Don't forget to check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/ for today's edition of the complete domain news, including an RSS feed - already online! Headlines from the 9 August edition of the news include: us: Web address bill by Sen. Little will become law - prevents cybersquatting personal/business names | Estonian Cyber-War Highlights Civilian Vulnerabilities | ICANN spreads love, opens bosom to all | Aussie Labor party sparks cyber land grab | He sells employer's Web name, takes off with stripper | Cybersquatting: Global problem, local solutions | CitizenHawk TypoAlert: Cybersquatting on Celebrity Names is Big Business | ICANN Takes a Lick at Domain Tasting by Larry Seltzer | Pharmacy.com for Sale, for US$50m? And see my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for daily updates in between postings. *************************************************** The domain name news is supported by auDA *************************************************** Close down the internet? Think again, Sir Elton http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2139696,00.html Fellowships to Ensure Global Voices Heard at ICANN http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-02aug07.htm New Monthly Magazine Provides the Inside Scoop on ICANN http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-03aug07.htm ARIN Confirms IP Address Distribution Practices; Policies Do Not Encourage Profit-driven Speculation [news release] http://arin.net/media/releases/200701August_Release.pdf ARIN Statement on the Future of Addressing Policy by Patrik F?ltstr?m http://www.circleid.com/posts/arin_statement_addressing_policy/ ca: CIRA Launches Search for New CEO http://cira.ca/news-releases/206.html InternetNZ closes doors on charity discussions http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/8A3434F4A772F704CC25732C001D83B8 ********************** GOVERNANCE ********************** Close down the internet? Think again, Sir Elton Sir Elton John has seen the internet, and he wants to turn it off. "I do think it would be an incredible experiment," he says, "to shut down the internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced in that span." While this statement demonstrates an admirable grasp of the way the whole thing works, it is just possible that Sir Elton has not considered all the implications of his daring five-year plan. Doesn't he realise what would happen? http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2139696,00.html Elton John Blasts the Internet Rocket Man Elton John is wading into waters he doesn't admit to knowing much about -- the Internet. As reported in the London tabloid, The Sun, Sir Elton suggests that the Internet is destroying music. "The Internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff," wrote John in a bylined story in The Sun. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135455-c,internetnetworking/article.html http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/02/1185648044623.html http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2195512/elton-john-calls-closure Public internet threatened by private telcos What will the internet look like in 20 years? No one knows. But this morning at the Stanford Summit, an annual tech industry conference in Palo Alto, a panel of Silicon Valley experts laid down a few guesses. The trio of big-name panelists - Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim, HP personal systems group CTO Phil McKinney, and Stanford University electrical engineering and computer science professor Nick McKeown - refused to make any bold predictions, as big-name panelists so often refuse to do. But they did highlight what they see as the obvious internet trouble spots sure to spark major change over the next several years. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/02/internet_government_regulated_monopoly/ RIPE NCC Awarded Special Status from United Nations [news release] The RIPE NCC has been awarded Special Consultative Status by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. With this consultative status, the RIPE NCC can designate official representatives to help advise the United Nations on issues related to Internet number resource management and the technical coordination of the Internet. http://ripe.net/news/ngo.html ********************** DOMAIN NAMES ********************** ********************** - DOMAIN SECURITY ********************** Web Browser Attack Skirts Corporate Firewall A 10-year-old security problem has come back to haunt corporate IT, a security researcher told an audience at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas Wednesday. Dan Kaminsky, director of penetration testing for IO Active Inc., showed how problems in the way browser software works with the Internet's domain name system could be exploited to give attackers access to any resources behind the corporate firewall. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135383-pg,1/article.html http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9028726 Understanding and Combating Rock Phishing In 2005, a particularly nefarious group of phishers came to be known as the "Rock Phish Gang." The name comes from the fact that early versions of their phishing attacks included the word "rock" in the URL. The text is no longer present in their attacks, but the rock phish gang is still out there and continues to be a formidable menace to banks and other organizations. http://technewsworld.com/story/58648.html http://crmbuyer.com/story/MmH9YcBLkvF8eQ/Understanding-and-Combating-Rock-Phishing.xhtml The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse seeks to disable Cybersquatting ... Well-known companies such as Dell Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Marriott International Inc. are lobbying Congress for tougher laws targeting online scammers who profit from their brand names. http://americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=34128 ********************** - ICANN ********************** Fellowships to Ensure Global Voices Heard at ICANN More voices from across the globe will be heard at ICANN's 30th International Public Meeting in Los Angeles later this year thanks to the global fellowships program being launched today. http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-02aug07.htm New Monthly Magazine Provides the Inside Scoop on ICANN ICANN launched a new magazine that will provide all the latest news and developments within the organization to online subscribers. Produced monthly, each issue will review recent developments in policy topics, provide details of recent Board meetings, the latest news from around the world, and other developments within the organization, complete with links to further resources. http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-03aug07.htm ********************** - IPv4/IPv6 ********************** ARIN Confirms IP Address Distribution Practices; Policies Do Not Encourage Profit-driven Speculation [news release] The American Registry for Internet Numbers Board of Trustees released a statement today that assures ARIN will continue to facilitate the policy development process that defines how Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are distributed in its region, and also reaffirms that ARIN?s policies do not encourage profit-driven speculation in IP addresses. http://arin.net/media/releases/200701August_Release.pdf Statement of ARIN's Board of Trustees regarding future Internet address policy in the ARIN region The global Internet requires numeric addresses for the routing of communications traffic. These addresses are necessarily finite in nature and have been defined in two groups. One group, called ?Internet Protocol version 4,? or IPv4, was defined in 1979 as a pool of approximately 4,300,000,000 addresses. In anticipation of the Internet growing larger than can be accommodated by the IPv4 pool, a second group, called ?Internet Protocol version 6,? or IPv6, was defined in 1995 as a pool of approximately 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 addresses, an address space billions upon billions of times larger. http://arin.net/media/200701August_Statement.pdf ARIN Statement on the Future of Addressing Policy by Patrik F?ltstr?m ARIN has just released a statement on the future of addressing policy. Specifically addressing the future of IPv4 addressing. What ARIN does is to emphasize the current policies and say they will be enforced even stronger than today if needed. I.e. there is no announcement of a change in policy. http://www.circleid.com/posts/arin_statement_addressing_policy/ IP address shortage to limit Internet access The seemingly boundless Internet is running out of a key resource: new IP addresses. The evaporating supply of new addresses ? which some estimates say could dry up in about three years ? could drive up the price of Internet access as well as disrupt the growth and performance of the network, warn some experts. Worried that opportunists will hoard addresses to speculatively sell them, the organization responsible for handing out addresses in North America announced Wednesday that it would try to regulate the emerging trade. http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0803/p02s01-ussc.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2007-08-03-ip-shortage_N.htm Internet addresses will soon run out The internet is running out of a key resource: new IP addresses. IP addresses allow machines in homes and offices to locate and communicate with one another over the global network. http://www.calcuttanews.net/story/270917 ********************** - (cc)TLD NEWS ********************** auDA publishes interim policy on use of wildcard DNS records in .au auDA has published an Interim Policy on Use of Wildcard DNS Records in .au. The interim policy is based on the findings and recommendations of the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (ICANN SSAC), contained in its report ?Redirection in the Com and Net Domains?, 9 July 2004. The interim policy will apply pending advice to the auDA Board from the auDA Stability and Security Advisory Committee (auDA SSAC). http://auda.org.au/news.php?newsid=379 Berlin senate will not support the Berlin domain .berlin The Berlin senate will not support the TLD .berlin, which is being promoted and planned by the company dotBerlin GmBH. The new TLD is designed to provide a home for Berlin-based companies, associations and citizens of the metropolis. "With the new namespace .berlin we'll create a regional identity for the Berlin community," the initiators of the campaign write in English on their homepage. The Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit (Social Democratic Party; SPD) fears that this might lead to an undue blurring of the public and private realms. In his response to a parliamentary question by the parliamentary group of the opposition Free Democratic Party he is, according to the German news agency dpa, said to have stated that the senate did not intend to promote competition to berlin.de, which the senate supports. http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/93776 ca: CIRA Launches Search for New CEO The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) announced today that founding CEO Bernard Turcotte will leave CIRA later this year and that CIRA is launching a nation-wide search for the best candidate to succeed him. http://cira.ca/news-releases/206.html Allen & Overy represent EURid in all .eu conflicts Allen & Overy Belgium advised EURid to manage the registration of ".eu" domain names. After having assisted EURid in the drafting of the regulatory framework (registrar agreements, .eu terms and conditions, Sunrise Rules etc), we are representing EURid in all conflicts resulting from the successful launch of the .eu top level domain. http://www.allenovery.com/AOWEB/Knowledge/Editorial.aspx?contentTypeID=1&itemID=33494 fr: The AFNIC Articles of Association will change starting January 1st, 2008 [news release] During the extraordinary General Assembly that was held on the 15th of June 2007, the members of the AFNIC have voted that the Articles of the association should be modified. This change will affect the membership and/or collaboration modalities for persons and organizations that wish to participate to the life of the association, work to develop ccTLDs it manages or offer specific partnerships. http://www.afnic.fr/actu/nouvelles/general/NN20070730?PHPSESSID=8d4a81e560517542bf5f434a3edaae69 no: Introduction of numeric domains: Evaluation (in Norwegian) http://www.norid.no/regelverk/forslag/nummer-2006/evaluering-nummer.html nz: The Browser - July 2007 The July 2007 edition of The Browser, InternetNZ's monthly magazine, is now available. Topics include update on AGM, InternetNZ on NZ's banking code and highlights from the Domain Name Commissioner's annual report. http://internetnz.net.nz/media/browser/ .SE launches domain names in Swedish minority languages [news release] .SE (the Internet Infrastructure Foundation) launches the possibility to register domain names in all the official minority languages, as stated by Swedish law. In addition to the minority languages Finnish, Me?nkieli, Sami, Romani and Yiddish, it will be possible to use the special characters of all the other Nordic countries, i.e. Danish, Norwegian, Faroe and Icelandic, in .se domains. The sunrise period for the new IDN (Internationalised Domain Names) starts July 4, 2007. http://iis.se/english/nyheter/news/2007-05-14?lang=en uk: Nominet Second Governance Consultation Nominet is now starting their second Governance consultation, which will last 3 months, from 31 July to 31 October. http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/latest/?contentId=4264 Scottsdale's Go Daddy going for '.us' contract Now that Go Daddy Group Inc. has made a name for itself among millions of Internet users, it thinks it can do the same for ".us." http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0803biz-godaddy0804-ON.html usTLD should realize its pent up potential Brian Cute, Director of usTLD Development for Alliance Registry summarizes the press conference from July 31, 2007 and discusses why usTLD, America's sovereign space on the Internet, should benefit from renewed competition and a new administrator. http://dnalliance.us/archives/000036.html Workshop to launch of publication consultation for.za policy & procedures The .za Domain Name Authority has organised a workshop to launch the public consultation process for the .za domain policy & procedures. http://zadna.org.za/ Proposed amendments to .za DNA memo & articles .za DNA has recently completed discussions with the Department of Communications about amendments proposed to its current memo and articles of association. The amendments are intended amongst other things to more clearly define .za DNA powers and align them to the provisions of the Chapter X of the ECT Act. The final document has recently been submitted to the Minister of Communications for her approval, as per the Act. http://zadna.org.za/policy.html Bringing a New Top-Level Domain to Life by Michele Neylon One of the key elements in any domain space is usage. It doesn't matter how potentially "cool" or "interesting" a TLD is if nobody is actually using it to provide content. It may be overused and totally abused, but "content is king"! The guys in dotMobi posted yesterday about some of the more interesting domains that they had come across recently. What did that lead to? Well I actually got out my phone and browsed the sites to see what all the fuss was about and I was truly impressed. http://www.circleid.com/posts/070803_bringing_new_top_level_domain/ ********************** - DOMAIN DISPUTES ********************** WIPO Advanced Workshop on Domain Name Dispute Resolution: Update on Practices and Precedents - October 2007 Encouraged by the success of the previous two editions, the Center plans to hold its third Advanced Workshop on Domain Name Dispute Resolution in Geneva on Thursday, October 18 and Friday, October 19, 2007. ... The Advanced Workshop will focus mainly on the trends of UDRP decisions with regard to the most important substantive and procedural issues. Thus, in addition to those wishing to gain insight into the UDRP mechanism, this Advanced Workshop is of particular interest to those who have been or who may become involved in UDRP proceedings. The Advanced Workshop also represents an opportunity for registrars and ccTLD administrators to increase their knowledge of UDRP decisions. http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/events/workshops/2007/domainname/index.html ********************** - MISCELLANEOUS ********************** Social Operating System: Connecting Domains and Social Media Wired Magazine defines ?social operating system? as a platform for online living; a social network such as MySpace that seamlessly integrates activities including entertainment and shopping. But Jon Udell points out that MySpace is not Your Space. He envisions a future in which each child would receive his or her own chunk of managed storage at birth. These virtual containers would be home to everything from baby pictures to grown-up blog posts. Of course, we?d want the ability for Bob?s Space to connect with Jane?s Space - suppose they are siblings starring in the same family vacation video, or co-authors of a research report? http://www.circleid.com/posts/social_operating_system_domain_names/ ********************** - DOMAINING ********************** Why Is There No Transparency for Domain Parking Ads? Google Adwords placement reports are purposely vague about ads on parked domain names, but why? http://domainnamewire.com/2007/08/03/why-is-there-no-transparency-for-domain-parking-ads/ Domain name gold rush hits cyberland [originally in The Boston Globe] The web addresses businesses and people online call home have spawned the equivalent of a real estate boom in the real world with speculators, appraisers, developers and brokers turning the names typed in navigation bars into hefty profits. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/03/1185648143743.html http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/08/03/1185648154327.html ********************** - DOMAIN SALES ********************** Moniker Internext Expo Live Domain Auction Results Moniker's Internext Expo Live Domain Auction for adult domains has concluded with the top sale going to LatinPussy.com for US$135,000. Other $50,000+ sales included Spicy.com ($81,000), Chubby.com ($65,000), GayBondage.com ($60,000) and SexMachine.com ($55,000). http://marketplacepro.moniker.com/auction/events/142/results.html ********************** OTHER INTERNET NEWS ********************** Belarusian president calls for tighter restrictions on Internet Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday ordered his government to tighten restrictions on Internet usage and said the ex-Soviet nation should use China as a model. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/03/1185648084639.html http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=23159 Corrupt Chinese officials can?t hide ? even online They hunt, they shoot, they torture, they kill. Their target: corrupt officials. Welcome to Incorruptible Fighter, the latest online computer game craze to sweep through cyberspace in China. The game was created last month by a group of civil servants as a lighthearted counterpoint to constant accusations of endemic corruption. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/china/article2189287.ece http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6928279.stm http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/03/1185648104916.html China still falls short on freedom of the press China has so far failed to live up to its pledge to ensure full media freedom ahead of the Beijing Olympics, with harassment of foreign reporters still common, a survey showed. But despite the problems, the situation is better than when before the government relaxed reporting regulations on Jan. 1, the Foreign Correspondents Club of China said. http://asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=75157 Congress examines Yahoo's role in Chinese journalist case [AP] Congressional investigators plan to look into whether Yahoo officials misrepresented the U.S. Internet company's role in the arrest of a Chinese journalist sentenced to a decade in jail. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2007-08-03-yahoo-congress_N.htm When is paedophilia not paedophilia? The actor Chris Langham has been convicted of downloading child pornography, and has been remanded in custody until the middle of September, at which point he will be sentenced on 15 counts of making an indecent photograph of a child. We do not know what these indecent photographs look like, but the fact that Langham has been remanded in custody perhaps suggests that they were "level 5" images, which involve children being, for example, anally or genitally penetrated by an adult. There are other questions, too, in the wake of Langham's conviction for downloading child pornography - and, it should also be acknowledged, his acquittal on six charges of indecent assault and two charges of buggery with an under-age girl. Chief among these outstanding issues is to consider when is a paedophile not a paedophile? http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/david_wilson/2007/08/when_is_paedophilia_not_paedop.html Evil deeds should be punished. But what of evil thoughts? ... Does watching pornographic images of child abuse make one a paedophile? This is a highly equivocal question. It can ask whether watching such pictures entails that one is a paedophile or it can ask whether watching them causes one to become a paedophile. The second question is notoriously hard to answer. What is the causal effect of violence or sexual abuse shown on television upon those who watch it? For years, sociologists and moralists have argued inconclusively about this. Common sense has no doubt that habitual language is gradually changing because people hear 'bad language' as the common currency on much of television. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2141958,00.html 'He downloaded child porn. I know we'll get bricks through the window - but he's still my husband' Last week actor Chris Langham was convicted of child pornography offences. Why are men driven to watch such images? And what is the impact on their families? In this remarkable dispatch, a grandmother describes the pain of discovering her husband of 40 years had been downloading indecent images of children http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2141931,00.html Langham: Caught in Operation Ore's net On the very evening that reports first appeared about an international crackdown on child pornography, Chris Langham contacted police over his "concern" that he was receiving spam emails with links to paedophile sites. Little did he know then that, because of a credit card transaction he had made on a porn site three years earlier, the forces of law and order already had him in their sights. According to the prosecution, Langham only contacted the police in May, 2002, because he "panicked" when he learnt of the scope of Operation Ore - a US-led crackdown in Internet child pornography - and "wanted to give the impression of being a good citizen". By then, though, it was already too late for him. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/02/nlangham202.xml us: Senators take another stab at shielding kids online Here's another bill to add to the heap of congressional proposals offered in the spirit of combating child pornography and keeping kids safe from predators on the Internet. It's called the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act. CNet reports it doesn't seem to be as aggressive as some previous approaches. If the bill becomes law, ISPs would face tripled fines for failing to report child pornography on their servers--up to $150,000 for failing to report child pornography the first time and up to $300,000 for each subsequent failures. Further, ISPs would have to include a variety of information in their reports that is not required by existing law, including any relevant user IDs, e-mail addresses, geographic information and IP addresses of the involved person or reported content. http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9754434-7.html Democrats to push new Net sex-predator laws Expect a new push in Congress this fall for laws aimed at keeping sexual predators off the likes of MySpace.com and elevating fines on Internet service providers that don't report child pornography. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6200733.html Senate panel backs development of super V-chip The Senate Commerce Committee approved legislation Thursday asking the Federal Communications Commission to oversee the development of a super V-chip that could screen content on everything from cell phones to the Internet. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6200543.html US legislation looks at web filtering The US has passed child safety legislation that could widen the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) powers to include the internet, according to constitutional campaigners. The Child Safe Viewing Act of 2007 (S.602) was passed by the Senate Commerce Committee and requires the FCC to do a study of internet filtering technologies. The research will include the "existence and availability" of filtering technologies for audio and video content transmitted over "wired, wireless, and internet" platforms, as well as other devices. http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2195615/legislation-looks-web-filtering 'Child Safe Viewing Act' Raises Serious Questions The Senate Commerce Committee today passed the Child Safe Viewing Act of 2007 (S. 602), which requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to study the "existence and availability" of filtering technologies for audio and video content transmitted over "wired, wireless, and Internet" platforms, as well as other devices. CDT does not oppose a purely fact-finding study, but maintains that a neutral, non-regulatory body such as the National Academy of Sciences would be better suited to such a project. More importantly, CDT is concerned that this legislation may represent a step toward expanding the FCC's censorship authority to include Internet content. http://cdt.org/ us: Senate Committee Votes to Expand TV Ratings Technology To Internet A powerful Senate committee wants government regulators to find cutting edge technologies that can censor audio and video that flows over the internet, through cable, or into an iPhone to help make sure the nation's small children never see a naked breast or hear Howard Stern without parental permission. http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/08/senate-committe.html au: Paedophiles' internet use to be tackled by SA legislation A bill drafted by the Family First party is set to become law in South Australia, aimed at fighting internet use by paedophiles. http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/02/1994782.htm au: Sex on the Net - ABC Radio National Background Briefing Whether adults like it or not, the Internet is where life's at for young people now - friendships, games, school stuff, comedy, adventure and sex. Teenagers are getting used to coming across pornography, and dirty old men. Sometimes they even turn the tables, and play indiscreet games. We don't know enough about the Internet generation - and government filters won't work on the new 3G phones. Audio and transcript of the programme are available. http://abc.net.au/rn/backgroundbriefing/stories/2007/1982314.htm Playground Networking, Now Online: Social Sites Aim at Users Too Young for MySpace These days, it's little brother who's watching. Younger and younger children want their share of the social networking craze, but popular Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook are reserved for older crowds. So sites are now aiming at children 14 and under, with online worlds where their animated personas can play games, chat with others their age and even engage in adultlike activities such as e-commerce. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/02/AR2007080202351.html uk: Junk food makers reach children on internet Food manufacturers were criticised yesterday for targeting their advertising at children on the internet and social networking websites. Several major food companies have begun using the sites to promote their products following a ban on junk food advertising on television. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/01/njunk101.xml US Court puts limits on surveillance abroad A special court that has routinely approved eavesdropping operations has put new restrictions on the ability of U.S. spy agencies to intercept e-mails and telephone calls of suspected terrorists overseas, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The previously undisclosed ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has prompted concern among senior intelligence officials and lawmakers that the efforts of U.S. spy agencies to track terrorism suspects might be impaired at a time when analysts have warned that the United States is under heightened risk of attack. http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-na-spying2aug02,1,7495317.story eBay sale is a sale, Australian court rules There will be no more weasling out of eBay sales after a judge today ruled against a man who has been refusing to hand over a $250,000 vintage plane he sold on the online auction site. ... The judgment sets a precedent for future cases and means eBay sales could now be legally binding. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/03/1185648121130.html http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/03/1185648121130.html au: Cyberspace stole Cathy's identity Cathy Wilson is a sensible 25-year-old working two jobs to save for a deposit on a flat. On the MySpace website, however, you can discover another side to the eastern suburbs marketing manager and child-care worker. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/03/1185648145679.html Internet fraud at record levels, says KPMG Fraud is running at record levels, according to a study by business services firm KPMG. The value of frauds in the first half of 2007 totalled ?594m, more than three times the figure for the previous six months. The figures also reveal an upward trend in the number of cases coming to the courts, with around 261 cases recorded in the last year compared with 143 in 2003. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/07/30/cnfraud130.xml Systems threat to infrastructure Terrorists and other criminals could exploit a newly discovered software flaw to hijack massive computer systems used to control critical infrastructure like oil refineries, power plants and factories. Ganesh Devarajan, a security researcher with 3Com Corp.'s TippingPoint in Austin, Texas, demonstrated the software vulnerability he uncovered to attendees at the Defcon hacker conference on computer security. http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22195558-15306,00.html uk: Halt e-voting, says Electoral Commission The Electoral Commission says there is little point in continuing with e-voting trials unless the government gives a clear justification for using the technology http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39288361,00.htm us: California moves to lock down e-voting systems The California Secretary of State moved strongly on Friday to corral electronic-voting problems found in independent tests conducted on machines previously certified for use in that state. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9029038 E-Voting OK With New Security California has certified some electronic polls but imposed new security mandates for the 2008 elections. http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135539-c,networksecurity/article.html http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/08/04/California-tightens-security-rules-on-e-voting-machines_1.html us: 39 counties' vote systems in question County election officials scrambled on Saturday to develop contingency plans for the February presidential primary election after California's secretary of state imposed broad restrictions on electronic voting machines that she said are susceptible to hacking. http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-voting5aug05,1,1920162.story nz: Online banking rules unfair Online fraudsters will be having a field day as a new Code of Practice by the New Zealand Bankers' Association puts almost all of the blame for internet banking fraud on you - the customer. http://www.consumer.org.nz/newsitem.asp?docid=2998 nz: Copyright to be policed by ISPs under new law ICONZ and InternetNZ have both slammed the Commerce Committee's report into new Copyright legislation, saying it unfairly turns ISPs into internet copyright police. http://m-net.net.nz/1811/latest-news/latest-news/copyright-to-be-policed-by-isps-under-new-law.php nz: Policing copyright ? who?s responsibility? ISPs will be lumbered with the job of policing copyright infringements on the websites they host if the Copyright (New Technologies and Performers' Rights) Amendment Bill is passed - as it seems likely to be. http://m-net.net.nz/1812/latest-news/latest-news/policing-copyright-who-s-responsibility.php InternetNZ treads softly on bank code In a move that is likely to disappoint consumer advocates, InternetNZ has proposed only minor changes to a controversial banking code of practice that came into effect a month ago that could leave consumers footing the bill for Internet fraud. http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/4153156a28.html The Ultimate Search Engine Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and dozens of search specialists, including those catering to business customers, are racing to develop next-generation technologies that do a better job of getting people the information they seek. With emerging tools, people will no longer have to dumb down their queries with the pidgin language understood by first-generation search engines. They'll be able to ask questions in English and other languages--or pose no question at all and automatically receive results based on their earlier queries or the applications they're using. http://informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201202986 au: Online papers overtake ninemsn The reign of PBL Media's ninemsn as Australia most popular online news site is over as traditional newspaper mastheads continue to experience surging internet traffic at the expense of broad-based portals. http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22179689-15306,00.html InternetNZ encouraged by ISP survey [news release] InternetNZ is encouraged by some aspects of a Statistics New Zealand survey of Internet Service Providers but notes that significant improvements need to be made before New Zealand enjoys the benefits of real broadband. http://www.internetnz.net.nz/media/mediareleases/mediarelease-ispsurvey Kittens -- the solution to spam? An executive at Microsoft has an unusual idea for beating spammers. Powerful software tools and supercomputers aren't involved, but kittens are. Or rather, photos of kittens. Kevin Larson, a researcher at Microsoft's advanced reading technologies group, has found that asking a user to identify the subject of a photo, like a kitten, could help block spam programs. http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/08/03/Kittens-could-solve-spam_1.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,135526-c,spam/article.html us: Spammer gets 30 years in the slammer Notorious spammer Christopher "Rizler" Smith was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a federal judge on Wednesday. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/02/spammer_gets_30_years/ Pharmacy spam king Rizler hit with 30 year jail sentence [news release] Experts at IT security and control firm Sophos have welcomed news that a notorious spammer who made millions of dollars selling medications online has been sent to jail. http://sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2007/08/rizler.html Boom in blogs gives Africans a voice on the Web Daudi Were, a 28-year-old Kenyan, still reads newspapers. But if he really wants to know what's happening - in African countries where newspapers are state-owned or censored - he turns to the blogs. And he's not alone. Blogs are taking off across Africa as a new tech-savvy generation takes advantage of growing internet access. The African blogosphere was, until recently, filled by the African diaspora and westerners living in Africa. But native African voices are now being heard. Kenya, in particular, has seen a large growth in the number of bloggers. The Kenyan Blogs Webring began in 2004 with just 10 sites - now it has more than 430, blogging on everything from politics and business to arts and culture. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2826182.ece pg: Bridging the digital divide Papua New Guinea will continue to remain light years behind the rest of the world if we do not jump on the ICT bandwagon in this globalised world. http://www.thenational.com.pg/080607/w6.htm Lenovo Targets Rural China With Basic PC (AP) Lenovo Group Ltd. said Friday it will sell a basic personal computer aimed at China's vast but poor rural market and priced as low as $199. Lenovo's announcement follows rival Dell Inc.'s bid to boost its presence in China's booming market with the unveiling in March of a low-cost personal computer meant for novice Chinese users. http://nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-China-Lenovo-Cheap-PC.html Microsoft Halves Vista Retail Price in China (Reuters) Microsoft Corp. has more than halved the retail price of its Vista home basic computer operating software package in China to 499 yuan ($66) from 1,521 yuan, and the price of its premium package to 899 yuan from 1,802 yuan, effective from August 1. http://nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-microsoft-china-price.html Music industry rebuffed across Europe on file-sharing identifications A German court has refused to order ISPs to hand over user details to the music industry. The incident is not the first in Germany, and follows the opinion of a European Court of Justice Advocate-General backing the stance. http://out-law.com/page-8353 The U.S. is unlikely to ever regain its broadband leadership by Robert X. Cringely The question we were left with two weeks ago was "Why has America lost its broadband leadership?" but it really ought to have been "Whatever happened to the Information Superhighway?" It died. ... There are many reasons for [America's decline], but much of it comes down to government policy or lack of it and some of it comes down to pure luck. In large part we've been locked in our own little world where government and business feed on each other in ways that are always symbiotic and often destructive, but this time the rest of the world just passed us by while we were distracted by other things. http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070803_002641.html InternetNZ closes doors on charity discussions InternetNZ last week shut down reporting of its plans to become a charity after one member unsuccessfully challenged the moves from the floor of the organisation?s annual general meeting. Clearance was given by the meeting for InternetNZ to apply for designation as a charitable organisation, which will give it taxation advantages. After objection from one member, subsequent discussion was moved into a closed session and cannot be reported. http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/8A3434F4A772F704CC25732C001D83B8 VoIP security reaches tipping point Industry experts have warned for years that companies are ignoring security when deploying VoIP. Researchers at this year's Black Hat conference say the state of VoIP security is as bad today as it was two years ago, with many adopters relying on protocols that are easy to attack. But PGP creator Phil Zimmermann has unveiled new software he believes will help turn the tide. http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2007/08/03/225970/voip-security-reaches-tipping-point.htm +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Sources include Quicklinks <http://qlinks.net/> and BNA Internet Law News <http://www.bna.com/ilaw/>. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (c) David Goldstein 2007 --------- David Goldstein address: 4/3 Abbott Street COOGEE NSW 2034 AUSTRALIA email: Goldstein_David §yahoo.com.au phone: +61 418 228 605 (mobile); +61 2 9665 5773 (home) "Every time you use fossil fuels, you're adding to the problem. Every time you forgo fossil fuels, you're being part of the solution" - Dr Tim Flannery ____________________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo!7 Mail has just got even bigger and better with unlimited storage on all webmail accounts. http://au.docs.yahoo.com/mail/unlimitedstorage.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.cynosure.com.au/mailman/private/dns/attachments/20070809/8c5953c3/attachment-0001.htmReceived on Thu Aug 09 2007 - 08:48:25 UTC
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