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And see my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for daily updates in between postings. ********************************************************** Sponsored by the Singapore Internet Research Centre Nanyang Technological University, Singapore http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sci/sirc/ ********************************************************** An unholy alliance: Timothy Cox - 'the son of god', global paedophile ring mastermind http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,2163408,00.html uk: Inquiry into safe net for children http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2402842.ece Cyberattacks outstripping defences http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Cyberattacks-outstripping-defences/0,130061733,339281872,00.htm A US CERT reminder: The net is an insecure place http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/08/security_group_warns_of_web_vulnerabity/ A crime is committed online every 10 seconds in UK, say criminologists http://out-law.com/page-8450 Judge Rules Feds Cannot Silence ISPs With Patriot Act http://ecommercetimes.com/story/KckCg9lpfVhtBC/Judge-Rules-Feds-Cannot-Silence-ISPs-With-Patriot-Act.xhtml us: Judge deals blow to Patriot Act http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6206570.html Comcast Shuts Down Big Downloaders http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/06/AR2007090602545.html Heavy Internet users unplugged by US cable company http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/09/08/1188783547699.html Germany warns citizens to avoid using Wi-Fi http://environment.independent.co.uk/lifestyle/article2944417.ece Still growing, spam is now 83% of all e-mail http://blogs.usatoday.com/technologylive/ nz: ISPs will cut services to spammers under voluntary code http://net4now.com/isp_news/news_article.asp?News_ID=4819 http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/1318360/1334494 us: Four Guilty In E-Mail Pump-And-Dump Case That Netted $20 Million http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201804792 All sides await verdict in Microsoft-EU case http://iht.com/articles/2007/09/09/business/msft10.php us: The High-Stakes Debate Over Wireless Broadband http://nytimes.com/allbusiness/07girard.html Mobile phone technology turns 20 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6983869.stm ********************** CENSORSHIP ********************** zw: Experts Says 'Don't Panic' As Snooping Equipment is Installed There are reports that mobile and internet service providers in the country have already begun installing surveillance equipment to comply with the controversial snooping bill passed last month. A report in the weekly Financial Gazette quoted Shadreck Nkala, the Chairman of the Zimbabwe Internet Access Providers (ZIAP) saying, 'we are putting in place projects to see that we comply.' Nkala however refused to disclose the costs involved in the project and where the equipment is being installed. http://allafrica.com/stories/200709070846.html IFJ concerned over Google Censorship Deal with Thailand The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is dismayed to hear that Google, search engine and owner of video-sharing website YouTube, has cut a censorship deal with the Thailand government. http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?Index=5275&Language=EN Bloggers Held Under New Thailand Computer Crime Law If you thought Germany's new computer crime laws were strict, try posting an offensive comment on the Web in Thailand. According to the independent newspaper Prachatai, at least one person is being detained in the Bangkok Remand Prison for crimes against the new Computer Crime Act, which went into effect in July. The new legislation, which was initially positioned as a crackdown on online pornography, outlaws the posting of "offensive" material. http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=133307 Wikipedia blocked in China yet again [IDG] Wikipedia's English site is blocked again in China after over two months of being accessible, continuing a saga of on-again, off-again availability. http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9034620 http://computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;425064529;fp;2;fpid;1 http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136879-c,sites/article.html ************************************************ CHILD PROTECTION, FILTERING & CONTENT REGULATION ************************************************ uk: An unholy alliance: Timothy Cox - 'the son of god', global paedophile ring mastermind Timothy Cox was a quiet, clean-cut 27-year-old who worked for his small family brewery in rural Suffolk. He was also 'the son of god' - the mastermind of a global paedophile ring. Mark Townsend investigates: They caught the Son of God red-handed, in his pyjamas, while presiding over the most heinous online paedophile ring the police have yet uncovered. In his final moments of freedom, Timothy David Martyn Cox would have felt untouchable. Obsessed with being caught, Cox, 27, had only to press a button and his chat-room of child abusers would vanish without trace. Then, one morning last September, armed police burst through his bedroom window. As Cox spun round, officers forced him to the floor of his parents' farmhouse in rural Suffolk. The largest international investigation of its kind had snared its precocious ringleader. Those tasked with examining the evidence inside his computer would soon require counselling. Tired of trading in pictures of abuse, Cox had created a worldwide nexus of actual abusers. Babies as young as two months were raped live via webcam before a global audience. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,2163408,00.html au: NetAlert package effective, says Coonan Federal Communications Minister Senator Helen Coonan says checks had been completed on a government-funded internet filter and it had not been hacked into by a teenager last month. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/09/07/1188783474483.html http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/09/07/1188783474483.html au: Cybersmart Detectives: helping kids stay safe online [news release] School children from each state and territory will participate today in the Australian Communications and Media Authoritys online safety program, Cybersmart Detectives. ACMA will run the event in collaboration with Victoria Police, the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN) and law enforcement agencies Australia wide. http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_310631 uk: Internet controls or citizen service, rival leaders tackle child protection New controls may be needed to prevent the internet and video games from exposing children to harmful or inappropriate material, ministers indicated yesterday, as they appointed a TV psychologist to head an official inquiry. The prime minister, Gordon Brown, also launched a national consultation on the next decade of children's policy, underlining the government's determination to prevent Conservative claims of a "broken society" from taking hold after a spate of shootings and stabbings of young people. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2164203,00.html uk: Inquiry into safe net for children Tanya Byron, the clinical psychologist, is to head an inquiry into the impact of violent video games and internet pornography on children, ministers said today. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2402842.ece http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6982305.stm http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/tv+psychologist+heads+images+probe/772947 'Happy slapping' vids prompt Brown to push net filters The availability of gore and violence on the internet has prompted the UK Government to consider backing a campaign to encourage wider awareness and use of net-filtering software. Gordon Brown has ordered ministers to work with ISPs and media watchdog Ofcom to devise a strategy to regulate access to smut and violence online. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/04/net_filter_push/ ************************** ONLINE CRIME, SECURITY & LEGAL ************************** Cyberattacks outstripping defences Cyberattacks today have become so complex that there may be no real way to completely protect against them, internet security researchers have warned. Speaking to the media in Kuala Lumpur at this week's Hack in the Box Security Conference, Lance Spitzner, president of the Honeynet Project, said malicious software writers have been producing sophisticated codes, motivated mainly by the prospect of making millions of dollars from their exploits. http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Cyberattacks-outstripping-defences/0,130061733,339281872,00.htm A US CERT reminder: The net is an insecure place If you use Gmail, eBay, MySpace, or any one of dozens of other web-based services, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team wants you to know you're vulnerable to a simple attack that could give an attacker complete control over your account. Five weeks after The Register reported this sad reality, US CERT on Friday warned that the problem still festers. It said the world's biggest websites have yet to fix the gaping security bug, which can bite even careful users who only log in using the secure sockets layer protocol, which is denoted by an HTTPS in the beginning of browser address window. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/08/security_group_warns_of_web_vulnerabity/ uk: Cover-up allegation over Chinese hackers Ministers were accused yesterday of trying to cover up the extent of Chinese cyber-attacks on Whitehall and urged to adopt a more robust approach to Beijing about the incidents. http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2163211,00.html A crime is committed online every 10 seconds in UK, say criminologists More than three million online crimes were carried out last year, according to estimates published today. These included more than 200,000 cases of financial fraud, twice the official number of real-world robberies carried out during the same period. http://out-law.com/page-8450 http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/09/07/1188783449780.html [AFP] US tip-off foiled German bomb plot, reports say A tip-off from US intelligence helped to foil the terror bomb plot in Germany, it emerged yesterday. "The first piece of hard evidence on the bomb plot against American military and airbases in Germany was transmitted to the German authorities from American intelligence officials," Rolf Tophoven, director of the German institute for terrorist research and security policy, said. ... According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the US officials gave the Germans internet IP addresses - numbers that can help to locate a computer - and parts of names. http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,,2164900,00.html German Investigators Are Building Case Against Others Implicated in Foiled Plot ... Wolfgang Schäuble, the conservative federal interior minister, who for months has called for tougher security measures, made it clear this week that he wanted to expand investigators reach using highly debated techniques. The techniques include sending fake e-mail messages with Trojan horse viruses to suspects to help security agents conduct two types of searches: perusal and longer-term surveillance. Mr. Schäuble has also called for rules allowing investigators to ban some terrorist suspects from using mobile phones to undermine their ability to communicate, in a proposal that appears to be modeled on similar measures already in place in Britain, and for new powers to punish people who have been to camps where they are trained in terrorist methods to attack the West. http://nytimes.com/2007/09/07/world/europe/07germany.html us: Federal judge throws out parts of Patriot Act, says court OK needed to get Net records A federal judge struck down parts of the revised USA Patriot Act on Thursday, saying investigators must have a court's approval before they can order Internet providers to turn over records without telling customers. http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_6817055 ************************** GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC POLICY ************************** Legislation of INTERPOL member states on sexual offences against children In order to set up a base document regarding legislation of the member countries of the International Criminal Police Organization-INTERPOL on child sex abuse, INTERPOL asked member countries to provide us with a summary of the applicable legal texts regarding these offences. http://www.interpol.int/Public/Children/SexualAbuse/NationalLaws/Default.asp Judge Rules Feds Cannot Silence ISPs With Patriot Act A federal judge has struck down a component of the USA Patriot Act, saying the post-9/11 law violates constitutional principles by attempting to force third parties such as Internet service providers who receive demands for information without search warrants to keep silent about those inquiries. U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero handed a victory to Patriot Act opponents including the American Civil Liberties Union with the ruling, which was handed down on Thursday. http://ecommercetimes.com/story/KckCg9lpfVhtBC/Judge-Rules-Feds-Cannot-Silence-ISPs-With-Patriot-Act.xhtml us: Judge deals blow to Patriot Act A key portion of the Patriot Act is unconstitutional and violates Americans' free speech rights, a federal judge said Thursday in a case that could represent a bitter setback for the Bush administration's attempts to expand its surveillance powers. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said the section of the Patriot Act that permits the FBI to send Internet service providers secret demands, called national security letters, for customer information violates the First Amendment and unreasonably curbs the authority of the judiciary. http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6206570.html http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6206570.html Judge Invalidates Patriot Act Provisions A federal judge struck down controversial portions of the USA Patriot Act in a ruling that declared them unconstitutional yesterday, ordering the FBI to stop its wide use of a warrantless tactic for obtaining e-mail and telephone data from private companies for counterterrorism investigations. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/06/AR2007090601438.html in: Parliament panel pulls up govt on cyber laws Noting the complex language of legislations on monitoring the cyber space, a Parliamentary panel has criticised the government for not preparing a new set of laws and instead taking a "short cut route" of making changes in the existing norms. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Parliament_panel_pulls_up_govt_on_cyber_laws/articleshow/2352084.cms ********************** INTERNET USE ********************** Shutting Down Big Downloaders The rapid growth of online videos, music and games has created a new Internet sin: using it too much. Comcast has punished some transgressors by cutting off their Internet service, arguing that excessive downloaders hog Internet capacity and slow down the network for other customers. The company declines to reveal its download limits. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/06/AR2007090602545.html Heavy Internet users unplugged by US cable company Several Internet users in the United States have been unplugged by their service provider because they download too much, a press report said here Friday. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/09/08/1188783547699.html ca: Caught in the throttle Having the highest-quality Internet connection is a must in today's world of teleworking and home-based businesses. Many businesses and workers rely on their Internet service providers to provide them with the high-speed service they pay for, but are ISPs delivering what they promise? As more and more Canadians begin using their high-speed Internet for applications that use a large amount of bandwidth, some ISPs are starting to pick and choose who gets full use of their high-speed access, while limiting or "de-prioritizing" others. http://www.ottawabusinessjournal.com/319629855570564.php Michael Geist's response to Caught in the Throttle ... What is a consumer to think when the company's website says nothing about the issue but promotes its services as offering "blistering speed for sharing large files and much more", while personnel alternately say that Rogers bandwidth shapes, doesn't traffic shape, prioritizes traffic, and/or reserves space for some traffic? http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2220/125/ Spanish 'granny' dissects past and present Her readers call her "the little granny," and for eight months she has engrossed them with her ruminations on the present and her recollections of the past. Since her debut in cyberspace in December, María Amelia López, 95, has drawn thousands of readers from across the globe with an incisive blog. http://iht.com/articles/2007/09/09/business/blogger.php ********************** SOCIAL NETWORKING ********************** Privacy fears as Facebook puts users details on search engines Facebook, the hugely popular social networking site, risks provoking anger from its users by opening up details of individuals to the web at large. A new public search feature will soon mean that basic Facebook user profiles carrying names and photographs of the sites members are accessible through search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and MSN. http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2395582.ece uk: Hospital bans Facebook after computer slowdown Staff at a Kent hospital have been banned from using the Facebook website because social networking during working hours has been slowing down the NHS trust's computer systems. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2163184,00.html http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,,2163308,00.html Social networking sites take notice of seniors Silicon Valley's Next New Thing? Old people. Technology investors and entrepreneurs, long obsessed with connecting to teenagers and 20-somethings, are starting a host of new social networking sites targeting their parents and grandparents. The sites have names like Eons, Rezoom, Multiply, Maya's Mom, Boomj and Boomertown. Think Facebook with wrinkles. http://iht.com/articles/2007/09/06/technology/websocial.php ********************** NEW TECHNOLOGIES ********************** Germany warns citizens to avoid using Wi-Fi People should avoid using Wi-Fi wherever possible because of the risks it may pose to health, the German government's Environment Ministry has said. Its surprise ruling - the most damning made by any government on the fast-growing technology - will shake the industry and British ministers, and vindicates the questions that The Independent on Sunday has been raising over the past four months. http://environment.independent.co.uk/lifestyle/article2944417.ece Telecom Future In India And China India and China are top of the class when it comes to global telecom growth rates, with a total of 200 million subscribers between them in the first quarter of 2007, according to a UN report. Some 61% of the worlds mobile subscribers are in developing countries, fueled by countries like Brazil, China, India and Russia, said the report, from the International Telecommunications Union. http://www.forbes.com/markets/2007/09/06/india-china-telecom-markets-equity-cx_rd_0906markets18.html Mobile television Screen test: Lessons from South Korea's experiment with mobile TV Ride on the Seoul metro or take a bus around the city's streets and you will see passengers gazing at their mobile phones with rapt attention, earplugs firmly in place. They are watching television. Since the first services were launched in 2005, mobile-TV services have garnered over 7.5m customers. The signals are delivered via terrestrial and satellite broadcasts, a far more efficient approach than sending individual data streams to each viewer's handset, as is mostly done in other countries. http://economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9767747 Techies Ponder Ever Smarter Computers Futurists argue information technology is hurtling toward a point where machines will become smarter than their makers. If that happens, it will alter what it means to be human in ways almost impossible to conceive, they say. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/08/AR2007090801780.html ********************** SPAM ********************** Still growing, spam is now 83% of all e-mail It may sound like a broken record, but spam continues to do just that -- break records. Unwanted commercial e-mail is growing by electronic leaps and bounds: An Internet-buckling 60 billion to 150 billion messages per day. Put another way: A whopping 83% of all e-mail comes from suspicious Internet addresses. Spam is up 100% from a year ago because "there still is money to be made from marketing Viagra and get-rich-quick schemes," says David Mayer, a product manager at e-mail security firm IronPort Systems, the Cisco Systems division that sponsored the report. http://blogs.usatoday.com/technologylive/ nz: ISPs will cut services to spammers under voluntary code With introduction of the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act today, Internet Service Providers are also being asked to sign a voluntary code of practice to help stem the floods of spam reaching Kiwi inboxes. http://net4now.com/isp_news/news_article.asp?News_ID=4819 http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/1318360/1334494 us: Four Guilty In E-Mail Pump-And-Dump Case That Netted $20 Million Four men pleaded guilty to running an e-mail pump-and-dump scam that involved 15 different publicly traded companies and defrauded investors of more than $20 million. http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201804792 us: Porn spammers' guilty verdict upheld If you received porn spam a few years ago, there's a reasonable chance Jeffrey Kilbride, a California resident, and James Schaffer, an Arizona resident, are to blame. The duo made millions with a simple business model: Churning out unsolicited junk e-mail with pornographic photos. ... Enter the federal Can-Spam Act, which took effect on January 1, 2004. It legalized spam but at least required that spammers follow certain rules. Kilbride and Schaffer didn't. http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6206690.html http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6206690.html ********************************* COMMENT, MICROSOFT & DEVELOPMENTS ********************************* All sides await verdict in Microsoft-EU case Nine years after it began, Microsoft's legal battle with Europe's competition regulator will reach a climax next week with a ruling as eagerly awaited as almost any in European legal history. http://iht.com/articles/2007/09/09/business/msft10.php Web rivals plot the answer to Wikipedia A project has been set up with the aim of usurping Wikipedia as the webs leading reference work. Like its rival, the Citizendium site will solicit input from the public. But in a departure from the standard wiki model, it will be directed by expert editors, and contributors will be expected to use their real names. http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article2409783.ece au: Digital literacy in a knowledge economy There has been much comment recently on Kevin Rudd's proposal to fast-track broadband infrastructure in Australia. Even the Government thinks this is a good idea. The only difference between the parties is whether it should be supported with public as well as private finance. Not much of the debate has been concerned with what Australians might do with their digital capability once they've got it. Even less thought seems to have gone into how they - or rather we - will acquire the skills and motivations required to benefit fully from this new toy. http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/10/2028137.htm Can Michael Dell Refocus His Namesake? On a recent afternoon at his companys headquarters here, Michael S. Dell is seated in a spacious conference room named Dobie Hall in honor of the University of Texas dormitory where, in 1984, he started the computer giant that bears his name. He boasts that Dell Inc. has just reported quarterly profits that exceeded Wall Street projections. Its an encouraging sign, he says, that the company buffeted by high-profile production problems and accounting shenanigans is finally regaining momentum. http://nytimes.com/2007/09/09/technology/09dell.html ********************** TELECOMMUNICATIONS ********************** au: OPEL network gets go-ahead The federal Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts has approved the funding agreement for a new national wireless and wired broadband network with OPEL Networks. http://computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;244493164;fp;2;fpid;1 ********************** MOBILE/WIRELESS ********************** us: The High-Stakes Debate Over Wireless Broadband "The Great White Space Debate" may be unfamiliar to most small business owners, and to most people for that matter. But its outcome could have a profound impact on e-commerce and the future of telecommunications and the Internet. http://nytimes.com/allbusiness/07girard.html Mobile phone technology turns 20 The international agreement that gave birth to mobile networks is 20 years old this weekend. On 7 September 1987, 15 phone firms signed an agreement to build mobile networks based on the Global System for Mobile (GSM) Communications. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6983869.stm ********************************** ARRESTS/COURT CASES FOR CHILD PORN ********************************** au: Two-month operation busts child-porn ring A PRESBYTERIAN minister and two teachers were among 13 men arrested in one of the biggest child porn stings in Queensland history. The two-month special operation, which included tip-offs from German police, netted 800,000 images of child pornography, including sickening images of babies being abused. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22375734-421,00.html au: Teachers, minister caught in child porn sting TWO teachers and a church minister were among 13 Queensland men arrested for possessing and distributing child pornography today. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22373962-29277,00.html http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/06/2026270.htm http://stuff.co.nz/4192618a12.html au: Child porn man's name suppressed THE name of a man caught with child pornography has been suppressed by a court to spare his child "undue hardship". The decision of Magistrate Simon Milazzo goes against legal precedent set in the District Court. http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22375489-5006301,00.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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 ____________________________________________________________________________________ Sick of deleting your inbox? Yahoo!7 Mail has free unlimited storage. http://au.docs.yahoo.com/mail/unlimitedstorage.html _______________________________________________ APPLe mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.apnic.net/mailman/listinfo/apple
