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Archive for the ‘Internet Security’ Category

A-DATA is looking to the future with the N002. The flash drive kicks it with both USB 3.0 and SATA II interfaces, which means that it must be fast. And it is, friends

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The A-DATA N002 swings for both the USB 3.0 and SATA II teams

Apparently, not only is Digg feeling the need for speed, but it’s feeling the need to make money too. And that’s good because this new idea is rather interesting.

Digg is testing a new type of advertisement on its site that basically surfaces old content submitted to Digg that is relevant to certain advertisers. So, as you can see in the example below, if Norton wants to advertise its new security software, it can find a few old Digg items related to Internet security and put them in the ad box along with their banner. This not only advertises their product, but gives users something potentially useful to click on.

The whole ad area is sponsored by the advertising company, but it’s not clear if clicking on one of the Digg stories in the ad space takes you to that actual story, and more importantly, if the advertiser is actually paying for all of those clicks. If so, that seems like a great deal for Digg. Regardless, this seems like a good way to build brand awareness through content that Digg users have already found useful by themselves.

One thing I’ve been thinking about recently is that while Digg is full of interesting information, the lifespan of that information is very short. Once a story disappears from the homepage, the liklihood that anyone is going to see it again is very small. Digg has some methods to surface really popular items again, such as the “Top In” areas, but there’s plenty of information that is not a top item on Digg for whatever reason, but would still be interesting to some users to see again. This is one potential way of surfacing such information and making money for doing it.

Digg notes that only a small percentage of users will see these ads for now. These are not the same as its Digg Ads platform, which asks users to vote on actual advertisements.

It’s also worth noting that advertisers are not allowed to submit their own content to use in these ads. Any content used has to have been already submitted to Digg, though it doesn’t necessarily have had to have been on the homepage.

[photo: TriStar pictures]

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Feeling a bit under the weather yesterday - presumably my body’s reaction to the fact that San Francisco has suddenly become sunny - I decided to take a jaunt around the Internet for column ideas. My deadline was a whole 24 hours away, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared, right?

My first find was this story about a bear who had got trapped in a Colorado skate park, presumably after breaking in to practice his Ollies, or whatever it is bears do on skateboards. The bear was finally rescued when townsfolk dropped a ladder into the park, allowing him to climb to freedom.

To any normal person, a bear trapped in a skate park would be little more than a heartwarming newsbite; a quirky story to distract from another week of war and terrorism and kidnapped children living in back yards in Antioch. But not for the lazy tech columnist looking for inspiration.

For the lazy tech columnist looking for inspiration, a bear trapped in a skate park easily becomes a metaphor for the attitudes of certain Silicon Valley types who are trapped in their little Northern California bubble and don’t realise - or care - that there’s a world outside. And the ladder, I suppose, represents the columnist whose job it is to provide escape from the ignorance. Perfect. Another Saturday box ticked. Move on, nothing to see here.

But just as I was about to shut down Firefox and start scribbling skateboard jokes in my special columnist’s notepad, another headline caught my eye, this time from CNET. It read: ‘Bill would give president emergency control of Internet‘. Wow, I thought, this Bill guy sounds like a dick.

But no, as it turned out, the Bill in question is the Rockefeller-Snowe bill (S.773), notable both for being the first piece of US legislation to be named after a Fatboy Slim track and for the fact that it gives the President the power to shut down the Internet whenever he feels like it. Unsurprisingly, the 1000+ comments on the article are somewhat hostile, helped by a link from Matt Drudge who thoughtfully added his own scare quotes around the word ‘emergency’.

‘This has nothing to do with “prorecting” [sic] the internet,’ wrote one commenter, ‘and everything to do with the power drunk, dicatorial [sic] Obama engaging in an unprecedendted [sic], unconstitutional power grab, orchestrated by his psychotic lunatic fringe “czars”.’

A bold statement, from that rare person who can spell ‘psychotic’ and ‘czars’ only to stumble over ‘protecting’.

‘Can you say, “Caesar Chavez?”‘, asked another, presumably rhetorically - while a third managed to wrangle two talking points into one meaningless one with: ‘Of course this goes along with the Obamacare nonsense that the government will have direct access to your bank accounts if this Obamacare BS becomes law. Hitler all over again’.

Well said, Sir. It’s a scandal that Adolf Hitler’s cybersecurity bill and healthcare proposals don’t get the criticism they deserve. But behind the megaditto rhetoric, some of the commenters do actually have a point. Unlike the previous administration’s PATRIOT act, which promoted freedom of information by wiretapping every man, woman and child in America, the Democrats’ Rockefeller-Snowe bill does sound pretty creepy and invasive.

All the President needs to do is declare a state of emergency and he’ll have the right to disconnect US citizens from the web, access their computers and even hack into the servers of private companies. That’s a horrendous power-grab for use in an unspecified emergency.

Or at least it would be. If that’s what the bill actually proposed.

In fact, in its current form, the worst the bill does is to clarify the President’s existing power to take limited control of communications networks in the case of national emergency or war. Like President Bush was able to order all planes to be grounded on September 11th, the bill would allow President Obama to ground parts of the Internet in similar circumstances.

But at this stage even those powers aren’t set in stone - the bill is still in draft form, having already been redrafted after early objections that the wording was too vague. And it’s still too vague, to the point where Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, says: “we cannot properly analyze, let alone support the bill.”

Indeed. What we really have here is a classic situation of an ambiguously-drafted bill, not even close to passing but which has the capacity to generate some pretty scary headlines. Last week it was death panels, this week it’s Obama stealing our Internets. Like a bear trapped in a skate park, critics - mainly of the President rather than the bill - are running round and round, without any kind of information ladder to help them out of their pit of paranoia.

And so, as ever, it falls to me to provide that missing ladder. Don’t ask me how (*cough* French hacker *cough*), but I’ve managed to get hold of a copy of a secret memo sent to Senators Rockefeller and Snowe by the Whitehouse, outlining exactly what powers Obama wants over the Internet, and why.

I think you’ll agree, it makes pretty interesting reading…

Hey Senators,

Please find below President Obama’s wishlist for taking control of the Internet. As promised, these powers will only be used in the event of a national ‘emergency’ ;-)….

1) In the event of an ‘emergency’ drop in poll numbers, the President needs to ensure that copies of Bill O’Reilly’s ‘Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity’ and Rush Limbaugh’s ‘The Way Things Ought To Be’ are automatically deleted from the nation’s Kindles and replaced with ‘The Audacity of Hope’. (Note: contrary to previous draft, there is now no need to extend this to Ann Coulter’s ‘Treason’ as it is already basically unreadable)

2) Should the US deficit pass 20 trillion, the President will need to take over private email servers to send an ‘emergency’ 419 scam message to every American citizen. In these emails, the President will invite Americans to send him their bank account information, so that he might use it to process the fortune of his late uncle. Obviously, he will request their confidential co-operation in this matter, in exchange for a share of the proceeds.

3) Following the recent successful trial in France, the President requires the ability to turn the iPhones of any of America’s enemies into improvised exploding devices. Or ‘Freedom Phones’.

4) Should US unemployment levels continue to rise, the President needs the ability to order the shut down of World of Warcraft, forcing millions of Americans to go out and get fucking jobs.

5) In case of ‘emergency’ bad press over a badly-drafted cybersecurity bill, the President will require unfettered access to Drudge Report servers to delete all ’scare quotes’. This would prevent Drudge from using the headline ‘Bill would give president “emergency” control of Internet’ to suggest that Obama might just decide to nuke the entire web because he’s having a bad day.

6) If the bad press ‘emergency’ continues, Obama will need to shore up support by ordering that the hashtag ‘#Ilovethepresident’ be appended to all tweets. In response to specific threats, he may also request that trending topics to be replaced with a new, approved list including: #everythingisfine, #nothingtoseehere, #lookoverthere, #areyoukiddingme and #theotherguywasfarworse

Ok, that’s all for now! Let’s pass this thing, comrades!

Liebe Grüße,

Caesar Chavez

Policy Director, The White House

So there you have it. The bear of ignorance, rescued by the ladder of facts. My work here is done: let the mature, informed debate begin.

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Internet King and America’s news editor Matt Drudge is freaking out right now, complete with his trademark scare quotes.

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Proposed law would give White House ‘cybersecurity emergency’ powers over the Internet

Learn about and download the latest computer security updates for July 2009. Read tips on protecting your computer by using anti-spyware and anti-spam programs.

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Microsoft security updates for July 2009

Gateway (now owned by Acer) hops on the 11.6-inch LCD screen bandwagon (started by Acer) with the LT3100 netbook. Unlike Acer, however, this one’s got a — GASP! — AMD chip? Yes, that’s right.

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Gateway LT3100 netbook features 11.6-inch screen, AMD processor

Learn about and download the latest computer security updates for June 2009. Read tips on protecting your computer by using anti-spyware and anti-spam programs.

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Microsoft security updates for June 2009

HP had the Windows Home Server  market all to itself until recently. First it was CyberPower , now Acer has entered the market with a small footprint WHS. The Acer Aspire easyStore AH340-UA230N might be the best deal out of all of them though

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Acer enters the Windows Home Server market, HP should notice

Well, the rumors are true, Verizon Wireless will begin offering the HP Mini 1151NR on May 17 for $199.99 after a $50 MIR with a 2-year mobile broadband contract. Verizon also announced new mobile broadband pricing that’s still going to hit your checkbook pretty hard

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Verizon Wireless officially announces the HP Mini 1151NR netbook, available May 17

D-Link has added CAPTCHA confirmations to some of their routers, ensuring that the entity trying to log into your super router is a human and not an animal or robot. For those not in the know, CAPTCHA is essentially a challenge-response test that separates robots from humans.

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D-Link adds CAPTCHA to routers: We say “swvm doghorse”