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VOLUME 1 - ISSUE 4 / May 2007

University Officials Re−Assess Emergency Communications

University officials all over the country are re−assessing how they communicate emergencies to their communities. Prior to the Virginia Tech tragedy, only a handful of colleges and universities in the DC Metro area used text messaging to cell phones as a way to communicate with students and faculty. The University of Maryland in College Park, MD, has just signed up for the service and other schools tell 9NEWS NOW they are looking into it. "We have the ability to stop every other message in our system so that if we have an emergency that needs to go out it certainly takes priority," says Julie Green Bataille, a spokesperson for Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Georgetown is also one of a few campuses in the area that has an emergency siren. Some schools have police cars with loud speakers or bullhorns to relay information. In addition, Georgetown has a campus television station that can get information out. Several schools in the area also have internal radio stations.

Source: http://www.wusa9.com

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Is Web-Screening Job Candidates a Good Idea?

Using the Internet to examine job candidates is legal if done correctly, but employers should note that their findings may range from irrelevant to inaccurate. A recent survey found that of the 26 percent of employers who reported using search engines like Google, 51 percent reported not hiring applicants based on what was found. Of the 12 percent of employers who searched social networks like MySpace, 63 percent declined to hire candidates. Employers were put off by negative information like poor communication skills and false qualifications. On the flip side, 64 percent of employers found information confirming the suitability of the candidate. An employer's right to deny job candidates based on Internet search findings depends on the findings' content. Some states bar employers from taking punitive action against employees or job candidates due to off-duty activities or speech. Moreover, discriminatory googling, such as by national origin, may lead to lawsuits. Googling only one candidate out of a pool of applications is also frowned upon. One expert notes that, overall, time spent searching online may be better put to use questioning the applicant's former employers.

Source: Managing Accounts Payable (04/07) Vol. 2007, No. 4

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National Switch To Digital Broadcasting May Benefit Emergency Responders

A nation wide switchover to digital television in 2009 could mean communication upgrades for state emergency responders. Legislators say the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) will set aside one billion dollars from the upcoming sale of public airwave licenses to go towards firefighters, police, and other emergency responders. Congress has set a deadline of February 17, 2009, for the nation to switch to all digital TV broadcasts. It will be the biggest change in the television industry since color TV. Frequencies from public airwaves carrying free signals will be turned over after the switch. The FCC will sell those licenses, and part of the revenue will be turned over for state and federal use. The decision to do this came after the September 11th terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts exposed weaknesses in emergency communication systems.

Source: http://www.kten.com

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Google Searches Web's Dark Side

Google researchers are studying billions of Web sites in an effort to identify all possible malicious pages on the Internet. Google researcher Niels Provos and his colleagues subjected 4.5 million Web pages to "in-depth analysis" for their paper, "Ghost in the Browser," and found about 450,000 Web pages able to launch "drive-by downloads" and an additional 700,000 potentially compromised Web pages. Drive-by downloads are malicious programs that install automatically when a user enters a "booby-trapped" site, often those with adult video thumbnails or other "interesting" content. Drive-bys frequently install themselves by taking advantage of vulnerable elements in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. Virulent code often resides in widgets and banner advertisements, and forums and blog postings containing links are new channels through which criminals can attack. Hackers can hijack entire Web servers, or individual computers; they also can use drive-bys to capture sensitive information. To keep computers safe, Google alerts users with a message if they are about to visit a potentially dangerous Web site. In addition, the company is striving to detect and map all Web-based infection vectors. "Finding all the Web-based infection vectors is a significant challenge and requires almost complete knowledge of the Web as a whole," wrote the Google researchers.

BBC News (05/11/07)

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