Archive for 2011/08/03

US officials have unveiled charges against 72 people in their largest global probe into internet child pornography which smashed a “nightmare” online bulletin board catering to paedophiles

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement

The investigation launched in 2009 has led to arrests in the US and 13 other  countries of participants in Dreamboard, which had a “VIP” ranking system for  members trading in graphic images and videos of adults molesting children age 12  and under, often violently, the Justice Department said today.

“Dreamboard’s creators and members lived all over the world – but they  allegedly were united by a disturbing belief that the sexual abuse of children  is proper conduct that should not be criminalised,” Attorney General Eric Holder  said.

“The members of this criminal network shared a demented dream to create the  preeminent online community for the promotion of child sexual exploitation, but  for the children they victimised, this was nothing short of a nightmare.”

Read more:

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/us-charges-72-over-nightmare-child-porn/story-e6frfku0-1226107892380

Judge orders shutdown of DVD-streaming service Zediva

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Education / Awareness, Illegal File Sharing, Jurisprudence

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/08/judge-orders-shutdown-of-dvd-streaming-service-zediva.ars

California judge: trolling with someone else’s Facebook is identity theft

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Education / Awareness, Jurisprudence

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/08/california-judge-trolling-with-someone-elses-facebook-is-identity-theft.ars

In just one month, Google+ has captured 25 million visitors, making it the fastest site to reach such numbers, according to ComScore

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Education / Awareness, Google, Tech Evolution

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20087374-93/google-speeds-to-25-million-users-in-first-month/

Google has released a new stable version of its Chrome browser, adding an “Instant Pages” service that attempts to accelerate your Google searches by rendering pages before you actually click on them

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Education / Awareness, Google, New Business Models, Tech Evolution

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/02/google_chrome_thirteen_released/

UK police have taken the unusual step of warning prospective hacktivists that they risk arrest and prosecution if they get involved in denial of service or other forms of cyberattack

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Public Policy

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/03/uk_police_warns_hacktivists/

Ofcom recommends examining further measures such as transparent proxy-blocking (used by the UK Internet Watch Foundation) or hybrid routing technology via deep packet inspection techniques

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Filtering, Illegal File Sharing, Legislation, Public Policy

In the medium to longer term we consider that deep packet inspection techniques are likely to provide a more robust approach to blocking than DNS. Although costly to implement today, we would expect that costs will fall as the larger ISPs invest in DPI devices for other purposes. However, for it to be part of a legislative approach the cost burden for smaller ISPs would need careful evaluation as would legal concerns related to compatibility with privacy, data protection and interception rules.

In related news, lobbying by ISPs has succeeded in freeing them from paying for the setup costs for a copyright tribunal, designed to give copyright-infringing broadband users an appeals process.

You can find the Hargreaves Report reaction here – and the next steps on implementing the Digital Economy Act, including Ofcom’s 57-page study on website-blocking – here.

Vince Cable formally announced that the Coalition government is blessing all the proposals advanced in Ian Hargreaves IP review, the “Google Review”.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/03/ip_policy_roundup/

Criminals have increased the functionality of Android Trojans with a new strain that is capable of recording, and not just logging, conversations on compromised smartphones

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Privacy / Data Protection, Tech Evolution

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/02/android_malware_records_calls/

Ed Vaizey, the communications minister, acknowledged that the court process can take a long time, pointing out that the system can never cope with an illegal website launching on a Friday to cash in on a live sport event and then disappearing on Sunday. “One of the things that is frustrating for rights holders is the length of time it takes for a court process”

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Legislation, Public Policy

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/03/government-scraps-filesharing-sites-block

Business secretary Vince Cable on Wednesday scrapped plans to introduce the blocking of illegal filesharing websites, confirmed plans to relax the current law that makes it illegal to copy the contents of a CD they own onto an iPod or other digital device. “This brings the law into line with, frankly, common sense”

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Legislation, Public Policy

“A lot of this has to do with consumer freeedom. We need to have a legal framework that supports consumer use rather than treat it as regrettable. We can’t say that businesses should embrace technology but say to consumers they can’t use technology for products they have paid for.”

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/03/government-scraps-filesharing-sites-block

The UK Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) has fined and suspended two Davenport Lyons lawyers, Brian Laurence Miller and David Joel Gore, for their role in knowingly “targeting people innocent of any copyright breach”

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Education / Awareness

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2011/08/03/davenport-lyons-lawyers-fined-and-suspended-for-illegal-isp-piracy-threat-letters.html

Ofcom is expected to conclude that no website blocking can be 100 per cent effective, which is technically correct: users can circumvent a block by a number of technical means. But 99 per cent wouldn’t bother with proxies, onion routers or using numerical IP addresses, say rights-holders, so even a limited block would be highly effective

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Legislation, Public Policy

They also query the right of a quango to make itself legislator supreme – when its job is to carry out the law. Whatever you think of web-blocking, that’s a valid concern. Elected legislators make laws, the judiciary interprets them. Or is that a bit “analog era”? Two years ago Cameron called for “a new era of Google government“. This must be what it looks like…

More http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/02/cable_digital_economy_announcement_tomorrow/

A British-run travel agency which specialises in tours to North Korea disclosed that South Korea was blocking its website because of alleged pro-Pyongyang material

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Blocking, Education / Awareness

http://tinyurl.com/3g5f842

MurdochAlert identifies the domains that may place users at risk for Murdoch-related hacking. MurdochAlert shows a bottom warning box whenever you visit a Murdoch-controlled sited

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Blocking, Education / Awareness

What does this app do? – Blocks websites owned and operated by Newscorp Which websites are blocked? The default list is only news and publication sites but that can be customized on the options page. How is a site blocked? – When the user opens a blocked site, a warning is displayed and the user is given an option to continue to the site.

As at 11.00am Saturday (London time), the Chrome extension had already garnered 1,884 users and 2,248 weekly installs. The description of the extension said it is capable of blocking websites owned and operated by Newscorp.

http://www.zimeye.org/?p=32822

Nepal Telecom and NCell have blocked the test messaging traffic of Australia-based www.smsglobal.com as per the direction of Nepal Telecommunications Authority

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Public Policy

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Website’s+SMS+traffic+blocked+for+spoofing&NewsID=296846

Optus has fulfilled its pledge to filter its customers’ internet traffic, blocking websites that are listed on the Interpol “worst-of” list

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Public Policy

The list of sites to be filtered is maintained by Interpol, which has a set criteria for what goes on to the list. Sites are alleged to be those depicting child sexual abuse, and Interpol claims that the domains listed are checked and verified by at least two different countries. The actual domains contained on the list are kept confidential, as they are illegal in most countries.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/optus-implements-internet-filter-339319577.htm

UK Business Secretary: Blocking Sites Under DEA Is ‘Unworkable’; Time To Add More Exceptions To Copyright

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Blocking, Copyright, Education / Awareness, Legislation, Public Policy

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110802/03153215354/uk-business-secretary-blocking-sites-under-dea-is-unworkable-time-to-add-more-exceptions-to-copyright.shtml

Security experts have discovered the biggest series of cyber attacks to date, involving the infiltration of the networks of 72 organizations including the United Nations, governments and companies around the world

Posted: 2011/08/03 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Stats / reports

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/03/us-cyberattacks-idUSTRE7720HU20110803