Slashdot Mirror

An anonymous reader submits "David Blunkett, the UK's labour Home Secretary, today announced plans to fingerprint and iris scan all British citizens by 2013 for a new compulsory ID card. The majority of negative feedback to government consultation on the scheme was discounted because it was sent via an online service." On the other hand, securitas writes "Greece's Data Protection Authority - the national privacy watchdog - 'banned Athens International Airport from checking and recording passengers' fingerprints and irises as part of a pilot security program saying it was in breach of local privacy laws.' (That's 'pilot' as in 'trial,' not the people who fly the planes). The scheme, funded by the European Union and the Swiss government, involved embedding the biometric data on smart cards issued to travelers on a voluntary basis."

lga writes "David Blunkett will attempt to introduce "entitlement cards" after the next general election in the UK. This is despite an overwhelming response against the idea through stand.org.uk. Carrying the cards will not be compulsory, but registration for the national database will be. Not only that, but the cards will be paid for by a £25 price increase on passports and driving licences! More information can be had at The Register and The Guardian."

effectus writes "The UK Patent Office delays their implementation of the EU Copyright Directive (2001/29/EC) following higher-than-expected replies to the flawed consultation document. Here is their progress report."

Harry Morgan writes: " The UK Government has postponed debate on, The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Communications Data: Additional Public Authorities) Order 2002 which is their attempt to expand the number of organisations entitled to demand communications data under the original RIP act, until Tuesday 18th June. For anyone who feels strongly about this, now is the time to do something about it. You can fax your Member of Parliament from stand.org.uk a site which gives comprehensive information about the order and the original act. "

"Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue." No, that's for a wedding. For Slashback, try something more like "Something about Intel, something about Mattel, something about TiVO,something about England." Much less romantic, but quite a bit more fun to read.

Alright mister, I'll see your accusatory bluster and raise you a page of cogent explanation. Our own Jamie McCarthy points out: "[Matthew Scala, one] of the authors of cphack has written a very extensive FAQ about the program and his settlement with Cyber Patrol/Mattel." Here's the link to the Cyber Patrol break FAQ.

This just in from Georgetown: Pat Ramsey, omniscient Mac-support guru at Southwestern University (The original University of Texas) participated in the recent ResNet 2000 conference, and wrote with some clarification about the recent Slashdot story on Simson Garfinkle's recommendations on ftp, telnet and other common protocols.

I submitted a blurb on Sunday about Simson Garfinkle keynoting the Resnet 2000 Symposium in Philadelphia. Being there at the conference, I can say that Rob's take on the Chronicle article is a little off. Garfinkle gave a presentation intended to raise awareness of how insecure most campuses are.Telnet and ftp protocols are just two examples of services that use clear-text passwords. He believes that that practice should be banned. Clear-text passwords are too easily sniffed.

But telnet and ftp were just two examples of things that campuses should look at. Even bigger, and the article didn't convey this with it's somewhat sensational headline, is the lack of policies that say in writing what is done with data that is inconspicuously gathered. Search engine queries, cookies, packet sniffs, Cisco Netflow logs, tcpdumps, etc.

This seemed to be of more importance then eliminating telnet and ftp.

Especially good for anyone who didn't read the full text of the article linked to; ftp and telnet may be great protocols, but Garfinkel is arguing they're less suitable than their more secure counterparts. Thanks, Pat!

14 hours ought to be enough for -- oh, nevermind. undef24 writes: "A followup to a slashdot story posted earlier this week. They've published a way to upgrade a 14-hour Tivo to 52 hours on the AVS Forum." The directions are thorough, but these guys make no bones about what TiVO will think of your mucking about in the guts of your previously-sealed machine. And it raises the inevitable, recurrent question: how close is an off-the-shelf Linux hobbyist version that has the same function?

For once, technical information is slightly flashier than the product name. Maro Shim writes "What's Up With Willamette? (Part 1, Part2), a two-part article, is a good one for understanding Willamette, (i.e. Pentium 4) architecture, which is the next generation x86 processor design from Intel. It includes a description of the development roots of Willamette and the basics of how its organization and operation differs from earlier P6 generation processors. In Part 2, he examines the new technology and features of Willamette in more detail and speculate on its implementation, operational characteristics, and performance. This is a must read for CPU enthusiast."

Flashes of Doh from the other side of the pond. Builder writes "Hi. A while back I used the stand.org.uk service to fax my MP. Today I got a reply back. Some things scare me about the reply. It is almost as if my MP refuses to believe the things we and other large groups of people (ISP's, Consumer groups, etc.) have been saying. ... I've posted the letter, as well as a quick disection about why this whole thing (The bill, my reply and the attitude in general) scares me so much. It can be found at http://www.penguinpowered.org.uk/stand/index.html

If you haven't got involved yet, please do so now! Lobby your MP. Make a noise! Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease..."

Tell me this wasn't inevitable. nutty writes pointing out that the Connectix lawsuit dropped by Sony has been refiled. Legal maneuvering? War of attrition against those who dare oppose the marketing might of the PlayStation behemoth? Sony!? I wish this one were tougher to believe.

Over in the UK, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill is in severe danger of becoming law. In a nutshell, ISPs will be classed as telecoms operators, the Home Secretary can demand taps on ISP traffic with little deliberation -- and without publicity -- and you can be jailed for not handing over decryption keys, even if the police can't prove that you ever had those keys in the first place. There's more on this at the URL above; it's difficult to do it justice in this space. Anyway, the good folks over at STAND are a bit concerned about this. After their earlier @dopt an MP campaign, and their Operation Dear Jack photostory, they've unveiled their latest attempt to involve people. They've set up a web/fax MP gateway. Tap in a few details, including your postcode, and then compose your message. The backend determines who your local MP is, and then faxes your carefully crafted comments off to them. What could be easier? Just remember that it's only for British constituents, and naturally, you should only use your own postcode.

Over in the UK, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill is in severe danger of becoming law. In a nutshell, ISPs will be classed as telecoms operators, the Home Secretary can demand taps on ISP traffic with little deliberation -- and without publicity -- and you can be jailed for not handing over decryption keys, even if the police can't prove that you ever had those keys in the first place. There's more on this at the URL above; it's difficult to do it justice in this space. Anyway, the good folks over at STAND are a bit concerned about this. After their earlier @dopt an MP campaign, and their Operation Dear Jack photostory, they've unveiled their latest attempt to involve people. They've set up a web/fax MP gateway. Tap in a few details, including your postcode, and then compose your message. The backend determines who your local MP is, and then faxes your carefully crafted comments off to them. What could be easier? Just remember that it's only for British constituents, and naturally, you should only use your own postcode.

Over in the UK, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill is in severe danger of becoming law. In a nutshell, ISPs will be classed as telecoms operators, the Home Secretary can demand taps on ISP traffic with little deliberation -- and without publicity -- and you can be jailed for not handing over decryption keys, even if the police can't prove that you ever had those keys in the first place. There's more on this at the URL above; it's difficult to do it justice in this space. Anyway, the good folks over at STAND are a bit concerned about this. After their earlier @dopt an MP campaign, and their Operation Dear Jack photostory, they've unveiled their latest attempt to involve people. They've set up a web/fax MP gateway. Tap in a few details, including your postcode, and then compose your message. The backend determines who your local MP is, and then faxes your carefully crafted comments off to them. What could be easier? Just remember that it's only for British constituents, and naturally, you should only use your own postcode.

Over in the UK, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill is in severe danger of becoming law. In a nutshell, ISPs will be classed as telecoms operators, the Home Secretary can demand taps on ISP traffic with little deliberation -- and without publicity -- and you can be jailed for not handing over decryption keys, even if the police can't prove that you ever had those keys in the first place. There's more on this at the URL above; it's difficult to do it justice in this space. Anyway, the good folks over at STAND are a bit concerned about this. After their earlier @dopt an MP campaign, and their Operation Dear Jack photostory, they've unveiled their latest attempt to involve people. They've set up a web/fax MP gateway. Tap in a few details, including your postcode, and then compose your message. The backend determines who your local MP is, and then faxes your carefully crafted comments off to them. What could be easier? Just remember that it's only for British constituents, and naturally, you should only use your own postcode.

Over in the UK, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill is in severe danger of becoming law. In a nutshell, ISPs will be classed as telecoms operators, the Home Secretary can demand taps on ISP traffic with little deliberation -- and without publicity -- and you can be jailed for not handing over decryption keys, even if the police can't prove that you ever had those keys in the first place. There's more on this at the URL above; it's difficult to do it justice in this space. Anyway, the good folks over at STAND are a bit concerned about this. After their earlier @dopt an MP campaign, and their Operation Dear Jack photostory, they've unveiled their latest attempt to involve people. They've set up a web/fax MP gateway. Tap in a few details, including your postcode, and then compose your message. The backend determines who your local MP is, and then faxes your carefully crafted comments off to them. What could be easier? Just remember that it's only for British constituents, and naturally, you should only use your own postcode.

Stand.org.uk has taken issue with the UK's proposed new e-commerce bill in a novel fashion. The Bill includes an assortment of new powers for law enforcement to combat the spread of that dread menace, cryptography. Police can demand that you decrypt and provide the keys for any encrypted communications in your possession - with a penalty of two years in jail. But what if you don't have the key? An excellent letter and even more excellent photo-essay. -- michael

Stand.org.uk has taken issue with the UK's proposed new e-commerce bill in a novel fashion. The Bill includes an assortment of new powers for law enforcement to combat the spread of that dread menace, cryptography. Police can demand that you decrypt and provide the keys for any encrypted communications in your possession - with a penalty of two years in jail. But what if you don't have the key? An excellent letter and even more excellent photo-essay. -- michael

Stand.org.uk has taken issue with the UK's proposed new e-commerce bill in a novel fashion. The Bill includes an assortment of new powers for law enforcement to combat the spread of that dread menace, cryptography. Police can demand that you decrypt and provide the keys for any encrypted communications in your possession - with a penalty of two years in jail. But what if you don't have the key? An excellent letter and even more excellent photo-essay. -- michael

evilandi writes "This BBC article reports on how the UK Trade and Industry Select Committee have condemned the British government over the proposed E-Commerce Bill. Now that Key Escrow has been 99% dropped, they don't see the point of the bill at all, they're "disappointed that the government should still hold a candle for key escrow", and they're concerned about proposed changes to the Interception of Communications Act (tapping). See also stand.org.uk " Wow-intelligent officials. Someone pinch me.

ntk writes "We've started a grass roots campaign against the UK government's plans to limit strong encryption in Britain. Worried slashdotters might like to check out the @dopt-an-MP site to see how they can help." And read ntk. It's cool.