CONTENTS

[1] Newsletter Highlights
[2] USACM Chair Comments on Pentagon Cybersecurity
[3] Congress Creates New $4.5 Billion Math and Science Educ. Program
[4] News of NSA Eavesdropping Program Prompts Data Mining Speculation
[5] Congress Extends Patriot Act … For a Few Weeks
[6] EU Data Retention Law Passes
[7] Upcoming Events
[8] About USACM

[An archive of all previous editions of Washington Update is available here.]

[1] NEWSLETTER HIGHLIGHTS

Happy New Year! Below are highlights of our top stories for December – typically a slow month in Washington:

* Interviewed as part of a piece on Pentagon cybersecurity, Prof. Eugene Spafford reiterated important points from his previous Congressional testimony.

* Congress creates large new education program aimed at increasing the number of math and science undergraduates.

* Newspaper reveals that the National Security Agency has been conducting warrantless eavesdropping on U.S. telecommunications, leading many to speculate about the technology involved and data mining.

* Failing to reach a compromise agreement, the 109th Congress agreed to extend several otherwise expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act by a few weeks.

* The European Parliament passed a controversial anti-terrorism directive that will require ISPs to retain communications data.

[2] USACM CHAIR COMMENTS ON PENTAGON CYBERSECURITY

Prof. Eugene Spafford, USACM Chair and executive director of Purdue University’s Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security (CERIAS), was interviewed recently as part of a National Public Radio (NPR) Morning Edition piece on Department of Defense (DOD) cybersecurity:

An audio archive of the segment is available from

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5048451

In the piece Spafford echoes themes from his recent testimony before a House Armed Services Committee hearing, where he urged a different approach to DOD cybersecurity involving a shift away from reliance on commercial-off-the-shelf (or COTS) products and away from systems and software with extraneous functionality. For more information on this hearing, including a link to Spafford’s written testimony, see our October newsletter at

http://www.acm.org/usacm/weblog/index.php?p=327

[3] CONGRESS CREATES NEW $4.5 BILLION MATH AND SCIENCE EDUC. PROGRAM

Congress has all but wrapped up its budget work this year, and one interesting item is an entirely new $4.5 billion program of grants for low-income students to attend college and go on to major in math, science, or foreign language. The program starts out pretty modestly giving $750 to low-income students (the income threshold is same as the federal Pell Grant program) to pay the first year of tuition at a two- or four-year institution of higher education. It then ramps up to $1,300 in year two and $4,000 in both years three and four. The catch is that students have to hold a 3.0 GPA their first year of college and then in the coursework of their major, and, at four-year universities, their major must be in:

* “the physical, life, or computer sciences [our emphasis], mathematics, technology, or engineering,” or
* “a foreign language that the Secretary, in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, determines is critical to the national security of the United States.”

The program runs through 2010; after that, it would have to be reauthorized.

Beyond the focus of increasing opportunities for potential math and science majors, what is useful about this program is that it is relatively predictable. Because it is part of the “mandatory” side of the budget it isn’t subject to the annual appropriations process. This means students that stick to the major requirements should be able to depend on the $4,000 grant for each of their last two years of school.

While it is not clear whether this would help increase computer science enrollments, it is clear that Congress thinks that increasing science majors is directly connected to domestic competitiveness. Senator Frist (R-TN), who happens to be Majority Leader in the Senate and a rumored Presidential candidate, championed this program. Here is a highlight from his press release on the program:

“China and India are generating scientists and engineers at a furious pace while America lags dangerously behind. These SMART Grants and Academic Competitiveness Grants help close America’s competitiveness gap and prepare American students for the high-paying, high-skill jobs that drive the 21st century economy. I fought hard to pass this worthy program, and I’m proud we were able to boost funding levels to provide low-income students real incentives to pursue time-intensive math and science degrees. This legislation is a critical national security tool that will also sustain America’s global legacy as a land of innovation, imagination, and initiative.”

A link to the full release is available at

http://www.acm.org/usacm/weblog/index.php?p=341

The legislation is part of a broader budget package that passed the Senate and awaits almost certain approval by the House of Representatives and the President.

[4] NEWS OF NSA EAVESDROPPING PROGRAM PROMPTS DATA MINING SPECULATION

The New York Times revealed that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has been conducting a White-House-approved program of eavesdropping on telephone calls and emails occurring between people in the United States and other countries. The case has led many in the technical and policy communities to speculate about the technology involved and whether or not it constitutes data mining. A recent NY Times article (free reg. req’d) has more information about the potential scope, context, and legality of the NSA program; see

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/politics/21nsa.html

Apart from the legal aspects of the case, there are a number of technical concerns surrounding the NSA program as well. For example, given the globalized nature of today’s telecommunications infrastructure, how difficult is it to determining what constitutes an “international” email, phone call, cell phone call, or VoIP call? In addition, another recent NY Times article suggests that the program tapped “directly into some of the American telecommunication system’s main arteries” and that “the N.S.A. has gained the cooperation of American telecommunications companies to obtain backdoor access to streams of domestic and international communications.” See the following URL for the full article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/24/politics/24spy.html

Clearly, this case is far from over, and more details will likely emerge. The case has raised many eyebrows in Congress, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA), among others, has promised to hold hearings into the matter after the first of the year.

[5] CONGRESS EXTENDS PATRIOT ACT … FOR A FEW WEEKS

In a last-minute deal before leaving town, the House and Senate reached an agreement to extend several provisions of the USA Patriot Act that were set to expire at year’s end. Agreement on the short extension came after much debate and after the rejection of an earlier plan that would have extended the provisions for six months.

The provisions in question include the one related to so-called “roving” wiretaps (which allows for the monitoring of each phone or computer used by a suspect) and the one allowing for secret warrants for business, library, and other records.

In any event, the short extension means that the act will be back in the news before long as members of Congress work toward reaching an agreement that can gain wide support.

For more information on the Patriot Act, see the resource page created by the American Library Association at

http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/ifissues/usapatriotact.htm

[6] EU DATA RETENTION LAW PASSES

The European Parliament this month passed a controversial directive requiring that Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecommunications companies retain data about the calls and messages passing through their networks for periods ranging from between 6 and 24 months. (The directive allows member states to set the retention period within this range.) The directive will encompass telephone call data, including location data for mobile phones and data on unsuccessful calls, as well as such things as traffic data regarding email, SMS, and Internet use.

Privacy and civil liberties groups are very worried about the directive’s effect on privacy – a concern only deepened by pressure from some nations for longer retention periods (e.g., Poland is reportedly pushing for a 15-year retention period). Meanwhile, telecommunications companies are worried about the costs associated with implementing many of the new requirements. However, a number of legal challenges to the directive are expected before the new rules actually go into effect.

For more information on the directive and its context, see the ZDNet article at

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-5995089.html

[7] UPCOMING EVENTS

January 3: The 109th Congress’ second session opens. However, the Senate does not return for legislative business until Jan. 18, while the House returns on Jan. 31.

January 26-27: “Ensuring Privacy and Security of Consumer Information,” American
Conference Institute, New York, New York.

http://www.americanconference.com/privacy

February 8: Internet Caucus “State of the Net” Conference, Hyatt Regency, Washington, D.C.

http://netcaucus.org/conference/2006/

[8] ABOUT USACM

USACM is the U.S. Public Policy Committee of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). ACM is widely recognized as the premier organization for computing professionals, delivering resources that advance the computing and IT disciplines, enable professional development, and promote policies and research that benefit society. ACM hosts the computing industry’s leading Digital Library and Guide to Computing Literature, and serves its 80,000 global members and the computing profession with journals and magazines, conferences, workshops, electronic forums, and its Career Resource Centre and Professional Development Centre. For more information about USACM and ACM, see

http://www.acm.org/usacm/about.html

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