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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, JULY 11, 2005 Security Community Bemoans Loss of Hacker Magazine ICANN Approves .mobi Domain iMesh Inks Deal with Sony BMG Google Wins Typosquatting Case SECURITY COMMUNITY BEMOANS LOSS OF HACKER MAGAZINE Long-time hacker magazine "Phrack" will stop being published this year after nearly 20 years as an information exchange for computer mischief, and at least some computer security experts believe computer users will be less safe after it is gone. Hackers have routinely undermined their own efforts by revealing their successes at compromising systems or causing other damage. Pete Simpson of computer security firm Clearswift noted that although the magazine makes computer exploits available to those who would use them to cause harm, by definition it also makes them available to the community of users working to protect computers from hackers. Simon Perry, vice president of security strategy at Computer Associates, said that security experts will still be able to find information about new exploits but that "Phrack was great as a one-stop shop" for such information. Simpson commented that after Phrack shuts down, younger hackers are likely to develop new vehicles to tell the world about their triumphs, once again leveling the playing field. Silicon.com, 11 July 2005 http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39150241,00.htm ICANN APPROVES .MOBI DOMAIN Responding to a request made by a group of leading makers of cellular telephones, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) this week approved the .mobi domain, intended to be the Internet home for Web sites whose content is optimized for the very small screens of mobile phones. Other than screen size, bandwidth and memory capacities also influence the design of Web content that is easy for users of mobile phones to access. Companies requesting the new domain included Hutchison 3, GSM Association, Ericsson, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Telefonica Moviles, T-Mobile, and Vodafone. According to a statement from the group, increasing the amount of content developed for phones will pay significant dividends in encouraging consumers to upgrade their phones, fostering the mobile market overall. CNN, 11 July 2005 http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/internet/07/11/phones.web.reut/ IMESH INKS DEAL WITH SONY BMG File-trading service iMesh has signed a deal with Sony BMG, one of the four leading U.S. record labels. Following the Supreme Court's recent ruling that exposes file-trading services for the copyright infringement of their users, iMesh announced it would develop a service "sanctioned" by the music industry. iMesh is reportedly also close to a deal with another of the big record labels, Universal Media Group, though iMesh would not comment on that. Similar to Mashboxx, iMesh uses technology that works to identify copyrighted songs so that record labels can claim royalties. In 2003, iMesh settled a copyright-infringement lawsuit with record labels for $4.1 million. CNET, 9 July 2005 http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5781196.html GOOGLE WINS TYPOSQUATTING CASE Google has the rights to several misspellings of its domain name, according to a decision by the National Arbitration Forum (NAF). Google had filed a complaint against Sergey Gridasov, a Russian man who had registered domain names of googkle.com, ghoogle.com, gfoogle.com and gooigle.com, saying that he was profiting from Google's name with the domains, which are common mistypings of google.com. Gridasov reportedly used the domains to redirect Web surfers to sites that would download various kinds of malware to their computers. Because Gridasov did not respond to the complaint, the NAF was compelled to accept the allegations in Google's complaint. According to the NAF, Gridasov is not entitled to use the domains, which are confusingly similar to Google's. Reuters, 8 July 2005 http://today.reuters.com/business/newsArticle.aspx?storyID=nN78398318 ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE RESOURCES The EDUCAUSE Resource Center is a repository for information concerning use and management of IT in higher education. 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