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RAIN 324 Weekly Update: Technology (29)
SecurityFocus 3/14/02
D.I.R.T. Spyware Exposed on Web
Software marketed as a computer surveillance tool for law enforcement
investigators has its secrets laid bare on an anonymous Web site.
By Kevin Poulsen
Mar 14 2002 1:30AM PT
A closely-held software package designed to allow law enforcement agencies to
secretly monitor a suspect's computer turned up on an anonymous Web site in
the Netherlands Wednesday, along with user manuals, financial information,
contracts and invoices
apparently stolen from the company that makes the surveillance tool.
http://online.securityfocus.com/news/354
San Antonio Express-News 3/17/02
Identity is all in the cards
By Verna Yu
Associated Press
HONG KONG — In 1949, Mao Tse-tung's communists conquered mainland China and
set off a massive flow of emigration to this city, then a comparatively
prosperous British colony.
To sort out newcomers from residents, Hong Kong introduced compulsory
cardboard
identity cards.
http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=110&xlc=640151&xld=110
Asahi Shimbun 3/17/02
Medical records available online
Fujitsu Ltd., one of the nation's largest computer companies, has developed an
online system to allow hospitalized patients to check their clinical records
and call
up medical information without getting out of bed.
http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2002031700107.html
The New Yorker 3/25/02
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF PAPER
by MALCOLM GLADWELL
Looking for method in the mess.
Issue of 2002-03-25
Posted 2002-03-18
On a busy day, a typical air-traffic controller might be in charge of as many
as twenty-five airplanes at a time—some ascending, some descending, each at a
different altitude and travelling at a different speed. He peers at a large,
monochromatic radar console, tracking the movement of tiny tagged blips
moving slowly across the screen. He talks to the sector where a plane is
headed, and talks to the pilots passing through his sector, and talks to the
other controllers about any new traffic on the horizon. And, as a controller
juggles all those planes overhead, he scribbles notes on little pieces of
paper, moving them around on his desk as he does. Air-traffic control depends
on
computers and radar. It also depends, heavily, on paper and ink.
http://www.newyorker.com/printable/?critics/020325crbo_books
BBC News 3/18/02
Discord over digital music
By BBC News Online's Alfred Hermida
With millions of people downloading free copies of everything from the latest
chart hit to whole albums over the internet, the music industry is facing a
formidable challenge.
A whole generation is growing up with digital technology that has provided
the means to get free access to music at any time.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1874000/1874800.stm
PRNewswire 3/18/02
Leading Companies Agree to Produce Electronic Signature Standards
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020318/nem041_1.html
ZDNet News 3/18/02
Goodbye Napster, hello Morpheus
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-861914.html
New York Times 3/18/02
Opposition to Portable Numbers
By SUSAN STELLIN
If you are a cellphone user who has waited to change service providers until
you can
take your phone number with you — you may have to keep waiting.
Wireless carriers are supposed to install technology by late November that
will let
customers keep their phone numbers when changing carriers. But the Federal
Communications Commission is considering a petition by Verizon Wireless to
drop that
requirement — or at least delay the deadline.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/18/technology/ebusiness/18NECO.html
Accounting Web 3/19/02
E-Mail Management Part 2
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=75243
Internet News 3/19/02
Council Developing Standards for Electronic Signatures
By Roy Mark
A group of e-commerce and financial services companies are working together
to develop a voluntary model Standards and Procedures for Electronic Records
and Signatures (SPeRS). An rganizational meeting of the SPeRS drafting
committee was held Monday in the offices of the Electronic Financial Services
Council in Washington, D.C. The project is expected to take nine months to
one year to complete.
http://www.internetnews.com/asp-news/article/0,,3411_994171,00.html
PRNewswire 3/19/02
Front Porch Digital Further Expands Document Image Archive Migration
Capabilities
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020319/latu076_1.html
GovExec.com 3/18/02
Many Interior employees still stuck offline
By Brian Friel
bfriel@govexec.com
More than 80 percent of the Interior Department’s computers are back online
after a three-month shutdown of Internet access. But workers at the
department’s headquarters and in three major agencies are still stuck with
only telephones, fax machines and the post office to communicate with the
outside world.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0302/031802b1.htm
GovExec.com 3/18/02
Improving access for non-English speakers is costly, report says
By Kellie Lunney
klunney@govexec.com
Improving access to government programs for people who aren’t proficient in
English could cost the government more than $1 billion, according to a new
report from the Office of Management and Budget.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0302/031802m1.htm
Washington Post 3/20/02
Bogus Dollars From Internet Bring Change
By Maria Glod
One day last month, a Loudoun County middle school student was tinkering
around on the Internet and came across a Web site with images of the front
and back of a $100 bill.
The 13-year-old copied the images onto his family's computer, enlarged them
so they were the size of authentic currency and made copies on a color
printer until the front and back matched up on paper, according to court
documents. Then, he printed three fake $100 bills, trimmed the edges, and
took two to Farmwell Station Middle School in Ashburn.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53212-2002Mar19.html
Federal Computer Week 3/20/02
INS details broken process
BY William Matthews
When he became commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service
last August, James Ziglar said he quickly discovered that the troubled agency
information technology systems "were big on information and small on
technology."
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0318/web-ins-03-20-02.asp
GCN 3/20/02
INS official wants more input from contractors
The Immigration and Naturalization Service might have one of the most
sophisticated and efficient systems in the world for handling its more than
25 million paper files.
But "my job is putting our National Records Center out of business," said
associate commissioner for IRM Scott Hastings at a breakfast presentation
this morning at FOSE 2002.
http://gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/18222-1.html
WIRED March 2002
This Is Not a Test
A decade after America's last nuclear test, the US arsenal is decaying and
its designers are retiring. Now a
new generation of scientists is trying to preserve bomb-building knowledge
before it's too late.
By Evan Ratliff
This spring, as college students across the country convene study groups and
hit the library in preparation for final exams, Charles Nakhleh will be
hunkering down in a fenced-off building high on the New Mexico mesa, racing
to finish his dissertation. He'll be tweaking the variables in his
computational model and checking and rechecking his hypotheses. The thesis
will never be published in a scientific journal or even bound with other
dissertations and stored on some dusty shelf of a university library. Nakhleh
will never be able to make a public presentation o r even talk to his family
about the details of his work: the W80 cruise missile-based nuclear warhead.
To do so, in fact, would be a federal crime. But for Nakhleh, the project
marks the final step in his three-year effort to earn the most exclusive
diploma on the planet - a degree in thermonuclear weapons.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.03/nukes_pr.html
WIRED March 2002
The Sentinel
Our enemies are threatening to crash Wall Street servers, crack IRS
databases, and attack the nation's electrical grid. Richard Clarke is bracing
for the fight. A tough talk with the White House's doomsaying, evangelizing
cybersecurity czar.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.03/clarke.html
Houston Chronicle 3/21/02
County cuts off computer network
Wireless system may be vulnerable to hackers
By STEVE BREWER
Harris County District Clerk Charles Bacarisse shut down a wireless computer
network in his office this week after officials found it could be vulnerable
to high-tech vandals.
The decision was made Tuesday, after a computer security analyst demonstrated
to Steve Jennings, head of the county's Central Technology Department, and
the Houston Chronicle how the system could be compromised.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.hts/metropolitan/1302663
New York Times 3/21/02
A Port Beckons: Moving to a New PC
By LARRY MAGID
UPGRADING to a new PC is a little like moving into a new home. Before you can
settle into your new environment, you have to deal with transporting
everything you own.
And, like that new home, the new PC is not going to be exactly like the old
one. It could be from a different manufacturer, and chances are good that you
are moving from an older version of Windows to the new Windows XP.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/21/technology/circuits/21BASI.html
VNUNET 3/21/02
NHS e-records set to slash costs
By Rachel Fielding at HC2002 in Harrogate [21-03-2002]
Current system 'a mess', says HR director
The implementation of standard electronic employee records across the NHS
will reduce payroll administration costs by eight per cent and procurement
costs by 25 per cent.
http://www.vnunet.com/News/1130308
New York Times 3/21/01
Finding Pay Dirt in Scannable Driver's Licenses
By JENNIFER 8. LEE
BOSTON -- ABOUT 10,000 people a week go to The Rack, a bar in Boston favored
by sports stars, including members of the New England Patriots. One by one,
they hand over their driver's licenses to a doorman, who swipes them through
a sleek black machine. If a license is valid and its holder is over 21, a red
light blinks and the patron is waved through.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/21/technology/circuits/21DRIV.html?pagewanted=a
ll&position=top
New York Times 3/21/02
Law Revises Standards for Scientific Study
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
t does not even take effect until next Oct. 1. But a little-noticed law
called the Data Quality Act, signed in the waning days of the Clinton
administration, has set off a fierce debate over how best to weigh health and
environmental risks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/21/politics/21DATA.html
New York Times 3/21/02