Date: Sat, 14 Nov 92 15:13:29 EST
Errors-To: Comp-privacy Error Handler <comp-privacy-request@PICA.ARMY.MIL>
From: Computer Privacy Digest Moderator <comp-privacy@PICA.ARMY.MIL>
To: Comp-privacy@PICA.ARMY.MIL
Subject: Computer Privacy Digest V1#099
Computer Privacy Digest Sat, 14 Nov 92 Volume 1 : Issue: 099
Today's Topics: Moderator: Dennis G. Rears
Proposal of Paper for _Comp Priv Digest_
Cellular misinformation
Va. Hearing on SSNs
Re: Risks Of Cellular Speech
Re: Risks of Cellular Speech
Re: ssn and traffic tickets
Privacy map
PHD PROGRAM: SOCIAL ASPECTS OF COMPUTING
The Computer Privacy Digest is a forum for discussion on the
effect of technology on privacy. The digest is moderated and
gatewayed into the USENET newsgroup comp.society.privacy
(Moderated). Submissions should be sent to
comp-privacy@pica.army.mil and administrative requests to
comp-privacy-request@pica.army.mil.
Back issues are available via anonymous ftp on ftp.pica.army.mil
[129.139.160.200].
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: jbcondat@attmail.com
Date: 31 Dec 69 23:59:59 GMT
Subject: Proposal of Paper for _Comp Priv Digest_
REQUEST OF OPINION
Could you please help me and give me your opinion related to the following
article that you can find in reprint form? The 20 first answer with physical
address to *jbcondat@attmail.com* will receive a free copy of the book _C'est
decide! J'ecris mon virus_.
Regards,
jbc
--
Jean-Bernard CONDAT (General Secretary)------Chaos Computer Club France [CCCF]
B.P. 8005, 69351 Lyon Cedex 08// France //43 rue des Rosiers, 93400 Saint-Ouen
Phone: +33 1 40101775, Fax.: +33 1 40101764, Hacker's BBS (8x): +33 1 40102223
==============================================================================
From "Intelligence Newsletter", No. 202 (Oct. 8, 1992), Page 5, by O. Schimdt
MAKING THE NEWS AND BOOKSTANDS
The computer virus "threat" is back in the news with a new study by IBM
specialist Jeffrey O. Kephart and on the bookstands with a French do-it-
yourself build-your-own manual on viruses. According to Kephart of IBM's
High Integrity Computing Laboratory, most previous theories on the "social
structure of computer use and networks were faulty": not every machine
could make contact with every other machine in one, two or three "steps".
Most individual computers are not connected to others systems but only
to their nearest neighbors. Therefore, most infections take place not through
networks, but through the physical exchange of disks. Moreover, many of the
1,500 known viruses are not good replicators and many are not destructive.
Even the remaining good replicators are "almost all defeated by normal
anti-virus programs." To advance knowledge such as this concerning viruses,
*Chaos Computer Club France* (CCCF) has decided to publish the French trans-
lation of "The Black Book of Computer Virus" by Mark Ludwig "which was
censored in the U.S." (French title, "C'est decide! J'ecris mon virus,"
Editions Eyrolles). [...] The book contains "computer codes for writing your
own virus," but according to CCCF any such virus can be defeated by normal
anti-virus programs. Moreover, there is no French law forbidding the publi-
cation of virus computer codes. The book is intended for "responsible adults"
and bears the warning "Forbidden for readers not 18 years old".
==============================================================================
------------------------------
Return-Path: <monty@proponent.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 19:12:00 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@proponent.com>
Subject: Cellular misinformation
Excerpt from RISKS DIGEST 14.03
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 14:58:48 EST
From: "Barry C. Nelson" <bnelson@ccb.bbn.com>
Subject: Cellular misinformation
The Boston Globe, 9 Nov 1992, had a human interest story illustrating some good
uses for the ubiquitous cellular phones. In many places you can dial *SP for
the State Police, and this had been credited with getting rapid assistance to
accident and crime victims, as well as apprehending a dangerous escapee. They
mentioned problems with routing 911 calls.
What I found more interesting was a discussion about the Coast Guard preparing
to adopt *CG as a maritime cellular distress number. A local official was
quoted as saying that the existing broadcast channels will remain in operation
because anyone nearby will hear you and the CG operates Direction Finding
stations to pinpoint your location. Okay...
But then he went on to say that cellular calls "only give you a point to point
channel", leading one to the wrong belief that they couldn't DF a cellular
user, and that nobody else could listen if they wanted to.
-BCNelson
P.S.: After a PGN talk at MIT recently, someone in the audience claimed that
the FBI has multiple "trunks" attached to the local cellular hub in
Boston and they can monitor both sides of a conversation by just typing
in your number. Thank goodness that this is a democracy. :-^
------------------------------
------------------------------
Organization: CPSR, Washington Office
From: Dave Banisar <banisar@washofc.cpsr.org>
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 9:29:42 EDT
Subject: Va. Hearing on SSNs
Va. Hearing on SSNs
An ad hoc committee of the Virginia General Assembly met November 10 and
agreed to draft legislation that will remove the SSN off the face of the Va.
drivers license and from voting records. The Special Joint Subcommittee
Studying State and Commerical use of Social Security Numbers for Transaction
Identification met for 3 hours and heard witnesses from government, industry
and public interest groups. It appears that the draft will require the DMV
and the Election Board to continue to collect the information, but will no
longer make it publicly available. It was also agreed that the committee
would look into greater enforcement of Va. privacy laws, including the
feasibility of setting up a data commissioner.
All of the legislators in attendance agreed that using the SSN on the face
of the driver's license caused problems for both fraud and privacy. The DMV
representative admitted that it would cost a minimum amount of money to
modify their new computer system, which they have not completed installing
yet, to use another numbering system. She estimated that this would take 3-7
years using the renewal process to change all the licenses. She estimated a
cost of $8 million for an immediate change due to mailing costs.
Bob Stratton of Intercon Systems explained the inherent flaws in using the
SSN as an identifier and offered alternatives such as the SOUNDEX system
used by Maryland and New York as a better alternative for licenses. A
representative of the Va. State Police admitted that they do not use the SSN
to identify persons in their records because it was "inherently inaccurate"
and described cases of criminals with up to 50 different SSNs. Dave Banisar
of CPSR Washington Office explained how the SSN facilitates computer
matching and offered options for the board to consider to improve protection
of personal privacy. Mikki Barry of Intercon Systems described how any
attorney in Virginia has access to the DMV database to examine all records
via a computer network.
------------------------------
From: Ken Beal <kbeal@amber.csd.harris.com>
Subject: Re: Risks Of Cellular Speech
Date: 11 Nov 1992 14:24:30 GMT
Organization: Harris CSD, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Distribution: ssd
In article <comp-privacy1.98.1@pica.army.mil>, "Tom R. Rice" <tomrice@netcom.com> writes:
|> BTW, a scanner is not really necessary. The older TV sets
|> that have UHF tuners of the continuously-tuned type (rather
|> than the channel-switch type) can easily tune in cellular
|> calls.
|> Tom R. Rice WB6BYH Holler Observatory -
|> tomrice@netcom.com Longitude: 121 d 30 m 20 s W
|> CIS: 71160,1122 Latitude: 37 d 25 m 10 s N
|>
How do you do this? I've heard it discussed on the RISKS newsgroup
recently, and I THINK my UHF tuner works this way, but a) what channels
are the signals near, and b) how difficult is it to tune in?
aTdHvAaNnKcSe
--
Kenneth L. Beal, Jr. kbeal@amber.ssd.csd.harris.com
"I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!" - MST3k
"Street person my responsibility." - Indigo Girls
The opinions expressed above are true. The preceding sentence is false.
------------------------------
From: Esther Lumsdon <esther@verdix.com>
Subject: Re: Risks of Cellular Speech
Organization: Verdix Corp
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 22:22:13 GMT
Apparently-To: uunet!comp-society-privacy
As long as we're quoting from fiction, cellular phones are used as a
great plot device in Tom Clancy's _Clear and Present Danger_.
--
-- Esther Lumsdon, not speaking for Verdix. esther%verdix.com@uunet.uu.net
------------------------------
From: peterson@CS.ColoState.EDU (james peterson)
Subject: Re: ssn and traffic tickets
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 16:10:53 GMT
In article <comp-privacy1.97.7@pica.army.mil> news@cbnewsh.att.com writes:
>
>Of course, once they've got your number, they're unlikely to lose it,
>so you've got to protect it from the beginning.
>--
This reminds me that two weeks ago I went to the County Clerk's Office
to vote early (a new deal in Colorado) -- when I sat down to have them
verify my registration they looked me up on their computer. I noticed
that they had me indexed by my social security number, though I couldn't
recall ever providing it. When I asked about it they said I "must have"
given it to them when I first registered some years ago. I said something
about not giving it out easily, though I allowed as how I might have slipped.
The clerk then asked me if I would like to get rid of it. I said yes,
and was able to watch as she deleted the social security number as a key,
and had the computer select a new unique key. From what I saw, I would
judge that my SS# is now gone from their system.
Now that's cooperation.
--
james lee peterson peterson@CS.ColoState.edu
dept. of computer science
colorado state university "Some ignorance is invincible."
ft. collins, colorado (voice:303/491-7137; fax:303/491-6639)
------------------------------
From: Chris Nelson <nelsonc@cobb.cs.rpi.edu>
Subject: Privacy map
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 18:00:34 GMT
Apparently-To: comp-society-privacy@cis.ohio-state.edu
From time to time, Playboy publishes a color-coded map which shows
which states are most likey to try to invade the privacy of your
bedroom and want to arrest you for doing something "unnatural" to or
with a consenting partner.
Various messages here on c.s.p have made references to "California has
a law...", etc. and it prompts me to wonder if anyone has put together
a privacy map. E.g., in which states are you expected or requiered to
give you SSN to be allowed to operate an automobile on public
highways. Presumably, some states are facist and some are considerate
of your privacy. I'd be insterested in knowing which is which.
Chris
[Moderator's Note: Has anyone out there know of a source? WOuld anyone
be willing to compile one? ._dennis ]
--
------------------------------+------------------------------------------
Chris Nelson | Rens-se-LEER is a county.
Internet: nelsonc@cs.rpi.edu | RENS-se-ler is a city.
CompuServe: 70441,3321 | R-P-I is a school in Troy!
------------------------------
From: Rob Kling <kling@ics.uci.edu>
Subject: PHD PROGRAM: SOCIAL ASPECTS OF COMPUTING
Date: 12 Nov 92 05:12:28 GMT
COMPUTING, ORGANIZATIONS, POLICY AND SOCIETY
at the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE
C O R P S
Our CORPS PhD concentration provides a fascinating opportunity to study a
vital topic: the social aspects of computerization. We encourage reflective
inquiry, lively discussions, and avoiding the hype that often surrounds new
technologies. The computerization of society is taking place at dizzying
speed. Almost every week we're bombarded with information about new
computer technologies, and predictions about their influence on emerging
social changes. But the real social choices and consequences of
computerization aren't really well understood. Public, professional and
even many scholarly discussions of alternative ways to computerize are
often oversimplified. These are important issues and discussion is being
advanced through high quality university-based research.
We offer a PhD concentration in the Department of Information and Computer
Science (ICS) for people who would like to do systematic research and/or
teaching about the social aspects of computerization in their careers.
CORPS faculty and students work together across departmental boundaries on
specific research projects and seminars with faculty in other schools at
UC-Irvine. The CORPS faculty has published many books and articles in this
area since the early 1970s.
The CORPS concentrations focus upon related areas of inquiry:
1. Developing strategies for designing computer-based systems so that
they best enhance the performance of groups and organizations;
2. Understanding the processes and social consequences of computerization
within organizations and in society.
3. Understanding the work and organizational worlds where people design,
develop, market, distribute, implement, and sustain computerized
systems.
4. Evaluating strategies for managing the implementation and use of
computer-based technologies.
5. Evaluating and proposing public policies which encourage the
development and use of computing in pro-social ways.
CORPS studies of these questions have examined many kinds of computerized
systems. They include complex information systems, computer-based modeling,
decision-support systems, office automation, electronic funds transfer
systems, expert systems, instructional computing, personal computers,
groupware, computer supported manufacturing and computing at home. Most of
these studies are done in the U.S. But CORPS faculty have also collaborated
in studies in Europe and the Pacific Rim countries.
The central questions vary from study to study. They have included questions
about the effects of computerized technologies, ways to manage them, the
social choices that computing opens up or closes off, the kind of social and
cultural life that develops around computing, their political consequences,
and their social carrying costs.
CORPS studies at Irvine have a distinctive orientation:
1. focusing on both public and private sectors,
2. examining computerization in public life and homelife as well as
within organizations,
3. examining computer-based technologies ``in vivo" in typical settings,
4. employing theories and methods drawn from the social sciences, and
5. encouraging critical inquiry while avoiding utopian and anti-utopian
positions.
CORPS Faculty
The primary faculty in the CORPS concentration hold appointments in the
Department of Information and Computer Science and the Graduate School of
Management. Additional faculty in the Department of History, the School of
Social Sciences, and the Program on Social Ecology, have collaborated in
research or have taught key courses for students in the CORPS concentration.
The Public Policy Research Organization, an interdisciplinary research
institute at UCI, administers the CORPS research projects.
The CORPS faculty are recognized nationally and internationally for their
scholarship about computerization in organizations and public life. The
faculty have published numerous books and articles about these topics during
the last 20 years. In addition, they regularly give talks at major
conferences about the sociology and management of computing and also serve
on the editorial boards of several major journals.
Mark Ackerman (Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology) -- Assistant
Professor of ICS. Design of systems for experts in large
organizations; social worlds of software developers.
J. Yannis Bakos (Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology) -- Assistant
Professor of Management;Economic impacts of information technology;
Strategic Information Systems; Corporate Information System
Architectures
James Danziger (Ph.D. Stanford University) -- Professor of Political
Science; Politics of Computing; Computerization and Changes in Work;
Computing in the Social Sciences
Julian Feldman (Ph.D. Carnegie Institute of Technology) -- Professor
Emeritus of Information and Computer Science; Management of Computing
Resources
Jonathan Grudin (PhD University of California, San Diego). -- Assistant
Professor of Information and Computer Science; Computer Supported
Cooperative Work; Social Strategies for System Development;
Human-Computer Interaction
Vijay Gurbaxani (Ph.D. University of Rochester) -- Associate Professor of
Management; Economics of Information Systems Management; Information
Systems Investment Strategies; Performance Measurement of Information
System Organizations; Organizational Implications of Information
Technology
John King (Ph.D. University of California, Irvine) -- Professor of
Information and Computer Science and Management; Management and
Economics of Computing; Social and Organizational Impacts of
Computing; National Policies about Computerization
Rob Kling (Ph.D. Stanford University) -- Professor of Information and
Computer Science and Management; Social and Organizational Impacts of
Computing; Computing and Public Policy; Computerization and Social
Theory; Computerization and Utopian Thought; Management of Information
Systems and New Workplace Technologies
Kenneth Kraemer (Ph.D. University of Southern California) -- Professor of
Administration and Information and Computer Science; Director, Public
Policy Research Organization; National Computer Policy; Investment and
Procurement Policy; Management of Computing; Organizational Impacts of
Computing; Use of Computers in Policy Making
Mark Poster (Ph.D. New York University) -- Professor of History; Director -
Critical Theory Institute; Postmodernism; Mode of Information;
Poststructuralist European Intellectual Movements
Alladi Venkatesh (Ph.D. Syracuse University) -- Associate Professor of
Administration; Information Technology and the Consumer; Philosophy of
Science Perspectives; Sociology of Consumption
Nicholas Vitalari (Ph.D. University of Minnesota) -- Associate Professor of
Administration and Information and Computer Science; Home Computing;
Decision Support Systems; Systems Analysis
Organizational Arrangements for CORPS
The CORPS concentration is a special track within the PhD program the
Department of Information and Computer Science. The ICS faculty evaluates
CORPS applicants with the similar criteria to those they use for their
other PhD students. CORPS students need strong quantitative and verbal
skills. In addition, some prior study of the social sciences is
recommended.
This concentration is particularly appropriate for students with strong
scientific or technical backgrounds who wish to expand their horizons and
skills by studying issues of computerization from a social scientific
perspective. The program provides an superb opportunity for students with
scientific or technical backgrounds to leverage their educations into a new
and vital areas. CORPS is a full-time residential PhD program. Financial
support is available in the form of teaching assistantships, research
assistantships and Regents fellowships for truly outstanding students.
CORPS faculty conduct their research through the Center for Research on
Information Technology and Organizations (CRITO). CRITO provides key office
space and support for research seminars.
In addition to CORPS, the ICS Department has research groups in the areas
of artificial intelligence, computer systems design, parallel processing,
software, computer networks and distributed systems, algorithms and data
structures. ICS faculty emphasize traditional computer science as well as
research in emerging areas of the discipline, with effective
interdisciplinary collaborative ties to colleagues in neurobiology,
cognitive science, management, engineering, and the social sciences. ICS
currently has 29 full-time faculty positions and more than 110 Ph.D.
students, including CORPS. The department is well endowed with computing
equipment and networks, including multiprocessor Sequents, and networked
workstations. Access is available to all major national and international
networks.
UC Irvine is located in Orange County, three miles from the Pacific Ocean
adjacent to Newport Beach, and approximately forty miles south of Los
Angeles. It is within easy drives of 10,000 foot mountains, vast deserts,
and beautiful Pacific beaches. The campus is situated in the heart of a
national center of high-technology enterprise. The Irvine campus also
houses the Western Regional offices of the National Academy of Sciences and
National Academy of Engineering. Both the campus and the enterprise area
are growing rapidly and offer exciting professional opportunities. The
Irvine are offers substantial cultural opportunities in music, the arts and
theater.
Please write for additional information to:
Professor Rob Kling
Department of Information and Computer Science
University of California - Irvine
Irvine, CA 92717
Kling@ics.uci.edu 11/10/92.
------------------------------
End of Computer Privacy Digest V1 #099
******************************