Continuing a recent trend, The Pirate Bay and other large BitTorrent sites are now being blocked by Internet providers in India. Visitors who try to access the sites are redirected to a banner which informs them that the Department of Telecommunications ordered a blackout. Torrent sites are not the only target, as the blockade also censors the video sharing site Vimeo
http://torrentfreak.com/india-orders-blackout-of-vimeo-the-pirate-bay-and-more-120504/
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/microsoft-serves-subpoenas-on-google-to-disrupt-criminal-botnet/4955
Previously:
Is Microsoft Intentionally Disrupting Criminal Investigations Into Botnets? If So, Why?
http://vrritti.com/2012/05/04/is-microsoft-intentionally-disrupting-criminal-investigations-into-botnets-if-so-why/
Fox-IT Releases Highly Critical Report About Microsoft’s Botnet Takedown Attempts. Microsoft Actually May Have Made Matters Worse
http://vrritti.com/2012/04/12/fox-it-releases-highly-critical-report-about-microsofts-botnet-takedown-attempts-microsoft-actually-may-have-made-matters-worse/
Media law group Wiggin has released its latest annual 2012 Digital Entertainment Survey, which conducted an online survey of 2,500 UK respondents (“representative of the national demographic“) and discovered how 53% agreed that the internet “requires more regulation” to prevent broadband ISP customers from “downloading unauthorised content“. But only a minority were found to engage in internet piracy.
Furthermore 64% agreed or strongly agreed that British law should be applied online in the same way as it is offline, though there were huge differences between how men and women voted. On average 44% of men agreed with the above position, which rises to 60% for women. Elsewhere almost six in ten consumers (58%) believe that internet content should be regulated in the same way as TV programmes.
However, despite the calls for more regulation, just 6% of people admitted to making “Regular” downloads of unauthorised / pirated films or tv progs via linking and hosting sites. This falls to 5% for file sharing (P2P) sites and it’s an almost identical situation for music content too.
American public armed to the teeth by now. Puts upcoming gun law changes in different perspective
http://www.infowars.com/we-are-preparing-for-massive-civil-war-says-dhs-informant/
According to the federal government, there are 12.6 million working age Americans that are considered to be “officially” unemployed, but there are another 87.8 million working age Americans that are not working either. The federal government considers those Americans to be “not in the labor force” so they are not included in the unemployment rate.
Back in 2007, approximately 10 percent of all unemployed Americans had been out of work for one year or longer.
Today, that figure is above 30 percent.
The average duration of unemployment in the United States today is about three times as long as it was back in the year 2000.
And according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the number of announced job cuts is actually rising again….
http://www.infowars.com/there-are-100-million-working-age-americans-that-do-not-have-jobs/
John McAfee, founder of the deeply frustrating McAfee Antivirus, has become the target of a Belize Gang Suppression Unit. He’s explained that the GSU raided his research facility, killed his dog, took his passport, handcuffed him and arrested him on a bogus weapons charge.
McAfee lives in Belize, and seems to be generous within its community. In 2009, for instance, he donated a $1.2 million boat to the Belize coastguard. But in a story that sounds like it belongs on a budget TV show, McAfee suspects he’s a victim because he didn’t donate money to a crooked politician.
More:
http://gizmodo.com/5907603/anti+virus-founder-john-mcafee-forcefully-arrested-in-belize
There’s been a growing push to get more scientific research out from behind paywalls. The federal government, private funding bodies, and a number of research institutions have all adopted policies that either mandate or encourage placing papers where the public can view them. Now, it appears that the UK is considering following suit. In addition to planning to make its researchers’ publications available, the country’s science minister has asked Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales to advise it on how to make the underlying data accessible.
It didn’t take much time to turn Hector “Sabu” Monsegur into an FBI informant—just a few hours, in fact. “Since literally the day he was arrested, the defendant has been cooperating with the government proactively,” Assistant US Attorney James Pastore told a federal judge last August.
Monsegur had been a key member of Anonymous and later the “happy hackers” of LulzSec, a spinoff group that broke into servers around the world during the summer of 2011 and taunted the FBI about it. But the moment that Monsegur was arrested at his public housing apartment in June, his life took a dramatic turn.
“The defendant has literally worked around the clock with federal agents,” Pastore continued. “He has been staying up sometimes all night engaging in conversations with co-conspirators that are helping the government to build cases against those co-conspirators.”
Now we need to find solutions to make the Internet a place of freedom, openness, and innovation fit for all citizens, not just for the techno avant-garde.
What can freedom online give us?
For one thing, a huge economic boost. An open Internet can power innovation, surge productivity. And can put innovation tools into the hands of ordinary, enterprising people.
That’s why I’m convinced web entrepreneurs are the key to our future growth. And I want to make sure they have the tools to innovate.
Of course, changing for the digital age doesn’t mean always giving material away free of charge. But it does mean we need to be open to new approaches: new ways to distribute, new ways to be rewarded for work, and new ways for people to access great online content easily.+
Sometimes people are prevented from making this change by out-of-date rules and practices — like those on copyright licensing. Other times it’s just that they need a change of mindset – that they are too comfortable with old habits to realise the world has changed.(…), we must acknowledge that we can never totally eliminate risks for children: we can just reduce them.
Sadly, children will always face risks online: just as they will always face risks, like traffic, in the real world.
Rather we need simple tools, that educate and empower children, and enable them to deal with those risks. Just as we do in the “offline” world.
I am pleased that the leading Internet companies have joined a coalition to make the Internet a Better Place for Children. They are working together to develop solutions, before the end of the year, to empower parents and children.
Much more:
http://commentneelie.eu/speech.php?sp=SPEECH/12/326
Would be nice if he also proceeded to list Kim Dotcom’s gifts to others
http://rt.com/news/megaupload-american-content-industry-555/
ISPreview coming up with same old same old: not a 100% perfect solution, easy to circumvent, mission creep, risk of blocking legitimate material…everything that applies to anti-spam, anti-malware, anti-dDoS and automated “Quality of Service” solutions already put in place by ISPs to save costs and protect their networks by blocking and filtering relevant “problems” and threats
The UK governments Prime Minster (PM), David Cameron, looks set to put his full support behind the controversial Parliamentary Inquiry into Online Child Protection today by calling for broadband ISPs to impose automatic blocks on pornographic internet content and websites.
According to The Times, Cameron will confirm that the current law needs to be re-examined. Ministers are then expected to launch a new consultation on whether ISPs should be required to introduce an enabled-by-default (i.e. you would have to opt yourself out later) style of content filtering system for “all internet accounts” in the country; as was originally suggested by the inquiry.
The move, which we’re sure has nothing whatsoever to do with today’s dire local election results (that’s sarcasm), is expected to form part of a re-launch for the government but one that isn’t likely to go down too well with ISPs, or many ordinary internet users for that matter.
The criticism of ISPreview surely has nothing whatsoever to do with ISPs fearing the loss of revenue as they know too well that – even surpassing the popularity of downloading pirated non-adult content - their subscribers use high speed internet connections predominantly to watch porn (that’s sarcasm)
More:
The Windows developers justify the decision by explaining DVD use on computers is “in sharp decline”, adding that it would have to spend “a significant amount in royalties” to offer support for optical media. Instead, online media is the focus for Windows 8: H.264, VC-1, MP4, AAC, WMA, MP3, those kinds of file types.
http://gizmodo.com/5907600/windows-8-wont-play-dvds-as-standard
Lockheed Martin announced today it received millions of dollars to begin heading up the Pentagon’s Cyber Crime Center. According to Reuters, the company won a $454 million contract from the government to help the military facility investigate the increasing number of cyber threats.
“Because of its size and importance, the [Department of Defense] is targeted by cyber criminals ranging from terrorists to spies to identity thieves,” Lockheed told Reuters.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57427718-83/lockheed-to-head-up-pentagons-cyber-crime-center/
There’s already the damning post of Dutch security company Fox-IT regarding the way Microsoft deals with its fellow botnet slayers.
But now a representative “of a large international security company” has (anonymously) stepped forward and informed Dutch news website Nu.nl that:
Ronald Prins, CEO and founder of Dutch security company Fox-IT states: “Microsoft should focus on developing software and leave the investigations to the security experts”
Possible explanations for Microsoft’s behavior could be:
- aim for quick wins, sheer stupidity and lack of experience on the matters
- ensuring (security) business continuity and taking out the competition
- driving enforcement back into the hands of government organizations instead of the private sector
- intentionally or unintentionally aiding and abetting criminals and criminal organizations
Dutch language news article:
http://www.nu.nl/internet/2802230/microsoft-verstoort-strafrechtelijk-onderzoek.html
Previously:
Fox-IT Releases Highly Critical Report About Microsoft’s Botnet Takedown Attempts. Microsoft Actually May Have Made Matters Worse
http://vrritti.com/2012/04/12/fox-it-releases-highly-critical-report-about-microsofts-botnet-takedown-attempts-microsoft-actually-may-have-made-matters-worse/
Jeremy Hammond, the former LulzSec member alleged to have been at the center of the hacking of private intelligence company Stratfor, has now been formally indicted on that charge, as well as the hacking of the website of the Arizona Department of Public Safety. While he was arrested in March, the indictments unsealed in federal court on March 6 named, but did not charge, Hammond, known by the handle “Anarchaos” among others.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/05/new-charges-unsealed-against-antisec-hacker.ars
