************************************************************** K12NewsLetters - From Educational CyberPlayGround http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/ ************************************************************** From: EDUCAUSE@xxxxxxxxxxxx To: ?EDUPAGE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx??? Sent: Wed, 7 May 2003 15:58:38 -0600 Subject: Edupage, May 07, 2003 ***************************************************** Edupage is a service of EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. ***************************************************** TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, MAY 07, 2003 Two Federal Agencies Defend Data-Mining Projects EarthLink to Implement Challenge-Response System House Subcommittee Votes to Restrict Online Gambling Experts Question Effectiveness of Eye Scanning AND EDUCAUSE Releases Results of Current Issues Survey Iowa Considers Selling State-Owned Education Network TWO FEDERAL AGENCIES DEFEND DATA-MINING PROJECTS James Loy of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Anthony Tether of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) appeared before Congress and defended their agencies' separate data-mining projects. The TSA's Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II) and DARPA's Total Information Awareness (TIA) program have drawn criticism and concern from privacy advocates, many Democratic members of Congress, and even some conservative groups. Loy told Congress that CAPPS II will improve security at U.S. airports and that his agency is working very hard to address the fears expressed over the system's screening of passengers. Tether said TIA would not collect vast amounts of data on citizens but would create scenarios for terrorist attacks and try to match those scenarios with information in public databases. TIA, said Tether, would not search for unknown patterns, which would lead to many false positives, but would start with the scenarios created by experts. "DARPA is not developing a system to profile the American public," said Tether. ComputerWorld, 7 May 2003 http://www.idg.net/ic_1313544_9677_1-5046.html EARTHLINK TO IMPLEMENT CHALLENGE-RESPONSE SYSTEM EarthLink, the nation's third-largest provider of e-mail accounts, will implement a challenge-response system in an effort to reduce the amount of unwanted e-mail. The first time someone sends an e-mail to an EarthLink account, the sender is prompted to perform an action to indicate that the sender is a live person rather than a server simply generating millions of e-mail messages. If the sender verifies himself in this way, subsequent messages are delivered without this process. EarthLink subscribers will be able to add acceptable e-mail addresses to their address books so that senders from those addresses will not be required to verify themselves. There will be no additional charge for the challenge-response system, and it will be optional for subscribers. Yahoo, MSN, and Hotmail, three of EarthLink's main competitors, are evaluating challenge-response systems; AOL said the technology places an unnecessary burden on users. Washington Post, 7 May 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22390-2003May6.html HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE VOTES TO RESTRICT ONLINE GAMBLING A House judiciary subcommittee this week approved legislation that would make it a crime for banks or other financial institutions to make payments--including credit card or electronic fund transfers--to Internet gambling sites. Participating in online gambling is regarded by many as illegal under existing U.S. laws, but because most online gambling sites are hosted outside the United States, Congress has had difficulty finding an effective legislative approach to ending online gambling. The bill passed by the subcommittee was sponsored by Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) and reportedly has support from the White House. Rep. John Conyers (R.-Mich.) introduced his own online gambling bill, comparing Leach's to alcohol prohibition in the 1920s. Conyers's bill takes the approach of regulating online gambling through licensing and taxation. Internet News, 7 May 2003 http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/2202431 EXPERTS QUESTION EFFECTIVENESS OF EYE SCANNING Even as nations in the G8 are reportedly supporting development of iris-scanning systems to verify the identity of international travelers, experts are voicing a range of concerns over how effective such techniques can be. Experts agree that eye-scanning technologies have the potential to provide an additional tool in efforts to guard security, but current technology remains unproven. A report last year from the U.S. Department of Defense showed error rates of around six percent, compared to manufacturer claims of 0.5 percent. The U.S. Government Accounting Office said that the largest iris-scanning database last fall had only 30,000 records. By contrast, as many as 240 million people travel to and from the United States each year, and there are 13 million people on the FBI's watch list. Experts said the potential to slow down security checks at airports is significant. Other problems exist, including fear among some people about perceived danger of having a light shone in their eyes and resistance of some to being touched by other people. BBC, 7 May 2003 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3003571.stm AND ***************************************************** EDUCAUSE RELEASES RESULTS OF CURRENT ISSUES SURVEY EDUCAUSE has published the results of its fourth annual Current IT Issues Survey in the current issue of "EDUCAUSE Quarterly." The survey gathered responses from 542 of EDUCAUSE's 1,620 member institutions, representing colleges and universities of all sizes and types. IT funding challenges was the top issue in three of four categories: strategic importance, potential to become much more significant, and demanding more time of campus IT leaders. Security and identity management this year is a top-ten issue for those three categories and also for the fourth, human and fiscal resource consumption. The survey also revealed that maintaining and upgrading network and IT infrastructure has risen in significance since last year, and that distance education is--for the first time in four years--no longer a top-ten issue for any of the four categories. EDUCAUSE, 7 May 2003 http://www.educause.edu/asp/doclib/abstract.asp?ID=EQM0322 IOWA CONSIDERS SELLING STATE-OWNED EDUCATION NETWORK Lawmakers in Iowa are considering selling the Iowa Communication Network, a fiber-optic network used by educational programs in the state and by state agencies. According to one lawmaker, the network, which was started in 1989, costs the state as much as $25 million a year, which the state can no longer afford. Officials from colleges and universities that use the network fear that if the network is sold to a private company the rates those institutions pay for access will increase. A rate increase could threaten many distance-education programs, which use the network for high-speed Internet connections, full-motion video, and telephone services. The appropriations bill passed by the state legislature requires any company that buys the network to make services available to colleges and universities, but the bill does not control rates charged. Chronicle of Higher Education, 6 May 2003 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/daily/2003/05/2003050601t.htm ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your settings, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to LISTSERV@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to EDUPAGE-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx For past issues of Edupage or information about translations of Edupage into other languages, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/edupage.html ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE PUBLICATIONS EDUCAUSE publishes periodicals, including "EQ" and "EDUCAUSE Review," books, and other materials dealing with the impacts and implications of information technology in higher education. 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