Clips February 10, 2003

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips February 10, 2003

ARTICLES

Rule change could boost DSL prices 
Panel Chairman Meets Resistance From Within
DOD plans network attack task force
Lawmakers Propose Anti-Missile Systems 
Scientists of Very Small Draw Disciplines Together
Firms' hacking-related insurance costs soar 
Fingerprints Unchecked in 6,000 Deaths
Judge Delays Ruling in Printer Chip Case 
DOD forming TIA oversight boards
Tech snags delay INS student tracker

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USA Today
Rule change could boost DSL prices
By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY
2/10/03

In a surprise shift, consumers would retain their new array of choices for local phone service but likely pay more for high-speed Internet under proposed changes to a sweeping overhaul of phone competition rules. 

An 11th-hour deal struck late last week by a majority of the five Federal Communications Commission members would derail the plans of Republican Chairman Michael Powell to deregulate the regional Bell companies. And it would give the states a larger oversight role, say people familiar with the matter. The horse-trading among commissioners is continuing and the proposal could change before the FCC votes on it Thursday. 

Powell's plan, reflected in an FCC staff recommendation, would phase out competitors' access to the regional Bells' voice networks, particularly their call-routing switches. 

AT&T and WorldCom have wrested nearly 10 million local phone customers from the Bells by leasing their networks at sharp discounts and undercutting their retail prices. Under Powell's proposal, states would have a minor role in deciding whether other carriers' access to the Bell networks should be cut off, based on strict FCC guidelines. For example, those guidelines would help determine whether it's technically and financially feasible for those carriers to supply their own switches in each market. Powell has the support of Republican Kathleen Abernathy. 

But Democratic Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein generally favor maintaining local phone competition because it helps keep prices low for consumers. 

Republican Commissioner Kevin Martin has emerged as a swing vote: While he wants to phase out carriers' cut-rate use of the Bell networks, he also wants to give the states a more significant role in deciding how that happens. Martin has reached a tentative agreement with Copps and Adelstein that would give the states a bigger voice, say people familiar with the matter. Because most states back discount leasing, that would likely help preserve the competition, at least for several years. 

In exchange, the Democrats have agreed to restrict rivals' access to the Bells' high-speed Internet lines. Today, start-ups such as Covad Communications offer broadband to 200,000 households by piggybacking on the Bells' copper lines and paying the Bells just about $5 a line. The competition forced the Bells and cable giants last year to drop broadband prices to $40 from $50 a month. 

Powell's plan would preserve the arrangement, known as line sharing. But Martin, believing line sharing was cast into doubt by a court ruling, has convinced the Democrats to eliminate it, or at least let the Bells charge higher fees for it, say people close to the situation. Either alternative would likely drive up broadband prices. 

The FCC plan also would ease requirements that Bells rent rivals their new fiber-optic lines for broadband. 
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Washington Post
Panel Chairman Meets Resistance From Within
Michael K. Powell has clashed repeatedly with Commissioner Kevin J. Martin. Both back deregulation, but differ over how much.
By Jube Shiver Jr. and James S. Granelli
Times Staff Writers

February 10 2003

WASHINGTON -- While calling for looser rules governing the telecommunications industry, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell has attracted resistance from an unusual alliance of critics, ranging from consumer groups to big corporations.

But perhaps the most unusual challenge of all has come from Kevin J. Martin, a fellow Republican on the FCC who shares many of Powell's free-market ideals.

Powell and Martin -- at 39 and 36 the youngest members of the commission -- have clashed repeatedly over the scope and pace of change to regulations governing the nation's $400-billion telecommunications industry. As those rules come under court-ordered review, Powell needs Martin's support to pass any new regulations out of the five-member panel.

Until December, when Democrat Jonathan S. Adelstein was sworn in at the FCC, the tension remained largely obscured by a 3-to-1 Republican majority. Recently, though, Powell has found it difficult to keep his political majority in line as Martin sides with the two Democratic commissioners.

"Martin is like the Sandra Day O'Connor of the FCC," said J. Gregory Sidak, a resident scholar with the America Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, referring to the less-than-predictable Supreme Court justice. "You never know what side of an issue he's going to be on."

How Powell and Martin resolve their differences will shape the future of telecommunications and media policy, from how much consumers pay for phone calls to how many stations a broadcaster can own. "Billions of dollars are at stake," said Rep. Charles W. "Chip" Pickering (R-Miss.), who worked on the Telecommunications Act of 1996 as a staff aide and is now a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "Companies' futures are at stake."

Philosophical wrangling is common in Washington policy debates, but insiders describe the rivalry between Powell and Martin as personal and intense. One influential lobbyist who knows both men well has openly told friends and colleagues that someone needs to take Powell and Martin "to the woodshed" so they'll settle their differences.

Last week, Martin was called to Capitol Hill for a private meeting with Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who has encouraged Martin and Powell to patch things up. At a subsequent public hearing, Tauzin added more pressure, commenting that "our Republican FCC commissioners" should work together to overturn restrictions hampering the regional Bell companies.

"They both embrace strong deregulatory policies, and if anybody should be working together and not butting heads, it is these two," said committee spokesman Ken Johnson. "That's why it's so troubling."

Powell himself hinted at the fight during a December speech to telecommunications lawyers. After joking that he had been pressured to take fellow FCC members on the road for public hearings into the consolidation of media ownership, Powell likened the trip to the "Magical Mystery Tour" with "Martin insisting on singing the lead."

The comment drew uneasy laughter -- and a few gasps.

Publicly, the two men downplay any spat. Powell, a former antitrust attorney and son of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, declined to be interviewed for this story but issued a statement to The Times saying, "I respect my colleagues on the commission, and value and encourage their input and debate in our difficult decision-making process at the FCC."

Martin, a former FCC staffer and telecommunications lawyer, said in an interview that he and Powell have "a good relationship ... and generally similar views." But he acknowledged "philosophical" differences.

Both Powell and Martin are young stars of the Republican party. Both are keenly aware that their work at the FCC could lead to other top-level positions in government or private enterprise. And both believe that deregulation is admirable and achievable.

But Martin differs with Powell on whether enough competition exists at this point to make deregulation anything more than a return to monopolies, particularly in the phone business.

The phone companies are awaiting clarification from the FCC on the lease rates that local carriers charge long-distance companies to use their lines. The arrangement was intended to loosen the Baby Bells' monopoly over local phone service.

But companies such as SBC Communications Inc. and Qwest Communications International Inc. complain that the rates are too low and that competitors should build their own networks if they want to play in local markets. Competitors such as AT&T Corp. and Sprint Corp. counter that they cannot afford to build networks until they attract a critical mass of customers.

The FCC is trying to clarify the rules by Feb. 20. Two weeks ago, Powell circulated a 400-page proposal at FCC headquarters that recommended eliminating the discounts SBC and other regional operators are required to offer. Powell also proposed lifting much of the state and federal oversight from the pricing of phone network facilities.

But Powell was rebuffed by a majority of his colleagues, including Martin, who based his opposition on an ideal as sacred to conservatives as deregulation: states' rights. Martin said in a Dec. 10 speech that it is "premature" to discuss limiting oversight by state agencies such as the California Public Utilities Commission.

By Friday, sources said, Martin and the agency's two Democrats had agreed on a framework that would maintain current restrictions on existing copper wires and cable and turn day-to-day regulation over to the states.

"The states'-rights view is actually a conservative and typically Republican view," Martin said last week in an interview with The Times.

Martin's position matches the stance of President Bush, who appointed him to the FCC in 2001. As governor of Texas, Bush oversaw implementation of the telecom act in that state and was a strong proponent for giving local regulators more control.

Officials in the Bush administration "really trust the judgment of Kevin Martin because he's one of them and knows what he's doing," said lobbyist Vin Weber, a former congressman from Minnesota. Martin was on the Bush transition team, and his wife, Catherine L. Martin, is a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney.

For his part, Powell, who joined the FCC in 1997 as a Clinton appointee, has sought to establish a legacy as an efficient administrator paving the way for a nationwide transition to digital technologies, greater deployment of high-speed Internet access and better management of the country's airwaves.

The White House has not gotten involved in the dispute. A senior White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said only that the administration has "no problem with the pace" of a telecommunications overhaul at the FCC.

Indeed, some former FCC commissioners have characterized the disagreements between Powell and Martin as the sort of vigorous debate that leads to sound policies able to withstand court scrutiny.

"I think this is an honest disagreement philosophically," said former FCC Commissioner Andrew Barrett, a Republican who knows Martin and Powell well. "You are talking about two very bright lawyers who want to get these issues right. And sometimes you are on opposite sides. That doesn't mean it's personal. My disagreements with" former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt "were never personal, even though on one occasion ... I called him 'gutless.' "

Others, though, see less-noble roots to the feud.

Martin, a Harvard University law graduate, has complained to associates about not being accepted as a peer by Powell. Martin also has groused about allegedly being among the last to be informed about key agency matters by Powell.

On critical issues, Martin appears to relish the role of gadfly.

He teamed up with FCC Democrat Michael Copps to pressure the television industry to curb violent and indecent programming. In a Jan. 22 speech to television executives in New Orleans, Martin called for an industry revival of a "family hour" and proposed that satellite operators and cable television providers give customers refunds if they didn't want to receive inappropriate channels included in a basic subscription package.

"We at the FCC need to address these issues," Martin said. "We need to do more."

Powell, saying he embraces the conservative view that the government has no authority to tell broadcasters what to air, fired back: "I think somebody ought to defend the 1st Amendment here."

The retort reflects an increasingly aggressive stance by Powell.

After largely eschewing the press during his first two years as chairman, he has begun holding monthly news briefings in an effort to make his case on telecom policy directly to the public.

He also has reached out to intermediaries in hopes of mollifying Martin. It is a strategy that many of Powell's predecessors adopted to overcome political deadlock at the agency. And some observers say it may point the way to a firmer consensus as the FCC gets closer to final decisions on key issues.

"At the end of the day, there will be both relief and reconciliation" between Powell and Martin, predicted Pickering. "Whether they realize it today, they both need each other for them to be successful."
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Federal Computer Week
DOD plans network attack task force
BY Dan Caterinicchia 
Feb. 7, 2003

The Defense Department is planning to form a joint task force focused solely on computer network attack (CNA) as part of the ongoing reorganization of U.S. Strategic Command.

Stratcom recently acquired oversight of DOD's information operations and global command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) capabilities.

Currently, Stratcom's Joint Task Force-Computer Network Operations is charged with defending all DOD networks from attack, as well as initiating cyberattacks when instructed by the president or Defense secretary. 

However, Stratcom's reorganization also will result in splitting the JTF-CNO into two separate task forces  one focused on computer network defense, and the other on CNA, according to DOD officials. 

The JTF-CNO was formally established in April 2001, born from the Joint Task Force for Computer Network Defense when it assumed responsibility for the evolving area of CNA.

Stratcom, which has its headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., and is commanded by Navy Adm. James Ellis Jr., is undergoing an overall reorganization. Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that President Bush signed "Change 2" to the Unified Command Plan on Jan. 10, which assigned four emerging missions to Stratcom:

* Missile defense.

* Global strike.

* DOD information operations.

* Global C4ISR.

The command also merged with U.S. Space Command last October, but retains its space operations responsibilities and its nuclear triad of submarine, bomber and missile forces, Myers said in his Feb. 5 testimony before the House Armed Services Committee. He added that the changes reflect "the U.S. military's increased emphasis on a global view."

"With its global strike responsibilities, the command will provide a core cadre to plan and execute nuclear, conventional and information operations anywhere in the world," Myers said in his prepared testimony. "Stratcom serves as the DOD advocate for integrating the desired military effects of information operations."

A spokesman for Stratcom said the merger and reorganization of its headquarters and components, including JTF-CNO, are ongoing and that any references to the reorganization of the joint task force are "pre-decisional." 

Army Maj. Gen. J. David Bryan, commander of Stratcom's JTF-CNO, said one of his top priorities is to help facilitate Stratcom's growth and increased responsibilities by sharing his office's experience with cyber operations. He would not say whether the United States has ever launched a cyberattack against an enemy, only that internal CNA exercises have been conducted.

Not everyone is convinced of that. Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, an Arlington, Va., think tank, said considering the thousands of cyberattacks DOD defends itself from daily, and larger operations like the attack on the Internet's root servers late last year, it would be "unbelievable if the U.S. is not mounting similar operations in response."

"No one can seriously believe we're not using the same sorts of operations against our adversaries," Thompson said.

Retired Air Force Col. Alan Campen, an author of four books on cyberwarfare, said he did not think the United States had ever launch a cyberattack, but only because of the policy issues involved, not technological obstacles.

"It's a matter on the political side of, 'Do you want to do it?'" Campen said. "It's not like dropping a bomb...and the legal side of DOD has been very restrictive so far. There's no question that the technical capability is there, and it's useful for DOD to let enemies know it's there."

No full-scale cyberattack on the United States from a known enemy has been documented, and that also complicates the issue because DOD would not want to attack a nation-state's computer operations based on the actions of a few skilled hackers, Campen said. He added that it is not clear whether a cyberattack would be anything more than a nuisance to U.S. enemies unless it was done in conjunction with more traditional acts of war.

A DOD spokesman said that CNA is "bound by largely the same rules that apply to any war strategy or tactic  very clear rules of engagement (ROE) will prove necessary," but once those have been established, "our ROE will not be up for discussion."

"All pieces of the enemy's system of systems that are valid military targets have been  and will be  on the table as we go about war planning," the spokesman said. "It is unimportant whether we take out a computer center with a bomb? or a denial-of-service program. If it's critical to the enemy and we go to war, it will be in our sights."

Last summer, President Bush signed National Security Presidential Directive 16, which ordered the government to prepare a national-level guidance on U.S. policies for launching cyberattacks against enemies, according to a Feb. 7 Washington Post report that also said the tactics may be used for the first time in a possible conflict with Iraq.
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Associated Press
Lawmakers Propose Anti-Missile Systems 
Mon Feb 10, 4:03 AM ET

NEW YORK - Two New York lawmakers on Sunday outlined legislation that would pay for missile protection technology to be installed on all commercial airplanes. 


Democrats Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record) and Rep. Steve Israel (news, bio, voting record) presented a plan that would provide between $7 billion and $10 billion to airlines to cover the cost of the technology, which can steer ground-fired missiles away from planes by jamming their guiding systems. 


An unsuccessful missile attack on an Israeli jet in Kenya last year raised concerns about the weapons, which are relatively cheap and can hit low-flying aircraft within 3 miles. 


"This is a very, very serious danger," Schumer said. 


Federal officials have been looking at various options to protect against attacks by the smaller missiles, often called shoulder-held missiles because they can be held by one person and fired from bazooka-like tubes. 


The protection technology would cost between $1 million and $1.5 million per plane and would take about a week to install in each, Schumer said. 


Holly Baker, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites), said such technology would have to be certified by the FAA before it could be installed in any planes, and no companies have submitted plans for certification. 


Schumer and Israel outlined the bill at a Manhattan press conference where they were joined by Rafi Ron, the former head of security for the Israeli Airport Authority. 


The bill, introduced by Schumer, Israel and Sen. Barbara Boxer (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., on Wednesday, also calls for increased security around airports, where the missiles could be launched. 


Mark Hatfield, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, said perimeter security has been intensified since the nation was put on heightened terrorist alert on Friday. 


"We welcome the assistance and support from the senators and the congressman in this particular area," he said.
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New York Times
February 10, 2003
Scientists of Very Small Draw Disciplines Together
By BARNABY J. FEDER

OS ANGELES, Feb. 7  Nanotechnology, biotechnology, electronics and brain research are converging into a new field of science vital to the nation's security and economic clout.

Or so say influential research agenda-setters like the National Science Foundation, along with a loose-knit group of government, academic and industry researchers who are trying to accelerate the convergence process.

"Leading scientists are stepping forward and saying, `We don't have departments organized for this, but this is what's hot,' " said Philip J. Keukes, chief architect for quantum science research at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories.

Mr. Keukes was speaking at the closing session of a three-day meeting here that attracted a wide range of researchers interested in the convergence, as well as a smattering of investors, analysts and representatives of groups primarily concerned about possible negative consequences.

The organizers believe that there are potentially large benefits to nanotechnology, which focuses on materials and processes with dimensions so small they are affected by the behavior of individual atoms and molecules. But they say the greatest opportunities lie in bridging the gaps between the rapidly growing ranks of nanoengineers and researchers in other fields  professionals who often use such different terms to describe their work that their common interests go unnoticed.

For instance, nanotechnology researchers suspect that the natural world's ability to assemble atoms into complex tissues with very exact specifications may hold the key to making vast quantities of minute, inexpensive pollution sensors or solar cells. Bioengineers, on the other hand, are looking to artificial nanostructures as possible drug delivery systems or as scaffolds to help injured organs repair themselves.

Such convergence was given a name late in 2001: NBIC, for nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive science. The concept is new enough that researchers have not yet agreed on a pronunciation for the acronym. Some say "EN-bick"; some say "NIB-bick."

But convergence advocates are already laying plans to ask the Bush administration to invest hundreds of millions of dollars a year in a new program to encourage collaborative work in NBIC technologies, according to James Canton, a technology consultant involved in the effort through the National Science Foundation.

"NBIC are the power tools of the 21st century," said Mr. Canton, who is president of the Institute for Global Futures, a technology trends research firm in San Francisco.

Putting the tools together, not just for researchers but in the curriculums of the nation's schools, has become a top priority for Dr. Mihail C. Roco, who heads the National Nanotechnology Initiative, a program created by President Bill Clinton and expanded by President Bush that this year will oversee $780 million in nanotechnology research grants by numerous federal agencies.

"We have an obligation not to get sidetracked," Dr. Roco said in Los Angeles.

The NBIC concept grew from a meeting Dr. Roco convened in 2000 to explore the social implications of nanotechnology research. The field derives its name from the nanometer, which is a billionth of a meter, roughly the length of a line of five hydrogen atoms.

Nanoscale innovations include novelties like tubes of carbon that are far stronger and lighter than steel and tiny light-emitting structures, called quantum dots, that are being used as identification tags in biological research. But because all the activities of living cells are governed by nanoscale interactions of atoms and small molecules, nanotechnology researchers looking for new ways to make and use nanomaterials are increasingly finding their interests overlapping with experts in biotechnology.

Similarly, electronics experts are looking to biotechnology and nanotechnology as they seek innovations that will allow them to construct far smaller and faster computers than today's silicon processors, and to create equally tiny data storage systems and communications devices.

Experts in cognition  which includes the way the brain processes the sensory data it receives from the nervous system and from proteins or other compounds in the blood  have also been invited into the fold. Their inclusion has focused the NBIC on technology applications that could improve human health or even advance human performance in areas like memory, mood control or the ability to communicate with machines.

A number of speakers emphasized the educational and organizational changes needed for success.

"Convergence is about setting up the right social system so that advances in one area rapidly move into others," said James C. Spohrer, an executive at I.B.M.'s research center in Almaden, Calif., who recently became head of a new group there focused on innovations to support the 170,000 consultants and technicians in I.B.M.'s Global Services unit. "The nano is hard, the biology is hard, the cognitive stuff is hard," he said, "but a new science of putting it together is really hard."

The group also wrestled with how to broaden discussion to include input from potential critics. Dr. Roco said that another meeting focused on social implications would be held next year and that I.B.M. would probably join with the National Science Foundation to hold a meeting on the business implications next fall.
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USA Today
Firms' hacking-related insurance costs soar 
By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO  Computer worms and viruses cost companies time and cleanup costs  and now higher insurance premiums. 

Many insurance companies  overwhelmed with hacking-related claims the past two years  have sliced hacking losses from general-liability policies, forcing companies to spend extra for "network risk insurance," which costs about $5,000 to $30,000 a year for $1 million in coverage.

"Insurers are delivering an ultimatum: Invest in stand-alone hacker policies or go unprotected," says corporate attorney Bob Steinberg.

That's a dangerous proposition. Losses from computer crime are expected to soar 25% to $2.8 billion in the USA this year, says market researcher TruSecure.

Successful Web-site attacks nearly doubled to 600 a day. Hacker insurance is expected to jump from a $100 million market today to $900 million by 2005, market researcher Gartner says. That may result in higher costs for consumers as the cost of doing business goes up.

"Hacker insurance will be ubiquitous in a few years," says Bruce Schneier, chief technology officer of Counterpane Internet Security. "You can't budget for the next computer worm, but insurance is a fixed cost that reduces risk."

The threat of computer worms such as Slammer, which recently clogged global Internet traffic, underscores Corporate America's growing dependence on the Internet and the vulnerability of its computer networks.

The Code Red worm in 2001 caused an estimated $2 billion in damages and cleanup costs.

Such security breaches prompted the government in September to urge companies to insure against losses and for insurance companies to offer more cyber-risk policies as part of its "National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace" plan.

As technology grows more complex and creates security holes, companies would "have to disconnect every PC to be safe," says Ron Ben-Natan, chief technology officer at security firm Guardium.

Until recently, companies relied on general liability policies to cover data losses from computer theft and stolen trade secrets.

But with the spread of viruses and worms  which electronically damage computer data from remote locations  companies increasingly were forced to sue insurance providers to collect. That prompted more stand-alone policies from some of the biggest insurers, including:

American International Group, the largest network-security insurer, recently created stand-alone coverage for viruses and credit card and ID theft. 
Hiscox, a Lloyd's of London syndicate, last year initiated a policy for telecommunications, media and technology companies that covers virus and hacker losses. 
Chubb now offers financial institutions a policy for "e-theft, e-vandalism and e-extortion." 
Zurich North America, in one plan last year, added a reward for information leading to the conviction of cyberterrorists. 
In addition to the premium, companies have to pay upfront to have their networks assessed. That can cost thousands. And hacker insurance isn't entirely foolproof, security experts warn. Some coverage is limited and may not cover sophisticated worms and viruses that have yet to surface.

"It may take a few years for insurance providers to shore up holes," Steinberg says.
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Los Angeles Times
Fingerprints Unchecked in 6,000 Deaths
The LAPD is not moving quickly enough, officials say, to use advances in forensics technology and clear up unsolved murder cases.
By Andrew Blankstein
Times Staff Writer

February 10 2003

Los Angeles police have fingerprints from more than 6,000 unsolved slayings that have not yet been compared with the national computer database that two weeks ago produced the match and the arrest in a 45-year-old killing of two police officers, authorities said.

The prints on file were taken from Los Angeles Police Department cases both before and since 1985, when computerized fingerprint technology was developed. Advances since then allow searches in as little as two hours of databases containing tens of millions of prints.

With the creation of a specialized cold-case unit, the LAPD only recently began to focus on reexamining the backlog of older cases. But police and prosecutors say there is a larger issue: The department is not moving quickly enough to take advantage of the great leap forward in forensics technology, including fingerprints, DNA and ballistics markings taken from bullets and shell casings.

"This is cart-and-buggy stuff," one prosecutor said.

The value of the technology was dramatically demonstrated with the recent arrest of Gerald Mason in Columbia, S.C., in the slayings of two El Segundo police officers in 1957. Mason, 69, is fighting extradition.

LAPD Capt. Jim Tatreau said the fingerprint backlog is a big problem, which the department has lacked the money and technical support to solve.

"There was always an immediate crisis that seemed to get the response, rather than the huge number of unsolved cases," Tatreau said.

Included in the backlog are fingerprints taken from the crime scene in South-Central Los Angeles where 74-year-old college professor Edgar M. Easley was found stabbed 71 times in 1984. Police ran the prints through the FBI database in October and found a match, but no arrest has been made.

An FBI fingerprint hit has also jump-started the investigation into the 1978 killing of June Roman, 45, who was found bound and beaten to death in her Hollywood home. Detectives now say they are close to solving that two-decade-old mystery.

Print comparisons also have renewed hope of finding the killer or killers of Elizabeth McKeown, who was sexually assaulted and slain and whose body was found in the trunk of her car in Venice in 1976.

But for every one of those cases, there are many others like that of Karl Radenberg, a former LAPD traffic officer who was killed in 1984 along with another man outside a Van Nuys bar. Prints from that crime have not yet been run through a fingerprint database.

Nor has print evidence from the case of Timothy George Long, 26, a Louisiana resident who was found shot to death in 1984 on Mulholland Drive. Receipts found in Long's car helped investigators retrace his West Coast trip, but fingerprints from the crime scene remained unmatched and not compared.

Rick Jackson, a veteran LAPD homicide detective, said many investigations have laid dormant because of a lack of resources. "There are only a few people in the LAPD crime lab to input fingerprint information on cold cases," Jackson said.

"We need to change the LAPD to bring it into the 21st century, although frankly, I would settle for the 20th century," said Los Angeles City Councilman Jack Weiss. "The use of fingerprint technology was championed by Teddy Roosevelt when he was police commissioner in New York City over 100 years ago.

"There's absolutely no excuse for failing to prioritize the necessary technology and resources in a modern department's budgets," he said.

The case against Mason was made by detectives working for Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, who runs the largest law enforcement agency in the county. Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley has recently sharply criticized the LAPD over what he calls its reluctance to commit resources to new DNA technology at a joint police laboratory now being planned.

"Backlogs exist in many areas, and they should be addressed," Cooley said last week. "The issue is bigger than just the backlog. The issue is the historic, chronic and long-term neglect of forensics in the county and city."

About one-third of all slayings in Los Angeles go unsolved, among them cases that date back four decades. Thus far, the LAPD cold-case unit has reviewed 8,000 cases from 1960 to 1997, and has made 100 requests for fingerprint analysis.

The LAPD Scientific Investigation Division's latent print unit, responsible for locating and recovering latent prints from items of evidence and crime scenes, is staffed by about 80 people. Two are assigned to enter cold-case prints into the federal latent print database, while 20 others compare prints for investigators and enter prints into the state database, Cal ID.

New System Expected

"We have vacant positions, and we're doing the best we have with the current technology and staffing," said the division's commanding officer, Steve Johnson. "We expect things to vastly improve with a new countywide fingerprint system, which is expected to come online this summer."

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department fingerprint unit is staffed by 54 people, including six people assigned to enter latent prints into the state and federal databases, said Capt. Chris Beattie.

In 1985, the department decided to enter all old murder cases with usable prints into the Cal ID system, Beattie said. "Essentially, we have no backlog of homicide cases because of that."

Officials with the Sheriff's Department's crime lab said they also have no backlog of cases involving other major crimes, such as rape, robbery and kidnapping.

For most of the century in which law enforcement has used fingerprints, police agencies kept print records on paper.

At LAPD, fingerprints were analyzed on the second floor of Parker Center by technicians using table lamps and magnifying glasses. That began to change in the mid-1980s, with the introduction of the first automated fingerprint system. Even then, because the technology was primitive, detectives had to compare hundreds or thousands of similar prints by hand, a process that could take weeks or even months.

The steps were repeated if federal assistance was needed. Prints would be sent by mail to the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C., for comparison in a national fingerprint database. Like most local systems, searches on the federal database were slow and time-consuming.

Then the FBI created the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, at a cost of $640 million, in 1999. With a work station, a modem and special encryption software, police could submit digital copies of fingerprints and search the present massive all-digital national system in a few hours.

Police agencies that tapped into the system in its first year made 1,000 fingerprint matches, more in one year than in the previous 10, said Steve Hooks, deputy assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services division, based in Clarksburg, W.Va.

Today, the database holds 44 million sets of fingerprints, and police agencies searched a total of 8,343 prints last year. In the process, 130 cases were solved. The database is now used by 30 states, 11 federal agencies and 32 local law enforcement agencies.

LAPD Delays

But as the federal system went online, LAPD's system was becoming antiquated and expensive to maintain. That system was scrapped in 1999, and the LAPD has since relied on a database maintained by the California Department of Justice.

LAPD officials say that they have been hampered in part by delays as they wait for the upgraded county system to come online.

"This is one of the simplest and cheapest ways to identify suspects and witnesses," said LAPD Det. Dave Lambkin, who is in charge of the department's cold-case unit. That prints haven't been run through the system, he said, "is a travesty."
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Associated Press
FBI Seeks Hacker Who Stole eBay Info 
Sat Feb 8,10:50 AM ET

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A hacker used a University of North Carolina computer system to steal personal financial information from eBay users, and at least one person lost money, the FBI (news - web sites) said Friday.

?I'm pretty sure there's some more (victims) out there," said Chris Swecker, who heads the FBI in North Carolina. 


Swecker said the fraud was uncovered after users of the Internet auction site complained to the FBI that they had received fraudulent e-mails during the past week that appeared to come from eBay. 


The e-mails told recipients their accounts were suspended until they verified some personal information  including their credit card number and mother's maiden name. A link in the e-mail took users to a Web page appearing to belong to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. 


The page was posted for at least two hours Sunday via a university computer server before technicians shut it down, school spokeswoman Karin Steinbrenner said. 


The hacker does not appear to be a UNCC student or employee, Steinbrenner and Swecker said. No arrests have been made. 


Officials at eBay said they knew of three or four apparent complaints but had no information on users losing money in the computer attack. 


The company has noticed an increase in fraudulent e-mails in the past year, ebay spokesman Kevin Pursglove said. "As fast as we can find them they disappear," he said. 


By Monday, the page linked to the fake eBay e-mail had disappeared, replaced by a Web site registered to a Pennsylvania woman, who said she also had been the victim of identity theft and had lost an undisclosed amount of money from her bank account. 
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Associated Press
Judge Delays Ruling in Printer Chip Case 
Fri Feb 7,11:18 PM ET

By ROGER ALFORD, Associated Press Writer 

LEXINGTON, Ky. - A judge is expected to rule by the end of the month whether to grant a preliminary injunction that would stop a North Carolina company from making or selling computer chips that match remanufactured toner cartridges to Lexmark printers. 


"I'm going to have to spend some time looking that this," U.S. District Judge Karl S. Forester said before concluding a day-long hearing on the issue Friday. 


Lawyers for Lexington-based Lexmark had asked Forester for the preliminary injunction to stop Static Control Components of Sanford, N.C., from manufacturing chips that adapt less expensive ink cartridges to Lexmark printers. 


Lexmark claims Static Control has infringed on its software copyrights and that the company's "Smartek" chips violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (news - web sites), originally passed by Congress in 1998 to protect music from being copied and illegally distributed over the Internet. 


Forester had ordered Static Control to cease manufacturing and selling the chips for Lexmark's toner cartridges at least until he heard arguments for the preliminary injunction on Friday. He extended that order through Feb. 28, by which time he should issue his ruling. 


William Swartz, president of the Static Control division that manufacturers and sells the chips, told Forester in sworn testimony that the effects of a preliminary injunction would be felt beyond his company. 


"We wouldn't be able to recover from it, fully," Swartz said. "It would have a depressing effect on the industry overall." 


The chip is one of thousands of components Static Control makes and supplies to companies in the laser printer cartridge industry. 


With printers being relatively inexpensive, manufacturers make most of their profits selling replacement ink or toner cartridges. 


Lexmark, one of the top U.S. manufacturers of computer printers, tried to stop other companies from supplying cartridges for its printers by installing tiny computer chips in each one. Those chips cause the printers to malfunction if the replacement cartridge comes from anyone other than the original manufacturer.

In response, Static Control designed the "Smartek" chip that enables replacement cartridges to work in the Lexmark printers. 


That resulted in the Dec. 30 lawsuit, in which Lexmark alleges Static Control's microchip includes copies of its copyrighted software in violation of the 1998 copyright law. 


Static Control, which employs about 1,000 people, produces ink cartridges for a variety of printers, including ones made by Hewlett-Packard and Xerox.
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Associated Press
Lawsuit Over Pop-Up Ads Is Settled 
Fri Feb 7, 1:04 PM ET

By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer 

NEW YORK - The nation's largest news publishers have settled a dispute over an Internet advertising practice they had deemed parasitical: unauthorized, third-party ads that pop up while visiting NYTimes.com and other news sites.


Terms of the settlement were confidential, said Terence Ross, the lead attorney for the publishers. He said Friday that the settlement was reached late Tuesday. 


The parent companies of The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post and the digital arms of Knight Ridder and Conde Nast were among news outlets that sued Gator Corp. in June over its pop-up ads. 


U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton in Alexandria, Va., granted a preliminary injunction ordering Gator to stop delivering pop-up ads at the sites run by those companies. 


Trial was to begin last month but was postponed while settlement talks continued. 


Ross would not say whether Gator could now serve pop-up ads over the news sites, or whether the settlement included any payments. 


Officials at Gator, based in a Redwood City, Calif., did not respond to requests for comment made by telephone and e-mail. 


Internet users get Gator advertising software when they install a separate product for filling out online forms and remembering passwords. Gator also comes hitched with free software from other companies, including games and file-sharing programs. 


As users surf the Web, Gator runs in the background and delivers advertisements that plaintiffs said obscured their own ads and content. 


Though the Gator ads are marked "GAIN"  for Gator Advertising and Information Network  the publishers worried that many consumers did not know the difference and would instead blame the site for an unpleasant experience. 

Gator, which claims 30 million active users and 500 advertisers, has contended that its pop-up windows are no different than what happens when a user runs instant messaging (news - web sites), e-mail or other programs in separate windows while surfing a Web site. 


Gator still faces similar lawsuits from United Parcel Service, which said unauthorized pop-ups have included ads for rival FedEx Corp., and from Six Continents Hotels, which operates Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza and complains that Gator directed visitors to deals from Marriott and other competitors. 


Other lawsuits, including one filed Jan. 27 by MetroGuide.com travel service, have targeted Gator's advertisers, without naming the company as a defendant. 
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Federal Computer Week
DOD forming TIA oversight boards
BY Dan Caterinicchia 
Feb. 7, 2003

The Defense Department is establishing two oversight boards focused on ensuring that the Total Information Awareness project proceeds legally and without infringing on public privacy.

The two advisory boards -- one internal and one external advisory committee -- will work with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as it continues its TIA research, said Pete Aldridge, undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, logistics and technology, at a Feb. 7 press briefing. 

The boards will help ensure that DARPA develops and disseminates its TIA products in a manner consistent with U.S. constitutional and statutory laws, as well as existing privacy protection laws and policies.

In theory, TIA would enable national security analysts to detect, classify, track, understand and preempt terrorist attacks against the United States by using surveillance and spotting patterns in public and private transactions.

The internal oversight board, which Aldridge will chair, will monitor how terrorist-tracking tools are transitioned for real-world use. It also will establish policies and procedures for internal DOD use of TIA-developed tools. 

That board, which is expected to hold its first meeting later this month, is composed of senior DOD officials and will also establish protocols for transferring TIA capabilities to entities outside DOD, Aldridge said. 

The board will help make sure the Pentagon's leadership "feels comfortable...that things are going right" with TIA, he said. "It's one more degree of confidence that we're doing the right thing with this technology."

The external board will serve as a federal advisory committee to the secretary of Defense on all policy and legal issues that are raised by the TIA program.

Newton Minow, director of the Annenberg Washington Program and the Annenberg Professor of Communications Law and Policy at Northwestern University, is chairman of the external board, whose members also include:

* Floyd Abrams, civil rights attorney.

* Zoe Baird, director of the Markle Foundation.

* Griffin Bell, former U.S. attorney general and court of appeals judge.

* Gerhard Casper, president emeritus for Stanford University and professor of law.

* William Coleman, former chairman and now chief customer advocate of BEA Systems Inc., an applications and infrastructure company.

* Lloyd Cutler, former White House counsel.

The Senate last month approved an amendment blocking the use of the TIA system unless Congress specifically authorizes it, and only after the Bush administration submits a report about the program's effect on privacy. Senators approved the amendment, which was introduced Jan. 15 by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and added it to the omnibus continuing appropriations bill for fiscal 2003, which is in conference.

Aldridge said that Wyden had been briefed on the advisory boards concept and that they were both hopeful a compromise could be reached.

A spokeswoman for Wyden said that the senator received a copy of a memo earlier today that outlined the two-council set-up but did not receive any other briefings from DOD before Aldridge's announcement.

"The announcement made today in no way erases the need for congressional oversight of the TIA program...or congressional authority to deploy the technlogy," Wyden's spokeswoman said. 

The program was funded at $10 million this year and the fiscal 2004 request is $20 million, "if Congress wants to spend it, which has yet to be determined," Aldridge said.
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Federal Computer Week
Agreement to spark more Wi-Fi
BY Dan Caterinicchia 
Feb. 5, 2003

The Federal Communications Commission and the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) last week signed a memorandum of understanding on spectrum coordination.

The agreement enables the wireless industry to produce more Wi-Fi products, as long as they do not interfere with military radars.

The FCC manages the nation's nonfederal telecommunications spectrum, including users in the commercial broadcast, public safety, and state and local government sectors. NTIA is responsible for the federal space -- including the Defense Department, which is the federal government's largest user. The majority of the telecommunications spectrum is shared between federal and nonfederal users, which requires the FCC and NTIA to coordinate spectrum policy. 

The Pentagon had repeatedly expressed concerns that Wi-Fi, or 802.11b wireless network devices, which provide connectivity up to about 300 feet, could interfere with DOD radar systems. But after months of technical discussions and analyses with wireless industry vendors, the Pentagon fully supports the new agreement, said Badri Younes, DOD's director for spectrum management. 

"There are a little more relaxed constraints on Wi-Fi, and we've been assured full protection of our radars," Younes said in a Feb. 4 interview. "The technical experts converged on a solution that provides full protection of military radars while allowing Wi-fi technology to move forward." 

The memorandum, which was signed Jan. 31 by FCC Chairman Michael Powell and NTIA Administrator Nancy Victory, will apply to coordination of spectrum issues involving federal and nonfederal users. 

"Ultimately, this partnership will mean more efficient regulatory processes that will speed the deployment of new innovative spectrum-based services to consumers," Powell said in a statement. 

Victory agreed and said that the U.S. government must work together as "one spectrum team" to deal with critical spectrum management issues. 

The FCC and NTIA have been operating under a previous memorandum of understanding from October 1940. The new agreement establishes procedures relating to frequency coordination, and also includes spectrum-planning provisions.
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Federal Computer Week
Tech snags delay INS student tracker
INS, schools work on accessibility problems
BY Michael Hardy 
Feb. 10, 2003

Last-minute technical snags forced the Immigration and Naturalization Service to give schools a two-week reprieve before they begin using a new online system to report information on foreign students, teachers and exchange visitors.

The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), which was scheduled to go live Jan. 30, is intended to make it easier for the agency to keep track of people who enter the country on education-related visas.

"As we were getting close, on [Jan. 29], it became apparent some of the schools were having problems accessing the system," INS spokesman Christopher Bentley said. One problem was a demand overload on INS' servers, slowing system response, which he said has been fixed.

The other issue was that some schools found that interfaces they had built or bought from vendors to enable their systems to interact with SEVIS were not working well, he said. The agency has extended the compliance deadline to Feb. 15 so that INS' help desk can work with individual schools.

By that deadline, schools must report information such as address, visa type and course of study on new students, faculty and staff. They must compile and report data on current foreign visitors by Aug. 1 and then update the data regularly. 

Immigration law already requires schools to collect much of the information, Bentley said. However, they were not required to regularly report it to INS.

Congress ordered SEVIS in 1996, but the 2001 terrorist attacks gave the program new urgency. The compliance deadline was moved from 2005 to 2003.

Schools that don't participate in SEVIS will no longer be able to accept foreign students or issue immigration documents, Bentley added. About 600,000 foreign visitors in the United States will be subject to the reporting requirements, he said. 

Meanwhile, INS is still working to certify schools that have applied to participate, he said. INS has approved more than 3,000 schools, and about 2,300 are still waiting. INS has been testing the system since October 2002, hurrying to meet its own deadline, Bentley said. Early testers found problems such as an inability to retract incorrect information or enter "Ph.D." as a degree name. 

Schools have taken different approaches to compliance. Some smaller institutions with only a few foreign students and faculty members can simply enter the information directly into the SEVIS Web interface, Bentley said. Schools with hundreds or thousands of records to report have deployed commercial software or designed their own systems to automate data collection and send it to SEVIS in a batch process.

The Justice Department's intent is that the system will alert authorities about when international students arrive or leave the country, the ports of entry they use and whether they are taking the courses they signed up for. Some of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers were in the United States on student visas.

Some universities feel they've been unfairly rushed to compliance, even given the threat of terrorism.

"SEVIS is like a moving target," said Barbara Warren, director of tax and payroll at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, which co- designed a system with vendor G1440 Inc. "They tell you what they want 15 minutes before they want it."

Johns Hopkins had to consolidate about 5,000 international students' records into one database and then build interfaces to the student registration system and to the payroll system. That's the key technological hurdle  consolidating data from various systems, said Larry Fiorino, chief executive officer at G1440 in Columbia, Md.

Some schools, including American University in Washington, D.C., chose to create their own systems rather than buy from a vendor. American already had all of its data standardized on systems from a single vendor, Datatel Inc., said Paul Langan, the school's special project team leader for software. 

"Fortunately, American University already had an integrated computer system that maintained all of our data in a common format, which would allow us to develop a single application," he said. n

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Student Tracker

When fully deployed, the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System will track data and issue Immigration and Naturalization Service documents for foreign nationals visiting the United States under these visas:

* F Visa  Academic students.

* M Visa  Vocational students.

* J Visa  Visitors on cultural exchange programs.
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