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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, JULY 06, 2005 Internet2 and LambdaRail in Merger Talks Dell and Napster Partner on College Music Service Flaw Allows Access to USC Admissions Site Author of Sasser Worm Confesses Malware Mushrooms to New Levels INTERNET2 AND LAMBDARAIL IN MERGER TALKS Internet2 and National LambdaRail have entered into discussions about a possible merger, following the recommendations of an 11-member commission that called for the groups to combine their efforts. The commission, which both organizations had authorized, said in its report that there should be "a single national entity responsible for the collective high-performance production-networking and experimental-networking needs of higher education and the larger research community." Among other activities, Internet2 operates Abilene, a high-speed research network. National LambdaRail is developing a nationwide fiber-optic network infrastructure, and many see the goals of the two organizations increasingly converging over time. Members of the commission suggested that negotiating terms under which the two networks could exist separately could run afoul of antitrust laws. Despite the approval of the governing boards of both organizations for the merger talks, financial and organizational differences could prevent a merger, according to officials from both organizations. Chronicle of Higher Education, 6 July 2005 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/07/2005070601t.htm DELL AND NAPSTER PARTNER ON COLLEGE MUSIC SERVICE Dell and Napster have announced a partnership to offer online music services to colleges and universities. Student downloads of music are notorious for slowing the performance of campus networks, sometimes severely, leading many campuses to impose restrictions on such downloads, at least during certain hours of the day. Widespread downloading of music using common P2P services also carries the risks of copyright violations and of adware and spyware infecting student computers and campus networks. The new partnership aims to address these problems by providing Napster's legal online music service from dedicated Dell servers. The partnership also allows Dell to sell Napster subscriptions, and Dell is offering discounts on its portable music players to campus users as part of the deal. The University of Washington is the first customer of the service and will install 10 Dell servers on its Seattle campus this fall. University Business, 6 July 2005 http://www.universitybusiness.com/page.cfm?p=879 FLAW ALLOWS ACCESS TO USC ADMISSIONS SITE Officials at the University of Southern California (USC) acknowledged that a flaw in the school's online application system left personal data on applicants to the university exposed to hackers. The vulnerability was discovered by a student, who found the problem when he was was using the system to apply to USC. He reported it to Internet security firm SecurityFocus, which then notified the university. The flaw reportedly exposed information including names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers on many thousands of applicants. After being notified of the problem, USC initially disabled only the log-in functionality but has since taken down the entire application. USC officials disclosed neither the number of individuals whose data was affected nor whether it would notify those affected. Under a recently enacted California law, consumers must be notified in the event that their personal information has been accessed without authorization. The Register, 6 July 2005 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/06/usc_site_cracked/ AUTHOR OF SASSER WORM CONFESSES Prosecutors in Germany have announced that Sven Jaschan, on trial for writing the Sasser computer worm, this week confessed to all charges against him. Regarded as possibly the most damaging computer worm ever released, Sasser and its several versions are blamed for crashing as many as one million computers around the world, affecting home users and companies including the European Commission and Goldman Sachs. Jaschan, who is 19 now and was a minor when he committed some of his crimes, had previously admitted to writing the worm; this week, he also confessed to data manipulation, computer sabotage, and interfering with public corporations. He faces up to five years in prison and paying restitution to those affected by Sasser. Monetary damages from the worm have only reached about $150,000, but that number could easily rise into the millions if all those affected reported the damage. New York Times, 5 July 2005 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-crime-germany-sasser.html MALWARE MUSHROOMS TO NEW LEVELS Incidents involving malicious computer code have spiked this year, according to computer security firm Sophos, which attributes the sharp rise to growing numbers of professional criminals who are using the Internet to make money. The company said it has tracked nearly 8,000 new varieties of malware in the first six months of the year, an increase of 60 percent over the same period last year. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, noted that the trend in malware has been toward Trojan horses and away from viruses and worms. Trojan horses can allow hackers to access information on a compromised system or to take over the system completely. It is these Trojans, said Cluley, that criminals are using to make money from unsuspecting users. Although Microsoft products remained at the top of the list of most frequently targeted applications, Cluley said malware is also being written to take advantage of Linux, UNIX, and Mac systems. CNET, 5 July 2005 http://news.com.com/2100-7349_3-5774841.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. 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