Mary Wehmeier's Blog Du Jour

	Thursday, April 25, 2002

Philips Electronics Weighs in on CBDTPA and DCMA

Did I tell you the other day about companies not agreeing on standards? Yep right here.

Today the rubber-met-the-road in the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, where they are held hearing on "Ensuring Content Protection in the Digital Age." The invitations list of people testifying read like a who's who* (below) of the rich and powerful insiders within the Entertainment, Internet, and Technology Industries. [Too bad I didn't get invited. I would have loved to given the Committee a piece of my mind from the standpoint of the educated consumer. ]

However it appears we may have a champion on our side. Today appearing at the hearing, Philips Consumer Electronics North America, President and CEO Lawrence Blanford testified that something's rotten in Hollywood. Blanford explained to the Committee in plain language about the problems being created by the 5C Group who are working together to create Digital Content Protection System for digital video and audio. Blanford representing Philips and customers everywhere, explained that if the current standards being created by the 5C Group were allowed to become a standard in order to support the DMCA and other intellectual property laws, "the customer would suffer by having to replace their DVD players in order to watch digital TV programs they have all ready recorded."

In a copy of his prepared statement before the Committee, I received today, Blanford went even further to explain that the Broadcast Protection Discussion Group (AKA the 5C Group made up of Hitachi, Intel, Matsushita (Panasonic & JVC,) Sony and Toshiba are planning an expensive, proprietary encryption program that will interface individually and within the proposed IEEE 1394 (Firewire) home-network standard to block the consumers ability to copy any video or audio program they may wish to use later. Blanford stated:

"Because this proposal would require encryption in the home of free over-the-air digital television broadcasts, and because this proposal would place in the hands of a few companies control of all consumer electronics devices through private, contractual licensing arrangements, Philips believes that the current direction is seriously flawed."

Just lovely. So now we have the big companies cavorting in some engineering study groups deciding how WE the consumer will get to enjoy our soap operas and reruns of MASH, ER and Sesame Street or music after we come home from a long day at work. Flipping lovely. This is all because groups like RIAA and the DMCA have been allowed to run without a bridle.

Clue to Congress: Wait until women who record their soap operas everyday, so they can watch them when they get home from work, figure out this new technology is going to make that impossible. Remember women vote in larger percentages than men. Can you say ticked off voters? Uh huh.

While Blanford admits in testimony that the Philips understands the necessity to balance the the rights between copy holder and the customer. (Philips actually has some of the best broadcast equipment in the business.) Philips has also worked to create a standard which prohibits the direct illegal copying of video tapes through their "Serial Copy Management System," as well as several "watermarking protocols." However Blanford also explained that despite the millions of dollars of development costs involved: Philips gave the "Serial Copy Management System," away for FREE to other companies for the asking.

Blanford continued his comments by also explaining to the committee that Philips supports:

"Consumers� fair use rights must be preserved in any technical or public policy solutions to digital age challenges
Backward compatibility has been the backbone of the consumer electronics industries� product designs.
Consumers react negatively and very strongly when their expectations for fair use and ease of use are not met.
Ever increasing levels of complexity in consumers� devices will render products increasingly unreliable, more expensive and will constrain consumer activities.
User Friendliness is a hallmark of CE (Consumer Electronics) products."

Blanford believes that the customer "should not bear the costs, in dollar terms and in terms of technological complexity, when there are much simpler solutions to the agreed upon problem�the prospect of Internet redistribution of digital terrestrial broadcasts."

Amazing. Someone's actually talking common sense here.

What the working groups have been proposing is that the digital television signal would have to carry a special code (or tone) within the upper data section of the transmission that would, no must be decoded, in order for people to be able to use. (For those of you inside the 'Biz, they want to encode more into the all ready crammed "front porch" of the signal. Nice huh? My question is WHERE?) The other group wants to encrypt it once inside the home, makes it impossible to copy or move without permission. And probably a fee. They are all forgetting "fair use."

As you can see none of the companies are really agreeing on what's the right thing to do-- or not do. However, it's comforting to know that Ken Blanford and Philips are on the customer's side on this issue. I just might go buy a Philips DVD player.

-----

* Invitation to testify was also given to: Dr. Paul F. Liao - Chief Technology Officer, Panasonic/Matshushita Electric Corporation of America, Mr. Richard Parsons - Co-Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Richard Parsons Co-Chief Operating Officer, AOL Time Warner Inc., Mr. Larry Jacobson - President and Chief Operating Officer, RealNetworks, Mr. Joe Kraus - Co-founder Digitalconsumer.org, Mr. Peter Chernin - President and Chief Operating Officer of NewsCorporation, Mr. Assaf Litai - Founder and Acting CEO Vidius.

Copies of all the transcripts andthe real audio file will be here shortly.

2:59:40 PM

Breaking News - LA Times

CIA Warns of Chinese Plans for Cyber-Attacks on U.S.
Defense: Analysts fear government and private efforts to sabotage federal Internet sites.

By ERIC LICHTBLAU, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON -- U.S. intelligence officials believe the Chinese military is working to launch wide-scale cyber-attacks on American and Taiwanese computer networks, including Internet-linked military systems considered vulnerable to sabotage, according to a classified CIA report.

Moreover, U.S. authorities are bracing for a possible wave of hacking attacks by Chinese students against the United States in coming weeks, according to the analysis. The confidential alert, which was reviewed by The Times, was sent to intelligence officials a week ago.

Although U.S. officials have voiced concerns about individual hackers in China who have defaced federal and private Web sites, the United States has resisted publicly linking the Chinese government to those attacks or to broader cyber-style warfare.

The new CIA report, however, makes clear that U.S. intelligence analysts have become increasingly concerned that authorities in Beijing are actively planning to damage and disrupt U.S. computer systems through the use of Internet hacking and computer viruses.

Although the assessment concludes that China has not yet acquired the technical sophistication to do broad damage to U.S. and Taiwanese systems, it maintains that this is the "intended goal" of the People's Liberation Army in China. "The mission of Chinese special forces includes physical sabotage" of vulnerable systems, the report says--which some analysts said is driven by China's hostility toward Taiwan.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington insisted Wednesday, however, that Beijing is only conducting computer research that is strictly defensive in nature.

"It is not the Chinese government's policy to disrupt the computer system of any other country," said Larry Wu, an official in the embassy's science and technology section.

"We do research on the security of computers, of course--self-defense to understand how a hacker can get into our computer systems so we can defend it," he said. "But China has never assumed an offensive stance with regards to computer technology."

But several specialists in Chinese security and military affairs said the CIA's conclusions jibe with their own observations about China's research into offensive-minded cyber-tools.

"We should be very worried about this issue," said James Mulvenon, a China analyst at the Rand Corp. think tank who has done extensive studies into Chinese computer capabilities.

Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province, appears to be the driving force behind the Chinese interest in hacking and viruses, Mulvenon said. Under one scenario, if China were to make good on its long-standing threat to invade Taiwan, the Chinese military could then seek to deploy widespread computer disruptions against American and Taiwanese military systems to slow any effort by U.S. forces to intervene in Taiwan's defense, he said.

The issue threatens to inflame what are invariably tense relations between the United States and the Communist regime in China, relations already frayed by a volley of charges and counter charges during the last several years over alleged nuclear, military and political espionage.

Relations hit a low point last year after a U.S. spy plane collided with a Chinese jet fighter, triggering an international standoff over the return of the plane's 24 Navy crewmen. China detained the crew members for 11 days and returned the disassembled plane months later.

Recent months have seen a warming in relations as the Bush administration secured China's cooperation in the war on terrorism. But China has become upset by what it sees as the White House's increasingly favorable overtures toward Taiwan.

The CIA's assessment discusses Taiwan and the United States, revealing that U.S. intelligence officials believe both are targets of the Chinese military.

"The People's Liberation Army does not yet have the capability to carry out its intended goal of disrupting Taiwanese military and civilian infrastructures or U.S. military logistics using computer virus attacks," said the CIA's report, which was included in a broader national security assessment that authorities distributed to intelligence officials.

"China's virus attack capabilities are similar to those of sophisticated hackers and are limited to temporary disruption of sectors that use the Internet," the CIA review said. "A Chinese virus attack is capable of reaching e-mail communications, lap tops brought into China, and U.S. Internet-based military computers."

A U.S. intelligence official who was briefed on the issue but asked not to be identified said analysts believe that, although the most sensitive U.S. military databases are secure from hackers and viruses, Internet-based military systems that are used for communications with bases around the world and with outside military vendors could be vulnerable.

"These aren't the keys to the kingdom we're talking about," the official said. "There's no danger that the Chinese are going to hack into our nuclear launch codes, but there is the danger they could gather useful intelligence from penetrating some of the less sensitive networks that the Department of Defense utilizes all over the world."

Recent U.S. intelligence indicates, the official said, "that the Chinese government is actively and aggressively working on their cyber-war capability. They have a lot of people and a lot of brainpower, and they're smart enough to appreciate that a significant aspect of any future armed conflict is going to be cyber in nature."

Another government official who asked not to be identified cautioned, however, that the immediate threat posed by Chinese computer disruptions is fairly limited.

"This is something we're certainly concerned about. But in terms of their being able to disrupt Taiwan or U.S. military and civilian infrastructure, they can't do it yet. That's the story."

The concept of nations launching cyber-attacks against their enemies is a relatively new phenomenon, but it is drawing rising concern from U.S. authorities as they assess vulnerability in the national computer infrastructure. In an effort to beef up security, budget planners are projecting an increase of more than 50% next year in overall computer security, bringing the total to more than $4 billion.

The CIA report does not reveal how intelligence analysts arrived at their conclusions, and Jonathan Pollack, chairman of the strategic research department at the Naval War College, cautioned that there are still many unanswered questions about China's plans.

"China is still an issue that worries Americans deeply, and sometimes the intelligence community gets a head of steam on these things and can go off on tangents that may not be substantiated," he said.

Last year, the spy plane confrontation triggered an avalanche of about 1,200 attacks against U.S. government and commercial Web sites that were disrupted or defaced. Many of the attacks appeared to have been generated by students in China, with private hackers leaving patriotic pro-China messages or vowing revenge for the death of a Chinese pilot in the plane collision. Several hundred attacks on Chinese Web sites were blamed on American hackers, although some U.S. technology experts discounted that explanation.

The CIA assessment said China's "nonstate hacking community continues to pose the most immediate threat to U.S. computer networks."

It went on to warn that hackers in China "appear to be organizing for cyber-attacks again this spring, particularly during student breaks early next month and around the anniversary of the EP-3 [surveillance plane] incident."

The anniversary of the EP-3 collision passed uneventfully this month. But private security groups say they too have picked up on possible Chinese-based attacks in coming weeks--tied to the plane episode as well as China's national youth day on May 4 and the May 8 anniversary of the U.S.'s accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999.

"We're warning our people about it and making sure everyone has their Web sites updated with the proper patches" to guard against denial-of-service attacks and other hacking, said Michael Cheek, director of intelligence for iDefense, a security intelligence service that has government and corporate clients around the world.

The U.S. intelligence official said that analysts suspect last year's hackings had the "tacit blessing," and even perhaps the active involvement, of the Chinese government.

Indeed, a report due out next month from Mulvenon and the Rand Corp., which does research for the U.S. government, will allege that the Chinese government was directly involved in at least one round of hack attacks.

After a spate of attacks against Web sites in the United States, Australia, Canada and England maintained by the Falun Gong religious movement--which China considers an "evil cult"--Mulvenon said his investigation unearthed evidence showing that at least one U.S. attack originated with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security.

"It's very clear to us that this was the ministry's doing, and it was a deliberate attempt to smear Falun Gong," he said

While I'm rarely reactionary on these things this one smells legit or the Feds are telling the Chinese "We know what you're up to-- So Don't Even Think About It!" So--Buckle up kids. Get backed up and all the patches loaded just in case .

2:24:46 AM