Clips December 9, 2002

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips December 9, 2002

ARTICLES

Norwegian DVD hacker, 18, goes on trial
Lawmaker reviving failed e-waste bill
Israel, FBI Find Suspected Credit Hacker
Bay Area embraces Internet, poll finds But gap widens in computer use
DOD still working on change
FBI seeks to link joint terrorism task forces
Justice states Ptech presents no security risk
Online rule-making to debut Dec. 18
Scientists seek revamped federal supercomputing effort
New technologies key to Defense transformation, says official

*******************************
Houston Chronicle
Norwegian DVD hacker, 18, goes on trial
Associated Press

OSLO, Norway -- Jon Lech Johansen was only 15 when he wrote and distributed 
on the Internet for free a program that unlocked copy-protected DVDs, 
giving Hollywood nightmares and making him a folk hero among hackers.

Three years later, he's going on trial in an important test case for 
Norway's strict laws against computer piracy and hacking.

The proceedings begin today in Oslo District Court and are expected to last 
five days, with Johansen taking the stand. But whatever the trial's 
outcome, the digital copycat is well out of the bag.

The short program Johansen wrote is only one of many easily available 
programs that can break DVD security codes. One is included in a software 
package, sold by a U.S. company, that even burns DVDs after cracking the 
copy protection.

Johansen has refused to talk to reporters ahead of his trial. But his 
defense attorney, Halvor Manshaus, said the teenager has done nothing 
wrong, having only written a small program using security-breaking code 
developed and sent to him by others.

Under the law, Johansen could be sentenced to up to two years in prison, 
fines and compensation, although few expect the teen to do any prison time.

The charges were filed after Norwegian prosecutors received a complaint 
from the Motion Picture Association of America, which represents the major 
Hollywood studios.

The prosecutors agreed with the movie industry that Johansen's program, in 
effect, left their property unlocked and open for theft. Called DeCSS, it 
compromised an industry-developed software scheme called the Content 
Scrambling System -- usually called CSS -- that was designed to prevent 
unauthorized duplication.

Johansen has said he wanted only to watch DVDs on his Linux-based computer, 
which lacked the DVD-viewing software of Windows and Macintosh users. 
However, DeCSS also lets people copy and share DVD files on the Internet, 
thus allowing others to obtain movies for free.

"The access was a violation because the DVD films were sold on the 
condition that the user would use authorized playing equipment and respect 
the copy protection," the indictment says.

More than 5,000 copies of the DeCSS program were downloaded from the 
Internet in the first three months after it was posted in late October 
1999, prosecutors say.

Johansen, now 19 and known in Norway as "DVD Jon", became a rallying point 
for hackers, some of whom even marched in his support when witnessed at a 
New York trial against others who had linked to his DeCSS program.

In the United States, the case is seen as a test of freedom of expression, 
since proponents claim that writing such software is an exercise in 
intellectual freedom rather than an attempt to steal copyright material. 
The act of cracking the code in and of itself should not be criminal, such 
people argue.

Johansen's DeCSS program has been the subject of at least three lawsuits in 
the United States.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties organization based on 
San Francisco, Calif., has criticized the prosecution of Johansen as 
distorting a law intended for serious criminal activity, like breaking into 
a bank's computer system.

Johansen, it notes, merely broke in to a DVD he bought legally.
******************************
Mercury News
Lawmaker reviving failed e-waste bill
By Jim Puzzanghera
Mercury News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - To deal with the growing problem of electronic waste, a Bay 
Area member of Congress plans to reintroduce legislation next month calling 
for a fee of up to $10 on each new computer to fund national recycling efforts.

``It's a problem that's really crying out for a solution,'' said Rep. Mike 
Thompson, D-Napa, who sponsored similar legislation earlier this year. ``I 
think the entire industry recognizes that it's a problem.''

Thompson's proposal follows a Mercury News series detailing the labor and 
environmental problems of computer recycling in China. It also follows the 
recent announcement by Hewlett-Packard that the world's largest computer 
maker now intends to work with California officials to develop a solution 
to the problem of toxic electronic waste.

HP had lobbied hard against an e-waste recycling bill earlier this year, 
helping persuade Gov. Gray Davis to veto the legislation.

HP and the rest of the computer industry would prefer a nationwide solution 
that would avoid a patchwork of different state regulations. An 
organization of companies, government agencies and non-profit groups trying 
to find a consensus on the issue may have some recommendations as early as 
February.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a San Jose Democrat and a strong voice in Congress on 
high-tech issues, also said she is looking at crafting legislation to 
address the problem when the new congressional session begins in January.

``The point made that this really is a nationwide issue, it's not a 
California issue, is true,'' Lofgren said.

The Mercury News series showed how the computer industry has distanced 
itself from taking responsibility for toxic materials in its products. 
Migrant workers in China earning pennies a day end up scavenging an 
increasing number of discarded personal computers, pulling out the 
hazardous materials with no protection. And industry efforts to solve the 
problem have been ineffective.

A consensus about how to deal with the problem among politicians, industry 
officials and environmentalists would be crucial to getting 
electronic-waste legislation through Congress next year. The issue is not 
on the agenda of either party's leadership, meaning a bill lacking broad 
support may not even make it to a hearing, much less a vote.

Consensus needed

And Lofgren predicted that the only way to get the signature of President 
Bush is to have the industry and both political parties strongly on board.

But California's continued push on the issue may help force it onto the 
congressional agenda, Lofgren said.

Led by state Sen. Byron Sher, D-San Jose, who plans to reintroduce the 
electronics-recycling legislation that Davis vetoed in October, California 
has been at the forefront of dealing with an issue that is getting more 
attention in statehouses around the country. Last year, 24 states 
contemplated legislation dealing with electronic waste, according to the 
Electronic Industries Alliance, a trade group representing 2,300 companies.

The high-tech industry is adamant about avoiding computer-recycling laws 
that differ from state to state, said Heather Bowman, director of 
environmental affairs for the alliance.

``The one thing that all of our manufacturers agree on -- and I can hardly 
ever say that -- is this shouldn't be done on a state-by-state level,'' she 
said. ``It would be way too complex.''

But that's where the consensus ends.

Sher's legislation in California would require a $10 fee on the sales of 
new computer monitors and televisions to help pay for the recycling of 
cathode ray tubes in those devices, which are laden with hazardous lead. 
The money would then be distributed to local governments, non-profit 
agencies and others who handle recycled electronics.

Thompson's legislation would go beyond the recycling of cathode ray tubes 
to other dangerous electronic waste. It would impose up to a $10 fee on the 
retail sales of computers, monitors and laptops to help establish 
computer-recycling programs throughout the country. The money would go to 
the Environmental Protection Agency, which would distribute grants to state 
and local governments, businesses or other groups to set up environmentally 
responsible recycling programs.

The high-tech industry would prefer voluntary programs, and would like the 
fee to be paid when the electronics are disposed of, not when they are 
purchased, Bowman said.

HP would like to see Thompson's proposal deal only with cathode ray tubes, 
the company said.

``We should walk before we run,'' said David Isaacs, HP's director of 
global public policy. He said legislation should start with the recycling 
of cathode ray tubes and see how that works before addressing the broader 
issue of recycling waste in the computer's central processing unit.

Seeking support

Thompson so far has taken the lead in Congress on the issue. He introduced 
the Computer Hazardous Waste Infrastructure Act in July and lined up 15 
co-sponsors, including three Republicans -- crucial in the GOP-controlled 
House of Representatives. But with the bill coming late in the 
congressional session, it was referred to an Energy and Commerce 
subcommittee and did not receive a hearing before the House adjourned for 
the year.

Lofgren said she was unaware of Thompson's bill until this week, and a news 
liaison for Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, said the bill's late introduction 
meant his staff had not had a chance to review it. Thompson is also looking 
for someone in the Senate to help shepherd the legislation through that 
chamber. He said he had had preliminary discussion with California Sens. 
Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, but said the process had just begun.

Thompson acknowledged that dealing with mounting toxic electronic waste is 
not a priority for either Democrats or Republicans in Congress right now. 
But momentum might be building for federal legislation.

``I don't expect I'll introduce this on a Tuesday and it will be heard the 
following Wednesday. It's going to take a while,'' he said. ``We'll come 
back next year and continue to work on it.''
***********************************
Associated Press
Israel, FBI Find Suspected Credit Hacker

By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli police, aided by the FBI (news - web sites), 
arrested an Israeli suspected of hacking into computers of a U.S.-based 
electronics company and stealing personal information, including the credit 
card numbers of some 80,000 customers, according to court document released 
Sunday.



David Sternberg, 24, of the port city of Haifa, was arrested late Friday 
while driving in a stolen car, police said. The FBI notified the Israelis 
he was wanted in 2000 and police began searching for him in 2001, according 
to the transcript of his detention hearing.


Sternberg allegedly broke into the computers of a large U.S. company that 
sells CD-ROMs and DVDs, but police refused to release the name of the 
company. The court document also did not mention the company's name.


"It's a company in the (United) States. The FBI had been in connection with 
us about this case. ... He (Sternberg) was listed as wanted for 
investigation," police spokesman Gil Kleiman said.


The U.S. Embassy spokesman said he had no immediate information about the 
case.


In more than two years of Israeli-Palestinian violence, cyberwar has become 
an integral part of the fighting as Israeli and Palestinian hackers attack 
rival Web sites and computers  crashing, jamming and overwriting systems.

**********************************
Washington Post
E-Mail Overload Is a Myth, Study Says
Findings Differ From Popular Belief

By Shannon Henry
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 9, 2002; Page E05


Most American workers are not -- repeat not -- overwhelmed by stuffed 
e-mail inboxes or vast amounts of spam, according to a new study that 
contradicts conventional wisdom that e-mail has become a major burden on 
people's lives.

About 60 percent of workers surveyed for the study by the Washington-based 
Pew Internet & American Life Project said they receive an average of 10 or 
fewer messages per day.

When asked to describe their e-mail load, 65 percent of respondents said 
"e-mail is not a problem whatsoever," while 30 percent said they manage to 
stay on top of it and just 4 percent said they felt under e-mail siege.

Deborah Fallows, a senior research fellow at Pew and author of the study, 
said the findings shocked her. She personally gets too many e-mails, and so 
do most of the people she knows.

Fallows said the counterintuitive results show there is a relatively small 
and vocal group of workers -- about 15 to 20 percent of the population, who 
are what she calls "power e-mailers" who handle high volumes of e-mail, but 
most users are simply not drowning in electronic mail at work.

Pew's conclusions, however, do not match the findings of other 
organizations that study Internet use.

"It makes no sense to me," said Maurene C. Grey, research director of 
Gartner Inc., a research firm in Stamford, Conn.

"We've found workers are extremely overloaded. My gut reaction was who in 
the world were they interviewing? I would seriously question the results of 
that study."

Grey said she has found the opposite to be true, that e-mail use among 
workers is growing enormously and that nearly 100 percent of those she 
talks to say e-mail has become a productivity drain as well as a 
productivity enhancer.

If such a study is true, said Grey, she cannot imagine why a successful 
cottage industry has sprouted up to help employees better manage their 
e-mail. For example, Brightmail Inc. of San Francisco, which creates 
anti-spam software, says that in September 2001 unsolicited bulk e-mail, 
known as "spam," represented 8 percent of all e-mail volume.

However, that number jumped to 35 percent in September 2002, said Francois 
Lavaste, Brightmail's vice president of marketing.

Grey said that if Pew mainly interviewed "mom and pop" store workers, such 
as those who work in the bagel store down the street, it is possible that 
many of those employees use e-mail much less often than office workers and 
are therefore less likely to be overwhelmed by e-mail.

Pew surveyed 2,447 Internet users, 1,003 of which use e-mail at work, by 
conducting random phone calls across the country. The study only 
concentrated on e-mail in the workplace. Had it also included e-mail use at 
home, the findings would have been vastly different, Fallows said. Spammers 
aggressively target users of the most popular home e-mail services, 
including America Online, Yahoo and Microsoft's Hotmail, because e-mail 
addresses using those domain names, such as johnsmith@xxxxxxx, can be more 
easily guessed and reach more users than those at individual corporations.

In addition, anti-spam technology and information technology officers at 
companies have become more adept at stemming the flow of unwanted mail.

Not everyone is entirely thrilled with e-mail, however, the study said. 
About a quarter of work e-mailers find e-mail distracting. And one-fifth 
said e-mail has caused misunderstandings on the job.

Fallows said some people Pew spoke with said they were so sick of e-mail 
overload that they ignored e-mail or intended to stop checking e-mail 
altogether. The study found that 11 percent of "power users" felt 
overwhelmed by e-mail, compared with 2 percent of regular users. But she 
said those people were rare, and more power users are sophisticated enough 
to have effectively figured out how to manage their inbox.
*****************************
San Francisco Chronicle
Bay Area embraces Internet, poll finds But gap widens in computer use 
between rich, poor

Bay Area residents are increasingly logging on to the Internet, although 
the gap in use between high- and lower-income groups is widening, according 
to a new survey.

The annual Bay Area Poll, commissioned by the Bay Area Council business 
group, underscores the persistence of the so-called digital divide.

But the survey also paints a picture of a region that has embraced 
technology more than many other areas of the country.

Among the findings is that nearly 75 percent of all local residents use the 
Internet at least once a week, up 3 percent from last year. Nationally, the 
average is around 60 percent.

Bay Area residents with annual household incomes of more than $80,000 led 
the online charge. Their rate of adoption surged to 90 percent, up 5 
percent from last year.

But Internet use in lower-income households grew more slowly, according to 
the survey. Nearly 58 percent of residents with household incomes of less 
than $40,000 said they used the Internet, up only 2 percent from the 
previous year.

The digital divide becomes even more glaring when computer use is 
considered. Computer adoption actually declined 3 percent for lower-income 
residents to 65 percent, according to the survey. However, the rate for 
higher- income residents surged 5 percent to 92 percent.

For years, educators and economists have worried about the poor being left 
behind in the Internet revolution. They say that the online have-nots are 
more likely to fall behind in school and therefore be unqualified for 
higher paying jobs.

"It is troublesome to us that that digital divide is widening," said Sunne 
Wright McPeak, chief executive for the Bay Area Council. "What that 
suggests is a hardening of adoption in the poorer neighborhoods that is 
going to require a strong public policy to break through the barriers."

The Bay Area Poll, released today, is derived from 600 telephone interviews 
across an array of topics with a representative sample of Bay Area 
residents. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percent.

For the first time, residents were asked whether they access the Internet 
on dial-up or high-speed connections. The responses showed a relatively 
high percentage of the public using broadband compared with national averages.

Among Internet users, 43 percent said they have high-speed connections at 
home through cable or DSL lines. Fifty-three percent said they had regular 
telephone modem connections.

Nationally, the breakdown is around 28 percent for broadband and 71 percent 
for dial-up connections, according to NetRatings, a market research firm.

The most popular use for the Internet, the survey found, was reading 
reference materials, journals or databases. Second place went to accessing 
online news, followed by travel and weather information in third place.

The mean time spent online at home and work for online users was 11.46 
hours, according to the survey.

Results for all questions will be available Wednesday on the Bay Area 
Council Web site at www.bayareacouncil.org.

[For statistics, see: 
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/12/09/BU203352.DTL&type=chart]
*******************************
Federal Computer Week
DOD still working on change
BY Nancy Ferris
Dec. 9, 2002.

The military is embracing the idea of network-centric warfare, but Defense 
Department officials need to change their mind-sets if they want to make it 
stick, according to the man who first championed the concept.

"Much of what they focus on is becoming irrelevant," said retired Vice Adm. 
Arthur Cebrowski, director of the Pentagon's Force Transformation Office, 
at the annual conference of the non-profit CNA Corp. (formerly the Center 
for Naval Analysis).

DOD and Congress, for example, are debating what kinds of aircraft to 
build, while "the real fight is over sensors"  the systems that find and 
identify enemy forces, then launch attacks, he said.

Cebrowski called for acceleration in the transition from the Industrial Age 
to the Information Age, saying that "fighter vs. fighter combat is in a 
state of devolution" as threats increasingly come from small nations that 
lack major military forces or from groups not aligned with nations. With 
better information systems, the United States will be better prepared to 
combat these "asymmetric" threats, he said.

The transformation chief said speed is an important ingredient of 21st 
century warfare, but information and combat orders are slowed down by 
having to move up and down each service's ranks, because "we have no joint 
structures" that extend onto the battlefield.

Retired Rear Adm. Michael McDevitt, who is now on CNA's staff, cited the 
Global Positioning System as an example of how information technology can 
change the character of military operations. He said that future historians 
probably will conclude that "GPS has been as transformative as the aircraft 
or the internal combustion engine."

But retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper challenged the 
conventional wisdom about the importance of IT. He said civilian and 
military leaders are making the microprocessor the focus of the 
transformation drive, and he fears that focus is a mistake that could leave 
the armed services unprepared for a future war.

The notion of network-centric warfare does little to prepare soldiers and 
sailors for actual combat against a real enemy, Van Riper said. Instead of 
focusing on IT, he said, the services must develop new concepts of 
effective military operations. "Don't put your faith in the technology," he 
said after the conference, "You've got to do the thinking first."

Other speakers also called for development of new concepts of operations 
for joint forces. But few joined in Van Riper's criticism of what he 
considers excessive reliance on IT.

Lt. Gen. John Riggs, director of the Army's Objective Force Task Force, 
said, "Still to this day, we haven't discovered all that is to be 
discovered" about IT, but we do know it's a force multiplier.

An enterprise architecture is one element of the Army's transformation 
plan, known as Objective Force, but he acknowledged that the service faces 
"a significant integration challenge" just to get its own systems 
communicating with one another.

In the Navy, "we are plugging in like we never have before," said Vice Adm. 
Michael Mullen, deputy chief of resources, requirements and assessments for 
the service. The forthcoming ForceNet architecture will pull together the 
enabling technology for the transformed Navy, he added.

The Air Force, too, is counting on an enhanced network linking sensors, 
communications systems and weapons systems, said Maj. Gen. Ronald Bath, the 
service's director of strategic planning.

Ferris is a freelance writer in Chevy Chase, Md. She can be reached at 
nancy.ferris@xxxxxxxx
************************************
Federal Computer Week
FBI seeks to link joint terrorism task forces
Bureau wants to streamline info sharing

As part of the FBI's effort to enhance its information-sharing 
capabilities, the bureau is attempting to link more than 50 joint terrorism 
task forces (JTTF) on a network that would far surpass current 
communication methods.

The FBI established many of the task forces following the Sept. 11, 2001, 
attacks as a way to streamline communications and intelligence-sharing 
efforts. The task forces include representatives from the Defense 
Department and other government agencies at each of the FBI's 56 field 
divisions nationwide.

"One year ago, nearly half of these task forces didn't exist," FBI Director 
Robert Mueller said in an October address at the International Association 
of Chiefs of Police's annual conference. "The ones that did exist were not 
nearly as large as they are now. Today, information flows more freely. Tips 
are routed more quickly. Leads are covered more efficiently. Again, it is 
not perfect. But it gets better every day."

Now, the bureau is focused on providing a common operating picture for JTTF 
participants as well as finding a way to link all of the task forces so 
they can share information, said James McDougall, deputy 
counterintelligence staff officer at the U.S. Pacific Command. Even though 
each participant has a computer system, "we're attempting to find a common 
picture for all of them," he said last month after participating in a panel 
at AFCEA International's TechNet Asia-Pacific conference in Honolulu.

JTTF-Pacific may have inspired the FBI's plans to link the task forces 
nationwide. It is composed of 19 federal, state and local government 
agencies, including Pacom, the FBI, the Army and the Navy, McDougall said, 
adding that the Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization 
Service soon will join on the intelligence side.

Furthermore, as manager of the FBI's National Intel Share Project, Bill 
Eubanks is coordinating an initiative to ensure the basic sharing of 
appropriate information and intelligence among the bureau and other 
federal, state and local law enforcement entities, Mueller said. "We have 
more to do and we know it," he said. "But we are seeing an unprecedented 
level of cooperation throughout the law enforcement community. Some of the 
most significant changes have less to do with what we are doing and more to 
do with how we are doing it."

JTTF-Pacific has a standard DOD communications suite, which can handle 
information ranging from sensitive to unclassified, but the bureau still 
uses computer systems for its daily operations that are incompatible with 
the DOD tools.

That disconnect means participants often have to rely on the "shoulder tap" 
method to share intelligence, as opposed to simply clicking a button, 
McDougall said.

Another complication was identified when trying to share intelligence with 
local law enforcement officials. The chief of the Honolulu Police 
Department has top-secret clearance but no access to DOD's Secret Internet 
Protocol Router Network, so pertinent messages must be sent via trusted 
courier or delivered in person, McDougall said.

To eliminate such problems, Pacom hired a contractor on behalf of JTTF- 
Pacific to create a way for task force members to use a common operating 
picture, or at the very least, establish high-speed, secure links among 
computer systems, he said.

Security requirements, such as identifying sufficient software or firewall 
solutions, complicate the establishment of those links, McDougall said. 
After learning of the Hawaii team's work, officials at FBI headquarters 
decided that the contractor also should examine ways to link the 56 
geographically disparate JTTFs, he said, adding that he could not name the 
vendor for security reasons.

Oliver "Buck" Revell, former associate deputy director for investigations 
at the FBI, said JTTFs can exchange information through encrypted teletypes 
or sec-ure faxes and telephones, but they crave a network to quickly and 
securely connect them all.

"That link would not be as cumbersome as teletype, and the secure phone and 
fax [lines] are insufficient" for work the task forces need to do and the 
information they need to share, said Revell, president of Revell Group 
International Inc., a security consulting company. "They are all anxious to 
have it."

The FBI did not return calls seeking comment.
*******************************
Government Computer News
Justice states Ptech presents no security risk
By Wilson P. Dizard III and Patience Wait
Post Newsweek Tech Media

In the aftermath of an early Friday search of software vendor Ptech Inc.'s 
headquarters, Justice Department officials say the government does not have 
any reason to believe any federal systems have been compromised.

"The search was conducted in connection with an on-going financial crime 
investigation," U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Michael J. Sullivan said in 
a statement. "Media characterizations of this as a terrorist investigation 
are premature."

For its part, Ptech denied that that the search of its Quincy, Mass., 
offices constituted a raid and said it was cooperating with the 
investigation. "The company categorically denies having any connection with 
a terrorist organization," a company release said.

Sullivan said because Ptech had provided software to federal agencies, 
"there have been questions raised concerning their products. All the 
products provided to the government were of a nonclassified nature. 
However, out of an abundance of caution, the affected government agencies, 
including the FBI, conducted a review of their computer systems."

The General Services Administration said in a statement that Ptech has 
conducted about $3.3 million in work for the federal government under a GSA 
schedule contract.

The review had not uncovered any vulnerabilities in Ptech products, 
Sullivan said. "There is also no evidence to suggest that the system is 
susceptible to compromise or poses any security risk," he said.

Sources close to the company said it had never worked on any classified 
systems, and federal background checks of its employees had been carried 
out for other reasons, such as contact with sensitive information. Ptech 
said it had been told by government investigators that neither the company 
nor its officers and employees are the target of the government's 
investigation.

Ptech said company officials had granted federal investigators access to 
the company's premises. "Moreover, Ptech has assisted the government in its 
investigation and intends to continue to do so," the company said.

The investigation has drawn IBM Corp. into the fray as well because Ptech 
promotes an "alliance partner" relationship with IBM on its Web site. IBM 
spokesman Jeff Gluck minimized the connection between the two companies. "A 
lot of small companies like to play up the relationship with IBM. This is 
one example," Gluck said.

Gluck confirmed that Ptech has worked with IBM's global services group to 
help map and model enterprise architectures. "There are engagements where 
we're working together, [and] places where Ptech sold us their software," 
he said. But there is no reason to suspect there's anything wrong with the 
software, Gluck said.

No law enforcement agencies have contacted IBM about Ptech, he said.
*********************************
Government Computer News
By Jason Miller
GCN Staff

The Office of Management and Budget and the Environmental Protection Agency 
plan to launch the first iteration of the Online Rulemaking e-government 
project on Dec. 18. The portal, at www.regulations.gov, will let citizens 
and businesses find and comment on proposed federal regulations.

An OMB official said the portal will be fully functional by then, but OMB 
will launch it formally at a ceremony early next month.

Although OMB hoped to get the system up in September, load testing and 
software compatibility problems moved the date back to October and then to 
Dec. 18, the official said [see story at 
www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/20117-1.html]. Despite the delays, the 
project still is ahead of its Dec. 31 deadline.

The official said OMB moved the project to EPA from the Transportation 
Department in October after an independent evaluation of agency online 
rule-making systems found that EPA's system is best suited to go 
governmentwide. The project's business case calls for agencies to migrate 
to the EPA system, the official said, so it made sense for EPA to manage 
the project.
******************************
Government Executive
Scientists seek revamped federal supercomputing effort
By Bara Vaida, National Journal's Technology Daily

In April, Japan rocked the U.S. supercomputer sector, which traditionally 
has led the world in producing the fastest machinery, with the unveiling of 
the Earth Simulator, a $400 million product that outpaces the speed of U.S. 
supercomputers.

Now U.S. scientists are hoping that their government will boost spending in 
fiscal 2004 to keep pace with Japan, whose government paid the Japanese 
computer firm NEC to create the supercomputer. The Earth Simulatorso named 
because it aims to create a "virtual earth" that could simulate various 
climate conditionsmatches the raw computing power of 20 of the fastest 
American computers combined.

"There is a fear that our technology leadership could go overseas" unless 
the United States invests in keeping its lead in high-end computing, said 
Jim Rottsolk, chairman and CEO of the Cray supercomputer company.

The United States has increased significantly its investment in 
non-defense, high-end computing research and development over the past five 
years, with an estimated $846.5 million expected to be spent in fiscal 
2003, up from $462.2 million in fiscal 1998. The increase is spread 
throughout agencies such as the Energy Department and Defense Advanced 
Research Projects Agency.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy declined to comment 
on whether the Bush administration will continue to increase its investment 
in high-end computing because the formal fiscal 2004 budget will not be 
released until February, but Ray Orbach, director of Energy's Office of 
Science, has testified to Congress that keeping the United States' lead in 
supercomputing is his top priority.

The nation has fallen behind Japan in supercomputing, some scientists 
argue, in part because over the past 10 years the United States has focused 
on "distributed cluster computing," which involves a collection of 
interconnected computers that comprise a unified resource. Some government 
agencies considered this type of computing less expensive than investing in 
singular, large supercomputers.

Chris Jehn, vice president of government programs at Cray, said the problem 
with clustered computers is that the high-speed connections achieve less 
than 10 percent of the potential speed of a networked machine. Japan 
invested in building faster connections that enable the Earth Simulator to 
reach 50 percent to 70 percent of the machine's processing power, he said, 
and that is why Japan has taken the lead in producing the fastest 
supercomputer.

"Ten years ago, many thought clustered commodity computing was the future 
of supercomputing," Jehn said. "But as it turns out, challenging scientific 
and technical problems ... are not handled well by cluster computing." He 
cited cryptanalysis, the theory and art of cracking computer codes, as one 
such problem.

Cray customized its processors and connections within machines for higher 
speeds and hence is on track to eventually match the Earth Simulator's 
computing speeds, Jehn said.

On another front, Jehn noted that there is no U.S. supercomputing policy, a 
point that got Congress's attention last year. The fiscal 2002 Defense 
appropriations law required the National Security Agency to study whether a 
supercomputing strategy should be crafted. That study has been completed 
and is being reviewed within the Pentagon, Jehn said.
****************************
Government Executive
New technologies key to Defense transformation, says official
From National Journal's Technology Daily

The Pentagon sees great value in developing operational prototypes of 
technologies to determine whether they can assist in the Defense 
Department's efforts to transform the military into a high-tech force, 
according to the director of the Defense transformation office.


Retired Adm. Arthur Cebrowski said in a press briefing last week that a 
robust prototyping program causes a ripple-down effect on defense acquisition.


Cebrowski also cited the importance of working with foreign partners to 
develop new concepts and technologies. New technology is key to 
transformation, as it gives an advantage for the period of time before 
adversaries obtain it, he said. He emphasized the importance of looking for 
new technologies beyond the traditional defense industry.


Cebrowski also addressed interoperability and said the Sept. 11, 2001, 
terrorist attacks gave the transformation effort an "enhanced sense of 
urgency." It also has proved the need to expand U.S. capabilities, he said.
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Lillie Coney
Public Policy Coordinator
U.S. Association for Computing Machinery
Suite 510
2120 L Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20037
202-478-6124
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