Apr 26 2009

Cybersquatting and Social Media

Earthquake Retrofit writes “Brian Krebs has a story about cybersquatting on social networking sites. He cites cases of people being impersonated and reports: ‘A site called knowem.com allows you to see whether your name or whatever nickname you favor is already registered at any of some 120 social networking sites on the Web today. For a .95 fee, the site will register all available accounts on your behalf, a manual process that it says takes one to five business days. Whether anyone could possibly use and maintain 120 different social networking accounts is beyond my imagination. I would think an automated signup service like knowem.com would be far more useful if there was also a service that people could use to simultaneously update all of these sites with the same or slightly different content.’ Is it time to saddle up for a new round of Internet land grabs?” A Schneier blog post earlier this month pointed out a related story about how not establishing yourself on social sites, combined with the frequent lack of validation for friend requests, can provide identity thieves with a tempting target .

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Apr 25 2009

Charities see potential, risk with social networks

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – Meredith Bowen was getting tired of requests from Facebook friends to exchange make-believe pansies, daffodils and tiny cartoon characters for her “(Lil) Green Patch,” a virtual garden that sprouted on her social-networking page about a year ago.

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Apr 25 2009

Finland allocates new 4G mobile frequencies

The Finnish government said Friday it has allocated extra frequencies to telecom firms TeliaSonera, Elisa and DNA to run the country’s new, faster fourth-generation (4G) mobile network.

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Apr 24 2009

Tomorrow’s Computers Might Talk In Their Sleep

With the increased focus on managing energy costs and reducing human impact on the environment in the form of carbon emissions, we’re being encouraged now more than ever to turn our PCs off or let them sleep when they are not in use. But our digital lives are increasingly dependent on maintaining active network connections for communications…

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Apr 24 2009

Judge Opens Hearing On RealDVD Legal Battle

FP writes “On Friday morning, lawyers urged a federal judge to bar RealNetworks from selling software that allows consumers to copy their DVDs to computer hard drives, arguing that the Seattle-based company’s product is an illegal pirating tool. RealNetworks’ lawyers countered later in the morning that its RealDVD product is equipped with piracy protections that limits a DVD owner to making a single copy and a legitimate way to back up copies of movies legally purchased. This legal battle began with a restraining order last October which stopped the sale of RealDVD. More coverage is available at NPR. The same judge who shut down Napster is presiding over the three-day trial.” Reader IonOtter points out that later in the day, Judge Patel sealed the court after DVD Copy Control Association lawyers “argued that public testimony of aspects of the CSS copy-control technology would violate trade secrets.”

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Apr 24 2009

Gov't admits beach blunder – Calgary Herald


BBC News

Gov't admits beach blunder
Calgary Herald
The Alberta government has apologized for including a photo of a beach in northern England as part of an initiative to sell a new image for the province.
Alberta's PR gets beached by bad spin National Post
Alberta government ad mocked in Britain CHQR
CBC.ca – Globe and Mail – Edmonton Sun – CTV.ca
all 108 news articles
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Apr 24 2009

Microsoft Suffers Leaks, Lagging Sales Numbers as They Look Forward to Window 8

nandemoari writes “With only a few weeks until Microsoft’s Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) is released, Microsoft is already looking for people to help with Windows 8. An April 14th job ad posted by Microsoft says the upcoming version of Windows will have new features like cluster support and support for one way replication. Apparently the Windows 8 kernel is being reworked to provide dramatic performance improvements. Windows 8 will also include innovative features that, according to Microsoft, will revolutionize file access in branch offices.” Relatedly, several users tell us that both 32 and 64-bit versions of the Windows 7 release candidate have been leaked into the wild via p2p networks. The current leaked version shows little change beyond bug fixes, so it would seem what you see is what you get. This all comes as Microsoft posts quarterly sales that have fallen for the first time in the company’s 23-year history. Seeing a 6% drop in revenue and a 32% drop in earnings, some within the Redmond giant expect the downward trend to continue.

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Apr 24 2009

Reaction to the latest soldier death in Afghanistan – iNews880.com


AFP

Reaction to the latest soldier death in Afghanistan
iNews880.com
The defence minister and Governor General are expressing condolences on the death of another Canadian soldier in Afghanistan. The military says 30-year-old Major Michelle Mendes, who was based in Ottawa, was found dead in her room at the Kandahar
Canadian soldier dies in Afghanistan United Press International
Canadian soldier found dead on military base DigitalJournal.com
Pembroke Daily Observer – National Post – Toronto Star – CBC.ca
all 193 news articles  Langue : Français
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Apr 23 2009

Chinese Hackers Targetting NYPD Computers

Mike writes “A network of hackers, most based in China, have been making up to 70,000 attempts a day to break into the NYPD’s computer system, the city’s Commissioner, Raymond Kelly, revealed Wednesday. Kelly suggested that ‘perhaps it is because of the NYPD’s reach into the international arena’ that they are being targeted for computer hacking ‘in much the way the Pentagon has been.’ The hackers are apparently using a botnet to make up to 5,000 attempts a day at various unsecured portals into the NYPD’s files. China’s foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang denied involvement in computer espionage. ‘Some people outside of China are bent on fabricating lies of so-called Chinese computer spies,’ he said last month. The obvious question is, why are the Chinese so interested in the NYPD computer network?”

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Apr 23 2009

How Tor Helps Both Dissidents and the Police

Al writes “Technology Review has a in-depth article about the anonymous networking software Tor and how it is helping dissidents spread information in oppressive regimes such as Syria, Zimbabwe and Mauritania, and opening up the unfiltered web for users in many more countries. In China, for instance, the computers found in some web cafes are configured to use Tor automatically. Interestingly, some police agencies even use the software to hide their activity from suspects. As filtering becomes ever more common in democratic countries such as the US, perhaps Tor (and similar tools such as I2P), will become even more valuable.”

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