The Newspaper Shop -- Monday edition

WalkTalker is baking cookies now.. But yet it's time to read now
Flaw gives hackers key to Unix computers
A flaw in widely used Unix software could allow attackers to gain control over computers running Solaris, HP-UX and several versions of Linux, security analysts and the company selling the software warned Monday. SSH Communications Security, a Finnish company, reported Monday that the latest edition of its SSH Secure Shell software, version 3.0.0, released June 21, can let an attacker gain control over some Unix or Linux computers. SSH is software designed to secure the text-based user interface -- or "shell" -- people use to remotely log in to computers and send them commands. SSH checks people's passwords and lets authorized individuals open and use the shell by way of an encrypted communications channel.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp01

House pulls Carnivore into the light
A bill requiring federal law-enforcement officials to be more forthright when answering questions about electronic surveillance systems has passed the U.S. House. The bill, which passed by a unanimous voice vote Monday afternoon, would require the attorney general and the FBI director to submit a detailed report on the use of systems including Carnivore and its successor, DCS1000. The surveillance systems let law enforcement intercept electronic transmissions such as e-mail. The bill requires that the federal government reveal in its report the following, among other points: how many times DCS1000 has been used; how the approval process to use it works; and any unauthorized information that has been gathered by the system.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

SirCam worm puts secrets at risk
Like many other worms, SirCam spreads by e-mailing copies of itself to everyone in the infected computer's Microsoft Outlook address book. An added twist with SirCam is that the worm sends a random file from the infected computer's hard drive, potentially sending confidential business data or embarrassing personal information along with the virus. The subject line matches the name of the file being sent. "That's a far more serious consequence for a person or business," Weafer said. "Once a document is gone from your organization, it's gone." Pennsylvania e-mail user Carl Schaad said he had received numerous infected messages by Monday morning, including many with sensitive attachments. "I've already received memos, resumes, job listings and, in one case, a Visa number in a letter written to Amazon.com," he said.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Voice-over-DSL: Once again the talk of the town
One of the technological casualties of the telecommunications collapse is gaining a second wind as companies again look for cheap ways to offer voice services over high-speed Net connections. Voice-over-DSL (VoDSL), which uses a single regular phone wire to offer the equivalent of many phone lines, once teetered on the edge of mainstream technology before falling back into obscurity. At a time when finding investment capital was easy, start-up phone companies touted it as a way to break into the local phone companies' business cheaply and easily. That never happened. The bottom dropped out of the telecommunications market, and the start-up network companies found themselves too busy trying to stay alive to test and offer new technology. But the voice technology appears to be on the cusp of a renaissance.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Microsoft, U.S. say nukes are secure
Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Energy are disputing claims that bugs in Microsoft's database software threatened nuclear security in the United States and Russia. Earlier this month, Bruce Blair, president of the Center for Defense Information, a nonprofit military research organization based in Washington, D.C., wrote that Russian nuclear scientists last year found a bug in Microsoft's SQL Server database software that threatened the security not only of Russian nuclear weapons materials, but also of U.S. nuclear materials. Microsoft executives and Energy Department representatives scoff at the charge, saying Blair is making too much of a trivial matter. They say that the two bugs were never a threat, that no data was ever lost, and that the issues Russia had with the software have been resolved. U.S. nuclear data was never at risk, they say.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...kpt=zdnnp1tp02

Digital copyright tug o' war
The European Union wants desperately to transform its 15 member nations into an "information society" capable of not just competing in, but leading the world economy. But manufacturers of computers, cellular telephones and other electronic equipment say that goal will be impossible to achieve unless the EU's copyright laws are changed. At the core of the debate are "collection societies," powerful private-sector groups authorized by law in most European nations to impose levies on equipment that can be used to copy commercial products. The fees raised by the societies are disbursed among copyright holders as compensation for unauthorized copying of their works. The laws were originally intended to apply to copy machines and tape recorders, but collection societies in several nations have attempted recently to use the laws to impose levies on computers.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/ne...784806,00.html

Net music in a post-Napster world
With Napster and other online threats to major record labels on the ropes, the task of challenging the status quo at a major Net music gathering here fell to one of the industry's biggest profit generators: singer Alanis Morissette. In an incendiary keynote speech at the Jupiter Media Metrix annual Plug-In music conference Monday, the platinum-selling pop star highlighted the shattered promise of the online music revolution, blaming everyone from major record label executives to radio stations and music publishers for their role in stifling the Internet's ability to promote unknown musicians. "The development of the Internet was an option for these artists," Morissette said. "We are now seeing the Internet turned into a bottleneck for creativity." Morissette's remarks underscore how suddenly the tables have turned on start-ups out to challenge entrenched media interests with file sharing. A year ago, the question was not so much whether the labels would shut down Napster, but whether Napster might somehow shut down the labels.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=tp_pr

Napster to name new CEO
Napster is expected to name a new chief executive as early as Tuesday, according to sources close to the company, bringing current CEO Hank Barry's tumultuous term to a close. A Napster representative refused to comment on the impending executive switch, which has been expected for some time. Neither Barry nor his replacement, whose identity was not immediately clear, could be reached for comment late Monday. Barry joined Napster as "interim" head of the company 13 months ago, when venture capitalist firm Hummer Winblad invested $15 million in the burgeoning file-swapping firm. In that time, the company became one of the most familiar names on the Internet and the standard-bearer of what many saw as a digital revolution -- and ultimately the most visible symbol of that revolution's decline.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Adobe: Free the Russian programmer
In the wake of worldwide criticism, Adobe Systems agreed Monday to withdraw from a case charging a 27-year-old Russian programmer with violations of the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act. A day after he gave a speech at the Def Con hacking conference, ElcomSoft employee Dmitry Sklyarov was arrested and charged by the FBI under the criminal provisions of the DMCA, which prohibits the trafficking in software and devices that break the informational locks on digital content. Sklyarov is one of the authors of a program known as the Advanced eBook Processor that strips the copy protection from Adobe's eBook format and converts the files to unprotected PDF format. A conviction could yield five years in prison and fines of up to $500,000.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Senator calls for hearings on Windows XP
A Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday said he will call for congressional hearings into Microsoft's "anticompetitive practices." Sen. Charles Schumer, of New York, issued a statement saying he will hold a press conference on Tuesday to call for committee hearings to investigate Microsoft and "demand that Windows XP allow users to choose their media player, messenger service and other applications instead of being forced to use Microsoft applications." The statement said Schumer will "discuss the possibility of enjoining the release of Windows XP," the upcoming version of the PC operating system. It says he has written a letter to Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer demanding changes to Windows XP, which is scheduled for release in October.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200...html?tag=mn_hd

AOL files "open" messaging plans with FCC
America Online says it will test a new system later this summer that would allow users of its popular instant messaging service to communicate with users of other products, like Microsoft's MSN Messenger. AOL, the nation's largest Internet provider, said it's almost finished developing the technology that would allow its messaging services to operate with those offered by other industry players. In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission, the company laid out the steps it has taken to reach this goal. The company has selected a standard, developed new customer software, and created systems that enable different services to talk to one another.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=mn_hd

Siemens offers mobile music in a flash
No. 3 handset maker Siemens on Monday started selling a device designed to quickly load music or text files into mobile phones via flash memory cards. Siemens, a German electronics giant, has built a phone that doubles as an MP3 player. But instead of storing the music on the phone, which has very sparse memory, the music is kept on a flash memory card that is popped into the phone like a floppy disk is popped into a personal computer. These cards, which provide removable storage for many devices, can store up to 45 minutes of music, but can take several minutes to prepare. Using current methods, owners of these high-end handsets must connect their phones to a computer to transfer data, even if their phone has a flash memory card.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200...html?tag=mn_hd

A Library to End All Libraries
Record companies have fought digital distribution of music with every weapon at their disposal. They've won a series of tactical victories, but what do you gain if you win a war against your own customers? The record producers might want to take a page from stodgy old book publishers, who are quietly building a system to distribute digital text, which could help see to it that owners of that text get paid for its use. Along the way, publishers are developing a system for locating and retrieving material on the Web -- especially the sort of copyright works now found mostly in libraries.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...0/b3742031.htm

Citizen Hacker: The Joy of Dedicated Play
To the ordinary ear, the word "hacker" is hardly a complimentary one. It makes most people think of geeky teenage boys breaking into corporate and federal computers when they ought to be playing sports or chasing girls. It also conjures images of a new type of terrorist capable of wreaking international havoc with a few devastatingly well-placed keystrokes. But these are popular misconceptions of the term, which any computer programmer will tell you really refers to people who just love to play with their machines. As Eric Raymond, a well-known hacker, defines it in his oft-cited Jargon File, a hacker is "a person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary." Those other guys, the guys who give real hackers a bad name, are more properly known as "crackers."
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/a...4&homepage=yes

More news later on... yippie !!

[Mekajinn]

damn, that is the best informed parott I ever saw

[walktalker]

That parrot cost me a fortune in cookies... but it worth the while lol
Music companies plug in at Net gathering
Digital music companies Monday unveiled new products aimed at the burgeoning market for commercial online music services at a major industry conference. With Napster reined in by the courts, legal online music services are coming closer to reality, but significant obstacles still remain, including the ongoing threat of online piracy. At Jupiter's Plug-In Forum in New York, several companies showcased wares that attempt to solve such problems with secure software for sharing and playing digital music files.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=cd_mh

Jupiter: Web music sales to skyrocket
U.S. consumer online-music spending will grow from $1 billion in 2001 to $6.2 billion in 2006, a 43 percent annual growth rate, according to data released on Monday by Internet research firm Jupiter Media Metrix. Jupiter, which kicks off its annual Plug.In convention in New York on Monday, said 30 percent of online music sales in 2006 will come from digital downloads and music subscriptions, while the rest will be sales of traditional physical products ordered through the Web. That's a big leap from 2001, when digital music sales -- via single paid downloads and digital subscription models -- will comprise only 3 percent of total online music sales, according to Jupiter. Jupiter said music subscription services will dominate online music sales in 2006, while downloads will make up the majority of these sales in 2001.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=ch_mh

InterTrust aims to protect media beyond PC
InterTrust Technologies, one of several companies aiming to build a business out of protecting music, video and other content from digital pirates, is trying to put the PC behind it with a new set of products. InterTrust is one of the oldest and most successful companies in the anti-piracy business, which isn't saying much in a market where almost no product has moved beyond an endless series of fitful trial projects. With its latest product release, InterTrust is expanding its services beyond the computer, looking forward to a world where people will get digital music and movies more though wireless devices, home stereos or TV set-top boxes than through personal computers. The company has radically slimmed down its technology to work in devices with only tiny amounts of processing power and storage space.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200...html?tag=ch_mh

Pentagon Shuts Down Websites
The U.S. Pentagon temporarily shut down public access to its Web sites Monday to make sure they are protected against a new computer threat known as the "Code Red" worm. "Most (Department of Defense) Web sites will not be accessible by the public until this worm no longer poses any threat to DOD networks," spokeswoman Lt. Col. Catherine Abbott said. Pentagon computer security experts were instructed to install repair programs, commonly known as patches, to make their computers impenetrable to the worm before making the sites viewable again to the public.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,45491,00.html

Go Ahead, Make Ashcroft's Day
Though he smiles often, Attorney General John Ashcroft comes across as a stern man. When he speaks, it's in a slow and menacing fashion, and every now and then he flashes a Dirty-Harry grin which says you'd be wise not to cross him. So on Friday afternoon, when Ashcroft announced a tough-on-hacking initiative to combat the people of "poor and evil motivations" who seek to bring down the world's precious computers, did cyber-punks flinch and ask themselves if they felt lucky? Not likely. Though Ashcroft's program devotes significant resources to tackling "cybercrime," and though it might result in increased prosecutions for such misdeeds, computer security experts and "hackers" said it would make little difference to the strength of the world's networks. And they also worried about the possible adverse effects that Ashcroft's proposal might have on civil liberties.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,45445,00.html

Kyoto Salvaged, Without U.S.
Negotiators from 178 nations rescued the 1997 Kyoto Protocol after 48 hours of marathon talks ending Monday, leaving the United States isolated as the rest of the world embraced the first binding treaty on combating global warming. Despite appeals from his closest allies at a summit in Italy this weekend, President Bush refused to reconsider his rejection of the pact, which he deems harmful to the U.S. economy. European envoys said the treaty would be stronger with American participation, but that Washington would be welcome to join at any time.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45462,00.html

Love Bug, SirCam Neck and Neck
"I send you this file in order to have your advice." Does that line sound familiar? If so, you're one of the thousands of Internet users around the world who have received the SirCam virus since it was released into the wild last week. And it continues to spread quickly. One virus watchdog calls it "the sneakiest, smartest virus we've seen in a long time." But even though it has spread like a wildfire on a windy day in a dry forest, at least one high-profile anti-virus company says it's not the current top e-mail threat in the world. That distinction belongs to ILoveYou.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,45476,00.html

Subscribing to a New Music Theory
At the end of last year, Joe Fleischer inadvertently found the model for Internet music subscription services. It's a simple mantra, really, culled from the maelstrom of lawsuits that crashed through the digital music industry. "As long as you aren't trying to deliver music to people, you should be OK," Fleischer said during last week's MP3 Summit in San Diego. While it sounds a bit snarky, Fleischer's advice comes from experience. Having weathered two major lawsuits -- first when he was at MP3.com, which survived, and then with iCast, before it was summarily shut down -- Fleischer knows all about business models that don't work.
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,45315,00.html

Vaccine Works for HIV-Like Virus
For the first time, scientists have used a modified polio vaccine virus to at least partially block the vaginal transmission of an HIV-like virus in monkeys. They say the achievement opens up the possibility of developing an HIV vaccine that stops the virus at its point of entry during sex. In experiments with monkeys that had been vaccinated against simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), a cousin to HIV, all remained healthy up to one year after being exposed to SIV through vaginal transmission. Two of seven monkeys given the vaccine were completely protected from infection, while two others had lower levels of virus in their blood, suggesting at least partial protection.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,45486,00.html

Start With Words, Then Add Music
She is a teenage student at Illinois State University; he is a middle-aged programmer in Lafayette, California. On the surface, Melissa and Thelonious don't have much in common. However, a relatively unknown music service called Uplister brought them together –- in cyberspace. There, the two upload their own personal music play lists along with commentaries to anyone who wants to listen. Well, listen might have been the wrong word. The service was originally offered as a place to post digital mix tapes without the actual music. Melissa, Thelonious and the 150,000 users visiting the site were only able to post plays lists of their music: song titles, band names and album names. That's changing now, albeit slowly.
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,45378,00.html

Cyber-games make children brighter
Computer games are giving a generation of young Britons a level of co-ordination and powers of concentration equivalent to those observed in top-level athletes, a government-funded study has shown. Youngsters who play computer games regularly but not excessively also tend to have more friends and be better adjusted than those who make do with traditional pastimes such as reading and television. The research, funded by the government's Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), challenges the common view of computer gamers as "geeks" who cut themselves off from the world and develop few social or wider academic skills. Instead, it suggests that playing computer games could sharpen young people's mental agility to a level superior to that of previous generations by exposing them to intense stimuli from a young age.
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/p...enws03005.html

As the Boundaries of Reality Expand, Our Thinking Seems to Be Going Over the Edge
Humans are actually a slave race created 200,000 years ago to mine monoatomic gold that creates exotic powers for alien beings from a 10th planet, the overlords of which are now remembered by mankind as ancient Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian and Hebrew gods. So contended one Neil Freer on May 24 at the Arlington Institute, after its president, John Peterson, had told his audience, conspicuously including uniformed U.S. military officers, that Freer's presentation might change their lives. The institute advises on planning for the future. Its respected client list includes the U.S. Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Or: The government is using black holes to park stealth space weapons platforms several galaxies away. What the... ?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2001Jul22.html

Concerns for ID Theft Often Are Unheeded
Major financial institutions routinely give out confidential customer account information to callers, using security procedures that authorities say are vulnerable to abuse by fraud artists. Regulators and law enforcement officials warned three years ago that identity thieves and information brokers were tricking clerks into giving them access to individuals' financial information. They urged banks to require customers to use passwords or codes instead of Social Security numbers, mothers' maiden names and other widely available personal information to identify themselves when calling.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2001Jul20.html