Computer Experts

It just didn't add up.Technicians at U.S. West, the Denver-based telephone company, couldn't understand last May why directory-assistance computers were grinding away for minutes to find phone numbers when they normally needed seconds. At one point, the slowdown even threatened to shutter the company's Phoenix service center. What was going on?Alarmed that hackers were afoot, U.S. West scrambled its Intrusion Response Team. The squad of computer experts combed through the company's labyrinthine computer network and found a mysterious software program running on more than 2,500 machines.

Nancy Reigle in her letter, "Is vocational education still a possibility for Maryland?" (April 10), is right on time with her remarks about students being forced to feel they must go to college, presumably to "better themselves. " Not every student is college material. Heaven knows we already have far too many lawyers, doctors, computer "experts," etc. to find work. Furthermore, there is absolutely nothing shabby about being a worker who is "gainfully employed" and making an honest living.

What a way to remember a Renaissance master! On Friday, computer experts say, an act of vandalism comes to light on the terminals of personal computer users worldwide. A virus, a short, vicious program called "Michelangelo," named for the great Italian artist, is set to erase the programs and data files in permanent storage on the hard disks of IBM-compatible computers.What this virus does on its target date is to wipe everything from storage and write gibberish in its place, so the damaged files cannot be recovered even after they are gone.

William Francis Bender Jr., a computer and data processing executive, died Tuesday of heart failure at St. Agnes Hospital. He was 69. Born in Baltimore, Mr. Bender lived his entire life in Catonsville. After graduating in 1960 from Mount St. Joseph High School in Irvington, he earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1964 from what is now Loyola University Maryland. He went to work as a manager trainee for the old Union Trust Co. "Computers were just coming in, and the bank wanted bankers to be trained by bankers and not computer people, and that's what Bill did," said his wife of 42 years, the former Joan Zins, a registered nurse.

Nancy Reigle in her letter, "Is vocational education still a possibility for Maryland?" (April 10), is right on time with her remarks about students being forced to feel they must go to college, presumably to "better themselves. " Not every student is college material. Heaven knows we already have far too many lawyers, doctors, computer "experts," etc. to find work. Furthermore, there is absolutely nothing shabby about being a worker who is "gainfully employed" and making an honest living.

WASHINGTON -- Ask investigators to name the best government computer systems and long silences are likely to follow. Ask for horror stories and the response is rapid.What follows are some of the worst cases cited by computer experts at the General Accounting Office, the House Government Operations Committee and agency inspectors general:* The Veterans Benefit Administration, concerned about taking an average of 151 days to decide whether a veteran was disabled, spent $94 million on a computer system to speed up claims.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Clinton administration is about to announce a plan to preserve privacy in electronic communications, including telephone calls and electronic mail, while also ensuring the government's right to eavesdrop for law enforcement and national security reasons.New technology will be installed in some government communications networks within weeks or months and could be available for business and even household use before the end of the year. It will use a new system of encoding voice and computer transmissions to prevent unauthorized listening.

CURRENT volunteers' needs and news:Jewish Vocational Service Volunteer Clearing House wants volunteers to help Soviet emigrants. Tutors, drivers and host families are needed. Russian language is not required. Contact Eunice Friedman, 466-9200, Ext. 199.Johns Hopkins AIDS Service wants volunteers, men or women ages 18 or older, who have been diagnosed with AIDS and have T-cell counts of less than 200. It is for a two-year study of the drug Rifabutin, which fights a mycobacterial infection of the blood which is common in AIDS patients.

Despite warnings from three computer experts -- including two hired by the state -- about widespread security vulnerabilities in a new electronic voting system, Maryland's top elections administrator said yesterday that she sees no reason for concern about proceeding with the planned statewide use of voting machines. Linda H. Lamone testified in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court that some of the experts' recommendations are unworkable, unnecessary and illegal. A voters group is trying to force Lamone's elections department to implement recommended security fixes before the November election.

It's Glenwood's best-kept secret, but Trusted Information Systems has made a name for itself in the world of secrecy.Tucked behind some well-placed trees and a day-care center on Route 97, Stephen T. Walker's company is a pioneer in defending government agencies and corporations against hackers who use networks such as the Internet to invade computers and steal or destroy data.The 50-year-old former National Security Agency and Pentagon computer security expert started a one-man, home-based business in Warfield Estates in 1983.

The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab has chosen a 23-year APL veteran to become the institution's eighth director. Ralph D. Semmel, 53, of Columbia, is currently director of APL's Applied Information Sciences Department. He will succeed the retiring Richard T. Roca, a former AT&T executive who steps down July 1 after more than 10 years as APL director. The lab does research and development work for the Defense Department and NASA. It employs nearly 5,000 people, more than two-thirds of them scientists and engineers.

After years of problems with the state's touch-screen voting system, Maryland has filed a claim to recover $8.5 million from the maker of the machines, Premier Election Solutions, Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced yesterday. The claim seeks costs the state incurred to correct security gaps in the voting system that were uncovered several years ago by independent investigations. The state has paid $90 million under a contract with Premier, formerly known as Diebold, since 2001.

Meredith B. Kane, a computer software applications and systems expert, died of complications from ovarian cancer Wednesday at a brother's home in Grasonville. The resident of Phoenix in Baltimore County was 56. She was born Meredith Levering Bond in Baltimore and raised in Roland Park. She was a 1967 graduate of Roland Park Country School and earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1971 from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Va. She earned a master's degree in information technology from the Johns Hopkins University in the 1990s.

Despite warnings from three computer experts -- including two hired by the state -- about widespread security vulnerabilities in a new electronic voting system, Maryland's top elections administrator said yesterday that she sees no reason for concern about proceeding with the planned statewide use of voting machines. Linda H. Lamone testified in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court that some of the experts' recommendations are unworkable, unnecessary and illegal. A voters group is trying to force Lamone's elections department to implement recommended security fixes before the November election.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - It's the world's oldest and largest jigsaw puzzle - an ancient map of Rome in 1,200 fragments of marble. Archaeologists for centuries have tried to painstakingly piece together the sculpture, fragment by fragment. Now, computer wizards at Stanford University say they have created a software program that holds the key to the puzzle and the ancient city. At the heart of the program are three-dimensional scans of the fragments and algorithms to find possible matches. Already the work has produced several dozen probable and possible matches.

JERUSALEM - Israeli soldiers raided four banks in the West Bank city of Ramallah yesterday, seizing millions of dollars that they said was funneled from Iran, Syria and Lebanon to Palestinian militants for attacks on Israelis. Soldiers who carried out the daylight raid in the heart of the city were met with a hail of rocks and firebombs, and the soldiers responded with tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition that left 42 Palestinians injured. After taking over branches of the Cairo-Amman Bank and the Arab Bank, Israeli police and computer experts logged on to the banking networks to examine accounts and money transfers, then went to the vaults and took away about $9 million.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Clinton administration is about to announce a plan to preserve privacy in electronic communications, including telephone calls and electronic mail, while also ensuring the government's right to eavesdrop for law enforcement and national security reasons.New technology will be installed in some government communications networks within weeks or months and could be available for business and even household use before the end of the year. It will use a new system of encoding voice and computer transmissions to prevent unauthorized listening.

IF YOU'VE BEEN worrying about this Y2K computer problem, you can relax. I am pleased to report that, according to computer experts, everything is totally under control. There is absolutely nothing to worry about. In fact, you might as well stop reading this article right now!I said, there is nothing to worry about and you should stop reading this column right now.OK, good. We have gotten rid of the idiots who still actually believe the news media. We are down to the savvy individuals like you -- people who know, from personal experience, that nothing involving computers is ever "under control"; people who have attempted to perform some seemingly simple computer-related task, such as connecting a computer to a printer, and eventually decided -- after weeks of puzzling over manuals written in the Ewok language and trying to communicate with "Technical Support" -- that the only workable printing solution is to hold a piece of blank paper in front of the computer screen and trace the words manually.

Darrell M. Gaver, a retired computer security expert who worked for the Social Security Administration, died of colon cancer Wednesday at his home in Parkville. He was 62. Born in Seaford, Del., and raised in Parkville, Mr. Gaver was a 1958 graduate of Parkville High School. He earned his bachelor's degree in accounting from University of Baltimore in 1964. He began his accounting career at Westinghouse Electric Corp. in Linthicum in 1964. In 1966, he joined Exxon USA in Towson, where he worked as a computer programmer until 1979.