“First you weigh risk against reward...” My guess is: it's not “High Reward” but rather “Low Risk”

http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/#00001262

Targeted trojan attacks against German government

Posted by Mikko @ 11:07 GMT Sunday, August 26, 2007

Yesterday Der Spiegel magazine broke the story about targeted attacks against the German ministry of the interior.

As is typical in cases like this, the malware was sent to key employees via e-mail as booby-trapped DOC and PPT files, and the stolen data was sent out to unknown location via servers located in China.

We highlighted the risk of attacks like this in our video lecture last March. The video was recorded pretty much exactly at the time when these attacks were taking place.

We are aware of at least two other similar attacks against governments in Europe.

...we agree to disagree..

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070825085115910

Vendors, privacy activists speak out on report

Saturday, August 25 2007 @ 11:24 AM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Medical Privacy

Part two of a two-part series: An HHS-funded study on how to use electronic health-record systems as fraud fighting tools was well-received by government information technology leaders (access part one here); the 151-page report with its 14 specific recommendations got a decidedly mixed reception from IT vendors and privacy advocates.

Source - Modern Healthcare Online

I'm not certain what is going on here. Do we have a repeat of the Sony rootkit problem? Or has the rootkit moved to the mainstream? (...at least for the gaming industry?) Should we alert the Class Action lawyers?

http://digg.com/pc_games/BioShock_Installs_Rootkit_Including_Demo

BioShock Installs Rootkit, Including Demo

BioShock installs a rootkit on your computer system, which is also included with the demo.

http://www.gamingbob.com/2007/08/23/bioshock-installs-rootkit-including-demo/

Free the schoolchildren!

http://www.thelocal.se/8289/20070825/

Pupils 'should not be forced to give fingerprints'

Published: 25th August 2007 12:53 CET

Forcing schoolchildren to give fingerprints in order to get their lunches should be forbidden, the Swedish Data Inspection Board (Datainspektionen) has said.

Children at schools in the town of Lerum have to prove that they have paid for school lunches by giving their fingerprints or handprints. Once their prints have been compared with a database, a machine releases their plates.

Tools for vigilantes?

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/25/sex-offenders-in-your-neighborhood/

See All Sex Offenders In Your Neighborhood

Duncan Riley August 25 2007

Vision 20/20 offers a free web based mashup of sex offender data and Windows Live Maps.

Users simply add their address, city and/ or zip code to the Vision 20/20 site, and then the locations of sex offenders in the immediate vicinity are displayed over a map. Clicking on each sex offender leads to a profile which includes the name, address, and crimes of the sex offender, as well as a mug shot.

I'm shocked! If this had been in the US, the FBI would have spent at least $840 million, and the software would never have worked, and so would never have been released!

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/25/1258257&from=rss

Teen Hacks $84 Million Porn Filter in 30 Minutes

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday August 25, @11:13AM from the worth-every-penny dept. Censorship The Internet IT

An anonymous reader writes "Tom Wood, a Year 10 Australian student has cracked the federal government's $84-million Internet porn filter in just 30 minutes. He can deactivate the filter in several clicks in such a way that the software's icon is not deleted which will make his parents believe the filter is still working. Tom says it is a matter of time before some computer-savvy kid puts the bypass on the Internet for others to use."

What drives this, I wonder?

http://digg.com/general_sciences/50_drop_in_Americans_interest_in_science_and_tech_in_past_20_years

50% drop in Americans' interest in science and tech in past 20 years

Pew has released an extensive analysis of three decades of its news consumption data. Among the key findings, since the 1980s, the percentage of the public who say they follow news about science and technology "very closely" has dropped by half. Meanwhile, the percentage of Americans who say they follow personalities and entertainment has doubled.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/574/two-decades-of-american-news-preferences

Towards the death of cable TV?

http://go2web2.blogspot.com/2007/08/watch-full-screen-on-demand-tv-on-your.html

Friday, August 24, 2007

Watch Full Screen, On-Demand TV on Your Web Browser

tubecast.tv (alpha mode), makes a successful attempt at merging traditional (passive viewing) television broadcasting with the active nature of the web.

Essentially, this means that you can sit back, relax, and enjoy whatever is showing next on the channel of your choice. The active nature comes into play with the 'opportunity' to rewind, fast forward, pause or skip the current show.

...because I love lists like this... Note that with the success of VMWare, they are starting to add alternative Operating Systems.

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9766337-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

August 25, 2007 12:44 PM PDT

40 great free (and sometimes open source) applications

Posted by Matt Asay

This list of 40 great freeware applications is a bit skewed to the geeks (web development tools, etc.), but it also includes some gems in the end-user application category. The list isn't restricted to open-source applications, and it misses some exceptional projects like Handbrake, but it's a respectable list.

Free is good!

http://www.researchbuzz.org/wp/2007/08/25/questia-media-releases-free-online-classics-library/

August 25, 2007

Questia Media Releases Free Online Classics Library

Filed under: Reference, Culture-Fine Arts

Questia Media has released a library of over 5,000 books for free access on its Web site. You can get started browsing at http://www.questia.com/publicdomainindex