The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998/hackers_encyclopedia.iso/zines/cud/cud882.txt

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Computer underground Digest    Sun  Nov 24, 1996   Volume 8 : Issue 82
                           ISSN  1004-042X

       Editor: Jim Thomas ([e-mail])
       News Editor: Gordon Meyer ([e-mail])
       Archivist: Brendan Kehoe
       Shadow Master: Stanton McCandlish
       Field Agent Extraordinaire:   David Smith
       Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth
                          Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala
                          Ian Dickinson
       Cu Digest Homepage: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest

CONTENTS, #8.82 (Sun, Nov 24, 1996)

File 1--Virus Hoax ("Irina Virus")
File 2-- Again? Potential Viruses  (Good Times/ Deeyenda) (fwd)
File 3--Computer Hacking Whiz Pleads Guilty To Electronic B&E
File 4--(Fwd) ADMIN: UNATHORIZED CHAIN LETTER HURTS MAKE-A-WISH
File 5--Australia drafts Net rating system
File 6--Launching of "Electric Minds" (two posts)
File 7--IAHC Members Announced (fwd)
File 8--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 20 Nov, 1996)
                                                 Nov
CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION ApPEARS IN
THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 21 Nov 1996 22:40:19 -0600 (CST)
From: Avi Bass <[e-mail]>
Subject: File 1--Virus Hoax ("Irina Virus")

 'Irina' Virus  - A publicity hoax

          Panic at Penguin publicity hoax
          By Robert Uhlig  - The Electronic Telegraph

          PENGUIN Books has apologised after a publicity stunt
          concerning a hoax computer virus called "Irina" backfired
          and panicked Internet users worldwide.

          Guy Gadney, the former head of electronic publishing at
          Penguin, sent out a bogus letter to newspapers and
          television stations claiming to be from Prof Edward Prideaux
          at the College of Slavonic Studies in London.

          "Some miscreant is sending e-mail and files under the title
          'Irina'," the letters said. They claimed that the virus
          could erase the entire contents of any infected computer's
          disks and would "severely damage" the processor chip.

          Penguin is planning to launch an interactive book called
          Irina, in which one of the main characters is a Prof
          Prideaux, but the letters did not mention Penguin books.

          Within hours of the letter being sent out, news of the virus
          had spread to America and Europe. The Daily Telegraph
          received six copies of the bogus letter, which is not
          clearly identified as a publicity campaign or a PR stunt.
          Anti-virus experts said Penguin's publicity campaign was
          "highly irresponsible and dangerous".

          Although the College of Slavonic Studies does not exist,
          London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies said
          it had been inundated with calls to the fictitious Prof
          Prideaux.

          Mr Gadney said: "We had hoped that [the bogus letter] would
          be caught by a second letter to explain that the hoax letter
          was a teaser campaign for an interactive book. It is very
          unfortunate that we have created a scare - it was not our
          intention."

Posted to ONLINE-NEWS. Made possible by Nando.net - http://www.nando.net
[BY: Doctor Don -- Internetist  <[e-mail]>]

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 19 Nov 1996 09:20:33 +0100
From: Roberto Pedersini <[e-mail]>
Subject: File 2-- Again? Potential Viruses  (Good Times/ Deeyenda) (fwd)

((MODERATORS NOTE: In the past two weeks, we've received a dozen
or so "Good Times" virus warnings, in addition to a similar
"Deeyenda" warning. The madness starts again....most CuD readers
know that both are hoaxes, but a bit of a reminder for the
newcomers won't hurt)).

       ==============

At 15.22 18/11/96 +0000, Jean Konzal <[e-mail]> wrote:

>The other day I received a similar message, only the virus was called

>"Good Times".  That message turned out to be a hoax (I hope.)  Is it
>possible that this too is a hoax.  Jean Konzal

Both of them ('Good times': see below, and 'Deeyenda Maddick') should be a
hoax (and probably also any other similar ones). The trouble they do is
messing your e-mail box.

The following is from Mikko Hypponen, Data Fellows Ltd's F-PROT
Professional Support Copyriqht (c) 1989-1996, Frisk Software
International


Name: Good Times
Alias: Good News

Good Times is not a virus - it's just a hoax.

This rare 'worm', known as Good Times, slithered its way
through Internet news groups and various e-mail systems
during December 1994. Good Times was not a virus as the word
is commonly understood; more accurately, it was an efficient
chain letter. Instead of spreading from one computer to
another by itself, Good Times relied on people to pass it
along

The idea behind Good Times works somewhat like this: the
originator puts into circulation an e-mail message which has
the text 'Good Times' as its subject. The message itself
contains a warning of a dangerous virus called Good Times
which spreads itself through e-mail systems and activates
when the message in which it hides is read. The message goes
on to explain that such a dangerous message can be
recognized by its subject, which is, of course, 'Good
Times'. According to the warning, a 'Good Times' message
must never be read, but destroyed on the spot instead.

Many users don't realize that this warning is a hoax - no
public e-mail system supports the execution of programs
while the accompanying message is read. Howeverl since the
message is written in a very sincere tone, people copy it
and send it along to their friends; in fact, the warning
explicitly encourages them to do so.

Sooner or later, what goes around comes around, and a user
who has sent the message along receives it as a warning from
a friend's friend or more distant relation. The first thing
the user sees is that he or she has received a message which
has 'Good Times' as its subject. Believing himself under
attack by the terrible virus, the user destroys the message
without reading it. The message, of course, contains only
the original warning. After this near escape, the user
probably sends out still more 'Good Times' warnings.

The Good Times warning-virus came in several different
versions, one of which is shown below:

-       Subject--Good Times
-
-       Date: 12/2/94 11:59 AM
-
-       Thought you might like to know...
-
-       Apparently , a new computer virus has been engineered by a
-       user of America Online that is unparalleled in its
-       destructive capability. Other, more well-known viruses such
-       as Stonedt Airwolf, and Michaelangelo pale in comparison to
-       the prospects of this newest creation by a warped mentality.
-
-       What makes this virus so terrifying is the fact that no
-       program needs to be exchanged for a new computer to be
-       infected. It can be spread through the existing e-mail
-       systems of the InterNet.
-
-       Luckily, there is one sure means of detecting what is now
-       known as the "Good Times" virus. It always travels to new
-       computers the same way - in a text e-mail message with the
-       subject line reading simply "Good Times". Avoiding infection
-       is easy once the file has been received - not reading it.
-       The act of loading the file into the mail server's ASCII
-       buffer causes the "Good Times" mainline program to
-       initialize and execute
-
-       The program is highly intelligent - it will send copies of
-       itself to everyone whose e-mail address is contained in a
-       received-mail file or a sent-mail file, if it can find one.
-       It will then proceed to trash the computer it is running on.
-
-       The bottom line here is - if you receive a file with the
-       subject line "Good TImes", delete it immediately! Do not
-       read it! Rest assured that whoever's name was on the
-       "From:" line was surely struck by the virus. Warn your
-       friends and local system users of this newest threat to the
-       InterNet! It could save them a lot of time and money.

Despite extensive efforts to put a stop to Good Times, the
messages have continued to spread and multiply in numerous e-mail
systems worldwide. On some occasions, Good Times warnings have
even been published in newspapers and broadcasted on radio.

As was to be expected, it did not take too long for virus
writers to realize how they could take advantage of the Good
Times rumor. In April, 1995 an Australian virus group known as
VLAD published a real PC virus called 'Good Times'. This
version of 'Good Times' is an ordinary file virus which
infects COM and EXE files. To further confuse the issue, the
followinq messaqe is included in the viruse's source code:

-         The act of loading the file
-         into a mail server's ASCII
-         buffer causes the "Good
-         Times" mainline program to
-         initialize and execute.
-         Remember to email all your
-         friends, warning them about
-         C.nnd T 1 mem'
-
 For obvious reasons, anti-virus proqrams will not recognize
this virus by the name 'Good Times'. Instead, it has been
named tGT-Spoof'.

 A similar incident took place also in the beginning of 1993. It
involved a rumor about a fictional virus called 'Proto-T', which
was soon followed bY the real thinq.

 [Mikko Hypponen, Data Fellows Ltd's F-PROT Professional Support]
Copyriqht (c) 1989-1996, Frisk Software International

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 17 Nov 1996 13:51:30 -0500 (EST)
From: Noah <[e-mail]>
Subject: File 3--Computer Hacking Whiz Pleads Guilty To Electronic B&E

From -Noah

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date--Sat, 16 Nov 1996 13:36:25 -0600
From--Frosty <[e-mail]>
Subject--CSP

VOYAGER :::

Computer Hacking Whiz Pleads Guilty To Electronic Break-And-Enter


ST. LOUIS (Nov 15, 1996 11:12 a.m. EST) -- A computer whiz deemed so
cunning he could control almost any computer system has accepted a plea
bargain for hacking his way into the secret files of two major
communications companies.

Christopher Schanot, 20, was linked to the Internet Liberation Front, a
group of hackers who have claimed responsibility for some high-profile
computer pranks and who decry the commercialization of cyberspace.

In exchange for a reduced sentence, Schanot pleaded guilty Thursday to
two counts of computer fraud and one count of illegal wiretapping. He
faces up to 15 years in prison and $750,000 in fines at his sentencing
on Jan. 31.

                       ...................

Authorities caught up with Schanot last March and arrested him at the
suburban Philadelphia apartment he shared with a 37-year-old woman,
Netta Gilboa, the publisher of Gray Areas. The magazine professes to
explore subject matter that is "illegal, immoral and/or controversial."

In April, Schanot was placed under 24-hour house arrest and ordered to
not even talk about computers.

Originally accused in a five-count indictment, he pleaded guilty to
charges surrounding break-ins at Southwestern Bell and Bellcore, a
communications research company owned by seven regional telephone
companies.

                        .................

[Copyright =A9 1996 Nando.net]
[Copyright =A9 1996 The Associated Press]

------------------------------

Date: Sun, 10 Nov 1996 23:31:00 -5
From: Alan Kennedy <[e-mail]>
Subject: File 4--(Fwd) ADMIN: UNATHORIZED CHAIN LETTER HURTS MAKE-A-WISH

Source -  [e-mail]

The latest episode in the saga of Craig Shergold....

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date--         Sun, 10 Nov 1996 20:01:21 -0800
From--         Patrick Douglas Crispen <[e-mail]>

Thanks to an unauthorized chain letter that is circulating around the
Internet encouraging people to send business cards to a seriously ill boy,
The Make-A-Wish Foundation, an organization that grants wishes to children
diagnosed with a life-threatening ilness, is being flooded with thousands
of unwanted pieces of snail mail each day.

Seeing the damage that this unauthorized chain letter has caused to the
Make-A-Wish foundation, I ask that you do the following:

     1. Read the following press release carefully;

     2. Visit http://www.wish.org/wish/craig.html or call
        [phone], extension 184, to verify on your own that the
        facts contained in the following press release are legitimate
        [a good rule of thumb for Internet survival is to *NEVER*
        forward *ANY* e-mail letter on to your friends or coworkers
        without first verifying that the contents of that letter are
        factual]; and

     3. After you have verified that the following press release is
        factual, PLEASE forward this entire e-mail letter to as many
        people as is possible.

With the holiday season just around the corner, I hope that we can all join
together to give the Make-A-Wish Foundation the greatest Christmas gift
possible.  Let's kill this unauthorized chain letter once and for all, and
help Make-A-Wish get back to doing what they do best: granting the *REAL*
wishes of children diagnosed with terminal diseases.

{previous sender's multi-line sig snipped}

Make-A-Wish Foundationr of America
100 W. Clarendon, Suite 2200
Phoenix, AZ 85013-3518
[phone]
Fax: [phone]

Media Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- Call [phone], ext. 184 for pre-recorded
Craig Shergold message.

                     UPDATE ON CRAIG SHERGOLD

PHOENIX, AZ - - An unauthorized chain letter encouraging people to send
business cards to a seriously ill boy continues to generate thousands of
pieces of mail each day, even though the boy is now healed and the family
has requested an end to the mail.

News reports stated in 1989 that Craig Shergold, a 9-year-old English boy
diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, wanted to be recorded in the
Guinness Book of World Records for receiving the most greeting cards. His
wish was fulfilled in 1990 after receiving 16 million cards.

Shergold's tumor was successfully removed in March 1991. However, the cards
and letters continue. Several versions of the letter exist, most of which
wrongly claim that the young boy remains terminally ill and now wants to
receive the largest number of business cards. The addressee is encouraged
to gather business cards, forward them to an incorrect address in Georgia
and then forward the chain letter to 10 friends.

"The chain letter claims that Make-A-Wish is involved," stated James E.
Gordon, Chairman of the Board of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America.
"That is not true. Our organization is not, and has never been associated
with the letter. Yet our office continues to receive numerous phone calls
each month about the letter, diverting our staff time and resources from
our mission. The Make-A-Wish Foundation requests that people please stop
sending business cards or greeting cards to Craig Shergold."

The Make-A-Wish Foundation of America has set up a special 800 number to
explain the situation. Callers can listen to a pre-recorded message by
dialing [phone], ext. 184.

Make-A-Wish Foundation of America, based in Phoenix, has 82 chapters in the
United States. Any child between the ages of two-and-a-half and 18 who has
been determined to have a life-threatening illness is eligible to receive a
wish. The first wish was granted in Phoenix in 1980, and since then
Make-A-Wish has granted more than 37,000 wishes ranging from building a
backyard fishing pond to an all-expense paid trip to Disney World.

For further information regarding the Make-A-Wish Foundation and qualifying
children, contact [phone].

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 4 Nov 1996 18:53:24 -0800 (PST)
From: Declan McCullagh <[e-mail]>
Subject: File 5--Australia drafts Net rating system

Source - [e-mail]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date--Mon, 4 Nov 1996 11:25:45 -0500 (EST)
From--Noah Robischon <[e-mail]>

http://www.smh.com.au/computers/news/961105-news03.html

November 5, 1996

Code will define net etiquette

By JENNY SINCLAIR

INTERNET users seeking guidance on net etiquette will soon be
helped by a new industry code being developed to combat
"offensive content and dishonest traders".

Under the code, which is being developed by the Internet Industry
Association of Australia (INTIAA), content will be classified
under the existing code used by the Office of Film and Television
Classification.  "R" or "X" rated material would have to be
clearly identified and provided only to registered subscribers.

Service providers would have to ask new users their age before
giving them unlimited access.

On-line sales will also be regulated. Vendors of "physical
products" would have to promise delivery within 28 days or offer
refunds, and software vendors would have to give exact details of
the software, including the file size.

Under the code, personal information about users could not be
collected unless users knew it was being done.

[....]

There are no regulations on business use of this kind of
information, and Fair said INTIAA wanted the industry to be
self-regulated rather than restricted by legislation.

He said the rate of change of technology had made it difficult to
come up with a relevant code. On July 1 next year, the Australian
Broadcasting Authority will gain new powers over the Internet,
and the new code will not be implemented before it gets ABA
approval.

Government consumer affairs bodies in most States have also
helped draft the code.

Dispute resolution would be by negotiation and mediation. The
code will not be legally enforceable, but INTIAA hopes to
encourage home-page providers and Internet service providers to
conform by allowing them to use a seal of approval-type symbol
which will identify "ethical" Internet bodies.

Fair said the code of practice was "ground-breaking" and INTIAA's
New Zealand counterpart had already asked to use it as a base for
its own guidelines. Once the code is established, INTIAA will
establish an advisory council to monitor it.

The code of practice is on the Internet at
www.intiaa.asn.au/codeintro. htm.

It is up for public comment until the end of October.

------------------------------

Date:    Sun, 24 Nov 96 16:30 CST
From:    Cu Digest ([e-mail])
Subject: File 6--Launching of "Electric Minds" (two posts)

Date--Mon, 11 Nov 1996 19:55:13 -0500 (EST)
From--The Electric Minds Team <[e-mail]>
Subject--Launch of Electric Minds

Dear Computing & Hi-Tech Magazine,

This morning, prominent author and futurist Howard Rheingold launched
ELECTRIC MINDS (http://www.minds.com), an online destination where experts
and knowledge seekers gather to share news, analysis and opinion about
technology, science, computers and their affect on peoples' lives. We are
inviting individuals and users at technology and social computing sites to
participate and share a common vision with us, as developing community is
essential to long-term success of the Web and loyalty and connection
between people is as important as ideas and information. By balancing
content and online conversation, Electric Minds is driving the evolution of
the Web from a publishing medium into a social medium - the Social Web.

We are *not* just a magazine online - who would care?! We are a living,
breathing, dynamic community where some of the smartest thinkers from
around the Net will come each day to discuss, debate and connect with
ideas, visions and news of our brave new Web world. More than product
reviews or digital fashion, Electric Minds is about meaning and context.

Recently, Jerry Michalski of Release 1.0 commented, "Most Web sites create
content, context or conversations. Few do any worthwhile integration of all
three elements, and none enrich the combined materials over time, and turn
them into long-lived resources for use in other media. Electric Minds is
the first company I have seen that is creating such an environment. Because
it combines crafted points of view, snappy conversations and links to other
such conversations across the Net, its system should have broad appeal."

As a virtual community, we combine content from high-profile contributors
with facilitated conversations using Web conferencing systems. Contributors
for the site include HTML guru Laura Lemay, VRML co-creator Mark Pesce,
former San Francisco Chronicle online commentator Bob Rossney, Virtual
Reality author and Silicon Graphics VR evangelist Linda Jacobson and many
others of similar repute. Rheingold himself wrote the bestselling book, The
Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, which sold
100,000 copies in 6 languages. Furthermore, we are a global family, as we
have contributors from Japan, Australia, France, Germany, England and
across the US giving street-level reports on technology and digital culture
as it happens. We are part university, part laboratory, part magazine and
part thinktank.

We look forward to your participation, feedback and enthusiasm in our new
adventure - see you there!

The Electric Minds Team
(http://www.minds.com)

     =========================

Date--Fri, 22 Nov 96 12:34:57 PST
[e-mail]
Subject--Howard Rheingold, www.minds.com, Virtual Communities

Howard Rheingold, author, visionary and Internet pundit, and Randy Haykin,
founding Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Yahoo! Corporation, have
combined their expertise and experience in a new multiple media start-up,
Electric Minds, Inc.

Electric Minds (www.minds.com) is leading the transformation of the World Wide
Web from a publishing medium to a social medium - the Social Web. Since
launching last week, Electric Minds has registered 2200 users. The site has had
visitors from 30,000 unique domains, and had over 400,000 pages viewed (average
visitor sees 19 pages). Twenty percent of the traffic has been from other
countries. Community is definitely the draw.

Electric Minds is:
*An online destination where experts and information seekers gather to share
news, analysis, opinions and predictions about technology and its affect on our
lives and future.
* A comprehensive directory for finding virtual communities, a place to learn
their rules, and a forum for discussing the social,  political, cultural and
economic implications of  an online society
*Five areas where community members can meet each other, access content from
high-profile, well-known contributors and share their views with both.
*A public service, a thinktank, a laboratory from which an inverse publishing
model will emerge. Content from the site becomes the nucleus for other media -
radio, television, books, and video. The
site is a research, development and aggregation tool rather than a standalone
product. This "inverse" publishing model is unique to Electric Minds.

     A few early reviews:

"Howard Rheingold wrote the book, literally, on virtual communities. Now he's
using his considerable expertise to and star power to attract sponsors and users
to his experiment in social Web browsing"
-- Cyberscope, Newsweek, November 25,1996

"The site (Electric Minds), which launched last week, is certainly the
quintessence of online community."

"Electric Minds is seeded with voluble moderators, uses nifty software that
makes the chores of chat easy, and it's free."
-- Josh Quittner, TIME, November 25,1996

"A grand, expensive and ambitious experiment, the culmination of years of
imagining and pondering and months of serious tinkering,launched at 11:11 a.m.
PST on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year(that is to say, just
hours ago). Howard Rheingold's Electric Minds is off and running, and for what
it's worth, let's just go ahead and get this out of the way:  Electric Minds is
the most promising solution proposed to meet the challenges currently facing
online
communications that I've seen in a long, long while."
-- David Hudson, Rewired (www.rewired.com), November 11,1996

Please call or email me if you'd like more information.

Best,
Kathleen Miller
415.703.0400 x225
[e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 11:26:14 -0500 (EST)
From: Noah <[e-mail]>
Subject: File 7--IAHC Members Announced (fwd)

From -Noah

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date--Tue, 12 Nov 1996 18:03:01 -0800
[e-mail]

Date--Tue, 12 Nov 96 14:50:00 EST
[e-mail]


Contact:

Internet Society
12020 Sunrise Valley Drive
Reston, VA  20191-3429
TEL [phone]
FAX [phone]
E-mail [e-mail]
http://www.isoc.org


                   NEW INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE NAMED
                  TO STUDY DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM ISSUES

WASHINGTON, DC, November 12, 1996 -- An Internet International Ad Hoc
Committee (IAHC) has been named to resolve issues resulting from
current international debate over a proposal to establish additional
global registries and international Top Level Domain (iTLDs).

"We are pleased to have attracted such a high level of leading
international experts in their fields to examine these questions that
are critical to the current and future growth of the Internet," Donald
M. Heath, president and CEO of the Internet Society said in announcing
the eleven-member committee.  Heath will serve as chairman.

Deliberations of the committee may lead to the establishment of new
international Top Level Domains (iTLDs), adding to the current
three-letter tags, such as .com, .net, and .org, that end many Internet
email and World Wide Web addresses.

Dr. Donald N. Telage, president of the Herndon, Virginia - based
Network Solutions, Inc., which manages the InterNIC Registry
administering the .com, .net, .edu, and .org top level domains, said:
"Network Solutions has supported the registration process and the
growth of the Internet since 1991.  We have seen its evolution from a
research and education tool to a powerful medium for global
communication and collaboration.  The National Science Foundation has
played a critical role in the early governance activities, and we
support the Internet Society's efforts to review issues critical to the
future of Internet growth, evolution and governance.  Network Solutions
will participate and support this effort enthusiastically supplying our
extensive operational knowledge as needed."

Named to the new IAHC are:

o Sally M. Abel, specializes in international trademark and trade name
  counseling, chairs the Internet Subcommittee of the International
  Trademark Association (INTA), and will represent that organization on
  the IAHC.  Ms. Abel is the partner in charge of the Trademark Group
  of the law firm of Fenwick and West, a Palo Alto, Ca. firm
  specializing in high technology matters.

O Dave Crocker, is co-founder of the Internet Mail Consortium, an
  industry trade association.  He is also a principal with Brandenburg
  Consulting in Sunnyvale, Ca., a firm specializing in guiding the
  development and use of Internet applications.  With ten years in the
  ARPA research community, ten years developing commercial network
  products and services, and extensive contributions to the Internet
  Engineering Task Force, he is considered an expert about the
  Internet, e-mail, electronic commerce, Internet operation and the
  Internet standards process.

o Geoff Huston is the technical manager of Australia's Telstra
  Internet and is responsible for the architecture and operations of
  its service.  He formerly was technical manager of the Australian
  Academic and Research Network, and was largely responsible for the
  introduction and subsequent development of the Internet into
  Australia.

o David W. Maher, is a partner at the law firm of Sonnenschein Nath &
  Rosenthal, of Chicago, IL, is a registered patent attorney and has
  extensive experience in intellectual property and entertainment law.
  Principal outside trademark counsel for several nationwide companies,
  he has served as special counsel to the American Bar Association for
  telecommunications matters.

o Perry E. Metzger is the president of New York - based Piermont
  Information Systems Inc., a consulting firm specializing in
  communications and computer systems security. He has worked with the
  New York financial community for many years and is active in the
  Internet Engineering Task Force's (IETF) security area, chairing the
  group's Simple Public Key Infrastructure working group.

o Jun Murai is associate professor of Faculty of Environmental
  Information at Keio University in Tokyo.  He developed JUNET, Japan's
  first UUCP network and the WIDE Internet, Japan's first IP network.
  He is president of the Japan Network Information Center (JPNIC) and
  serves as adjunct professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies of
  the United Nations University in Tokyo.

o Hank Nussbacher, is an independent networking consultant, currently
  works with IBM Israel as Internet Technology Manager and has been
  responsible for all aspects in establishing IBM Israel as a major ISP
  in Israel.  He also consults to the Israeli inter-university
  consortium and is on the board of directors of the Internet Society
  of Israel.

o Robert Shaw is an advisor on Global Information Infrastructure (GII)
  issues at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).  The ITU,
  based in Geneva, Switzerland, is a United Nations treaty organization
  within which governments and the private sector coordinate global
  telecom networks and services.

o George Strawn is with the US National Science Foundation (NSF),
  which has funded Internet development for research and education.
  Mr.  Strawn has been involved with the NSF's Internet activities for
  the last five years and also co-chairs the Federal Networking
  Council, a US government committee coordinating inter-agency Internet
  activities, including funding for administrative activities, such as
  the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

o Albert Tramposch is senior legal counsellor at the World
  Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva. WIPO is a United
  Nations organization which has responsibility for the promotion of
  the protection of intellectual property throughout the world.  It
  also administers various treaties dealing with legal and
  administrative aspects of intellectual property, including the
  international registration of trademarks.

In addition, Stuart Levi, a partner in the New York Office of Skadden,
Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and the head of the firm's Computer and
Information Technology Practice, will serve as outside counsel
supporting the IAHC.

"The IAHC will be charged with fairly and openly looking at the complex
issues surrounding the current domain name and registry situation,
including trademark and infringement, economics and administration of
registry operations, dispute policies, fees and iTLDs," Heath said. He
anticipates the Committee reaching reasonable consensus on issues
surfaced, sometime in January.  A subset of the IAHC will seek to
implement its recommendations very shortly after that.

To meet its aggressive schedule, the widely dispersed gU..