Clips February 26, 2003

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips February 26, 2003

ARTICLES

Retailers' Online Tax Deal Faces New Challenges 
U.S. Banks On High Tech in Event of War
Computer Chip Sales Forecast Hit by War Fears
Nuke Lab Can't Keep Snoops Out  
New System to Extend Harbor's Surveillance Beyond Horizon
Space Shuttles Bound to Technologies of the Past 
ACLU Admits Another Privacy Gaffe 
Singapore Police Net Huge Piracy Software Haul
Group issues final biometrics report
Bush lays plan for info-sharing center
Homeland opens Ready.gov home page
Congressional group turns spotlight on enhanced 911 
Receipts Reflect Fears Over Electronic Votes


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Washington Post
Retailers' Online Tax Deal Faces New Challenges 
By Brian Krebs
Tuesday, February 25, 2003; 8:46 AM 

An agreement designed to win retailers' support for taxing their online sales faces a new test, as several states are objecting to an amnesty provision that would forgive participating companies for taxes owed on some or all previous online sales. 

Illinois last week announced that it has joined a lawsuit against several large retailers seeking payment of past online sales tax obligations. New York is considering similar litigation.

The Illinois action comes just weeks after several big retailers, including Wal-Mart, Target and Toys R Us, began voluntarily collecting taxes on their online sales. In exchange, the states granted retailers amnesty from paying taxes they were liable for collecting on previous online sales.

Illinois was among five states that tentatively approved the amnesty deal but put off formally signing it while a new governor took office. The other states are Nevada, New Mexico New York and Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, three other states -- Arizona, California, and South Carolina - rejected the amnesty offer outright. 

So far, Illinois is the only state to say publicly it is going after retailers for failure to pay sales taxes on online sales. The state specifically has taken up a pair of whistleblower cases filed by Stephen Diamond, an attorney with the Chicago law firm Beeler, Schad & Diamond. The case targets Wal-Mart, Target, Office Depot and several smaller retailers.

"I'm trying to put together a nationwide coalition to go after these companies," Diamond said. "The very companies that are the greatest malefactors are the ones trying to win amnesty."

A weak national economy has severely crippled state budgets, giving them added incentive to go after any potential revenue source, including applying their sales taxes to all online sales. New York is projecting deficits of more than $11 billion this coming year. Arizona and South Carolina are looking at deficits in excess of $1 billion, while Nevada is projected to be at least $740 million in the red this year. 

"There is potentially a lot of money owed to the state," Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan (D) said. "Illinois is facing between two to five billion (dollars) in deficits this year, and we need to make sure we are collecting revenues owed to the state."

Meeting under the auspices of the Streamlined Sales Tax Project, a group of more than 30 states has been quietly building consensus behind the online sales tax movement. The Illinois lawsuit is not directly related to the states' sales tax project, but it presents a new challenge to winning over retailers to the effort, especially if other large states sign on to the case.

Retailers currently are only required to collect taxes on sales made to buyers who live in the same state where the retailer maintains a physical location, such as a store or distribution center. Many retailers sought to avoid sales taxes on Internet purchases by chartering their online units as separate entities and maintaining physical locations in only a handful of places, thus exempting customers in most states from paying sales taxes. For example, although Wal-Mart has stores in all 50 states, its Walmart.com subsidiary has a physical presence in only nine states.

Besides Illinois, states that have not yet joined the retailer amnesty deal are not saying much about their plans. 

A New York official said only that his state is keeping its options open. "We're looking at the specifics [of the Illinois case] to see how this would apply to our state," said Tom Bergin, spokesman for the New York Department of Taxation.

A spokesman for the Nevada Attorney General's office would not confirm or deny whether the state was gearing up for a similar lawsuit.

"If we were considering such a move, the last thing we'd want to do is tip off the opposition," spokesman Tom Sargent said.

Arizona Department of Revenue spokesman Dan Zemke said while the state has no concrete plans to go after the retailers for back taxes, it will be watching the Illinois case closely.

"Every state looks at what's going on in other states, and if Illinois is successful in that suit, that establishes at least some precedent that the rest of us can use," Zemke said.

South Carolina Department of Revenue Director Bernie Maybank declined to name names, but said his state is "aggressively pursuing bricks-and-mortar retailers that have created tax obligations within the state through their Internet sales."

"We have a pretty good program in place here where we're able to do a good job of finding out if businesses have tangible relationships with South Carolina, and frankly we thought we could do better than the terms we were offered," in the amnesty deal, he said.

A Wal-Mart spokeswoman called the Illinois lawsuit unprecedented, insisting that the company's online subsidiary never had a taxable physical presence in Illinois.

"We plan to defend our position," spokeswoman Cynthia Lin said.
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Los Angeles Times
U.S. Banks On High Tech in Event of War
Scores of officers armed with computers are prepared to synthesize battlefield data. They especially hope to minimize 'friendly fire.'
By Tracy Wilkinson
February 26, 2003

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar -- Deep inside a taupe-colored warehouse rising from the expansive desert here sits a low-ceilinged room that U.S. military commanders call the nerve center of America's next war.

Classified at a level more secret than top secret, this is where up to 50 men hunch over Dell laptop computers, track troop movements and attempt to make sense of the avalanche of information -- from satellite pictures and intercepts to field reports -- that comes their way.

If the United States launches a war against the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, it is from this windowless, high-tech room that senior officers from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps will direct the battle.

The Joint Operations Center is at the heart of a sprawling, 262-acre base built up in recent months as the diminutive Persian Gulf state of Qatar has emerged as the region's key U.S. ally.

Access to the Joint Operations Center is highly restricted, even within the military; outsiders rarely get a glimpse. The Los Angeles Times first visited the center two months ago during a computer war-simulation exercise. Reporters from The Times and three other U.S. newspapers were again given a tour Tuesday and allowed to interview several officers, who were keen to extol the virtues of technological advances that they say have revolutionized the way they would fight a war on Iraq.

In contrast to the Persian Gulf War, more than a decade ago, officers said they expect to be able to link spy planes, satellites, ships, troops, tanks and bombers to develop more exact information on targets and movements much more quickly -- a big picture of the battlefield in "real time," or something very close to real time.

That, they say, can go a long way toward minimizing so-called friendly fire accidents, which accounted for a quarter of American battle deaths in the earlier conflict.

At that time, according to chief of operations Marine Col. Tom Bright, officers in charge often had to rely on units radioing their fast-changing positions up the chain of command, with a precision often eroded by the heat of battle. Missions were frequently planned with outdated photographs and maps.

This time, technology is meant to prevail. Every Humvee, tank and truck moving on Iraq will be equipped with a $10,000 radio device that automatically transmits its position back to headquarters, said Air Force Col. Steven Pennington, another operations chief. It is called a Blue Force Tagger and Tracking device: U.S. forces are "blue," the enemy is "red."

Similarly, Pennington said, every soldier will carry a global positioning device so that his or her location is also automatically registered. Unmanned Predator reconnaissance drones and other surveillance aircraft, meanwhile, will transmit live video of ground activity.

This information will in turn be overlaid and plotted on large computer-generated maps beamed onto thin plasma screens hanging from the wall and ceiling of the Joint Operations Center.

"You will never, ever get rid of the fog of war," Bright said. "War is a personal business -- inside each commander's mind is what he intends to do." But, he said, the new technology will allow operational chiefs to see more clearly and quickly a "mosaic of information" that will better inform war-fighting decisions.

It remains to be seen whether the expectations will be met. Technology has repeatedly failed American war efforts in the past.

During the visit Tuesday, the large screens showed a maritime map of Kuwait -- troop positions having been erased because of the journalists' presence -- and a similarly empty map of Iraq. One screen broadcast CNN.

On an opposite wall hung a U.S. flag and one from Washington's ally Britain.

Seated at two long tables, the officers suited in various patterns of desert camouflage staffed a sea desk, air desk and land desk. Surprisingly, given the reliance on computers, few senior officers said they'd had any special computer training. Asked why Windows was the program of choice, Bright said it is the system "the grunts use."

Improvements in missile-warning technology will also give the Americans an edge compared with the Gulf War, said Col. Bill Brogan of Garden Grove, Calif., whose job is to make sure that all of the military's "space assets" -- satellites -- are used to maximum advantage. Early warning systems that can shave crucial seconds off the time it takes to notify forces of an enemy missile launch are in place and ready to be tested, he said.

In all, between 400 and 500 analysts will sift through reams of raw data and relay the most significant information to the smaller Joint Operations Center staff, who will make their recommendations to Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of all U.S. troops in the gulf. He is to be headquartered in an adjacent "war room."

Late Tuesday, Franks arrived in Qatar amid what appeared to be a quickened march toward war.

Speaking to Associated Press while en route, the general sought to portray his visit as part of a normal "battle rhythm" that involves reviewing preparations at many levels.

"A lot of people will be speculating and say, 'OK, this is a last-minute exercise to check out the war plan and all of that,' " Franks told AP. "That is not the case."
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Reuters
Computer Chip Sales Forecast Hit by War Fears
Tue Feb 25, 6:17 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A normally bullish semiconductor industry forecaster trimmed its outlook for a chip sector rebound on Tuesday citing "Iraqnophobia" -- uncertainties surrounding a possible war with Iraq. 


Semico Research's growth forecast for this year -- cut to 23 percent from 25 percent -- is still one of the highest in the industry. On Monday, Gartner Dataquest predicted chip sales would rise 8.9 percent, other analysts have forecasts ranging from 10 percent to 15 percent, and the Semiconductor Industry Association is forecasting 19.8 percent growth. 


"This fear includes uncertainty about oil supply, length of war, use of chemical weapons, and increased terrorist attacks," Semico Research President Jim Feldhan said in a statement. 


The specter of war aside, Phoenix-based Semico sees indications that the economy is poised for a strong recovery in 2003, with consumer spending and the housing market, key leading indicators, outperforming expectations. 


For now, the semiconductor industry continues to struggle with soft pricing and weak demand as corporations delay spending on information technology, Feldhan said. 


Last year, demand in unit terms grew 14.3 percent while revenue grew only 1.3 percent because of aggressive discounting by chip vendors trying to gain market share, Semico said. 


Makers of microchips have suffered from their worst downturn ever following their best year ever in 2000. 
*******************************
Wired News
02:00 AM Feb. 25, 2003 PT
Nuke Lab Can't Keep Snoops Out  

LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico -- There are no armed guards to knock out. No sensors to deactivate. No surveillance cameras to cripple. To sneak into Los Alamos National Laboratory, the world's most important nuclear research facility, all you do is step over a few strands of rusted, calf-high barbed wire. 

I should know. On Saturday morning, I slipped into and out of a top-secret area of the lab while guards sat, unaware, less than a hundred yards away.

Despite the nation's heightened terror alert status, despite looming congressional hearings into the lab's mismanagement and slack-jawed security, an untrained person -- armed with only the vaguest sense of the facility's layout and slowed by a torn Achilles tendon -- was able to repeatedly gain access to the birthplace of the atom bomb. 

"While Los Alamos is praised as a jewel of homeland security, it may actually be one of the country's biggest vulnerabilities," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog organization that's eyed Los Alamos for years. 

Founded in World War II by a tiny group of scientists and military personnel racing to develop atomic weapons, the lab now has over 12,000 employees spread across 2,224 buildings on 43 square miles. 

These people are involved in a staggering array of endeavors: nuclear bomb design and maintenance, climate studies, supercomputer development, advanced spy-sensor research and more. Managed by the University of California for the Department of Energy, the lab is responsible for six major nuclear weapons systems, including the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles. 

My entry into this sprawling complex was New Mexico's State Road 4, which forms the lab's rear border for several miles. Connecting the small, church-filled town of White Rock and the sandstone mesas of the Bandelier National Monument, the road comes within a few feet of some of the lab's most clandestine areas. 

At these points, 9-foot-high chain-link fences, topped with curled razor wire, keep hikers away from Los Alamos lands. But as Route 4 proceeds along LANL property, these imposing barriers drop to trios or quartets of aging barbed wire, the kind of fences used to keep cows from straying off a farm. 

Eventually, the lab's outer perimeter becomes nothing more than a piece of string. Finally, it turns into nothing at all -- just a yellow No Trespassing sign. 

"We didn't fence all 43 square miles," said lab spokeswoman Nancy Ambrosiano. "But if you're near an area that matters, you can't get in." 

Pulling a rented car onto the road's red gravel shoulder, I stepped over one of the string borders. Then I walked parallel to Route 4 for a few hundred feet until I hit a chain-link fence. 

I had come to the perimeter of Technical Area 33, one of the facilities Ambrosiano said was "secure." Officially, TA-33 is described only as a "former explosives testing area." According to lab sources, however, TA-33's collection of prefabricated shacks and converted trailers is one of Los Alamos' most secret sections, focused in part on "black," or covert, operations. Nine tons of uranium-contaminated soil was removed from the area in 1999.

Imagine my wide-eyed surprise when I saw that the fence surrounding TA-33 ended only a few dozen yards from the road. Heart pounding, I stepped around the perimeter. Stopping at a decrepit barbed-wire fence outlining TA-33's rear, I swung my legs over, one at a time. 

I could see a police-style vehicle with at least one guard in it just a few hundred feet away. But the car's occupants were oblivious to my presence. I strolled up to a silver building. Its windows were open. 

TA-33, isolated on the lab's southern extremity, has become the epicenter of controversy in recent months. According to a search warrant filed by the FBI, it was here that maintenance managers Peter Bussolini and Scott Alexander allegedly stored tens of thousands of dollars' worth of camping gear and consumer electronics they fraudulently charged to lab accounts. 

These purchases helped ignite a conflagration of controversy, which was stoked when investigators Steven Doran and Glenn Walp were fired after they shared the results of their inquiries with Energy Department officials. Los Alamos director John Browne was forced to resign shortly thereafter. 

Now, after 60 years, the University of California's contract to operate Los Alamos on behalf of the Energy Department is being called into question. Congressional hearings into Los Alamos' management begin Wednesday. These inquiries will include "tough questions" about Los Alamos' security, according to the Energy Department. 

But it will likely take more than tough questions to fix security snafus at the facility. 

Last summer, on a nighttime stakeout, Doran said he and a team of FBI agents were accidentally locked into the TA-33 complex. Without identifying themselves, they asked a guard to open the gate and let them out. The guard complied without question -- he didn't even ask for an ID. Unfamiliar faces emerging from a top-secret facility late at night was, apparently, not cause for concern. 

The main entrances to Los Alamos are only marginally better defended than TA-33's back acreage. The military-like guards keeping watch at these points certainly look fierce in camouflage paints and black bulletproof vests. But there's little to back up the image. Their belts have gun holsters, but no guns to fill them. 

Around facilities like the biology lab, where anthrax and other biotoxins have been handled, no sentries stand guard at all. Nor is there any kind of fence to keep the curious and the malicious away -- not even a piece of string. 

"Before I got to Los Alamos, I figured it would have at least the (security) level of a military base," Doran said. "Now I know better." 
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New York Times
February 26, 2003
New System to Extend Harbor's Surveillance Beyond Horizon
By DIANE CARDWELL

hen it comes to watching what travels through the busy waters surrounding New York City, the surveillance cameras that captured a deadly explosion off Staten Island last week are just the tip of the iceberg.

The cameras, which are in place to record the activity of just about everything that floats, are scheduled to expand their range under a new system announced yesterday that will enable the Coast Guard to automatically identify vessels up to 30 miles away.

The system, designed by Lockheed Martin Corporation under a contract awarded in 1998, will allow for an "over the horizon view" of arriving vessels, said Capt. Craig Bone, the Coast Guard's captain of the Port of New York and New Jersey.

It will allow Coast Guard officials to know not just which ships are on their way, Captain Bone said, but where they are likely to go. The system, which is also to be installed at Houston-Galveston and Port Arthur, Tex., lets operators sitting before two computer screens "pull up a display that will tell us where they were last time they were here, how long they stayed and what cargoes they transferred," he added.

The current system, which has been in place since the early 1990's and serves a similar function to air traffic control, was set up in the wake of the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska in 1989 to help prevent collisions and spills. Called the Vessel Traffic Service program, its headquarters is at Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island. It uses closed-circuit television cameras and 12 radar systems placed throughout the harbor, in addition to cutters and aircraft that patrol the waterways.

Under the upgrade, more cameras will be added to expand the range of vision along the Hudson River, including "the ferry transit area" and "the cruise ship area," Captain Bone said. He said he could not be more specific because of security concerns. The existing radar systems, whose technology is about 15 years old, will be updated and a 13th will be added, said Alan Bills, a Lockheed Martin manager for the project.

Unlike the current radar, where operators might have trouble distinguishing a rubber raft or a group of small ships near a large one, said Sandra Jean Borden, a Washington-based Coast Guard manager for the program, the new radar's resolution is so high that it "can even see ice floes."

But the crown jewel in the surveillance program is the Automatic Identification System, under which devices installed in tankers, ferries and cruise ships will automatically transmit their identifying information directly into the Coast Guard's computer system. That, officials said, will help them more quickly identify ships and determine a host of information about them, including name, cargo, course and speed.

Because the system is connected to a Global Positioning System, operators will be able to better manage water traffic. By looking at a computer screen, for example, Coast Guard officials will be able to see the speed at which any given vessel is traveling, as well as when it will reach a given destination, and to send a message to speed up, slow down or change course.

At the same time, having so much more information more quickly will allow officials to make decisions more efficiently about which vessels warrant further surveillance or interception. "If you're managing 1,000 vessels moving though a port," Captain Bone said, "you need to know as much information about the risks or the threat that you're introducing to the port, so you can plan ahead."

Ideally, he said, the system will eventually be integrated with those of the other agencies that will fall under the Department of Homeland Security umbrella, like the United States Customs Service.

Still, officials emphasized that the upgrade is not a panacea against terrorism. "This system was not built to be a security system; however, we have utilized it in a large way to enhance security in the port," Captain Bone said. "There's no one silver bullet thing that's going to solve the safety and solve the security issue."
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Washington Post
Space Shuttles Bound to Technologies of the Past 
By Shankar Vedantam
Tuesday, February 25, 2003; Page A01 


University of Maryland reliability expert Michael Pecht was recently approached by a company that wanted to obtain an evaluation of an older piece of machinery.

The company was a NASA subcontractor, and the device to be evaluated was the space shuttle's robotic arm, which astronauts use to work outside the craft. It was 20 years old, and NASA -- under pressure to extend the life of the spacecraft -- was anxious to find out how long it could last.

Pecht found that the arm was still in good working order. But while the engineer answered NASA's questions, the space agency never answered his. "Why are we using this old technology?" he asked repeatedly. "Why don't we change the ways we buy and design so we can always be updating, so we can always be putting in the latest technology? I could never get the clearest answer on that."

America's space shuttles, once heralded as futuristic, today find themselves chained to the technologies of the past. The machines that fly astronauts into space represent design ideas from the 1970s. Many components that run vital parts of the shuttles are obsolete, and NASA has had to create a network of suppliers to provide it with vintage parts, occasionally even scouring Internet sites such as eBay.

Although older components are not being blamed for the loss of Columbia on Feb. 1 -- indeed, NASA hangs on to many older parts because they are reliable -- the shuttle fleet's intensifying battle against obsolescence will figure prominently in the coming debate about the space program's future. 

Critics suggest there is a real safety issue: As obsolete parts become ever more difficult to find, the viability of systems may be threatened not by the challenges of the future, but by the requirements of the past. The paradox for NASA is that the longer it keeps its shuttle fleet running, the further it falls behind in terms of technology, especially in its computer systems.

The age gap is not only about machines. Engineers at NASA are graying, too, and critics say budget cuts and a lack of bold goals have eroded the agency's ability to attract young engineers focused on visionary change.

"It seemed futuristic, but 30 years later, the shuttle program is a shell of the future," said Rosalind Williams, head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Program in Science, Technology and Society. "It's not only that the components are difficult to find but the expertise is difficult to find. What engineer wants to go into this business when it is basically about maintenance?"

Solutions will not be easy -- or cheap. Unlike unmanned missions, where a stream of new vehicles means technology can be regularly updated, putting astronauts in space requires lengthy design periods and extreme caution. It takes years to test components, and once a system is ready, engineers are wary of making changes. Yet without change, obsolescence is certain.

Cost, engineering and design barriers have forced the space program to run hard just to stay in place. But the biggest impediment to change goes back to the strategic decision to make the shuttle the centerpiece of the U.S. manned spaceflight program.

"The problem that NASA has faced is they put all their eggs in the shuttle basket," said Bruce Murray, a former director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The fundamental problems are conceptual in design. It was promoted and sold as a very safe, cheap way to access space. It was neither safe nor cheap."

Early plans to fly 50 shuttle missions a year were quickly halved, and then halved again, Murray said. After the Challenger explosion, even that seemed too ambitious. Instead of quick turnarounds, NASA began to focus on extending shuttle longevity. Now the agency is considering flying the fleet until 2020.

Given that the first shuttle flew in 1981, that would mean a lifespan of nearly 40 years for the fleet. For a highly complex system that regularly faces the immense rigors of space travel, that is an extraordinary length of time. 

In the case of the shuttle fleet's computer systems, such longevity runs smack into what is known as Moore's law. Named after Intel Corp. founder Gordon Moore, the law predicts that the sophistication of microchip technology will double every couple of years, meaning that a score of technological generations will be packed into 40 years.

The shuttle fleet's IBM computers have been upgraded once -- in 1988-89.

"They have these ancient computers that are really pathetic," said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., and a space program analyst. "They are many years out of date."

Indeed, to run high-speed science experiments, McDowell said, astronauts have to carry and plug in laptops. "It's a strange mix of very robust but very old computers that will absolutely work, and a bunch of notebooks that are running the latest version of Windows," he said.

The five main computers that run each shuttle have a memory of about 1 megabyte apiece, McDowell said. Today's most basic home desktop computers come loaded with 20,000 times as much and have Pentium processors. Two years ago, Intel turned over its original Pentium processor to the government so that it could be tested and prepared for space travel, said Chuck Mulloy, a company spokesman. But that processor came out in 1994, meaning that even as it is being readied for space travel, it is already nearly a decade old.

"The computers haven't changed a lot since the advent of the vehicle," agreed Jeff Carr, a spokesman at United Space Alliance, a Houston company that runs the shuttle fleet. "It's one of those things that are very adequate for the job and have always been very adequate. They don't need to be faster. . . . There has never been any impetus or need to change them."

The testing of processors and computing equipment is extraordinarily rigorous, Carr and others said, and NASA has always placed reliability ahead of speed. A home desktop computer that crashes once a week is merely annoying, but a failed computer aboard a space shuttle could be catastrophic.

Computer chips and other components are subjected to intense bouts of radiation testing, and the software that runs the shuttles may be among the cleanest programs ever written. 

Paradoxically, one reason that newer computer chips are superior -- they pack more components and circuits into smaller spaces -- can make them more vulnerable in space. A single cosmic ray, a stream of high-energy particles in space, might damage a large number of transistors in a densely packed chip, while previously it would have damaged only a few, McDowell said.

The space agency is taking into account the rapid pace of technological change in designing the next generation of space vehicles, said Gary Martin, NASA's space architect. One idea, he said, is to design systems based on modules. When better technology arrives, a module can be pulled out and replaced with something better.

Standardizing different sections can also help, he said. Martin drew an analogy to gas tanks in cars. Although newer models come out frequently, the tank is standardized to fit nozzles in gas stations anywhere in the country. In the same way, he said, parts of launch vehicles can be standardized, making it easier to incorporate improvements.

Ultimately, the scale of designing a new launch system and the complexity of making components work together mean the agency will always be behind the cutting edge, said John Rogacki, chief of the Space Transportation Technology Division in NASA's Office of Aerospace Technology.

"We don't build new space transportation systems very often," he said. "You may create an open architecture where you plug and play computers, but it's much more difficult if you are talking of a propulsion system. We come out with a new rocket engine every 20 years."

Once a decision has been made to start implementing a design, so much testing and work has been done that "you just have to make a decision and go with it and save the new technology for a new system," Rogacki said.

Obsolescence is a growing issue outside NASA, and new ideas for design may come from teams working on military, commercial aviation and other complex systems, said Pecht, the University of Maryland engineer, who directs the university's CALCE Electronic Products and Systems Center.

By their very nature, improvements in science are unpredictable. It is safe to predict there will be widespread technological improvements over the next 10 years, but it is very difficult to predict what exactly those breakthroughs will be. 

"How do you make the systems flexible enough to take account of technological improvements that will surely come along in the life of the system?" asked Norine Noonan, a member of NASA's Advisory Council. "It's easier to ask the question than answer it." 
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Washington Post
ACLU Admits Another Privacy Gaffe 
Names, E-Mail Addresses of Hundreds Sent Over Internet 
By Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Wednesday, February 26, 2003; Page E02 

Protecting personal information on the digital frontier remains a tough task, even for the most ardent privacy activists.

That's the lesson the American Civil Liberties Union learned this week after sending out an e-mail newsletter that inadvertently contained the names and e-mail addresses of the hundreds of groups and individuals who received it. The gaffe, on Monday afternoon, came just weeks after the group was chided by New York State Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer for exposing the names, phone numbers and other details of about 91 people who bought merchandise in 2001 from an ACLU site online. The group apologized, paid a $10,000 fine and agreed to implement changes to prevent similar mishaps.

Shane Ham, a policy analyst in the District, said yesterday he was startled to receive the ACLU e-mail this week and see so many names and address on it. "This is the kind of thing they're not supposed to do," said Ham, of the Progressive Policy Institute, who has been critical of the ACLU on privacy issues. 

Spitzer's office said it will review the new case. "This incident is disturbing in light of the recent enforcement action," spokesman Paul Larrabee said yesterday. 

ACLU spokeswoman Emily Whitfield said that Monday's e-mail was sent out to nearly 900 people whose names were gathered over the telephone and on the Web. When ACLU officials realized the mistake, they sent out a recall letter that repeated the error. Whitfield said the information did not come from membership rolls. 

"We recognized the mistake immediately and we immediately apologized," said Whitfield, adding that the group intends to use additional safeguards in the future.

Two years ago, the ACLU drew attention to an incident where drugmaker Eli Lilly & Co. divulged the e-mail addresses of patients with depression, bulimia or obsessive-compulsive disorder who had signed up for an Internet service provided by the company. The Federal Trade Commission levied a fine and made Lilly revise its privacy practices.

David L. Sobel, general counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center in the District, said the ACLU's mistakes, while not as serious as Lilly's, serve as a reminder for everyone to be careful online. "The Internet can amplify minor mistakes from anyone," he said. 
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Mercury News
Electronics recyclers vow to clean up
By Sam Diaz
Mercury News

 
More than a dozen electronics recyclers pledged Tuesday to keep hazardous products out of landfills, out of incinerators and out of the hands of children in Third World countries who work for pennies to strip recyclable parts from obsolete machines.

It's a small dent in a big problem, says Ted Smith, executive director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. But by raising awareness across the country, Smith and the others hope to start a groundswell and attract the attention of politicians in Sacramento and Washington.

Tuesday, in an industrial warehouse filled with old computer parts, Mark Levitt, vice president of operations for San Jose's Hackett Electronics, signed a pledge to better handle electronic waste.

He promised to keep track of old parts as they make their way through the recycling chain, to do business with companies that share the same concerns for the environment and to keep hazardous products out of landfills, incinerators and prisons, where inmates dismantle them for low pay.

Mostly, the pledge, signed by Levitt and executives of 15 other recyclers in the United States and Canada, commits to keeping monitors and cables and motherboards out of Third World countries and the hands of impoverished workers who might handle them unsafely.

Earlier this year, the Mercury News published a three-part series that documented the labor and environmental problems related to computer assembly and recycling in China.

Smith said it's that type of exposure that has raised awareness and helped convince recyclers to do their part to end the cycle.

``This has got to stop,'' Smith said. ``We're harming the environment. We're harming children.''

But the issue of recycling electronics parts goes deeper than the health of grade-schoolers in Asia, said Tom Hogye, general manager of Santa Clara recycler United DataTech, a company that agreed to the pledge.

This is also about money and jobs and even ethics.

At a news conference Tuesday, Smith couldn't say how many electronics recyclers there are or whether the 16 that signed the pledge was a significant number.

More than a token

``It's less than half, but more than a token number,'' he said.

Many recyclers aren't really recycling but instead are collecting outmoded products and shipping them directly overseas -- and pocketing quite a bit of money for it, too.

``There are a lot of people who sleep very comfortably at night by not signing that pledge,'' Hogye said. ``Everyone is on the recycling bandwagon now. It's a big deal. You can make a lot of money calling yourself an electronics recycler.''

The costs of being a responsible recycler are not cheap, Smith said. And that's an obstacle in trying to convince other recyclers to join the effort.

But now, only these 16 have the environmentally responsible stamp of approval from groups such as the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. And that could mean a lot to consumers who are tired of storing that old monitor in the garage but have been leery of dumping it irresponsibly.

Time to celebrate

``It's a time to celebrate a coming-out party for computer waste,'' said Jim Puckett of Basel Action network, a Seattle-based environmental activists' group that joined the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition in hosting Tuesday's pledge signings. ``Finally, we are able to tell consumers it is safe to take that old computer and monitor out of the closet, attic or garage, and send it to a company that has agreed to be among the most responsible recyclers in the entire industry.''

But don't expect to run down to the local recycler and pick up a few bucks for your computer monitor, as you might for bringing in plastic bottles or aluminum cans.

Economically, recyclers have to process electronics in bulk. ``Recycling like this is not a low-volume operation,'' Levitt said. ``We have to collect 40,000 pounds of PC boards before we can process them efficiently and cost-effectively.''

An individual who walks in from the street with a monitor in hand might expect to pay as much as $20 to drop it off.

The price is actually a bargain, Hogye said, considering the amount of labor that goes into responsible recycling.

Keeping the recycling process in the United States not only ensures that it's being handled responsibly, but also keeps Americans employed.

``You can't rely on prison labor, which we do,'' Smith said. ``I think we need to have a responsible and efficient domestic recycling structure that pays living wages to American workers.''

No prison labor

Hogye, who once shipped products to prisons but has since stopped, agreed.

``People are losing jobs left and right around here,'' he said. ``I don't want jobs being lost to prisoners.''
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Reuters
Singapore Police Net Huge Piracy Software Haul
Wed Feb 26, 1:58 AM ET

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore police netted their biggest-ever haul of pirated software and music CDs in an island-wide raid, arresting 17 people and seizing S$1.7 million ($973,600)worth of goods, authorities said Wednesday. 


Police in the strictly controlled city-state confiscated more than 124,000 pirated compact discs containing games, software and music Tuesday in a three-hour raid on 10 shops and an apartment and said more arrests were expected. 


The haul is the biggest ever for a single raid in Singapore. Two years ago, police arrested 800 people and seized S$7 million in unlicensed software and music during at least 30 raids on the Sim Lim office block, a former showcase of contraband software. 


U.S. film, software, video game and music companies are urging Washington to crack down harder on foreign piracy of their products, which they say cost the U.S. economy an estimated $20 billion-$22 billion in 2002. 


Singapore, which has stepped up its fight against piracy in the past two years, has agreed to enforce copyright protection under a free-trade pact agreed last month with the United States. 


A recent study by the U.S.-based International Intellectual Property Alliance estimated piracy losses in 56 countries they surveyed at US$9.2 billion in 2002. 


Losses in the rest of the world were pegged at about $11 billion-$13 billion, not including piracy done over the Internet. 


Trading in unlicensed software is a criminal offence in Singapore. Those arrested face a maximum S$100,000 fine or five years in jail, or both. 


($1=1.746 Singapore dollars) 
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Federal Computer Week
Group issues final biometrics report
BY Michael Hardy 
Feb. 25, 2003

The International Biometric Group has presented its final report on using biometric technologies to secure the nation's borders to the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The International Biometric Group, a consulting firm based in New York, conducted interviews and observed visa issuance procedures at home and abroad to prepare its 200-page report. It also examined Immigration and Naturalization Service operations at airports, seaports and border crossings.

New counterterrorism laws, including the USA Patriot Act and Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act, require authorities to use biometrics to detect immigration fraud. Biometric technologies, such as fingerprint readers and iris scanners, use parts of the body that cannot be altered to identify people.

Among the report's recommendations:

* The United States should design a solution that incorporates other countries' choices of biometrics. The United States, for example, may prefer fingerprint readers because they can interact with existing law enforcement databases, while another country chooses facial recognition or iris scanners.

* The State Department should capture multiple biometric identifiers from every person who applies for a U.S. visa, including high-quality face, fingerprint and iris scans.

* Biometrics used at a port of entry should augment, not replace, an inspector's judgment in deciding whether to admit someone. 

* Use tethered portable fingerprint devices in traffic lanes at border crossings to easily read fingerprints from everyone in a car. 

In a similar study recently, the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology suggested that a combination of fingerprint and facial-recognition technologies would be the most secure. NIST suggested using at least two fingerprints to identify each visa applicant, and a combination of fingerprint and facial recognition to verify the identity of visa holders crossing borders.
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Federal Computer Week
Bush lays plan for info-sharing center
Facility will assess terrorist threats
BY Diane Frank and Sara Michael 
Feb. 24, 2003

The Bush administration this spring expects to set up a central facility for analyzing terrorism-related data collected by different agencies, although officials in Congress and the private sector have raised questions about the plan's details.

The Terrorist Threat Integration Center would incorporate staff and systems from the Defense and Homeland Security departments, the FBI and the CIA. 

The center is expected to help solve the problems with cross-agency information sharing that some critics say contributed to intelligence failures leading to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"We're going to use the best information technologies to make sure information flows from this data bank of information to law enforcement officials," President Bush said Feb. 14 in a speech at FBI headquarters.

The center is expected to begin work May 1 at an interim location at CIA headquarters in Northern Virginia. Approximately 60 government employees will staff the center initially, and eventually 150 to 300 will work at a new facility separate from CIA and FBI headquarters, White House officials said. 

The center, which Bush announced last month in his State of the Union address, will conduct threat analysis and assessment and maintain an up-to-date database of known and suspected terrorists, according to a White House announcement. 

Furthermore, the center will "minimize any seams between analysis of terrorism and intelligence collected overseas and inside the United States," White House officials said. The center will have no independent authority in intelligence collection.

"The goal is to develop a comprehensive picture of terrorist activities," Bush said.

The idea of an intelligence fusion center is not new and is in fact already in place in a limited fashion within the intelligence community. But a single analysis center for all homeland security intelligence needs is much more complex, said Warren Rudman, former Republican senator and co-chairman of the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century, testifying Feb. 14 before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.

The idea of merging the analysis capabilities of all participating agencies is admirable, Rudman said. However, the proposal's details are crucial to determining whether the center will be effective and, he said, "I don't think any of us have enough details right now."

Even the administration seems to lack the details of how the new center will come together, and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the committee's chairwoman, said she plans to call another hearing to give administration officials an opportunity to explain the proposal.

All current privacy protections for information handling will apply to the center, and the participants will be accountable by internal and congressional oversight, officials said.

But those details are the source of one of the biggest questions about the center: Where it will be located. Some officials worry that the current plan of putting the director of central intelligence in charge (see box) could create confusion and separate the center from the governmentwide intelligence analysis function just established by law at the Homeland Security Department.

"By placing the [center] under the direction of the [CIA director], rather than the secretary of Homeland Security, and disconnecting it from those with direct responsibility for safeguarding homeland security, the administration's proposal falls far short of what is necessary to develop an effective, integrated approach," said James Steinberg, vice president and director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution.

This concern is one of many that must be worked out as officials come together to create the center, said Jeffrey Smith, the CIA's former general counsel. But someone has to be in charge and accountable, and the intelligence analysis expertise currently is clearly within the existing community, not the new department, he said.

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Working to share data

Although all details of the new Terrorist Threat Integration Center have yet to be determined, the Bush administration does have some basic facts. A top government official, appointed by CIA Director George Tenet, will head the center and report to Tenet, but the FBI and CIA components will continue to report to their respective organizations.

Bringing the FBI and CIA under one roof will enhance information sharing and maximize counterterrorism resources, a White House official said. The Homeland Security Department also will be a full partner in the center and receive and analyze terrorist information. 
"Our agencies must coexist as they never have before," President Bush said.
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Federal Computer Week
Homeland opens Ready.gov home page
BY Judi Hasson 
Feb. 20, 2003

The Homeland Security Department turned to private funding and an Internet company to create Ready.gov, a federal Web site that gives tips on what to do in case of a terrorist attack.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge unveiled the site Feb.19, one week ahead of schedule, because of heightened terrorist threats, according to Scott Schneider, senior vice president and director of Ruder Finn Interactive, a business unit of public relations company Ruder Finn Inc.

"The site is not meant to talk about a specific threat. It really wants to send you to other places for that," Schneider said. But the site does suggest that a family put together an emergency plan and figure out how to communicate in the event of a biological, chemical, nuclear or dirty bomb attack.

The site (www.ready.gov) received 2.5 million visitors in its first 24 hours of operation.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation financed the site's development for an undisclosed amount of money. The foundation is working with the Advertising Council Inc. to develop an ad campaign for the Homeland Security Department.

The site has been in development for more than a year, and it has been tested by focus groups in Baltimore and New York City. Although the site provides information for citizens, it does not provide "alerts" in the event of a threat. That information would come from other agencies, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to Schneider.

The Web site complies with Section 508, a law requiring federal Web sites to accommodate users with disabilities. Ruder Finn Interactive also plans versions of the Web site in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and French.

Brad McCormick, senior producer for Ruder Finn Interactive, said the company has been working with two other vendors to develop top-level security. He declined to talk about where the site's server is located or how the security works.

"There are a lot of people out there that want to deface this site, hack into it," McCormick said.
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Government Computer News
02/25/03 
Congressional group turns spotlight on enhanced 911 
By Trudy Walsh 

A group of lawmakers today launched the congressional E-911 Caucus, a committee of senators and representatives who want to make sure that emergency call centers get the funding they need to comply with the Federal Communications Commission?s Enhanced-911 services mandate. 

When fully in place, the E-911 services will let emergency dispatchers track the location of any cellular phone that is turned on. 

The group wants to ?shine the light of day? on E-911 so that the technology is ?spread ubiquitously across the country,? Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) said. 

?We?re grappling with huge distances in Montana,? said Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), who will serve as a co-chairman of the caucus along with Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.). 

The distance from the eastern edge of the state to the western edge is farther than from the District of Columbia to Chicago, he said. ?We?ve got a lot of dirt between light bulbs. Wireless is the only way.? 

E-911 services use a variety of technologies, including triangulation and Global Positioning System programs, to pinpoint the location of cell phone callers, Burns said. 

The caucus? members believe E-911 services are a self-evident boon to public safety, a ?no-brainer. But you won?t believe how many potholes we ran into,? Burns said. ?There are some people who, when they pick up a telephone and dial, don?t want anyone to know where they are, by golly.? 

The nation's wireless carriers have until 2005 to adapt their service so that emergency dispatchers can find the location of a 911 call made on a cell phone. All of the nation's wireless carriers missed the FCC's original deadline of October 2001 to begin making the first series of enhancements to the 911 system. 

E-911 systems will help save lives and avert emergencies, Clinton said. ?It?s long past time for the federal government to address these issues, so local governments can upgrade their systems,? she said. ?State and local response centers are still operating in the past.? The caucus will focus on funding and training for public-safety answering point (PSAP) readiness, Clinton said. ?We also want to make sure FCC has the authority to provide leadership.? 

Funding has been a sore spot. Millions of dollars in New York City telecommunications surcharges, which had been earmarked for upgrading 911 communications systems, have been siphoned off for other purposes by the city?s cash-strapped government, Clinton said. 

Clinton cited the case of four teenage boys whose boat sank last month on Long Island Sound. The boys called 911 from a cell phone. New York City?s 911 system does not have the technology that would let dispatchers pinpoint the location of the call. The boys were never found. 

?People put their faith in three numbers: 911,? Clinton said. 

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), also a caucus member, has been working on E-911 since 1996, she said. ?Most people buy a cell phone ?just in case,? ? Eshoo said. ?But dial 911, and they can?t assist you or find you. We can do much better.? 

More than half of all 911 calls are made from cell phones, Eshoo said. The ultimate goal of the caucus is to make sure that ?everyone who has a wireless instrument can access 911? and get help, she said. 

?People think we already have this capability, to find people from cell phones,? Clinton said. ?The kids in the row boat in New York thought this.?
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February 26, 2003
Receipts Reflect Fears Over Electronic Votes
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 25  The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted today to invest $20 million in 5,000 voting machines that produce paper receipts, a move that reflects concerns about the trend toward electronic voting machines.

The vote makes Santa Clara the first county in the nation to purchase the so-called voter-verified paper backup system.

The popularity of electronic voting machines is growing as counties replace the kinds of antiquated systems blamed for Florida's 2000 presidential election debacle. At least 1 in 10 voters nationwide cast ballots in the last presidential election using electronic machines. 

Computer scientists in Silicon Valley are calling for a halt to the trend, at least until voting machines are redesigned to produce a paper record of every vote.

The intent is to provide more protection against hackers, or political operatives, who might tamper with the results.

"Silicon Valley is looked to for answers in technology, and you've got a ton of engineers out here who understand security issues better than anyone," said David Dill, a computer science professor at Stanford University who led a petition drive demanding a paper trail. "I hope people notice the fact that we are taking this seriously."

Putting faith in systems that create no paper records, they said, could open the door to election fraud of unprecedented proportions.

Sequoia Voting Systems of Oakland built prototypes that produced paper receipts. Sequoia has offered to add the printers without raising the price of the $20 million contract.

Congress has set aside $3.9 billion for states to overhaul their voting systems.
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