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123456 TECHNOLOGY 4 CHICAGO In Chicago, only the FBI and Secret Service have one. But on August 30, Wright College became the third Chicago institution to operate a computer forensics and security lab. The government institutions use their labs to track down high-tech criminals who access, steal or share proprietary data. The lab at Wright College (http://wright.ccc.edu/depart- is designed to turn students into practicing professionals of the computer forensics industry. a nutshell, these will protect information and systems from viruses, hackers and illegal said Cyrus Walker, the 33-year-old head of computer forensics lab.

With input from the FBI, about $500,000 in hardware and software donations from technology security firms like GuardedNet (www.guarded and Lancope (www and $250,000 of own money, the lab opened with 15 computers and 10 networking racks. There are about 40 students enrolled in the two-year certification program (no degree is available), at a cost of about $1,500 for Chicago-based students and upward of $5,500 for out-of-district attendees. student have to be attending Wright College to participate in the Walker said. fact incorporate our certificate into their studies Once their education is complete, the new practitioners can enter the real world, where corporate IT departments find themselves in a daily race to stay one step ahead for some, catch up are two perspectives to protecting said Walker. must protect their system from the outside world and the inside Outsiders are those trying to access corporate computers from the Internet.

Walker said several layers of protection are required to secure systems from this risk. have to understand what needs to be accessed by the world, and what is he said. Walker explained that fire- walls and antivirus tools are required for such protection, but are no longer enough: Intrusion-detection monitor transactions coming into and going out of the in price from free to more than $50,000, depending on size and complexity of the computer network. Security information management, which is a process of analyzing logs of network traffic to identify inconsistency and unauthorized activity, can run upward of $50,000. An encryption element is also a necessity to a information defense plan, so that data leaving the corporate servers is scrambled and unreadable to outsiders.

A big-picture understanding of vulnerability is also helpful, and vulnerability assess- ment programs can be used to identify, analyze, and report potential holes in a operating system, routing protocols and firmware. But while keeping out intruders is a major part of an IT security function, it must also defend the data against disgruntled insiders. key is to establish policies for how people can use the Walker said. a regular review of the information system usage policy is key. It does no good to just hand the employee a manual and never go over it again.

I would do a six- month policy review with Contact lor.com College course prepares computer sleuths MY TECH ALEX L. GOLDFAYN Cyrus Walker 33 Chairman, Computer Security and Forensic Investigation Department, Wright College, Chicago Two network security applications are made by eEye Digital Security (www.eeye.com): Retina (a vulnerability assessment program retailing for about $8,000) and Iris (a network traffic analyzer for about A free network intrusion-detection system called Snort, manufactured by Sourcefire, is made available at www.snort RSA Security (at www is the leader in encryption software, according to Walker, and offers encryption tools ranging from about $300 to over $200,000. Goldfayn Cyrus Walker recommends the following tools for protecting company networks: Some keys to security By Michelle Slatalla New York Times News Service I am tempted to say I grew up in a family that enjoyed board games and leave it at that. But a statement like that might conjure up a misleading impression of a wholesome, 1960s family gathered around the kitchen table. We were not that family.

We played for blood. Although we were equally comfortable with Monopoly (where we routinely wheedled Boardwalk away from unsuspecting opponents) and Battleship (where we homed in like bird dogs to sink other fleets), Scrabble was our specialty. This was because Scrabble was our favorite. She started us early. When other first-graders were learning to spell and my brothers and I knew that ai was a three-toed sloth and kat was a shrub that flourished in Africa.

To keep things interesting during Scrabble marathons, my mother imposed arcane rules that included restricting the placement of letters worth 5 points or more to triple-score boxes. Once she threatened to ground me for wasting an on a word worth less than 20 points. My competitive days are over. Now when I play I never shriek at the top of my lungs when sending an piece back to home. Sometimes I let my children win at Monopoly.

I have retired from Scrabble, except for the occasional grudge match when my mother comes to town. So I was caught off guard the other day when my friend Tina, who routinely crushes me on the tennis court, asked me if I liked to play Scrabble. With wicked backhand a fresh memory, I chose my answer carefully. grew up in a family that enjoyed board I said. We set a date and I said that in the meantime I would try to remember to look around the house for an old Scrabble set.

Then I rushed home, ran to the basement, threw open the closet and pulled out two editions of the (the version, with natural- wood tiles) and deluxe (with the swiveling board and darker start practicing. Muttering a warm-up word lax, max, pax, rax, get me in the mood, I blew the dust off the first box and opened it. Eleven dark-colored letter tiles were missing. Fourteen natural- color tiles were missing from the other set. This could have been a disaster in the old days.

But on the Internet possible to buy replacement parts for nearly any board game imaginable. At Hasbro.com, for instance, all you have to do to buy a full set of Scrabble tiles ($6.50, including shipping and handling) is to click on Customer Service. Hasbro, which owns Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers, sells replacement parts for hundreds of games it currently makes. A full set of Clue mini-weapons, including the rope, the candlestick, the revolver and dice, costs $3.50. A set of 11Monopoly tokens, including the ship, the winged shoe and the top hat, costs $2.

Mr. Potato mustache is $1. His tongue, $1.50. My only quibble was that the site was not compatible with my Macintosh. When I scrolled down lists, the items were invisible, a problem I did not have when using a PC.

A Hasbro Games spokesman said he had not heard of this glitch before but would look into it. become very attached to their board said the spokesman, Mark Morris. want their special Monopoly racing car token. Or they want to replace the body parts from Operation. We have them all: the wishbone, the People have always been very attached to their board games.

The Romans played a chesslike game called Latrunculi, the Victorians tiddlywinks. My broth- ers played Risk. the 1800s, when early companies like McLoughlin Brothers started putting out simple games in little boxes with nice-colored graphics, people have felt nostalgia for the games from their said Charlie Morgan, a board- game lover who grew up playing Stratego. Morgan owns two games sites. At VintageGameStore- he sells discontinued versions of hard-to-find games, like a 1940s edition of Parker Dig ($20) and a 1971edition of Milton Voice of the Mummy (recently sold for $250).

At GameParts.org, other site, shoppers can search a database of dealers to find replacement parts for discontinued games. search engine queries all the people I know who sell game parts online, which is not that many, maybe about he said. very useful for collectors. Having all the parts increases a value Selling replacement parts online for discontinued games is a growing niche industry, said Terry Lewis, who owns Game- Part.com. Lewis said he stumbled into the online parts business a few years ago after buying a board game at a yard sale.

saw this game that looked interesting, it was called Dark Tower, and I bought it for a he said. had no idea that it was one of the first games that came out with a computer, so I listed it on eBay for 99 cents. It went for $200, and I said, looks like something I might want to look Now Lewis repairs Dark Tower games. He also sells replacement parts for discontinued games like Park and Shop, Miss Popularity, Which Witch? and Mystery Date, a 1960s game in which the object was to land a handsome escort for the evening while avoiding the poorly dressed Date was politically incorrect but one of my I told Lewis, who has some Mystery Date pawns for sale ($10 each). a very popular game, one of those where the prices go up and down like the stock Lewis said.

you can buy the whole game for $90 or $100 at eBay, but come Christ- mas, prices will go up to $200. Which Witch? is another one. Every October sales go through the In the end, I have time to order new Scrabble tiles before the big match. I mixed my two colors to make a full set and none of the other players, including my husband and my friend Marissa, objected. Marissa went first, scoring 16 points with and from there the game proceeded decorously for many rounds.

Tina scored big with (32 points) and my husband played (34 points). With all the tiles drawn, my three opponents were locked in a neck-and-neck race. I lagged 20 points behind. Then Marissa used her on a triple-score box, scoring 17 points for her word. My turn was next, with no more tiles in the box.

With her and my seven tiles, I spelled earning 50 bonus points as well as the face value of my remaining tiles, including a 10-point Q. I won. But I admit that after the scores were tallied, I felt a twinge of the sort of guilt I imagine the con man Victor Lustig might have felt after he the Eiffel Tower in the 1920s. sure it will pass the next time Tina beats me 6-0, 6-0. THE E-SHOPPER Missing pieces no reason not to play games Kansas City Star photo by John Mutrux A set of replacement Scrabble tiles costs $6.50, including shipping and handling, at Hasbro.com.

The site also sells pieces to other games, such as Monopoly and Clue. Sites offer replacement parts for favorite board games, including those no longer in production When I try to copy music from my drive to the drive using the Easy CD Creator software that came with my computer everything appears to run correctly and the program runs to completion. The problem is that when I put the newly created CD into a regular CD player for use, the new CD play. It just sits there as though there are no tracks on the new CD. When I put it back into the computer and check the contents of the new CD, everything appears to be correct.

Any suggestions? Butch Waldrop A Some crucial details get lost in all of the hype over how one can use a PC to create customized music CDs that can simply be inserted into any music player, Mr. W. Forgive my acronyms, but ripping music into MP3s or other formats and then putting them on CDs without converting them to the required CDA format that is the only convention that regular music ma- chines can see. Software abounds to do this, but I fear there is very little documentation to explain it all in context. various versions of Easy CD Creator include stand-alone music modules that convert music files (usually MP3 format) into CD audio compatible form and record them on discs.

But you need to mess with Roxio on this issue. You see, Windows already includes Microsoft Media Player, which also can be used to create music CDs. So do competing products like Musicmatch Jukebox and software. Because Windows Media Player comes with the computer, the easiest way for you to proceed is to fire it up and then tap F3 to have it find all of the music and other media files on your computer. Then all that remains is to go through the list of tunes that Media Center will display and put a check mark alongside each one you want to include on an 80-minute audio CD.

Now click on File and Copy and you will be given the prompts to copy the selected music onto an audio CD. Contact Jim Coates via e-mail at or snail mail at the Chicago Tribune, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Chicago IL 60611. Questions can be answered only through this column. Add your point of view at chi- cagotribune.com/askjim.

ASKJIM: Right format is a must for audio discs CONTINUEDFROMPAGE3 Now, he said, home systems and the ongoingporta- ble music craze represent a broader philosophy that he calls good-enough Brian Fenton, executive editor of Sound Vision magazine, argues that it was the Sony Walkman, introduced 25 years ago, that changed everything. in the 1950s through the 1970s, music was a part of the movement, or people sat around alone or together in dorm rooms and listened to their vinyl or Fenton said. the Walkman came along, and people began to retreat inward with their headphones. now have this technology and people are looking at compressed audio playback. A lot of people are happy with MP3s and hear the But the bottom line, say Fenton and Hirsh, is that many consumers today are as to the glory of listening to music played on a high-end sound system.

Indeed, the days of selling speakers that resemble towers are disappearing. is no question that the trend these days is more toward theater-in-a-box and MP3s than high-end said Sean Wargo, director of industry analysis at the Consumer Electronics Association. Retail strategies examined Big-box electronics retailers have had a hand in this trend, he said, as they push all-in-one sound systems for as little as a few hundred dollars. are not products made by audio manufacturers, but by multiproduct said Jeff Cowan, director of training and product support for speaker manufacturer Boston Acoustics Inc. plug in the speakers and get this but not high Luring back the audiophile, and more importantly, creating a new generation of listeners who care about sound, is a big challenge for companies like Boston Acoustics.

Cowan thinks one way is to better educate consumers. have shied away from audiophile systems because they used to be too intimidating and less user he said. today want things that fit into their lifestyle, and there is always the which involves having things that are too One solution, for example, is wall- or ceiling-mounted speakers, which can offer outstanding performance without the clutter. Cowan said the mounted-speaker market is the fastest growing in the business. think that wall- or ceiling-mounted speakers are like the intercoms they had in their homes 30 years ago, and just not he said.

are every bit comparable to the box speakers of years Another problem is amarket- ing strategy thatfocuses more on video than audio performance. Jakob Levison, who manages a Bang Olufsen store in Chicago, says many customers will spend $3,000 on a plasma television and forget about the sound that goes with it. lot of the manufacturers of computer speakers to those found in television caught up with the market as Levison said. time, those using PCs as their sound source will be buying better speakers, but taking a while for the market to catch Sales starting to pick up According to Wargo of the Consumer Electronics Association, the market may be beginning to make some inroads. His figures show that there has been in an uptick in shipments for audio speakers and the last six months.

may herald the beginning of an upgrade cycle for consumers who had previously invested in theater-in-a- systems and are now looking to enhance their he said. Still, Dawn Cloyd, assistant to the president of Thiel Audio, a maker of high-end speakers based in Lexington, said audio marketing is a problem throughout the industry. of the problems, from big-box retailers on up, is getting salespeople to do sound Cloyd said. trend is to just show the a lot easier way to make a sale. The fact, though, is that the sound that involves the viewer emotionally.

If you made him just watch the picture, be bored and turn it off. the sound that makes the experience Despite having a generation raised on PCs as their music system, Cloyd and others feel those not buying into superior sound systems will come around. represent the direction Cloyd believes the industry will go. end usually requires assembling a she said. have to come in and offer custom integration.

people may not be into high end right now, but our market the college kid or the recent grad, the person who has become established and wants better things. Once people hear something better, want Cowan of Boston Acoustics thinks that maybe his daughter already has. think that kids living in a house with a father who has been in this business all his life would have an appreciation for a good sound system, but they Cowan said. still listen to their headphones. the other night I took my daughter to a Dave Matthews concert and later we listened to some more of his music in my car.

I have a $5,000 sound system in it, and my daughter turned to me and said, know, this sounds even better than the getting David Sharos is a freelance writer based in Carol Stream. Tribune photo by John Lee At Bang Olufsen in Chicago, manager Jakob Levison says many manufacturers of from computer speakers to those found in caught up with the market as STEREO: Systems draw listeners who can pay price CONTINUEDFROMPAGE3 may herald the beginning of an upgrade cycle for consumers who had previously invested in systems and are now looking to enhance their Wargo, director of industry analysis, Consumer Electronics Association.