------------------------------ Date: 30 September, 1990 From: Various Contributors Subject: The CU in the News ******************************************************************** *** CuD #2.05: File 7 of 7: The CU in the News *** ******************************************************************** {"The items for CU in the news come from various contributors. We especially thank Mike Rosen, who draws our attention to various items, and Brian Kehoe. We also appreciate all of those contributors who submit articles that we cannot print because of space constraints, duplication, or other reasons. Even if they do not appear, they are beneficial and keep us informed (moderators)}. ------------------------------ From: chron!magic703!edtjda@UUNET.UU.NET(Joe Abernathy) "Computer Network gets Overseer" (9/24/90, Houston Chronicle, Business Page 1) By JOE ABERNATHY Copyright 1990, Houston Chronicle A newly formed non-profit corporation will bring Fortune 500 management talent to the nation's increasingly troubled computer network matrix, according to government and industry sources. The corporation, Advanced Network & Services, is designed to bring order to the vast Internet data telecommunications system, which has become a frequent companion to controversy while enjoying a six-fold increase in use since January. The action is expected to pave the way for congressional approval of the Federal High-Performance Computing Act, a comprehensive law that would, among other things, pay to vastly expand the communications capacity of the system. The legislation bogged down after the Houston Chronicle disclosed the controversial aspects of Internet. "We have a very valuable tool in the network and if we use it properly, it can be a very valuable asset to the country," said Allan H. Weis, chief executive officer of Advanced Network and a 30-year veteran of IBM, one of three corporate partners in the new management firm. Weis said that Advanced Network will provide day-to-day management and monitoring of the Internet, which connects thousands of military, educational and private computer networks. It also will serve as a model for other such partnerships that could help develop and promote the network's services. The company was formed by IBM, MCI Communications, and Merit Inc. Merit is a Michigan consortium that previously has managed the network under the supervision of the National Science Foundation and will continue to fill this role under the supervision of American Network. There are still questions to be answered about the roles the various groups will play in managing this system. IBM and MCI, both of which sell equipment and services vital to networking, provided $5 million each in seed money for the new corporation. It will actively seek further investment by industry, and will impose the first formal fee structure on the network, which only recently evolved from an elite communications tool for scientists. "Just as private contractors helped build the interstate highway system, this new corporation will help build the national information superhighways that today's information age demands," said Sen. Albert Gore Jr., D-Tenn., the sponsor of the legislation. The heart of the computing act is the expansion of Internet into a "data superhighway" that would link researchers, educators, homes and businesses into a vast network of computing resources. The expanded Internet would be called the National Research and Education Network, or NREN. It has been likened to the telephone in terms of its expected impact on American life. Internet first gained notoriety as the vehicle for the infamous Morris Worm, a destructive program that paralyzed many of the nation's high-performance computers in November 1988. Pieced together over the course of 20 years on the tradition of trust within the research community, the network is a tempting target for abuse and the favored arena for hackers. At least 5 million people have access to Internet, which links dozens of nations and which is scheduled to be brought into the secondary schools of Texas. In June, the Chronicle reported that the network was being used widely and openly for purposes well outside its research mandate, such as political activism and the distribution of pornographic art and literature. Despite an investigation by the science foundation - which has been the primary distributor of federal dollars for networking - the controversial use continues, although reduced in scope. "We observed the growth over the past few years and we looked at the structure that we had ... and decided that a more formal structure on the national level" should be put into place, said Weis. "Something this big moves slowly, but it moves." The science foundation's future role in the network is one of the few remaining aspects of the legislation that must be decided. The NSF is well-respected for its leveraging of funds, and the network infrastructure it molded is reliable and capable. But the foundation has given scant attention to content, bringing it under fire for the network's current state of virtual anarchy. The Department of Energy wants future control of the network, but the agency's viewpoint is considered too narrow, according to congressional sources. The vision of the Science Foundation combined with the IBM-style management of Advanced Network is expected to satisfy critics. "The NREN is such a big effort that the government can't do it by itself, industry can't do it by itself, and academia can't do it by itself," said Weis. "To make it successful it's going to take the joint effort of government, industry and academia." Advance Network will draw management expertise from MCI, IBM, Merit, McGraw-Hill, and Merck, the pharmaceutical company known for its ability to find practicality in cutting-edge research. McGraw-Hill, best known as the owner of Business Week, is also in the textbook and information services businesses. "Wouldn't it be nice if we were able to provide, over the network, the newest physics textbook, but the textbook was a living textbook in that you could watch what happened when you applied additional weight to a fulcrum?" said Weis, offering one example of an educational use for the superhighway. Advanced Network will have an eight-person board of directors, initially consisting of: Weis; Joe Dionne, president of McGraw-Hill; Joe Wyatt, president of Vanderbilt University; Myra Williams of Merck; Richard West, University of California system; Dr. John Armstrong, chief scientist of IBM; Richard Leibhaber, executive vice president of MCI; and Dr. Douglas Van Houweling of Merit. Gore's computing act, which has the support of the Bush administration, would allocate $2 billion over the course of five years to ensure the nation's continued dominance in the field of high-performance computing. The National Research and Education Network would receive $400 million of this amount, with the rest going for related infrastructure. "The interstate highway system would not have been built without a federal commitment," said Gore in behalf of the package. "The federal government is an essential catalyst for developing and demonstrating this technology." The Federal High-Performance Computing Act is scheduled to be considered by the full Senate before it adjourns in October. A companion House bill, which was suspended following the Chronicle's disclosure of Internet's misuse, will be returned to consideration after approval of the Senate plan. ------------------------------ HACKER'S HOLIDAY ENDS The Computer Misuse Act is now law, bringing into force three new criminal offences. Michael Colvin, the Conservative MP for Romsey whose successful Private Member's Bill brought about the new Act has added his own stern warnings to the computer world. " The Act can only complement and not replace security procedures", he said. "Users will have to examine their existing security procedures and possibly redefine the authority of users of their systems if they are to receive the full support of the law. " My message to computer users is that Parliament has done its bit - now it is up to you to do yours. It will provide a coherent regime for the prosecution of those who misuse computers. " This legislation has been framed specifically to deal with the new mischiefs that modern technology has brought and the police now have the power to prosecute computer misuse without the need, in some cases, to try and stretch the existing criminal law. " The legal position is plain. The Act gives a clear signal to the future generations of would-be hackers that computer misuse is no longer tolerated by society". The new offences which came into force on August 29 are one of basic unauthorised access with a penalty of up to six months imprisonment and fines of up to two thousand pounds; unauthorised access with the intention of committing a more serious crime and unauthorised modification of computer data, both of which carry up to five years imprisonment with unlimited fines. Slightly modified from the original Law Commission Report on computer misuse, the Act includes new jurisdiction rules to cover international hacking. Any offence will be prosecutable if it is conducted from or directed against any system in the UK. ------------------------------ From: Computerworld, September 17, 1990, p. 150, Inside Lines: "Steal this Modem" Leemah Datacom Security Corp. recently wrapped up its second annual challenge to hackers, who were given the chance to retrieve a secret message stored in two PCs protected with a Leemah callback modem. While hackers failed to break in, the challenge was not as big a success as officials predicted. Even though the company added a second PC and challenge site to accommodate what they thought would be a mass hacker attack, only 2,009 hackers tried and failed to hack into the PCs compared with nearly 8,000 failed attempts last year. Apparently, many hackers feared that the company was cooperating with the government in a sting operation. ******************************************************************** ------------------------------ **END OF CuD #2.05** ******************************************************************** Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253 12yrs+