🚀 go-pugleaf

---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Friday, March 03, 2000, 4:06 PM -0500
From: Faulkner Mail Server <mailserver@faulknerinfo.com>
To: ???
Subject: Faulkner's Cyberscape Digest 03/03/2000

                                 CYBERSCAPE DIGEST

Welcome to CyberScape Digest, a roundup of top internet stories delivered
weekly to Faulkner Information Services subscribers.

This issue of CyberScape Digest covers events from Monday 02/28 through
Friday 03/03. Here's what you should know...

Opening Salvos in the Supply Chain Revolution
The automotive industry, which transformed the way businesses operated in
the industrial age with the early 1900s introduction of the assembly line,
is suddenly blazing trails for information age business. After several
months spent racing each other to establish automotive business-to-business
marketplaces, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler Daimler abruptly reported
that they would integrate their individual efforts and partner to create a
single independent exchange for the industry. The decision came at the
behest of frazzled and confused materials and auto parts suppliers, who
balked at the prospect of trying to support multiple standards. The new hub
will offer financial services, logistics, forecasting and online development
collaboration, e-procurement, and payment capabilities, and other major
manufacturers will be invited to join the venture on an equity basis. As the
exchange will combine Ford's Oracle-based AutoXchange with GM's
CommerceOne-driven TradeXchange, Oracle and CommerceOne are collaborating to
enable their e-commerce technologies to work together seamlessly in the new
venture. Procurement hubs, which enable businesses to dramatically cut costs
by bringing together disparate links and streamlining purchasing processes
in the supply chain, have been a hot trend in e-commerce for quite some
time, with consistent reports of partnership activity. Sears reported plans
to team with Oracle and Carrefour of France on GlobalNetXchange, a retail
exchange. Sears and Carrefour will hold majority stakes and Oracle will hold
a minority stake in the venture, which is expected to ultimately go public.
Ariba and Sabre Holdings also plan an airline industry exchange, Sabre
e-Marketplace, which is expected to target other travel-related sectors,
such as hotel properties, car rental agencies, online travel agencies,
cruise lines, and railroads. The smaller procurement hubs, which do not
represent a dominant portion of a market sector, are under more pressure
than the Big Three Automakers to attract supply partners in order to ensure
the success of the exchange. Some companies see opportunity in selling
applications that drive the e-marketplace. Microsoft and Radiant Systems
have teamed to develop and market an integrated Web-management and supply
chain offering that will target the companies that are scrambling to partner
and avail themselves of exchange savings.
[ http://www.ford.com/ ], [ http://www.gm.com/ ], [
http://www.daimlerchrysler.com/ ], [ http://www.oracle.com/ ], [
http://www.commerceone.com/ ], [ http://www.sears.com/ ], [
http://www.carrefour.com/ ], [ http://www.ariba.com/ ], [
http://www.sabre.com/ ], [ http://www.microsoft.com/ ] 
   
Amazon Goes Wireless, Gets Patent
Catering to the wireless Internet device crowd, Amazon created a Web site
designed for the smaller screens and slower Internet connections that such
devices usually feature. Consumers can use the Web site to place orders,
monitor order status, and check shipping availability. Amazon's next move
opened up a large can of worms: it patented its "affiliate programs"
technology, which lets the company pay a commission to other Web sites for
sending it customers. The programs are widely used on the Internet. Amazon
could enforce its patent by charging a fee to Web sites using the
technology, or even prohibit other Web sites from using it at all. While
Amazon has not yet revealed its plans for the patent, the fact that it once
sued barnesandnoble.com after patenting "1-click" technology for placing
online orders--and won a court injunction preventing the competing
bookseller from using the process--is enough to have many observers
concerned. Tim O'Reilly, president and CEO of popular technology book
publishing company O'Reilly and Associates, sent Amazon a letter objecting
to the patent. "We believe that the rapid innovation on the World Wide
Web...will be choked off if companies take the short-sighted route of filing
patents on commonly accepted and obvious techniques," O'Reilly asserted in
the letter. Meanwhile, Web publisher Jorn Barger found what appears to be a
legal way to "hack" the technology. If a user removes all the numbers in the
Amazon URL after the first number and substitutes the ID for an affiliate,
the affiliate will receive its affiliate's commission for any purchases made
by the user. 
[ http://www.amazon.com/ ], [ http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ ], [
http://www.ora.com/ ]

How Secure is Secure?
Online security issues have dominated the headlines since the recent "denial
of service" hacks at major Web sites, and this week was no exception.
Intuit's Quicken.com loan Web site sprung a leak, as consumer financial
information entered into its loan calculation tools was transferred  to
advertising concern DoubleClick, which is already under investigation by the
Federal Trade Commission in response to consumer accusations of deceptive
practices in collecting Net user data. Intuit claimed that user identities
were not linked to the financial data and that the problem was rectified by
the removal of DoubleClick ads from the Quicken loan site. Meanwhile, a
hacker who goes by "Curador" and claims to be attacking sites to draw
attention to lax e-commerce security practices, staged his latest assault
against Net business marketplace SalesGate.com, taking 2000 records that
included credit card numbers and other personal information. Upon discovery
of the hack, SalesGate cancelled the credit cards directly and notified
customers of the security breach. At the other end of the equation,
Web-based travel agency Expedia reported that it would have to set aside $4
million to $6 million to cover losses due to a spate of online shopping
sprees by users racking up fraudulent charges to stolen credit card numbers.
The company claims that the card numbers were not taken from Expedia
customer data and that the Web site's security system was not breached.
Nevertheless, Expedia said that it has adopted additional anti-fraud
purchase verification protections to preclude such problems in the future.
In a probe of the "denial of service" incidents, the FBI has questioned and
searched the home of a 17-year-old New Hampshire hacker known as "Coolio,"
who has admitted to having launched attacks against 100 Web sites. In
Washington, Congress picked the brain of Kevin Mitnick, a hacker who
recently completed a federal prison term for his exploits. Mitnick advised
organizations to avoid focusing on technical safeguards at the expense of
best practices protections, such as ensuring that passwords are not divulged
to sensitive systems and that confidential information is not disclosed to
unauthorized parties. Mitnick testified that the actual key to his hacking
success was his ability to deceive personnel such as Social Security
Administration and Internal Revenue Service staffers into giving him
sensitive taxpayer information. With so many privacy issues emerging, it
seems that wary consumers may have good reason to be insecure about "secure
transactions." After records numbers of Web shopping transactions over the
holidays, shoppers for online goods and services appear to be feeling more
skeptical and skittish of late, a situation reflected in a recent consumer
survey.   
[ http://www.intuit.com/ ], [ http://www.doubleclick.com/ ], [
http://www.ftc.gov/ ], [ http://www.salesgate.com/ ], [
http://www.expedia.com/ ], [ http://www.fbi.gov/ ]

AOL is Everywhere, But is it Open?
America Online's latest deal in its bid to be everywhere is with cell phone
maker Nokia. The two companies agreed to work together on a version of AOL's
Instant Messenger that will be usable on Nokia phones. The companies expect
to place the software in some Nokia phones in North America before the end
of the year. Several other companies have shown interest in AOL's Instant
Messenger product, for rather different reasons. The Internet access giant
is known for blocking other companies from accessing its Instant Messenger
system with their own software, especially when said companies don't ask for
permission first. CMGI's iCast just joined that list. In truth, iCast is the
party at fault. It advertised at iCaster's unveiling that the instant
messaging product, which boasts a variety of audio features, is compatible
with AIM without checking with AOL first. Duh. While trying to make things
up to AOL, it joined a group of companies led by Microsoft and AltaVista in
sending a letter to Senate Commerce Committee members. The letter requested
an examination of AOL's messaging policies--not to seek regulation,
according to the authors, but to ensure "that all Internet users can enjoy
the immense benefits of fully interoperable instant messaging capabilities,
and avoid the dangers of a Balkanized system." Ah, but surely AOL
understands issues of open access; the company has been pushing all along
for open access to cable TV lines for competing ISPs, right? Um. Well, AOL's
merger with Time Warner seemed to make it change its tune, at least for a
while. Still, AOL CEO Steve Case and Time Warner CEO Gerald Levine promised
the Senate Judiciary Committee that the two companies, once merged, will
grant competing ISPs access to its cable network, as soon as Time Warner's
contract with Road Runner expires at the end of next year. The executives'
statements soothed lawmakers, who expressed concern that the mammoth merger
would limit consumer choice and competition in the ISP marketplace. Senate
Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin Hatch still seemed skeptical, however,
and apparently would like to make approval of the merger conditional on the
two companies fulfilling their promise of open access to competitors.      
[ http://www.aol.com/ ], [ http://www.nokia.com/ ], [ http://www.icast.com/
], [ http://www.microsoft.com/ ], [ http://www.altavista.com/ ], [
http://www.timewarner.com/ ], [ http://www.senate.gov/ ]

Microsoft: Back to the Future 
When its not fending off the Department of Justice or turning an operating
system launch into a media circus, Microsoft occasionally finds time to
catch its breath and look toward the future. Lately, the software behemoth
has been actively fortifying its role in the development of emerging
technologies. The company agreed to acquire Peach Networks, an Israel-based
provider of interactive television services, in a move designed to extend
the Microsoft TV platform with additional technology for basic digital
set-top boxes. Microsoft is optimizing the platform and preparing to take
advantage of an anticipated boom in consumer and digital network operator
demand for enhanced TV services offerings such as e-mail, communications,
Internet, shopping, information on demand, and entertainment applications.
Also, at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association Wireless 2000
conference in New Orleans, chairman Bill Gates unveiled a series of
initiatives to bring Microsoft software and services to wireless devices.
Gates demonstrated the new interactive MSN Mobile 2.0, which provides such
services as MSN Hotmail e-mail, MSN MoneyCentral online personal finance
service, MSNBC.com news, and the Expedia.com online travel service. Wireless
customers can access these features through a range of portable devices,
including Web-enabled mobile phones, pocket PCs and Palm handheld computers.
Nextel Communications and AirTouch Cellular have agreed to offer MSN Mobile
2.0, while WebLink Wireless and Totally Free Paging will offer an enhanced
one-way version of MSN Mobile notifications. Gates also disclosed
Microsoft's intention to form a strategic alliance with QUALCOMM to
collaborate on defining and developing of advanced wireless, multi-media
capable devices. "The introduction of 2.5G and 3G mobile networks will spur
even more dramatic growth, as knowledge workers and other professionals take
advantage of high-speed connectivity," Gates explained.
[ http://www.microsoft.com/ ], [ http://www.peach-networks.com/ ], [
http://www.msn.com/ ]. [ http://www.nextel.com/ ], [
http://www.qualcomm.com/ ]      

Don't Hack the Crime If You Can't Hack the Time
Courts are attempting to send a message that the Law is getting tough on
cyber crime by making examples of Internet pranksters. 20-year-old hacker
Chad Davis was convicted in January of accessing a US Army Web site without
authorization and altering its contents. Stating that hacking is a "deadly
serious business," US District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller sentenced Davis to
six months in prison with an additional three months of supervised release.
Davis was also fined $8054 to cover the cost of restoration of the Web site.
North of the border, a court in Quebec, Canada convicted 22-year-old
Pierre-Guy Lavoie of the fraudulent use of passwords to commit computer
crimes for hacking access codes and breaking into the sites of the Canadian
Department of National Defense, the FBI, and the US military, as well as the
systems of large corporations. He also listed the stolen passwords and
access codes on a Web site that encouraged Net surfers to break into
systems, as well. Lavoie was sentenced to 12 months probation, 12 months of
community service, and was ordered to stay away from computers and the
Internet, except under surveillance at work, for a period of twelve months.
In handing down the sentence, Quebec Court Justice Andre Bilodeau wrote that
the court was underscoring the fact that, in our information society, the
online sphere "will become, like other types of payment or communications
means..., the theater of more and more fertile criminal acts."    
[ http://www.fbi.gov/ ]

IPO Eagerness...and a Reason to be Wary
Home delivery service Kozmo.com reportedly will file for an initial public
offering of stock sometime in the next week or so. The company refused to
comment--but then again, if it is planning an IPO, federal law prevents it
from commenting. New York City-based Kozmo delivers fairly inexpensive items
for free within an hour. Digital Think, a business technology training
company, received high marks with its IPO. First priced at $14 per share,
the stock closed at $29 per share on its first day. But as far as IPOs go,
one really has to hand it to Palm. The maker of the popular PalmPilot PDAs
originally planned to ask for $16 per share on its offering of 23 million
shares, the stock finally sold at $38 per share, raising $874 million for
the company--and went right on climbing the following day, its first full
day of trading, to $165 per share before closing at more than $95 per share.
This made the stock the third-largest percentage point gainer in Wall
Street's history. Of course, all the excitement about the money to be made
investing in IPOs has attracted some unscrupulous players to the game. The
Securities and Exchange Commission charged Ira Monas, already in jail for
grand larceny, two of his employees, and two businesses Monas controls with
bilking 190 investors out of $8.7 million dollars on four IPOs: United
Parcel Service, World Wrestling Federation, FreeMarkets (an online auction
firm), and Fogdog (an online sports merchant). Monas sent the investors
false trade confirmations and account statements, according to the SEC, and
used the money from the investors to cover personal expenses. Caveat
emptor.    [ http://www.kozmo.com/ ], [ http://www.digitalthink.com/ ], [
http://www.palm.com/ ], [ http://www.ups.com/ ], [ http://www.sec.gov/ ], [
http://www.wwf.com/ ], [ http://www.freemarkets.com/ ], [
http://www.fogdog.com/ ]

Internet Companies Hit With Hard Luck
Call it the "poor baby" department: several businesses found themselves in
unhappy straits this week, in some (but not all) cases through no real fault
of their own. Leading the list is Apex Global Internet Services, a small
backbone operator with big enough problems to declare bankruptcy while in
Chapter 11 reorganization. Founded in 1994, AGIS is reputedly the oldest
Internet backbone. Its fortunes fell in 1997 when both it and its system
were attacked for its permissive stance on spam. Next up is Virtual Works,
an ISP that registered vw.net as its domain name. According to Volkswagen,
the ISP then tried to sell the domain name to the auto maker--which promptly
sued. Virtual Works countersued. Volkswagen just won its case this week, and
requested the court to assign it the vw.net domain name. DoubleClick has
become a favorite choice for lists of battered companies lately, thanks to
concerns about the privacy of the data held by the online ad agency. This
week, AltaVista and Kozmo.com added to DoubleClick's woes. AltaVista began
to limit its release of customer information to DoubleClick, while Kozmo is
looking for ways to end its partnership with DoubleClick more quickly. In
response to all the uproar, DoubleClick agreed to back off from its initial
plan to link personal data with anonymous Web surfers, at least until the
government and industry set clear privacy standards. Canadian online
broadcaster iCraveTV was perhaps hit worst of all. Groups representing the
NFL, the NBA, Fox, Disney, four US broadcast networks and five Canadian TV
stations sued the company, alleging that it was transmitting copyrighted
programming without permission. iCraveTV agreed to settle the case by
permanently closing its Web site. The company's Web site was still up as of
Thursday, but carried the statement that "Access to stations and listings is
not available at this time." The company may be down but not out; a press
release on the site speaks of "negotiating licenses with rights holders for
the streaming of various forms of video on the iCrave site." Another company
in the dog house, but not to feel too sorry for, is Palm. Palm, the makers
of the Palm Pilot and issuers of a very successful IPO (see above)?! Yes
indeed. Or, more precisely, it's 3com, Palm's parent, in the hot seat.
E-Pass Technologies has filed a lawsuit against 3com, claiming that its
founder, Hartmut Hennige, patented a multifunction handheld computer back in
1994--and that 3com is infringing that patent. Given the popularity of the
Palm Pilot, it should be interesting to see how this suit plays out.  
[ http://www.agis.net/ ], [ http://www.vw.net/ ], [ http://www.vw.com/ ], [
http://www.doubleclick.com/ ], [ http://www.altavista.com/ ], [
http://www.kozmo.com/ ], [ http://www.icravetv.com/ ], [
http://www.3com.com/ ], [ http://www.palm.com/ ], [ http://www.e-pass.com/ ]

Sun Throws Java Community a Bone
Sun Microsystems met with representatives from Apple, BEA Systems, Compaq,
Fujitsu, HP, Novell, Oracle, Symantec, Wind River, and IBM to review a
proposal process, JCP 2.0, whereby Sun would relinquish partial control over
Java development. JCP 2.0 would allow other companies besides Sun decide
upon the make-up of new groups to determine Java standards for new industry
segments. It would also grant other companies greater control in choosing
when to release Java developments to the public. 
[ http://www.sun.com/ ], [ http://www.apple.com/ ], [ http://www.beasys.com/
], [ http://www.compaq.com/ ], [ http://fujitsu.co.jp/ ], [
http://www.hp.com/ ], [ http://www.novell.com/ ], [ http://www.oracle.com/
], [ http://symantec.com/ ], [ http://www.wrs.com/ ], [ http://www.ibm.com/
]

Can Bill Shatner Sing "Waltzing Matilda?"
The "name your own price" Internet portal provider Priceline.com reported
plans to establish a new company, MyPrice, that will enable it to push into
the Australia and New Zealand markets. Priceline entered into an agreement
with telecom and shipping firm Hutchison Whampoa to deliver its services
"Down Under," while teaming with SFN Investments and Australian telecom
Telstra as investment partners. Financial details of the initiative were not
disclosed. Priceline, which started as a Web portal where customers could
get discounts by bidding on airline tickets instead of paying a flat rate,
now also offers the same "name your own price" deals for groceries, hotel
rooms, new cars, and home mortgages; it recently reported plans offer
gasoline in May. Similarly, MyPrice initially will offer airline tickets,
with expansion into other sectors to follow. In another quest for elbow
room, Excite@Home reported an agreement with Rogers Media to partner on a
joint-venture Web portal, Excite Canada. The deal mirrors a recent
partnership between Bell Canada and Lycos to establish a firm,
Sympatico-Lycos, to manage Bell Canada's portal operations. Bell Canada runs
the country's leading Internet service provider. Rogers Media is a division
of Rogers Communications, a cable company owner and rival of Bell Canada
parent telecom company, BCE. The Excite Canada deal should help to keep the
playing field level in the contest for ISP market share.       
[ http://www.priceline.com/ ], [ http://www.excite.com/ ]

Anticlimactic Leap Day Follows Y2K Non-Event
February 29th was an historic Leap Day in one respect: it was the first Leap
Day in 400 years to occur during a year ending in "00." That was essentially
the extent of its notoriety, as any Y2K-like fears of related
mission-critical systems failures proved unfounded. Reported glitches ranged
from ATM and meteorological malfunctions in Japan to "caller ID" box snafus
stateside.  Less than two dozen minor problems were reported to the
International Y2K Cooperation Center (IY2KCC), according to its director
Bruce W. McConnell. Similarly, John Koskinen, chairman of the President's
Council on Y2K Conversion, stated that there were "no reports of major
problems in the United States, or around the world for that matter,
resulting from computer programs not being able to properly recognize the
February 29 date." Now that it has completed its original mission of
mitigating global Y2K impact, the IY2KCC is in discussions with its
founders, the United Nations and the World Bank, about the prospect of using
its international network of government technology officials to address
other international technology problems. Likewise, the US Office of
Management and Budget is mulling over the possible application of the
Council's Information Coordination Center as a national defense facility
against cyber terrorism.
[ http://www.iy2kcc.org/ ], [ http://www.y2k.gov/ ]

Who Wants to be an ICANN Member?
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers received a strong
response to its membership drive. The membership Web site opened late in
February, but has already received applications from more than 3500 Internet
users from around the world. The organization's goal is to reach a total of
5000 at-large members by the time it meets in Cairo, Egypt, later this
month. At-large members can vote for ICANN board directors, and receive
regular updates on the board's activities. It may not seem like much, but
ICANN has in the past been accused of being overly secretive and
unresponsive to the needs of Netizens; the at-large membership seems to be
at least a step in the right direction.
[ http://www.icann.org/ ]

SouthPark More Than a Bad Cartoon
The PrettyPark worm mutated yet again, according to McAfee's AVERT
(anti-virus emergency response team) division. The SouthPark version
contains an icon of "Kyle," one of the characters from the series, and
attacks Windows 9x/NT systems. The company classified the worm as high-risk
because it can cause severe network slowdowns. The worm spreads itself via
e-mail, and appears as an attachment with the SouthPark character icon. It
mails itself to all the addresses in a victim's entire address book...every
thirty minutes. The worm will also try to connect to an IRC channel and send
it information.
[ http://www.mcafee.com/ ] 

Outage Ticker: Sprint, FBI
Sprint found itself battling multiple outages this week. Most of the
problems hit on Monday at 8 AM EST, when four sprint routers went down: two
in Pennsauken (NJ), one in Seattle, and one in Chicago. Sprint did not state
the cause of the problem, nor did they give an estimated time for repairs.
Later that same day, a Sprint router in San Jose reportedly lost
connectivity. On Wednesday, another Chicago router was down for half an hour
starting at 4:30 PM EST while Sprint performed emergency maintenance.
Finally, the Federal Bureau of Investigation admitted that its Web site fell
victim to a distributed denial of service attack on February 18, causing the
site to be unavailable for more than three hours. The bureau's computers
were not broken into.
[ http://www.sprint.com/ ], [ http://www.fbi.gov/ ]

Cyberscape Dee-Lite: Source of Very Specific Medical Information
One of the Internet's greatest advantages is that a well-designed Web site
can serve as a clearinghouse for a huge amount of information. Better yet,
there's a decent chance the information will find its intended audience and
be used, rather than sit moldering somewhere in a format that's hard to wade
through or difficult to understand. The National Library of Medicine, under
orders from Congress, created a Web site to permit people to get more
information about the various clinical trials underway. The site allows
users to perform searches, browse by condition, and browse by sponsor; it
also includes information explaining and describing clinical trials,
including the risks and benefits of participating. The Web site lists more
than 4,000 clinical trials, most being sponsored by the National Institute
of Health. The resource is interesting for those curious about the mountain
of medical research being conducted every year...and priceless for those
with a serious illness that is not responding to treatment. A quick check of
the site turned up the information that 179 trials are recruiting patients
to study breast cancer treatments; 258 trials are recruiting for studies
concerning digestive diseases; 73 trials are recruiting for studies
concerning eye diseases; and the list goes on. 
[ http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct/gui ]

ABOUT FAULKNER
Faulkner Information Services has researched and reported on computer and
communications technologies for over 30 years. For information about your
subscription, or to subscribe to other Faulkner information services,
contact us...
         telephone: 856-662-2070 or 800-843-0460
         fax: 856-662-0905
         email: sales@faulkner.com
         web: http://www.faulkner.com

WHAT'S NEW
FACCTs on the Web now available...Faulkner's Advisory on Computer and
Communications Technologies is now available over the Web! For information
about subscribing to the Web-based version of FACCTs, just send an e-mail
message to sales@faulkner.com or call 800-843-0460 (or 856-662-2070). Also,
don't forget to check out Telecom Weekly, available for free at Faulkner's
Web site.

SUBSCRIBING & UNSUBSCRIBING
If you received this issue of CyberScape Digest, you are already a
subscriber. To unsubscribe, just send email to cyberscape@faulkner.com and
request your removal from our mail list.

SEND YOUR QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, TIPS
Terri Wells and Adrienne Edwards
Editors, CyberScape Digest
Faulkner Information Services
cyberscape@faulkner.com

CyberScape Digest, copyright 2000, Faulkner Information Services. All rights
reserved.
  
Faulkner Information Service
Faulkner Mail Server
mailserver@faulknerinfo.com
114 Cooper Center
Pennsauken, N.J. 08109
(856) 662 2070
http://www.faulkner.com



---------- End Forwarded Message ----------



Missy Harvey
Computer Science Librarian
Engineering & Science Library
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA  15213

http://www.library.cmu.edu/usr/missy/

                   .--~~,__
     :-....,-------`~~'._.'
      `-,,,  ,_      ;'~'
       _,-' ,'`-__; '--.
      (_/'~~      ''''(;

"Golden retrievers are the best alarm clock 
 around.  They're gentle as a lamb and they  
 always wake you up with a smile!"