Dear ACM TechNews Subscriber: Welcome to the February 7, 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 455 Date: February 7, 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, February 7, 2003: http://www.acm.org/technews/current/homepage.html "Bush Orders Guidelines for Cyber-Warfare" "NSF Panel Recommends $1B Annually For Cyberinfrastructure" "Cascading Failures Could Crash the Global Internet" "Bush Data-Mining Plan in Hot Seat" "What Are the Chances?" "Bush Database Plan Raises Privacy Concerns" "Spam Deluge Leads to Search for Silver Bullet" "Computers Driving Shuttle Are to Be Included in Inquiry" "'Slammer' Attacks May Become Way of Life for Net" "The Theory and Practice of the Internet" "Quantum Computers Go Digital" "Pervasive Computing: You Are What You Compute" "New Chapter in Success Story" "Hollywood and Silicon Valley: Together at Last?" "Workin' on the Brain Gang" "House and Senate Committees Unveil High-Tech Priorities" "Chaos, Inc." "Transforming IT" ******************* News Stories *********************** "Bush Orders Guidelines for Cyber-Warfare" Bush administration officials say the president has signed a secret order to outline a strategy for a cyber-strike on the computer networks' of America's foes. When asked whether such a strategy would be employed if military action in Iraq moves ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item1 "NSF Panel Recommends $1B Annually For Cyberinfrastructure" A report from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure recommends that the organization spend $1 billion a year on cyberinfrastructure development so that it can take advantage of a ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item2 "Cascading Failures Could Crash the Global Internet" Arizona State University scientists Adilson Motter and Ying-Cheng Lai report that the global Internet could be brought down by hackers who target specific network nodes, triggering a cascade of overload failures. Although the Internet is composed of ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item3 "Bush Data-Mining Plan in Hot Seat" The Total Information Awareness (TIA) project, which would use data-mining technology to search public and private databases as well as the Internet for signs of terrorist activities, has spurred grass-roots organizations to mobilize and call for more ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item4 "What Are the Chances?" Evaluating the risk of "low-probability, high-consequence events"--natural disasters, nuclear accidents, and spacecraft catastrophes, for example--lies at the core of probabilistic risk assessment, which is used by mathematicians, engineers, insurance ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item5 "Bush Database Plan Raises Privacy Concerns" President Bush's proposal for a Terrorist Threat Integration Center designed to mine federal databases for terrorists and terrorist activity is already drawing criticism from privacy advocates and could also run into trouble with Congress. The ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item6 "Spam Deluge Leads to Search for Silver Bullet" Spurred by dire warnings that spam will soon overwhelm legitimate email, experts are considering a number of solutions, ranging from legislation to existing filtering tools to a "silver bullet" that can effectively demolish spammers' business model. Some ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item7 "Computers Driving Shuttle Are to Be Included in Inquiry" The on-board computers were driving the Columbia space shuttle when it descended into the earth's atmosphere Saturday, Feb. 1, and ordered the ship to steer right slightly in compensation for drag registered on the left side. The shuttle's computer are ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item8 "'Slammer' Attacks May Become Way of Life for Net" The SQL Slammer worm that infected corporate servers at an unprecedented rate last month was able to severely affect customer-facing systems such as such as ATMs and email, something that few other viruses or worms have been able to do. Computer ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item9 "The Theory and Practice of the Internet" The overwhelming volume of data stemming from the history of the rapidly evolving commercial Internet has people clamoring for a simple theory that will help them cope and function better in the Web environment, writes Michael Rogers. Although such a theory ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item10 "Quantum Computers Go Digital" In an attempt to build a solid-state quantum computer, researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison have devised a method for reducing the number of errors produced when computing with qubits, or quantum bits. Traditional digital ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item11 "Pervasive Computing: You Are What You Compute" Panelists at the recent Cyberposium 2003 focused on pervasive computing, and took the opportunity to note their respective companies and institutions' advances in that area. Stephen Intille of MIT commented that researchers there are investigating ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item12 "New Chapter in Success Story" India's IT market is soaring due to weak markets in mature economies, such as in the United States, which is driving software programming and mundane business processing overseas. Indian firms deliver quality code, such as at Infosys, where ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item13 "Hollywood and Silicon Valley: Together at Last?" Representatives from the music and technology industries agreed to reject government legislation on the use of copyright protection measures and devise their own solutions to curb digital copyright infringement, according to a recent accord ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item14 "Workin' on the Brain Gang" The majority of Canada's IT employees work less than 40 hours per week, and only 10 percent work overtime, according to a report authorized by Human Resources Development Canada and the Software Human Resource Council. Such findings contradict the popular ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item15 "House and Senate Committees Unveil High-Tech Priorities" In both the U.S. House and Senate this year, congressional committees will push for a variety of initiatives in technology and telecommunications. Ken Johnson, the majority spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, says the committee will ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item16 "Chaos, Inc." Agent-based computer simulations based on complexity science are being used by companies to improve their bottom lines. Complexity science promotes the theory that all complex systems have common characteristics: They are massively parallel, ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item17 "Transforming IT" IT is essential to business productivity, yet many corporate IT departments have not properly deployed the processes and metrics needed to optimize their IT efforts. To change this, some enterprising CIOs are following a three-year, seven-step ... http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0207f.html#item18 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- To review Wednesday's issue, please please visit http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2003-5/0205w.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.