Archive for 2012/04/24
Can an Algorithm Write a Better News Story Than a Human Reporter?
Posted: 2012/04/24 in Education / AwarenessAustralian Police Accused of Mass Software Piracy
Posted: 2012/04/24 in Copyright, Education / AwarenessSoftware company Micro Focus is claiming that the police are making unauthorized use of its ViewNow software, which they use to access the COPS criminal intelligence database. In addition, it’s alleged that the police shared the proprietary software with third parties. Micro Focus is fighting the case in court and is demanding at least $10 million in damages.
More:
http://torrentfreak.com/australian-police-accused-of-mass-software-piracy-120424/
Hackers now pick tools from script kiddies’ toybox
Posted: 2012/04/24 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Stats / reportsOpen Letter From Security Experts to Congress: Stop Bad Cybersecurity Bills
Posted: 2012/04/24 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Public Policy, Stats / reportsIn summary, we urge you to reject legislation that:
- Uses vague language to describe network security attacks, threat indicators, and countermeasures, allowing for the possibility that innocuous online activities could be construed as “cybersecurity” threats.
- Exempts “cybersecurity” activities from existing laws that protect individuals’ privacy and devices, such as the Wiretap Act, the Stored Communications Act, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
- Gives sweeping immunity from liability to companies even if they violate individuals’ privacy, and without evidence of wrongdoing.
- Allows data originally collected through “cybersecurity” programs to be used to prosecute unrelated crimes.
We appreciate your interest in making our networks more secure, but passing legislation that suffers from the problems above would be a grave mistake for privacy and civil liberties, and will not be a step forward in making us safer.
Sincerely,
- Bruce Schneier. Prominent security researcher and cryptographer, published seminal works on applied cryptography. Active in public policy regarding security issues; runs a weblog and writes a regular column for Wired magazine.
- David J. Farber. Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University. Designer of the first electronic switching system. Was a major contributor to early programming languages and computer networking. EFF board member.
- Donald Eastlake. Original architect of DNS Security, network security expert. Chair of IETF TRILL and IETF PPPEXT working groups.
- Peter Swire. C. William O’Neill Professor of Law, Ohio State University. Former Assistant to President Obama for Economic Policy, and former Chief Counselor for Privacy in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
- Eric Burger. Research Professor of Computer Science and Director, Georgetown Center for Secure Communications, Georgetown University. Chair of multiple IETF Working Groups.
- Tobin Maginnis. Professor of Computer and Information Science, University of Mississippi. Operating system researcher, GNU/Linux expert, Web architecture researcher and networking expert.
- Sharon Goldberg. Professor of Computer Science, Boston University. Network security researcher, member of FCC CSRIC working group on BGP security.
- Peter G. Neumann. Principal Engineer, SRI International Computer Science Laboratory; moderator, ACM Risks Forum. Affiliation listed for purposes of identification only.
- Stephen H. Unger. Professor Emeritus, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Columbia University. Board of Governors of IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSTI).
- Geoff Kuenning. Professor of Computer Science and CS Clinic Director. Harvey Mudd College. File system researcher, built the SEER predictive hoarding system to predict what files mobile users will need while disconnected from a network.
- Benjamin C. Pierce. Professor of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania. Research on differential privacy, which allows formal reasoning about real-world privacy.
- Richard F. Forno. Professor of Computer Science focused on cybersecurity, signing as a private citizen.
- Jonathan Weinberg. Professor of Law, Wayne State University. Chair of ICANN working group, and expert on communications policy.
- Joseph “Jay” Moran. Distinguished engineer, AOL technical operations. Experienced executive working in technical operations and engineering for 20+ years.
- Dan Gillmor. Technology writer and columnist. Director of Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University, Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University. EFF pioneed award winner.
- Armando P. Stettner. Technologist and senior member of IEEE, spearheaded native VAX version of Unix.
- Gordon Cook. Technologist, writer, editor and publisher of “COOK report on Internet Protocol” since 1992.
- Alexander McMillen. Entrepreneur and CEO, Sliqua Enterprise Hosting.
- Sid Karin. Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California, San Diego. Former founding Director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI).
- Eric Brunner-Williams. CTO, Wampumpeag. Signing as an individual.
- Lawence C. Stewart. CTO, Cerissa research. Built the Etherphone at Xerox, the first telephone system working over a local area network; designed early e-commerce systems for the Internet at Open Market.
- Ben Huh. Entrepreneur, CEO Cheezburger Inc.
- Dave Burstein. Editor, DSL Prime.
- Mikki Barry. Managing partner, Making Sense of Compliance.
- Blake Pfankuch. Network engineer.
- John Peach. Systems Administrator with 20+ years of experience.
- Valdis Kletnieks. IT Professional, Virginia Tech University.
- Darrell Hyde. Director of Architecture, Hosting.com.
- Ryan Rawdon. Network and Security Engineer, was on the technical operations team for one of our country’s largest residential ISPs.
- Ken Anderson. VP of Engineering, Pacific Internet.
- Andrew McConachie. Network engineer working on Internet infrastructure.
- Richard Kulawiec. Senior network security architect with over 30 years experience.
- Aaron Wendel. CTO, Whalesale Internet, Inc.
- David Richardson. Center for High Performance Computing, University of Utah.
- David M. Miller. CTO / Executive VP for DNS Made Easy.
- Marshall Eubanks. Entrepreneur and CEO, America Free TV.
- Edward Arthurs. Manager of Network Installations, Legacy Inmate Communications, Legacy Contact Center, Legacy Long Distance Intl. Inc.
- Christopher Liljenstolpe. Chair of the IETF Operations and Management Area Working Group. Chief architect for AS3561 (at the time about 30% of the Internet backbone by traffic) and AS1221 (Australia’s main Internet infrastructure).
- Christopher McDonald. Vice President, PCCW Global.
- Joseph Lorenzo Hall. Research Fellow focused on health information technology and electoral transparency, New York University.
- Ronald D. Edge. IT expert.
- David Henkel-Wallace. Vice President of Engineering. Terrajoule Corporation.
- John Pettitt. Internet commerce pioneer, online since 1983, CEO Free Range Content Inc.; founder/CTO CyberSource & Beyond.com; created online fraud protection software that processes over 2 billion transaction a year
- Ben Kamen. I.T./EE Professional.
- Christopher Soghoian. Graduate Fellow, Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, Indiana University.
- Jo Young. IT professional.
- Mark Hull-Richter. Senior software engineer.
- Joop Cousteau. VP, Global Network Technology. KLM Airlines USA Ltd.
- Jonathan Mayer. Graduate researcher, Security Lab and the Center for Internet and Society, Stanford University
- Jeremy Sliwinski. Network engineer with 10+ years of experience.
- Nathan Syfrig. Software Engineer and IT Consultant.
More:
http://www.infowars.com/open-letter-from-security-experts-to-congress-stop-bad-cybersecurity-bills/
How Stanford has become such a big provider for Silicon Valley
Posted: 2012/04/24 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Stats / reportsStanford’s public-relations arm proclaims that five thousand companies “trace their origins to Stanford ideas or to Stanford faculty and students.” They include Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo, Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems, eBay, Netflix, Electronic Arts, Intuit, Fairchild Semiconductor, Agilent Technologies, Silicon Graphics, LinkedIn, and E*Trade…
“… Stanford’s entrepreneurial culture has also turned it into a place where many faculty and students have a gold-rush mentality and where the distinction between faculty and student may blur as, together, they seek both invention and fortune. Corporate and government funding may warp research priorities.”
More:
http://gizmodo.com/5904575/how-stanford-feeds-silicon-valleyat-a-cost
Here’s How Much Money Facebook Makes Off of You
Posted: 2012/04/24 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reportsThe details in the 100-plus page financial document are mostly dry, but a few jump out that are different from before. Facebook now reports 901 million total users, with 500 million coming from mobile (which means lots of you are uploading pictures directly from your phone—300 million of them per day, in fact—which helps explain the keen Instagram interest). As for that Instagram deal, the purchase price was known to be a billion dollars, but the S-1 makes it official that it came in the form of $300 million cash, the rest in stock.
As for how much money the free service made off of you last year? On average, anywhere between $4.69 and $4.81. Which, at 901 million users, works out to a whole lot of FarmVille coins
More:
http://gizmodo.com/5904600/heres-how-much-money-facebook-makes-off-of-you
“The hidden side of your soul”: How the FBI uses the Web as a child porn honeypot
Posted: 2012/04/24 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, New Business Models, Stats / reportsChild pornography existed 30 years ago, of course. While investigators used some of the same techniques seen in the Cafferty case today, digital technology in general (and the Internet in particular) means that investigators are really playing a whole new ballgame even when they draw from the same playbook.
Google Drive is here, and you can install it right now
Posted: 2012/04/24 in Education / Awareness, Google, New Business Models, Tech EvolutionAfter years of speculation, Google Drive was released today, giving users 5GB of free storage to sync across computers, and finally giving Google a viable competitor to Dropbox, Microsoft’s SkyDrive, Apple’s iCloud, and the like.
BREIN vs The Dutch Pirate Party (and Geenstijl.nl) – Democracy, Censorship & The Effectiveness Of Blocking The Pirate Bay
Posted: 2012/04/24 in Blocking, Copyright, Enforcement, Filtering, Illegal File Sharing, Litigation, Stats / reportsThe popular Dutch Blog Geenstijl.nl is targeting BREIN again as the latter has now gone and asked the Dutch Pirate Party to refrain from explaining to the Dutch public just how to go and circumvent The Pirate Bay.
While Geenstijl.nl is discussing democracy, censorship and is hoping that its audience will have a clue who Thorbecke is, the letter BREIN has sent to the Dutch Pirate Party contains a number of interesting findings regarding the effectiveness of the blockade as implemented by Dutch providers ZIGGO and XS4ALL:
1. The following graph showing a decrease of the number of Dutch visitors to the Pirate Bay website:
2. Google Adplanner, which shows how many ZIGGO subscribers ran into ZIGGO’s blockade URL (150,000 in February 2012):
3. Again Google Adplanner data which shows how many ZIGGO subscribers ran into ZIGGO’s blockade URL in March 2012 (92,000):
4. Alexa data showing that 19.88% of Ziggo.nl users ran into the blockade URL:
5. Alexa data showing that Blokkade.ziggo.nl was the most popular subdomain of ZIGGO.nl in March 2012:
BREIN continues by showing the effects of similar Pirate Bay blockades in other countries such as
Belgium:
Finland:
And Italy (Piratebay in red, Btjunkie in blue):
Source:
http://www.geenstijl.nl/archives/images/zosloopjeviaauteursrechteneenpolitiekepartij.pdf
Dutch language news articles:
http://www.geenstijl.nl/mt/archieven/2012/04/brein_brengt_democratie_in_gev.html
http://www.nu.nl/internet/2794483/-entertainmentindustrie-wil-aanmoedigingsverbod-piratenpartij.html
Previously:
http://vrritti.com/?s=brein
Dutch Forensic Lab Now Also Working With Microsoft & NetClean’s PhotoDNA Technology
Posted: 2012/04/24 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Filtering, New Business Models, Stats / reports, Tech EvolutionIn 2009, Microsoft, working with Dartmouth College, developed PhotoDNA, a technology that aids in finding and removing some of the “worst of the worst” images of child sexual exploitations from the Internet. Microsoft donated the PhotoDNA technology to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), who established a PhotoDNA-based program for online service providers to help disrupt the spread of child pornography online.
Over the next year, Microsoft, working with NCMEC, implemented a gradual rollout of PhotoDNA on Bing, SkyDrive and Hotmail services.
In early 2011, Facebook joined Microsoft in sublicensing the technology for use on its network. It is our hope that other online service providers will follow Microsoft and Facebook’s lead in adopting this game-changing technology.
March 19, 2012: Microsoft and NetClean make PhotoDNA technology available to law enforcement at no cost to help them fight child pornography.
Today, the Dutch forensic lab NFI will go and work with Microsoft, using this technology.
Dutch language news article:
http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/2794421/nfi-werkt-automatische-herkenning-kinderporno.html
See also:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/photodna/
