Stonewalling, academic style
http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_6003652?nclick_check=1
St. Paul / Files stolen, and identities used
One victim frustrated with St. Kate's response to loss of Social Security data
BY PAUL TOSTO Pioneer Press TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press Article Last Updated:05/27/2007 11:09:19 PM CDT
Kelsey Tape's Social Security number and other personal data were stolen April 2 from the College of St. Catherine. But until April 16, the college didn't tell her and 18 other students that their identities may be at risk.
... St. Catherine's says it went "beyond what state and federal laws require to ensure the safety and security of students' information." Officials won't say much more, citing an open police investigation. That's left some students and families frustrated as they seek answers to exactly what happened and why they weren't notified for two weeks.
Tape says her school adviser was told not to discuss the issue and that college officials have been difficult to deal with.
... She says it's taken days sometimes for school officials to return e-mails on the matter, and she hasn't heard from any school official since May 11.
This is a new scam to me. (Are these ex-RIAA lawyers?) The best part is the description of the software that automates letters to the ISPs. Who need lawyers?
http://torrentfreak.com/i-didnt-download-it-my-router-got-hacked/
I Didn’t Download it, My Router Got Hacked!
Written by enigmax on May 28, 2007
People accused of uploading the game ‘Dream Pinball’ who claim they are the victim of a hacker, are starting to get letters back from lawyers explaining what they should do next. Among other things, the lawyers are demanding that the accused demonstrate computer security skills in providing evidence detailing exactly how their equipment was exploited. [Unique. Bob]
Earlier this year, 500 people received letters accusing them of illegally distributing a computer game. The letters demand a settlement payment, or a court appearance was threatened.
Many people wondered how they were caught at all, while others claimed they had no knowledge of such a game and stopped to consider that their router security may have been compromised.
Data is data, isn't it? Are these kinds of cases chipping away our ownership rights?
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/28/2349248&from=rss
Storing Personal Music Online Is Illegal In Japan
Posted by kdawson on Monday May 28, @08:25PM from the bad-precedent dept. The Courts Music
An anonymous reader writes "A decision in Tokyo District Court could have implications in Japan for online services that let users store files, if any music files are involved. The court case pitted JASRAC, the Japanese organization that collects fees for public music performances, against Image City, whose MYUTA service lets users employ a central server to store songs from their own CDs, to play on their own phones. The Tokyo District Court handed down a ruling declaring Image City guilty of copyright infringement (Google translation). Despite the music being stored strictly for personal use, the ruling reasoned that the act of uploading music to a central server owned by a company is the equivalent of distributing music to that company. This has implications for other services such as Yahoo! Briefcase and Apple's .Mac, which could mean these companies are guilty of copyright infringement if any of their users in Japan store music in their accounts for personal use. Here are some additional details on JASRAC's activities and methods." Neither article talks about possible appeals, or about how strong a precedent this case sets in the Japanese legal system.
How not to do it?
Germany adopts "anti-hacker" law; critics say it breeds insecurity
By Nate Anderson | Published: May 28, 2007 - 11:57AM CT
Germany has just passed a new law that adds more "anti-hacker" provisions to the German criminal code. Although the new rules are meant to apply narrowly to hacking, critics are already complaining that they may prevent necessary security and network research.
The new rules tighten up the existing sanctions and prohibit any unauthorized user from disabling or circumventing computer security measures to access secure data (see the law, sections 200 and following [in German]). Manufacturing, programming, installing, or spreading software that can circumvent security measures is verboten, which means that some security scanning tools might become illegal. The Chaos Computer Club in Germany said of the decision, "Forbidding this software is about as helpful as forbidding the sale and production of hammers because sometimes they also cause damage."
In addition, denial of service attacks are now explicitly illegal, even if they're done as pranks. People convicted under the new law could face ten years in prison and be held liable for monetary damages.
Chaos Computer Club spokesman Andy Mueller Maguhn said that "safety research can [now] take place only in an unacceptable legal gray area." The group is also concerned that the new legislation will make it easier for the police to obtain information by hacking—something that was outlawed by the courts a few months back.
Germany's decision to tighten up the statutes against hacking come as the EU develops its own framework for dealing with cyber-crime. The European Commission circulated a "communication" this week that seeks to start a dialogue on crafting a European-wide policy to fight cyber-crime.
That document suggests working first on international relations and cross-border police cooperation, but additional legislation might also be necessary on the national level. DDoS attacks and botnets are both explicitly mentioned in the document, and the EU is no doubt worried about more than "traditional" cyber-crime in the wake of the massive DDoS attack against Estonia in the last few weeks.
These are the apps that will make operating systems immaterial. The ability to run any program on any machine means you can buy the cheapest machine. Now a free operating system has a real impact.
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/05/27/run-linux-apps-on-windows-or-os-x-with-lina/
Run Linux apps on Windows or OS X with Lina
Posted May 27th 2007 5:00PM by Brad Linder
Next month a California-based startup plans to release an application that will allow Windows, Mac, and Linux users run Linux binaries without any modifications. Lina is a Linux virtual machine that allows users to run applications with the native look of their host operating system. It also lets you install applications with a mouse-click, no need to compile software from source code.
Someone had to do it.
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I don't see much yet...
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/014926.html
May 25, 2007
New Technorati Search Includes User-Generated Video, Photos, Podcasts, Music, Games
Technorati Blog: "We've streamlined a blogsearch-only homepage at search.technorati.com (an easy shortcut is s.technorati.com ...With this launch, we also provide you with more context around more stuff like videos, music, and blogs. Over time, these pages will become richer and more comprehensive as we add more information about the thing itself, like where it was published, who links to it, what other things are similarly tagged, and more...We currently track over 250 million videos, blogs, photos, podcasts, events, and other social media objects in addition to more than 80 million blogs..."
Think of it as “Convergence” (Who does the product recall?)
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/28/1927213&from=rss
Cell Phones Disable Keys for High-End Cars
Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday May 28, @04:53PM from the fun-toys-to-exploit dept.
Geoffrey.landis writes "Turns out if you have a top-end Nissan car, your cellphone may erase your car key. '"We discovered that if the I-Key touches a cellphone, outgoing or incoming calls have the potential to alter the electronic code inside the I-Key," Nissan spokesman Kyle Bazemore said. "The car won't start and the I-Key cannot be reprogrammed."'"
Military applications of microcomputers – Targets & Techniques... Might make an interesting seminar
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/28/1835250&from=rss
China Crafts Cyberweapons
Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday May 28, @03:11PM from the virtual-arms-race dept.
MitmWatcher writes to mention that a recent report by the Department of Defense revealed that China is continuing to build up their cyberwarfare units and develop viruses. "'The PLA has established information warfare units to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks,' the annual DOD report on China's military warned. At the same, Chinese armed forces are developing ways to protect its own systems from an enemy attack, it said, echoing similar warnings made in previous years."
Related?
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,132283-pg,1/article.html
Computer Glitch Tangles Japanese Flights
Hundreds of All Nippon Airways flights were cancelled or delayed Sunday because of computer error.
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service Monday, May 28, 2007 08:00 AM PDT
Hundreds of domestic flights in Japan were cancelled or delayed on Sunday as a result of a glitch in the computer system of All Nippon Airways Co. Ltd.
... The problems began to resolve themselves on Sunday afternoon and by Monday morning the airline was operating close to a normal schedule. As of 9 a.m. just one flight was cancelled and nine had been delayed.
ANA doesn't yet know the cause of the problem, he said.
Dennis Dallas pointed me to this site. I'm not certain it does much for me, but if you have an in-house blog, their “Clip-to-Blog” feature looks very useful.
Clipmarks
Our hope is that people will clip the great moments they experience on the web. We often refer to these as the woah moments.
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