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There's a Sucker Converted Every Minute - Via Slashdot:
Ponca City, We love you writes "Once the US converts from analog to digital broadcasting next February, those who receive their signals over the air will need a converter box for older, non-digital models. Government-approved converter boxes sell for $60 or less and a government-issued $40 rebate coupon is available for the asking but that hasn't stopped companies like the Ohio-based Universal TechTronics from offering supposedly free converter boxes. The gimmick: the box is free, as long as you pay $88 for a five-year warranty, plus $9.30 shipping. Universal TechTronics seems to specialize in 'high-tech' products of questionable value, marketing the Cool Surge portable air cooler, 'a work of engineering genius from the China coast so advanced that no windows, vents, or freon are needed' that uses the same energy as a 60-watt light bulb. It works by blowing a stream of air over two ice packs that you have previously frozen in your freezer. What's the best tech scam you've heard of lately?"
(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot.)
U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 110th Congress - 2nd Session
as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate
Vote Summary
Question: On Passage of the Bill (H.R. 6304 )
Vote Number: 168 Vote Date: July 9, 2008, 02:47 PM
Required For Majority: 1/2 Vote Result: Bill Passed
Measure Number: H.R. 6304 (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 )
Measure Title: A bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to establish a procedure for authorizing certain acquisitions of foreign intelligence, and for other purposes.
In Japan, a 900 Gigabyte Upload Cap, Downloads Uncapped - Via Slashdot:
Raindeer writes "While the Broadband Bandits of the US are contemplating bandwidth caps between 5 gigabyte and 40 gigabyte per month, the largest telco in Japan has gone ahead and laid down some heavy caps for Japan's broadband addicts. From now on, if you upload more than 30 gigabyte per day, your network connection may be disconnected. Just think of it ... if you're in Japan and want to upload the HD movie you shot of yesterday's wedding, you soon might hit the limit. The downloaders do not face similar problems."
(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot.) read more »
How to Save Mac OS X From Malware - Via Slashdot:
eXchange writes "Well-known hacker Dino Dai Zovi has written an article at ZDNet discussing last week's discovery of a critical threat to Mac OS X, and another announcement of a Trojan horse exploiting this discovery. He suggests that Snow Leopard, or Mac OS X 10.6, should integrate more robust means of preventing malware attacks. Some of the suggestions he has include mandatory code-signing for kernel extensions (so only certified kernel extensions can run), sandbox policies for Safari, Mail, and third-party applications (so these applications cannot do anything to the system), and some lower-level changes, such as hardware-enforced Non-eXecutable memory and address space layout randomization."
(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot.)
Foundations of Mac OS X Leopard Security - Via Slashdot Book Reviews:
jsuda writes
"At least a half-dozen times in the book 'Foundations of Mac OS X Leopard Security' the authors state that there is a misconception that the Macintosh computer is immune from security problems. That allegation may explain why there are very few books published (and nearly none in recent years) about security for the Mac. This book is meant to change all that. The authors acknowledge that the Mac OS X software has had little of the security problem experience of Windows (and other operating systems, to a lesser extent) but they spend 455 pages detailing exactly where and how the Macintosh platform is (or may be) vulnerable."
Click thru for the rest of Jsuda's review, or use our Amazon link to purchase - 'Foundations of Mac OS X Leopard Security'
(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot Book Reviews.)
Digital TV foreshadows erosion of Internet rights | June 18, 2008 03:00 AM | Tom Yager - Via Ahead of the Curve | Tom Yager | InfoWorld :
With regard to the free exchange of information over the Internet, we, the people, have mostly managed to hold our ground. We can thank activists, hacktivists, legislators saying "no, thanks" to money from the entertainment lobbies, and forward-thinking artists and content distributors--I'm proud that writers and publishers took the lead on this--who recognize that reach is the currency of the digital age.
We should take as a warning sign of descent down the slippery slope toward the loss of Internet freedoms Internet providers' arbitrary blocking and throttling of BitTorrent traffic. The rationale points to the bandwidth wasted by BitTorrent. That doesn't ring true. There are other flavors of traffic such as VOIP, streaming news, advertising and entertainment, photo galleries, remote PC access, Usenet repositories, denial of service attacks, and spam that consume beastly amounts of bandwidth, but somehow none of these warrants detection and control at the provider's end of the pipe. It makes one wonder, what's so special about BitTorrent that it cries out to be controlled in such a radical manner?
That's an easy one. The entertainment lobby (my shorthand to avoid spewing the alphabet soup of movie, TV, and music trade groups), having failed to get the feds to impose a tax on videotapes and recordable discs, or to hold Internet providers liable for copyrighted content transferred through their networks, or (so far) to add a piracy tax to every broadband user's monthly bill, is using the most powerful weapon yet devised: "Standards." read more »
Slashdot | Mass Effect DRM Still Causing Issues - Via Slashdot :
An anonymous reader writes "There was some discussion last month about the proposed DRM for Mass Effect and Spore that required the game to phone home every ten days. They backed down from that, but have left in that a user is only allowed 3 activations per license key. A license key is burned up when the O/S is reinstalled, when certain hardware is upgraded (EA refuses to disclose specifics of what), and possibly when a new user is set up in Windows. Only in its first month, some users are already locked out of their games from trying troubleshooting techniques to get the game running."
(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot .)
Understanding Privacy - Via Slashdot: Your Rights Online:
privacyprof writes "Slashdot readers familiar with Professor Daniel J. Solove's essay, 'I've Got Nothing to Hide and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy,' might be interested in his new book, Understanding Privacy, which develops many of the ideas in that essay. As rapidly changing technology makes information increasingly available, there has been a great struggle to define privacy, with many conceding that the task is virtually impossible. The book argues there are multiple forms of privacy, related to one another by 'family resemblances'. It explains the framework for understanding privacy which was briefly discussed in the 'Nothing to Hide' essay. The book covers the framework in greater depth and explores how it applies to a wide array of privacy issues, such as data mining, surveillance, data security, and consumer privacy. Chapter 1 is available for free download."
Editor: Thinking of buying it?? Why not use my link to Amazon( Understanding Privacy ) and let me get the commission? It doesn't cost any more than normal, my cut comes out of Amazon's end :-)
What Will Happen to Surveillance in August 2008 - Via EFF.org Updates:
Yesterday the New York Times published an article, "Return to Old Spy Rules Is Seen as Deadline Nears," which allowed various Administration official to push their talking points supporting expanding their warrantless wiretapping powers. The main focus of the talking points is to suggest that Congress faces a deadline in August 2008 due to the expiration of the Protect America Act, and must pass surveillance legislation before that deadline.
The talking points have been effective: "Even some Democrats, at odds with the White House for months over the surveillance issue, said they were worried about the summer situation." Yet, contrary to the government’s fear mongering, America will have tremendous tools available to monitor terrorist threats in August 2008 and beyond.
Marty Lederman at Balkinization has provided an astute analysis of "What the FISA Debate is Not About", also discussing what will happen in August. read more »
McCain Revises Stance on Warrantless Wiretapping Again - Via EFF.org Updates:
Mere hours after a McCain spokesperson adopted the Bush Administration's flawed legal argument that courts have "recognized the President’s constitutional authority to conduct warrant-less surveillance" and that the "courts’ findings supported the Bush Administration’s efforts in the wake of September 11, 2001," Senator John McCain said that:
“It’s ambiguous as to whether the president acted within his authority of not,’’ he said, saying courts had ruled different ways on the matter.
(emphasis added). Previously, McCain had said that the president did not have the inherent authority to conduct warrantless surveillance.
At a news conference Friday, McCain said "It’s very clear that there’s questions that are wending their way through the courts as to what kind of powers the president of the United States has." Previously, speaking on the Today Show, McCain had agreed with host Matt Lauer that "it is up to a court of law to find out if someone broke the law here and if punishment should be handed out." read more »
Study Shows DMCA Takedowns Based on Inconclusive Evidence - Via Freedom to Tinker:
A new study by Michael Piatek, Yoshi Kohno and Arvind Krishnamurthy at the University of Washington shows that copyright owners’ representatives sometimes send DMCA takedown notices where there is no infringement — and even to printers and other devices that don’t download any music or movies. The authors of the study received more than 400 spurious takedown notices.
Technical details are summarized in the study’s FAQ: read more »
CFP2008 in New Haven - Via CDT - PolicyBeta:
CFP2008 in New Haven
I was fortunate to serve on the Program Committee for the 18th Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference in New Haven, CT. It was Chaired by EFF’s Eddan Katz who put on a smaller, but very engaging conference. One of the best programs in my memory actually. read more »
Google backs open-source CERT group - Via Network World :
Google has thrown its weight behind a fledgling security reporting group for the open-source community.
The search engine giant, long a proponent of open-source software, is now one of three sponsors of oCERT, the Open Source Computer Emergency Response Team.
Launched in late March, oCERT aims to be a clearinghouse for data on security vulnerabilities in open-source products, keeping open-source distributors on top of flaws and helping small software projects ensure that users of their code are aware of any issues. read more »
Google Backs Open-Source CERT Group - Via Slashdot :
alphadogg points to a Network World story, excerpting
"Google has thrown its weight behind a fledgling security reporting group for the open-source community. The search engine giant, long a proponent of open-source software, is now one of three sponsors of oCERT, the Open Source Computer Emergency Response Team. Launched in late March, oCERT aims to be a clearinghouse for data on security vulnerabilities in open-source products.
(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot.)
Digital Deception - Via washingtonpost.com - Technology:
With a test, Web sites let people in and keep out computers set to unleash spam attacks. Now, computers are cracking the code.
Are you a human or a computer?
Over the Internet, it's getting harder and harder to tell.
Some of the common tests used by Web sites to distinguish between legitimate flesh-and-blood visitors and malicious human-mimicking computers recently appear to have been outwitted.
Last month, the human verification tests, which typically require users to identify deformed letters set against a cluttered backdrop, were broken by a computer. The computer then repeatedly created free Hotmail e-mail accounts and sent spam from them, according to Websense, the security firm that detected the hacking. read more »
Workshop: Activism and Education Using Social Networks - Via CFP: Technology Policy '08:
As well as providing ways to stay in touch with friends and make new connections, social networking technologies are increasingly important for activism and education. This interactive workshop will look at social networks and other innovative avenues such as blogs, wikis, mashups, and virtual worlds - as well as the role of more traditional online communication mechanisms like email and discussion forums. It will cover these technologies and their larger implications; techniques for engaging others while dealing with challenges such as trolling, flaming, and privacy invasion; and a nuts-and-bolts introduction to utilizing these tools.
The Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Workshop on Activism and Education Using Social Networks will run in parallel with the concurrent sessions on Thursday, May 22. To accommodate those will be attending -- or presenting at! -- other sessions for different parts of the day, we're organizing the bulk of the workshop as a series of independent modules, covering different skills, and best practices for educators and activists. We'll also cover success stories, brainstorm challenges faced by attendees, and construct groups for CFP attendees to stay in touch as well as profiles and groups for several organizations attending. read more »
Declassified NSA Document Reveals the Secret History of TEMPEST - Via Threat Level:
It was 1943, and an engineer with Bell Telephone was working on one of the U.S. government's most sensitive and important pieces of wartime machinery, a Bell Telephone model 131-B2. It was a top secret encrypted teletype terminal used by the Army and Navy to transmit wartime communications that could defy German and Japanese c
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