On The Other Hand...RealNames goes titsup.com
Andrew Orlowski offers the other side of the RealNames story - it was a stupid idea.

"RealNames' proposition was simple, and on the face of it, a no-brainer. Type a real word or phrase into your browser and it would guide you to your destination, bypassing all this cumbersome domain name business. A nice idea, but one based on the assumption that people are fairly stupid, and couldn't figure out that Comp USA's website might be say, CompUSA.com, and that even if you mistook whitehouse.gov for whitehouse.org, you'd be unhappy about the serendipitous diversion. quot; 

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The Cookie Crumbles?
New Web spyware eschews cookies. Scottish scientists are working on developing Web monitoring software that will gather huge amounts of surfer data without leaving much trace--and without using cookies. [ZDNet Tech News] 

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Oops. Smart Cards Fall To Physical Attacks
Smart cards - essentially a microprocessor embedded in a laminated piece of plastic - have long been viewed as a secure implementation of PKI technology for applications such as identity cards or cell phone authentication. While the underlying PKI technology remains secure, researchers have discovered a new means of defeating the systems: physical attacks on the cards themselves.

Vulnerability Is Discovered in Security for Smart Cards. Two computer security researchers have discovered an ingenious system that can extract information contained in widely used smart cards. [New York Times: Technology] 

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