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walktalker · 02-10-01, 04:17 PM

Experts: Easy Installations Kill
The biggest computer security threat isn't a vicious virus or a skilled and malicious hacker. The real danger, according to dozens of experts, is easy-to-install software and software vendors who focus too heavily on adding convenient features instead of solid security solutions into their applications. The default software installations performed by most operating systems and applications top the SANS (System Administration, Networking, and Security) Institute and the FBI-led National Infrastructure Protection Center's new Top 20 security threats list.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,47244,00.html

Gamers Blow bin Laden Away

Osama bin Laden has managed to escape harm in the real world, but his likeness is getting blown away with extreme prejudice in living rooms across America. Gamers have been downloading a virtual image, or a skin, of bin Laden so they can do battle with him in shoot-'em-up computer games. As well as creating a bin Laden character for Unreal Tournament, the designers at CyberExtruder have whipped up a bin Laden character for Quake3:Arena, too. Downloadable "skins," or customized characters not included in the original game, are an important part of gaming culture. Most are made in 3-D software, but CyberExtruder specializes in creating skins from personal photographs, which can then be inserted into video games. So in cyberspace, players can pit a virtual rendition of themselves against a virtual bin Laden.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,47226,00.html

FTC Seeks to Trap a Mousetrapper
Suing John Zuccarini is like riding the neighborhood bicycle: Everybody gets a turn. He's already been assailed 63 times by everyone from The Wall Street Journal to Disney, Yahoo and Nicole Kidman. Now the feds, in a lawsuit announced Monday, have become the latest plaintiff to take Zuccarini to court. His alleged offense this time: registering misspellings of popular domain names, then bombarding hapless visitors with a seemingly infinite series of pop-up ads. Last Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission sued Zuccarini in federal court in Pennsylvania, and asked for a temporary injunction against this practice. They're also asking the court to force Zuccarini to return any money he made. The FTC won its restraining order, but so far government lawyers have been unable to serve the notoriously elusive Zuccarini with it. Zuccarini's mailing address appears to be in Pennsylvania, but his exact whereabouts remain unknown.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,47217,00.html

No Last-Minute Rush for E911
Despite surging demand following the Sept. 11 attacks, Monday's FCC-mandated deadline for "enhanced 911" services passed Monday without any mobile phone carrier implementing the technology. Citing a lack of equipment, complexities regarding differing standards and/or exorbitant costs to implement the system -- which would enable emergency dispatchers to pinpoint the location of local cell phone callers -- every major carrier filed a temporary waiver. Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission hasn't yet decided how it will proceed -- either in reviewing the waivers or meting out punishment.
http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,47220,00.html

Don't Trust Any E-Mail Over 30
As great inventions go, e-mail had a rather ho-hum beginning back in 1971. In fact, Ray Tomlinson, the American engineer considered the "father of e-mail," can't quite recall when the first message was sent, what it said, or even who the recipient was. "I have no idea what the first one was," he told Reuters. "It might have been the first line from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address for all I know. The only thing I know was it was all in upper case." Tomlinson, principal engineer at BBN Technologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, finds himself in the spotlight again after all these years, having to answer questions about the computer program he designed as it reaches its 30th birthday in the coming weeks.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,47239,00.html

'Rogue Spear' to train military to tackle terrorists
Ubi Soft Entertainment, one of the world's largest video game companies, is licensing technology used to create counterterrorist simulation game Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear to help train soldiers. The Department of Defense plans to use the game engine — the programming that powers the game's logic — to train troops to fight terrorists in urban terrain. It will be modified to use maps and scenarios requested by the U.S. Army, and will teach strategy and tactics, as opposed to weapons training, Ubi Soft says. Meanwhile, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the company says it will delay indefinitely the release of the latest game in the series, Tom Clancy's Rogue Spear: Black Thorn. Some of the scenes in the game, which was scheduled for an Oct. 9 launch, will be removed. One of the missions to be eliminated involves a terrorist hijacking an airplane, the company says.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/t...inbow-army.htm

Access Denied
Top Justice Department and FBI officials turned down a request by Minneapolis FBI agents early last month for a special counterintelligence surveillance warrant on a suspected Islamic terrorist who officials now believe may have been part of the Sept. 11 plot to attack the World Trade Center and Pentagon, NEWSWEEK has learned. The handling of the case of Zacarias Moussaoui — who is now being held in detention in New York — has raised new questions about how U.S. law enforcement officials handled critical intelligence that, in retrospect, might have alerted them in advance to the deadliest terrorist plot in U.S. history.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/636610.asp?cp1=1

Fusion power 'within reach'
Fusion power is "within reach", according to atomic scientists in the UK. Fusion is the form of nuclear energy that powers the stars. Although, it has many advantages over conventional nuclear power, it has been technically difficult to develop. The best approach appears to be to confine a superhot gas, called a plasma, in a magnetic field. Some success has been achieved this way using huge experimental fusion reactors. But now, according to United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) scientists, making smaller versions of the same equipment may be technically easier, cheaper and swifter to develop. The most recent experiments show promise, they claim.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1573450.stm

NSync CD is copy protection "experiment"
The music industry is now testing different copy protection systems on mass market chart CDs, with copies of NSync's Celebrity on the Zomba label being sold in at least three different versions. Those available in Germany have draconian protection, a slightly weaker system is used on the US disk and there is no protection on the UK version. The only visible clue is small print on the German release which warns "this CD is not playable on computers". Sony will not comment on the NSync disc but a spokesman says: "We continue to test available copy protection technologies, and our goal is to implement copy protection on a broader basis to deter digital piracy." "Sure I am aware of it," says Maria Ho in Zomba's New York office. But she had no comment to make by the time of publication. Sebastian Kahlich, at Zomba's German headquarters, would also make no comment.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991367

A Better Black Box
In the tragic wake of an airline crash, one of the highest priorities of the accident investigators is to retrieve the aircraft's black boxes. The Federal Aviation Administration requires all large commercial aircraft to be equipped with two such devices: the cockpit voice recorder, which records the flight crew's voices and other sounds in the cockpit, and the flight data recorder, which monitors the plane's altitude, airspeed, heading and other instrument readings. Because this information can be vital to the investigation of an air disaster, the recorders must be designed so that the stored data can survive virtually any crash.
http://www.sciam.com/2000/0900issue/0900working.html

Brave New World for Higher Education
In April 2001, MIT president Charles M. Vest announced that the Institute would bring the "open-source" software sensibility to higher education and offer — for free! — its curricula and courseware to the world via the Web. This "OpenCourseWare" initiative represents a radically different approach to digitizing, marketing and globalizing education. "OpenCourseWare looks counterintuitive in a market-driven world. It goes against the grain of current material values," said Vest at the time. "But it really is consistent with what I believe is the best about MIT." He concluded, "Simply put, OpenCourseWare is a natural marriage of American higher education and the capabilities of the World Wide Web."
http://www.techreview.com/magazine/oct01/insight.asp

No hiding place for anyone
IN TODAY'S information age, everybody leaves an electronic trail in their wake. With every credit-card purchase, ATM transaction, telephone call and Internet logon, they create an electronic portrait of themselves that grows clearer at every step. Perhaps the only items that are still untraceable are people's clothes, cash and day-to-day movements. But with the introduction of Hitachi's new “mu-chip”, even these could become common knowledge. The Hitachi chip is the world's smallest wireless identification device. It measures 0.4 millimetres square and is thin enough to be embedded in paper. It can hold only 128 bits of read-only memory, and do little more than spit out a unique identification number, when asked, to a distance of about 30 centimetres.
http://www.economist.com/science/dis...tory_id=779580

More news later on

02-10-01, 04:17 PM	#2
walktalker The local newspaper man Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Montreal Posts: 2,036	Experts: Easy Installations Kill The biggest computer security threat isn't a vicious virus or a skilled and malicious hacker. The real danger, according to dozens of experts, is easy-to-install software and software vendors who focus too heavily on adding convenient features instead of solid security solutions into their applications. The default software installations performed by most operating systems and applications top the SANS (System Administration, Networking, and Security) Institute and the FBI-led National Infrastructure Protection Center's new Top 20 security threats list. http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,47244,00.html Gamers Blow bin Laden Away Osama bin Laden has managed to escape harm in the real world, but his likeness is getting blown away with extreme prejudice in living rooms across America. Gamers have been downloading a virtual image, or a skin, of bin Laden so they can do battle with him in shoot-'em-up computer games. As well as creating a bin Laden character for Unreal Tournament, the designers at CyberExtruder have whipped up a bin Laden character for Quake3:Arena, too. Downloadable "skins," or customized characters not included in the original game, are an important part of gaming culture. Most are made in 3-D software, but CyberExtruder specializes in creating skins from personal photographs, which can then be inserted into video games. So in cyberspace, players can pit a virtual rendition of themselves against a virtual bin Laden. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,47226,00.html FTC Seeks to Trap a Mousetrapper Suing John Zuccarini is like riding the neighborhood bicycle: Everybody gets a turn. He's already been assailed 63 times by everyone from The Wall Street Journal to Disney, Yahoo and Nicole Kidman. Now the feds, in a lawsuit announced Monday, have become the latest plaintiff to take Zuccarini to court. His alleged offense this time: registering misspellings of popular domain names, then bombarding hapless visitors with a seemingly infinite series of pop-up ads. Last Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission sued Zuccarini in federal court in Pennsylvania, and asked for a temporary injunction against this practice. They're also asking the court to force Zuccarini to return any money he made. The FTC won its restraining order, but so far government lawyers have been unable to serve the notoriously elusive Zuccarini with it. Zuccarini's mailing address appears to be in Pennsylvania, but his exact whereabouts remain unknown. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,47217,00.html No Last-Minute Rush for E911 Despite surging demand following the Sept. 11 attacks, Monday's FCC-mandated deadline for "enhanced 911" services passed Monday without any mobile phone carrier implementing the technology. Citing a lack of equipment, complexities regarding differing standards and/or exorbitant costs to implement the system -- which would enable emergency dispatchers to pinpoint the location of local cell phone callers -- every major carrier filed a temporary waiver. Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission hasn't yet decided how it will proceed -- either in reviewing the waivers or meting out punishment. http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,47220,00.html Don't Trust Any E-Mail Over 30 As great inventions go, e-mail had a rather ho-hum beginning back in 1971. In fact, Ray Tomlinson, the American engineer considered the "father of e-mail," can't quite recall when the first message was sent, what it said, or even who the recipient was. "I have no idea what the first one was," he told Reuters. "It might have been the first line from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address for all I know. The only thing I know was it was all in upper case." Tomlinson, principal engineer at BBN Technologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, finds himself in the spotlight again after all these years, having to answer questions about the computer program he designed as it reaches its 30th birthday in the coming weeks. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,47239,00.html 'Rogue Spear' to train military to tackle terrorists Ubi Soft Entertainment, one of the world's largest video game companies, is licensing technology used to create counterterrorist simulation game Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear to help train soldiers. The Department of Defense plans to use the game engine — the programming that powers the game's logic — to train troops to fight terrorists in urban terrain. It will be modified to use maps and scenarios requested by the U.S. Army, and will teach strategy and tactics, as opposed to weapons training, Ubi Soft says. Meanwhile, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the company says it will delay indefinitely the release of the latest game in the series, Tom Clancy's Rogue Spear: Black Thorn. Some of the scenes in the game, which was scheduled for an Oct. 9 launch, will be removed. One of the missions to be eliminated involves a terrorist hijacking an airplane, the company says. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/t...inbow-army.htm Access Denied Top Justice Department and FBI officials turned down a request by Minneapolis FBI agents early last month for a special counterintelligence surveillance warrant on a suspected Islamic terrorist who officials now believe may have been part of the Sept. 11 plot to attack the World Trade Center and Pentagon, NEWSWEEK has learned. The handling of the case of Zacarias Moussaoui — who is now being held in detention in New York — has raised new questions about how U.S. law enforcement officials handled critical intelligence that, in retrospect, might have alerted them in advance to the deadliest terrorist plot in U.S. history. http://www.msnbc.com/news/636610.asp?cp1=1 Fusion power 'within reach' Fusion power is "within reach", according to atomic scientists in the UK. Fusion is the form of nuclear energy that powers the stars. Although, it has many advantages over conventional nuclear power, it has been technically difficult to develop. The best approach appears to be to confine a superhot gas, called a plasma, in a magnetic field. Some success has been achieved this way using huge experimental fusion reactors. But now, according to United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) scientists, making smaller versions of the same equipment may be technically easier, cheaper and swifter to develop. The most recent experiments show promise, they claim. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1573450.stm NSync CD is copy protection "experiment" The music industry is now testing different copy protection systems on mass market chart CDs, with copies of NSync's Celebrity on the Zomba label being sold in at least three different versions. Those available in Germany have draconian protection, a slightly weaker system is used on the US disk and there is no protection on the UK version. The only visible clue is small print on the German release which warns "this CD is not playable on computers". Sony will not comment on the NSync disc but a spokesman says: "We continue to test available copy protection technologies, and our goal is to implement copy protection on a broader basis to deter digital piracy." "Sure I am aware of it," says Maria Ho in Zomba's New York office. But she had no comment to make by the time of publication. Sebastian Kahlich, at Zomba's German headquarters, would also make no comment. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991367 A Better Black Box In the tragic wake of an airline crash, one of the highest priorities of the accident investigators is to retrieve the aircraft's black boxes. The Federal Aviation Administration requires all large commercial aircraft to be equipped with two such devices: the cockpit voice recorder, which records the flight crew's voices and other sounds in the cockpit, and the flight data recorder, which monitors the plane's altitude, airspeed, heading and other instrument readings. Because this information can be vital to the investigation of an air disaster, the recorders must be designed so that the stored data can survive virtually any crash. http://www.sciam.com/2000/0900issue/0900working.html Brave New World for Higher Education In April 2001, MIT president Charles M. Vest announced that the Institute would bring the "open-source" software sensibility to higher education and offer — for free! — its curricula and courseware to the world via the Web. This "OpenCourseWare" initiative represents a radically different approach to digitizing, marketing and globalizing education. "OpenCourseWare looks counterintuitive in a market-driven world. It goes against the grain of current material values," said Vest at the time. "But it really is consistent with what I believe is the best about MIT." He concluded, "Simply put, OpenCourseWare is a natural marriage of American higher education and the capabilities of the World Wide Web." http://www.techreview.com/magazine/oct01/insight.asp No hiding place for anyone IN TODAY'S information age, everybody leaves an electronic trail in their wake. With every credit-card purchase, ATM transaction, telephone call and Internet logon, they create an electronic portrait of themselves that grows clearer at every step. Perhaps the only items that are still untraceable are people's clothes, cash and day-to-day movements. But with the introduction of Hitachi's new “mu-chip”, even these could become common knowledge. The Hitachi chip is the world's smallest wireless identification device. It measures 0.4 millimetres square and is thin enough to be embedded in paper. It can hold only 128 bits of read-only memory, and do little more than spit out a unique identification number, when asked, to a distance of about 30 centimetres. http://www.economist.com/science/dis...tory_id=779580 More news later on __________________ This post was sponsored by Netcoco, who wants cookies, cookies, cookies and, you guessed it, more cookies