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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2004 Justice Department Tackles Cybercrime Five-Country Sweep Nabs Hacker Pirate Gang Report Touts Campus Progress Against Music Piracy RealNetworks Signs Two Colleges Campuses Struggle with Service Pack 2 JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TACKLES CYBERCRIME The U.S. Justice Department plans to announce a major series of arrests, subpoenas, and property seizures of reputed e-mail spammers and online scam artists on August 26 during a press conference scheduled by Attorney General John Ashcroft. According to early reports, more than half the cases focus on phishing scams that attempt to obtain confidential information from consumers for fraudulent purposes. Other cases involve spam, both traditional and the kind that has become a delivery mechanism for viruses. Washington Post, 25 August 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30087-2004Aug24.html FIVE-COUNTRY SWEEP NABS HACKER PIRATE GANG A hacker group that reportedly sold pirated copies of software, games, movies, and music online was broken up by police forces from the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Poland, and Slovakia. More than 100 people were arrested. Five programmers in Poland, believed to be the ringleaders, face up to eight years in prison if convicted. Police claimed the hackers broke into university and college computer systems around the world and used their electronic resources to store, serve, and sell the pirated materials. The Register, 24 August 2004 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08/24/anti-piracy_swoop/ REPORT TOUTS CAMPUS PROGRESS AGAINST MUSIC PIRACY The Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities has submitted a report to Congress that highlights actions taken by colleges and universities to combat Internet music piracy on their campuses. Universities have addressed file-sharing issues in different ways, with at least 20 universities offering legal music downloading services through Napster 2.0, Ruckus, RealNetworks, and others. Many universities include antipiracy messages as part of their student orientation and campus policy, while others use technology to filter or block file sharing over their networks. San Jose Mercury News, 25 August 2004 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9484951.htm REALNETWORKS SIGNS TWO COLLEGES RealNetworks has signed agreements with the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Minnesota to provide online music service at a reduced rate to students on those campuses. Neither university is paying for the service nor guaranteeing a minimum number of users. Instead, students at both universities pay $2 a month for access to the Rhapsody music service, which usually costs $9.95 a month. Faculty and staff are not eligible for the discount. Chronicle of Higher Education, 24 August 2004 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2004/08/2004082402n.htm CAMPUSES STRUGGLE WITH SERVICE PACK 2 Higher education IT departments face a challenge with Microsoft's release of Service Pack 2 the same month that students return to campuses around the country. The upgrade is designed to patch security holes in Windows XP. It includes defenses against viruses and spyware, an Internet firewall, an upgrade to automate security features, and better alerts regarding security risks on users' PCs. IT staff are concerned about conflicts between the new program and existing university network applications and worried that thousands of students trying to download the software at the same time could clog campus computer networks. As a result, some universities have blocked the automatic service to download the software while continuing to test its compatibility with their existing systems. Washington Post, 23 August 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26111-2004Aug23.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your settings, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/ 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/ ***************************************************** 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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