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Tuesday, September 3, 2002 |
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August was the worst month on record for digital attacksü with the number steadily increasing due to rising political tensionsü say experts.
August has been a record breaking month for malicious hackers with 2002 set to become the worst year for digital attacks on record, according to security firm mi2g.
The number of hack attacks in August reached 5,830, it reported.
The total for the first eight months of 2002 reaching over 31,000 - more than the total for the whole of 2001.
Digital attacks have been steadily rising. Conservative projections suggest there could be up to 45,000 hack attacks across the globe in 2002.
[BBC News | TECHNOLOGY]
18:36
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Hint: it's not about piracy, but about control:
This new distribution and marketing model is a huge threat to the record companies. After all, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot only cost $85,000 to produce, and distribution was free. With low-cost production and a new distribution network that connects artists directly with their fans, there is little room for a giant plodding record label to insinuate itself into the picture and skim off the money. This is the real reason why the RIAA is spending millions of dollars to buy politicians and use the heavy hand of government to try to shut these networks down.
Indeed. [InstaPundit.Com]
18:34
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In the year that has elapsed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the world's governments have moved to restrict privacy, boost surveillance and increase linking of databases, according to a survey released by a pair of advocacy groups on Tuesday. The 393-page report, which reviews current and proposed laws in 50 nations, is the first comprehensive survey of how privacy rights have been globally affected after last September's catastrophes. It was released by human rights group Privacy International and the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Four trends have become apparent, according to the report: the swift erosion of pro-privacy laws; greater data sharing among corporations, police and spy agencies; greater eavesdropping; and sharply increased interest in people-tracking technologies, such as face-recognition systems and national ID cards. "It's actually pretty shocking if you look at the timeline that's involved here," said Sarah Andrews, research director of the EPIC and the author of the report. "Getting legislation through a government is not an easy thing to do, and most of this happened before the end of 2001." [Privacy Digest]
18:25
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A website dedicated to improving child safety on the internet has been launched by education groups across Europe. [dws.]
18:18
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Junk e-mail is becoming an increasing and uncontrollable menace[cedilla] much of it pointing children to pornographic websites. [dws.]
18:18
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Nicodemo Scarfo Jr. thought the Internet was a foolproof way of running his gambling operation ÷ little did he know that he was under virtual surveillance every time he typed in his computer password.
Scarfo, a New Jersey mobster, was sentenced last month to the maximum 33 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to running an illegal gambling ring.
FBI agents secretly wired Scarfo's office computer with a "key-logger" surveillance system and were able to find out his password. That password unlocked the gambling records the government used to build a case against him. [ABCNEWS]
16:19
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Email and Net abuse at work have become the number one reason why UK employees face the sack, according to a survey out today.
Research by London solicitors KLegal and Personnel Today magazine found that disciplinary cases in the last 12 months for email and Net abuse at work exceeded those for dishonesty, violence, and health & safety breaches put together. [...]
Almost two thirds of dismissals from cases of email and Net abuse stemmed from accessing or distributing porno. The survey also found that employees are nearly ten times more likely to be dismissed for sending a XXX email than they are for sending an email which may damage the company's reputation.
[The Register]
15:40
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Dem US-Finanzkonzern Citigroup steht wom[ring]glich orger ins Haus. Stein des Ansto§es ist ein Angebot der Tochter Citibank f[florin]r die Nutzung von Online-Diensten, die das Unternehmen seinen Kunden schicken wollte. Pikant: Die E-Mail-Adressen f[florin]r Kontoinhaber, die keine E-Mail-Adresse beim Bankhaus angegeben hatten, kaufte der Konzern vom externen Dienstleister Acxiom, berichtet das Wall Street Journal. In einigen F...llen waren Bankkunde und Inhaber des E-Mail-Accounts allerdings nicht identisch.
Den E-Mail-Empf...ngern ist es zwar nicht m[ring]glich, vollen Zugriff auf das Online-Konto zu nehmen, ohne den Benutzernamen und das Kennwort des Bankkunden zu kennen -- es sei ihnen aber m[ring]glich gewesen, zum Beispiel die Best...tigung von Kontobewegungen zu bekommen, genau wie Rechnungserinnerungen oder Informationen [florin]ber ungew[ring]hnliche Kontobewegungen. Nach Ansicht von Experten sind das potenzielle Werkzeuge f[florin]r Kreditkartenbetr[florin]ger oder Identit...tsdiebe.
[heise online news]
13:28
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Banks should shift from keyboard password entry to a mouse-based system to help avoid surreptitious keyboard logging programs. [Help Net Security - News]
13:23
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Computer databases already have a lot on us: Credit cards keep track of airline ticket purchases and car rentals. Supermarket discount programs know our eating habits. Libraries track books checked out... [Help Net Security - News]
13:23
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The InfoWar Con speaker Dr. Reinhard Munzert ist put into a psycatric clinic/jail and will be forced to take medication until he stops clainming that microwaves can be used to do mind-control like stuff which was exactly the subject he planned to speak about at InfowWar Con. More in german at Telepolis.
13:22
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AP picks up on French moves towards a ban on television pornography. The story was first noted in July by The Guardian. As with the July story, the legislators are making unsubstantiated claims of harm to minors. But regulators and others say TV porn has gotten out of hand. They worry that the spread of such shows threatens the moral and mental well-being of young people. France has long been known for sexual openness, so it's not as if the nation has suddenly grown... [bplog]
To my knowledge negative effects of p0rn on minors are not scientiffically proofable.
12:12
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The San Francisco Chronicle (sfgate.com) has an article today about Stanford biochemist Patrick O. Brown, who helped develop low-cost DNA microarrays for gene research. He is seeking $20M to start a foundation that would fund peer-review of research papers and then make them available for free over the web, thereby avoiding the high-cost of subscriptions common in existing research publications. Predictably, some publishers seem to be warning that their publishing model is hard to improve upon. The article mentions that a previous effort by Brown and others, The Public Library of Science garnered the signatures of 30,000 supporters, but then implies that it basically failed, suggesting that academics need the journals more than vice versa. Sounds like Brown's idea is exactly what the web is made for.
[Slashdot]
10:38
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The Register is reporting that spammers' computers may have become infected with Klez, thus helping to sustain the high volume of infected messages on the 'Net. [Kill-HUP.com]
9:16
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By late fall, airport security officers hope to begin installing systems that can instantly check the backgrounds of airline passengers [FCW: Privacy]
9:14
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There has recently been a lot of fuzz about spam filtering with naive Bayes networks. Naturally the theme got caught in the python-dev too. Several Python developers have played around with this scheme and result can be found in Python CVS nondist/sandbox link. Tim Peters now wants move on to other things and gave final thoughts on the subject link. For some reason you are somehow inclined to make conclusions about different algorithms before you have any verification. Therefore Tim advices that:
The second most important thing is to run a fat test all the way to the end before concluding anything. A subtler point is that you should never keep a change that doesn't *prove* itself a winner: neutral changes bloat your code with proven irrelevancies that will come back to make your life harder later, in part because they'll randomly interfere with future changes in ways that make it harder to recognize a significant change when you stumble into one.
So, in general, if you are working on Bayesian spam filtering, I would suggest you to take look at python-dev link archives, too. [Python owns us]
9:09
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Robert F. Turner, co-founder of Virginia University's Center for National Security Law, provides some analysis of the justification for holding Jose Padilla without charge or trial. Via How Appealing . To begin with, neither I nor most other American citizens today have a constitutional right to legal counsel. The Sixth Amendment begins with the words: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy" the rights enumerated therein. I have not been charged... [bplog]
9:09
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Maximillian Dornseif, 2002.
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