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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 05 Issue 30
Volume 5, Issue 30 Atari Online News, Etc. July 25, 2003
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2003
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Kevin Savetz
Jens Heitmann
To subscribe to A-ONE, change e-mail addresses, or unsubscribe,
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To download A-ONE, set your browser bookmarks to one of the
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Visit the Atari Advantage Forum on Delphi!
http://forums.delphiforums.com/atari/
=~=~=~=
A-ONE #0530 07/25/03
~ The Light of Adamas! ~ People Are Talking! ~ Doom III Delayed!
~ Do We Have Spam Apathy ~ SEC Probes Game Makers ~ Draconis News!
~ Tips to Avoid Scams! ~ New Anti-Spam Vendor! ~ Spammer Tricks!
~ New Web Scam: Phishing ~ Scamming the Scammers! ~ New WriteATR Version
-* Online Voting Nears Reality! *-
-* Web Scams Linked to Identity Theft! *-
-* Do Not Spam Registry Finds Favor in Senate *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Well, let's see. If the weather this past week was mostly thunderstorms and
rain, I must have been on vacation! It almost never fails. It's an ongoing
joke at work! Oh well, there's nothing one can do about it. And, I still
have another week to go. So far, the vacation has actually been quite nice.
I actually have a lot to say this week, but since my brain is on "mellow"
this week, I won't really go at it. But, it appears quite obvious these
past few weeks that the focus on computing news has been on the side of
seedy topics. We've been deluged with news regarding spam, internet fraud,
and illegal music-swapping. This "Information Super-Highway" has certainly
been a wonderful trip! This is not new news - just taking a different twist
of something we've been plagued with for years in one form or another. Will
government regulation cure these ills? I doubt it, but we'll see.
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
Draconis News 9/2003
Draconis News 9/2003
* Draconis Driver for MagicPC v0.1
The first driver version for Draconis Programs running with MagicPC
is now available. This offers a direct internet connection over the
TCP/IP of Windows, which enables access over Ethernet, DSL and
connections via Analog or ISDN modem (cards) also under MagicPC.
The driver is available at:
http://draconis.atari.org/draconis/archives/drac_mpc.zip
* The Light of Adamas
The current Adamas version is 1.8 Pre-Release 20.
The main changes are:
*** Adamas 1.9 Pre20 ***
- N.AES adaption
- Font dialogue GEM
- URL droplist GEM
- Autodrop GEM
- Image behaviour during download
- Download pauses optimized
- Memory was destroyed in Online mode (TITLE)
- Double memory freeing fixed.
- Online Access/Refresh
- ALL-Array now still correct after a refresh.
- URL input now handled by standard dialog handler.
- Slider overwrote Symbol
- Fix in download of small pages
- Slb-Fix.
- Anchor jump to an ID.
The Pre-Release is available at:
http://draconis.atari.org/draconis/archives/ada18dev.zip
a 68030 version is available at
http://draconis.atari.org/draconis/archives/ada18d30.zip
--
Jens Heitmann
http://draconis.atari.org
draconis@atari.org
Adamas 1.8 Pre-Release 22
Hello,
(7/24/2003)
Adamas 1.8 Pre-Release 22
http://draconis.atari.org
Pre-Release 20 is a Release-Candidate of the final version 1.8. Some
improvements in the GEM implementation, beside some other changes. For
installation you need an installed version 1.7, because the 1.8 files
are only replacements or extensions to it.
(68000)
http://draconis.atari.org/draconis/archives/ada18dev.zip
(68030)
http://draconis.atari.org/draconis/archives/ada18d30.zip
Best regards,
Paul
Paul CAILLET.
New WriteAtr with Experimental Enhanced Density Support
I've uploaded a new version of WriteAtr (V0.92b) to my homepage
http://www.horus.com/~hias/atari/
This version contains experimental support for the enhanced density
(1040 sectors in MFM) format.
Although most of my datasheets about uPD765 compatible floppy controllers
contain a note that this format (128 bytes per sector in MFM) doesn't work,
some experiments showed that my PC (350MHz P-II, ASUS P2B mainboard) is
able to create this format, but it cannot read the disk it just wrote :-)
But then - my stock 1050 happily read from and wrote to the disk!
So feel free to try it with your PC. I can't guarantee it will work at all
for you so use it at your own risk!
BTW: for those of you who don't like to read manuals, here are the command
line parameters to use the enhanced density format:
writeatr -f9 -n my.atr
so long,
Hias
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. It's been a tough couple of weeks for me.
I apologize for having to skip out on last week's column, but there was
just no way I could do anything meaningful... or even intelligible.
My grandfather, who is 91 was hospitalized with pneumonia, has taken a
lot of my time the past few weeks. It's amazing to me that doing little
other than sitting in a chair and keeping someone company can be so
draining. But draining it is.
Anyway, one of the subjects that my grandfather asks about often is how
I'm able to communicate with relatives on the other side of the continent
without incurring a huge charge. The fact that instant messaging is easy
to do mystifies him, as does the fact that there's no charge for doing it
like there is for long-distance telephone calls.
He just can't wrap his mind around the fact that you don't need any
special knowledge or particularly unique equipment to send instant
messages. In his day he was one of those guys who had a police scanner
and CB radio going all the time and knew just about everything there was
to know about using them. That was years ago, though, and he hasn't used
them in years. His hearing is now so bad that he can't understand
anything that's being said.
I guess that's just the way things go... you get to a point where you're
comfortable with what you're doing and you stop keeping up with
technology. I've seen it over and over again with everything from small
businesses to personal computers. People who bought a Coleco ADAM, a
TI99-4A, or even an Atari ST, and then stopped keeping up with what was
going on.
Personally, Atari computers will always have a very special meaning for
me. I've owned a bunch of different computers from my first
TimeX-Sinclair ZX81 to a Commodore64 to all my different Atari computers,
Intel machines, and even a Macintosh.
But of all those machines, I must confess that computers running TOS were
the only ones to make me feel comfortable. There was just something
special about them. They had personality. They did the things I wanted to
do, they let me do whatever it was easily, and it was actually fun to use
them.
I'm much more productive with my spiffy Intel laptop, but it's just not
as much fun. There's no personality to this machine. Sure, it's fast, it
displays tons of colors, it's even "mainstream"... when I'm running a
Microsoft OS on it instead of Linux... but it's not the same.
I have never claimed to be a computer wizard or to have any talent at
programming whatsoever, and yet I was much more at home with a "less
advanced" computer like the ST than this Intel-based laptop or even the
Mac PowerBook.
I even tried every TOS emulator I could find, but I never found one that
let the personality show through. I can't explain it, but it was like a
phantom. It LOOKED like TOS, it FELT like TOS, hell, it even SMELLED like
TOS. But it was just an imitation. Even though I copied the ROMs myself
(so I know that they were legitimate copies), it was like a cheap
gimmick. It just wasn't real.
I guess that's just as well. I've always been of the opinion that, if
you're going to use a machine, people like me (those with out either
talent or extreme patience) should use native operating systems and
applications.
So I've still got a couple of real TOS machines sitting around here, and
when I'm feeling the need to actually enjoy using a computer, that's
where I go.
Of course, my wife just can't see the reasoning for having these
"ancient" computers hanging around, but she's learned to stop asking just
before I point to her massive vinyl album collection. <grin>
Well, let's get to the news, hints, tips, and info available from the UseNet:
From the comp.sys.atari.st NewsGroup
====================================
Matt Sauer asks about using a PS/2 keyboard on an ST:
"It seems that the QWERTYX box from Becroft is out of production and the
maintainer of the Eiffel box is unresponsive. Is there an alternative out
there? Does the Eiffel design work? Might another option be to extend the
keyboard connecting cable (I guess it looks like some flavor of RJ jack?)?
I'm shoving my 520 into a desktop PC case, and I'd like to use a PC keyboard."
Lonny Pursell tells Matt:
"See this page, it looks like Eiffel is still supported.
http://hardware.atari.org/ "
Frederic Pecourt adds:
"Well, there is something I am wondering about : As far as I know, the
Eiffel adapter is designed to operate behind one of the historical UARTs of
the ST, that is through a serial link. But hadn't someone claimed that
UARTs would be DEFINITELY dropped in case that you go for a project of like
a G4 based clone with an all-USB approach ?"
Didier Mequignon tells Frederic:
"I think it's easy to modify eiffel and replace classic serial link by
and I2C link like the the EEPROM on the SDRAM because today this method
is used on the CT60."
Dennis Vermeire tells Matt:
"Peter Denk computers in Germany has manufactured a similar interface,
you can connect any PS/2 mouse and keyboard to it, no drivers are needed, a
micro-controller emulates the Atari keyboard layout for 100%. It also works
with the new batch of wireless devices.
http://www.ATARI-Fachmarkt.de , If I remember correctly, the device is
priced at 29 EUR, that's $30 or 20UKP"
Peter West asks a question about file locking:
"There has been a discussion about the lack of file locking on
MagiC here. I confess I'm not a programmer, but doesn't the
AUTO-folder program CHK_OFLS which comes with Kobold perform this
function? It seems to...
On the question of porting GPL apps to MiNT: To my mind, and I
suspect the vast majority of Atari users, if these apps run so
slowly on 90%+ of existing machines, they are of little interest.
To tell people that they need to buy expensive upgrades or new
machines to use them is just stupid! They would be better off
buying a cheap PC and use that - with or without an Atari
emulator."
Lonny Pursell tells Peter:
"No they are not so slow that they are unusable, I have used them on
a standard speed Falcon and TT. If you are referring to the text based
ones that is, quite usable, as for X11 yeah, you might find that slow."
Peter replies:
"I see, thanks. From the postings in this series it sounded like a
CT60 - and there are only 150 of those or the new putative ACP
machine was a minimum requirement for usable GPL apps.
I am not anti-MiNT, but for my personal requirements MagiC+NVDI seems
extremely stable on my Nemesised 14 MB Falcon and does most of what I
want (apart from high-colour graphic-heavy apps such as browsers - and
the restriction there is the processor speed, not the OS). Nor do I
need multi-user access that would require file locking etc, and I
think that goes for the vast majority of Atariites. Those that connect
these machines to routers or other computers must be a tiny minority,
but I agree that for them the MiNT environment seems to offer
advantages. But I'd be surprised if that was more than 1% of Atari
users!
But live and let live is my motto - if MiNT suits you, use it."
Well folks, that's it for this week. I know it's short, but it's time to
go visit my grandfather again.
Tune in again next week, same time, same station, and be ready to listen
to what they are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - SEC Probes Video Game Makers!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Fans Mourn 'Doom III' Delay!
Clamor For Console Price Cuts!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
SEC Probes Video-Game Makers
Four large video game companies have revealed in regulatory filings that
they've come under formal investigation by the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
Details were scant in the filings by Acclaim Entertainment Inc., Activision
Inc., THQ Inc. and Midway Games Inc., but analysts speculated that the SEC
probe may be related to an investigation of another game company, Take-Two
Interactive.
Take-Two last year restated seven quarters' worth of results over the way
it recognized revenue.
Game publishers set aside reserves for a certain percentage of product they
ship in case retailers return the product or need to mark it down.
UBS Investment Research analyst Michael Wallace explained in a research
note Monday that some distributors have been known to "stuff the channel,"
or ship product to retailers in order to meet their quarterly revenue
expectations, then take the product back from the retailer via excess
reserves without affecting the company's income statement.
Wallace noted that most game publishers do business with Take-Two's Jack
of All Games U.S. distribution business when they want to move marked-down
products.
The SEC notifications for the other game companies could just be
fact-finding as an extension of the Take-Two investigation, Wallace said.
He doesn't own shares of any video game company he covers. His firm has had
investment banking relationships with Activision, Gamestop Corp. and Midway
Games Inc. within the last 12 months, and with Acclaim Entertainment and
THQ Inc. within the past three years.
Acclaim Entertainment said it has no comment and will update shareholders
as necessary via SEC filings. Officials from Activision and THQ Inc.
weren't immediately available for comment.
Shares of all four companies fell on the news.
Eager Video Game Fans Mourn 'Doom III' Delay
There was good news this week for Martian zombies and bad news for the
people who love to kill them.
"Doom III," one of the most heavily anticipated PC games ever and a virtual
slaughterfest for the interplanetary undead, will not be released this
year, the game's publisher said Tuesday.
Buried in video game publisher Activision Inc.'s quarterly conference call
on Tuesday was that bad news for hard-core game junkies and others.
A decade ago "Doom" revolutionized PC gaming with its intense graphics. The
latest game in the franchise, "Doom III," has been the subject of heavy
anticipation ever since creators id Software acknowledged the game was in
development.
But when Activision's president, Ron Doornink, told analysts "for planning
purposes, we're assuming Doom III will come out in the fourth quarter," he
shot down those hopes.
Activision's fourth quarter is the period ending March 2004, meaning the
game will not be on shelves for Christmas. As recently as last month,
retailers like GameStop Corp. were taking pre-orders expecting a Nov. 15
release.
"I can't honestly say it'll be a surprise to anybody," said Rob Smith,
editor of PC Gamer magazine. "Basically, the fans out there will sit back
and say: 'Yeah, we were expecting that and we'll hang tight."'
The game's developer, id Software, is known for its painstaking development
efforts. The company's design guru, John Carmack, is considered a visionary
in video game circles whose work has changed the way games look and feel.
At last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, a video-only preview of "Doom
III" drew legions of fans. The title subsequently won a number of critics'
awards, including "Best of Show."
Games like "Doom III" are so intensive that they play best only on
top-of-the-line computers, and some hardware makers have been hopeful that
the launch of "Doom" would give them a boost.
Graphics chip designer Nvidia Corp. has been pushing its top processor, the
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra, as the best for the new "Doom."
"When we first designed this architecture, we designed it for 'Doom III,"'
Nvidia spokesman Brian Burke said in May.
With "Doom" now off the calendar for this year, a rising competitor looks
set to steal its thunder.
At this year's E3 show, many fans queued up for a preview of "Half-Life 2,"
also a sequel to a legendary first-person shooter game, from developer
Valve. It is scheduled for a September release, according to various
retailers' Web sites.
Clamor Mounts for Video Game Console Price Cuts
If video game publishers agree on one thing it is this: consumers need
cheaper platforms in order to start buying more as the $30-billion industry
heads toward its make-or-break holiday season.
Three of the largest video game publishers reported quarterly earnings this
week, their first since a round of partial game console price cuts in May,
and for the most part they said the same thing: not enough, cut more.
That pressure on the three console makers - Sony Corp., Microsoft Corp. and
Nintendo Co. Ltd. - amounts to a challenge to accept deeper losses on game
hardware in return for profits later as lucrative software sales rise.
That may be a risky strategy but the alternative looks even worse since the
most recent data shows sales of the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube down
by more than a third compared with last year, a trend that if sustained
could make Christmas bleak for hardware and software makers.
In May, most industry observers had expected Sony and Microsoft to cut the
prices of their rival PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles to $149 from $199,
and Nintendo to cut the price of its trailing GameCube to $99 from $149,
during the industry trade show E3.
Instead, Sony cut the price of the PS2 to $179 and introduced a new version
with more features at the old $199 price. Microsoft responded with its own
cut to $179. Nintendo stood firm at $149.
Since then, the three have given no indications that they intend to budge
from the new prices, despite the calls from their partners in game
publishing.
"We continue to anticipate a hardware price cut this fall in order for the
console manufacturers to achieve their forecasted hardware sales," THQ Inc.
Chief Executive Brian Farrell said on Thursday.
Executives of Activision Inc. said on Tuesday that a price cut was needed.
"In the event there's no price cut or there's no promotional equivalent by
the holiday season, then we will have to revisit our hardware projections,"
President Ron Doornink said on a conference call.
Retailers said the cuts by Sony and Microsoft provided almost no boost to
sales. That marked a contrast to a year earlier, when Sony and Microsoft
took $100 price cuts and Nintendo took a $50 cut and hardware sales boomed.
Even Microsoft conceded last week that the $20 cut on the Xbox had had
little effect.
Retailers are starting to speculate that another cut may be in the offing.
"We hear that one, or possibly two manufacturers, are thinking about the
price cuts for the fourth quarter. We think the cuts would be good for
penetration of the software - new and used," John Antioco, Blockbuster
Inc.'s chairman and chief executive officer told Reuters.
Movie rental chain Blockbuster is one of the leading U.S. retailers of
video game hardware and software.
But the game industry's leader, publisher Electronic Arts Inc., said it
was not clear yet if console makers were considering a fall price cut or
if they would instead choose a strategy, as Nintendo has done, of
maintaining the hardware price and bundling in games for free.
"Those are the options available and so far they have not given us a clear
indication of which way that's going to work," Chief Financial Officer
Warren Jenson said on a call.
Financial analysts who follow the industry, for their part, think a cut by
September to $149 for the Xbox and PS2 and $99 for Game Cube price was
increasingly likely.
Those beliefs were reinforced after June sales data from market researchers
NPDFunworld showed year-over-year declines in hardware sales of anywhere
from 36 percent to 42 percent, due to the tough comparison to last June,
when consumers were buying up consoles in a frenzy after the price cuts.
"We believe that the rate of sell-through suggests that a platform price
cut this fall is increasingly likely as the hardware companies try to
achieve targeted year-end installed bases," Harris Nesbitt Gerard analyst
Edward Williams wrote in a note Monday.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Internet Scams Linked to Identity Theft
Stealing identities and credit card numbers with bogus e-mail and Web sites
that appear to come from legitimate companies is an increasing problem on
the Internet, federal officials warned Monday.
The Federal Trade Commission said it had brought its first case against
this type of scheme, called "spoofing" or "carding." A 17-year-old
California boy accused of posing as America Online agreed to settle federal
charges by accepting a lifetime ban on sending junk e-mail and paying a
$3,500 fine, the FTC said.
The FBI has received increasing numbers of complaints about this kind of
scam, said Keith Lourdeau, a section chief with the bureau's Cyber
Division.
"Due in part to this growing scam, we are seeing a rise in identity theft,
credit card fraud and other Internet frauds," Lourdeau said at a news
conference with officials from the FTC and EarthLink. Officials said they
didn't know how many people have been victimized by the scam.
In the California case, consumers received authentic-looking e-mails
claiming there was a billing problem with their AOL account and asking them
to update their information or risk losing Internet access, the FTC said.
The message included a link to an "AOL Billing Center," a fake Web page
dressed up with the company's logo, colors and links to real AOL sites.
The counterfeit site directed consumers to fix the billing problem by
entering credit card numbers and other sensitive personal information
including AOL screen names and passwords, Social Security numbers, bank
routing numbers, credit limits, mother's maiden name and billing addresses.
AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said the company will never ask its customers
for their password or billing information.
"If they ever get an e-mail purporting to be from AOL that asks them for
this information, then clearly it's an online billing scam," he said.
The FTC said the stolen information was used to order merchandise and make
online payments worth at least $8,000. The agency said it would not release
the name of the teen involved because he is a minor.
"Don't take the bait. Be skeptical of e-mail messages telling you your
account will be shut down," FTC Commissioner Mozelle Thompson said. "If you
do receive an e-mail warning like this, don't click on the link."
Instead, he said, people should contact the company directly by phone or
through a Web site or e-mail address known to be authentic.
Officials said consumers also should:
_ Be wary of e-mail requests for personal information, especially when they
come from companies that should already have the information.
_ Make sure an Internet connection is secure - with an icon of a lock
visible on the Web browser - before submitting personal information.
_ Monitor credit card and bank statements for unauthorized charges.
Tips for Internet Users to Avoid Scam
FBI and Federal Trade Commission tips for consumers to avoid Internet scams
that use bogus e-mail and Web sites to get personal information:
_Be wary of unsolicited e-mail that asks, either directly or through a Web
site, for personal financial or identity information, such as a Social
Security number or passwords.
_Don't click on the links provided in such e-mail.
_When updating account information use a familiar process, such as visiting
the known Web address of a company's account maintenance page. Unfamiliar
addresses for this probably are fake.
_Make sure an Internet connection is secure - with an icon of a lock
visible on the Web browser - before submitting personal information.
_Monitor credit card and bank statements for unauthorized charges.
_If an e-mail or Web site is in doubt, make sure the request is authentic
by contacting the company directly by phone or through a Web site or e-mail
address known to be authentic.
_People victimized by a fraudulent e-mail or Web site should contact their
local police department and file a complaint with the FBI and the FTC.
Consumers also should report fraudulent or suspicious e-mail to their
Internet service provider.
Kinko's Case Highlights Internet Risks
For more than a year, unbeknownst to people who used Internet terminals at
Kinko's stores in New York, Juju Jiang was recording what they typed,
paying particular attention to their passwords.
Jiang had secretly installed, in at least 14 Kinko's stores, software that
logs individual keystrokes. He captured more than 450 user names and
passwords, using them to access and even open bank accounts online.
The case, which led to a guilty plea earlier this month after Jiang was
caught, highlights the risks and dangers of using public Internet terminals
at cybercafes, libraries, airports and other establishments.
"Use common sense when using any public terminal," warned Neel Mehta,
research engineer at Internet Security Systems Inc. "For most day-to-day
stuff like surfing the Web, you're probably all right, but for anything
sensitive you should think twice."
Jiang was caught when, according to court records, he used one of the
stolen passwords to access a computer with GoToMyPC software, which lets
individuals remotely access their own computers from elsewhere.
The GoToMyPC subscriber was home at the time and suddenly saw the cursor
on his computer move around the screen and files open as if by themselves.
He then saw an account being opened in his name at an online payment
transfer service.
Jiang, who is awaiting sentencing, admitted installing Invisible KeyLogger
Stealth software at Kinko's as early as Feb. 14, 2001.
The software is one of several keystroke loggers available for businesses
and parents to monitor their employees and children. The government even
installed one such program to capture a password that the son of jailed mob
boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo used to access files on his computer.
Earlier this year, a former Boston College student pleaded guilty to using
similar software on more than 100 computers around campus to collect
passwords and other data to create a campus ID card for making purchases
and entering buildings illegally, authorities say.
Mehta said that while millions of individuals use public terminals without
trouble, they should be cautious.
"When you sit down at an Internet cafe, ask the owner or operator about the
security measures in place," he said. "If they don't know or don't have
anything in place, you could consider going somewhere else."
Encrypting e-mail and Web sessions does nothing to combat keystroke
loggers, which capture data before the scrambling occurs. But encryption
can guard against network sniffers - software that can monitor e-mail
messages, passwords and other traffic while it is in transit.
Data cookies also contribute to the risk of identity theft. Cookies are
files that help Web sites remember who you are so you won't have to keep
logging on to a site. But unless you remember to log out, these files could
let the next person using the public terminal to surf the Web as you.
Furthermore, browsers typically record recent Web sites visited so users
won't have to retype addresses. But such addresses often have usernames
and other sensitive information embedded.
Secure public terminals should by default have provisions for automatically
flushing cookies and Web addresses when a customer leaves, Internet
security experts say.
Kinko's spokeswoman Maggie Thill said the company takes security seriously
and believes it has "succeeded in making a similar attack extremely
difficult in the future." She would not provide details, saying that to do
so could make systems less secure.
Nonetheless, Thill said customers have a responsibility to "protect their
information as they would a credit card slip." She said the company is
trying to educate them through signs and other warnings.
At one Kinko's that authorities said Jiang targeted, a sign attached to
individual $18-per-hour stations warns: "BE SAFE. PROTECT YOUR PERSONAL
INFORMATION."
Richard M. Smith, a security consultant in Cambridge, Mass., said customers
could also use certain techniques to foil keystroke loggers. When typing in
sensitive information, for instance, he suggests cutting and pasting
individual characters from elsewhere to form the password.
No keys depressed, no characters logged.
ID Thieves 'Phish' for Victims With Fake E-mails, Web Sites
There's a new Internet fraud scheme you can add to your list: phishing.
In what the FBI Monday called "the hottest, and most troubling, new scam on
the Internet," criminals are sending out millions of fake e-mails to trick
online consumers into divulging personal and financial information.
The legitimate-looking e-mails appear to come from some of the Web's
biggest sites, including eBay, PayPal, MSN, Yahoo and America Online, and
big-name banks and retailers.
In fact, tech-savvy criminals are collecting the information to commit
credit-card fraud, identity theft and even unauthorized bank account
transfers from unsuspecting consumers.
The problem has mushroomed this summer, prompting a warning Monday from
the Federal Trade Commission and FBI for consumers to beware of criminals
fishing for personal identification and financial information.
"Call it `phishing,' carding or brand spoofing, it's increasing in
prevalence," said Eric A. Wenger, an attorney with the FTC who helped
prepare the agency's first law enforcement action targeting the activity.
The phishers spam consumers with bogus requests for a wide range of
personal information, ranging from bank account information to credit card
numbers to ATM PINs. They direct recipients to phony Web sites that closely
resemble legitimate corporate sites.
They hook consumers to give up personal information by claiming billing
information needs to be updated or has been lost.
In more brazen versions, the perpetrators actually suggest that the
consumer is a victim of fraud and needs to share the information to avoid
a fraudulent credit card charge or to prevent more fraud. Other times, the
e-mail offers a chance for a prize, a Mercedes-Benz CLK in one case, if a
consumer shares personal data.
Some of the culprits are sophisticated Web criminals. But some are just
teens.
Take the case of the 17-year-old Los Angeles-area youth who scammed more
than $8,000 worth of goods and services, including a laptop and a
subscription to online adult-oriented sites. He sent fraudulent e-mails to
AOL subscribers, saying there was a problem with their accounts and asking
for new credit card numbers. He used that information to set up accounts
at eBay-owned PayPal, which he used to make the purchases.
The defendant's AOL look-alike Web page directed consumers to enter the
new card numbers. It also asked for mothers' maiden names, social security
numbers, bank routing numbers, credit limits, and AOL screen names and
passwords. The scheme allowed him to "plunder consumers' credit and debit
card accounts and assume their identity online," the FTC said.
The teen has settled with the FTC by paying a $1,400 fine, forfeiting some
of the goods and promising never again to send junk e-mail, the agency
said.
That case, announced Monday, follows on the heels of a major brand spoofing
case last month, when thousands of Best Buy customers received a junk
e-mail declaring "Fraud Alert." Citing possible credit card fraud, the
e-mails directed consumers to a "special Fraud Department page" supposedly
run by Best Buy that asked for the recipients' Social Security and credit
card numbers.
News accounts about the phony Best Buy e-mails may have incited more
criminals to act, said Linda Foley, co-director of San Diego-based Identity
Theft Resource Center.
And in one recent scam, e-mails supposedly from MSN said that technical
difficulties arose with July 2003 billing updates. To avoid being
terminated, the e-mail urged consumers to enter personal financial
information at a "secure online account center." It also offered a bogus
customer support phone number, but warned of an average 45-minute hold time
on the phone. Microsoft confirmed it was a fraud.
The red flags are not always obvious, said FTC spokeswoman Claudia Bourne
Farrell. In the case of the L.A. teen, when consumers clicked on the link,
they landed on a site that contained AOL's logo, colors and even links to
real AOL Web pages.
If a consumer has even the slightest suspicion, "Do not ever click on those
hyperlinks," she said.
While the first reports of "phishing" date back two years, this summer has
seen a noticeable uptick.
"We've been bombarded with eBay and PayPal scams" recently, said Foley,
seeking "everything about you but your blood type."
Such bogus e-mailing prompted eBay last year to launch spoof@ebay.com,
where people can forward suspicious e-mails. EBay said it will never ask
for a password online.
EBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove said the company has had about the same
volume of complaints over the last six months but acknowledged that e-mail
scammers are getting more sophisticated.
"As our anti-fraud tools have more success, they are getting more brazen,"
he said.
Scamming the Scammers
The e-mail scams, often from the widow of an African dictator, or a bank
official, promise untold wealth in return for helping to transfer millions
of dollars, but now the "scam-baiters" are hitting back.
They have even succeeded in scamming the scammers: one persuaded his
contact to send him five dollars as a sign of good faith; another induced
a scammer to send him a sample of the gold dust they were planning to
launder - and used it to buy beer for his friends. And one even got a photo
of his contact holding up a sign saying "I am a dildo".
They do it with humour - one anti-scammer said his funds would be available
as soon as he had sold his shares in the Brooklyn Bridge - but they warn
amateurs to be careful.
Victims of the scam have lost tens of thousands of dollars, and in some
cases been attacked and robbed. They frequently fail to report their losses
to the police - out of shame at their gullibility, and because they had
been planning to act illegally.
"This could become a dangerous game, and some of these syndicates can be
ruthless," said South African Interpol spokeswoman Mary
Martins-Engelbrecht, who added that in South Africa alone some 60 cases of
advance fee fraud were reported every day.
The message from the "widow" or the "official" will ask for your name,
address, bank details, passport and telephone numbers and a promise that in
exchange, you will receive a major cut from the deal.
But first, you will have to pay large amounts of money "to grease palms",
for transfer fees, to open a bank account and in many cases, you must
travel to the country from where the letter originated.
If you answer, chances are good that you may have just become the latest
victim of what is known around the world as the 419 advance fee scam.
Named after a penal code in Nigeria - from where many of the letters
originate - the scam works on a simple principle. The victim is being kept
on the hook for as long as possible, paying money, with the carrot of a
huge return at the end.
The cash never materialises and the scammer disappears into thin air. In
some cases, victims are lured into a trap, kidnapped and held hostage for
ransom.
Many of the victims are from Europe and Japan, some even from the
Caribbean.
"In one of the latest cases, an operation was conducted after we received
information that syndicate members lured a female Jamaican attorney to come
to South Africa for a fictitious business venture," Senior Superintendent
Martins-Engelbrecht told AFP.
"Overall, police here have arrested more than 130 people in connection with
the 419 scam," she said.
But now a group of people calling themselves "scam-baiters" are stringing
the scammers along at their own game.
One referred a scammer to the west African division of his country - an
address that turned out to be the section of Britain's serious fraud squad
dealing with the 419 scams. Another set up a fictitious bank account named
"BITROPEY".
"A big part of scam-baiting is the humour but we recognise the seriousness
of this fraud. We have to become bigger liars than the scammer to be
believed by them," said Neil, a scam-baiter operating out of Australia.
"Some baiters decide to use a theme for one bait, others use made-up
pathetic circumstances to tell the scammer, just to show how heartless they
are," he said.
He gave an example where a baiter ran an imaginary "home for handicapped
children" (the baiter also "confessed" he took regular advantage of the
young girls in his care) and where "the roof was in bad need of repair but
it would take two years before it could be replaced".
Despite the fact that the baiter told the scammer he only had 12,000 pounds
sterling, the scammer persisted with the deal to steal the money from the
"children's home".
But Martins-Engelbrecht warned e-mail users not to enter into any
correspondence once a 419 proposition has been received.
"It just gives the criminal more information to work with. Rather alert the
police and help us catch the scammer."
And, adds one of the anti-scammers, who asked to remain anonymous: "I would
not, considering the fact they are criminals, recommend anybody write to
them."
"If someone does feel the urge to do this, exercise extreme caution. Under
no circumstances give them your real e-mail, phone number, nor go to meet
them."
Field Guide Reveals Spammers' Tricks
"Mini marquee?" "Lost in Space?" "Hypertextus Interruptus?" Which is your
favorite spam technique?
If those names don't ring a bell, perhaps you should refer to the new Field
Guide to Spam, published by enterprise e-mail company ActiveState. The
company calls the new online guide a "living compilation" of the tricks
that spammers use to slip their unsolicited e-mail messages by antispam
filters.
The new guide was conceived by ActiveState Antispam Research Director John
Graham-Cumming to quantify spam techniques.
The Field Guide provides a comprehensive listing and explanation of
techniques that administrators can use to keep abreast of the ever-changing
tricks used by spammers, according to ActiveState. More than 20 different
spam techniques are documented. Each is named and rated for popularity and
complexity. ActiveState researchers categorized the techniques as either
"common" or "rare," and assigned complexity ratings that range from "dumb"
to "dastardly."
In a few minutes, readers can brush up on run-of-the-mill ruses like "Lost
in Space," in which the spammer inserts spaces between the letters of
common spam "trigger" words such as mortgage and Viagra. Or readers can
revel in the subtlety of dastardly techniques like "Slice and Dice," in
which a spreadsheet-like HTML table breaks up the content of the spam
message, with each cell in the table containing a single letter of the
message.
A section on advanced tricks explains how spammers combine multiple
techniques in a single message, while also using more technical means for
avoiding detection, such as message encoding.
Techniques listed in the Field Guide are used to create heuristic tests
that ActiveState's PureMessage e-mail filtering product relies on to spot
spam messages, but don't account for all the various types of spam
messages, said Jesse Dougherty, director of development at ActiveState.
"These are the techniques used by rogue spammers to hide the content
they're sending, usually because it's offensive," he said.
Vancouver-based ActiveState will update the Field Guide whenever new
techniques appear and hopes that the catalog helps organizations develop
policies to weed out the bothersome messages, Dougherty said.
"Part of industry's challenge is defining spam," Dougherty said. "One test
is asking 'Are they trying to trick me?' If an organization cannot verify
that a message is not offensive, they can reject it," Dougherty said.
He expects the Field Guide to grow, perhaps to as many as a couple hundred
different spam techniques, and hopes that other companies will learn from
the guide and contribute to it.
Do-Not-Spam List Finds Favor as Senate Vote Nears
Three out of four Americans favor a "do not spam" registry to keep unwanted
e-mail at bay, according to a survey released on Wednesday as the U.S.
Senate prepared to vote on the issue before its August break.
The survey of some 1,200 Internet users found broad support for an idea
that so far has attracted scant support in the U.S. Congress.
Patterned after the Federal Trade Commission's popular "do not call"
registry of households that do not wish to hear from telemarketers, the
list would theoretically allow Internet users to make their inboxes
off-limits to the online marketers whose unsolicited offers now make up
nearly half of all e-mail traffic.
The registry has found an advocate in Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of
New York, who hopes to include a do-not-spam proposal in an anti-spam bill
that could come up for a vote in the Senate as soon as this week.
"This survey bolsters the arguments I've been making for a more
comprehensive approach to dealing with spam, including the creation of a
no-spam registry," Schumer said.
In testimony before Congress, the FTC has been lukewarm to the idea.
Critics say the list would be widely ignored by spammers and would divert
resources better spent tracking down those who peddle dubious
get-rich-quick schemes.
"We don't think that it's an effective way to spend money that would go
toward (anti-spam) enforcement," said Ari Schwartz, associate director of
the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit technology-policy
group.
After years of false starts, observers expect Congress to pass some sort
of national anti-spam law this year.
On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist called spam "a menace."
Staffers say the Senate probably will vote on an anti-spam bill before it
adjourns for its summer recess next week.
Schumer declined to say whether he would block the existing bill if it did
not include the do-not-spam provision.
In the House of Representatives, members of the Energy and Commerce
Committee have delayed a vote on the issue until September as they hammer
out a compromise between two competing bills.
The survey was conducted July 15 by the ePrivacy Group, a technology
company that markets anti-spam products, and the Ponemon Institute, a
privacy consulting firm.
Another Anti-Spam Vendor Joins The Fray
Launching an anti-spam software company might seem risky these days. As the
spam problem has grown to epidemic proportions, new vendors have been
sprouting weekly, and vendors that specialize in other areas, such as
E-mail management and antivirus software, have thrown their muscle into
the mix. But that's not keeping Eric Hahn, former chief technology officer
for Netscape Communications Inc., from joining the fray.
Hahn this week launches his messaging infrastructure venture, Proofpoint
Inc., on the basis that too many message-management product categories have
developed, forcing customers to purchase too many tools to handle
regulatory compliance, archiving, indexing, security, virus protection,
and, oh yeah, anti-spam efforts. "The customers are ahead of the vendors
here," Hahn says. "They're quick to point out that these stovepipes are
out of control."
Still, with its Proofpoint Protection Server, the company is aiming its
sights most clearly at spam. Hahn says Proofpoint's combination of machine
learning and statistical analysis will trump other anti-spam vendors'
offerings by focusing on filtering at both the content and connection
levels to counter the constant adaptation of spammer techniques.
For instance, anti-spam filters that scour the content of messages looking
for hot-button terminology aren't able to detect tactics such as E-mail
spoofing, in which spammers will make a message look like it's coming from
a known E-mail address. "Rules-based vendors are good at detecting what's
already known to be spam, but they're terrible at catching spam that's yet
to come," he says. "Frankly, customers are more interested in the latter."
Proofpoint is backed by $7 million in first-round venture funding from the
likes of Mohr, Davidow Ventures, Benchmark Capital, and Stanford
University. The company's pricing - an annual subscription model that
starts at $20 per mailbox for a deployment of 500 users - is tailored for
huge deployments. There's no charge for the server software, ensuring that
customers can count on continuous software updates without needing to
budget additional expenditures.
Proofpoint joined two other anti-spam vendors that revealed VC funding
Monday. IronPort Systems, founded by former Hotmail exec Scott Weiss, said
it had received $15 million, led by Menlo Ventures, and Cloudmark revealed
a $4.5 million infusion from Ignition Partners.
The bottom line, Hahn says, is that companies want to get a handle on the
spam problem rather than face a never-ending game of catch-up that
threatens future use of E-mail. "If we don't stop these guys, we'll be
killing the goose that lays the golden egg."
Americans Getting Used To Spam
Although more Americans than ever think that spam should be illegal, a
growing number accepts spam as a necessary evil of modern life, according
to a Harris Poll released Thursday.
The paradox resulted from a pair of national surveys, one conducted online
in May, the other by telephone in June.
The number of people who said that spam was 'very annoying' dropped
significantly from last year. In 2003, 64 percent used that phrase to
describe spam, a dramatic decline from the 80 percent in 2002.
Likewise, more Americans characterized spam as only 'somewhat annoying'
this year than last. In 2003, 29 percent tagged their feelings toward spam
that way, a rise from the 16 percent in 2002.
Americans equipped with e-mail receive, on average, 17.2 spam messages,
said Harris.
But while consumers may be getting apathetic about spam, that doesn't mean
they don't want something done about it.
In the last six months - a time during which Congress has been proposing
one anti-spam bill after another - the number of Americans who favor making
mass spamming illegal has gone up five percentage points, from 74 percent
in December, 2002, to 79 percent in May, 2003.
Just 10 percent of the poll's respondents said they would oppose
legislating spam.
Anti-Porn Bill Targets File Sharing
Online file-swapping services would be required to get parental consent
before allowing children to use their software under a new bill to be
introduced today in Congress.
The Protecting Children from Peer-to-Peer Pornography Act is intended to
prevent children from downloading pornographic material, which is widely
available for free through file-sharing services like Morpheus and Kazaa.
Besides requiring parental consent, the bill would allow parents to install
"beacons" on their computers that signal their desire to not have
file-sharing software. If a child tries to download the software, networks
would have to refuse when they see the beacon. The beacons would be
developed by the Federal Trade Commission with assistance from the Commerce
Department.
It also would require file-sharing networks to warn users about the dangers
of file sharing. Several studies have shown that the networks are rife with
pornography.
There are 57 million Americans who swap files, according to the
Boston-based Yankee Group research firm. Forty percent of them are
children, according to the bill's sponsors, Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) and
Chris John (D-La.).
Morpheus, Kazaa and other services have attained notoriety in the past
several years for allowing widespread music swapping, but they can be used
to trade documents, images, videos and any other kind of digital file. A
recent study by Ames, Iowa-based Internet security firm Palisade Systems
found that users of the Gnutella file-sharing network searched for
pornography more often than they searched for music.
Pitts drafted the bill after reading a General Accounting Office (GAO)
study showing the high availability of pornography on file-sharing
networks, said spokesman Derek Karchner. GAO investigators in a test of the
Kazaa network entered search terms including Pokemon, Britney Spears and
Olsen Twins. More than 40 percent of the returns for those searches yielded
child pornography, and another 30 percent returned adult pornography.
"He couldn't sit by and let that happen unregulated," Karchner said.
Fred von Lohmann, a senior staff attorney at the San Francisco-based
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), said he is skeptical about the
viability of the beacons.
"I'm a little flabbergasted. I have no idea how you would even begin to
build such a thing. The reality is that parents have to supervise their
kids online and there is no government provision that is going to replace
that supervision," he said. "Undergraduate computer science students can
write these [file-sharing programs] in under a week. There's a [mistaken]
notion that there might be a company and if there's a company, federal
regulators can grab them."
Wayne Rosso, president of West Indies-based file-sharing network Grokster,
said children also can find pornography with popular search engines like
Google.
Peer-to-peer "should not just be singled out," he said. "There's no more
or less of a pornography problem on [file-sharing networks] than there is
on the entire World Wide Web. Pornography's only there if you're searching
for it. It's not something that just pops up in your face like 'spam' on
AOL."
The GAO study noted that there is far more pornography available on the
Internet through normal search engine services than on peer-to-peer
networks.
Greg Bildson, the chief technical officer of New York-based file-sharing
firm LimeWire, said he has no problem forcing users to confirm that they
are adults before downloading LimeWire, but said anything more complicated
than a simple question with a yes/no answer would be difficult to
administer and could compromise customer privacy.
The Recording Industry Association of America supports the bill, according
to a spokeswoman for the group.
The association has sent out hundreds of subpoenas to Internet users
suspected of using file-sharing networks to illegally swap copyrighted
digital music files.
Tips for Music Fans to Avoid Net Trouble
Tips for music fans to avoid trouble on the Internet:
_It's almost impossible to check whether you already are targeted for a
lawsuit if you have copied music, but some Internet providers are notifying
subscribers who are subjects of a subpoena. The San Francisco-based
Electronic Frontier Foundation plans to publish - at www.eff.org -
information from subpoenas to help computer users determine if they have
been targeted.
_If you are targeted, music lawyers may ignore you, send a stern warning or
file a civil suit. The recording industry wants to deter downloaders and
expects to file several hundred suits in the next eight weeks, but lawyers
say they are willing to negotiate settlements.
_The music industry is targeting Internet users sharing "substantial"
collections of songs; it has not said how many might qualify for a suit but
the minimum number appears to be a few hundred songs.
_Once you download a copyright song, file-sharing software automatically
makes it available for other Internet users to download, too. It is
possible to reconfigure the software to allow downloads and prevent sharing
files, although this undermines the concept of public file-sharing
networks.
_The Recording Industry Association of America has said it currently is
targeting only Internet users in the United States.
On the Net:
Instructions for reconfiguring file-sharing software:
http://www.musicunited.org/5_takeoff.html
or
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/howto-notgetsued.php
Schools Call Music-Use Subpoenas Illegal
Boston College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have moved to
quash subpoenas seeking the names of students suspected of Internet music
piracy, saying they're illegal because they weren't filed properly.
The schools said the subpoenas, issued by the Recording Industry
Association of America, didn't allow for adequate time to notify the
students, as mandated by the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act.
Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn said Tuesday the school did not object
to providing the information.
"We're not trying to protect our students from the consequences of
copyright infringement," he said. "Once the subpoenas are properly filed,
we will comply with the subpoenas."
Jonathan Lamy, a spokesman for the RIAA, said the association was
"disappointed that these universities have chosen to litigate this and thus
deny us and other copyright holders the rights so clearly granted by
Congress."
Lamy said the association followed federal law when it filed the subpoenas.
This spring, following a challenge by Verizon Communications Inc., a
federal judge affirmed the constitutionality of a law allowing music
companies to force Internet providers to release the names of suspected
music pirates upon subpoena from any federal court clerk's office. Verizon
has appealed.
The recording industry association has filed at least 871 subpoenas in
U.S. District Court in Washington this month, demanding information from
universities and Internet service providers about users of the online file
sharing network KaZaA.
It's part of a strategy to jolt Internet music fans to stop file-sharing
by pursuing small-time downloaders along with heavier users.
The subpoenas request the names and numbers of one MIT student and three
Boston College students who allegedly obtained the music under various
screen names.
BC argued in a motion to quash the subpoenas filed Monday that the
subpoenas broke federal law because they were served in Boston, more than
100 miles from where they were filed in federal court in Washington D.C.
It also said the subpoenas gave the schools less than a week to produce the
information - too little time to properly notify the students under the
privacy act.
In a statement, MIT didn't specify why it believed the subpoenas were
illegal, but also cited the privacy act to explain why it filed a motion
to quash the subpoenas. The school said its decision didn't mean it was
taking sides in the debate over downloading music on the Internet for free.
"But we are required by federal law to disclose student information only
if we have a valid subpoena and have given the necessary advance notice,"
Professor James Bruce, Vice President for Information Systems at MIT, said
in a statement. An MIT spokesman said the school would have no further
comment.
Not all Boston-area schools who've received a subpoena are fighting it.
Northeastern University spokesman Rick Mickool said school officials will
provide by Wednesday the name of the one student subpoenaed. He said the
university's legal counsel had no objection.
Debate Over Zip Format Heats Up
Questions about the splintering of the popular .zip file compression format
may soon be resolved by the U.S. Patent Office.
Two months into a was standards battle between WinZip Computing and PKWare
over the way .zip software does strong encryption, PKWare, the company that
has openly published the .zip specification since it was invented by
company founder Phil Katz in 1986, has applied for a patent that it claims
will govern the standards in dispute.
"What we've filed a patent for is the whole method of combining .zip and
strong encryption to create a secure .zip file," said Steve Crawford, the
chief marketing officer at PKWare. The patent was filed with the Patent
Office on July 16, he said.
PKWare first added strong encryption to its software in July 2002,
including it in the release of its PKZip 5.0 for Windows product, but the
company elected not to publish details of how it had done the encryption,
claiming that it would be premature to do so before the software had been
rolled out on different operating systems like OS/400 and MVS.
"It did not make sense to us to define an implementation... that might
subsequently change as we worked through implementation issues on these
large platforms," Crawford said.
In May of this year, WinZip developed its own method of strong encryption,
which incompatible with the PKWare product. Since then, WinZip and PKWare
users have been unable to read each other's encrypted files.
"It's kind of unfortunate," said Darryl Lovato, the chief technology
officer with Aladdin Systems, whose company is working on supporting both
file formats in its Stuffit compression software. "The good thing about
the .zip file format was that you knew you could send it to everyone. Now
that's getting broke."
PKWare would clearly like to fix things by having WinZip license its
encryption techniques. The company is developing a licensing program for
its technique that will be included as part of a "next generation of
developer solutions" that PKWare will announce toward the end of this
year, according to Crawford.
Crawford believes that WinZip will be a potential licensee. "The basic
approach of combining encryption of .zip is covered by the patent, so what
WinZip has done, I believe, would be covered by the patent."
Of course, PKWare will first have to be issued a patent by the U.S. Patent
Office before it can begin charging licensing fees, and this may not prove
easy, according to Lovato. "Encryption and archives have been around for a
very long time and there's prior art all over the place," he said.
Lovato said that, should PKWare be awarded a patent, his company would
consider paying a licensing fee, depending on its cost. "If they want $10
a copy for every unit we sell, there's no way we'd do that," he said.
Crawford did not know when the Patent Office would rule on the application.
The process could take years, he said.
WinZip could not be reached for comment on the matter, but IDC analyst
Charles Kolodgy did not expect a positive reaction to the news from the
largest provider of .zip compression software. "Given WinZip's position on
the desktop, they probably would not feel to good about it," he said.
Should PKWare be awarded a patent, WinZip may simply decide not to include
strong cryptography in their product and avoid any licensing fees, since
strong encryption is not an important feature to the majority of desktop
users, he said.
Lovato did not think that adding a licensing fee to the 17-year-old free
standard would be good for .zip, which, he said, has beginning to show its
age. "It's certainly not going to help it remain the standard for longer,"
he said. "I think it's just another nail in the
coffin."
Online Voting Moves Closer To Reality
Americans living abroad, including thousands of military personnel, may
get a chance to vote in the 2004 election from any Windows-based computer
linked to the Internet. The Defense Department's Federal Voting Assistance
Program, known as FVAP, is working with 10 states to develop the Web-based
voting system called Serve-Secure Electronic Registration and Voting
Experiment.
County election officials in participating states will use Serve to receive
voter-registration applications, provide ballots to voters, and accept
ballots when they're completed. Existing election-administration systems
will be used to process registration and ballots.
In a statement issued by FVAP, director Polli Brunelli says security is
everyone's first question about Internet voting, adding that the government
made security the driving factor in Serve's system design.
States expected to participate in Serve are Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii,
Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, and
Washington.
According to FVAP, the government successfully conducted a small-scale
proof-of-concept pilot, Voting Over the Internet, for the 2000 election. In
that experiment, 84 citizens in 21 states and 11 countries returned ballots
to jurisdictions in Florida, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah, the first
time citizens cast binding votes over the Internet for government offices.
Eligible U.S. citizens can register to use Serve in 2004 by accessing its
Web site, www.serveusa.gov.
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