Clips June 12, 2003

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips June 12, 2003

Cybercorps grads aim to boost federal IT security
Man Is Accused of Hijacking Web Site
Magazine, university draw ire of antivirus industry
College Courses Foreshadow A Tech Comeback 
New rules for workplace snoopers [UK]
Phone-cam privacy laws tipped
Former officials assess security needs on cyber front 
Fighting Spam By Any Means Necessary 


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Computerworld
Cybercorps grads aim to boost federal IT security
Created in 2000, the program trains IT professionals for government work 
By PATRICK THIBODEAU 
JUNE 11, 2003

WASHINGTON -- IT security at federal agencies will get a boost this month from the first class of 46 students, mostly midcareer IT professionals, who have completed training under a federal scholarship-for-service program. 
Cybercorps, as the program is called, was created in 2000 to produce a pool of security-trained IT professionals obligated to work for the government. The program provides up to two years of scholarship funding for students studying information security in return for a commitment to work an equal amount of time for the federal government. 

"It will really impact the skill [shortage] across government," said Ira Hobbs, the acting CIO at the U.S. Department of Agriculture who also heads the education and workforce efforts on the interdepartmental CIO Council. The 46 students who completed the training have already been placed in federal jobs, he said at this year's annual E-Gov conference here. 

The graduates, about half of whom come from private-sector jobs, were trained at some of the 36 participating colleges and universities. The program provides scholarships and stipends to the students. 

The Cybercorps program is part of the National Plan for Information Systems Protection developed by the White House. The Bush administration sought about $11 million in funding for the program in this year's budget. 

Although Congress and its watchdog agency, the General Accounting Office, have frequently criticized federal information security, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in a report last month, said federal information security is improving. For instance, the OMB found that 62% of all federal system have an up-to-date security plan. That's up from 40% in 2001. 

But the percentage of systems with a contingency plan is only 53%. 

The OMB is "telling us that we are getting better, but we still have a long way to go," said Vance Hitch, the CIO at the U.S. Department of Justice. The OMB reports to the White House. 

In 2002, federal agencies spent about $2.7 billion on information security out of a total IT investment of about $48 billion. The OMB estimates that funding for IT security will reach $4.2 billion this year and $4.7 billion next year. But it said that "spending more on IT security does not always improve IT security performance. Rather, the key is effectively incorporating IT security in project and agency management actions." 

The OMB is requiring that all federal agencies have a process by the end of this year to ensure that IT security weaknesses, once identified, are tracked and corrected. Each agency's inspector general will have to ensure that it meets the security evaluation criteria set by the White House.
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Los Angeles Times
Man Is Accused of Hijacking Web Site
He allegedly diverted Al Jazeera viewers to a bogus home page at the height of the war.
By David Rosenzweig
June 12, 2003

A California man has been charged by federal authorities with hijacking Al Jazeera's Internet Web site during the Iraqi war and diverting viewers to a bogus home page that displayed an American flag and the message, "Let freedom ring."

John William Racine II, a 24-year-old Web site designer from Norco, has agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud and unlawful interception of an electronic communication, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office said Wednesday .

Impersonating an employee of the Arab television network's Web site, Racine allegedly tricked an Internet service provider into changing a password that enabled him to commandeer the Al Jazeera site, according to a criminal complaint.

Racine was accused of intercepting about 300 e-mail messages intended for Al Jazeera before the takeover was discovered during the height of the war in March. 

Al Jazeera, the popular Arab satellite television channel based in Qatar, has been the target of some criticism in the United States because of its airing of videotaped pronouncements from fugitive Al Qaeda leaders

Al Jazeera is backed by the government of Qatar but is widely perceived as editorially independent, experts said.

Racine could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
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USA Today
Magazine, university draw ire of antivirus industry
June 11, 2003

NEW YORK (AP)  First the University of Calgary announced plans to offer a class in writing computer viruses and other destructive programs. Then Wired magazine published the code of a virus-like program that caused mass havoc on the Internet this year. 
Both developments infuriated virus-fighting companies and illustrated the high-stakes dilemma of computer security: Do you keep vulnerabilities secret or spread the knowledge so problems can be remedied faster? 

The antivirus industry is squarely in the first camp. 

Dave Perry, director of education at Trend Micro, considers the article in this week's Wired detailing the Slammer worm a cheap grab for attention with no educational or ethical justification. He likened it to pornography, saying its publication could loosen the standards of acceptable behavior in the computer world. 

Slammer infected more than 75,000 computers within 10 minutes on Jan. 25. It slowed down the Internet worldwide, freezing up major Web sites and even bringing down some ATM systems. 

Chris Anderson, Wired's editor in chief, said the article is a public service that demonstrates the Internet's "extraordinary vulnerability to that kind of attack." (Related article: Wired story to detail Slammer Web attack.)

The code for the worm, whose author has not been identified or caught, has been available online since the attack, but it hasn't been dissected in a major publication. 

Still, even Perry acknowledged that the risk was small that the article could enable someone who was not already an adept programmer to create a new virus. 

Slammer itself was based on a flaw in Microsoft code publicized by a researcher months earlier. 

Microsoft had issued a patch for the vulnerable software, which runs corporate databases, but many administrators had failed to apply it. 

With the Wired article's line-by-line analysis of how the worm worked, Anderson said he hoped to diminish the knowledge gap between virus-writers and virus-fighters. 

"The people who understand them the best tend to be on the releasing side, whereas those who are on the protecting side should understand them the best," he said, echoing the rationale for the Canadian university's virus-writing class. 

In announcing its plans last month, the university said students need to know how viruses work in order to develop more effective countermeasures. It drew analogies to how scientists fight biological viruses. 

Similarly, some security companies offer hacking classes  with attendance restricted  to keep corporate computer administrators up-to-date on the latest tactics being used against them. 

Only fourth-year students will be allowed to take the Calgary class. It will be held in a room with no network connection to the outside, and no discs will be allowed out of the room, the university says. When the course ends all removable discs used will be destroyed, and hard drives will be completely erased, the school adds. 

The precautions have done little to counter disapproval in the antivirus community. 

"If I'm a doctor trying to combat a virus like smallpox, I don't need to learn how to make a new, more lethal strain of smallpox," said Chris Belthoff, senior security analyst at Sophos. 

With more than 80,000 viruses known so far, there is no need for new ones, Belthoff said. Sophos has a policy against employing people who have written viruses and has said it won't hire students who have taken the class. 

Researcher Sarah Gordon, who has worked with IBM and Symantec on virus protection, said that while the Calgary course would not necessarily be dangerous, it would be superfluous. 

"Writing a virus is not rocket science. It's not magic. It's not anything anyone who knows how to program couldn't do easily if they wanted to," she said. 

But the university contends that the industry's current defense against viruses is inadequate. 

It's based largely on antivirus companies identifying viruses, then updating software for users' computers to detect them  a "reactive" approach that can be blindsided by quickly spreading plagues like Slammer. 

The organizers of the Calgary university course would not make themselves available for comment, but said in a statement: "It is time for critics to take their heads out of the sand and work with us to start developing the next generation of computer professional who will be proactive in stopping computer viruses." 

Belthoff concedes that the current approach makes fighting viruses a "timing game," but said it's very successful as long as the antivirus companies act quickly. 

Viruses have been the subject of similar debates for as long as they've been around. Mark Ludwig, a physicist, was heavily criticized for publishing The Little Black Book of Computer Viruses in 1991. 

"The antivirus community was up in arms for two or three years. After a while they kind of got used to it," he said. 

Ludwig, who went on to write The Big Black Book of Computer Viruses and similar collections, believes the antivirus industry thrives on secrecy and mystique and is loath to spread knowledge. 

He calls the Calgary class "probably a good idea," and rebutted the notion that writing viruses is a simple matter. 

"Anyone who's serious about computer security and anything related to viruses has got to know how they work in detail," he said. 

Information on the Calgary course is available at http://www.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/News/virus_course.html.
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Washington Post
College Courses Foreshadow A Tech Comeback 
By Ellen McCarthy
Thursday, June 12, 2003; Page E01 

Probably any jobless technology worker or frustrated recruiter can deliver a soliloquy on how much the job market for tech professionals has changed in the last few years. A certification in C++ programming can no more guarantee a steady job and six-figure salary than can a four-year degree in romantic literature.

But many forecasts say the demand for technical skills will return. After a downturn in enrollments in 2001, college-level computer science programs have rebounded a little, the Computing Research Association says. Several local schools have launched new programs, degrees and initiatives.

George Mason University last fall began a bachelor's degree program in information technology that combines technical training and business courses. The students -- about 500 will enroll in the major this fall -- are unlikely to go on to careers in software development or high finance, but they are trained to bridge the expanse that lie between the two disciplines. 

"Industry now knows how to find the techies -- in the computer science schools. They know how to find the finance people -- in the business schools," said Lloyd J. Griffiths, dean of George Mason's School of Information Technology and Engineering. "But they've now got all these other people who end up working for them and don't know what is going on in technology."

Griffiths predicts that students who graduate with information technology degrees will be well qualified for jobs in the "middle third of the company," jobs like sales and human resources that may require some technical knowledge, but not specific expertise. 

Graduate students at George Mason will soon have another option as well. This fall the school will launch a master's program in information security, one of the few tech specialties that has gained both status and demand in recent years. 

Since 9/11, George Mason has also created several new research centers to prepare students for careers in a changed world. Laboratories focused on information warfare, aviation security and biometrics have attracted industry experts who can contribute to each field of study and advance the specialties of George Mason students, Griffiths said. 

George Washington University, Gallaudet University and Marymount University have also joined the network security rage stampede. Last week the schools were jointly awarded two grants from the National Science Foundation to advance the study of information assurance. The grants, worth about $3.5 million combined, will support a CyberCorp program meant to train "cyber-age experts who defend and secure the information infrastructure," said Lance J. Hoffman, a GWU professor of computer science, said in a statement this week. 

George Washington University also offers programs in information, network and computer security, and was named a Center for Academic Excellence in Information Assurance by the National Security Agency. 

American University has also launched a new program to help professionals advance their careers without giving up their day jobs. The college's Kogod School of Business, starting this fall, will offer a master's degree in information technology management. The program is designed to give students solid business school training with a knowledge of technical systems and processes that don't often come with an MBA. 

"It's very critical that graduates of these programs become comfortable with their information technology people and their information technology people can come and talk to their business people," said Jill Klein, an executive-in-residence at Kogod. "The people who we are admitting are people who really do aspire to senior-level positions."

Classes are offered only at night and students are required to get a recommendation from their current employers when they apply. The 20-month degree is designed to be a way companies can reward high-achieving employees, Klein said. 

The University of Maryland is also helping students combine business savvy with technical skills. Maryland administrators have created a number of initiatives to make undergraduates from the business and engineering schools collaborate on joint projects. Ventures like Quest, which asks students from both schools to cooperate on problem-solving tasks and the Hinman Campus Entrepreneurship Opportunities program, which helps students learn how to start and run companies, force students to speak the same language, said Howard Frank, dean of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at Maryland. 

"You used to find engineers working alone. But if you look at today's business world, they work in teams. . . . That's the way we operate," said Frank.
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BBC Online
New rules for workplace snoopers
 
New rules governing monitoring of employees say that covert surveillance is rarely justified and instead firms should inform workers of the extent they are being watched. 

The rules form a code of practice that employers will be expected to follow. 

Firms that fail to follow the rules could find themselves in court if they trample on the privacy rights of their workers. 

Court threat 

The code has been published by the UK's Information Commissioner to give businesses a clearer idea of their obligations under data protection and human rights legislation. 

Many firms carry out monitoring of the online activities of staff to watch for spam, viruses, to filter out undesirable material and to stop confidential material travelling outside the company either accidentally or maliciously. 

Some financial firms record phone calls to ensure compliance with industry regulations and as a check on fraud. 

Richard Thomas, the UK Information Commissioner, said guidelines covering these situations tried to balance the needs of employers and the rights of employees. 

"If any monitoring is to take place it must be open and transparent and with the knowledge of the employee," said Mr Thomas. 

The code of practice demands that workers should be told what sort of monitoring is going on and why it is being done. There are also limits on what firms can do with any information they gather. 

It also puts conditions on covert surveillance of staff.

"In reality there are few circumstances in which covert monitoring is justified," he said. 

The code says that such surveillance would only be justified to prevent malpractice or crime. 

Companies that take liberties with employee rights to privacy in electronic communication could find themselves in court. 

"Employers may have alternative ways of meeting these requirements," the commissioner's advice said. "But if they do nothing, they risk breaking the law."
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Australian IT
Phone-cam privacy laws tipped
Daniel Hoare
JUNE 12, 2003  
 
PRIVACY laws may be changed to curb the misuse of new-generation mobile phones equipped with cameras.

The governments of Victoria, NSW and Queensland agreed yesterday to consider the changes at a meeting of attorneys-general in August. 
The move follows a decision by several sporting and recreation groups, including the YMCA and the Royal Life Saving Society of Australia, to ban the new phones from public changing rooms. 

They fear the camera-phones could be used to photograph people dressing or showering, and the images sent on the internet. 

Bob Nicholson, national chief executive of the YMCA - Australia's largest operator of swimming pools and sports facilities - said the association would introduce national prohibition following a Victorian ban last week. 

Although the YMCA has not received any complaints, Mr Nicholson said it was essential to be proactive. 

"We're responding in advance to a perceived risk of the misuse of the camera-phones in change rooms," he told The Australian. 

"We're not just talking about swimming pools - we're talking about all our 300 recreational sports stadiums and health clubs." 

Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls said he would refer the issue to the state's Law Reform Commission in an effort to ensure existing or future privacy laws covered new technology. 

"Everyone would agree that taking photos in a change-room for your own gratification is just totally inappropriate," he said. 

The president of the Australian Council for Civil Liberties, Terry O'Gorman, said the camera-phones needed to be dealt with uniformly under state laws. 

The growing use of mobiles created a "vexed issue" for users, who were often asked to turn their phones off in public places, Mr O'Gorman said. 

But the misuse of video technology outweighed such considerations, he said, and the issue was yet another of the challenges surrounding privacy laws. 

"It's a reflection of the fact that technology is constantly outstripping the ability of parliaments to adapt their privacy laws."
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Federal Computer Week
U.S., partners shore up borders
BY Sara Michael 
June 11, 2003

U.S. immigration officials are working closely with their Canadian and Mexican counterparts to ensure the efficiency and interoperability of border and immigration systems.

With Canada and Mexico seeing the most traveler and cargo traffic with the United States, officials have developed action plans to make sure each country's systems and initiatives are compatible.

Border security is "probably the single most important policy issue facing Canada in the next five years, and probably facing you," said Bill Sheppit, a representative from the Canadian Embassy. He was speaking June 10 on a panel on border security at the E-Gov 2003 conference in Washington, D.C.

Canada and the United States entered into a smart border agreement about a year and a half ago, Sheppit said, with 30 action items to secure the borders and facilitate travel and trade. Of those items, six are information technology-specific and 11 require IT support, he said.

Officials on both sides now face the task of ensuring the systems are interoperable, a task complicated by differing standards in the two countries. Officials are also developing a compatible immigration database to share information, but they face privacy issues.

At the southern border, Mexican and U.S. officials are working from a 24-point action plan, which includes harmonizing port of entry operations, implementing the advanced passenger information system, securing in-transit shipments and facilitating the electronic exchange of information. 

U.S. officials have been using systems at the northern and southern borders for several years, which will provide the framework for the comprehensive entry/exit system. The U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indication Technology (VISIT), formerly the Entry/Exit System, is set to roll out at air and sea ports by the end of this year and will eventually merge several existing border systems.

For example, the Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection system was implemented at ports of entry on the Mexican border in the mid-1990s and involves a pre-enrollment process for frequent travelers. Travelers are given a transponder for their vehicle, much like the EZPass used at toll booths, allowing them to speed through the checkpoint, said Bob Mocny, deputy director of U.S. VISIT, also speaking on the E-Gov panel.

Along the border with Canada, immigration officials have been using a similar program, which uses a proximity card for each traveler, Mocny said. These projects, coupled with pilot programs in biometrics and fingerprinting, pave the way for U.S. VISIT.
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Government Executive
June 11, 2003 
Former officials assess security needs on cyber front 
By William New, National Journal's Technology Daily 

A panel of former government experts in cybersecurity on Wednesday assessed the need to address that issue. 

At a Center for Strategic and International Studies conference, Ronald Dick, director of strategic initiatives on information assurance at Computer Sciences Corp., identified several drivers to improving cyber security and protecting critical infrastructures. Dick once headed the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center, whose functions were absorbed into the Homeland Security Department this year. 


Dick said the level of awareness of cybersecurity issues is high, with reports of failures to protect information circulating every day. He said regulations, standards and even legislation on the matter are proliferating. 


He also cited "rumblings" in the legal community about challenging the law that protects companies from liability even if something happens involving their homeland security technology. And there is an increasing attention to including safety procedures in cyber products, much like safety belts eventually became required in automobiles. 


Philip Reitinger, senior security strategist at Microsoft, said the recent "brain drain" of top government cyber experts means getting "the right folks" in place is a top priority. Reitinger also pointed to the need for incentives for agencies to better protect cybersecurity, and the need for appropriate technologies. 


He suggested that government support the private sector's efforts to protect critical infrastructures by identifying the gaps between what the marketplace will take care of and what is needed. Then it should determine the best way to close that gap with "tailored" government action that poses the least possible intrusion into the marketplace. 


John Tritak, former director of the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, which also was absorbed into Homeland Security, applauded the creation of a cybersecurity division at the department because he said some high-level officials did not see the need for it. "It was not a foregone conclusion," he said. 


"If anyone's going to be kept up all night worrying about cybersecurity, then it better be the Department of Homeland Security," he added. 


Tritak said the department needs to "translate cyber risk into corporate risk" by helping top executives see the importance of it, "or the gap between where the market will go and what is needed is going to be wide." 


He said the national plan the department is mandated to develop would be the "ultimate" guiding government document on cybersecurity. 


Panelists also said the private sector would be more encouraged to share security information with the government if it received moreand more compellinginformation on threats. 


Stewart Baker, a partner at Steptoe and Johnson, said he was alarmed by statutory language that lets the federal government share private-sector information about cybersecurity with foreign governments as long as the information is considered part of an investigation. "There is a lot of reason to be worried about that," Baker said. 
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Washington Post
Fighting Spam By Any Means Necessary 
By Cynthia L. Webb
Thursday, June 12, 2003; 9:46 AM 

The Federal Trade Commission has put spam at the top of its hit list and wants congressional leaders to help bolster its fight against the pesky, costly junk e-mail that floods the in-boxes of consumers and businesses alike.

The commission yesterday outlined its requests for more spam-fighting powers to House and Senate lawmakers. On its wish list? It wants the authority to keep tabs on spammers across international lines and to have the power to watch spammers incognito, sometimes with the help of other federal agency resources. Further, the FTC would like anyone who takes over a customer's e-mail account for the purpose of sending spam to be deemed an unauthorized user, stripping them of protections ISPs give to customers. The FTC also wants spam legislation to model what the government has already done to go after telemarketers, according to various published reports. 
? FTC.gov: Spam E-mail 

"E-mail marketers should be required to describe their products honestly and honor requests to be taken off their contact lists, the commissioners said, while criminal penalties should be explored for those who falsify their return addresses," Reuters reported. The FTC also wants to follow the spammers' money. "Because many spammers close up shop and hide their assets once they realize they are being targeted, FTC agents should be allowed to examine their bank accounts without telling them for a limited period of time, commissioners said, or at least require their banks to delay notification. FTC agents should be able to review spam complaints amassed by Internet providers and given greater latitude to go after spammers who hijack others' accounts, they said." 
? Reuters: FTC Seeks More Authority To Fight Spam 

"The FTC witnesses called on Congress to outlaw tactics frequently used by spammers, such as disguising the origin of junk e-mail, using deceptive subject lines and refusing to honor requests from computer users to stop getting unsolicited e-mail," The Washington Post reported. "Congress has never passed an anti-spam law, and the FTC joins a growing chorus on Capitol Hill asking lawmakers to deal with a problem that is costing businesses $8 billion to $10 billion a year." 
? The Washington Post: FTC Seeks More Power To Fight Junk Mail 
? The Financial Times: FTC Seeks More Power To Combat E-Mail 'Spam' 

Lawmakers who heard the FTC's testimony yesterday were more than happy to get onboard the anti-spam campaign. CNET's News.co reported that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), "who has co-sponsored a different antispam bill, called spam a 'scourge' that is 'threatening to poison the medium' and urged the FTC to be aggressive in wielding whatever new powers it receives. Wyden predicted a committee vote on his antispam proposal, co-sponsored with Conrad Burns, (R-MT), next week." According to The Washington Post, FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle said the agency has not endorsed any particular spam bill in Congress, but he conceded that the FTC's proposed anti-spam effort most resembles the Wyden-Burns bill. The Post also noted that "[l]arge e-mail account providers such as America Online, Yahoo and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN, which market to their members, support the Burns-Wyden bill and have developed extensive e-mail filtering systems for their users."

Rival legislation introduced by Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.) "has drawn sharp criticism from consumer groups because the marketing and Internet-provider industries helped craft it." However, Tauzin said yesterday that "he is open to amending the legislation," the Post said.

Privacy Rights for Spammers?

Of course, the FTC's proposal has already drawn fire from critics. "Privacy groups have raised concerns about the FTC's plan, saying it does not contain sufficient checks and balances. Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, testified that 'the legislation opens the door to abuse in that it creates new enforcement authority without corresponding safeguards ... The bill should be drafted in such a way so as to safeguard American values, including procedural fairness, privacy protection and open government,'" News.com recounted. CNET said the FTC's wish list for Congress "would basically turn the agency's investigators into spam cops. They would receive the power to serve secret requests to Internet service providers for subscriber information, peruse FBI criminal databases and swap sensitive information with foreign law enforcement agencies." 
? CNET's News.com: Senators Push FTC Spam Proposal 

ISP Verizon Communictions was also not 100 percent supportive of the FTC's push for more powers to squelch spam. "Allowing the FTC to obtain the text of e-mail messages without prior notice to the customer would give the agency broad powers other law enforcement agencies don't enjoy, said Sarah Deutsch, vice president and associate general counsel of Verizon," according to IDG News Service. "Verizon, which has fought subpoenas of the names of music downloaders from the Recording Industry Association of America Inc., recommended the FTC get an order from a judge before receiving access to a person's e-mail." 
? IDG News Service via InfoWorld: FTC Asks For Greater Spam Fighting Powers 

Sounding Board: Spam

Should the FTC get the expanded powers it wants for fighting spam? Is the spam problem so bad that the government should be given the power to take any means necessary to squash it? Drop me and e-mail, and I'll publish selected remarks in an upcoming Filter.

Problems Blocking Spam

America Online's anti-spam efforts may have gone too far. A tweak of its spam filters kept an undisclosed number of Internet subscribers from Comcast's broadband cable service and perhaps other ISPs from getting their mail, CNET's News.com reported yesterday. Comcast subscribers "discovered the blocks as early as last Thursday, and they continued to report difficulties through Monday afternoon," the news service reported. "As part of our constant efforts to reduce spam, we made some technical changes to our filters late last week," AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein wrote in an e-mail, CNET said. "A network error that took place during those changes may have inadvertently blocked some e-mail from legitimate sources. That issue has now been resolved, and we regret any inconvenience this may have caused." 
? CNET's News.com: AOL Filters Out Some E-Mails From ISPs 

Brenda Kelliher of Annapolis, Md., wrote to Filter about the problem on Sunday. "Have been trying to send e-mails to friends, long-standing AOL customers, for days, and am getting everything bounced back, short or long, with attachments or without," she wrote. "Comcast says that AOL is rejecting messages from a number of major service providers, it seems to be particularly broadband (cable) senders -- claiming the IP address is open. Comcast says it has been going on for several days, is a big problem and they have no idea when AOL will fix it." 

PeopleSoft To Oracle: Take A Hike

PeopleSoft this morning said its board of directors voted unanimously to reject Oracle's $5.1 billion hostile takeover bid. Oracle had offered $16 a share in cash to the business software maker, but PeopleSoft wants to go ahead with its merger of rival J.D. Edwards & Co. instead. "The board believes that the delays and uncertainties created by Oracle's offer, coupled with Oracle's stated intent to discontinue PeopleSoft's market-leading products, represent a substantial threat to stockholder value. The unsolicited and hostile nature of the offer, combined with Oracle's statements, is designed to disrupt the company's strong momentum at significant cost to PeopleSoft's customers," the company said in a statement today.

The Washington Post reported in today's edition that PeopleSoft disclosed in a regulatory filing that it could get a $57 million break-up fee if its plan to buy J.D. Edwards unravels. 
? The Washington Post: PeopleSoft Could Get Fee If Edwards Merger Fails 

Expect Oracle to comment soon on PeopleSoft's rejection of its bid. Meanwhile, the business software company will report its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2003 earnings today after the close of the markets. Yesterday, Moody's Investors Services "downgraded its outlook for Oracle to ?negative,?citing the additional cash Oracle likely will need to complete the deal," The Wall Street Journal reported. Other outlets, including the Post, said the downgrade was likely as well. "Oracle itself is preparing to convince investors of the seriousness of its bid for PeopleSoft, a Pleasanton, Calif., rival maker of software for corporate applications. Oracle has stumbled in that market, but Larry Ellison, Oracle's chief executive, has said market conditions and customer demands ultimately will favor large companies that offer complete suites of products that work well together," the Journal said. 
? The Wall Street Journal: Moody's Lowers Oracle's Outlook, Citing Hostile Bid for PeopleSoft (Subscription required) 

Unraveling of a Potentially Lucrative Relationship?

AOL Time Warner is trying to shave costs and cut its debt load, but it recently shelved its efforts to sell its book-publishing unit. The Wall Street Journal reports today that the sale was nixed after Gunter Thielen, the chief executive of Germany's Bertelsmann, called AOL Time Warner chief Richard Parsons, effectively saying its plans to snap up the book unit had cooled. The move, according to the Journal, "chilled relations between the two companies" and "has hurt negotiations over the possible merger of AOL's Warner Music Group with Bertelsmann's BMG music unit, say people familiar with the situation. Some meetings on the music deal were canceled, and AOL is likely to approach the music deal much more cautiously now, the people say." 
? The Wall Street Journal: Bertelsmann-AOL Ties Fray Following Failed Book Deal (Subscription required) 

Can It Be True, A Tech IPO?

A California maker of semiconductor testing equipment has braved the chilly public markets and raised $84 million in an initial public offering today. FormFactor initially planned to raise about $50 million to $54 million. The San Francisco Chronicle wrote in anticipation of the offering that "FormFactor will be the first technology firm to complete an IPO in six months. ... Companies have been reluctant to go public in recent years because of the depressed stock market and the bad reputation new companies earned during the dot-com bubble." 
? Reuters: FormFactor Sells 6mn Shares for $14 Each 
? The San Francisco Chronicle: FormFactor Expands IPO 

eBay's Fortune Cookie

Online auction site eBay said yesterday that it plans to pay about $150 million in cash to buy the rest of the shares of Chinese Internet auction company EachNet Inc.. eBay previously owned a 33 percent stake in the company, which eBay said is one of China's leading e-commerce companies. "Similar to eBay in North America, EachNet sells items ranging from clothing and antique calligraphy to computers and real estate, in both auction and fixed-price formats," The San Jose Mercury News said. "China has more than 59 million online shoppers, second only to the United States, according to a January survey by the research group China Internet Network Information Center. The survey predicted that the Chinese market would grow to 86 million online shoppers by the end of the year." 
? The San Jose Mercury News: Ebay Buys Chinese E-Commerce Company 
? The Associated Press via washingtonpost.com: Ebay Buys Chinese E-Commerce Firm Shares 

eBay was also one of the featured stories last night on CBS's "60 Minutes II." Chief executive Meg Whitman explained how used cars, SUVs and other big ticket items have eclipsed what used to be hot selling items on the site some four years ago -- Beanie Babies. "The company sells a motorcycle every 18 minutes and an SUV every 30 minutes. As many as 150,000 people have literally given up their jobs to create their own businesses selling on eBay," 60 Minutes reporter Charlie Rose explained during the segment. "The lure of a bargain, combined with the excitement of a Las Vegas gamble, is what brings in millions of Internet customers." The 60 Minutes piece was well done, but seemed like it was intended for an audience that had never seen the auction site. Must be playing to CBS's older demographics...
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Subject: [darpa] HEADLINE: This is your life--in bits
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U.S. News & World Report

June 23, 2003

HEADLINE: This is your life--in bits

BYLINE: By Janet Rae-Dupree

HIGHLIGHT:
Digital memory aids could capture and recall everything you experience

BODY:
You're at a cocktail party where you spot a familiar and very 
important-looking guy whose name and business connections are right on the 
tip of your tongue-but not tripping off it. Who is he? When did you last 
speak with him? He's headed your way. Uh-oh. Luckily, your memory 
prosthesis--a computer that monitors and remembers everything you do or 
experience--is ready to whisper his name in your ear.

No, you 50-somethings worried about memory lapses can't buy anything like 
it yet. But work is underway to get computers to capture human life and 
remember it as people do--recalling bits of experience that are linked by a 
common time or place or person. At Microsoft Research, computing pioneer 
Gordon Bell has stockpiled all the printed and digital detritus of his 68 
years of life; now he's developing tools to turn this computerized shoebox 
into a memory aid. And the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects 
Agency wants to combine sensors, cameras, bugging devices, and wearable 
computers to capture a comprehensive, searchable database of an individual 
human life. DARPA hopes that the project, called LifeLog, will yield clues 
about how to make robots more humanlike, but it is also aiming for "a 
powerful automated multimedia diary and scrapbook," according to a project 
description.

Life size. A lifetime's experience will soon fit easily on an ordinary hard 
drive. Bell's project at Microsoft's Bay Area Research Center in San 
Francisco, for example, so far has filled just 30 gigabytes--a fraction of 
the terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) of storage capacity that hard disks are 
expected to have within five years. Called MyLifeBits, the project began 
about four years ago when Bell and his research partner Jim Gemmell were 
studying future technologies for telecommuting. Working from remote 
offices, they felt handicapped by their lack of access to files, documents, 
and books back at the main laboratory. "We started to look at E-paper and 
the paperless office, and then scanning became an obsession," Gemmell says. 
With an assistant, the pair set about scanning all of Bell's old papers and 
photographs as well as articles and books he had read. They also wrote 
software to capture a copy of every message and document that crossed his 
computer screen and every voice mail he received, and they recently began 
recording all of Bell's phone calls and any television he watches.

But after three years of digitizing Bell's life, the research team realized 
they were creating an unwieldy "write-once-read-never" database. So they 
began writing software to mimic the way the human mind recalls things. Now 
the system can play back a phone conversation while simultaneously 
displaying any Web pages Bell was viewing at that time plus E-mails and 
documents relevant to the conversation. "Your mind works by association," 
notes Rick Rashid, a senior vice president at Microsoft and head of its 
research division. "People recall information in part by remembering where 
they were, what else was happening, and who they were with."

Eventually, Rashid believes, people will begin using this "add-on personal 
memory" to order up instant audio replays--digital double takes, if you 
will-- during their daily lives. Years after the material was collected, 
such a database could be used to refresh a failing memory, revive a stalled 
project, or educate future generations about what today's lives were like. 
Microsoft plans to weave the computer-based portions of the MyLifeBits 
project into a software product, possibly as early as 2008. "It will be in 
the operating system, gathering data as you work," says Gemmell.

DARPA's LifeLog would pick up from there. The project is aiming for port- 
able sensors that would record daily life in exhaustive detail and data 
processors that would search for patterns and sift for information likely 
to prove useful later on. Bell speculates that LifeLog's first 
beneficiaries might be high-level military officers trying to keep track of 
multiple projects unfolding at the same time in many parts of the world.

A practical, powerful, consumer version could be decades off. And the very 
idea may seem unpalatable: Who wants a computer watching your every move? 
Retired IBM Fellow Dave Thompson coined the term "memory prosthesis," and 
he wouldn't mind. "I've observed the captains of industry and they have 
handlers who prompt them about you as you go to shake hands," he says. "Why 
should the rich people have all the fun?"


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Subject:      ACM TechNews - Friday, June 13, 2003
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Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber:

Welcome to the June 13, 2003 edition of ACM TechNews,
providing timely information for IT professionals three times a
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 507
Date: June 13, 2003

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This offer is valid on phone orders only on select PC products,
so call today and give your business, and your budget and
IBM edge.  Savings referenced off regular IBM Web price.
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Top Stories for Friday, June 13, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Virus Writers vs. Virus Fighters: Share Vulnerabilities or Not?"
"Internet Providers Say Users' Privacy Is Eroding Fast"
"New Rules Expected Today on Faster Wi-Fi Equipment"
"Senators Push FTC Spam Proposal"
"College Courses Foreshadow a Tech Comeback"
"Staying Up All Night on Java"
"Will 'Waste' Push File-Sharing Further Underground?"
"Reality Check: How Safe Is Linux?"
"Harnessing the Power of Wireless Devices"
"Breakthrough "Interface Tuning" Is Macro Step for Microelectronics"
"These Guys Just Look for a Point"
"Enough Already: Curbing Info Glut"
"Smart Bricks Could Monitor Buildings, Save Lives"
"Smart Cellphone Would Spend Your Money"
"IBM, Infineon Claim Memory Breakthrough"
"State of the Technology Union"
"Is Handheld Convergence on the Horizon?"
"Nanotechnology: The Next Revolution to Redefine Electronics"
"You Bought It. Who Controls It?"

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

"Virus Writers vs. Virus Fighters: Share Vulnerabilities or Not?"
Critics of the computer security industry say more needs to be
done to train system administrators about how viruses work and
propagate.  The University of Calgary, for instance, has opened a
virus-writing course to fourth-year students with the intent of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item1

"Internet Providers Say Users' Privacy Is Eroding Fast"
The right to online privacy has been worn down by a raft of
legislation and lawsuits, ostensibly to ensure security and
protect the livelihoods of copyright holders.  A sore point among
ISPs and consumer advocates is the Digital Millennium Copyright ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item2

"New Rules Expected Today on Faster Wi-Fi Equipment"
The IEEE give final approval to the 802.11g Wi-Fi standard, which is
backwards compatible with and up to four times faster than the
previous 802.11b standard.  Experts say the new protocol will
spur more investment in wireless technologies by both equipment ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item3

"Senators Push FTC Spam Proposal"
Lawmakers argued at a June 11 hearing of a Senate Commerce
subcommittee that more aggressive measures are needed to pursue
the most prolific purveyors of unsolicited commercial email, such
as an FTC-drafted proposal calling for a broadening of the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item4

"College Courses Foreshadow a Tech Comeback"
Colleges in the Washington, D.C.-Maryland area have started
offering courses, degrees, and projects that aim to produce
future members of the IT workforce, in anticipation of an
expected resurgence in demand for technical skills.  George Mason ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item5

"Staying Up All Night on Java"
Some analysts claim that enthusiasm toward Sun Microsystems' Java
programming language approaches the status of a cult or religion.
Programmers appreciate Java's versatility:  The language is
compatible with all operating systems and works across mobile ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item6

"Will 'Waste' Push File-Sharing Further Underground?"
Nullsoft programmer Justin Frankel's Waste program is already
courting controversy:  Mere hours after Frankel published the
program on the Nullsoft Web site, parent company America Online
removed it and posted a bulletin warning people that downloading ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item7

"Reality Check: How Safe Is Linux?"
The debate over how secure the Linux open-source operating system
is compared to closed operating systems such as Windows still
remains unresolved.  K.S. Shankar of IBM's Linux Technology
Center says a case can be made that Linux boasts more security ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item8

"Harnessing the Power of Wireless Devices"
Mesh networking is an emerging technology that turns each
wireless Internet-connected device within a limited area into a
small router for other devices nearby.  The military developed
mesh networking in the 1990s as a way to extend the abilities of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item9

"Breakthrough "Interface Tuning" Is Macro Step for Microelectronics"
A team of physicists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the
University of Tennessee, and North Carolina State University
report a breakthrough in the June 13 edition of Science that
could boost the productivity and efficiency of semiconductors and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item10

"These Guys Just Look for a Point"
Armed with Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, some 3,000
high-tech "explorers" worldwide are documenting the exact
confluences of latitude and longitude with pictures and stories and
then publishing the information on the Web.  The Degree Confluence ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item11

"Enough Already: Curbing Info Glut"
So that military and emergency personnel will be able to make
critical decisions faster and respond to threats with greater
efficacy, researchers from Texas A&M University, Penn State's
School of Information Sciences, and Wright State University have ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item12

"Smart Bricks Could Monitor Buildings, Save Lives"
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
have developed a prototype "smart brick" that can monitor
vibrations, temperature, and movements throughout a building and
transmit those readings wirelessly.  Electrical and computer ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item13

"Smart Cellphone Would Spend Your Money"
Researchers at the University of Southampton in the United
Kingdom are developing software agent programs that will allow
cell phones to determine certain routines and habits of users and
make purchases for them.  Funded by consumer electronic companies ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item14

"IBM, Infineon Claim Memory Breakthrough"
IBM and Infineon Technologies claim to have built the smallest,
most sophisticated magnetic random access memory (MRAM) chip to
date, one that integrates the non-volatility of flash memory, the
high speed of static RAM, and the storage space and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item15

"State of the Technology Union"
Cisco's Mario Mazzola notes that his company followed a clear
research and development route in the past, and today is focusing
on innovations that support easier application integration,
multiple types of traffic and media, and technological evolution ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item16

"Is Handheld Convergence on the Horizon?"
Three classes of handhelds--smart phones, personal digital
assistants (PDAs), and BlackBerries--offer many advantages, but
have yet to meet the elusive goal of successfully integrating
wireless computing and communications.  The handheld with ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item17

"Nanotechnology: The Next Revolution to Redefine Electronics"
The field of nanotechnology is burgeoning:  Large and small
companies are pursuing nanotech research, as is nearly every
university in the world; and the U.S. Defense Department is
investigating the science's military applications, such as robust ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item18

"You Bought It. Who Controls It?"
Edward Tenner, author of "Why Things Bite Back: Technology and
the Revenge of Unintended Consequences," writes that
manufacturers of computer hardware and software are eroding the
promise of user-centric computer control by building devices with ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0613f.html#item19


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