Archive for 2012/07/12

IT Company Unisys Prohibits Employee From Presenting On The Topic Of Censorship. Presentation Shows Just How The Internet Economy Relies On Pornography And How Censorship Would Affect That

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Stats / reports

The presentation would have been entitled: “The Internet is for Porn! How High Heels and Fishnet Have Driven Internet Innovation and Information Security”

Unisys in The Netherlands has threatened to fire its employee Chris Kubecka.

The conference website states:

Chris Kubecka is an information security professional with 15+ years of experience and multiple professional certifications. She currently advises and consults for government agencies and international organizations. Her research involves smartphone, web and asset vulnerability testing, malware, forensics, incident handling, covert communications channels over HTTP(S)/DNS, correlation engines, and everything security log related.

Regardless of the above, Dutch web magazine Webwereld has decided to publish Kubecka’s presentation anyway:

Slides presentation Chris Kubecka

Chris Kubecka gave me the slides for her forbidden presentation before leaving the Netherlands:

Some of the slides:

Transparency of all blacklists and censorship methods used by businesses would be nice too

Dutch language news article:
http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/111141/unisys-nederland-verbiedt-lezing-over-censuur.html

Dutch Pirate Party Wants To Get Rid Of Data Retention Law, Aims For A More Transparent Government And Limitations On Copyright

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Public Policy, Stats / reports

Dutch language news article:
http://tweakers.net/nieuws/83090/piratenpartij-wil-bewaarplicht-afschaffen.html

Wikipedia Founder: Site Would Go Dark Again to Protect Online Freedom

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Stats / reports

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/07/11/wikipedia-founder-site-would-go-dark-again-to-protect-online-freedom/

A lawyer for WikiLeaks’ Icelandic payment processor says that the secret-spilling site has won an important court battle against the financial blockade imposed by VISA and MasterCard

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Jurisprudence, Litigation, Stats / reports

Attorney Sveinn Andri Sveinsson says that an Icelandic court has ordered VISA and MasterCard’s local partner, Valitor, to resume processing donations to WikiLeaks within two weeks or face 800,000 kronur (about $6,000) in daily fines.

Sveinsson claims that Thursday’s judgment means credit card donations could soon be flowing to WikiLeaks’ payment processor, DataCell.

Reykjavik-based Valitor could still appeal. The company didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment.

A slew of U.S. financial companies cut their ties to WikiLeaks following its decision to publish some 250,000 U.S. State Department documents. WikiLeaks says the blockade has had a crippling effect on its finances.

More:
http://www.newswest9.com/story/19009539/wikileaks-gets-court-victory-in-fight-against-visa

Filesharing Admin Arrested And Accused Of Copyright Infringement, Tax Evasion, Forgery, Fraud And Selling The Email Addresses Of 300,000 Users

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Copyright, Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Public Policy, Stats / reports

http://torrentfreak.com/filesharing-admin-arrested-for-selling-user-database-120712/

Indian software pirating suspect faces US extradition

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, Public Policy, Stats / reports

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/12/indian_software_counterfeit_suspect_us_extradition_threat/

BBC website crash leaves millions without on-demand, news

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Education / Awareness, Network Security, Stats / reports

http://www.zdnet.com/bbc-website-crash-leaves-millions-without-on-demand-news-7000000773/

EU Delay Revision of Internet Data Retention Directive to Boost Privacy

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Education / Awareness, Legislation, New Business Models, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy, Stats / reports

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2012/07/europe-delays-revision-of-internet-and-phone-data-retention-directive.html

Nothing in physics rules out remote detection of brain activity

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Education / Awareness, Privacy / Data Protection, Stats / reports, Tech Evolution

In fact, says law professor Hank Greely of Stanford, an infrared device under development might read thoughts using little more than a headband. He can imagine a despot scanning citizens’ brains while they look at photos of him, to see who’s an opponent.

Much more:
http://www.infowars.com/government-will-soon-be-able-to-know-what-youre-thinking/

Facebook Groups Now Tell You Who’s Read Your Posts

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Privacy / Data Protection, Stats / reports, Tech Evolution

If you worry about who’s read your posts on a Facebook group, now you can breathe easy. From today, Facebook groups will tell you—and the rest of the group’s members—exactly who’s read the post. Which is either useful, or incredibly creepy.

More:
http://gizmodo.com/5925363/facebook-groups-now-tell-you-whos-read-your-posts

Laser-Fueled Drones May Never Have to Land

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reports, Tech Evolution

http://gizmodo.com/5925391/laser+fueled-drones-may-never-have-to-land

IMDB tunes up its mobile app for TV and movie buffs

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Stats / reports, Tech Evolution

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57470959-93/imdb-tunes-up-its-mobile-app-for-tv-and-movie-buffs/

Avengers DVD to hit Target stores with 90-minute bonus disc

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Education / Awareness, Stats / reports

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57470993-93/avengers-dvd-to-hit-target-stores-with-90-minute-bonus-disc/

Dutch Team High Tech Crime Arrests Hacker Who Accessed 158 Site Databases Of Dutch Celebs

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Network Security, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy, Stats / reports

The 43-year-old hacked the network of the Dutch internet service provider Simpel as well as a server belonging to the telecom operator Aspire. Simpel had to temporarily shut down the webpages of some of its customers. The home of the hacker was raided, equipment has been confiscated and the suspect has now provided a full confession as well. The hacker allegedly was also able to access logged and stored user traffic data.

Dutch language news articles:

http://www.nu.nl/internet/2856695/politie-houdt-simpelnl-hacker.html

http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/111132/high-tech-crime-unit-pakt-hacker-simpel-nl.html

http://www.security.nl/artikel/42220/1/Politie_arresteert_hacker_Simpel.nl.html

Andrew Zolli sees an opportunity to embrace what he calls “resilience thinking,” an approach that could enable the world not to avoid disaster but survive it

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Stats / reports

http://www.wired.com/business/2012/07/its-the-end-of-the-world-and-i-feel-fine-10-questions-with-andrew-zolli/

The National Reconnaissance Office, the secretive Pentagon agency in charge of spy satellites, has done an incomplete job, at best, at protecting American children from its own employees and job applicants

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Education / Awareness, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy, Stats / reports

According to documents obtained by the McClatchy news service, a former California substitute teacher who sought a security clearance from the National Reconnaissance Office confessed during a lie detector exam to molesting an elementary school student. The agency never informed police nor the school district where the incident allegedly occurred. An Air Force lieutenant who confessed to assaulting a child in Virginia was never reported to either the Air Force or police.

Much more:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/07/polygraph/

China’s censors move to stamp out sex and violence online

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Filtering, Public Policy, Stats / reports

China’s shadowy army of government censors have turned their attention to online video with strict new guidelines set to further curb freedom of expression on the internet.

The State Internet Information Office and State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) said in a statement that they want to stamp out “vulgar content”, including pornography and “scenes of bloody violence”.

Unusually for China’s censors, the departments claim that they are reacting to both industry and public pressure to clamp down on inappropriate content, in order “to protect young people’s physical and mental health in accordance with the law”.

More:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/11/china_video_censorship/

The UK government has just published its ideas for allowing general access to data, which includes the intention to grant individuals online access to their own personal data

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Privacy / Data Protection, Public Policy, Stats / reports

In general, I support this measure but sadly, the Open Data White Paper (PDF) has not even considered that it has widened the privacy problems associated with “enforced subject access”.

Enforced subject access is the technique used by employers to obtain copies of criminal record data about employees or prospective employees when they don’t have legal authority to obtain these details from the Criminal Record Bureau (CRB). Under section 56 of the Data Protection Act, the enforced subject access procedure is an offence.

Much more:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/11/open_data_white_paper/

US mulls outlawing rival product bans using standards patents

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Public Policy, Stats / reports

The US Congress is holding a hearing today to consider whether companies that own standards-essential patents (SEP) should be allowed to use them to get sales and import bans on their rivals’ products.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is meeting to hear from the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice on whether firms can wield SEP over their rivals in patent battles, an issue which could have a big impact on firms like Samsung and Motorola Mobility.

More:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/11/us_gov_sep_hearing/

The UK government is trying to open up the skies to revolutionary new spaceplanes and other such craft

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Education / Awareness, Public Policy, Stats / reports, Tech Evolution

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/11/uk_gov_open_skies_to_spaceplanes/

A huge expansion of bureaucratic power over UK copyright has been smuggled quietly into draft legislation

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Legislation, Public Policy, Stats / reports

It’s all part of the UK’s go-it-alone policy under the “orphan works” umbrella, but proposals are far more radical and sweeping than that narrow remit suggests.

More:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/11/err_bill_copyright_amendment/

Formspring has told its 28 million users to change their passwords following the discovery of a security breach

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Network Security, Privacy / Data Protection, Stats / reports

“Once we were able to verify that the hashes were obtained from Formspring, we locked down our systems and began an investigation to determine the nature of the breach,” he said. “We found that someone had broken into one of our development servers and was able to use that access to extract account information from a production database.”

More:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/11/formspring_security_breach/

The long-awaited telecommunications consumer protection (TCP) code has been adopted by the Australian Communications and Media Authority

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Education / Awareness, Legislation, New Business Models, Public Policy, Stats / reports

The new 102-page code will take effect on 1 September. Among the consumer protection measures against bill shock customers will receive warning messages when they have reached 50 per cent, 85 per cent and 100 per cent of their monthly allowance for calls, messages and data.

The use of the term “cap” and other misleading terms will also be banned unless plans have a definitive limit that cannot be exceeded. Service providers will also need to provide a “Critical Information Summary”, to consumers that details pricing and minimum spend data for all products.

The measures will put pressure on telco’s billing systems and compliance, but will be monitored by ACMA and a new body called Communications Compliance. Industry veteran and former high profile Telstra executive Deirdre Mason has been named Independent Chair of Communications Compliance, the new company newly created to foster and monitor industry-wide compliance with the TCP Code.

More:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/11/new_code_for_telcos/

The Russian parliament passed a hastily introduced law Wednesday that allows the government to impose limits on the Internet

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Legislation, Public Policy, Stats / reports

The law, presented as a way to protect children by eliminating Web sites devoted to child pornography, pedophilia, illegal drug use and suicide, won broad support in the Duma, the lower house, where 441 of 450 members voted for it.

More:
http://www.infowars.com/russia-passes-law-curbing-internet/

Bank of America allowed the largest drug cartel in Mexico to use its accounts to invest in U.S. horse racing

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Education / Awareness, Organized Crime, Stats / reports

http://www.infowars.com/drug-cartel-used-bofa-account-to-invest-in-u-s-racehorses/

Would You Trust Facebook With Your Financial Data?

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Stats / reports

http://gizmodo.com/5925123/would-you-trust-facebook-with-your-financial-data

Kevin Mitnick, the World’s Most Notorious Hacker, Is Here to Talk About What Got Him Started

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Stats / reports

http://gizmodo.com/5925114/kevin-mitnick-the-worlds-most-notorious-hacker-is-here-to-talk-about-what-got-him-started

European Commission proposes easier music licencing in the EU

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Public Policy, Stats / reports, Tech Evolution

The European Commission proposed a Directive to modernise collecting societies. Nowadays, online service providers want to test new business models for the online distribution of music, that covers multiple territories and large catalogues of music. However, many collecting societies are not ready for these challenges. As a result, service providers face serious difficulties when trying to obtain the licences necessary to launch online music services across the EU. This results in fewer online music services and a slower incorporation of innovative services. The proposed Directive will contribute to complete a Single Market for intellectual property.

More:
http://www.futureofcopyright.com/home/blog-post/2012/07/11/today-european-commission-proposes-easier-music-licencing-in-the-eu.html

A Whitehouse.gov petition seeks to force the TSA to comply with a court ruling

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Jurisprudence, Legislation, Public Policy, Stats / reports

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/op-ed-tsa-should-follow-the-law/

SOPA architect now pushing for “IP Attaché” legislation

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Legislation, Public Policy, Stats / reports

Another week, another controversial intellectual property enforcement bill hits Capitol Hill. This time, it’s called the IP Attaché Act, and while a draft bill has been released so far, it hasn’t officially be introduced in Congress.

The bill, its proponents say, “streamlines” the process of intellectual property enforcement abroad. Meanwhile, opponents charge that this is wholly unnecessary, given the myriad of federal agencies that already do this, in addition to the fact that this bill has been drafted in secret.

More:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/sopa-architect-now-pushing-for-ip-attache-legislation/

Judge rules against broadcasters, denying injunction against Aereo TV

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Copyright, Education / Awareness, Jurisprudence, Litigation, New Business Models, Stats / reports

In March, a coalition of major broadcasters sued a New York City-based TV-streaming start-up called Aereo, which the broadcasters said was stealing their content so users could watch TV online. Today, a Manhattan US District Judge ruled against the coalition, which includes ABC, CBS, NBCUniversal, and Fox, saying he would not order Aereo to stop distributing service to its customers while the trial was ongoing.

More:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/07/judge-rules-against-broadcasters-denying-injunction-against-aereo-tv/

Hackers expose 453,000 credentials allegedly taken from Yahoo service

Posted: 2012/07/12 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Network Security, Privacy / Data Protection, Stats / reports

http://arstechnica.com/security/2012/07/yahoo-service-hacked/