Clips June 26, 2002

[Lillie Coney <lillie.coney@xxxxxxx>]

Clips June 26, 2002


ARTICLES

U.S. Warns of Computer Infiltration
FBI sifting through applicants
FEMA pointed toward outsourcing
Paying to Junk TVs, Monitors
Kids Targeted by Internet Gambling Ads - FTC
IT Experts Say Government Not Ready for Cyber Attack
US House OKs Rewritten Internet Child-Porn Ban
Critics Take Aim at New Filtering Service
Site clues consumers into identity theft
Wireless service lets you find other users
Hackers play with the Xbox
Army releases second AKM memo
Military, FEMA test communications
Awards honor model e-gov efforts
Bush official urges agencies to upgrade homeland security systems now
GIS experts: Keep it simple
Army inks deal for new software-driven radios
Giuliani: ID cards won't curb freedoms
Fighting back against PC invaders
A New Twist on Light Speed


****************************
U.S. Warns of Computer Infiltration
By PAUL WILBORN, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The government has issued an alert about identity and 
credit card theft on U.S. campuses, saying individuals linked to the 
Russian mob tried to tap into at least five college computer systems.


The warning, which was issued Friday, followed the arrest a Russian-born 
man at Pasadena City College and another incident at Arizona State 
University. Schools in Texas and Florida have also been targeted, college 
officials said.

Officials at the Pasadena campus said the man was arrested last month as he 
tried to install keystroke recording software that could capture computer 
users' credit card numbers and other personal data.

Brian Marr, a spokesman for the Secret Service ( news - web sites), said 
Tuesday he could not comment on what he called an ongoing investigation. 
The security alert was issued by the Secret Service along with the 
Education Department.

"The United States Secret Service has been investigating several nationwide 
computer intrusions/hacking incidents," according to the alert issued by 
the agency. "The motives of the perpetrators and the number of computer 
systems compromised remains unknown."

At Arizona State, a program was apparently installed that allows students' 
credit card numbers, passwords and e-mail to be stolen, though it wasn't 
known if any student accounts had been compromised, according to campus police.

Hard drives were seized from 20 ASU computers, said Lt. John Sutton of the 
ASU Department of Public Safety. He wouldn't say how the scam was linked to 
organized crime and declined to identify any suspects.

Technology administrators for the University of California said they were 
warned about Russian organized crime. The incidents are not a threat to 
entire computer systems, administrators said.

"It's basically like rifling through one person's mailbox and hoping a 
credit card is being sent at that time," said Ross Stapleton-Gray of 
University of California technical services.
**************************
Federal Computer Week
FBI sifting through applicants

It seemed like an ambitious undertaking when FBI Director Robert Mueller 
announced in January that he wanted to hire 900 more special agents by 
Sept. 30. At the top of his list were computer and information technology 
specialists.

Now it seems the hard part may be narrowing down the number of applicants.

Since launching a $1 million Internet, radio and newspaper advertising 
campaign in January, the FBI has received 47,000 applications, Mueller told 
a House subcommittee June 21. Many of the applicants have applied through 
an electronic form posted on the bureau's Web site.

In December, the FBI began reorganizing to improve its ability to prevent 
terrorist attacks. Part of the effort was setting up a Cyber Division to 
handle investigations into Internet crimes and computer systems and 
networks that are targeted by foreign intelligence agents and terrorists.

But the FBI was woefully short of computer specialists. In its online ad, 
the bureau said it was searching for applicants with bachelor of science 
degrees in computer science or a related field, or bachelor's degrees in 
any discipline and certification as a "Cisco certified professional" or 
"Cisco certified Internetworking expert."

The FBI also wanted engineers, scientists, linguists, foreign 
counterintelligence specialists, investigators, counterterrorism experts, 
pilots and applicants with military intelligence experience.

Bureau pay starts at $43,705 and increases by $10,000 to $15,000 depending 
on where agents are assigned after they complete a 16-week training course.

Mueller's effort to overhaul the FBI may be changed slightly by President 
Bush's plan to create a Homeland Security Department and move some FBI 
assets there.

The president announced plans June 7 that called for the National 
Infrastructure Protection Center to be shifted from the FBI to the Homeland 
Security Department. Mueller said that has since changed. Now only two of 
three NIPC divisions will be transferred.

The Computer Investigations and Operations Section will stay in the FBI and 
the Analysis and Warning Section and Training, Outreach and Strategy 
Section will move to the Homeland Security Department, he said.
*************************
Federal Computer Week
FEMA pointed toward outsourcing

 The Federal Emergency Management Agency likely will turn to outsourcing 
in the coming years, FEMA chief information officer Ron Miller said June 24.

Miller said he received results last week from the first phase of a Gartner 
Inc. study that analyzed FEMA's information technology environment. Gartner 
found that the agency has a lot of obsolete and nonuniform equipment, high 
operating costs and poor asset management, Miller said in an interview with 
Federal Computer Week.

"Outsourcing may be the quickest and most efficient way for us to get to a 
state-of-the-art infrastructure," he said.

The Transportation Security Administration has taken that tack. Earlier 
this month, TSA issued a $1 billion statement of objectives for its IT 
infrastructure that has managed services at its core.

The statement came a week after Bush unveiled his proposal for a 
Cabinet-level Homeland Security Department that would house several 
existing agencies, including TSA and FEMA. The Immigration and 
Naturalization Service would also go into the mix, along with its $157.5 
million ATLAS program, which is intended to fix infrastructure shortfalls, 
solve connectivity problems and improve information assurance throughout 
the agency.

"We're all going to be one big family," Miller said. "We need to work together.

"What should happen [is] we should come together and do an integrated 
procurement," he added.

TSA is charging forward, however, with its own procurement and plans to 
make an award July 25.

Meanwhile, Gartner is expected to finish the second phase of the FEMA study 
and provide recommendations by the end of the summer, Miller said. "I 
anticipate they're going to recommend we go to outsourcing," he said.

Planning and acquisition for outsourcing would take place in the first half 
of fiscal 2003, with implementation in fiscal 2004, he said.

Miller sees it as a potential way to establish standardization and to 
institute a life cycle replacement program. "I'm looking [at it] much more 
broadly," he said, although "a lot of sensitive missions we may want to 
keep within government."

Miller doesn't anticipate that outsourcing would eliminate jobs at FEMA 
because of the agency's ever-growing IT to-do list, particularly since the 
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

One high-priority task is getting DisasterHelp.gov  a Web portal that is 
one of 24 cross-agency e-government initiatives highlighted by the Bush 
administration  off the ground.

An initial release of the site, which will be largely an information 
resource to start, is slated for Aug. 31.

In September or October, FEMA will issue a statement of objectives for 
DisasterHelp.gov for services that include developing the site's 
architecture and design concept and integrating multiple technologies, 
specifically wireless capabilities, Miller said.

The estimated $50 million to $100 million project will use open standards, 
Java and Extensible Markup Language, he said.

Miller hopes to have a fairly mature capability by the end of fiscal 2003. 
FEMA could also fold a disaster warning system into the site, he said.
**********************
Reuters
EU Asks Citizens for Views on Data Privacy
Tue Jun 25, 2:12 PM ET

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission ( news - web sites) is asking 
citizens whether they feel the privacy of personal information is 
sufficiently protected to see if the EU's privacy laws need to be tweaked 
or their enforcement toughened.


Citizens will be able to spell out their views by answering a questionnaire 
the Commission has published on its official Web site, such as whether 
bosses should be able to read e-mails received at work or whether people 
are happy buying on the Net. The poll will run through September 15.

Under European Union ( news - web sites) laws, personal data ranging from 
sensitive medical records to phone numbers or e-mail addresses can be 
disclosed or transferred to third parties only after the individual's 
explicit consent.

But few European citizens seem to be aware of their rights, said Sue Binns, 
a Commission official in charge of the privacy dossier, at a press briefing.

"We feel there is a problem of awareness," Binns said. "We would like to 
have a better idea of what is going on on the ground."

The Commission is also seeking views from industry, which has complained 
that the rules have not been implemented uniformly in the 15 member states.

Binns said three countries, France, Luxembourg and Ireland, had not yet 
even incorporated the EU law on data protection into their national 
legislation.

The privacy rules also have put the EU at odds with the United States, 
which has a more relaxed approached to the issue.

In order to exchange data freely with the EU, U.S. companies are asked to 
sign up to the so-called Safe Harbor agreement by which they make a formal 
pledge to respect EU laws.

But only 205 companies are on the list to date, possibly due to the fact 
U.S. firms perceive the risk of legal action by the EU as being low, EU 
officials say.
*************************
Reuters Internet Report
S.Africa Sticks to Plan to Take over Internet Names
Tue Jun 25, 3:39 PM ET

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - A hotly contested bill to encourage e-commerce and 
take control of the South African domain name passed its final hurdle on 
Tuesday and will become law as soon as President Thabo Mbeki signs it.


The Electronic Communication and Transactions Bill was adopted by the 
National Council of Provinces -- equivalent to a senate -- after the 
National Assembly passed it earlier in June.

"The bill enables us to have a secure environment for electronic 
communications and transactions, whether these be person-to-person, 
business-to-business, business-to-consumer or government-to-citizens," 
Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri told legislators.

The bill also proposes to take over the administration of South African 
Internet domains, identified by the .ZA suffix in addresses, without 
seeking approval from the international authority which administers the 
Internet roadmap.

Domain names -- the .com and .uk type suffixes of addresses and Web sites 
-- are the foundation of Internet navigation. They have been subject to 
fierce competition, with early users trying to claim addresses and domains 
which might become valuable.

The .ZA domain name is administered under a mandate from the international 
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ( news - web 
sites)) by local Internet pioneer Mike Lawrie.

Lawrie told Reuters recently he had moved the key domain-name file -- a 
computer file of less than 200 lines of code -- offshore to keep it safe 
from efforts to take it over.

He said management of the domain, which is key to the whole South African 
Internet network, could only be reassigned if government, the current 
administrator and the domestic Internet community agree.

An informal online poll recently showed overwhelming opposition to the 
government's plan to take over the administration of the domain through a 
non-profit company.

Matsepe-Casaburri told legislators the government wanted to ensure 
equitable access to the Internet for all, including black South Africans 
largely excluded from the economy until the end of white minority rule in 
1994.

"There is no intention whatsoever to control the use of mechanisms such as 
the Internet, which are essential for electronic commerce and 
transactions," she said.

A key provision of the bill will be to give full legal recognition to 
electronic documents and signatures.
***********************
Reuters
SEC Sues Teen over Fake Bloomberg Internet Story
Tue Jun 25, 1:01 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. regulators on Tuesday sued a 17-year-old who 
posted a phony story on Internet sites under a Bloomberg journalist's name, 
hoping to boost the stock price of a drug company in which he had just 
invested.


Benjamin Snyder, from Lawrenceville, Georgia, confessed to stealing the 
pen-name of the financial news company's John Rega to try to inflate 
Viragen International Inc.'s shares, the U.S. Securities and Exchange 
Commission ( news - web sites) (SEC) said.

"He didn't make any profits but we still sued him because his conduct was 
outrageous. We will come down hard and fast on anyone who tries to exploit 
the Internet to defraud investors," said John Stark, the SEC's head of 
Internet enforcement.

U.S. regulators issued a cease-and-desist order, prohibiting the teenager 
from a repeat performance. Stark said they had not fined the student 
because he had confessed to his misdemeanors and no investors had been 
involved.

In the fake article, the high school student revealed Viragen had been 
working on a top-secret anthrax treatment called Vivox, which had just 
received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ( news - web 
sites).

"As publicity around Vivox increases, so will share price. It is now 
expected to multiply 6-7 times, giving shareholders a potential goldmine," 
he wrote.

Using a computer in a public library to try to escape detection, Snyder 
posted his article on eight popular online investor message boards on the 
evening of May 13, just hours after he had purchased 785 Viragen shares for 
60 cents each.

The following day, just 20 Viragen shares had changed hands, and the stock 
fell to 55 cents so on May 15 Snyder republished his fictitious Bloomberg 
article.

But again, he was unsuccessful, with the stock standing at 60 cents on May 
16 -- the price he had originally paid.
************************
Los Angeles Times
Paying to Junk TVs, Monitors
Legislation: Bills would have California collect money at the time of sale 
to cover disposal.
By MIGUEL BUSTILLO

SACRAMENTO -- SACRAMENTO -- California would become the first state to 
impose a fee on the sales of computers and televisions to pay for their 
future disposal, under sweeping legislation aimed at managing hazardous 
electronic waste.

Beginning in 2004, the state would assess a fee of as much as $30 on the 
sale of every new computer and TV set to help cities and trash companies 
finance collection and recycling. The legislation also would require a 
warning label on every new computer and television to disclose the 
hazardous materials contained inside, and would establish a public 
education campaign to persuade consumers to recycle them.

Unknown to many consumers, TV sets and personal computers contain numerous 
toxic materials. Discarding the growing heaps of outdated models in an 
environmentally safe manner poses a challenge across the country. Last 
year, California quietly prohibited landfills from accepting any more TVs 
or computer monitors, after concluding they constituted hazardous waste.

Most such items contain four to eight pounds of lead apiece. About 10,000 
of them are discarded in the state every day and only an estimated 5% to 
15% are recycled. Yet California, like all other states, lacks a strategy 
for getting rid of them.

Measures by state Sens. Byron Sher of Stanford and Gloria Romero of Los 
Angeles, both Democrats, would treat the discarded devices like used 
bottles, cans and tires.

"If you walk into Circuit City or Good Guys today, you are going to find 
the latest, fastest computer and you know, two or three years from now, it 
is going to be in the trash somewhere," Romero said. "We all want the 
newest technology. It's out with the old, in with the new. But until the 
new becomes environmentally friendly, we are ending up with a stockpile of 
hazardous waste."

Both measures have cleared the Senate and are in the Assembly, but they are 
opposed by an array of business interests, leaving their prospects for 
final passage uncertain.

This week, in fact, both measures nearly died in the Assembly Natural 
Resources Committee, which passed the bills only after stripping them of 
most details and ordering opponents and supporters to reopen negotiations.

Several computer and television trade groups are working to defeat the 
bills (SB 1523 and SB 1619), arguing that the state should wait for a 
national electronics recycling standard. And some in-state manufacturers, 
such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard, worry that a California fee would give an 
edge to out-of-state competitors, such as Gateway and Dell, whose Internet 
sales might be outside the state's reach.

'A Fairness Issue'

"Consumers who purchase computers at retail outlets in California will pay 
this $30 fee, and consumers who choose to purchase their computers over the 
Internet will not," said Heather Bowman of the Electronics Industries 
Alliance, a Washington trade group active in the California fight.

"That's a fairness issue. California retailers are already at a 
disadvantage because of the sales tax [which is not charged on out-of-state 
Internet purchases], and this would only make it worse."

Supporters of a state recycling fee, although acknowledging that a national 
solution would make more sense, say California may have to act first, as it 
has done on other environmental issues.

They say it is time for computer makers to embrace what they believe is a 
moral obligation to ensure that the products they sell do not contribute to 
pollution.

The fee, supporters say, would nurture a growing computer recycling 
industry and end the technology world's dirty little secret about what 
happens to the detritus of the Information Age.

Much of America's electronic waste now makes its way to China, India and 
Pakistan, where computers and TV sets are crudely disassembled and scrapped 
for parts by untrained peasants, polluting ground water and endangering 
human health, environmentalists assert.

A recent documentary on the practice shot by environmental groups, 
"Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia," showed Chinese villagers, 
including children, scavenging old computers with ID tags from the city of 
Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The footage surprised Los Angeles school officials, who said they did not 
know how their computer junk had made it across the Pacific.

"This is an issue that should already have been addressed," said Sher, who 
represents much of the Silicon Valley area. "This is a problem that is 
giving this industry a black eye, not only here but throughout the world."

Since its inception, one of the central tenets of the computer industry has 
been that equipment will be replaced early and often as better technology 
becomes available.

The side effect of that constant turnover--piles upon piles of obsolete 
computers--is only now attracting government scrutiny.

For years, many consumers handed old computers down to relatives or donated 
them to charities or schools. But as computer use has skyrocketed and 
technological progress has continued to soar, those outlets for older 
computers have begun to disappear.

Many thrift shops have stopped accepting computers and televisions 
altogether, concluding that chances of finding new users are slim and the 
cost of discarding them is too steep.

As a result, trash companies report increasing numbers of computers and 
televisions being discarded. Officials also say there is a "silent 
stockpile" of millions more in garages and attics around the country, 
waiting to be discarded.

A recent report by the state's Integrated Waste Management Board estimated 
that, in California households alone, there are 6 million computer and TV 
monitors collecting dust.

"What has become clear in the past decade is that electronics are 
disposable goods," said Mark Murray, executive director of Californians 
Against Waste, chief sponsor of the measures.

"In practice, computers and televisions are disposable products that, in a 
few years, become completely worthless."

Several Western European nations have passed laws requiring electronics 
recycling, and the European Union has begun to address the problem more 
broadly, with legislation requiring manufacturers to pay for take-back 
programs. Japan already has such a law for televisions and appliances.

But the United States, by far the world's largest consumer of electronic 
goods, lags behind.

A coalition of industry leaders, environmentalists, recyclers and 
government officials is working to develop a nationwide solution that would 
include front-end fees, like those proposed in California. However, the 
group, the National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative, is not 
expected to reach consensus for at least another year.

Like several other companies, Panasonic has been working to reduce the 
number of toxins in its televisions and building them with more reusable 
materials, as well as forming partnerships with recyclers and government 
agencies to sponsor take-back programs.

A recent report commissioned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 
found that 40% of the lead found in the nation's landfills is suspected to 
have come from electronic equipment, most from the cathode ray tubes found 
in TV and computer monitors. Lead can leach out of landfills, government 
studies have shown, polluting surrounding soil and ground water.

Computers also contain small amounts of mercury, cadmium and barium, among 
other potentially hazardous materials.

While many environmental groups praised California for following the 
example of Massachusetts and banning TVs and computer monitors from 
landfills last year, the move surprised many cities and waste haulers, who 
suddenly found themselves footing the bill for tons of hazardous waste they 
had no place to send.

"We've got this prohibition to send them to landfills, yet there is no 
place for them to go and they are piling up. It's leading to a lot of 
illegal dumping, unfortunately," said Denise Delmatier, vice president of 
government affairs at Norcal Waste, one of the state's largest trash companies.

Norcal is spending $35 to $40 per unit to send computers and televisions to 
HMR Group, a company that breaks them down and sends the scrap to various 
recyclers, but Norcal cannot afford to do that forever, Delmatier said.

At HMR Group's cavernous central processing facility in Sacramento, 
business is clearly booming since the California landfill ban. Discarded 
computers and televisions arrive by the trailer load from Los Angeles and 
San Francisco.

The $30 recycling fee proposed in California is intended to finance grants 
that would help cities, trash haulers, nonprofit groups and others cover 
the cost of collecting TVs and computers and, possibly, recycling them. The 
state would collect the fee and dole out the grants. But San Francisco 
officials say it costs them nearly $60 just to prepare a wood-paneled 
television for recycling.

Legality Questioned

Opponents, meanwhile, question whether the state could legally levy such 
fees on Dell and other out-of-state companies that do business over the 
Internet.

A recent letter from a state Board of Equalization staff member to a 
lobbyist for the computer industry lent credence to that argument, 
concluding there were legal as well as practical problems with collecting 
fees from companies with no physical presence in the state.

Nonetheless, supporters insist the fee is legally sound and they stress 
that something must be done to address a problem that is only likely to get 
worse. "It should be as easy to recycle a computer as it is to buy one. And 
it should be free," said Robert Haley, recycling coordinator for the San 
Francisco Department of the Environment. "Because, otherwise, people are 
going to continue taking the easy way out, which is to leave these things 
on a street corner."
************************
Washington Post
Kids Targeted by Internet Gambling Ads - FTC
By Robert MacMillan

About 20 percent of children-oriented online game sites sport Internet 
gambling advertisements, according to a report released today by the 
Federal Trade Commission.

The report also showed that children encounter few barriers to sites 
featuring Internet wagering, and that most sites "did not adequately 
disclose warnings about underage gambling prohibitions."

Another 20 percent of online gambling sites "contained no warning at all, 
and where warnings were disclosed they were difficult to find," the FTC 
said in a statement.

The result of a 200-Web site sweep, the FTC report said that sites popular 
among teenaged online gamers contain a disproportionate number of gambling 
ads. Included are gaming sites that specialize in action/adventure, sports 
and other "non-gambling" computer games, the commission said.

The report also said that most gaming sites lack "effective" blocking 
mechanisms to keep children away from online gambling, and some don't have 
any blocks. Many blocks were easy to circumvent, the report added.

The FTC released the report a week after a House committee approved a bill 
that would ban most forms of online gaming. Several efforts to enact an 
Internet gaming bill have failed in Congress over the past four years.

Net gambling has been identified not only as a source for gambling 
addiction and other ills that affect offline gamers, but as a venue for 
terrorists to launder money.

The report was conducted with the American Psychiatric Association.
*******************

Washington Post
IT Experts Say Government Not Ready for Cyber Attack
By Ellen McCarthy

Government officials know that cyber-threats exist, but they are not acting 
fast enough to prevent a serious attack, according to a survey of 
technology professionals that was released yesterday.

Almost half of information technology workers who participated in the 
survey think a major cyber-attack in the United States is likely to occur 
in the next 12 months. And nearly three-quarters think there is a gap 
between the likelihood of a major cyber-attack in the United States and the 
government's ability to defend itself.

"These are really sobering results. It really underscores the need for 
cooperation between the public and private sectors," said Robert Holleyman, 
president and chief executive of the Business Software Alliance, which 
sponsored the survey. "It shows that there is a real sense of urgency about 
this mission."

That sense of urgency is something the Business Software Alliance hopes to 
raise through meetings with industry and political officials. Holleyman 
said the organization is pushing for a cyber-security unit to be a clearly 
defined part of the Homeland Security Department, if one is created. The 
organization is also urging policymakers to increase federal funding for 
network security projects.

Released in conjunction with this week's E-Gov conference in the District, 
the survey sought the opinions of technology professionals because they are 
"living and breathing this stuff every day," Holleyman said.

Fifty-five percent of the tech workers surveyed said they think the risk of 
a major cyber-attack has increased since Sept. 11. Eighty-six percent 
believe the government needs to spend more time and resources preparing for 
such an attack than it spent on Y2K-related issues.

"Y2K absorbed a vast amount of time and effort, and it was a one-time 
event. But the need for cyber-security is ongoing," said Holleyman. "We 
have to ensure that we are secure from the attacks that have happened in 
the past and will happen in the future."

Securing sensitive content and information stored in computer systems 
should be a top priority, according to 88 percent of those surveyed.

Corporations must also increase the rate at which they disclose 
cyber-attacks on their own systems, said Bill Conner, president and chief 
executive of Entrust Inc., an Addison, Tex., company that provides Internet 
security services.

"Two-thirds of companies are not reporting cyber-attacks and breaches. It 
breaks the trust model," Conner said. "Until we understand where we're at, 
it's going to be difficult to get the sense of urgency we need."

The BSA-sponsored Internet survey of 395 information technology workers 
from a variety of sectors was conducted between June 5 and 7 and has a 5 
percent margin of error. The study was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs of 
Washington, a subsidiary of Ipsos Research of Paris, according to a BSA 
news release.

BSA member companies include Microsoft, IBM, Dell, Sybase, Symantec, 
Hewlett-Packard and Entrust, most of which seek or hold federal government 
contracts. Companies like Entrust and Symantec specialize in security 
products and services, which are in greater demand than ever throughout the 
government.
***********************
Washington Post
US House OKs Rewritten Internet Child-Porn Ban
By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON -- Barely two months after the Supreme Court struck down a ban 
on "virtual" child pornography, the House Tuesday passed another attempt to 
update child-porn laws for the Internet age.

The House passed 413-8 a bill that would outlaw pornographic digital images 
of children, unless they were proven to be computer-generated simulations 
that did not portray actual underage sex.

The Supreme Court struck down a similar law on free-speech grounds in 
April, saying it was too broadly written and could outlaw mainstream films 
like "Traffic" and "Romeo and Juliet" that use adult actors to portray 
teenage sex.

Backers said a rewritten bill was necessary to effectively prosecute the 
child-pornography trade, which has migrated to the Internet over the past 
several years.

Without a virtual-porn ban, prosecutors must prove that child pornography 
seized from Web sites and computer hard drives portrays actual children, a 
difficult proposition once a picture has been scanned into a computer and 
passed around the Internet, said bill sponsor Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas 
Republican.

The Supreme Court's decision has made existing child-porn cases harder to 
prosecute and could throw previous convictions in jeopardy, others said.

"With every passing day another pedophile escapes prosecution because of 
the flawed ruling of this high court," said Florida Republican Rep. Mark 
Foley, a bill co-sponsor.

But Rep. Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat, said Congress was wasting its 
time with another effort that would not survive a courtroom challenge.

"This bill just reiterates the mistakes in the original legislation," Scott 
said.

The Bush administration issued a statement supporting the bill's passage, 
saying it "would be an important step in protecting children from abuse by 
ensuring effective child pornography prosecutions."

The issue now must be taken up by the Senate, where similar but separate 
bills have been introduced by Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch and Missouri 
Democratic Sen. Jean Carnahan. A hearing is scheduled in the Judiciary 
Committee in the summer, a Carnahan spokesman said.

COURTS STRUCK DOWN EARLIER ATTEMPTS

Congress has so far had little success writing laws that limit pornography 
on the Internet that do not infringe on free-speech rights. Federal courts 
have struck down three previous attempts to regulate online smut on First 
Amendment grounds.

The rewritten bill, drafted by the Justice Department in response to the 
Supreme Court's ruling, applies only to computer images that are 
"indistinguishable" from child pornography, not just material that "appears 
to be" child porn. It does not apply to mainstream movies, cartoons, 
drawings or other works that are not realistic digital images.

Pornography involving prepubescent children would be outlawed entirely, 
"virtual" or not.

The bill would flip the burden of proof so that the defendant would be 
required to prove that the image was a computer-generated fake, rather than 
requiring prosecutors to prove that it involved real, identifiable children.

Bill sponsors said they were confident that their new bill would pass 
judicial review, and that without such an "affirmative defense" they would 
be incapable of prosecuting digital child pornography.

But Scott and Rep. Jerry Nadler, a New York Republican, said most child 
pornography could be prosecuted under existing obscenity laws. The bill 
still could be struck down on First Amendment grounds because it would 
threaten documentary filmmakers, therapists and others who use computer 
images for legitimate purposes, they said.

"The government may not suppress lawful speech to suppress unlawful 
speech," Nadler said.

The House also approved 409-3 a bill that would allow judges to require 
lifetime monitoring of sex offenders after they serve their prison terms.
*************************
Washington Post
Critics Take Aim at New Filtering Service
By David McGuire

New filtering software that relies on Web site operators to label their 
content has found favor with some of the Internet's most popular portals, 
but developers of commercial filtering products question the value of the 
system's voluntary approach.

The nonprofit, industry-backed Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) 
today released ICRAfilter, a free software product that works in 
conjunction with electronic "meta-tags" installed by Web site operators.

At a press conference to unveil the product, executives from America 
Online, Microsoft's MSN service and Yahoo announced that they had labeled 
93 percent of the sites under their control with ICRAfilter-compatible tags.

"Since they are the most trafficked sites, anytime they show leadership in 
an effort, it encourages others to participate," ICRA North America 
director Mary Lou Kenny said. "When the leaders in any segment label their 
sites and encourage others to do the same, it begins a viral effect of 
labeling."

But sellers of Internet filtering products question the value of self-labeling.

"The problem is getting the worldwide Internet to adapt to rating their 
sites," said Mark Kanter, vice president of marketing for the company that 
sells Cybersitter. "It hasn't been able to be done and in our view it won't 
be able to be done."

Although ICRAfilter is new, Kanter points out that Web site operators have 
had the option of labeling their sites by ICRA standards for several years 
through ICRA's Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) standard.

Susan Getgood, vice president of marketing for SurfControl Inc., added that 
while "good guys" like AOL, MSN and Yahoo may willingly label themselves, 
smaller online "bad guys" have no incentive to label honestly, if at all.

"There will always be an inherent problem with self-labeling," Getgood said.

Kenny acknowledged some of the problems inherent in relying solely on 
self-labeling and said that those concerns led ICRA to develop "templates" 
that can be used in conjunction with ICRAfilter.

Templates are lists, developed by outside entities, of Web sites that could 
offend certain sensibilities. The Anti-Defamation League has developed one 
such template that lists known hate sites.

ICRAfilter users can download templates that suit their preferences and 
block those sites as well as self-labeled sites that are outside of their 
pre-approved criteria, Kenny said.

Kenny said that she does not see ICRA filter competing with commercial 
filtering products. "There's enough room for everybody. We're all doing the 
same thing. We're trying to give parents tools to protect their children."

Some civil liberties advocates say that those tools could lay the 
groundwork for further government censorship.

If ICRA achieves the "viral" labeling effect it seeks, "it would only be a 
matter of time before some government somewhere decided to criminalize the 
mislabeling of content," said Electronic Privacy Information Center General 
Counsel David Sobel.

Kenny said that governments already leaning in the direction of greater 
censorship wouldn't be helped or hindered by ICRA's software.

ICRAfilter is available at www.icra.org.
*************************
Washington Post
Lawmaker Tries To Foil Illegal File-Sharing


By Robert MacMillan
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 25, 2002; 4:07 PM


Copyright holders would receive carte blanche to use aggressive tactics to 
stop the illegal distribution of their works on online services like 
Morpheus and Kazaa under legislation outlined today by Rep. Howard Berman 
(D-Calif.).

Berman's bill, to be introduced in the next several weeks, would attempt to 
minimize the illegal trading of copyrighted songs and other content on 
"peer-to-peer" (P2P) networks by permitting copyright holders to use 
technology against pirates.

While content owners now can try to block access to intellectual property 
pirates, they cannot use the range of technological options that they want, 
chiefly because some tactics are illegal under state and federal law. 
Berman's bill would legalize some techniques over the protests of 
file-sharing advocates.

Berman, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee's 
intellectual property and Internet panel, represents a California district 
adjacent to Burbank and Hollywood -- major capitals of the entertainment 
industry that have long clamored for better online piracy deterrents.

Despite the passage in 1998 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, piracy 
continues to nag at copyright holders and businesses. The DMCA has been 
used to threaten suspected copyright violators, but questions about what 
constitutes legal sharing and illegal piracy continue to dilute the law's 
power.

Following the court-ordered shutdown of the popular file-sharing service 
Napster, P2P systems like Morpheus have become popular because they make it 
harder for the entertainment industry to detect copyright infringement. Two 
people sharing music through the Morpheus service establish connections to 
each others' computers instead of using a Napster-like central server.

Berman said such P2P networks should not be "cleared out," but "cleaned up."

His bill would allow copyright holders to set up decoy files and use other 
techno-tricks like file-blocking and redirection to throw P2P pirates off 
the trail, but it would forbid those holders from employing tactics that 
would damage or destroy pirates' own computer systems.

Destroying, crashing or damaging people's computers, software or other 
technology systems is illegal under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, as 
are many of the ideas Berman is suggesting should be available to content 
owners - though he said that viruses should not be used as defense mechanisms.

"A copyright owner should not be allowed to damage the property of a P2P 
file trader or any intermediaries, including ISPs," Berman said. "(I) 
wouldn't want to let a particularly incensed copyright owner introduce a 
virus that would disable the computer from which copyrighted works are made 
available ... "

Ellen Stroud, spokeswoman for Morpheus' parent company StreamCast Networks, 
said that Berman's proposed bill would legalize tactics that currently are 
considered illegal because they allow online misrepresentation.

"(Berman) has called for a posse of copyright vigilantes," she said.

Howard Coble (R-N.C.), chairman of the House Courts, the Internet and 
Intellectual Property subcommittee, said in an interview that he likes 
Berman's proposal, but said it could be "tweaked."

Coble also said that he is awaiting approval from the House Judiciary 
Committee to hold a July hearing on Internet copyright violations.

"My philosophy, and I think Howard's philosophy, is to prevent larceny and 
to prevent piracy," Coble said.

The Recording Industry Association of America said in a statement that it 
supports the Berman proposal, adding that "Internet piracy undermines the 
growth of legitimate online music sites and hurts all consumers in the long 
run."
***************************
USA Today
Site clues consumers into identity theft

WASHINGTON (AP)  An anti-fraud education group that tipped federal 
authorities to a major Internet credit card scheme has opened a Web site 
that will let Americans check to see if their card numbers are in the hands 
of thieves.

The database of stolen credit card numbers, which became available on the 
Web late Tuesday, was created over the last seven weeks and has already 
identified nearly 100,000 credit card numbers, the group said.

The group, CardCops, collected the information from Internet chat rooms 
where thieves have been checking whether stolen card numbers are still good 
to use or have been deactivated.

The group alerted the Secret Service to the scheme and turned over its 
database to investigators. It then decided to create the Web site so 
Americans can check their numbers and possibly prevent fraudulent charges.

"We're creating a situation where Joe Consumer can check his card on the 
Internet to see if it's been possibly abused," said Dan Clements, founder 
of CardCops.

Cardholders can check their numbers by going to www.Cardcops.com and typing 
in the number. If it comes back positive, cardholders should alert their 
financial institution.

CardCops say they have secured the database, and as an extra precaution it 
is asking cardholders who check their numbers not to enter the expiration 
date that is ordinarily required to complete a purchase.

Secret Service Special Agent Donald Masters of the Los Angeles High Tech 
Crimes Task Force said his team is in the preliminary stages of 
investigating the most active Internet card thieves discovered in the 
database provided by CardCops.

He would not discuss the investigation's progress or other details, but 
Masters praised Clements for alerting authorities.

"We need the general public to be aware of this kind of stuff," Masters said.

Many card numbers are stolen by hackers who break into databases of Web 
commerce sites. Another method is for con artists to trick unsuspecting 
computer users into providing card numbers.

The goal of the new Web site is to cut down the time between the theft of a 
card number and the cardholder's discovery of fraudulent charges made by 
the thieves, possibly saving money for consumers and companies.

"Consumers usually get their statements two months or three months after 
it's compromised," Clement said. "During that 60 to 90 days, that card has 
floated around the Internet. They're the ones who are out on a limb."

Clements said the thieves use Internet chat rooms  which are separate from 
the World Wide Web and largely unregulated  to verify that the cards are valid.

This is done by posting the number and expiration date into the public 
room, where an automated program charges a small amount to the card to see 
if it is a valid card. The program is built and maintained by fellow thieves.

The small amount charged is not likely to tip off cardholders, Clements 
said, and the charge comes from an unrelated merchant who is not privy to 
the scam.

Clements has been monitoring several of these rooms, which scroll 
constantly with new card numbers, and recording card numbers entered by the 
thieves. To help authorities, Clements also collects the Internet address 
of the thief who submitted the card.

CardCops offers information and tools to protect electronic commerce 
companies from credit card fraud. It has more than 1,000 paying members, 
mostly small and medium-size merchants.

Stolen credit card numbers and identity theft affect up to 700,000 
Americans each year, the Justice Department says. In 2000, credit card 
companies Visa and Mastercard reported that fraud losses topped $1 billion.

Last month, Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered federal prosecutors 
nationwide to speed up investigations and trials of people accused of 
stealing identities.

Legislation that would set harsher penalties for such crimes is moving 
through Congress.

Most credit card companies won't charge cardholders for fraudulent 
purchases, although it is important to contact the issuing bank promptly. 
Federal law limits the customer's liability to $50.
***************************
USA Today
Wireless service lets you find other users

NEW YORK (AP)  A new feature from AT&T Wireless lets customers use a mobile 
phone to find the approximate location of another cell phone user  the 
nation's first taste of "location-based" service after years of industry hype.

The company also introduced an application that enables Microsoft Outlook 
and Lotus Notes users to forward e-mail in real time from an office 
computer to a cell phone, even if the corporate network isn't set up for 
e-mail forwarding.

Both of the new services are only available in the 18 markets where AT&T 
Wireless has upgraded its network with a wireless technology known as GPRS.

Similar offerings are expected from other carriers as they upgrade with 
next-generation technologies and comply with government requirements to 
pinpoint the location of any person making an emergency 911 call from a 
mobile phone.

The new "Find Friends" feature is being offered as part of AT&T Wireless' 
mMode service, which provides access to an assortment of Web information, 
messaging and entertainment options.

The location service is set up in much the same way as the "buddy lists" 
used for instant messaging on a computer. Each cell phone user can decide 
on a person-by-person basis if and when to be "findable" by another AT&T 
Wireless customer.

If two people agree to be able to find each other, the nearest cellular 
tower will determine the proximity of either one's handset to, for example, 
a nearby intersection. The two people can then exchange messages, make a 
voice call or choose from a list of nearby eateries and stores where they 
might meet.

The fee for mMode ranges from $2.99 per month plus 2 cents for each 
kilobyte of data sent or received to $12.49 per month for up to 2 megabytes 
of use. A location query would usually consume from 1 to 3 kilobytes, or 
about the same as a typical short e-mail, the company said.

The new Office Online e-mail service, which costs an additional $2.99 per 
month plus usage, redirects e-mail from Outlook and Notes on an office 
computer connected to a corporate network and sends it to a wireless phone.

The service is based on the latest version of an application from ViAir 
that is also available through VoiceStream and Nextel. The version offered 
by VoiceStream and Nextel forwards e-mail in batches every 15 minutes 
rather than sending each message as it arrives. While none of the three 
services allow cell phones to open or send e-mail attachments, the new 
offering by AT&T Wireless adds attachment capabilities for handheld 
computers and laptops.
************************
BBC
Hackers play with the Xbox

Microsoft's Xbox console may not be overpopular with computer game players 
but it is rapidly winning fans in the hardware hacking world.
Computer scientists, smart amateur engineers and others are taking the 
console apart and creating modification chips and software for the machine 
to make it do things Microsoft never intended it to.

The modifications mean the console can play movies, pirated games and music 
files.

Microsoft is currently investigating ways to stop the hardware hackers.

Modified machine

One of the most comprehensive investigations of the insides of an Xbox was 
done by Andrew Huang, a graduate student from the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology.

In early June Mr Huang released a 15-page report on the three weeks it took 
him to find out about the security system built in to the Xbox.

He also showed how to interrupt its start-up sequence so it can be made to 
run other operating systems.

Mr Huang's investigations have been followed by others who have produced 
modification, or mod, chips for the device to change what it does and how 
it does it.

The chips, some of which go by the name of Xtender and Enigmah-X, let 
owners use their console to play pirated games, run PC software or games 
from other regions.

Many of the games produced for the Xbox use a regional coding system to 
help game makers manage the release of their titles.

The mod chips let keen gamers play imported games that they would otherwise 
have to wait months to play.

Board room

Although there are new mod chips being developed for the Xbox few think 
they will be widely used.

The chips have to be soldered onto the circuit board of the console, a feat 
most game players are unlikely to attempt.

Other Xbox tinkerers are working on other ways of modifying the console 
without needing to resort to soldering wires onto a circuit board.

Add-on programs are now starting to appear that work with a modified 
console. One of the first makes it possible to play movies on the console 
provided they are encoded using the Divx format.

Many of the movies being shared in online networks use Divx because it does 
a good job of preserving image quality but the resulting files are a 
fraction of the size of the original film and can be downloaded in a 
reasonable amount of time.

Also recently moved to the Xbox is the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator 
(Mame) which lets players run old style arcade games on the console.

Mame is hugely popular online because it authentically recreates many of 
the games that people spent hours playing in their youth.

Microsoft is known to be looking into ways of stopping the spread of mod 
chips with legal action or by ensuring future Xbox games will not work with 
a modified console.

But it too also has plans to extend what the Xbox can do. Reports this week 
suggest that Microsoft is planning a hybrid device that uses the internal 
hard disk of the machine as a video recorder.
***********************
Federal Computer Week
Army releases second AKM memo

The second Army Knowledge Management guidance memorandum was formally 
released last week and implores the commands to be "ruthless" in reducing 
the number of servers and applications.

AKM Guidance Memorandum No. 2 was released June 19 by Secretary Thomas 
White and Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, about two months after being 
passed on to the service's leadership for approval. It states that the 
Army's progress to date has been good and has laid the foundation for 
future successes, but indicates that the service has "a long way to go" to 
reach its goals.

The new memo's goals for major command and other components include:

* Making server reductions of 30 percent by the end of fiscal 2003.

* Making application reductions of 50 percent by fiscal 2004.

* Submitting a report to the Army chief information officer by Aug. 1 
stating baseline assessments to track the progress toward those application 
reductions, as well as a separate report on information assurance status 
and initiatives.

* Mandatory participation in the Army's Business Initiatives Council and 
the AKO Configuration Control Board.

The memo states that the Army chief information officer will provide 
implementing instructions for the baseline assessments and information 
assurance reports within 30 days.

The Army CIO, along with the assistant secretary of the Army for Financial 
Management and Comptroller and the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for 
Operations and Plans (G-3), will also establish a reporting process to 
track the progress of the new goals and provide the metrics through the Key 
Performance Metrics Monitor and Strategic Readiness System, according to 
the memo.

The Army's original five AKM goals were issued in August 2001 and included:

* Governance and cultural change.

* Knowledge management through best business practices.

* Enterprise management.

* Establishing the Army Knowledge Online (AKO) portal.

* Increasing workforce.
**********************
Federal Computer Week
Military, FEMA test communications
Technology not first solution

As part of a month-long communications exercise focused on interoperability 
among U.S. armed forces and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, an 
Army Reserve unit on June 24 successfully completed a video teleconference 
with FEMA personnel halfway across the country.

Grecian Firebolt, which began June 1 and is scheduled to conclude today, 
has been testing interoperability among the Army, the Air Force and FEMA's 
Mobile Emergency Response communications teams. It includes reserve and 
active Army units, and Army and Air National Guard units connecting more 
than 30 sites throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

The 311th Theater Signal Command (TSC), an Army Reserve unit headquartered 
at Fort Meade, Md., led this year's exercise, which was designed, in part, 
to test the communications piece of a homeland defense scenario, said Maj. 
Gen. George Bowman, commander of the unit.

The homeland defense scenarios have included dealing with such things as 
potential mail bombs and protestors attempting to foil activities and 
influence soldiers, said Lt. Col. Thomas Chegash Jr., communications 
systems control element branch chief in the 311th TSC.

Those scenarios did not include attacks against communications or 
information technology systems, but did include reports of real-world 
situations, like virus updates, that participants had to deal with on the 
fly, said Maj. Anthony Britton, an action officer at Joint Forces Command, 
who was on hand to observe the exercises and the joint communications 
capabilities of the Army and Air Force.

The 311th TSC conducted a video teleconference with a FEMA office in 
Denton, Texas, as part of an exercise to ensure that the agency "has the 
bandwidth available in case we're faced with another" Sept. 11, said Ozzie 
Baldwin, FEMA's telecommunications manager of information processing in Denton.

Baldwin said that Grecian Firebolt has also helped FEMA establish 
procedures for communicating via e-mail on both secure and nonsecure 
networks with the Defense Department in a homeland defense scenario.

"We have established the procedures, and now they will be published and 
used in any deployment," he said. "In case of incident, we can immediately 
exchange e-mails," and that includes a Secret Internet Protocol Router 
Network (SIPRNET) connection between FEMA headquarters and DOD that was 
recently installed and tested during the exercise.

"Now, we can say for the next incident, we are ready," Baldwin said.

Grecian Firebolt, which cost more than $1.2 million to execute, focuses on 
the oversight and management of the tactical and strategic networks the 
Army and its partners use to communicate during a homeland security 
mission. It includes satellite links, line-of-sight tools, e-mail and 
videoteleconferencing (VTC), Chegash said.

"Overall, our base goal is training," Chegash said, adding that 
establishing the VTC link was one of the most difficult challenges in the 
exercise. "We have been troubleshooting for days. The equipment we have is 
old, not operator-friendly and difficult to set up."
************************
Federal Computer Week
Awards honor model e-gov efforts

A Web-based unemployment insurance application in Kansas and a 
state-of-the-art military medical supply system were among a half dozen 
innovative e-government programs honored in the third annual Digital 
Government Awards June 25.

Sponsored by Accenture and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology School 
of Architecture and Planning, the awards (www.digitalgovawards.com) 
recognized best practices using the Internet and technology in six 
categories: federal, state, local, higher education, prototype program, and 
agent of change. This year's winners were selected from 125 finalists.

They include:

* The Defense Medical Logistics Standard Support. With a $2.5 billion 
medical logistics supply chain, the Defense Department program 
(www.tricare.osd.mil/dmlss) employed Web-based technology and handheld 
wireless remotes to more efficiently deliver pharmaceutical and medical 
supplies to customers, negating the need for large inventories at depots 
and military treatment facilities.

* Kansas Department of Human Resources. The state agency launched a 
Web-based and interactive voice response unemployment insurance program 
(www.kansasjoblink.com), enabling citizens to file online claims and 
employers to gain around-the-clock access to services.

* Montgomery County, Md., Department of Technology Services. The department 
provided its citizens with a multichannel approach  a portal 
(www.eMontgomery.org), kiosks and interactive voice response  to gain 
access to more than 180 services and communicate with the government.

* University of Washington's Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology. 
To help educators make use of technology, the center created a Web-based 
suite of resources, training, tools, templates and support. The Catalyst 
Initiative (http://catalyst.washington.edu) is an information 
clearinghouse, providing technology workshops for instructors and 
personalized consulting for faculty for the entire campus.

* Rhode Island Department of Administration. The department (www.ri.gov) 
was honored in the prototype category for an electronic payment engine 
developed in conjunction with New England Interactive, a subsidiary of 
e-government company NIC. The e-payment application, which is free to state 
and local agencies, will permit credit card payments via the Internet. The 
program is self-funding, meaning no tax dollars were used to develop the 
application. Investment will be recouped by charging convenience fees to users.

* Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh. He was recognized in the agent 
of change category for introducing the Kansas Online Uniform Commercial 
Code filing system in July 2001, replacing manual and paper-based 
procedures. Built at no cost to his office (www.kssos.org), the system made 
is faster, easier and cheaper for businesses to file. To date, the adoption 
rate is about 80 percent.

Maryland chief information officer Linda Burek and Mark Forman, associate 
director of information technology and e-government at the Office of 
Management and Budget, were among the 16 academic, government, nonprofit 
and industry experts who judged the entries.
***********************
Government Executive
Bush official urges agencies to upgrade homeland security systems now
By Liza Porteus, National Journal's Technology Daily

Federal agencies should not wait for the creation of a new Homeland 
Security Department to upgrade their information technology systems to 
better protect the nation, a Bush administration official said Tuesday.

"We think we cannot only improve security but improve performance" in 
airports, at the nation's borders and ports, and elsewhere, Jim Flyzik, 
White House Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge's senior adviser, told the 
E-Gov 2002 conference. Flyzik said it is imperative that agencies build 
from each other's modernization efforts.

Flyzik is a member of the President's Critical Infrastructure Protection 
Board and sits on the Federal CIO Council. He previously served as the 
Treasury Department's chief information officer. Now he advises Ridge on 
information-security issues, among other things.

While the nation waits to see what Congress does with an administration 
bill to create a Homeland Security Department, however, Flyzik said 
agencies and states need to continue implementing their plans. "We're all 
confident there will be a Department of Homeland Security," but the details 
must be worked out, Flyzik said.

Ridge's office is crafting a national homeland security strategy that is 
due to President Bush in July. The administration is writing the 
information-sharing and systems-integration chapters. Flyzik said other 
pieces will address strategies for drug control, money laundering and cyber 
security. The cybersecurity strategy is separate from the strategy being 
crafted by Richard Clarke, Bush's cyber-security adviser, Flyzik said.

"I have a gut feeling it will be before Sept. 11, 2002," when the national 
strategy will be made public, Flyzik said.

The new department would focus on four areas: border and transportation 
security; emergency preparedness and response; chemical, biological, 
radiological and nuclear counter measures; and information analysis and 
infrastructure. Legislation to create the department includes the new job 
of undersecretary for information analysis and infrastructure protection.

Flyzik said CIOs from various agencies that may be included in the 
department are meeting with Homeland Security CIO Steve Cooper, and they 
are being grouped together based on the four areas of focus.

But the federal government needs to coordinate with state and local law 
enforcers and other officials "like it's never been done before," Flyzik 
stressed. He added that the administration is working with what is known as 
"the Big Seven"--the major state and local organizations, such as the 
National Governors Association, National Conference of State Legislatures, 
National Association of State Chief Information Officers and U.S. 
Conference of Mayors.

"In many cases, the locals are already ahead of us" in homeland security 
efforts, Flyzik said, noting that 23 states already have statewide wireless 
networks in place while the federal government is still working on its own.

Flyzik also said that an Office of Homeland Security portal soon will be 
offered as a gateway to other efforts and that the administration wants to 
increase the use of information-sharing systems.
***********************
Government Computer News
GIS experts: Keep it simple
By Patricia Daukantas

Three geography experts yesterday urged agencies to strive for simplicity 
and time-saving strategies in their geographical information systems.

Agencies recognize the need for adopting geographic data standards but 
still have a lot of work to do, said the Federal Geographic Data 
Committee's John Moeller at the E-Gov Conference in Washington.

Roughly 80 percent of government data has some sort of geographic 
component, Moeller said.

GIS development and use in the United States is similar to most 20th 
century technology in that it evolved through partnerships among companies, 
the government and universities, said Brady Foust, geography professor at 
the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire.

For example, after the automobile was invented, the government took on 
massive road-building efforts. "Neither one of them would have prospered 
without the other," Foust said said.

Private-sector software is like the automobile and the Census Bureau's 
Topographically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing system the 
roads, Foust said. TIGER amounted to a national street map, and yet the 
government gave it away for free, leading to the development of commercial 
map services on the Web, he said.

"In Europe this information is incredibly expensive," so online GIS 
services on that continent haven't taken off in the same way, Foust said.

"Users value their time a great deal," said Patrick Anderson, principal of 
the Anderson Economic Group LLC of Lansing, Mich. "If you don't value your 
users' time, they will stop using your systemif they ever started."

Anderson encouraged agencies to consider developing simple interactive maps 
based on the Extensible Markup Language. With an XML version called 
Scalable Vector Graphics, agencies can create pop-up maps that users can 
adjust without repeated calls to the server, he said.
*************************
Government Computer News
Army inks deal for new software-driven radios

By Dawn S. Onley

The Army has awarded an $856 million contract to Boeing Co. to build at 
least 10,000 software-dependent radios for the Joint Tactical Radio System.

The JTRS architecture will let soldiers and other service memberson the 
battlefield, in combat vehicles and at command postscommunicate with one 
another across different channels and legacy systems. The JTRS software 
will let the Defense Department's Joint Program Office program and store up 
to 10 waveforms on user radios.

"This provides technology we can enhance very quickly," said Army Col. Mike 
Coxe, deputy program manager for the program office.

JTRS furthers the Army's transformation goal because it is an interoperable 
system and is easy to upgrade, he said.

Boeing, which beat Raytheon Co. to win the contract, will build and field 
JTRS by 2006, Coxe said. If DOD exercises all its options, the contract 
ultimately could be worth more than $2 billion.
************************
Sydney Morning Herald
Qld police get high-tech terminals to fight crime
Brisbane
June 26 2002





Queensland police are set to receive a new weapon in the fight against 
crime with 100 Maverick mobile computer terminals destined for the state's 
police vehicles.

The new Maverick terminals will allow police to access registration, 
licence, persons of interest and marine details from inside their vehicle.

The Queensland transport department chose Logica, a private global IT 
solutions company, to supply and manage the terminals which enable law 
enforcement personnel to receive critical information in under five seconds.

"The Maverick terminals will be a major weapon in the fight against the 
increasing number of unlicensed vehicles and drivers occupying the states 
roads," Queensland Transport director of information technology Paul 
Summergreene said.

Queensland is the first law enforcement organisation in Australia to 
provide mobile computing capabilities.
Maverick's processing unit sits in the boot of the car and is contained 
within a tough purpose-built case.

The units, designed and built by Logica in Australia, have been 
specifically designed to cope with rugged conditions and high temperatures.
*************************
News.com
Giuliani: ID cards won't curb freedoms
By Margaret Kane

WASHINGTON--U.S. citizens may need to carry national identification cards 
someday, but that doesn't need to translate into a loss of fundamental 
freedoms in the name of safety, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said 
Wednesday.
"We need a better way to properly ID people that's more effective (than 
current means). There's a trade-off we have to make between privacy and the 
protection of everybody...in society," said Giuliani, following a keynote 
speech at the E-Gov 2002 conference here. More than 10,000 people are 
attending the four-day conference, which concludes Thursday.

A national ID system has become a hot-button issue within the tech industry 
and nationally. Technology experts and privacy advocates have been debating 
the merits of national ID cards and other identification systems and trying 
to figure out how to make sure they wouldn't be abused.


Giuliani said ID cards do not necessarily equal a loss of freedom, adding 
that other democratic countries require citizens to carry ID cards.

"We have to separate fundamental freedoms...from those things that we had 
the luxury to do in the past," he said.

Giuliani's speech was met with standing ovations and flag waving from the 
crowd at the show, which included employees of federal, state and local 
governments. The conference here is being run jointly with one on "homeland 
security," reflecting a new focus from the technology world and the 
government of using IT for defense.

Giuliani discussed ways that technology aided him as mayor, including 
helping him handle the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

Before those attacks, Giuliani's best-known achievement had been lowering 
the city's crime rate, a feat he said was greatly helped by the use of 
technology to conduct daily monitoring of crime.

The city had previously analyzed crime statistics on a yearly basis, but he 
initiated a program that helped track crime at the precinct level on a 
daily basis and plotted that data on geographic and time bases to more 
efficiently deploy police officers.

Similar programs were used in the city's correctional facilities to help 
reduce violence at Riker's Island by 80 percent, he said.

Technology also helped open up the city to citizens, he said, making their 
lives easier. For instance, New York has put in place ways for citizens to 
use the Internet to pay parking tickets and apply for permits for 
everything from opening a restaurant to tackling new construction.

"One of the great complaints about government, certainly in New York City, 
was that it was unusable...and unmanageable," he said. "E-government is a 
way to change that."

Giuliani's Emergency Management System, created in 1996, used technological 
simulations to train for emergencies including terrorist attacks, fires and 
other crises, Giuliani said.

"I can't emphasize more how important that it is to prepare for the worst 
thing you can imagine," he said. "Using technology to try and play games 
for what might happen, even if they're not exactly right when the 
emergencies occur," is an important way to prepare.

Giuliani cautioned attendees to prepare for the unexpected but to remember 
that "life goes on."

"At home, we have to do everything we can to be better prepared," he said. 
"At the same time, we have to get people to relax and go about their daily 
lives."

Giuliani disagreed with the notion that the world is now a more dangerous 
place.

"It was as if a curtain was in front of us; we saw the world the way we 
wanted to see it. Now the curtain has been lifted, and we can see the world 
the way it really is," he said. "Having said that, and recognized that, 
even before doing anything about it we're safer."

Asked if he would be interested in becoming secretary of the proposed 
Department of Homeland Security, Giuliani said that he hadn't decided on 
his future but that the job that he really wanted was to become "general 
manager of the (New York) Yankees."
*************************
ZDNET
Fighting back against PC invaders
By John Borland

By day, Paul Kurland runs an innocuous pool maintenance business in Miami, 
but don't be fooled: Online, he's armed with the digital equivalent of an 
atomic bomb in the arms race against annoying advertising and spying software.

The SpyBlocker program he created can wipe out any targets in its path. In 
doing so, however, it also completely blocks access to large portions of 
many popular Web sites.

Some call it an overreaction, but Kurland isn't at all apologetic.

"To me, it's like picking my pocket," he says, criticizing the 
controversial practice of monitoring and harvesting personal information, 
often without people's knowledge. "The way I look at it, these sites can do 
it right. Just show me the ad, and if I'm interested I'll click on it."

Kurland is part of a grassroots movement fighting back against intrusive 
ads, software that tracks online behavior, and other mechanisms that 
quietly co-opt consumers' computers for marketing and other business 
purposes. These activist programmers are stepping in with such technologies 
to help fill a void left by regulators and legislators who are just 
beginning to examine this emerging area.

The techno-rebellion follows a long tradition of code-slingers who have 
turned first to their own programming skills to solve problems or combat 
Net abuses, dismissive of government's power to keep up with the fast pace 
of change online. Their efforts seem to be making headway: Driven by the 
recent Kazaa controversy and other fears, use of their programs is climbing 
well beyond that of previous generations of Web privacy tools.

More than 17 million people have downloaded ZoneAlarm, a free personal 
firewall that prevents any software from communicating with the Internet 
unless given approval. More than 10 million people have downloaded 
Ad-aware, which scours computer hard drives for adware or spyware 
components and deletes them free of charge. And Kurland said he distributed 
more than 5 million free copies of SpyBlocker before he began charging for it.

As impressive as those numbers are, these technologies are well short of 
ubiquitous on the Internet. Although such blocking software is a familiar 
part of the computer desktop for many tech-savvy surfers, it is far less 
clear whether these tools will become popular in the mainstream market.

Indeed, without government mandates or adoption by large companies such as 
ISPs (Internet services providers) or computer manufacturers, these 
technologies may never reach new or inexperienced computer users--the 
portion of the public most susceptible to software that might spy on them 
or take over their PC resources without adequate explanation.

"I've found there is a certain amount of people who will fight back using 
all the technology at their disposal. Then there's another group of people 
who just don't care," said Steve Gibson, a technology researcher and 
entrepreneur who wrote one of the first anti-spyware software programs. 
"What (this trend) is going to do is accentuate that division."
**************************
Wired News
A New Twist on Light Speed
By Mark K. Anderson

If light is the standard messenger in communications technology, the 
messenger just got a bigger saddlebag.

A recent discovery by five physicists from Scotland has opened the door to 
packing more information into a beam of light.

The new discovery promises faster ways to send and receive quantum 
information, although right now, only through empty space. Nevertheless, it 
could lead to faster and better quantum cryptography and communications, 
with many more applications if it can be adapted for fiber optics.

Photons -- those indivisible particles of light that carry every telephone 
and Internet communication for at least part of the journey -- have long 
been subject to clever tricks that enable them to carry as much information 
as possible.

Currently the bits in data, audio or video traffic are sent through fiber 
optic cables as brief pulses of light. A pulse is a value of one; the 
absence of a pulse equals zero. Between splitting the wavelengths of light 
into a hundred or more channels, and making each pulse millionths of a 
second or less, standard fiber optic lines now typically run 2.5 billion to 
10 billion bits (2.5 gigabits to 10 gigabits) per second. Faster ones -- 40 
gigabits to 3.2 terabits per second -- are now in the pipeline.

Optical data traffic can also be increased by splitting the light in each 
channel into its separate polarizations -- the direction of a light wave's 
oscillations. Thus, a horizontally polarized pulse can carry one bit and a 
vertically polarized pulse can carry another. Previously only one bit could 
fit.

Practically, great effort is required to prevent the polarization of light 
pulses from drifting while traveling through a fiber optic line. However, 
that's not to say that polarization-encoded bits aren't being considered in 
fiber optics.

Finally, one other trick would greatly speed up optical communications. It 
involves sorting photons by a property called orbital angular momentum.

Picture a ray of light as a spiral, twisting as it moves through space like 
a strand of DNA. Recent experiments by the Austrian scientist Anton 
Zeilinger have shown that such twisting photons can have multiple "strands" 
going at once.

So, for instance, looking head-on at a three-stranded photon -- for which 
the orbital angular momentum is three units -- one would see three lines 
separated by 120 degrees (like a clock with minute hands pointing at 12, 4 
and 8) as they all moved in a circle together.

Theoretically, a photon can have any positive integer value of orbital 
angular momentum. Therefore, a method for creating and observing n 
different orbital states of a photon is also a method for sending and 
receiving a number between 1 and n using only one photon. Instead of bits, 
this new optical communication technique traffics in entire alphabets.

Technically, the general unit of information is called a "nit," named after 
the above n. Indeed, because individual photons obey the laws of quantum 
mechanics, the information carried in photon orbital states is quantum 
information -- a new breed of data that can take on multiple values at 
once. Whereas before photons could only carry qubits, this new technique 
enables the photon to be a messenger of "qunits."

"We can, in principle, with 100 percent efficiency tell you that this 
photon is n=15 -- or if it's ten we can tell you it's ten," said Johannes 
Courtial of the University of Glasgow.

Courtial is one of five Glasgow scientists who measured a single photon's 
orbital angular momentum for the first time. Their results appear in the 
June 24 issue of the journal Physical Review Letters.

"This experiment offers a real improvement," said Gabriel Molina of the 
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya in Barcelona. "You can now fit more 
information in a single photon."

The drawbacks, he said, are both in the instrumentation -- currently too 
finicky for any application outside the lab -- and implementation.

Indeed, Molina's group is already working on the latter problem, 
investigating ways to transmit photon qunits through fiber optic lines.
*************************

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