IT Trends for Thursday, April 1, 2004

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Thursday, April 01, 2004

In This Issue

OPINION

Jeff Schiller, MIT’s network manager, reflects on Internet governance and security.


The Rule of ISP

One of the issues we have with the Internet is its governance. It’s moving from a very ungoverned space to what I would call governance by corporate fiat.

For example, my use of the telephone is governed by the laws of the United States and the state that I live in. But my use of my Internet connection is governed by an acceptable use policy imposed on me by my ISP, which is a commercial entity. And a lot of the things you will find in acceptable use policies are all about limiting the liability of the ISP and not about whether you have rights as a user.

Here’s an interesting story: At MIT we were being scanned by somebody who turned out to be on a cable modem in Louisville, Kentucky. And we notified their ISP that we were getting an attack. There was no one you could call at the ISP, but they did have an abuse address and they said, “Send mail to that.” So I sent mail to that. This was on a Friday. On Saturday I was thinking, “I bet this person attacking me is probably an innocent victim and their machine was compromised.” So I did some homework and actually tracked him down wound up talking to him on the phone. I said, “You know, your machine has this problems.” And then we actually figured out what the hole was where the bad guy got in, and we got that all fixed up, which was much more than the ISP would do.

About a week later I got a note from the ISP along the lines of, “We’ve terminated this customer’s service and they’ll never get service from us again.” So they didn’t make the effort to do any kind of an investigation and, you know, they probably figure, “This customer’s paying only 40 bucks a month they just get rid of him; throw him off the customer list and go on. What if the U.S. government worked that way, or if local government worked that way: If somebody accused you of a crime, would the government just take you and throw you in jail because that’s the cheapest thing they can do? Because putting you on trial would cost money? Yet that is how the Internet’s being governed.

Click here to read an in-depth article with Jeff Schiller about security on today's campus networks.


IT NEWS

University Cybersecurity Addressed

Former presidential adviser Richard A. Clarke, keynote speaker at the first Indiana Higher Education Cybersecurity Summit, said universities have an obligation to safeguard personal information belonging to students, employees, and alumni without compromising the information to hackers.
Read more

Real-time Integration Between WebCT Vista and SunGard SCT

WebCT announced a new system for real-time data exchange between the WebCT Vista academic enterprise system and SunGard SCT student information systems. The system dramatically eases customers' administrative burdens, fosters scalability, and gives students seamless access to their important campus systems.

Wi-Fi Education: AUD Students Get Insight from the Experts

The American University in Dubai held a seminar for its IT students exposing them to the evolution of wireless technology.
Read more

PDAs Evolving in NCSU Classrooms

NCSU’s administrators in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences are pushing PDAs to undergraduates, which helps the students better manage their time while integrate the technology into classroom instruction.
Read more

PeopleSoft Sued Over Faulty Installation

Ohio's attorney general filed a lawsuit against PeopleSoft, seeking $510 million in damages from an allegedly faulty installation of the company's ERP and student administration applications at Cleveland State University.
Read more

UCSF to Evaluate and Redesign Emergency Communications Infrastructure

Given heightened security at scientific research facilities nationwide, the need to coordinate and dispatch campus public safety resources effectively is becoming more critical at UCSF.
Read more

Temple U’s Campus-Wide Message Network Improved

E-mail usage nearly doubles after Temple University deployed a new e-mail server for the 40,000 students and faculty.
Read more

PeopleSoft Charged with Contract Breach

The state of Ohio has charged PeopleSoft and its consulting partner with fraud and breach of contract for their role in a software project at Cleveland State University. Ohio state court seeks $130 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
Read more

University Students Set Up Linux Firm

Four Canadian university students have started up their own Linux company, Ignalum Linux. Ignalum works with a Microsoft Windows network on the desktop out of the box and it also acts as a domain controller to authenticate to the network.
Read more

UCF Data-sharing Helped Police Nab Suspects

A new data-sharing system developed at the University of Central Florida has helped law enforcement officials make more than 70 arrests since October while shaving days off the length of some investigations.
Read more

High-Speed Data on Way

MAGPI (a University of Pennsylvania project) has agreed to use a fiber optics network to offer Internet to area schools and research facilities. Internet 2 is a research- and education-oriented information source developed and used by a national consortium of 200 universities, 8,100 schools and research facilities.
Read more

CIT Awards $1.5M to Colorado Higher-ed

The Colorado Institute of Technology is partnering with the Colorado Commission on Higher Education to award its second round of grants this year, totaling $1.5 million.
Read more

Campus Media Group Acquires OncampusDirect Tech

The deal will put OncampusDirect technology and data archives at the disposal of CMG's college marketing clients. The purchase of OncampusDirect includes the entire technology, research and data. In addition, CMG will begin servicing all current OncampusDirect clients directly.
Read more


RESOURCES


Technology Products at Discount Prices

Journey Education Marketing and Student Advantage announced that their companies have signed an exclusive co-marketing agreement to give technology product discounts to students.
Learn more

Technical Library to Expand Into Chinese Knowledge Center

The Society of Automotive Engineers and Delphi Corp. expanded their relationship in the Delphi Tsinghua Institute in Beijing, China to develop the comprehensive DTI-SAE technical library on the Beijing campus.

Under the new memorandum that will begin in June of 2004, the expanded facility will be called the "DTI-SAE Global Knowledge Center." The new and expanded facility will include a full time staff person, SAE books, technical papers and standards, and the provision of space and personnel for education and technical training programs.
Learn more

DEALS, CONTRACTS, AWARDS

Deal to Generate Millions for uni, IBM

IBM and Edith Cowan University have joined up to improve Edith’s IT projects, which could result in better curriculum design and academic development.
Read more

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Events


TDWI World Conference in Boston, May 9–14

IT Compliance World, May 17–19, Boston: Compliance Solutions for IT Pros

Syllabus2004, July 18-22, San Francisco

SYLLABUS 2004
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Events Calendar


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NEW PRODUCTS

Java-Based Software Specifies 'Smart' Behavior in Games

The first Java technology-based software tool kit that lets programmers and non-programmers collaborate to define intelligent, real-time monitoring and decision-making logic in Java applets and client-side or Web server-based games and applications was introduced. It enables rapid authoring of intelligent behaviors that enhance characters in computer games, emulate people and systems in training simulations, assess student performance in intelligent tutoring systems, and improve the effectiveness of customer assistance and decision-support systems.

CyberLink Debuts InstantMPEG Technology

CyberLink Corp., a developer of digital video software and training solutions, introduced InstantMPEG, technology that saves hard disk space and time during real-time conversion of digital video (DV) into MPEG files.
Read more

Savingforcollege.com Releases Tax Comparison Calculator

Savingforcollege.com, an independent source of information, education and published content on Section 529 college savings plans, announced the release of its State Tax Comparison 529 Calculator. The online calculator offers a comparison between in-state 529 plans with tax deductions versus out-of-state 529 plans without tax deductions over time.
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Sponsored By

The Impact of Wireless Network on Instructional Computing

Howard Strauss, manager of technology outreach as Princeton University

Despite the popularity of the technology, wireless is only beginning to show its potential uses for instruction. Howard Strauss comments about the use of the technology, both in the classroom and remotely.

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