NewsScan Daily, 21 June 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 21 June 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       Attacking the Attackers: Maybe Not a Good Idea
       The Deep Web
       Sasser Creator Interviewed
       Self-Discipline in China
       Network Vandals Post Terror Videos on Innocent Web Site
       Africa Set to Dial Into Digital First-World

FEATURES        
       Flash Card
       Honorary Subscriber: Virginia Kirkus

ATTACKING THE ATTACKERS: MAYBE NOT A GOOD IDEA
     A company called Symbiot Security has created "Intelligent Security
Infrastructure Management Systems" (iSIMS) that not only provide traditional
defensive measures against viruses, worms, and other kinds of network
vandalism -- but also offer the victims of vandalism a gradual escalation of
retaliation measures. These include the ability to flood the attacking
computers with data. However, some experts say that retaliatory actions
could be a very bad idea. Adrian Vanzyl of the security firm Seclarity
comments: "So you are in effect breaking into each of those systems as you
follow this person back. Are you legally liable for that? It's a very, very
good question." And Dorothy Denning, professor of defense analysis at the
Naval Postgraduate School, warns: "We've seen worms that have had major
impact like causing delays in airline schedules, shutting down ATM machines,
911 systems and so on. Putting any kind of worm out there would be
dangerous." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 18 Jun 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8957335.htm

THE DEEP WEB
     Because search engines skim only the top layers of Web pages, they miss
most of what's available on what is called the "deep Web," and there may be
as many as 500 billion Web pages hidden from the view of most search
engines. Paul Duguid, co-author of "The Social Life of Information," says:
"Google searches an index at the first layers of any Web site it goes to,
and as you delve beneath the surface, it starts to miss stuff. When you go
deeper, the number of pages just becomes absolutely mind-boggling."
Librarians are now working with Google and other search engines to solve
that problem. Daniel Greenstein of the University of California's California
Digital Library, the digital branch of the University of California notes:
"If you could use Google to just look across digital libraries, into any
digital library collection, now that would be cool. It would help libraries
achieve something that we haven't yet been able to achieve by ourselves,
which is to place all of our publicly accessible digital library collections
in a common pool." (New York Times 21 Jun 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/21/technology/21LIBR.html

SASSER CREATOR INTERVIEWED
     In an interview with the German magazine Stern, Sven Jaschan, the
author of the Sasser worm that hit Windows users at the beginning of last
month, says it was one of his friends who tipped off Microsoft in an attempt
to claim a reward. (The friend is now also under suspicion for his
involvement with writing and distributing the virus, and Microsoft has
indicated there will be no reward.) Jaschan says he inserted into Sasser a
piece of code he found on the Internet that "malfunctioned" and caused PCs
to reboot. He claims this was not his intention, and that he was
"thoughtless" in not considering the consequences or the damage his worm
would cause. (The Age 18 Jun 2004) Rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin U.
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/18/1087245087279.html

SELF-DISCIPLINE IN CHINA
     The Chinese government is asking Internet service providers there to
sign a "self-discipline pact" and to exercise patriotic judgment: "The basic
principles of self-discipline for the Internet industry are patriotism,
observance of the law, fairness and trustworthiness." Observance of the pact
will require that Web sites post no information "threatening to the national
security, social stability or containing superstitious or erotic content."
(AP/Los Angeles Times 20 Jun 2004)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/ats-ap_technology12jun20,1,608520.story?co
ll=sns-ap-toptechnology

NETWORK VANDALS POST TERROR VIDEOS ON INNOCENT WEB SIT
     Network vandals invaded the Web site of a San Jose mapping and
land-surveying company last week to post videos of the American engineer
Paul Johnson, who was captured and later beheaded by al-Qaeda terrorists in
Saudi Arabia. Tim Redd, owner of Silicon Valley Land Survey, said: "The
usage at the Web hosting company went sky-high. We're saddened by the events
that provoked all this activity." Redd didn't know that vandals were using
his Web site until a reporter from German magazine Der Spiegel contacted
him. The FBI is investigating. Ira Winkler of the security firm CSC thinks
it will be difficult to trace the invaders because they "will break into a
series of networks and use them to disguise their tracks." (AP/USA Today 19
Jun 2004)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2004-06-19-hackers-post-v
ideo_x.htm 

AFRICA SET TO DIAL INTO DIGITAL FIRST-WORLD
     Under pressure to provide unlimited access to telephones, African
countries are considering a U.S. technology that also offers the promise of
bringing the Internet to some of the world's poorest people. Telephones are
a luxury for the continent's estimated 800 million people, over half of whom
have never made a call. Experts say a version of the US Code Division
Multiple Access (CDMA) standard offers Africa an opportunity to leapfrog
technology into the digital first-world. The CDMA 450 wireless local loop
technology, also known as the "third world standard," is already being used
in some Eastern European countries and Russia as they switch from analog to
digital cellular systems. It promises a new lease of life to many
cash-strapped fixed-line African operators by giving them a chance to roll
out high-quality, affordable voice and data services using non-conventional
methods in areas deemed unprofitable.  (The Age 18 Jun 2004) Rec'd from John
Lamp, Deakin U.
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/17/1087245032827.html

*****  

FLASH CARD
     "The whole world is festering with unhappy souls ... The French hate
the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles ... Italians hate Yugoslavs, South
Africans hate the Dutch ... And I don't like anybody very much." (Lyrics by
Sheldon Harnick, song performed by the Kingston Trio)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: VIRGINIA KIRKUS
     Today's Honorary Subscriber is the American critic, editor and writer
Virginia Kirkus (1893-1980), founder of the still-active Kirkus book review
service for booksellers.
     The bookshop service Kirkus founded in 1933 was a new and untried
venture in the field of publishing and selling books. Working at first with
twenty or so publishers (but eventually with almost every firm of any size
in the publishing industry), she received advance galley proofs of books
that she read and then wrote critical evaluations she then distributed in a
bimonthly bulletin to subscribing bookshops. The reviews discussed a book's
literary merit and its probable popular appeal, giving bookshop managers a
heads-up on which to base their orders and promotions. The Kirkus assessment
of a book's commercial potential was convincingly accurate and her bulletins
became a must-read journal for America's bookshop owners. She was
particularly intuitive about identifying "sleepers" -- books of value that
otherwise might easily be overlooked.
     Kirkus was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania, but grew up in Wilmington,
Delaware. She attended private schools and in 1916 graduated from Vassar
College. She then attended Columbia University Teachers College, after
which, she taught English and history in a private school in Wilmington,
Delaware for three years. After that she moved to New York City where she
worked at a number of writing and editorial jobs, including writing for
McCall's and The Pictorial Review.
     In 1922 she published Every Woman's Guide to Health and Personal Beauty
and in 1925 she gave up magazine work to become the children's book editor
for Harper & Brothers, where she worked through 1932. Then in 1933, after a
European vacation, she took on the challenge of creating the Virginia Kirkus
Bookshop Service, which turned out to be an immediate success.
     She worked hard in those early years, reading and writing reviews for
upwards of 700 books a year. Somehow she also found time for writing an
occasional book, such as "A House for the Week Ends," which recounted her
experiences in remodeling her Redding, Connecticut, home, and "First Book of
Gardening." She also made time to serve as a trustee of the Mark Twain
Library in Redding and as its 1952-53 board president.
     She retired from the Kirkus Service in 1962. Later the Service was
taken over by the New York Review of Books. When Kirkus died in 1980 the
Service had 4,600 subscribers and reviewed 4,500 books a year. Kirkus is
buried in Danbury, Connecticut.

See http://www.kirkusreviews.com/kirkusreviews/about_us/history.jsp for
more information about the Kirkus Reviews.

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