Archive for 2012/03/21

And Another Unprecedented Event In The Netherlands: Parliament Member Sharon Gesthuizen Arrested For Stepping Outside Designated Protest Area

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Public Policy

Daring to move a couple of yards outside a designated protest area turned out to be a direct threat to the Dutch State apparently.

Law enforcement officers in The Netherlands deemed it wise to arrest Socialist Party Parliamentarian Sharon Gesthuizen, who participated in a peaceful and symbolic protest organized by employees of PostNL. The protest was approved by local authorities. The protesters are frustrated about the fact that PostNL is increasing salaries and bonuses of senior executives while laying off employees and lowering pensions.

One reason for the arrest appears to be that law enforcement officers didn’t like just how the protesters decided to display their frustration with their own company: they were carrying a coffin with flowers on top. Law enforcement officers argued that that was an inconsiderate act, especially since the victims of the bus crash in Switzerland were being remembered today…in Belgium.

In another news article, it was said that Gesthuizen shouldn’t have stepped outside the designated protest area…even by only a few yards.

UPDATE: Dutch politicians and hactivist Rop Gonggrijp have turned to Twitter to make sure law enforcement authorities will go and release Sharon Gesthuizen as soon as possible

UPDATE 2: A video of the arrest is available here:

http://www.zie.nl/video/algemeen/SP-Kamerlid-Gesthuizen-opgepakt-bij-protest/m1fz904fljub

where Gesthuizen explains that thousands of people, some of them with the company for 40 years, will lose their jobs and perhaps will be allowed to apply for their own job again in the future, knowing that they will only make about 50% of the money they’re making now. The voice-over informs the viewer that the company involved, PostNL,  is increasing salaries and bonuses of the senior executives nonetheless.

UPDATE 3: After serious political pressure by Socialist Party members who were gathering at the location where the politician was kept in custody, a Twitter campaign that started to target the relevant police department and a flood of news articles, Sharon Gesthuizen has been released, having spent 5 hours at the police precinct:

Dutch language news articles:


http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/1012/Nederland/article/detail/3228980/2012/03/21/SP-Kamerlid-Gesthuizen-opgepakt-bij-Haags-protest.dhtml


http://www.powned.tv/nieuws/binnenland/2012/03/spkamerlid_opgepakt_tijdens_pr.html

Previously:

Yet Another Unprecedented Event In The Netherlands: Iraqi Fugitives Refused Asylum And Left Out In Freezing Cold

http://vrritti.com/2012/02/06/yet-another-unprecedented-event-in-the-netherlands-iraqi-fugitives-refused-asylum-and-left-out-in-freezing-cold/

Unprecedented Event In The Netherlands: Two Judges Prosecuted For Perjury. Billion Euro Damage Claim At Stake

http://vrritti.com/2012/02/04/unprecedented-event-in-the-netherlands-two-judges-prosecuted-for-perjury-billion-euro-damage-claim-at-stake/ 

Total Global Broadband Internet Connections Reach 597 Million in 2011

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reports


http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2012/03/total-global-broadband-internet-connections-reach-597-million-in-2011.html

Judge Lifts Twitter Ban On “Anonymous” 14

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Jurisprudence

How dangerous can 140 characters be?

Ruling on motions filed by several defendants, Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal stated that since government lawyers did not sufficiently link “allegedly criminal activities to use of a Twitter account,” the defendants were free to use the microblogging service. Grewal’s order was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California.

In a January court filing, defendant Vincent Kershaw argued that bail conditions barring his use of Twitter unduly burdened his First Amendment right to engage in political discourse. Kershaw, 28, contended that the Twitter ban prohibited him from “even perusing such critical communications from our own President or engaging in the Twitter Town Halls in any manner.”

In opposing Kershaw’s motion, a prosecutor described Twitter as one of the “principle tools through which the members of the Anonymous hacking group planned and coordinated their criminal activities.”

Kershaw, pictured in the above mug shot, also sought permission to use Internet Relay Chat so that he could participate in “political debate” and “political speech” in IRC chat rooms. That motion was denied by Grewal, who ruled that Kershaw and his codefendants are allowed “substantial internet use for purposes that include political discourse.”

Kershaw, a Colorado landscaper, and his codefendants were charged last July with conspiracy and intentional damage to a protected computer for allegedly participating in an “Anonymous”-organized denial of service attack on PayPal. The felony counts carry a combined maximum of 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

The December 2010 online assault–dubbed “Operation Avenge Assange”–was prompted by the suspension of WikiLeaks’s PayPal account in the wake of the publication of classified Department of State cables by the group headed by Julian Assange. (3 pages)


http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/judge-lifts-anonymous-twitter-ban-145792

Is your bank on SpyEye’s Top 40 list?

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Stats / reports

Variants of the SpyEye trojan target banks using a plugin called webinject.txt. We collected 1,318 samples in our back end that matched those from SpyEye Tracker’s RSS Feed. Taking a look inside, we discovered that this collection of samples contains 632 different bank domains and that commerzbank.com was the most targeted bank domain.


http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002335.html

Prime Minister David Cameron launched a sweeping review of UK intellectual property law based on an assertion – that the founders of Google believed they could “never have started their company in Britain” – he can’t support, from a source nobody can find

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Education / Awareness, Google, Public Policy

We know this because new information released by No 10 in response to FOIA requests has ruled out private conversations as the possible source


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/21/cameron_google_source/

Criminals Target Megaupload Users With Fake Settlement Demands

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing

For the past several days a fake law firm claiming to act on behalf of entertainment companies such as Universal, Sony, EMI and Paramount has been claiming cash settlements from innocent victims


http://torrentfreak.com/criminals-target-megaupload-users-with-fake-settlement-demands-120321/

University Will Cease To Provide Internet Access To Students. Cannot Afford Net Neutrality

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Blocking, Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Net Neutrality, Public Policy

At first, the University of Groningen announced that it would block the BitTorrent protocol because of complaints by rights owners regarding illegal file sharing.

Then the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs announced that it would prohibit universities from doing just that in the future and also argued that complaints by rights owners do not offer a valid reason for blocking the BitTorrent protocol.

Now the University of Groningen has stated that if that’s the case, the students can go and subscribe to actual ISPs like ZIGGO or KPN and the University will cease to offer internet access.

“That way we’ll finally get rid of all this mess.”

The university will cease offering internet access as of 1st April 2013.

Universities typically do not have the budgets to risk civil litigation campaigns. Enforcement of network policies also have become quite costly

Dutch language news article:

http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/109918/rug-stopt-met-studenten-isp-na-torrent-ophef.html

Previously:

Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation Maxime Verhagen Wants To Prohibit Future BitTorrent Protocol Blockades And Argues That Complaints By Rights Owners Are No Valid Reason For Protocol Blocking

http://vrritti.com/2012/03/20/dutch-minister-of-economic-affairs-agriculture-and-innovation-maxime-verhagen-wants-to-prohibit-future-bittorrent-protocol-blockades-and-argues-that-complaints-by-rights-owners-are-no-valid-reason-fo/

Dutch Media Publish Example Of Notices Sent To Dutch University. Member Of Parliament Is Asking Formal Questions To Dutch Government

http://vrritti.com/2012/02/25/dutch-media-publish-example-of-notices-sent-to-dutch-university-member-of-parliament-is-asking-formal-questions-to-dutch-government/

Dutch University Of Groningen Admits Mistake And Apologizes. BREIN Did Not Send Notices, Warner Brothers And Paramount Pictures Did

http://vrritti.com/2012/02/25/dutch-university-of-groningen-admits-mistake-and-apologizes-brein-did-not-send-notices-warner-brothers-and-paramount-pictures-did/

Dutch University Of Groningen To Block BitTorrent Protocol. No Judge Needed

http://vrritti.com/2012/02/24/dutch-university-of-groningen-to-block-bittorrent-protocol-no-judge-needed/

Both governments push for new online privacy standards, but EU officials question US enforcement efforts

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Education / Awareness, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy


http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/security/3345561/privacy-regulators-us-eu-will-take-different-approaches/

Older recordings connect with people in a completely different way than hyperprocessed contemporary music does

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Education / Awareness


http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-57400841-47/is-technology-robbing-musics-soul/

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, has recently spotted a fake YouTube site that’s serving malware to Syrian activists

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness


http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/fake-youtube-sites-target-syrian-activists-with-malware/10977

Hackers Rather Sell Leaks And Exploits To Government Agencies Than To Google, Facebook or Microsoft

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Public Policy

Law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies simply pay more money for information on how to intercept data, eavesdrop on end users or access certain computer systems when compared to the companies which have developed the relevant software.

The French company VUPEN will not sell its exploit for Chrome to Google even if Google would pay them 1 million USD.

South African hacker Grugq will not respond to any inquiry that involves amounts lower than 50,000 USD. He’s also an intermediary between hackers and government officials.

Dutch language news article:

http://www.security.nl/artikel/40819/1/%22Hackers_verdienen_fortuin_met_tools_om_jouw_pc_te_kraken%22.html

Hacker Finds Security Problem In ING Banking App

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Education / Awareness, Network Security, Privacy / Data Protection

Lack of SSL verification enables man-in-the-middle attack. Both the researcher and a professor agree that ING should have discovered this themselves and that they’ve made one of the most basic errors which will make them the laughing-stock of the security community.

The app is being used 300,000 times a day.

Dutch language news article:


http://www.security.nl/artikel/40815/1/Hacker_vindt_lek_in_Mobiel_Bankieren_app_ING.html

Amidst a world of Amazon, supermarkets, in-console gaming stores and the great recession of 2008–2010, Game failed to adapt its business model and compete with its competitors

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Education / Awareness

Aptly named gaming giant, Game, is set to call in the administrators after it failed to lock in a series of revenue-busting games, and failed to foresee dire economic times.


http://www.zdnet.com/blog/london/game-over-uk-retailer-heading-for-collapse/3411

Cybercriminals are currently brand-jacking LinkedIn in an attempt to trick end users into clicking on client-side exploits serving links found in the spoofed emails

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness


http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/spoofed-linkedin-emails-serving-client-side-exploits/10973

California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris and online dating service providers eHarmony, Match.com, and Spark Networks agree to the following principles

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, New Business Models, Public Policy

that such providers now follow and encouraging all online dating service providers to endorse these business principles to help protect their members, and help the members protect themselves, against identity theft, financial scams, and sexual predators. Providing members with a safe online dating experience should be a primary objective for operators of online dating sites. Protecting the safety of Californians is the primary mandate of the Attorney General and California’s law enforcement community. This Joint Statement is not intended, and should not be construed,to confer any private rights of action or enforcement against service providers.

Microsoft banning Mac, iPad purchases by its sales and marketing group?

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Education / Awareness

Based on an alleged internal e-mail passed on to me by one of my contacts, this edict just came down last week. SMSG encompasses 46,000 Microsoft employees worldwide, according to a Microsoft Careers page about the group, and includes Microsoft’s front-line consumer and business sales, service and support people.

Here’s that supposed e-mail, from Alain Crozier, the chief financial officer of SMSG:

From: Alain Crozier
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 1:17 PM

Subject: Apple Purchases

Within SMSG we are putting in place a new policy that says that Apple products (Mac & iPad) should not be purchased with company funds.

In the US we will be turning off the Apple products from the Zones Catalog next week, which is the standard purchasing mechanism for these products.

Outside of the US — we will work with your finance and procurement teams to send the right message and put the right processes in place.

The current purchase levels are low, however we recognize there will be a bit of transition work associated with this.  Details of historical purchases in the US are provided in the attachment to help understand the changes that will be needed.Thank you for your support and leadership on this.

Alain Crozier
CFO  |  WW Sales, Marketing & Services Group
WW SMSG Finance

I asked Microsoft for confirmation that the email was real. I was told by a spokesperson that the company had no comment. No confirmation; no denial.


http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-banning-mac-ipad-purchases-by-its-sales-and-marketing-group/12221

Sky Name New Internet TV Service and Make Anytime+ Available to all ISPs

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models


http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2012/03/sky-name-new-internet-tv-service-and-make-anytime-available-to-all-isps.html

US Congressmen expand call for violence warning label on nearly all video games

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Education / Awareness, Public Policy


http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2012/03/us-congressmen-expand-call-for-violence-warning-label-on-nearly-all-video-games.ars

The private equity group co-founded by Irish rock star Bono has approached investors seeking $1 billion for its second fund

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Education / Awareness


http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/20/us-bono-private-equity-idUSBRE82J1CH20120320

The agency tasked with protecting America’s nukes and nuclear secrets has disclosed that its computer systems are attacked as many as 10 MILLION times a day

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Network Security, Public Policy

According to the department’s head, Thomas D’Agostino, the NNSA’s security systems are constantly being probed by all sorts of hackers, “They’re from other countries’ [governments], but we also get fairly sophisticated non-state actors as well,” he told US News. “The [nuclear] labs are under constant attack, the Department of Energy is under constant attack.”

Thankfully, the agency’s security systems are already pretty robust, however, “Of the security significant events, less than one hundredth of a percent can be categorized as successful attacks against the Nuclear Security Enterprise computing infrastructure,” D’Agostino continued.

That means that there could be as many as a 1000 attacks, every day, that successfully penetrate these systems but that number is unlikely. “The numbers are kind of inflated on that front,” Adam Segal, a cyber-security expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, says. He thinks much of that traffic is from botnets “constantly scanning the Internet looking for vulnerabilities.”

Luckily, there is no known malware that can remotely activate a missile silo and jump-start World War VI (read: so bad we skipped III, IV, and V). Silos are protected by an “Air Gap” in that they are sequestered from the rest of the Internet and run on a smaller, dedicated network. However, once inside, hackers can steal information, as they did in Oak Ridge National Laboratory last April. Intruders made off with several MB of classified data in that case.

And the threat of a Stuxnet-style attack is an ever-present concern. “Stuxnet showed that airgapping is not a perfect defense,” Segal says. “Even in secure systems, people stick in their thumb drives, they go back and forth between computers. They can find vulnerabilities that way. If people put enough attention to it, they can possibly be penetrated.”


http://gizmodo.com/5895033/us-nuke-stockpile-control-systems-are-under-constant-attack

Apple TV 2012 Review: Can You Hear Blu-ray’s Death Rattle?

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reports, Tech Evolution


http://gizmodo.com/5894882/apple-tv-2012-review-can-you-hear-blu+rays-death-rattle

Breakthrough Opens Door for 60Tb Hard Drives

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Education / Awareness, Tech Evolution


http://gizmodo.com/5894934/breakthrough-opens-door-for-60tb-hard-drives

Facebook’s Hacker Cup is an annual algorithmic programming contest open to engineers from around the world

Posted: 2012/03/21 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Stats / reports, Tech Evolution

Programmers are judged on accuracy and speed as they race to solve algorithmic problems to advance through up to five rounds of programming challenges.

Below is a practice problem:

Party Time

You’re throwing a party for your friends, but since your friends may not all know each other, you’re afraid a few of them may not enjoy your party. So to avoid this situation, you decide that you’ll also invite some friends of your friends. But who should you invite to throw a great party?

Luckily, you are in possession of data about all the friendships of your friends and their friends. In graph theory terminology, you have a subset G of the social graph, whose vertices correspond to your friends and their friends (excluding yourself), and edges in this graph denote mutual friendships. Furthermore, you have managed to obtain exact estimates of how much food each person in G will consume during the party if he were to be invited.

You want to choose a set of guests from G. This set of guests should include all your friends, and the subgraph of G formed by the guests must be connected. You believe that this will ensure that all of your friends will enjoy your party since any two of them will have something to talk about…

In order to save money, you want to pick the set of guests so that the total amount of food needed is as small as possible. If there are several ways of doing this, you prefer one with the fewest number of guests.

The people/vertices in your subset G of the social graph are numbered from 0 to N – 1. Also, for convenience your friends are numbered from 0 to F – 1, where F is the number of your friends that you want to invite. You may also assume that G is connected. Note again that you are not yourself represented in G.

Input
The first line of the input consists of a single number T, the number of test cases. Each test case starts with a line containing three integers N, the number of nodes in G, F, the number of friends, and M, the number of edges in G. This is followed by M lines each containing two integers. The ith of these lines will contain two distinct integers u and v which indicates a mutual friendship between person u and person v. After this follows a single line containing N space-separated integers with the ith representing the amount of food consumed by person i.

Output
Output T lines, with the answer to each test case on a single line by itself. Each line should contain two numbers, the first being the minimum total quantity of food consumed at a party satisfying the given criteria and the second the minimum number of people you can have at such a party.

Constraints
T = 50
1 ≤ F ≤ 11
F ≤ N-1
2 ≤ N ≤ 250
N-1 ≤ M ≤ N * (N – 1) / 2
G is connected, and contains no self-loops or duplicate edges.
For each person, the amount of food consumed is an integer between 0 and 1000, both inclusive.

More:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/facebook-crowns-2012-hacker-cup-winner/10617

See also:

http://vrritti.com/?s=algorithm