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Clips April 17, 2003
- To: "Lillie Coney":;, Gene Spafford <spaf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;, John White <white@xxxxxxxxxx>;, Jeff Grove <jeff_grove@xxxxxxx>;, goodman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx;, David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>;, glee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx;, Andrew Grosso<Agrosso@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;, ver@xxxxxxxxx;, lillie.coney@xxxxxxx;, v_gold@xxxxxxx;, harsha@xxxxxxx;, KathrynKL@xxxxxxx;, computer_security_day@xxxxxxx;, waspray@xxxxxxxxxxx;
- Subject: Clips April 17, 2003
- From: Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 16:47:26 -0400
Clips April 17, 2003
ARTICLES
Parents Rally to Stop 'Cyber Bullying'
Software rams great firewall of China
E-mail encryption program catches on with DOD contractors
NIST starts security certification program
Data management system gets new analysis tool
McDonough leaving government after 38 years
HSD seeks to secure data it gets from the private sector
State rolls out embassy Web pages
High-tech Peeping Toms targeted by Georgia bill
Voicemail Hackers Phone It In
Air Force officials aim to improve battle information flow
E-Government Plan Short on Cash
Security Agency Selects Privacy Watchdog
Student Barred From Discussing Flaws in Debit Card Technology
Battlefield Internet helps Army's 4th Division pierce fog of war
Wi-Fi could let Iraq skip steps to leap into broadband
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Los Angeles Times
Parents Rally to Stop 'Cyber Bullying'
Calling Internet rumor mills harmful, some move to shut sites. Defenders say free speech is at stake.
By Erika Hayasaki and Jia-Rui Chong
Times Staff Writers
April 17, 2003
When Internet users log onto schoolscandals.com and click on the Beverly Hills High School link, they will find a message calling one student a "retard" who "deserves to go to hell." A posting in the Frost Middle School chat room describes a student as a "homosexual with a pigeon-like face and a penguin-like body."
Such name-calling and gossip about students are common on the 3-year-old Web site, similar to the crude messages scribbled inside of school bathroom stalls for decades but on a much larger scale.
That "cyber bullying" has an audience of tens of thousands, and it features links for chat rooms about nearly 100 Southern California middle and high schools, particularly in the San Fernando Valley. As a result, parents and school administrators are calling for the site's closure, contending much of its content is libelous and harmful.
Parents in the Las Virgenes Unified School District began complaining about the site three months ago and recently met with administrators about its painful effect on youngsters. Principals ordered a block against the Web site on all campus computers.
One mother was shocked to find that her son, who attends high school in the Las Virgenes district, had been ridiculed on the site.
"These adolescents are pretty fragile. They are vulnerable," said the mother, who asked that her name not be used to avoid giving her child more public attention. "Kids said terrible things about him. It was just hurtful."
Her son now is receiving counseling because of his embarrassment, and she is organizing a coalition of parents to file a lawsuit against the Web site owners, she said.
"That kid who said that awful thing is just a stupid adolescent. But who is allowing him to do it? All of the adults."
Ken Tennen, an attorney in West Hills who represents the Web site owners, said schoolscandals.com is not violating the law and that those who are calling for the site to be shut down are trying to "silence free speech." He described the site as "the 21st century version of talk radio."
The Web site, he said, said is a nonprofit "opinion-based, student-run, student-operated bulletin board system."
He declined to identify the owners other than to say they are a group of Nevada investors, operating under the name Western Applications. They plan to expand the site nationwide over the next two months, he said.
"People really don't understand that a bulletin board system like schoolscandals.com exposes into the light of day the way that kids actually talk to each other, whether it is on the playground, in the locker room, on the sports field or hanging around the mall," Tennen said.
The Denver-based owners of a similar California-oriented site shut the site down two years ago after protests from parents and educators about its mean-spirited gossip. Tennen said his clients have no connection to that older site or similar ones around the country.
Schoolscandals.com has more than 31,400 registered users, according to one of its Web pages, and much of the electronic traffic comes from San Fernando Valley students, who attend Birmingham, Van Nuys, North Hollywood and El Camino Real high schools. It includes chat rooms for private and religious schools.
Many posts refer to students as "whores," "sluts" and "losers." Others include such comments as: she's an "anoerexic (sic) skank," "she's so ugly she looks like a horse, her breath smells like cheese" and "he's ugly and has a beer belly."
Jose Salas, 17, a senior at North Hollywood High School, said he visits the site "to see if there's any trash on anybody," but he doesn't believe all that he reads. Some of it is so ridiculous, it just takes common sense to realize it's false, he said.
Karla Rangel, 15, a sophomore at North Hollywood, said she signs on about 15 times a month. She said she posts protest responses, like when she defended her soccer team against Internet rumors that its members were all mean girls. She also has posted information about antiwar rallies or parties.
"It's a fun thing, except when people talk about you," she said. Mark Goodman, executive director for the Student Press Law Center, said thousands more such sites operate across the country. Although comments on the site may be cruel or unpleasant, he said posts about a student being "ugly" are not solid ground for legal action.
Wendy Seltzer, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online civil liberties organization, said that the authors of the postings might be held liable, but that a 1996 federal law protects many Internet service providers from lawsuits about their content. Only sites like Salon.com, latimes.com and others can be sued for defamation, since they hold the right to edit their content, she said.
The notion is that most Web hosts "don't look at all, because if you do look, you might be held liable for what your users are saying," she said.
But such gossipy Web sites inflict serious emotional damage to teenagers and even cause them to drop out of school, said Dr. Ted Feinberg, assistant executive director for the National Assn. of School Psychologists.
"It's a kind of cyber bullying, if you will," he said. "It's very cruel and insidious, and this has really created a nightmare for the students involved."
Feinberg said school administrators and counselors must try to discourage such Internet use and install blocking systems on their school computers. He also urged parents to monitor their children's Internet use.
Jim Nielsen, director of secondary education for Las Virgenes Unified, said the site is a major concern. "We're trying to create a safe and secure learning environment, and we want students to feel like they're not going to be harassed or abused in any way, so it's very disheartening to see some of the things people are saying about each other."
Two students recently left Agoura High and transferred to other schools, partly because of Internet-generated rumors, administrators of the Las Virgenes Unified School District said, but they declined to provide further details about the incidents.
Also in Las Virgenes Unified, nearly 100 students from Calabasas High School met with administrators last week to discuss concerns about the cyber rumor mill.
Brad Benioff, assistant principal at Agoura High, said schoolscandals.com rumors are different from gossip passed in hallways or scribbled on bathroom walls. "The anonymity of the Internet makes kids more bold in what they're saying. It's also much more public," he said.
But not all the postings are nasty.
Inside a Taft High School chat room onschoolscandals.com, someone defended one girl who was accused of dating four guys at once and called a "tramp." Then the protester wrote: "The people who sit here and talk smack [are] just jealous of her and what a good and sweet person she is. You really think this hurts her, when in fact it doesn't, it just annoys her. She can care less what [you] pathetic people think of her."
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CNET News.com
Software rams great firewall of China
By Paul Festa
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
April 16, 2003, 7:24 AM PT
The news and propaganda wing behind the U.S. government's Voice of America broadcasts has commissioned software that lets Chinese Web surfers sneak around the boundaries set by their government.
The software enables PC users running Microsoft's Windows XP or 2000 operating systems to set up a simple version of what's known as a circumvention Web server, or a computer that essentially digs a tunnel under a firewall set up by a government, corporation, school or other organization.
In this case, the United States is eyeing the millions of Chinese Web surfers stuck behind their government's firewall--as well as other people around the world who are prevented from downloading American news and propaganda.
"The news is highly censored," said Ken Berman, program manager for Internet anticensorship at the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), which puts out the Voice of America radio and Internet transmissions, along with other international programs. "The Chinese government jams all of our radio broadcasts and blocks access by their people to our Web site. We want to allow the people there to have the tools to be able to have a look at it."
China keeps a particularly strong lock on the Internet. The government has blocked popular search engines and prevailed on Western companies such as Yahoo to voluntarily restrict their Web content in China. In one U.S. study, China was found to be blocking 19,000 Web sites including those providing news, health information, political coverage and entertainment.
In November, Amnesty International named 33 companies including Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Cisco Systems that it said were providing the Chinese with technology to achieve its Internet censorship aims.
The idea behind the U.S.-backed software is to allow someone trying to evade a firewall to tunnel under it via a third-party computer not blocked by the firewall. The software, which uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), lets the person who installs it set up a miniature Web site through which a firewall-restricted surfer can access the rest of the Web.
In addition to circumventing firewalls, the software also creates anonymity by covering the Web surfer's tracks and leaving no record of what sites he or she visited beyond the miniature Web site.
The software being tested grew out of a December roundtable in which participants raised the possibility of skirting the Chinese information blockade. In response, the IBB commissioned anticensorship activist Bennett Haselton for an undisclosed sum to craft a user-friendly circumvention server.
Haselton on Wednesday posted instructions on how to use the software on his Peacefire Web site.
Similar software already exists but without sufficient ease of use that it could achieve widespread international distribution.
The IBB hasn't figured out exactly how it will distribute the software, or how it will solve the chicken-and-egg conundrum of getting the word out to people who are prevented from hearing the IBB's message in the first place. One possible solution is to tap dissident expatriate communities that maintain ties to their homeland.
According to an unscientific survey conducted last year, the Chinese make up the second largest national group surfing the Web, after Americans.
The pairing of the U.S. government and Haselton--who is noted for opposing efforts in public libraries and schools to install filtering software on government-funded computers--makes something of an odd couple.
In fact, the IBB's research and development dollars could ultimately wind up undermining U.S.-supported efforts to restrict Web surfing and blocking software--not to mention content filters that are in use in other contexts.
What, for example, if the repressive regime turns out to be a curious teenager's parents?
"We're trying to get people to run circumventor software," the IBB's Berman said. "Once it's running, does 13-year-old Joey find it? We like to call our program a portal to democracy. Whether the same tools are used by teenagers here--it's difficult to try to put controls on that."
For his own part, Haselton cheerfully acknowledged the potential domestic application of his circumvention.
"It also apparently works to get around most blocking software proxies and client programs used in the U.S., although there are ways that blocking software companies could counteract it," according to Haselton. "But until they do implement the countermeasures and convince everybody to upgrade, it will work to defeat a lot of the home and school blocking software programs as well."
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Government Computer News
04/16/03
E-mail encryption program catches on with DOD contractors
By Vandana Sinha
GCN Staff
A public-key infrastructure system the Defense Department extended to its contractorswhich initially drew a tepid responseis gaining support as more vendors sign on to secure their e-mail messages to agency officials.
Under the DOD Interim External Certificate Authority program, three companiesDigital Signature Trust Co. of Salt Lake City, Operational Research Consultants Inc. of Chesapeake Va., and VeriSign Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.have been providing the PKI software to protect e-mail communications, work flow and document access between DOD and its contractors.
Contractors download the digital certificates, which range in price from $119 to $150 apiece, into their Internet and e-mail browsers, encrypting messages traveling across the public Internet. While the program, which is internally managed by the Defense Information Systems Agency, is more than two years old, it had elicited a relatively weak response until recently.
?More and more DOD partners are using the service now,? said Rob Carey, e-business leader for the Navy Department.
In December 2001, a few hundred digital certificates were in play. Now, VeriSign alone counts 20,000 certificates. In the last two months, the company said, the number of digital certificates has increased by more than 50 percent, particularly among air and commercial transport carriers, which VeriSign attributes to the war in Iraq.
The adoption rate could shoot even higher once contractors begin playing a bigger role in rebuilding Iraq. ?Today, there?s very limited use in Iraq,? said Barry Leffew, VeriSign?s vice president for the public sector. ?But it will expand with postwar reconstruction.?
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Government Computer News
04/17/03
NIST starts security certification program
By Joab Jackson
Staff Writer
Ron Ross, former head of the National Information Assurance Partnership, has started a new office that will develop standards for certifying that new agency systems are secure.
The Certification and Accreditation Program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology will roll out in two phases, Ross said. In Phase 1, now under way, a team will develop standards for evaluating whether a new system is secure. In the second phase, which Ross said will occur ?over the next few years,? the office will establish a network of accredited organizations to provide security certification services based on these guidelines.
Ross said these standards could be used to evaluate systems as small as an office network or as large and complex as an agencywide financial system.
The Office of Management and Budget Circular A-130 requires agencies employ an accreditation officer to certify that a new system is secure and that its misuse will not compromise the agency?s mission. Factors ranging from the security of IT equipment to the reliability of the ?guards, guns and gates? that surround it must be evaluated. Until a system is designated as safe, it cannot go live, Ross said.
What NIST is developing a specific set of standards for accrediting systems. The agency itself will not accredit systems, but will initiate a qualification process that will certify companies and agencies for doing so.
Ross said he started the initiative about a year ago while overseeing NIAP. Systems security has grown tremendously in importance for agencies since Sept. 11, 2001. Eventually, the project ?took on a life of its own,? and he found himself devoting most of his time to the project, he said.
NIAP oversees the Common Criteria evaluation process, which sets government standards for evaluating whether or not a piece of equipment is secure. The Defense Department, for instance, uses Common Criteria as a qualification for equipment handling information related to national security.
The new program will be different from Common Criteria in that it will evaluate systems rather than individual products, Ross said.
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Government Computer News
04/17/03
Data management system gets new analysis tool
By Vandana Sinha
GCN Staff
An automated data analysis tool will power a new FBI counterterrorism database, letting bureau analysts easily pore through more than 1 billion documents and share information with other intelligence agencies.
The tools, ClearTags and ClearResearch, will draw patterns from terrorism-related intelligence collected from several sources into a centralized data mart that?s part of the agency?s modernized Trilogy network.
Trilogy?s Virtual Case File component, the electronic container for all this data, will be up and running by the end of the year, said FBI spokesman Ed Cogswell.
ClearTags and ClearResearch will be installed in the desktop PCs of 300 FBI analysts. The applications are intended to ease information sharing between the FBI and organizations at the CIA and Homeland Security Department.
The tools will also give intelligence officers a quicker method for scanning telephone records and various databases at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Defense Department, Drug Enforcement Agency, State Department, and state and local agencies.
ClearForest Corp. of New York City, which created the Extensible Markup Language-based ClearResearch business intelligence and tagging technology, refused to disclose the contract?s value.
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Government Computer News
04/17/03
McDonough leaving government after 38 years
By Jason Miller
GCN Staff
Frank McDonough, the General Services Administration?s deputy associate administrator for the Office of Intergovernmental Solutions, yesterday announced he is leaving the federal government for the private sector.
McDonough has been in his position for six years, with GSA since 1980 and in the federal government for 38 years. He has not decided when his last day will be, but said he is considering mid-June. He also has not decided where he will go after he leaves government but said he has ?some irons in the fire.?
?There is a lot of good stuff coming to a close for me, and I just wanted to go out while I?m peaking,? McDonough said. ?I would like to keep doing the same kind of work as I do now but with more flexibility.?
McDonough helped create the Intergovernmental Solutions Office with long-time deputy Martha Doris to establish relationships with international governments. Over the past 18 months, McDonough said, the focus has shifted to working with state and local governments to share information. About 80 percent to 90 percent of his office?s current focus is with U.S. nonfederal government entities, he said.
Doris likely will take over as acting deputy associate administrator until a permanent one is named, McDonough said.
?Frank is an established presence in Washington, around the country and internationally,? said M.J. Jameson, associate administrator for GSA?s Office of Citizen Services, who announced McDonough?s departure in a letter. ?Frank?s intelligence and knowledge about not only GSA, but the ins and outs of agencies and departments around Washington, helped me navigate some tricky waters.?
During his federal career, McDonough worked with the Navy, and the Health and Human Services and Treasury departments, as well as GSA.
?This was a very hard decision to make,? he said. ?I?ve heard from many colleagues so it is nice to feel loved.?
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Government Computer News
04/17/03
HSD seeks to secure data it gets from the private sector
By Wilson P. Dizard III
GCN Staff
The Homeland Security Department has proposed rules under which it would protect systems information it receives from the private sector.
The proposed rule explicitly applies to hardware and software that makes up critical-infrastructure systems. The government relies on many such systems, such as private voice and data networks, for its daily operations.
Companies have been wary of submitting information to the department for several reasons, including the possibility that their competitors could access commercially important data. Some members of Congress and privacy advocates criticized the enacted version of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 as including excessively broad exemptions from the Freedom of Information Act for such information.
The proposed rule-making notice, issued Tuesday, is aimed at implementing the Critical Infrastructure Information Act of 2002, which appears in Subtitle B of Title II of the Homeland Security Act.
That law calls for HSD to shield from the public the information that the private sector submits.
The proposed rule would apply to all federal agencies that receive such information, according to the notice published in the Federal Register. Under the rule-making proposal, the procedures also would apply to state, local and foreign governments as well as government contractors.
The proposal calls for Homeland Security to safeguard the information in secure systems or locations and to impose that requirement on any other agencies or contractors to which it discloses the information.
Under the proposal, private-sector organizations could specify information to be exempted from FOIA requests. The department could deny organizations? designation of information as critical-infrastructure and return it.
The proposed rule calls for a program manager of critical- infrastructure information. Among other duties, the official would report any losses of critical-infrastructure data to the department?s inspector general, its Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate and the organization that submitted the information.
Comments on the proposal are due June 16. The department will accept comments at cii.regcomment@xxxxxxxx
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Government Computer News
04/17/03
State rolls out embassy Web pages
By Wilson P. Dizard III
GCN Staff
The State Department has started to launch secure Web sites for its embassies on the Open Source Information System, a senior department official told GCN.
State connected its sensitive but unclassified network, known as OpenNet, to OSIS last November. The OSIS link provided the department a connection to OSIS? sensitive but unclassified bandwidth and information resources provided by the intelligence community. The Intelink Management Office, an intelligence community agency reporting to CIA director George Tenet, operates OSIS.
State plans to establish the diplomatic Web presence on an extranet that would allow it to share information with other agencies via OSIS, the senior official said. The embassy Web site project is in its beta stage now, he said.
?The idea here is that while telegrams are still used, and e-mail, these are linear,? the official said. ?Now, people are used to getting information on Web pages that are available 24-7.?
OSIS does not yet have all the collaborative tools, such as chat, whiteboarding and threaded conversations, that the department seeks to provide to its diplomats. But State does advocate the extension of OSIS to other federal agencies that operate in embassies, such as the Commerce and Agriculture departments and Agency for International Development, the official said.
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USA Today
High-tech Peeping Toms targeted by Georgia bill
ATLANTA (AP) Lawmakers want to crack down on high-tech Peeping Toms who use Internet minicams and video cameras that look like clock radios.
A first-ever bill before the Georgia House would move into the digital age and expand felony peeping beyond simply sneaking up to someone's window.
"There are huge gaps in the law when it comes to this state-of-the-art technology stuff," said Sen. Randy Hall, an Augusta Republican who sponsored the measure.
"Right now there are people finding pictures of themselves on the Internet, and prosecutors can't do much about it except patch together some misdemeanors," Hall said. "About the only way to get a Peeping Tom conviction is if you're going on someone else's property and looking in the windows."
The bill passed the Senate unanimously earlier this month. Now the House is deciding whether to pass it in the last three days of the session.
The measure would rewrite the Peeping Tom law to include surveillance tools such as telescopes, binoculars, cameras and videocameras. Pocket-size videocameras cost less than $200 on the Internet, and peepers can also buy cameras disguised as smoke detectors or clock radios.
A Peeping Tom conviction carries a penalty of one to five years in prison and a possible $10,000 fine.
Some House members are hesitant to approve the bill, fearing it goes too far. The House Rules Committee failed to schedule a vote on it earlier this week.
"What if I was at Panama City Beach with a pair of binoculars looking at girls on the beach? That's going to be a felony?" asked Rep. Bobby Parham, D-Milledgeville.
Hall pointed out that the Peeping Tom laws only apply where people have an "expectation of privacy," a legal term that means people would not expect to be recorded in places such as restroom stalls or hotel showers. Outside, it's legal to record other people.
"All we're trying to do is protect the privacy rights of Georgians that already exist. To do that, we need to close some gaps in the law," Hall said.
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Wired News
Voicemail Hackers Phone It In
02:00 AM Apr. 17, 2003 PT
Voicemail passwords are being transformed into all-access backstage passes that allow malicious hackers to exploit voicemail systems, racking up huge charges on their unlucky victims' phone bills.
Hackers are exploiting a combination of automated operator services from AT&T, voicemail services from SBC Communications and consumers who haven't changed their default voicemail passwords.
Victims say that AT&T and SBC know about the scam and are taking no concrete action to protect consumers from it.
But AT&T spokesman Gordon Diamond said that AT&T has been instrumental in stopping the scam.
"AT&T has ambitious programs that use sophisticated technology to detect and deter phone scams and protect our customers," Diamond said. "We detected these scams, and we stopped them. But technological deterrents can't do the job alone, and consumers and businesses are responsible for ensuring the security of their phone lines."
Here's how the scam works: The default passwords that SBC issues to new users of their voicemail services are in a specific format and are easily guessed.
If the default password is not changed after the system is set up, it's ripe for exploitation by malicious hackers, who have been breaking into SBC voicemail systems and replacing the owners' recorded greetings with recordings of a voice saying "yes" at appropriate intervals.
The hackers then place a collect call, typically from the Philippines or Saudi Arabia, to the hacked system at an odd hour, assuming that the voicemail system will pick up.
AT&T uses an automated voice-recognition system when processing collect calls. The recording asks whether the party who is being called will accept the charges. When the hacked system responds "yes," the call is connected.
Once connected, the hackers have been leaving the line open for hours -- and in some cases for days -- resulting in enormous bills for the victim.
According to network security expert Mike Sweeney, there are a few reasons why the malicious hackers might leave the line open.
"One is just to mind fuck with someone just because they can," said Sweeney. "But I also know that hackers will set up conference calls this way to discuss various 'business deals' at no cost to themselves. They might have set up the conference ... and just left the line up when they were done -- it's the victims' dime, so why bother stopping it?"
K.C. Hatcher, a San Francisco graphic artist and one of the scam's casualties, has been billed $12,000 dollars for calls that both she and AT&T agree she didn't make. But she's expected to pay for those calls anyway, as are the other victims.
In Hatcher's case, the scam was carried out on her business line on New Year's Eve. Hatcher said when she returned to the office after the holiday, she received a call from Bill Allen of AT&T Fraud Detection, who told her he thought she was the victim of telephone fraud.
"I checked my outgoing message and discovered it had been altered, exactly as Mr. Allen said it would be," Hatcher said. "In a man's voice with a foreign accent the new message stated something like, 'Yes, yes, I will accept the charges, yes, yes, yes....'"
Hatcher said Allen then issued her a case number to dispute the charges once she received her next phone bill. "He said that I probably would not have to pay the charges, as this type of incident happened quite often, and that AT&T often waived the charges."
Later Hatcher was told that AT&T would take 35 percent off her bill, but she'd have to pay $8,000.
Hatcher was not happy.
"AT&T then suggested I 'go after' SBC, and SBC blames AT&T for holding the victim responsible for the crime," Hatcher said. "Basically, these two communications giants are pointing the finger at each other, and I'm caught in the middle with the bill to pay, or my credit will be ruined."
Other victims of the scam had the same experience.
"I got a call from AT&T's fraud division after Christmas, asking me to check my voicemail message," said Mary Runyon, a Texas-based photographer. "To my alarm, my outgoing message had been replaced with a message from some man with a thick accent saying 'yes uh uh ... yes ... uh uh ... sure.'"
Runyon said that she was billed $7,256.34 for two calls; AT&T offered a 30 percent discount. When she refused, her account was turned over to a collection agency.
"In the process of fighting this, I spoke to numerous people at AT&T and SBC. Not one sounded surprised when I told them about this scam," Runyon said. "I got the distinct impression that this scam is widespread and new victims are being exploited daily."
AT&T's Diamond said the scam is not being widely perpetrated.
"These are isolated incidents, and we do all we can to ensure the safety of our customers and our network. However, in these instances, there is no question that the customer is in the best position to ensure the security of their voicemail systems."
SBC said in a statement that the company includes a written warning to all new customers advising them to change their default passwords immediately.
Runyon and Hatcher acknowledge that they didn't change their default passwords. Both said they later discovered that the warning was included in a large package of information that appeared to reiterate the conversation they'd had with a sales rep when they set up their accounts.
"I did not change my password because I was not expressly advised to do so," Hatcher said. "I hold both companies responsible for not going to adequate measures to alert their consumers to a very expensive problem so that we could at least try to protect ourselves from its occurrence."
SBC's written warning isn't enough, agreed Linda Sherry, executive director of the San Francisco organization, Consumer Action. The company should have issued random default passwords that are not easily guessed, as it now does for new business accounts.
Sherry also slammed AT&T for its automated system.
"That AT&T would permit third-party phone charges based only on the authority of a recorded message is beyond belief," Sherry fumed. "Third-party billing should be allowed only when a real person answers the phone and is able to verify that they approve the charges."
Diamond said AT&T has no plans to change the automated system, "which has proven to be extremely reliable for many, many years."
MCI uses an automated system similar to AT&T's. Sprint uses live operators to process collect calls.
Consumer Action is asking AT&T and SBC to reimburse the scam victims.
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Government Executive
April 16, 2003
Air Force officials aim to improve battle information flow
By Molly M. Peterson, National Journal's Technology Daily
Air Force officials are working to create a common infrastructure that would give warfighters real-time access to secure, reliable information and enable them to put "a cursor over a target" and let "the computers go to work," the branch's chief information officer said on Wednesday.
"Today, that's not exactly what we have in the Air Force," John Gilligan said during an E-Gov conference. "It's very difficult, at times, to get a seamless connectivity to our airborne platforms."
The service is improving its ability to integrate its systems so that information can flow seamlessly among commanders, warfighters, and manned and unmanned ground, airborne and space assets, according to Gilligan.
"We're making some progress, but all too frequently, what we have are multiple formats, we have redundant information, we have many official sources," Gilligan said. "One of the things that makes it very difficult to implement this 'cursor on the target' [concept] is that the computers don't quite know which source should be relied upon."
Gilligan recalled that after President Bush ordered the first military strike against Iraq last month, it took almost two hours for U.S. and coalition forces to launch the attack. He said it was "amazing" that the troops had managed to plan their flight routes, identify target characteristics and "aim points," and do other complex tasks within that two-hour time frame.
But he said Air Force officials are developing an automated system of "knowledge management" tools that eventually will enable warfighters to accomplish such tasks "literally in seconds."
"The computers ought to go out and look in the historical databases [and] the intelligence reports that we have related to this potential target," Gilligan said. "What were the previous identifications? Are there any potential collateral damage issues that need to be worried about? What are the strike platforms that might be available, already flying in the air? What are the [recommended] weapons? What are the rules of engagement?"
In order to implement those sophisticated capabilities, the first Air Force must improve its information management, according to Gilligan.
"Collaboration is something that happens all too frequently in an ad-hoc fashion, but we're getting a lot better," he said. He added that portal technologies, document repositories, "groupware" and other common components of a Web-based infrastructure have emerged as "core tools" in the Air Force's efforts to better manage its information.
"We're looking for common formats and tools, standardized capabilities," Gilligan said. "We want to be able to have users log on once to the enterprise and be able to get access to any information or any services that are available without having to [use] separate user IDs and passwords."
Gilligan said the Air Force also must develop an "information stewardship" system to ensure that individuals do their part to deliver the right information to the right person at the right time. "This is a non-technical challenge for us, but it is probably one of our most difficult," he said. "Increasingly, [information] is being made available, but there's no sense of accountability."
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Washington Post
E-Government Plan Short on Cash
By Robert MacMillan
Thursday, April 17, 2003; 3:45 PM
An "e-government" program to make the federal government more citizen-friendly is $40 million short of its intended budget, potentially hurting White House efforts to bolster public access to important information and services, experts said.
The Bush administration's E-Government Strategy, unveiled today, is aimed at helping federal agencies communicate better so they can make government regulations, services and other kinds of information more available to the public.
The White House requested $45 million to put the program in action this year, but Congress cut that amount to $5 million. President Bush has asked Congress to spend $345 million for the program over four years.
Mark Forman, head of the e-government office at the White House Office of Management and Budget, today acknowledged that the shortfall is an obstacle, but said that the government still must carry out the plan.
"Does it mean we can't do these initiatives? We have to. Our workaround is basically to tighten up on the financing strategy," he said.
Elena Larsen of the Pew Internet and American Life Project said the e-government office's budget is too little money to make a big difference at first.
"Five million dollars is a drop in the bucket in many federal budgets. It doesn't cover any staff members, it doesn't cover a whole lot of technology needs, and I would imagine that their progress toward their goal of seamless [government] would be greatly slowed by having their budget cut to 1/9th of what they had originally asked for," she said.
House Government Reform Committee spokesman David Marin was more blunt. "Five million [dollars] doesn't get the job done," he said.
Forman said today that the White House wants to restore the amount it originally requested for e-government spending this year.
Ari Schwartz, associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said that cutting e-government funding will cost the government more money in the long run.
"It's always easier to cut a new program than an existing program," Schwartz said. "These are projects that would save money in other areas."
The Bush administration's e-government plan includes dozens of other goals besides increased information sharing, such as modernizing government technology and insuring that computer networks are safe from online attacks.
The government already has built several online resources to improve public accessibility, including Web sites like egov.gov, regulations.gov, volunteer.gov, the IRS Free File system and businesslaw.gov.
A General Accounting Office report released last November said that federal agencies need to do more to help the fulfill the e-government mission of focusing on citizens.
Only 8 percent of the American population is familiar with the term "e-government," according to a study released this week by the Council for Excellence in Government.
Half of the American population has used a federal, state or local government Web site to get information or conduct transactions, the study showed. About 52 percent of Americans are concerned about how the government will use their personal data, the study also found, noting that only 29 percent of Americans polled gave their personal data to a government Web site, compared to 70 percent who gave such data to a commercial Web site.
The report also found that 61 percent of Americans are interested in using the Internet to renew their drivers' licenses, but that 54 percent oppose online voting.
*******************************
Washington Post
Security Agency Selects Privacy Watchdog
By Jonathan Krim
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 17, 2003; Page A04
A former privacy official for a controversial Internet advertising firm was named yesterday as chief privacy officer of the Department of Homeland Security, the government's most significant position at the center of the debate over how to balance individual privacy with expanded anti-terrorism efforts.
Nuala O'Connor Kelly, a 34-year-old lawyer, will review whether the department's collection and use of personal information about U.S. citizens is legal and appropriate. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the government is stepping up surveillance of several activities, including computer communications and financial transactions. The government is also proposing to create large integrated databases of personal data with which to better track suspected terrorists.
"There's conventional wisdom that privacy and security are antithetical," said Kelly, who is now chief counsel to the Technology Administration at the Commerce Department. "I think that's not true."
Privacy advocates have harshly criticized the Bush administration's domestic security efforts as eroding civil liberties without increasing safety, and yesterday they were wary in their assessment of Kelly's appointment.
In February 2000, Kelly went to work for Internet advertising giant DoubleClick Inc., a company that earlier had infuriated some computer users when it was revealed that the company planned to capture information identifying individuals who viewed particular ads.
The firestorm, and threatened legal action by the Federal Trade Commission, led DoubleClick to backtrack and hire a team of people, including Kelly, to develop more stringent privacy policies and compliance procedures.
"She may do an excellent job, but the choice of someone who was doing PR cleanup for one of privacy's greatest monsters may be a bad sign," said Jason Catlett, head of Junkbusters Corp., a privacy and anti-spam organization.
Catlett called Kelly smart, someone who can "talk the talk" of the privacy issue but said he could not tell how much the changes DoubleClick made could be attributed to her.
Marc Rotenberg, head of the Electronic Information Privacy Center, agreed, adding that "the challenges that she confronts as the Department of Homeland Security tries to safeguard privacy are going to be enormous."
Ari Schwartz, associate director for the Center for Democracy and Technology, said it was too soon to say how much influence Kelly will have in protecting privacy rights.
"One of the things we liked" about her time at DoubleClick was that "she worked hard to build relationships with the privacy community and to vet their new policies with these groups," Schwartz said. "There is still some question as to what level of access will she have, and whether she will be able to speak her mind internally and publicly on privacy issues or will she simply be giving the agency line on everything."
Kelly said it was too soon for her to have formed opinions on some of the administration's most controversial security initiatives, including a huge database linking financial and other personal records, and an air travel-screening system that would attempt to assess whether someone making an airline reservation poses a security risk.
The Department of Homeland Security "is charged with securing liberty and lifestyle," she said. "Part of that is protecting privacy."
Kelly brings a unique perspective to questions of individual freedom during times of heightened security threats.
She was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and came to the United States as a 1-year-old. Most of her family is still in Belfast, and she has spent extensive time there.
Before joining DoubleClick, Kelly was a privacy and financial services lawyer. She is a graduate of Princeton University and holds a master's degree in education from Harvard University and a law degree from Georgetown University.
*******************************
Washington Post
Student Barred From Discussing Flaws in Debit Card Technology
By Mark Niesse
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, April 17, 2003; 1:49 PM
ATLANTA Georgia Tech student Billy Hoffman says he was only trying to expose security flaws when he used a screwdriver and a laptop to hack into a campus debit card system that's used by 223 colleges nationwide.
But to the company that makes the system, the 22-year-old computer engineering major is nothing but a common vandal who is bent on telling the world how easy it was to hack in and get free Cokes and laundry service.
Last weekend, just before Hoffman was to tell Atlanta's Interz0ne computer conference how he compromised Tech's BuzzCard system, card-maker Blackboard Inc. got a judge to issue an order barring him from talking about it.
"All I wanted to do is tell everyone, 'Hey, this is a problem, and it needs to be protected,'" Hoffman said. "Everyone was blissfully unaware of how it works. I looked at it and found the emperor has no clothes, and now everyone's mad at me."
Washington-based Blackboard, which reported revenues of $69.2 million in 2002, said it could suffer severe financial losses if Hoffman's methods are spread.
"We took the legal course because what he's presenting and promoting was encouraging illegal behavior," said Blackboard spokesman Michael Stanton. "He was able to tap into the wires, like anyone could do if they took a sledgehammer to an ATM machine."
Although Hoffman wouldn't discuss the specifics of how he hacked into the system because of the restraining order, he had previously published the information on a Web site that is still viewable.
The site discusses ways to hook up a laptop so it can trick a card-operated vending machine into giving free drinks and how to deceive a laundry machine into starting for free. Hoffman also describes other possible ways to exploit the BuzzCard getting into dormitories and sporting events, ordering free food on the student meal plan and getting textbooks for free.
"These flaws don't necessarily just ext curity," Hoffman said.
Blackboard asserts its system is safe unless someone physically breaks into a circuit board or card reading terminal. Hoffman said it's possible for hackers to do the same thing he did with a screwdriver through telephone wires and software.
Georgia Tech wouldn't discuss whether it took disciplinary action against Hoffman for reasons of student privacy. Hoffman said only that he was interviewed by campus police but not arrested.
"It's a blessing and a curse to have that kind of brainpower on campus," said school spokesman Bob Harty. "We worry about it all the time, but I do believe our systems are secure."
Hoffman's lawyer, Pete Wellborn, said the courts must decide whether it's a violation of intellectual property to try and expose security flaws.
"It's sheer folly to claim that the purchaser must blindly use that system, accepting the word of the seller with no means of investigation or confirmation," he said.
Charles Lester, an attorney for Blackboard, said he is concerned Hoffman's hacking could damage the company's business that has taken years to build.
DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Anne Workman issued the temporary restraining order Saturday, which constrains Hoffman and co-defendant Virgil Griffith from discussing information relating to any Blackboard card reader. A hearing on the case was set for May 30.
*******************************
USA Today
Arab Web sites plagued by attacks
DOHA, Qatar (AP) The war in Iraq set off a rash of online vandalism against Arab Web sites, site administrators and security experts say, with dozens of Web sites attacked.
At Islamonline.net, one of the most popular destinations for reports and analysis on Islamic affairs, traffic doubled after U.S. forces invaded Iraq. So did cyberattacks, which reached 250 a day, according to Mutiullah Ta'eb, the site's general coordinator.
Another attack put Arabia.com, a Dubai-based Web site, off line the third day of the war.
It is not clear how many sites have been targeted in the attacks, which typically sought to alter Web pages or bring a site down.
Ta'eb of Doha-based Islamonline said hacking attempts also stepped up after the Sept. 11 attacks.
"It is not fair," says Mariam al-Hajiry, the site's administrator. "But I guess it is all part of the challenge that we have taken upon our shoulders ... to be able to deliver our message."
Islamonline contains information about Islam in English with a moderate and measured tone, and does not express the kind of extreme stances found on militant sites.
Citing security concerns, al-Hajiry would not say what kind of attacks Islamonline has faced.
The most high-profile Arab Web site targeted by hackers is that of satellite news channel Al-Jazeera.
The channel, an unusually outspoken voice in the Arab world, based in Doha, drew intense criticism after it carried Iraqi TV footage of dead and captive U.S. soldiers that U.S. networks declined to air.
Soon after, the site's English and Arabic pages were replaced by pro-American hackers who called themselves the "Freedom Cyber Force Militia."
Similarly, pro-Islamic hackers have defaced some U.S. and British Web sites and flooded some with anti-war graffiti.
"Indeed, this has been happening a lot lately," said Mikko Hypponen, manager of the antivirus research department at the Helsinki-based security firm F-Secure.
"Of course, all this activity is unofficial and is not done by the real state-sponsored network warfare units but by independent groups and lone hackers," Hypponen said.
Experts say the importance of the phenomenon should not be overstated. Though it threatens surfers' ability to communicate and gather information freely, it is not real war.
"If cyberwarfare was truly effective it would be likely that we would see terrorist groups and nation states using the Internet for warfare rather than using troops and missiles," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security firm Sophos near Boston.
Hackers deface hundreds of Web sites every day, mostly without political messages, and the percentage of attacks related to the war is apparently small.
With most Arab media controlled by their governments, the Internet gives Arabs access to an unusually broad range of views. However, only 1.7% of the Arab world, or 7.4 million people, had Internet access late last year, according to the Madar Research Group of the United Arab Emirates.
*******************************
USA Today
Battlefield Internet helps Army's 4th Division pierce fog of war
NORTH OF BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) A computer system that tracks friendly and enemy forces and pinpoints hazards like minefields on video game-like touch screens got its first use in battle. Commanders are hoping it can cut down on friendly fire deaths.
The Army's Texas-based 4th Infantry Division is guided by a sophisticated computer network. It tracked the division's 1st Brigade during a skirmish Wednesday for the Taji air base north of Baghdad.
The computer network is known as Force 21 Battle Command Brigade and Below, and works as a battlefield Internet that keeps track of fast-moving combat vehicles.
The system's global positioning satellite navigation system also warns whenever a vehicle strays from its planned path.
Proponents say such systems could prevent tragedies like the March 23 ambush deaths of nine soldiers from the 507th Maintenance Company after their convoy took a wrong turn in southern Iraq.
The network "provides a level of situational awareness that is second to none," said 1st Brigade commander Col. Don Campbell.
Campbell and his staff used the battlefield networking system Wednesday to direct his troops represented by blue icons toward the positions of "red" Iraqi paramilitaries identified by spotters in helicopters.
Soldiers of 1st Brigade took control of the Taji base, killing four combatants and taking at least two dozen prisoners. There were no American casualties.
Using the system to pinpoint exact vehicle positions also can prevent friendly fire deaths.
On the system's networked screens, blue icons denote friendly forces and are constantly updated. Red icons show the enemy, which are added as they're spotted. The 4th Infantry also has unmanned aircraft that can handle surveillance tasks.
Hazards like minefields, areas where poison gas has been reported or other pitfalls can be added so units can steer clear.
By touching a screen icon, anyone from a commander in the rear to a tank crewman can get specific data about a vehicle what it is, how fast it is moving and in which direction. If a vehicle is captured, the system has a self-destruct mechanism that can be triggered remotely.
Another touch allows soldiers to send text messages between vehicles or back to the command post, cutting down on radio chatter.
Maj. Mike Silverman, operations officer for the 1st Brigade, said that saves time to use voice communications for more detailed reports.
For Chief Warrant Officer II John Hanks, a maintenance technician for the 4th Battalion, 42nd Field Artillery, the text messaging means troops can send quick assessments of problems without miscommunication through radio garble.
"The faster the vehicles can get to me saying, 'We need a part,' the faster I can come up with it and get them back into the fight," Hanks said.
Developed by Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman, the computers were first fielded in 1995, said Mike Iacobacci, a Northrop technician traveling with the 1st Brigade.
The FBCB2 system transmits by bouncing data from vehicle to vehicle until it hits the brigade or division command centers. This "mesh network" lets the 4th Infantry update its positions faster than the rest of the Army, which must cope with the five-minute delay inherent in its satellite communications systems.
Younger soldiers, many of them raised on video games, quickly learn how to use the system, Iacobacci said.
"Some of these kids grew up on Nintendo and PlayStations, so once they get on it's easy," he said.
The 4th, which is based in Fort Hood, Texas, is considered the Army's most lethal heavy division. It boasts the latest tanks, troop carriers and Apache attack helicopters. But it missed out on nearly all the fighting in Iraq after Turkey refused to let the United States use that country as a staging ground.
Wednesday's skirmish was the first combat the division has seen since the Vietnam War.
*******************************
USA Today
Wi-Fi could let Iraq skip steps to leap into broadband
By Michelle Kessler, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO When Iraq is rebuilt, an emerging wireless Internet technology may let it avoid the broadband woes that have plagued the USA for years.
Wi-Fi, a young technology backed by the likes of Intel and Microsoft, sends Web pages and phone calls via radio waves. That avoids the expense of cables, which has partly held up the spread of broadband, or high-speed Internet, service in the USA.
By using Wi-Fi, parts of Iraq could skip the build-out of traditional phone and cable networks altogether. The situation is similar to how cell phone technology enabled huge swaths of the Third World to avoid regular land-line phone systems. Wi-Fi equipment makers such as Cisco Systems, Proxim and Nomadix are talking to government agencies and non-profits about possibilities for Wi-Fi in Iraq. Humanitarian groups evaluating it include Oxfam International and CARE. Wi-Fi could "lower our overhead and increase our capability to do our jobs," says Bob MacPherson, a director with CARE.
A high-profile role in Iraq would give an added boost to Wi-Fi, already taking off in other parts of the world. Research firm Gartner expects there to be more than 24,000 public Wi-Fi access points worldwide by year's end. An access point is where users can go to get on a network. Starbucks, for example, is installing Wi-Fi networks in many of its stores.
While contracts to rebuild Iraq's telecom networks are still being discussed, Wi-Fi has already been proved in remote places such as:
Bhutan. Wi-Fi connects two villages, one high in the mountains, one in the flatlands. Bhutan's phone company sponsored the system to bring inexpensive phone service to the villages. It enables Internet service, too. "We were checking our e-mail from little shacks way out in the boonies with no power," says Clif Cox, a Eugene, Ore., Wi-Fi enthusiast who worked on the project.
Mount Everest. Yaks carried Wi-Fi gear to the Mount Everest base camp at 17,000 feet, where a cybercafe opened this month. Climbers and support teams use it for e-mail and phone calls.
Indonesia. Several companies are installing Wi-Fi kiosks in villages on remote islands. India and Ireland, too, are testing Wi-Fi for rural areas.
Native American reservations. Eighteen reservations in California's San Diego County use Wi-Fi and related technologies to bring fast Internet access to schools and police stations. The programs are sponsored by the University of California at San Diego and Hewlett-Packard.
Wi-Fi is also being evaluated by the U.S. military. However, security is an issue. Also, signals can interfere with one another or other electronic devices. And obstacles such as trees or buildings can block Wi-Fi signals.
*******************************
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ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 485
Date: April 21, 2003
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Top Stories for Monday, April 21, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html
"Cracking the Productivity Paradox"
"Once-Dashing Chip Turns Out to Be Just A Face in the Crowd"
"The Paradox of Privacy"
"What's Holding Broadband Back?"
"Minority Women Perceive IT as Way to Promised Land"
"Modern Organizations Adapt and Respond in the Information Age"
"Light Bulbs Being Replaced by Microchips"
"NeXT Still Stands Out in Its Mac Incarnation"
"Distributed Computers Power New Search Engine"
"Perception May be Nano's Biggest Enemy, Leaders Tell Congress"
"NASA Hopes to Improve Computers With Tiny Carbon Tubes on Silicon Chips"
"Edges of Magnetic Tape Key to Boosting Data Density"
"Technology of Many"
"Can Your PC Become Neurotic?"
"Mission Impossible?"
"The Observant Computer"
"Trends Shaping the Future: Technology Trends"
"Computer Science Prize to Honor 3 Forerunners of Internet Security"
******************* News Stories ***********************
"Cracking the Productivity Paradox"
Although major IT players are convinced that IT boosts
productivity, evaluating IT-based productivity improvement is
difficult due to a lack of an accepted system of measurement.
Cisco Systems, Intel, Xerox, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft are ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item1
"Once-Dashing Chip Turns Out to Be Just A Face in the Crowd"
The popularity of custom-designed application specific integrated
circuits (ASICs) has waned in the last two years due to factors
unrelated to the economic recession. The growing complexity of
computer chips, as dictated by Moore's Law, has stifled hopes of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item2
"The Paradox of Privacy"
Faster processors, more abundant data storage, and better
database technology all mean that those interested--governments,
companies, and other people--have easier access to personal data.
Personal vendettas now can often result in enemies' personal ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item3
"What's Holding Broadband Back?"
IT and telecommunications executives gathered at the FCC's
Technological Advisory Council on Thursday discussed issues
holding back broadband adoption. Attendees cited a lack of
compelling content, the price of new infrastructure, and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item4
"Minority Women Perceive IT as Way to Promised Land"
Penn State researcher Dr. Lynette Kvasny says women in differing
income brackets have markedly disparate views of IT: Minority
women in low-income communities believe IT can be a ticket to
upward mobility, while middle-class, predominantly white women ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item5
"Modern Organizations Adapt and Respond in the Information Age"
Two of the eight projects that the National Science Foundation
(NSF) is funding under the Management of Knowledge-Intensive
Dynamic Systems (MKIDS) program are being overseen by Carnegie
Mellon University's Kathleen Carley and Stanford University's Ray ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item6
"Light Bulbs Being Replaced by Microchips"
Experts believe that light-emitting diodes (LEDs) will eventually
outdate conventional lighting technologies--lightbulbs,
fluorescent lamps, neon tubes, etc.--and revolutionize lighting
applications. "We are not talking about replacing lightbulbs," ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item7
"NeXT Still Stands Out in Its Mac Incarnation"
NeXT technology has risen from the ashes as the cornerstone of
Apple Computer's OS X operating system, writes Dan Gillmor. He
characterizes NeXT as ahead of its time when it was launched
about 10 years ago, and lists stability and a coherent graphical ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item8
"Distributed Computers Power New Search Engine"
LookSmart's Grub distributing computer project is cataloging vast
numbers of existing Web pages in the hopes of building an
expansive, constantly updated search engine that may one day
compete with Google. As with other distributed computing ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item9
"Perception May be Nano's Biggest Enemy, Leaders Tell Congress"
Lawmakers and leading figures from industry and research convened
to discuss the potential environmental, ethical, and societal
ramifications of nanotechnology before the House Science
Committee on Wednesday prior to its vote on the Nanotechnology ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item10
"NASA Hopes to Improve Computers With Tiny Carbon Tubes on Silicon Chips"
Scientists at the NASA Ames Research Center think they could
extend Moore's Law thanks to a manufacturing breakthrough that
allows copper interconnects on silicon chips to be replaced by
carbon nanotubes. Meyya Meyyappan, director of Ames' Center for ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item11
"Edges of Magnetic Tape Key to Boosting Data Density"
A nine-month study conducted by Ohio State University engineers
concludes that the data density of magnetic tape is significantly
affected by a key manufacturing process. Ohio State professor
Bharat Bhushan and graduate student Anton Goldade report in the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item12
"Technology of Many"
Amorphous computing is what lies beyond today's distributed
computing efforts, including Web services, grid computing, and
peer-to-peer technology. Amorphous computing, also dubbed swarm
computing, relies on multitudes of relatively weak nodes that are ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item13
"Can Your PC Become Neurotic?"
Neurotic computers may seem like the stuff of science fiction,
but intelligent, autonomous machines will be able to design and
retool their programs in response to changing environments and
situations. In his book, "Digital Soul: Intelligent Machines and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item14
"Mission Impossible?"
Revelations that 9-11 could perhaps have been averted if the
FBI's information resources and infrastructure were better
organized has prompted Bureau director Robert S. Mueller III to
institute a widescale effort to modernize the agency's computer ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item15
"The Observant Computer"
Alex Waibel, director of Carnegie Mellon University's Interactive
Systems Laboratories, is trying to eliminate forced interaction
between humans and machines by developing an observant computer
that can study human behavior and deduce how to serve people ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item16
"Trends Shaping the Future: Technology Trends"
Technology's increasing influence on the economy and society will
have a wide array of benefits over the next 20 years, including
minimization of industrial pollution, new jobs and business
opportunities, and greater profitability balanced by lower prices ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item17
"Computer Science Prize to Honor 3 Forerunners of Internet Security"
ACM plans to announce that Ronald L. Rivest, Adi Shamir,
and Leonard M. Adleman will receive the 2002 A. M. Turing Award
for their development work in public-key cryptography. The award,
which carries a $100,000 prize financed by the Intel Corporation, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item18
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NT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">ACM TechNews</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Volume 5, Number =
485</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Date: April 21, =
2003</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">- - - - - - - - - - - - - =
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - =
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FACE=3D"Arial">> )</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"> =
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<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Top Stories for Monday, =
April 21, 2003:</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html</A><=
/FONT></U></P>
<BR>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Cracking the =
Productivity Paradox"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Once-Dashing Chip =
Turns Out to Be Just A Face in the Crowd"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"The Paradox of =
Privacy"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"What's Holding =
Broadband Back?"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Minority Women =
Perceive IT as Way to Promised Land"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Modern =
Organizations Adapt and Respond in the Information Age"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Light Bulbs Being =
Replaced by Microchips"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"NeXT Still Stands =
Out in Its Mac Incarnation"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Distributed =
Computers Power New Search Engine"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Perception May be =
Nano's Biggest Enemy, Leaders Tell Congress"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"NASA Hopes to =
Improve Computers With Tiny Carbon Tubes on Silicon =
Chips"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Edges of Magnetic =
Tape Key to Boosting Data Density"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Technology of =
Many"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Can Your PC Become =
Neurotic?"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Mission =
Impossible?"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"The Observant =
Computer"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Trends Shaping the =
Future: Technology Trends"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Computer Science =
Prize to Honor 3 Forerunners of Internet Security"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">******************* News =
Stories ***********************</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Cracking the =
Productivity Paradox"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Although major IT players =
are convinced that IT boosts</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">productivity, evaluating =
IT-based productivity improvement is</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">difficult due to a lack =
of an accepted system of measurement. </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Cisco Systems, Intel, =
Xerox, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft are ...</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item1"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html=
#item1</A></FONT></U></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Once-Dashing Chip =
Turns Out to Be Just A Face in the Crowd"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">The popularity of =
custom-designed application specific integrated</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">circuits (ASICs) has =
waned in the last two years due to factors</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">unrelated to the economic =
recession. The growing complexity of</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">computer chips, as =
dictated by Moore's Law, has stifled hopes of ...</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item2"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html=
#item2</A></FONT></U></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"The Paradox of =
Privacy"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Faster processors, more =
abundant data storage, and better</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">database technology all =
mean that those interested--governments,</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">companies, and other =
people--have easier access to personal data.</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Personal vendettas now =
can often result in enemies' personal ...</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item3"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html=
#item3</A></FONT></U></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"What's Holding =
Broadband Back?"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">IT and telecommunications =
executives gathered at the FCC's</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Technological Advisory =
Council on Thursday discussed issues</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">holding back broadband =
adoption. Attendees cited a lack of</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">compelling content, the =
price of new infrastructure, and ...</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item4"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html=
#item4</A></FONT></U></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Minority Women =
Perceive IT as Way to Promised Land"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Penn State researcher Dr. =
Lynette Kvasny says women in differing</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">income brackets have =
markedly disparate views of IT: Minority</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">women in low-income =
communities believe IT can be a ticket to</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">upward mobility, while =
middle-class, predominantly white women ...</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item5"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html=
#item5</A></FONT></U></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Modern =
Organizations Adapt and Respond in the Information Age"<BR>
Two of the eight projects that the National Science =
Foundation</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">(NSF) is funding under =
the Management of Knowledge-Intensive</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Dynamic Systems (MKIDS) =
program are being overseen by Carnegie</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Mellon University's =
Kathleen Carley and Stanford University's Ray ...</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item6"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html=
#item6</A></FONT></U></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Light Bulbs Being =
Replaced by Microchips"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Experts believe that =
light-emitting diodes (LEDs) will eventually</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">outdate conventional =
lighting technologies--lightbulbs,</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">fluorescent lamps, neon =
tubes, etc.--and revolutionize lighting</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">applications. =
"We are not talking about replacing lightbulbs," =
...</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item7"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html=
#item7</A></FONT></U></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"NeXT Still Stands =
Out in Its Mac Incarnation"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">NeXT technology has risen =
from the ashes as the cornerstone of</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Apple Computer's OS X =
operating system, writes Dan Gillmor. He</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">characterizes NeXT as =
ahead of its time when it was launched</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">about 10 years ago, and =
lists stability and a coherent graphical ...</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item8"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html=
#item8</A></FONT></U></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Distributed =
Computers Power New Search Engine"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">LookSmart's Grub =
distributing computer project is cataloging vast</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">numbers of existing Web =
pages in the hopes of building an</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">expansive, constantly =
updated search engine that may one day</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">compete with =
Google. As with other distributed computing ...</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item9"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html=
#item9</A></FONT></U></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Perception May be =
Nano's Biggest Enemy, Leaders Tell Congress"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Lawmakers and leading =
figures from industry and research convened</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">to discuss the potential =
environmental, ethical, and societal</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">ramifications of =
nanotechnology before the House Science</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Committee on Wednesday =
prior to its vote on the Nanotechnology ...</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item10"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html=
#item10</A></FONT></U></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"NASA Hopes to =
Improve Computers With Tiny Carbon Tubes on Silicon =
Chips"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Scientists at the NASA =
Ames Research Center think they could</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">extend Moore's Law thanks =
to a manufacturing breakthrough that</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">allows copper =
interconnects on silicon chips to be replaced by</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">carbon nanotubes. =
Meyya Meyyappan, director of Ames' Center for ...</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item11"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html=
#item11</A></FONT></U></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Edges of Magnetic =
Tape Key to Boosting Data Density"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">A nine-month study =
conducted by Ohio State University engineers</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">concludes that the data =
density of magnetic tape is significantly</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">affected by a key =
manufacturing process. Ohio State professor</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Bharat Bhushan and =
graduate student Anton Goldade report in the ...</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item12"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html=
#item12</A></FONT></U></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Technology of =
Many"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Amorphous computing is =
what lies beyond today's distributed</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">computing efforts, =
including Web services, grid computing, and</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">peer-to-peer =
technology. Amorphous computing, also dubbed swarm</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">computing, relies on =
multitudes of relatively weak nodes that are ...</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item13"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html=
#item13</A></FONT></U></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Can Your PC Become =
Neurotic?"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Neurotic computers may =
seem like the stuff of science fiction,</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">but intelligent, =
autonomous machines will be able to design and</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">retool their programs in =
response to changing environments and</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">situations. In his =
book, "Digital Soul: Intelligent Machines and ...</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item14"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html=
#item14</A></FONT></U></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Mission =
Impossible?"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Revelations that 9-11 =
could perhaps have been averted if the</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">FBI's information =
resources and infrastructure were better</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">organized has prompted =
Bureau director Robert S. Mueller III to</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">institute a widescale =
effort to modernize the agency's computer ...</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item15"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html=
#item15</A></FONT></U></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"The Observant =
Computer"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Alex Waibel, director of =
Carnegie Mellon University's Interactive</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Systems Laboratories, is =
trying to eliminate forced interaction</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">between humans and =
machines by developing an observant computer</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">that can study human =
behavior and deduce how to serve people ...</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item16"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html=
#item16</A></FONT></U></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Trends Shaping the =
Future: Technology Trends"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">Technology's increasing =
influence on the economy and society will</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">have a wide array of =
benefits over the next 20 years, including</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">minimization of =
industrial pollution, new jobs and business</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">opportunities, and =
greater profitability balanced by lower prices ...</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><U><FONT COLOR=3D"#0000FF" SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial"><A =
HREF=3D"http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html#item17"; =
TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0421m.html=
#item17</A></FONT></U></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">"Computer Science =
Prize to Honor 3 Forerunners of Internet Security"</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">ACM plans to announce =
that Ronald L. Rivest, Adi Shamir, </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">and Leonard M. Adleman =
will receive the 2002 A. M. Turing Award</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">for their development =
work in public-key cryptography. The award,</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=3DLEFT><FONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3D"Arial">which carries a $100,000 =
prize financed by the Intel Corporation, ...</FONT></P>
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#item18</A></FONT></U></P>
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