18527292
submission
AHuxley writes:
The Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems a privately owned data system that tracks mortgage records.
ie MERS tracks “changes” or "servicing rights" in the ownership of mortgage loans as they are bought and sold among MERS members or others.
Since 1997 65 million home mortgages have been registered on the MERS System. Is MERS the mortgage owner's agent and has the right to foreclose?
More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MERS
18507992
submission
AHuxley writes:
The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that details about millions of Vodafone customers have been made publicly available on the internet (ie not intranet).
Thousands of people may have the secure web portal logins that can be used to gain full access to the accounts of about 4 million Vodafone customers.
Personal details ie names, home addresses, driver's licence numbers and credit card details where accessible.
Full access could look up a customer's bills and make changes to accounts. Limited access allows searching by name.
Passwords would be reset, and training and other procedures would be reviewed.
After http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_telephone_tapping_case_2004–2005 lets hope the switch software is safe.
18461488
submission
AHuxley writes:
The Miami-Dade Police Department recently finalized a deal to buy a 20-pound drone from defense firm Honeywell.
The drone can fly for 40 minutes, reach heights of 10,500 feet and cruise in the air at 46 miles an hour.
As the Miami-Dade Police Department has recently made a lot of budget cuts the funding may have come from a federal grant.
A an eye in the sky like over Iraq and Afghanistan may soon be looking down over South Florida "to keep people safe"
Honeywell has applied to the FAA for clearance to fly the drone in urban areas.
18247764
submission
AHuxley writes:
Is a former Animal Liberation Front prisoner and FBI informant now working for Mozilla?
The indybay.org article has a link to grand jury testimony and notes the exchange for a reduced sentence.
18247662
submission
AHuxley writes:
A very short report asking readers for their views on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the draft.
"Would you support the idea of a return to the draft?"
"And do you think that the conflicts are getting the interest they deserve among the American people?"
17799548
submission
AHuxley writes:
Via Arstechnica: PhotoFast announced one of the first Sandforce based 200MB/s replacement mSATA SSDs for Apple's MacBook Airs shortly after they were announced in October.
Apple has asked the company to stop all production of the upgrades, which used much faster controllers than those in Apple's official Toshiba ~ 160MB/s SSDs.
PhotoFast said to 9to5 Mac it complied with Apple's request because it did not want to jeopardize its current license to make official accessories for Macs and iPads.
Do slashdot readers think Apple shipped Toshiba based SSDs offer better performance over time with less degradation?
16903834
submission
AHuxley writes:
The Australian Attorney-General's Department does not see a rise in the number of users encrypting internet traffic to avoid the ISP-level filter.
"The [Australian Federal Police] has [also] confirmed that they do not forsee any significant operational issues posed by filtering."
Greens ICT spokesman Scott Ludlam posted a series of responses yesterday to questions taken on notice by various departments and authorities at Senate Committees.
16625740
submission
AHuxley writes:
The US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is seeking to track all international transactions equal to or in excess of $1,000.
Under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA) the US gov hopes detect transnational organized crime, multinational drug cartels, terrorist financing, and slow tax evasion.
A new a centralized database will help track around 300 depository institutions and 700 money services businesses.
Some background to this can be found in http://www.fincen.gov/news_room/rp/rulings/pdf/ImplicationsAndBenefitsOfCBFTR.pdf
16283384
submission
AHuxley writes:
Location-services provider Skyhook Wireless is taking Google to federal and state court in Massachusetts.
Patent infringement claims and business interference relate to Android and Google Maps not allowing Skyhook's mapping technology Motorola's Android handsets.
Did Google ask for Skyhook's technology be removed from Motorola handsets or Google would remove Android certification from those handsets?
A separate complaint regarding the patent claims was filed in federal court.
Skyhook was funded in part by Allen & Company (http://www.skyhookwireless.com/whoweare/management.php). Allen & Company had George Tenet of CIA fame as a managing director.
15847236
submission
AHuxley writes:
The closure of a Brisbane telephony exchange could allow for a total telco monopoly for the big Australian teclo ie Telstra.
As a new children's hospital will force the closure of a suburban exchange, the old copper network would be replaced with a new fibre-to-the-home network.
The 18,000 customers would then be on a new unregulated optical network with no legal access for any other ISP.
If this is allowed, exchanges with competitors cards and racks could be 'upgraded' to optical all over Australia.
15509306
submission
AHuxley writes:
Could a city place a $300 "business privilege tax" on bloggers, even if they make no profit?
Is the city of Philadelphia dreaming of a $300 “business privilege license” is for all local bloggers?
Make made $11 over two years and you could face city wage taxes, business privilege taxes and taxes on any net profits on top of state and federal taxes.
15374646
submission
AHuxley writes:
Apple has applied for a patent on a method to differentiate between authorized and unauthorized users of a particular iOS device.
Once detected, certain features would be automatically disabled. Sensitive data could be sent to a remote server and the device before been deleted. Apple hopes to lock out thieves, and alerting the owner of possible intrusion. Pictures of the unauthorized user could be taken andGPS coordinates transmitted. How long before Jailbreak users are also tracked?
15339872
submission
AHuxley writes:
With the latest update to Mac OS X 10.6.4 Apple has attempted to removes a number of software bottlenecks that point to significant graphics performance for Mac gamers.
The Steam news page notes improve visual quality and notably in the area of GPU occlusion queries. Using Apple's performance analysis tools some insight is given to the direction to what was holding Apple back and some of the very positive steps taken to improve the frame rate.
14958406
submission
AHuxley writes:
The Stuxnet worm targets industrial control systems built by German engineering firm Siemens has been found in the wild.
Microsoft was working on a patch to fix the vulnerability that enters via the USB interface.
After default passwords are used, the worm will try to upload control-system data to a remote server.
Pierre-Marc Bureau, a senior researcher in the virus lab of ESET noted "...very professional and much more professional than anything I see on a daily basis.."
The worm seems to be programmed to try to upload data from computer systems that are used to monitor large automated plants eg. manufacturing to power generation to water treatment.
14856362
submission
AHuxley writes:
The iPhone Dev Team released the latest hack that allows a jailbroken iPhone 4 to be unlocked and used on any wireless carrier.
The unlock "ultrasn0w" works with the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS as well.
As the U.S. Copyright Office amended the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, consumers can bypass a handset manufacturer's protection mechanisms to enable "handsets to execute software applications."
