San Francisco, California – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today condemned portions of the
Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) currently under
consideration
in Congress which would treat all computer trespass
as
terrorism.Treating low-level computer crimes as terrorist
acts
is not an appropriate response to recent events,”
said EFF Executive Director Shari Steele. “A
relatively
harmless online prankster should not face a
potential
life sentence in prison.”

The ATA includes provisions that dramatically
increase the
penalties for acts that have no apparent
relationship to
terrorism. For instance, the bill would add
low-level
computer intrusion, already a crime under other
laws, to
the list of “federal terrorism offenses,” creating
penalties of up to life imprisonment, adding broad
pre-conviction asset seizure powers and serious
criminal
threats to those who “materially assist” or “harbor”
individuals suspected of causing minimal damage to
networked computers.

Attorney General John Ashcroft asked Congress last
week to
pass the ATA, formerly known as the Mobilization
Against
Terrorism Act (MATA), with less than one week of
consideration.

EFF believes the ATA would radically tip the United
States
system of checks and balances, giving the government
unprecedented authority to surveil American citizens
with
little judicial or other oversight.

EFF again urged Congress to act with deliberation
and
approve only measures that are effective in
preventing
terrorism while protecting the freedoms of
Americans.

“The theme of freedom in the face of terrorist
attacks
should include a focus on measures that preserve
rather
than diminish our civil liberties,” added Steele.

The DOJ’s own analysis of another particularly
egregious
provision of the ATA points out that “United States
prosecutors may use against American citizens
information
collected by a foreign government even if the
collection
would have violated the Fourth Amendment.”

“Operating from abroad, foreign governments could do
the
dirty work of spying on the communications of
Americans
worldwide. US protections against unreasonable
search and
seizure won’t matter,” commented EFF Senior Staff
Attorney
Lee Tien.

Additional provisions of the proposed Anti-Terrorism
Act
include the following measures:

* Make it possible to obtain e-mail message header
information, Internet user web browsing patterns,
and
“stored” voicemail without a wiretap order

* Eviscerate controls on Title III roving wiretaps

* Permit law enforcement to disclose information
obtained
through wiretaps to any employee of the Executive
branch

* Reduce restrictions on domestic investigations
under the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)

* Permit grand juries to provide information to the
US
intelligence community

* Permit the President to designate any
“foreign-directed
individual, group, or entity,” including any United
States
citizen or organization, as a target for FISA
surveillance

* Prevent people from providing “expert advice” to
terrorists

* Extends federal DNA database to every person
convicted
of a federal terrorism offense which includes
low-level
computer intrusions

* Other provisions, whether or not related to online
civil
liberties

Senator Patrick Leahy has attempted to moderate the
ATA
through introduction of the “Uniting and
Strengthening of
America Act” (USAA). While EFF believes USAA would
unnecessarily increase law enforcement surveillance
powers, it is nowhere near as harmful to civil
liberties
as the Bush administration’s proposal.

For example, the USAA does not increase penalties
for
low-level computer intrusion. The USAA would retain
existing restrictions on wiretaps, including
requiring
court orders to obtain voicemail messages. However,
both
the ATA and the USAA would expand FISE to include
roving
wiretapes. The USAA would also permit disclosure of
Title
III wiretaps to intelligence officers, whereas the
ATA
would permit disclosure to any federal employee. The
USAA
also would require a court order for grand juries to
provide information to the US intelligence
community,
unlike ATA. Provisions of the ATA permitting the
President to designate targets for FISA
surveillance,
preventing people from providing “expert advice” to
terrorists, and collecting foreign intelligence on
American citizens are not included in the USAA.

EFF’s Steele emphasized, “While it is obviously of
vital
national importance to respond effectively to
terrorism,
these bills recall the McCarthy era in the power
they
would give the government to scrutinize the private
lives of American citizens.”

The ATA and USAA bills come in the wake of the
Senate’s
hasty passage of the “Combating Terrorism Act” on
the
evening of September 13 with less than 30 minutes of
consideration on the Senate floor.

About EFF:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading
civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in
the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively
encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
expression, privacy, and openness in the information
society. EFF is a member-supported organization and
maintains one of the most linked-to websites in the
world:
http://www.eff.org

The proposed Uniting and Strengthening of America
Act (USAA):
http://www.eff.org/sc/leahy_proposal.html

EFF analysis of the Uniting and Strengthening of
America Act
[coming soon]:
http://www.eff.org/sc/eff_leahy.html

The proposed Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), formerly
Mobilization
Against Terrorism Act (MATA):
http://www.eff.org/sc/ashcroft_proposal.html

EFF analysis of the Anti-Terrorism Act:
http://www.eff.org/sc/eff_ashcroft.html

Attorney General John Ashcroft remarks on response
to
terrorism from FBI headquarters on September 17,
2001:
http://www.eff.org/sc/ashcroft_statement.html

The Combating Terrorism Act (S1562) passed by the
Senate:
http://www.eff.org/sc/wiretap_bill.html

Senator Leahy’s testimony on the Combating Terrorism
Act:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2001/s091301.html

EFF analysis of the Combating Terrorism Act:
http://www.eff.org/sc/eff_wiretap_bill_analysis.html

Why “backdoor” encryption requirements reduce
security:
http://www.crypto.com/papers/escrowrisks98.pdf

Here’s another short ZD item to tell us that Sony is about to bless its PlayStation2 with an optional 40GB hard drive. The new drive will fit into one of the gaming console’s expansion bays, and while specific pricing for the North American release of this product has yet to be determined, the Japanese pricing scheme suggest it will retail for less than $200. Sources say it will likely be available in “early 2002” but don’t rule out a release that could see the drive on American store shelves in time for the Christmas rush.

Apple has rescheduled the Quicktime Live 2001 event that would have been held in Beverly Hills next month. Citing requests from vendors and customers, the company has re-scheduled the conference for February at the same location. In the wake of terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Apple cancelled a Paris trade show. ZDNet has a short item.

From ComputerWorld (via CNN): ” After months of preparations, a few Web sites are beginning to
appear online with new .info top level domain addresses that can be visited
using Internet browser software.

More than 52,000 .info domain names have been registered since July, according to
Afilias Ltd., the company designated to maintain the Internet database of all .info
addresses. Those new domains went live on Saturday, though they aren’t
necessarily yet online. Another 250,000 unique .info addresses are in the pipeline,
waiting to be placed in the database so they may eventually be used by Internet
visitors.”

From PR Newswire: “REDSonic, Inc., a leader in
real-time Linux solutions for the embedded market, today announced its entry
into the MIPS(TM) Alliance Program. REDSonic will develop a board support
package (BSP) for MIPS Technologies’ Malta board, a MIPS32(TM)
architecture-based software development platform, with its innovative embedded
Linux development and deployment tool, RED-Builder(TM).”

Hongkong, September 29, 2001 — Server manufacturing giant Gigabyte Technology Ltd, also a key player in the global motherboard market, has finalized plans with software developer International Messaging Associates (IMA) to bundle IMA’s latest Internet Exchange Messaging Server (IEMS) 5 with gigabyte’s GA and GS series rackmount
servers.
This was announced recently by Gigabyte’s Director for Networking and Server Products Etay Lee. “The partnership will provide GS rackmount server users with the capability for a fully featured and functional messaging environment since IEMS 5 complements GS servers in speed, scalability, reliability, and performance.

Gigabyte produces close to 2,000 of its production servers monthly. This is aside from the servers they produce for other hardware OEMs such as Tatung, among others. Gigabyte carries both Linux and Windows as operating systems for their servers.

“Gigabyte is recognized for their server’s compactness and high reliability which, in most ways, also complement the qualities of IEMS5 as a messaging solution”, says IMA President Tim Kehres. Through this partnership, Kehres adds, we hope to widen the functionality of IEMS5 in response to the ever-expanding demands of businesses today.

The Internet Exchange Messaging Server version 5 (IEMS v5) is a complete, standalone, open architecture messaging solution and can be run as a distributed system, with different modules hosted on separate machines on the LAN. This allows for the simple and ordered expansion of the system as the organization grows, or messaging needs change over time. IEMS distributed system support, as well as extensive cross-platform support is unmatched in the industry.

IEMS5 complies with proven Internet standards while offering dependable mail storage, excellent migration support, directory services, advanced spam and virus detection and control, and interoperability among disparate email systems. It is supported under Windows 98, 2000, NT and major Linux distributions. It is easily scalable from configurations suitable to SOHO or SME environments up to large, distributed, corporate-size installations.

Meanwhile, Gigabyte’s GS series are rackmount servers provide the best platform solutions for Internet Service Providers (ISPs), networking telecommunication, and space-constrained corporate data centers. Although each of these servers has its own unique features, all of which have been proven reliable, scalable, easy-to-administer, and cost-effective.

Sales and Marketing Contacts:
Eric Arandez (jearandez@ima.com)
Ana Monsanto (marcana@ima.com)
Toll Free No.: +1 (800) 549-2762
Fax: +1 (888) 562-3561
Website: http://www.ima.com

Ximian.com announces that the Beta 4 release of Ximian Evolution is out.

From InternetWire: PolyServe, Inc., a leading
next-generation system software company,
announced today that it will unveil its storage area
network (SAN) file system technology at the Storage
Decisions 2001 conference, September 26-28, in Chicago.
Available in first quarter 2002, PMxS will initially be supported on Linux with other enterprise
software ports such as Windows 2000 and Solaris to follow.

From Wired.com: ”
A new TV public service announcement targets U.S. computer hacktivists with a blunt message: Uncle Sam wants you
to help fight the war on terrorism.

But the spot, which organizers hope to begin airing nationwide next week on major networks, will warn that misguided
patriotic efforts from software experts can hurt the cause.”

It’s a Reuters story. “International Business Machines said on Tuesday it expects to generate at least
$7 billion of sales in seven key growth areas in three years’ time,” and one of those growth areas is Linux.