Clips May 15, 2003

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips May 15, 2003

ARTICLES

Hollywood Fights DVD-Copying Software
Real Estate Web Site Sues State Over Licensing Requirements
MCI to Begin Rebuilding of Iraqi Phones 
Number Portability Pits Cell-Phone Users vs. Industry 
How Microsoft Warded Off Rival
Feds To Refocus on Cybersecurity
Viet Dinh Leaving the Justice Department 
GSA's Self to retire in July 
Man Charged With Fraud in Spam Case
Paris Becoming World Wireless Leader 
FDA proposes food-tracking regs
HHS monitors mock attacks
HSD outlines cybersecurity plans 


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Washington Post
Hollywood Fights DVD-Copying Software 
By Ted Bridis
AP Technology Writer
Thursday, May 15, 2003; 1:44 AM 


WASHINGTON  Brian Martin, a computer consultant in Maryland, is careful when he handles the plastic discs in his DVD library of more than 200 movies. But accidents  and scratches  still happen.

"The worst thing is, one little scratch is enough to make the movie skip forward a chapter," says Martin, who estimates his collection at more than $3,000. "That's become really annoying with a few of mine."

An increasingly popular class of software lets consumers make duplicate DVDs as backups by copying movies onto inexpensive blank discs using their home computers. With two mouse clicks, one such package creates a near-perfect copy of a two-hour feature in as little as 20 minutes.

But movie buffs who want to make backups of their treasured DVD libraries are running into a formidable enemy: Hollywood, where studio executives worried about convenient, widespread movie piracy are about as nervous as Abbott and Costello in the mummy's tomb.

Painfully aware of technology's impact on the music industry, movie-makers are headed to court Thursday to persuade U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco to declare the distribution of such software illegal under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The legal battle, which focuses on software products sold by 321 Studios Inc. of Chesterfield, Mo., is emerging as one of the most significant technology debates in years. Congress, which once appeared inclined to intervene, is sitting out until the courtroom fight gets resolved.

The powerful Motion Picture Association of America argues that this type of software circumvents the anti-copying digital "locks" that studios employ on DVDs, which would be illegal under the 1998 copyright law. There are typically no such locks on music CDs.

The MPAA maintains that consumers aren't permitted to make personal backups of DVDs, saying a movie buff whose disc becomes scratched needs to buy a new one.

Consumers-rights organizations and some technology groups contend that copying software doesn't unlawfully help users violate copyrights, because consumers should be allowed under "fair use" copyright provisions to make backups of DVDs they've already purchased.

"The future of our company is at stake. The future of consumers' expectations and what they perceive to be their rights are in question," says Robert Moore, the head of 321 Studios, which sells its copying software for $99. "This case represents something very significant; it could set the standard."

The latest software product from Moore's company, called "DVD Xpress," is enough to cause fits for studio executives. Unlike similar programs that can take hours to make copies and span most Hollywood movies across two blank discs, Xpress can squeeze a near-perfect copy onto a single disc in as little as 20 minutes.

"If I own the DVD and make a copy for my own personal use, there should be no problem with that," said Martin of Laurel, Md., who doesn't use 321's software but has followed the technology debate. "They're being a little overzealous in stopping me from protecting my assets."

In a minor concession to Hollywood, 321's software adds to each blank disc a warning about copyright laws and refuses to make further copies from a duplicate disc. But experts note that other copying software, freely available on the Internet, doesn't include such concessions and can make third- and fourth-generation copies just as perfectly.

"It's almost to the point of a one-click operation, where even the average Joe can make a DVD backup," says Adam Sleight of San Diego, who runs the popular www.mrbass.org Web site with instructions on copying DVD movies.

Sleight says he's copied hundreds of DVD movies onto blank discs, including many Disney films for his two children. One advantage of his efforts: When Sleight makes copies, he eliminates five to 10 minutes of previews and advertisements that typically precede his children's movies.

Sleight acknowledges that "probably the majority of people" use such software to make illegal duplicates  such as copies of DVD rentals or movies borrowed from friends.

"That is probably what happens a lot of the time, but I think the movie studios should prioritize," Sleight said. "They should target the people in China and the street vendors who sell them at a profit. The true thieves are the people who make a profit off them."
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Los Angeles Times
Real Estate Web Site Sues State Over Licensing Requirements
By Jesus Sanchez
Times Staff Writer

May 15, 2003

A real estate Web site that has been ordered by state regulators to obtain a broker license sued the state Wednesday, claiming the licensing requirements are vague and unconstitutional.

New York-based ForSaleByOwner.com Corp.  which caters to home sellers working without a licensed broker  and an affiliate in Sacramento say they do not engage in buying and selling real estate, an activity that would require a state license. 

Instead, the company says the online for-sale ads that it carries are similar to classified ads that are found in newspapers and on their Internet sites, which are not considered brokerages.

"If California can require Internet advertisers to become licensed real estate brokers, other states can as well," the company's attorney, Steve Simpson, said in a statement. "If all states did so, businesses like ForSaleByOwner.com, which depend on the ability to serve customers in many states, would become extinct."

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Sacramento claims that the state's real estate licensing law is an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech, is an invalid regulation of commercial speech and unfairly discriminates against the plaintiffs based on the type of medium they're using "to disseminate their views and information, or their viewpoints." 

The lawsuit seeks to have portions of California's real estate law declared unconstitutional. 

A spokesman for the state's Department of Real Estate, which regulates and licenses real estate brokers, said officials there had not seen the lawsuit and would not comment on the litigation.
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Washington Post
MCI to Begin Rebuilding of Iraqi Phones 
U.S. Awards Contract For Small Network 
By Christopher Stern
Thursday, May 15, 2003; Page E01 

American telephone giant MCI has been awarded a contract to build a small mobile phone network in Baghdad as the United States takes an initial step to rebuild basic communications in a city ravaged by two wars and 11 years of severe economic sanctions.

A working phone system is largely absent in much of the Iraqi capital, apart from limited grids of wired networks. Many Westerners, including military personnel, aid workers and journalists, have had to rely on satellite phones, which typically do not work indoors. Even before the most recent U.S. bombing, Iraq's telecommunications resources were scarce and unreliable. Analysts estimate that the prewar telephone network was capable of serving only three out of every 1,000 people.

Given the rudimentary state of telecommunications, there is growing impatience in Iraq with the pace of the work to install a new system. Sources at the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance have begun complaining that MCI has fallen behind schedule in getting even a relatively small system of 5,000 to 10,000 phones up and running.

Sources said the Defense Department, which awarded the contract, never specified a completion date but the company had informed the government that it should be able to finish by next month.

MCI spokeswoman Natasha Haubold said the company has been waiting in line to ship the necessary equipment to Iraq but given the priority of other humanitarian aid, such as food and clothing, the first delivery of its gear was not completed until last week.

"We are on schedule for implementation in June," Haubold said. 

MCIis a division of WorldCom Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection last year after disclosing a massive accounting scandal. WorldCom expects to emerge from bankruptcy later this year and operate under the name MCI. 

The U.S. government has continued to be the Ashburn-based telecommunications company's biggest customer throughout the current scandal and bankruptcy process. Although it no longer operates a wireless network in the United States, MCI played a role in getting a similar mobile phone network into operation in Afghanistan.

Sources declined to comment on the value of the Baghdad wireless contract.

Initially, telecommunications companies such as Lucent Technologies Inc., Motorola Inc. and Qualcomm Inc. had hoped that the U.S. government would award a far larger contract to rebuild most of Iraq's telecommunications infrastructure. But Bush administration officials earlier this month decided to leave that decision to the incoming Iraqi government. Analysts have estimated that it may cost at least $900 million to put a state-of-the-art telecommunications network in place.

Speculation about a major telecommunications contract began to build in March when Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) attacked the Defense Department's plans even before they were disclosed. 

Issa called on the Pentagon to award the contract to a company that would use a wireless standard developed by Qualcomm, a telecommunications firm based near his Southern California district. Issa then introduced a bill that would have effectively required any company that won the contract to use Qualcomm's Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) standard.

But sources confirmed yesterday that MCI's network would use the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) standard that is more widely used around the world, particularly in countries that neighbor Iraq.

Issa had been particularly critical of GSM because it was developed in Europe by a consortium of countries including some nations, such as France, that had opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq. 

"Obviously, we are disappointed that they didn't use a predominantly U.S. technology," said Issa's chief of staff, Dale Neugebauer.

Neugebauer questioned the wisdom of awarding the contract at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.

"There is tremendous commercial interest in building a cell-phone system in Iraq and very little need for investment by the U.S. government," said Neugebauer.
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Washington Post
Number Portability Pits Cell-Phone Users vs. Industry 
By Yuki Noguchi
Thursday, May 15, 2003; Page E01 


Tom Makmann has a long-distance relationship with his cell-phone number. He's kept the number, with its Boston area code, for six years, even though he's since moved to New Hampshire, California and Virginia. 

In some areas he suffered poor service, but he couldn't dream of changing his cell-phone number -- the only constant he's had amid a series of changing e-mail addresses and home and office numbers.

"I was willing to live with the dropped calls and all that to keep my number," said Makmann, president and chief executive of Network Storage Solutions, a Chantilly-based software company that earlier this month was acquired by California-based IQ Biometrix. 

Now, Makmann is excited about a change in federal regulations that, if implemented as scheduled this fall, would require cell-phone and local phone companies to allow customers in the 100 largest U.S. markets to keep their numbers when they switch carriers, even if it costs a little more.

"I think the carriers are going to have to compete for my business," Makmann said. The rules permit customers to transfer their traditional land-line phone numbers to a cell phone, and phone companies are worried that this could accelerate the so-far modest trend of consumers going all-wireless. It could also mean wireless companies will slash prices even more to win or keep their customers. 

Wireless companies, including Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless, lobbied hard against the Federal Communications Commission's requirement and succeeded in delaying for four years the deadline to make this happen. But industry watchers don't expect them to be able to put it off past the latest, Nov. 24 deadline any longer.

Most of the larger wireless carriers argue that the estimated $1 billion industry-wide cost to revamp systems is money not well spent. The industry argues it is already consumer-friendly (about half of the U.S. population owns a cell phone) and price-competitive (price wars have driven down the cost of a cell-phone call 80 percent in the last eight years). Wireless companies opposed to it still have a wild card: The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, the cellular carriers' Washington-based trade group, challenged the so-called "wireless number portability" requirement in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The CTIA argued that the FCC does not have the authority to issue the requirement. A ruling on that case is expected this summer. 

Separate from its lawsuit, the CTIA filed a petition Tuesday with the FCC asking regulators to establish a standard procedure that all carriers can follow to properly transfer numbers, said Thomas Wheeler, president and chief executive of the CTIA. Current rules aren't clear enough, and that could gum up the transfer of a phone number from a land line to a wireless carrier, he said. 

"If the FCC can't meet the deadline, neither can we," he said, adding that if the FCC does not clarify those issues by Labor Day, the CTIA will seek to delay the November deadline for wireless carriers. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D.-N.Y.) plans to introduce a bill this summer that, among other things, would block any attempt by the wireless industry to put off the rule said Phil Singer, Schumer's spokesman. 

"What the FCC's working for is a smooth and efficient process, so that consumers know what to expect on November 24," said John Muleta, chief of the commission's wireless bureau, which has been working on the issue since 1997. 

Consumers may have to pay an additional monthly fee of about $1 so cell-phone carriers can pay for the infrastructure changes. And not everyone will have wireless portability, although customers in area codes 202, 301, 240, 703 and 571 and parts of 540 will (that covers the District, parts of Maryland and Virginia, and two West Virginia counties). Officials at Reston-based Nextel Communications believe Nextel -- the nation's fifth-largest wireless carrier -- is prepared to meet the deadline, but the company has gripes about the cost and the complexity of altering its systems. Nextel last year started tacking on $1.55 to its consumers' bills to recoup costs of updating its network to meet this and other federal mandates, said Audrey Schaefer, a spokeswoman for Nextel.

"We don't believe a federal mandate is necessary for this. After all, 90 percent of our new customers are coming from other carriers anyway," Schaefer said. "These programs are enormously expensive, and we think customers are best served with our using our resources for other things, like increased network capacity and new applications." 

Chris Murray, a policy expert at Washington-based advocacy group Consumers Union, said 

"From a consumer's perspective, this is the best outcome: lower prices, and better service" because wireless companies will have to compete harder to retain their customers.

Jeremy Grant, for one, can't wait to call his wireless provider to inform it of his defection. He signed up for cell-phone service in 1998 and has loved his number, which spells something memorable. 

"Friends would move away from D.C., but they'd always remember my phone number," said Grant, a director of business development for a technology consulting firm based in Reston. "I'm enthusiastic about the opportunity to change phones. I'd love to call . . . [his current wireless provider] and say, 'Your service is terrible, and I am taking my number with me.' "

Carriers are already preparing strategies to deal with the influx of calls like Grant's, said Brian T. Belforte, senior manager at Acumen Solutions, a Vienna-based telecom consulting firm. 

"It's a paradigm shift in the sense that the biggest barrier to changing carriers is being taken away," he said. Companies are combating this by touting features like camera phones, walkie-talkie options and wireless Internet applications to try to lure customers in, he said. 

Carriers are also trying out more creative pricing plans, like family sharing options, to retain customers. Others are considering locking in customers with longer contracts or slapping on bigger fines if they try to terminate service before the end of the contract terms. 

As consumers consider changing their wired phones to wireless service, carriers can be expected to try to keep them tethered to land lines by bundling caller-identification services, digital-subscriber-line Internet access and wireless options, all in one bill.
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New York Times
May 15, 2003
How Microsoft Warded Off Rival
By THOMAS FULLER
International Herald Tribune

BRUSSELS, May 14  At least 90 percent of the world's personal computers run on Windows software. But Microsoft wanted still more.

Last summer, Orlando Ayala, then in charge of worldwide sales at Microsoft, sent an e-mail message titled Microsoft Confidential to senior managers laying out a company strategy to dissuade governments across the globe from choosing cheaper alternatives to the ubiquitous Windows computer software systems.

Mr. Ayala's message told executives that if a deal involving governments or large institutions looked doomed, they were authorized to draw from a special fund to offer the software at a steep discount or even free if necessary. Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, was sent a copy of the e-mail message.

The memo on protecting sales of Windows and other desktop software mentioned Linux, a still small but emerging software competitor that is not owned by any specific company. "Under NO circumstances lose against Linux," Mr. Ayala wrote.

This memo, as well as other e-mail messages and internal Microsoft documents obtained from a recipient of the Microsoft e-mail, offers a rare glimpse these days into the inner workings of Microsoft, the world's largest software company. They spell out a program of tactics that were carried out in recent years, ranging from steep price discounts to Microsoft employees lying about their identities at trade shows.

The Microsoft campaign against Linux raises questions about how much its aggressive, take-no-prisoners corporate culture has changed, despite having gone through a lengthy, reputation-tarnishing court battle in the United States that resulted in Microsoft's being found to have repeatedly violated antitrust laws.

Perhaps most important, certain discounts may run afoul of European market regulators, who are still investigating accusations that Microsoft abused their antitrust laws.

Discounting is a perfectly normal corporate practice. But under European law, companies that hold a dominant market position like Microsoft are prohibited from offering discounts that are aimed at blocking competitors from the market. Microsoft has been concerned with the legality of its discounts in the past, consulting a London law firm on a specific discount plan in 1998, before it was determined in court that the company had a monopoly in desktop operating systems.

In a telephone interview today, Jean-Philippe Courtois, the chairman of Microsoft's operations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, defended the use of the special fund described in Mr. Ayala's e-mail message, saying it was part of a strategy to be "competitive" and "relevant" in the market for big government and education deals.

"Linux is obviously a key competitor," Mr. Courtois said. Rivals use similar tactics, he said.

Sun Microsystems, for example, "is giving away StarOffice to basically governments and schools," he said. The Sun suite of programs runs on both Windows and Linux operating systems.

Mr. Courtois said that Microsoft sometimes gave software to "very low-income countries." He cited a program where Microsoft donated software in South Africa and helped train teachers to use it.

Mr. Ayala's memo said that the discounts could be offered to "developed and developing countries," and that an "initial focus" was being put on Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, India and China.

In his e-mail message, he focused on governments and large institutions buying mostly desktop software. A separate memo described a discounting program for corporate customers worldwide.

Two days after Mr. Ayala sent his e-mail message, Michael Sinneck, the executive in charge of Microsoft's services department, sent a message giving details of a program to provide corporate clients with discounts on the hourly rates charged by Microsoft's consulting business.

The memo said nearly $180 million had been allocated in the 2003 fiscal year, which ends in June, for this purpose alone. Of that, $140 million was earmarked for consulting services for server software, an area where Microsoft has a growing share of the market but still faces lively competition, particularly from big companies like I.B.M. that are promoting Linux as an alternative to Microsoft Windows.

Servers are the powerful computers used by corporations to store data, manage Web sites and perform other network tasks. The software that runs servers is the subject of one of the two antitrust cases currently open against Microsoft in the European Community. In broad terms, Microsoft is accused of illegally leveraging its overwhelming dominance of the PC software market into the server market.

European antitrust laws are generally stricter than comparable American laws, but the Microsoft practices described in the memos may raise red flags for regulators in the United States as well.

In June 2001, a federal appeals court in Washington ruled that Microsoft had violated antitrust laws by bullying business partners and rivals to thwart any competitive challenge to Windows. Later that year, Microsoft reached a settlement with the Bush administration, agreeing not to use its monopoly power in PC software, including pricing deals and contract terms, to effectively force PC makers to favor Microsoft products over competing offerings.

Among the documents is an e-mail message from an outside lawyer, Bill Allan of the London-based firm Linklaters, to Microsoft that offers a precise interpretation of European Community law on the matter of discounts, including the view that short-term discounting would be more likely to escape scrutiny. The message, from 1998, advised Microsoft that its discounts should not discriminate between clients and that discounts could not be aimed at excluding competitors from the market.

"Discounts are not per se unlawful," Charles Stark, a former antitrust official at the Justice Department and a partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Brussels, said in an interview. "It depends on the market circumstances and how they use them and what their impact is." 

Mr. Stark, who has not seen the documents, pointed out that under European law "pricing behavior can be viewed differently by a dominant firm than by a nondominant firm."

Asked whether the discounting program for server software consulting was legal in Europe, given Microsoft's position, Mr. Courtois, the Microsoft executive, said that consulting was a "break even" business.

"We are not a global services company," he said. "We need to compete against the big guys."

Mr. Courtois cited I.B.M. and Oracle as companies with large consulting businesses.

The Microsoft documents show the preoccupation among top managers with countering the open-source movement, a group of programmers who want the software that runs computers to be offered free of charge. The codes behind open-source software are developed openly by independent teams of programmers, allowing companies to customize their programs and paying for services to make the software perform better. This is in stark contrast to Microsoft, which keeps most of its source code secret  although governments and some corporations are increasingly allowed to view the code.

Linux, the biggest open-source threat to Microsoft, has a tiny share of the market for personal computer software. But Linux was installed in 26 percent of the large data-serving computers sold last year that power corporate networks and the Internet, according to International Data, a market research company. Microsoft's Windows was the operating system on 44 percent of the servers.

The server market is one area where Linux appears to have some momentum. The use of Linux is also being supported by a handful of Microsoft rivals and encouraged by many governments, especially in Europe, as a cheaper and perhaps more secure alternative to Windows software. The French, for example, have a Web site that recommends Linux systems for government departments. 

Mr. Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, once referred to Linux's licensing as "a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches."

In the face of this competition, the Microsoft documents show the significant resources the company devotes  and the unconventional tactics it sometimes uses  to combat Linux.

Chris O'Rourke, a Microsoft employee, described attending LinuxWorld, a trade fair in California, where he "purported to be an independent computer consultant" working with several public school districts, according to an e-mail message he sent on Aug. 20, 2002.

"In general, people bought this without question," Mr. O'Rourke wrote. "Hook, line and sinker."

He said his goal was to glean intelligence about the competition. His guise, Mr. O'Rourke said, "got folks to open up and talk." Mr. O'Rourke did not respond to a fax and voice mail message seeking comment.

Another employee, Todd Brix, said in an e-mail message that he attended a Linux conference in June 2001 in San Jose, Calif., pretending to be an "ambivalent OEM." Original equipment manufacturers, or O.E.M.'s, are companies like Hewlett-Packard and Dell Computer that buy Windows software licenses.

Reached at his office on Tuesday, Mr. Brix said that when attending such a show, "you don't broadcast that you're a Microsoft person."

"You don't disguise that fact," he said. "You just don't lead with your chin."

In his message, Mr. Brix described the technical issues discussed at the show and said the tone of the meeting "was an even mix of Local Union hall teamster gathering, Christian Scientist revival and Amway sales conference."

Of all the Microsoft tactics described in the internal messages, the two discount programs appear to be the most aggressive  and perhaps the most legally questionable.

Mr. Ayala sent his memo at 8:17 a.m. on July 16, 2002. In addition to Mr. Ballmer, the recipients included two Microsoft vice presidents  James Allchin and Jeffrey S. Raikes  along with some of the company's top lawyers and the general managers of Microsoft's operations in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. 

Mr. Ayala wrote that in today's "difficult economic environment" some institutions and companies were focusing on cheaper software."

"It is important," he continued, "that we have a way to address large PC purchases that involve low-cost/no-cost competitors in the education (and government) sectors, especially in emerging markets." 

The solution, he wrote, was to "tip the scales" toward Microsoft in these deals by using the special fund, which he called the Education and Government Incentive Program. 

The fund was to be used "only in deals we would lose otherwise," Mr. Ayala said.

When he wrote the memo, Mr. Ayala was a quite high-level executive at Microsoft, reporting directly to Mr. Ballmer. He was in charge of sales and marketing and responsible for roughly 22,000 of the more than 50,000 Microsoft employees. 

In March, Mr. Ayala was transferred to lead a new division that focuses on small and medium-size companies. This new push is one of Microsoft's top priorities. Mr. Ayala was not available to comment.

In his separate e-mail message, Mr. Sinneck, the Microsoft services executive, wrote that the consulting fund would be used to cover the difference between the "discounted customer rate and the standard services billing rate per hour."

Reached this week, Larry Meadows, marketing manager for Microsoft's services group at company headquarters in Redmond, Wash., said the fund could be used "anywhere it needs to be."

"There's not really a limit to say that you can use it only in certain geographies," Mr. Meadows added.

He said the funds would be used again in the next fiscal year that begins in July.
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Washington Post
Feds To Refocus on Cybersecurity 
By Brian Krebs
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 14, 2003; 6:29 PM 

The Department of Homeland Security soon will establish an office to execute the Bush administration's cybersecurity strategy, a move that may serve to blunt criticism that the agency has not devoted enough resources and attention to Internet security.

Homeland Security officials have not yet named a supervisor to run the office, top homeland security official Robert Liscouski said in an interview today.

The new office, which the department is expected to announce next week, also will coordinate government and business responses to online hacking threats and other forms of cyberattack.

The department has not yet decided how many employees or how much funding it will devote to the new office, said Liscouski, who is in charge of protecting the nation's electronic and physical infrastructures.

The Homeland Security Department includes several other online security divisions, including the National Infrastructure Protection Center and the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office. The new office, however, will take on several new projects, including the development of a cyberattack disaster recovery plan.

Former White House cybersecurity adviser Richard Clarke questioned whether the department's pick to execute the national strategy will rank high enough in the homeland security chain of command to steer the development of cybersecurity policy.

"No matter how good you are, many people are going to treat you based on your rank and how often you can see and talk to the president and other important people," Clarke said in an interview.

Clarke, who left the administration in January, has criticized the administration for failing to appoint a high-level official to focus exclusively on Internet security. His deputy, Howard Schmidt, resigned last month after an unsuccessful bid to get Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to create a high-ranking cybersecurity czar position.

Since then, many critics in the business and private sector have expressed doubt that the administration would take any more high-profile action on cybersecurity, but Liscouski said that the cybersecurity office would show that the Homeland Security Department is serious about protecting the Internet from online hackers and terrorists.

"This (new office) will help put feet to the national strategy," he said.

Greg Garcia, vice president for information security at the Information Technology Association of America said he worries that whoever is picked will lack sufficient power to get cybersecurity treated as a priority issue.

"What's most important is that there be an individual (within the department) who wakes up every morning thinking about how to secure the U.S. information infrastructure, a central figure to whom we in industry can look for coordination and partnership," he said. "If that is what is being envisioned, we would support that, provided this person has the authority, budget and staff to really make an impact."

He added that it will take, "a lot of people putting their heads together to figure out what kinds of programs we can put in place to make the strategy more than just a document produced with great fanfare and tossed aside," Garcia said.
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Associated Press
Viet Dinh Leaving the Justice Department 
Wed May 14, 4:09 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Viet Dinh, a key author of laws increasing government enforcement and surveillance powers after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, is leaving the Justice Department (news - web sites) to return to his university post. 

Dinh, 35, will step down May 31, when his two-year leave of absence from the Georgetown University Law Center expires. 

"Georgetown is my home, and I look forward to coming home," Dinh said. 

Dinh has headed the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy since May 2001 and helped write the USA Patriot Act, which law enforcement officials credit with helping prevent terrorism and arrest terrorists. Civil liberties groups have criticized the law as a broad assault on privacy and constitutional protections. 

"Viet brought a brilliant legal mind, boundless energy and tremendous loyalty to a very difficult job," Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) said Wednesday. "His contributions to the department and to the security of all Americans following Sept. 11 are impossible to measure." 

Dinh also worked in selecting federal judges and getting them confirmed by the Senate. 
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Government Computer News
05/14/03 
GSA's Self to retire in July 
By Jason Miller 

Charlie Self, the man many believe is responsible for bringing the concept of seat management to government, announced today he is retiring after 34 years of government service. Self, the deputy commissioner for the General Services Administration?s Federal Technology Service, will leave July 31. 

?It is about time to retire,? he said. ?I?m looking for some balance in my life. I?m tired of working 10- to 12-hour days. My wife quit this summer, too, and we want to travel more.? 

Self has worked at GSA since 1985 and has been the deputy commissioner for three years. He plans to take some time off to play golf in Ireland and do some other traveling before looking for part-time work in the private sector. 

?There are a lot of opportunities out there for me,? Self said. ?I?m having a hard time figuring out what to do. After spending all these years in government moving up the ladder, I feel like there are many things I could do.? 

Self said his passion has been working to make government function more like private industry. He said he is most proud of his work to offer agencies the use of governmentwide acquisition contracts and in helping to establish the Federal Acquisition Services for Technology program for small businesses. And of course there is seat management, which was Self?s focus for many years. 

?Though it didn?t get where we wanted it to, there would be no NMCI if not for seat management,? Self said. ?Seat also set the stage for performance-based contracting.?
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New York Times
May 15, 2003
Man Charged With Fraud in Spam Case
By SAUL HANSELL

A man was arrested outside his home in Buffalo on Tuesday and charged in state court with forgery and fraud in connection with millions of unsolicited e-mail messages, commonly known as spam, Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney general, said yesterday. 

The man, Howard Carmack, 36, pleaded not guilty and was released yesterday on $20,000 bail. 

Last week, Mr. Carmack was ordered to pay $16.4 million to EarthLink, the Internet provider he used to send the spam, after he did not respond to a civil suit the company had brought in federal court in Atlanta. 

Mr. Carmack was charged with four felony and two misdemeanor counts, the most serious of which carries a prison sentence of three and a half to seven years. Mr. Carmack previously was convicted of forging postal mail orders, a lawyer involved in the case said.

New York State does not have a law specifically against sending spam. Mr. Carmack was charged with forgery because he replaced his own e-mail return address with those of other people, according to the complaint filed by Mr. Spitzer's office. He was also charged under New York's law against identity theft, which took effect last year, based on accusations that he used stolen credit card numbers to sign up for 343 Internet accounts from EarthLink. The company estimates that Mr. Carmack in the last year sent about 825 million e-mail messages that offered software for use by spammers, lists of e-mail addresses and herbal sexual stimulants.

"Spam itself is not illegal," Mr. Spitzer said. "When it involves forged documentation and identity theft, it clearly is illegal."

Earlier this year, the state was granted a permanent injunction ordering MonsterHut.com, an e-mail company in Niagara Falls, not to send fraudulent messages.

EarthLink had spent the better part of a year trying to track down the person it referred to as the "Buffalo spammer." Last year it filed a suit against an unnamed defendant, referred to as John Doe, in order to gather evidence and identify the actual spammer. 

When he was arrested, Mr. Carmack did not have a lawyer. An Erie County public defender, Don Barry, was assigned to assist him. But the judge, Diane Devlin, determined that Mr. Carmack owned his own business and was not entitled to a court-appointed lawyer, Mr. Barry said in a telephone interview yesterday. 

A woman answering Mr. Carmack's telephone yesterday afternoon said he was not home and declined to provide further information. His next court date is Monday.
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Associated Press
Paris Becoming World Wireless Leader 
Wed May 14,10:36 AM ET
By KIM HOUSEGO, Associated Press Writer 

PARIS - Next time you're in the French capital, keep an eye out for the corporate executive in his beloved cafe, smoke curling from his cigarette, steam wafting from his espresso. And his laptop computer connected to corporate headquarters. 


The perfect marriage: cafe society and wireless Internet. 


Paris could soon be among the first cities to offer Internet all across town, allowing e-mailing and Web surfing from the Left Bank to La Defence. 


Two technology firms and the agency that runs Paris' subway have launched a test run that, if successful, could lead to Paris becoming one massive "hot spot." 


In the trial, a dozen antennas were erected last month outside Metro stations lining a major north-south bus route, allowing anyone nearby to go online with a computer equipped to receive the signals. 


Most newly manufactured laptop computers come equipped with built-in WiFi, or wireless (news - web sites) fidelity. The standard allows users to log on to the Internet from within 300 feet or so of a hot spot, an antenna-equipped access point. Older laptops can be upgraded for less than $100. 


In a technology blitz some have compared to the rise of the Internet, tens of thousands of hot spots have been established around the world  in airports, cafes, McDonald's restaurants, hotels, university campuses and other locations. 


Trains and planes are also being equipped, and Verizon Corp. announced a plan Tuesday to pepper New York City with wireless access points for its Internet subscribers, using the wiring from its pay phone network. 


Such urban access would by no means be seamless, given current technological limitations. Nevertheless, a single, continuous network is the eventual goal of the Paris project. 


Paris may seen an odd entrant into the race to extend WiFi, or "weefee", as it is pronounced in French, as it lags behind U.S. and many other European cities in wireless Internet adoption. 


That's certainly not dimming its purveyors' enthusiasm. 


"More than 1,000 people have subscribed, the numbers are growing extremely fast, people are definitely excited," said Jean-Paul Figer, chief technology officer at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, a partner in the project. 


He admits that one obstacle to a seamless network is the current limited range of WiFi antennas. 


"We are working to increase the range so we can get full coverage," Figer said. 


Access is free in the Paris experiment until June 30, with users obliged to first sign up on the Internet. 


Providers of Internet service who have signed up for the project have not yet set fees or indicated how much they might charge. 


Figer said competition between up to a dozen providers, including France's Bouygues Telecom and Club Internet, would probably help push fees down. 

Using a separate, fee-based hot spot in Paris' Gare du Nord, the terminal for high-speed trains to London and Brussels, currently costs $11.50 an hour  discouragingly expensive  particularly given that residential unlimited broadband access costs about $35 a month in the city. 

Paris-wide coverage  for an area inhabited by 2.2 million people  would dramatically change how many businesses operate. 

"The fact that companies can be in touch with their employees in the field at virtually no extra cost across Paris is a major asset," Figer said, citing delivery trucks or real estate agents as examples. 

Figer said he was confident a decision to install antennas  which use the same frequency as most cordless telephones  outside all of Paris' nearly 400 subway stations will be made by the end of the year. 

The Internet providers would pay the partnership that would build the system, which includes Cap Gemini; California-based Cisco Systems, which is supplying the antennas and access points; and the RATP, the Paris Metro operator. 

In the project's favor, much of the infrastructure is already in place  the antennas can be linked through an existing fiber-optics network in the subway tunnels, significantly reducing installation costs, which Figer estimated at less than $11.5 million. Another asset is that the distance between Metro stops is relatively small. 

But there could stumbling block that are not technological, but bureaucratic. 

"We have a lot of issues in Paris because we have to get approval from so many departments and organizations," including City Hall and the Paris heritage council, Figer said. 

Many of Paris' Metro stations are listed monuments.
*******************************
Federal Computer Week
FDA proposes food-tracking regs
BY Sara Michael 
May 14, 2003

The Food and Drug Administration has proposed regulations requiring companies that transport, distribute or import food to establish and maintain records of the transactions.

The regulations, announced May 6, are part of the FDA's plans for a food tracking and identification system, which is intended to speed the response to a food contamination incident. The system, one of several provisions mandated by last year's Bioterrorism Act, would allow officials to know where food has been and where it is going.

The regulations apply to companies that manufacture, pack, process, transport, hold or import food in the United States, as well as to foreign businesses that pack, hold or process food in the United States.

Companies must maintain records on perishable foods for one year and keep all other food records for two years. The regulations also require that these records be made available within four hours of an FDA request during normal business hours, and within 8 hours at night and on weekends.

Companies will have six months from the date the final rule is published to be in compliance with the rules. Small businesses will have 12 months to comply.
*******************************
Federal Computer Week
HHS monitors mock attacks
BY Sara Michael 
May 15, 2003

 From a room laden with communication technologies, the Department of Heath and Human Services is monitoring and responding to the fictitious terrorist attacks this week in Chicago and Seattle.

While first responders and health professionals rushed to the scenes of a mock biological attack and dirty bomb explosion, HHS officials stayed connected from the command center in the department's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The exercise, known as TopOff 2 (Top Officials 2), began May 12 and included the departments of Homeland Security and State working with federal, state, local and Canadian officials. The drill is intended to analyze the response to a terrorist attack.

The command center, which has been up and running since last December, allows officials to trace the numbers of people who have died, the number of available hospital beds, the effects of the attack and the resources deployed. Officials from several federal, state and local agencies, as well as first responders and health officials, are all connected though databases and videoconferencing.

HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson called it "one of the most remarkable command centers in the county. We're open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."

Indeed, the recent drill about possible terrorist attacks is just an expanded version of day-to-day operations at the command center, said Brent Guffey, senior systems engineer at HHS.

"We use [the center] every day. This is just another day for us," he said.

In the sixth-floor room, plasma-screen televisions line the walls, broadcasting TV stations from across the country and around the world. Nearly a dozen screens project maps, data from scenarios, and teleconferences with the officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and officials in Seattle and Chicago.

The command center also allows HHS officials to track diseases, such as the West Nile virus and severe acute respiratory syndrome, and follow storms using weather and mapping capabilities.

"This technology has been extremely effective," Thompson said.
*******************************
Government Computer News
05/15/03 
HSD outlines cybersecurity plans 
By William Jackson 

The Homeland Security Department plans to establish a cybersecurity research and development center that would be a focus for federal and private R&D efforts, undersecretary Charles McQueary told the House Science Committee yesterday. 

McQueary, who heads the department?s Science and Technology Directorate, said the center was one of six IT security initiatives the directorate would undertake this year. Although the bulk of the directorate?s mission will focus on physical security technology, he reassured the committee that IT security would be a significant part of the mission. 

Science Committee chairman Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) called the hearing to look into shortfalls of federal funding for research on IT security. The Cyber Security Research and Development Act of 2002 authorized $903 million over five years for R&D. But fiscal 2003 appropriations and proposed 2004 funding ?are significantly below the authorized levels,? the chairman wrote in the hearing charter. 

He also complained that it is difficult to find out how much federal money is being spent on R&D for IT security. 

Also testifying at the hearing were officials from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, National Science Foundation and National Institute of Standards and Technology. 

NSF director Rita Colwell said her agency, a major funding source for private and academic research, doubled its cybersecurity spending between fiscal 2002 and 2003, to $30 million. Another $11 million is available for the Scholarships for Service program. She said the agency?s cybersecurity portfolio would be consolidated next year. 

?Beginning in fiscal 2004, the entire suite of cyberscurity activities will be managed under one integrated, cross-cutting program called Cyber Trust,? Colwell said. 

Director Tony Tether addressed concerns that DARPA funding for information assurance has dropped drastically. 

?Let me assure you that we have a robust program in information assurance, and we plan to continue this robust program in the coming years,? Tether said. 

He cited one reason for the apparent decline in funding. ?A significant and growing element of DARPA?s work in information assurance is classified and cannot be discussed in this forum,? he said. 

Committee member Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.) questioned the growth of classified work. ?How do you balance the need to protect classified research with the need to utilize key research gains in the private sector,? he asked. 

Other IT security initiatives HSD?s Science and Technology Directorate expects to take part in this year include: 

Supporting the Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center and the CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University in an assessment of insider threats and defense 
Feasibility study for trace-back and geo-location of attack sources 
Developing patch verification technology to improve security patch management 
Development of technologies for detecting covert threats to critical infrastructure 
Feasibility studies for the scalability and technology application of Secure Border Gateway Protocol and Secure Domain Name Services. 
*******************************



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Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber:

Welcome to the May 16, 2003 edition of ACM TechNews,
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ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 496
Date: May 16, 2003

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

"Judge May Ban Copying Software"
"U.S. Moves to Allow Trading of Radio Spectrum Licenses"
"U.S. Still Vulnerable to Cyber Attack"
"Feds Prime New Antispam Weapon"
"To Register Doubts, Press Here"
"Dept. of Homeland Security Restructuring to Raise Cyber Profile"
"Making Computers Understand"
"Giving Robots the Gift of Sight"
"New Hacking Tool Sees the Light"
"Tera Tech's Final Frontier"
"Net Scan Finds Like-Minded Users"
"US Hackers Top ICC's Annual Review of Cybercrime"
"Security Research Exemption to DMCA Considered"
"Physicists Step Toward Quantum Computing"
"Power Grid"
"EPA Sets Deadline for E-Waste Dilemma"
"Modifying Moore's Law"
"Computers That Cajole"
"Internet2 Becoming a Big Net on Campus"
"Mind-Machine Merger"

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

"Judge May Ban Copying Software"
In a key case for the technology industry, San Francisco federal
judge Susan Illston on Thursday questioned the legality of DVD
copying software developed by 321 Studios.  Judge Illston
indicated that she may ban the distribution of the software, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item1

"U.S. Moves to Allow Trading of Radio Spectrum Licenses"
The FCC has changed a 40-year rule to allow radio spectrum owners
to lease or trade access, a move that will boost the wireless
communications market and foster more efficient use of the radio
spectrum.  Instead of having to own the license themselves, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item2

"U.S. Still Vulnerable to Cyber Attack"
Members of Congress brought in the heads of four key U.S.
security agencies to discuss the progress of their cyber-defense
research and development efforts on Wednesday, and concluded that
the country is still unprepared for a cyberterrorist assault on ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item3

"Feds Prime New Antispam Weapon"
Federal and state law enforcement officials demanded the
worldwide closure of open relays that spammers exploit at a
Thursday event in Dallas.  Open relays are mail servers that will
forward mail to anyone online; mass emailers use them to send ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item4

"To Register Doubts, Press Here"
Electronic voting machines have gotten a boost since the
controversial 2000 presidential elections, but the momentum is
being countered by a group of technologists who warn that such
systems are less secure than paper-based ones.  Stanford ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item5

"Dept. of Homeland Security Restructuring to Raise Cyber Profile"
Charles McQueary of the Department of Homeland Security told the
House Science Committee at a Wednesday hearing that his
department is reorganizing in order to make it clear that
cybersecurity is a priority.  The hearing was characterized by ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item6

"Making Computers Understand"
Meaningful Machines founder Eli Abir is developing an innovative
translation method that could help computers comprehend context
in human language.  "The man literally has figured out the way
the brain learns things," declares Meaningful Machines CEO Steve ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item7

"Giving Robots the Gift of Sight"
Patrick Andrews of British e-commerce consultancy Break-Step
Productions claims to have developed software that imitates the
processing pathway in people's upper visual cortex, thus giving
machines the ability to perceive shapes in a wider range than ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item8

"New Hacking Tool Sees the Light"
Princeton University graduate student Sudhakar Govindavajhala
presented a paper at the Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers (IEEE) Symposium on Security and Privacy on Tuesday,
detailing a method he devised that exploits security flaws in ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item9

"Tera Tech's Final Frontier"
University of Delaware researchers say they have built a cell
phone-sized device, similar to a laser pointer, that makes it
possible to tap into previously unattainable terahertz waves
whose frequency exceeds that of microwaves a thousandfold.   ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item10

"Net Scan Finds Like-Minded Users"
Researchers from the University of Chicago have developed a new
grouping technique based on users' Web data requests.  Although
data requests have been analyzed before to gauge Web site
popularity or plan caching schemes, this is the first time ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item11

"US Hackers Top ICC's Annual Review of Cybercrime"
More than 60 percent of computer-based crimes committed from
January 2002 to March 2003 came from the United States, with the
majority being hack attacks and scams, according to a report by
the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).  ICC's Cybercrime ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item12

"Security Research Exemption to DMCA Considered"
Computer security researchers would be allowed to hack through=20
copy protection schemes in order to look for security holes in the
software being protected, under a proposed exception to the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) being debated in official hearings  ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item13

"Physicists Step Toward Quantum Computing"
Quantum computing enabled by solid state electronic components
has come one step closer to reality with a new University of
Maryland breakthrough.  Researchers at the school's Center for
Superconductivity Research used Josephson junctions--macroscopic ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item14

"Power Grid"
Grid computing is starting to take root in the commercial world,
according to analysts.  Companies will not be able to resist the
tremendous speed and cost benefits of setting up in-house grid
computing networks.  Such systems allow IT managers to make ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item15

"EPA Sets Deadline for E-Waste Dilemma"
The EPA's Marianne Lamont Horinko told National Electronics
Product Stewardship Initiative (NEPSI) stakeholders at the
Electronic Industries Alliance's (EIA) Environmental Issues
Council meeting on May 6 that they must devise a voluntary ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item16

"Modifying Moore's Law"
Moore's Law, along with the scarcity of a killer application, is
ramping up the commoditization of information technology. =20
Commoditization--and a subsequent decline in value--occurs when
technology proliferates, becomes easy to understand, and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item17

"Computers That Cajole"
Captology, a term conceived by B.J. Fogg of Stanford University's
Persuasive Technology Lab, focuses on how computers are used to
persuasively modify user behavior.  Fogg predicts that captology
will play an important role in business training, management ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item18

"Internet2 Becoming a Big Net on Campus"
The Internet2 project continues to lead the development of new
Internet technologies despite its focus on academic research
applications.  New software, middleware, and network engineering
projects at Internet2 project sites provide a glimpse in ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item19

"Mind-Machine Merger"
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding a
half-dozen brain-machine interface projects for $24 million over
two years, and program manager Alan Rudolph says these
technologies could both restore and enhance cognitive functions, ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0516f.html#item20

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