The ’Net is all
ears about e-mail
By Doug Peters
Senior Editor
Big Brother is watching you.
Well, maybe not, but he may be read
ing your e-mail.
With the almost exponential spread
of technology in our everyday lives, e
mail has become a part of many com
puter users’ daily routine.
Like a phone call, only cheaper. Like
the postal service, only faster. But how
private is it?
Actually, not very.
There are many ways in which in
formation dumped online can find its
way into hands other than those for
which it was intended.
Unscrupulous fellow users, unwary
recipients of your e-mail, dyed-in-the
wool hackers, bean-counting corporate
types looking for slackers and even the
federal government can, in one way or
another, get a hold of other people’s
"private’’ e-mail.
Oh, and the university can, too.
When e-mail abuses are reported or
suspected, the Computing Resource
Center can verify mail sent and received
by its users.
But e-mail monitoring isn’t limited
to innocuous monitoring.
it uoesn t take mucn investigation,
wrote Robert Moskowitz in
MicroTimes magazine, “to discover that
most computerized communications
are wide open to third parties who want
to know more about you. Just as the FBI
can and does go through trash to help
monitor and catch suspected criminals,
as-yet-unspecified government agen
cies certainly can go through the
Internet’s electronic mail to see who’s
talking about what, and to whom.”
Moskowitz cited a MacWORLD
magazine survey in which 20 percent
of U.S. businesses acknowledged moni
toring employees e-mail.
Last year. Vice President A1 Gore
spoke of helping law enforcement agen
cies “thwart criminals and terrorists
who might use advanced telecommu
nications to commit crimes.”
Some online services routinely keep
track of the mailings and postings of
their members. These services are able
to provide information to law enforce
ment, providing for a warrant or court
order to be issued. According to The
Cincinnati Enquirer, America Online
helped the FBI nab members who were
trading kiddie pom on the ’Net.
So unless you’re plotting the over
throw of the government through c
mail, government access to e-mail
records should not be a major woriy.
But the access of other unauthorized
eyes might.
Fortunately, steps can be taken to
secure electronic communications. En
cryption programs such as Pretty Good
Protection (PGP) are available through
the Internet. Users can also send their
mail to remailers, who act as a sort of
“mail launderers,” stripping off the e
mail’s return address and allowing the
mail to be sent anonymously.
In this month’s MacWORLD maga
zine, security consultant Bruce Schneier
listed other Internet security precau
tions.
Schneier cautioned users that e-mail
can be read by almost anyone. If you
want to keep something private,
Schneier wrote, don’t send it over the
Bret Gottschall/DN
’Net. Remember that any server’s au
thorized personnel are free to review
e-mail, he added.
E-mail, he said, should be treated
like a postcard. If it’s out on the coffee
table — or computer screen — just
about anybody can read it.
So don’t send it if you don’t mean
it, or if you don’t want anyone other
than the intended receiver to see it.
Cellular wave keeps on rolling
By Brian Sharp
Senior Editor
While headlines splash messages of
societal violence and peril, technology
is moving to calm the “fear factor.”
Those advances can be summed up
with one word: communication.
Cellular phones have been leading
a general consumer explosion into
what was once a professional and up
per-class market. Pagers have piggy
backed the trend, salespeople say,
serving as a more affordable and less
intrusive alternative.
For Joy Elliott, a junior elementary
education major, answering the ques
tion “Why the cell phone?” is simple.
“I feel safer having it,” she said.
“But it can also be a false security.”
A cellular phone is useful only to
the extent it’s accessible, said Kathy
Stevenson, an assistant administrator
with the Lincoln Police Department
Victim/Witness Unit.
A phone buried deep in a student’s
backpack is useless, she said.
Bert F. Newell, president of Best Buy
Cellular, has been in the phone and
pager business for eight
years. While growth
has been constant
during that time,
it has been “un- jj
preeedented” jfl
in the last jV
two years,
he said. Mm
i n e
technol
ogy
1
had become more affordable,” he said.
“The consumer is finally realizing it
and waking up to it.”
Still, the cost of a new cellular
phone stands anywhere between S99
and 51,000, the average price being
S200-S250. Then comes the deposit
with the local telephone
company — loss in another j
S150 for beginners.
Elliott said she runs a
monthly bill of more than 545
— billing is by the minute.
But price isn’t what’s fuel-1
ing the upsurge.
“In the last two years, the
Jfear factor has:.
really increas-f
ed,” Newell said. |
The general disre- .l
lir of the commu-v
y and the increase
general hookups has
1 been phenomenal.
/ That’s not to say price
/ doesn’t play into the equa
j tion. Industry response to the
/ general consumer influx has
i mainly brought technology that
Jl answers a public demand to
eliminate cost obstacles.
, * The most innovative of those ad
I vances is PCS, or Public Commu
i nication Services. The new service
Jf will bring land-line phone rates to
the mobile phone society.
The new phones will be a com
bination of cordless and cellular,
said Mike Lazzareschi, sales
■10 manager for Cellular One. Users
^ will slip a credit card into one
M part of the phone, allowing it to
Jr alternate between cellular and
iPCS service.
K “It’s going to open up a lot more
Pf doors,” he said. “This is basically
^ the thing of the future. This is where
everybody is going to go to.”
Lazzareschi said PCS technology
has been developed and systems are
already being built on the East and
West Coasts. Broadcast signals should
be going out by January or February
1996, he said. But Lincoln most likely
will have to wait another year or two
for the technology to reach the Plains.
In the meantime, those still wanting
to catch a ride on the fu
Sue lecunu wave —
save a few bucks—
1 most likely find
at they’re looking
■ in a pager.
Charles Oden,
resident of Ne
raska Radio Tele
ihone Systems, Inc.,
said the industry has
been evolving over
the last five years
from the simple
beeper to a more
complete unit.
It too has seen a larger market with
private consumers, said Oden.
Now there are alpha pagers, which
receive messages in full sentences.
Pagers can now receive news services,
weather information and stock reports.
New products will include the ability
to respond or talk back to the paging
party with the press of a button.
But there is a downside to this tech
nology — it doesn’t come cheap.
While cost has gone down for basic
pagers, Oden said, the new features
have made today’s complete pager
more expensive.
Scott Sedlak, a junior business
major, has been carrying his pager for
about a year.
“It seemed like somebody always
needed to get a hold of me and I was
always at the wrong place at the wrong
time,” Sedlak said.
But as far as the added pager fea
tures soon to come, Sedlak will pass.
He used to have an voice pager, but
even that was too much, he said. So
for now, his $50 basic model will suit
him fine, he said — technology can
go calling on someone else.
Free Internet access
ends with graduation
By Cliff A. Hicks
Staff Reporter
“I remember when access to the
Internet was free. I miss those
days,” said Robert Davis, a Univer
sity of California at Berkeley
graduate.
That’s a sentiment echoed by
many college graduates.
While in college, students have
cheap, often free, access to the
Internet. After college, the prices
are never as gentle.
“I could be MUDing for hours
for free, and I can’t do that any
more, let me tell you,” said Timo
thy Zimmerman, a graduate of New
York University.
“MUDing” is the process of go
ing into a Multi-User Dungeon,
much like an online version of
Dungeons and Dragons, in which
many, sometimes in excess of a
hundred, players engage at any one
time.
“What cost me my phone line
for a couple of hours now costs me
that and almost S20,” Zimmerman
said. “It hurts my' wallet.”
Zimmerman currently uses the
Prodigy online service for his e
mail.
“It’s ridiculous! I just want to
check my e-mail and it costs me a
couple of bucks!” said Lorainne
Stevens, a University of Texas
graduate. “I mean, I have to use
America Online now, and it costs
by the minute!”
Pay access does not come
cheap. Some pay systems, like the
three major pay systems, America
Online, Prodigy and CompuServe,
can charge as high as $. 14 a minute
and more, with additional charges
for large volumes of e-mail.
“Vie future may be
great, but it sure ain 7
cheap. ”
DAVID KELAIN
Saint Louis Univeristy student
At UNL, all Internet accounts
are free, with the exception of
those on herbie, which cost $10 a
semester.
To get an account, a student
only needs to go to the 501 Build
ing, which houses the Computer
Resource Center. The process usu
ally takes about a week.
Commercial online systems
charge for Internet usage, and there
is, of course, the ever addictive chat
room.
“I can’t sit around and make
small talk with people like I used
to. I simply don’t have the cash. It
was something to do late at night,
or if I had nothing else to do that
evening,” said Carol Cannoi, a
graduate of American University.
Some students nearing the end
of their college careers are taking
steps to save in the future.
“I already see it coming, trust
me, I know,” said David Kelain,
who will graduate in December
from Saint Louis University. “I’m
cutting down my online time, and
I’m getting my e-mail at two
places. It’s this hovering fear I ,
have, that I’m going to go bank
rupt, and that scares me. I’m a tech
nology junkie.
“The future may be great, but it
sure ain’t cheap.”
