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HEADLINES AT A GLANCE"Research Power vs.
Hacker Potential" "Research Power vs. Hacker
Potential" Distributed computing projects that depend on thousands of volunteer PCs are facing pressure to increase their security as organizations remake policies banning the programs. Administrators are worried that software for distributed computing projects could possibly open up a channel for hackers. Even as heightened security fears have placed a strain on distributed computing projects, they have scored major successes, helping scientists analyze global climate change, work on cancer cures, and find new prime numbers. In response to terrorist anthrax attacks, a distributed campaign sponsored by Intel, Microsoft, Oxford University, and United Devices identified chemical compounds that could knock out the toxic effects of anthrax in just 24 days. However, the opinion of security experts that the otherwise innocuous software could pose a threat has caused some to ban it from their systems, as did the Tennessee Valley Authority recently. Even the most popular distributed computing program, the 3.5-million-volunteer SETI@Home project, has lost tens of thousands of active participants since the terrorist attacks, though project director David Anderson attributes the drop-off to increased network congestion at the University of California at Berkeley, which hosts SETI@Home. (Network Reliability, Security and Quality Assurance) "Beefed-Up Global
Surveillance?" Privacy and civil liberties groups warn that new amendments to an international cybercrime treaty could greatly enhance governments' abilities to monitor their citizens online. The Council of Europe is considering a secret Second Protocol amendment to its cybercrime treaty currently before member states for ratification. Although the base treaty has yet to be approved by any countries, measures included in the First Protocol amendment are already creating tremendous controversy because they criminalize online hate speech, which would violate First Amendment rights of American citizens. Congress is expected to vote to ratify the base portion of the cybercrime treaty, which would set ground rules for identifying and prosecuting cybercrime. Several Justice Department officials have attended the talks on the Second Protocol, which critics suspect will boost online surveillance, decryption, and encryption limits. The United States, Canada, and Japan hold non-voting seats in the Council of Europe, which includes most European countries. (Communications) "Research Networks Join to Create a
Global High-Speed Backbone" A consortium of North American and European networks has formed to build a global backbone network that scientists can use for multinational research efforts in the data-intensive fields of astronomy, high-energy physics, meteorology, and biological and earth sciences. Members include representatives from the Internet2 networking consortium in the United States, the Canarie high-speed networking group in Canada, and the National Research and Education Networks Consortium and Dante in Europe. Access points to the global backbone will be located in London, Frankfurt, New York, and Seattle, while the backbone's functions will be managed by network engineers at facilities at Cambridge and Indiana University. The consortium also wants to build an Asia-Pacific network-operations center and boost its membership with representatives from Russia, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The first stage of the initiative will involve a pair of existing leased circuits that span the Atlantic and can transfer data as fast as 2.5 Gbps. The group's management of policy and technical issues is still being worked out, according to Internet2 CEO Douglas Van Houweling. (Network Operations, Management and Control) "Whatever Happened to
Internet2?" Although 180 organizations are making use of the Internet2 network, analysts say it will be a while before consumers can use it. "Right now, Internet2 is a parallel universe over a lot of the Internet's core universe, but it's a closed universe," contends Gartner research director Rob Batchelder. "Internet2 is not a reality until that hyper connection goes to the home." Batchelder does not believe Internet2 will be available to home users in the next five years. San Diego Supercomputer Center and Southern California Next Generation Internet Application Center director Mike Vildibill notes that Internet2's flexibility and usefulness to researchers has been undercut by all the companies and groups that have come aboard. He says that scientists, academics, and even some companies are looking at other initiatives that may offer more powerful networks, such as the National Science Foundation's Teragrid project and a federal research effort to build a backbone that is 64 times faster than Internet2. Vildibill believes fiber-optics could be the next wave of networking. (Internet Architecture, Technology and Applications) "DoCoMo Seeks Europe Growth" The Japanese mobile phone company NTT DoCoMo is hoping to expand further in Europe through a combination of investments and alliances. Such a move could involve DoCoMo taking a majority shareholding in a regional partner. DoCoMo's Yoshinori Uda says the company is currently in talks with a number of operators in Europe, particularly in France. Nevertheless, analysts say that DoCoMo does not yet have a presence in the major markets, and its current European partners are fairly small. As a result, even though KPN Mobile and its German subsidiary E-Plus will introduce I-mode services in a couple of months, the impact will be negligible on the overall European market. (Product Sales and Marketing) "Wireless Web's Moment of Truth
(Again)" Europe is being closely watched to see if GPRS will take off. GPRS offers 24-hour connection to the Internet via wireless phones, and it is a precursor to the much-talked-about 3G (third-generation) wireless-phone technology, in which European wireless-phone companies have invested tens of billions of euros. If a profitable GPRS service does not arrive soon, investors could easily lose patience with European carriers, all of whom are heavily burdened with debt at the moment. Ericsson, a mobile phone manufacturer, predicts that between 50 million and 70 million GPRS-equipped phones will be shipped this year, although only 20 million to 40 million people are actually expected to sign up for GPRS subscriptions. Even if these forecasts turn out to be correct, GPRS will not in fact hit mass markets until next year or even 2004. (Wireless Communications) "Intel Explores Ultrawideband
Technology" Intel is looking at uses for new ultrawideband (UWB) technology that sends wireless data short distances at speeds of up to 500 Mbps. Intel Labs' Communications Interconnect Technology researcher Kevin Kahn says the technology could be put into commercial use in five years' time and could replace wired high-speed connections such as USB 2.0, which currently sends data at 480 Mbps. Another popular wireless standard, 802.11b, already has wide adoption rates and sends signals up to 150 feet, but transfers data at only 10 Mbps. Kahn says that standard would likely remain the dominant choice for office networking because UWB would require separate radios for each computer, though Intel is also working on an integrated radio computer chip that could be manufactured cheaply. Some aspects of UWB still need clarification, says Gartner analyst Martin Reynolds, such as how different UWB data streams would be kept separate and protected. Reynolds says the technology has promise, but that it could be eclipsed by yet another new wireless technology before its initial commercial rollout, which he sets at three years to four years. (Wireless Communications) "Japan Ramping Up National
Computing Grid" Japan's Super SINet (science information network) is a computing grid that connects five national universities, said Fujitsu's Dr. Ken Miura at the Global Grid Forum. Based on micro-electronic mirror (MEM) technology, Super-SINet is currently used as a platform for collaborative academic projects that involve nanotechnology, high-energy physics, astronomy, and bioinformatics, but Miura said it will eventually morph into a national computing grid. The system makes use of grid technology tools from the Globus Project, he noted. Globus added that its tools offer stronger integration with J2EE and Web services technologies, database support, and enhanced key protocols. The photonic backbone network supplied by the grid can transfer data at 10 Gbps, according to Miura. The universities involved in the project are located in Osaka, Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya, and Tohoku. (Computer Communications, Systems and Protocols) "Supercomputing and Business Move
Closer" Major technology corporations IBM and Microsoft are backing academic efforts to build a global grid computing platform that would dovetail with their Web services ambitions. Grid computing aggregates computing power and delivers it on demand, like electricity and other utilities. The concept has taken hold in the scientific and academic communities, which need supercomputing power for tasks such as processing simulated climate models, analyzing physics experiments, and genetic research. Technology companies see grid computing as a way to enable commercial Web services, which would automate computing tasks for businesses and consumers over the Internet. A recent report submitted to the Global Grid Forum in Toronto highlighted the framework for melding grid computing and commercial Web services, and was co-authored by IBM researcher Jeffery M. Nick. The forum and the commercial sponsors are all backing the open-source Globus project that shares software resources for grid computing. Ian Foster of Argonne National Laboratory leads the Globus project and also helped write the recent report. He says commercial backing of companies such as IBM will make widespread grid computing a reality. (Computer Communications, Systems and Protocols) "'Wintel' Duo Targets the Cellphone" In-house cell phone design is no longer affordable for many cell phone makers, so they are purchasing technology from other companies to cut their R&D budgets. To capitalize on this trend, Microsoft and Intel are expected to announce a joint venture at a telecom conference in Cannes, France in which they will license a blueprint for high-end cell phones to manufacturers. This "template," as it is called, will help "demystify and democratize" the cell phone industry so that the market is open to more electronics firms, according to Microsoft's Ben Waldman. More and more high-end cell phones share certain functions with PCs, such as Internet access and the ability to display color images. The Wintel template will feature Intel semiconductors and Microsoft software. Intel's Ron Smith notes that the template lacks a radio chip for connecting to the network, but Intel and Microsoft are not worried because the component can be secured through third parties. Merrill Lynch analyst Adnaan Ahmad says Microsoft is gearing up for a "battle royale" with Nokia over who will dominate the mobile-phone industry; he predicts that Nokia will control the consumer market while Microsoft will make gains in the corporate market. (Wireless Communications) "Building a Better Robot
Species" Robots will surpass humans in intelligence in the near future, according to MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab director Rodney Brooks, whose new book, "Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us," lays out a robotic vision of the future. He says three main types of robots are being pioneered currently: automated drones that perform various tasks, remote-control robots humans direct, and humans with implanted robotics and computers. Brooks says that, along with superior intelligence, robots will be able to develop consciousness and emotions, heal and reproduce themselves. The challenges humanity will face in light of these developments are not unlike those faced when Galileo and Darwin first expounded their theories. Already Brooks' work is bearing real fruit. His laboratory collaborated with NASA to build the Sojourner robot that landed and explored the Martian surface in 1997, and his iRobot company already has robots operating on oil rigs and working with explosives for the British military. He says current trends in robotics are pushing scientists to make robots out of more "sloppy material" such as the organic compounds humans are built with, and to make robots that are self-sustaining. (Computer Communications, Systems and Protocols) "Ultrawideband Gets FCC Nod,
Despite Protests" The FCC has approved the limited use of ultrawideband (UWB) technology in the commercial sector, even though the Pentagon, cell phone companies, airlines, and other critics say it would interfere with global positioning systems and wireless-telephone networks. A growing spectrum shortage will not affect UWB because it shares spectrum with other technologies. The technology also offers easy signal encryption and can be used in small communications devices because of its low power requirements. The FCC plans to address interference concerns by prohibiting the use of UWB below the 3.1 GHz band, as well as restrict the power of UWB devices. Companies lauding the agency's decision include DaimlerChrysler, which plans to build anti-collision systems for automobiles using the technology. Meanwhile, Time Domain's Jeff Ross says his company plans to roll out wireless communications devices for home and office electronics. The FCC says it will review the UWB issue "in the next six to 12 months" to see whether the limitations it has imposed can be relaxed. (Network Operations, Management and Control) "Focus on Internet Wave at Apricot
2002" The 7th Annual Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (APRICOT) 2002 is being held in Bangkok from Feb. 27 to March 7, and will focus on the future of Internet technology, current trends, and on the "next Internet wave," which describes the next Internet boom to follow the Internet's first boom of the late 1990s. "The next phase is for us to maintain the stability of the Internet and create a new wave of Internet technology," says APRICOT Chairperson Wendy Liew. Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow will give APRICOT's keynote speech; ICANN President Stuart Lynn also is scheduled to speak. (Internet Architecture, Technology and Applications) "Internet Industry Pushes More
Flexible ID Method" The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has announced that an industry-wide digital signature standard, the XML-Signature Syntax and Processing standard, is now ready to be incorporated into products by companies such as VeriSign, IBM, Microsoft, and other applications developers. Although in many countries digital signatures have been legal for years, the lack of interoperability among networks and applications has impeded digital signatures' widespread use. Boosting industry-wide interoperability will allow digitally signed, electronic documents to pass through many intermediaries in order to facilitate e-commerce transactions; for instance, someone requesting a car loan may sign and send a document to their car dealer, who in turn signs the document and sends it to a bank's loan officer, who then may sign the bank's approval and return the document to the car dealership for commencement of sale. Participants in backing W3C's development of XML Signature include VeriSign, Citigroup, Sun Microsystems, Baltimore Technologies, and Motorola; Microsoft's Robert Wahbe says that Microsoft has already embedded XML Signatures into Visual Studio .Net and the .NET Framework. (Communications Standards) "Researchers Claim to Crack Wi-Fi
Security" Computer security researchers at the University of Maryland recently discovered weaknesses in the newest Wi-Fi security standard, 802.1x. Hackers in public access areas are easily able to hack the system by creating a false cut-off message and send it to the targeted client user, who then thinks the connection has ended when it actually has not. The hacker can then access the connection for the rest of the session. The University of Maryland report says the problem stems from the fact that access points are seen as trusted entities but should not be, because hackers can easily forge messages appearing to come from them. A new Wi-Fi security standard, called Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP), will change the encryption key every 10,000 data packets, or much more frequently than previous protocols. TKIP is expected out in the second quarter of this year and will work on existing Wi-Fi systems with software upgrades. Advanced Encryption Standard is an entirely new security standard that will provide for even greater security, but will not be out until early next year and will require new server-side hardware to process the encryption and decryption, and new client-side Wi-Fi cards. (Communications Standards) "LSB--Can it Help Network Managers
Cope with Linux?" The Linux Standard Base (LSB), a specification that would establish interoperability between various Linux distributions, holds many potential benefits for network managers. "The idea [behind LSB] is that if everything is in a standard place, applications will be portable from one distribution to the next," explains administrator and developer Nathan Walp. University of Wisconsin systems administrator Tony Hammond says LSB would help him port a Linux distribution from one vendor to another as he works to build his own custom Linux implementation. Observers say the biggest benefit for network managers will be the ability to define common locations for software libraries. LSBs will also help the transfer of Linux server management duties between administrators, according to Walp. Furthermore, security flaws may get fixed more rapidly. The Free Standards group introduced LSB 1.1 at the end of January, and Caldera, Red Hat, Turbolinux, and SuSE executives say they will ship LSB 1.1-compliant products by the end of this year. LSB 1.1 offers a new test suite, cleaner software interfaces, some new interfaces, and additional information about header contents. (Communications Standards) "Fit or Miss?" Java is being promoted as the programming language that glues together a wide variety of devices. Current client devices have less storage capacity and slower processors than PCs, and Java advocates claim that the language can streamline itself to seamlessly run on such products. Three different versions of Java--Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, and Micro Edition--have been distributed for the server, enterprise and developer desktop, and wireless markets, respectively, and Sun Microsystems' Richard Green says that each version has been very well received. The cellular wireless market that the Micro Edition serves has demonstrated the most acceleration, according to consensus. However, cross-platform implementation of Java faces obstacles. JP Mobile research director Alex Farcaisu says the market for client devices is not unified, while Hewlett-Packard's William Woo explains that it needs maturation. Several strategies have been formulated to improve Java's performance and shatter the assumption that the language is too big and slow for the embedded space. One strategy involves software integration, while the other involves compiler technology. These strategies compete with one another. (Computer Communications, Systems and Protocols) "Wanted: More Network-Security
Graduates and Research" Many services and organizations--federal agencies, corporate industries, utilities, and transportation among them--are dependent on computer networks that are potentially prey to intrusion. At the root of this problem, security experts say, is a shortage of network-security graduates and research funding for electronic security efforts. The private sector accounts for most U.S. network-security research, which primarily focuses on antivirus software and intrusion-detection systems while programming language and other basic security falls by the wayside, posits Timothy J. Shimeall of the Software Engineering Institute's Networked Systems Survivability Program. Steven Bellovin at AT&T Labs Research observes that academic computer-security programs--what few exist--do not have an adequate number of faculty members with network-security backgrounds to raise the number of graduates. Purdue University's Eugene Spafford attributes this shortage to students being lured away by the private sector, sometimes before completing their degrees. Some 13 federal agencies are funding computer-security projects, but there is no one agency taking a leadership role, according to National Academy of Engineering President William A. Wulf. Columbia University's Salvatore J. Stolfo proposes that the graduate and research shortage could be solved if the National Science Foundation halts encryption research funding; Shimeall says academia must reorganize their computer-science programs to focus more on network security. More scholarships and other educational perks could generate more interest among students, while Daniel A. Reed of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in calling for "an entire redesign of systems and the infrastructure to address security issues in a systemic, practical, [nontheoretical] manner." (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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