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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 03, 2003 Americans Fear Computer Attacks FTC Puts Numbers on Identity Theft, Damages AND Colleges Investigate Legal File Sharing Cut-and-Paste Plagiarism on the Rise Blackboard Goes Chinese AMERICANS FEAR COMPUTER ATTACKS According to a survey conducted by Federal Computer Week and the Pew Internet and American Life Project, nearly 50 percent of Americans fear a severe attack on the country's electronic infrastructure. Alan Paller, an information security expert at the SANS Institute, said he was surprised that the percentage was so high but that it represents growing awareness among Americans of the threats to many of the country's basic systems. Peter Neumann of SRI International said a common attitude of people in the United States is "We've never had the Pearl Harbor of cybersecurity, so why worry?" The survey was conducted prior to the Blaster worm and the recent blackout in the northeastern United States and Canada, two events that spotlight the potential for damage to the nation's computer systems and electrical grids. Federal Computer Week, 1 September 2003 http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0901/cov-pew2-09-01-03.asp FTC PUTS NUMBERS ON IDENTITY THEFT, DAMAGES The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said this week that an estimated 27 million Americans have been victims of identity theft in the past five years and that total damages from the crimes exceed $50 billion. The FTC's estimates are based on a random survey of just over 4,000 adults. The survey indicates that nearly 10 million people suffered identity theft last year alone. According to the FTC, the most common type of fraud resulting from identity theft is credit card fraud, followed by utility and phone fraud and then bank fraud. The FTC said that many who find themselves victims of identity theft do not report the crime. Still, in 2002, more than 160,000 complaints were filed with the FTC for identity theft, twice as many as in 2001. Wall Street Journal, 3 September 2003 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10626086349587400,00.html AND ***************************************************** COLLEGES INVESTIGATE LEGAL FILE SHARING Members of the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities are working to identify ways to reduce the illegal sharing of copyrighted files on college campuses, including one proposal to provide students with legal access to online music. According to Graham Spanier, president of Pennsylvania State University and co-chair of the committee, the service would work similarly to cable television in dorm rooms. Spanier said about a dozen institutions are considering testing such a program. The committee will not endorse specific solutions to the problem of illegal file sharing but hopes to collect educational, technological, and policy resources that parties from both the higher education and entertainment communities can use to work toward joint solutions. The other co-chair of the committee, Cary Sherman of the Recording Industry Association of America, said "collaborative solutions are the best approach" because university administrators and entertainment executives "are in this boat together." Internet News, 2 September 2003 http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/3071331 CUT-AND-PASTE PLAGIARISM ON THE RISE A survey of more than 18,000 students on 23 college campuses indicates a growing incidence of Internet plagiarism among U.S. college students. According to the survey, conducted by Rutgers University management professor Donald L. McCabe, 38 percent of respondents said they had been involved in "cut-and-paste" cheating within the past year. This compares to 10 percent in a similar, though smaller, survey conducted three years ago. McCabe attributed some of the rise to growing ignorance among college students about what constitutes proper citation. Many of today's students, he said, "are convinced that anything you find on the Internet is public knowledge." Indeed, nearly half the students who participated in the survey said they did not consider copying several sentences or even full paragraphs without citation to be cheating. New York Times, 3 September 2003 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/03/education/03CHEA.html BLACKBOARD GOES CHINESE Blackboard has announced a deal to extend its e-learning products into the Chinese higher education market. Blackboard and Chinese company Cernet will jointly own Cernet-Blackboard Information Technology Co., which will sell Blackboard products to Chinese universities. Six Chinese universities currently have Blackboard products in place, with between 50,000 and 100,000 students using Blackboard tools at those institutions. Cernet, which was set up by the Chinese government to establish Internet connections in the country's universities, is working with around 1,000 universities. Overall, China has approximately 230 million students. Reaction from e-learning industry analysts was mixed. Cushing Anderson of IDC said countries like China offer relatively untapped markets, which can be a boon for companies like Blackboard. He also noted, however, that there is still room for growth in the U.S. market and that expanding overseas can be distracting. Ron Yanosky of Gartner said that to succeed, Blackboard must "convince these institutions to buy high-functioning, complex systems." Washington Post, 30 August 2003 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17254-2003Sep2.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 "EQ" and "EDUCAUSE Review," books, and other materials dealing with the impacts and implications of information technology in higher education. 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