Clips February 12, 2004

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips February 12,
2004

ARTICLES

Report Warns of Airline Security Shortcomings
Commerce Department Issues Security Standard 
CA PUC to Look Into Regulating Net Telephony
Mayors want more direct homeland security funding
3 Expected to Face Charges of Illegally Copying Movie Prints
CIA Posts Web Site Notice Seeking Iraq WMD Info
Computer Probe Inflames Activists 
H-1B visa cap could be reached within a week
Makers Scramble To Put Some Bend In 'Electric Paper' 

*******************************
Los Angeles Times
Report Warns of Airline Security Shortcomings
The General Accounting Office reports that CAPPS II, meant to flag
potential terrorists, has problems with privacy and technical
reliability.
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
February 12, 2004
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-na-profiling12feb12,1,3293045.story?coll=la-headlines-technology

WASHINGTON 
A computer system being developed by the government to flag potential
terrorists from among millions of airline passengers has run into
"significant challenges" that pose "major risks" to
its deployment and public acceptance, congressional investigators warn in
a new report.

The Transportation Security Administration has not resolved a number of
issues, among them the rights of wrongly accused travelers and the
system's basic technical reliability, the General Accounting Office
concluded after a four-month investigation.

"Uncertainties surrounding the system's future functionality and
schedule alone result in the potential that the system may not meet
expected requirements, may experience delayed deployment, and may incur
increased costs," GAO investigators wrote in a report requested by
the congressional committees that oversee transportation.

The Times obtained a draft of the report, which is scheduled for release
Friday. A spokesman for the transportation agency was not available for
comment. 

Criticism from the nonpartisan GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, is
likely to bolster the case of privacy advocates and other opponents of
the new system. However, it was unclear whether Congress would cancel the
project, which has strong support in the Bush administration and the
airline industry. 

Despite the problems it identified, the GAO concluded that such a system
"holds the promise of providing increased benefits." 

The new system, known as CAPPS II, would replace the Computer Assisted
Passenger Pre-Screening System administered by the airlines and based on
calculations about traveler behavior patterns.

Under CAPPS II, passengers would provide their names, birth dates, home
addresses and phone numbers when making reservations. That information
would be transmitted to government contractors, who would check
commercial databases to verify identity. The government would then check
the passenger against national security and law enforcement watch lists
of more than 100,000 suspects.

Each traveler would receive a risk rating  green, yellow or red. The
vast majority of travelers would be given a "low risk/green
light" rating and undergo routine airport screening. About 4% of
passengers would be rated "unknown risk/yellow light" and
receive closer screening, such as shoe checks and physical searches of
carry-on items. An average of only one or two people a day would be rated
"high risk/red light" and be stopped from boarding or
arrested.

Government officials have said that CAPPS II would greatly reduce the
number of people who must undergo intensive searches at airports, now
estimated to be 15% to 20% of travelers. But the GAO report found that
the agency has not adequately addressed seven of eight concerns raised by
Congress.

These include preventing abuses, protecting privacy, creating an appeals
process, assuring the accuracy of passenger data, testing the system,
preventing unauthorized access by hackers and setting out clear policies
for the system.

GAO investigators concluded that, though the agency was making advances
in all these areas, progress was incomplete. The agency has complied with
one congressional requirement, establishing an independent oversight
board.

The government has already committed more than $105 million to the
development of CAPPS II and had planned to start using the system this
year. But GAO investigators said the system seems far from
ready.

Part of the problem is that airlines have been unwilling to voluntarily
share passenger data that could be used to test the system. The
disclosure that some airlines had provided information to the government
without telling passengers has sparked a consumer backlash.

As a result, the agency has tested the system only with 32 simulated
passenger records created from itineraries of its staff and contractors.
"These 32 records are not a sufficient amount of data to conduct a
valid stress test of the system," the report said.

Many issues regarding consumer complaints remain unresolved. For
instance, the agency plans to give passengers access only to the
information they provide when making a reservation. "That raises
concerns that inaccurate personal information will remain uncorrected and
continue to be accessed by CAPPS II," the report said.

The agency has begun to develop an appeals process for wrongly accused
passengers, but important details remain unresolved. Travelers would be
able to take their complaints to a passenger advocate within the office
of the agency's ombudsman.

But because CAPPS II is designed to delete a passenger's information
shortly after the safe completion of a flight, it is unclear whether the
passenger advocate could do much good. Also unresolved is the level of
access the passenger advocate would have, and the process for correcting
information, some of which could be in secret databases.

Such concerns prompted House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San
Francisco) to write President Bush on Tuesday, seeking clearer
safeguards.

"We urge the adoption of a specific policy that makes clear the role
of the airlines in sharing consumer information with the federal
government," wrote Pelosi, joined by 23 other Democrats.

"First, we should anticipate a clear explanation as to the
boundaries of any information-sharing between the airlines and the
federal government. Second, consumers must be clearly informed at the
time they purchase their airline tickets as to how their personal
information will be used." 

The agency has already said that it would spell out the rules for
consumers before it began using CAPPS II.

Congress required the GAO report last fall as a condition for further
funding of CAPPS II. The numerous concerns raised by investigators are
certain to invite closer congressional oversight and supervision, and may
delay the start of the program by a year or more.
*******************************
InformationWeek
Commerce Department Issues Security Standard 
The standard will change how government agencies protect
information.
By Eric Chabrow 
Feb. 11, 2004 
URL:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17603228

The Commerce
Department on Wednesday issued a new standard to help federal agencies
secure their computer networks, introducing significant changes in how
the government protects information. 

The mandatory standard includes criteria to be used by non-national
security agencies in categorizing information and IT systems and
providing suitable levels of security according to a series of impact
levels. Under the standard, agencies will assess the potential impact on
their missions that would result from a security breach because of
unauthorized disclosure or modification of information and denial of
service. 
*******************************
Los Angeles Times
PUC to Look Into Regulating Net Telephony
By James S. Granelli
February 12, 2004
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-voip12feb12,1,250598.story?coll=la-headlines-technology

California
regulators agreed Wednesday to investigate whether companies using
Internet technology to handle phone calls should be regulated  and,
if so, with how heavy a hand.

The Public Utilities Commission's unanimous vote mirrors efforts at the
Federal Communications Commission, which is expected today to launch a
similar look at the growing use of voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP,
which sends voice signals much like e-mail over data networks.

A number of small companies like Vonage Holdings Corp. in Edison, N.J.,
are offering VoIP telephone services over high-speed DSL or cable modem
lines, and the major regional and national telecommunications companies
also said they expected to start offering consumer service this
year.

Voice-over-IP telephony has grown quickly in an unregulated market as an
information service not subject to telecommunications rules. 

The service avoids taxes and surcharges, including a universal service
contribution to help pay for service to rural and poorer residents, and
does not ensure such public safety capabilities as automatic address
identification on 911 emergency calls. 

Commissioners of both the FCC and the state PUC have said they didn't
want to stifle VoIP growth with a heavy regulatory hand, but they thought
the public safety issues ought to be addressed.

"This starts us on the formal path to determining the appropriate
regulation of voice-over-IP telephony," said PUC member Loretta
Lynch.

Commissioner Susan P. Kennedy said she was glad the state was moving
forward and not waiting for the FCC to act. 

"California should be a leader in this and help define the debate
and the role of voice over IP," she said.

VoIP service is provided in a number of ways. Some companies, like Free
World Dialup in New York, allow members to talk to each other over the
Internet through their computers. Vonage requires a broadband Internet
connection to make a call, but the call can go to a regular telephone
customer. And bigger companies are looking at using IP-enabled lines to
carry voice traffic, but calls could start and end on the public
network.

California plans to look into 11 VoIP issues, including the effect on 911
service, the universal service fund, access payments for using the public
telephone network and basic consumer protection rules, such as customer
privacy and billing information.
*******************************
Government Executive
February 11, 2004 
Mayors want more direct homeland security funding 
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0204/021104c1.htm
By Chris Strohm
cstrohm@xxxxxxxxxxx

The federal government should bypass state bureaucracies and provide more
money directly to local cities so they can pay for homeland security
needs, the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Homeland Security
Task Force said Wednesday.


While the federal government has doled out billions of dollars for
military activities abroad, it has left an "unfunded local
mandate" for U.S. cities that are directly responsible for the
defense of its residents and infrastructure, said Baltimore Mayor Martin
O'Malley during a conference organized by the Homeland Security
Leadership Council.


"We would never think of sending the men and women of our armed
forces into Afghanistan or Iraq with radios that can't talk to each
other," O'Malley said. "We would spare no expense. We would
defer any tax cut to make sure that our soldiers abroad had the best
weapons they could get, the best technology we could supply them with and
the best protection for their lives that we could get
them."


O'Malley decried proposed cuts to homeland security first responder
programs in the Bush administration's fiscal year 2005 budget proposal
sent to Congress earlier this month. The budget reduces funding for
several grant programs, such as Citizen Corps, Fire Act Grants, state and
local training initiatives, training exercises, and technical assistance.
Overall, the amount of grant funding available to state and local
governments in the proposed budget drops by $805 million from fiscal year
2004.


O'Malley said the budget cuts state block grant programs from $1.7
billion to $750 million and firefighter assistance grants from $750
million to $500 million. Law enforcement terrorist prevention grants will
remain at $500 million.


According to O'Malley, the federal government has not indicated yet that
it will reimburse local cities for costs incurred when the nation was
elevated to code orange on the five-color threat advisory system last
December.


In January, the U.S. Conference of Mayors issued its second national
survey of 215 major cities showing that up to 90 percent of metropolitan
areas had not received any funding from the largest federal programs for
first responders.


Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told Congress this week that up to
$9 billion in grants awarded in previous years remains unspent, mainly
because states have yet to distribute it to cities and counties.


State government emergency management agencies are good at responding
after an attack, O'Malley said, but they are not the best at prevention,
preparedness, and intelligence gathering and dissemination. "For the
last couple of years since the attacks of Sept. 11, it's like one level
of government is speaking Chinese while the other one is speaking French
back to them," O'Malley said.


The Baltimore mayor acknowledged that some metropolitan areas are not yet
organized enough to handle a large infusion of funds, but they need more
than the federal government is now providing, especially in the form of
direct block grants.


O'Malley supports a new plan DHS submitted to Congress last month that
will overhaul the government's funding formula for state and local first
responders. If the plan is approved, DHS will provide grants to
geographic regions in the country based on population, infrastructure and
threats. These grants would be dispersed through the Urban Area Security
Initiative Grants program within the Office for Domestic
Preparedness.


O'Malley said every metropolitan area should have a local intelligence
network that enables agencies to gather and share information; a single
way for local law enforcement officers to access federal criminal and
terrorist watchlists; an integrated biosurvelliance system; a
comprehensive assessment of vulnerabilities; upgraded emergency response
plans; better training, equipment and inoculation for first responders;
and interoperable and redundant communications systems.


"If the progress in any war is measured by forward movement along
the front, I'm not sure that many of us in this room or in any city hall
can tell you we're satisfied with the progress we are making locally here
at home since Sept. 11," O'Malley said.
*******************************
Washington Post
Hastert Rebukes Bush Adviser 
Speaker Challenges Mankiw's Statements on U.S. Job Loss 
By Mike Allen
Thursday, February 12, 2004; Page A17 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35306-2004Feb12.html


House Speaker
J. Dennis Hastert (Ill.), one of the nation's highest-ranking
Republicans, rebuked the chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic
Advisers yesterday for calling the transfer of U.S. service jobs overseas
"just a new way to do international trade."

The chairman, N. Gregory Mankiw, a prominent Harvard economist, made the
comment Monday as he released the annual Economic Report of the
President. The report included a similar assertion, that "when a
good or service is produced more cheaply abroad, it makes more sense to
import it than make or provide it domestically."

The speaker's statement, headlined "Hastert Disagrees With
President's Economic Advisor On Outsourcing," reflected GOP concerns
that Bush's record on manufacturing jobs could be one of the party's
biggest vulnerabilities in November's elections.

"I understand that Mr. Mankiw is a brilliant economic theorist, but
his theory fails a basic test of real economics," Hastert said.
"We can't have a healthy economy unless we have more jobs here in
America."

White House press secretary Scott McClellan, asked if Bush might fire
Mankiw, called the idea "laughable . . . because our economic team
is doing a great job helping the president work to strengthen our economy
even more."

"The president is strongly committed to creating jobs here at
home," McClellan said. "Certainly, free and fair trade is
important to strengthening our economy even more and expanding job growth
here at home."

Mankiw released a statement that began: "Some of my recent comments
on outsourcing have been misinterpreted. It is regrettable whenever
anyone loses a job."

"Some would respond to the recent challenges facing the economy by
erecting trade barriers," he added. "History teaches that a
retreat to economic isolationism would mean lower living standards for
American workers and their families. At the same time, we have to
acknowledge that any economic change, whether arising from trade or
technology, can cause painful dislocations for some workers and their
families. The goal of policy should be to help workers prepare for the
global economy of the future."

Joe Lockhart, a Democratic consultant who was press secretary to
President Bill Clinton, predicted that Bush's opponents will put a lot of
money in advertising to draw attention to the statement.

"I guarantee you this document will become a central element of the
economic debate," he said.

Mankiw's comments referred to "outsourcing," or
"offshoring," which is sending service jobs to low-wage
countries, especially India, and manufacturing jobs to such countries as
Mexico, China and the Philippines. Most of the jobs involved are service
jobs, including radiology and call-center work such as computer support.
But many of the administration's critics pounced on the possible impact
on manufacturing employment.

"Whereas imported goods might arrive by ship, outsourced services
are often delivered using telephone lines or the Internet," the
report says. "The basic economic forces behind the transactions are
the same, however."

A chorus of Democrats preceded Hastert in condemning Mankiw's argument.
Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the front-runner for the Democratic
presidential nomination, said his "economic policy is not to export
American jobs, but to reward companies for creating and keeping good jobs
in America."

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was asked about Mankiw's comments
yesterday by Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.) at a House Financial Service
Committee hearing, but Greenspan said he had not read about
them.

The controversy is embarrassing for Bush, whose tax cuts have failed to
produce the job growth his administration had promised. Now, he is
traveling around the country promoting a six-point plan for job creation,
with stops planned in the electoral powerhouses of Pennsylvania today and
Florida on Monday.

Bush nominated Mankiw in February 2003 to succeed R. Glenn Hubbard, who
returned to Columbia University.
*******************************
Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-piracy12feb12,1,616300.story?coll=la-headlines-technology
3 Expected to
Face Charges of Illegally Copying Movie Prints
By Lorenza Muñoz
February 12, 2004

Federal authorities are expected to seek criminal charges against three
employees of a Los Angeles motion picture postproduction facility,
alleging that they illegally copied prints of movies such as "The
Passion of the Christ" and "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" that
eventually ended up on the Internet.

The U.S. attorney's office is expected to announce the charges at a news
conference this afternoon, sources said.

The federal criminal complaint, which the U.S. attorney's office expected
to file Wednesday, comes after a months-long FBI investigation into how
copies of Mel Gibson's "The Passion" and Quentin Tarantino's
"Kill Bill: Vol. 1" got onto the Internet. 

Sources said the complaint alleges that three employees of Lightning
Dubbs, which handles video and DVD duplication and Internet design for a
Hollywood clientele, illegally copied prints of the movies. The three men
were not accused of uploading material to the Internet or profiting from
the sale of pirated material. 

The FBI is investigating other postproduction facilities where thefts of
movies may be occurring. 

In recent months, federal authorities have stepped up enforcement of
copyright laws by going after people who have illegally copied prints of
movies.

A federal judge in September sentenced Kerry Gonzalez, a 24-year-old
insurance underwriter in New York, to six months of home confinement for
posting an unfinished pre-release version of the movie "The
Hulk" on the Internet. Gonzalez had obtained a copy of the film from
a friend who worked at a Manhattan advertising agency working on the
marketing campaign.

In November, Manuel Villareal pleaded guilty in federal court in Los
Angeles to making and selling a copy of "Austin Powers in
Goldmember" before the film's release last summer. He obtained the
print as an employee of Deluxe Laboratories, a postproduction and
duplication facility. 

The FBI and the U.S. attorney's office are pursuing piracy issues on four
fronts: illegal camcording of films at previews and other screenings,
theft of prints at postproduction facilities, copying of awards-season
screeners and uploading of movies to the Internet. 

In the case of "The Passion," Gibson's controversial upcoming
film about the last 12 hours of Jesus' life, an illegal copy ended up not
only on the Internet but also at the New York Post. 

In December, the newspaper published a story about obtaining a
"rough-cut version of the film" that was screened to a panel
made up of a rabbi, a priest, a professor of early Christianity, a Post
movie critic and a reader selected at random to gauge their
reactions.

Gibson's attorneys considered filing a civil action against the Post, and
the FBI immediately began an investigation. The newspaper returned a copy
to Gibson's representatives. George Hedges, Gibson's attorney, said that
at present there are no plans to sue the Post.

For several years the Motion Picture Assn. of America and studio chiefs
have lobbied Congress to pass stronger anti-piracy laws. In the last
year, federal law enforcement has dedicated squads of U.S. attorneys and
FBI agents solely to investigating copyright infringement.
*******************************
Internet Reports
CIA Posts Web Site Notice Seeking Iraq WMD Info
Wed Feb 11, 4:25 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1212&e=5&u=/nm/20040211/wr_nm/iraq_usa_reward_dc&sid=95573503

WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - The CIA (news - web sites) has gone public for information
about the still elusive weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (news - web
sites) by posting a notice on its Web site offering rewards. 



The "Iraqi Rewards Program" notice dated Tuesday seeks
"specific and verifiable information" on the location of stocks
of "recently made" chemical or biological weapons, missiles,
unmanned aerial vehicles or their components. 


U.S. intelligence agencies have been criticized for prewar estimates that
said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when none have been found
post-war. 


David Kay, who had led the U.S. hunt for banned weapons in Iraq until
stepping down last month, said he did not believe that large stockpiles
of chemical and biological weapons existed when the United States
invaded. 


The unspecified rewards were also offered for the location of chemical or
biological laboratories and factories; development, production and test
sites; and places where such materials were "secretly
disposed." 


The notice on
www.cia.gov says:
"The presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq puts at risk
the health and safety of all Iraqis. The U.S. Government offers rewards
to Iraqis who give specific and verifiable information that helps Iraqis
rid their country of these dangerous materials and devices."


People can respond on electronic forms in English or Arabic. The CIA said
they were secure and would protect the information and identity of the
sender. 


Rewards were also offered for former leaders of Saddam Hussein (news -
web sites)'s Baathist regime, including $10 million for information
leading to the capture of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam's former
lieutenant who is the highest-ranking official on the Pentagon (news -
web sites)'s top 55 most-wanted list still not found. 


The CIA asked for information about imminent attacks by "insurgents
or terrorists" and about individuals or groups obtaining explosives
and other weapons to use against coalition and Iraqi security forces,
schools, businesses and civilians. 


Information was also sought about any travel agencies, nongovernmental
organizations and front companies involved in providing documents and
helping "terrorists" travel to Iraq.
*******************************
Washington Post
Hatch vs. . . . Conservatives? 
Computer Probe Inflames Activists 
By Helen Dewar
Thursday, February 12, 2004; Page A35 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34465-2004Feb11.html

After three
years of bashing Senate Democrats for blocking President Bush's most
controversial judicial nominees, conservatives are turning fire on one of
their own: Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who has
led the fight for Bush's choices.

They are also upset at Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.),
although Hatch -- a conservative with an independent streak that
sometimes irritates other conservatives -- is clearly the main
target.

At issue is Hatch's role in triggering an investigation by Senate
Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle into whether Republican committee
staffers improperly -- and perhaps illegally -- accessed computer files
containing Democratic strategy memos on nominations and then leaked them
to sympathetic publications.

Several conservative activists have criticized Hatch, saying he should
lead an investigation into the contents of the Democratic memos rather
than focusing on what many of them characterize as legitimate activities
by GOP staffers. The memos, they say, demonstrate the influence liberal
interest groups have over Democratic strategy on judicial nominations and
may have crossed an ethical or legal line.

The conflict is unusual because Hatch has a conservative record,
including support for abortion restrictions. He took a leading role in
defending Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas during his tumultuous
confirmation hearings.

But many conservative activists object to his occasional teaming up with
Democrats such as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) on social issues
including children's health care, and they disagreed strongly with his
recent support for allowing medical research on cloned human embryos.

"There seems to be a pattern here: capitulation to Democratic
demands," said Kay Daly, president of the Coalition for a Fair
Judiciary, representing 75 conservative groups. Hatch has bent over
backward to accommodate Democrats on the committee without getting
anything in return, she suggested. "To be seen as capitulating
repeatedly is not something conservatives can stomach," she said,
and their reaction is "getting dangerously close to
thermonuclear."

"He has a congenital need to be loved by the opposition," said
Paul M. Weyrich, chairman of the Free Congress Foundation. "The best
thing you can say is that he tries to please all sides and ends up
pleasing none."

Conservative activists say Hatch's support for an investigation of
Republicans distresses party loyalists just as the 2004 election season
gets underway. "This is the sort of thing that demoralizes the
Republican base around the country, and it's very unfortunate," said
Gary Bauer, founder of American Values, a conservative public policy
group. 

Conservatives were particularly incensed when Hatch described himself
last November as "mortified that this improper, unethical and simply
unacceptable breach of confidential files may have occurred on my
watch." They were angered again when Manuel Miranda resigned earlier
this month as counsel to Frist after it became clear he was under
investigation for possible involvement in computer snooping when he
worked for Hatch. At least some key conservatives believe Hatch triggered
Miranda's departure.

Although there is disagreement about nearly every aspect of the
controversy, sources say some GOP aides exploited a computer glitch that
allowed them to access Democratic files without a password, although it
involved more than a simple click of a mouse. Democrats describe this as
theft. Republicans say Democrats were warned about the glitch and did
nothing to correct it. No thievery was involved, they say, because the
memos were government property on a shared computer server. Miranda has
said he read some of the documents but did not access or leak
them.

Miranda, highly regarded by conservatives for his aggressive advocacy for
Bush's nominees, has become even more of a hero to the political right.
"A lot of people are personally vexed because they know Manny
Miranda has been the center of the confirmation universe on the
Republican side," said one activist.

In a brief statement to reporters, Hatch said: "My intention right
now is to get all the facts out. . . . I have always been known as a
straight shooter. I'm going to do what's right, not what might be
politically expedient in the short term."

This week Hatch disputed Democrats' claim that the investigation could
lead to criminal proceedings but at the same time reiterated that he
thought it was wrong for Republicans to access Democratic files. By
contrast, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), third-ranking member of the Senate
GOP leadership, said the real issue was Democratic "collusion"
with liberal groups to influence the confirmation process.

Many conservatives, meanwhile, are inclined to give Frist the benefit of
the doubt, even as they express disappointment with his support for the
inquiry and for his role in Miranda's resignation.

Democrats and liberal groups see the conservatives' behavior as a sign of
desperation.

"Conservatives are trying to put pressure on Senator Hatch not to
have a full investigation because I think they understand already that
it's going to lead beyond Capitol Hill to some of their
organizations," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), whose files
were accessed by GOP staffers. Conservatives have "no legitimate
gripe" against Hatch, who has been "a fierce advocate for even
the most controversial judicial nominees," said Sen. Patrick J.
Leahy (Vt.), the judiciary panel's ranking Democrat.
*******************************
CNET News.com
Adware ploy dupes IMers with bin Laden 'news'
Last modified: February 11, 2004, 4:02 PM PST
By Robert Lemos 
http://news.com.com/2100-7349_3-5157632.html?tag=nefd_top

update Beware
of instant messages bearing news of Osama bin Laden's capture. 

Several victims told CNET News.com on Wednesday that a new Trojan horse
advertising program, called BuddyLinks, masquerades as a news Web site
with a story on the al-Qaida leader's capture in an attempt to fool users
of America Online's instant-messaging program into downloading software
and receiving advertising. 

Although the software has some of the properties of an Internet worm, the
program has been classified by security software company Symantec as a
lesser form of an irritant known as adware. BuddyLinks doesn't qualify as
malicious, because it doesn't delete anything and can be easily
uninstalled, said Steve Trilling, senior director of research for
Symantec. 

"In many cases, the difference between malware (malicious software
such as viruses and worms) and software is how aware you are of what the
program is doing," Trilling said. Many security products--including
several from Symantec--will block programs that have been deemed to be
adware or spyware, depending on the user's settings. 


Spyware and adware have become irritations to Internet users. Almost
1,300 adware program were released on the Internet last year, according
to security software firm PestPatrol. 

The application sends an IM to every person on an America Online user's
buddy list and includes a link to a fake TV news Web site. A dialog box
then asks if the user wants to install a "news player."
However, the program instead plays a simple animated game, reconfigures
AOL's instant messenger to receive advertising and once again sends a
link to the fake news Web site to everyone on the new victim's buddy
list. 

The spread of the software between IM users has angered America Online,
which could sue the creator of the program, AOL spokesman Andrew
Weinstein said. 

"We are strongly opposed to this piece of adware," Weinstein
said. "It's a particularly slimy piece of software, and we are
looking into legal and/or technical steps we can take to prevent this
from affecting our users." 

The online giant's instant-messaging network has an acceptable-use policy
that prohibits sending spam to its users, he added. America Online is
also readying a new version of its software that has built-in protections
against adware and spyware.

BuddyLinks and its parent, PSD Tools, did not respond repeated requests
from CNET News.com for comment. 

A site that explains what the surreptitious program does and how to
uninstall it stated that the author had received complaints but that the
program is legitimate. 

"Please understand, our flash games are in no way a virus," the
BuddyLinks site stated. "We simply combine peer-to-peer, social
networking, and instant messaging into one spectacular technology."

The site also uses social engineering. The link sent in IM is prefaced
with "check this out," and the site is designed to look like a
TV station's Web site. Victims miss the light gray text at the bottom of
the page that announces "Note: This is not an actual news story.
This is the prologue to a Flash video game." 

Although the program doesn't require someone to click on a license
agreement to install the software, the Web site has a link to a
"Terms and Privacy Policy" that states what the program does.

The power of such licenses to transform a viral program into a
legal--albeit questionable--application has some legal experts worried
that future Internet attackers could get protection by using one of the
software industry's best weapons: the "click wrap" license.

People who have accidentally installed the program can uninstall the
software using Windows' "Add/Remove Program" feature, found in
the control panel.
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Computerworld
H-1B visa cap could be reached within a week
http://www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers/labor/story/0,10801,90129,00.html?SKC=news90129
An early cutoff
of H-1B visas would come a full six months shy of the end of the fiscal
year 
Story by Patrick Thibodeau 

FEBRUARY 11, 2004 ( COMPUTERWORLD ) - WASHINGTON -- U.S. immigration
officials may be just a week away from getting enough applications to
fill the H-1B visa cap this year, shutting down a pipeline for companies
that hire foreign high-tech workers. 
The congressionally limited cap was reduced to 65,000 in October, the
start of the new federal fiscal year, after being set at 195,000 for the
previous three years. The actual number of visas generally available for
the current fiscal year was further reduced by a free-trade agreement
that specifically allocated 6,800 for use by people from Singapore and
Chile. 

U.S. immigration officials haven't announced an exact cutoff date, but a
spokesman said they expect the cap to be reached in the second quarter of
this fiscal year. 

But immigration experts and sources familiar with the U.S. Citizenship
and Immigration Services visa process said they believe federal officials
are only a week away from cutting off new applications for visas for this
fiscal year, which runs through Sept. 30. 

The early cutoff, six months shy of the new fiscal year, is not
unexpected. Just last month, the immigration bureau said 43,500 H-1B
applications, either approved or pending approval, had already been
counted against the cap. 

With a higher ceiling in place, the H-1B cap wasn't reached during the
past three years, as approved applications fell well short of the 195,000
visa limit. But the lower cap could force companies to alter their hiring
plans. 

"For an employer that wants to hire a foreign national for a given
project -- they won't be able to do it until October," said Vic
Goel, an immigration attorney in Greenbelt, Md. 

Goel said the reduced cap may prompt some companies to send more work
offshore, as well as hinder their ability to hire the best and brightest
students graduating from U.S. universities. But the reduced cap may also
improve job prospects for U.S. citizens, he said. 

"If you are in a situation where you are an out-of-work American, it
may result in some employers looking at resumes that they may have
disregarded the first time" because those applicants didn't have the
exact skill sets being sought, Goel said. 

Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of
America (ITAA), said there are continuing discussions with members of
Congress about raising the cap this year. But he said it's too early to
tell whether those talks will succeed. 

Miller also sees a rising protectionist attitude that may make it
difficult. "Right now, the mentality among a number of members of
Congress is what I would call 'fortress America,'" he said.

Unemployment among computer engineers in the last quarter of 2003 was 9%,
said Ron Hira, who chairs the IEEE-USA Workforce and Policy Committee. He
said there is no way of knowing for sure just what kind of impact the
reduced H-1B visa cap might have on U.S. high-tech workers seeking jobs.

But Hira, who is an assistant professor of public policy at the Rochester
Institute of Technology and an engineer, said the H-1B program is
imperfect. He noted that his committee's analysis of labor data on the
use of the visa program by employers shows that some companies are paying
H-1B visa holders at wages below what U.S. workers would get. 

The H-1B visa "is supposed to work as a last resort rather than a
first choice, and I'm not sure it's working that way anymore," he
said.
*******************************
Washington Post
Makers Scramble To Put Some Bend In 'Electric Paper' 
By Leslie Walker
Thursday, February 12, 2004; Page E01 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34553-2004Feb11.html

Nicholas K.
Sheridon had no clue he would launch a quarter-century race among
industrial giants when he started toying with what he called
"electric paper" back in 1975. But his little invention, a
sheet filled with rotating balls, eventually touched off a high-stakes
scramble to develop digital displays that fuse the qualities of pixels
and print.

The winner, and even the real prize, remain unclear. 

But the race is on. The U.S. Army announced Tuesday it will spend $43.7
million over the next five years on a center at Arizona State University
that will develop flexible electronic displays. The idea is to give
soldiers a tiny, rugged readout of current data about enemy troops,
weather and geography that could take a bullet and still flash marching
orders.

A few weeks earlier, Royal Philips Electronics NV announced that next
year it will start making a test line of bendable electronic displays,
with release of a consumer product slated for 2006. 

Some electronic-paper displays are much closer to market, but they use
inflexible glass backings. For example, in a few months Philips, with
Sony and other Japanese companies, will start selling e-books in Japan
that can be refreshed with new text but can't be bent. 

The same goes for the first product of the firm Sheridon now works for,
Xerox Corp. subsidiary Gyricon LLC. Last month it began shipping its
first "smart paper," as it calls its technology. The product, a
skinny $1,300 electronic sign, can be updated via wireless radio signals
from a computer. 

Gyricon's smart signs have had extensive trials in grocery stores, Macy's
and other retail chains to tell shoppers what's on sale and to instruct
store employees where to put inventory.

But -- just like the e-books in Japan -- they can't be rolled up.

The ultimate goal of the electronic paper chase remains a display that
can be twisted, folded and taken anywhere that paper can. Scientists say
the key lies in plastics -- putting circuits controlling the images onto
backings made of pliable plastic instead of glass and metal. Recent
advances in organic electronics and plastic transistors may finally get
the technology around that corner. 

"Those are extremely cheap to produce, and flexible," said
Sheridon. "They are not here yet, but will be within the next
several years."

This week, representatives from Gyricon, Philips and the new Army
research center converged on Phoenix along with 300 other scientists from
such companies as Dupont, Eastman Kodak and Dow Corning for a confab
about digital paper. Turnout was roughly three times last year's, which
industry analysts saw as a sign that e-paper's time may be drawing
close.

Historians will tell you that regular paper, invented by the Chinese
centuries ago, didn't displace sheepskin and goatskin overnight. Still,
it's fascinating to realize just how long scientists have been trying to
make paper that can light up with electricity.

Most modern e-paper projects owe an intellectual debt to Sheridon's work
in the 1970s. Back then, the young physicist was a new researcher at
Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center who decided there must be a better way
for computers to present data than big, blurry, monochromatic monitors.
He listed the properties the ideal electronic display should have; the
list turned out to include many characteristics of regular
paper.

"As far as I can tell, paper is the perfect display, but it doesn't
change fast," Sheridon recalled.

The key was finding something that reflected rather than emitted light
(to make text as readable as on paper) and could be controlled by
electricity (to allow quick "rewriting"). He came up with two
or three promising ideas and settled on the easiest: suspending
electrically charged plastic balls between two rubbery sheets of silicon.

He called his contraption Gyricon -- a combination of the Greek word for
"rotating" and the Latin word for "image" -- because
each ball was half black and half white and rotated to show one side or
the other in reaction to electric charges.

Xerox soon ditched his project, but other researchers continued wrestling
with the concept.

One such group at the MIT Media Lab left the Boston research center in
1997 to found E Ink Corp. The company now supplies the core technology
for Philips's electronic paper products and has raised more than $100
million from Philips and American investors, including publishers Gannett
Co., McClatchy Co. and Hearst Corp.

Sheridon, meanwhile, asked Xerox to put him back on electronic paper in
1989. In 2000, Xerox spun off his project into a subsidiary, Gyricon
Corp., which recently decided to focus on selling retail signs controlled
by elaborate software the company wrote. "The signage application
was the most obvious starting point for us because the market is large
and doesn't require huge shifts in how people will use technology,"
said Bryan Lubel, Gyricon's chief executive.

Analysts say e-paper looks more promising than ever but faces hurdles.
"They are still black and white, and one real challenge will be
finding a way to make the balls color," said Kimberly Allen,
director of technology and strategic research for iSuppli/Stanford
Resources.

Sheridon agrees his 25-year quest is far from over. He is still working
for Gyricon in the storied Xerox lab that gave birth to the computer
mouse, laser printer and graphical user interface. Yet Sheridon, who
holds 90 patents, believes true digital paper is at most five years
away.

He envisions it going mainstream with a six-inch tube that fits into
anyone's pocket. Electric paper will roll in and out of the tube like a
window shade, he said, with the tube's innards serving as a writing
mechanism, rearranging pixels on ultrathin plastic screens. Overhead, a
satellite will beam signals to the tube, letting people read their
e-mail, check out books and download newspapers from a gigantic library
in the sky.

"I can see everyone on the globe having one of those," the
inventor said.

Leslie Walker's e-mail address is
walkerl@xxxxxxxxxxxx">walkerl@xxxxxxxxxxxx.
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