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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, DECEMBER 08, 2003 Task Force Urges Better Federal Information Sharing Federal Aid Rules Waived for Five Distance-Ed Providers Hacking Becomes a Business with Self-Replicating P2P Envoys Compromise Before WSIS IBM Advances Nanotechnology Circuit Design TASK FORCE URGES BETTER FEDERAL INFORMATION SHARING A report issued by the Markle Foundation calls on the federal government to move away from the "Cold War" mentality of its current approach to national security and open networks to a range of law enforcement officials. The report, "Creating A Trusted Information Network for Homeland Security," was written by a task force co-chaired by James Barksdale, former CEO of Netscape. The task force argues that the intense level of security applied by federal officials is no longer appropriate for the risks of today. Rather than hiding information inside its own networks, the federal government should share that information with state and local governments. The report also encourages cooperation with the private sector in sharing information to protect national security, but cautions that such sharing would need to protect civil liberties. InformationWeek, 5 December 2003 http://www.informationweek.com/ FEDERAL AID RULES WAIVED FOR FIVE DISTANCE-ED PROVIDERS The Department of Education has expanded the list of institutions exempt from the 50-percent rule, which denies federal aid to students of programs that teach more than half their courses at a distance or enroll more than half of their students as distance students. The rule was designed to discourage distance education programs that were not reputable, but critics have complained that the rule stifles development of legitimate programs. Added to the list of exempted institutions as part of the Distance Education Demonstration Program are the College of Court Reporting Inc., Graceland University, Jones International University, National Technological University Inc., and Northcentral University, bringing the total to 29. The demonstration program will continue through 2005, though there are currently proposals before Congress to permanently ease the 50-percent rule. Chronicle of Higher Education, 8 December 2003 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v50/i16/16a03102.htm HACKING BECOMES A BUSINESS WITH SELF-REPLICATING P2P Computer security experts believe that writers of malicious "Trojan horse" applications have begun developing programs that do not rely on a central server and are therefore much more difficult to fight. Most Trojan horse applications try to spread themselves to other machines, from which they download software or instructions from a server elsewhere. The new type of Trojan horse applications puts infected computers into service in a peer-to-peer type of network. Such a network presents an extremely difficult target for security professionals to disrupt because there is not a single source that can be identified and shut down. Security experts said that money, rather than fame, has become the primary motivation for malware and that such a situation makes the task of fighting computer hackers substantially more difficult. New York Times, 8 December 2003 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/08/technology/08trojan.html ENVOYS COMPROMISE BEFORE WSIS Representatives from countries that will attend the upcoming World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) met in Geneva to settle key differences before the conference, which starts Wednesday. The goal of the WSIS is to address the digital divide between more and less developed nations, but some of the nations expected to attend disagreed about management of the Internet and about human-rights issues. The special talks resulted in two declarations, one of principles and the other an action plan. Nations at the talks agreed to ask the United Nations to prepare a report on management of the Internet, due in time for a second WSIS summit in 2005. Participants did not agree on whether to establish an international fund to help developing countries develop information technology resources, but Marc Furrer, an official from the Swiss government who brokered the talks, said the documents were 95 percent approved. Disagreements, he said, pertain to just a few words about financing. CNET, 8 December 2003 http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5116191.html IBM ADVANCES NANOTECHNOLOGY CIRCUIT DESIGN Nanotechnology researchers at IBM said they have created polymer molecules that can be used to build memory chips much smaller than current techniques allow with silicon chips. A nanometer is about 1/10,000 the thickness of a human hair, and nanotechnology researchers are working to manipulate materials at the molecular level. IBM's polymers arrange themselves in patterns on a silicon chip, offering the possibility of making smaller chips than can be manufactured today. The polymers created by IBM have the potential to replace current optical processes to etch patterns onto silicon wafers, a process for making smaller and smaller chips that is expected to reach its physical limit in about a decade. San Jose Mercury News, 8 December 2003 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7441257.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 [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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