Clips April 9, 2003

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips April 9, 2003

ARTICLES

Republicans Want Terror Law Made Permanent
Homeland portal to give firms input
Wireless Firms Still Fight Portable Phone Numbers 
The Minister of Net Defense
Officer's Star Searches Raise Liability Worries

*******************************
New York Times
April 9, 2003
Republicans Want Terror Law Made Permanent
By ERIC LICHTBLAU

WASHINGTON, April 8  Working with the Bush administration, Congressional Republicans are maneuvering to make permanent the sweeping antiterrorism powers granted to federal law enforcement agents after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said today.

The move is likely to touch off strong objections from many Democrats and even some Republicans in Congress who believe that the Patriot Act, as the legislation that grew out of the attacks is known, has already given the government too much power to spy on Americans.

The landmark legislation expanded the government's power to use eavesdropping, surveillance, access to financial and computer records and other tools to track terrorist suspects.

When it passed in October 2001, moderates and civil libertarians in Congress agreed to support it only by making many critical provisions temporary. Those provisions will expire, or "sunset," at the end of 2005 unless Congress re-authorizes them.

But Republicans in the Senate in recent days have discussed a proposal, written by Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, that would repeal the sunset provisions and make the law's new powers permanent, officials said. Republicans may seek to move on the proposal this week by trying to attaching it to another antiterrorism bill that would make it easier for the government to use secret surveillance warrants against "lone wolf" terrorism suspects. 

Many Democrats have grown increasingly frustrated by what they see as a lack of information from the Justice Department on how its agents are using their newfound powers, and they say they need more time to determine whether agents are abusing those powers.

The Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, said today that without extensive review, he "would be very strongly opposed to any repeal" of the 2005 time limit. He predicted that Republicans lacked the votes to repeal the limits.

Indeed, Congressional officials and political observers said the debate might force lawmakers to take stock of how far they were willing to sacrifice civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism.

Beryl Howell, a former Democratic aide in the Senate who worked extensively on the 2001 legislation, said that by forcing the issue, Mr. Hatch "is throwing down the gauntlet to people who think the U.S.A. Patriot Act went too far and who want to cut back its powers."

Justice Department officials in interviews today credited the Patriot Act with allowing the F.B.I. to move with greater speed and flexibility to disrupt terrorist operations before they occur, and they say they wanted to see the 2005 time limit on the legislation lifted.

"The Patriot Act has been an extremely useful tool, a demonstrated success, and we don't want that to expire on us," a senior department official said on condition of anonymity.

Another senior official who also demanded anonymity said the department had held discussions with Congressional Republicans about how that might best be accomplished. "Our involvement has really been just keeping an open ear to the issue as it's proceeding, not to really guide the debate," the official said.

With the act's provisions not set to expire for more than two and a half years, officials expected that the debate over its future would be many months away. But political jockeying over separate bipartisan legislation sponsored by Senators Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, and Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, appears to have given Senator Hatch the chance to move on the issue much earlier than expected.

The Kyl-Schumer measure would eliminate the need for federal agents seeking secret surveillance warrants to show that a suspect is affiliated with a foreign power or agent, like a terrorist group.

Advocates say the measure would make it easier for agents to go after "lone wolf" terrorists who are not connected to a foreign group and might have allowed the F.B.I. to get a warrant against Zacarias Moussaoui, known as the 20th hijacker, before the Sept. 11 attacks.

The proposal was approved unanimously by the Senate Judiciary Committee. But Republicans are upset because several Democrats say that when the measure reaches the Senate floor for a full vote, perhaps this week or later in the month, they plan to offer amendments that would impose tougher restrictions on the use of secret warrants. 

Among other proposals, Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, wants to add amendments that would require the Justice Department to give detailed information about how the secret warrants are being used and that could give defense lawyers access to some information generated by the warrants in criminal cases.

Republicans are countering with amendments of their own, including the idea of making the Patriot Act permanent.

Aides to Senator Hatch would not discuss his views on repealing the time limits in the law. 

But an aide who demanded anonymity said of the "lone wolf" bill: "We support this bill as it is and that's how we want to see it passed. If the Democrats want to amend the bill, then we will offer an equal number of amendments to improve the bill as well. We hope the Democrats will stop holding this bill up."

Members of the Judiciary Committee, which Mr. Hatch leads, have been working in recent days to reach an agreement over the amendments that will be considered, officials said. But so far neither side appears willing to back down. 
*******************************
Federal Computer Week
Homeland portal to give firms input
BY Diane Frank 
April 8, 2003

The Homeland Security Department (DHS) will soon unveil a new Web site intended to provide a central point for industry to submit ideas, technologies and solutions to the department.

The site will be the start of formal communications between the information technology sector and DHS, where vendors will be able to submit information on everything from their expertise to their products. Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, agencies have been struggling to figure out how to collect and access all the potential information and solutions from government.

"This is a first step," Steve Cooper, DHS' chief information officer, said April 8. "It's not perfect because at the moment, it's kind of a one-way input," but there is already a database sitting at the back end waiting to receive and categorize information, and both the site and system will continue to evolve, he said, speaking at the FOSE conference in Washington, D.C.

Cooper's office has already released several requests for information, and will likely soon release a request for proposals for help with enterprise architecture work, he said.

And while wireless, geospatial and collaboration technologies are still top priorities for the department, modeling and simulation will require a lot of work, Cooper said. There are many interesting tools and applications that the private sector is using and that the government in general, and DHS in particular, are not taking advantage of, he said.

However, in order to really move forward on modeling and simulation, the department will need funding that will not come through until fiscal 2004, Cooper said.
*******************************
Washington Post
War Sparks Flood of Spam 


By Brian Krebs
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 8, 2003; 7:59 AM 


The Iraq war has prompted a flood of unsolicited e-mail, as spam e-mail artists take their cue from the war to hawk everything from patriotic T-shirts to gas masks and water filtration systems.

War-related spam accounted for 10 percent of all junk e-mail compiled last month in the anti-spam database of Scotts Valley, Calif.-based SurfControl, an anti-spam software firm.

Most of the unsolicited e-mail contained solicitations for pro-American pride merchandise such as American flags, commemorative coins and discounted U.S. history books, the company said. Among the pitches were "Israeli Gas Masks in Stock for a Limited Time!"; "Show your Support with a US Lapel Pin!"; and "Honor our Military with Exclusive Collectibles."

The most common forms of war-related spam were variations on a theme. SurfControl said it counted 216 variants of a message selling gas masks in March, compared to zero in February.

John Mozena, a spokesman for the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail, said that spammers tend to take advantage of current events as ready-made marketing pitches.

"After Sept. 11 [2001] we did see a ... sort of bump, anecdotally," Mozena said. "My favorite was the World Trade Center commemorative calling card. It had the New York skyline before Sept. 11, and it became commemorative after that."

The Federal Trade Commission, which monitors unsolicited e-mail for fraud and other illegal activity, reported 2,469 spam e-mails containing the words "Iraq," "war" and "troops" in March, compared to 292 messages in February, said spokeswoman Claudia Bourne-Farrell.

About 40 percent of all e-mail traffic in the United States is spam, according to a late 2002 estimate issued by anti-spam software vendor Brightmail Inc.
*******************************
Washington Post
Wireless Firms Still Fight Portable Phone Numbers 
By Christopher Stern
Wednesday, April 9, 2003; Page E01 

Mobile phone companies are making a last stand to block a regulation that would allow subscribers to keep their telephone numbers when they switch wireless carriers.

Who retains control over the numbers is the latest test of government policy governing competition in telecommunications. Consumer advocates claim that wireless subscribers often are reluctant to switch carriers because changing forces them to inform friends, family members and acquaintances of their new numbers. They are lobbying the Federal Communications Commission to honor its Nov. 24 deadline for implementing the rule.

Wireless companies say the mandate will increase their costs and do little to promote competition in an industry already battered by a price war. Traditional phone companies, meanwhile, have joined the fight out of concern that the new rules could allow wireless companies to take customers from their wired networks.

The wireless industry's trade group, the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, will square off Tuesday against the FCC in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, where it will argue that the agency overstepped its authority when it approved the requirements.

Lawyers for the CTIA and Verizon Wireless claim the rule is unnecessary because competition for the nation's 144 million wireless subscribers remains robust. About 24 percent of all wireless subscribers switched companies last year.

"Wireless is competitive enough," said Michael O'Connor, director of federal regulatory policy and planning for Verizon Communications Inc.

The court challenge is not expected to be decided until this summer, lawyers involved in the case said. In the meantime, wireless companies continue their fight against the rule at the agency, despite statements from FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell indicating that he will stand by the deadline. 

The FCC has already delayed the rule three times after the industry complained about how much it would cost them. 

Mobile phone companies say the requirement will cost the industry $1 billion at a time when it is trying to meet other FCC mandates. Cell-phone companies, for example, are updating their networks to allow emergency workers to find 911 callers by tracing the signals from their phones. 

"I would rather see our resources devoted to safety of life and protection of property rather than addressing regulations of convenience," said Brian Fontes, vice president for federal regulations for Cingular Wireless.

He said Cingular has spent $250 million to prepare for the rule and will comply with it if it is not postponed further. 

In a little-noticed provision of the new rule, mobile phone companies are pitted against wired rivals over a requirement that would allow customers to transfer their wired phone numbers to a wireless service.

The major wired telephone companies, including SBC Communications Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., are beginning to lose customers who give up wired lines for wireless phones.

The Yankee Group, a Boston-based research firm, estimated that about 3 percent of cellular customers have no phone at home connected to telephone wires.

Adam Guy, an analyst with InfoTek Research, said even more could abandon land lines if they could transfer their numbers to wireless phones. "It just makes it that much more attractive," he said, noting that some cell phone companies already market themselves as alternatives to wired phone service.

Douglas I. Brandon, vice president of federal affairs at AT&T Wireless, said the business can be truly competitive only if his company can lure customers from their wired competitors.

"Part of our business plan, obviously, is to get minutes from the residential land-line provider and the only way we can do that is if we are able to [transfer] their numbers," Brandon said.

In filings with the FCC, SBC has said the requirement to transfer wired phone numbers to wireless customers should apply only to about 10 percent of all telephone lines -- those used by customers who live near the central telephone offices that handle their wireless calls. The company said in a prepared statement that such a condition would be the regulatory equivalent of the current rules governing the transfer of numbers between wired carriers.

"SBC believes that [transferring numbers] between and among all carriers should be as competitively neutral as possible and fair to all carriers in the marketplace," a company spokesman said in an e-mailed statement.
*******************************
Wired News
The Minister of Net Defense
White House cybersecurity chief Howard Schmidt wants to protect you from weapons of mass disruption.
By Douglas McGray

WIRED: If there's a big cyberattack, is it likely to be by accident or by design? A hacker's project gone awry or a coordinated terrorist attack? 

SCHMIDT: The big one is likely to be very, very focused and very designed. We have this debate internally on a regular basis. 

WIRED: Who is the most likely perpetrator? 

SCHMIDT: Our perspective is, it doesn't make any difference whether it's from a source in the Mideast or from one in the Midwest.

WIRED: Your predecessor, Richard Clarke, used to talk about the likelihood of a digital Pearl Harbor. Others have dismissed cyberattacks as weapons of mass annoyance. That's a pretty wide spectrum. 

SCHMIDT: I use the term weapons of mass disruption. Is it possible that we could have a catastrophic failure on a regional basis? Absolutely. Could we see that on a universal basis? That likelihood has been reduced significantly. 

WIRED: What worries you, then?

SCHMIDT: An unknown vulnerability in a system that someone chooses to exploit in conjunction with some sort of a physical attack.

WIRED: Wouldn't it be difficult to coordinate a cyberattack with a physical attack like a bombing?

SCHMIDT: If you have something that can proliferate quickly, like the Slammer, it would be relatively easy to orchestrate. 

WIRED: Most of the big hacks have affected data, rather than control systems. Why is it easier to fry bank records than to knock out the power grid?

SCHMIDT: The technology that runs the banking system and the Internet is very public. A lot of it has come from a foundation of open standards, so we understand it much better, whereas digital control systems run in a proprietary manner. You need specific knowledge about what it does and how it does it. There has been a shift - appropriately so, for cost efficiencies and everything else - to enabling some of those open technologies in control systems, but we need to protect against those things becoming a failure point.

WIRED: Walk me through the first moments of a big cyberattack. The Slammer worm, for instance.

SCHMIDT: The private sector sees what's going on long before the government catches on. Generally, they'll see a spike in activity at some of the main Internet monitoring points. Nanog [North American Network Operators Group] was one of the first groups to post on an email list that they saw something strange.

WIRED: Would ISPs investigate?

SCHMIDT: They're the ones monitoring the health of their networks. They figure, jeez, this isn't something where someone has inadvertently turned off the DNS. This is something malicious, and it's moving at an alarming rate.

WIRED: Then what?

SCHMIDT: The next step is to identify how the maliciousness is manifesting itself. Is it a worm? Something that somebody sent out via email? Within the first hour or so, there's analysis of the code. Then some of the downstream providers are notified, and the government is brought online. 

WIRED: Who in Washington gets the call?

SCHMIDT: Right now, it's not as clean as we'd like. In the future, one of the first calls will go to the Department of Homeland Security. [Now] the person on my staff who monitors Nanog gets the call. Simultaneously, the National Communications System is notified and, of course, the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center. 

WIRED: Clarke wrote in a memo that the fast-moving Slammer was a dumb worm that was easily and cheaply made. And that, with slight modifications, the results of the worm would have been more significant.

SCHMIDT: It had no payload. This was strictly a denial-of-service activity in which it was looking for the port and using the worm to propagate a subnetwork connection. The effect of that was some restriction in the use of ATM machines and databases that provide airline reservations. And in one case, a voice-over-IP system for a 911 dispatcher was affected.

WIRED: What could a loaded Slammer have done?

SCHMIDT: One payload could have injected other code, which would have opened system backdoors under the context of administrator root privileges. Hundreds of thousands of systems could have been taken over.


WIRED: Critics have said that your strategy relies too much on the goodwill of big business, that without new regulations, it has no teeth.

SCHMIDT: What would you legislate? From this moment forward, you will not have more than 10 vulnerabilities during a year? And then what happens? Do we fine you? We have to be very practical when we look at this.

WIRED: Are there ways besides regulation that the government can enforce its priorities? 

SCHMIDT: The power of the government's purchasing dollar. The Office of Management and Budget now asks, You want to spend money on an IT project? Give me your security plan, or you don't get the money. 

WIRED: How tough will the government really be? Five years from now, if Microsoft still has the vulnerabilities it does today, will you cut it off?

SCHMIDT: I wouldn't say any particular company...

WIRED: But Microsoft is a good example, because the government is its biggest client.

SCHMIDT: If you're not going to provide good security, and you're not going to provide good quality control in engineering in the products you provide us, we're not going to buy it.
*******************************
Los Angeles Times
Officer's Star Searches Raise Liability Worries
City studies possible legal fallout from use of police computer to get data on celebrities.
By Wendy Thermos
Times Staff Writer

April 8, 2003

For six years, Officer Kelly Chrisman used Los Angeles Police Department computers to look up confidential law enforcement records on celebrities and other high-profile people, including Sharon Stone, Courteney Cox Arquette, Sean Penn and Halle Berry.

Chrisman says he was just carrying out orders from superiors, but a lawsuit recently settled by the city for nearly $400,000 alleged that the officer had accessed the records to sell the information to tabloids.

Now Los Angeles officials are assessing the city's potential liability.

According to internal LAPD documents, between 1994 and 2000 Chrisman tapped computer files on scores of celebrities, including Meg Ryan, Kobe Bryant, O.J. Simpson, Larry King, Drew Barrymore, Dionne Warwick, Farrah Fawcett, Cindy Crawford, Elle Macpherson and Berry Gordy.

The officer does not deny he looked up celebrities in police databases, but says department brass had ordered him to devise a locator map of Westside VIP residences. The LAPD maintains there was no such project and has filed misconduct charges that could result in Chrisman's firing.

The 34-year-old officer has denied that he accessed computer records improperly.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court by Chrisman's former girlfriend, said Chrisman had collected the data for financial gain, but LAPD investigators say they could not pin down a motive.

"We just don't know," said Deputy Chief James McMurray, until recently the chief of internal affairs. "There was all sorts of rumor and speculation."Officials say unauthorized access alone violates department regulations, and no motive needs to be shown.

Whatever the motive, the case prompted worried debate during a closed session of the City Council on March 19, when council members voted unanimously to pay $387,500 to settle the lawsuit. According to sources, the council also directed its staff to study the liability the city might face as a result of unauthorized computer use by Chrisman or possibly by other officers.

The suit by Cyndy Truhan, ex-wife of former Dodger Steve Garvey, alleged that Chrisman had violated her privacy by using LAPD computers to secretly investigate her, as well as hundreds of other people, and that he had made a significant side income by selling the information to tabloids. In settling the suit, the city admitted no wrongdoing by Chrisman or the LAPD.

Councilman Dennis Zine said he and other council members found the Chrisman case disturbing and are concerned that the city might be at risk for more legal action. The LAPD has no monitoring system to detect unauthorized computer use, officials said.

"How many other situations do we have like this?" Zine asked. "How does this go unchecked? We're spending almost $400,000 of taxpayer money on this one suit, and God knows how many more will come down the line."

Zine, who was a police officer for more than 30 years, said council members had held a long discussion in closed session. "This wasn't a case of, 'Let's pass this and thank you very much.' I had some serious questions and my colleagues joined me in those questions," he said.

Chief William J. Bratton, who took office in October, declined to be interviewed about the Chrisman case and the issues Zine raised. As soon as he learned of the case, Bratton placed Chrisman on home duty, similar to paid leave, until the charges are resolved. Department officials would not comment on why Chrisman had not been placed on leave earlier.

Chrisman no longer has computer access to confidential records. LAPD officials canceled his password for logging onto the system shortly after the investigation began.

Much of Chrisman's alleged activity and the resulting investigation occurred while Bernard Parks was chief, from 1997 to 2002. Parks, now a city councilman, also refused to comment.

Chrisman's attorney, Christopher A. Darden, rejected any suggestion that his client, a 13-year LAPD veteran, had made money as a news tipster by mining law enforcement databases. "There's really nothing in those records to sell to tabloids," Darden said. "He didn't do it. That's that."

*

Trove of Information

LAPD computers are used to call up a variety of data, including addresses, criminal histories, birth dates, driving records, ownership of vehicles, physical descriptions, Social Security numbers, restraining orders and, in some cases, unlisted phone numbers.

The information is stored in state Department of Justice databases, which hook into a U.S. Department of Justice information network that allows users to obtain records in other states.

Federal and state laws, as well as LAPD regulations, permit access to the data for duty-related reasons only. Each time an LAPD user logs on, a warning reminds the user that a violation can result in criminal prosecution. Unauthorized use can also bring job penalties ranging from a reprimand to dismissal.

"We take violations very seriously. An officer isn't even allowed to" run a computer check on himself, said Mike Van Winkle, a state Department of Justice spokesman.

Police apparently became aware of Chrisman's computer activity only by accident.

In March 2000, Truhan called the LAPD to accuse Chrisman of coming to her home and roughing her up in a dispute related to their recently ended three-year relationship. The case did not result in criminal charges, but it set off an internal affairs investigation of Chrisman's activities on and off duty.

In her suit, Truhan said Chrisman had "used his position as an officer to find her new telephone numbers and addresses" and to stalk her after she had broken off the relationship.

While they were still dating, according to the suit, Chrisman had told her that he could plant unflattering stories about her in tabloids and had threatened her with bodily harm if she told anyone that he was making money as a tipster for the National Enquirer and other publications.

Sources said phone records obtained by the LAPD show numerous calls from Chrisman to Cindy Solomon, a Los Angeles-based senior reporter for the National Enquirer. Solomon declined to say whether she knows the officer. "I know where you're going with this and I can't comment," she said.

Enquirer Editor David Perel acknowledged that his paper pays some sources, but said his reporters do not buy information from police officers. Major newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, prohibit reporters from paying sources for information.

LAPD investigators sought to prosecute Chrisman in April 2001. But the district attorney's office declined to file charges because a one-year statute of limitations had expired, said James Cosper, head of the district attorney's justice integrity unit.

Darden turned down a request for an interview with his client, saying the officer is under orders from the LAPD not to discuss his case.

*

Celebrity Searches

An LAPD audit of Chrisman's computer use showed "hundreds of hits" on prominent names, said a source familiar with the investigation. According to the source and internal documents, some names that popped up were Jennifer Aniston, Mickey Rourke, Pamela Anderson, Lara Flynn Boyle, Kim Delaney, Peter Horton, Dylan McDermott and Nicole Brown Simpson. Documents collected by investigators show that at least 30 times between 1996 and 2000, the officer also accessed files on Truhan, Garvey, Truhan's two grown daughters, her ex-boyfriend and the boyfriend's relatives.

Chrisman ran some of the names from his patrol-car computer and others from a desktop terminal in the West Los Angeles station where he worked.

When asked by the disciplinary board to explain why he had accessed celebrity files, Chrisman said he had been carrying out orders, according to hearing transcripts.

He recalled being assigned to a three-year celebrity mapping project in about 1995 while working in the West Los Angeles station's crime analysis unit. His supervisors asked him to include, not only entertainment stars but Fortune 500 executives, dignitaries and other important people, he said.

"Names just came to mind that I researched," he testified. "A lot of it, believe it or not," came from a star map purchased off Sunset Boulevard.

Now-retired Lt. Frank Spangler told the hearing board that he had asked Chrisman in late 1995 to see if there was a way to create a computerized map that would give officers responding to emergencies a heads-up if high-profile people might be involved at certain Westside locations.

Spangler remembered Chrisman's telling him about a year later that Chrisman had ended the project because the department's mapping software wasn't up to the task.

Several other supervising officers in the station, including the head of the crime analysis unit, told the board they knew of no mapping effort involving celebrities, according to hearing transcripts. Investigators searched boxes of files and found no evidence of a project like the one Chrisman described.

"We don't have a system, nor should we have a system, to track celebrities," McMurray, the former internal affairs chief, said in an interview.

The hearing board, according to transcripts, noted that Chrisman's crime analysis stint had accounted for at most three of the six years during which he accessed celebrity files.

"I don't understand why you were running these people," Capt. James Rubert, the board chairman, told the officer. "You were in the police car.... And you are running people that ... aren't a threat to the community, aren't victims of crime, aren't asking for your assistance -- going about their daily work like everybody else."

"I wanted to know who lived in my area," Chrisman replied. "If there is a potential problem, I could keep a list myself" of who is in the area, "and I did."

Darden, who gained recognition as co-prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson murder trial, said it is unfair of the LAPD to ask Chrisman to explain something he did several years ago.

"They went through years of computer printouts and they asked him, 'Why did you run that person?' Well, how the heck would anyone remember back that far?" Darden said.

Chrisman's case is being heard by a three-member disciplinary board that has held about 20 days of hearings, on and off, since 2001. Chrisman faces administrative charges accusing him of domestic violence against Truhan and of misusing LAPD computers. The next hearing is set for April 15.
*******************************


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Top Stories for Wednesday, April 9, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Ex-Officials Urge U.S. to Boost Cybersecurity"
"Is There Life After Silicon Valley's Fast Lane?"
"Military Battling Junk E-Mail"
"Digging Through Data for Omens"
"Wireless Rivals Emerge"
"Companies Seeking Software Are Finding a Buyer's Market"
"Studios Take Piracy Battle to the States"
"Larry Ellison's Sober Vision"
"Survey: Blue Moods in IT Shops"
"Sans Takes Team Approach to Computer Security"
"Visas and the West's 'Hidden Agenda'"
"Reinventing the Media Lab"
"Afghan Women Hope Computer Will Bring New Dawn"
"Frontier of Military Technology Is the Size of a Molecule"
"SETI@home Flaw Could Let Invaders In"
"Dream Code"
"Some Rights Reserved"
"Quantum Dots For Sale"

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

"Ex-Officials Urge U.S. to Boost Cybersecurity"
Former White House cybersecurity advisor Richard A. Clarke told a
House Government Reform subcommittee yesterday that the Homeland
Security Department is ill-equipped to effectively implement the
White House's National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, which he ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item1

"Is There Life After Silicon Valley's Fast Lane?"
The lean economic times provide Silicon Valley workers, many now
laid-off, a chance for reflection on their industry, especially
the frenetic pace at which it has been driven.  Observers note
that even in sectors not immediately dealing with semiconductors, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item2

"Military Battling Junk E-Mail"
U.S. military email inboxes are being hit with spam even though
military systems are installed with anti-spam filters.  The
Defense Department Information Systems Agency has established
general standards for having anti-spam filtering, and the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item3

"Digging Through Data for Omens"
Although the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has
begun using data mining technology to verify the identity of
travelers, privacy fears hinder the government from extensively
mining personal information in order to nab terrorists.   The ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item4

"Wireless Rivals Emerge"
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi will soon face challenges in wireless
connectivity and networking with the emergence of WirelessUSB and
ZigBee, respectively.  Millions of consumers experienced
Bluetooth for the first time last year, using the technology to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item5

"Companies Seeking Software Are Finding a Buyer's Market"
The grim economy is forcing companies to maximize their budgets
for computer software, a market that has retrenched for the first
time in 40 years.  Companies are carefully scrutinizing the way
they use software; they are using fewer programs, switching to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item6

"Studios Take Piracy Battle to the States"
Movie studios are trying to convince state legislators to widen
the scope of laws governing theft of cable and phone services to
include new digital devices and Internet-based products, thus
giving the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) "an ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item7

"Larry Ellison's Sober Vision"
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison believes the computer industry has
reached the limits of its growth, and predicts the failure of
1,000 tech companies thanks to consolidation and increasing
standardization of products.  He expects the biotechnology sector ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item8

"Survey: Blue Moods in IT Shops"
A recent Meta Group survey of North American IT managers
indicates sinking morale among IT workers despite salary raises.
Maria Schafer, author of Meta Group's annual IT Staffing and
Compensation Guide says 71% of respondents consider IT ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item9

"Sans Takes Team Approach to Computer Security"
Sans Institute research director Allan Paller believes
computer security problems can be solved more effectively through
teamwork, and has made it his job to build security projects
that rely on consensus.  He reports that demand for Sans courses ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item10

"Visas and the West's 'Hidden Agenda'"
The Indian software and IT services industry is facing a
toughened global environment as other nations raise non-tariff
barriers to limit competitiveness.  Even in liberal countries
such as the Netherlands, one Indian software company, I-Flex, has ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item11

"Reinventing the Media Lab"
MIT has named School of Architecture and Planning Dean William
Mitchell, 57, as the new head of its Program in Media Arts and
Sciences, which is responsible for the school's Media Lab.  In
his new leadership position, Mitchell will be charged with ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item12

"Afghan Women Hope Computer Will Bring New Dawn"
The recent certification of 17 domestically-trained Afghans as
computer networking specialists is a watershed for Afghanistan, a
country that is a decades-long laggard in information technology,
and whose recently-ousted Taliban government virtually eliminated ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item13

"Frontier of Military Technology Is the Size of a Molecule"
The U.S. Department of Defense has been a major supporter of
nanotechnology research for over 20 years, and this year will
spend $243 million on nanotech R&D; the total federal budget for
nanotech this year is $774 million.  The technology promises to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item14

"SETI@home Flaw Could Let Invaders In"
The SETI@home project released a new version of its distributed
client software on April 4 in order to close a buffer overflow
flaw that could allow hackers to commandeer the computer systems
of SETI@home volunteers.  SETI@home is a distributed computing ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item15

"Dream Code"
The European Physical Journal recently accepted a paper by
Stefano Bettelli of Paul Sabatier University detailing his and
his colleagues' efforts in creating a programming language for a
quantum computer.  A quantum computer's bits, or qubits, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item16

"Some Rights Reserved"
Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig has given scholars,
scientists, artists, photographers, and writers an opportunity to
share their works more easily on the Internet via the Creative
Commons.  Last December, Lessig and several other cyber-activists ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item17

"Quantum Dots For Sale"
Several startups are readying products that use semiconductor
quantum dots, first for the biotechnology industry and later for
tunable lasers, telecommunications, and light-emitting diodes
(LEDs); this commercialization is fueling basic research in the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0409w.html#item18


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Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber:

Welcome to the April 16, 2003 edition of ACM TechNews,
providing timely information for IT professionals three times a
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ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 483
Date: April 16, 2003

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Top Stories for Wednesday, April 16, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Tune Out, Turn Off, Drop Offline"
"Will Patents Kill IT Innovation?"
"Cutting the Cord"
"Cyberattacks With Offline Damage"
"Quest for Power, Speed Drive the Latest Technologies"
"Research Shows Hazards in Tiny Particles"
"Tiny Bubbles Are Key to Liquid-Cooled System for Future
 Computers"
"Apple Patches Flaws in Mac OS X"
"Are Privacy Expectations Changing?"
"Homeland Security Needs More Tech Funds"
"Honeypots Get Stickier for Hackers"
"Military Fashioning High-Tech Combat Suits"
"Open-Source Team Fights Buffer Overflows"
"'Please Step to the Side, Sir'"
"Indian Software Industry Worried by Arrests, Protectionism"
"Holographic Data Storage: The Light Fantastic"
"ISOnews Co-Founder Does Time for DMCA Violation"
"Open Source Versus Open Standards"
"The Next Material World"

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

"Tune Out, Turn Off, Drop Offline"
Although minorities, the elderly, the handicapped, and persons in
low income brackets account for most of the people who are not
online, a new study from the Pew Internet and American Life
Project estimates that 17 percent of Americans are Internet ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item1

"Will Patents Kill IT Innovation?"
One of the most vocal critics of the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office is open-source consultant Bruce Perens, who says that
allowances to patent "anything under the sun that is made by
man," as decreed by the Supreme Court in 1980, could become a ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item2

"Cutting the Cord"
An increasing number of American homes have multiple PCs
connected by wireless networks as users seek to share broadband
Internet connections and files between machines.  International
Data (IDC) says the number of such homes has doubled in the last ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item3

"Cyberattacks With Offline Damage"
Aviel D. Rubin of Johns Hopkins University's Information Security
Institute recently presented a paper suggesting that a
cyberspace-based attack can have real-world ramifications, and is
relatively simple to carry out.  All that is needed are tools ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item4

"Quest for Power, Speed Drive the Latest Technologies"
Wireless technologies will soon allow people to be almost
completely free of copper strands.  Bandwidth barriers have
prevented technologists from using wireless technology to
transfer information such as live video, but those obstacles are ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item5

"Research Shows Hazards in Tiny Particles"
A new study by Dr. Vyvyan Howard of the University of Liverpool
concludes that nanoscale materials are likely to constitute a
health risk--especially to laborers manufacturing such
materials--because their small size makes them easy to inhale, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item6

"Tiny Bubbles Are Key to Liquid-Cooled System for Future
 Computers"
The heat output of microprocessor chips is expected to increase
by a factor of four within three years, necessitating the
development of new cooling systems that are far more efficient
than fan and heat-sink technology currently in use, according to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item7

"Apple Patches Flaws in Mac OS X"
Apple Computer has issued an updated version of its Mac OS X
operating system in order to address seven major security flaws
that @Stake alerted the company to.  Accompanying Apple's advice
that users upgrade to Mac OS X 10.2.5 was a notification that ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item8

"Are Privacy Expectations Changing?"
Scarlet Pruitt writes that the prevailing mood at ACM's annual
Computers, Freedom, and Privacy (CFP) conference appeared to be
one of calm resignation rather than enthusiastic opposition to
proposed and enacted legislation and initiatives that ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item9

"Homeland Security Needs More Tech Funds"
Charles McQueary of the Department of Homeland Security presented
a request for a 43 percent annual budget increase to cover
various technology initiatives to Congress on April 10.  The
projects that the department aims to fund through the expanded ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item10

"Honeypots Get Stickier for Hackers"
Speaking at the CanSecWest security show, Honeynet Project
founder Lance Spitzner announced changes to his group's
open-source honeypot technology that will hopefully make it more
palatable to security companies and other businesses.  The ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item11

"Military Fashioning High-Tech Combat Suits"
The Army's Soldier Systems Center is the focus of research to
build more sophisticated yet comfortable uniforms, body armor,
and other protective systems for troops to wear on the
battlefield, and the center's Maurice N. Larrivee attributes much ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item12

"Open-Source Team Fights Buffer Overflows"
The OpenBSD project will release new security features next month
that virtually eliminate the threat of "buffer overflow" attacks,
which have been the bane of computer security professionals for
decades.  Speaking at the recent CanSecWest conference, OpenBSD ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item13

"'Please Step to the Side, Sir'"
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the Transportation
Security Administration (TSA) released documents last month
confirming that there is indeed a federal "no-fly" list of people ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item14

"Indian Software Industry Worried by Arrests, Protectionism"
Recent international arrests and U.S. legislation are cause for
concern throughout the Indian software industry, which is
interpreting such incidents as a sign of fear among other nations
that Indian engineers are encroaching on their job markets.  In ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item15

"Holographic Data Storage: The Light Fantastic"
The promised advantages of holographic data storage include
greater storage capacity, faster data retrieval, and new search
methodologies; but it is only now that practical applications
have begun to appear on the market, partly because of the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item16

"ISOnews Co-Founder Does Time for DMCA Violation"
ISOnews.com co-founder David Rocci has been sentenced to five
months in prison for selling microchips that enabled Xbox
computers to play bootlegs, back-up copies, and other
unauthorized games.  Rocci was sentenced as part of a plea deal ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item17

"Open Source Versus Open Standards"
Open standards, open source, developer communities, and licensing
models have all used the term "open," but users need to know
exactly what the moniker means in each instance, according to Sun
Microsystems' Jonathan Schwartz.  Of the four groupings, open ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item18

"The Next Material World"
Materials and society's mastery over them determines the path a
civilization follows, and most experts agree that nanotechnology
is shepherding civilization toward a design age marked by radical
shifts in materials and manufacturing processes.  "As we continue ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0416w.html#item19


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