Forum on Internet Dangers Sponsored by UniForum
Speakers to focus on security, censorship, privacy, and copyrights
By Debbie Murray
In an age when everyone is doing it on the Net, who is to know
what's safe and what's not? From commerce on the net to sexual
exploitation, what's secure and what's private?
Find out by attending UniForum's upcoming security forum, where
you can learn what dangers exist and what you can do to protect
yourself and your business.
UniForum is sponsoring:
"Security, Censorship, Privacy and Copyrights:
Warning, Dangers on the Internet"
Wednesday, June 14
6 to 8 p.m. at the Hyatt Hotel, Burlingame, CA.
A highly qualified panel of experts will share their knowledge
and experience:
- Jay Friedland, vice president, SurfWatch Software, Inc.
- David Bernstein, vice president, Electronic Publishing Resources, Inc.
- Dr. Peter Neumann, Stanford Research Institute
- Steve Kirsch, founder and president, InfoSeek Corp.
- John Smith, senior investigator, high-tech crime
Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office
Internet Censorship and Freedom of Expression
Currently more than 200 Internet newsgroups contain sexually
explicit material. Sites on the World-Wide Web contain explicit
images. Until now there hasn't been a way to shield people from
receiving this material.
SurfWatch is a new software product that provides an alternative
to Internet censorship, giving parents and educators the opportunity
to limit unwanted material locally without restricting the access
rights of other Internet users.
In Washington, Congress is now struggling with the issue of how
to protect children from access to material on the Net that might
be considered harmful. As the policy debate over obscenity on
the Internet heats up, SurfWatch is one of the companies providing
information to the Interactive Working Group, an ad hoc coalition
of industry and public interest organizations that are studying
technological alternatives that empower parents without the need
for burdensome regulation. Educators welcome the new software
product.
SurfWatch Software was founded in January 1995 with a vision
of creating high-quality technology products that have a positive
impact on people's lives.
Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
The protection of intellectual property rights on the net is
a necessity for a robust electronic information infrastructure.
The very properties that make the Net attractive as a distribution
medium-ease of manipulating information in electronic form-also
appear to make protection of property rights and copyrights intractable.
People will shortly be using new category information technology
tools that truly support electronic commerce, as well as ensuring
that the various rights and privileges of the parties are enforced
and respected. Information providers must know their content
is used only in authorized ways. Privacy rights of users of content
will be preserved. Business models related to content will be
electronically implemented. The Internet and other information
commerce infrastructures will require a management component
that enforces rules that ensure a safe, coherent, fair, and productive
community. This technology component will be critical to the
electronic highway's acceptance and its functioning in a global
society.
Electronic Publishing Resources, founded in August 1990, architects,
designs, and markets a family of software technologies for distribution
of electronic commerce. EPR has met the electronic community's
needs through the invention of its InterTrust virtual distribution
environment. InterTrust enables interoperable electronic commerce,
including full digital information rights protection. InterTrust
delivers a rich array of secure transaction control, auditing,
reporting, budgeting, privacy, and related capabilities. These
capabilities complement and extend networks, point-to-point security,
and digital payment systems by managing and analyzing the use
of electronic content and protecting the rights of electronic
community members. They address the transaction management needs
of all electronic highway participants, from government intelligence
agencies to creators of entertainment products, to providers
of telecommunications infrastructure.
Computer-Related Risks
Security and reliability issues of computers and the consequential
effects on people and our society in general is an area of great
concern. Dr. Peter Neumann has done extensive research and findings
on computer risks. In fact, he recently published his book, Computer-Related
Risks. Dr. Neumann has worked in the computer science lab at
SRI since 1971, working on security, reliability, safety, system
development methodology, privacy, and risks. He moderates the
ACM Risks Forum (computer risks), and is a Fellow of the ACM
and the IEEE. He is currently on the National Research Council
study of U.S. cryptography policy, and chairs the Technology,
Security, and Privacy subgroup of the Internal Revenue Service
Commissioner's Advisory Group.
Copyright Violations
"A lot of the Internet copyright issues are up in the air and
are being decided by the courts," says Steve Kirsch. "Virtually
all the Internet providers are liable for copyright violations
as things stand now." Kirsch is InfoSeek's president and was
named by Newsweek last February as one of the 50 most influential
people to watch in cyberspace.
InfoSeek enables customers to perform low-cost, high-speed searches
on the Internet. InfoSeek is a convenient one-stop shopping for
a variety of both public and commercial data sources. Users can
search WWW pages, Usenet News, over 50 computer magazines, newspaper
news wires and press releases, company profiles, medical and
health information, movie reviews, technical support databases,
and much more.
Investigating and Prosecuting Network Intrusions
The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office High Tech Computer
Crime Team has had years of experience investigating and prosecuting
trade secret thefts, network intrusions, chip thefts, and other
types of high technology thefts in Silicon Valley. John Smith,
Santa Clara County's senior investigator, was the primary investigator
in the Kevin Mitnik case. He has over 30 years' experience in
California Law Enforcement. He has investigated over 25 crimes
involving computer networks, 26 trade secret theft allegations,
and 20 cases requiring computer searches. According to Smith,
"The amount of hi-tech theft that occurs in the Silicon Valley
alone is phenomenal." Smith will discuss actual criminal cases
and share his valuable insight into how users can protect themselves.
Don't miss out on this very enlightening evening. Admission is
free. RSVP by June 8 to UniForum Association, (800) 255-5620.
Debbie Murray is conference and seminar manager for UniForum.