ACM TechNews - Friday, March 14, 2003

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ACM TechNews
Volume 5, Number 469
Date: March 14, 2003

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Top Stories for Friday, March 14, 2003:
http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html

"Spam's Cost To Business Escalates"
"Tech Wars: P-to-P Friends, Foes Struggle"
"Does File Trading Fund Terrorism?"
"Carbon Chips Net Step Post-Silicon, Says Scientist"
"Social Software and the Politics of Groups"
"Who Cares About the Fastest Internet Ever?"
"Yaha Virus Uses Netizens as Pawns"
"Twins Crack Face Recognition Puzzle"
"Recognizing the Dance on the Dotted Line"
"Two Programmers Speculate on the Future of Software Development"
"Military's 'Sneaky Wave' Out of Hiding"
"Gadget Accessibility Slowly Spreading"
"Alliance to Certify, Publicize Public Wireless Access Zones"
"'Snow Days' Could Take Down Net"
"Thousands 'Trojaned' Through Net Shares: CERT"
"Thinking Outside the ICANN Box: Creating a Prototype Based on
 Internet Experience--Part II"
"Goal Oriented"
"Flaws Put Open Source on Hot Seat"
"Nano's Balancing Act"

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

"Spam's Cost To Business Escalates"
The war is raging between purveyors of unsolicited commercial
email (spam) and the various legislative, industry, and consumer
groups that want to stamp it out, and the spammers appear to have
the upper hand:  Ferris Research estimates that spam-related ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item1

"Tech Wars: P-to-P Friends, Foes Struggle"
The government and the U.S. entertainment industry are trying to
stop unlawful file-sharing through peer-to-peer (P2P) networks by
applying pressure on academic institutions and large companies
where such practices are rampant.  However, attempts to do ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item2

"Does File Trading Fund Terrorism?"
Although witnesses and representatives at the U.S. House
Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and
Intellectual Property hearing on Thursday testified that profits
from illegal file-trading via peer-to-peer services were being ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item3

"Carbon Chips Net Step Post-Silicon, Says Scientist"
IBM's Phaedon Avouris is working on carbon nanotube replacements
to today's silicon computer chip technology.  Besides the
physical limitations ever-shrinking silicon-based chips will face
in 10 years, Avouris points out that the advanced chip-making ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item4

"Social Software and the Politics of Groups"
Thanks to the advent of the Internet and social software that
facilitates group communications, large numbers of people can now
converse with each other without being inconvenienced by
conventional barriers of physical location and time.  This in ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item5

"Who Cares About the Fastest Internet Ever?"
Last week's announcement that Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC)
researchers had successfully transmitted 6.7 billion bytes across
10,000 kilometers at a rate of 1 Gbps, thus achieving a new
Internet land-speed record, may have been less than ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item6

"Yaha Virus Uses Netizens as Pawns"
An Internet battle between Pakistani and Indian hacker groups
threatens regular users, but corporations are unlikely to be
affected.  On March 12, the Indian Snakes hacker group released
the Yaha.Q version of their email worm, which organizes ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item7

"Twins Crack Face Recognition Puzzle"
International security may be revolutionized by a new face
recognition technology developed by students Michael and
Alex Bronstein.  The Bronsteins, who are identical twins, were
jokingly challenged by Technion Institute professor Ron Kimmel to ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item8

"Recognizing the Dance on the Dotted Line"
Shoppers may no longer have to carry debit or credit cards while
identity thieves and forgers could be thwarted with the advent of
biometric handwriting recognition technology, according to
advocates.  Biometric handwriting systems do not analyze the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item9

"Two Programmers Speculate on the Future of Software Development"
The next five years for the software development industry will
see an increasing amount of work being done offshore, in places
such as India where costs are cheaper, according to former CNet
developers Dan Seewer and Kevin Cobb.  Cobb said software ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item10

"Military's 'Sneaky Wave' Out of Hiding"
The IEEE is studying proposals from Philips, Texas Instruments, and other
wireless-networking companies to decide which technology will be
used for 802.15.3a, a wireless personal area network (WPAN)
specification designed to compete with the highly popular ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item11

"Gadget Accessibility Slowly Spreading"
Spurred by government mandates as well as the drive to make
money, technology companies are now working harder to make
computers, Web sites, and other forms of communications
technology accessible to people with disabilities.  Among the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item12

"Alliance to Certify, Publicize Public Wireless Access Zones"
The Wi-Fi Alliance trade group, which includes such members as
Microsoft, Dell, Intel, Nokia, Philips, and Texas Instruments,
plans to make people more aware of the Wi-Fi wireless networking
standard in two ways.  First, the group wants to give a "seal of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item13

"'Snow Days' Could Take Down Net"
To stay abreast of ever-changing network security threats and
protective measures, many tech security managers attend the
annual SANS Institute security conference.  Major topics of this
year's meeting, held this week, focused on software holes that ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item14

"Thousands 'Trojaned' Through Net Shares: CERT"
A rise in network share-based attacks may foreshadow a massive
distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, according to a
warning issued by CERT/CC today.  The advisory asserts that
hackers have compiled an army of thousands of "zombie" systems ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item15

"Thinking Outside the ICANN Box: Creating a Prototype Based on
 Internet Experience--Part II"
A new proposal, "The Internet an International Public Treasure,"
contains an outline for researchers and participants to begin
developing a prototype of a workable Internet governing
structure.  The document addresses preparation and ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item16

"Goal Oriented"
Seagate Technologies and other large companies are turning to
online accountability systems as a way to maintain alignment
between corporate goals and employees' efforts.  In response to
worries that such systems could lead to an Orwellian model of ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item17

"Flaws Put Open Source on Hot Seat"
The disclosure of the SendMail and Snort security flaws last week
highlighted the problems of building and installing open-source
patches.  "With open source you really have a double-edged
sword," notes Dan Ingevaldson of Internet Security Systems, the ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item18

"Nano's Balancing Act"
A growing movement of activists, academics, and business leaders
is trying to strike a balance between nanotechnology's potential
benefits and its hazards through such organizations as Rice
University's Center for Biological and Environmental ...
http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item19


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