government

Tue
08
Feb
Dennis Faas's picture

Experts Say US Internet Kill Switch Highly Unlikely

Events in Egypt have shown how a citizenry will react when a government attempts to shut off local Internet access . Since then, there's been considerable discussion as to whether this could happen in the U.S., but experts say that even if such a ... move were legally possible, it would be practically unworkable. Connections between Egyptian computers and the outside world were cut off for a little over a week, almost certainly under government orders in an attempt to limit communications between protestors. It led to some creative responses from the public, ranging from using dial-up connections ... (view more)

Mon
24
Jan
Dennis Faas's picture

Hacker Offers Fire Sale On Military, Gov't Websites

A hacker recently made a post stating he'll give anyone willing to pay $499 behind-the-scenes access to confidential network files, including those of the US Army. The hacker posted a price list for access to a range of sites on an underground ... digital forum, along with offers for other illicit services. While there's no way to be certain the offer is legitimate, at least one security expert says he's seen evidence which suggests that offer is in fact genuine. (Source: krebsonsecurity.com ) US Military Intelligence Website Vulnerable Among the most high profile web sites said to be vulnerable ... (view more)

Wed
01
Dec
Dennis Faas's picture

US Gov't Shuts Down 82 Pirate Websites

The United States government has shut down a total of 82 websites accused of selling pirated goods, including music and movies. But these aren't just torrents: amongst the targeted pages are those that sell clothing, sunglasses, and even handbags. ... The seizure orders came from the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") agencies and apply to eight states in addition to Washington, D.C. A selection of the sites includes Torrent-finder.com, DVDscollection.com, Sunglasses-mall.com, and NFLjerseysupply.com. ( ... (view more)

Tue
03
Aug
Dennis Faas's picture

BlackBerry at Risk of Being Banned in Middle East

Business users may love their BlackBerry smartphones, but governments in the Middle East are not so keen. Three countries have issued different degrees of bans on the devices' functions. The biggest conflict comes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), ... where officials there accuse the device of breaching local laws on data security. The problem is that messages sent on a BlackBerry are encrypted and immediately sent to servers in Canada for processing and storage. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion is based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The UAE frowns upon such activity because it demands the ... (view more)

Mon
26
Apr
Dennis Faas's picture

'X-Mouse Button Control', and 'Google Government Requests'

X-Mouse Button Control This very cool program provides application-specific mouse button mappings, which means one application can use the mouse differently from another. This is useful for games which do not inherently support the extended mouse ... buttons, because you can map keys to each button. http://www.highrez.co.uk/ Google Government Requests Google regularly receives requests from government agencies around the world to remove content from its services, or provide information about users of our services and products. The interactive map shows the number of requests along with ... (view more)

Wed
17
Mar
Dennis Faas's picture

Google China Closure Imminent, Reports Suggest

Google has been considering pulling out of China for a few months now, saying it is no longer prepared to meet official demands to filter results its in line with Chinese government rules. The dispute heated up around the time Google was the victim ... of a substantial hacking attack , and while no link to the Chinese government has been proven, it's believed in some circles that the attack was an attempt to access the Gmail accounts of political opponents of the ruling Communist party. Officials Forewarn of Google Closure Chinese officials are now said to have contacted several major websites ... (view more)

Fri
18
Dec
Dennis Faas's picture

Australian Gov't Approves Internet Censorship Plan

Australia's federal government has announced that it is proceeding with controversial plans to censor the Internet after government-commissioned trials found that using a blacklist of banned sites was accurate and would not slow down web use. ... Critics, including Google , Electronic Frontiers Australia and Greens communications argue that the censorship policy is fundamentally flawed and the trial results are not surprising. Stephen Conroy, Australia's Communications Minister, will introduce legislation just before next year's elections designed to force ISPs to block a blacklist of refused ... (view more)

Thu
30
Jul
Dennis Faas's picture

US Gov't Outraged over Leaked Fed Secrets via P2P

According to a recent report, extremely sensitive government data has appeared on peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks. The information is reported to include the precise locations of American nuclear silos and FBI surveillance photos. News of ... the leak came at the recent House Government Oversight ... (view more)

Thu
16
Jul
Dennis Faas's picture

U.S. Gov't Still Trying to Push Flawed ID Schemes

When you can't get any states to participate in your flawed National ID scheme, what do you do? If you're the U.S. government, you change its name and try again. With the death of the REAL ID Act comes a replacement bill that poses many of the same ... threats, including what the Campaign for Liberty refers to as a federal grab for personal information. Now the act has been renamed and referred to as an enhanced or higher security driver's license. In reality, however, the only way to resolve the problem is to repeal it, not rename it. (Source: campaignforliberty.com ) After 9/11, the government ... (view more)

Thu
16
Jul
Dennis Faas's picture

Apple Drops WiFi in order to Launch iPhone in China

Apple has formally applied to launch the iPhone in China. The move, earlier than expected, appears to have been made possible once the firm agreed to drop WiFi capability. There are both political and technical reasons for WiFi issues in China. ... Until April this year, the government refused to allow any WiFi handsets. Officially that was because of fears users would add Internet phone services such as Skype and use those to make calls, to the detriment of China's phone companies. Unofficially it was thought the government believed WiFi would make it harder to monitor communications. Censorship ... (view more)

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