To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - UK: Mass genetic testing of pregnant women on way
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 10:42:18 -0500

ISSUE 1751 Saturday 11 March 2000

Mass genetic testing of pregnant women on way
By Rachel Sylvester

A NATIONAL genetic testing programme for pregnant women is
being set up in a move that could lead to mass screening of
the population.

New guidance has been sent out to health authorities
telling them to offer a range of genetic tests to pregnant
women who could be carrying a disorder. They have also been
advised that counselling about an abortion should be given
as a matter of course if the foetus is found to be
abnormal. The recommendations, drawn up by the Government's
Advisory Committee on Genetic Testing, call for a dramatic
expansion in the number of women tested on the National
Health Service.

Everybody with a family history of illness and ethnic
groups more susceptible to particular disorders should be
tested automatically, the report says. More
controversially, it suggests that "screening the whole
pregnant population or a large sub-group, which is
collectively at a low risk, may be undertaken with the aim
of identifying those at a higher risk so that more specific
tests may be offered".

Until now, genetic testing has been organised regionally
with tests targeted at narrowly-defined groups. The
Government has shied away from general screening programmes
because ministers fear being accused of pursuing a policy
of "eugenics". However, the report, which has been endorsed
by the Department of Health, concludes that a national
policy is now essential to keep up with the pace of
scientific progress. "It is clear that genetics centres see
only a proportion of the individuals and families who would
benefit from comprehensive genetic services," it says. "It
may be that in some cases neither the family nor the family
doctor may be aware of the genetic implications of a
condition and the possible options available to them."

The committee urges the Government and health authorities
to invest in more testing centres, including national
facilities for rare disorders. At the moment there are only
19 centres in England, covering about 49 million people.
Health authorities are advised that written consent should
be obtained before any tests are carried out.

The guidance also makes clear that women should be offered
an abortion as one option if the test finds a genetic
abnormality. "Those who undergo prenatal diagnosis have the
wish to have a healthy child. Thus when a foetus is found
to have a genetic, chromosomal or structural abnormality,
some may .. . choose to seek a termination of the
pregnancy."

The report advises doctors: "A photographic record of the
foetus may be valuable for two purposes: as a record for
completion of the examination and for possible later
consultation, and as a memento for the family. The style of
photography should differ for these two purposes."

Anti-abortion campaigners accused the Government last
night of encouraging parents to want "designer babies".
Paul Tully, general secretary of the Society for the
Protection of the Unborn Child, said: "This will encourage
the mentality that a child is expected to be perfect and
that the health service is there to eliminate those who are
not perfect. That is an affront to the dignity of all
disabled people, it says they are worth less than others."

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: "We want
all health authorities to have the same standards and
procedures so all patients get a fair and equal treatment
when they have these sort of tests."

The Electronic Telegraph,
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000140326706927&rtmo=faVsf
sVs&atmo=faVsfsVs&pg=/et/00/3/11/ngen11.html

via: isml@onelist.com

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Embedded chips
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 10:43:08 -0500

Silicon chips may begin telling you how to dress Their
emerging capability: human 'interface'
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Publication date: Mar 06, 2000

First, they appeared in computers. Then they went into
clocks, calculators, and coffeemakers. Now they are popping
up in credit cards, car windshields, running shoes - and
even pets.

Ultimately, say technology experts, they will be embedded
in people to track their health, rsums, and whereabouts.

"They" are silicon chips. And as these tiny objects get
smaller and smarter, they are bringing about more changes
in the way we live.

For example:

*Late last month, Britain passed a law granting special
privileges to foreign pets implanted with silicon ID chips.
If the chip indicates a pet's vaccines are up to date, the
animal can come into the country without the usual six-
month quarantine.

*Running shoes equipped with computer chips can adjust the
shoes' cushioning based on whether the wearer is running or
walking. The "Raven" shoe line, developed by Vectrasense
Technologies in Beverly, Mass., will be available to
consumers next month. Price tag: $150.

*Last September, American Express introduced the Blue Card
- a credit card with an electronic chip that acts as a
checking account for Internet purchases. The chip stores
financial data and works much like the magnetic strips on
the back of other credit cards, says American Express
spokeswoman Molly Faust in New York.

But it holds much more data, lasts longer, and is more
secure from thieves, she says.

*Travelers on Virginia toll roads can have tolls debited
from their bank accounts via chips embedded in windshield
stickers. The system is more secure than other types of
traffic readers.

In the future, the biggest changes in society will come
when chips begin to communicate. So far, chips in consumer
products simply store information. "Today we've got
multiprocessors everywhere, but none of them talk to each
other," says Mike Beirne, spokesman for Fujitsu America, a
main supplier of such chips.

Signs of improved communication remain in the development
stage. For example, researchers at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, demonstrated chips
in 1995 that exchanged business-card information.

At the Retail Systems Conference last June, companies
including IBM and International Computers Limited, a
division of Fujitsu, showed a smart-tag system that allowed
shoppers to leave a store carrying goods without stopping
at the cash register. Chips embedded in the goods
identified what the customer was buying. The tab would then
be rung up on the customer's chip-implanted credit card.

Unlock doors with a wave

Ultimately chips could migrate under our skin, though the
ethical and humanitarian implications remain unclear. In
1996, Professor Kevin Warnick at the University of Reading
in Britain had a chip put in his arm that could unlock
doors, turn on lights, and boot up his computer.

All the technology needed for chips to interact directly
with humans is already available, says Gene France, a
senior fellow at Texas Instruments in Dallas. "All we have
to do is figure out how to get them not to be so clunky."

Many university prototypes rely on eyeglasses with
holographic screens that display information. The glasses -
too awkward to be practical - are encumbered by a sensor
that monitors eye movement to control the computer.

"If I could just download [commands] from my brain, that
would be kind of exciting," says Mr. France. "I've always
maintained that someday [knowing] calculus will be a matter
of sticking your hand on an electrode pad.... For
cellphones, I'd like to be able to just stick this little
[chip] in my ear."

Another obstacle is power. Today's batteries are too big,
heavy, expensive, and don't last long enough to run
embedded chips. "My goal," says France, "is to reduce power
requirements so the chips can run off body heat. "Everybody
I talk to says ... it'll never happen," he adds. "So I
figure it'll be 30 or 40 years."

France bases his prediction on Moore's Law, which states
that computer chips double in capacity, while halving in
size and price every 18 months.

For now, embedded chips come in two types, says Mr. Beirne
at Fujitsu: active chips, which require their own power
source and can update their own information; and passive
chips, such as those in smart cards that store information.

Passive chips work when inserted into a slot, on a
computer or money machine, for example, or by passing
through a magnetic field, say, at the exit of a store. And
the machines that read these chips also provide a means of
at least some interaction with humans.

For instance, say your shirt and jacket have passive ID
chips in them, says Watts Wacker, a futurist in Westport,
Conn, with SRI Consulting. When you flip on your hand-held
computer in the morning, it could tell what you're wearing
through its infrared communications port, and tell you
whether your outfit matches.

'Go with the yellow shirt'

Further, by comparing this data with your electronic
calendar and its own archives, it might know whether you're
more successful at sales meetings when wearing a blue shirt
or get more dates in a yellow one, he says.

The next step is getting the chips to talk to each other
without the aid of a hand-held computer or card reader. If
the chip in your jacket were intelligent, it could tell you
when the garment was last cleaned, says Mr. Wacker.

Today most active chips are too big, too heavy, too
expensive, or not smart enough to join in any kind of
intelligent network, says Chuck Malloy, a spokesman for
In[tel i]n Santa Clara, Calif.

Chips that can communicate with one another still cost
about $100, says Beirne at Fujitsu. -too much to add to,
say, a dress shirt.

"We're looking for breakthroughs," says France.

*Write to: evarts@csmonitor.com (c) Copyright 2000.
The Christian Science Publishing Society

Publication date: Mar 06, 2000
© 2000, NewsReal, Inc.

http://pb1-1.newsreal.com/osform/NewsService?osform_template=pages/new
srealStory&ID=newsreal&path=News/Category.NRdb@2@21&storypath=New
s/Story_2000_03_05.NRdb@2@22@3@76

via: isml@onelist.com

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - 'Hacktivists' plan DDoS web attack
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 10:43:41 -0500

‘Hactivists´ plan DDoS Web attack

Electrohippies´ software could be as effective as
distributed denial of service tools used in last month´s Web attacks

By Bob Sullivan
MSNBC

March 9 — Borrowing a page from the headline-grabbing Web
attacks last month, a group of Internet activists is set to
release its own software tool designed to cripple Web
sites. The distributed denial of service attack tool to be
released by the “Electrohippies” group will allow thousands
of protesters to aim their computers at a single Web site,
effectively jamming a company´s Internet presence. But the
attacks will be fundamentally different from last month´s
crippling of Yahoo, eBay and other major sites. The victims
will be warned before the attacks, according to the tool´s
authors.

IT´S A VIRTUAL SIT-IN, online protesters gathering via
modems, working together to disrupt a company with policies
they want to protest. That concept isn´t new — but a new
distributed denial of service tool gives the Ehippies a
much more formidable attack plan.

“This should not be characterized as a kid attack. It
could easily be as disruptive as the previous tools,” said
Sammy Migues, chief scientist at Infrastructure Defense
Inc.

The massive denial of service attacks that brought down
some the biggest Web sites last month shined a spotlight on
those previous tools — Trinoo, Tribal Flood and
Stacheldraht, which can turn any computer connected to the
Internet into a “zombie.” Then, armies of zombies can be
remotely controlled from a single location and instructed
to flood a particular computer with so many requests that
the site is rendered useless. “If they don´t want the
hassle, they can turn their server off, or they can gamble
that we won´t get the support necessary.” — PAUL MOBBS
electrohippies

The vandals who attacked last month never identified their
motive and seemed to pick their victims arbitrarily.

The Electrohippies attack will be very different, said
spokesman Paul Mobbs. The group has yet to decide on its
exact victim, but the protest will be focused on genetic
modification of food crops. The victim will be warned,
Mobbs said.

“If they don´t want the hassle they can turn their server
off or they can gamble that we won´t get the support
necessary, which would be an entirely realistic gamble on
their part,” Mobbs said.

The fact that the so-called DDoS attack might not work
also makes the Electrohippies tool fundamentally different
from other hacker denial of service programs.

The Electrohippies tool is actually a simple Web page that
can be e-mailed to potential protestors. No “zombie”
computers are used or compromised. All attacks will come
directly from the protester´s computer.

“We are into open and accountable action,” Mobbs said.

The tool itself simply repeatedly requests 12 to 15
elements on a Web page, not unlike a user manually hitting
refresh over and over to download a page. In fact, last
November, the Electrohippies staged a protest of the World
Trade Organization using that technique. A single Web page
was designed to open up multiple browsers on any user´s
computer, with all the browsers requesting WTO.org. That
effort slowed the trade oorganization´s Web site but also
slowed the Electrohippies site, which hosted the “attack”
page.

This new tool refines that method considerably. Since it
can be e-mailed, there will be no choke point at the
Electrohippies Web site. Attacks will come directly from
protester computers. The tool will not request entire Web
pages, but rather specific images or functions that
particularly drain the victim computer. And the requests
will be made from each attacking computer in random order,
which foils some of a Web server´s caching abilities.

Still, the software is designed to be limited in its
application, Mobbs said, and the attack will be completely
ineffective unless “tens of thousands of people take part.”

‘Coolio´ arrested, denies bringing down major sites “If
people don´t vote with their modems, it won´t work,” he
said. “Hopefully, we shouldn´t disrupt anybody
unintentionally.” — PAUL MOBBS electrohippies

Not quite true, Migues said. He thinks just a few hundred
people would be able to use the tool, which will be
distributed widely, to slow down service at a small Web
site.

“Against a medium-sized site, it would be noticeable ....
One thousand people could send 60,000 requests per second;
that´s pretty big,” Migues said.

And getting several thousand Net users to click on a Web
page sent in e-mail wouldn´t be all that hard, he said.

“I could get enough people to climb on board to make an
attack worthwhile in 20 minutes,” he said. “I can go to
popular IRC chat rooms and let people download the tool.”

The “DoS Action Stand-Alone Control Program version 2.0”
will probably not be effective against the Internet´s
larger sites, Migues said, since they have multiple Web
servers which are used to balance massive traffic loads.

That´s one reason the Ehippies are taking their time,
carefully researching their victim, according to Mobbs.

 What is making these attacks possible?

Hackers have become more sophisticated and have developed
programs that automate such attacks. The programs direct
tens or hundreds of computers around the world to send
traffic to a specific site simultaneously. That allows
hackers to overwhelm some of the most prominent sites
already designed to handle large amounts of traffic.
Security experts became aware of the tools last fall.
Patrick Taylor, vice president of risk assessment for the
Internet Security Systems in Atlanta, said the tools
allowed people with lower degrees of skills to execute
sophisticated attacks. How do hackers use so many computers
in their attacks? They can secretly plant their attack
programs in other people's or company's computer systems by
exploiting those systems' security weaknesses. The programs
remain dormant until the appointed time of attack. When
hackers route the program through someone else's computer,
it makes them harder to trace. What can sites do to prevent
such attacks? Little, according to Mark Zajicek, a team
leader at the CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon
University. He said the focus instead must be on increasing
security of other computers so that they cannot be
commanded to launch such attacks. Once a site is targeted,
one recourse is to trace the traffic back to the third-
party computers and alert their administrators. The process
can take hours. Why can't sites block the bad traffic? Even
the process of determining whether traffic is legitimate
uses precious computing time. A site's Internet service
provider might be able to stop some bad traffic, but it
comes from various locations and often carries fake return
addresses, making it difficult to sort to good from the
bad. Why are these attacks occurring? Attorney General
Janet Reno said Wednesday that while a motive had yet to be
determined, "they appear to be intended to interfere with
and disrupt legitimate electronic commerce." There is no
evidence that hackers gained access to the sites' internal
data. But Randy Sandone of Argus Systems Group Inc. in
Savoy, Ill., warned that denial-of- service attacks might
one day be used as a decoy. While security personnel are
busy trying to block traffic, a hacker might try to gain
access to sensitive data. Is this the work of one person?
Investigators have yet to determine whether a single person
is behind all the attacks. Analysts say that after Yahoo!
was hit Monday, other sites might have been targeted by
copycat hackers.

SOURCE: Associated Press

“We´re still researching which pages and which sites,” he
said. The group also intends to make sure its victim
doesn´t share a Web server with an innocent bystander.
“Hopefully, we shouldn´t disrupt anybody unintentionally.”
The attack will come sometime in mid-April, according to
Mobbs; according to a discussion paper on the coming
attacks, the intended victim must have at least two days´
warning.

MSNBC, http://www.msnbc.com/news/380065.asp

via: cyberwar@onelist.com

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Bashar Assad: "Weak" Barak unable to bring peace
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 11:10:19 -0500

Bashar Assad: "Weak" Barak unable to bring peace

"We wonder if Barak wants to make progress and if he is capable of taking
decisions. He seems to be getting weaker every day," Bashar Al-Assad
said.

   March 11, 2000, 12:26 PM

CAIRO (AFP) - Syria is beginning to doubt whether a "weakened" Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Barak can push through a peace deal, the son of Syrian
President Hafez Al-Assad said in remarks published Saturday.

"We wonder if Barak wants to make progress and if he is capable of taking
decisions. He seems to be getting weaker every day," Bashar Al-Assad was
quoted as saying by the London-published Arabic daily Al-Hayat.

"Recent events have led us to doubt the real intentions of the Israeli
government and people," Assad said, referring in particular to the decision to
pull out of occupied southern Lebanon by July, with or without agreements
with Beirut and Damascus, the power-broker in Lebanon.

Assad, who holds no official post in Syria but is seen by foreign analysts as
the heir-apparent of his father, said Damascus had been encouraged by
Barak's election last year.

But he said a unilateral withdrawal from southern Lebanon was not a
solution, "above all when it results from an Israeli defeat, the first since the
creation of the state" in 1948.

"After its losses in southern Lebanon, will Israel accept its defeat without
seeking revenge?" he asked.

http://www.arabia.com/article/0,1690,News-15421,00.html

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Suspicious canisters
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 14:53:38 -0500

Friday, March 10, 2000

Suspicious Canisters, Clues Unearthed in O.C.

Inquiry: Police believe they hold weapons or hazardous materials. Doctor's
link to South Africa military probed.

By SCOTT MARTELLE, JACK LEONARD, H.G. REZA, Times Staff Writers

Investigators unearthed six suspicious canisters Thursday from the backyard
of Dr. Larry C. Ford's Irvine home as details emerged about the biomedical
researcher's possible one-time links to military and biological weapons
programs. The specifics of Ford's role are unclear, but in an interview
Thursday the former surgeon general of the South African Defense Force
said Ford served as an "informal consultant" and provided advice on
protecting military personnel against biological attacks.

Full Story:
http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20000310/t000023064.html

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