Clips January 13, 2003

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips January 13, 2003

ARTICLES

File-Swapping Lawsuit Gets OK
Hollywood Guilds Band Together to Defend Media Ownership Limits
Thieves Take $10 Million in Computer Chips
Manila to Stay on U.S. Piracy Watch List-Envoy
Geneva Suburb Casts Ballots on the Internet in Test Project
E-Rate in 'financial disarray'
Army delays Human Resources system
City opens Internet free-access zone
Federal Computer Week Roster Change
Open-source group names 10 scariest Web vulnerabilities
Does cyberwar start with scholarships?
Oveson is Utah's new CIO
Bush names two for strategic DOD posts
Census will count county lines via Web
Senate fray stalls homeland funding
Armed services chairman will push for faster IT development
New Senate chair voices concerns on information sharing, cybersecurity
House GOP chooses Davis to lead Government Reform Committee
White House tech officials race to build security system
Bush announces pick for homeland CIO
Lobbyists detail top tech policy items
Biting Back [Software Bugs]
Spam? No thanks, we're full
Face recognition cameras stir fears

*****************************
Associated Press
File-Swapping Lawsuit Gets OK
January 13, 2003

LOS ANGELES - A federal judge has given record companies and movie studios 
the go-ahead to sue the parent company of Kazaa, a popular online 
file-swapping service.


U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson refused to dismiss a copyright 
infringement lawsuit against Sharman Networks Ltd., which had argued that 
it could not be sued in the United States because it is based in Australia 
and incorporated in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu.


In a 46-page ruling issued Friday, the judge said Sharman is subject to 
U.S. copyright laws because it has substantial business dealings in 
California and its actions are alleged to contribute to commercial piracy 
within the United States.


Kelly Larabee, a Sharman spokeswoman, said that while the company was 
"disappointed" with the ruling on the case, "we fully expect to prevail on 
the merits."


Larabee said Sharman would be filing a counterclaim that will "set forth 
the full story for the first time."


The Sharman case is one of the largest in the recent online copyright wars 
testing the international reach of U.S. courts. The plaintiffs maintain 
that Kazaa provides free access to copyrighted music and films to about 21 
million U.S. users.

******************************
Los Angeles Times
Hollywood Guilds Band Together to Defend Media Ownership Limits
Lobbying campaign pits writers, producers, directors and actors against TV 
networks.
By Edmund Sanders
January 13 2003

WASHINGTON -- An unusual alliance of Hollywood producers and creative 
workers is mobilizing here for a stiff fight against company efforts to 
relax long-standing limits on media ownership.

The coalition combines directors, writers, actors and producers -- groups 
more often known for strife than unity.

But the new push by frequently divided siblings is grounded in a shared 
fear that any move by the Federal Communications Commission to allow 
further consolidation in the TV business would kill jobs and stifle creativity.

"This is really unprecedented," said Victoria Riskin, president of the 
Writers Guild of America, West. "It's remarkable how this one issue seems 
to have captured the entire community."

The campaign is being led by guilds and professional organizations that 
usually are overshadowed in Washington by powerful company groups such as 
the film industry's Motion Picture Assn. of America.

This time around, however, members of the creative coalition are 
aggressively hiring lobbyists, funding economic studies about the evils of 
consolidation and dispatching high-profile representatives, including "Law 
and Order" producer Dick Wolf and "The Enforcer" producer Leonard Hill, to 
Capitol Hill and the FCC.

The campaign pits the guilds squarely against their members' primary 
employers, entertainment and media conglomerates such as Viacom Inc. and 
News Corp., which are pushing to kill government rules that restrict them 
from buying additional TV stations or mixing ownership of stations and 
newspapers in a single market, among other things.

(Tribune Co., parent of The Times and an owner of TV stations, is among the 
companies lobbying to lift the rules.)

"In an economic age where four of the six networks are losing money, we 
have to figure out different ways to get programming on television," said 
Leslie Moonves, president of Viacom's CBS unit. Moonves said one way to 
shore up faltering networks is through increased ownership of TV outlets.

"But in no way does that sacrifice quality on television," the executive 
insisted.

Among the entertainment unions that have stepped up activities in 
Washington are the Writers Guild of America, East and West; the Caucus for 
Television Producers, Writers and Directors; the American Federation of 
Television and Radio Artists; the Producers Guild of America; the Directors 
Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild.

Unlike the major networks and studios, only one guild -- the DGA -- has a 
permanent, full-time lobbying presence in Washington. And the unions have 
been criticized at times for bickering among themselves rather than working 
together on issues.

"They have a sketchy track record in Washington," one Capitol Hill staffer 
said.

The last time the guilds came together so strongly on the policy front was 
in the late 1980s, when they worked with major studios to try to keep big 
TV networks from reversing an FCC restriction on networks owning their 
programs. The guilds and studios lost that fight when the courts tossed out 
a modified rule known as the financial interest and syndication rule.

The current battle is even more daunting, Riskin says, because studios and 
networks now are often owned by the same parent, leaving the guilds to 
fight on their own.

In a sign of cooperation, more than a dozen guilds and advocacy groups now 
participate in weekly conference calls to map out strategy on the media 
ownership issue.

Several groups, including AFTRA; Writers Guild of America, East; and the 
AFL-CIO Department of Professional Employees, recently pooled their 
resources to hire economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and 
Policy Research to analyze the dangers of consolidation for the FCC, which 
is reviewing all media ownership rules.

In an effort to raise public awareness, the guilds also persuaded USC and 
the Columbia University School of Law to host public forums on the issue.

The first forum, featuring FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell and other 
commissioners, will take place Thursday in New York. USC's conference is 
slated for Feb. 18.

The activism stems from a rising belief that concentration of ownership is 
reducing both creative freedom and business opportunities in television.

Before the financial interest rules changed, for instance, independent 
producers generally licensed their shows for a set period to TV networks, 
then sold them later to local television stations and abroad, often reaping 
a huge financial windfall. Now, networks capture such gains by owning the 
programs themselves.

In 1992, 17% of new TV shows were produced and owned by the top four 
networks, according to the Writers Guild; last year that number jumped to 
77%. NBC owned a stake in 100% of its new programs in 2002.

The result, critics say, is that six entertainment conglomerates are 
determining what shows get made and who gets hired, usually favoring 
in-house projects and their own talent, even though they may not yield the 
highest-quality TV show.

Meanwhile, independent operators such as Carsey-Werner-Mandabach, whose 
principals created "The Cosby Show," "Roseanne," "That '70s Show" and other 
hits, are a dying breed, observers say.

"I wouldn't want to be starting out now," said Gary David Goldberg, creator 
of such hits as "Family Ties" and "Spin City." "Unless something changes 
for independent producers and writers, it's a non-business."

When he pitched "Spin City" to ABC in 1996, Goldberg and star Michael J. 
Fox were able to control ownership, demand a hefty licensing fee and retain 
creative freedom.

Today, he said, networks wouldn't even discuss a deal unless they could own 
and control the show themselves.

"I may have gotten the last great ride," said Goldberg, who recently 
decided to leave television. He stressed that his departure was unrelated 
to the changing environment but said he was worried about the future.

"I used to believe very firmly that only the best shows got on television," 
Goldberg said. "I don't think that's the case anymore."

Moonves sharply disputed that view. Networks, he said, today own a greater 
stake in new TV shows because they are the ones putting up the money to 
launch them.

Moonves said many producers and writers complaining about declining quality 
simply are frustrated that they can no longer get the same financial deals 
they could when networks were restricted from taking an ownership stake in 
programs.

"They want us to pay 100% of the costs and have none of the ownership," 
Moonves said. "I'd love that deal too."

Moonves said the networks have no incentive to put on low-quality shows 
simply because they own them.

"If we own 100% of a bad show, we get hit twice," he said. "We'll put on 
the best programs, no matter where they come from."

Nevertheless, a top priority for the guilds is to persuade the FCC to 
impose new restrictions on television networks, requiring networks to buy a 
minimum amount of their programming, say 25% to 50%, from outside sources.

Meanwhile, in an effort to create a more unified presence in Washington, a 
coalition of writers, producers and actors has formed the Center for the 
Creative Community, a nonprofit advocacy group whose board includes actress 
Sissy Spacek, "Dog Day Afternoon" writer Frank Pierson and "Murphy Brown" 
creator Diane English. The group was launched in October by screenwriter 
and attorney Jonathan Rintels.

"In Washington, Hollywood is perceived as Jack Valenti [the studios' 
longtime lobbyist]," Rintels said. "We may share some of the same issues, 
but the creative community needs its own permanent organization here."

The Caucus for Television Producers, Writers and Directors is focusing its 
efforts on Capitol Hill, generating interest among lawmakers and pushing 
for congressional hearings on the issues. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ernest 
F. Hollings (D-S.C.), leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee, both have 
expressed interest in exploring media consolidation issues, though no 
hearings have been set.

"We're hoping to put pressure on the FCC through Congress," said Margaret 
Cone, a lobbyist hired by the caucus.

Last summer, Cone led producer Len Hill -- a former ABC executive -- and 
others through a series of meetings with FCC commissioners and Capitol Hill 
staffers, urging them to move slowly on the issue and consider the effect 
on Hollywood producers and writers.

"These are successful people," Cone said. "They have an appeal to lawmakers 
and an important story to tell."

Finding producers and writers willing to publicly oppose the major networks 
has been difficult, guild representatives say. Most are struggling 
small-business people, fearful about retribution from the major companies.

Rintels was asked to delay announcing the addition of two board directors 
to his organization until the producers could finalize their pending deals 
with the networks.

"People fear doors will close," Riskin said.

A spokesman for News Corp., owner of the Fox Network, said such fears are 
unfounded.

"In an industry like this, lots of people disagree with us," said spokesman 
Andrew Butcher. "But we all still have to work together."
**********************************
Reuters
Thieves Take $10 Million in Computer Chips
Sun Jan 12, 1:51 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - British police investigated on Sunday the theft of 
computer chips worth an estimated $10 million from a van near London's 
Heathrow airport.


The thieves struck Sunday morning when the van was left briefly unattended 
in a commercial area close to the airport, police said.


Police stressed that there were no signs that the theft had security 
implications for Heathrow, the world's busiest international hub.


The Intel Pentium III chips were believed to have been part of a 
consignment from Miami, destination unknown, police said. It was not yet 
known whether they had been flown in to Heathrow or were to be flown out of 
the airport.


"It is believed that two male suspects took and drove the vehicle away," a 
police statement said.


Police recovered the van shortly after the theft behind a nearby row of 
shops, still containing around a quarter of its load.


Detectives interviewed the driver from whom the van was stolen and examined 
CCTV footage. No one has been arrested.


Police also said they recovered an abandoned white Renault van in Feltham, 
a town south of the airport, which the thieves could have transferred their 
loot into and used to escape.


The crime followed another theft computer of chips worth $4.5 million from 
a cargo service center near Heathrow in October.
*****************************
Reuters
Manila to Stay on U.S. Piracy Watch List-Envoy
Fri Jan 10, 4:35 AM ET

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines is unlikely to get off a U.S. piracy 
watch list soon after it ended last year without a single conviction in 
about 280 cases filed in the courts, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.


William Lash, U.S. assistant secretary of commerce for market access and 
compliance, told reporters the Philippines has to step up enforcement of 
its intellectual property right (IPR) laws and speed up passage of a 
proposed optical disc law before it can be taken off the watch list.


The Philippine Congress has yet to pass the optical media bill, which 
specifies regulations and penalties in the production of music and video 
discs.


"While there have been many raids, many inspections of copyrighted bootleg 
goods, we've found that there have been exactly zero convictions in the 
past year," said Lash, who is due to visit Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok after 
his Manila stop.


"Obviously, we are very disappointed in that level of enforcement," Lash said.


The United States estimates that U.S. firms lost about $116 million to 
piracy in the country while the Philippine government lost about $25 
million in potential taxes last year due to the sale of bootleg video discs.


A bootleg DVD copy of the film "Lord of the Rings: Two Towers" has been 
selling at about 100 pesos, or less than $2, in Manila streets for weeks 
now while the film is set to debut only on Friday in Philippine theaters.


Theater ticket prices are higher than that of pirated DVD copies, 
contributing to the popularity of bootleg video discs.


The United States is currently reviewing its IPR watch list and was likely 
to announce the results later this month, Lash said.


"When you have a record of no convictions, when you haven't passed the 
optical disc law, I couldn't be too encouraging about getting off the watch 
list," Lash said. "It's not a prediction, it's just a fact."

The U.S.-based International Intellectual Property Alliance has estimated 
that up to 15 underground pirate plants operate in the Philippines, with 
finance, management and technical assistance provided by Malaysian, 
Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan-based organized crime groups.


These groups are moving to the Philippines because of the crackdown in 
their home countries.


The United States considers a country's record in protecting intellectual 
property rights (IPR) when granting trade benefits, and the Philippines is 
one of 15 countries on a "priority watch list" of nations with IPR problems.
**********************************
New York Times
January 12, 2003
Geneva Suburb Casts Ballots on the Internet in Test Project
By ALISON LANGLEY

ANIÈRES, Switzerland, Jan. 9  When the 1,150 citizens of this Geneva suburb 
vote later this month to decide whether to allow public money to be spent 
renovating its Michelin-rated restaurant, they will be guinea pigs in 
Switzerland's continuing effort to make voting easier for its citizens.

The voters will have a choice of three ways to cast their ballot. They will 
be able to vote at a polling place in the elementary school or mail their 
ballot or, for the first time, vote on the Internet.

"If you have a voting system that may bring more people to the ballot, that 
is good," said Michel Chevallier, who helped develop the electronic voting 
pilot project.

The Swiss vote on average five times a year as part of their system of 
direct democracy. Any Swiss citizen can bring about a nationwide vote by 
gathering 100,000 signatures on any issue. In May, for instance, voters 
will consider as many as nine initiatives, including changes in the armed 
forces, a moratorium on nuclear energy and car-free Sundays.

Since the 1970's, as the number of initiatives has risen, voter turnout has 
fallen in this country of 7.3 million. Nowadays, electoral officials say 
they are pleased when 60 percent of voters cast a ballot.

"Swiss citizens vote four to six times a year  they want a simple ballot," 
Robert Hensler, the state official who oversees elections in the canton of 
Geneva, told the 75 citizens who gathered in the Anières elementary school 
hall on a recent evening to learn about Internet voting.

The government introduced voting by mail in 1993. It is now used by 95 
percent of voters in Geneva elections. "Internet voting is nothing more 
than an evolution of postal voting," Mr. Hensler said.

Jean-Jacques Brun, 74, came to the meeting clutching a notebook filled with 
pages he printed out after taking the electronic voting tutorial provided 
by the canton.

"It came online at noon today, and I tried it immediately and it is all 
right," he said, nodding his approval. "So tomorrow I vote." The tutorial 
convinced him that his confidentiality  the biggest concern of voters at 
the meeting  was assured.

All eligible voters in Anières received a voter card three weeks before the 
Jan. 19 election date. They have until noon on Jan. 18 to cast ballots by 
mail or electronically.

Isabelle Anderegg said she would vote online to save time. "I'm very busy, 
I'm working a lot," she said. "This is very quick, and I can do it when I'm 
at home."

It is impossible to know exactly how much the country spends each year on 
elections because no single entity is responsible for the bill. The Swiss 
authorities estimate that Internet voting will cost about 500,000 Swiss 
francs, or about $350,000 more, per canton per election.

"E-voting will add some great costs," said Hans-Urs Wili, chief of the 
Swiss government's political rights division. "So why promote them? Because 
we do not know what will be the habits of citizens in 20, 30, 40 years' time."

Mr. Wili estimated that after the test run in Anières, it would take 10 
years to provide a working system on a federal level.
******************************
Federal Computer Week
E-Rate in 'financial disarray'
BY Dibya Sarkar
Jan. 10, 2003

A $2.25 billion federal program created six years ago to help connect 
schools and libraries to the Internet is "honeycombed with fraud and 
financial shenanigans," according to a report the Center for Public 
Integrity released Jan. 9.

The center based its conclusions on two reports by the Federal 
Communications Commission inspector general's office last year and 
subsequent interviews. The nonprofit, nonpartisan group said that the 
E-Rate program is in "financial disarray," with problems ranging from 
"simple paperwork and reporting errors to false billing and other fraud 
potentially involving hundreds of millions of dollars."

E-Rate, created as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, provides 
schools and libraries with discounts of 20 percent to 90 percent for 
Internet access and telecommunications infrastructure and for internal 
connections. The program, which is overseen by the FCC but administered 
contractually by a nonprofit group called the Universal Service 
Administrative Company (USAC), is funded by the telecommunications industry 
through taxes on individual telephone bills.

About 86 percent of public schools, 21 percent of private schools and 65 
percent of libraries have received discounted services since the program's 
inception.

According to the report's author, Bob Williams, the FCC inspector general's 
office and USAC are "also concerned about the whole competitive bidding 
process. They're not sure ... it's going on as competitive bidding." The 
report said program officials began "denying or delaying applications" 
involving IBM Corp., the top recipient of E-Rate funding to the tune of 
$350 million, because "schools, libraries and/or IBM had not followed 
proper competitive bidding procedures."

But the report said USAC doesn't believe the financial mismanagement is as 
widespread as the inspector general suspects. Williams said he was 
surprised to see an inspector general's report to be "so frank and open 
about potential problems within an agency." He also said the FCC wants USAC 
to provide more money to hire auditors, but USAC doesn't want to.

Williams said it's likely that Congress will examine the issue 
further  particularly Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who is expected to be 
chairman of the Commerce Committee and who has "never been a huge fan" of 
the E-Rate program.
*******************************
Federal Computer Week
Army delays HR system
BY Dan Caterinicchia
Jan. 13, 2003

An Army effort to consolidate 43 personnel databases into one Web-based 
"electronic military personnel office" is being delayed because of problems 
migrating data into the new system, according to Army Personnel Command 
(Perscom) officials.

The $9.5 million eMILPO system is designed to provide near-real-time 
visibility on staff information throughout the Army via a Web-based 
application.

It was originally scheduled to go online early this month, but was delayed 
after an Army fielding team discovered errors from data transactions and 
other problems associated with migrating 43 super-server databases to the 
eMILPO test database, said Col. Gina Farrisee, the Army's adjutant general.

The original plan was to turn off in early January the 43 servers currently 
being used, but "waiting 60 more days is the right thing to do," Farrisee said.

"We took a lot of risk with a compressed timeline to field eMILPO," said 
Col. William Mansell, deputy to the adjutant general at Perscom. "The key 
problem was data migration. We wanted to do it in a test before production, 
and there were a number of unanticipated problems found. The good news is 
we found them. The bad news is that there [is] not sufficient time" to 
field the system this month.

The Army used an unconventional development and testing schedule for 
eMILPO, using three series of tests. The second series of tests was 
completed in October 2002. That left time to "reload and make corrections," 
but the transition from the third series last November did not go as 
planned, he said.

"It became clear that the problems were insurmountable," so officials 
decided early last month to delay fielding eMILPO until at least early 
March, Mansell said.

"Our promise is that you will not need to re-enter data," Farrisee said in 
a recent note to personnel leaders.

Division and Army Corps strength managers at several installations are 
helping with eMILPO to ensure that it provides the query capability needed 
in the field to incorporate important personnel management information. 
Systems integrators are also fine-tuning the system to include the 
"enlisted records brief," which is an abbreviated summary of a soldier's 
personnel data.

The 60-day delay costs the Army nothing, with the "additional time and 
effort being absorbed by the contracting organization [EDS] and the program 
manager's office," Mansell said. He added that no single group is 
responsible. An incredibly compressed timeline and complex applications 
caused the delay.

"It was high risk from the very beginning," he said. "We hoped to pull it 
off, but we couldn't. Soldiers in the field deserve the best system we can 
give them."

EDS officials declined to comment and referred all questions to the Army.

***

Army leads DOD

The eMILPO system is an interim step toward the Defense Department's 
multiservice, integrated personnel and pay management system, known as the 
Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System. The Army is scheduled 
to be the first service to implement DIMHRS, during the fourth quarter of 2004.

Navy Capt. Valerie Carpenter, DIMHRS Joint Program manager, said her office 
is planning to exercise a contract option in June for one of the five 
contractors currently competing for the program award. Carpenter said that 
the "delay of eMILPO does not negatively affect the development or 
deployment of DIMHRS."
*****************************
Federal Computer Week
City opens Internet free-access zone
BY Matt Caterinicchia
Jan. 10, 2003

Dial-up connections and Internet access fees are a thing of the past to 
visitors in Long Beach, Calif. Visitors to the downtown area can now 
connect to the Internet for free, courtesy of the city's new Downtown 
Wireless Internet District.

The new arrangement in Long Beach enables users in particular "hot 
zones"  such as downtown restaurants and coffee shops  to access the 
Internet free of charge.

Long Beach can provide the high-speed access at no charge thanks to a 
network with wireless access points provided by Intermec Technologies Corp. 
These access points provide a broadband connection to a centrally located 
switch at speeds up to 11 megabits/sec. An average dial-up connection runs 
at 54 kilobits/sec.

All travelers need is a laptop computer and a wireless network card, said 
Lois Fenimore, senior communications specialist for Intermec. "Once the 
user opens the Internet browser, they are automatically directed to portal 
site for Long Beach's Pine Avenue Hot Zone. The users must then provide an 
e-mail address and are then able to surf the Web free of charge," she said.

According to Bruce Mayes, wireless zone project manager for the economic 
development bureau in Long Beach, users are limited to one hour. "That is 
more than enough time," he said. Users must also be in a four-block area of 
downtown Long Beach in order to gain access to the portal, he noted.

The majority of funding was provided by donations from vendors and 
sponsors. The city pays the annual $4,000 connection fee.

"The restaurateurs have given us very positive feedback," Mayes said. "We 
have received a lot of 'now that's very cool' kind of responses."

The free Internet access has been available since Nov. 15, 2002, and the 
scheduled public launch will be today.

According to Mayes, this is just the beginning of a new concept of 
communication. "It is good to hear a few pieces of good news in the 
technology sector at the present time," he said.

Long Beach plans to offer similar Internet access at Long Beach Airport 
within 30 to 45 days.

Caterinicchia is a reporting intern for Federal Computer Week.
******************************
Federal Computer Week
Federal Computer Week Roster Change
Government IT personnel moves
Jan. 7, 2003

Anne Reed has been named as president of Acquisition Solutions, a 
consulting firm that helps the federal government retool its procurement 
practices.

Reed most recently was president of EDS' state and local government group. 
Prior to that, she was the chief information officer at the Agriculture 
Department. She has had more than 20 years experience with the federal 
government.

For more, see "Reed joining Acquisition Solutions"

***

Judith Russell, an electronic information expert and trained librarian, has 
been named the new superintendent of documents at the Government Printing 
Office.

Russell was named to the position last month and began her new job Jan. 6. 
She will be in charge of ensuring that the public has the best possible 
access to government information.

Prior to her appointment, Russell served as deputy director of the National 
Commission on Libraries and Information Science.

From 1991 to 1996, Russell was director of GPO's Office of Electronic 
Information Services, where she helped establish GPO Access and led the 
development of GPO's 1996 report to Congress on how to make a successful 
transition to a more electronic federal depository library program.

For more, see "Russell tapped for GPO post."

***

George Taylor has been appointed deputy public printer, the second highest 
position within the Government Printing Office.

On Jan. 6, Taylor began serving as chief operating officer of GPO, 
responsible for overseeing its day-to-day printing, printing procurement 
and information dissemination operations serving, Congress, federal 
agencies and the public.

Taylor comes to GPO after more than 23 years in information publishing. His 
most recent position was senior vice president for operations for Thompson 
Corp., an $8 billion information organization with 43,000 employees 
globally, where he was responsible for coordinating technology, human 
resources, real estate, purchasing and cost reduction initiatives.

***

William Edward (Ed) Flynn III, widely respected for his knowledge of civil 
service issues, has retired from the Office of Personnel Management after 
three decades of public service.

Flynn, an army veteran and career member of the Senior Executive Service, 
has been senior policy adviser to OPM Director Kay Coles James.

As James' senior policy adviser, a position he accepted in early 2002, 
Flynn was a fixture during the torrent of activities at OPM that enabled 
the Bush administration to get legislation passed establishing the Homeland 
Security Department. He also advised James during the yearlong study that 
concluded recently with the announcement that OPM would be restructured 
based on professional staff recommendations to better serve internal and 
external customers.

Flynn previously was the associate director of OPM's Retirement and 
Insurance Service. He also made greater use of automation to revive the 
agency's Retirement Information Office, which receives more than 1 million 
letters and telephone calls annually.
*********************************
Government Computer News
01/13/03
Open-source group names 10 scariest Web vulnerabilities
By William Jackson

The Open Web Application Security Project today released a list of the top 
10 vulnerabilities in Web applications and services.

The group said it wants to focus government and private-sector attention on 
common weaknesses "that require immediate remediation."

"Also, in the longer term, this list is intended to be used by development 
teams and their managers during project planning," the report noted. 
"Ultimately, Web application developers must achieve a culture shift that 
integrates security into every aspect of their projects."

OWASP is a volunteer open-source community project created to bring 
attention to security for online apps. It patterned its list on the SANS 
Institute and FBI top 20 list of network loopholes. Like the SANS-FBI list, 
the OWASP vulnerabilities are well known, but continue to represent 
significant risk because they are widespread. They can be exploited by code 
in HTTP requests that are not noted by intrusion detection systems and are 
passed through firewalls and into servers despite hardening.

The vulnerabilities, which focus on categories of problems rather than on 
specific applications, are:


Unvalidated parameters, which let information to be used by an app before 
being validated
Broken access control, in which restrictions on authorized users are not 
enforced
Broken account and session management, which leave inadequately protected 
account credentials and session tokens vulnerable to hijacking
Cross-site scripting flaws, which let attacks be passed by an app to a browser
Buffer overflows, which can crash an application and allow it to be taken over
Command injection flows, in which improper commands are passed by the app 
to another system for execution
Error-handling problems, which can provide an attacker with unintended 
information or deny service when errors occur
Insecure use of cryptography, which provides weak protection when 
cryptography code is not properly integrated
Remote administration flaws, in which administrative functions are not well 
protected
Web and application server misconfiguration.

The complete report is available on the organization's Web site, www.owasp.org.
******************************
Government Computer News
01/10/03
Does cyberwar start with scholarships?
By William Jackson

A sustained digital attack on critical U.S. infrastructure wouldn't be easy 
to execute, but there are indications that some groups might be investing 
in the human resources such an attack would require, a consultant told 
Washington law enforcement and intelligence officials today.

"We really haven't seen an act of cyberterrorism," said Matthew G. Devost, 
president of the Terrorism Research Center of Burke, Va. "I don't know if 
we would recognize it if it happened. It's more difficult to execute than 
you have been brought to believe."

But terrorist groups may be financing the education of computer science 
students to acquire the needed expertise, he said, because "we're starting 
to see an increase in sponsorships of degrees."

Devost spoke at a seminar sponsored by the Terrorism Research Center and 
the Washington Metro Transit Police. He said terrorist organizations have 
shown a willingness to spend years in target selection and preparation for 
major attacks.

Only now "are they in the process of capability acquisition" for 
cyberattacks, he said, and no students pursuing computer science degrees 
through sponsored scholarships have been tied to a particular organization.

Devost said his security consulting work has revealed an increase in 
insider attacks at companies by employees who appear to have sought their 
jobs specifically for that purpose, he said. So-called insider placement 
only becomes apparent when illegal or disruptive systems activity is 
noticed, Devost said, and a sleeper agent in a sensitive position probably 
could not be detected beforehand.
******************************
Government Computer News
01/10/03
Oveson is Utah's new CIO
By Trudy Walsh

Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt this week appointed W. Val Oveson as the state's new 
CIO, replacing Phillip Windley, who resigned last month. Oveson had been a 
managing director at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP of New York for two years 
before the appointment.

In 1998, then-U.S. Treasury secretary Robert Rubin named Oveson the 
national taxpayer advocate for the IRS. Oveson also helped make revisions 
to the IRS case-tracking system A certified public accountant, he was 
Utah's lieutenant governor from 1984 to 1993 and redesigned the computer 
systems for the Utah State Tax Commission.

Windley, the outgoing CIO, said on his weblog, at www.windley.com, that 
Oveson "is a great choice because he knows well how to navigate the dark 
maze of government. ? Breaking down silos is right for e-government and 
homeland security."

Windley resigned after a legislative audit found instances of favoritism in 
the IT Services Office's hiring practices [see story at 
www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/20593-1.html].
*************************
Government Computer News
01/10/03

FAA modernization plan is delayed by three years

By Dipka Bhambhani
GCN Staff

The Federal Aviation Administration this week released the latest version 
of its Operational Evolution Plan for airspace modernization, highlighting 
greater air travel efficiency but also giving notice of a three-year 
extension. The new Version 5.0 of the plan has a "crisper vision that 
emphasizes collaborative decision-making, required navigation performance 
and shared information systems," FAA administrator Marion Blakey said in a 
statement.

The modernization project's 2010 completion date has now become 2013.

"Though current economic conditions caused us to delay some initiatives," 
FAA officials said, "the plan continues to reflect the maturing of 
procedures and new technologies." They attributed the delay to financial 
uncertainty about certain runway programs as well as the timing of 
airlines' readying their fleets for OEP initiatives. FAA has had to suspend 
Precision Runway Monitor operations in Minneapolis because of safety 
issues, for example. Also, runways that are being built at less than 
standard spacing lack the necessary surveillance capability.

"A wide range of challenges face the implementation efforts in the coming 
year," the plan said. Its goal is to improve the capacity and efficiency of 
the National Airspace System, but numerous individual projects could affect 
the completion date. One project, the Integrated Terminal Weather System, 
is already off budget and schedule [see story at 
www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/20818-1.html].

Bill Shumann, an FAA spokesman, said the ITWS issues have not affected the 
overall plan yet. "Depending on what happens with the program, that could 
change," he said. "But the ITWS is a small portion of the total $11.5 
billion."

FAA is counting on the airline industry to spend about that much, too.

"If all the airlines and general aviationeverybody who flies in the 
systemwere to do everything in the equipage and training plan, it would 
cost the industry about $11 billion over 10 years," Shumann said.

Two other major projectsthe Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System 
and revamping the Host system for air traffic controllerswere not far 
enough along to appear in Version 5.0.

Version 5.0 holds several improvements:
Increases in arrival and departure rates at Phoenix and Detroit airports 
because of several new runways
An operational Traffic Management Advisor at seven airports
Implementation of Four-corner Post airspace redesign in Las Vegas
An operational User Request Evaluation Tool at six traffic control centers.
********************************
Government Computer News
01/10/03
Bush names two for strategic DOD posts
By Dawn S. Onley
GCN Staff

President Bush plans to nominate former Pennsylvania congressman Paul 
McHale as assistant secretary of Defense for homeland defense. McHale is 
now vice president of Tallman, Hudders and Sorrentino, a labor and 
employment law firm in Allentown, Pa. While in Congress from 1993 until 
1999, McHale served on the House Armed Services and Science committees.

Bush also plans to nominate Christopher Ryan Henry, corporate vice 
president for strategic assessment and development at Science Applications 
International Corp. of San Diego, as deputy undersecretary of Defense for 
policy.

A graduate of Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and Georgetown University 
in Washington, McHale served with the Marine Corps in operations Desert 
Shield and Desert Storm. He is a colonel in the Reserve.

Before joining SAIC, Henry, a Virginian, was a senior fellow at the Center 
for Strategic International Studies where he directed the Conflict in the 
Digital Age project. Henry graduated with merit from the U.S. Naval Academy 
and at the top of his class from National Defense University.
*******************************
Government Computer News
01/10/03
Census will count county lines via Web
By Susan M. Menke

Under a Census Bureau contract, the Open GIS Consortium Inc. is working out 
ways for local and tribal jurisdictions to begin reporting their boundary 
changes electronically. Robert Marx, chief of Census' Geography Division, 
said the agency's 1960s-era Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) will start 
changing this spring from a paper-intensive mapping operation and will be 
ready by about 2008 for the next decennial census.

The Wayland, Mass., consortium is rapid-prototyping the online reporting 
technology as a pilot for Census. Marx said the contract value is 
"relatively small." Participants include ESRI of Redlands, Calif.; Galdos 
Systems Inc. of Vancouver; Intergraph Corp. of Huntsville, Ala.; Northrop 
Grumman Information Technology and subsidiary TASC Inc.; and Syncline Inc. 
of Boston. They will use the consortium's OpenGIS interface specification 
and OGC Web Services to make various geographic information system and 
geospatial applications interoperable.

In addition to prototyping the online system for updating local and tribal 
boundaries, the contract calls for OpenGIS specifications for serving up 
Census' Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing 
(TIGER) data. The two prototypes will be called WebBAS and WebTIGER.

"We hope to be active by spring so that this year's survey respondents can 
report," Marx saida total of about 5,000 local and tribal governments. Just 
before the next decennial census, the agency needs new boundary data from 
all 39,000 local governments in the nation. "I'm sure they're not prepared 
yet" to send everything electronically, Marx said. "We'll try the software 
now and refine it as we get ready for 2010."
******************************
Government Computer News
01/09/03
Senate fray stalls homeland funding
By Wilson P. Dizard III

Delays in negotiating the committee structure of the Senate, where the 
Republicans will be the new presiding party, have stalled the reprogramming 
of $125 million that would provide seed money for the Homeland Security 
Department, Senate appropriations staff said.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Majority Leader Bill Frist 
(R-Tenn.) today negotiated the structure of committees in the 
Senateespecially the question of how many members each party can appoint to 
each committee, an area where conflicting precedents point to varying 
outcomes.

The dispute likely will last into next week, sources said. Meanwhile, the 
Senate is expected to approve an extension of the continuing resolution for 
government funding under a special unanimous consent agreement, 
congressional sources said.

As a result of the organizational standoff, the Senate Appropriations 
Committee has not followed its House counterpart by approving a $125 
million reprogramming of funds for homeland security, Senate Appropriations 
staff members said. Until party leaders settle the organizational dispute, 
incoming Appropriations Committee chairman Sen. Ted Stevens, (R-Ak.) cannot 
follow the lead of his house counterpart, Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.), 
and approve the reprogramming, appropriations committee staff said.

Young approved the reprogramming in a Jan. 7 letter to Office of Management 
and Budget Director Mitchell E. Daniels Jr.

According to that letter, the $125 million will be drawn from previously 
appropriated fiscal 2003 funds for the following agencies:


Coast Guard, $3.5 million
Customs Service, $30 million
Federal Emergency Management Agency, $32 million
Immigration and Naturalization Service, $30 million
Secret Service, $4.5 million
Transportation Security Administration, $25 million.

According to Young's letter, $10 million of the funds will be used to 
establish the department's Science and Technology Directorate, $20 million 
for the Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate, $50 
million for space-related costs of the new department headquarters, and $45 
million for salaries and benefits of the new staff.

Young asked Daniels to provide additional information about the new 
department's funding by Feb. 10, much of it having to do with the IT 
operations of the department. For example, he asked Daniels to describe a 
new command center the department plans to build and how the department 
plans to spend $12.9 million allocated for IT, telecommunications and WAN 
communications.

Young honed in on the department's plans for an architectural framework for 
IT and telecommunications. He asked Daniels to describe how the new 
department would assure interoperability among all HSD agencies, and what 
management structure the new department will use to ensure that IT 
planning, acquisition and development meet statutory and business 
requirements. "Who is responsible for overseeing the development and 
implementation of this architecture?," Young wrote.

The Appropriations Committee chairman also advised Daniels that the 
Transportation Security Administration had not filed reports requested by 
the committee, and asked Daniels to help obtain the information.
*****************************
Government Computer News
01/09/03
Armed services chairman will push for faster IT development
By Dawn S. Onley

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) was chosen last night to be the new chairman 
of the House Armed Services Committee. He vowed to improve the "speed of 
bureaucracy" by bringing new technologies to the warfighter faster.

"We live in an age in which technology is improving dramatically," Hunter 
said today during a press conference. "It's very important that we take new 
technology and get it to the R&D process and procurement process very 
quickly. We haven't seen that in the past."

The threat of war could be the impetus to accelerate the rollout of 
innovative technologies, Hunter said. For example, during the conflict in 
Bosnia, the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle was brought into battle with 
remarkable results, even before it had finished testing.

Later, Hunter said, the Predator failed testing. Telling a commander of the 
failure, Hunter said the commander responded: "You send me some more of 
those failures."

Other plans for the committee will include modernizing the military, 
rolling out more precision munitions and ensuring that soldiers are well 
compensated, Hunter said.

He also plans to restructure the committee into six subcommittees:


Tactical Air and Land Forces will be responsible for Army and Air Force 
acquisition programs, Navy and Marine Corps aviation programs, National 
Guard and Army and Air Force reserve modernization, and ammunition programs.


Readiness will handle military readiness, training, logistics and 
maintenance programs.


Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities will be responsible for 
Defense counterterrorism programs, Special Operations Forces, the Defense 
Advanced Research Projects Agency, IT policy and programs, force protection 
policy and oversight, and intelligence support.


Total Force will handle military personnel policy, employment, health care, 
education and POW/MIA issues.


Strategic Forces will oversee space programs, ballistic missile defense and 
Energy Department national security programs.


Projection Forces will be responsible for Navy and Marine Corps 
programsexcept for IT accountsdeep strike bombers and related systems.
*****************************
Government Executive
New Senate chair voices concerns on information sharing, cybersecurity
By William New, National Journal's Technology Daily

New Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, 
R-Maine, has deep concerns about the privacy implications of the 
government's movement toward the use of combined government databases to 
help fight terrorism.

Converging the previously unconnected databases of various agencies that 
are becoming part of the new Homeland Security Department "gives you the 
tremendous advantage of being able to better track people who may be of 
concern, but it also raises the specter of the government using massive 
databases to compile information on individuals [when] there are no 
allegations of wrongdoing," Collins said in a Thursday interview with 
National Journal Group reporters.

She said a central question is, "How do we maintain privacy and civil 
liberties while at the same time bringing about the sharing of information 
and the efficiencies and the joint computer systems that will allow us to 
be more effective in the war against terrorism?"

Of particular concern is the Defense Department's research project to 
create tools to mine massive amounts of personal data to find terrorists, 
she said. The Total Information Awareness project being developed under the 
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency "raises extraordinary concerns 
about individual privacy," Collins said.

Collins said she would either raise that issue in the Senate Armed Services 
Committee or hold a hearing on it in Governmental Affairs. She said that 
even though Congress approved millions of dollars in funding for the 
project under the Defense budget, she had never heard of it until press 
reports brought it to light.

"I'm a very diligent member of the Armed Services Committee, and I can tell 
you there was never a discussion of that program," she said.

"It's a difficult issue because on the one hand, Congress is always 
criticizing agencies that their computers don't talk to each other, that 
they don't share [information with] each other, and that is a legitimate 
concern," as the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks showed, she said. "But 
the flip side of that is if you start amassing all this data and connect it 
with computers and match files, there are troubling privacy implications."

Collins also is worried about the continuing vulnerabilities of government 
agencies to cyberattack, she said.

"I think that cybersecurity remains a very important concern and priority," 
she said. "Our government computers remain vulnerable to cyberattacks, and 
it seems that every single year, there's a hearing on how vulnerable our 
computers are, and another [General Accounting Office] report highlighting 
the vulnerability of our computers, but we don't seem to be making much 
progress."

She said she already has discussed cybersecurity with Defense officials, 
and the department is trying to standardize its information technology 
systems in the hope of reducing vulnerability. That effort has allowed the 
department to curtail the abuse of credit cards by some federal employees 
as it obtains the management systems needed to target such activity, she said.
*****************************
Government Executive
January 9, 2003
House GOP chooses Davis to lead Government Reform Committee
By Mark Wegner, CongressDaily

House Republicans late Wednesday chose Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., to chair the 
Government Reform Committee.

Both Davis and Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., sought to chair the 
Government Reform Committee and denied interest in chairing the newly 
created select Homeland Security Committee. But following Davis' selection, 
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said he would appoint Cox to that slot.

As the outgoing chairman of the National Republican Congressional 
Committee, Davis kept Republicans in the majority for two terms, making it 
difficult for the Steering Committee to deny him the chairmanship.

By tapping Davis, Republicans also skipped over Rep. Christopher Shays, 
R-Conn., who had more seniority than either Cox or Davis.

Republicans Wednesday also chose Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., to chair the 
Resources Committee and Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., to head the Agriculture 
Committee. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., was unchallenged for the Armed 
Services panel chairmanship.

In choosing Pombo for Resources, Republicans sorted through a crowded field 
that also included bids by Reps. John Duncan, R-Tenn., and Elton Gallegly, 
R-Calif. Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., had the most seniority but took himself 
out of the running earlier this week.

The Steering Committee also approved the selections of Appropriations 
Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., for the 13 Appropriations 
subcommittee "cardinals."

Five subcommittees have new leaders, including Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, 
at the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee; Rep. Charles Taylor, 
R-N.C., at the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee; and Rep. Joseph 
Knollenberg, R-Mich., at the Military Construction subcommittee.

The two newest cardinals are Reps. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., who will chair the 
Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee, and Rodney Frelinghuysen, 
R-N.J., who will head the District of Columbia Appropriations Subcommittee.
******************************
Government Executive
January 9, 2003
White House tech officials race to build security system
By Bara Vaida, National Journal's Technology Daily


LAS VEGAS -- As the top information technology officials in the Bush 
administration are racing to build an integrated computer system for the 
new Homeland Security Department by Jan. 24, they face some obstacles, a 
top administration official said on Thursday.


Lee Holcomb, the White House Office of Homeland Security's director of 
information infrastructure, told government tech executives that the 
administration is facing a huge challenge to integrate disparate databases 
and systems into one or two civilian and military networks. He also noted 
that his group recognizes the technical and legal concerns in melding the 
networks of the 22 agencies that will fall under the Homeland Security 
umbrella.


"There are a lot of disparate databases ... law enforcement, immigration, 
bio-medical ... and there are legal restrictions from sharing information 
between those databases," Holcomb said at a Government Emerging Technology 
Alliance conference here.


He noted that the cultural differences among agencies "won't go away 
overnight" and are likely to be another hurdle to full integration of the 
department.


Holcomb also outlined several principles guiding the administration as it 
is integrates the systems. He said the No. 1 goal is to balance the desire 
for privacy of individuals with the need for security. The administration 
immediately rejected the ideas of one giant "data warehouse" of information 
because of privacy concerns and of giving people chips to track their 
whereabouts.


"Over the last six months, we have seen 4,000 to 5,000 companies come visit 
us with ideas such as these," Holcomb said.


The IT staff also is working to integrate existing computer systems rather 
than recreating entirely new ones. The computer system should "collect 
information once and then re-use it;" and the quality of the database 
created by the department "must have trusted information," Holcomb said.

In the short-term, Holcomb said the administration has been "buying lines" 
and developing a single e-mail communications system for employees that he 
"hopes" will be running by Jan. 24. The fact that no one knows yet where 
the new department will be located is hindering that goal, he said. As a 
result, he said employees of the six major agencies merging into the 
department probably will have only a single e-mail system, and the 
remainder will come online by March.


Besides an e-mail system, Holcomb said the administration is working to 
create a secure videoconferencing system to connect state officials with 
the new department.


Further, the administration is working on creating a list of critical 
technologies for homeland security, such as data-mining equipment, 
authentication systems, biometrics devices, wireless services, and 
simulation and modeling technologies.
***************************
Government Executive
January 8, 2003
Bush announces pick for homeland CIO
From National Journal's Technology Daily

President Bush on Wednesday nominated Steven Cooper as the chief 
information officer for the new Homeland Security Department.


Cooper currently serves as special assistant to the president and senior 
director for information integration in the White House Office of Homeland 
Security. He has been spearheading efforts alongside Mark Forman, the head 
of information technology at the White House Office of Management and 
Budget, to consolidate the tech systems for the 22 federal agencies that 
will become part of Homeland Security.


Before his White House service, Cooper was the chief information officer 
for Corporate Staffs and the executive director of strategic information 
delivery at Corning. He also served as director of corporate information 
systems at the pharmaceutical maker Eli Lilly.
*******************************
Government Executive
January 3, 2003
Lobbyists detail top tech policy items
By Bara Vaida, National Journal's Technology Daily

Proposals designed to stimulate the economy, foster the deployment of 
high-speed Internet access, prevent digital piracy and protect online 
privacy promise to be among the top policy items for the high-tech sector 
in the 108th Congress, according to industry lobbyists.


Other issues on the agenda likely will include cybersecurity, education 
policy, export-control reform, federal procurement and appropriations, H-1B 
visas for highly skilled foreign workers, the disposal of high-tech 
equipment, Internet taxation, employee stock options and trade.


"We will be aggressive on the issues important to the tech community, and 
we think we can have the same success in the 108th Congress as we did in 
the 107th Congress," said Ralph Hellmann, senior vice president at the 
Information Technology Industry Council (ITI). The group ranks economic 
stimulus, broadband deployment and the debate over whether to mandate 
anti-piracy technology as its most important policy items next year.


Attentions Turn To Economic Jumpstart


An economic stimulus package is most likely to be the first issue to demand 
high-tech lobbyists' attention, as President Bush is planning to introduce 
a package of tax cuts aimed at boosting business investment and getting 
more money into consumers' hands. Early this year, a coalition of high-tech 
companies helped win enactment of an economic stimulus bill that lets firms 
take tax write-offs for an additional 30 percent of assets when they 
purchase them. But the economy has remained sluggish, and many businesses 
have been calling for another round of tax cuts.


Hellmann said many observers believe that the 30-percent depreciation 
figure in the 2002 stimulus package was not enough to encourage businesses 
to invest in information technology. He said high-tech lobbyists are 
working with the Bush administration and lawmakers on extending or 
expanding the depreciation measure, in conjunction with a tax incentive 
that would give consumers and businesses more money to purchase technology 
and other business products.


ITI companies also are considering other tax measures, such as reforming 
international tax law to encourage U.S. businesses with international 
offices to invest more of their capital at home. Some tech companies also 
may push for a permanent research and development tax credit. The credit is 
set to expire in June 2004.


"We are encouraged by anything the White House can do to stimulate the 
economy," said Brian Kelly, senior vice president at the Electronic 
Industries Alliance. Kelly said the administration has sought advice from 
the high-tech sector on a stimulus package.


The broadband debate is now centered at the FCC, which in January is 
expected to decide whether to change the rules governing how competing 
firms share the networks of the Bell telephone companies and how those 
rules affect the rollout of high-speed facilities and investment in 
technology innovation.


High-tech companies have argued that the FCC should deregulate the Bell 
companies' new investments in broadband. If the FCC does not act in a way 
that satisfies high-tech companies, they are likely to begin lobbying for 
legislation.


Regardless, incoming Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, 
R-Ariz., already has declared that broadband will be on the agenda in his 
committee next year. Some companies also may continue to lobby Congress to 
pass a tax credit designed to encourage the deployment of broadband 
infrastructure in rural areas.


"Across the board our industry views the widespread availability of 
broadband as critical," said Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association 
for Competitive Technology.


Intellectual Property A Priority


A number of high-tech companies also have formed a coalition to educate 
lawmakers on the industry's efforts to combat piracy on the Internet. In 
addition, they plan to fight any legislation that would impose a technology 
mandate in an effort to stymie such piracy.


Ernest (Fritz) Hollings of South Carolina, who will be the Senate Commerce 
Committee's ranking Democrat, introduced a bill last year that would have 
imposed such a mandate. The Motion Picture Association of America has been 
lobbying Congress heavily to impose a legislative solution to Internet piracy.


The anti-piracy effort also will be discussed in the context of the 
transition to digital television. House Energy and Commerce Committee 
Chairman W.J. (Billy) Tauzin, R-La., has promised to hold hearings on how 
to protect digitally broadcasted content.


After lying dormant for the past year, meanwhile, privacy is expected to 
resurface as a key lobbying issue, reflecting the rise of Alabaman Richard 
Shelby as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee after Republicans won 
control of the Senate last November. Shelby has said that privacy is of 
intense interest to him and that he may examine the issue if Congress 
modifies the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), parts of which face 
reauthorization.


Computer security, federal procurement and appropriations to the new 
Homeland Security Department will be an important issue for some high-tech 
firms, as they seek new markets within government. Firms also plan to 
encourage the government to invest in building an efficient department and 
to bolster computer security at federal agencies.


Further, they plan to monitor the development of the White House 
cybersecurity strategy. The plan does not require much action from Congress 
but could if it fails to convince the private sector that it needs to 
protect its computer networks.


Business Software Alliance President Robert Holleyman also said his group 
will be lobbying to make sure the Homeland Security Department does not 
choose one technology standard.


Renewed Focus On Stock Options, Exports


The handling of stock options remains a worry for some high-tech companies 
because McCain last year introduced a bill to require them to record those 
options as expenses and vowed to have a debate on the issue in the Senate. 
Additionally, the nation's accounting oversight body, the Financial 
Accounting Standards Board, plans to decide in the first quarter whether to 
change rules that allow U.S. companies to avoid treating stock options as a 
compensation expense.


Computer companies also plan to lobby for renewal and reform of the 1979 
Export Administration Act (EAA) and an end to the standard that restricts 
computer exports based on the millions of theoretical operations per second 
(MTOPS) that computers perform. And on trade, EIA's Kelly said his 
association will work with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to 
ensure that high-tech interests are addressed in new treaties.


Here is a summary of other issues likely to be on the high-tech agenda:


Electronic waste: EIA is watching state and local and international 
regulations governing the disposal of high-tech equipment. The issue also 
may surface in Congress, as some lawmakers push for a national effort to 
pre-empt multiple and competing laws in the states.


Internet taxes: Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology 
Association of America (ITAA), said states may try to increase pressure on 
Congress to allow them to tax both access to the Internet and e-commerce, 
but ITAA will lobby to continue the current moratorium on access taxes, as 
well as to prevent online sales taxes, an issue separate from the moratorium.


Education: AeA plans to continue work with the states to help them 
implement the education bill that Bush signed in 2002.


H-1B visas: High-tech companies may lobby to increase the level of visas 
that enable highly skilled foreign workers into the United States for six 
years. The cap on those visas is scheduled to drop to 65,000 from 195,000 
at the end of fiscal 2003.
*************************
Computerworld
Biting Back
Find and fix 1% of your software bugs, and 90% of your system problems go 
away, say experts.
By ALAN S. HOROWITZ
JANUARY 13, 2003

Bugs are small. Usually. Unless, of course, they are of the software kind, 
in which case they can grow quite large and become hugely expensive to fix. 
The Sustainable Computing Consortium, a collaboration of major corporate IT 
users, university researchers and government agencies, estimates that buggy 
or flawed software cost businesses $175 billion worldwide in 2001. In the 
U.S., software bugs cost companies nearly $60 billion per year, according 
to the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology 
(NIST). More important is that one-third of these costs could be eliminated 
with improved testing that catches errors earlier in the software 
development process, NIST says.
Smart CIOs are creating comprehensive strategies to test for and fix bugs 
in both off-the-shelf software and applications created in-house. They know 
that bugs, like infections, fester the longer they hang around and, as a 
result, cost more to deal with when left unchecked.

Gartner Inc. analyst Theresa Lanowitz says a software defect left unfixed 
until late in the development cycle costs 80 to 1,000 times more to fix 
than it would if it was dealt with earlier. No company is immune to the 
potential costs of software bugs, which is why a comprehensive plan for 
dealing with them is critical.

Bugs are small. Usually. Unless, of course, they are of the software kind, 
in which case they can grow quite large and become hugely expensive to fix. 
The Sustainable Computing Consortium, a collaboration of major corporate IT 
users, university researchers and government agencies, estimates that buggy 
or flawed software cost businesses $175 billion worldwide in 2001. In the 
U.S., software bugs cost companies nearly $60 billion per year, according 
to the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology 
(NIST). More important is that one-third of these costs could be eliminated 
with improved testing that catches errors earlier in the software 
development process, NIST says.
Smart CIOs are creating comprehensive strategies to test for and fix bugs 
in both off-the-shelf software and applications created in-house. They know 
that bugs, like infections, fester the longer they hang around and, as a 
result, cost more to deal with when left unchecked.

Gartner Inc. analyst Theresa Lanowitz says a software defect left unfixed 
until late in the development cycle costs 80 to 1,000 times more to fix 
than it would if it was dealt with earlier. No company is immune to the 
potential costs of software bugs, which is why a comprehensive plan for 
dealing with them is critical.
*******************************
USA Today
Spam? No thanks, we're full
By Janet Kornblum USA TODAY

FREE mortgage quotes! Cheap printer cartridges! Free passes to thousands of 
XXX sites! "URGENT & CONFIDENTIAL!"

If you think you're getting more spam than ever, you're right. Spam  junk 
e-mail  has dramatically increased in the past year, studies have shown. 
And next year will be even worse, one new report says. It predicts that by 
July, the volume of spam sent to business e-mail addresses will exceed the 
amount of regular e-mail. (See related story: How to put spam out of your 
misery)

"It's an annoying, unwanted intrusion on consumers' lives," says Brian 
Huseman, a staff attorney with the Federal Trade Commission, the government 
agency that deals with consumer protection and online marketing. "The 
problem is growing."

Experts attribute the rise to several factors, including the most obvious: 
More people are online. Sixty-one percent of U.S. adults  116 million  and 
40 million to 45 million children are online, according to the Pew Internet 
& American Life Project. And 94% of them use e-mail.

And the entry costs of e-mail soliciting are few. For some, getting into 
spam means simply having a home computer and Internet connection and a 
little knowledge they can pick up on the Net. They can also buy cheap CDs 
with millions of e-mail addresses, or just pay someone else to spam for 
them  about $25 for each million e-mail addresses.

If someone sends out 1 million postal mail ads, he has a high cost in 
postage to pay, with no guaranteed return. But if he sends out 1 million 
ads by e-mail, and just a fraction of recipients respond, he has probably 
made some money.

"It just takes a handful of people to purchase the products to make them 
profitable," says Jared Blank, a senior analyst with Jupiter Research. "The 
true problem is that spam is effective."

Internet service providers, government officials and others are fighting 
back with a variety of countermeasures, including lawsuits, new legislation 
and software that filters e-mail and separates out spam before it reaches 
your inbox.

Marketers especially target America Online, Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN 
Hotmail, the three largest providers of personal e-mail.

"If you're a spammer, you are going to go for the big market," says Deborah 
Fallows, senior research fellow with the Pew Internet & American Life 
Project, which follows online lifestyle trends.

Like other e-mail providers, the three companies filter e-mail behind the 
scenes. Even though people still see junk e-mail in their in-boxes, they'd 
get a lot more if the companies weren't digitally blocking e-mail from 
known spammers.

San Francisco political consultant Ellie Schafer says she uses all the 
filters offered on her MSN account, but she still gets 20 to 25 junk e-mail 
messages a day  about a third of her total e-mail.

A hassle for everyone

"Most of them are about high school girls and farm animals," Schafer says. 
"It's extremely frustrating. I have thought of leaving. If there was a 
service that blocked out all of the spam, I would switch without 
hesitation  even if it cost more.

"I'm frightened to think what it would be like if I didn't have all the 
spam filters on already."

Though not all Net users are as overrun, studies show that junk e-mail is 
in fact a problem for nearly everybody:

In 2002, the average consumer received an estimated 2,300 pieces of spam 
e-mail, according to Jupiter. By 2007, the number is projected to grow to 
3,600 pieces. "There's an escalating war between spammers and (providers)," 
Blank says. And so far, "the spammers are winning."
The number of spam messages sent increased nearly 300% from 2001 to 
2002  from 14,078,511 to 55,683,103, according to e-mail filtering company 
Brightmail. The company filters 10% of all Internet e-mail, including 
several large online services such as Microsoft's MSN and EarthLink, says 
Enrique Salem, Brightmail's president and CEO.
In September 2001, 8% of all e-mail was spam. But by December 2002, that 
had increased to 40%, Salem says. "If spam continues to increase at this 
pace, you'll be getting more spam than legitimate e-mail," he says. "That 
will start devaluating e-mail."

More than half of the Internet e-mail sent to America Online's 35 million 
members is spam, according to AOL, but much of it is blocked before ever 
getting to anyone's inbox. And like other companies, AOL is constantly 
seeking new ways to block spam. In October, AOL upgraded its system with 
software that allows members to directly report spam when they get it by 
simply clicking a button. Yahoo and Microsoft offer similar programs. 
Before October, AOL was getting reports of about 200,000 pieces of spam a 
day. Now users report as many as 2 million pieces daily.

Providers are increasingly giving customers more power to control who sends 
them e-mail; they also can put spammers on a blacklist. Most providers use 
some sort of blocking list designed to reject mail coming from the e-mail 
addresses of known spammers.

Pushing for new laws

Some blacklists are shared; others are proprietary. The lists are 
imperfect, however, and sometimes innocent people are inadvertently 
blacklisted because, for instance, they use the same e-mail provider as a 
known spammer.

Companies also are pushing behind the scenes for legal solutions. 
Twenty-six states have passed some form of anti-spam legislation, says 
David Sorkin, a law professor with the Center for Information Technology 
and Privacy Law at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago. "There's only 
one or two that are at all strong  Delaware and Ohio."

Many anti-spam activists are pushing for a national law. Though there have 
been proposals for national laws, none have passed yet. And those that are 
in the pipeline can be worse than no laws at all, Sorkin says. Currently, 
spammers exist in a sort of legal and ethical gray zone. Simply advertising 
a legitimate product is legal. But many companies shy away from e-mail ads 
because consumers take a dim view of them. If the law were to make some 
forms of spam illegal, companies might see it as a green light to send 
other forms, Sorkin says.

Additionally, national laws can do nothing to fight spam that is generated 
from outside the USA.

Large companies have successfully sued spammers in court. AOL, for 
instance, recently touted a legal victory against a spammer in Rockford, 
Ill., that was advertising porn sites. The U.S. District Court of the 
Eastern District in Virginia awarded AOL statutory damages of almost $7 
million. The company has gone out of business.
******************************
MSNBC
Face recognition cameras stir fears

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., Jan. 12  Police in this popular resort city recently 
began operating video surveillance cameras with controversial face 
recognition technology that critics say brings the United States one step 
closer to becoming a society where "Big Brother is watching you." Virginia 
Beach, along with Tampa, Florida, is one of only two cities in the United 
States to acquire the technology, which cost it $197,000. The system went 
live last September, at the tail end of the summer vacation period when the 
city was crowded with visitors.

       "BEFORE WE SWITCHED it on, we went through an extensive public 
education process with hearings and the involvement of citizen groups and 
minority groups, who helped write the policies we are using," said deputy 
police chief Greg Mullen.
       As a result, the cameras may only be used for two narrowly defined 
purposes: to catch some 1,500 people wanted by the city on outstanding 
felony warrant, and to find runaway children or missing persons. All the 
images picked up by the cameras are immediately deleted from the system if 
there is no match.
       A citizens' auditing committee has the right to perform unannounced 
spot checks on police headquarters to make sure the technology is not being 
misused.
       Virginia Beach has had video surveillance cameras watching over its 
beachfront area since 1993. Three of the city's 13 cameras are linked 
full-time to the face recognition system, though the others can be 
activated as needed. The database of wanted people is updated every day.
       So far, the system has failed to produce a single arrest, though it 
has generated a few false alarms. In September, it was sending some 8,000 
images a day to the computer at police headquarters. Each camera has the 
capacity to generate six pictures a minute.
       It works by analyzing faces based on a series of measurements, such 
as the distance from the tip of the nose to the chin or the space between 
the eyes. Critics say it is highly inaccurate and can be easily fooled.
       Mullen, who sees the system eventually being linked to the 
databases of other city, state and federal law enforcement agencies to 
track criminals and suspected terrorists, said: "The system doesn't look at 
skin color or your hair or your gender. It takes human prejudices out of 
the equation."
       Civil liberties groups are hardly reassured. They fear an erosion 
of personal privacy and evoke the dark vision of British author George 
Orwell's novel "1984," in which he imagined a totalitarian society with a 
"Big Brother" who kept all its citizens under constant surveillance.

'PEOPLE FEEL COWED'
       "This technology has little or no effect on the crime rate but it 
does have an effect on peoples' behavior. People feel cowed," said Bruce 
Steinhardt, who directs a technology and liberty program for the American 
Civil Liberties Union.

     Video surveillance has mushroomed across industrialized nations in 
recent years. Britain leads the world: the average Londoner is estimated to 
have his or her picture recorded more than 300 times a day, but New York is 
not far behind, although its cameras are not linked to face recognition 
technology.
       Studies have found that any reduction in crime after surveillance 
cameras go in may wear off over time. But Mullen said the cameras in 
Virginia Beach had provided evidence at trials, allowed police to arrive at 
crime scenes much more quickly and track criminals as they made their 
escape. They have also helped police disperse crowds before they became 
rowdy and freed up officers for other tasks.
       In the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the 
Pentagon, Americans seem to be more willing to sacrifice some of their 
personal privacy for the sake of enhancing security.
       Still, many are alarmed by concepts like the Pentagon's proposed 
Total Information Awareness system, which would collect individuals' 
financial, medical, communication and travel records in a massive database 
in the hope of uncovering patterns of potentially hostile activity.
      Despite the fact that tests have shown face recognition only works 
in around 30 percent of cases, the ACLU is alarmed that the technology may 
soon spread to airports. The organization also fears it could potentially 
be used to monitor individuals' political activities to harass law-abiding 
citizens.
       "This kind of surveillance should be subject to the same procedures 
as wiretaps. Law enforcement agencies should justify why they need it and 
it should be tightly limited, otherwise it will soon become a tool of 
social control," said Mihir Kshirsagar of the Electronic Information 
Privacy Center.
       Nor does such criticism come exclusively from the political left. 
Lawyer John Whitehead, founder of the conservative Rutherford Institute, 
wrote in an editorial that the technology threatened the right of each U.S. 
citizen to participate in society without the express or implied threat of 
coercion.
       "After all, that is exactly what constant surveillance is  the 
ultimate implied threat of coercion," he wrote.
       Mullen said that was nonsense. To him, the cameras are no different 
in principle from a police officer standing on a street corner with a 
wanted poster  just more efficient.
*****************************


From owner-technews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Wed Jan 15 15:13:27 2003
Received: from sark.cc.gatech.edu (sark.cc.gatech.edu [130.207.7.23])
	by cleon.cc.gatech.edu (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id h0FKDPs24394;
	Wed, 15 Jan 2003 15:13:25 -0500 (EST)
Received: from postel.acm.org (postel.acm.org [199.222.69.7])
	by sark.cc.gatech.edu (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id h0FKDMa20336;
	Wed, 15 Jan 2003 15:13:22 -0500 (EST)
Received: from postel (postel.acm.org [199.222.69.7])
	by postel.acm.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id PAA49472;
	Wed, 15 Jan 2003 15:02:17 -0500
Received: from LISTSERV2.ACM.ORG by LISTSERV2.ACM.ORG (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release
         1.8d) with spool id 0022 for TECHNEWS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; Wed, 15 Jan
         2003 14:41:09 -0500
Approved-By: technews@xxxxxxxxxx
Received: from hq.acm.org (hq.acm.org [199.222.69.30]) by postel.acm.org
         (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id OAA47242 for
         <technews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Wed, 15 Jan 2003 14:40:35 -0500
Received: by hq.acm.org with Internet Mail Service (5.5.2656.59) id <C9F2TN2A>;
         Wed, 15 Jan 2003 14:51:36 -0500
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2656.59)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Message-ID:  <8DFA8DABC2E6FA438EDCFD26881380A5D3795A@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date:         Wed, 15 Jan 2003 14:51:35 -0500
Sender: ACM TechNews Early Alert Service <TECHNEWS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: technews <technews@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject:      ACM TechNews - Wednesday, January 15, 2003
To: TECHNEWS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Content-Length: 9547
Status: O
X-Status: 
X-Keywords:                  
X-UID: 377

Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber:

Welcome to the January 15, 2003 edition of ACM TechNews,
providing timely information for IT professionals three times a
week.  For instructions on how to unsubscribe from this
service, please see below.

ACM's MemberNet is now online. For the latest on ACM
activities, member benefits, and industry issues,
visit http://www.acm.org/membernet

Remember to check out our hot new online essay and opinion
magazine, Ubiquity, at http://www.acm.org/ubiquity

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 446
Date: January 15, 2003

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
Site Sponsored by Hewlett Packard Company ( <http://www.hp.com> )
    HP is the premier source for computing services,
    products and solutions. Responding to customers' requirements
    for quality and reliability at aggressive prices, HP offers
    performance-packed products and comprehensive services.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -

Top Stories for Wednesday, January 15, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Entertainment, Tech Firms Reach Truce on Digital Piracy"
"More Computer Viruses Expected in 2003--Expert"
"Business Apps Get Bad Marks in Usability"
"W3C Embraces Scalable Vector Graphics Specs"
"Hearings Sought on Data Agency"
"Games of Infinite Possibilities"
"Can Wi-Fi and Lasers Bridge the Last-Mile Gap?"
"Open Source Group Issues Top Ten Web Vulnerabilities"
"Phone Units Join in Effort for Seamless Wireless Net"
"Report: Internet Security Threats Will Get Worse"
"Security Experts to Teach Teens 'Ethical Hacking'"
"Study Shows Linux on the Rise in Data Centers"
"Time to Rethink Digital Copyright Act"
"Internet Browser That Quadruples Surf Speed Wins Irish Science Prize"
"Pervasive Computing Gets Organized"
"Process Power"
"The Nanodrive Project"
"A Grip on the Future"

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

"Entertainment, Tech Firms Reach Truce on Digital Piracy"
The Recording Industry Association of America, the Business
Software Alliance, and the Computer Systems Policy Project are
hoping to seal the rift between the entertainment and technology
industries over the issue of digital piracy by announcing their ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item1

"More Computer Viruses Expected in 2003--Expert"
A monthly average of 600 to 700 new computer viruses will emerge
this year, according to anti-virus solutions provider Sophos,
continuing a pace established over the past two years, but
decreasing from the 800 to 900 viruses per month that were born ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item2

"Business Apps Get Bad Marks in Usability"
Difficult to use business applications impede many software
projects and cost companies millions of dollars, according to
Forrester Research.  Forrester says many enterprise resource
planning (ERP) applications are too difficult for ordinary users, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item3

"W3C Embraces Scalable Vector Graphics Specs"
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is ready to consider Scalable
Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 and SVG Mobile as standards that would
help mobile devices display rich graphics better.  An influx of
new cell phones and handhelds sometimes have trouble displaying ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item4

"Hearings Sought on Data Agency"
Congressional members are requesting more information about the
massive data mining project planned by the Defense Department.
Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) plans to introduce a bill that
would halt work until Congress has finished a review of the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item5

"Games of Infinite Possibilities"
North Carolina State University assistant professor of computer
science R. Michael Young is researching artificial intelligence
that allows evolving storylines in computer games.  Young says
that instead of following programmers' expectations of how a game ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item6

"Can Wi-Fi and Lasers Bridge the Last-Mile Gap?"
Telecommunications and wireless access firms are looking at free
space optics (FSO) as a way to link homes and offices to
high-speed network thoroughfares.  FSO uses light pulses to
transmit data at speeds up to 100 Mbps, and requires laser ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item7

"Open Source Group Issues Top Ten Web Vulnerabilities"
The Open Web Application Security project (OWASP) released a list
of the 10 most pressing Web application security problems for
government and commercial organizations yesterday.  Among them
are information from Web requests that goes unauthenticated; ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item8

"Phone Units Join in Effort for Seamless Wireless Net"
Motorola, Proxim, and Avaya today are expected to announce a
collaborative effort to develop technology that enables wireless
communications to seamlessly transfer between networks.  Analysts
say the project is the boldest attempt yet to exploit the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item9

"Report: Internet Security Threats Will Get Worse"
Internet security problems will worsen in the new year, with the
biggest threats coming from new mass-mailing worms and rising
hactivism, according to a recent study by Internet Security
Systems (ISS). More incidents targeting consumer broadband and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item10

"Security Experts to Teach Teens 'Ethical Hacking'"
Computer security expert Andy Robinson is launching a program for
high school students in Maine that aims to teach them both
computer security skills and relevant ethics.  As a student
himself, Robinson received direction from the study of computers, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item11

"Study Shows Linux on the Rise in Data Centers"
The open-source Linux operating system will have an increasing
presence in corporate data centers, according to a new report
from the Goldman Sachs Group.  The report concludes that Linux's
popularity among corporate technology buyers will stem from the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item12

"Time to Rethink Digital Copyright Act"
Hiawatha Bray suggests that the new Congress should reconsider
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), especially in light
of the latest case to cite it.  The DMCA, which was originally
instituted to prevent the piracy of copyrighted digital content ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item13

"Internet Browser That Quadruples Surf Speed Wins Irish Science Prize"
A web browser named "XWEBS" developed by 16-year-old student
Adnan Osmani in Mullingar, Ireland, has won a prestigious Irish
exhibition prize for young scientists for successfully increasing
Internet surfing speed up to 500 percent.  Dublin University ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item14

"Pervasive Computing Gets Organized"
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is
working on pervasive computing protocols that would merge data
from many different sensors, allowing completely different modes
of interaction between computers and users.  NIST computer ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item15

"Process Power"
Companies that wish to reduce their staff and maintain their
productivity need efficient business processes, which is where
business process management (BPM) software comes in.  BPM's most
compelling feature is its versatility:  For example, Shell U.S. ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item16

"The Nanodrive Project"
IBM's Millipede project is an attempt to create a "nanodrive"
that will significantly boost data storage capacity beyond the
limits of conventional silicon.  The device, which has progressed
to the prototype stage through trial and error, rapidly writes ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item17

"A Grip on the Future"
Immersion sells products that use haptic technology to impart
tactile sensations to users as they interact with
computer-generated environments.  The primary driver of
Immersion's growth has been computer gaming equipment ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0115w.html#item18

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- To review Monday's issue, please visit
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0113m.html

-- To visit the TechNews home page, point your browser to:
http://www.acm.org/technews/

-- To unsubscribe from the ACM TechNews Early Alert Service:
Please send a separate email to listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
with the line

signoff technews

in the body of your message.

-- Please note that replying directly to this message does not
automatically unsubscribe you from the TechNews list.

-- To submit feedback about ACM TechNews, contact:
technews@xxxxxxxxxx

-- ACM may have a different email address on file for you,
so if you're unable to "unsubscribe" yourself, please direct
your request to: technews-request@xxxxxxx

We will remove your name from the TechNews list on
your behalf.

-- For help with technical problems, including problems with
leaving the list, please write to:  technews-request@xxxxxxx

----
ACM TechNews is sponsored by Hewlett Packard Company.