Bloomberg reports that AT&T and Verizon Wireless are working with Discover and Barclays to launch a new service that would allow people to use their smartphones as credit cards
Archive for 2010/08/02
AT&T & Verizon to turn phones into credit cards?
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Mobile tech, New Business ModelsGoogle spy eyes: watching YOU
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Education / Awareness, Google, Privacy / Data Protection“The tree removal was inadvertently caught on camera by a specially equipped passing vehicle taking pictures for Google Street Views, which links pictures of city streets to Google’s mapping program,” said the story.
Now “A town on New York’s Long Island is using Google Earth to find backyard pools that don’t have the proper permits”
Not only but also, “In a bid to increase revenues, the Greek authorities are employing all kinds of clever tricks to crack down on tax cheats, including using Google Earth to find undeclared swimming pools”
Most Internet time now spent with social networks, games
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reports, Tech EvolutionHow to Get Started with Usenet in Three Simple Steps
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Education / Awareness, File Sharing, Illegal File Sharing1) the first rule of Usenet is that you don’t talk about Usenet, and 2) it’s commonly used to download copyrighted material.
People have kept quiet about Usenet to avoid bringing unwanted attention to it, hoping it doesn’t suffer the same fate as, say, Napster. Because Usenet hosts all kinds of files, including copyrighted works, it’s a potential target for the hammer of the MPA/MPAA, RIAA, etc.
http://lifehacker.com/5601586/how-to-get-started-with-usenet-in-three-simple-steps
Attacking the edges of secure Internet traffic
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Cybercrime, Education / AwarenessResearchers have uncovered new ways that criminals can spy on Internet users even if they’re using secure connections to banks, online retailers or other sensitive Web sites. The attacks demonstrated at the Black Hat conference here show how determined hackers can sniff around the edges of encrypted Internet traffic to pick up clues about what their targets are up to.
It’s like tapping a telephone conversation and hearing muffled voices that hint at the tone of the conversation
Banks require your help to keep online banking safe
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Privacy / Data ProtectionAbout 80% of U.S. households have come to do their banking over the Internet, banking consultancy Novantas says. Many consumers believe online banking is every bit as safe as branch banking. But that’s clearly not the case, banking and tech security specialists say.
Cyberattacks against individual online accounts have become so sophisticated and pervasive that the American Bankers Association (ABA) is now asking consumers to “partner” with banks to keep cyberrobbers in check
http://lastwatchdog.com/banks-require-consumers-online-banking-secure/
The Mumba Botnet Disclosed
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Network Security, Privacy / Data Protection, Stats / reportsMore than 60 GB worth of data stolen, including bank accounts, credit card numbers, e-mail communication and credentials on social networking sites
http://avg.typepad.com/files/revised-mumba-botnet-whitepaper_approved_yi_fv.pdf
Elite US cyber team courts hackers to fight terrorists
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, New Business ModelsAn elite US cyber team that has stealthily tracked Internet villains for more than a decade pulled back its cloak of secrecy to recruit hackers at a notorious DefCon gathering here Sunday. Vigilant was described by its chief Chet Uber as a sort of cyber “A-Team” taking on terrorists, drug cartels, mobsters and other enemies on the Internet. “We do things the government can’t,” Uber said. “This was never supposed to have been a public thing.”
Vigilant is an alliance of slightly more than 600 volunteers and its secret ranks reportedly include chiefs of technology at top firms and former high-ranking US cyber spies. The group scours Internet traffic for clues about online attacks, terrorists, cartels and other targets rated as priorities by members of the democratically run private organization.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gAj1evUcs-PEE-pMxWbgvyYt1XCA
China’s first law on online games to take effect
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Education / Awareness, Legislation, Public PolicyChina’s first regulation governing the booming market of on-line games will take effect on Sunday, which is expected to protect children from unwholesome content and Internet addiction. The regulation, issued by the Ministry of Culture on June 22, states that on-line games targeting minors must be free of content that lead to the imitation of behavior that violates social morals and the law. It also requires gaming companies to develop techniques that limit the gaming time of minors in order to prevent addiction
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-07/31/c_13424405.htm
Twitter’s EarlyBird Is Just A Start. Next: Building Deals On Real-Time Conversations
Posted: 2010/08/02 in New Business Models, Online advertisingEarlyBird will define a new category in social deals: offers based on real-time conversation. Rajaraman envisions a system that will track company and sector trends for advertising partners. The partners could then work with Twitter to quickly deploy deals based around trending conversations and emerging demand
http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/02/twitter-early-bird-deals-groupon/
In-Flight Broadband Deployment Soars: In-Stat
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Stats / reportsAccording to recent In-Stat findings, airlines are doing a great job providing in-flight broadband. In its recent report, In-Stat has revealed that the total in-flight broadband equipment investment is set to touch half a billion dollars globally by 2013. In-flight Wi-Fi deployments are way past their testing phase. Over 2,000 airplanes are expected to be equipped with Wi-Fi by the end of 2010, said officials at In-Stat
Online shoppers in most states avoid paying sales tax on items purchased over the Internet. You might have noticed that it’s one of the few parts of the economy doing well about now. Democrats would like to change all that
Gadgets -iPad and iPhone Paid App Patterns Diverge
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Education / Awareness, Mobile tech, New Business Models, Stats / reportsPeople seem to be behaving differently in terms of their buying of content or features “in application” on their iPads, compared to their iPhones, based on the latest data from Distimo
http://gadgets.tmcnet.com/topics/gadgets/articles/93749-ipad-iphone-paid-app-patterns-diverge.htm
Will Undersea Routes Run Out of Capacity by 2017?
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Education / Awareness, Future Developments?, Tech Evolution300 Percent More Mobile Broadband Subscriptions by 2015
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Mobile tech, Stats / reportsGetJar App Store Touches 3 Million Daily Downloads
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Mobile tech, New Business Models, Tech EvolutionGetJar, the world’s second largest mobile app store after Apple app store, announced that it has reached 3 million downloads per day, outpacing like-competitors in the mobile app market. GetJar has seen over 1 billion downloads to date, and is available across all mobile platforms including Android, Blackberry, Java, iPhone, Symbian and Windows Mobile
Cable companies’ fight to keep local sports broadcasts out of the hands of some competitors is heating up as satellite and phone companies pressure regulators to take action
Microsoft Quashed Effort to Boost Online Privacy
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Online advertising, Privacy / Data ProtectionThe winners: executives who argued that giving automatic privacy to consumers would make it tougher for Microsoft to profit from selling online ads. Microsoft built its browser so that users must deliberately turn on privacy settings every time they start up the software.
Microsoft’s decision reveals the economic forces driving the spread of online tracking of individuals. A Wall Street Journal investigation of the practice showed tracking to be pervasive and ever-more intrusive: The 50 most-popular U.S. websites, including four run by Microsoft, installed an average of 64 pieces of tracking technology each onto a test computer.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703467304575383530439838568.html
Sniper sues Army for revealing his ID
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Education / Awareness, Privacy / Data ProtectionCarphone Warehouse will finally launch its much-touted music service tomorrow. It will allow you to listen to your music anywhere, as well as dipping into a catalog of six million tracks. Carphone Warehouse has promoted the service via its MyHub portal for a while, and an iPhone app for it leaked out three weeks ago.
It’s an implementation of something called Play Anywhere by Israeli startup Catch Media, which was rumoured to be a Google acquisition earlier this year. (Google appears to have gone ahead and built its own Orb-like place-shifting software by itself.) Unlike Orb, which does adaptive transcoding on the PC hosting your music collection, the Catch service takes a fingerprint of each song, IDs it, then streams a version from a licensed music library. Or tries to.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/02/carphone_locker_that_isnt/
Customers Will Pay for Online Content
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Education / Awareness, New Business ModelsAt long last—due in part to economic stress—significant strides are being made to take “pay models” out of the conference room and to the public.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704288204575363311602576990.html
KPN’s Reggefiber JV Gets EUR130M Loan From EIB -Report
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Education / Awareness, Public Policy, Tech EvolutionA joint venture of KPN (KPN.AE) unit Reggefiber and Dutch entrepreneur Dik Wessels has received a loan of around EUR130 million to finance the roll out of high speed fiber optic network in 33 Dutch cities from the European Investment Bank, Het Financieele Dagblad writes Friday. Four unnamed banks have agreed to finance the remainder of the roll out, according to the report, but would only come on board once the EIB agreed to participate in the financing.
KPN is a Dutch telecommunications operator
Previously:
Another WiMAX operator calls it quits
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/another-wimax-operator-calls-it-quits/2010-06-24
QuickTime Player Allows Movie Files to Trigger Malware Download
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Network Security, Privacy / Data ProtectionQuickTime Player (version 7.6.6) allows movie files to trigger the download of files and cybercriminals are using this to download malware from malicious websites.
Trend Micro threat research engineer Benson Sy encountered two .MOV files (001 Dvdrip Salt.mov and salt dvdrpi [btjunkie][xtrancex].mov) that both used the recent movie Salt, starring Angelina Jolie. It looks suspicious enough because of its relatively small size compared with regular movie files.
When the movie files are loaded to QuickTime, it doesn’t show any live action scenes but leads users to download malware pretending to be either an update codec or another player installation. We are still investigating whether the malware is exploiting a vulnerability or using a known functionality to download other malware.
http://blog.trendmicro.com/quicktime-player-allows-movie-files-to-trigger-malware-download/
Previously:
Pirated Inception Copies Used to Spread Malware
http://contentprotection.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/pirated-inception-copies-used-to-spread-malware/
Hackers release browser-based iPhone 4 jailbreak
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Education / Awareness, Mobile techThis $1,500 System Can Intercept Your Cellphone Calls
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Education / Awareness, Privacy / Data ProtectionHackulous: iPhone Pirates Don’t Hurt Jailbreaking’s Image
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Education / Awareness, Mobile techVerizon top Capitol Hill lobbyer on Internet laws
Posted: 2010/08/02 in Education / Awareness, Public PolicyIn terms of general Internet/wireless issues, Verizon listed the following as central to the company’s focus:
Internet governance; Net Neutrality
Telecommunications Act of 1996: revisions to Title I and Title II
FCC’s National Broadband Plan
Privacy issues including potential updates to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act
Retransmission consent
Smart grid
Anti child pornography efforts
Wireless issues:
- competition
- net neutrality
- tower siting
- FM radio chips in cell phones
- RF labeling on cell phones
- 4G rural plan
- spectrum policy/allocation; public safety, D Blockhttp://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2010/08/verizon-leads-isp-pack-on-lobbying-congress.ars
