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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2004 Rice Researchers Discover Google Search Flaw Judge Hits Spammers with $1 Billion Fine Research Firm Sees Increased IT Spending RICE RESEARCHERS DISCOVER GOOGLE SEARCH FLAW Researchers at Rice University in November uncovered a security flaw in Google's recently released desktop search tool. Google Desktop is a downloadable program that creates an index of material on a user's computer, including e-mail and individual documents. When that user does a Google search of the Web, the application incorporates local resources from the index in the results. In what began as a student project to investigate how Google Desktop works, two students and a computer science professor found that the application could be fooled into sending results from a local index to Web sites, allowing a hacker to see them. The problem would only reveal small portions of information, and no attacks using the flaw have been reported. After being notified by the researchers of the vulnerability in late November, Google patched the flaw and began offering a new version of the search tool in December. In addition, the application includes a feature that allows Google to update the software without user input or even knowledge about the upgrade. New York Times, 20 December 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/20/technology/20flaw.html JUDGE HITS SPAMMERS WITH $1 BILLION FINE A federal judge in Iowa has issued fines totaling $1 billion against three spammers, marking what some observers believe is the largest judgment handed down to spammers. The ruling came from a case filed by Robert Kramer, operator of a small Internet service provider in eastern Iowa. Kramer, whose company serves about 5,000 customers, filed suit against 300 spammers, alleging that they send his subscribers upwards of 10 million spam e-mails per day. The judge ordered three of the defendants to pay damages under a state law that allows for fines of $10 per spam message, and those amounts were then tripled under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Cases against other defendants are still pending. In his ruling Judge Charles R. Wolle ordered Arizona-based AMP Dollar Savings to pay $720 million, Florida-based Cash Link Systems to pay $360 million, and TEI Marketing Group, also based in Florida, to pay $140,000. No attorneys for any of the defendants were present during the trial, and the plaintiff's attorney conceded it is unlikely his client will ever collect any of the damages. Wall Street Journal, 20 December 2004 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110349923676804327,00.html RESEARCH FIRM SEES INCREASED IT SPENDING A survey by Forrester Research of 1,300 IT executives in North America predicts growth in IT spending of at least 7 percent in 2005. Forrester noted that respondents to its surveys frequently underestimate the amount of money they end up spending, leading analysts at the firm to believe increases might be even larger than estimated. Spending among those in the public sector--including government, health care, and education--is expected to increase the most, moving from spending decreases in 2004 to increases of 7 percent in 2005. Specific areas where Forrester predicts stronger spending for 2005 include software, including new applications or upgrades of existing ones, and regulatory compliance, as for such legislation as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. CNET, 20 December 2004 http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-5498084.html ***************************************************** 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. To access resources including articles, books, conference sessions, contracts, effective practices, plans, policies, position descriptions, and blog content, go to http://www.educause.edu/resources ***************************************************** CONFERENCES For information on all EDUCAUSE learning and networking opportunities, see http://www.educause.edu/31 ***************************************************** COPYRIGHT Edupage copyright (c) 2004, EDUCAUSE
