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HEADLINES AT A GLANCE"Computer Security
Experts Warn of Internet Vulnerability" "Computer Security Experts Warn of
Internet Vulnerability" Federally funded computer security researchers at the CERT Coordination Center decided to publicly release information about a dangerous security flaw existing in network and computer products from about 250 companies. The decision was made after many companies were far too slow to react in creating patches and there was some evidence that nefarious individuals had also obtained the information and used it in hack attempts. The vulnerability involves the way technology companies program their products to deal with Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), which allows other users on the Internet or company intranet to remotely control a computer. Routers, desktop systems, operating system software, servers, and other devices are affected by the flaw, discovered by researchers at Finland's University of Oulu last summer. The Finns contacted officials at CERT who in turn tried to alert the proper technology companies so that they could create appropriate patches for the flaw. Cisco was one of the early respondents to the warning, and Microsoft has said that its Windows operating system is safe if SNMP settings are left to default. (Enterprise Networking) "Managers of Fast Networks See
Growing Need for a New International Backbone" Managers of high-speed research networks worldwide say there is a pointed need for an international backbone network to enable global collaborations in the future. Currently, there are a few hubs in Chicago and New York that connect international research networks, but Douglas Van Houweling, CEO of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), says a single, well-engineered backbone network is required to actually manage the infrastructure. UCAID is the consortium of American universities that operates the Abilene backbone for Internet2. New optical wavelength and gigabit-Ethernet technologies now allow much faster networks, says Van Houweling. Some international projects that will need such a network backbone are the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, which will involve 1,850 researchers at 150 institutions examining data from the particle accelerator. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is another high-speed Internet collaboration that aims to create a 3D map of the sky by collecting light data from about 1 million galaxies and 100,000 quasars. (Network Operations, Management and Control) "Wireless LANs are Focus of
Testing, Security Concerns at DOE Labs" Wireless LANs are being tested and in some cases banned at Department of Energy laboratories out of security concerns. Sandia National Laboratories CIO Pace VanDevender notes that wireless LANs have the advantage of allowing users to exchange information "in an ad hoc and spontaneous way." He adds that potential employees may hail from colleges where wireless LANs and the freedom they offer are commonplace, and thus expect that same freedom in the workplace. Furthermore, VanDevender thinks that such wireless LANs could fuel collaboration and decision-making, thus fostering significant changes in the business model. For this reason, Sandia is testing wireless LANs in a secluded test bed even though the lab has instituted a ban on the technology. Meanwhile, Los Alamos National Laboratory is reviewing the security of its wireless LANs, and spokesman Kevin O'Rourke hints that the tests may lead to their elimination. Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance Chairman Dennis Eaton says that the technology can strike a balance between security concerns and business requirements. (Wireless Communications) "Broadband Now Tops EU's Net
Agenda" The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, recently announced that it was placing high-speed Internet access at the forefront of its strategy to boost electronic-commerce and to turn the European Union into the most competitive economy on earth by the end of this decade. By pushing broadband, the European Commission is choosing to back technology that's already available, and it is dropping its support for 3G wireless phones, which may not come on the market for another few years. Broadband provides users with access to the Internet at extremely high speeds, enabling users to download large data files. Up until now, the European Union's attempts to increase Internet access have focused primarily on liberalizing the last mile of telecom networks. Now the EU plans to foster competition among broadband providers and platforms, partly by revising telecom laws to remove distinctions between various broadband technologies such as cable, satellite, and mobile telephony. (Network Operations, Management and Control) "A Grip on the Grid" Dan Reed, executive director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), details his group's initiative to build a high-end backbone for grid computing using Linux. The NCSA is coordinating the project in conjunction with Argonne National Laboratory, the San Diego Supercomputing Center, and Caltech. Linux clusters running on McKinley processors will be the building block for four sites that Reed says will eventually balloon to a teragrid backbone for a nationwide science and research grid. "What I hope will be the value of Linux is that it will raise the development effort [higher] up the value chain," he adds. Reed notes that NCSA is negotiating and working with Microsoft to establish interoperability between the Linux components and the Windows-based desktop functions. (Enterprise Networking) "What Are the Hot Trends in
Technology?" The Harvard Business School's Cyberposium this week outlined hot future technologies, including artificial intelligence, wireless, 3G networks, and biometric security. In the near-term, experts said security would be an important growing technology sector, although a balance would have to be made in how and where more invasive security technologies are implemented. Panelists said frequent travelers at airports, for example, would be identified and shuttled by security checkpoints. Many of the speakers at the Cyberposium said 2002 was the year voice-over-Internet protocol would take off because the technology and infrastructure are in place. More pervasive wireless and 3G network technologies will also take the forefront of technological advances in the coming years, and wireless technology will be incorporated more into everyday life, working in household appliances and not just with computers and phones. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is continuing to make advances towards being on par with human intelligence, a point Outerware CEO Michael de la Maza puts 50 years in the future. He expects AI to quickly progress after that point. (Wireless Communications) "Brave New OS" New operating systems being developed by IBM, Microsoft, and Carnegie Mellon University researchers will enable secure data storage pools, more efficient mobile computing, and operating systems that respond to applications' needs. Microsoft Research is currently working on an operating system that would allow networked computers to share data storage and computing power without a central server, yet maintain privacy and security at the same time. The Farsite project uses Byzantine fault-tolerant protocols to protect against abuse of the system, which would store multiple encrypted and digitally signed copies of files throughout the system. IBM researchers working on the Blue Gene project are pioneering new work in scalable computing. Building a 65,000-processor computer like Blue Gene is testing the principles of IBM's Autonomic Computing initiative, which would create an operating system that would heal, optimize, and configure itself, much as a human body's nervous system does. Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor Mahadev Satyanarayanan is developing an operating system that would sense the needs of mobile computing applications, and adjust tasks to make the most of battery life and processing power, for example. Satyanarayanan says mobile computing will become so pervasive in a few years' time that it will require new thinking in operating systems. (Signal Processing, Storage and Communications Electronics) "Despite Sagging Market, Host
Europe Continues to Grow" Although the European Web hosting market has proven to be extremely hard to penetrate, one company that has succeeded very well is Host Europe, the parent company of several subsidiaries that provide a wide variety of Internet services. Host Europe is the result of a merger between One-2-One Advertising & Telecommunications, a German Web host, and Magic Moments, a U.K.-based virtual hosting firm. Host Europe and its subsidiaries currently host over 60,000 virtual accounts for more than 40,000 customers. The company also manages 250,000 domain names through its domain registration services. Host Europe's solid customer base and rapid growth helped it to become EBITDA positive in 2001. John Kirkham, marketing manager for Host Europe, says that his company was able to attract thousands of virtual, co-located, and dedicated clients by staying ahead of the competition. Kirkham says Host Europe's companies were among the first in the United Kingdom to offer Service Level Agreements, and Host Europe was also the first Internet hosting company to offer fully-automated administration panels to its dedicated and virtual customers. (Product Sales and Marketing) "IEEE Helps Form Voting Equipment
Standards" The IEEE will collaborate with the Federal Election Commission and the National Association for State Election Directors in a two-year initiative to standardize voting machines so that a repeat of the last presidential election's "hanging chad" controversy can be avoided. Some 130 federal and corporate engineers have been appointed by the IEEE to a committee organized to establish technical standards for voting equipment manufacturers and procurers. These standards will take into account the many factors--electronic, mechanical, and human--that come into play. It is anticipated that these standards will cover the growing role of software in voting systems. Committee Chairman Stephen Berger says the performance-based standards will be technology-neutral and encompass online voting, electronic devices, and encryption techniques. The IEEE has sent a letter to Senate Rules and Administration Committee Chairman Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) in the hopes of gaining federal support for the initiative. Dodd's committee is backing a Senate bill that seeks to create a new Federal Election Administration and earmark state funds for new voting equipment. (Communications Standards) "DSL Finding a Home in Europe" DSL is making considerable headway in Europe, according to a recent study by the Yankee Group. The report found that ADSL subscriptions surpassed those for cable modem services last year for the first time among residential users in Europe. The Yankee Group predicts that within four years, broadband will penetrate one-fifth of all households, serving over 31 million customers altogether; moreover, ADSL is expected to account for all but 20 percent of consumer broadband access revenue. Yankee's Jonathan Doran said the predicted growth in the European broadband market depends on a number of factors, including greater government support of national broadband initiatives, greater availability of self-installation packages, competitive pricing, the continued introduction of DSL by incumbent telecommunications companies, and the aggressive response of cable operators in developing broadband services to compete against ADSL. A separate report from the Yankee Group found that DSL could garner even greater market share in Europe among business subscriptions. The report found that business DSL subscriptions could be worth $7.9 billion within the next four years, compared with $7 billion for residential ADSL services. While business subscribers will account for just one-fifth of the total customer base in Europe in 2006, the average revenue per user for businesses should be a lot higher than for residential services. In 2000, ADSL had just under 50 percent of the total broadband market in Asia, and the Yankee Group believes ADSL will continue to grow in Asia, reaching a total of 27 million subscribers within the next two years. (Interconnections in High-Speed Digital Systems) "House Puts Bucks Behind
Cybersecurity" The U.S. House of Representatives voted 400 to 12 to pass a bill that would earmark $888 million in funding for computer security research, development, and training. House Science Committee Chair Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), who sponsored the legislation, believes that it "will come to be seen as a fundamental turning point in the nation's approach to cybersecurity." Other bill boosters include the White House, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), CompTIA, and the Information Technology Association of America. IEEE R&D Chair Ron Hira says the bill will benefit initiatives to bolster commerce and personal privacy as well as deploy cyberterrorism safeguards. The money would be split between the National Science Foundation and the National Institute for Science and Technology, which would use it to develop new research projects and award grants to academic-industrial collaborations. (Network Reliability, Security and Quality Assurance) "Germany to Launch UMTS in
2002" Deutsche Telekom recently announced an agreement on UMTS with Siemens, and the launch of Deutsche Telekom's UMTS network in Berlin. By the end of 2002, Deutsche Telekom will construct 3G systems in 20 German cities, including Cologne, Hamburg, and Frankfurt. Deutsche Telekom says the new 3G systems will make videoconferencing and video streaming applications via wireless handsets a reality. European carriers have spent $46 billion for 3G licenses in Germany, and they plan to spend billions of dollars more on constructing the networks. Deutsche Telekom currently faces considerable competition from five other UMTS license holders in Germany, including Viag Interkom, MobilCom, MannesmannMobilfunk, Group 3G, and E-Plus. Another competitor, Vodafone, may be able to introduce its UMTS network and services before Deutsche Telekom, according to industry forecasts. (Wireless Communications) "Indian IT Firms Urged to Train
Their Sights on Europe" Indian IT service companies need to focus on expanding their European business in order to capture more of the global market. India's IT growth has skyrocketed in the last few years due to outsourcing contracts secured from U.S. companies, but experts gathered at the NASSCOM 2002 conference in Mumbai said the next step is for Indian IT service firms to branch into the European market, which some said was just as large as the U.S. market. Some Indian IT firms have demonstrated the wisdom of targeting the European market, such as Mastek, which receives more business from Europe and expects to grow profits by 150 percent this year, five times as much as its other Indian peers. Although India's four largest IT groups receive, on average, less than 20 percent of their revenue from Europe, the portion of their business coming from the Continent grew by 59 percent in the first three quarters of last year, compared to just 13 percent growth from the United States. ABN Amro's Alexandra Cook says Britain should be the first place Indian companies look when thinking about Europe because of its open market, language, large financial services industry, and its role as a command center for American companies in Europe. (Product Sales and Marketing) "Microsoft Launches MSN Mobile
Portals in Europe" Microsoft recently announced that it has introduced mobile versions of its MSN Internet portal in Europe, which are specifically designed to operate with the small color screens found on handheld computers. Two mobile MSN portals are being established, in Germany and France, for Pocket PC computers that can link up to the Internet via a mobile phone network or a wireless LAN. Spanish and British versions are currently being developed and will go online very shortly. Microsoft also published the first usage numbers of the SMS text messaging version of Hotmail, the company's Internet-based email service. Microsoft will get a cut from the extra revenues generated by SMS traffic from Hotmail. (Wireless Communications) "IT Group Says Security Is
Underfunded" According to the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), the federal government needs to invest at least an additional $2.5 billion to beef up network security. Systems operated by the Federal Aviation and Social Security administrations and the Internal Revenue Service are "incredibly open and vulnerable," according to ITAA president Harris Miller. Government officials say that the recommendation is premature, citing President Bush's fiscal 2003 budget proposal, which calls for the $2.7 billion already spent annually on cybersecurity to be nearly doubled. That figure also does not include the funds allocated immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks to thwart a potential terrorist attack against critical infrastructures via the Internet. Before approving any budget requests, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget required that all federal agencies audit their systems and submit costs necessary to secure them properly. Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) earlier in the week introduced the Cybersecurity Preparedness Act into Congress, which would distribute $350 million over a five-year period to various agencies and government contractors to be used for stronger password protection and virus protection tools. (Network Reliability, Security and Quality Assurance) "Smart Card Industry Angles for
ID" The smart card sector is preparing a campaign to ascertain its chip-based technology is the prime contender for a possible nationwide personal ID system. The industry's trade group, the Smart Card Alliance, published Jan. 30 a white paper that stresses the benefits of smart cards compared to other technologies that could be contenders for a personal ID card, and will employ the paper to make its case to policymakers in both the public and private arenas. Alliance members have been emboldened by what they regard as the federal government's leading role in the recent increase of smart card use. SCM Microsystems director of strategic accounts, and PC and network security, Bob Merckert, believes that after the Department of Defense's Common Access Card (CAC) is released, additional agencies will begin employing smart cards. The CAC has promised to issue the CAC to 4 million military and civilian workers, he notes, and distribution could widen to over 13 million individuals when retired employees, family members, and others are considered. In addition, the State Department is installing a smart ID card for automated access control to its facilities; the Veterans Administration is attempting to test smart cards for distributing benefits; and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is employing a smart card-based PKI so that bank auditors can infiltrate databases by remote. Merckert says all of these initiatives, combined with the use of smart cards by financial groups, credit card corporations, and additional institutions, means "we are seeing the rebirth of the smart card industry, and its expansion past the level of the initial adopter." The Smart Card Alliance says with the focus on shielding a cardholder's privacy, smart cards provide just as much information as is required for any specific transaction. (Network Reliability, Security and Quality Assurance) "The Enemy Within" The widespread use of the Internet for business purposes has made companies extremely vulnerable to a variety of different threats, in particular from disgruntled employees. In a survey of 2,545 companies carried out last year by the trade magazine Information Security, 22 percent of the respondents said that insiders had engaged in the intentional destruction of proprietary information, sabotage, or electronic theft. The motivations behind these actions are varied. Some employees want to steal information and sell it to rival companies, or they simply wish to defraud their employers. Other employees are angry and want to hurt the company by deleting important files or defacing corporate Web sites. Moreover, unlike hackers trying to gain access to a company's networks from outside, disgruntled employees have easy access to the network and can therefore take servers online or insert malicious codes. Layoffs--which are rising at the moment as a result of the current economic climate--appear to exacerbate the problem. Increasing awareness of the dangers posed by disgruntled employees has stimulated demand for new services, products, and technology to combat these kinds of incursions, and has led to the formation of several start-up companies that provide 24-hour remote network-monitoring services that can oversee network operations and detect abnormal usage. (Network Reliability, Security and Quality Assurance) HOW TO SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE You can receive notification of the ComSoc INC as a free service provided by the IEEE Communications Society. The following are the instructions to subscribe/unsubscribe via email 1. Send an email message to INC-request@comsoc.org subscribe The archived back issues can be found on the ComSoc INC site DISCLAIMER: These news write-ups are written by Information Inc. from worldwide sources. For details about disclaimers and limitation of liability please go to http://www.ieee.org/about/documentation/copyright/legal.htm#liability © copyright 1999 INFORMATION, INC. |
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