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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2006 LSU to Provide Identity-Theft Insurance Facebook Opens the Gates Another P2P Site Crumbles Survey Finds Insider Security Breaches Not Reported Microsoft Pushes Web Services, Including Open Source LSU TO PROVIDE IDENTITY-THEFT INSURANCE Louisiana State University (LSU) has launched a new program under which it will provide identity-theft insurance to its faculty and staff. LSU did report a minor security breach several months ago, in which the personal information for about 67 students was compromised, but the new initiative is aimed at possible future problems. Under the terms of the new program, students and faculty can have one year of credit monitoring and $2,500 worth of identity-theft insurance. The services are provided through a contract with credit bureau Equifax, which LSU will pay $150,000 for one year of the agreement. Brian Voss, CIO at LSU, said the new service might also protect the institution from liability claims in the event that a member of the campus community suffers identity theft due to a breach at the university. Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 September 2006 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/09/2006091301t.htm FACEBOOK OPENS THE GATES Social networking site Facebook has announced plans to open the site to anyone, a fundamental change from how the site has functioned since it started operating two years ago. Initially, the site was restricted to individuals affiliated with participating college and university campuses. Since then, access was opened to high school students, with some restrictions, and to employees of certain corporations. According to Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive of Facebook, the new change is to accommodate the growing number of individuals who want to join but might not be able to. As students graduate and enter the workforce, he said, some of their colleagues might want to participate but not have a necessary affiliation with their alma mater. Observers noted that until now, one of Facebook's attractions was its exclusivity compared to sites such as MySpace. Zuckerberg pointed out that Facebook users will still have a high degree of control over the information in their profiles and who is allowed to access that information. New York Times, 12 September 2006 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/technology/12online.html ANOTHER P2P SITE CRUMBLES MetaMachine Inc., the company that developed the eDonkey file-sharing service, has reached an agreement with the entertainment industry that closes the doors on another P2P site. Under the terms of the deal, which must still be approved by a federal judge, the company will pay $30 million to avoid copyright infringement charges and will stop distributing software that allows users to share files. Further, the company will also take steps to discourage users who previously downloaded the file-sharing software from continuing to use it. Mitch Bainwol, chairman and chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America, welcomed the deal, saying that it "further strengthened the footing of the legal marketplace." Houston Chronicle, 12 September 2006 http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4181007.html SURVEY FINDS INSIDER SECURITY BREACHES NOT REPORTED Results of a recent survey indicate that at U.S. corporations, a considerable portion of IT security breaches are not reported. Nearly 80 percent of the respondents to the survey, which was conducted by Ponemon Institute, said that an insider-related breach has not been reported. More than 61 percent of the respondents said careless or untrained employees and contractors cause accidental data leaks "frequently" or "very frequently"; 48 percent said deliberate violations of IT security occur "frequently" or "very frequently." The top reasons cited for insider breaches were lack of resources (93 percent) and lack of leadership (80 percent). Thirty-one percent said no single person at their organization has oversight for insider threats. ComputerWorld, 12 September 2006 http://www.computerworld.com/ MICROSOFT PUSHES WEB SERVICES, INCLUDING OPEN SOURCE Microsoft this week published the Open Specification Promise (OSP), in which the company promises not to assert patent authority over a number of Web services specifications. The move is part of Microsoft's effort to encourage developers to build applications based on its Web services tools, which should allow interoperability among applications built on those standards. Microsoft made a similar pledge regarding the XML document specifications in its Office 2003 suite of products. According to Microsoft, its commitment to allow use of these standards will "reassure a broad audience of developers and customers that the specification(s) could be used for free, easily, now and forever." The OSP allows third-party companies including distributors to develop applications or "implementations" based on the specifications, without signing a license agreement. ZDNet, 13 September 2006 http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6115204.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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