Stories by Ann Harrison

P-to-P in wartime

The recent O'Reilly Peer-to-Peer Conference featured an interesting discussion of the uses of P-to-P technology in the battlefield. A panel discussion entitled "Military Applications of P2P," featured Earl Wardell who is on special assignment for the army to figure out how to improve critical communications using P-to-P.

Digital Certificates

Digital certificates are data files used to establish the identity of people and electronic assets on the Internet. They allow for secure, encrypted online communication and are often used to protect online transactions.

How to send crackers packing

When intruders last year gained access to 3.7 million credit card numbers in its customer database, Internet retailer Egghead.com Inc. took immediate steps against extortion. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company issued a press release to signal it wouldn't be cowed into silence, reviewed its security procedures and called in law enforcement authorities.

MindSpring Site Exposes Password Files


An unpatched, buggy version of open-source e-commerce software, combined with a misconfigured hosting server, exposed password files earlier this month for approximately 100 domains hosted by Atlanta-based EarthLink Inc.

Feds Propose New Encryption Standard

After a three-year worldwide competition, the U.S. Department of Commerce this week announced that an encryption algorithm from Belgium has been proposed as the new Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) for the U.S.

Government Error Exposes Government Investigators

While attempting to reassure the public that government investigators uphold the privacy of online data, the U.S. Department of Justice offended some protesters by appointing some longtime government employees to the investigative team.

Illinois Research Team Signed to Review Carnivore

In an attempt to address the privacy concerns surrounding the FBI's controversial and secretive Carnivore e-mail surveillance system, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Tuesday announced that it has chosen a team of researchers affiliated with the Illinois Institute of Technology to carry out a promised technical review of Carnivore.

Don't Like Carnivore? How About Altivore?

Internet service providers may soon get an open-source alternative to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's controversial Carnivore computer surveillance system, which delivers court-ordered information on criminal suspects.

Software Vendor Develops Carnivore Alternative

In an attempt to give Internet service providers a way to comply with court orders for monitoring e-mail without installing the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's controversial Carnivore surveillance system, security software vendor Network ICE Corp. is developing an e-mail sniffing program that it said could be used as an alternative to Carnivore.

Certicom Offers New Products at Conference

Certicom Corp. in San Jose kicked off its PKS 2000 wireless security conference yesterday with a flurry of new products and services targeted to the growing handheld device market.

RSA Encryption Patent Released

RSA Security Inc. pre-empted a number of celebration parties by unexpectedly releasing the widely used RSA public-key encryption algorithm into the public domain ahead of this week's expiration of the patent on the algorithm.

Microsoft Mulls Browser Changes on Privacy Front

Microsoft Corp. this week said it's looking at altering the next version of its Internet Explorer browser to allow users to more easily disable the software's "persistence" feature, which lets Web sites gather some information about Internet usage and identify return visitors even if they have turned off Explorer's ability to accept Internet cookies.

Microsoft Mulling 'Persistence' Changes to IE

Microsoft said it's looking at altering the next version of its Internet Explorer browser to allow users to more easily disable the software's "persistence" feature, which lets Web sites gather some information about Internet usage and identify return visitors even if they've turned off Explorer's ability to accept Internet cookies.

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