CRA ELECTRONIC BULLETIN--JULY 30, 1993

[David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

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CRA ELECTRONIC BULLETIN--JULY 30, 1993 
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        =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-                    
        Distributed By

        Juan Antonio Osuna
        Computing Research Association
        1875 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 718
        Washington, DC 20009

        phone: (202) 234-2111
        E-mail: josuna@cs.umd.edu
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HOUSE PASSES NII LEGISLATION
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The House of Representatives passed the National Information Infrastructure 
Act of 1993 on July 26 with a sweeping 326 to 61 vote. 

Introduced by Rick Boucher (D-VA), the bill (HR 1757) expands the 
High-Performance Computing and Communications Act of 1991 to bring libraries, 
local governments, schools and health care providers onto national computer 
networks.

Members who opposed the bill say the telephone, cable and electric companies 
are already building networks, rendering government involvement unnecessary. 
All but one of the 61 members who opposed were Republicans.

Those who backed the bill say the government does have a role in spurring 
commercial development by fostering research and development.
 
While before the Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Science, the 
bill underwent several changes, especially with respect to the National 
Research and Eduation Network, a testbed network expected to reach gigabit 
speeds in the next few years.

Representatives from the regional telephone companies and the research and 
education communities (including CRA) deliberated for weeks over wording 
limiting use of this testbed, the only federally funded portion of the 
Internet. The telephone companies were concerned that federal support of 
networking impedes their entry into the business. Education and research groups
 
argued that government support creates new technologies and uses, enhancing 
future markets.

Compromise language was hammered out and agreed to by the two groups. The 
Senate version of the bill (S 4) still has the older, harsher restrictions 
originally proposed and supported by the telephone companies.

However, the educational community (including CRA) and the telephone companies 
have reached agreement and both recommend that the language in HR 1757 be 
substituted in S 4.

PRESIDENT APPOINTS LANE TO HEAD NSF
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President Clinton appointed on July 13 Neal F. Lane, a physicist and provost 
of Rice University, to head the National Science Foundation.

Lane currently serves on the Blue Ribbon Panel on High Performance Computing, 
formed by NSF to evaluate technological trends and priorities.

He has served as provost for Rice University since 1986, after having been the 
Chancellor of the University of Colorado for two years. In 1979 and 1980, he 
served as the director of NSF's Physics Division. Prior to that, he taught 
physics for 20 years.

Lane holds his BS, MA, and PhD from the University of Oklahoma.

PANEL TO REVIEW SKIPJACK (AKA CLIPPER)
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The National Institute of Standards and Technology has selected five people to 
review the classified encryption algorithm Skipjack, also popularly known as 
Clipper. The government proposes Skipjack as a new standard for encrypting 
voice communications.

To avoid a trademark conflict, the government is renaming Clipper to Skipjack. 
The five reviewers will be Ernest Brickell of Sandia National Laboratories, 
Dorothy Denning of Georgetown University (also on the CRA board), Stephen Kent 
of BBN Communications, David Maher of AT&T, and Walter Tuchman of Amperif Corp.

OMB DIRECTS AGENCIES TO PUT INFO ON INTERNET
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The Office of Management and Budget issued a circular (A-130) on July 2, 
directing federal agencies to make more information available through 
electronic networks, including Internet.

"The development of public electronic networks, such as the Internet, provides 
an additional way for agencies to increase diversity of information sources 
available to the public," the 18-page circular said.

GAO TELLS HOUSE OF NCIC COMPUTER ABUSE
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The General Accounting Office made a statement before a House subcommittee 
July 28 about security holes in the National Crime Information Center computer 
system.

NCIC is the nation's largest computerized criminal justice information system, 
consisting of 24 million records accessible by 500,000 people.

Upon a request from Gary Condit (D-CA), GAO testified on NCIC security before 
a joint meeting between the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and 
Constitutional Rights and the House Government Operations Subcommittee on 
Information Justice, Transportation and Agriculture.

NCIC is not easily penetratable from outside. However, because there is no 
password authentication, NCIC is easily abused by insiders, GAO said. 

Most users of the system simple identify themselves and their agencies using 
codes that are not kept secret.  The GAO reported instances where law 
enforcement agents entered the system using false codes, retrieved information 
and sold it to private investigators.

REPORTS OF INTEREST
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The Congressional Budget Office released "Promoting High Performance Computing 
and Communications," which examines the federal role in spurring commercial 
development of HPCC technologies. Copies may be requested from CBO at (202) 
226-2809.