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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 2005 NSF Gives Peek at Plans to Overhaul Internet eDonkey Benefits from BitTorrent Crackdown Computers in Schools, but Not Always for Teaching Two Men Nabbed in Worm Investigation NSF GIVES PEEK AT PLANS TO OVERHAUL INTERNET The National Science Foundation (NSF) has given a glimpse of a proposed initiative to redesign the Internet. Though short on details and currently without funding, the project, called the Global Environment for Networking Investigations, is intended to take a clean-slate approach to designing a new Internet, one that addresses some of the major shortcomings of the current Internet, including security and the growing numbers of individual devices that connect to the network. Increasing transfer speeds is not one of the project's goals. Leonard Kleinrock, computer scientist at UCLA and one of the developers of Arpanet, precursor to the current Internet, noted that early developers of the Internet did not anticipate its current reach and had no reason to include security as a primary concern. In addition, the network was not designed to accommodate the vast numbers of mobile and wireless devices, as well as remote sensors, that now vie for Internet space. The NSF is seeking participation from other government agencies and from other countries for the project. New York Times, 29 August 2005 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/technology/29internet.html EDONKEY BENEFITS FROM BITTORRENT CRACKDOWN A new study by research firm CacheLogic suggests that the recent crackdown on BitTorrent P2P sites has merely shifted illegal file trading to eDonkey, which now has as many users as BitTorrent in the United States, China, Japan, and Britain. It is the leading P2P service in South Korea, Italy, Spain, and Germany. CacheLogic estimates that as much as 60 percent of global Internet traffic is attributable to P2P file sharing, and before the crackdown, BitTorrent represented up to one third of total Internet traffic. Andrew Parker, chief technology officer of CacheLogic, said the recent upswing of activity on eDonkey "is almost assuredly a result of the increased legal action toward the once-ignored BitTorrent." Parker also noted that the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision against Grokster has not resulted in a decline of file sharing. Parker said, "This cat and mouse game [between P2P services and entertainment industries] will continue." CNN, 29 August 2005 http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/29/technology/piracy_crackdown.reut/ COMPUTERS IN SCHOOLS, BUT NOT ALWAYS FOR TEACHING A new study indicates that computer usage by U.S. schoolteachers is rising, though technology is more frequently used for administrative purposes than for teaching. The study, conducted by Scholastic subsidiary Quality Education Data, found that 70 percent of teachers communicate with parents using e-mail and that a majority use computers for tasks such as attendance, according to CDW Government. Just 54 percent said they have incorporated technology into their teaching, and more of those who use technology in teaching are at the elementary level than in middle or high schools. Teaching with technology appears to be correlated with training: 85 percent of respondents said they have received training in applications such as the Internet, word processing, and e-mail, while 27 percent said they have had little or no instruction in how to include computers in their teaching. CNET, 29 August 2005 http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5844057.html TWO MEN NABBED IN WORM INVESTIGATION Two men have been arrested in connection with an investigation into the Zotob worm, which surfaced in August and took advantage of a flaw in the Microsoft operating system. The worm affected computers at organizations including The New York Times, ABC, CNN, the Associated Press, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau. According to Louis M. Riegel, assistant director for cyber crimes at the FBI, Farid Essebar was arrested in Morocco, and Atilla Ekici was arrested in Turkey. Riegel said that Ekici had paid Essebar to write the worm, and the pair are also suspected of writing the Mytob worm, which was released in February. Zotob is able to infect computers even if users do not open any applications. As a result, some users are struck by the worm without knowing about it. Still, experts believe the damage from the worm has been relatively minor, given that the operating system most affected, Windows 2000, is more than five years old and that most organizations quickly patched the flaw that Zotob exploits. San Jose Mercury News, 27 August 2005 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/12488476.htm ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE RESOURCES The EDUCAUSE Resource Center is a repository for information concerning use and management of IT in higher education. 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