Another attempt to introduce astrology to the justice system?

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/08/1210219&from=rss

Ohio Court Admits Lie Detector Tests As Evidence

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday September 08, @10:37AM from the good-enough-for-maury dept. The Courts Security Technology

An anonymous reader writes "Last month, an Ohio court set a new precedent by allowing polygraph test results to be entered as evidence in a criminal trial. Do lie detectors really belong in the court room? AntiPolygraph.org critiques the polygraph evidence from the this precedential case (Ohio v. Sharma)."

Non-lawyer question. At what point does the Judge get to slap these guys?

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/08/1124219&from=rss

Judge Kimball Strikes SCO's Jury Trial Demand

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday September 08, @08:48AM from the down-on-their-luck dept. The Courts Caldera

watchingeyes writes "In a ruling on various pre-trial motions in limine and other, similar motions in the SCO vs Novell case, Judge Kimball today issued a ruling striking SCO's demand for a jury trial, ruling that Novell's claims seek equitable, and not legal relief. In addition, he denied SCO's request for entry of judgment that would allow them to appeal his ruling on the UNIX copyrights and Novell's waiver rights, ruling that if SCO wants to appeal any of his rulings, it can do them all at once after trial. He also granted Novell's request to voluntarily dismiss its own breach of contract claim, denied SCO's motion to exclude press coverage and evidence from the IBM case, granted Novell's motion in limine preventing SCO from contesting his summary judgment ruling at trial, granted Novell's second motion in limine preventing SCO from arguing that SCOsource licenses that license SVRx only incidentally aren't SVRx licenses, denied another SCO motion in limine which improperly asked the Judge to issue rulings on contractual issues and denied Novell's final motion in limine which sought to prevent SCO from contesting Novell's apportionment of royalties analysis. Looks like SCO will be facing a trial in-front of a judge which has already ruled against them numerous times."

Cyberwar? What are we being primed for? Perhaps a new government agency to counter hackers (and take over all the Internet data collection?

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2409865.ece

China’s cyber army is preparing to march on America, says Pentagon

Tim Reid in Washington September 8, 2007

Chinese military hackers have prepared a detailed plan to disable America’s aircraft battle carrier fleet with a devastating cyber attack, according to a Pentagon report obtained by The Times.

The blueprint for such an assault, drawn up by two hackers working for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), is part of an aggressive push by Beijing to achieve “electronic dominance” over each of its global rivals by 2050, particularly the US, Britain, Russia and South Korea.

China’s ambitions extend to crippling an enemy’s financial, military and communications capabilities early in a conflict, according to military documents and generals’ speeches that are being analysed by US intelligence officials. Describing what is in effect a new arms race, a Pentagon assessment states that China’s military regards offensive computer operations as “critical to seize the initiative” in the first stage of a war.

... Cyber attacks by China have become so frequent and aggressive that President Bush, without referring directly to Beijing, said this week that “a lot of our systems are vulnerable to attack” [Somehow i doubt that. Bob] He indicated that he would raise the subject with Hu Jintao, the Chinese President, when they met in Sydney at the Apec summit. Mr Hu denied that China was responsible for the attack on Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary.

Larry M. Wortzel, the author of the US Army War College report, [I couldn't locate it on their site Bob] said: “The thing that should give us pause is that in many Chinese military manuals they identify the US as the country they are most likely to go to war with. They are moving very rapidly to master this new form of warfare.” The two PLA hackers produced a “virtual guidebook for electronic warfare and jamming” after studying dozens of US and Nato manuals on military tactics, according to the document.

The Pentagon logged more than 79,000 attempted intrusions in 2005. About 1,300 were successful, including the penetration of computers linked to the Army’s 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions and the 4th Infantry Division. In August and September of that year Chinese hackers penetrated US State Department computers in several parts of the world. Hundreds of computers had to be replaced or taken offline for months. Chinese hackers also disrupted the US Naval War College’s network in November, forcing the college to shut down its computer systems for several weeks. The Pentagon uses more than 5 million computers on 100,000 networks in 65 countries.

If true, this is fairly significant. I recently imaged an 80GB laptop drive and it took me 90 minutes plus setup time – this promises twice the speed.

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/08/1956226&from=rss

Forensic Computer Targets Digital Crime

Posted by kdawson on Sunday September 09, @12:07AM from the taking-a-byte-out-of-it dept. Security IT

coondoggie writes "A European consortium has come up with a high-speed digital forensic computer dedicated to the task of quickly offloading and analyzing computer records. The TreCorder is a rugged forensic PC able to copy or clone up to three hard disks simultaneously, at a speed of up to 2 Gb/min., far faster than alternative equipment. The PC not only provides a complete mirror image of the hard disk and system memory — including deleted and reformatted data — but also eliminates any possibility of falsification in the process, meaning that the evidence it collects will stand up in court."

Now wouldn't this make an interesting project for my security students...

http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/legal-privacy/42323.html

Looking out for data surveillance predictions for 2020

By Robert Gellman, Consultant September 7th, 2007

What will surveillance and tracking look like in 2020? It’s only 13 years away. Here are some fanciful predictions.

Auto tracking. Every car will be required to have a transponder, and automated highway readers will record all trips. The transponders will allow agencies to monitor driving habits and to issue electronic tickets for violations. The system will collect fees for using congested roads, replace parking meters and prevent undesirable people from driving in certain areas. For example, pedophiles will not be permitted to drive near schools. Driving with a malfunctioning transponder will be illegal. A black market will emerge in cars registered to “clean” or dead individuals.

Very personalized PC. Every computer will have a static IP address. No one will be able to operate a computer without registering through a token, fingerprint or other identification device. All e-mail will be stored permanently, and records of other network activity, including searching and transactions, will also be retained. Stolen computers will be a hot black market item for criminals who will use them to avoid accountability for online actions.

MySpace is mandatory. Every individual will be required to maintain a personal Web page with basic contact information accessible by the government and the public. People with out-of-date pages will be fined. An individual will be allowed to post minimal information for public use, but the government will demand more. Everyone will be required by law to have an active e-mail address. Official government notices will be sent by e-mail rather than by post.

Society caught on tape. Surveillance cameras will be even more universal than they are today. You will not be able to walk down a street, enter a store, park in a garage, ride the subway, sit at your desk at work, open your front door or do anything else outside your home without being recorded.

Penniless marketplace. Currency will disappear and all money will be electronic. Every transaction will be permanently tracked. Private money systems will develop using tokens, gold and other forms of intrinsic value. Paying in private money will work for some things, but prices for non-tracked activities will be double to cover the risks involved.

Dog tags go digital. Identification chips implanted in the human body will be banned after some people are maimed or killed to obtain their chips. However, governments will promote the wearing of personal transponders so that scanners can identity each person within range. Personal transponders will first be touted as a safety program for children and then as a protection against terrorists. If your transponder does not work, you will be subject to arrest in any public space. Trafficking in transponders will be illegal, but widespread.

Fast food goes under the table. The health and insurance industries will try to control costs by monitoring food purchases. They will begin by offering discounts to individuals who allow monitoring of their eating habits, but monitoring will eventually become mandatory. Separate checks will be universal in restaurants. Restaurants will prosper by putting fish on the menu, but will tell customers that the halibut is actually a hamburger. Eventually, insurers will audit restaurant food purchases to try to keep the reporting system honest. There will be a black market in unregistered junk food.

Healthy living is a must. Government and private insurers will mandate that individuals agree to health treatments as a cost-saving measure. Computerized health records will be centrally reviewed to monitor compliance. If you don’t get a required treatment, your insurance will cost more or be cancelled, you will lose your job, your tax return will be audited and you will be labeled as unpatriotic. Digital health records will permit precise scoring of individual and family health risks. Each insured person and family will be individually rated and priced, even under employer-provided health insurance policies. An underground system of healthcare will develop for people who don’t want their insurer to know about some medical conditions. People will pay privately for care to avoid higher rates, uninsurability or monitoring.

Direct marketing activities will be positively affected by the availability of more personal information. However, public aversion to spam, telephone calls and postal mail will make it harder to exploit the information by traditional means. Many free Internet services will remain free only to those who do not block ads.

These predictions come with the usual guarantee. Will there also be new and improved privacy protections by 2020? Maybe, but that’s a subject for another day.

Robert Gellman is a Washington-based privacy and information policy consultant and former chief counsel to the House subcommittee on information, justice, transportation and agriculture. His e-mail address is bob@bobgellman.com

Mandatory SiFi reading

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/08/1146218&from=rss

2007 Hugo Award Winners Announced

Posted by CowboyNeal on Saturday September 08, @09:39AM from the come-on-down dept. Sci-Fi Entertainment

jX writes "This year's Hugo Award Winners have been announced at the recently launched Hugo Award official website. Some winners that should be familiar to any well read/watched geek are Vernor Vinge for Best Novel, Doctor Who for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form), and last years hit movie Pan's Labyrinth for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. Of course, a complete list of this year's nominees and winners is also available."

You know I like lists...

http://www.teknobites.com/2007/09/08/40-free-windows-apps-for-you/

40+ Free Windows Apps For You

Published at September 8, 2007 in Tools and Software. Tags: Software, Tools.

This post is the part 2 of my earlier post 20 Open Source Windows Apps For You, i got lot of feedback for that post and my readers suggested some excellent programs to be included in that list. So here i am listing all those programs which i have missed in my earlier post. Do check the earlier post for the complete software list.

A list of lists! Neat!

http://mashable.com/2007/09/08/5000-resources-to-do-just-about-anything-online/

5000+ Resources to Do Just About Anything Online

September 8, 2007 — 07:45 AM PDT — by Sean P. Aune