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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