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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, JANUARY 10, 2005 Hackers Hit George Mason New Questions Arise over Scholarly Republishing Comcast to Offer Internet Phone Service Software Pirate Gets 18 Months HACKERS HIT GEORGE MASON George Mason University has become the latest institution of higher education to be the victim of hackers' accessing personal information of faculty and students. University officials said that hackers gained access to information including names, photos, Social Security numbers, and campus ID numbers for "all members of the Mason community who have identification cards." An e-mail sent by the university's vice president for information technology indicated that the intruders appeared to be seeking "access to other campus systems rather than specific data," but the message warned that the information the hackers obtained could be used for identity theft. George Mason had ended its practice of putting Social Security numbers on ID cards, replacing them with university-generated numbers, in response to a Virginia state law that required such a change. The university maintains a database, however, that includes Social Security numbers. University officials discovered the intrusion on January 3 and said the hackers gained access to records of more than 30,000 faculty, staff, and students. CNET, 10 January 2005 http://news.com.com/2100-7349_3-5519592.html NEW QUESTIONS ARISE OVER SCHOLARLY REPUBLISHING A librarian at Cornell University has uncovered evidence that academic publisher Emerald has for many years republished articles in its journals without acknowledging previous publication. Philip M. Davis first noticed republished articles dating back to 1989 in online archives maintained by Emerald. Davis then broadened his search to include paper copies of Emerald journals going back to 1979 and said he found many more examples of such republished articles. Davis said some articles were published more than once in the same journal, several years apart, and noted that as a result libraries may have spent money on material they already owned. A spokesperson from Emerald said the company does not have a practice of republishing, though in some cases Emerald officials who thought a particular article especially valuable would republish it "to make it available to another audience." Davis said, "It's clearly unethical to republish materials without attribution." Chronicle of Higher Education, 14 January 2005 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v51/i19/19a03102.htm COMCAST TO OFFER INTERNET PHONE SERVICE Comcast is expected to announce plans to begin offering Internet phone service, thereby presenting the latest in a series of challenges to traditional phone companies from other media companies. According to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, "There is going to be a profound change in what a phone is in a home, and we're going to be part of that process." The cable TV giant hopes to make the service available to 15 million homes by the end of the year and to virtually all of the 40 million homes that have access to its cable services within 18 months. The company is aiming for eight million phone customers within five years. With this move, Comcast will join Time Warner and Cox Communications in the ongoing assault on phone companies. Traditional phone companies including Verizon Communications and SBC Communications have been working to develop infrastructure to provide television and Internet service, though those efforts are only beginning. Wall Street Journal, 10 January 2005 (sub. req'd) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110531356429521132,00.html SOFTWARE PIRATE GETS 18 MONTHS A federal court in Virginia has sentenced a Maryland man to 18 months in prison for selling pirated software on the Internet. The Justice Department alleged that Kishan Singh operated a Web site where users could pay for access to downloads of copyrighted applications from companies including Adobe, Autodesk, Macromedia, and Microsoft. Singh removed copy protections from the files he made available on his Web site. Singh pleaded guilty to one count of copyright infringement and was also ordered to forfeit the computer equipment he used to commit his crime. According to the Justice Department, during the time Singh's Web site was operating, users from around the world downloaded thousands of copies of various applications, worth a total value estimated to be between $70,000 and $120,000. Washington Times, 7 January 2005 http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050107-054741-2893r.htm ***************************************************** 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. 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