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The authors discuss electronic voting in the U.S., describe tests of Internet voting programs, and argue that Internet voting is not achievable as of 2012 for security reasons. According to the authors, electronic voting does not necessarily increase voter turnout and is susceptible to bribery and malicious computer software. The subversion of a June 2012 District of Columbia mock election, the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE) that was intended to enable absentee citizens from the U.S. military to vote electronically, and the Zeus computer virus are mentioned. Topics include voting law and legislation regarding secret ballots and vote buying, Internet and electronic commerce security, and absentee voting are discussed. INSET: Internet Voting and E-Commerce Compared.

This article analyzes the security of Internet voting. The Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE) is an Internet-based voting system built by Accenture and its subcontractors for the U.S. Department of Defense Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP). The mission of FVAP is to reduce voting barriers for all citizens covered by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), namely U.S. citizens who are members of the military services, their family members, and nonresident U.S. citizens. SERVE is intended to allow UOCAVA voters both to register to vote and to vote via the Internet, from anywhere in the world. To participate, an eligible voter first enrolls in the SERVE program. After enrollment, the voter may register to vote, and then vote in one or two short sessions from any Internet-connected PC. The PC must run a Microsoft Windows operating system and either the Internet Explorer or Netscape Web browser. Because the Internet is independent of national boundaries, an election held over the Internet is vulnerable to attacks from anywhere in the world.

The article focuses on a declaration filed by the U.S.-based Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in the federal court as of October 2001 regarding Felten v. Recording Industry Association of America case. Researcher Edward Felten and his fellow researchers at Princeton University, had entered a contest sponsored by Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), inviting people to attempt to crack certain technologies they were considering for use in their computer system. These technologies were defeated by Felten and his fellow researchers in the challenge. The paper of the researchers "Reading Between the Lines: Lessons From the SDMI Challenge," presented by them in a symposium in August 2001, is threatened under the anticircumvention provisions of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The concern of ACM in this regard, is that one of ACM's primary goals is, in submitting a declaration to minimize the possibility of being a defendant in some future anticircumvention case. The declaration describes ACM, its scholarly activities relating to publishing and the holding of conferences, and the potential implications of the anticircumvention provisions of the DMCA on what ACM does.

Cites ways on how to determine a research agenda in computer science. Proposal of major technology grand challenges; Major areas of action between computing and other professions; Need for a set of goals and needs.

Presents several letters to the editor. Comments on a new process measure as an alternative to the lines of code convention; Discussion on interlocking concepts that is the essence of a software entity; Details of improving the process of developing software; Discussion on the curriculum of the first course in computer science.

This article presents an overview of a study on implementing the statewide voter-registration databases mandated by the Help America Vote Act. Voter registration may seem simple, but election officials must oversee a complex system managing this process. They must ensure that voters' information is accurately recorded and maintained, that the system is transparent while keeping information private and secure, and that poll workers can access this information on Election Day. The article discusses eight goals of the voter-registration databases.

Focuses on the use of paperless direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines in the U.S. Ability of DRE voting machines to hide the internal mechanics of voting to the voters; Improve in integrity of elections; Protection of DRE voting machines.

This article presents views of the president of the periodical "Communications of the ACM," published in the May 2000 issue of the periodical, which focuses on the ongoing dispute in the field of intellectual property rights related to the issue of software copies of movies, literary and engineering publications in the form of digital videodiscs (DVDs) in the U.S. The dispute pits intellectual property owners against such diverse groups as programmers opposing restrictions on reverse engineering and the publication of computer code and librarians opposing new restrictions on copyright rights of first sale and fair use. The author presents some legal cases as a result of these disputes and the also focuses on associated laws and legislation such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act passed in 1998. He describes the anti-infringement components of this Act. Some new applications and media have also been described which are being used for illegally copying even protected data and information.

The article focuses on issues concerning Internet-based shopping. Net-based shopping is becoming common place, and the value of Internet real estate has become obvious both to established companies and to new Net-based companies. Name recognition is synonymous with an easy-to-remember domain name. Because there is only one dot-com top-level domain name, names in the dot-com domain have become a scarce resource. The irony is the current set of domain names is an artificial construct, created before the rush to cash in on the Internet and e-commerce. In theory, the number of domain names that can be created is unbounded, but the practical realities might force one to continue living under the current regimen, even though it is obviously flawed. The question is will the Internet survive efforts to apply trademark law to domain names. Trademark law has become intertwined with doing business or just hanging out on the Internet. The kind of trademark law that some envision for the Internet is much more restricted than that which exists in real life.

As part of the Advisory Panel's investigation into whether or not the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Advisory Panel on Professional Licensing in Software Engineering should support the licensing of software engineers, the panel interviewed representatives of Texas Board of Professional Engineers, one of several groups developing such licensing programs. ACM has now withdrawn from active, direct participation in the development of a licensing examination for software engineers in the state of Texas. ACM, however, will continue to work with the IEEE Computer Society through the Software Engineering Coordinating Committee on the definition of an appropriate "Body of Knowledge" for software engineering and on the identification of standards of practice. While ACM expects this work will contribute and add value to the licensing efforts in Texas and elsewhere, the association has requested its name be removed from the Texas Board's Web site and that ACM not be identified as being directly involved in Texas Board's licensing effort.

The article focuses on dire predictions of governmental surveillance and the elimination of privacy, by computer scientist George Orwell. Many people rejoiced about the lack of omnipresent telescreens and the Thought Police, but far fewer people paid attention to the development of technologies that facilitate Big Brother-style surveillance. Most U.S. citizens believe they are protected by the Bill of Rights from secret governmental surveillance. Historically, this has not always been the case nor it is necessarily true today. One doesn't have to go very far back in the U.S. history to find disturbing examples of privacy violations or secret surveillance by governmental organizations. There are many other historical examples of surveillance. Wiretapping without adequate court oversight occurred in Los Angeles in 1998, after some public defenders discovered the Los Angeles Police Department had been using secret wiretaps, possibly since 1989, to obtain convictions. A Web site maintained by the L.A. County Public Defender's office has numerous examples of the enthusiastic use-but actually misplaced abuse-of wiretaps.

The article presents information on those technology and business leaders who have contributed to the extraordinary development in computing during the past half century. But there efforts have remained unacknowledged although they have worked hard to bring computer technology to those who need it, but might not otherwise have access to it. In attempt to bring some recognition to these heroes, ACM has established the Eugene Lawler Award for significant humanitarian contributions within computer science and informatics. Some of them are, Randy Bush who has provided support for networks and related technologies to a long list of countries of Africa, Asia and South America. Jim Thatcher become involved with developing tools for the blind in the 1980s when a blind colleague was unable to keep up with the e-mail communications. Thatcher developed a tool that combined a voice synthesizer with hardware and software, allowing his colleague to read the contents of the monitor. The support for such projects of dedicated people comes from government and private sector.

The article focuses on the Melissa virus, which is designed to let itself replicate exponentially by exploiting the ability Microsoft Word to run micro attachments, a known security risk. The article emphasize the policy makers to learn a lesson from the above happening. What will policy makers do to restrict it in the future? The state laws govern commercial transactions in the U.S., the Uniform Commercial Code was developed as a way to facilitate interstate commerce in the U.S. The contradictions in some of the article in the law will formalize many current shrink-wraps licence provision, some of which are likely to encourage the marketing of non-robust, buggy software. A programmer knows that it's impossible to produce bug-free code and extremely difficult to produce robust and secure software. Consequently, software producers won't be liable for every bug in their programs. Benchmarking practice are another problem confronting software developers and users. The software quality lawyers recommend that software producers should be free from liability for damages caused by any defect.

The article focuses on the star report meant for the U.S. Congress, to be posted promptly on the Internet. Following information should be made available on the Net, voting records, texts of bills and amendments, financial disclosure reports and expert testimony. The Starr Report contains material that might be considered "patently offensive" to minors under the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), also known as CDA2 in reference to the Communications Decency Act, the first attempt by Congress to censor the Net against "indecent" material. The CDA was determined to be unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. Many of the people who sponsored the COPA were the same people who were most eager to post the Starr Report on the Net. The COPA states that commercial sites with "harmful" material must block access by children under the age of 17. Even if a site does not charge for access, it could be considered commercial if it contains advertisements from which it makes money. Therefore, it would be legal for children to access the Starr Report on government sites, but illegal under the COPA for them to access it on, say, the "New York Times" online site.

Presents several letters to the editor about communication and technology, published in the September 1, 1994 issue of the journal "Communications of the ACM." Objections to a recommendation of the U.S. Public Policy Committee of Association for Computing Machinery regarding changes in the federal computer standards process; Application of Clipper device in deciphering encrypted messages; Effect of growth of computers in El Salvador region.

The article discusses how certain technologies like reverse engineering, with some exceptions and penetration analysis are to be outlawed. Exceptions allow reverse engineering for compatibility, encryption research, privacy protection and to protect minors against pornography. There is no stated exception for computer security research and development. Even the encryption research "carve out" exists only in a U.S. House of Representatives bill. The encryption exception was placed in after some representatives of industry and professional societies, realized that it would have the unintended side effect of making much encryption research illegal. However, implications for computer security research received attention only after being pointed out by some computer security experts. Along with the development of the World Wide Web, some exciting predictions have come true, for example much of the technology that makes it possible to access the Library of Congress from ones living room also allows for easy copying and distribution of information for little or no cost.

Discusses the merits and shortcomings of affirmative action programs in the case of women employees in the United States. Heightened scrutiny of women in technical fields; Attacks based on perception of an unfair advantage; Information on several women giving examples of how backlash is used to discredit their accomplishments; Fact that affirmative action programs attempts to secure the right for all people to obtain their goals--without discrimination--through hard work and personal achievement.

The article focuses on the risks of technology-oblivious policy. People who have never written code do not understand how difficult it is to avoid and/or find bugs in software. Therefore, they don't understand why software patches are so dangerous. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which became law in the U.S. in 1998, is illustrative. The most controversial portions of the DMCA, the anti-circumvention and anti-dissemination provisions, did not come into effect until 2000. It was only by chance that people learned why the delay occurred. The delay was written into the DMCA because lawmakers believed aspects of the DMCA might criminalize work on securing software against Y2K problems. One consequence of the poorly drafted DMCA is that the anti-circumvention provisions can prevent independent experts from inspecting and testing voting machine software to check for bugs and malware without permission. Of course, there are also major differences between the tax code and software. The tax code is relatively small--although it runs to several thousand printed pages, Windows XP has 40 million lines of source code.

The U.S. Public Policy Committee of the ACM (USACM) is concerned the proposed Total Information Awareness (TIA) Program, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, will fail to achieve its stated goal of countering terrorism through prevention. Further, we believe the vast amount of information and misinformation collected by any system resulting from this program is likely to be misused to the detriment of many innocent American citizens. Because of serious security, privacy, and personal risks associated with the development of any vast database surveillance system, we recommend a rigorous independent review of TIA. Such a review should include an examination of the technical feasibility and practical reality of the entire program.

Presents a letter to the editor related to a lawful way to acquire a trade secret, published in the January 2003 issue of the journal "Communications of the ACM."

This article focuses on the work that was originally carried out under the Joint IEEE-CS and ACM Steering Committee for the establishment of software engineering as a profession. In 1998, when Software Engineering Coordinating Committee (SWECC) was being established, the ACM and IEEE-CS received a request from the Texas Professional Engineers Licensing Board for help in defining performance criteria for software engineering licensing exams to be administered in Texas. As a result of this request, the question of licensing software engineers became more of an issue both for SWECC and for ACM. ACM Council believes that the current efforts of the Software Engineering Coordinating Committee (SWECC) toward licensing is misguided as they assume that software engineering is a profession appropriate for licensing under the rubric of the Professional Engineers Licensing structure and requirements. According to ACM, the only way to be a licensed software engineer is to become a professional engineer, software engineering license would be interpreted as an authoritative statement that the licensed engineer is capable of producing software systems of consistent reliability, dependability, and usability.

Laws relating to computers, software and the Internet are being proposed at an unprecedented rate, and people trying to follow them are having trouble keeping up. The article evaluates the relevance and impact of these laws, specifically focusing on the Shrink-wrap licenses, on the computing world. Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act (UCITA), is an extraordinary example of a legal proposal with far reaching consequences. Shrink-wrap licenses may forbid reverse engineering, even to fix faults, and can prohibit that publication of benchmarking results. UCITA impacts most people as they assume unreasonable components of software licenses will not survive court challenges. Policy choices embodied in these new rules seem to almost invariably favor a relatively small number of vendors as compared to millions of businesses and consumers who purchase software and subscribe to Internet services. UCITA will remove any legal incentives to develop trustworthy software, as it does not pledge liability in this context.

The article poses vital questions related to the proposed National Information Infrastructure (NII) in the U.S. Among the issues addressed are the need to clearly define the scope of NII. There is emphasis to make NII affordable and easily able, especially for the underprivileged and disadvantaged sections of the society. There is concern as regards the steps being taken to study usability issues and to develop basic standards about the complexity of interfaces, the ease in authoring new materials, capacity for access in multiple languages, design for elderly population, support for cooperation among users, and design methods to reduce learning times and error rates. Besides, should the NII even support the government mandate to improve the availability of information. If so, should NII users be charged for accessing this information? Also, should resources be devoted to ensuring that the NII address the entire spectrum of citizens and decrease the current cultural and gender gaps in technologically oriented services.

This article presents a letter by Computer Society's presidents opposing Internet censorship. They share their concern with U.S. Senator James Exon regarding the potential damage to the communications infrastructure that could result form the Communication Decency Act as presently drafted. In particular, this legislation would impose unreasonable technical and financial burdens on the increasing number of institutions, large and small, that rely on the Internet for communication. These burdens might harm the technological and communications opportunities now emerging from the Internet. They urge the Congress to hold hearings on their proposal. Apparently, the Congress, in response to the letter modified the Communication Decency Act so that the service providers and non-commercial carriers are not likely to be held legally liable for indecent transmissions.