Data was either deleted or stolen
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/india-112-government-sites-hacked-in-3-months/10915
Archive for 2012/03/18
India: 112 government sites hacked in 3 months
Posted: 2012/03/18 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Public PolicyThe new Googleman Sachs could actually have a Department of Evil that would exist merely to make the money, while all the other employees did fine creative things – such as invent beautifully engineered, self-driving financial algorithms – and equally self-driving Toyota Prius speedboats
Posted: 2012/03/18 in Education / Awareness, Google, New Business ModelsThe new Googleman Sachs might even give its highly polished traders and, um, bankers 20 percent of each week to give back to the world–which may or may not include giving back money the world had given them in the first place.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57399488-71/why-google-should-merge-with-goldman-sachs/
Hague condemns Tehran for blocking Foreign Office website
Posted: 2012/03/18 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Public PolicyShouldn’t be too big of a problem for Iranian internet users as previously OFCOM deemed site blocking ineffective anyway
William Hague said UK for Iranians was launched on March 14 to “reach out” to its citizens but access from the country was blocked on March 17.
In December, Mr Hague said Iran had blocked access to the British embassy website for people in Iran.
Britain last year closed its embassy in Tehran and expelled Iran’s diplomats.
It followed an attack on the embassy building, which Iran described “unacceptable behaviour by a small number of protesters”. However, British diplomats said they believed it was likely the attack had state backing.
More:
File transfer is coming to Facebook early next week in the form of a new app called Pipe
Posted: 2012/03/18 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, File Sharing, New Business Models, Tech EvolutionYes, it’s already possible to transfer files on Facebook as message attachments, but that method doesn’t work for large slabs of data and, frankly, most people don’t realise it’s there. Pipe uses some rather clever wrangling of Adobe technology to let users of the social network send each other files of up to 1GB in size, using not much more than drag-and-drop.
The people behind Pipe have big plans for their tool, but those ambitions are contingent on Facebook being a successful first platform.
“We’re starting on Facebook because it gives us viral reach,” CEO Simon Hossell told me. When the user wants to send a file to a friend, the friend gets a Facebook chat message with a link to the app and an explainer video; they install the app to get the file… and so it spreads.
What is it for? Hossell recoils at the mention of the word “file-sharing” for two reasons. He reckons the term has negative connotations of copyright infringement, an exercise which people are unlikely to carry out when it’s attached to their personal Facebook profiles. But file-sharing also implies one-to-many transmission, and Pipe is purely one-to-one, peer-to-peer.
None of the data sent in the file transfer goes through Facebook’s servers, or Pipe’s servers for that matter. The app uses Adobe’s Real Time Media Protocol Flow (RTMFP) communication protocol, which was designed to let Flash or AIR apps talk to each other, to load the file into the recipient’s cache – the emptier the cache, the bigger the file that can be transferred.
RTMFP isn’t technically supposed to be used for file transfer, according to Adobe’s own documentation, but that’s what Pipe’s using it for anyway.
More:
http://gigaom.com/2012/03/16/transfer-files-inside-facebook-thanks-to-pipe/
Chinese writers demand Apple pay for piracy
Posted: 2012/03/18 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Illegal File Sharing, LitigationA group of Chinese writers have filed a claim against Apple, alleging that the company’s App Store sells unlicensed copies of their books and seeking 50 million yuan (7.9 million U.S. dollars) in compensation.
The claim, filed on behalf of 22 famous writers, involves 95 books that have allegedly been sold as pirated copies on Apple’s App Store.
RT’s main YouTube channel has been suspended due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube’s policy against spam, scans, and commercially deceptive content
Posted: 2012/03/18 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Filtering, Google, Stats / reports, Tech EvolutionOne would have thought that any genuinely clever algorithm would have noted the need for human review before shutting down the channel, if only on the basis of the channel’s popularity
RT’s main YouTube channel was suspended for about eight hours, returning online about 2 p.m. Moscow time (10:00 GMT). YouTube ascribed the temporary blackout to a “technical mistake.”
RT is the most popular news broadcaster present on YouTube, having racked up about 700 million views and 275 thousand subscribers since the channel’s inception.
http://rt.com/news/blackout-rt-youtube-suspended-847/
See also:
#OccupyWallStreet demonstrates that there are many ways to intentionally, accidentally or unconsciously but automatically disrupt the free flow of information
http://vrritti.com/2011/10/03/occupywallstreet-demonstrates-that-there-are-many-ways-to-intentionally-accidentally-or-unconsciously-but-automatically-disrupt-the-free-flow-of-information/
Dutch Media Waking Up To The Fact That It’s Kinda Awkward That A Large Scale Criminal Investigation Into Practices Of Roman Catholic Church Is Lacking
Posted: 2012/03/18 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Public Policy, Stats / reports…now that it is clear that tens of thousands of children have been sexually abused, 50 may have been castrated due to their “homosexual behavior” and certain politicians and political parties seem to have been involved several decades ago.
The most popular online magazine in The Netherlands, Geenstijl.nl, has pointed out that those representing dedicated Investigative Committees and Complaint Centers are either member of the same religious entities and groups that are being “investigated” or connected to the same political parties and politicians that have played a significant role in the large scale sexual abuse of children in The Netherlands.
As such, the author of the article makes a plea for enforcement action similar to what happened in relation to the Robert Mikelsons case:
- raids;
- confiscation of archives and computer systems;
- criminal prosecution whenever possible.
The author of the article wants the entire financial and political “circle jerk” to be dismantled. Many of the victims and the predators involved are still alive today.
It’s highly peculiar that the representatives of the Roman Catholic Church in The Netherlands are facing less threats of prosecution authorities than the average shoplifter in The Netherlands. But this isn’t about bags and purses. This is about tens of thousands of children.
The author concludes by saying: Hello Dutch police, justice department and politics. Anyone taking this seriously already?
Dutch language news article:
http://www.geenstijl.nl/mt/archieven/2012/03/cie_deetman_is_totaalfuckup.html#more
Previously:
Dutch investigational committee for victims of sexual abuse by the Catholic Church did not investigate castration of minors nor accusations involving Prime Minister Victor Marijnen
http://vrritti.com/2012/03/17/dutch-investigational-committee-for-victims-of-sexual-abuse-by-the-catholic-church-did-not-investigate-castration-of-minors-nor-accusations-involving-prime-minister-victor-marijnen/
When Complaint Centers Are Being Used For Damage Control Purposes
http://vrritti.com/2012/02/04/when-complaint-centers-are-being-used-for-damage-control-purposes/
Report About Sexual Abuse In The Catholic Church Distributed For Free By The Dutch Online Community. Publisher Tries To Stop It
http://vrritti.com/2011/12/26/report-about-sexual-abuse-in-the-catholic-church-distributed-for-free-by-the-dutch-online-community-publisher-tries-to-stop-it/
Dutch Investigative Committee: In The Netherlands (1945-1985) up to 20,000 children between the ages of 11 and 14 may have been sexually abused by representatives of the Catholic Church
http://vrritti.com/2011/12/16/dutch-investigative-committee-in-the-netherlands-1945-1985-up-to-20000-children-between-the-ages-of-11-and-14-may-have-been-sexually-abused-by-representatives-of-the-catholic-church/
If Assange winds up on the witness stand, the world likely will watch him deploy with steely calm algorithms he developed years in advance for an end game just like this
Posted: 2012/03/18 in Education / AwarenessIn 2010 WikiLeaks released a file named insurance.aes256 and on Wednesday (22nd February 2012) released another “insurance” file with an “aes” name. AES-256, a currently unbreakable encryption scheme, appears to keep the files scrambled until a password is published. Assange has said little about them, but he did say “insurance files” would be released in a certain scenario: “if something happens to me or to WikiLeaks.”
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/23/julian_assange_prepares_his_next_move/singleton/
Wikileaks uploaded a new insurance file (within the past 24 hours) to The Pirate Bay, a file sharing site that it has used in the past to distribute ‘insurance’.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/23/1067565/-WikiLeaks-new-65-GB-Insurance-file-following-Spy-Files-release-
and:
https://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7050943/WikiLeaks_Insurance_release_02-22-2012
We are escalating towards a far darker cold cyber war era, 2012 is going to have a dark side
Posted: 2012/03/18 in Education / Awarenesshttp://www.cso.com.au/article/418729/2012_year_cold_cyber_warfare/
See also:
WikiLeaks and other reformers: has Machiavelli met his match?
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=13379
Google’s Covert Role in Arab Uprisings (WikiLeaks)
Posted: 2012/03/18 in Education / Awareness, Google, Public Policy, Stats / reportsAn email dated February 27, 2011, contained the following quote from an internal Google email sent by Jared Cohen to a senior Google Executive:
“… The purpose of this trip is to exclusively engage the Iranian community to better understand the challenges faced by Iranians as part of one of our Google Ideas groups on repressive societies… [We plan to] drive to Azerbaijan/Iranian border and engage the Iranian communities closer to the border (this is important because we need the Azeri Iranian perspective)”.
In the same email chain, Stratfor employee Scott Stewart, wrote: “Cohen might end up having an accident if he is not careful. This is not child’s play.” Another Stratfor employee, Fred Burton, added: “He’s going to get himself kidnapped or killed. Might be the best thing to happen to expose Google’s covert role in foaming up-risings, to be blunt. The US Govt can then disavow knowledge and Google is left holding the shit bag.”
Paperwork goof may mean Kim DotCom can reclaim assets (MegaUpload)
Posted: 2012/03/18 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Litigation, Public Policy“In a surprising turn of events” it now seems that an incorrect court order was issued to seize assets of the MegaUpload founder and that is now “null and void.” As a result, the New Zealand government may be required to return his belongings
New Zealand police filed for the wrong kind of restraining order–the kind that didn’t allow for DotCom to have a court hearing prior to the seizure–and that was a mistake, according to a report in the New Zealand Herald.
A court has now ruled that the restraining order that enabled police to seize his assets is “null and void,” and a review of the mistakes made will soon be conducted by New Zealand’s attorney general, according to the Herald.
The paper noted that there’s no guarantee that DotCom will prevail. His lawyers must prove the absence of good faith when the procedural error was made.
There was no word on when a decision on this may come down.
Update:
According to New Zealand Herald, on January 30th prosecution lawyer Anne Toohey wrote to the court explaining that the wrong order had been applied for and detailed five errors with the application.
Justice Potter said that police commissioner Peter Marshall tried to correct the error by applying for the correct order after the raids were completed and retrospectively adding the items already seized.
Although the correct order was eventually granted albeit on a temporary basis, Potter said she will soon rule on whether the “procedural error” will result in Dotcom having his property returned.
The Crown is arguing that since the new order was granted the earlier error no longer matters, but Dotcom’s legal team framed it rather differently by describing the seizure of assets as “unlawful”.
Whether the assets are returned will rest on Dotcom’s legal team showing a lack of “good faith” in connection with the blunder. A hearing to decide if the assets will be returned will take place next week.
http://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-seizure-order-null-and-void-says-high-court-120318/
