Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the March 14, 2003 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for IT professionals three times a week. For instructions on how to unsubscribe from this service, please see below. ACM's MemberNet is now online. For the latest on ACM activities, member benefits, and industry issues, visit http://www.acm.org/membernet Remember to check out our hot new online essay and opinion magazine, Ubiquity, at http://www.acm.org/ubiquity ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ACM TechNews Volume 5, Number 469 Date: March 14, 2003 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Site Sponsored by Hewlett Packard Company ( ) HP is the premier source for computing services, products and solutions. Responding to customers' requirements for quality and reliability at aggressive prices, HP offers performance-packed products and comprehensive services. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Top Stories for Friday, March 14, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Spam's Cost To Business Escalates" "Tech Wars: P-to-P Friends, Foes Struggle" "Does File Trading Fund Terrorism?" "Carbon Chips Net Step Post-Silicon, Says Scientist" "Social Software and the Politics of Groups" "Who Cares About the Fastest Internet Ever?" "Yaha Virus Uses Netizens as Pawns" "Twins Crack Face Recognition Puzzle" "Recognizing the Dance on the Dotted Line" "Two Programmers Speculate on the Future of Software Development" "Military's 'Sneaky Wave' Out of Hiding" "Gadget Accessibility Slowly Spreading" "Alliance to Certify, Publicize Public Wireless Access Zones" "'Snow Days' Could Take Down Net" "Thousands 'Trojaned' Through Net Shares: CERT" "Thinking Outside the ICANN Box: Creating a Prototype Based on Internet Experience--Part II" "Goal Oriented" "Flaws Put Open Source on Hot Seat" "Nano's Balancing Act" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Spam's Cost To Business Escalates" The war is raging between purveyors of unsolicited commercial email (spam) and the various legislative, industry, and consumer groups that want to stamp it out, and the spammers appear to have the upper hand: Ferris Research estimates that spam-related ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item1 "Tech Wars: P-to-P Friends, Foes Struggle" The government and the U.S. entertainment industry are trying to stop unlawful file-sharing through peer-to-peer (P2P) networks by applying pressure on academic institutions and large companies where such practices are rampant. However, attempts to do ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item2 "Does File Trading Fund Terrorism?" Although witnesses and representatives at the U.S. House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property hearing on Thursday testified that profits from illegal file-trading via peer-to-peer services were being ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item3 "Carbon Chips Net Step Post-Silicon, Says Scientist" IBM's Phaedon Avouris is working on carbon nanotube replacements to today's silicon computer chip technology. Besides the physical limitations ever-shrinking silicon-based chips will face in 10 years, Avouris points out that the advanced chip-making ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item4 "Social Software and the Politics of Groups" Thanks to the advent of the Internet and social software that facilitates group communications, large numbers of people can now converse with each other without being inconvenienced by conventional barriers of physical location and time. This in ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item5 "Who Cares About the Fastest Internet Ever?" Last week's announcement that Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) researchers had successfully transmitted 6.7 billion bytes across 10,000 kilometers at a rate of 1 Gbps, thus achieving a new Internet land-speed record, may have been less than ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item6 "Yaha Virus Uses Netizens as Pawns" An Internet battle between Pakistani and Indian hacker groups threatens regular users, but corporations are unlikely to be affected. On March 12, the Indian Snakes hacker group released the Yaha.Q version of their email worm, which organizes ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item7 "Twins Crack Face Recognition Puzzle" International security may be revolutionized by a new face recognition technology developed by students Michael and Alex Bronstein. The Bronsteins, who are identical twins, were jokingly challenged by Technion Institute professor Ron Kimmel to ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item8 "Recognizing the Dance on the Dotted Line" Shoppers may no longer have to carry debit or credit cards while identity thieves and forgers could be thwarted with the advent of biometric handwriting recognition technology, according to advocates. Biometric handwriting systems do not analyze the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item9 "Two Programmers Speculate on the Future of Software Development" The next five years for the software development industry will see an increasing amount of work being done offshore, in places such as India where costs are cheaper, according to former CNet developers Dan Seewer and Kevin Cobb. Cobb said software ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item10 "Military's 'Sneaky Wave' Out of Hiding" The IEEE is studying proposals from Philips, Texas Instruments, and other wireless-networking companies to decide which technology will be used for 802.15.3a, a wireless personal area network (WPAN) specification designed to compete with the highly popular ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item11 "Gadget Accessibility Slowly Spreading" Spurred by government mandates as well as the drive to make money, technology companies are now working harder to make computers, Web sites, and other forms of communications technology accessible to people with disabilities. Among the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item12 "Alliance to Certify, Publicize Public Wireless Access Zones" The Wi-Fi Alliance trade group, which includes such members as Microsoft, Dell, Intel, Nokia, Philips, and Texas Instruments, plans to make people more aware of the Wi-Fi wireless networking standard in two ways. First, the group wants to give a "seal of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item13 "'Snow Days' Could Take Down Net" To stay abreast of ever-changing network security threats and protective measures, many tech security managers attend the annual SANS Institute security conference. Major topics of this year's meeting, held this week, focused on software holes that ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item14 "Thousands 'Trojaned' Through Net Shares: CERT" A rise in network share-based attacks may foreshadow a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, according to a warning issued by CERT/CC today. The advisory asserts that hackers have compiled an army of thousands of "zombie" systems ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item15 "Thinking Outside the ICANN Box: Creating a Prototype Based on Internet Experience--Part II" A new proposal, "The Internet an International Public Treasure," contains an outline for researchers and participants to begin developing a prototype of a workable Internet governing structure. The document addresses preparation and ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item16 "Goal Oriented" Seagate Technologies and other large companies are turning to online accountability systems as a way to maintain alignment between corporate goals and employees' efforts. In response to worries that such systems could lead to an Orwellian model of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item17 "Flaws Put Open Source on Hot Seat" The disclosure of the SendMail and Snort security flaws last week highlighted the problems of building and installing open-source patches. "With open source you really have a double-edged sword," notes Dan Ingevaldson of Internet Security Systems, the ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item18 "Nano's Balancing Act" A growing movement of activists, academics, and business leaders is trying to strike a balance between nanotechnology's potential benefits and its hazards through such organizations as Rice University's Center for Biological and Environmental ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0314f.html#item19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0312w.html -- To visit the TechNews home page, point your browser to: http://www.acm.org/technews/ -- To unsubscribe from the ACM TechNews Early Alert Service: Please send a separate email to listserv@listserv2.acm.org with the line signoff technews in the body of your message. -- Please note that replying directly to this message does not automatically unsubscribe you from the TechNews list. -- To submit feedback about ACM TechNews, contact: technews@hq.acm.org -- ACM may have a different email address on file for you, so if you're unable to "unsubscribe" yourself, please direct your request to: technews-request@acm.org We will remove your name from the TechNews list on your behalf. -- For help with technical problems, including problems with leaving the list, please write to: technews-request@acm.org ---- ACM TechNews is sponsored by Hewlett Packard Company.