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Friday, October 27, 2006
 
  Operator of 12 hospitals informs of lost data
The operator of 12 hospitals in Indiana and Illinois is notifying more than a quarter-million patients that compact discs containing their Social Security numbers and other personal information were lost for three days over the summer.

Alumni fume at privacy gaffe
EMAIL gremlins are causing embarrassment at Macquarie University, with graduates up in arms after the university accidentally sent 25,000 email addresses to its alumni mailing list.

Is Google legal?
A Belgian court ruled against Google’s use of newspaper stories in early September. If you believe Google, it did nothing wrong and failed to defend itself because it was unaware of the publishers’ lawsuit. If you believe the publishers, Google is lying and infringes copyright on a colossal scale. The parties return to court on 23rd November in a case that finds legal uncertainty looming over the world’s leading search engines.

Laptop theft: South African firms could face litigation
In the past laptops were stolen for their hardware value, but a wave of new thefts confirm that the data on a laptop could be worth much more than the laptop itself.

Will local advertisers follow SA Internet users overseas?
South African Web users are flocking to international social networking sites such as MySpace and YouTube, which means that these Web sites offer local marketers a host of exciting new advertising opportunities.

Court Orders ISP to Block Russian Music Web Site
A Danish court has ordered Swedish telecom operator Tele2 to block its subscribers from connecting to a Russian Web site accused by recording companies of selling their music illegally. Stockholm, Sweden-based Tele2 provides Internet access in 19 countries, according to its Web site.

Scorpions to sting bank fraud ring
The Scorpions are investigating an international online banking fraud ring and have already arrested a South African in the case, it was revealed.

The effects of the ECA on the economy
The aim of the Electronic Communications Act (ECA) is for industry players to work and think in a converged manner as well as build multi-stakeholder partnerships," says Dr Harold Wesso, Deputy Director-General of Policy Development at the Department of Communications.

Firefox 2 crash exploit and IE7 address spoofing flaw surfaces
After all the media inflated flap over a minor Outlook Express flaw surfaced over Internet Explorer 7, a minor but true IE7 address bar spoofing weakness was found. At the same time, bug tracking mailing lists have been talking about a flaw affecting the just released Firefox 2. Bugtraq called the flaw "critical" though Mozilla's security chief Window Snyder insisted the report is wrong and that the problem was already "fixed" but admitted a crash condition remained.

We’re Google. So Sue Us.
Google attracts millions of Web users every day. And, increasingly, it’s attracting the attention of plenty of lawyers, too.

The Internet Black Hole That Is North Korea
THE tragically backward, sometimes absurdist hallmarks of North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong-il, are well known. There is Mr. Kim’s Elton John eyeglasses and strangely whipped, cotton-candy hairdo. And there is the North Korean “No! Yeeesssss ... No! O.K. Fear the tiger!” school of diplomacy.

Up next: IE 8.0
While the Microsoft-sanctioned name of the next version of Internet Explorer (IE) is IE "Next," it seems it will likely be christened IE 8.0.

Monopolies choke SA IT companies
GROWTH in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector in SA is being stunted by regulations that benefit existing monopolies, said Datatec Limited chief executive Jens Montanana.

Alarm bells ring over cellphones at schools
Stricter rules on cellphone use in schools are having little effect because pupils continue to use them secretly, while new applications like Mxit - described as "addictive" - are increasing their popularity.

Battles loom as SA looks at a new era of TV choice
IS ENDLESS choice in media always a good thing? We are going to find out soon, as new subscription broadcasters are due to be licensed.

Cyber-sleuthing exposes online fraudster
The Scorpions have arrested a Cape Town man suspected of hacking bank accounts using sophisticated keystroke logging technology.

Online media welcome further film Bill consultation
The Online Publishers Association (OPA) on Thursday cautiously welcomed the announcement of further consultation on South Africa's controversial Film and Publications Amendment Bill.

Wikipedia co-founder plans rival site
A co-founder of the Wikipedia online encyclopaedia written in collaborative fashion by the Internet community announced on Tuesday he is launching a rival service edited by experts.

YouTube's SA connection
Pik Botha's grandson Roelof Botha is credited with selling Web 2.0 sensation YouTube to Google for US$1.65bn last week, by far the most expensive purchase made by Google during its eight-year history.

Vista secures new enemies
Microsoft Corp. is no stranger to antitrust skirmishes and complaints from rivals about unfair business practices.

Former spy boss in court for withholding info
The former director-general of the National Intelligence Agency, Lesedi Billy Masetlha, appeared briefly in the Hatfield Magistrate's Court on Friday.

Universal Music Sues Video Sites
Universal Music Group said Tuesday it filed lawsuits against online video sharing sites Grouper and Bolt for allowing users to swap pirated versions of its musicians' videos.

YouTube erases 29,000 clips
GOOGLE's YouTube.com removed 29,549 video files from its popular website after receiving a demand from a group of Japanese media companies over copyright infringement, an industry group said.

Second laptop with student data was stolen
University of Minnesota officials confirmed Thursday a second theft of a laptop computer this summer that contained private student data.

Stolen laptop held personal data of thousands of Allina patients
A laptop computer containing the names and Social Security numbers of thousands of Allina Hospitals and Clinics obstetrics patients was stolen from a nurse's car Oct. 8, prompting alerts this week from the health-care provider to the patients.

T-Mobile reports ID-theft risk
A laptop containing the Social Security numbers and other personal information of T-Mobile USA Inc. employees recently disappeared, putting as many as 43,000 current and former workers at risk of identity theft.

National Australia Bank hit by DDoS attack
The National Australia Bank (NAB) has warned its customers to beware of new phishing attacks after the bank's Web site was hit by a DDoS attack earlier this week.

Hong Kong's recording industry launches more legal action against music pirates
Hong Kong's recording industry vowed Wednesday to rein in more illegal music sharers, threatening to sue 37 people who allegedly uploaded copyrighted music to the Internet.

Intellectual property theft is evil, Scout's honour
A Boy Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, etc., etc. He is also respectful of copyrights.

Murder suspect agrees to decrypt laptop
US Federal attorneys have agreed to a plea deal that would let them view encrypted content on the laptop of a convicted murderer and sex offender.

Hacker gets 5 years for accessing Army computers
A Wichita man who hacked into 13 U.S. Army computers to steal credit card numbers and account information was sentenced to five years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney's office announced Thursday.

First Swede convicted of sharing music files online
A Swedish court on Wednesday fined a man for illegally sharing music files online, making him the first Swede to be convicted for spreading copyrighted songs over the Internet.

China jails 9 in anti-piracy crackdown
Nine people convicted of selling illegally copied DVDs and other goods have been jailed for up to 13 years in China's biggest anti-piracy crackdown to date, a news report said Friday.

Data leaked to heroin dealer
A FORMER Victorian drug squad detective has been jailed for at least three years for giving information to a heroin dealer about police investigations.

Officials Probing Possible Theft of Voting Software in Md.
The FBI is investigating the possible theft of software developed by the nation's leading maker of electronic voting equipment, said a former Maryland legislator who this week received three computer disks that apparently contain key portions of programs created by Diebold Election Systems.

Hackers Zero In on Online Stock Accounts
Hackers have been breaking into customer accounts at large online brokerages in the United States and making unauthorized trades worth millions of dollars as part of a fast-growing new form of online fraud under investigation by federal authorities.

Hackers look to crack Mac
Apple computers have long been prized for being virus-free. But as more people use Apple products, experts say the company is increasingly becoming a target for cyber pranksters and criminals writing viruses and other forms of malware.

Computer Search Turned Back at the Border
L.A. federal judge finds officials must have reasonable suspicion under Fourth Amendment to search a laptop at U.S. borders

'Click Fraud' Threatens Foundation of Web Ads
From her home surrounded by cornfields in Dow City, Iowa, Jackie Park spends hours each day on her computer, earning half a penny every time she clicks on an Internet advertisement.

Microsoft bows to the Belgians
Microsoft said on Friday it would remove links to articles in Belgian newspapers rather than be sued for copyright violation like Google was.

Government, Web sites spar in court over 1998 online anti-porn law
Eight years after Congress passed a law aimed at protecting children from online pornography, free speech advocates and Web site publishers argued in federal court Monday that the never-enforced measure is fatally flawed.

'Net Vendors of Diabetes Cures on Notice
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are teaming with Mexico and Canada to stop deceptive advertising and product sales of purported diabetes cures and treatments.

Court blocks request to shut Spamhaus domain
A U.S. judge has denied an order that would have suspended the domain name for The Spamhaus Project, averting a potential quagmire over how U.S. legal rulings apply across the global Internet.

YouTube deletes clips on Japanese media demands
The online video site removed 29,549 video files after receiving a demand from a group of Japanese media companies over copyright infringement.

Stanford study identifies 'Net addicts'
Like a roll of the dice or a sip of bourbon, the glow of the computer screen has an irresistible and dangerous allure to many people, according to a new nationwide study by Stanford University.

Reporters Not Required to Turn Over Computers to Pa. Attorney General
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has blocked state Attorney General Tom Corbett's effort to force newspaper reporters in Lancaster, Pa., to turn over their computers in connection with an investigation of alleged leaks from the Lancaster County coroner to local media.

Anti-spam group, facing loss of domain name, will appeal $12 million judgment
An anti-spam group plans to appeal a federal court ruling that could jeopardize its domain name after ignoring a lawsuit earlier on jurisdictional grounds.

125 arrested in child porn roundup
Federal officials arrested more than 125 people Wednesday on charges of subscribing to a Web site that depicted children as young as infants engaged in sexual activities with adults.

ICANN votes on domain tasting solution
Internet overseeing organisation ICANN will vote later today on whether to introduce a new system aimed at closing a loophole in domain name rules that enables speculators to register thousands of domain names effectively for free.

Hackers Defraud Online Brokerages of Millions of Dollars
Two of the largest e-brokerage firms, E-Trade Financial and Ameritrade, reported this week that computer hacking incidents have resulted in millions of dollars of losses to the firms, which have reimbursed affected customers. Ameritrade said much of the fraud occurred overseas while clients were using public computers; fraud committed against E-Trade customers appeared to be concentrated in Thailand and eastern Europe.

Thursday, October 26, 2006
 
  Industry slams new law on disclosure
Companies will be forced to publish confidential information on employees, and commercially sensitive details of licensing agreements and joint ventures, business leaders warned on Monday, as they attacked the government for introducing “a blunderbuss” of a new disclosure law.

North Korea, Turkmenistan, Eritrea the worst violators of press freedom
New countries have moved ahead of some Western democracies in the fifth annual Reporters Without Borders Worldwide Press Freedom Index, issued today, while the most repressive countries are still the same ones.

SA banks hacker nabbed
The Scorpions have arrested a Cape Town man suspected of hacking bank accounts using sophisticated keystroke logging technology.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006
 
  Corporate Blogging: What Could Go Wrong?
The real danger is not letting your employees harness the full power of an interactive, edge-in communications medium. If you keep the reins too tight, you won't reap the benefits of informed and passionate readers and users. And sometimes, if you're not communicating freely with your readers and users, bad news can catch them by surprise.

Thursday, October 19, 2006
 
  WHITE PAPER: Data Security, Privacy, Integrity and Compliance
The Internet has brought about an information and connectivity revolution. Within this revolution malicious attacks, information theft and other security breaches have threatened enterprise data. These dangers, coupled with increased regulatory and compliance requirements have become the key priorities of government and commercial organizations. The article identifies key considerations facing financial services firms as they work to strengthen data security.

WHITE PAPER: Data Confidentiality in an Electronic Environment
Portable computers have become an essential business tool for many professionals. But a sinister threat has grown alongside the use of laptops: computer theft. The true cost of the theft of a laptop includes not only the lost hardware but, more important, the loss of proprietary information. In this paper, the authors discuss the best methods for laptop security, which can help CPAs decrease their risk of potentially devastating litigation stemming from the theft of proprietary data.

WHITE PAPER: Proactive Measures for Forward-Looking Enterprises
Download this white paper to read about IBM's holistic approach to business resilience and how it can help your company protect its key resources and minimize the impact of outages and disruptions.

WHITE PAPER: 10 Ways To Protect Your Data
The most valuable thing on your computer or network is the data you create. Operating systems and applications can always be reinstalled, but user-created data is unique and if lost, may be irreplaceable.

WHITE PAPER: 10 Ways to Avoid Being the Victim of Identity Theft
Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in today's information-laden world. ID thieves usually use this information to access bank or credit accounts, obtain property fraudulently, or disguise the thief's own identity when committing other crimes.

WHITE PAPER: 10 Simple Ways to Keep Your Computer Safe
We all do dumb things now and then, and working with a computer is no exception. Inadvertently pressing the wrong key combination or innocently clicking OK in the wrong dialog box can change important settings that alter a computer's behavior or even crash the system. Luckily, the consequences aren't usually that dire. Here's a description of common missteps to help you steer clear of preventable problems.

WHITE PAPER: Risk Mitigation Considerations for Backup and Restoration Processes
Many organizations, both large and small, rely on their information technology systems to the extent that their loss can be devastating. To alleviate risks, many have invested in data backup systems in the hope that by simply performing backups their data is safe. Unfortunately, as many groups have painfully learned, the truth can be that they have little to no protection at all due to an inability to recover as planned. The purpose of this paper is to set forth strategies for mitigating the risks surround the backup and restoration of data.

WHITE PAPER: From Viruses to Spyware: In the Malware Trenches with Small and Medium-size Businesses
Malware, which encompasses viruses, worms, spyware, and other malicious software, continues to be a significant problem for small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). According to an exclusive survey of IT decision-makers, the vast majority of businesses have experienced malware incidents in the past year that resulted in hours of downtime.

Radicals Learning Terror Skills Online, Chertoff Says
Disaffected people living in the United States may develop radical ideologies and potentially violent skills over the Internet and that could present the next major U.S. security threat, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said. "We now have a capability of someone to radicalize themselves over the Internet," Chertoff said on the sidelines of a meeting of International Association of the Chiefs of Police.

Radicals Learning Terror Skills Online, Chertoff Says
Disaffected people living in the United States may develop radical ideologies and potentially violent skills over the Internet and that could present the next major U.S. security threat, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said. "We now have a capability of someone to radicalize themselves over the Internet," Chertoff said on the sidelines of a meeting of International Association of the Chiefs of Police.

Phishers Using Instant Messaging to Lure Victims
In a twist on phishing, cybercrooks are hijacking instant-messaging accounts to lure people to their information-thieving Web sites. "These hackers are super-devious, and we try to stay as much ahead of them as we can, but it is an industrywide issue," a Yahoo representative said.

Internet Addiction: Problem or Pathology?
A new study says Internet addiction is a real problem and is on the rise. Through a random-digit-dial telephone survey of 2,513 adults in the United States, researchers found that of the almost 70 percent of respondents who were Internet users, 13.7 percent found it hard to stay away from the Net for more than several days at a time.

Microsoft Vows Not to Sue Over "Virtual" Drives
Microsoft said it would allow anyone to use its specifications for "virtual" drives, which enable one computer to run several operating systems, with the promise never to sue for infringement of its legal rights. The Microsoft virtualisation software has been available for more than two years, but as computers become more powerful the use of virtualisation is expected to mushroom, the company said at a news conference.

Libel Statute of Limitations Applies Online, Judge Rules
A one-year statute of limitations for bringing libel lawsuits in Texas also applies to articles posted on the Internet, a federal judge has ruled. The ruling by U.S. District Judge David Godbey is being hailed as an important decision that gives online media the same protections as traditional print and broadcast organizations.

Universal Music Sues Two Video-Sharing Websites
Universal Music Group said it filed lawsuits against online video sharing sites Grouper and Bolt for allowing users to swap pirated versions of its musicians' videos. Universal, with artists including U2, Mary J. Blige and Mariah Carey, said it is seeking damages of as much as $150,000 for each incident of copyright infringement, plus costs.

International Record Industry Files 8,000 Downloading Suits
The international record industry launched thousands more lawsuits around the world against individuals it accuses of illegally downloading and sharing digital music, ranging from a Finnish laboratory assistant to a German clergyman. The new wave of legal action by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or IFPI, encompasses 8,000 cases in 17 countries, including its first legal forays into South America and Eastern Europe.

How to choose the broadband internet option perfect for you
Don’t get ripped off and don’t rush out and sign up for ADSL. Here are six important factors to consider.

Major upgrade for Microsoft
Redmond, Washington - Microsoft Corp is giving its web browser software its first major upgrade in years, amid signs that Internet Explorer's market share is eroding.

New online fraud tricks
Port Elizabeth has experienced a drastic increase in internet fraud with over R1m stolen from private bank accounts in the past month, police said on Thursday.

Computer virus hits new iPods
San Francisco - Apple Computer warned that a Windows computer virus had wormed its way into some video iPods before they hit store shelves.

Land claims: Controversial discussion document online
The hullabaloo in the media since Farmer’s Weekly journalist Chris Louw revealed that the Department of Land Affairs was secretly debating the principle of willing-buyer, willing-seller, based on the premise that it is hampering land reform, continues with reports that some of the options debated will threaten foreign investment. Among proposals contained in the department’s discussion document – Toward the Framework for the Review of the Willing Buyer-Willing Seller Principle – is one that would make the state the only buyer of farms, at the same time giving it the right to pay at prices below the market rate. The document, now in its third draft and the subject of workshops behind closed doors, also examines the merits of a progressive land tax.

Kids beware of mobile chat services
Parents have been urged to ensure their children understand the dangers of using anonymous chat rooms.

'Parents please monitor your kids'
The majority of voters on the October 17 IOL Poll have admitted to not knowing what their children do on their cellphones.

MXit teams up with police to improve security
Popular instant-message provider MXit will be forging stronger links with the police to rid its system of potential sex predators.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006
 
  Judge clears Bully game release
A US judge has rejected attempts to ban videogame Bully in Florida, after complaints it was a "public nuisance".

Online world to get news bureau
Reuters has opened a virtual news agency in the Second Life online world.

Yahoo laser to ask: Anybody there?
Mexico's Teotihuacan, once the center of a sprawling pre-Hispanic empire, is set to become the launch pad for an attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial life.

Computers may translate in war settings
One day, a U.S. soldier entering tense situations without the assistance of an Arabic interpreter might rely on two-way translation software in mobile computers.

Internet 'could be broken up' by cultural differences
The internet could be broken up in future by cultural differences between nations, according to one leading expert.

'Commercial spam in South African law'
The Lawsure electronic trade law specialist, Professor Julien Hofman, has written an article on spam and how it is governed by South African law. The introduction to this article is shown below. For the full 17-page article please click here.

Software piracy endemic in Africa
As much as 81 percent of computer software used in Africa had been pirated, costing governments and the hi-tech industry billions of dollars in revenue and choking growth, experts warned yesterday.

Media-muzzling law postponed
[ Johannesburg, 13 October 2006 ] - The tabling of a Bill in Parliament to amend the Films and Publications Act in a way that could muzzle the media, as well as Internet and wireless application service providers, has been postponed to next year, Cabinet decided yesterday.

Wal-Mart loses case for control of boycottwalmart.com
The world's largest retailer Wal-Mart has failed in its attempt to gain control of the web address boycottwalmart.com. An arbitration panel has ruled that it was unlikely that visitors would be confused and think that it was a Wal-Mart site.
Domain name disputes are settled by the arbitration panel of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). That body has ruled that Wal-Mart cannot have control of the disputed domain.

Government wants to allow data sharing on 40 million bank accounts without permission
The government is considering allowing banks to share data on up to 40 million bank accounts without account holders' permission. The plan is one of four being considered by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
In a move to counter what it calls the UK's over-indebtedness the DTI wants to share information on 40 million bank accounts to prevent their users borrowing too heavily. It will consult with industry on four plans, two of which involve ordering that debt data be shared.

Swiss banks broke privacy laws over SWIFT transfers, says data chief
Swiss banks broke the law by passing customer bank details to US authorities, Switzerland's top data protection official has said. The banks should have told customers that international transaction company SWIFT was passing details to the US, he said.

Private Firms May Rescue State Telecoms
PRIVATE operators may soon be competing for a multimillion-rand tender to take over government's national telecommunications networks to make them more efficient and cheaper to run. Telkom, the second network operator, Neotel, and Dimension Data are expected to vie for the business as the State Information Technology Agency (Sita) considers handing over its network to a private player.

Uganda: Walls Come Tumbling Down - Country Licences VoIP Service Provider
The Ugandan regulator UCC has granted a telecoms services licence to local operator TalkTelecom to be able to provide services to both residential and corporate customers. This is the first legal opening for a VoIP service provider in the country that does not operate its own network. It's a small start but the walls on legal VoIP are beginning to come tumbling down.

Defending a Blurred Line: Is It Spam or Just a Company Marketing by E-Mail?
The Spamhaus Project, which has battled computer viruses along with an online attack last month that shut down its Web site, is now confronting a new kind of siege. An American marketer is complaining that the organization exacts a vigilante style of online justice carried out by anonymous, unaccountable volunteers.

Criminal Records Erased by Courts Live to Tell Tales
But real expungement is becoming significantly harder to accomplish in the electronic age. Records once held only in paper form by law enforcement agencies, courts and corrections departments are now routinely digitized and sold in bulk to the private sector. Some commercial databases now contain more than 100 million criminal records. They are updated only fitfully, and expunged records now often turn up in criminal background checks ordered by employers and landlords.

Privacy Limited with Internet Searching, Adocates Say
If you don't like what your favorite Internet search engine or e-commerce site does with information it collects about you, your options are limited to living with it or logging off. Although online companies have become better at disclosing data practices, privacy advocates say the services' stated policies generally don't give consumers real choice.

Belgian Newspapers Ask MSN to Stop Posting Articles
Looking to avoid the kind of legal tangle that Google has found itself in, Microsoft's MSN division in Belgium is in talks with a group of newspaper publishers over the rights to publish their content on its Web site. The newspaper group, called Copiepresse, wrote a letter to MSN Belgium, asking it to stop posting Belgian newspaper articles to its Web site without permission, said Margaret Boribon, the group's secretary general.

British Soccer Player Wins Domain Name Dispute
British international striker Wayne Rooney, among 30 players on a shortlist for FIFA's World Player of the Year Award, has won ownership of a Web site in his name, a United Nations agency said. Rooney, who plays for Manchester United, won exclusive rights to domain name waynerooney.com after proving his name was a registered trademark, the World Intellectual Property Organization said.

Political correctness trumps free speech
Confusion about policing hate speech versus tolerating dissenting or even hurtful speech is at the heart of the matter, says Dene Smuts This week saw another round of verbal exchanges between the government and other stakeholders about the proposed Films and Publications Amendment Bill and its possible impact on the media. Home Affairs Deputy Minister Malusi Gigaba and the Democratic Alliance’s communications spokesman, Dene Smuts, debate the issue.

Motivational speaker sues ‘abusive’ blogger
BLOGGER who mouthed-off on a website found himself in court for insulting a popular South African motivational speaker.

Heads roll over porn e-mail
Watching and allegedly distributing a pornographic e-mail showing a couple in a steamy sexual act has cost five Durban labour department employees their jobs.

Video: Top 5 dot.com flops

The future of malware: Trojan horses
Some of the most dangerous cyberattacks are the least visible ones.

Anti-Piracy Plan May Harm YouTube
Copyright protection technology being adopted by video sharing Web site YouTube may give the site a dose of legal legitimacy. However, some fear the technology might also hurt YouTube's edgy appeal. "If the video migrates to other places, I fear the audience will too, so YouTube needs to be really careful about how it does this," said Joe Laszlo, senior analyst with JupiterResearch.

Video: Software will be 'click to run'
At the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that there is a transition away from software that is delivered locally to software delivered via the Internet, or via Live, Microsoft's hosted services.

Webcast: Are Your E-mail Servers Overwhelmed?
Is your IT department battling with bogged down e-mail servers? As millions of e-mails are exchanged every day, businesses are struggling to keep up with demand. We'll help you decide whether it's time to upgrade your servers to solve the problem. In this ZDNet Webcast, we'll look at the potential ROI of upgrading and the potential costs if you don't.

Video: Fostering innovation in the midst of disasters
American Red Cross CIO Steve Cooper believes that innovation is much more challenging in large organizations. Cooper sits down with ZDNet Editor in Chief Dan Farber in a CIO Vision Series interview and talks about the “innovation center” that he created at the American Red Cross, and how this small team focuses on solving real business problems.

A sneaky change in Windows licensing terms
I've seen several sites point to Microsoft's new Software License Terms page, which contains PDF versions of the license agreements for many Microsoft products. Most sites that have commented on the new Windows Vista licenses have picked up on this blurb from the Windows Vista Team Blog.

Security expert: User education is pointless
Users are often called the weakest link in computer security. They can't select secure passwords, and they write down passwords and give them out to strangers in exchange for treats. They use old or outdated security software, can't spell the word "phishing," and click on all links that arrive in e-mail or instant messages, and all that appear on the Web.

Windows kernel protection expected to break soon
PatchGuard, a Microsoft technology to protect key parts of Windows, will be hacked sooner rather than later, a security expert said Thursday.

Podcast: Is Carr right? Does IT not matter? Gartner attendees respond
For those of you who haven't heard of Nicholas Carr, he's the guy who, back in 2003 (gosh, has it been that long?) published an essay in Harvard Business Review with the title IT Doesn't Matter. There are only a handful of people under a handful of brands that could publish an article of that nature and get the attention that his article got. Carr is one of those people and Havard is one of those brands. A lot of people, particularly those in IT circles, were offended by Carr's insinuation that IT couldn't drive competitive advantage. As we say in the news business, it's one of those stories that just keeps on giving. And so does Carr. Last week, Carr was apparently in London reiterating how IT does not matter. Reported Will Sturgeon from Silicon.com (a sister organization to ZDNet under the CNET Networks umbrella).

Tax advisors exempt from reporting non-compliant clients
Tax advisors and accountants will not be obliged to report suspicious transactions from information disclosed by their small business clients, during the ten month tax amnesty period.

IOL readers boldly go into modern technology
IOL readers are at home with modern technology, a poll shows.

DotMobi....dotDejavu
The call has gone out. The Landrush period of two weeks during which you could register your dotMOBI domain name has officially expired. If you did not know about it in the first place, then perhaps you should catch a wake-up call. Your opportunity to do business with two billion mobile phone users is now lost because you have let someone else grab your turf. Have you heard this refrain before?

In a wiki wiki world it's all about sharing control to create value
Kevin Kelly, in his blog The Technium, writes about how the tools of knowledge - computers, wi-fi, blogs, wikis - are reshaping the nature of science: "First these innovations change what we know, and then they change how we know. Then they change how we change."

Rallies protest digital copying limits
Free software advocates rallied against certain limits on copying music and films in a global day against DRM (Digital Rights Management), saying consumers are robbed of their fair-use rights as entertainment goes digital and online.

'Web is minefield and goldmine for publishers'
Publishers could be the Internet piracy boom's next victims after the music industry, but the web might also be their salvation, the head of the International Publishers Association said.

Copyright? Neither Google nor YouTube recognise the word
For Google, a company now valued by the stock market at about $130-billion (about R995-billion), the $1,65-billion paid for YouTube represents little more than small change. If Google were paying in cash, then more eyebrows might have been raised; instead it is paying in its own already highly valued paper. Google is thus hardly betting the ranch. Even if YouTube never makes a penny of profit, the damage will barely register.

Transmeta Sues Intel for Infringing 10 Patents
Chip maker Transmeta is suing Intel for infringing on its patents with several iterations of Intel's popular Pentium chips -- including the Pentium 4 and Core 2 product lines. The complaint seeks an injunction against Intel's continuing sale of infringing products and monetary damages.

Some States May Regulate Law Firms' Blogs
While many lawyers' blogs lie somewhere between unabashed advertising and pure political speech, the amorphous quality of these online logs is creating uneasiness about their ethical implications. Many states are in the process of revamping their attorneys' ethics rules, and part of that process involves the prickly issue of whether blogs should be regulated as advertising.

Woman Wins $11.3 Million for Defamatory Blog Posting
A Florida woman has been awarded $11.3 million in a defamation lawsuit against a Louisiana woman who posted messages on the Internet accusing her of being a "crook," a "con artist" and a "fraud." Legal analysts say the Sept. 19 award by a jury in Broward County, Fla. represents the largest such judgment over postings on an Internet blog or message board.

Organising your life online
Sure, broadband has made web browsing faster but once you’ve used Flickr and Picasa to manage your digital photos, your appreciation of photographs may change forever…

The Dot.Com richest list
It is only six years and seven months since the dot.com bubble of the late 1990s went pop. The previous years had seen a bewildering array of strangely named start-ups command vast sums of cash from apparently hardheaded businessmen and women based on little more than vague promises of profits in the distant future.

Families grapple with technology overload
Modern families worldwide are striving for equilibrium in lives overloaded with technology, according to a study released by Internet search titan Yahoo and OMD media firm.

The False Promise of Browser Security
All Web browsers are insecure to some degree, because they all must work with flawed code in the operating systems. There are some indications of progress, such as frequent patches from Microsoft and Mozilla to close security holes. Still, these actions may be too little too late if a zero-day exploit is the attack weapon.

Microsoft Issues Record Number of Critical Patches
Microsoft issued a record number of fixes tagged "critical" in its latest Patch Tuesday release. The software giant issued 10 security bulletins to patch vulnerabilities in Windows, Office and .Net. Six of the bulletins were rated "critical," including one that patches a much-hyped Microsoft Word vulnerability and another that seals a PowerPoint hole.

Cybercrime Feared More Than Burglary, British Survey Says
More Britons fear net crime than they do burglary, a survey suggests. The Get Safe Online study released by the government found 21% of respondents felt most at risk from net crime, while 16% worried most about being burgled.

British Company Leaves U.S. After Ban on Net Gambling
Britain's Leisure & Gaming and payment processor FireOne joined the list of companies fleeing a U.S. ban on online gaming, as signs emerged that Europe is to open up its gambling market. Leisure & Gaming said it would stop serving U.S. gamblers if President George W. Bush signed into law a ban that was unexpectedly passed by Congress at the start of this month.

Hacker Gets Control of Google's Official Blog
A hacker broke into Google's main official blog and posted a false message on Saturday, saying that the company had decided to cancel a joint project with eBay. The intrusion marks the second time this year that Google's official blog has fallen into unauthorized hands.

Good governance means to lead by example
According to the Institute of International Finance (IIF), a global association for financial firms, South Africa rates among the best performers in corporate governance in emerging markets.

Google's Source-Code Tool Helps Hackers, Experts Say
Google's new source-code search engine, unveiled as a tool to help simplify life for developers, can also be misused to search for software bugs, password information, and even proprietary code that shouldn't have been posted to the Internet in the first place, security experts said. Unlike Google's main Web search engine, Google Code Search peeks into the actual lines of code whenever it finds source-code files on the Internet.

Security Company Disputes Concerns About Windows Vista
Microsoft's new operating system Vista will not make it more difficult for anti-virus systems to work, Russian computer security group and potential IPO candidate Kaspersky Lab said on Friday, contradicting rivals. In an open letter, U.S. anti-virus provider McAfee accused Microsoft of weakening users' protection by no longer co-operating with computer security groups and denying them access to the core of the Vista system.

Google to Subpoena Net Firms in Copyright Lawsuits
Google Inc. will subpoena information from Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. to help fight copyright lawsuits over its book-scanning project. Google, the world's most-used search engine, is seeking information on rival projects by the companies, including book lists, costs, estimated sales, dealings with publishers and possible benefit or harm to copyright owners, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court in New York.

Number of Domain Name Arbitration Cases on Rise
Internet domain-name arbitration disputes have risen by more than a quarter since January 2005 -- despite the expansion of generic top-level domain addresses like .biz and .info -- as cybersquatters find more sophisticated ways of encroaching on legitimate Web sites. Although domain-name disputes can be litigated, domain owners typically opt for arbitration because it's less expensive and often quicker than litigation.

YouTube Deals Aim to Avoid Copyright Problems
YouTube Inc. announced deals to license content from two major record companies just hours before the wildly popular video Web site agreed to be bought by Google Inc. YouTube reached deals with Vivendi’s Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment that will let the Web site post music videos and content from users that includes copyrighted material in exchange for sharing ad revenue.

Friday, October 13, 2006
 
  Repositories for Institutional Open Access: Mandated Deposit Policies
Only 15% of articles are currently being made Open Access (OA) through spontaneous self-archiving efforts by their authors. They average 25%-250% more citations in all 12 disciplines tested so far. Ninety-four percent of journals endorse immediate OA self-archiving. There is no evidence that self-archiving induces subscription cancellations. The “OA advantage” consists of: Early Advantage (early self-archiving produces both earlier and more citations), Usage Advantage (more downloads for OA articles, correlated with later citations), Competitive Advantage (relative citation advantage of OA over non-OA articles: disappears at 100% OA), Quality Advantage (OA advantage is higher, the higher the quality of the article) and Quality Bias (authors selectively self-archiving their higher quality articles – a non-causal component: disappears at 100% OA).

EU Online Content Stakeholders Debate DRM’s Value For Copyright Protection
European copyright owners’ organisations, consumer groups and artists’ collecting societies voiced strong differences of opinion on the importance of, and need for, digital rights management (DRM) systems to spur development of Internet content at an 11 October European Commission hearing.

Unclassified
Let us not ask what the government, or to be more precise Deputy Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba, really wanted the Films and Publications Amendment Bill to achieve when he approved it for tabling in Parliament.Let us stick instead to the more readily discernible facts: what they said they wanted it to achieve, and the mechanisms the Bill proposes. The explanatory memorandum to the Bill is confusing.

Chat class
South of Stellenbosch, surrounded by the winelands, a communications revolution is being born. Teenagers are already well on top of it . . . everyone else had better get ready

HEADS TOGETHER
SA, Brazil and India have made little progress with scientific co-operation, despite government commitments.
Government funding has not come through, making it difficult for researchers to collaborate, says department of science & technology spokesman Nhlanhla Nyide. But this will change.

Playboy files copyright lawsuit
Beijing - US-based entertainment group Playboy has filed a lawsuit here in a bid to protect its famous rabbit's head logo from copyright abuse in China, state-run press reported Thursday.

Warning of cyber crime surge
SA SHOULD brace itself for a rise in cyber crime in the next few years as there are plenty of low-risk opportunities for the criminally inclined, says Kris Budnik, security services group director at Deloitte.

Out on the town
Forget about Neotel, Telkom’s nationwide rival. The next 18 months will see SA municipalities providing perhaps a more formidable challenge to Telkom by offering cheaper, wireless and, crucially, local telecom services.

Tuning in on the Internet
DRIVEN LARGELY by demand in five of the world's biggest markets - Japan, the United States, Germany, Britain and France - the digital music industry is booming internationally. That isn't the case in South Africa, where issues concerning broadband access, pricing and copy protection systems are conspiring to stifle that fledgling market.

'Consumers hate complex things'
When Microsoft launches its Zune to compete with Apple's iPod, it won't just be reversing its own strategies, but going against two decades of received wisdom. This could indicate a sea-change that will help more people get what they want. But it could also lead to users being increasingly locked into whichever systems they happen to buy -- and ultimately paying higher prices

Yebo to Jajah
Here's a radical prediction. Soon, international voice telephony on mobile phones will be free or so cheap it may as well be free. Don't believe me? Then you haven't heard of Jajah, a start-up company that wants to be the Skype of cellphones.

Qualcomm infringed Broadcom patent, says ruling
Qualcomm infringed on a Broadcom patent in its mobile phone chips according to a US administrative judge.
Though the judge ruled that there was an infringement he did not order a ban on sales of all Qualcomm chip-carrying phones. The ruling can be appealed to the US courts system.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006
 
  South Africa: Post Still Important, Despite Technology - Matsepe-Casaburri
Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri says postal services remain an important communication tool, despite electronic methods of exchanging mail.
"In the past, mail used to be transferred on horse-back. Now with modern technology, mail is transferred much faster. However the post office still remains relevant," the minister said in Oshoek today, at the opening of a portable post office in the area.

Apple granted patents for its mouse and rendering user accounts portable
On October 10, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple’s newly granted patents which included the following: ‘Method and apparatus rendering user accounts portable,’ and ‘Cursor control device having an integral top member.’

Jeremy Warner's Outlook: Copyright? What on earth is that? Neither Google nor YouTube recognise the word
For Google, a company now valued by the stock market at about $130bn, the $1.65bn paid for YouTube represents little more than small change. If Google were paying in cash, then more eyebrows might have been raised; instead it is paying in its own already highly valued paper. Google is thus hardly betting the ranch. Even if YouTube never makes a penny of profit, the damage will barely register.

Globalising governance
The question "Who should run the internet" ought to be a no-brainer. It is, despite its US provenance, a global phenomenon and its governance should reflect that. Nothing previously devised has put people and communities around the world in touch with each other to such an extent. This week's purchase by Google of YouTube, which claims 100m downloads of its videos each day, will expedite that process.

Google's copyright nightmare
Google's takeover of video-sharing website YouTube may look like a nifty business move. For the company's legal team, however, it may soon turn into a long and nasty nightmare.
Here's the rub: Besides all the gorgeous and goofy home videos, YouTube (like other video websites) hosts plenty of pirated content.

Monday, October 09, 2006
 
  Websites offer students new way to cheat
Even the most efficient student would have agonised over the assignment -- a 30-page term paper on the social value of literary criticism. But Richard finished it in one evening, cutting and pasting paragraphs off the internet for an online company that sells papers to desperate United States college students.

Friday, October 06, 2006
 
  MXit sparks paranoia among parents
MXit, the popular cellphone chat service that has taken South Africa by storm, has created a wave of paranoia and concern among parents.

Companies beware… buggers are eavesdropping
The microphone is no bigger than the head of a match; the high-definition camera is smaller than a R2 coin.

2 students admit posting explicit messages
Two 15-year-old girls have been identified as the people who posted sexually explicit messages aboutfellow students on the online networking site MySpace.com, police said Wednesday

Microsoft to step up anti-piracy stance
Microsoft Corp. is cracking down harder than ever on software piracy as it tries to boost profits, but some say the harsh repercussions facing people who use unlicensed versions of its new Windows Vista operating system could spur a backlash.

Medicare Patient Data Insecure, GAO Says
Security weaknesses have left millions of elderly, disabled and poor Americans vulnerable to unauthorized disclosure of their medical and other personal records, federal investigators said yesterday.

Trio sentenced to 8 years in U.K. cyberattack scheme
Three Russian citizens were sentenced Wednesday to eight years each for extorting money from U.K. e-commerce companies.

Mozilla duped by hacker's 'humorous' presentation
One of the hackers who demonstrated exploit code for a vulnerability in the way the Firefox browser handles Javascript at a hacker conference in San Diego admitted Tuesday that the presentation was meant to be a joke, the chief of security for Mozilla has said.

Banks await regulations on US Internet betting ban
The costs of policing a new U.S. Internet gambling ban for banks and credit card companies will be determined by regulators in the coming months, industry officials said on Monday.

Who's watching Wiki?
The picture painted of South African brands and companies by Wikipedia, the free web-based encyclopedia, is not quite as rosy as investor-relations people would like it to be.

Weblog warrior lays charges for death threat
A pro-South African weblog warrior, Pieter Boshoff, has laid a criminal charge with the Cape Town police after allegedly receiving racial slurs and death threats from the supporters of a rival website.

BEE self-financing restrictions to end
COMPANIES will soon be able to finance prospective black economic empowerment partners, thanks to expected changes in the Companies Act.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006
 
  South African broadband users number over 300 000
The latest South African broadband figures show a steady growth in both the wireless and wired markets.

UK firms want single view of security
Over three-quarters of UK firms want a single view of their IT security infrastructure, but are being held back by budgetary constraints and a lack of integrated offerings from vendors, according to new research by McAfee just published.

European firms lost in IT security labyrinth
Attempts to simplify IT security management are being widely undermined by complex security purchasing strategies, new research claimed today.

'Shopadmins' And the ID Theft Cycle
Washingtonpost.com today published a story based on the 10 hours of lurking I did on a variety of underground chat and Web channels frequented by identity and credit card thieves. From that research, Security Fix confirmed recent data breaches at four online merchants that were unaware that hackers had broken into their databases until we contacted them.

Security Fix Pop Quiz: Have You Been Patching?
It's that time again Security Fix readers: A pop quiz to see how well you've been keeping up with software security updates for some of the more commonly installed deskop applications.

Snooping on Your Online Searches
America Online took a lot of heat recently for disclosing what hundreds of thousands of AOL users had searched for online, but the truth is that stealing search results from any Internet user is well within the reach of all Web site owners, according to research published this week.

The Truth About a Claimed Firefox Exploit
A colorful duo of young hackers at the Toorcon security conference presented evidence Saturday that suggested a previously undocumented flaw in Mozilla's Firefox Web browser is actively being exploited to compromise machines of users cruising the Web with the browser.

Report: Cell Phone Worms, VoIP Fraud to Grow in '07
"The challenge with cell phones is that there isn't a ubiquitous operating system," Gregg Mastoras, a senior security analyst with Sophos told TechNewsWorld. "We're not talking about computers where Microsoft owns 95 percent of the world. Cell phones have plenty of different operating systems, and for that reason, they're much harder to attack on a large scale."

Internet control 'nears autonomy'
The US government says it will maintain oversight of the internet but with far less hands-on involvement.

Microsoft 'taking security risks'
Microsoft is taking security risks with its forthcoming Vista operating system, says software firm McAfee.

U.S. homework outsourced as 'e-tutoring' grows
Private tutors are a luxury many American families cannot afford, costing anywhere between $25 to $100 an hour. But California mother Denise Robison found one online for $2.50 an hour -- in India.

The growing world of Google Earth
Google Inc.'s Michael Jones likes to take pictures with a super high-resolution camera like those used on spy planes during the Cold War.

Google buys founders' garage
Internet search leader Google Inc. has added a landmark to its rapidly expanding empire -- the Silicon Valley home where co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin rented a garage eight years ago as they set out to change the world.

UI warns research subjects of possible security breach
The University of Iowa is contacting subjects in research studies following attacks on a computer in which personal information about those subjects was stored.

Credit data stolen at Indian call centres
CREDIT card data, along with passport and driving licence numbers, are being stolen from call centres in India and sold to the highest bidder, an investigation has found.

Security lacking in networks controlling critical infrastructure
Hackers, terrorists could find way into controls of nuclear power stations, electrical grids, water lines.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006
 
  IBM Asks Judge to Dismiss $5 Billion Linux Lawsuit
IBM Corp. asked a federal judge to throw out The SCO Group Inc.'s $5 billion lawsuit, arguing the Utah company failed to show its intellectual property was misappropriated when Big Blue donated software code to the freely distributed Linux operating system. IBM filed six motions asking U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball and Magistrate Brooke Wells to toss out the claims remaining after Wells struck down most of SCO's case months ago.

Court Dismisses Keyword-Buying Lawsuit Against Google
A federal court dismissed a lawsuit against Google over its practice of allowing companies to buy search-related ads that are displayed when people type in the name of a competitor. In early 2005, computer repair company Rescuecom sued Google in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, alleging that Google was violating trademark by selling ads to Rescuecom's competitors that show up next to search results when someone types in "Rescuecom."

President Bush Expected to Sign Online Gambling Law
The $12 billion online gambling industry could turn into a house of cards now that the Congress has passed a law banning the use of credit cards, checks and electronic fund transfers for Internet gaming, industry experts warn. President Bush is expected to sign the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which makes it illegal for banks, credit card companies and online payment systems to process payment to online gambling companies.

Defending against cyber crooks
Recent reports suggest home computer users are by far the most likely targets for cyber criminals.
The latest trend: cyber thieves focussing on social networking sites - like myspace or your typical blog - where users find a comfort zone in the site and are unlikely to suspect that cyber predators are lurking.

HP top brass claim innocence, naivety and ignorance
The ex-chairwoman and chief executive of Hewlett Packard have appeared before a congressional committee in the US to answer questions about the corporate spying scandal at the company.

Every Move You Make
If you think you're being watched, you probably are.
As more news creeps out about the complicated scheme Hewlett-Packard Co. used to spy on executives, board members and reporters to find out who was leaking information to the media, one might wonder: Is someone, right this very minute, watching my keystrokes? Or reading my e-mail? Doing background checks on me even after I'm hired? Noticing when I come and go based on my key card?

Search Terms Mean Savings in E-Discovery
With the impending changes in the federal rules related to electronic discovery, opposing parties will be required to discuss any and all discovery issues involving electronically stored information (ESI).
In this context, discussions will likely focus on what information will be examined (e-mail, electronic documents, Web mail, instant messages), where this information is stored (computer hard drives, "ghost images," backup servers), whether it is reasonable or unduly burdensome to access and review all potentially relevant information, and how the information will be produced.
In matters where examination of all requested e-discovery would be unduly burdensome, and make no doubt the producing party will put forth the argument, it is becoming common practice to employ the use of search terms to decrease the costs of ESI access and review.

Music industry partly settles copyright case
A substantial majority of UK composers, songwriters and music publishers has accepted terms for royalties based on digital sales.

Who owns copyright on the Net?
With the explosion in self-generated websites comes the problem of who owns copyright on content published for global consumption.

China blasted for copyright fraud
The largest US business group has urged China to clamp down on rampant copyright abuses and open up its currency to forestall protectionist retaliation by Congress.

 

 

 

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