Clips June 20, 2003

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips June 20, 2003

ARTICLES

Orrin Hatch: Software Pirate?
Net presidential primary facing allegations of vote-rigging
FAA Commissions Safety Study of In-Air Cell Phones 
College Courses Foreshadow A Tech Comeback 
CAPPS II faces scrutiny before funding
Wireless security entangles HIPAA
CAPPS II privacy notice revised
DHS systems working to stop contraband
FBI's threat center role criticized
Sentel to build jam-resistant battlefield radio system 
Ex-IBM executive leads FBI technology overhaul 
House committee orders study of passenger screening system 


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Wired News
Orrin Hatch: Software Pirate?
11:56 AM Jun. 19, 2003 PT

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) suggested Tuesday that people who download copyright materials from the Internet should have their computers automatically destroyed. 

But Hatch himself is using unlicensed software on his official website, which presumably would qualify his computer to be smoked by the system he proposes.

The senator's site makes extensive use of a JavaScript menu system developed by Milonic Solutions, a software company based in the United Kingdom. The copyright-protected code has not been licensed for use on Hatch's website. 

"It's an unlicensed copy," said Andy Woolley, who runs Milonic. "It's very unfortunate for him because of those comments he made." 

Hatch on Tuesday surprised a Senate hearing on copyright issues with the suggestion that technology should be developed to remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music from the Net. 

Hatch said damaging someone's computer "may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights," the Associated Press reported. He then suggested the technology would twice warn a computer user about illegal online behavior, "then destroy their computer." 

Any such technology would be in violation of federal antihacking laws. The senator, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggested Congress would have to make copyright holders exempt from current laws for them to legally destroy people's computers. 

On Wednesday, Hatch clarified his comments, but stuck by the original idea. "I do not favor extreme remedies -- unless no moderate remedies can be found," he said in a statement. "I asked the interested industries to help us find those moderate remedies." 

Just as well. Because if Hatch's terminator system embraced software as well as music, his servers would be targeted for destruction. 

Milonic Solutions' JavaScript code used on Hatch's website costs $900 for a site-wide license. It is free for personal or nonprofit use, which the senator likely qualifies for. 

However, the software's license stipulates that the user must register the software to receive a licensing code, and provide a link in the source code to Milonic's website. 

On Wednesday, the senator's site met none of Milonic's licensing terms. The site's source code (which can be seen by selecting Source under the View menu in Internet Explorer) had neither a link to Milonic's site nor a registration code. 

However, by Thursday afternoon Hatch's site had been updated to contain some of the requisite copyright information. An old version of the page can be seen by viewing Google's cache of the site. 

"They're using our code," Woolley said Wednesday. "We've had no contact with them. They are in breach of our licensing terms." 

When contacted Thursday, Woolley said the company that maintains the senator's site had e-mailed Milonic to begin the registration process. Woolley said the code added to Hatch's site after the issue came to light met some -- but not all -- of Milonic's licensing requirements. 

Before the site was updated, the source code on Hatch's site contained the line: "* i am the license for the menu (duh) *" 

Woolley said he had no idea where the line came from -- it has nothing to do with him, and he hadn't seen it on other websites that use his menu system. 

"It looks like it's trying to cover something up, as though they got a license," he said. 

A spokesman in Hatch's office on Wednesday responded, "That's ironic" before declining to put Wired News in contact with the site's webmaster. He deferred comment on the senator's statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which did not return calls. 

The apparent violation was discovered by Laurence Simon, an unemployed system administrator from Houston, who was poking around Hatch's site after becoming outraged by his comments. 

Milonic's Woolley said the senator's unlicensed use of his software was just "the tip of the iceberg." He said he knows of at least two other senators using unlicensed copies of his software, and many big companies. 

Continental Airlines, for example, one of the largest airlines in the United States, uses Woolley's system throughout its Continental.com website. Woolley said the airline has not paid for the software. Worse, the copyright notices in the source code have been removed. 

"That really pisses me off," he said. 

A spokesman for Continental said the airline would look into the matter. 

Woolley makes his living from his software. Like a lot of independent programmers, he struggles to get people to conform to his licensing terms, let alone pay for his software. 

"We don't want blood," he said. "We just want payment for the hard work we do. We work very, very hard. If they're not prepared to pay, they're software pirates." 
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USA Today
Net presidential primary facing allegations of vote-rigging

WASHINGTON (AP)  More than a million Internet users will be invited to vote in a virtual Democratic primary next week, but this most modern of elections is facing age-old allegations of vote-rigging. 
Howard Dean, who has built an extensive network of Internet-savvy supporters, is expected to get the most votes in the MoveOn.org primary. Organizers of the site say any advantage for the former Vermont governor is due to his appeal among their members, and not any misdeeds in their process or because one of their employees worked on his campaign. 

The primary begins Tuesday and voting runs for 48 hours. If one candidate gets more than 50%, MoveOn will endorse the campaign and ask its 1.4 million members to donate. Last year, MoveOn members contributed $4.1 million to the congressional candidates highlighted on the site, said Wes Boyd, one of two former Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who started it five years ago. 

The Democratic presidential campaigns have sent e-mail messages to their supporters, asking them to register at MoveOn and vote. 

Officials in Dick Gephardt's campaign said they were surprised when their supporters who registered got an e-mail encouraging them to vote for Dean. Gephardt's team considered pulling out of the primary but decided to stay in with reservations. 

"We are not going to change our participation at this point, but we are concerned that the process seems to be rigged," said Erik Smith, a spokesman for the presidential campaign of the Missouri lawmaker. "We think there is a legitimate role for MoveOn to organize grass-roots support for candidates, but we are worried that it appears they are playing favorites." 

Boyd said everyone registered on the site got the Dean e-mail Wednesday because he finished in the top three in a poll conducted by the campaign last month. The other top finishers also got to send a message  Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry's was sent Thursday; Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich will send his Friday. 

Other campaigns have written pitches that are posted on MoveOn, but not e-mailed to its members. The messages are a reward for finishing at the top of the poll, and the other campaigns were told that they would be sent in a memo describing the endorsement process, Boyd said. 

"You want to give everyone a soap box, but different size soap boxes in a sense," Boyd said. 

Still, other rival campaigns say Dean has the clear advantage. They point out that one of MoveOn's employees, Zack Exley, recently took a leave of absence for two weeks and two days when he was paid to work on organizing Dean's Web site. 

"We're participating and we think that we've gotten a good response from our supporters but, given the group's involvement with other candidates early on, we won't be shocked to see the results go another way," said Jennifer Palmieri, spokeswoman for North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. 

Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi say Exley was hired because he admires MoveOn's ability to organize so many activists over the web and wanted to learn about his ideas. Boyd said he would give Exley a leave if other campaigns also wanted to tap his expertise. 

Trippi said Dean's rivals know they aren't going to win the primary and are only asking their supporters to vote to keep Dean from getting a majority of the votes. 

"We're going to do everything we can, but I think it will be a minor miracle to get to 50% with all these candidates in here," he said. 

MoveOn is located at www.moveon.org. 
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Government Computer News
06/19/03 

International tech tests assess interoperability 

By Vandana Sinha 
GCN Staff

The annual Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration began this week, focusing on command, control, communications and computer systems in more than 45 tests of emerging technologies worldwide. 

The demonstrations, which began Monday and will last through June 26, include the testing of secure data exchange across several domains, such as Defense Department agencies and foreign parties such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and NATO. 

Participants will trade simulated military information over the Combined Federated Battle Laboratories Network in interoperability trials around the world. The U.S. locations include the headquarters of the Pacific Command, Camp Smith, Hawaii; Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va.; Space and Naval Warfare Center in San Diego and Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass. 

Among the technologies military testers are gauging is a Web videoconferencing system called Click to Meet Conference Server from First Virtual Communications of Redwood City, Calif. 

The demonstration, organized by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense Information Systems Agency, this year focuses on six major areas: security, logistics, language translation tools, situational awareness, coalition network vulnerability assessment and core network services. 

?We must continue to field systems that are conceived and born interoperable,? said Rear Admiral Nancy E. Brown, the Joint Staff?s vice director of C4 systems. ?The military services are providing funding to allow warfighters to assess the technologies.? *******************************
Washington Post
FAA Commissions Safety Study of In-Air Cell Phones 
By Keith L. Alexander
Friday, June 20, 2003; Page E02 

A study commissioned by the Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Transport Association is intended to resolve a long-standing question: Do wireless telecommunications devices on commercial flights interfere with navigational equipment? 

The study, to be conducted by the nonprofit group RTCA , will investigate the effects of high-altitude communications from handheld computers, laptops and cell phones.

Experts say there is no proof that wireless devices interfere with navigation systems. David S. Watrous, president of RTCA, formerly known as the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics, said anecdotal evidence suggests that some pilots have had trouble with their equipment when passengers used wireless communications devices. 

"There's potential of interference from these devices, but no one has ever been able to corroborate that when you turn the electronic gizmo on, it will cause an airplane failure," Watrous said. 

The FAA and the Federal Communications Commission prohibit cell-phone use from the moment a plane's door is closed before takeoff to the time the plane arrives at a gate. All other wireless communication also is banned. The FCC is reviewing its guidelines, which are more than 15 years old, to account for changing technology. Passengers are permitted to use portable CD or DVD players and laptops without wireless modems after takeoff. 

Passengers and airlines are pressing for access to more extensive communications in the air. United Airlines this week became the nation's first carrier to offer travelers the ability to send and receive e-mail during domestic flights. The system, operated with Verizon Airfone, allows passengers to plug their laptops into seatback phones for $16. The phones already aboard planes have technology approved by the FAA that does not interfere with navigational systems.

Leo F. Mullin, chairman and chief executive of Delta Air Lines, said yesterday that airlines realize that passengers, especially frequent business travelers, want to use cell phones during flights. "If you're able to watch TV on planes, I'm sure it won't be long before you can use your cell phones," he said.

The study group is made up of executives from airlines, aircraft manufacturers and makers of wireless devices. Representatives of cell-phone companies such as Verizon also are participating. The group met for the first time last month and plans to meet again July 22 to 24 at the RTCA's downtown headquarters. The study is scheduled for completion by October 2005.

An FCC study in 2000 found that cell-phone use aboard aircraft increases the number of blocked or dropped calls on the ground. That's because at high altitude, cellular signals are spread across several base stations, preventing other callers within range of those base stations from using the same frequencies.

If the study determines exactly what causes the trouble, the study's authors hope that cell-phone manufacturers could make phones that alleviate the problem.

Such phones may not be far off, said Michael Kuhn, director of marketing for Verizon's Airfone. "The end goal is for someone to use their own handset," he said. "We are very focused on bringing those wireless services to the aircraft." 
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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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Federal Computer Week
CAPPS II faces scrutiny before funding
BY Randall Edwards 
June 19, 2003  

An amendment to the Homeland Security appropriations bill calls for much stricter review of the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System II (CAPPS II) before funding is approved.

The House Appropriations Committee voted June 17 to withhold fiscal 2004 funding for CAPPS II, pending a review by the General Accounting Office.

The amendment, spearheaded by Rep. Martin Olav Sabo (D-Minn.), also directs the National Academy of Sciences to study the system's effects on passengers' privacy and civil liberties.

Sabo offered the new provisions during the full committee markup of a fiscal 2004 House appropriations bill that allots $29.4 billion to the Homeland Security Department. CAPPS II falls under the direction of DHS' Transportation Security Administration.

In a press release, Sabo described CAPPS II as "potentially the largest ever intrusion of the federal government into our personal lives."

CAPPS II would seek to verify passenger identity based on four pieces of personal information: name, address, phone number and date of birth.

Although the CAPPS II proposal involves deleting this information after each flight, the possibility of mislabeling individual passengers as potential terrorist threats is a prominent concern of privacy advocates.

"I am very concerned about a federal agency mining sensitive personal data for this common event," Sabo said. "Additionally, I am not confident that CAPPS II databases would be well-protected from hackers, or that law-abiding citizens who are mistakenly 'flagged' by the system will have an adequate means to correct erroneous records."

Sabo also expressed concern about TSA's record of mismanagement. "The agency that cannot even properly perform background checks on the people it hires to screen us seeks to profile personal information of every air passenger," Sabo said. "We should proceed very carefully."

The call for review comes just days before the expected TSA release of a revised privacy policy for CAPPS II. That much-anticipated Privacy Act notice will soon be published in the Federal Register.

Provisions of the Sabo amendment:

* Provide a system for passengers to correct information and appeal mislabelings.

* Ensure that the underlying error rate of government and private databases used in the program will not produce a large number of mislabelings.

* Ensure that TSA has stress-tested and demonstrated the efficacy and accuracy of CAPPS II search tools.

* Require the secretary of Homeland Security to establish an internal oversight board to monitor the development of CAPPS II.

* Ensure that TSA has built in operational safeguards.

* Ensure that security measure against hackers or other intruders are in place.

* Require TSA to adopt policies establishing effective oversight of the use and operation of the system.

* Ensure that there are no specific privacy concerns with the technological architecture of the system.
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Federal Computer Week
Wireless security entangles HIPAA
BY Dibya Sarkar 
June 18, 2003

Although most health organizations still have another 22 months to comply with new federal security standards, securing wireless networks may pose a problem as they near the deadline.

"There are so many security issues around wireless and the [security] rule gives you no substantial guidance on how to secure wireless," said Marne Gordon, director of regulatory affairs at TruSecure Corp., referring to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 guidelines on security. 

HIPAA, as it's known, is a far-reaching federal law that, among other things, is supposed to strengthen privacy procedures involving personal patient health and medical information, simplify administrative codes and standards for electronic data interchange and improve security of networks handling such data. 

"Privacy is all about the rights to use information and how information is used. Security is about how to protect the confidentiality, availability and integrity of the information," said W. Holt Anderson, executive director of the North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance Inc., a nonprofit consortium of public- and private-sector groups working on HIPAA issues.

"The really hot buttons in security right now are secure e-mail and wireless. So we'll be spending a lot of time in the next couple of years as the security regulation gets ready for April 2005. But it's really kicking into gear now because people need some of the security measures to implement privacy and they're still implementing those," he said, adding the consortium has developed a gap analysis tool for security. 

The final published security rule was issued in February and does not provide specific solutions to affected health care agencies because they are varied in terms of their technology.

Gordon, whose company provides consulting on HIPAA-related practices, said wireless wasn't even a factor when standards were being considered several years ago.

"I know a lot of doctors in their own hospitals are looking to see what steps wireless can save them. There are so many security issues around wireless and the rule gives you no substantial guidance on how to secure wireless. A lot of organizations are looking for 'How do I secure that,' because that's the weakest link," she said.

Aldona Valicenti, chief information officer for Kentucky, said states also have to consider whether their cybersecurity measures will be compliant with what they need to do for HIPAA.

"You've got to understand we're making security investments now," she said. "What I think we don't want to happen is make security investments now that are inappropriate. 

"So that's really sort of our challenge right now," she continued. "We are in a very depressed fiscal situation, we're going to lose workers or positions or both, and we have a continued requirement to. . .beef our security up, make sure that we're compliant, make sure we deal with homeland security, and by the way, what we're doing is going to comply with HIPAA."
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Federal Computer Week
CAPPS II privacy notice revised
BY Randall Edwards 
June 17, 2003

The Homeland Security Department this week issued a revised privacy policy for its controversial computer system that combs databases to assess the risk posed by individual airline passengers, a senior official with the Transportation Security Agency said.

The new privacy announcement for the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS) II will be published in the Federal Register by the end of the week, said Carol DiBattiste, TSA's chief of staff.

"CAPPS II is going to be moving forward with some very aggressive time lines," DiBattiste said.

She did not elaborate on what would be included in the CAPPS II privacy policy, but she did defend the passenger screening system.

CAPPS II is "one of the most promising opportunities that we're using to improve the efficiency and effectiveness in aviation security," DiBattiste said today during a presentation at a forum in Reston, Va., sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association.

Although CAPPS II has come under fire from privacy advocates, she praised the program for its effectiveness. "It will conduct far more effective authentication of traveler identity and improve security through a much more robust risk assessment process," she said.

DiBattiste also praised TSA's efforts, and emphasized a need for the government to work with the private sector to institute innovative technology. "Innovation is one of our core values. TSA should continue to embrace open communication with our private-sector partners," she said. "It's not just a federal challenge. It's an American challenge, which will require a whole new way of approaching information gathering and analysis, threat assessment, risk management, response, and restoration."

While speaking of TSA's accomplishments, DiBattiste reported that more than "4.8 million dangerous items have been identified, intercepted and kept off aircraft," including more than 1,100 firearms, nearly 1.4 million knives and almost 40,000 box cutters.

"I think we have made a difference," she said. "Do we need to do more? Yes. Is our nation more secure than it was on Sept. 11, [2001]? Yes. But it's a journey, and we're definitely not where we need to be."

According to David Sobel, general cousel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, "The first thing that would be an obvious improvement is if this notice specifically addresses CAPPS II."

EPIC filed a federal Freedom of Information Act lawsuit June 11, alleging that TSA had not complied with requests for details about the program. 

Sobel noted that "a big problem has been providing a process for challenging erroneous designations" and offering people an course of action if they are wrongly identified as a threat.
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Federal Computer Week
DHS systems working to stop contraband
BY Judi Hasson 
June 19, 2003


The Homeland Security Department is seeing success in stopping potential acts of terrorism, thanks in part to systems put in place to check cargo before it leaves foreign ports, officials said June 18.

Brian Goebel, senior adviser at the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, said the United States is succeeding in pushing its borders away from its shoreline and checking for potential terrorist contraband thousands of miles away.

And with increased surveillance of cargo containers at foreign ports, "we are in fact making seizures overseas," said Goebel, speaking at the Homeland Security Financing Briefing, sponsored by BearingPoint Inc. at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Although Goebel declined to provide details, he did say that machine guns and gas masks were seized by law enforcement. He did not say where, but he did say, "The program is succeeding."

The agency, which is part of DHS, has implemented procedures designed to toughen inspections of cargo containers at foreign ports. The new policy requires 24 hours advance notice of cargo manifests before a shipment leaves a U.S. port. 

Another program makes it easier for shipping companies to get their goods into the United States more quickly if they guarantee the security of their cargo. More than 3,000 U.S. companies participate in the project, and officials plan to expand it to foreign carriers soon.

"You need to appreciate that [the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection] has a dual mission -- homeland security and not choking off trade," said Andrew Maner, director of the agency's transition management office, who also spoke at the conference.

Last week, DHS announced that Homeland Security agents and Royal Thai Police arrested a suspect in Thailand involved in the potential sale of enriched or weapons-grade uranium that could be used in a weapon of mass destruction.

"We're just in the beginning stages of knowing how to protect the American people," said Rep. Jim Turner (D-Texas), who spoke at another homeland security conference June 18, sponsored by George Mason University.
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Federal Computer Week
FBI's threat center role criticized
BY Sara Michael 
June 19, 2003

Lawmakers on June 18 criticized the direction of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, questioning the FBI's role in what is intended to be an independent center.

The center, which started in March, brought together analysts from several agencies including the FBI, the CIA and the Homeland Security Department. The center reports to the CIA director and is housed temporarily in CIA headquarters.

"I thought TTIC was going to be set up to be a totally independent and coordinated effort," Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) told FBI director Robert Mueller at a hearing of a House Appropriations subcommittee.

"This is a CIA operation and not an FBI operation," continued Wolf, the chairman of the Subcommittee on the Departments of Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary. "You are not an equal partner."

Mueller defended the bureau's role, saying the center is responsible for analysis rather than operational procedures, such as information gathering and investigations. He said he would be concerned if the center had investigative duties and that a centralized analytical hub is necessary in efforts against terrorism.

"I do believe it's in the best interest of the country to have a single analytical capability," Mueller said. "So long as it does that, and doesn't engage in operational capabilities, than I am comfortable."

Wolf criticized Mueller and other officials for not detailing the lines of responsibility and duty in the center. "Somebody has to say, 'this is the way it is,'" he told Mueller.

Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) echoed concerns about the center and the ability for several agencies to share information.

"I have my real doubts that the occupants of TTIC will really share information that's gathered by the respective organizations," Rogers said. "I pray I'm wrong. That's the only place they can get this kind of information, so we're betting everything on a working TTIC. I hope it's the real thing."

Mueller told lawmakers that since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, agencies have gained an increased understanding of the need to share information, and that capacity continues to improve as technology within the individual agencies improves.
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Government Computer News
Sentel to build jam-resistant battlefield radio system 
By Dawn S. Onley 

The Office of Naval Research has chosen Sentel Corp. of Alexandria, Va., to help sailors and soldiers on the battlefield communicate with fewer radio antennas across radio frequency bands. 

Under a three-year, $850,000 contract awarded by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, Sentel will develop a multifunctional communications system that would use fewer antennas than the Navy and Army now employ, company officials said. The system also must reduce the chances of interference. 

Sentel?s task is to develop ultra-high-frequency band radio system that can operate simultaneously with very-high-frequency models without interference. 

?Considering the proliferation of wireless telecommunications and declining usable electromagnetic spectrum, this would allow the military to operate multiple radio frequencies in peacetime and on future battlefields,? said James F. Garrett, Sentel president and chief executive officer, in a company statement. 

?The technology makes it harder for hostile forces to track and jam radios in a frequency-hopping transmitter system. It also increases the bandwidth available to the warfighterimportant in today?s digital battlefield environment,? Garrett said. 

Sentel previously worked for the Navy to reduce radio-frequency problems at sea. The company and SPAWAR codeveloped the Comb Limiter-Comb Linear Amplifier Combiner prototype, known as CLIC-CLAC, which lets more frequency-hopping radios operate in an area without interference.
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Government Executive
June 17, 2003 
Ex-IBM executive leads FBI technology overhaul 
By Bara Vaida, National Journal's Technology Daily 

During Wednesday's House Appropriations subcommittee hearing examining the FBI's reorganization effort, bureau Director Robert Mueller's technology expert will sit right behind him poised to offer advice on any questions about the FBI's information technology overhaul.

Wilson Lowery, a former IBM executive who came to the FBI in July 2002 because he "wanted to do something to help" after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, has been implementing the largest IT reengineering effort in the agency's history, including linking 22,000 agency computers into a single network. 

"This has been the best year of my life. True statement," Lowery said in an interview last week with National Journal Group reporters. Lowery retired from IBM in 1989 after 30 years at the company, most recently as head of IBM's credit division. But after the terrorist attacks, he emerged from retirement at the request of Mueller, who assured him that changing the FBI's technology systems was a top priority. 

"He said, 'If we don't change the way this organization operates and reengineer it from top to bottom, there will be no FBI as we know it today,' " Lowery recounted Mueller saying last April. At the time, many FBI agents had no access to laptop computers and were not connected to each other or to the main office in Washington.

After Lowery joined the FBI in July 2002, he implemented 40 reengineering projects, including an update of the Trilogy programthe FBI's $595 million computer upgrade.

Even before Lowery joined the FBI, Mueller had identified existing problems with the software interface application that was to be implemented in Trilogy. Mueller scrapped that application and restarted with a new one called the "virtual case file."

Lowery said his team then realized that Trilogy needed better encryption and a satellite backup system to ensure that the computer network would run in the event of a disruption, and that the FBI had created 66 regional joint ant-terrorism task forces that needed to be added to the network.

The extra costs resulted in the Trilogy program overrunning its congressionally authorized budget by $138 million, causing criticism by some lawmakers earlier this year. 

"A cost overrun is technically not [a] true" way to characterize the price tag of Trilogy, Lowery said. "It is true that it is costing that amount of money more, but we are getting a lot more for it, which includes more locations, more capabilities and a total redesign of the software package." 

The initial implementation of the Trilogy network was completed as of March 28, and a central network-operations center is almost complete. The virtual case file, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year, enables agents and analysts to input data into computers and then provides analytical tools. 

Lowery said Mueller will outline these successes at the Wednesday hearing and that the National Academy of Public Administration, which has an ongoing study on the success of the FBI's reorganization, is expected to provide a favorable report on the agency's progress. 
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Government Executive
June 17, 2003 
House committee orders study of passenger screening system 
By Molly M. Peterson, National Journal's Technology Daily 

The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday voted to withhold fiscal 2004 funds for controversial plans to update a computer system for screening airline passengers pending a review of the system's potential effectiveness, accuracy and impact on travelers' civil liberties.

"This is a very complicated new system," Minnesota Democrat Martin Olav Sabo said of the Computer Assisted Passenger Pre-screening System II (CAPPS II), which would screen airline passengers' data from various sources and check it against a "no fly" list of suspected terrorists.

Raising concerns that the system could be overly intrusive and mistakenly "red flag" law-abiding travelers, Sabo offered the new CAPPS II provisions during the panel's consideration of a $29.4 billion spending bill for the Homeland Security Department. The Transportation Security Administration within the department is overseeing the CAPPS II effort. 

The spending package recommends that TSA spend $1.7 billion on passenger-screening activities, including $35 million for CAPPS II. But Sabo's amendment, which the panel adopted by voice vote, would require the General Accounting Office to extensively review CAPPS II before any of those funds could be spent.

For example, GAO would have to study whether CAPPS, drawing information from government and private databases, could mistakenly identify a significant number of passengers as potential terrorists. GAO also would have to determine that there are "no specific privacy concerns" raised by the technology before congressional appropriators could release the fiscal 2004 funds.

Kentucky Republican Harold Rogers, chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, supported Sabo's amendment but said its privacy language is "overly broad" and might have to be modified as the bill makes its way through Congress.

The amendment also would direct the National Academy of Sciences to provide Congress with recommendations, by Dec. 31, 2003, of "practices, procedures, regulations or legislation" that could help ensure that CAPPS II does not adversely affect travelers' privacy and civil liberties. Rogers called the Dec. 31 deadline "unrealistic" and said it probably would have to be modified to give the academy more time to study the CAPPS II system. 
*******************************


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Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber:

Welcome to the May 28, 2003 edition of ACM TechNews,
providing timely information for IT professionals three times a
week.  For instructions on how to unsubscribe from this
service, please see below.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 500
Date: May 28, 2003

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Top Stories for Wednesday, May 28, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"American Spam Is Flooding Europe"
"College Plans Virus-Writing Course"
"Legal Threat Rocks Linux"
"From PlayStation to Supercomputer for $50,000"
"U.S. Launches Drive to Regain Top Spot in Supercomputing"
"Big Changes for Search Engines"
"Antispam Law Likely"
"Group Moves to Boost Women in IT"
"Fretting Over U.S. Data Collection"
"Testing With the Mess of Reality"
"Companies Pare Down UWB Proposals"
"Guess Who's Smarter."
"Q&A With Dan Reed"
"MIT Gives Peek at Future Tech"
"How to Unclog the Information Artery"
"Predictions for Software Development and Web Services"
"Going For the Wireless Gold"
"The Wi-Fi Revolution"
"Building a Standard"

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

"American Spam Is Flooding Europe"
Experts claim that most of the unsolicited commercial email
swamping European ISPs originates in the United States, and
partially blame disparate enforcement policies and lenient
penalties for spam's proliferation.  Anti-spam enforcement is the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item1

"College Plans Virus-Writing Course"
Canada's University of Calgary is courting controversy by
offering fourth-year students a course in which they will write
and test computer viruses, starting in Fall 2003.  Calgary's Ken
Barker says such a class is a valuable tool for gaining insight ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item2

"Legal Threat Rocks Linux"
SCO Group sent a letter to Fortune 1,000 companies and 500 other
global enterprises on May 12, warning them that they could be
subject to legal action for using the Linux open-source operating
system, which allegedly incorporates copyrighted software ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item3

"From PlayStation to Supercomputer for $50,000"
A supercomputer that may be able to perform a half-trillion
operations per second has been built out of 70 Sony PlayStation 2
consoles for around $50,000 by researchers at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's National Center for Supercomputing ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item4

"U.S. Launches Drive to Regain Top Spot in Supercomputing"
Spurred by Japan's Earth Simulator stealing the fastest
supercomputer crown from the United States last year, President
Bush has established the High-End Computing Revitalization
Taskforce to put the country back on top.  A lagging American ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item5

"Big Changes for Search Engines"
Near-future search engines will be intelligent, quick, and
tailored to the requirements of individual users, if papers
presented at the 12th International World Wide Web Conference in
Budapest are any indication.  This transformation will be spurred ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item6

"Antispam Law Likely"
A slew of antispam bills are currently before Congress, and some
form of antispam legislation is expected to pass this year, but
eight antispam and consumer groups have sent a letter to four
congressional committees arguing that the bills under ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item7

"Group Moves to Boost Women in IT"
The Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) is attempting
to interest high-school girls in IT and reform the field's
stereotypical geeky image through a new "ambassador" program that
strives to provide young women with role models they can look up ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item8

"Fretting Over U.S. Data Collection"
The Pentagon issued a report last week detailing its Terrorist
Information Awareness (TIA) program, in which numerous databases
about citizens' personal transactions would be mined to find
indications of terrorist activity.  The point of the report was ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item9

"Testing With the Mess of Reality"
Duke University assistant professor of computer science Amin M.
Vahdat is nearly ready to release the source code for an Internet
software testing framework called ModelNet.  The system allows
users to simulate realistic Internet conditions and see if their ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item10

"Companies Pare Down UWB Proposals"
Twenty-three proposals for a new ultrawideband (UWB) standard
were submitted at a March meeting of the IEEE, the majority of
which favored a multiband-based model in which UWB's 7.5 GHz
spectrum apportionment would be split into smaller bands of  ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item11

"Guess Who's Smarter."
Artificial intelligence is producing tangible benefits in
specific applications, but the technology is still far away from
computers that understand the world as well as a human
three-year-old, according to MIT graduate student Push Singh.  He ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item12

"Q&A With Dan Reed"
Dan Reed of the University of Illinois at Champaign's National
Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) says the center's
mission to devise enabling technologies for the science and
engineering sectors is being extended to the arts arena.  For ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item13

"MIT Gives Peek at Future Tech"
MIT alumni, faculty, and students celebrated the centennial of
the institute's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
department on May 16, where speakers addressed the need to keep
pace with technological changes and cited the academy's progress ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item14

"How to Unclog the Information Artery"
The growing headache of spam has prompted proposals to rigorously
control it, some of which aim to be effective without repressing
the libertarian spirit of the Internet.  Hans Peter Brondmo of
Digital Impact advocates Project Lumos, which requires mass ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item15

"Predictions for Software Development and Web Services"
Experts are making diverse forecasts about what trends in Web
services and software development will emerge over the next five
to 10 years.  John Radko of Global Exchange Services predicts
that corporate budgets for internal and external IT will equalize ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item16

"Going For the Wireless Gold"
Chip manufacturers plan to capture a piece of the projected
market for cellular handsets that communicate over high-speed
wireless networks through the development of powerful yet energy
efficient processors.  Such chips are expected to support devices ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item17

"The Wi-Fi Revolution"
At the vanguard of the open spectrum movement is wireless
fidelity (Wi-Fi), a cheap, powerful, and viable way to access
broadband Internet that has emerged as one of the most rapidly
expanding electronics technologies of all time.  Wi-Fi, which is ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item18

"Building a Standard"
Section 508 mandates that federal agencies purchase enablement
technologies for the disabled, and since its passage almost two
years ago over a dozen U.S. states have adapted Section 508 to
their policies.  Industry leaders and accessibility proponents ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0528w.html#item19

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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