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1) Jerre Noe, the first chair of Computer Science & Engineering at the
University of Washington, and before that head of the ERMA project at
SRI which created electronic banking as we know it today, passed away on
the evening of Saturday November 12 at the age of 82.
Interent Pioneers
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/IEC/pioneersPaul.html


2) Vulgar School Website Defaced
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/10/BAGGCFLUCA1.DTL
San Francisco school officials are trying to figure out who hacked
into a high school Web site, posted a student's face over vulgar and
mocking images, then added racist and gang-related captions using the
student's name.
Normally, the Washington High Web site features the usual school fare:
club news, athletic schedules, student triumphs and information for
parents.
But on Wednesday, school officials realized that someone had replaced
all the school information with a set of photo montages apparently
intended to humiliate a single student.
David Campos, the district's legal counsel, said the site was ordered
shut down as soon as the invasion was discovered.


3) Students allegedly hacked computer, changed grades November 10, 2005
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=3625324
Four teenagers from suburban Oak Lawn have been suspended from school
for allegedly hacking into a computer system to change their grades.
A teacher at Oak Lawn High School discovered the scheme two weeks ago.
She noticed the grades for one student did not match up with the
grades in the school computer system.  Officials later discovered that
three juniors and one senior allegedly broke into the district's
system and changed their grades. They have been suspended for 10 days.
When the students return to school, they will be stripped of their
computer privileges.

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4) 'Bots' for Sony CD software spotted online By John Borland November 10, 2005
http://news.com.com/Bots+for+Sony+CD+software+spotted+online/2100-1029_3-5944643.html>
Sony's software, installed when playing one of the record label's
recent copy-protected CDs in a computer, hides itself on hard drives
using a powerful programming tool called a "rootkit." But the tool
leaves the door open behind it, allowing other software--including
viruses--to be deeply hidden behind the rootkit cloak [1].
"This is no longer a theoretical vulnerability; it is a real
vulnerability," said Sam Curry, vice president of Computer Associates'
eTrust Security Management division. "This is no longer about digital
rights management or content protection, this is about people having
their PCs taken over."
Last week, plaintiffs' attorney Alan Himmelfarb filed a class action
suit against Sony BMG in Los Angeles federal court, asserting that the
company had violated state and federal statues on unauthorized
computer tampering. The company's actions also constituted fraud,
trespass and false advertising, the suit contends.
[The First 4 Internet software is included on a handful of CDs [2] . . .]
A rootkit is a tool that takes a high level of control over a
computer, potentially even preventing the original computer user from
performing certain tasks. In this case, the First 4 Internet hides
itself from view in the computer's guts.
Most antivirus companies are releasing versions of their software that
identify or remove the Sony software. A patch on the Sony Web site [3]
will uncloak the copy protection tools, but computer users must
contact Sony's customer service for instructions [4] on removing it
altogether.
[1] <http://news.com.com/Sony+CD+protection+sparks+security+concerns/2100-7355_3-5926657.html>
[2] <http://news.com.com/Are+these+the+Sony+rootkit+CDs/2100-1029_3-5944549.html>
[3] http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/
[4] http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/english/uninstall.html

MORE:
<http://groups.sims.berkeley.edu/osdddi/?p=57>
# [Copy protection infringing copyright?][1]
To protect its own intellectual property, Sony BMG appears to be
blatantly infringing the copyright of others.
Undoubtedly, many of you have heard about the _[rootkit][2]_ that is
[installed on Windows PCs][3] upon inserting [recent CDs][4] from Sony
BMG Entertainment record labels. This has become a veritable fiasco as
this piece of spyware can be used to cloak all manner of things from
[viruses][5] to [cheating software][6]. However, it now appears that
the code written by the company that Sony BMG hired, First4 Internet,
may actually infringe the LGPL by using code from the [LAME][7] mp3
encoding library (from _["Spyware Sony seems to breach
copyright"][8]_):

This software is licensed under the so called Lesser Gnu Public 

  License (LGPL). According to this license Sony must comply with a
  couple of demands. Amongst others, they have to indicate in a
  copyright notice that they make use of the software. The company
  must also deliver the source code to the open-source libraries or
  otherwise make these available. And finally, they must deliver or
  otherwise make available the in between form between source code and
  executable code, the so called objectfiles, with which others can
  make comparable software.

Sony complied with non of these demands, but delivered just an 

  executable program. A computerexpert, whose name is known by the
  redaction, discovered that the cd "Get Right With The Man" by "Van
  Zant" contains strings from the library version.c of Lame. This can
  be conluded from the string: "http://www.mp3dev.org/";, "0.90",
  "LAME3.95", "3.95", "3.95".


5) No Fed Security Laws, Hurrah!! By Ryan Singel Nov. 10, 2005
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,69525,00.html
Despite the seemingly unending torrent of citizens' data pouring into
the hands of identity thieves, Congress is unlikely to pass any
data-security bills by the end of the year, according to Hill
watchers.
And consumer advocates say that's a good thing.
After the nationwide uproar when ChoicePoint admitted it sold 145,000
dossiers to Nigerian identity thieves, 20 states followed California's
lead and passed laws requiring companies to notify citizens when their
data had been compromised.
Now, companies are already acting as if the country had a national
notification law, said Gail Hillebrand, a senior attorney at Consumers
Union [1]. In addition, Hillebrand said the strict state laws are more
consumer-friendly than any proposals in Congress.



6) NYC taxis prepare to go wireless, with a back-seat upgrade
<http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/11/13/nyc_taxis_prepare_to_go_wireless_with_a_back_seat_upgrade/>
By Lisa Kassenaar, Bloomberg News  |  November 13, 2005
NEW YORK -- For those who hate battling for a taxi on a crowded New
York corner and then fumbling for the fare, relief may be just around
the corner.
The city's 12,766 yellow cabs are scheduled to get wireless
connections next year that will track drivers and help alert them to
waiting customers. Riders will be able to pay by credit card, to
check flight data, or to buy movie tickets. The New York City Taxi
and Limousine Commission, after gathering ideas from 70 companies,
such as Bank of America Corp. and Sprint Nextel Corp., may announce
this month the companies selected to add the services.
''This will bring a dinosaur industry into the 21st century," said
Michael Levine, owner of Ronart Leasing Corp., a taxi company based
in Queens that has 350 cars, and that Levine's grandfather started in
1937. ''It's about time something happened."
Yellow cabs, the only taxis in the biggest US city allowed to pick up
people who flag them down, carry 238 million passengers a year and
bring in about $1.5 billion. In Manhattan, where people in three of
four households do not own a car, cabs carry babies home from
hospitals, move furniture, and shuffle visitors between appointments.
The link from taxis to cellular networks and satellites would follow
last year's 26 percent fare increase, the city's first in eight
years, to increase the average driver's pay to more than $12 an hour.


thanks for reading,

<karen>

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