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Press Coverage of The Internet: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
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Just as the explosive growth of the Internet has proven to be a tremendous catalyst for international communication, so too has it provided new avenues for old scams, and new means to initiate friendships and liaisons which may sometimes in fact be highly dangerous.
With millions of strangers meeting in cyberspace, it's inevitable that cyber relationships mirror those in society as a whole. Just as there are heroes, villains, liars, thieves, and deviots in society at large, so too are there such people in cyberspace.
Cyberspace makes lying easy. Take "LovelyLisa," for example. She describes herself as 5'10", 135 lbs., long brunette hair, and drop-dead gorgeous. Guys encountering her online find her "sensual." She sends them enticing pictures of herself.
But is the woman in the picture really her?
Although "Lovely Lisa" is fictitious, there are thousands of "Lisas" out there. In reality, Lisa may not resemble her description at all -- and she may not even be a "she" either. "She" could be a convicted male sexual predator preying on teenagers with "raging" hormones -- or on young children. "She" could also be a killer.
For all the scores of millions of people worldwide who use the Internet every day, there are very few cyber-related homicides, assaults, kidnappings, or rapes -- although they do happen. And when they do, they are widely publicized -- not because they're commonplace but because they're something new and, some police reporters apparently believe, something of keen interest to readers.
On the other hand, there is seldom publicity about marriages that are born on the Internet. Today, many couples do meet there -- socialize -- and build lasting relationships.
The initial intent of this story was to survey the "morgues," or news libraries, of several prestigious newspapers around the country. We found the obvious: many "how to" stories about the Internet, a lot of technology stories, but few concerning Internet craziness. So we went to the source -- the technology editors themselves -- and listened to their sense of the state of Internet press coverage today. This story examines press coverage of the Internet -- the good, the bad, and the ugly -- including comments from a key watchdog, the FBI.
Much of what the FBI said to us concerned matters which the press rarely covers -- the threat of international political computer hackers to America's national security. You will find that material quite sobering.
You'll also find some advice here about how to protect your children and perhaps even yourself from the Internet's "ugly" side....
Those of us who use the Internet daily in the conduct of our businesses regard it as an indispensable tool.
Today, little publicity surrounds the impact of the Internet on corporate profits. But it's clear that "electronic commerce" -- the use of the Internet to convey product information to prospects and to literally close business -- generates billions in revenues for countless Internet-savvy businesses.
It's equally clear that the Internet is changing the way America works and the way her people play, and that it is partly responsible for rising business productivity.
Internet-based "virtual private networks" or VPNs enable businesspeople to sign on to their corporate networks from practically anywhere for the cost of a local call to an ISP, and to do anything "remotely" that they can do on-site, using their own company computer.
From my home office, for example, I use a Virtual Private Network to write and edit parts of an overseas product promotional database for a Fortune 100 company, using e-mail, Lotus Notes, and the company's corporate Intranet to gather and process information securely -- all of which was impossible a few short years ago. That use of the Internet helps my client sell its products.
Business alliances today function on Internet communications. For example, multinational companies or consortiums of companies use "collaborative computing" to build aircraft and other complex products -- sharing sophisticated technical and design information through encrypted Internet links and making design and production changes in real time.
Press Coverage Is Growing Explosively, Too
This explosive growth of the Internet -- of telecommuting, of home-based businesses, of collaborative computing, and of Internet Commerce itself -- and the parallel explosive growth in the use of the "Information Superhighway" in the nation's secondary schools and colleges -- have led many individuals and families to acquire computers, sometimes several in a single household. The wiring of America, in turn, has led to stunning growth in America's voracious appetite for information on getting the most out of computing and out of the Internet, where so much is happening so quickly.
The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Baltimore Sun and many other leading newspapers publish regular cybersections focused specifically on the needs of computer users in general and of Internet users in particular. . . .
The Sun Never Sets on The Internet
"Not long ago," comments Baltimore Sun Electronic News Editor Mike Himowitz, "we ran a story on drivers, and the importance of using the latest ones for all your hardware. It was very well received, since many people unknowingly use outdated drivers, hindering performance."
The author of the Sun's general-interest computer/Internet column and its "Plugged In" tech section, Himowitz delivers whatever information he feels will help Sun readers use their computers -- and their Internet access -- more comfortably and productively.
Himowitz absolutely believes "too little serious discussion is being devoted to stopping the Internet's problems." He cited as an example the Washington, D. C. man who went to skating rinks in the Baltimore area allegedly to recruit kids for nefarious deeds. "When similar incidents are traced to Internet contacts, some people want to shut down the Internet. The fact is that we aren't closing skating rinks. Closing down the Internet wouldn't make sense either. What we need are rational discussions on how to stop the problem."
Himowitz continues, "The Internet hasn't caused the problems, just as cars haven't caused highway accidents. People have caused the problems. With perhaps 30 million kids on the 'net now, an incredibly small percentage winds up in trouble. There's a bit of hysteria over that but not nearly enough serious conversation on how to stop it."
After the Communications Decency Act (CDA) was overturned by the Supreme Court last year, the Sun tested Cyber Patrol and Cyber Nanny, two services which ostensibly keep Internet porn away from kids' computers. The results, Himowitz says, were disappointing.
"You want a filtering mechanism that removes smut while leaving legitimate reference material intact," he reports, "which means the filters would leave behind the equivalent of 'G'-rated material. Unfortunately, in our tests, the filters removed the 'sex' from everywhere, including the name 'Middlesex.' Both programs bowdlerized everything that went into the computer." [Merriam-Webster defines bowdlerize as "to expurgate (as a book) by omitting or modifying parts considered vulgar," named for English editor Thomas Bowdler who died in 1825. -Ed.]
Himowitz continued, "This 'bowdlerization' left many front-page New York Times articles looking like Swiss cheese -- particularly articles covering recent accusations of sexual indiscretions against President Clinton. We did not find one good tool for filtering effectively," Himowitz noted.
Are Parents Currently The Best 'Filters'?
Charles Morrill, Electronic News Editor of The Hartford Courant, is responsible for the Courant's weekly tech section and edits its website. "The Internet is becoming a pervasive part of society, and it's obligatory for newspapers to recognize that and cover it," he says, reflecting an opinion held widely among his peers. His columns focus on the needs of consumers who are frequent Internet users.
"The solution to ensuring that kids aren't hurt by the Internet is good parenting," he says. The father of both a 3- and a 5-year-old, Morrill knows what will face his kids. "As parents, our job is to educate our kids about society and to guide them. That means warning them about drugs and about sex and other things. The Internet isn't off in a corner by itself. It's simply another medium which is great if used properly. Kids who are properly educated and guided won't get into trouble."
Problems Of Society, Not of The Internet
Chicago Sun-Times technology reporter Howard Wolinsky relates the Internet's problems to those of society as a whole.
"Newspapers cover society from good deeds to capital crimes, and the Internet is covered no differently," he says. "The Internet reflects society," Wolinsky told Hotlist. "Not long ago there was the story of a lonely young boy from Chicago, perhaps 12 or 14 years old, who encountered a girl on the Internet, become infatuated with her, and managed to go to Boston to meet her. A few years ago, he might have been attracted like this to a neighbor. People do strange things in society and sometimes the Internet just gives people new ways of doing old things." Newspapers report these incidents because they're novel, he suggests.
Wolinsky publishes many Internet profiles of interest to his readers. One such profile recently described DejaNews, the unique website which helps Internet users sift through tons of spam in newsgroups to get sought-after information quickly.
"People need to be as cautious on the Internet as they are in society. There is nothing especially dangerous about the Internet. It has good and bad just like everything else," he says.
Most of Wolinsky's reporting reflects that which is good on the Internet -- but even better examples about the positives which the Internet has given us come from Wolinsky's life itself.
"My father passed away not long ago," he says, "and the Internet helped us with his estate. I used the Internet to interact quickly with lawyers, the real estate agent, my brothers. A lot was accomplished very quickly to resolve things that needed to be resolved, and with minimal inconvenience."
Today, Wolinsky routinely uses the Internet to keep in touch with his family and friends. In fact, he used it to look up friends after many years of not knowing their whereabouts. He conducts an active freelance writing business entirely over the Internet. He wrote a book and added mention of it to his family's website, www.wolinskyweb.com. Without promotion, purely as a result of people surfing into his website, he sold 1200 copies in a single weekend.
"This is what the web is all about, and these are the types of things I write about," he says. He uses the web as a buying guide, too. "I research the web carefully," he says, "and I've used it to find the best deal for my car, to buy DVDs, music, and books." His favorite sites, some of them covered in his column, are amazon.com, speedserve.com, edmunds.com, and dejanews.com. His personal experience on the Internet has enriched the content of his articles and their usefulness to his readers.
Covering How The Internet Affects Folks Back Home
Tim Barmann, technology writer for the Providence Journal-Bulletin, orients his writing to the effects of the Internet on Rhode Island, where his newspaper is dominant statewide. His column covers such things as local websites and local angles to national news.
Besides everything positive he has to say about the Internet, "There's no doubt that the Internet provides a tool for evil people to extend their abilities to achieve whatever they want to achieve. The fact is, however, that its benefits far outweigh its risks."
Those risks, Barmann says, are minimal if users approach the Internet with caution. He agrees that "the Internet is an extension of society and society is imperfect," echoing sentiments of most of the reporters we talked to. Among the Internet's greatest benefits, Barmann says, are fueling the economy through instantaneous exchanges of critical information; enabling inquisitive voters to obtain their legislators' voting records online; accessing national and local news from virtually anywhere in the world; general research; the ability to interact with other people worldwide, around the clock, live, through Internet chats; and limitless other possibilities.
Worldwide Coverage of Local News?
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, like many newspapers, maintains a comprehensive website -- in fact every word the Dispatch publishes also goes on their website. Comments Dispatch business technology reporter Virginia Baldwin-Hick, "Some newspapers many, many years ago would point with disdain to a group of reporters in the corner of their newsroom and say, 'Those are our reporters who use telephones,' disdaining them since other reporters simply went to the scene of a story. Today, some newspapers point to their 'cyber-reporters' and say, 'Those are the people who write for the Internet.'
"Not us. Every one of our reporters uses the Internet to help research some of our stories, and everything we write goes on the Internet. We're all cyber-reporters. It hasn't affected sales, either." The website: www.stlnet.com/postnet.
Because "everything" from the Dispatch is placed quickly on their website, St. Louis-based travelers can log on to the Internet and get the latest news -- not just before it's in the paper, but often before local radio and TV stations have a chance to broadcast it. The Dispatch owns a major St. Louis ISP.
The Dispatch's coverage consists of "Tech Talk" how-to articles, consumer technology updates, staffing challenges faced by high-tech companies unable to find enough people, and more. "Websites to be thankful for" was a popular column which mentioned Cybercop and others. (An index of stories appears on the Dispatch's website.)
The Dispatch's heavy use of the Internet as a tool and its heavy focus on technology reflect Baldwin-Hick's belief that the press may in fact have overplayed the Internet's problems. "The need for filtering," she says, "has been overblown and sensationalized. Smut doesn't simply come to you. You can find it if you look for it, but there's little danger of it simply coming in the day's mail unless you've gone after it. Porn sites are in fact a very small part of the Internet."
Newspapers are "Guilty": New York Times Tech Editor
Concerns about Internet dangers have been fanned by overzealous reporters, says Rob Fixmer, Technology Editor for The New York Times. Fixmer's responsibilities cover the entire newspaper, from its Thursday "Circuits" technology section through to the Sunday Week in Review and other areas. Cybertimes covers the social and political aspects of the Internet.
"Press coverage of the Internet is rife with hyperbole," Fixmer told Hotlist. "There's just as much 'gaga the Internet is our savior' hyperbole as there is 'Internet as Satan personified.' It's like television; it can be whatever you want it to be. People project their beliefs onto it, and it becomes what they think it is."
Times reporters incorporate Internet story aspects into their regular beats, so the Internet becomes just another element of the story. "Retail reporters, for example, write about the problems retailers face when they contemplate going on line. For many of them, online presence represents an enormous change.
"Peoples attitudes toward the Internet are changing just as the Internet itself is changing," Fixmer says. "The essence of the beast will continue to change greatly as bandwidth increases, and the breadth of what it offers is continuing to evolve dynamically."
Of the Internet's dangers, Fixmer concludes: "The Internet is no more dangerous than walking down 42nd street was before Disney took it over. In our generation, many of us hid copies of Playboy in our rooms. So what? Give your kids standards to act on regardless of where they are, and they'll be fine."
Restricting Access Through Parental Controls
Parents have to be responsible for the activities of their kids on the net, most reporters agree, and Microsoft -- maker of the popular Internet Explorer web browser -- agrees.
Comments Microsoft's Cherie Kelly: "The Microsoft® Internet Explorer browser includes a feature called Content Advisor that enables consumers to manage access to websites by using any Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS)-based rating system. . . [This technology enables] parents . . . to manage their family's Web experiences."
Kelly added that the Recreational Software Advisory Council is an independent, nonprofit organization enabling parents "to make informed decisions about electronic media by means of an open, objective content advisory system. The goal of RSACi (RSAC on the Internet) is to provide a simple yet effective rating system for websites that protects both children and the free speech rights of everyone who publishes on the web. The RSACi system provides consumers with information about the level of sex, nudity, violence and offensive language in software games and websites."
Microsoft Internet Explorer Content Advisor helps parents:
- Set what sites users can see, by using the RSAC rating system or any other PICS-based rating system;
- Choose levels of allowable content according to language, nudity, sex, and violence criteria;
- Control whether users can view unrated sites; and
- Override restricted access with a supervisor password.
To use Content Advisor with MSIE:
1. In Internet Explorer, click the View menu, then click Internet Options.
2. On the Content tab, click Enable Ratings.
3. Follow the instructions on the screen to select ratings for language, nudity, sex, and violence.
More information on Microsoft Internet Explorer Content Advisor is available at website http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie40/features/sec-picshow.htm. For more information on RSAC, check http://www.rsac.org/
Attempts to contact Netscape to contribute to this discussion were unsuccessful.
What The Press Hardly Ever Talks About: Computer Security Breaches Threaten
Gas Pipelines, Electrical Power Grids, and Far More, the FBI Says
Local police contacted to participate in this story declined; most did not want to speak for the record on measures they're taking to identify and apprehend Internet lawbreakers.
Some deferred directly to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which is doing a great deal to keep cyberspace safe for all of us.
It's apparently a common misconception that the FBI has teams specializing on "the Internet." Not exactly, says Rebecca Bosley, Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI's Boston office, which covers Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Maine.
FBI computer crime agents aren't focusing on the Internet itself; they're investigating federal crimes including those perpetrated by use of the Internet. Bosley's squad handles crimes where the target of criminal activity is a computer or computer system. Other squads handle cases where the Internet is used as a vehicle for other criminal activity, such as sexual exploitation of children, extortion, or fraud schemes.
Agents assigned to computer crime squads such as Bosley's investigate cases like attempts to breach the Pentagon's computer system, the Eugene Kaspureff case (diversion of electronic commercial traffic from a company's website to Kaspureff's own), the Carlos Salgado Jr. matter (trafficking in stolen credit card numbers obtained by unlawful intrusion into several companies' systems) and more. Computer crime specialists also provide technical assistance to other squads.
"The kinds of cases we investigate involve attacks in violation of Title 18, U. S. Code section 1030, which addresses hacking, unauthorized access, threats and extortion directed against computer systems, and so forth," Agent Bosley told Hotlist. A key problem the FBI faces in combating these problems is that corporations routinely fail to report such events in an effort to avoid bad PR or to prevent stockholders, competitors, or customers from learning of their vulnerability. More on that shortly.
The Secret Service is also involved in investigations concerning illegal uses of the Internet. According to Mike Johnston, Acting Special Agent in charge of the Service's Boston office, the Secret Service:
- Investigates all threatening material against the President and other protectees which is on the Internet; and
- Has concurrent jurisdiction with the FBI over fraudulent activity related to Title 18, Section 1029, "access devices" such as telephone numbers (and, by extension, computers and modems), credit card numbers, and bank account numbers.
For example, the Secret Service was responsible for investigating the recent breach of the Worcester (Massachusetts) Airport's telephone system.
The threat of hackers taking advantage of Internet vulnerabilities of companies, institutions, utilities, and government agencies is far more staggering than you might realize.
Michael Vatis is Director of the newly-established National Infrastructure Protection Center. He notes that criminals and hackers have advanced in the information age. "We use the Internet . . .(to) do just about anything . . . that inventive minds can think of," he said in March of this year. "But as society as a whole is moving on-line, so are criminals. (They) use the Internet to defraud unsuspecting senior citizens, disseminate child pornography, steal credit card numbers, and . . . rob banks by electronically shifting funds to their own offshore accounts."
There is rather little press coverage of this, and perhaps there should be much more. Vatis continues, ". . . Critical infrastructures rely on computers, telecommunications, and. . . the Internet." He cites the Internet's central role today in controlling electric power grids, natural gas pipelines, stock exchanges, banks, and governments. "This new technology comes at a price," he says, "and that price is a new vulnerability to those who would cause harm. (This) stems from the fact that the Internet and modern telecommunications systems are inherently open and accessible. . . . With a certain amount of technical skill, one can use these communications media to get inside a company's or a government agency's computer system without ever penetrating its four walls." The word is hacking, and the results can be potentially devastating. (Emphasis added. -Ed.)
The President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection and the National Defense Panel recognize that computers linked to the Internet can be used by terrorists and hostile nations against the United States. "...They would utilize 'asymmetric' attacks that hit us where we are most vulnerable, and one of those vulnerabilities is the reliance of our critical infrastructures on the new Information Technologies. What makes this vulnerability particularly attractive to foreign enemies. . . is that it is just as easy to crash a system from a computer terminal overseas as it is from one in the U.S. This is not [merely] a crime issue, but a national security issue."
The mission of the National Infrastructure Protection Center, established as a public-private partnership by the Department of Justice and the FBI, is to "prevent, deter, respond to, and investigate intrusions or attacks on our critical infrastructures, whatever the source." This means prevention, not simply post-event investigations. It also implies that many other government agencies are working to maintain Internet security -- the Defense Department, intelligence agencies, the Secret Service, virtually all Cabinet-level agencies, and the armed services.
Vatis concludes: "We are not the nation's super systems administrator, responsible for physically securing everyone's systems against intruders or advising on the latest security software or patches to fix vulnerabilities. That role clearly must be filled by systems administrators. . . Rather, our goal is to help prevent intrusions [by leveraging information from] sources . . . available to the government, combine it with information voluntarily provided by the private sector or obtained from open sources [and act]."
As noted earlier, Supervisory Special Agent Bosley says only a small fraction of computer network security breaches are reported, for reasons noted elsewhere. The cost of those reported to CSI last year, about $137-million, "is only a drop in the bucket," Bosley told us.
Using anti-virus software, chaining laptops to desks, and using strong firewalls and data encryption help slow down breaches, but they don't stop them. "The first moment when some companies learn they've been breached is when we tell them," Bosley said. "We don't publicize breaches. An FBI investigation is confidential until charges are filed and the case is headed for trial," she says, which means corporate embarrassment at being breached should be mitigated by corporate pride in catching and prosecuting those responsible, which can mean positive PR. It can also help the FBI and the U. S. government continue to make progress on an increasingly ominous set of worldwide problems directly related to the Internet.
If you are responsible for enterprise security and want more information, contact the Computer Security Institute, www.gocsi.com, (415) 905-3371. They are at 600 Harrison Street, San Francisco 94107.
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