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Comment Re:Dumb Idea, terrible Anti Virus software... (Score 1) 537

by cicho (#29781687) Attached to: Kaspersky CEO Wants End To Online Anonymity

I've already said what I think about Kaspersky's views here and I won't be renewing my license but... do you have anything other than anecdotal evidence (your own)? I switched from ESET Security Suite (essentially nod32 + firewall) to Kaspersky specifically because it uses significantly less memory, less CPU, and its on-access scan is much faster. Still a relative hog, like all av software today, but not nearly as bad as other things I've tried.

And anyway, it's really beside the point how good (or not) their products are. The man has just lost me as a customer even though I *like* what he makes.

Comment Re:As you might expect (Score 1) 537

by cicho (#29781649) Attached to: Kaspersky CEO Wants End To Online Anonymity

> Security expert wants a more secure system. Freedom experts want a free system.
> Unsurprisingly these two views clash

And there are technical reasons why they do - that's fine, that's tough, we understand the constraints. This isn't the problem.

The problem seems to be that some (many?) "security experts" do not **value** freedom - at all.

When you hear a government or a corporate official say "security", think "control". It makes things much clearer.

Comment Re:Look at his personal history (Score 1) 537

by cicho (#29781621) Attached to: Kaspersky CEO Wants End To Online Anonymity

I was born in communist Poland, early enough to remember it well but like you, too late to have endured any particular hardships or to have faced tough political choices. So without judging or justifying Kaspersky either way, let's note than in Russia in the 70s there would have been precious few career avenues for a kid gifted in maths and cryptanalysis.

The views he's expressing today are a completely different affair. Today he really talks as if the KGB thinking is catching up with him. (Not that you won't hear US or EU officials express like sentiments!) I've switched just recently from nod32 (s-l-o-w on-access scan!) to Kaspersky AVP, but I don't think I will be renewing the license when it expires in under a year. Wish there was more I could do.
Government

Secret ACTA Treaty May Sport "Internet Enforcement" Procedures After All 239

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the why-so-serious dept.
Andorin writes "Ars Technica writes about the recent work on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, and reveals that while the public does not have access to the text of the agreement, a handful of lawyers representing Big Content and numerous companies and organizations do. 'Turns out that... ACTA will include a section on Internet "enforcement procedures" after all. And how many people have had input on these procedures? Forty-two. ... Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) found out in September that the US Trade Representative's office had actually been secretly canvassing opinions on the Internet section of the agreement from 42 people, all of whom had signed a nondisclosure agreement before being shown the ACTA draft text.'"
Privacy

The NSA Wiretapping Story Nobody Wanted 144

Posted by Soulskill from the since-privacy-is-such-a-minor-issue dept.
CWmike writes "They sometimes call national security the third rail of politics. Touch it and, politically, you're dead. The cliché doesn't seem far off the mark after reading Mark Klein's new book, Wiring up the Big Brother Machine ... and Fighting It. It's an account of his experiences as the whistleblower who exposed a secret room at a Folsom Street facility in San Francisco that was apparently used to monitor the Internet communications of ordinary Americans. Amazingly, however, nobody wanted to hear his story. In his book he talks about meetings with reporters and privacy groups that went nowhere until a fateful January 20, 2006 meeting with Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Bankston was preparing a lawsuit that he hoped would put a stop to the wiretap program, and Klein was just the kind of witness the EFF was looking for. He spoke with Robert McMillan for an interview."
Books

Amazon Pulls Purchased E-Book Copies of 1984 and Animal Farm 645

Posted by Soulskill from the miniplenty-malquoted-kindle-rectify dept.
Oracle Goddess writes "In a story just dripping with irony, Amazon Kindle owners awoke this morning to discover that 1984 and Animal Farm had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for, and thought they owned. Apparently the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic edition, and apparently Amazon, whose business lives and dies by publisher happiness, caved. It electronically deleted all books by George Orwell from people's Kindles and credited their accounts for the price. Amazon customer service may or may not have responded to queries by stating, 'We've always been at war with Eastasia.'"
Sci-Fi

The Technology of Neuromancer After 25 Years 203

Posted by timothy from the where-were-you-when-it-came-out dept.
William Gibson's Neuromancer was first published 25 years ago. Dr_Ken writes with an excerpt from an article at MacWorld that delves into the current state of some of the technology that drives the book: "'Neuromancer is important because of its astounding predictive power. Gibson's core idea in the novel is the direct integration of man and computer, with all the possibilities (and horrors) that such a union entails. The book eventually sold more than 160 million copies, but bringing the book to popular attention took a long time and a lot of word-of-mouth. The sci-fi community, however, was acutely aware of the novel's importance when it came out: Neuromancer ran the table on sci-fi's big three awards in 1984, winning the Hugo Award, the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award, and the Nebula Award.'"
It's funny. Laugh.

Let's Rename Swine Flu As "Colbert Flu" 607

Posted by kdawson from the or-maybe-a-treadmill-on-the-virus-surface dept.
Bruce Perens writes "The World Health Organization will no longer refer to Virus A(H1N1) as 'Swine Flu,' citing ethnic reactions to 'swine,' for example among middle-eastern cultures who feel that swine are unclean. Or, is it because meat packers are concerned that people might stop eating pork in fear of the virus? WHO suggests that the public select a new name for the virus. I suggest that we all start calling it The Colbert Flu, after the comedian and fake pundit who asked his audience to stuff a NASA poll so that a Space Station module would be named after him. What can we do to make the name stick?"
Communications

NSA Overstepped the Law On Wiretaps 164

Posted by Soulskill from the can-i-hear-you-now dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that legal and operational problems surrounding the NSA's surveillance activities have come under scrutiny from the Obama administration, Congressional intelligence committees, and a secret national security court, and that the NSA had been engaged in 'overcollection' of domestic communications of Americans. The practice has been described as significant and systemic, although one official said it was believed to have been unintentional. The Justice Department has acknowledged that there had been problems with the NSA surveillance operation, but said they had been resolved. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the intelligence community, did not address specific aspects of the surveillance problems, but said in a statement that 'when inadvertent mistakes are made, we take it very seriously and work immediately to correct them.' The intelligence officials said the problems had grown out of changes enacted by Congress last July to the law that regulates the government's wiretapping powers, as well as the challenges posed by enacting a new framework for collecting intelligence on terrorism and spying suspects. Joe Klein at Time Magazine says the bad news is that 'the NSA apparently has been overstepping the law,' but the good news is that 'one of the safeguards in the [FISA Reform] law is a review procedure that seems to have the ability to catch the NSA when it's overstepping — and that the illegal activities have been exposed, and quickly.'"
The Internet

Happy 40th Birthday, Internet RFCs 58

Posted by timothy from the more-pigeons-what-say-ye dept.
WayHomer was one of several readers to point out the 40th birthday of an important tool in the formation of the Internet, and a look back at it by the author of the first of many. "Stephen Crocker in the New York Times writes, 'Today is an important date in the history of the Internet: the 40th anniversary of what is known as the Request for Comments (RFC).' 'RFC1 — Host Software' was published 40 years ago today, establishing a framework for documenting how networking technologies and the Internet itself work. Distribution of this memo is unlimited."
Earth

Scientist Forced To Remove Earthquake Prediction 485

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the not-quite-your-average-psychic dept.
Hugh Pickens writes to mention that Italian scientist Giampaolo Giuliani, a researcher at the National Physical Laboratory of Gran Sasso, recently gave warning about an earthquake that was to happen on March 29th of this year near L'Aquilla. Based on radon gas emissions and a series of observed tremors he tried to convince residents to evacuate, drawing much criticism from the city's mayor and others. Giuliani was forced to take down warnings he had posted on the internet. The researcher had said that a 'disastrous' earthquake would strike on March 29, but when it didn't, Guido Bertolaso, head of Italy's Civil Protection Agency, last week officially denounced Giuliani in court for false alarm. 'These imbeciles enjoy spreading false news,' Bertalaso was quoted as saying. 'Everyone knows that you can't predict earthquakes.' Giuliani, it turns out, was partially right. A much smaller seismic shift struck on the day he said it would, with the truly disastrous one arriving just one week later. 'Someone owes me an apology,' said Giuliani, who is also a resident of L'Aquila. 'The situation here is dramatic. I am devastated, but also angry.'"
It's funny. Laugh.

April Fools Sees Fake Extra Millions For Users of Brokerage Site 280

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the where-not-to-do-business dept.
Upstart online brokerage site Zecco had an unfortunate April Fool's day snafu that they are claiming was an honest mistake. Users logged on to find larger balances than they should have, sometimes millions of dollars extra, and many of those users started trading with the nonexistent money. Happy April Fool's Day. "... when Zecco realized it, the company apparently started to force sell, even at a loss, charging the losses to the customers along with a '$19.99 broker-assisted trading fee.' Oops."
Security

Could the Internet Be Taken Down In 30 Minutes? 289

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the millions-of-voices-suddenly-cried-out-in-terror dept.
GhostX9 writes "Tom's Hardware recently interviewed Dino A. Dai Zovi, a former member of Sandia National Labs' IDART (the guys who test the security of national agencies). Although most of the interview is focused on personal computer security, they asked him about L0pht's claim in 1998 if the Internet could still be taken down in 30 minutes given the advances on both the security and threat sides. He said that the risk was still true."

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