Internet Goes Down for Pirates 11/26/2007

Internet users in France who frequently download music or films illegally risk losing Web access under a new anti-piracy system unveiled on Friday. The three-way pact between Internet service providers, the government and owners of film and music rights is a boon to the music industry, which has been calling for such measures to stop illicit downloads eating into its sales.

UK Kids Warned MySpace Is Not Private 11/26/2007

Young people are compromising their career prospects and opening the door to online fraud by posting personal information on social networking sites without thinking about the consequences, a U.K. privacy watchdog warned Friday.

1000 Internet Specialists 11/16/2007

More than 1,000 Internet specialists from government agencies, universities, nonprofits and the private sector are meeting in Brazil this week. Security is one of the top agenda items at the second U.N. Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, running until Thursday. Other issues include freedom of expression, the fight against cyber-crime, privacy, multilingualism and diversity, and measures against the dissemination of child pornography and child sexual exploitation, according to a statement from the organizers on the forum's Web site, where most sessions can be monitored live over the Internet. complete article

Visa Security 11/15/2007

The PCI Security Standards Council, the body managing the Payment Card Industry data security initiative, on Wednesday announced that it will anoint a set of best practices developed by Visa Inc. as the new security standard for third-party application software in the payment industry. The new standard is called the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) and is based on Visas Payment Application Best Practices (PABP). Over the next few months, the PCI Security Standards Council, together with participating organizations, security auditors, and vulnerability scanning vendors, will offer comments and suggestions relating to the PA-DSS. The security council will then incorporate this feedback and publish a final version of the application security standards in the first quarter of 2008, said Bob Russo, general manager of the security standards council.

Security RSS Feeds 11/14/2007

Easily find security and protection RSS feeds, by searching or navigating the directory. Security Feeds.

Chinese Spying 11/13/2007

Recent revelations that China-based hackers may have penetrated U.S. computer networks -- including those operated by the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security as well as by major U.S. defense firms -- has heightened concerns about Chinese spying in the United States. Computer experts believe that the extensive scale of the information operations means they probably involved, to some degree, the Chinese military or intelligence services. Although U.S. authorities remain concerned by the espionage operations conducted in the United States by Russia, Iran, and Cuba, they consider Chinese spying the most serious in terms of size.

Macs Becoming Virus Friendly 11/13/2007

It is a common refrain dashed off in response whenever anyone writes about the sorry state of PC security. In fact, you have probably seen it countless times on this blog alone: Get a Mac! Well, the times they are a changing. As the Macintosh becomes more popular with users, the inevitable has begun: Macs are increasingly being targeted by malware creators, as the sheer size of that pool becomes more and more tempting.

FaceBook Does Not Allow Psedonyms 11/09/2007

Just as in earlier times a man was only as good as his family name, today we are defined by the social networks we belong to. So imagine my horror when I learned that I have become a virtual bastard. Earlier this week I logged into Facebook and discovered that without warning my account had been deleted. According to Facebook, I am a fake, a charlatan, a nonperson and all of my more than 200 Facebook friends are the victims of a cruel hoax. complete article

WhoIs Under Fire 11/08/2007

According to a recent AP article, the Whois service, a series of databases with information about the individuals that register domains, has come under fire from privacy advocates and a new proposal seeks to do away with the service altogether. Such a move would be a tremendous blow to law enforcement, lawyers and researchers that regularly use the database. However, it may also alleviate some of the spam and privacy concerns that come with the database in its current format. more information

Personal Privacy 11/06/2007

Over the past two years, data leaks have compromised more than 150 million personal-data records, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. These breaches come with a high price tag. Forrester Research says that a security breach can cost anywhere between $90 and $305 per record, meaning that the cost of a single, significant breach may run into millions or even billions of dollars. The problem is certainly not going away, and it is no surprise the federal government is considering laws to mandate how sensitive data is handled.

How to Tell if Software is Pirated 11/05/2007

Microsoft took another incremental step in its long-standing anti-piracy program this week when it filed lawsuits against 20 vendors in 13 states for allegedly selling pirated copies of its software. The company also launched a new educational site, HowToTell.com to help teach buyers tell the difference between legitimate and counterfeit or pirated software.

What is Fair Use? 10/26/2007

As the Internet matures, users and governments are struggling to manage controversial issues. Lets face it, the Internet did not exist when the US copyright laws were written;let us not forget, while many countries respect copyright laws, the Internet is global without a governing body. There are not only different laws, rules and regulations, but also jurisdiction issues. RSS didn't exist when copyright laws were written either. While ardent supporters feel any content in a feed can be syndicated, other equally fervent publishers contend that original works are just that--original works, and in many countries protected by copyright laws. Much of the Internet is uncharted territory. There is no single agencies that has complete control over content or censorship, and it is unlikely that there will ever be a recognized body that regulates and agrees to terms and conditions to govern the online world. At this point, the location of webhosts and companies owning domains dictate what laws that are observed. In other words, if a company in the US or UK is violating a copyright and their host is in the US or UK, it will be easy to enforce copyright laws in the event of a violation and have the website content pulled. If the website is located on a server in a region that does not recognize or acknowledge the rights of a copyright holder, the web host will be less likely to cooperate in removing the offending content. What is Fair Use?

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