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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, JULY 03, 2006 Virginia Tech Mandates Tablet PCs Academics Sneak Past Chinese Firewall Court Rulings Fail to Slow File Sharing Shadowcrew Cofounder Sentenced VIRGINIA TECH MANDATES TABLET PCS Starting this fall semester, students in the engineering school at Virginia Tech will be required to have a Tablet PC, making the school one of the first to mandate such devices. Similar to a laptop but with a screen that users can write on with a stylus, Tablet PCs have been slower to take off than many had predicted. The program at Virginia Tech is a joint effort between the university, Fujitsu, and Microsoft. Over the summer, faculty will receive training in how best to incorporate Tablet PCs into their teaching. Virginia Tech's engineering school has often been an early adopter of technology, requiring students in 1984 to own personal computers. ZDNet, 30 June 2006 http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-6090046.html ACADEMICS SNEAK PAST CHINESE FIREWALL Researchers at the University of Cambridge have discovered a way to circumvent the firewall operated by the Chinese government and also to use it to launch denial-of-service attacks. Chinese authorities implemented the firewall to try to prevent computer users in the country from accessing any information deemed inflammatory by the government. According to Richard Clayton of the university's computer lab, the firewall allows packets in and out of the country, but, when a packet contains prohibited information, the firewall initiates a reset, which causes the connection between the sending and receiving computers to fail. "If you drop all the reset packets at both ends of the connection, which is relatively trivial to do," said Clayton, "the Web page is transferred just fine." At the same time, spoofed return addresses for Internet transmissions will cause the firewall to temporarily block traffic to and from those computers. Clayton noted that even with a single dial-up connection, a hacker could create a very disruptive attack. The researchers have reported their findings to the Chinese Computer Emergency Response Team. CNET, 3 July 2006 http://news.com.com/2100-7348_3-6090437.html COURT RULINGS FAIL TO SLOW FILE SHARING Despite a series of court judgments against file traders, including a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year against Grokster, the number of individuals who illegally trade files online is up from this time a year ago, according to BigChampagne. The company said about 9.7 million people worldwide used file-trading services in May 2006, about 6.7 million of whom were U.S. users, compared to 8.6 million and 6.2 million in May 2005. When the Supreme Court ruled that developers of P2P services could be sued for the copyright violations committed by those using the services, many predicted the demise of file trading. Grokster stopped distributing its software, and other companies said they would change their business models. File trading continues, however, and one company, eDonkey, has so far not followed through on its promise to start selling music legally. Mitch Bainwol, chairman of the Recording Industry Association of America, suggested that the legal action against file trading is working, saying that without the court rulings, file trading would be even more rampant. Mercury News, 30 June 2006 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/14941434.htm SHADOWCREW COFOUNDER SENTENCED A federal judge has sentenced one of the cofounders of the Shadowcrew Web site to 32 months in prison for his role in the scheme that traded in stolen personal information, including credit card numbers. Andrew Mantovani pleaded guilty in November 2005 and, in a statement at his sentencing, apologized for the damage caused by Shadowcrew. Prosecutors said the theft ring trafficked in millions of credit card numbers and user information for 18 million e-mail accounts. Losses from the activities were estimated at about $4 million. When authorities cracked down on Shadowcrew, 21 people were arrested, 18 of whom have since pleaded guilty to a range of charges. Mantovani's sentence was the longest handed down so far in the affair. Still, his attorney was pleased that the judge did not impose a stiffer penalty. ABC News, 29 June 2006 http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2136453 ***************************************************** 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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