Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Censorship

Submission + - Foreign data unsafe from US Patriot Act (smh.com.au)

Submitted by
natecochrane
natecochrane writes: "The world's No.2 law firm warns non-US businesses their data is unsafe from costly and invasive raids by American law enforcement even if they host their data in their own countries. The wide interpretation of the USA Patriot Act ensures US cops can legally demand data from almost anyone, anywhere for any reason and countries and their citizens are largely powerless to resist. The advice has resonance with the arrest this week of Kim "Dotcom" on alleged copyright violations in the US."
Censorship

Submission + - Web's dad scolds US over SOPA (smh.com.au)

Submitted by
natecochrane
natecochrane writes: "Father of the web Sir Tim Berners-Lee called for Americans to protest SOPA and PIPA, laws he says violate human rights and unfit for a democratic country. Sir Tim's condemnation came on the day an editorial in Australia's leading broadsheet newspapers pointed out that although the laws ostensibly applied to US interests they could overreach to impact those in other countries."

Submission + - US Supreme Court upholds removal of works from Pub (wsj.com) 2

Submitted by langelgjm
langelgjm writes: While much of the web is focused on the SOPA and PIPA blackout, supporters of the public domain today quietly lost a protracted struggle that began back in 2001.The Supreme Court, in a 6-2 decision, rejected the argument that Congress did not have the power to convey copyright upon works that were already in the public domain. The suit was originally filed to challenge provisions that the U.S. adopted when signing the TRIPs agreement. Justices Breyer and Alito dissented, arguing that conveyed copyright on already existing works defied the logic of copyright law. Justice Kagan recused herself. The text of the opinions is available here (PDF).
Security

Submission + - Aussie bank wants to cash in on your social networ (smh.com.au)

Submitted by
natecochrane
natecochrane writes: "An Australian bank has raised the possibility of offering better deals to customers who share its social network activities with it. But at the same security conference at which Commonwealth Bank's CIO made the suggestion, another speaker, security guru Bruce Schneier, warned of the dangers of vendor lock-in. Would you trust your bank — or any institution — to be the gatekeeper for your private data and thoughts in return for a cheaper mortgage or percentage points off your credit card?"
Privacy

Submission + - How intercept calls on new Cisco phones (scmagazine.com.au)

Submitted by mask.of.sanity
mask.of.sanity writes: Researchers have demonstrated a series of exploits that turn Cisco IP phones into listening bugs, and could allow a denial of service attack capable of silencing a call centre.

It allows internal staff and competitors with a little publicly-available information to hijack the phones, wiretap calls and eavesdrop on confidential meetings.

The attacks work through a sequence of exploits against the latest Cisco phones enabled to run off the shelf.

Most people are vunerable, the researchers say, because they do not harden their systems in line with recommended security requirements.
Google

Submission + - Google, Microsoft in epic hiring war (crn.com.au)

Submitted by natecochrane
natecochrane writes: Looking for a new job? Then Google and Microsoft have 6200 roles globally this quarter up for grabs, the first salvos in a costly war for talent. Google alone will hire 6200 engineers, executives and sales staff this year — its biggest intake ever. This story details where the biggest bucks and most fun jobs are to be had and how you can apply for them. There's even a job for an Xbox PR person — fancy being paid to play with toys all day?
Privacy

Submission + - Apple logging locations of all iPhone users (guardian.co.uk) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Guardian reports that researchers have found a hidden file on all iPhones, iPads, and any computers they synchronise to logging timestamped lattitude and longitude coordinates of the user, since June 2010. A tool is available on their website (http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/) to check on your own. What on earth were Apple thinking?
Government

Submission + - Police Search Cell Phones During Traffic Stops (thenewspaper.com) 1

Submitted by
SonicSpike
SonicSpike writes: "The Michigan State Police have a high-tech mobile forensics device that can be used to extract information from cell phones belonging to motorists stopped for minor traffic violations. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan last Wednesday demanded that state officials stop stonewalling freedom of information requests for information on the program. A US Department of Justice test of the CelleBrite UFED used by Michigan police found the device could grab all of the photos and video off of an iPhone within one-and-a-half minutes. The device works with 3000 different phone models and can even defeat password protections. "Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags," a CelleBrite brochure explains regarding the device's capabilities"
Australia

Submission + - Optus calls to break NBN Co into baby telcos (itnews.com.au) 1

Submitted by natecochrane
natecochrane writes: The CEO of Australia's No.2 telco, Optus, has called for a "baby Bell" solution to handle what he says is a growing threat to competition in the emerging $43 billion Australian national fibre-broadband network. Paul O'Sullivan says that only by breaking up the network architect NBN Co and tendering out its services, overseen by an independent board (much like Australia's Reserve Bank the Fed), can competition be preserved. And he had a few choice words to say about Australia's "No.2" ISP, iiNet: "If you take into account we operate a cable network and not ADSL [primarily] we’re still significantly larger than iiNet."

Submission + - Court Gives Green Light to Disconnect Pirates (itnews.com.au) 2

Submitted by
aesoteric
aesoteric writes: "The Full Bench of Australia's Federal Court (three judges) has dismissed the film industry's appeal against a February 2010 judgment that found ISP iiNet had not authorised copyright infringement on its network. However, the ruling was a 2-1 majority and the judges have made several concessions to the Hollywood film studios. In particular, they set out a prescriptive path for the film industry to change the way it identifies alleged copyright infringers. The ruling says that if the film industry amends the format of its notices of infringement, pays the ISP to vet the notices and indemnifies the ISP against any fallout from disconnecting a customer, then disconnection is a reasonable step the ISPs should take to combat piracy. Essentially, the ruling gives internet service providers no absolute protection over the actions of their subscribers."
Microsoft

Submission + - Australia mandates Microsoft's Open Office XML (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by littlekorea
littlekorea writes: The Australian Government has released a common operating environment desktop policy that — among security controls aimed at reducing the potential for leaks of Government data — mandates the ECMA-376 version of Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) standard and productivity suites that can "read and write" the .docx format, effectively locking the country's public servants into using Microsoft Office. The policy [pdf] also appears to limit desktop operating systems to large, off-the-shelf commercial offerings at the expense of smaller distributions.
Facebook

Submission + - Cisco social software lets you "stalk" customers (networkworld.com)

Submitted by coondoggie
coondoggie writes: Cisco this week unveiled software designed to let companies track customers and prospects on social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, blogs and other public forums and sites. Cisco SocialMiner allows users to monitor status updates, forum posts and blogs of customers so they can be alerted of conversations related to their brand. The software is designed to not only enable enterprises to monitor the conversations of their customers but to engage those that require service, Cisco says.

Submission + - Giant impact crater found in Australia (cosmosmagazine.com) 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: One of the largest meteorite impacts in the world has been discovered in the South Australian outback by geothermal researchers. It may explain one of the many extinction events in the past 600 million years, and may contain rare and exotic minerals. The crater is said to have been "produced by an asteroid six to 12 km across" — which is really big!
Security

Submission + - Australia's new broadband network obsoletes alarms (itnews.com.au)

Submitted by natecochrane
natecochrane writes: Australia's proposed high-speed National Broadband Network has put the fate of more than a million security alarm systems that alert Australians to fire, home invasion, break-in and medical emergency in limbo pending the building of a simulated test bed next year. A group that represents security guards and those that supply monitored alarms has concerns that ranged from the inconvenient ("angry customers woken by their alarm systems beeping" during a nightly NBN upgrade) to life-threatening in the case of medical alarms, its CEO said. "Under the fibre-optic system there won't be that redundancy and backup [from the copper phone system]. So if it goes down no one will know," ASIAL CEO Bryan de Caires said.

Slashdot Top Deals

"We Americans, we're a simple people... but piss us off, and we'll bomb your cities." -- Robin Williams, _Good Morning Vietnam_

Close