provide 
citizens in geographically remote areas with better access to government 
services.


But the report cautioned that privacy and security features should be 
improved before wireless applications are broadly deployed for that type of 
"government-to-citizen" use.
*******************************
Wired News
New Tools a Spying Boss Will Love

CHICAGO -- Malicious hackers can occasionally ruin a network 
administrator's day, but it's the lazy or disgruntled employees who are 
constant threats to security and sanity.

By promiscuously downloading any files that happen to catch their fancy, 
employees open big security holes in networks. And when they blithely 
purloin copyrighted material, they also open companies up to lawsuits.

When they aren't pirating products, employees are probably using the 
corporate network to peruse porn, do their holiday shopping, or flirt with 
their co-workers via corporate e-mail and instant-messaging applications.

Unethical employees best be on guard, though. A slew of high-tech ways to 
pursue and punish them have been on display at the Computer Security 
Institute's conference this week.

Protecting the collective corporate butt is the rationale behind many of 
these products. Several of the products even boast law enforcement or 
"Echelon-level" features.

Guidance Software's EnCase was used by federal agents investigating the 
murder of journalist Daniel Pearl, and also led to indictments of Enron and 
shoe bomber Richard Reed, according to company spokesman Matthew Zintel.

EnCase is now available for businesses, allowing them to "conduct 
full-scale electronic investigations" to handle situations "ranging from 
deleted and stolen information, downloading porn, and other liabilities," 
Zintel said.

ActivatorDesk's Enterprise Desktops Controller watches what employees do on 
their computers and compares the goings-on to a list of approved 
activities. If an employee strays from the straight and narrow, 
ActivatorDesk can instantly implement a "lock-down policy" and send network 
administrators an alert by e-mail.

"It's a friendly way to audit employee activity," a spokesman said.

Friendly is an oft-used description for these products. It refers to 
compliance with the various laws that outline approved snooping.

Over at WinWhatWhere's booth, visitors are told that the latest version of 
Investigator features "Title III Friendly Deployment," conforming to recent 
legal rulings on keystroke monitoring.

Among other features, Investigator offers "Stealth WebCam Monitoring," 
snapping images to tie PC usage to specific individuals. The product also 
offers key-phrase alerts, monitoring for a specific phrase and sending 
instant notification if the phrase is spotted. It also provides 
international keyboard support for snooping on the multilingual.

SilentRunner tracks workers' online activities to protect companies from 
getting sucked into lawsuits, and offers assessments on whether security 
infractions can be handed internally or need to be handed over to the lawyers.

"The number of incidences of employees using high-speed connections at work 
to download music, movies and porn are too numerous to mention," 
SilentRunner spokeswoman Davida Dinerman said.

"Management is concerned over lost time; IT is concerned over the use of 
software that opens holes in the network large enough to drive a truck 
through," Dinerman added. "But potentially the greatest direct cost to the 
company is criminal penalties and civil fines for allowing employees to 
violate digital rights or copyrights."

AXS-One's Compliance Portal is an e-mail collection and storage product 
specifically for financial institutions to put them in compliance with SEC 
rules. It uses SecuriQ.Safe to grab, extract and archive internal and 
external e-mails from the e-mail server.

"But that may someday change to include internal e-mails, and our customers 
will be ready," John Rade, CEO of AXS-One, said. The company also offers 
similar archiving for instant messages and other sorts of communications.

Network administrators attending the show seemed torn between admiration 
and squeamishness.

"I used to be a pretty unethical character in my misspent youth. But I 
never allowed myself to do the sort of things that some corporations are 
now doing to their employees," said a network administrator from Madison, 
Wisconsin, who asked that his name be withheld.

"Folks, if your systems guy comes home from this show with a shifty look on 
his face, better watch what you do online," the Wisconsin tech added.
*****************************
MSNBC Online
Israel develops secure army phone

TEL AVIV, Nov. 13  Israel's military said it planned to launch a 
cutting-edge secure mobile phone system that will be hard to disable and 
will ensure army brass can contact field commanders anytime, anywhere.

       DUBBED "MOUNTAIN ROSE," the $90 million system developed with 
Motorola Israel Ltd, a unit of Motorola, is expected to revolutionize the 
modern battlefield once it becomes fully operational in 2004, according to 
army officials.
       "The system is basically for secure voice communications in the 
field," said Colonel Avi Berger, head of the communication department in 
the military's Signal Corps.
       "It will also be valuable in a time of crisis because of its 
increased capacity and high survivability."
       By 2004, field commanders will no longer have to dash under fire to 
a secure mobile telecommunications unit but will have terminals sewn into 
their battle vests over which they will be able to receive and confirm 
instructions from top army brass.
       Natan Gidron, a senior Motorola executive, said the system and some 
of its robust handsets, like those designed for combat vehicles, are unique.
       "This is the first time that we have implemented a system like this 
using a standard system adapted to a military application," he said.
       Not even Motorola knows the secret behind the encryption and 
information security software developed by the Israeli army's Signal Corps, 
which has been embedded into its commercial TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked 
Radio Access) system.

RESILIENT SYSTEM
       TETRA, a highly sustainable cellular network, is the European 
standard for commercial dispatch systems and has been adapted by many 
public safety organizations.
       The Israeli army has bolstered the system's innate ability to 
remain operational even during heavy use by developing mobile cellular 
units that can be transported to sites of terror attacks or natural disasters.
       Until those units move in, users can revert to local trunking 
methods that run radio waves and allow for communication within a defined 
radius.
       "There are two levels of redundancy so that in the case of a real 
crisis the person with the device will be able to communicate," said Berger.
       In the future, commanders will be able to transmit and receive data 
over an advanced system running at a speed consistent with intermediate 2.5 
generation mobile technology.
       Asked about possible security breaches should a Mountain Rose 
device fall into enemy hands, Berger said without elaboration that the army 
had ways of taking any handset out of service "so it can't be used against us."
       TETRA, a highly sustainable cellular network, is the European 
standard for commercial dispatch systems and has been adapted by many 
public safety organizations.
       The Israeli army has bolstered the system's innate ability to 
remain operational even during heavy use by developing mobile cellular 
units that can be transported to sites of terror attacks or natural disasters.
       Until those units move in, users can revert to local trunking 
methods that run radio waves and allow for communication within a defined 
radius.
       "There are two levels of redundancy so that in the case of a real 
crisis the person with the device will be able to communicate," said Berger.
       In the future, commanders will be able to transmit and receive data 
over an advanced system running at a speed consistent with intermediate 2.5 
generation mobile technology.
       Asked about possible security breaches should a Mountain Rose 
device fall into enemy hands, Berger said without elaboration that the army 
had ways of taking any handset out of service "so it can't be used against us."
********************************
MSNBC Online
N.Y. wine shipping ban overturned
Judge allows direct shipment of out-of-state wine
By Declan McCullagh

WASHINGTON, Nov. 12  Internet wine sellers won a courtroom victory Tuesday, 
when a federal judge ruled that a New York state law is unconstitutional. 
In what is viewed as a test case, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman struck 
down a state law banning wine shipments from out-of-state wineries to New 
York state residents.

       "THE COURT CONCLUDES that the New York ban on the direct shipment 
of out-of-state wine is unconstitutional," Berman wrote in a 32-page opinion.
       Tuesday's decision comes as a procession of courts grapples with 
whether to permit criminal sanctions aimed at out-of-state businesses that 
ship alcohol into certain states. Courts have approved such bans in Indiana 
and Michigan, while other courts have ruled against them in Virginia and 
North Carolina, and a challenge to a Florida law is in flux.
       "Any winery that is set up to do Internet commerce will be able to, 
if we ultimately prevail here, ship to consumers in New York," said Steve 
Simpson, an attorney at the libertarian Institute for Justice (IJ), a 
public-interest law firm that brought the lawsuit.
       IJ is representing the Lucas Winery in Lodi, Calif., which sells 
wine over the Internet, and the Swedenburg Winery in Middleburg, Va.
       "This is a great opinion," Simpson said. "It's a huge boon to free 
trade. The judge made clear that New York can't exercise its power under 
the 21st Amendment as a pretext for protectionism. He didn't buy the notion 
that the states and wholesalers put forward that there is any temperance or 
tax justification.
APPEAL UNCERTAIN
       The 21st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says that shipping 
alcohol into a state "in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby 
prohibited." But Judge Berman said that the state law violates the 
Constitution's Commerce Clause by slapping undue burdens on out-of-state 
shippers.
       A spokesman for the New York attorney general's office, which is 
defending the law, would not say whether the state would appeal. "We have 
not made any determination at this time. We have received the court's 
decision and we are reviewing it at this time."
       Beer and wine distributors in New York state back the law, which 
grants them a profitable monopoly  markups are in the 25 percent range  on 
selling out-of-state alcohol.
      IJ argued that wineries that are too small to draw the attention of 
a distributor, which can carry only a limited number of labels, are out of 
luck. The law says that "no alcoholic beverages shall be shipped into the 
state" unless sent to a licensed distributor.
       A Justice Department appropriations bill, recently signed by 
President Bush, permits people physically visiting an out-of-state winery 
to have wine shipped to them at home.
       Judge Berman said he would not rule yet on whether to strike down 
the law in its entirety or find another approach, and set a hearing for 
Dec. 5 to hear arguments on that point.
****************************
CNN Online
Pirated Potter II film appears online?
Wednesday, November 13, 2002 Posted: 9:38 AM EST (1438 GMT)

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Days before the premiere of "Harry Potter and the 
Chamber of Secrets," the film's producer said it fears pirated copies are 
showing up on the Internet.

Warner Bros. said in a statement Tuesday that an illegal copy of the film 
has appeared on the Internet, which often contains bootleg copies of films, 
even before they hit theaters.

The studio later retracted the statement in a phone call to The Associated 
Press, saying reports of bootleg copies hadn't been substantiated, but an 
AP search discovered what appeared to be the movie available on a site 
hosted in Europe.

According to the site, the film had been downloaded more than 500 times 
already. Because it takes hours to download such files it was not 
immediately possible to verify that they contained the movie.

"The illegal copying and distribution of movies is theft," the studio said. 
"Warner Bros. takes the threat of Internet piracy very seriously and 
employs all legal means to contain the unauthorized copying and 
distribution of our films on the Internet."

News of the availability of the film online first appeared on Slashdot.org, 
a Web site for technology experts.

Pirated copies of films, often grainy, jumpy versions filmed using a 
handheld camera at a pre-premier screening, regularly show up on the 
Internet before a movie hits theaters.

The Motion Picture Association of America, the movie studio's trade group, 
aggressively fights piracy in the courts and uses software to scan the 
Internet searching for people offering illegal copies of films.

Five major studios, including Warner Bros., formed a joint venture last 
year to offer downloads of films on the Web, in large part to offer a legal 
alternative to piracy. That company, Movielink, opened for business this week.

The movie, the second film made from the popular series of children's 
books, opens Friday. It had premieres in London and New York.
*******************************
Snubbed suitor takes revenge on the Net
Teheran
November 13 2002

An Iranian computer seller has been detained by police after he posted on 
the Internet portraits of a girl who refused to marry him pasted onto naked 
bodies, a report said yesterday.

The Iran newspaper quoted the tearful victim of the porn vengeance as 
saying that after she refused all advances from her "no good" neighbor, she 
was bluntly told to visit a certain Web page.

"Because I don't have a computer, I went to a friend's house, and was 
absolutely shocked to see my head on the naked bodies of other women," the 
girl, identified only as a 21-year-old medical student, told the paper.

The Web page also gave her telephone number.

Her snubbed suitor had apparently used portraits of the girl taken during a 
birthday party last year.

After the victim lodged a complaint, her admirer was detained and released 
on bail of 100 million rials ($A22,300), pending trial, the paper said.

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


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Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber:

Welcome to the November 13, 2002 edition of ACM TechNews,
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ACM TechNews
Volume 4, Number 422
Date: November 13, 2002

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Top Stories for Wednesday, November 13, 2002:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"House OK's Computer Security Bill"
"An Innovation Recession?"
"New Tech Taps Solar Power to Deliver Broadband"
"'Rewiring' File-Sharing Networks May Stop Attacks"
"U.S. Hopes to Check Computers Globally"
"Photonic Crystals in Uniforms"
"Tech Futures: Where Workers and Investors Will Find
Opportunities in the Years Ahead"
"Silicon Hogs"
"CMU Work Aims to Change Relationship Between Vehicle, Driver"
"Few Firms Have Figured Out How to Make MEMS Quickly and Cheaply"
"Government-Backed Software Security Study Takes Off"
"Map Data Goes Live with Voice, Gesture-Based Computer System"
"Internet Turf War Playing Out"
"Three New 'Net Domains Could Be Added Next Year"
"IBM's 3D IC: No Funny Glasses Needed"
"New Software Cages Hacker Attacks"
"Heart of the Matter"
"A Scientific Funding Fight"
"Why 6-Legged Bots Rule"

******************* News Stories ***********************

"House OK's Computer Security Bill"
The $903 million Cyber Security Research and Development Act,
which will fund cybersecurity projects and training programs over
the next five years, was approved by the U.S. House of
Representatives on Tuesday.  Under the bill, the National ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item1

"An Innovation Recession?"
A study estimates that tech spending on research and development
fell 8 percent between mid-2001 and early 2002 because of the
economic recession, and analysts are troubled that this will
impact technological innovations, which are regarded as vital to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item2

"New Tech Taps Solar Power to Deliver Broadband"
Researchers at the University of Southern California, San Diego
(UCSD) have developed broadband microwave antennas powered by
solar panels to deliver wireless connectivity to remote areas.
"The use of solar panels to power wireless broadband ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item3

"'Rewiring' File-Sharing Networks May Stop Attacks"
Stanford University researchers have developed a network design
model that would prevent attackers from crashing peer-to-peer
(P2P) file-sharing networks, including movie studios and music
labels that want to stop pirated works from being traded online. ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item4

"U.S. Hopes to Check Computers Globally"
Former national security adviser John Poindexter, who runs the
new Information Awareness Office, has proposed a global computer
surveillance system that would be used to study commercial and
government databases worldwide for evidence of terrorist ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item5

"Photonic Crystals in Uniforms"
MIT researcher Yoel Fink has conceived of polymer-based photonic
crystals that could be used as part of a $50 million Defense
Department contract to create an exoskeleton that would give
soldiers enhanced abilities.  Fink's planned contribution to the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item6

"Tech Futures: Where Workers and Investors Will Find
Opportunities in the Years Ahead"
In order for the technology sector to start selling its products
again, it does not need to introduce revolutionary products, but
simply further the penetration of existing ones throughout the
economy.  Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan noted last week
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item7

"Silicon Hogs"
Growing e-waste resulting from more and more electronic equipment
being junked is a well known problem, but a new study to be
published in the December issue of Environmental Science &
Technology indicates a huge amount of materials and energy is ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item8

"CMU Work Aims to Change Relationship Between Vehicle, Driver"
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) are working to
make interaction between drivers and electronic vehicle systems
easier and safer, given the risk of distraction caused by both
the increasing sophistication of vehicle electronics and the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item9

"Few Firms Have Figured Out How to Make MEMS Quickly and Cheaply"
The road to mass production of microelectromechanical systems
(MEMS) is paved with obstacles, including high cost, a
still-developing infrastructure, packaging difficulties, and a
lack of standards.  Despite these hurdles, WTC forecasts that the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item10

"Government-Backed Software Security Study Takes Off"
As part of the U.S. government's Software Protection Initiative
(SPI), the Air Force Research Laboratory awarded Network
Associates with a $1.8 million research contract focusing on
projects such as the production of a secure development ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item11

"Map Data Goes Live with Voice, Gesture-Based Computer System"
With funding from the National Science Foundation, Penn State
researchers have developed a prototype interface technology that
allows people to access Geographic Information System (GIS) map
data using gestures and vocal commands.  Emergency management ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item12

"Internet Turf War Playing Out"
The ICANN reform decisions approved at ICANN's Shanghai meeting
make the meeting ICANN's most eventful ever by launching ICANN
into a new era free of user-participation mechanisms and publicly
elected board members, writes Michael Geist.  ICANN has chosen ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item13

"Three New 'Net Domains Could Be Added Next Year"
ICANN President Stuart Lynn has recommended the creation of three
more top level domains, but they will probably be reserved for
specific online communities, and Lynn says that such limitations
could help avoid the huge domain rush that occurred during ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item14

"IBM's 3D IC: No Funny Glasses Needed"
IBM announced today that it has developed a new fabrication
technique for three-dimensional integrated circuits (ICs) that
would significantly boost the density, performance, and
functionality of chips.  The company said the slow adoption of 3D ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item15

"New Software Cages Hacker Attacks"
Experts at Pennsylvania State University have developed a program
that lures prospective hackers into fake databases, confines any
altered data, and almost instantly repairs the database.  As a
result, legitimate users can continue to operate the database ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item16

"Heart of the Matter"
Companies and government agencies are rethinking IT
infrastructure in order to boost efficiency, functionality,
performance, and flexibility, and the factors fueling this trend
include the need for real-time computing, collaborative business, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item17

"A Scientific Funding Fight"
A congressional proposal to double the National Science
Foundation's $5 billion budget over the next three to five years
has been halted by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB),
which contends through officials and other opponents that the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item18

"Why 6-Legged Bots Rule"
Robert J. Full of the University of California at Berkeley is
using his expertise in animal locomotion to advise technology
developers such as Segway Human Transporter inventor Dean Kamen
on how to create more effective, stable, and mobile mechanisms.  ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1113w.html#item19


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