Abstracts of Recent Articles and Literature

software, the rate of software piracy in Canada grew from 39% in 1997 to 40% in 1998. In contrast, the US piracy rate dropped from 27% in 1997 to 25% in 1998. A spokesperson from the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft (CAAST) said that changes to the fed- eral Copyright Act that would allow for statutory dam- ages of up to $20 000 for each illegally copied software program have yet to be implemented. The study also found that Vietnam and China continue to have the highest piracy penetration rate among individual coun- tries. While individual countries have shown increased rates of software piracy, the worldwide level continues to fall; this is partly because of cheaper legal software and better company service and support for software products. The Globe and Mail, June 1, 1999.

MCI WorldCorn offers outsourced global VPNs, Bob Wallace. MCI’s UUnet Technologies unit recently detailed UUsecureVPN, a service that handles system setup, support, security, performance adVPN manage- ment. UUsecure will be available in 14 countries by the end of the year. To address network setup, UUnet will provide, configure, ship and install and all-in-one device from Xedia Corp. that handles security and has firewall and bandwidth management features. All traf- fic is carried on UUnet’s Internet backbone, not on the Internet itself and is constantly monitored from a UUnet network operations centre. The Xedia devices help users avoid bandwidth bottlenecks by measuring usage on lines that access UUnet. Computer World, May 24, 1999, y. 68.

Legislative threat to E-commerce, Emma Tucker

andJean Eaglesham. Revisions to two European Union conventions that cover consumer contracts threaten the development of E-commerce in Europe. The pro- posals would extend a consumer’s right to sue a com- pany that had renounced its contract under the law of the consumer’s home country, rather than the under the law of the country in which the company was based. Experts say that these revisions would deter small and medium-sized companies from using the Internet as they would have to be familiar with 15 dif- ferent consumer regimes to trade across borders.They also maintain that the revisions would contradict the basic objective of the EU, which is to create the single market: as long as business abide by their home rules

they are able to trade anywhere in the EU. The Council of Ministers still requires final approval. Financial Times,July 6, 1999.

Hackers open door to Windows, Niall McKay.

Back Orifice 2000, released by a group of hackers known as the Cult of the Dead Cow, can be used to gain unauthorized access to computer systems. The first version targets Microsoft’s Windows 95 and 98 operating systems. It can be downloaded to a comput- er user’s system without their permission or knowl- edge, by hiding it in an E-mail attachment. Once installed it can be used to gain complete control of the user’s system. It is believed that the second version will pose a threat to the corporate world because it targets Microsoft’s Windows NT operating system and is much more difficult to detect. Security industry offi- cials are divided on whether they condone the actions of the Cult of the Dead Cow. Some believe that it is irresponsible and will promote hacking; others believe that the Cult servers a useful purpose in the security industry by exposing weaknesses. Financial Times, July

14, 1999.

Tales of the cryptochip, Barry de la Rosa. A cryp- tography chip with an open-source design has been developed by German students at Stuttgart University. The chip could dramatically increase the performance of E-commerce transactions owing to increased speed, improved cross-platform support and standardization, and the elimination of the need to use routers to implement VPNs. A report by the Gartner Group said that introducing security into silicon chips “offers advantages over software-based VPNs”. PC Week, June 29, 1999, p. 1.

Anti-piracy alliance under fire, Steve Ranger. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has recently sent out letter to 40 000 small businesses asking them to state if they had enough licences for their software. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has harshly crit- icized the letters as “reminiscent of the worst bogus directory and fake invoice scams”. It accused the BSA of misleading businesses into believing that giving information to the anti-piracy group is compulsory. The BSA defended the organization’s approach, saying that there was a correlation between BSA campaigns

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