Clips March 12, 2003

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips March 12, 2003

ARTICLES

NIH monitoring Internet use
U.S. requires scientists to give FBI fingerprints 
Liberty Alliance reveals architecture plans
Military to Clamp Down on E-Mail
New Mexico gets ready for HIPAA compliance 
What Your Clothes Say About You  [monitoring chip]
INS inspectors lack tools, training
CIA veteran named to head terrorism info center 
New software aims to monitor Navy intranet, prevent glitches 
N.Y. Senate Passes Bill Authorizing Tax on Internet Sales 
Technology Turns Up Heat on Cold Case Files

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Federal Computer Week
NIH monitoring Internet use
BY Sara Michael 
March 11, 2003

The National Institutes of Health has deployed software to track and manage Internet use for more than 41,000 employees.

NIH, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, signed a two-year contract with San Diego-based Websense Inc. for the company's Websense Enterprise employee Internet management software. 

The software, which blocks certain Web sites or limits personal Internet use, is intended to increase productivity and cut down on security risks.

"The Internet today is a very enticing and compelling environment," said Websense chief technology officer Harold Kester. It affects a "company's most important asset, their employee, and their most powerful tool. It's like putting a gambling casino and a Playboy magazine on every desktop."

The contract also includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Indian Health Service. More than 400 government organizations are currently using Websense, Kester said, including the Federal Aviation Administration, the Commerce Department and the Army.

The Websense software bars employees from surfing certain sites, ranging from pornography and gaming sites to personal e-mail and online banking.

Depending on the policies that an agency sets, the software can limit Internet use by certain sites or by certain times. For example, an employee may be able to access e-mail or online shopping during his or her lunch hour, but would be prohibited during the rest of the workday.

Without such software, agencies face a loss in productivity -- an average of three to five hours a week per employee, Kester said. Agencies also encounter legal liability for use of pornographic sites, a loss of critical bandwidth from file sharing, such as music and video swapping, and security concerns if an employee accesses a site that admits a worm into the system.

When an employee accesses a site, the request is routed through Websense Enterprise databases. The database, which houses about 4.2 million Web sites, determines the content of the site and whether it fits the agency's policies. The software also tracks who requested the site and when it was requested, logging each employee's moves on the Internet.

The database is refreshed every night to show newly developed Web sites, and agency managers can easily unblock a Web site for specified use. The software allows for flexibility in the policies, and rather than block a site, the software can give a warning that the site may not be appropriate but still can be accessed.

Kester said employees are generally accepting of the software, recognizing they don't want their co-workers misusing the Internet. But to address possible privacy concerns, Kester said agencies should make sure their employees understand their Internet use is being tracked.

"As employees, we have expectations" of privacy, Kester said. "You have a written Internet usage policy and you communicate that."
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San Francisco Gate
U.S. requires scientists to give FBI fingerprints 
Thousands who use bioterror compounds must disclose data for background checks 

Starting today, thousands of established scientists must turn over their fingerprints and personal information to the FBI for background checks -- 

a new requirement for researchers who work with anthrax and other potential bioterror agents. 

The measure is one of many new federal rules designed to tighten security at U.S. laboratories 18 months after anthrax-contaminated letters killed five people on the East Coast and cost the government $3 billion to decontaminate Senate offices and U.S. post offices. 

But some scientists and academic leaders say the unprecedented restrictions threaten to poison the atmosphere of scientific openness that has made the United States pre-eminent in many areas of research, including bioterror defense. 

"Many of us believe the most important measure we can take to prevent harm from terrorist attacks is to maintain our technical and intellectual brain trust," said M.R.C. Greenwood, chancellor of UC Santa Cruz. "In the long run, this could protect us more than locking a few people out of the lab." 

Under the new rules, citizens of Iraq, Iran, North Korea and other countries suspected of supporting terrorism are disqualified from handling about 60 biological agents ranging from smallpox to botulism, a neurotoxin that is routinely used to study nerve pathways. 

Also barred from working with these "select agents" are those with a history of mental illness, illegal drug use, felony convictions or dishonorable discharges from the military. The FBI has a June deadline to complete its background checks, after which some scientists may find themselves reassigned. 

Concerns about the new restrictions have been widely expressed at California universities. 


PRIVACY ISSUES
At Stanford, Associate Dean of Research Ann Arvin said the rules raise privacy issues. Stanford professors are not being required to inquire about their students' or staffers' mental health records and other personal matters. State privacy laws and university policy would probably forbid it. 

Instead, each researcher will be informed about the restrictions and instructed to fill out the FBI form truthfully. But Arvin said faculty members are concerned that some researchers might be ruled out because of unsubstantiated rumors or because they're gay. 

"It came to our minds immediately that somebody could have had a dishonorable discharge because of a sexual preference," Arvin said. 

Ronald Atlas, president of the American Society for Microbiology, has warned that the huge initiative to register and investigate as many as 20,000 lab workers this spring could paralyze research just as the government is urging these labs to intensify bioterror defense work. 

Delays in implementing stricter immigration controls imposed after the Sept. 

11 terrorist attacks are already hampering research projects at the University of California, said Robert Dynes, chancellor of UC San Diego. 

Dynes said his Chinese post-doctoral student Ke Chen has been stuck in Beijing for more than seven months waiting for a visa renewal. As a result, a physics research project with potential military applications is on hold. "It's hamstrung," Dynes said. 


CHALLENGE FOR FBI
Stephen Ostroff, acting director of the new security program for potential bioterror agents at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, acknowledged that it could be a challenge for the FBI to complete its background checks by the June deadline. 

But Ostroff said any delay shouldn't be a significant obstacle to labs applying for government anti-terror grants this year. 

Some experts say the East Coast anthrax attacks in 2001 forced biologists to acknowledge that their research has a dark side. Biologists now are having to deal with security questions that nuclear physicists have lived with for decades, they say. 

"There is genuine concern in the biological research community, in what for them is a disturbing awakening -- that the public thinks they may do bad things," said Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, dean of the University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law and former general counsel to the National Security Agency and the CIA. 

In the aftermath of the 2001 attacks, lawmakers were shocked to find that the government had no clear data on how many U.S. labs possessed anthrax and other deadly germs. Only those that shipped such material to other locations had been required to register. 

As a result, Congress passed new laws requiring up to 1,200 public and private labs to submit to an extensive approval process, install locks and identity checkpoints, and keep accurate inventories of dangerous agents. Scientists who possess the dangerous agents in violation of the rules can draw prison terms up to 10 years and hefty fines. 


LABS' OBJECTIONS
But in comments filed with the CDC, universities have complained that the regulations are often vague, give labs little time to comply and offer no subsidies for security measures that could cost some labs hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

What's more, they say, biological agents are intrinsically more difficult to control than sensitive high-tech gear or nuclear components. 

Lab experts have challenged the CDC to be specific: How do you keep an inventory of the quantities of organisms that can multiply themselves? How do you control access to biological agents that occur in nature, like anthrax or plague? 

Some researchers argue that, in the end, the restrictions may be ineffective. Instead of stealing a vial, lab insiders could withdraw a small portion of a living germ culture and then grow it into a larger colony. Anthrax can be cultured from infected animals. 

Ostroff said no system the government could devise would be foolproof. "Having said that, there's no question in my mind that the revised regulations are a significant enhancement to what was in place before," Ostroff said. "Many in the (scientific) community recognized that there were gaping holes and lax practices at many facilities that handled these agents." 

E-mail Bernadette Tansey at btansey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
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Computerworld
Liberty Alliance reveals architecture plans
By Scarlet Pruitt, IDG News Service
MARCH 11, 2003

The Liberty Alliance Project released details of its federated identity-management architecture today, a move it said would help companies resolve technical issues encountered when building the foundation for Web services. 
"The architecture outlines where we are going and explains our long-term technical vision," said Michael Barrett, president of the Liberty Alliance Management Board and vice president of Internet technology strategy at American Express Co. 

The alliance, which was formed in 2001, represents a consortium of companies and organizations aimed at developing open standards for identity management and identity-based services on the Web. Members include technology titans such as Sun Microsystems Inc., which spearheaded the project, as well as America Online Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. 

In July, the group released technical specifications to address the basic issues of federation and simplified sign-on. In mid-2003, it plans to release additional specifications aimed at building interoperable identity-based Web services, which also address privacy, security and business needs (see story). 

The architecture released today, Barrett said, offers companies a road map of where the group is headed, allowing them to plan for future versions of technical specifications from the group. 

According to the architecture, the first module lays out Liberty's identity federation framework, including opt-in account linking, simplified sign-on, anonymity and session management. 

The second module details adopting and extending other industry standards such as Simple Object Access Protocol, XML and the Security Assertion Markup Language, while the third module lays out a Liberty Identity Web services framework. 

In the fourth module, the group outlines interface specifications for identity services such as building basic user profiles. 

"This road map really talks about what we've done and sets up a framework for interoperable ID-based services," said Jason Rouault, chair of Liberty Alliance's Technology Expert Group and senior architect at Hewlett-Packard Co. 

While the alliance appears to be gaining momentum and has seen its ranks swell recently as more companies and government agencies hop on board (see story), it is still seen as being at odds with Microsoft Corp., which offers its own single sign-on and identity management service, called Passport. 

Barrett said he sees the group's work as separate from Microsoft's service, however. "Passport is a centralized service operated by a single company," he said, calling Liberty's federated model more flexible. 

While Microsoft and the Liberty Alliance are clearly headed down different paths, the consortium seems confident that the architecture it's presenting not only will give companies a technical framework on which to build identity-based Web services, but also will help businesses form new practices to ease Web services implementation. 

"This isn't just about building specifications and technology ... it's about addressing business issues," said Simon Nicholson, chair of the Liberty Alliance's Business and Marketing Expert Group.
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New York Times
March 12, 2003
Military to Clamp Down on E-Mail
By MATT RICHTEL

Concerned that sensitive information might leak out, some units of the United States military are starting to clamp down on e-mail communication from their soldiers and sailors, who have been using it from ships, bases and even desert outposts to stay in touch with family and friends. 

The uncertainty underscores the double-edged nature of a technology that is providing a new opportunity for instantaneous interaction from remote locations, a development the Pentagon believes is helping to improve morale in the field and among relatives back home. 

At the moment, much of the electronic communication is unmonitored by the military, providing an opportunity for what some fear could be inadvertent leaks. 

The Air Force last week warned its service men and women that it might begin limiting or blocking electronic messages because some people had sent home sensitive information, including digital pictures that might have compromised unit safety. 

The Navy has said that on submarines, it is monitoring all e-mail traffic incoming and outbound. The Army, while generally maintaining open access to e-mail, is restricting some Internet connections from certain bases. 

In the Persian Gulf region, Afghanistan and elsewhere, soldiers have been instructed not to send sensitive information; specific rules are largely left to division and unit commanders on the theory that they are best able to judge what constitutes a threat to security. 

Some military critics argue that there should be a clearer Pentagon policy on how to deal with a communications system that goes far beyond what was available in previous conflicts. 

The critics assert that e-mail and Internet communications raise several potential problems: it is voluminous and thus hard to monitor; it can convey not only words but images; and it is immediate, meaning that an enemy might be able to tap in to real-time updates of troop movements, the presence of a general, or a military outpost's perimeter defenses. 

Computer security experts are not particularly concerned that Iraqi forces would devote much attention to trying to hack into e-mail from the troops. The military's sensitive operational information is kept on a proprietary network called the Secret Internet Protocol Network that is not connected to the Internet, making it extremely hard for hackers to penetrate. 

What worries computer and military experts is the possibility that enemy forces may obtain a soldier's message home that ends up being forwarded to someone sympathetic to Iraq, or that outsiders might simply view a picture published on a publicly accessible Web site. 

"The timeliness of the information is a major factor, and the volume of message traffic can be very dangerous," said Keith Eiler, a military historian with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. "It's a potentially serious problem and not one that is easily solved."

Mr. Eiler said he would like to see a clearer policy  perhaps some monitoring and censorship of communication, as was the case with letters in World War II and Korea, and to an extent with mail and telephone calls from Vietnam. 

Electronic connections bring an ease of communication not seen in the Persian Gulf war of 1991 before the widespread commercial use of the Internet and e-mail. 

"It's more wonderful than you can imagine," said Gary K. Richardson, a consultant in Napa, Calif., whose 32-year-old daughter, Patricia, is with an Army unit at an undisclosed location overseas. "When you get a message, you know that her hands were just on the keyboard and that she was alive and well just a few minutes ago." 

Mr. Richardson, an Army veteran of 24 years, served in Vietnam and said that e-mail was a marked improvement over the postal service, which took weeks to deliver mail during that war. 

E-mail, he said, is also superior in many ways to the crude radio-based telephone system of the Vietnam era, which required various operators to patch through a call. Censors listened in to make sure sensitive information was not disclosed. 

But Mr. Richardson said the military appeared to be aware of security risks with e-mail. He said his daughter, who left about 10 days ago, recently sent him an e-mail message indicating that if tensions rose, she might not be allowed to send messages. 

The computer technology also brings soldiers a slice of home. Maj. Richard Patterson, the public affairs officer for the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, took a Web camera with him to Bagram, Afghanistan. 

Using the camera, Major Patterson took part in a video conference over the Internet with his family, which allowed him to witness his daughter's first birthday.

"Through a microphone and speakers, I was able to sing her happy birthday and watch her make a mess out of the ice cream and cake," he said. "I could see my daughter's first birthday. That is something that in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, even the gulf war you couldn't do." 

All branches of the military said they had made an effort to keep e-mail accessible. In the larger, more established camps, particularly near cities, soldiers have access to high-speed connections from computer sites set up by the military. Submarines and ships can connect to the Internet through satellite links. 

In smaller outposts, like Khost, an impoverished village on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Internet connections are also made through satellite links, and may be limited to a handful of computers housed in military tents. 

In each military branch, service men and women are given strict instructions concerning what information should not be included in e-mail messages, including their location, current or future operations, information on visiting dignitaries, or even comments about troop morale. But enforcement frequently is done on the basis of trust, military officials said. 

"There are no restrictions on e-mails," said Lt. Joshua Rushing, a spokesman for the United States Central Command in Qatar, who said that once soldiers are given instructions on what not to send, "it's kind of up to the judgment of the individual person." 

Lt. Gen. Peter M. Cuviello, the Army's chief information officer, said e-mail has been used on a limited basis by troops in some recent conflicts. 

"We have not had a problem in Bosnia, Kosovo, Sinai, East Timor, or Korea in recent times," he said, "so I don't expect there is going to be a problem." 

General Cuviello said the Army probably would not shut off e-mail or Internet connections in the event of a war, but he said it would be used largely for operational purposes and that soldiers in the midst of the action would not have time to send e-mail. "They'll be in tanks and in Bradley's," he said. 

But not all military units are as certain of a hands-off approach. In the Navy, e-mail policy is left to commanders, except on the submarines. 

"Stealth is our greatest asset and must be protected," said Lt. Cmdr. Bob Mehal, a public affairs officer for the submarine forces. 

The Air Force, considering a tighter policy, warned troops last week that units could "curtail use of `morale-call' types of e-mail" in light of concern that some digital pictures sent from the gulf had been posted on an anti-American site. 

The memo said that "sensitive photos of forward operating bases" had been posted on family and private Web sites, warning that "adversaries could collect these photos and use them to plan attacks against United States forces." 

Families say the kind of information they receive is secondary. What is important, they say, is the contact, and e-mail has made a world of difference. 

"When you get up in the morning, the first thing you do  before you get your coffee  is check your e-mail," said Marta Dreager, 48, of Albuquerque, whose 20-year-old son, Ian, is a lance corporal in the Marines. "When one comes, it makes your whole day." 
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Wired News
Netherlands No Hacker Haven
02:00 AM Mar. 12, 2003 PT

The Netherlands is no Napster nation. 

Contrary to implications in recent media reports, Dutch lawyers say their small European country shouldn't be held up as the poster child for file-sharing and copyright violation.

A court case against file-sharing service Kazaa helped stir up the confusion. Dutch royalties agency Buma/Stemra sought an injunction against Kazaa to stop it from distributing a file-sharing utility and allowing copyrighted material to be swapped on its network. But the judges in the case said Kazaa could not be responsible for the illegal actions of others. Buma/Stemra appealed the decision to the Dutch Supreme Court. 

But in the meantime the rumor has spread that the Netherlands is a shelter for file-sharing companies. Lawyers on both sides of the Dutch Kazaa case say that's just not true. 

"The Netherlands is no haven for peer-to-peer computing," said Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm, a partner at Solv, the Dutch law firm representing Kazaa. 

Thijm's opponents in the court action agreed. "This case does not mean that the Netherlands is a legal-free haven," said Buma/Stemra spokesman George Knops. 

No matter the outcome of the Kazaa case, other file-sharing companies could still face legal action in the Netherlands. And even if Kazaa wins the appeal, the judgment would apply to Kazaa alone and won't prevent the company from being sued by someone else. 

Moreover, the European Union Copyright Directive has begun work to synthesize copyright law throughout the union's 15 member countries, including the Netherlands. That, too, could affect the legal status of file-sharing companies. 

As Dutch case law stands, file sharing is legal and companies that distribute file-sharing utilities are not responsible for how people use the services -- at least in the Netherlands. 

"The Netherlands is the only country in the world where that issue is clear, but I'm very much against describing the country as a (piracy) 'haven,'" said Thijm. "It's not." 

The confusion seems to have arisen largely thanks to Steven Phenix, publicist for a Dutch company called the Honest Thief who has been described as the "P.T. Barnum of tech" by his employer, the Alliant Group, an Austin, Texas, PR company. 

The Honest Thief, a trade name for Dutch company PGR (an offshoot of construction consultancy CBB), announced its launch thus: 

"Call (file sharing) shoplifting if you want. In the Netherlands we call it good business," said Pieter Bass, CEO of CBB, in a statement. Coached by Phenix, Bass declared that he wants to make the Netherlands to file sharing what "Switzerland is to banking." 

In fairness to Phenix and Bass, they never suggested the Netherlands was already a shelter for file-sharing companies. Phenix simply came up with a hugely successful way to announce his client's new product -- the media stampede did the rest. 

In the meantime, the stunt has resulted in widespread coverage, logging more than 100 stories. 

In an interview, Bass admitted that in offering a file-sharing utility, his company does risk legal action. "But you can get sued walking your doggie," he said. "This is risky business, and people will come after you no matter what you do." 

And it's a risk he's willing to take. "The Netherlands is a small country, so you have to take big leaps, big risks." 

Bass became head of a software company by accident. A team at CBB developed software for Internet-based project management, of which file sharing is an integral component. Bass decided he could market the program independently of its application in the construction industry. 

The Honest Thief recently launched the beta version of its software, ThankYou 2.0, which allows file sharing and links all the computers in a network together in a distributed computing model (also known as grid computing). 

Most computers use only a small percentage of their total processing power. Grid computing harnesses the unused computer time and uses it to tackle heavy-duty calculations like tracking weather patterns, mapping genomes and so on. 

It's this aspect of the Honest Thief's software that, according to Bass, forms the basis of a business model for the file-sharing age. The processing capacity offered by grid systems could be leased to research institutions, the proceeds of which could go to pay royalties to the musicians whose songs are traded among fans, Bass said. 

The Honest Thief will announce its first U.S. client in the next few weeks. 

Not surprisingly, the recording industry bridled at the Honest Thief's provocative stance and cast its own doubt on the claim that the Netherlands is a file-sharing shelter. 

"We do not believe the Netherlands is a haven for unauthorized peer-to-peer services, and we will prove this in the courts if necessary," said Jay Berman, chairman and chief executive officer of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. 

"It is hard to see how anyone can make a so-called 'honest buck' by stealing someone else's property."
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Government Computer News
03/11/03 
New Mexico gets ready for HIPAA compliance 
By Trudy Walsh 

As states scramble to meet the April 14 deadline for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act?s privacy rules, New Mexico is smoothing its way to HIPAA compliance by focusing on data integration. 

HIPAA?s privacy rule took up 40 pages of the Federal Register, plus 900 pages of preamble and explications, said Mary Gerlach, CIO of New Mexico?s Health Department. ?All of this was in three columns, in tiny print. It?s a very challenging law,? she said. 

Among other measures, the privacy rule requires that individuals who receive health care have to receive a notice of privacy practices from the provider. The individual has to sign a form that they received such a notice of privacy, and those forms must be tracked, Gerlach said. 

New Mexico?s role as a health care provider is a large one. The state runs substance abuse and mental health services and programs for the developmentally disabled, as well as six residential health facilities, hospitals and a research laboratory. 

New Mexico has no county health departments, and among cities, only Albuquerque runs its own health department. 

New Mexico is the fifth-largest state geographically, but its population of 1.8 million is widely dispersed, Gerlach said. The state had no choice but to establish an electronic tracking system for all the privacy information state health care providers will have to monitor under HIPAA, she said. 

?We took all of our legacy systems, and instead of remediating them, we built an integrated client data system atop our legacy systems using Microsoft Corp. products,? Gerlach said. 

The Integrated Client Data System (ICDS) runs under Windows 2000 Server and uses Active Directory services. It also has a SQL Server 2000 back end and an ASP.net front end. 

HIPAA also requires that by Oct. 16, financial health care transactions be made using ANSI X12 and ANSI X12N standard formats, Gerlach said. ICDS will use Microsoft?s BizTalk to translate other formats to the ANSI formats. 

The department began training employees and other contract workers about the HIPAA rules last month via the Web using Internet Explorer 6.0, Gerlach said. About 62 percent of the work force has been trained in the basics of HIPAA, she said.
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Wired News
What Your Clothes Say About You  
02:00 AM Mar. 12, 2003 PT

In a move wireless industry analysts say will infringe on customers' privacy, clothing designer Benetton plans to weave radio frequency ID chips into its garments to track its clothes worldwide. 

The chips will help the Italian clothing manufacturer cut costs by eliminating the need for workers to take inventory by manually scanning individual items of clothing. It will also protect the garments against theft, analysts say.

But analysts warn that the RFID chips could pose significant risks to customers' privacy because they would allow anyone with an RFID receiver to locate customers wearing Benetton clothes, including companies that want to sell them their products. 

Mike Liard, an analyst with technology research and consulting firm Venture Development, said the more companies that embed RFID tags in their products, the more likely it is for someone to drive by a home and say, "'Look what we've got in there. An HDTV is in there, and she wears Benetton.'" 

"That's a huge concern," Liard said. 

Privacy advocates fear that consumers will be bombarded with intrusive advertising since a history of customers' purchases and their identities would be linked with the tag even after they leave the store. 

Richard Smith, an Internet privacy and security consultant said he is eerily reminded of a scene from the movie Minority Report, when Tom Cruise enters a department store and is welcomed by a billboard ad. But instead of scanning his eyeballs as was done in Minority Report, his Benetton shirt would be scanned to identify him. 

"It's extremely intrusive," Smith said of Benetton's proposed RFID system. "The surveillance network would be initially built to sell clothes in the store but could be used for this other stuff. You don't need to build anything new for that." 

Royal Philips Electronics is shipping 15 million RFID chips, which are the size of a grain of sand, to Benetton this year. 

Phillips claims the effort is "the world's largest and most comprehensive item-level tagging implementation of RFID technology in the fashion industry to date." 

Benetton, which makes casual clothes and sportswear for men, women and children, said it would weave the technology into the collar tags of clothes that cost at least $15. 

"Benetton has thousands of retail outlets worldwide and therefore wanted to put in place a future-proof technology to bring clear cost benefits to the business, while seamlessly enabling garments to be tracked throughout their lifetime," Terry Phipps, electronic data processing director at the Benetton Group, said in a prepared statement. 

The RFID technology offers Benetton a number of advantages, not the least of which is its ease of use. Unlike a bar-code scanner, which must be held directly in front of the item being scanned, employees with RFID receivers can scan entire boxes of items from up to five feet away. 

The technology would thus require fewer people to scan clothing items for inventory purposes. 

It also lets business managers easily store detailed information about customers' buying habits that could spur further sales. For example, when a Benetton customer makes a purchase, a sales clerk could pull up that client's history and say, "Last time you were here, you bought a black skirt. We have a sweater that matches that skirt," Liard said.

The tagging system may also save the company money by reducing theft. The RFID tags can be programmed to set off an alarm if someone leaves a store without paying for an item. 

Similarly, the technology would make it harder for merchants to sell stolen or bootlegged versions of clothing in flea markets and other venues. A retailer who spots an item that she suspects is either stolen or illegally manufactured could check its origin using the tagging system.

"You can register (the garment) at the point of sale or register it through a computer," said Victor Chu, a fashion designer and technologist who runs his own company, MIL Digital Labeling. 

Chu, who has designed apparel for fashion gurus Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger, said piracy of high-end clothing and accessories by Prada, Gucci and Louis Vuitton is a "big problem," for which RFID tags may be a solution. He also wasn't alarmed by privacy concerns that may arise when customers leave retail stores with activated RFID tags. 

"It's a very local signal," Chu said. "You would have to have the equipment to use it. It's not like it's a GPS tag. A GPS tag would be totally different, and that's expensive for Benetton clothing." 

However, Liard sees very few advantages of the tag for consumers. It may help them find the clothes they want in the store and even make it easier for them to return items without a receipt since the store would have recorded the RFID tag. 

"But once they walk out of the store, are they going to have questions in their head?" he asked. 

Smith suspects that they will. He could see police and government officials wanting to use this system to nab deadbeat dads, kidnappers and other fugitives of the law. 

"It's going to be a really bad idea for a company to hide a small radio chip in its clothing," Smith said. "Clearly, those tags need to be deactivated at the cash registers."
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Federal Computer Week
INS inspectors lack tools, training
BY Sara Michael 
March 11, 2003

Inspectors at air points of entry do not have adequate equipment to share passenger information and they are not properly trained on the computer systems, a Justice Department inspector general's report said.

The audit evaluated the Immigration and Naturalization Service's procedures for secondary inspections of air travelers. Such follow-ups are based on inspectors' concerns about a traveler or information in a database about travelers.

The report found that inspectors were receiving passenger information before flight arrival via the Advance Passenger Information System, but they lacked the resources to analyze the information.

"Thus primary inspectors were making admissibility determinations for some travelers without using vital information that could be critical in identifying persons who should be referred for more detailed inspections," the report said.

Primary inspectors also were not entering necessary information about passengers into the National Automated Immigration Lookout System (NAILS), which informs inspectors of people who should not be let into the United States, the report said. The inspectors have a backlog of more than 1,800 lookouts for lost and stolen passports, down from 2,800 in fiscal 2002.

"Without such lookouts, aliens can enter the United States using stolen blank passports," the report stated.

The INS spent more than $19 million in fiscal 2002 to train about 1,000 new inspectors, but their training on the computer systems that provide passenger information was not adequate, the report stated.

"The [Immigration Officer Academy] needs to incorporate additional 'hands-on' computer training in the curricula," the report said. "Further, trainees need to be tested on the use of computer systems as they are for other curricula areas."

The report outlined 27 recommendations to improve inspections, focusing on speeding up passenger analysis before arrival and ensuring correct passenger data is entered into the systems.

Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's Immigration, Border Security and Claims Subcommittee, said in a statement that he was discouraged by the report, especially the part about lack of adequate training.

"It is critical to our national security that inspectors at the ports be given the proper tools to identify aliens who pose a risk to our country," Hostettler said. "It is equally critical, however, for the inspectors to know how to use those tools, and to actually use them." 

The subcommittee will hold a hearing in the next few months to examine the integration of inspection operations from the INS to the new Bureau of Customs and Border Protection in the Homeland Security Department. The bureau will be asked to describe the steps taken to address the concerns outlined in the report, Hostettler said.
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Government Computer News
03/11/03 
CIA veteran named to head terrorism info center 
By Wilson P. Dizard III 

John Brennan, the CIA?s deputy executive director, will be the first director of the new Terrorist Threat Information Center, the White House said today. 

The Bush administration expects the center to meld the terrorism intelligence gathered by the CIA, FBI and Homeland Security Department, among other agencies, into a seamless data source. 

CIA director George Tenet appointed Brennan on the advice of attorney general John Ashcroft, FBI director Robert Mueller, Defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge. 

Brennan is a 23-year CIA veteran. Before becoming Tenet?s deputy executive director in March 2001, he was chief of staff for two years. 

He has held other jobs related to counterterrorism and Middle Eastern affairs, including a stint as station chief in ?a major Middle Eastern capital from 1996 to 1999,? the CIA said. 

The center will be at the CIA compound and is set to begin operations May 1. 

Brennan ?brings a wealth of experience and an abundance of energy to the job,? Tenet said. ?Under his direction, TTIC will serve as the U.S. government hub for all terrorist-threat related analytical work.? 

In recent weeks, lawmakers have questioned the administration?s plans for the center, particularly how it will integrate data analysis and its oversight by CIA rather than Homeland Security.
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Government Executive
March 10, 2003 
New software aims to monitor Navy intranet, prevent glitches 
By Amelia Gruber
agruber@xxxxxxxxxxx 

New technology will enable the Navy and Marine Corps to better monitor progress on a project to consolidate its computer systems into a single, massive intranet and will help prevent the system from crashing, officials said Friday. 


In October 2000, Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS) won a five-year contract to provide technology, maintenance and help desk support for the multibillion NMCI project. The internal network is designed to increase and streamline information sharing among roughly 300 Navy and Marine Corps bases in the United States, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guam, Iceland and Japan. NMCI is also intended to protect sensitive military information from hackers. 


The new technology, which EDS purchased from Cisco Systems Inc., will allow staff at the computer banks that serve as hubs for information exchanged on the network to monitor the entire intranet in their search for glitches. This will allow them to detect and prevent crashes before they take place, said Bill Hartwell, Cisco?s director for Defense Department and intelligence community operations. 


The software will also send out electronic alarms to staff who monitor the system at the hubs, if NMCI?s security systems fail. This will enable staff to proactively prevent network failures, a capability that is especially important on a system that houses critical military information, Hartwell said. Information collected by the Cisco technology at the regional computer banks and warnings about system failures can be quickly transmitted to the NMCI?s three central command centers, where staff members can fix problems that arise, Hartwell said. 


Staff at the San Diego computer center serving as one of the system?s three main hubs began using the new monitoring system on March 3. All of the intranet?s hubs are scheduled to use the technology by June, according to Cisco. EDS spokesman Kevin Clarke said that timeframe sounded reasonable, but was not sure when the new software would be fully implemented. 


The new technology is useful to EDS because it will help demonstrate that the contractor is providing the quality of service agreed upon in its contract with the Navy and Marine Corps, said Clarke. EDS has more than 35 requirements in the contract that it must meet, and the new software will measure whether the agreements are being met. For instance, administrators will now be able to tell whether the intranet is transferring data at the speed agreed upon in the contract. 


Lawmakers have questioned whether EDS is capable of meeting its agreement to develop the massive intranet. The project is running more than a year behind schedule because of delays in the testing phases and a failure to identify tens of thousands of existing legacy applications that should be either eliminated or moved onto the intranet during the consolidation effort. 


These delays gave House appropriators pause in July, and they put a hold on the number of computers that could be connected to NMCI until EDS worked out some of the problems with the legacy applications. But in a show of continued support for the approximately $9.5 billion project, appropriators lifted the hold in February and have allowed the Navy to extend EDS? contract to 2009 if necessary. 


Despite delays, EDS has made substantial progress in recent months, according to Rear Adm. Charles Munns, the NMCI director. The contractor is responsible for hooking more than 120,000 workstations to the intranet and so far, has connected about 60,000. The Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Va. became the first base to begin the transition to NMCI on Feb. 10. 


The new software will help quantify this progress and will hold EDS accountable for further delays or failures to hold up its end of the contract, Clarke said. The contractor has welcomed this chance to demonstrate the quality of its work, he added.
*******************************
Washington Post
N.Y. Senate Passes Bill Authorizing Tax on Internet Sales 
By Alicia Chang
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, March 11, 2003; 5:24 PM 

ALBANY, N.Y.  The Republican-led Senate Tuesday unanimously passed a bill authorizing the state to collect sales taxes on Internet purchases, a step Republican Gov. George Pataki has resisted so far.

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said the effort would enable New York to join a multistate project that is trying to devise a way to allow states with varying sales tax rates to charge a single uniform sales tax for Internet purchases.

Last year, Internet sales ballooned to nearly $80 billion, or about 3 percent of all retail sales, according to Forrester Research. A University of Tennessee study estimates New York may be losing over $1 billion this year by not taking a deeper cut of Internet sales and the loss could reach $4.3 billion by 2011.

Bruno said collecting taxes from online sales could provide the state with an injection of much-needed recurring revenues that would help avert future cuts in education and health care. The state currently is trying to plug an $11.5 billion hole in the state budget.

"We should be doing all we can to pursue recurring revenues, such as collecting existing taxes, including sales taxes on Internet sales," Bruno said.

The Democrat-dominated Assembly supports the Senate proposal, though Speaker Sheldon Silver continues to have concerns about the lack of options localities have in the legislation, said Silver spokesman Charles Carrier.

In a joint legislative hearing last month, Arthur Roth, commissioner of the state Department of Taxation and Finance, told lawmakers the state has stayed on the sidelines of the online sales tax issue because its complicated tax structure has yet to adapt to a proposed uniform sales tax.

Pataki budget spokesman Ken Brown said the governor is reviewing the Senate legislation.

The Retail Council of New York State, which represents about 5,000 stores, praised the Senate.

The action "seeks to level the playing field between New York state's brick-and-mortar Main Street merchants and the out-of-state merchants that ship items into our state," said president and chief executive James Quaremba.

With states around the nation facing a collective $50 billion budget gap this year and $70 billion next year, lawmakers are scrambling to find ways to erase the shortfall.

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney signed a mid-year budget bill earlier this month that included a provision for the state to collect sales taxes in the future on online purchases.

The Streamlined Sales Tax Project is an effort by 35 states and the District of Columbia trying to establish a simple standard from a myriad of sales tax definitions to persuade Congress to lift a national moratorium against Internet sales taxes.

A 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision says states cannot force businesses to collect their sales taxes unless the company has a physical presence in the state.
*******************************
Los Angeles Times
Technology Turns Up Heat on Cold Case Files
New methods catch up with old criminals. The challenge is making past come alive for juries.
By Jean Guccione
Times Staff Writer

March 12, 2003

As improved technology allows police to solve more long-dormant cases, prosecutors say they increasingly face the difficult task of persuading juries that aging defendants should be held accountable for the crimes of their youth.

Many prosecutors say the advantages of scientific and technological crime detection can be outweighed by the damage done by the passage of time: dead or forgetful witnesses, aging and sympathetic defendants, lost evidence.

The first big problem is trying people for heinous crimes who for decades have lived and raised families in peaceful anonymity.

The task in the courtroom is to acknowledge that the defendant has led an exemplary life since the alleged crime, but to insist that makes him or her no less culpable, said Lara Giese, a jury consultant.

She said prosecutors have a more difficult job trying cold cases because they must not only bring the victim to life but, in the oldest cases, re-create the atmosphere in which the crime was committed.

As time passes, the crime "does not have the same impact as when it first happened," Giese said. "I think there is initial skepticism [from jurors] about why it took so long" to bring the case to trial.

Local examples of old crimes revisited include the recent prosecution of former Symbionese Liberation Army member Sara Jane Olson on charges of trying to bomb two police cars, and the trial of Vernon Mathis Robinson for the murder of Thora Rose, who was found dead in her apartment in Hollywood 30 years ago.

Robinson was convicted of murder. The Rose murder was one of the first Los Angeles cases to be solved with a computer-generated fingerprint match.

And in January, two 45-year-old partial fingerprints led to the arrest of Gerald F. Mason, a man from South Carolina charged with killing two El Segundo police officers in 1957.

The prints linking Mason to the murder scene were critical, but prosecutors also welcomed the testimony of an eyewitness, a police officer who identified the defendant last month from an array of half-century-old photos.

Link to 1957 Crime

Mason, 69, allegedly shot El Segundo Police Officers Milton Curtis and Richard Phillips during a traffic stop in 1957. Mason is also accused of robbing four teenagers at gunpoint in Hawthorne and raping one of them.

Authorities say the rape kit -- with its DNA evidence -- was lost. But police held onto the two partial fingerprints found on the patrol car. Deputies working for Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca eventually sent the print to a national FBI database, where the match was found.

Lisa Kahn, who heads the forensic sciences section of the Los Angeles County district attorney's office, said missing evidence is not unusual in cold cases. "Some of the physical evidence has been lost, misplaced and disposed of," she said. "But what seems to have been kept is the fingerprint card."

For most cold cases today, police and prosecutors usually begin with well-established scientific evidence -- fingerprints, DNA -- to identify suspects. That task has become simpler as more fingerprints and DNA samples have been entered into databases and technological advances have reduced the time it takes to complete a search. The digitized federal database covering 30 states and containing 44 million fingerprints allows local authorities to search for matching prints in just two hours.

"We are solving cases through forensics [techniques] that did not exist at the times these crimes were committed," Kahn said.

Her four-lawyer office, created by Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley in 2001, has six pending murder or sexual assault cases -- all of them involving DNA evidence, she said.

In one of those cases, Los Angeles police last month arrested Edmond Jay Marr in the 1983 slaying of a Sherman Oaks nurse. Authorities cited evidence from tests of blood collected from a knife found in Marr's possession a month after Elaine Graham vanished near Cal State Northridge in 1983.

Increased reliance on hard-to-dispute forensic evidence enhances the prosecution's case, leaving defense attorneys to try to discredit expert witnesses and police procedures for handling the evidence. Armed with reliable science, prosecutors can depend less on the testimony of aging eyewitnesses.

Difficulty for Defense

"When you have scientific evidence, it does create difficulties for defense attorneys to attack effectively," criminal defense lawyer James E. Blatt said.

On the other hand, aging defendants may appear sympathetic to jurors, especially if they have led exemplary lives except for a single crime -- even murder -- in their youth.

That was a big worry for Deputy Dist. Atty. Paul W. Turley, who prosecuted Robinson for the murder of Thora Rose. Turley knew that the 36 fingerprints found at the crime scene provided compelling evidence against the defendant. "My biggest concern was that they were going to see this 48-year-old man in a suit and tie ... and articulate," Turley said. "And jurors would ask, 'What has he been doing for the past 30 years?' "

Robinson was a maintenance supervisor at a Minnesota college earning $40,000 a year. He was handsome, with salt-and-pepper hair and tortoise-shell glasses. He gave the appearance of a devoted family man, with his three adult sons by his side.

Turley, now retired, told jurors in his closing argument, "I'm very happy to stand in opposition to the principle that you are entitled to one free murder every 30 years."

Another complication of the age of the case was Robinson's criminal record. He testified in the trial, and normally his record would have been admitted into evidence to attack his credibility. But a judge ruled the record too old to be admissible.

Deputy Dist. Attys. Michael Latin and Eleanor Hunter faced similar circumstances when they prosecuted Olson, the Minnesota homemaker who pleaded guilty last year to the attempted bombings of two Los Angeles police cars in the early 1970s.

They were ready to counter any potential defense argument about the insufficiency of evidence due to the death of an eyewitness and loss of physical evidence. "It's her fault," Latin said. "Not ours."

That evidence would have been available to prosecutors, he argued, if Olson had not hid from authorities for two decades.

Time Can Help

In rare cases, the passage of time can help, even with non-forensic evidence. William Terry Bradford, 69, a veteran and retired engineer living on a $1-million pension, was convicted last year of killing his ex-wife, Joan Bradford Lockwood, 14 years earlier.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lewin arranged for an FBI reconstruction of the crime scene, which ruled out burglary, robbery and sexual assault as motives.

Once the charges were filed, Bradford's girlfriend gave police a statement incriminating him.

"When you're dealing with cold cases, situations change," Lewin said. "People get divorced. They remarry. They find religion. They move. And allegiances can change. People they were scared of 20 years ago they aren't scared of anymore."
*******************************


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Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber:

Welcome to the March 12, 2003 edition of ACM TechNews,
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 468
Date: March 12, 2003

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Top Stories for Wednesday, March 12, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Lofgren Bill Backs Digital Copying for Personal Use"
"Appeal of Instant Messaging Extends Into the Workplace"
"Lawmaker Recycles E-Waste Bill"
"Five Reasons to Hope"
"Canada Wrestles With E-Waste Fix"
"Wireless Takes Center Stage at IT Industry's Leading Extravaganza"
"How Politics Will Reshape IT"
"A Patch for IT Security Strategy"
"Chips Losing Some Antipiracy Support"
"Indian Programmers Still Dream of Jobs in the U.S."
"Argentina Makes Its Software Play"
"Australian Top Pick for Global Internet Body"
"Nanocomputing: Simple Optoelectronic Devices Based on
 Electroluminescent Silver Nanoclusters Perform Logic Operations"
"Nano-Diamonds Sparkle One Photon at a Time"
"Tech's Love-Hate Relationship with the DMCA"
"Untapped Networks"
"Untethering the Enterprise"
"A Slow Death for Viruses"
"Great X-pectations"

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

"Lofgren Bill Backs Digital Copying for Personal Use"
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) on Monday reintroduced the Balance
Act, a bill that would allow consumers to make digital copies of
books, music, and movies for personal use.  The Electronic
Frontier Foundation says legislation such as Lofgren's is needed ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item1

"Appeal of Instant Messaging Extends Into the Workplace"
Forrester Research proclaims that instant messaging is surging
even faster than email did when it was first introduced, and is
starting to gain on both email and the cell phone as a favorite
workplace communications medium.  The abundance of freely ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item2

"Lawmaker Recycles E-Waste Bill"
Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) on March 6 introduced a bill
calling for a national e-waste recycling infrastructure.  The EPA
estimates that 2 million tons of electronic products are
discarded each year in the United States, while California's ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item3

"Five Reasons to Hope"
New technologies promise a brighter future for Silicon Valley,
where experts say a convergence of innovation will lead to a
revolution similar to the advent of the PC or commercial
Internet.  Already, 750 Silicon Valley life sciences firms and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item4

"Canada Wrestles With E-Waste Fix"
E-waste recycling laws are nonexistent in Canada, but the
nonprofit Electronics Product Stewardship (EPS) Canada
initiative, which has the support of 16 multinational computer
and electronics companies, plans to remedy the situation by ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item5

"Wireless Takes Center Stage at IT Industry's Leading Extravaganza"
Wireless technology will be the highlight of the annual CeBIT
trade show in Germany for the third consecutive year.  Spurring
the broader focus in wireless is growing interest in WLANs and
mobile devices throughout the corporate sector, as well as the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item6

"How Politics Will Reshape IT"
The maturation of the IT industry and the growing effect it has
on other areas of society and economy mean the government will
play a more active role in the future.  Legislation and political
discussion between countries will focus on five fronts:  Industry ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item7

"A Patch for IT Security Strategy"
Dr. Peter Tippett of TruSecure praises the original draft of the
White House's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace for
providing a solid foundation for government, businesses, and
individuals to make a proactive effort to shore up the country's ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item8

"Chips Losing Some Antipiracy Support"
Chipmakers' plans to build anti-piracy controls into hardware,
known as "hard coding," have been laid aside due to confusion in
the marketplace and the public policy arena.  Instead, consumer
electronics companies are going with a second-best alternative in ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item9

"Indian Programmers Still Dream of Jobs in the U.S."
Many Indian software programmers are waiting for the global
economy to bounce back so they can pursue their dreams of working
in the United States.  India churns out 350,000 engineering
graduates yearly, many of whom want to go the United States for ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item10

"Argentina Makes Its Software Play"
Cheaper labor, a reputation for creativity, and a domestic
recession are positioning Argentina to become a major software
development provider to outside markets.  The Chamber of Software
and Computing Services Companies (CESSI) estimates that sales of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item11

"Australian Top Pick for Global Internet Body"
Former Australian government official Paul Twomey is the top
candidate to succeed Stuart Lynn as ICANN's president, say
anonymous insiders; the ICANN board has reportedly given its
search committee approval to negotiate a contract with Twomey.   ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item12

"Nanocomputing: Simple Optoelectronic Devices Based on
 Electroluminescent Silver Nanoclusters Perform Logic Operations"
Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have demonstrated
quantum devices based on batches of  individual
electroluminescent silver nanoclusters that can perform
sophisticated logic operations and could provide the building ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item13

"Nano-Diamonds Sparkle One Photon at a Time"
French scientists led by physicist Philippe Grangier of the
Laboratoire Charles Fabry de L'Institut d'Optique are using
nanoscale diamond crystals as a single-photon source, a
breakthrough that could help bring quantum computing and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item14

"Tech's Love-Hate Relationship with the DMCA"
Intel and Hewlett-Packard appear to be both friends and foes of
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which prohibits the
copying of copyrighted digital content, ostensibly to curtail
piracy.  Both companies are members of the Business Software ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item15

"Untapped Networks"
Businesses and computer engineers should learn from the complex,
adaptive human networks everyone takes for granted, argues
Columbia University sociologist Duncan Watts.  Watts is working
on analytical frameworks for such human networks that can be ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item16

"Untethering the Enterprise"
Wireless communication that allows professionals to access
information on the go is key to the untethered enterprise, and
the proliferation of such an environment is moving forward thanks
to the steady deployment of WLAN technology.  The Yankee Group's ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item17

"A Slow Death for Viruses"
Matt Williamson of Hewlett-Packard's Biologically Inspired
Complex Adaptive Systems group is one of several researchers
developing a virus throttling software filter that limits the
propagation of computer viruses in much the same way that the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item18

"Great X-pectations"
Forrester Research principal analyst Carl Howe has criticized the
Internet for its relatively slow user interactions, and cited the
X-Internet concept as gaining speed in a report he furnished a
year ago.  The X-Internet, which Howe claims can "eliminate the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html#item19


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