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The Internet

Submission + - Will feds mandate Internet routing security? (networkworld.com)

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: The Department of Homeland Security has spent $3 million over the past few years on research aimed at bolstering the security of the Internet's routing system.

Now, as this research is being deployed across the Internet, DHS wants government agencies and their carriers to be among the earliest adopters of the new Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) system that it helped create.

DHS considers the RPKI system to be a much-needed first step in securing the Internet's core routing protocol, which is called the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). In addition to its support of RPKI, DHS also has spent around $1 million on research and software development aimed at adding security directly to BGP.

RPKI helps improve routing security by adding a layer of encryption to the communications between Internet registries and network operators. With RPKI, network operators can verify that they have the authority to route traffic for a block of IP addresses or routing prefixes known as Autonomous System Numbers.

RPKI is designed to prevent Internet routing attacks http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/011509-bgp-attacks.html and accidents, such as the recent China Telecom Internet traffic hijacking incident http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/111810-china-telecom-operator-denies-hijacking.htmlthat has received attention on Capitol Hill.
Wireless Networking

Submission + - Verizon LTE To Focus First On Business Users (computerworld.com)

Submitted by CWmike
CWmike writes: Verizon Wireless said Wednesday that it will launch its faster Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless network in 38 cities, reaching 110 million people, on Sunday, with the initial focus on business users who deploy LTE over new $100 USB modems connected to laptops. What's less clear is when actual smartphones will be sold by Verizon that are ready for advertised LTE download speeds of 5Mbit/sec. to 12 Mbit/sec. That speed is about 10 times faster than what Verizon currently offers. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg recently said LTE smartphones will be launched by February, while Verizon CTO Tony Melone today said they would be ready by mid-2011, although he added that his timeline should not be taken as 'any different' from Seidenberg's. More information on devices and release dates will be announced at next month's Consumer Electronics Show, Melone said.

Comment I'll take my site down rather than comply (Score 1) 420

by valderost (#34241582) Attached to: Proposed ADA Requirements May Affect Public Internet Use
I will take my neighborhood civic association website down before I spend my personal, volunteer time to make it ADA compliant. It's not that I don't want it to comply, but there's simply no budget to hire people who know how to do this right, and I can't put the extra time in to do this myself.
Crime

Submission + - Man loses $20 million after having laptop repaired (networkworld.com)

Submitted by sluggyproxy
sluggyproxy writes: A wealthy man took his laptop in to a local computer store to have a virus removed. According to police, the store owner was able to convince the man that the virus was in fact a symptom of a much larger plot in which he was being menaced by government intelligence agencies, foreign nationals . . .
Facebook

Submission + - Facebook buys (most of) drop.io (idg.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "Facebook has purchased most of drop.io, an online content-sharing service, but the social-networking giant sounds more interested in acquiring the company's developers than its technology. Drop.io is a service that lets users create a "drop" where they can share documents, videos and other digital content. The user can set a time for how long the drop will exist, decide who can view the content, set permissions for who can alter the content and share content in a variety of ways, including on Facebook."
Software

Submission + - The Complications Of Owning Software

Submitted by shmG
shmG writes: When someone buys something at a store, they assume they own it. A recent court ruling says that isn't so with software — and that means that unlike a used car, you can't resell it. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in Vernor v. Autodesk that an individual who purchases and then resells secondhand software is not the "owner" of that copy of the software. Therefore, that person cannot resell it if the license agreement accompanying the software restricts such resale. "What if you have a Honda Accord with software running the navigation and radio systems? If Honda were to put in a software licensing agreement, what's the difference between that and regular software? It would mean you wouldn't be able to resell the Honda Accord. You could do this with anything that runs software — microwaves, TVs, cell phones,et cetera," Halpern said.

Submission + - E-voting machine votes 100% wrong (newbernsj.com)

Submitted by steveha
steveha writes: The New Bern, NC Sun Journal newspaper reports that some local voters have seen the e-voting machine record the exact opposite of the voter's request. There is a button to vote a straight Republican ticket, and when pushed, it voted a straight Democrat ticket. A local voter observed this behavior four times in a row; the fifth time, the button worked correctly. If ATMs were this unreliable, no bank would use them. Why is this level of failure acceptable in voting machines?
Transportation

Submission + - Can Smarter Red Lights Increase Fuel Efficiency? (greencarreports.com)

Submitted by thecarchik
thecarchik writes: Denso has modeled the next iterations of a "smart traffic light" system. It would use messaging between vehicles and the traffic-light controller to let the light make better decisions about when to change, to maximize overall vehicle throughput. And that, in turn would reduce the number of minutes cars spent idling at traffic lights, cutting their emissions and their fuel usage. In other words, cutting red-light time helps you go green. Denso's proposed system uses short-range wireless transmitters (think your WiFi router) in cars and elements of the road infrastructure. The field is broadly known as V2V (for vehicle to vehicle) communications.
User Journal

Journal Journal: When is a troll not a troll

Journal by valderost

Somehow a subset of slashdotters has been getting reasonable posts (front page articles) tagged as trolls. Although these posts present a point of view that the archetypal slashdotter might disagree with, they offer a glimpse into marketing and real world considerations that aren't always visible to the slashdot community. Two cases in point.
Google

Submission + - Cisco Planning to Acquire Skype (zacks.com)

Submitted by rexjoec
rexjoec writes: Cisco making a bid for Skype. The deal, if successful, would derail a planned initial public offering from Skype and redraw the battle lines in the lucrative market of video communications.
Transportation

Submission + - Are cars the next hacking frontier? (thecarconnection.com)

Submitted by thecarchik
thecarchik writes: Is it time for firewalls and malware protection for your car? Earlier this year we reported on research from the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego, that showed how researchers were able to break into vehicle networks or change features—in some cases, while the vehicle was in motion. In the United States, the federally-mandated On-Board Diagnostics port, under the dash in virtually all modern vehicles, provides direct and standard access to internal automotive networks . Safety-critical systems (such as stability control or engine control) actually haven't been isolated from non-safety-critical systems (such as entertainment systems).

Comment Re:UCITA and bricking (Score 1) 381

by valderost (#33315552) Attached to: Apple Patents Remotely Disabling Jailbroken Phones

That would only apply to the rightful owner of the software (on the phone), not to a thief.

Theft doesn't automatically release an owner from his obligations under a license, so the license remains in effect until it expires or is terminated under its terms, or until invalidated by a court. And even if the license terms allow Apple to unilaterally terminate the license for some reason (including their determination of a possible theft), their act of bricking the phone in response seems to fall squarely in line with concerns about self-help.

Legitimate theft that a licensee reports is a completely different matter, and it should be easy for both user and provider to agree to brick the phone until it's recovered.

Comment UCITA and bricking (Score 2, Interesting) 381

by valderost (#33314366) Attached to: Apple Patents Remotely Disabling Jailbroken Phones

There are two states, Maryland and Virginia, under which remote disablement of software is allowed under UCITA, the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act. Even then, bricking, or "self-help" as UCITA calls it, has some limitations, and it's not allowed in "mass market transactions" such as those involving non-negotiated licenses. The intent was to address shrink-wrap licenses, but a cell phone contract is similarly non-negotiable. This sounds like an "invention" that can't really be used in most of the US.

UCITA and its self-help provisions have been an issue for a long time, and a lot has been written about it that's probably applicable here too.

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