Clips June 24, 2002

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips June 24, 2002

ARTICLES

Mixed Signals for European Wireless Telecom
2 software firms accused of violating antitrust law
FBI technology upgrade more than a year away
In Fights Over .Com Names, Trademark Owners Usually Win
Free Web-Mail Waning?
Cell phones costing universities cash
High-tech cars pose mechanical dilemma
Peruvian effort targets software conglomerates
Devices show what a tangled brain we weave (new lie detector)
Getting a Hand-Held on Fighting Crime
Shops try chips for tracking every move by client 'tribe'
Old net name to get new owner
Warning over password security
The fax machine uprising (forced a reversal in changing digital privacy rules)
One year and counting: Section 508
FEMA seeks wireless fix
Homeland department IT taking shape
Rule would stifle DOD service buys
Panel tackles airport security
Cargo security on agency hit lists
House lawmaker expects cybersecurity bill to pass before recess
DOD tests biometrics to secure its smart cards
Update: Microsoft plans security chip for next Windows
Surf's up on power lines (broadband access)
Fast modems a hacker's heaven
Cellphones could be jammed for G8 and Pope's visit
Fees on horizon for electronics recycling
*******************
Los Angeles Times
Mixed Signals for European Wireless Telecom
By PAUL MELLER

LONDON - Mobile phone operators are getting crossed signals from European 
Union lawmakers.

There is plenty of political talk supporting the broad aims to digitize the 
European Union economy, including development of Internet-based mobile 
phone services. But at the same time new rules are being drafted that would 
heap greater regulatory and financial pressures on wireless network 
operators, as they struggle to switch to a new, third-generation mobile 
phone technology.

As European Union heads of state agreed to an ambitious "eEurope" action 
plan at a conference in Seville during the weekend, they and the European 
Commission, whose job it is to build the regulatory framework for the 
so-called information society, have been criticized for overlooking current 
realities to set their sights on the long term.

"European lawmakers are acting with best intentions, but you have to ask 
whether their policies are appropriate when the market place is in such a 
parlous state," said Peter Alexiadis, a partner in the Brussels office of 
the law firm Squire Sanders & Dempsey.

Shortly before the Seville conference, the European Commission announced 
two mobile phone initiatives that marked an abrupt departure from a more 
sympathetic approach to the industry that the commission expressed last year.

As beauty contests for so-called third-generation, or 3G, wireless licenses 
turned ugly and telecommunications stocks plunged in in 2001, the 
commission hinted that it could extend the lengths of the licenses to ease 
the financial burden on the companies that had paid exorbitant amounts for 
them.

But that approach has changed, even if the industry's fortunes have not. 
The commission released a report on the 3G mobile phone market, which 
proposed that there be no loosening of the licensing rules. The report 
explained that "extending license duration appears to have comparatively 
little impact on restoring the financial institutions' confidence in the 
sector."

By the commission's calculations, telecommunications companies have spent 
about 110 billion euros (about $107 billion), pushing them to spectacular 
debt levels. Last month Vodafone, the world's biggest mobile operator, 
announced a record loss of £13.5 billion ($20.2 billion). It alone spent 
roughly that amount on acquiring 3G licenses in Germany and other European 
Union markets, as well as Britain.

One way the companies are financing their investment in the next generation 
of mobile phones is by charging customers an array of fees to use their 
existing G.S.M. (for global system mobile) phones. A recent study by 
Goldman, Sachs found that roaming fees and termination charges (which 
companies assess for completing other carriers' calls) together accounted 
for up to 40 percent of revenues of some European wireless operators.

In a separate move two weeks ago, the commission announced that it wanted 
to clamp down on these fees, in the interests of consumers. "The commission 
doesn't seem to realize that mobile-phone operators need these fees to 
subsidize their investments in the new technologies," a person close to one 
of the big European wireless companies said, insisting on anonymity.

The commission's change of attitude toward the mobile phone market reveals 
an internal struggle of the competition commissioner, Mario Monti, with his 
colleague in charge of forging Europe's new economy, Erkki Liikanen. Right 
now, Mr. Monti seems to be prevailing.

"The approach of the commission to regulating the mobile-phone sector has 
morphed from aiming at creating legal certainty with the emphasis on less 
intervention, to one that grants maximum flexibility for competition 
officials to police the market," Mr. Alexiadis said.

The commission justifies the new tougher approach to the industry by saying 
that despite its perceived difficulties, the telecommunications industry 
still out-performed the general economy in the European Union last year, 
with revenue of 224 billion euros (about $218 billion) and market growth of 
about 10 percent.

But Michael Bartholemew, an industry executive, said the wireless industry 
was still suffering. "Europe used to have a two-year lead on the United 
States in mobile phones, but that lead is being lessened largely because of 
the severe debt companies fell into paying for their 3G licenses," said Mr. 
Bartholemew, director of ETNO, an association of some of the biggest 
telecom players in Europe.

"It is easy to blame the operators, but the governments that reaped the 
rewards of the highly priced licenses are equally to blame," Mr. 
Bartholemew said. "They were greedy, and they didn't consider the impact 
such high license prices would have on the telecoms industry."

Before the Seville conference, ETNO wrote to all 15 heads of state of the 
European Union, asking them to give the industry greater legal certainty 
and a lighter regulatory touch, as companies grapple with converting their 
wireless and land-line networks to high-speed, or broadband, technology.

"Until our members have certainty that broadband won't be over regulated 
they won't make the necessary investments," Mr. Bartholemew said. "The 
question of who is going to pay for broadband is missing from the debate."

The cost of switching to broadband, he said, will be "significantly higher" 
than the 110 billion euros already paid for 3G licenses. "That's why 
there's a bit of a pause in development now," he added.

Mr. Alexiadis said: "It would be better to focus on expanding the potential 
for narrowband, especially since broadband content isn't developed yet. You 
have to question whether the industry can absorb the costs of switching to 
broadband in the short term."

The 15 heads of state who met in Seville were mainly occupied with broader, 
longer-term issues. They agreed on setting a target date of 2005, by which 
time all schools, hospitals and local government offices should have 
broadband access to the Internet.

Meanwhile, the commission is preparing to play a more prominent role in 
regulating the telecommunications market. Beginning in July 2003 it will be 
able to veto decisions by national regulators.

"There is an onslaught from the commission at the moment and it is sending 
a chill up the spines of many leading telecoms operators," Mr. Bartholemew 
said. "We hope they don't choke off new investment with over regulation."
***********************
Washington Times
2 software firms accused of violating antitrust law
Jerry Seper
Published 6/22/2002

     The Justice Department filed a civil antitrust lawsuit yesterday 
against the MathWorks Inc. and Wind River Systems Inc., accusing the two 
companies of entering an agreement that eliminated competition for a 
software product.
     The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, said an 
agreement between the two companies eliminates important competition for 
dynamic control-system software products that has led to technical 
innovation and low price for consumers.
     Department lawyers, in challenging the agreement between MathWorks 
and Wind River, said the pact was a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
     "High-technology products like these work behind the scenes to help 
build some of the most sophisticated products in our economy," said 
Assistant Attorney General Charles A. James, who leads the department's 
antitrust division.
     "This agreement eliminates important competition that has driven 
significant technical improvements and price reductions for consumers, 
including major aerospace and automotive companies, engineering firms and 
governmental entities," he said.
     Justice Department officials said Wind River filed a proposed consent 
decree that would settle the pending suit. The officials said that if the 
department obtains a judgment that requires divesting the software at 
issue, Wind River would cooperate.
     They said that though Wind River is named a defendant in the suit, it 
remains a party in the case for the sole purpose of aiding in any judgment 
against MathWorks. The consent decree requires Wind River to cooperate in 
the case.
     Dynamic control-system-design software enables engineers to develop 
the computerized control systems of sophisticated devices, such as 
anti-lock brakes for cars, guidance and navigation control systems for 
unmanned spacecraft, and flight-control systems for aircraft.
     By automating the steps of modeling, analyzing, simulating, testing 
and generating software code for these types of control systems, engineers 
can develop them in a shorter time for a lower cost. MathWorks' dynamic 
control-system software is the Simulink product group. Wind River's 
competing product is Matrixx.
     According to the suit, MathWorks and Wind River, which were direct 
competitors for the software, entered an agreement last year that ended 
their competition.
     The agreement gave MathWorks the exclusive right to sell Wind River's 
Matrixx products and required Wind River to stop its development and 
marketing, department officials said.
     The suit says the agreement with Wind River gave MathWorks control 
over the prices, marketing, support and development of the Wind River 
dynamic control-system-design tools. MathWorks says it will not further 
develop the Wind River Matrixx products.
     MathWorks is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of 
business in Natick, Mass. It posted revenue of about $200 million in 2001.
     In 2001, department officials said, sales of MathWorks' dynamic 
control-system-design tools were more than $100 million.
     Wind River is also a Delaware corporation, with its principal place 
of business in Alameda, Calif. Wind River's principal products are embedded 
operating systems and integrated-development environments.
      The firm reported worldwide revenue of $438 million, including $13 
million in sales of Wind River's dynamic control-system-design tools.
***********************
Wired News
Danish Deep-Link Decision Due
By Farhad Manjoo

If everything goes well for the Danish news service Newsbooster this week, 
nothing will change: The Web will be the same freewheeling place it's 
always been, with everyone allowed to link to everyone else.

But if a Danish court decides that Newsbooster's "deep links" to newspaper 
sites violates the newspapers' intellectual property rights, the legal 
landscape of the Web could be dramatically altered, with sites in Europe 
and perhaps elsewhere getting new leeway to dictate the terms under which 
other websites can link to them.

A "deep link" to a site points to a page within the site, bypassing its 
front door. For example, a link to a specific story at The Washington 
Post's website (rather than a link to washingtonpost.com) would be a deep 
link.

Like most online news services, Newsbooster is built on deep links. When 
news breaks on other sites, Newsbooster links to the stories, not to the 
sites' front pages. But such links annoy the Danish Newspaper Publishers' 
Association, as they let people bypass the sites' ad-heavy front pages.

The DNPA wants the court to recognize this as a violation of each paper's 
copyright. This week, it's asking the court to prohibit Newsbooster from 
deep linking to DNPA sites until the court makes its final decision on 
copyright.

The court in Copenhagen could decide on that preliminary motion as early as 
Monday or Tuesday, said Anders Lautrup-Larsen, Newsbooster's CEO. If the 
court rules in the DNPA's favor, there's a possibility that the ruling 
would apply to sites beyond Denmark, as the country's copyright act is 
based on European Union law.

But Lautrup-Larsen said he sees little chance of that occurring. "We sleep 
really well at night," he joked. He said that most of the people he's told 
about the issue have sided with Newsbooster, and he thinks the judge will 
give Newbooster the go-ahead to deep link.

Of course, Lautrup-Larsen added, "you don't know what kind of judge you're 
to get, and what the exact ruling will be, but our argument is that we are 
a search engine like everybody else. They say that they like search engines 
like Google and Yahoo and Lycos, but they don't like us. So we believe this 
is very silly."

The DNPA could not be reached for comment for this story, but in the past 
it has said that it doesn't generally mind deep links, as long as they're 
not "systematic." The DNPA has brought legal action against other Danish 
sites, and in one case last summer a judge granted the kind of preliminary 
injunction it now seeks against Newsbooster. That site went out of business 
before the court could decide upon the legality of deep links.

Linking policies of the sort favored by the DNPA have been a controversial 
idea throughout the short history of the Web, and the issue flared once 
again last week when it was revealed that National Public Radio asks 
webmasters to seek its permission if they want to link to NPR's site.

NPR was pilloried on several weblogs and discussion sites, and Jeffrey 
Dvorkin, NPR's ombudsman, was swamped with mail. The backlash was so severe 
that NPR reps now say that they're reconsidering the policy, and that they 
will announce a change in a few days.

On Friday, NPR put up a note to explain its link policy: "The policy was 
originally intended to maintain NPRÂ's commitment to independent, 
noncommercial journalism," it said. "We have encountered instances where 
companies and individuals constructed entire commercial Web 'radio' sites 
based on links to NPR and similar audio. We have also encountered websites 
of issue advocacy groups that have positioned the audio link to an NPR 
story such that one cannot tell that NPR is not supporting their cause. 
This is not acceptable to NPR as an organization dedicated to the highest 
journalistic ethics, both in fact and appearance.

"However, NPR also recognizes that the majority of the linking on the Web 
is not infringement. We are working on a solution that we believe will 
better match the expectations of the Web community with the interests of 
NPR. We will post revisions soon at www.npr.org."

Critics weren't at all satisfied with NPR's explanation of its policy. 
"Nothing justifies it," said Cory Doctorow, the writer who first reported 
the policy on his blog. A site built on links to NPR is not different from 
"a site that recounts all the headlines in The New York Times this 
morning," he said. "And would anyone say they have a problem with that, 
with people recounting public fact?"

He added that if NPR was really all that concerned about it, it could just 
take its content off the Web. Or, as Doctorow wrote in an open letter to 
NPR's ombudsman, "you can trivially block off-site referrers with a few 
lines of Web-server configuration. If it is cheaper for you to pay a policy 
person to review requests for links from the 20,600 linkers that Google 
reports (for NPR) than it is to pay a systems administrator to enter one 
line in your Web-server's configuration file, then you are either 
drastically underpaying your policy staffers or drastically overpaying your 
systems administrators."

And it's not hard to guess that whatever happens in Denmark this week, the 
anger with which people respond to NPR's policy could be instructive for 
the DNPA. If the court does block Newsbooster from linking to DNPA sites, 
the public outcry could be fierce, Lautrup-Larsen said.

"I never ever see anyone in forums or in debates saying that the publishers 
are right in what they're doing," he said.
**************************
Government Executive
FBI technology upgrade more than a year away
By Brian Friel
bfriel@xxxxxxxxxxx

FBI agents won't have user-friendly, integrated computer programs to manage 
their investigations until December 2003, FBI Director Robert Mueller said 
Friday.

Mueller said the bureau will have the basic building blocks of a modern 
technology system in place by the end of this year, when FBI offices 
throughout the country should have new computers and monitors and can be 
connected to each other by fast networks. It will take another year to 
integrate and modernize the 36 software programs that FBI agents use to 
conduct their investigationsincluding the automated case support system, 
which is supposed to be a central system for managing cases but is so hard 
to use that agents try to avoid it.

Technology specialists at the bureau have convinced Mueller that the 
bureau's modernization project, nicknamed Trilogy, can't move any faster, 
though they have acknowledged that most people have better computers at 
home than FBI agents have at work. "I have to be a little more patient than 
I normally am," Mueller told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on 
Commerce, Justice and State.

Originally conceived as a three-year program to replace and upgrade aging 
data networks, desktop computers and servers and to give agents access to 
e-mail and the Internet, Trilogy is now expected to cost the bureau $379 
million. The Sept. 11 attacks and subsequent revelations about the archaic 
state of the FBI's technology prompted Mueller to try to speed up the 
project, which was launched in May of last year.

The long timeline for modernization puts a damper on the bureau's ability 
to connect its data to the data of other federal agencies, Mueller said, 
telling members of Congress that the bureau must first get its data into 
data warehouses that would allow for better information sharing. Mueller 
said he has spent the past two months interviewing potential chief 
information officers and has selected a CIO from the private sector who has 
a strong vision for the FBI's technology infrastructure.

But Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., said members of Congress are wary of the 
FBI's ability to wisely spend money on technology modernization. He said 
Congress has appropriated about $1.7 billion for technology modernization 
since 1993. "I've heard director after director say to us, 'Give us that 
money and we'll modernize this computer system,'" Rogers said.

Mueller noted that much of the money that the bureau has spent over the 
past decade has led to systems that work well, such as the FBI's 
fingerprinting system and its criminal information database. But he 
acknowledged that the bureau has not managed technology well in the past 
and emphasized his appreciation for computers as a reason he will be able 
to turn technology management around. "I love computers," Mueller said. "My 
wife wants me off the computer half of the time."

Mueller's comments about the bureau's technology plans came at a hearing 
aimed at assessing the bureau's plans to reorganize and modernize. Former 
Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, for whom Mueller worked during the 
first Bush administration, headed up a National Academy of Public 
Administration panel that assessed the bureau's plans.

Mueller announced plans on May 29 to devote more of the bureau's agents to 
investigating terrorism, spend less time investigating drug trafficking and 
create a new Office of Intelligence to analyze information about potential 
terrorist attacks.

Thornburgh, who had only two weeks to assess the bureau's plans, said 
Mueller is taking the bureau in the right direction. On the technology 
issue, Thornburgh warned that the chain of command for information 
technology is not clear. The chief information officer and the head of the 
Trilogy project each report directly to the FBI director. The CIO has no 
direct control over the bureau's technology budget, and systems are 
operated by several different divisions.


"The panel is concerned with the apparent fragmentation of management 
control over IT resources," Thornburgh said.


Thornburgh also noted that Mueller's proposed reorganization actually 
affects less than 5 percent of the FBI's total resources and personnel. For 
example, only 2,000 of the agency's 11,500 agents will be devoted to 
counterterrorism full time, an increase of about 500 agents. Despite plans 
to reduce the effort spent investigating drug-related crimes, 1,000 agents 
will still be involved primarily in narcotics investigations, Thornburgh said.

In other developments at the hearing:


Mueller said the Bush administration is not planning to move the entire 
National Infrastructure Protection Center out of the bureau and into the 
new Department of Homeland Security, as was suggested in the 
administration's original plan. Now one section, which handles computer 
investigations and operations, will remain in the bureau, while the 
sections on analysis and outreach will move to the new department.


Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., questioned Mueller about the National Domestic 
Preparedness Office, which is slated to move from the FBI to the new 
department. Mueller said that the number of people in the office now "may 
well be zero," since the functions of the office were recently handed over 
to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Clinton administration 
created the office to help improve coordination among federal agencies that 
deal with first responders to emergencies.
************************
Chronicle of Higher Education
International Consortium Readies Ambitious Distance-Education Effort
Universitas 21 seeks profits and a global reach, but faculty unions fear a 
lack of quality
By MICHAEL ARNONE

The next year will see whether Universitas 21 -- a 
high-profile  international consortium of 17 universities from Asia, 
Australia, Europe, and North America -- can sell online degrees worldwide. 
Created in 1997, the consortium plans to offer its first product, a 
master's degree, throughout Asia in early 2003.

Now that the courses are almost ready, Universitas 21's member institutions 
-- including the University of Virginia in the United States -- are 
starting to put more effort into their other emphasis: devising new ways of 
academic cooperation.

But questions persist about whether the consortium's goals -- collaboration 
and commerce -- truly complement each other. Can Universitas 21 and its 
business partner successfully sell online degree programs and nondegree 
certificates, as it hopes? Can the member institutions find ways to work 
together on scholarly projects across a world of time zones?

Fearing for the academic reputations of the member universities, faculty 
unions in five countries have protested their institutions' participation 
in U21global, the company that the consortium co-owns with Thomson 
Learning, a major academic publisher. The consortium hopes to reach into 
developing markets through the for-profit venture, which it formed in 1999.

The faculty unions say professors from the partner institutions have been 
given too limited a role in creating and teaching the courses. What's more, 
the University of Michigan and the University of Toronto, once members of 
the consortium, withdrew because they didn't feel confident associating 
their names with the project. Meanwhile, the Asian market may prove more 
difficult to penetrate than had been expected.

Despite those hurdles, both Universitas 21 and Thomson express optimism 
about U21global's future. A recent study by Merrill Lynch found that the 
higher-education market outside the United States is worth $111-billion a 
year and has as many as 32 million potential students, says Robert C. 
Cullen, president and chief executive officer of the international division 
of Thomson, which joined the effort in 2001. The research predicts that 
more than half the market, in terms of both students and money, is in China.

U21global won't offer its programs -- master's degrees in business 
administration and information systems, and certificates in electronic 
commerce and information systems -- in the United States and Europe. The 
company will focus instead on booming markets in developing areas, 
especially in Latin America and Asia. At first, the programs will be taught 
in English; versions in Mandarin are due by 2005.

"We felt the best way to enter the market would be to get partners," Mr. 
Cullen says.

So far, 16 of the 17 consortium members have signed up for U21global. One 
of the Chinese members, Peking University, still needs permission from the 
government to participate, says Alan D. Gilbert, vice chancellor of the 
University of Melbourne, in Australia. Former chairman of Universitas 21, 
he was a main force in creating it.

Mr. Cullen expects a few hundred enrollments next year and up to 60,000 by 
2010. U21global needs about 10,000 students to break even, but he envisions 
that hundreds of thousands of students will eventually enroll -- bringing 
enormous profits, he says.

Thomson supplies U21global with technological expertise and administrative 
support; it also contracts with professors to create the courses. The 
participating universities lend their names and provide quality control for 
the academic material. The consortium and Thomson Learning have promised to 
provide up to $25-million each to the venture in its first round of financing.

U21global's M.B.A. program is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 
2003. The master's degree in information systems and the certificates are 
to be offered later in the year. Undergraduate courses are scheduled for 
release by 2005.

The Right Markets

Peter J. Stokes, executive vice president of Eduventures, an 
education-research company in Boston, says Thomson Learning and Universitas 
21 are looking at the right markets, especially China. Postsecondary 
education is "going to explode" in developing regions, he says, and 
universities and companies alike are rushing to enter the same markets.

The consortium model of Universitas 21 has substantial potential for 
profits and success, Mr. Stokes says, because it can bring credible 
academic brand names into new markets. The geographic diversity of the 
consortium should mean that U21global could reach more markets than any of 
its partners could on their own, he says. Corporate and academic 
competitors, he says, worry that it could quickly dominate for-profit 
online education worldwide.

"It's no wonder that the consortium came about," says Pamela S. Pease, 
president of Jones International University, a for-profit institution that 
provides online degrees and has many students from outside the United 
States. Her institution is looking to expand its operations and faces many 
of the challenges that U21global does, but isn't considering joining a 
consortium. No institution can do everything, and alliances between 
corporate and academic partners can help institutions focus on their 
specific missions, she explains.

Even so, she wonders what return the Universitas 21 members will get on 
their investment. Thomson gets to borrow the universities' academic clout, 
she says, but how will the universities benefit? Unless the company really 
takes off, they won't make much money, because each institution would only 
get a fraction of half the profits.

The institutions and Thomson Learning are willing to wait for profits, says 
Sir Graeme Davies, vice chancellor of the University of Glasgow, who is 
chairman of Universitas 21.

In the short term, the company is a way for the consortium's institutions 
to achieve prominence in online education quickly and without risking a lot 
of money, says Peter W. Low, a law professor at Virginia. He and John T. 
Casteen III, president of the university, are its representatives to the 
consortium. Virginia has put $1-million into the venture, and that's all it 
can lose, Mr. Low says. The consortium also provides its members a chance 
to learn from experts in online education and apply the knowledge on their 
own campuses.

Ms. Pease, of Jones International, and Mr. Stokes, of Eduventures, say the 
consortium's biggest challenge is how to organize U21global so that it 
doesn't compete with its members' own offerings. Universitas 21 will have 
to find ways to keep its members in the partnership and not release online 
courses on their own, he says. For example, Michigan's business school was 
working on its own distance-education programs, says Gary D. Krenz, special 
counsel to the university's president, and so didn't see the need to invest 
in U21global.

Another problem is overcoming concern about the quality of the courses, 
which arises in part because the professors that Thomson retains to write 
the courses will be from outside the consortium. Graduates will get their 
degrees from Universitas 21, not from individual consortium members, but 
their diplomas will feature the crests of all of the member institutions.

Faculty Fears

Faculty unions have no love lost for U21global's strategy, which limits the 
role of instructors from the consortium's members -- and, in turn, 
jeopardizes academic quality, says Jane L. Buck, president of the American 
Association of University Professors. Her union and other unions in 
Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand, wrote a letter of protest last 
year to Mr. Gilbert, who was Universitas 21 chairman at the time. In March, 
the Association of University Teachers, in Britain, encouraged its 45,000 
members to boycott participation in the consortium. The boycott never 
materialized, says Sir Graeme, the Universitas 21 chairman.

Universitas 21 and U21global haven't been controversial at all at the 
University of Virginia because faculty members have taken scant notice of 
it, says Michael J. Smith, a professor of political science who is chairman 
of the Faculty Senate. Cuts in the state budget have dominated professors' 
attention, he says, so it's too early to say what faculty members think of 
the consortium's for-profit activities. The senate has been briefed on the 
consortium's activities and trusts Mr. Casteen and Mr. Low to uphold high 
standards. The institution itself isn't unionized, but some of its 
professors are AAUP members, he says.

The consortium partners and Thomson Learning hope that the controversy will 
diminish when critics see the quality of the courses that U21global is 
creating for the Asian market, where it is starting out.

A hurdle that Thomson has yet to overcome, Mr. Cullen acknowledges, is how 
to deliver high-quality education online to hundreds of thousands, if not 
millions, of students.

In response, Sir Graeme and the consortium have created U21pedagogica, a 
company that will evaluate the rigor of the programs that Thomson creates. 
The consortium is the sole owner of the company, to keep operations 
separate from those of Thomson Learning. The University of Virginia plays a 
major role in running U21pedagogica -- Mr. Low is chief executive officer 
and Mr. Casteen chairman of the board -- but all members of the consortium 
contribute to ensuring the quality of the courses.

"Our most important attribute is our reputation," says Sir Graeme. "We're 
not going to jeopardize it."

Thomson has yet to submit any courses for evaluation. When it sends 
material from the M.B.A. program next fall, Mr. Low says, consortium-member 
deans and professors with expertise in the subject areas will evaluate 
every course and instructor. An Academic Standards Council comprised of 
U21pedagogica's board and five other professors will make the final 
decision whether to use a course. The company will have U21pedagogica 
review the courses every two years, as well as each time they are updated 
or translated into another language.

Ms. Buck, of the AAUP, says such vetting doesn't allay her concerns. 
Michigan's Mr. Krenz says his university had similar reservations before it 
pulled out last January, without having participated in U21global. Michigan 
was concerned that the academic partners didn't have enough control over 
either the final product or the use of their names and logos, he says.

Sheldon Levy, the University of Toronto's vice president for government and 
institutional relations, says its legal counsel warned that as a consortium 
member, the university would share liability for any problems with 
U21global even without participating in it. "We said, 'See you later.'" 
Toronto left Universitas 21 in January 2001.

New York University, which joined the consortium with the University of 
Virginia in May 2001, backed out just a few months later. Its 
representative to the consortium, Robert Berne, senior vice president for 
health, says NYU had only a "passive partnership" with Universitas 21, and 
declines to elaborate.

The consortium must deal not only with internal pressures, but also with 
commercial forces beyond its control. Breaking into the enormous Chinese 
market, in particular, may be harder than Thomson Learning and the 
consortium realize.

For example, the University of Michigan formed a partnership not long ago 
with Shanghai Jiao Tong University to deliver a master's-degree program in 
manufacturing engineering to Chinese students. But only a handful of 
students were enrolled when classes started in March -- and an employee at 
a multinational company had signed them up to keep the dean of the Shanghai 
university's School of Mechanical Engineering, a friend, from losing face. 
The dean, Lin Zhongqin, says the tuition, at $30,000, was too expensive. 
And some students at Jiao Tong say many of their colleagues who want a 
Western education prefer to travel for it.

The Right Price

Many Asian students prefer degrees from Western institutions, says Karla J. 
Lacey, vice president for marketing at the Graduate Management Admission 
Council, which administers the Graduate Management Admission Test, the 
entry exam for American graduate schools of business. In the past several 
years, those schools have seen a sharp increase in applications from China, 
India, and other Asian countries, she says.

Sir Graeme, the consortium's chairman, says tuition for U21global programs, 
which will be set in the fall, is expected to be competitive in the various 
markets: "If we price ourselves out of the market, there is no market."

Mr. Gilbert, the former chairman, says a master's degree from U21global 
should cost about $7,500 and take about 18 months to complete. That's 
exorbitant compared to many such programs in China, according to Mr. Lin, 
where the average cost of a master's degree in engineering is less than 
$2,000. And many students there get full scholarships, he adds.

Ms. Lacey says an M.B.A. from U21global will be more affordable than many 
traditional M.B.A. programs that Western institutions provide in Asia. But 
any provider lusting for the huge Asian market should note that the number 
of students with sufficient education, income, and language skills to 
actually qualify for their programs is small, she says. "When you factor 
those in, you realize their potential market is a lot smaller than what 
they think it is."

Since 1997, Universitas 21 officials have devoted much of their energy to 
getting U21global up and running. Now, with the courses nearly ready, the 
partner institutions are turning their attention to cooperation on academic 
and scholarly matters, Mr. Low says.

Consortium members are seeking new and closer collaborations in many areas, 
says Michael Crommelin, dean of the law school at the University of 
Melbourne. The universities hope to share professors, students, course 
content, and expertise. Deans of engineering, medicine, and other 
disciplines have met to discuss opportunities for research and exchange. To 
involve as many people as possible in the planning, the consortium has set 
up travel fellowships for students and professors and has met with student 
unions and alumni groups. The institutions, which already are sharing 
courses and technology through a communal online library, have agreed to 
accept each other's courses to encourage student exchanges.

The universities in Universitas 21 aren't the only ones joining consortia 
to expand the reach of their research or to get into online education. Five 
American, six British, and two Chinese institutions have formed the 
Worldwide Universities Network, which focuses on research collaborations. 
The Global University Alliance, with nine members, from Australia, Europe, 
and North America, sells its own online-education courses as well as those 
of its members.

Universitas 21 has limited its membership to 25 institutions and is in no 
rush to expand, says Mr. Low, the Virginia law professor. It wants to add 
one or two more American institutions in the next 12 to 18 months, and 
hopes to find new members in Africa, Eastern Europe, Japan, and South America.

But in academe and among the companies that serve it, there is skepticism 
whether the consortium is going to work, says Mr. Stokes, of Eduventures. 
And Mr. Low acknowledges that the member universities are still struggling 
to work collegially and not just one-to-one. Melbourne's Mr. Crommelin 
agrees. He adds, "That's a big step, if we can pull it off."

List of Schools: Fudan University, China, Lund University, Sweden, McGill 
University, Canada,  National University of Singapore, Peking University, 
China, University of Auckland, New Zealand, University of Birmingham, 
England, University of British Columbia, Canada, University of Edinburgh, 
Scotland, University of Freiburg, Germany, University of Glasgow, Scotland, 
University of Hong Kong, University of Melbourne, Australia, University of 
New South Wales, Australia, University of Nottingham, England, University 
of Queensland, Australia, University of Virginia, United States
************************
Reuters Internet Reports
Kremlin's New Web Site Stands Up to Hacker Threats
Fri Jun 21, 7:57 AM ET

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Almost 100 hackers have tried to break into Russian 
President Vladimir Putin ( news - web sites)'s new Internet Web site in the 
first 24 hours of its existence but none has yet succeeded, the Kremlin 
said on Friday.


And after three months of checks by the Federal Agency for Government 
Communications and Information, the presidential administration is certain 
the www.president.kremlin.ru site, unveiled Thursday, is almost hacker-proof.

"Some 500,000 people have visited the site and there have so far been 96 
attacks by hackers, but none of them has succeeded," a Kremlin spokesman said.

Hackers try to break into Web sites for a variety of reasons including 
defacing content and cracking confidential financial information, but the 
Kremlin did not know what motivated those who tried to penetrate the 
presidential site.

"It could be anyone, in any country," the spokesman said.

AYAXI, the Moscow-based company which won a tender to build the site after 
a contest last June, said the site took almost ten months to construct.

The page contains copies of Putin's speeches, new laws and tidbits of 
presidential news, but visitors can also visit an intimate photoalbum that 
includes shots of the president walking his dogs and the Putin family's 
holiday snaps.

"Put in: Now anyone can penetrate the president's house," the mass 
circulation daily Moskovsky Komsomolets said on Friday.
***********************
Mercury News
Study: DSL use changes habits
By Megh Duwadi
Cox News Service


WASHINGTON - For high-speed Internet users, a new lifestyle may be just a 
few clicks away.

A study released today by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found 
that people changed their activities both on and off the computer when they 
acquired broadband service.

High-speed users go online more often than users of slower dial-up 
connections, the study found, and they stay on longer.

They were much more likely to create content for the Web or share files, 
telecommute, download music or game files, or enjoy streaming audio or video.

``When people get an always-on, high-speed connection, they treat the 
Internet as a `go-to' tool for a wide range of information and 
communication needs,'' said Lee Rainie, the project's director.

For the ``broadband elite'' -- users who perform at least 10 online tasks a 
day -- unlimited Internet access encourages feats of multi-tasking.

``A member of the broadband elite might be instant messaging friends or 
work colleagues, listening to a favorite radio station online, booking an 
airline ticket, or scanning an online news site -- all at the same time,'' 
the study said.

Offline, the study found, broadband users spent less time shopping in 
stores, working at their offices, watching television and reading 
newspapers, partly because they transferred some of these activities to the 
Internet.

The finding that there is a ``broadband effect'' on Internet use comes as 
the tech industry is pressing the government to encourage a faster rollout 
of the service, in hopes of providing lucrative new products.

While more than 90 percent of U.S. households have access to high-speed 
Internet service via telephone lines, cable TV or satellite, only 7 percent 
subscribed to them as of mid-2001, the Federal Communications Commission 
reported in February.

One reason often cited for the low penetration of broadband services is 
their high cost, typically about $50 a month.

``We don't have a broadband crisis in America,'' said Rep. Edward Markey, 
D-Mass. ``The crisis is that the prices are so high that (consumers) don't 
want to subscribe to it.''

One independent provider of DSL broadband access via telephone lines, Covad 
Communications, last week lowered its consumer broadband fee to a price 
that rivals dial-up rates.

The company's aim is to spur residential demand, said Covad's president, 
Charles Hoffman.

``Covad's move to lower prices is proof that the '96 Telecommunications Act 
is working,'' Hoffman said, referring to a 1996 law aimed at creating 
competition in the communications industry.

However, President Bush indicated this month at a White House meeting of 
tech industry executives that federal officials soon may try to stimulate 
broadband use by restricting competition.

He hinted that the FCC may issue regulations that would free regional 
telephone companies from sharing their high-speed Internet lines with 
competitors on an equal basis.

Backers of a bill stalled in Congress with the same objective argue that 
the current arrangement actually discourages the phone companies from 
investing to install DSL lines in their regions.
***********************
Reuters Internet Report
Sex on the Office Computer? Big Brother Is Watching
Sat Jun 22,10:54 AM ET
By Andrea Orr

PALO ALTO (Reuters) - How much do you think your employer would pay to make 
sure that you did not spend half your day browsing an online book store, 
watching sports, or downloading music files -- and that you never spent 
your working hours at a porn site?


Thousands of companies have invested in "employee Internet management" 
software that lets them control how their workers are using the Web.

Since the software sells for as little as $15 per employee per year, it is 
an expense they find easy to justify even in a sluggish economy: a way to 
see if workers are wasting time, hogging limited bandwidth or breaking 
company policies.

"There are more and more distractions on the Internet," explains John 
Carrington, Chief Executive of Websense Inc , a small but rapidly growing 
San Diego company that provides such employee management software to some 
17,000 companies, including many Fortune 500 companies, around the world.

"You basically have a home entertainment center on every desktop," 
Carrington said. "We help manage that distraction."

Websense, which estimates that the majority of all companies that use 
employee Internet management software use its product, recently reported a 
small quarterly profit as its revenues surged 90 percent.

Analysts who follow the company are projecting its revenues this year will 
grow to $61.7 million, from $35.9 million last year, according to Thomson 
First Call.

Other companies selling similar products include SurfControl and Secure 
Computing Corp .

If most workers equate this kind of monitoring with spying, and keeping 
detailed records of every Web site ever visited by all employees, Websense 
says the reality is not nearly so big brotherish.

Rather, Carrington says, the company's software is more preventative in 
nature, blocking access to the objectionable sites in the first place, so a 
company can prevent workers from going places that might be grounds for 
dismissal -- a kindler gentler big brother, perhaps.

A BLACK HOLE OF PRODUCTIVITY

Websense provides software that lets companies decide how restrictive they 
want their work place to be. It is the customers themselves that determine 
which areas of the Web are off limits. Websense, which maintains an 
ever-changing database of 3.5 million Web sites organized into 75 different 
categories, says corporate policies vary significantly.

Some block nothing but "the sinful six" (a category covering, pornography, 
militancy and extremism, hate sites, as well as illegal, tasteless and 
violent topics), while others restrict employees from shopping, watching 
sporting events, or viewing even short movie trailers.

Most fall somewhere in the middle. Websense says companies typically 
tolerate limited amounts of online shopping, objecting only when reports 
come back showing excessive amounts of time spent on such sites. Others 
have no problem at all with employees watching sporting events, provided 
they do so after hours, when there is more bandwidth available.

Of course, when companies purchase this kind of employee management 
software, they do get back logs of all the different Web sites visited, so 
individual employee moves may be closely watched.

Websense, which tries to present its product as a non-intrusive way to 
police the workplace, however, maintains that most employers are interested 
in the aggregate results from the whole office rather than individual workers.

"There is not much reason to look at reports on individual employees," 
argues Carrington. "It takes a phenomenal amount of time to look at all 
that information."

Currently, Carrington says, companies seem more concerned with blocking 
access to World Cup matches than to porn or gambling sites. A year ago a 
Victoria's Secret fashion show that was Webcast was a major point of concern.

Ironically, Carrington said, it is the slow adoption of broadband Internet 
access by consumers, that keeps his business thriving.

"One problem for companies is that the majority of homes that have Internet 
access still have dial-up connections," he says. "When you have broadband 
at work, there are a lot of distractions. There is sort of like this black 
hole, that people get sucked into."
********************
MSNBC
Living life at high speed
Study: Vast divide between broadband, dial-up Internet users
By Jane Weaver

June 24  Americans who use a high-speed Internet connection at home tend to 
go online more often, stay there longer and become actively involved in 
creating their own content, a study of Internet users found.

      THE STUDY, to be released Monday by the Pew Internet and American 
Life Project, concludes that there really is a "broadband lifestyle." It 
emerges when people connect to the Internet from home through a high-speed 
network such as a cable modem, or digital subscriber line (DSL).
       Television viewing declines, families and friends keep in closer 
contact through frequent e-mailing or instant messaging and people claim 
they spend less time stuck in traffic because of increased telecommuting.
       "For [broadband] users, the Internet replaces multiple tools, such 
as the telephone, TV, stereo, newspaper, fax machine, or pen, to carry out 
tasks," the Pew study found. "Needs are met on a real-time basis."
       A broadband connection is defined by the Federal Communications 
Commission as a transmission speed exceeding 200 Kilobits per second both 
upstream and downstream, or about four times the speed of a standard 56k 
dial-up modem.
      Not only do broadband users go online more often  82 percent of 
high-speed users surf everyday compared to 58 percent of dial-up 
customers  they end up staying online longer. A typical day's worth of Web 
surfing for a broadband user adds up to about 95 minutes compared to 83 
minutes a day on average for someone with a slower connection, the Pew 
researchers found.
TOTALITY OF EXPERIENCE PRIZED
       In "The Broadband Difference," the Washington, D.C. research group 
conducted phone interviews of more than 500 Internet users 18 years and 
older who have broadband access in order to understand the impact the 
"always-on" speedy connection has on people's behavior.
      What they found was there is no single application or "killer app" 
that appeals to the majority of broadband users, but instead a whole range 
of activities and benefits such as listening to a favorite radio station or 
booking an airline ticket that spur people to pay the higher price for the 
faster access. The average fee for a broadband connection is about $50 a 
month.
       "For these people, it's the totality of what they can do in the 
online world," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew project. "It's not one 
'oh wow' thing."
       For Aaron Burgemeister, a 20 year-old college student from Idaho, 
"having a fast connection is nice so that I can get on with life sooner." 
Burgemeister has been using a home broadband connection for the last two 
years. "Broadband does affect how much I am online. I would not be able to 
get things done nearly as efficiently when I have a whim about some 
project, if I wasn't connected 24/7."
       Not surprisingly, e-mail is the most popular activity, with 67 
percent of broadband users checking it every day.
       Nearly half, or 46 percent of broadband users get news online 
everyday, with 40 percent of them more likely to read online news than a 
newspaper on an average day.
       Other popular activities on any given day include:
 68 percent do information searches
 36 percent do job-related research
 22 percent play a game online
 14 percent buy a travel service

SLOW, BUT STEADY GROWTH
       The mass consumer adoption of broadband is considered important to 
the economic health of a number of major industries, including 
telecommunciations, software, cable television and Internet media. But 
there are widespread industry concerns that the growth of high-speed 
Internet access has hit a wall in the tough economic climate. For example, 
telephone carriers whose wireless divisions are mired in debt have pulled 
back in deployment of broadband services.
      As of May 2002, about 24 million, or 21 percent, of all Internet 
users in America have broadband in the home, according to Pew researchers.
       That puts it about par with the adoption of other, older, consumer 
technologies. High-speed Internet took about four years to reach 10 percent 
penetration, compared to 4.5 years for CD players and eight years for cell 
phones to reach the same levels.
       "For all the hand wringing about how slow it's deploying, there's 
steady growth," said Rainie.
       According to a prior Pew study, 40 percent of dial-up customers say 
they would like to have a home broadband connection.
       One of the more surprising aspects was how broadband-connected 
users became involved in creating their own content for the Web, with 39 
percent having built a Web site or posted their opinions or other 
information on Web sites. Rainie draws a connection between broadband and 
the popular explosion of writing online diaries or Weblogs. Weblogging, the 
hottest trend on the Internet, involves posting a person's thoughts, 
observations or links at personal Web sites.
       About 60 percent say high-speed access in the home mean increased 
telecommuting, sometimes as much as several times a week.
       "A phenomenal number talked about how it had changed their work 
lives, because they're doing their work at home and they felt more 
productive," said Rainie.
       For broadband users like Rob Wells of Fayetteville, Pa. a speedy 
broadband connection allows him to indulge his new favorite past time.
       "I really like to watch real-time video of the Space Shuttle when 
it's aloft," said Wells, 38. "I sit in front of the computer for hours 
watching the earth rotate underneath the Shuttle. It's fantastic."
************************
New York Times
In Fights Over .Com Names, Trademark Owners Usually Win
By SUSAN STELLIN

Researchers analyzing an arbitration system set up to resolve disputes over 
Internet addresses have found that decisions made through the system have 
substantially broadened the rights of trademark holders in cyberspace.

The study represents one of the first attempts to examine the circumstances 
and outcome of more than 3,800 disputes handled by online arbitration 
procedures established in 1999 by the private corporation that manages the 
Internet's address system.

The goal of the arbitration system, known as the Uniform Domain Name 
Dispute Resolution Policy, was to provide an efficient, low-cost 
alternative to litigation for trademark holders who were trying to obtain 
the .com equivalent of their trademarks  in many cases, from speculators 
hoping to sell those names at a profit to deep-pocketed corporations.

Although the researchers concluded that the system had been effective in 
combating these so-called abusive domain-name registrations, they also 
found that the system had "tipped the scales too far" in favor of trademark 
interests.

Milton Mueller, an associate professor at Syracuse University who conducted 
the study, said that in about 80 percent of the disputes examined, the 
party that filed the complaint, generally a trademark holder, prevailed. In 
more than half the cases, the party asked to defend a domain name 
registration did not bother to respond to the complaint and therefore lost 
the right to the name.

"That raises procedural and equity questions about the process," he said. 
"If lots of domain holders feel intimidated or feel it's too expensive to 
respond, the whole process becomes simply a way for trademark holders to 
grab domain names."

Although anyone who registers an Internet address must agree to submit to 
mandatory arbitration if a trademark holder files a complaint claiming its 
right to the domain, most domain-name holders are unaware of the details of 
this procedure. For roughly $1,500 to $3,000, a trademark holder can file a 
complaint to a dispute-resolution provider approved by the organization 
that manages the address system, the Internet Corporation for Assigned 
Names and Numbers.

Upon notice of a complaint, the defendant must submit documentation 
demonstrating legitimate use of the name.

Conversely, the party that filed the complaint must prove three factors: 
that the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or 
service mark in which the complainant has rights; that the defendant has no 
rights or legitimate interest in the name; and that the name has been 
registered and is being used in bad faith.

The cases are heard by a panelist, often a trademark lawyer, who is 
appointed by the chosen dispute-resolution provider. One of those providers 
is the World Intellectual Property Organization, which played a significant 
role drafting the arbitration procedures. (Defendants can elect to pay a 
fee of $1,500 or more to have their case heard by three panelists, instead 
of one.)

Dr. Mueller, who has served on the name-dispute panel, said that in 
studying thousands of cases several disturbing patterns emerged. For 
instance, "The notion of `confusing similarity' has been expanded to the 
point where any character string that incorporates the trademark is 
considered to be confusingly similar," he said, citing as an example 
Hewlett-Packard complaints based on defendants' using the initials H.P. in 
their Internet addresses.

At the same time, researchers found the arbitration system has narrowed the 
definition of what qualifies as legitimate or noncommercial use of a 
trademark. "We've discovered about 80 cases in which the registrant of the 
name is trying to make a statement about something  not always in a 
critical way, it might be a fan site, or a site that provides news or 
information," Dr. Mueller said.

"The panelists are giving some very strange rationalizations for taking 
those names away with alarming frequency." (In cases where the defendant 
was criticizing or providing commentary about a trademark holder, 
researchers found, the defendant won less than a third of the time.)

Gorstew and Unique Vacations, owners of the Sandals and Beaches resorts, 
are among the top filers of complaints. The two, which own sandals.com and 
many other addresses, have filed at least 23 domain name challenges, in 
many cases against companies that sell Sandals vacations, recovering names 
like sandalstravel.com and sandalsvacation.com.

Concern about the impact of the dispute-resolution system on free speech 
was one of the factors that led the Markle Foundation, a philanthropy 
focused on emerging technology, to provide a grant to support Dr. Mueller's 
research. Markle also gave a grant to support the development of a public 
database containing details about the first 3,845 cases submitted for 
arbitration. The two grants totaled $160,000.

"This is supposed to be a high-tech dispute-resolution system, but the 
manner of making the decisions of arbitrators available is as low-tech as 
one can be in this age," said Ethan Katsch, director of the Center for 
Information Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of 
Massachusetts, who developed the database. He said it would be available by 
the end of the summer at the Web site of the Cornell Legal Information 
Institute (www.law.cornell- .edu).

Dr. Mueller said that he hoped the database addressed another problem the 
study found: that arbitrators issued inconsistent decisions in similar 
complaints.

"I think the danger is to assume that these sort of crude standards that 
we've been using for the past two years are appropriate going forward," Dr. 
Mueller said, noting that despite its faults, the arbitration system is 
often cited as a model for resolving global disputes involving e-commerce.

"It was set up, is administered and is pretty much run by trademark 
lawyers," he said. "But it is kind of evolving into a system of global 
common law."
**********************
Washington Post
Free Web-Mail Waning?
By Mike Musgrove

A couple of years ago, I scooped up about a dozen extra e-mail addresses, 
thanks to the proliferation of Web sites that figured giving users free 
e-mail accounts was the way to draw in advertisers' dollars.

Today, nearly all of those e-mail addresses are gone. Just this month, one 
of my old favorites, an Australian site called Start, stopped.

The universe of Web-mail sites remains vast; Andrew Goodman, an editor at 
Traffick.com, a guide to Web portals and search engines, figures that there 
are still "in the thousands to tens of thousands" of free e-mail services 
on the Web. But people seem to be gravitating toward the biggest, 
presumably safest, choices, something Goodman sees in his own inbox -- 
where most of the Web-mail messages come from Hotmail or Yahoo accounts.

According to the research firm ComScore Media Metrix, Microsoft's Hotmail 
site (www.hotmail.com) drew about 40 million users in the United States 
last month and Yahoo (mail.yahoo.com) had about 30 million. The next 
contender, Netscape's Web-mail offering (webmail.netscape.com), had about 2 
million users.

This popularity has yet to be affected by Hotmail and Yahoo's recent 
cutbacks in their free services. Both sites have been slowly peeling away 
free features, merging them into extra-cost premium service options. 
Starting July 16, for example, Hotmail users will no longer be able to 
check other mail accounts from the site unless they pay a $19.95 yearly 
fee. In March, Yahoo began charging for the ability to read Yahoo mail with 
standard e-mail software.

So far surfers aren't lining up to pay for these once-free features -- that 
is, if they used them at all. Hotmail claims more than 110 million active 
users worldwide, but only 300,000 customers have signed on for any Hotmail 
or MSN extra-service options.

If you're torn between the big two, Hotmail's recent service cutbacks give 
Yahoo the edge in a few important categories.

With Yahoo, for example, you get 4 megabytes of inbox capacity for your 
e-mail, or 6 megs if you signed up with Yahoo before it shrank that 
allotment last year. With Hotmail, you get 2. People can send attached 
files as large as 1.5 megs from a Yahoo account, compared with half a meg 
for Hotmail users. With a Hotmail account, users have to log in every 30 
days or the account is shut down; Yahoo mail account users get four months.

The same goes for both services' for-pay upgrades -- with Hotmail, you can 
upgrade to a 10-meg mailbox for $19.99 per year, a fee that also lets users 
send larger attached files and fetch e-mail from regular Internet mail 
accounts. To upgrade a Yahoo account to 10 megs of storage will only run 
you $9.99 a year.

At some lesser-known Web-mail services, meanwhile, you can still get those 
sorts of extras for free. Mail.com, for example, gives users numerous 
addresses to choose from (options such as "@mindless.com" or 
"@earthling.net") and a 10-meg inbox.

A little comparison shopping can pay off even if you're not paying 
anything. The risk is that a smaller, more obscure service might eventually 
go belly up. Is that something to worry about?

If you want to use a Web-mail account as your primary inbox, you'd better 
choose carefully, and you might be best with a name-brand site, be it 
Hotmail, Yahoo, Netscape or similarly well-established options such as 
Lycos or Apple's new Mac.com. But if your Web-mail account will only be a 
backup to your regular account -- or you're only looking for an address to 
give out for software or Web-site registrations -- virtually any Web-mail 
option will do.

In that case, you can get creative. Directories of free-mail sites (see, 
for instance, www.emailaddresses.com and www.fepg.net) offer any number of 
wacky e-mail addresses, yours with a few mouse clicks. You might want to 
think twice about sending your next résumé from a "marijuana.com" address, 
however.
**********************
USA Today
Cell phones costing universities cash

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  Instead of paying 9 cents a minute through Sonoma 
State University, 20-year-old Sadie Gardere pays a flat monthly rate of $45 
for a nationwide long distance plan that covers her calls home to the Bay Area.

Savvy students like Gardere are saving money for themselves, but costing 
cash-strapped public universities millions of dollars by not using the 
school-provided telephone services in residence halls and dorm rooms.

Universities say it is only a matter of time before they will have to 
consider raising student costs to make up the difference.

"I would imagine over time that if there continues to be a further and 
further drop, it would be reasonable to expect that there would be (an 
increase in tuition)," said Toni Beron, a spokeswoman for California State 
University, Long Beach.

The Federal Communications Commission estimates that nationwide, 61% of 18- 
to 24-year-olds carry cell phones.

Years ago, universities could make good money serving as mini phone 
companies, said Sherry Manning, director and CEO of Educational 
Communications and Consortia Incorporated, a national university telephone 
billing service.

Universities became wholesalers, charging slightly more than they paid for 
service but less than local carriers.

Eventually, however, students started using calling cards and long distance 
dialing because the advertising was aimed at the youth population, Manning 
said.

"And now, everyone is shocked that students use the Internet and cell 
phones as much as they do," she said.

Travis Larson, a spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet 
Association, a Washington-based wireless trade group, said it's logical 
students would use cell phones because in the span of four years, they 
could live with a dozen different people and move four times.

"Just imagine the nightmare at the end of the month trying to divide up the 
phone bill," Larson said.

Although many universities contract out phone services through their local 
telephone provider, many, like the University of California, Davis, have 
implemented their own switchboard. Either way, officials say, they are 
still losing out.

"Schools are saying, I am an educator, not a telephone service," Manning said.

The University of California, Santa Barbara has lost $500,000 in the last 
two years. Chico State has lost $400,000 in the last year. At the 
University of Rhode Island, student telephone billing has dropped from 
about $800,000 a year five years ago to just $100,000.

Some schools were hesitant to release figure numbers. Most campuses use the 
money to offset housing and telephone service costs.

"Clearly it has been a problem," said Paul Valenzuela, associate director 
of communications services at UCSB, which charges 10 cents a minute for 
long distance calls through its own switchboard. "The last couple crops of 
freshman have been more cell phone oriented. They are also using e-mail and 
instant messenger technology more."

As a result, some college campuses are going all wireless, dropping 
landline telephones and equipping students with cell phones and handheld 
computers. Those campuses include Washington's American University and the 
University of Southern Mississippi.

The FCC estimates that 3% to 5% of the country's population has dropped 
standard telephone land lines for cell phone use only.

Greg Roberts, director of marketing and national promotions at Cingular 
Wireless, said wireless providers are always trying to improve coverage, 
and campuses that go wireless will have some unique advantages.

"Teachers could tell students class is canceled because of a snow day and 
students could access homework information and sporting events," Roberts said.

Others, like the University of Wyoming, may invent their own calling cards 
for students.

UC Davis, which reports a 12% drop in the number of students using its 
phone service in the last three years, is lowering landline phone rates to 
be competitive with wireless and telephone long distance companies.

UC Davis charges less than it did two years ago, and students can tap into 
online Web services to subscribe for phone service when they enroll, said 
Doug Hartline, director of communication resources.

But when cell phones can offer unlimited night and weekend minutes, as well 
as free long distance, they seem like a much better choice, Sonoma State 
student Gardere said.

"I am renting a house next year with some friends and unless I run into a 
problem, I will just continue to use my cell phone then too," she said. 
"It's just easier."
**********************
USA Today
High-tech cars pose mechanical dilemma

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP)  At least a couple of times a week, mechanic Ernie 
Pride tells customers at his independent repair shop he can't fix their 
cars because he doesn't know what's wrong with them. Go to the dealer, he 
advises.

He has the experience and knowledge to service vehicles but lacks the 
closely guarded information needed to diagnose problems with today's 
high-tech cars.

Automakers refuse to make much of it available to independent shops that 
compete with higher-priced dealerships. The practice is raising hackles in 
Congress and a vigorous defense by the industry.

Figuring out what's wrong with an automobile is no longer as simple as 
poking around under the hood and examining parts. Computers control many 
modern vehicle systems, including the engine, the air bags and the antilock 
brakes. Mechanics now diagnose problems by connecting a handheld computer 
to the vehicle.

The computer gives the mechanic a code of numbers or letters that designate 
the source of a problem. Without the reference material to interpret the 
code, a mechanic can't fix the car.

"We just say, 'We're sorry. You've got one option  go to the dealer,"' said 
Pride, manager of The Car Store outside Washington.

All repair shops must get some emission system codes because of the Clean 
Air Act.

Some members of Congress worry that higher-priced dealer repair shops are 
using the codes to corner the repair market. Lawmakers have introduced 
legislation to require manufacturers to share diagnostic codes with car 
owners and independent repair shops.

Also, the Environmental Protection Agency is developing a plan to require 
that automakers publish online all the codes related to emission repairs.

Cars built since the 1996 model year must have computer-controlled emission 
systems to meet clean air laws.

"Most vehicles out of warranty are serviced by independent repair shops," 
said EPA spokesman David Ryan. "And the sooner these shops catch emission 
problems, the better it is for the environment."

A membership survey by the Automotive Service Association, which represents 
15,000 independent repair shop owners, found that 10% of cars could not be 
repaired because codes are not available. The number is expected to grow as 
newer cars replace pre-1996 models.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers says that requiring the codes' 
disclosure would make proprietary information available to competitors and 
subject to copying.

The group supports the EPA's proposal, and most of its members have signed 
a letter of intent to make emissions diagnostic tools for 1996 and newer 
cars available to independent shops by Jan. 1.

"It's in our interest to make sure" emissions systems are fixed quickly, 
alliance spokeswoman Gloria Bergquist said.

Automobile dealers made a record $80 billion on service and parts in 2001, 
an 8.5% increase over 2000. Dealer labor rates tend to run from $10 to $20 
per hour higher than independent shops, according to AAA.

Dealers contend it is appropriate that they have access to sensitive 
information while independent garages do not.

"Dealerships have a franchise relationship with the manufacturer, and the 
manufacturer can terminate that relationship," said Doug Greenhaus, 
director of environment, health and safety for the National Auto Dealers 
Association. "They are under contract to keep that information 
confidential, but there is no relationship like that with the vehicle 
manufacturer and the aftermarket."

The emissions repair codes are linked to anti-theft devices, which is 
causing the insurance industry to oppose the EPA proposal. Getting the 
codes to more repair shops could make it easier for auto thieves to obtain 
that information, insurers say.

"If you are a thief, the first thing you want to do is to get a one-week 
apprenticeship at Joe's Garage," said Kim Hazelbaker of the industry-funded 
Highway Loss Data Institute.

Aaron Lowe, vice president of government affairs for the Automotive 
Aftermarket Industry Association, says a potential thief also could find 
work at a dealership.

"We don't think their problems are real, and we think they all can be 
resolved," Lowe said. "It will be a lot better for repair shops and 
technicians to more efficiently repair cars, and that will ultimately 
benefit the consumer."

EPA officials say they hope to resolve the insurance industry's misgivings 
about the proposal.
*************************
USA Today
Peruvian effort targets software conglomerates

LIMA, Peru (AP)  Computer software could make Bruno Crespo's job much 
easier  if only he had the cash.

Crespo, the chief administrator of Callao, the port city that abuts Lima, 
has a long wish list: a new tax database, a computerized property registry 
and modernized desktop programs for 200 PCs, half of which run on Windows 95.

But like all city governments in impoverished Peru, scarce revenues can 
barely provide for basic public services, let alone computer programs for 
municipal workers.

Crespo says he would need $120,000 just to pay licensing fees for 200 
versions of the latest Windows office suite. That alone is about four times 
Callao's annual computer budget.

If Congressman Edgar Villanueva gets his way, Crespo might have some more 
maneuvering room. Swimming against the Microsoft tide, Villanueva is 
pushing legislation to obligate all public institutions to convert 
exclusively to open-source software.

Villanueva's office has also coordinated with similar legislative 
initiatives in Argentina, Spain, France and Mexico, said Jesus Marquina, an 
adviser to the congressman.

Open-source programs, embodied by the Linux operating system, have 
underlying code available to anyone who wants to modify or customize it.

Such software, in unadorned form, can be downloaded from the Internet for 
free. The value that developers add by customizing open-source software for 
specific needs  and supporting it  generates income.

In proprietary software like Microsoft's, the source code is mostly secret. 
Companies charge licensing fees. Users update it by buying a new version.

Villanueva's measure would apply to all software  from server operating 
systems to databases, word processors and e-mail. It allows for exceptions 
only if no open-source solution exists.

If passed, the legislation could be the first of its kind in the world  the 
first government-authored legal restriction that takes aim at Microsoft's 
dominant operating systems and the commercial software industry that has 
grown around them.

Open-source still represents only a small share of the global software 
market, but governments around the world have begun turning to it for 
various reasons.

Federal agencies in major powers including France, Germany, China and the 
United States have adopted Linux for servers, mainly because it's cheaper, 
stable and deemed less susceptible to viruses and hacker attacks.

For poorer governments in Latin America and elsewhere, open-source would 
mean big savings without losing functionality, proponents say.

"The basic issue, really, is that governments are paying a high price for 
commodities," said Miguel de Icaza, chief technological officer at Ximian 
software company in Boston. "A country shouldn't be paying between $200 and 
$700 for each workstation to run word processors, spreadsheets, Web and 
calendars, and e-mail."

De Icaza is a lead developer and promoter of open-source software, 
including in his native Mexico. His company sells for $60 a Linux desktop 
complete with a modified version of OpenOffice.org, the free, open-source 
competitor to Microsoft's Office.

For Callao, open-source could take the expense out of software upgrades, 
leaving Crespo to dedicate his computing budget to developing database systems.

Villanueva says the Peruvian state owes about $30 million in overdue 
software license fees. A government study last year estimated Peru would 
have to pay $18 million in licensing fees to cover the pirated software it 
uses.

The same study painted a stark picture of Peru's overall IT situation. Many 
government PCs still run Windows 95 and about a third still use the 
outdated Pentium II processor  or earlier versions.

Villanueva says budget savings is not the primary goal of his proposed law.

"Our philosophy is to try to give access to technology to the most people 
possible, especially young people, and that the state should play a 
fundamental role in that process," he said.

Villanueva hopes his measure triggers activity in Peru's software industry 
by freeing programmers from the constraints of working with coding 
controlled by a few large companies.

Microsoft officials contend the legislation is based on misconceptions and 
unproven theories. Along with Peruvian software companies, Microsoft has 
lobbied congressmen, government officials, academics and businesses with 
that message.

The office of the chief of Peru's Cabinet has already voiced opposition to 
the measure.

"There are several challenges that the government would face if it approves 
that law," said Mauro Muratorio, Microsoft's corporate strategy director 
for Latin America.

Muratorio said software comprises just 2% to 3% of an organization's 
technology costs. More than 90% goes to services, such as technical 
support, training and development, which could be even more costly with 
open-source, he added.

Sales of Microsoft products  mostly made through local 
businesses  encourage local growth, Muratorio argued.

Microsoft Peru expects $27 million in sales this year, which would generate 
about $70 million for local businesses, Muratorio said.

Rolando Liendo, president of the Peruvian Association of Software 
Developers, said the country's fledgling software industry  which produces 
$40 million a year in mostly proprietary software  could be hit hard by 
Villanueva's legislation. Roughly a quarter of its business goes to the 
government, he said.

But Villanueva argues that the freedom created by his bill would far 
outweigh any temporary losses.

With proprietary software, "a systems engineer graduate ends up being a 
user. Call him 'programmer' in quotation marks, but in the end he's a user. 
If he had access to source code, that engineer would have the possibility 
to transform, to modify, to adapt to his needs, to create," Villanueva said.

"We're just giving them a legal tool so they can go forward. We'll see if 
it happens."
********************
USA Today
Devices show what a tangled brain we weave

WASHINGTON (AP)  The world is becoming a trickier place for people who tell 
lies  even little white ones.

From thermal-imaging cameras designed to read guilty eyes to brain-wave 
scanners, which essentially watch a lie in motion, the technology of 
truth-seeking is leaping forward.

At the same time, more people are finding their words put to the test, 
especially those who work for the government.

FBI agents, themselves subjected to more polygraphs as a result of the 
Robert Hanssen spy case, have been administering lie detection tests at 
Fort Detrick, Md., and Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, bases with stores of 
anthrax. Nuclear plant workers also are getting the tests in greater 
numbers since Sept. 11.

"There has been a reawakening of our interest in being able to determine 
the truth from each other," said sociologist Barbara Hetnick, who teaches a 
course on lying at Wooster College. "As technology advances, we may have to 
decide whether we want to let a machine decide guilt or innocence."

The new frontiers of lie detection claim to offer greater reliability than 
the decades-old polygraph, which measures heart and respiratory rates as a 
person answers questions.

They also pose new privacy problems, moral dilemmas and the possibility 
that the average person will unwittingly face a test.

At the Mayo Clinic, researchers hope to perfect a heat-sensing camera that 
could scan people's faces and find subtle changes associated with lying. In 
a small study of 20 people, the high-resolution thermal imaging camera 
detected a faint blushing around the eyes of those who lied.

The technique, still preliminary, could provide a simple and rapid way of 
scanning people being questioned at airports or border crossings, 
researchers say.

But would it be legal?

"As long as no one was being arrested or detained solely on the basis of 
the test, there is no law against scanning someone's face with a device," 
said Justin Hammerstein, a civil liberties attorney in New York.

"You could use the device to subject someone to greater scrutiny in a 
physical search or background check, and it would be hard to argue that it 
is illegal."

Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union said any technology 
that isn't 100% effective could lead unfairly to innocent travelers being 
stranded at airports.

"You would be introducing chaos into the situation and inevitably focusing 
on people who are innocent," Steinhardt said.

At the University of Pennsylvania, researcher Daniel Langleben is using a 
magnetic resonance imaging machine, the device used to detect tumors, to 
identify parts of the brain that people use when they lie.

"In the brain, you never get something for nothing," Langleben said. "The 
process for telling a lie is more complicated than telling the truth, 
resulting in more neuron activity."

Even for the smoothest-talker, lying is tough work for the brain.

First, the liar must hear the question and process it. Almost by instinct, 
a liar will first think of the true answer before devising or speaking an 
already devised false answer.

All that thinking adds up to a lot of electrical signals shooting back and 
forth. Langleben says the extra thought makes some sections of the brain 
light up like a bulb when viewed with an MRI.

MRI machines are bulky, but their potential as lie detectors could lead to 
the invention of smaller, more specialized versions, Langleben said.

Other tests are on the market, although how well they perform is an open 
question.

Handheld "voice stress" detectors already are being sold for $300 to $600 
at some department stores and on the Internet.

Makers claim the devices show when a person's voice trembles under the 
stress of a lie. Although skeptics say there is no proof they work, police 
in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Miami are using more advanced versions and 
say they sometimes prompt confessions.

Also, the subject need not be present. Police can record a suspect's voice 
and check it for stress later.

Not everyone is sold on it.

"Voices can shake because people are scared about being interrogated by 
police," said Thomas Jakes, president of People for Civil Rights. "This 
technology is nothing but a way to scare people."

Critics say failure on any lie detector test can have unfair consequences, 
regardless of what the truth may be.

Mark Mallah says he was suspended and put under 24-hour surveillance after 
failing a routine polygraph test in 1994, when he was an FBI 
counterintelligence agent.

He was finally cleared and reinstated 19 months later. He quit.

"They never produced any evidence or came forward with anything, but the 
polygraph still undermined my career," said Mallah, who practices law in 
San Francisco.

In the CIA, routine polygraphs led to the suspicion of dozens of agents in 
the 1980s. Many were kept in professional limbo for years, according to an 
FBI report.

"We should try to avoid a society where suspicion is based on a machine and 
not on evidence," said Dale Jenang, a sociologist and philosophy researcher 
at the University of California, Berkeley. "Guilt and innocence are too 
important to leave to a machine."
************************
Los Angeles Times
Getting a Hand-Held on Fighting Crime
Software: ImageWare Systems' Crime Web Lite lets officers use PDAs to check 
suspects' identities.
By CHRISTINE FREY
TIMES STAFF WRITER

June 24 2002

Sgt. Larry Bryant has the suspects he wants in the palm of his hand.

Bryant, who oversees records for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's 
Department, can use his hand-held organizer to instantly search more than a 
million mug shots by such variables as eye color, height and even 
distinctive tattoos.

So instead of driving back to the office to pull a file, Bryant can look up 
a person's booking profile--including color photograph, address and 
aliases--while out on the street. The software designed by San Diego-based 
ImageWare Systems Inc. was introduced this year and is among the latest 
technology focusing on local law enforcement.

Although many new high-tech security features introduced since Sept. 11 
have been aimed at fighting terrorism, tools such as ImageWare's are 
designed to take common criminals off the street. Unlike federal law 
enforcement agencies, however, most local departments don't have 
billion-dollar budgets.

At a time when police and sheriff's departments are facing budget cuts, law 
enforcement officials say they are unlikely to get money for personal 
digital assistants over patrol cars.

Several law enforcement agencies--including those in New York, San Antonio 
and Las Vegas--already have adopted the PDA technology, said ImageWare 
Chief Executive Jim Miller. Most departments, though, are using less glitzy 
gadgets and installing the software on laptops in patrol cars.

The technology is used to help identify suspects giving false names and 
those with outstanding warrants. When running an identity check, officers 
can search a digital booking database for the person's name or physical 
description and receive dozens of matching mug shots. Departments without a 
wireless connection can search as many as 50,000 records stored on a hand-held.

"It was designed as a tool, not to say that's absolutely the person that 
committed the crime but to help detectives narrow down the list of 
suspects," Miller said.

In addition to law enforcement technology, ImageWare specializes in digital 
photography and database management. Last month, the company posted a 
first-quarter loss of $1.48 million, or 27 cents a share, on revenue of 
$3.66 million, compared with a loss of $880,000, or 21 cents a share, on 
revenue of $2.76 million a year earlier.

The Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department installed the software, called 
Crime Web Lite, on laptops in patrol cars, giving officers wireless access 
to three databases: its digital bookings, registrant database (which 
consists of sex offenders, arsonists and narcotics offenders) and elderly 
database (which includes the names and descriptions of local Alzheimer's 
patients).

Since installing the software about two months ago, officers have been able 
to run more identity checks from the field, said Gordon Brussow, senior 
systems engineer for Stanislaus County.

"What we've found is that officers are saving time," Brussow said. "If we 
were out in the outskirts of the county, we used to have to drive all the 
way back to the office and have the clerk run and pull photos."

In Los Angeles County, where sheriff's deputies typically receive 
confirmation of a suspect's identity from a radio operator or a text-based 
computer, three patrol stations--West Hollywood, Pico Rivera and 
Cerritos--have installed the software in patrol car laptops. The county is 
testing the PDA application.

Despite the number of photographs in the system--Los Angeles County adds 
about 1,000 mug shots a day, Bryant estimates--the technology's success 
depends to some degree on law enforcement agencies sharing information.

"What we want to have is a federal repository for criminals and suspected 
terrorists so we can check people quickly, and that's one thing ImageWare 
could help do," said John Paulson, an analyst with Paulson Investment Co. 
"Right now you have a lot of cities and some states that have repositories 
and databanks that share information with each other, but criminals and 
terrorists move around from state to state.... You really need a national 
database."

ImageWare's digital booking database software--which allows officers to 
access digital booking databases on a secure intranet--starts at around 
$30,000 to $40,000, depending on the number of officers using the system. 
PDA licensing fees are several hundred dollars per hand-held. The PDAs, 
which must run the Pocket PC operating system, and wireless fees cost extra.

Because hand-helds are expensive, law enforcement officials say it is 
unlikely that each officer would be equipped with one. Probably only those 
without access to computers--detectives and officers on foot or bike 
patrol, for instance--would carry them.

In the future, cameras could be added to PDAs so officers could take 
photographs of suspects in the field. Those photographs could be run 
against a facial-recognition system to identify suspects.
*************************
San Francisco Gate
Shops try chips for tracking every move by client 'tribe'
Monitoring systems note what catches customers' eyes

New York -- At Prada's flagship store in SoHo, Ellen Lindhart was checking 
out a shimmery blue jacket with a flirty, low-hanging belt. As she pulled 
it off the rack and headed to a dressing room, the haute couture was 
checking her out, too.

A tiny silicon chip inside a black envelope attached by string to the 
garment transmitted a signal to a computer in the store's back room that 
logged the movement. The computer, in turn, sent a command to a flat-screen 
monitor near where Lindhart was standing in the dressing room. The monitor 
popped up an image of the jacket she was trying on, complete with details 
about its cut, fabric and color.

"Hmm," Lindhart mumbled as she slipped her arms into the jacket -- puzzled, 
she said later, about how the computer knew so much.

The Prada shop is wiring itself to be a virtual laboratory for studying 
shoppers' psyches. It now knows the exact location of every outfit in the 
store. Soon, for those who sign up for Prada's customer loyalty program, 
the shop will keep track of what shoppers try on and what they buy.

Once, retailers who wanted to know what people thought about store displays 
or shopping experiences would stop them on their way out or invite them to 
focus groups. Now technology allows retailers to conduct "observational" 
research -- clandestinely studying consumers in their habitat as they might 
animals in the wild.

Prada is among hundreds of companies that have begun experimenting with new 
technologies to peek in on consumers. "Gaze-tracking" systems monitor how 
long a person stared at a particular part of a shelf, so displays that 
don't seem to inspire shoppers can be quickly rearranged. Electronic 
sensors count the number of shoppers in particular areas, helping stores 
deploy staff better.

"Very often what people do is very different from what they say. By 
observing them when they don't know you're observing them . . . you often 
get a stronger idea of motivation," said Bill Abrams, founder of HouseCalls 
Inc., a firm that specializes in what he calls "retail ethnography."

Paco Underhill, founder of behavior research firm Envirosell Inc., said 
this kind of research is critically important today, as the average time 
shoppers now spend in a store is down to its lowest point ever: 11.27 
minutes for buyers and 2.36 minutes for nonbuyers. Given that 60 to 70 
percent of purchases are impulse buys, Underhill said, it's crucial for 
stores to watch customers to figure out what's capturing their attention.

Many projects are being done quietly, because retailers fear a backlash 
from privacy-minded customers.

Among the most-popular systems are those that act as substitutes for store 
greeters who click counters behind their backs as they say "Hello" to 
customers. ShopperTrak RCT, a high-tech analysis company, has set up such 
devices in more than 10,000 locations, including Eddie Bauer, Ikea, Sears 
and Disney stores.

The wanderings of people's eyes -- what they pass over, where they linger --

have also become of great interest. Thomas Hutchinson, a professor at the 
University of Virginia and Cambridge, said that while few companies have 
deployed such technologies in stores, many are testing them in laboratories.

The technology with the greatest implications for retailing research may be 
the e-tag chips attached to merchandise such as the clothes at Prada. Gap, 
Toys R Us, Bloomingdale's and Hollywood Video are also testing the tags.

The size of a postage stamp, e-tag chips are capable of storing and sending 
wireless signals with information such as the product name, when it was 
manufactured, its location, directions for use and expiration date.

Most companies are using these systems for inventory control. At a Gap 
store in suburban Atlanta, for instance, the company put e-tags on jeans 
that could map their location in the store. Sales associates could 
determine, say, whether they had run out of size 4s on the floor and needed 
to grab extras from the back room, said Tres Wiley, a strategy manager for 
Texas Instruments Inc., which provided the system. Wiley said the 
technology significantly boosted sales. Gap representatives declined 
comment on the three-month test.

Prada has a more ambitious vision for its e-tags. By tracking which items 
customers tried on or bought, it hopes to better predict what they will want.

At the Prada store in New York, information has been collected without 
identifying specific customers. Soon the company plans to introduce a 
program that will link the data to customers who agree to participate.

Prada plans to issue them e-tags in the form of loyalty cards. Sales 
associates will be able to scan shoppers' cards and access profiles that 
list sizes, favorite colors and fabrics, previous purchases and credit 
history.

Bruce Eckfeldt, a manager at IconNicholson, which designed the software for 
the project, said Prada has informed customers of the tracking and has 
collected personal information only from those who consent.

Prada shopper Lindhart said she didn't mind the surveillance if it means 
better service. "Nowadays you can't do anything without being watched," she 
said.

But another customer, Jennifer Yoder, said retailers should be required to 
provide privacy policies outlining what information they collect and how 
they use it.
*************************
BBC
Old net name to get new owner

The hunt for a new owner of the dot.org net domain has begun.
The net suffix needs a new owner because the existing overseer will give up 
control over the domain by the end of this year.

In all, 11 organisations and groups have put in bids to run dot.org.

Dot.org is the electronic home of many non-profit groups, and many of the 
bidding groups are planning to support this non-commercial ethic by 
changing the way the suffix is managed.

Community centre

This week, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), 
the organisation that oversees the running of the net, revealed the list of 
bidders for the dot.org domain.

The domain is being released as part of a deal that its former owner, 
Verisign, struck with Icann.

By giving up control of the dot.org registry, Verisign got permission to 
keep control over the lucrative dot.com domain past the previously 
negotiated 2007 expiry date.

The deal was drawn up following US Government concern that Verisign was 
gathering too much control over net domains.

Community ethic

The bidders keen to run dot.org have each paid Icann $35,000 to consider 
their application.

Bids have come from a variety of groups, many of whom are already involved 
in the running of generic domains, such as dot.name or dot.coop as well as 
suffixes for individual nations.

Andrew Tsai, chief executive of the Global Name Registry, said change was 
needed because currently dot.org owners had no way of influencing what 
happened to their chosen domain and no central place to discuss community 
issues.

He said GNR would use 5% of the money made from dot.org domain fees to 
create a "community capital" that would dispense advice to new dot.org 
owners and act as a debating chamber for all owners.

"The vision is about inclusion, education and how this diverse community 
can shape the dot.org space together," he said.

The International Federation of the Red Cross is backing GNR's bid.

'Tried and tested'

Similar self-governance ideas were voiced by Malcolm Corbett, a spokesman 
for Poptel which is part of the Unity Registry bid for dot.org.

He said if it was successful Unity would create a co-operative with dot.org 
domain owners as members to drive development of the suffix.

"It's a tried and tested structure for giving people influence over top 
level policies," he said.

Unity is planning to return 10% of the cash from domain fees to setting up 
the co-operative and creating resources for members.

Icann is due to appoint a new dot.org owner by the end of August 2002.
**********************
BBC
Warning over password security

Computer users are being urged to change their passwords regularly to avoid 
becoming a victim of internet fraud.
Experts say that passwords used to log on to the internet and access 
confidential information such as bank details should be altered at least 
once a month, both at home and at work.

The warning comes as a survey suggests more than half of computer users 
never change their passwords, and many use words that can be easily guessed.

The study published by the British online bank Egg says users even leave 
passwords written on Post-It notes attached to their computers.

The names of loved ones and relatives top the list of the most commonly 
chosen passwords, according to the survey of 1,000 users.

The BBC's e-commerce reporter John Moylan says the rapid rise of the 
internet has been mirrored by increased concerns about carrying out 
transactions online.

'Simple steps'

He says the survey demonstrates that computer users' own behaviour presents 
a major security risk.

The study recommends that as well as changing passwords regularly, users 
should:

*Make passwords at least eight digits long
*Not write passwords down
*Use more than one password for different websites
*Avoid common themes.

Patrick Muir, director of marketing at Egg, said: "The internet is as safe 
a place to shop or bank as the high street.
"However, there are a number of simple steps that consumers can take in 
order to improve their personal security."
**********************
BBC
The fax machine uprising

How did a loose collective of internet users force a government U-turn on 
controversial changes to digital privacy laws? The answer is that they did 
it using simple technology to create a large-scale grassroots protest 
campaign almost overnight.

If you think most internet geeks are a bunch of self-interested 
games-addicted cynics with eyes for little else but their computer screens, 
it's time to think again.
Last week, the UK online community scored a dramatic victory over 
government plans to give all sorts of public bodies access to records of 
everyone's e-mail and phone records.

And it all happened astonishingly fast. Within days of the alarm being 
raised, Home Secretary David Blunkett publicly apologised for "getting it 
wrong".

Cabinet ministers aren't in the habit of backing down on changes to the law 
just because someone gripes about it. This campaign was different.

The story begins two years ago, when the Regulation of Investigatory Powers 
(RIP) Act was passed, after much opposition from the online community.

RIP was designed to let the authorities demand private information about 
people's habits on the internet and on their mobile phones from the 
companies that provide internet and phone connections.

Originally, RIP's definition of "authorities" was limited to the police, 
Customs, and the secret services. The limit was set because the powers 
allowed under RIP did not need approval by a judge - a senior police 
officer just had to sign a piece of paper saying the RIP powers were needed.

But suddenly earlier this month the Home Office announced that it wanted to 
amend that list of "authorities". Now it would include local councils, 
government departments, even the Royal Mail.

Privacy experts were horrified.

The story begins two years ago, when the Regulation of Investigatory Powers 
(RIP) Act was passed, after much opposition from the online community.

RIP was designed to let the authorities demand private information about 
people's habits on the internet and on their mobile phones from the 
companies that provide internet and phone connections.

Originally, RIP's definition of "authorities" was limited to the police, 
Customs, and the secret services. The limit was set because the powers 
allowed under RIP did not need approval by a judge - a senior police 
officer just had to sign a piece of paper saying the RIP powers were needed.

But suddenly earlier this month the Home Office announced that it wanted to 
amend that list of "authorities". Now it would include local councils, 
government departments, even the Royal Mail.

Privacy experts were horrified.

The fax campaign was possible thanks to a website called faxyourmp.com, 
which itself was created in the aftermath of the first Stand campaign two 
years ago.

Faxyourmp.com does exactly what it says it will. When users enter their 
postcode, it tells them who their MP is, and then allows them to send a fax 
explaining their case.

Hundreds of faxes were sent in just a few days, enough for an average of 
two for every MP.

This got noticed in Westminster. MPs started responding directly, in some 
cases contacting the faxers and asking them to explain more.

Many people sending faxes were among Stand's wide network of internet 
friends, part of the UK's web development community. Others were spurred on 
by further campaigning by the Foundation for Information Policy Research 
(FIPR), a think-tank that shared Stand's objections to the Home Office plan.

Some even represented the organisations that were proposed to have access 
to RIP powers - people concerned that their small departments would never 
have the time or resources to effectively take on such a huge responsibility.

Media coverage

Not only did the fax campaign help, it did so in record time. Within days, 
the government was talking about postponing the debate until July. A couple 
of days later, it announced the plan had been shelved indefinitely.

Stand and its supporters celebrated, surprised - but nonetheless delighted 
- with the success of the fax campaign and the amount of media coverage it 
generated.

As another Stand team member, Danny O'Brien, says: "It was a good strategy, 
and I'm glad we randomly stumbled upon it."

The campaign doesn't end there. Although officially postponed, the changes 
to RIP may still re-emerge. Stand, the FIPR, and their supporters are 
determined to be ready for it next time.

Ultimately, they see their success as a result of changing attitudes to the 
internet.

As James Cronin says: "People's attitude towards the way the internet and 
other communications technologies interact with their lives has changed 
quite fundamentally since the first Stand campaign. People's digital lives 
are now much more real to them."
**********************
Federal Computer Week
One year and counting: Section 508
Feds tout progress, but need more time on accessibility law

Today, blind U.S. Postal Service customers can buy stamps, check ZIP codes 
and perform other transactions at an Internet site USPS calls its 
"cyberspace post office that never closes."

But they can't download usable tax forms from the Internal Revenue Service.

Students seeking financial aid and school officials applying for grants 
from the Education Department now can do so online despite 
disabilities  something they couldn't do a year ago. But vision-impaired 
employees at Education can't process the applications because the 
department's grants management system is not "accessible."

It has been a year since Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act went into 
effect, requiring federal agencies to make sure their Web sites and office 
technology can be used, or "accessed," by people with a variety of 
disabilities.

So far, progress toward implementing Section 508 has been inconsistent.

The White House, for example, has unveiled a new, largely accessible Web 
site. And some agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commission, now 
provide news and public notices in accessible formats.

But government employees eager for more education  and the promotion 
possibilities it might unlock  are apt to be frustrated by agency-sponsored 
online training courses that fail to include captions for the deaf or audio 
narration and Braille course materials for the blind.

Inside some government agencies, efforts to achieve Section 508 compliance 
have sometimes verged on dramatic, as when Education officials made a 
software vendor fly a team of technicians to Washington, D.C., to fix 
accessibility problems in an automated travel voucher application before 
the agency would accept it.

"They sent guys here from California," a department employee marveled.

But instances of such vigorous enforcement appear to be the exception. 
Advocates for those with disabilities say real progress at most federal 
agencies remains painfully slow.

"The reports I get from our people are that not much has changed. It's kind 
of discouraging," said Curtis Chong, director of technology at the National 
Federation of the Blind.

Many agencies have focused on improving the accessibility of their Web 
sites, which are highly visible to the public but represent only one of a 
half-dozen categories of technology that Section 508 covers. And the 
others, such as desktop software, telecommunications, office equipment and 
information transaction machines, may have a far greater impact on 
employees and their ability to do their jobs.

A Case in Point

For instance, Section 508 states that all training and informational video 
and multimedia productions produced or bought by agencies must have 
captions and audio narrations.

"But almost none of it is being done," said Larry Goldberg of the National 
Center for Accessible Media. "It is so doable, the technology is almost 
mundane," yet many agencies continue to make training tapes and online 
instruction programs without captions and audio narration, he said.

Instructional material for employees may seem like an obscure sideline in 
the federal government's use of information technology, but it is an 
increasingly important one, according to Joy Relton of the American 
Foundation for the Blind.

"Agencies are going more and more to distance learning and online 
training," she said. It's inexpensive for the agencies and convenient for 
employees. And training often is essential for those who need to keep up 
with fast-changing technology.

But training courses continue to rely heavily on Flash  a type of authoring 
software that creates animated Web pages  and PDF files. Neither can be 
read by the screen readers that the blind and visually impaired use.

Flash maker Macromedia Inc. and PDF producer Adobe Systems Inc. are 
developing more accessible versions of their products, but they are not 
widely used. So for now, distance learning remains a distant hope for many 
with disabilities.

But the problem hasn't gone unnoticed by federal officials, said Terry 
Weaver, director of the Center for IT Accommodation at the General Services 
Administration.

Accessible online training "is a big issue, one of the top issues" among 
Section 508 coordinators, she said. The coordinators are senior officials 
who oversee each agency's Section 508 implementation.

"We have gone to talk to the companies that develop these products," Weaver 
said, but it will take more time for companies to learn to produce 
accessible online training programs.

Asking for Time

"More time" may be the accessibility axiom at Section 508's first anniversary.

"Section 508's not an overnight silver bullet," said Laura Ruby, Microsoft 
Corp.'s accessibility and disabilities program manager.

"We're one year into it now, but the product cycle is six to 24 months," 
she said, and that means products developed to be 508-compliant are just 
now beginning to appear on the market. But that doesn't necessarily mean 
agencies are ready to buy them.

The acquisition process takes time. Some agencies are just now receiving 
products that were made two years ago.

"Many agencies are just going to [Microsoft] Windows 2000," Ruby said. It 
is unlikely that those agencies will buy the next-generation operating 
system, Windows XP, anytime soon. So "folks there may not be able to access 
the operating system with the most accessible features" for years to come.

The same product and purchasing cycles also affect the availability and 
acquisition of accessible hardware, said Michael Takemura, an accessibility 
specialist for Hewlett-Packard Co.

Computer manufacturers must wait for software producers to develop 
accessible operating systems and applications before they can build fully 
accessible computers. And then they can only sell when the government is 
buying.

Typically, agencies upgrade their computers, printers and other office 
equipment every "two years on the short side and four or five years on the 
long side," Takemura said. So employees at agencies with relatively new 
equipment and a long replacement cycle might not begin to see new, more 
accessible technology until 2005 to 2006.

Such delays are frustrating for those with disabilities. They expected 
faster relief when Congress passed and President Clinton signed Section 508 
in 1998. But such delays were to be expected, said GSA's Weaver.

June 25, 2001, the day 508 took effect, "was a start date," she said. 
"Procurements take time." Compliance with Section 508 "wasn't designed to 
be immediate." And "the products have to be there before we can buy them."

No Quick Fix

Even when accessible products are available, accessibility isn't always as 
simple as buying the products and plugging them in. The complexities of 
operating systems, data systems and system architectures can make 
integrating accessible technology a challenge, Weaver said.

How easily new systems will fit in and function with legacy systems varies 
tremendously by agency, depending on factors as different as each agency's 
number of data systems, branch offices and teleworkers, she said.

But the complexity of 508 compliance is having at least one positive side 
effect, Weaver said  a growing number of federal technology chiefs are 
realizing that their agencies need better technology architectures, she said.

Some accessibility experts say understanding that is essential for success. 
"We've tried to push enterprise-level accessibility," said Louis 
Hutchinson, chief executive officer of Crunchy Technologies.

"Without that happening, you will see one segment of an agency become 
absolutely accessible, and then go down the hallway and see another part 
that isn't accessible at all." Or worse, the inaccessible branch will feed 
information that is not in a 508-compliant format to the accessible branch, 
gradually undermining its accessibility, he said.

For accessibility to prevail, strong requirements must become embedded 
throughout agency processes, Hutchinson said. And for the most part, that's 
not happening yet, he added.

Crunchy, which produces software tools for evaluating and improving the 
accessibility of applications and Web pages, works for nearly two dozen 
federal agencies, from NASA and the Army to the Small Business Administration.

During the past year, Hutchinson said, accessibility progress has been most 
evident on agency Web sites, where there "are certain pockets that are 
accessible and other pockets that are moving toward accessibility."

But often accessibility is only Web deep. "Most of the Web-based 
applications in government are interfaces to legacy applications that are 
not accessible," he said.

And even Web accessibility can be illusory.

Education Chief Information Officer Craig Luigart proclaimed his agency "in 
very, very good shape on Web compliance." Luigart is also chairman of the 
federal Section 508 Steering Committee.

"We have the vast preponderance of our Web material in compliance" with 508 
standards, he said. "And each day, as older material is archived and new 
material is developed," the degree of accessibility increases.

Gauging Progress

A test of Education's Web site using automated accessibility-checking 
software by SSB Technologies Inc. yielded a compliance rating of 72 percent.

The accessibility checker, called Ask Alice, examined 408 randomly selected 
Education Web pages and found 1,030 accessibility errors.

Many accessibility experts question the accuracy of Ask Alice and similar 
compliance-checking tools. Automated tools can spot possible accessibility 
problems, but to get a really accurate accessibility analysis, a human 
being must check Web pages, said Michael Cooper of the Center for Applied 
Special Technology.

Many of the page elements that automated checkers identify as noncompliant 
actually are compliant, according to Cooper and other accessibility experts.

Luigart said a random sample of Education's Web pages does not provide a 
true picture of the Web site's accessibility. The department has 
concentrated on making the most-used of its 55,000 pages accessible, he 
said. A random sample likely includes some pages that are six or seven 
years old and rarely, if ever, used by the public.

Finding that a percentage of those pages are not 508-compliant would not be 
surprising, he said  but for practical purposes, those pages do not affect 
the general accessibility of Education's Web site.

From his post at the head of the Section 508 Steering Committee, Luigart 
said federal agencies "have moved aggressively" to implement Section 508. 
But he acknowledged that the pace of real progress in accessibility might 
best be described as "evolutionary."

Crunchy's Hutchinson has reached a similar conclusion. It is likely to take 
two or three more years before accessibility begins to be the norm in 
government agencies, he predicted. By then, much old equipment will have 
been replaced, some legacy applications will have been abandoned or 
modified, and new, accessible products will have been developed by industry 
and bought by agencies.

But Hutchinson is convinced that, eventually, accessibility will become the 
standard.

When that happens, products such as authoring tools will include wizards 
that won't allow authors to produce inaccessible Web pages or multimedia 
presentations, he said. And accessibility features will be built into most 
operating systems, while desktop applications will cause products lacking 
accessible features to seem so obviously deficient that they will be 
modified or replaced, he said. Perhaps. But for Chong and other 
accessibility advocates, progress made in the past year warrants only 
modest optimism.

"The process is so slow and there's so much to be done," Chong said. 
"There's lots of talk about 508 and lots of talk about accessibility, but 
really, all the problems still exist."

David Greco, CEO of SSB Technologies, agrees. "Based on our research, 
there's a long way to go," Greco said.

In addition to operating Ask Alice, SSB sells "accessibility solutions" to 
a number of federal agencies, including the Defense Department, the Social 
Security Administration and the Census Bureau. The company specializes in 
finding and fixing accessibility problems in agency Web sites and office 
applications.

"Our research shows a number of agencies are not very compliant at all," 
Greco said.

Ask Alice finds numerous accessibility defects in such heavily used 
government Web sites as those run by the White House, FirstGov, Education, 
the Transportation Department and others.

Despite its critics, Ask Alice "provides a reliable indication of a Web 
site's overall accessibility," Greco said.

In addition to checking Web sites, SSB often is asked to check the 
accessibility of agency software applications, and it frequently finds 
"significant issues related to accessibility." Even software that seems to 
meet Section 508 guidelines does not always work with specific assistive 
technology, he said.

"Most agencies are struggling with how to integrate accessibility software 
tools into their overall processes," he said. "But if you ask if 508 has 
been successful, I would say yes. Section 508 has catalyzed a lot of effort."

"Awareness is very high, and that's an accomplishment," agreed Goldberg of 
the National Center for Accessible Media. Before Section 508 took effect, 
agencies and technology manufacturers "had no compelling reason to pay 
attention to accessibility. Now they do."

Still, "there is a good deal of frustration" among people with disabilities 
who see accessibility as slow in coming, he said.

Even if the pace picks up, achieving accessibility will be an incremental 
process, Luigart said. "We will have solutions tomorrow that we do not have 
today, and the day after that we will have problems with technology that we 
do not have today," he said. But movement up "the learning ramp" is faster 
than movement down "the problem ramp."

Achieving accessibility "will take time," Chong conceded. At the first 
anniversary of Section 508, "we've seen the first baby steps taken. Let's 
hope the honeymoon isn't over."
*******************
Federal Computer Week
FEMA seeks wireless fix
BY Megan Lisagor

In another case of homeland security housekeeping, the Office of Management 
and Budget will soon mandate a reallocation of wireless efforts to one 
e-government initiative, according to Ronald Miller, chief information 
officer of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

FEMA will organize the government's communications capabilities under 
Project SafeCom to ensure that emergency workers are outfitted with 
interoperable equipment.

The small agency recently took over the project from the Treasury 
Department because of its emphasis on emergency preparedness and first 
responders, Miller said at an Industry Advisory Council breakfast June 20.

"Our communications system in this country is a total, dismal failure," 
said Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.).

FEMA officials plan to use bridging technologies to improve the situation 
in the near future as the agency moves toward creating a national standard, 
Miller said. "Technology is not the problem," he said. "Our job is to bring 
this community together to find a coordinated solution."

Miller, Weldon and local officials recounted the breakdown in 
communications after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. First responders 
needed up-to-date information to direct rescues. But with telephone service 
down in some areas, an overwhelming volume of calls clogging the wireless 
phone system and fire departments transmitting radio messages on different 
frequencies, rescuers struggled to communicate.

In the end, some were reduced to sending runners with handwritten notes.

In Miller's mind, a reserved radio spectrum for safety is the answer to the 
communications problem, he said.
************************
Federal Computer Week
Homeland department IT taking shape
BY Diane Frank

Top Bush administration information technology managers have begun to 
create an IT architecture for the proposed Homeland Security Department 
while Congress still debates the legislation that will ultimately form the 
department.

Chief information officers at the agencies designated to become part of the 
Homeland Security Department and top IT policy-makers at the Office of 
Management and Budget have begun drafting initial plans for the networking 
needs of the agencies that will have to share information and 
communications. The team is also working on merging the multibillion-dollar 
IT investments many of these agencies already have under way.

Steve Cooper, senior director of information integration and CIO at the 
Homeland Security Office, said his office, working with OMB, doesn't "want 
to interfere or block" the IT initiatives under development, but wants "to 
integrate and align them."

The Homeland Security Department will include organizations  and the IT 
networks that support them  as diverse as the Coast Guard, the Federal 
Emergency Management Agency and the new Transportation Security Administration.

Much of what the IT transition team is working on revolves around 
collaboration tools, which can include everything from document management 
to e-mail, Cooper said. Special working groups have been formed to hammer 
out the details of collaboration tools and other technologies such as 
wireless communications and geospatial information.

The administration plans to begin addressing many of the long-term 
architecture issues next month when Congress is expected to pass a 
supplemental appropriations bill that includes funding to create an 
Information Integration Program Office, Cooper said. Officials have already 
identified personnel to work in the office, and as soon as the money is 
available, they will be sent to the Critical Infrastructure Assurance 
Office, he said.

The team is relying on work done in recent years on enterprise 
architectures within individual agencies, which includes a list of IT 
equipment in place and a plan for future integration, Cooper said. OMB's 
efforts during the past year to create a federal enterprise architecture 
and align common IT investments across government also provides a road map.

The team has a good chance of achieving its goals, said Alan Balutis, 
executive director of the Federation of Government Information Processing 
Councils. However, quickly meeting the short-term needs of interoperability 
while developing a long-term architecture will not be an easy task, he said.

"Many of the [existing] program and systems initiatives aren't aimed at the 
homeland security arena. They were designed with other customer needs in 
mind," Balutis said. "A transition of this size would be challenging in and 
of itself, even at another time."

The team also has begun discussing interoperability of enterprise systems 
and initiatives in development, which will be more difficult to integrate 
into the department's single architecture. Modernization programs, such as 
the Customs Service's Automated Commercial Environment, the Coast Guard's 
Deepwater program and the Immigration and Naturalization Service's ATLAS 
program, have some of the largest budgets of the efforts already under way.

Past criticism of these programs brought up concerns last week as the House 
Government Reform and Senate Government Affairs committees considered the 
administration's plan for the new department. Committee members Sen. 
Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Ed Schrock (R-Va.) questioned whether the 
department could create new information systems and simultaneously 
integrate them when these systems already have development problems.

The management structure proposed in the White House bill should address 
these problems, said Tom Ridge, director of the Homeland Security Office, 
testifying at the House and Senate hearings. Ridge is also director of the 
Transition Planning Office within OMB, which President Bush created by 
executive order on June 20. The IT team led by Cooper will work with this 
new office.

That structure includes an undersecretary for management, who would be 
responsible for all management functions, including IT, personnel, budget 
and procurement. The bill also creates a separate CIO and chief financial 
officer.

The relatively undefined management structure  the bill lays out some 
positions and responsibilities clearly, but not others  also has some 
observers worried.

The proposal "appears to represent a more traditional, and somewhat 
antiquated, management structure," a senior administration official said.

"I would explore giving the CIO direct responsibility and accountability 
for information systems and information technology, including direct budget 
authority," the official said. Without direct oversight of the IT functions 
and budgets in every area of the department, "this just won't work."

***

The security players

Below are the information technology managers responsible for developing 
the single IT architecture for the Homeland Security Department. The 
architecture is intended to eliminate redundant investments and allow the 
department to work in real time.

The homeland security IT team:

* Steve Cooper, senior director of information integration and chief 
information officer, Homeland Security Office
* Mark Forman, associate director of information technology and 
e-government, Office of Management and Budget
* Jim Flyzik, senior adviser for IT, Homeland Security Office
* Norman Lorentz, chief technology officer, OMB
The IT transition team that will work with the leaders is composed of 
agency CIOs and other IT officials, including:
* Ron Miller, CIO, Federal Emergency Management Agency
* Pat Schambach, associate undersecretary for information and security 
technology, Transportation Security Administration
* Scott Hastings, associate commissioner for the Information Resources 
Management Office, Immigration and Naturalization Service
* Dan Chenok, director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs' 
information technology and policy branch, OMB
* Nathaniel Heiner, acting CIO, Coast Guard
************************
Federal Computer Week
Rule would stifle DOD service buys
BY Christopher J. Dorobek

In a move that could severely impact the General Services Administration's 
schedule contracts, the Bush administration is expected to propose a 
regulation that would severely restrict how the Defense Department buys 
information technology services.

The White House wants to stop a long-standing DOD practice of hiring 
outside contractors to supply IT services on a labor-hour basis. That type 
of buying makes it difficult to conduct performance-based contracting, 
which the administration wants to encourage, procurement experts say. The 
new regulation would restrict DOD schedule service buys to firm, 
fixed-price task orders.

The seemingly arcane rule has created a firestorm and could have 
governmentwide ramifications because of how it would affect GSA's 
multibillion-dollar schedule contract program.

DOD schedule buys represent 54 percent of all schedule sales, GSA officials 
said. IT service purchases make up 57 percent of GSA Federal Supply Service 
(FSS) schedule sales.

Much of the growth in IT service sales has not been in firm, fixed-price 
purchases but instead in those typically classified as labor-hour, time and 
materials task orders. Therefore, the proposed change would knock the feet 
out from under the schedule contracts.

"This would have a devastating impact on the schedule program," said Steve 
Kelman, a professor of public management at Harvard University's John F. 
Kennedy School of Government and a former administrator of the Office of 
Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP).

The Bush administration seeks to include the firm, fixed-price provision as 
part of a rule designed to spur competition on multiple-award contracts. 
That rule is required by Section 803 of the fiscal 2001 Defense 
authorization bill. For task orders of $100,000 or more, Section 803 
stipulates that DOD contracting officers must obtain three bids on a 
multiple-award contract.

Many observers were also disturbed by the timing of the proposal  just days 
before the rule is expected to be made public June 26.

DOD officials said they first saw the terms June 16, when the Office of 
Management and Budget sent DOD its version of the proposed rule.

And lawmakers were not even informed. "This is the first I've heard of it," 
Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee's 
Technology and Procurement Policy Subcommittee, said June 20. "We've had 
zero conversations."

Davis said the provision was "premature" and that OFPP leader Angela Styles 
would meet resistance from lawmakers if OFPP attempted to impose the change.

The administration is considering issuing an interim Section 803 rule, 
which would leave open an opportunity for comment on the provision limiting 
schedule buys to firm, fixed prices.

Davis spokesman David Marin questioned whether this provision should be 
included in the Section 803 rule. This was never the intent of Section 803, 
he said.

Because the final version of the rule is under review, most officials would 
not comment. Deidre Lee, director of Defense procurement, and Roger 
Waldron, director of GSA FSS' acquisition management center, said they 
could not discuss the issue. Styles also said she could not talk about the 
rule.

Styles, however, suggested that the provision does not change the existing 
Federal Acquisition Regulation, which limits schedule contract service buys 
to firm, fixed prices.

But Chip Mather, senior vice president of Acquisition Solutions Inc. and a 
former Air Force procurement executive, said labor-hour, time and material 
task orders have become an "epidemic," and most agencies often use the 
orders to augment existing staff.

"They're not doing anything but buying bodies," generally a poor 
acquisition strategy, he said.

Others, however, said that the labor-hour, time and material task orders 
offer agencies the flexibility to accomplish their mission. "They are 
taking away major flexibility" from DOD just when it needs that flexibility 
to meet its national security mission, said Larry Allen, executive director 
of the Coalition for Government Procurement, an industry group.
************************
Federal Computer Week
Panel tackles airport security
San Jose report identifies technologies that could be applied nationwide
BY Dibya Sarkar

A task force charged with reviewing current and emerging technologies to 
improve security at the San Jose, Calif., airport has released a report 
that could have national implications.

The report, submitted June 17 to the city council and the federal 
Transportation Security Administration (TSA), focused on promising 
technologies that could address passenger convenience, security and cost, 
said John Thompson, chairman and chief executive officer of Symantec Corp. 
and chairman of the task force, which was convened by San Jose Mayor Ron 
Gonzales and U.S. Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.).

Although the group's first objective was to improve security at the Norman 
Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport  named for the secretary of the 
U.S. Transportation Department, who is from the area  Thompson said local 
officials want TSA to select the airport as one of 20 pilot program sites 
to receive funding for such security measures. TSA officials have already 
decided to study security procedures at about 15 airports.

The other 428 airports around the country also could adopt the 
recommendations, Thompson said. "I think what's good about this report is 
that it frames the problem and gives a prescription in application areas as 
opposed to just running on about technology, retinal scanning, biometrics, 
and on and on and on and on," he said.

"What we concluded was that technology certainly can be applied to the 
issue of protecting the airports.... But it is [as] much about process as 
it is technology," Thompson said. "How do you respond when there's an 
incident? That's not technology. That's as much about having policies and 
practices that are well articulated, well understood by everyone involved 
and rigorously adhered to."

The report was divided into three broad areas, with technologies 
highlighted for each area. The areas are:

n Creating a trusted or validated facility by applying technologies to 
secure the perimeter of the airport, its buildings, and access in and out 
of certain sections.

n Creating a trusted employee program using appropriate clearances and 
authentication. Such a system also could be applied to a "validated 
passenger" program, Thompson said.

n Creating a trusted network. "Airports today operate somewhat in isolation 
and somewhat on open or unsecured networks," he said. "And so there's a 
need to create a way to link airports and information about what's going on 
in an airport onto a digitized network."

The task force looked at current technologies to help "mitigate or solve 
the problem today as we know it," he said, "and then we looked at concepts 
or technologies that are further out that require further exploration for 
which someone might want to have an ongoing vigilant look."

To do this, the report recommended a research and development focus within 
TSA, DOT or another appropriate agency "so systems don't become stale," he 
said.

Cost is another critical issue, he added. "Much of what happens in an 
airport is controlled and funded by the local authorities from a security 
point of view," he said. "And so before we as a task force would mandate or 
suggest [that] these technologies could work, somewhere along the way the 
process needs to be made clear as to where the money's going to come from 
to ensure that we do in fact improve the security of the airport."

Airport security has emerged as an important issue, not just for safety 
reasons, but also for economic ones. Industry analysts predicted that 
airlines would lose $6.5 billion in the 12-month period following the Sept. 
11 terrorist attacks, according to the report. At San Jose's airport, 
lucrative international routes were dropped, concession and parking 
revenues fell, and security costs increased.

"If we address the security issue properly, it'll return the confidence of 
the flying public," Honda said. "When people move back to air travel, it 
will re-energize the economy."

TSA and other agencies involved with security will probably help cover the 
costs of airport security, "but the government cannot carry all the costs 
itself, and that's why public/private partnerships are going to be 
critical," Honda added.

"If we can't figure out a way to get the flying public back in the San Jose 
airport, it's going to have a huge, huge impact on the [local] economy," 
Thompson said. "We've lost a number of significant international flights as 
the airlines have [cut] back. We know that every time we lose a flight to, 
let's say, Taiwan from San Jose, it has an annualized impact of over $300 
million, and so it has an economic issue to our community."

Task force members included executives from the technology and airline 
industries as well as representatives from higher education, law 
enforcement and the federal government. The task force held a public 
hearing that drew about 75 participants and received proposals from more 
than 40 companies.

***

Making Flying Safer

A task force convened by Mayor Ron Gonzales of San Jose, Calif., and U.S. 
Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) has recommended several technologies to improve 
airport security.

For validated workforce security:
* Biometric authentication via an identification card and digital 
certificate technology.
* Management software to automate scheduling, skills management and access 
control.

For a validated facility:
* Digital video monitoring using a standard networking infrastructure so 
images can be stored, accessed and shared in real time.
* Inspection certificates with Global Positioning System transponders on 
all authorized vehicles so their movements can be tracked throughout the 
facility.
* Biometric authentication system within aircraft limited to pilots, flight 
attendants, maintenance workers and other authorized personnel

.
For a validated communications infrastructure:
* An integrated digital system for real-time communications, data sharing 
and enhanced security among organizations.
* A virtual private network connecting all devices  video cameras, 
biometric scanning stations and baggage-scanning systems  and encrypting 
communications among them.
*************************
Federal Computer Week
Cargo security on agency hit lists
BY BY Judi Hasson and Matt Caterinicchia

A top U.S. Customs Service official told Congress this month that the 
government must push back the borders of the United States by using 
technology to check high-risk cargo containers before they leave a foreign 
port.

At a hearing on President Bush's plan to create a Homeland Security 
Department, Customs Deputy Commissioner Douglas Browning said that 
technology and information are essential for a successful container 
security strategy  one of the biggest security holes facing the United States.

"To put it simply, the more technology and information we have, and the 
earlier in the supply chain we have them, the better," Browning told the 
House Government Reform Committee's National Security, Veterans Affairs and 
International Relations Subcommittee.

Customs already has moved ahead in ratcheting up security checks for 
containers, one of the major shipping methods used worldwide. Last October, 
authorities found a suspected al Qaeda operative inside a shipping 
container heading for the Canadian port of Halifax.

Customs is now checking at least 15 percent of all cargos, according to 
Browning, and by January 2003, every customs inspector will have a 
pocket-sized device that can detect radiation. Customs officials have also 
worked out deals with major shippers who will provide their own security 
systems and guarantee them in exchange for swift passage across the 
borders. And June 5, Customs issued a request for information on embedding 
technology in containers to detect chemical or radioactive devices.

"As the primary agency for cargo security, U.S. Customs should know 
everything there is to know about a container headed for this country 
before it leaves Rotterdam or Singapore for America's ports," Browning said.

George Weise, former Customs commissioner and now vice president of global 
trade compliance at Vastera, a technology solutions company that helps 
firms move goods across the borders, said 50,000 container cargos arrive at 
U.S. ports daily. "They are taking the right approach  introducing 
technology and pushing the perimeter as far away as possible," Weise said. 
"The idea is to get the containers inspected before they are loaded on 
ships, X-ray them and see if there is tampering from the time the container 
is packed onward."

Meanwhile, the Transportation Department recently finished testing 
electronic seals, or e-seals, designed to help secure cargo containers at 
U.S. ports and border crossings. An e-seal is a radio frequency device 
about the size of a deck of cards that transmits shipment data as it passes 
a reader device and indicates whether the container it is attached to has 
been tampered with.

E-seals "consist of a bolt that both locks the container when inserted into 
the seal body and serves as an antenna; a seal body that contains a 
computer chip for encoding information; and a battery for transmitting that 
information when queried by a reader," said Chip Wood, DOT senior 
transportation specialist for the Secretary's Office of Intermodalism.

The test, conducted in the Pacific Northwest through DOT's Intelligent 
Transportation Systems program, began in the summer of 2000. By the fall of 
2001, containers destined for Canada were regularly affixed with e-seals at 
the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, Wash.

Most of the testing has been a success, but e-seals have limited signal 
strength and must be read at line-of-sight distances of less than 70 feet. 
"This makes it difficult to read these particular seals in marine terminals 
or the holds of ships where the containers are stacked in close proximity, 
where the signal may be blocked," Wood said.

DOT is likely to fund another round of e-seal tests that would build on the 
findings and technology platforms identified during the Pacific Northwest 
test, Wood said.

"The concept of developing an electronic seal was great; however, it's 
essential that we carry on research to better understand cost and service 
benefits as well as interoperability," said Dan Murray, director of 
research for the American Trucking Associations Foundation.

"Without this research, it would be chaotic in the marketplace," he added.

***

Battening down the hatches

Federal officials say the time has come to address a serious security risk: 
cargo containers entering the country at ports and borders. Two government 
agencies have initiatives under way to close this gap:

* The U.S. Customs Service is giving its inspectors pocket-sized devices 
that can detect radiation. Customs also would like to embed technology in 
the containers themselves to detect chemical or radioactive material.

* The Transportation Department recently tested electronic seals to secure 
cargo containers. The seals include computer chips for encoding information 
about container contents.
***********************
Government Executive
House lawmaker expects cybersecurity bill to pass before recess
By William New, National Journal's Technology Daily

The outlook for congressional passage of cybersecurity legislation looks 
good this year, despite the short time remaining in the session, House 
Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., said Thursday.

The New York Republican hopes final action on his House-passed bill, to 
authorize research and development for computer and network security and 
research fellowship programs, will occur by the August congressional recess.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved a 
companion measure in May, and House and Senate staffers are discussing the 
differences. The bill's proponents of the bill are trying to avoid a formal 
negotiation on it by resolving differences privately and winning voice-vote 
passage of a compromise in both chambers, according to a Senate aide.


The Senate committee added pieces of two separate bills, including a 
provision requiring agencies to adopt "best practices" on cybersecurity. 
The technology industry fears the language would dictate specific 
technologies for agency securitythough a bill sponsor, Sen. John Edwards, 
D-N.C., intended the language to be technology-neutral, sources said.

Boehlert also said it "shouldn't be a problem" to pass the so-called "tech 
talent" bill before the recess. The legislation would establish a 
competitive grant program administered by the National Science Foundation 
to increase the number of U.S. students obtaining undergraduate degrees in 
nonmedical science and technology.

The bill, approved by the Science Committee in May but still not scheduled 
for a floor vote, has the support of the high-tech industry and top 
university administrators, Boehlert said.


He also is reviewing legislation that would create a so-called NetGuard of 
tech experts who could be called into action in case of disaster. That 
bill's sponsor, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., came to Boehlert's office to pitch 
it, but the measure currently would not be under the Science Committee's 
jurisdiction, said Boehlert's chief of staff.
*******************
Government Computer News
DOD tests biometrics to secure its smart cards
By Dipka Bhambhani

The Defense Department's Biometrics Fusion Center soon will begin testing 
software on four types of biometric devices for use on its Common Access 
smart cards.

DOD's Biometrics Management Office last week awarded a $915,000 contract to 
KPMG Consulting Inc. of McLean, Va., to conduct a 90-day test of biometric 
identifiers that could authenticate smart-card holders for building and 
network access.

"We want to spend three weeks for a product assessment," said Paul Howe, 
director of the Biometrics Fusion Center in Bridgeport, W.Va. "We try to 
stay ahead of the marketing curve." Howe said the center's mission is to 
help DOD agencies become better buyers of biometrics. A separate facility 
in Bridgeport will host the tests for the Common Access program.

KPMG's four subcontractors, known as the Smart Card Solution Team, will 
visit the fusion center to train workers in the vendors' enrollment and 
authentication applications with fingerprint readers as well as iris, voice 
and facial recognition devices. The subcontractors will demonstrate how a 
biometric identifier is stored and matched on a server, stored and matched 
on PCs, stored on a smart card and matched on a server, or stored and 
matched on smart cards.

The subcontractors are:


Biometric software provider SAFLink Corp. of Bellevue, Wash.
Public-key infrastructure middleware vendor Spyrus Corp. of San Jose, Calif.
Smart-card reader maker XTec Inc. of Olathe, Kansas

The three will demonstrate their applications with fingerprint readers from 
Precise Biometrics of Sweden.

Because the companies want to show that fingerprints are not necessarily 
the favored identifier, they also will demonstrate:


Facial recognition devices from Visionics Corp. of Jersey City, N. J.
Iris recognition technology from Iridian Technologies Inc. of Moorestown, N.J.
Voice recognition devices from Lernout & Hauspie, recently acquired by 
ScanSoft Inc. of Peabody, Mass.
***********************
Computerworld
Update: Microsoft plans security chip for next Windows
By Peter Sayer, IDG News Service

Microsoft Corp. wants to change the fundamental architecture of the PC, 
adding security hardware prior to a future release of its Windows operating 
system, the company acknowledged today after a media report and an analyst 
briefed by the company said as much.
The company wants future PCs to contain a security technology called 
Palladium, and is in discussions with Intel Corp. and Sunnyvale, 
Calif.-based Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to develop the chips, according to 
a report in the July 1 issue of Newsweek magazine published Sunday on the 
MSNBC Web site. Microsoft owns a stake in MSNBC.


Palladium "is really about security, privacy and system integrity," said 
Mario Juarez, group product manager for the content security business unit 
at Microsoft. "We're talking here about rearchitecting the PC platform."


The new architecture, as described by Juarez, would see a new security chip 
used for encryption added to PCs, along with new APIs (Application-Program 
Interfaces) created to allow programs to be written to take advantage of 
Palladium, he said. Palladium may also cover chipsets, graphics processors 
and USB (Universal Serial Bus) input/output systems, he said.


Though Intel and AMD have been involved in design discussions to ensure 
that Palladium will work with existing processor architectures, it is too 
early to say whether they will manufacture the encryption chip, Juarez 
said. Other companies have also been involved in the design of the system 
and will continue to be part of the process, he said.


Palladium will create a secure space within a PC in which users will be 
able to run applications and store data, he said. The secure space will not 
be accessible to the rest of the PC, meaning that a virus infecting the 
non-Palladium part of the computer would not make its way into the secure 
area, Juarez said.


The timeframe for Palladium's inclusion into Windows is uncertain for now, 
as the initiative is only in its early stages, he said.


Among possible applications of the technology are authentication of 
communications and code, data encryption, privacy control and digital 
rights management (DRM), according to the Newsweek report. Microsoft was 
awarded a U.S. patent on a "digital rights management operating system" in 
December, though Juarez could not definitely say that that patent was 
directly related to Palladium.


The system incorporates three components: an authentication system, 
hardware chips and software, called the "nub," that handles the security 
tasks, according to Martin Reynolds, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in 
Stamford, Conn. Reynolds was briefed on Palladium by Microsoft.


The three components will work in parallel to the operating system, with 
security tasks shunted from the operating system to the Palladium system, 
rather than as an integrated part of it, he said. Palladium is a security 
foundation upon which other security features can be built, more than a 
system, he added.


As such, Palladium "is a very clever system," Reynolds said. "You can't 
crack it in the conventional sense."


Conventional cracking of the technology would be difficult because when an 
attacker tries to forge or attack the digital signatures used in the 
authentication component, the nub loses its encryption keys, making the 
system unable to communicate, he said.


"It's not impossible [to crack]," but it would likely have to be done one 
machine at a time, and in hardware, rather than software, Reynolds said.


"Palladium does have the ability to give us truly secure PCs," he said. But 
"once we have security, do we want it," he said, anticipating possible user 
concerns about privacy and digital rights management.


Consumers will likely not be pleased about Palladium's DRM features, but 
"if you're the Hollywood people, you're thrilled," Reynolds said.


While most talk of DRM revolves around music, Microsoft Chairman and Chief 
Software Architect Bill Gates says it's more useful for controlling e-mail: 
Palladium could be used to limit forwarding of messages, or to make them 
unreadable after a certain time interval has elapsed, the Newsweek report 
said.

The technology needs to be widespread in order to be useful: 100 million 
devices will have to be shipped "before it really makes a difference," the 
report quotes Microsoft Vice President Will Poole as saying.

Palladium grew out of a skunk-works project looking for ways to secure 
information stored on machines running Windows. It became an official 
Microsoft project last October, according to the report.

The first versions of Palladium "will be shipping with bugs," the report 
quotes one of the project's co-founders, Paul England, as saying.

This could be a problem, however, said Reynolds.

"The whole thing has to work right, and if it doesn't work right, it 
doesn't work at all," he said.

Microsoft's record on software security has been heavily criticized in the 
past, and in January the company announced a new emphasis on trustworthy 
computing in an effort to clean up its image (see story). This news was 
soon followed by word that its software developers would stop writing new 
code while they audited their existing code for security flaws.

Microsoft has long maintained that keeping its source code under wraps 
makes its software more secure than open-source software such as rival 
operating system Linux, where anyone can inspect the source code and see 
its flaws. A recent report from a Microsoft-funded think tank, the Alexis 
de Tocqueville Institution, claimed that government use of open-source 
software represents a threat to national security.

Proponents of open-source software say this openness makes it more secure, 
as there's a greater chance that flaws will be fixed and that users will be 
more aware of the necessity of upgrading to a fixed version of the software.

Advocates of more open software development may be winning the argument. 
According to the Newsweek report, Microsoft will publish the source code to 
its Palladium system in an effort to be more transparent.

Publishing source code openly isn't the same as declaring it to be "open 
source." According to the Open Software Initiative, open-source software 
must be freely distributable by third parties, including as part of 
derivative works, without restriction or payment.

Gartner's Reynolds backed this point, saying that "Microsoft is talking 
about making it open source."


Microsoft's Juarez, however, didn't entirely agree with this assessment.


When asked whether users would be required to run Windows in order to take 
advantage of Palladium's features, Juarez replied, "The short answer is 
'yeah.'"


That doesn't mean that all other platforms will be excluded, he said.


"We understand the importance of being inclusive," he said. "We do not want 
this to be seen as a Microsoft-only initiative."


"Our goal is to be as inclusive as possible," he said, adding that other 
platforms would likely see some level of interoperability.


To facilitate that broader support, Microsoft will be working with other 
companies, both in the hardware and software markets, as well as listening 
to feedback from users, Juarez said.


"This is a collaborative industry initiative...[that] can only work if 
every stakeholder has a voice and participates in the process," he said.


Juarez was unable to provide more specifics about how Microsoft would offer 
that voice, but said that the company would be soliciting feedback from 
users at some point.


Transparency will be key to the system's success, according to Ari 
Schwartz, associate director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, 
based in Washington, D.C.


"It's important that there is transparency in the process," he said. "If 
they build it in a way that is seamless and intuitive, users will feel like 
they have more control. If not, there could be a major user backlash.


"It's too early in the process and it's difficult to say which way it will 
fall," he said.


"This system looks a lot like Hailstorm (a codename for an early version of 
Microsoft's .Net Services) recreated," said Chris Hoofnagle, legislative 
counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a non-profit 
Internet user rights group based in Washington, D.C.


"It's not good for consumers. Anything with verification and DRM limits 
consumers' ability to control their behavior," he said.


"One of the problems is that Microsoft will not be able to be transparent 
in order to make this scheme work," he said. Microsoft has relied on making 
security vulnerability information hard to discover, as opposed to fixing 
security flaws, he said.


Scarlet Pruitt, of the IDG News Service, contributed to this report.
*************************
New Zealand Herald
Surf's up on power lines
25.06.2002
By RICHARD WOOD

UnitedNetworks has begun providing broadband internet access through power 
lines in Auckland, and has identified 8000 houses in Auckland and 
Wellington it can service.

The technology, known as power line communications (PLC), will put the 
lines company in competition with Telecom as an alternative to its 
Jetstream access in the main centres.

UnitedNetworks has home trials of PLC, due for completion by the end of 
July, working near its offices on the North Shore.

Sean McDonald, communications division general manager, said the technology 
was proven and had been used in Europe for 2 1/2 years.

He expected it to be ready for general use in New Zealand by the end of the 
year.

McDonald would not identify the internet provider involved in the trial, 
and said UnitedNetworks was working with a number of equipment suppliers.

But he acknowledged that lawyer and telecommunications businessman John 
Rutherford was involved.

In March, Rutherford formed Christchurch-based Powerline Communications, 
which involves specialists in PLC, telecommunications and satellite 
communications.

McDonald said UnitedNetworks had half a dozen internet provider partners 
who would sell the service and create their own charging plans.

"All we provide is the PLC technology connection, which is pretty simple."

He said there were no technical obstacles to using PLC.

He had pricing and cost models ready for evaluation which would be similar 
to Telecom's Jetstream access technology in cost of modems and of data volume.

"The modem is the same size, it looks the same, it serves the same function.

"The only difference is you don't need another power phone outlet in your 
home to deliver it. It just plugs into your normal three-pin power plug."

To make the service operational, UnitedNetworks installs a high capacity 
modem at the transformer - the green boxes on the roadside that service 
between 25 and 40 users each.

UnitedNetworks has identified 150 to 250 of these which are next to the 
company's fibre-optic cables.

McDonald said New Zealand was well suited to PLC because of the high ratio 
of transformers to homes served.

"Most of these homes are within 200m of the transformer so you get 
extremely high bandwidth rates," he said.

Access speeds start at 2 megabits per second (Mbps) and can be as high as 
30Mbps.

McDonald said PLC would provide serious competition for Telecom and add to 
the mix of high-speed options available to consumers.

Taking into account the assets of other electricity lines companies, there 
would be at least as many potential customers for PLC as there were for 
Telecom's Jetstream.

McDonald said UnitedNetworks research indicated the typical home in New 
Zealand would pay between $50 and $75 a month for high-speed access.

He said German company RWE, which was the first utility to introduce PLC, 
now had 30,000 subscribers.

UnitedNetworks announced on June 13 that its assets - including its three 
regional electricity distribution networks, gas distribution network, and 
broadband telecommunications network - were for sale, either as a whole or 
in parts.
************************
New Zealand Herald
Fast modems a hacker's heaven
25.06.2002
By ADAM GIFFORD

Thousands of broadband internet modems are being installed with default 
passwords, making them vulnerable to hackers who can use them to surf the 
net at the owners' expense.

But when Auckland computer programmer John Burns tried to warn people that 
their modems were insecure, he was threatened with legal action.

Burns said he bought a Nokia M1122 modem/router a month ago when he 
subscribed to Telecom Jetstream fast internet account.

"About a week after I started, I checked the logs on the modem and 
discovered some configuration settings had been changed," Burns said.

Extra mapped ports or "pinholes" had been added, linking the router to 
overseas servers.

"Someone was using my router as a stepping-stone for the transfer of data."

This could be the way a hacker was disguising where data was ending up. It 
could also be used to disguise the origin of spam or unsolicited emails.

The documentation that came with the modem did not explain what had happened.

By doing a web search, Burns discovered he would need to access the modem 
with a special cable or through a Telnet session to change the passwords.

He said the problem was not confined to Nokia modems and that many users 
weren't aware that hackers could access "always on" broadband modems even 
when the computer was switched off.

"Almost every modem you can buy comes with either no administration 
password, or a default password set.

"In some cases the manuals do not tell you how to change the password, and 
in other cases they do not tell you that there are many ways to access the 
modem, with separate passwords for each method."

Almost all modems have a web-based configuration mode.

If not set up correctly, any external user can connect to the IP address, 
which identifies where the modem or router is on the internet, and use a 
default password to access the modem configuration, including user names, 
passwords and logs.

Burns said he investigated how widespread the problem was by writing a 
program that looked for New Zealand IP addresses connected to the internet 
by DSL (digital subscriber line), and then tried to enter.

If it got through, the program harvested a login name and sent an email 
warning the modem was insecure, and offering Burns' help, for a $45 fee, to 
fix it.

"The fee was a mistake, but I thought it would help people take this 
seriously," Burns said.

"Those people who got back to me, I said I would help them fix it for 
nothing."

His program identified about 50,000 New Zealand-based IP addresses, of 
which 5000 were active at the time they were polled and 496 were hackable.

One of those who received Burns' email was Chris Yannakakis.

"I turned on my computer in the morning and found I couldn't browse the 
internet," Yannakakis said.

"Then I got this email from this guy saying he had hacked in and stolen my 
logon details, and he wanted money to fix it."

Yannakakis said he was considering taking legal action for the theft of 
personal information and the problems caused.

"It was a massive inconvenience. Because I do some work from home, I had to 
explain to my manager some of our files may have been put in jeopardy," he 
said.

Burns said Yannakakis' inability to connect to the internet was nothing to 
do with his program.

"I got the same complaint from another Xtra customer, so I checked the Xtra 
site that morning and there was a warning about intermittent connection 
problems," he said.

"My program only read the login and backed out again, it didn't change any 
settings."

But the Crimes Amendment Bill, now before Parliament, would make 
unauthorised access of a computer system illegal.

Xtra spokesman Matt Bostwick said the onus was on modem suppliers and 
manufacturers to ensure they were secure.

"What we would say to our customers is that it is important to check and 
change all passwords to see they are secure," Bostwick said.

"Check the documents which come with the modem to find out how to reset them."

Bostwick said Burns' scanning program would probably be considered a 
serious breach of netiquette.

Dick Smith Electronics buyer Chris Day said documents for modems sold by 
the chain included information on changing passwords from the default 
settings.
************************
New Zealand Herald
Cellphones could be jammed for G8 and Pope's visit

OTTAWA - People in the neighbourhood of the G8 summit in the Canadian 
Rockies next week, or the Pope's visit to Toronto next month, might find 
their cellphones jammed.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Friday that for the first time 
they, and the Department of National Defence, have been authorised to jam 
radio and cellphone signals if required to try to prevent attacks -- by a 
remote-control bomb, for example.

"If there's a frequency that we detected, and someone's considering a 
remote-control device, that frequency could be picked up and jammed," 
Mounties spokesman Mike Gaudet said.

President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Russian President 
Vladimir Putin are among the world leaders the Canadians will have to 
protect as host at the Group of Eight summit at the resort of Kananaskis, 
Alberta. Other G8 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

The jamming authorisation runs from June 17-29 for Kananaskis and also 
applies to the nearby city of Calgary, where the media and some of the 
overflow diplomats will be based during the June 26-27 meeting.

It also runs from July 16-31 for the July 23-28 visit of the Pope to Canada.

Does that mean the average cellphone user won't be able to talk during that 
time? Not at all, said Gaudet.

"On an ongoing way, there would be very little effect, but depending on 
where signals are picked up and so on, it'll be part of the capability (of 
the security forces)," he said.
************************
News.com
Fees on horizon for electronics recycling
By Jonathan Skillings
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

The debate over electronics recycling will grow a little more heated Monday 
with meetings of a legislative committee in California and a 
government-industry group in Minnesota.
The upshot for companies is that, sooner or later, consumers are likely to 
bear some of the financial burden of cleaning up after their electronics 
habits. What everyone's trying to figure out now is how and when.

The prospect of those charges has the electronics industry up in arms, 
worried that extra dollars on the price tag of PCs, televisions and other 
gadgets will spell fewer sales and therefore less revenue. But even as 
computer makers and others lobby against what they see as unfair 
impositions, many have been working at recycling schemes of their own.


Meanwhile, state and local governments--which have their own set of revenue 
worries--are aghast at the amount of electronic waste heading their way. If 
the industry won't pitch in with sufficient resources, they say, then 
legislation might be the only alternative.

In California, the homeland of the U.S. high-tech industry, two bills on 
Monday go before the state Assembly's Natural Resources Committee that 
would impose a point-of-purchase fee of as much as $30 on each CRT (cathode 
ray tube) monitor sold in the state. The money collected would go to 
establishing a program to encourage recovery, reuse and recycling of the 
devices when consumers are ready to toss them out.

And on the same day in Minnesota, participants in the National Electronics 
Product Stewardship Initiative, or NEPSI, will be gathering for a key 
meeting en route to what many hope will be a nationwide electronics 
recycling system that has the support of both government and industry. The 
group's last meeting two months ago produced a draft document proposing a 
"front-end fee"--that is, a few more dollars on the price tag of a PC or 
television set.

While it's not guaranteed that either measure will ultimately take effect, 
both have momentum behind them. And they are a sign of things to come.

"Management of these products costs money," said Scott Cassel, director of 
the Product Stewardship Institute at the University of Massachusetts at 
Lowell. "You're either going to get it through increased taxes from 
government programs, or end-of-life fees from consumers or front-end fees 
from consumers."

The problem starts with the modern world's infatuation with all things 
electronic. The buying binge of computers through the 1990s, for instance, 
is contributing to an e-waste mess in the first decade of the 21st century. 
Electronic goods including PCs and TVs are the fastest-growing portion of 
the waste stream in the United States, accounting for 2 million tons of 
trash annually, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Residents of California alone have stockpiled more than 6 million obsolete 
monitors and TV sets in their homes, according to the state's Integrated 
Waste Management Board. That agency also foresees a worrisome gap between 
the volume of discarded CRT monitors and the state's capacity for 
processing them.

E-waste has raised a red flag for public health officials because 
electronic devices use a variety of potentially toxic materials such as 
mercury, cadmium and especially lead, which they don't want to see leaching 
into groundwater from landfills or getting airborne via incinerator 
smokestacks. Environmentalists earlier this year called attention to what 
they called the "high-tech trashing" of several Asian countries.

What price recycling?
The question of how to get more people to participate in electronics 
recycling is at the heart of the debate over fees. Governments are looking 
toward manufacturers, manufacturers are looking toward government, and both 
have their eyes on consumers.

Electronics makers are in no hurry to see state governments tacking costs 
onto the products they're trying to sell, and they're keeping an especially 
close watch on the bills in California.

"Anything that creates a competitive disadvantage to the seller or 
manufacturer is just not appropriate for the state to be advocating," said 
Heather Bowman, director of environmental policy for the Electronic 
Industries Alliance.

The EIA has been disparaging the legislation as a "tech tax" that would 
discourage consumers from buying electronic goods and hurt the state's 
economy.

California isn't alone in proposing legislation aimed at 
electronics--especially at CRTs, each of which might contain as much as 8 
pounds of lead. Similar bills are active in other states, including 
Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey and New York. Governmental action is 
also afoot in Japan and the European Union.

Lawmakers have been getting involved because state and local revenue is 
hard-pressed to cover the rising expense of handling cast-off electronic 
devices. They're looking for a more equitable distribution of 
responsibility, or at least less of a drain on their coffers.

"The costs are not necessarily being borne by those buying these systems," 
said Gina McCarthy, assistant secretary for environmental affairs in 
Massachusetts. "The main cost of this is being borne by states and 
increasingly by local communities."

"They can't keep going back to the taxpayers," said Scott Mouw, chief of 
the recycling section in the North Carolina Division of Pollution 
Prevention and Environmental Assistance. "Processors charge local 
governments to take the materials, and that's a huge barrier."

It's cities and towns, after all, that by and large collect household trash 
and administer landfills. Over the past three fiscal years, McCarthy said, 
Massachusetts has spent about $1.67 million to encourage the start of CRT 
collection programs among the state's municipalities. Florida has spent 
almost as much--$1.17 million--over the same period in much the same 
pursuit, with the money going mostly to counties with existing household 
hazardous waste programs because they know how to work with the public.

"Reaching the population has not come cheap," McCarthy said.

Eye on NEPSI
The states are keeping a close watch on NEPSI and its "dialogue" among 
various interested parties: state and federal agencies, PC and consumer 
electronics manufacturers, and environmental groups. The meeting that 
starts Monday is the penultimate; the group hopes to have the cornerstone 
of a nationwide recycling system put in place by its final meeting in 
September. An agreement reached through this process could knock the wind 
out of legislative efforts.

"There's an interplay between the two," said North Carolina's Mouw. As 
NEPSI develops its plan, he said, "we'll have to evaluate how well that 
accomplishes our state goals when it comes to electronics. We're hoping 
consumers and businesses find legitimate outlets for their materials and we 
wouldn't need a state system."

That would be just fine with Hewlett-Packard.

"It seems like it's premature for states to be setting up state-specific 
things before we see if the NEPSI process is working," said Renee St. 
Denis, HP's environmental business unit manager. In addition, she said, the 
California legislation has been "defocusing" the work they want to do 
through the product stewardship group.

But others say NEPSI hasn't yet gone far enough.

"We keep inching forward on agreements, but we're not at something we can 
say is an alternative to legislation," said Mark Kennedy, a technical 
adviser to the California waste management board.

Not all of the legislation would prove as pricey as California's might turn 
out to be. The North Carolina bill, for instance, would impose a flat fee 
of $10--which it refers to as an "electronics recycling tax"--on each CRT 
sold at retail. As with other bills, the money collected would go toward 
educating the public, assisting local governments, and developing private 
recycling businesses.

But many state officials, like their industry counterparts, argue that the 
problem really is a national one, so for any program to be most effective, 
it would have to apply equally across the country. A nationwide program, 
they say, would share the responsibility among the greatest number of 
parties, create greater efficiencies and avoid sticky issues such as 
Internet sales.

No one, though, is in a hurry to advocate for federal legislation. That's 
why the NEPSI process is seen as vital.

"Some progress has been made, and the industry does seem to be engaged," 
said McCarthy, the Massachusetts environmental officer. "The question is, 
can we get something done, and done on a broad enough base nationally, to 
basically convince the states and counties and municipalities that they 
don't need to take action at those levels."

The electronics industry, including both manufacturers and retailers, has 
been "engaged" in several ways.

HP, IBM, Sony and Best Buy have been running a variety of programs to 
collect consumers' high-tech castoffs and either refurbish them for further 
use or send them to recycling facilities to be mined for glass, plastics, 
metals and other useful materials. Dell Computer recently announced it 
would be setting up a similar mechanism this fall. Last fall, the EIA set 
aside about $100,000 to fund a yearlong study involving a number of states 
and companies about the best way to collect used household electronics.

Still, industry members say they need more time to assess the best ways to 
get consumers to bring their CRTs and other devices in for recycling, and 
then to transport and handle it all.

"We just don't have those answers yet," said the EIA's Bowman. "One 
legislative session just doesn't do it."

Pay now or pay later
The debate in some ways comes down to a question of front end versus back 
end, though in either case there's a fee involved.

The existing recycling programs are designed to handle the electronic 
devices consumers already own. HP, for instance, charges between $13 and 
$34 to take a PC off someone's hands, while IBM charges $29.99, and Dell 
says people should expect to pay between $15 and $25. Consumers only pay, 
of course, if they participate--if they haven't found some other way to get 
rid of an older system, such as donating it to a charity.

The front-end fees would hit everyone who buys a computer, TV or other 
designated device. In the case of the California bills, only people buying 
electronic goods at brick-and-mortar stores in the state would be affected. 
NEPSI's plan might end up imposing the surcharge across the country.

The EIA is staunchly opposed to front-end fees, which seem to have the 
momentum behind them, but some electronics makers offer a more moderate 
outlook.

"To the extent that we have to do something to regulate or legislate, a 
front-end fee, if enacted fairly, is as good an option as any other one," 
said HP's St. Denis.

And others say those affected would have time to prepare for it.

"If a front-end fee ever gets established, it's going to be a few years 
down the road," said Raoul Clarke, environmental administrator for special 
waste projects in Florida's Department of Environmental Protection. "It's 
not going to happen tomorrow. There's going to be time for it to come into 
effect."

Coming into Monday's NEPSI meeting, with the California bills casting a 
long shadow, the various sides have been staking out their ground--the 
electronics industry looking for the states to back off, and the states and 
environmentalists looking for companies to pony up.

"There's a great opportunity for government, industry and environmental 
groups to reach a cooperative solution to a major environmental issue," 
said Cassel, of the Product Stewardship Institute. "But there's also the 
potential for inaction to result in the need for government or the 
environmental community to slip back into the same old regulatory 
framework. The ball is in the industry's court as to whether they need 
active legislation to be introduced all over the country before they 
will...engage in a way which not only protects their own interests but 
satisfies the interests of the other stakeholders."
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Lillie Coney
Public Policy Coordinator
U.S. Association for Computing Machinery
Suite 510
2120 L Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20037
202-478-6124
lillie.coney@xxxxxxx