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And see my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for regular updates in between postings. ********************************************************** Sponsored by the Singapore Internet Research Centre Nanyang Technological University, Singapore http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sci/sirc/ ********************************************************** Global net censorship 'growing' http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6665945.stm Governments using filters to censor Internet, survey finds http://iht.com/articles/2007/05/17/business/censor.php Why China Relaxed Blogger Crackdown Registration Plan Was Dropped In Face of Tech-Industry Protests http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117934424740305282.html uk: Yahoo! hinders sex case inquiries http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article1813494.ece British judge halts terror trial to ask: what’s a website? http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1805663.ece Web attackers used a million computers, says Estonia http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2082584,00.html Warfare in cyberspace http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2081699,00.html ISP Spam Code of Practice released for public consultation (news release) http://www.internetnz.net.nz/media/ispspamcoderelease Young women dominate UK net scene http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6662469.stm Over 90% of British teens are MySpacers http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2081126,00.html In chatrooms and message boards, Madeleine hysteria grips the world http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2083248,00.html Firms embrace mobility as competitive tool, study shows (news release) http://eiuresources.com/mediadir/default.asp?PR=2007051501 Japan is the world’s most innovative country, study finds (news release) http://eiuresources.com/mediadir/default.asp?PR=2007051403 Just one in ten businesses globally are fully monitoring their overall carbon impact (news release) http://eiuresources.com/mediadir/default.asp?PR=2007051401 *********** CENSORSHIP *********** Global net censorship 'growing' The level of state-led censorship of the net is growing around the world, a study of so-called internet filtering by the Open Net Initiative suggests. The study of thousands of websites across 120 Internet Service Providers found 25 of 41 countries surveyed showed evidence of content filtering. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6665945.stm http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_5925661 Governments using filters to censor Internet, survey finds With the aid of sophisticated software, government censorship of the Internet is spreading into a global phenomenon, with tech-savvy governments filtering forbidden themes from politics and human rights to sexuality and religion, according to a new academic survey of 40 countries. http://iht.com/articles/2007/05/17/business/censor.php Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering - Edited by Ronald J. Deibert, John G. Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski and Jonathan Zittrain Many countries around the world block or filter Internet content, denying access to information--often about politics, but also relating to sexuality, culture, or religion--that they deem too sensitive for ordinary citizens. Access Denied documents and analyzes Internet filtering practices in over three dozen countries, offering the first rigorously conducted study of an accelerating trend. http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11329 Why China Relaxed Blogger Crackdown Registration Plan Was Dropped In Face of Tech-Industry Protests The Chinese government, which spent months mulling over ways to crack down on bloggers, is retreating from its campaign, a development that illustrates the difficulty China faces as it tries to control technology. Since September, the central government has been deliberating the need to enforce a real-name registration system, which would have required nearly 20 million Chinese bloggers to register their real identities on the Web and give up the anonymity many have gotten used to, even though bloggers can never be entirely anonymous as they can be traced back to an IP address. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117934424740305282.html jo: Ex-parliamentarian arrested for criticising corruption online Reporters Without Borders today condemned the arrest of former Jordanian parliamentarian Ahmad Oweidi Abbadi on 3 May for accusing King Abdallah’s government of corruption in an open letter to US senator Harry Reid that he posted on the Internet. http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=22118 vn: Sixth cyber-dissident jailed in worst crack-down since 2002 Reporters Without Borders said it was stunned by a five-year jail sentence handed down today to pro-democracy activist Tran Quoc Hien, the sixth such sentence in a week. http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=22150 ************************************************ CHILD PROTECTION, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION ************************************************ uk: Yahoo! hinders sex case inquiries Internet companies including Yahoo! are hindering police investigations into child abuse by closing down the undercover identities used by officers to trap paedophiles. British child protection police habitually pose as children online, using false profiles to ensnare abusers trying to groom girls and boys for sex. But the companies say they will shut down all bogus identities on their sites even if they know they are being run to catch paedophiles. http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article1813494.ece uk: Parents helped to “Know IT All” in ther own language (news release) Government Minister welcomes new multi-lingual CD-ROM giving parents advice on internet safety. Know IT AllChildnet International, the children’s internet charity, announced today the launch of its latest Know IT All multimedia CD-ROM aimed at helping parents better support their children’s positive and safe use of the internet. Commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills, Know IT All for Parents is being made available to all maintained schools in England to order in quantity for parents free of charge. http://www.childnet-int.org/news/articles/160507.html au: Porn filters for families delayed Delays continue to plague Senator Helen Coonan's introduction of free online pornography filters for Australian families, and the Communications Minister is still unable to put a concrete date on when the project will launch. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/05/17/1178995291068.html au: Getting tough on cyber bullies Victoria's government schools will crack down on modern-day school bullies using computers and mobile phones. http://the.standard.net.au/articles/2007/05/18/1178995371913.html *************************************** CYBERCRIME, CYBERSECURITY AND PRIVACY *************************************** Web attackers used a million computers, says Estonia Estonia said yesterday that at least 1m computers had been used to launch an unprecedented wave of cyber-attacks on the small Baltic state over the past few weeks and indicated the damage inflicted had run into tens of millions of euros. http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2082584,00.html http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1805636.ece http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6665145.stm Cyberattack on Estonia stirs fear of 'virtual war' The computer attacks, apparently originating in Russia, first hit the Web site of Estonia's prime minister on April 27, the day the country was mired in protest and violence. The president's site went down, too, and soon so did those of other ministries. http://iht.com/articles/2007/05/18/news/estonia.php Russia accused of unleashing cyberwar to disable Estonia A three-week wave of massive cyber-attacks on the small Baltic country of Estonia, the first known incidence of such an assault on a state, is causing alarm across the western alliance, with Nato urgently examining the offensive and its implications. http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2081438,00.html http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_5918836 Is Eastern Europe's cyberwar the shape of things to come? It reads like a John le Carre script. An eastern European country being attacked on an unprecedented scale with Nato sending in its top terrorism experts. Except the attack was a cyber-assault - disabling the websites of government ministries, political parties, newspapers and banks. The crisis was triggered by a Distributed Denial of Service. This is where hackers hijack masses of computers using malware (basically, evil software) and, at a specific point in time, launch a concerted burst of traffic to overwhelm computer servers and bring them to a halt. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2007/05/17/is_eastern_europes_cyberwar_the_shape_of_things_to_come.html Warfare in cyberspace A distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) is an attempt by an individual or group of hackers to crash an internet site or computer network by flooding it with huge amounts of traffic. A common method of achieving this is to effectively hijack computers belonging to normal web surfers through a virus or some other malware. The malware, which is picked up either by opening an infected email attachment, or, more commonly these days, by visiting a website that hosts malware, is triggered at a later date. http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2081699,00.html Swedish company offers new passports for computers to surf the Web Relakks and other companies are part of a struggle pitting "hacktivists" against corporate interests that wall off Web sites to control territorial rights. These walls are meant to block people in Europe from downloading television fare from U.S. sites, for example, or bar Americans from viewing programs on sites in Europe. http://iht.com/articles/2007/05/20/news/net21.php us: Pedophile Finds New Host for Web Site: Man Attends Local Events A Web site that is a virtual how-to for pedophiles and includes places to see young children in Whatcom County is back up after being shut down for more than a month. Jack McClellan, 45, the Snohomish County resident and selfproclaimed pedophile behind the "Seattle Tacoma Everett Girl Love" Web site, relaunched it more than a week ago. http://redorbit.com/news/technology/939886/pedophile_finds_new_host_for_web_site_man_attends_local/ au: Suicide girls got instructions from internet The father of a teenager who killed herself in an apparent suicide pact says they followed instructions from the internet. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/05/20/1179601247321.html http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,21765658-5005962,00.html au: Bogus debit email jams switchboard THOUSANDS of people opened their email accounts yesterday morning to be told their credit card had been debited hundreds of dollars for a digital camera they did not know they had ordered. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/05/17/1178995324054.html British judge halts terror trial to ask: what’s a website? A judge overseeing the trial of three alleged Muslim “cyber-terrorists” has been given a basic lesson in the internet – after admitting that he did not know what a “website” was. Mr Justice Peter Openshaw, who is conducting the trial at Woolwich Crown Court, stunned prosecutors when he said: “The trouble is I don’t understand the language. I don’t really understand what a website is.” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1805663.ece http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/17/judge_website_shocker/ Study raises more questions about click fraud (AP) Deceptive clicks on Internet advertising links distributed by Google, Yahoo and other online marketing vehicles are probably occurring far more frequently than the network operators acknowledge, according to a study by fraud detection specialist Fair Isaac Corp. http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_5920147 http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2007-05-17-click-fraud_N.htm ************************** GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY ************************** us: Video Pioneers Challenge Pentagon YouTube's co-founders on Thursday challenged the Pentagon's assertion that soldiers overseas were sapping too much bandwidth by watching online videos, the military's principal rationale for blocking popular Web sites from Defense Department computers. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/05/18/1178995365128.html ITU to focus on ICT opportunities for young people This year's World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, which takes place on 17 May, is focused on the opportunities that ICT can give to young people. The event, which marks the anniversary of the signature of the first International Telegraph Convention and the creation of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), was instituted by the Union's Plenipotentiary Conference in 1973. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/18/itu_young_people/ us: 'Rogue' Internet Pharmacies Fueling Rx Abuse, Panel Told A sharp increase in the number of online pharmacies offering highly controlled drugs without requiring a prescription is feeding a similar rise in the abuse of powerful pharmaceuticals in the United States, particularly among teens, witnesses told a Senate panel Wednesday. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/16/AR2007051602015.html us: Internet surveillance grows under expanded 'wiretapping' law Local companies are ramping up their Internet surveillance to comply with a law requiring them to provide police with an easy way to intercept data. May 14 marked the first day that broadband and Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, providers must be in full compliance with the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/316486_internetsurv21.html ***** SPAM ***** ISP Spam Code of Practice released for public consultation (news release) InternetNZ released the ISP Spam Code of Practice. InternetNZ executive director Keith Davidson says the preparation of the Code is an excellent example of how the industry is working together to fight a common enemy. http://www.internetnz.net.nz/media/ispspamcoderelease ***************************** INTERNET & NEW TECHNOLOGY USE ***************************** Young women dominate UK net scene Young women are now the most dominant group online in the UK, according to new research from net measurement firm Nielsen/NetRatings. Women in the 18 - 34 age group account for 18% of all online Britons. They also spend the most time online - accounting for 27% more of the total UK computer time than their male counterparts. Of UK males active online, the 50+ age group is the most prevalent. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6662469.stm Over 90% of British teens are MySpacers More than 90% of UK teenagers have used a social networking website and more than half use them because their friends do, according to research. The survey of 11- to 20-year-olds, conducted by Q Research for MediaGuardian.co.uk, found that one-third of teenagers have at least four social networking profiles on sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo. http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2081126,00.html In chatrooms and message boards, Madeleine hysteria grips the world If you logged on to your computer yesterday, you may have received an email that looked, at first, like spam. Forwarded many times and with crazy punctuation, it may have carried a preliminary message along the lines of "please help us!!!!!!!", before scrolling down to the original email: a sober address from Phil McCann, uncle of Madeleine, the missing four-year-old, asking for your assistance. ... In these days of mass media sophistication, no one needs it explaining to them that where a child who gets kidnapped is news, a pretty child who gets kidnapped is headline news and a pretty child who gets kidnapped and whose parents save lives for a living and go to church is rolling news. Even so, in the days since she disappeared, the Madeleine campaign has, for scale of involvement, outdone anything we've seen before. There are 90 different Madeleine-related groups on Facebook alone, circulating her photo to user communities of between six and 76,000 members. The official website has registered 60m hits and posters of her have been seen in campsites as far away as Bulgaria, translated into local languages via appeals put out by bloggers. At least four premiership football stars have made TV appeals and there is reward money on offer totalling some £2.5m. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2083248,00.html 50m hits in Madeleine website's first day A website set up by the family of the missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann has received more than 50m hits in just over 24 hours, its organisers said today. http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2083041,00.html Exploring the Underbelly of Second Life Allegations of illegal gambling, reports of online orgies, and even an active investigation in Europe of sexual abuse and misconduct seem to have overshadowed the tamer daily goings-on in the virtual world Second Life. Yet, just this week, it was the locale of an innovative job fair in which upstanding employers like HP tried out new online recruiting strategies on hundreds of willing participants and conducted interviews with candidates for real-world positions. So, is Second Life more like "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood" or an episode of "The Sopranos"? http://ecommercetimes.com/story/57456.html Firms embrace mobility as competitive tool, study shows (news release) A cross-industry survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit in co-operation with Nokia shows that mobility has become a key component of competitiveness. In industries ranging from financial services to pharmaceuticals, mobility moves decision-making closer to problems or opportunities with customers, making firms more agile and more competitive. More than one-quarter of survey respondents said that over 30% of their employees can be considered “mobile workers”, defined as those who spend at least one day of the work week away from the office. Far from being a requirement for just a few specialised technology firms, mobility is now seen as broadly applicable to companies in industries such as financial services, pharmaceuticals, accounting, and advertising. http://eiuresources.com/mediadir/default.asp?PR=2007051501 Japan is the world’s most innovative country, study finds (news release) Japan is the world’s most innovative nation, followed by Switzerland, the US and Sweden, according to Innovation: Transforming the way business creates, a new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by Cisco. The Economist Intelligence Unit compiled a ranking of 82 economies based on their level of innovation in 2002-06 and, using the methodology described below (see notes for editors), predicted how the ranking would change in 2007-11. The top four will maintain their positions, according to the forecast, while China will move up five places to 54th and Mexico will climb six places to 39th. http://eiuresources.com/mediadir/default.asp?PR=2007051403 au: You need help, says minister The Communications Minister suggests the Sydney man who created the Virginia Tech massacre game seek "professional help". http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/05/17/1178995289828.html uk: BT becomes the leading broadband provider as earnings rise 15% BT added to the woes of Virgin Media yesterday as the telecoms company passed its cable rival to become the UK's number one broadband supplier with 3.66m customers or over a quarter of the UK market. http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2082617,00.html Blighty internet shopping goes ballistic UK shoppers are abandoning the high street and going online in droves, according to the latest figures from the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), the industry body. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/18/shopping_explosion_ladies_who_surf/ ************ FILE SHARING ************ Warner sues Imeem in new campaign The record company has sued a social networking website that allegedly encourages its members to exchange files illegally http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article1801141.ece hk: Jail for BitTorrent bandit 'Big Crook' The first person in the world to be convicted of distributing movies via BitTorrent loses an appeal against a jail sentence. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/05/18/1178995417708.html ********************************* COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS ********************************* Firefox and the Anxiety of Growing Pains IF the open-source software movement were an upstart political campaign, Chris Messina would be one of its community organizers — the young volunteer who decamps to New Hampshire, knocking on doors, putting up signs. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/21/technology/21link.html New Google search will find text and images Google has changed its approach to Internet searches by combining results from its established Web search service with offerings that help users find videos, images, maps and other content. http://iht.com/articles/2007/05/17/business/google.php Just one in ten businesses globally are fully monitoring their overall carbon impact (news release) Businesses are not keeping up with the growing carbon awareness of a general public disturbed by predictions of climate change, but more firms are starting to focus on the issue, according to an independent report from the Economist Intelligence Unit. A Change in the Climate Is business going green?, commissioned by UK Trade & Investment, reviews the corporate response to climate change. http://eiuresources.com/mediadir/default.asp?PR=2007051401 Quest for the top in Internet ads It's a good time to be an Internet advertising company. In the struggle for advantage in the digital advertising boom, companies like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL are rapidly acquiring once-obscure firms, sometimes for eye-popping prices. The payoff, they hope, will be in the relationships and technology that can deliver the right ad to the right person at the right time across a myriad of online sites. http://iht.com/articles/2007/05/20/news/msft.php uk: Wi-Fi risks in schools 'must be reviewed' The head of Britain's leading health watchdog today urgently calls for a review of potential health risks linked to wireless internet networks in schools. Sir William Stewart, the chairman of the Health Protection Agency (HPA), spoke after emissions at a school were found to be three times those from a mobile phone mast. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/21/nwifi21.xml ********************************** ARRESTS/COURT CASES FOR CHILD PORN ********************************** nz: Child porn charges Two men with extensive collections of child pornography have been jailed. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10440577 ru: Major child porn dealers arrested Russian police seized three young dealers of child pornography in the southern Siberian Altai region, with analysts suggesting that the suspects were responsible for half of all child pornography turnout in Russia, local police officials said. http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?iSectionId=2885&iArticleId=3838204 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/ for the most recent edition of the domain news, including an RSS feed - already online! The domain name news is supported by auDA. For information on subscriptions to the domain name and/or general internet news please contact me. For archives of postings to the list, see http://lists.technewsreview.com.au/pipermail/technewsreview/. Also see http://technewsreview.com.au/ for recent updates. Sources include Quicklinks <http://qlinks.net/> and BNA Internet Law News <http://www.bna.com/ilaw/>. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (c) David Goldstein 2007 --------- David Goldstein address: 4/3 Abbott Street COOGEE NSW 2034 AUSTRALIA email: Goldstein_David @yahoo.com.au phone: +61 418 228 605 (mobile); +61 2 9665 5773 (home) "Every time you use fossil fuels, you're adding to the problem. Every time you forgo fossil fuels, you're being part of the solution" - Dr Tim Flannery ___________________________________________________________________________________ How would you spend $50,000 to create a more sustainable environment in Australia? 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