Geeks Gather to Back Crypto
Rob Carlson is worried about something that most Americans would consider entirely obscure: the future of encryption technology. Carlson, a 21-year-old programmer who typically sports a floppy, pin-studded safari hat, fears that the U.S. Congress, in the wake of last week's bloody attacks, may vote for anti-terrorism legislation that also threatens privacy. "There's nothing as permanent as a temporary restriction," he says. In an announcement distributed online Friday, Carlson suggested that like-minded geeks gather at the University of Maryland's Baltimore County campus on Saturday and Sunday "in order to get the word out about the importance of civil liberties" and prepare for the worst on Capitol Hill.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46900,00.html
E-Tickets Get New Restrictions
"Your airport taxi's late. Bridge traffic is backed up for miles. And the line at the airline ticket counter stretches out to remote parking. There are only minutes to go until your flight, and although already ticketed and toting a carry-on bag, you need a boarding pass. What to do?" This familiar scenario, described on an IBM website, recommends using IBM's self-service kiosk technology to easily print out a boarding pass. Many of the major airlines have implemented such technology in airports in the United States and around the world. But Tuesday's terrorist attacks on the United States drastically changed airline safety procedures. Airlines are still using the technology, but additional security measures have made the process less carefree.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,46806,00.html
Online Donations Set Records
The outpouring of aid in response to last week's terrorist attacks hasn't just been in New York's hospitals and disaster zones. The Sept. 11 events have sparked a surge in online charity as well. The Web's biggest players, including AOL, Yahoo and Amazon, have turned their focus to helping the cause. Established aid organizations, such as the Red Cross, are receiving record levels of Internet donations. And smaller charity groups, strangers to the Web until last Tuesday, are now accepting online gifts from around the world.
http://www.wired.com/news/ebiz/0,1272,46876,00.html
Antispam Laws: Where Are They?
Nearly 6 million people in 24 states have registered to have telemarketing calls blocked under new do-not-call laws. But that doesn't mean similar laws for spam could ever pass ... or be effective, antispam experts say. "The idea of having a do-not-e-mail list is totally hopeless," Tom Geller of the SpamCon Foundation said. "Some e-mail addresses have hundreds of people, and some people have hundreds of addresses. It's impossible to build such a list, and no one is going to obey it anyway."
http://www.wired.com/news/ebiz/0,1272,46371,00.html
Hijackers May Have Accessed Computers at Public Libraries
Investigators are looking into the possibility some of the suspected hijackers in last week's deadly attacks on Washington and New York may have communicated with each other by using computers at public libraries. At least one South Florida librarian has told authorities she recognized the name of a suspected terrorist on one of her computer sign-in sheets after the FBI released the list of hijackers' names Friday. Library officials in Fairfax County also said today FBI agents Thursday requested the computer lab sign-in lists from the Sherwood Regional Library in the Mount Vernon area.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2001Sep16.html
Spy satellites search for Bin Laden
US spy satellites have been given new instructions to concentrate their attention on Afghanistan and the search for Osama Bin Laden, and groups associated with him, sources have told BBC News Online. So-called Signal Intelligence (Sigint) satellites, designed to intercept radio and mobile phone traffic, have been "retasked", as have two "Big Bird" satellites that take high-resolution images. The use of Sigint satellites marks a departure from normal procedure, as they are not usually used to gather intelligence about dissident groups.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1548860.stm
Assessing Net’s structural integrity
Every day as the sun rises above the large cities of the world, a wave of Internet data traffic begins to build. In the United States, the traffic pattern builds first in the eastern part of the country and then moves steadily west as the rest of the country starts to wake up. Businesses and consumers collectively send billions of bits of data across this interconnected mesh of networks spanning the face of the planet. Greater bandwidth and faster speeds have always been the central issues and themes for the Internet. And the Net will have to improve in order to provide the levels and types of services — like voice and video — that businesses will invest in. To understand the magnitude of this growth, consider that global Internet peak traffic increased by approximately 83 Gbps from year-end 1999 to year-end 2000.
http://msnbc.com/news/625010.asp?cp1=1
BT ponders bacterial intelligence
BT is hoping the living habits of bacteria will bring order to future communication networks. Researchers working for the company are studying bacterial colonies to help develop communication networks that will self-organise and self-configure. They believe that soon many people will be carrying around or using so many small, smart devices that they will not have the time to do their own configuration. Self-organising systems will then be essential to keep networks running. Simulations of the bacteria-based system have already shown that it can keep a network of a few thousand devices running.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1542539.stm
FBI Warns Of Increased Activity By ‘Patriotic Hacktivists'
The FBI is predicting a surge in “patriotic hacktivism” as crackers begin targeting Web sites of groups believed to be connected to last week’s terrorists attacks on America. The FBI’s National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) issued an alert on Friday warning system administrators to be prepared for an upswing in online vigilante hacking activity. “Political hacktivism by self-described 'patriot' hackers targeted at those perceived to be responsible for the terrorist attacks,” the agency said. “The NIPC has already received reports of individuals encouraging vigilante hacking activity.” The agency also said it has seen precursor attacks, such as the renaming of old viruses to monikers that reflect recent events.
http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/170172.html
Musicians Respond to Tragedy
In the wake of this week's terrorist attacks in New York, Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh, members of the music community have expressed their sorrow, sympathy and anger with their fans via their official Web sites. Here are some of their words.
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/new...14595&afl=mnew
Music Publishers, Labels Forge Tentative Web Pact
Music publishers and record labels are close to an agreement for the licensing of music on the Internet, a deal that would be a breakthrough for the labels' planned online subscription services, Monday's Wall Street Journal reported. According to people with knowledge of the matter, a tentative agreement was reached in a conference call Friday between record executives and publishers. Those people caution that the deal isn't final, and could still snarl in details before a written version of the pact is finalized early this week. The tentative pact, which comes after months of negotiations, would remove a major roadblock for the major record companies' new Web initiatives, which are called MusicNet and pressplay.
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,28994,00.html
MP3.com Loses Founder, Settles With Britney Spears' Record Company
Michael Robertson, one of the architects of the digital-music revolution, stepped down Thursday (August 30) as head of MP3.com. Robertson resigned as CEO to head another start-up, Lindows.com, which will try to popularize the Linux operating system, an MP3.com spokesperson said. MP3.com president Robin Richards will replace Robertson. Robertson started MP3.com in 1997, and took the company public in 1999. Two years later, after millions of dollars in lawsuits by record companies and artists alleging copyright infringement — most of which were settled out of court — MP3.com was acquired by Vivendi Universal. Robertson will stay on as an adviser to Vivendi CEO Jean-Marie Messier, the spokesperson said.
http://www.sonicnet.com/news/digital...448574&index=0
Can't we all just get along?
A military bombing is the worst thing that America could do in response to Tuesday's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, says historian and Boston University professor emeritus Howard Zinn. "[Bombing] can only inflame more hatred against us," he says. "It can turn angry people into fanatically angry people and fanatically angry people into terrorists." Zinn isn't alone. As the Bush administration plots a military response to what the president has repeatedly declared an "act of war," and receives from Congress $40 billion to fund an anti-terror campaign, an emerging chorus of activists, professors, intellectuals and peace and justice organizations have begun to sound together for a nonviolent response to the terrorist attacks.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/20...cks/index.html
Nostradamus called it!
| The kooks are coming out of the woodwork. On Friday, four days after the attacks on New York and Washington, the bestselling book on Amazon.com was "Nostradamus: The Complete Prophecies." Books about the 16th century prophet also placed at 4, 5, 11, 12 and 25 on the list. This sudden interest in Nostradamus can be directly pinned to the "prediction" that has been zipping across the Net in the wake of Tuesday's tragedy: "In the City of God there will be a great thunder, Two Brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb. The third big war will begin when the big city is burning." The Nostradamus-attributed "prophecy" of the World Trade Center disaster was swiftly proven to be a hoax, but no matter: The Net loves a good conspiracy theory, and even while the country mourned, the morbidly curious could also track any number of bizarre theories and observations online about Tuesday's tragedy. Nostradamus and his apocalyptic predictions were just the tip of the iceberg.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/20...oks/index.html
FBI chief: 'No warning signs' of terrorist attacks
-- FBI Director Robert Mueller said there were "no warning signs" of last week's terrorist attacks and disputed reports suggesting that at least two of the suspected hijackers gained entry into the United States despite being on watch lists. Speaking at a Monday news conference with U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, Mueller rejected suggestions that the agency had dropped the ball and that at least two suspected hijackers had managed to get in the country despite being on "watch lists."
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/17/inv...ion.terrorism/
Free videoconferencing offered to victims
With thousands of people left stranded by a halt in air travel across the United States following last week's terrorism attacks in New York and Washington D.C., some videoconferencing providers are reporting a surge in use of their services, while others are responding by offering free videoconferencing to those affected by the tragedy. Although limited travel resumed in parts of the United States on Thursday, some conferences and meetings have been canceled here and abroad in the wake of the four hijackings and subsequent plane crashes on September 11.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industr...idg/index.html
Did US air emergency procedure aid suicide hijackers?
During last Tuesday's suicide attacks in New York and Washington, the US Department of Defense (DoD), the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), and US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would have declared an emergency situation which, depending on its severity, would have invoked one of two little-known regulations governing air emergencies in North America. These regulations include provisions which appear not to have been put into effect, but which might have impeded the attackers and rendered their crimes less destructive on the ground.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/57/21709.html
More news later on
