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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2002 Attack Takes Down Root Servers and No One Notices War-Driving: The New Marketing Tool FDA Says Implantable ID Chips Won't Be Regulated AND Marketers Call for Limits on Spam Companies Move to Virtual Internships to Save Money Researchers Say Experiment Validates Distributed Computing ATTACK TAKES DOWN ROOT SERVERS AND NO ONE NOTICES Monday afternoon a cyberattack took down 9 of the 13 root servers of the Internet, but the attack went unnoticed by the majority of Internet users because of measures taken to address the attack and because of its relatively short duration. Louis Touton, vice president for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, said, "As best we can tell, no user noticed and the attack was dealt with and life goes on." The attack flooded targeted servers with 30 to 40 times the usual amount of traffic, causing seven to fail and two others to fail intermittently. One observer commented that this was the most significant attack of its kind since the Internet began operating. The FBI is investigating the attack, though the source is not yet known. CNN, 23 October 2002 http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/10/23/internet.attack.ap/ WAR-DRIVING: THE NEW MARKETING TOOL A group of hackers and security consultants will stage a worldwide "war drive" this Saturday in seven countries, and some vendors of security tools are using the event as an opportunity for new sales. War driving involves driving around looking for unprotected wireless networks, typically in urban areas. War drivers will post maps on the Web showing where wireless access was found. Companies including IBM and KPMG hope that the weekend's event will raise awareness of the potential liabilities of insecure networks and will prompt companies to invest in products and services to identify problems and safeguard their networks. A similar war-driving event occurred in August. Wall Street Journal, 23 October 2002 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB103531341578332671,00.html FDA SAYS IMPLANTABLE ID CHIPS WON'T BE REGULATED In a decision that surprised many observers, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said that ID chips from Applied Digital Solutions (ADS) can be implanted in people without regulation, provided the chips are used for "security, financial, and personal identification or safety applications." The chips can also be used for medical purposes--providing emergency-room personnel with medical histories, for example--but the FDA ruling does not apply to such cases. An FDA investigator had previously commented that all other implantable devices, such as those for cosmetic purposes, are subject to FDA regulation. After the recent announcement, that investigator deferred questions to the FDA press office. Wired News, 23 October 2002 http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,55952,00.html AND ***************************************************** MARKETERS CALL FOR LIMITS ON SPAM In an effort to preserve the marketing value of the medium of e-mail, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) will begin lobbying for legislation to limit spam. Jerry Cerasale, vice president for government affairs for DMA, said marketers who send unsolicited e-mails should be required to use clear, non-deceptive subject lines in messages and to provide contact information and an opt-out option. The DMA supports unsolicited e-mail campaigns as long as they specifically target recipients and are not simply blanket messages to every available address. John Mozena, co-founder of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail thinks that such guidelines would actually increase the amount of spam sent by many companies. Tom Cowles, head of one of the largest bulk e-mail companies in the world, agreed, saying that the guidelines would legitimize what his company does. Cowles said he supports an opt-out provision but that spammers who abide by the rules should be allowed to continue. Currently, spammers run the risk of being shut down by Internet service providers responding to requests from anti-spam advocates. Associated Press, 23 October 2002 (registration req'd) http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/587228p-4572677c.html COMPANIES MOVE TO VIRTUAL INTERNSHIPS TO SAVE MONEY Internships have proven to be an effective means for college students to gain exposure to work at particular companies and for those companies to screen prospective employees in short-term situations. In today's economy, some companies are offering online, or "virtual," internships in an effort to save money without losing the advantages of internship programs. Student response to such e-internships is generally positive. Dennis Joseph, a senior at Southern Arkansas University, said the experience "tests your communication skills and shows you can work virtually." An official at a truck manufacturing company that offers e-internships admitted that interns are missing out on the culture of the company but said the programs remain "a good recruiting tool." USA Today, 22 October 2002 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2002-10-21-virtual_x.htm RESEARCHERS SAY EXPERIMENT VALIDATES DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING Researchers at Stanford University say that an experiment they conducted validates the usefulness of distributed computing in real-world, laboratory problems. Vijay Pande, one of those involved, said this is the first time a distributed computing application has led to publishable results. Other distributed computing projects have looked for life in space and cures for diseases. The Stanford experiment compared data returned from calculations done by 200,000 distributed computers to results from laboratory tests. The calculations, designed to predict folding of molecules, did not produce new information but corroborated results obtained from physical tests on those molecules. This suggests that complex calculations, performed in a distributed computing project, can accurately predict physical behavior. The research is published this week in "Nature." ZDNet, 23 October 2002 http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-963024.html ***************************************************** 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 [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] 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 "EDUCAUSE Quarterly" and "EDUCAUSE Review," books, and other materials dealing with the impacts and implications of information technology in higher education. 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