From the article: CTAD, under the Office of Computer Security, is the U.S. Department of State's focal point for collecting and reporting time-sensitive, cyber threat intelligence, and technical data.
So if terrorist hackers are trying to figure out who to approach/bribe/attack... it's these guys? Nice of them to include a photo too! That helps with identification.
And "leaving no trace of its activities"... this I gotta see. Windows? Mac? Linux? Solaris? Mainframes? Or maybe they've already scanned my computer! Uh-oh... is that a silent helicopter outside my apartment?!
And from my own link: "IP spoofing is almost always used in denial of service attacks (DoS), in which attackers are concerned with consuming bandwidth and resources by flooding the target with as many packets as possible in a short amount of time." And distributed DoS (DDoS) attacks are almost certainly the second most common use of zombie PCs, after spamming.
Read the article again, folks: "IP addresses that have been used for illicit reasons -- for example spamming." (emphasis added)
The Aussies are after all kinds of zombies, not just spam zombies. Zombie PCs can be (and have been) used to launch DDoS attacks -- and IP spoofing works just fine for these purposes. I said illicit computer operators could spoof their IPs, not that they could spoof it to send spam. Read more carefully!
...but what happens when trojan horses and viruses take control of these peripherals? And will I be able to integrate it with web pages or email? I'm sure the pr0n industry will be all over this....
From the article: "Anthony Wing, manager of the anti-spam team at the ACMA, told ZDNet UK sister site ZDNet Australia that the application, which took "some months" to build, can identify computers physically located in Australia that are being used for "illicit reasons".
"[The application] identifies IP addresses that have been used for illicit reasons -- for example spamming," Wing said. "There are a range of sensors around that world that identify them. Those infected IP addresses are then fed to the relevant ISP. They know who their customers are so that can contact them... if the computer remains a threat to other Internet users, the ISPs may take steps under their acceptable use policy to disconnect the computer until the problem is resolved".
...The ISPs will then be responsible for contacting their customers and helping them disinfect their computers.
This is great, assuming that:
Hackers won't get a copy of this software and find ways of circumventing it.
I'm curious to know if Amazon is going to use the cumulative results to try to "train" computers, or if it really is just for the money. The requirements include being over 18, so you can't pimp your kids to click through this stuff for cash (though I'm sure it will happen).
The No Software Patents site says that copyright should cover everything that patents cover, and elsewhere that patents are used as guns against small software developers. Um, and copyrights AREN'T used this way? C'mon. If patents disappeared tomorrow, the lawyers would find a way of crushing you with copyrights, and you'd have a No Software Copyrights! movement in a minute.
The problem is not with the protection of ideas, but with the execution of that protection in the business world. Maybe 20 years is an inappropriate length for a patent in software; maybe two years would be better. Perhaps patent and copyright duration should be scaled based on the industry, or adjusted based on the commercialization/profit of the IP holder. There are other ways of dealing with this besides chucking the whole system.
So MySQL and PostgreSQL have been free... then IBM announces a free version of DB2... then Microsoft says it's going to release SQL Server Express for free. So Oracle is playing catch-up. I wouldn't expect a major migration from MySQL to anything else; the conversion costs would be too high. But in the future, choice is a good thing.
Really? I've read news reports of inmates with Internet access... could be certain states allow it, or only low-security prisons (e.g. so-called "Club Feds"). My impression was that it was allowed for "research" and "educational" purposes, though some had found ways of accomplishing other tasks with it. I'll see if I can dig up links to such articles.
It's not like he can't run a web site from behind bars. Every prison library has computers and Internet access nowadays. I'll be surprised if he is not still raking in dough from online ventures -- overseas if not domestically.
No, really, it is. If MS Word can open and save in OpenDocument XML format, then Microsoft can honestly say, "Sure, Mr. Corporate Buyer, go ahead and experiment with that open source stuff. And when you're done, you can rest assured that your data can safely return to Microsoft Word with nary a scratch."
At the very least it is a slight nod to the increasing public awareness of open source software.
I'm sure "members of the public" will surreptitiously submit support for the RIAA on this topic.
Anyway, from the page: "...which users are, or are likely to be, adversely affected in their ability to make noninfringing uses due to the prohibition on circumvention."
Well, there's the argument that DMCA locks you to a specific vendor (Microsoft or Apple, basically) and therefore is a monopoly-style problem for consumers, but the Gov'mt is likely to think this is akin to complaining that you can't listen your LP's on your CD player. Yeah, the format is locked to a vendor or kind of equipment, but there are ways of transferring it if you really want to. (Yes, there are. Stop complaining.)
Then there's the argument that consumers ought to be able to back up the media they buy in case something happens to the original. This is true. Of course, you could say the same thing about books, but nobody actually photocopies a whole book (and it wouldn't be the same thing, anyway). But maybe you should be able to. If I've paid once for rights to use media, are my terms of agreement limited to the physical state of the data? Or to do they apply to continued use?
And there is also the general idea that prohibition rarely works. Digital locks only keep digital crackers in business. If all media was unprotected, it wouldn't be so thrilling to get something illegal.
Finally, if the media industries took all the time and money that they've spent on DMCA and put it into producing better works, we'd have much better music and movies... or maybe CDs that cost less than $10.
Wow, you're right. I too am surprised that CNN didn't follow up to verify this guy's facts -- at that rate, he'd be spending $8000/yr to get 80gb. I didn't look either; I use a Mac but not the.Mac service.
This is just celebrity research. So Darwin and Einstein handled paper mail like we handle electronic mail. Guess what? I handle paper mail that way too. I bet most people do, and pronbably always have. The article doesn't talk about that, however.
"Ozzie, the former chairman of Groove Networks, has been charged with leading Microsoft in this area." If only that was a criminal charge.
Elsewhere: "How much competitive advantage does e-mail give any company? Wouldn't those internal IT resources be better deployed elsewhere?" said one Microsoft source, who asked not to be named.
You mean, you won't need to buy email server software and support from MS?
From the article: "IChat may not always provide the best video-quality images, depending on the network bandwidth available, but it's cheap and easy to use in comparison with the alternatives."
Just what I want to hear from my doctor: this isn't the best, but it's cheap!
And using Apple's.Mac for MEDICAL DATA BACKUP?! If this were done in the U.S., the HIPAA laws (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) would slap him down very, very fast. And sure, $100/yr gets him 80gb of data... but why not talk to the hospital IT department and spend $1000 one time to get a cheap, secure Linux server with many times that capacity?! Oh wait, Linux servers don't come with nifty earbuds that let you listen to your own music while on-the-go....
The thing he's wrong about is the causes of these electrical phenomena. It's definitely Russian-made electromagnetic generators operated by the Yakuza. If we really want to harness the power of hurricanes, we simply need to find these generators and either (a) destroy them or (b) sell them to Third World dictators to destroy each other with.
Slashdot Mirror
From the article: CTAD, under the Office of Computer Security, is the U.S. Department of State's focal point for collecting and reporting time-sensitive, cyber threat intelligence, and technical data.
So if terrorist hackers are trying to figure out who to approach/bribe/attack... it's these guys? Nice of them to include a photo too! That helps with identification.
And "leaving no trace of its activities"... this I gotta see. Windows? Mac? Linux? Solaris? Mainframes? Or maybe they've already scanned my computer! Uh-oh... is that a silent helicopter outside my apartment?!
In a nutshell: "We missed the boat again. Smaller companies are beating us. Let's crush them. Go Microsoft!"
From the article: "It is the second in a planned two-satellite constellation."
It only takes two items to make a constellation?? Three would be a crowd, I guess.
Just imagine a Beowu-- oh, nevermind.
And from my own link: "IP spoofing is almost always used in denial of service attacks (DoS), in which attackers are concerned with consuming bandwidth and resources by flooding the target with as many packets as possible in a short amount of time." And distributed DoS (DDoS) attacks are almost certainly the second most common use of zombie PCs, after spamming.
Read the article again, folks: "IP addresses that have been used for illicit reasons -- for example spamming." (emphasis added)
The Aussies are after all kinds of zombies, not just spam zombies. Zombie PCs can be (and have been) used to launch DDoS attacks -- and IP spoofing works just fine for these purposes. I said illicit computer operators could spoof their IPs, not that they could spoof it to send spam. Read more carefully!
...but what happens when trojan horses and viruses take control of these peripherals? And will I be able to integrate it with web pages or email? I'm sure the pr0n industry will be all over this....
From the article: "Anthony Wing, manager of the anti-spam team at the ACMA, told ZDNet UK sister site ZDNet Australia that the application, which took "some months" to build, can identify computers physically located in Australia that are being used for "illicit reasons".
"[The application] identifies IP addresses that have been used for illicit reasons -- for example spamming," Wing said. "There are a range of sensors around that world that identify them. Those infected IP addresses are then fed to the relevant ISP. They know who their customers are so that can contact them... if the computer remains a threat to other Internet users, the ISPs may take steps under their acceptable use policy to disconnect the computer until the problem is resolved".
...The ISPs will then be responsible for contacting their customers and helping them disinfect their computers.
This is great, assuming that:
Well, mturk.amazon.com redirects you to www.mturk.com... seems to imply something.
According to this earlier Slashdot report, the spam industry has been doing this for awhile with free porn.
I'm curious to know if Amazon is going to use the cumulative results to try to "train" computers, or if it really is just for the money. The requirements include being over 18, so you can't pimp your kids to click through this stuff for cash (though I'm sure it will happen).
The No Software Patents site says that copyright should cover everything that patents cover, and elsewhere that patents are used as guns against small software developers. Um, and copyrights AREN'T used this way? C'mon. If patents disappeared tomorrow, the lawyers would find a way of crushing you with copyrights, and you'd have a No Software Copyrights! movement in a minute.
The problem is not with the protection of ideas, but with the execution of that protection in the business world. Maybe 20 years is an inappropriate length for a patent in software; maybe two years would be better. Perhaps patent and copyright duration should be scaled based on the industry, or adjusted based on the commercialization/profit of the IP holder. There are other ways of dealing with this besides chucking the whole system.
So MySQL and PostgreSQL have been free... then IBM announces a free version of DB2... then Microsoft says it's going to release SQL Server Express for free. So Oracle is playing catch-up. I wouldn't expect a major migration from MySQL to anything else; the conversion costs would be too high. But in the future, choice is a good thing.
Really? I've read news reports of inmates with Internet access... could be certain states allow it, or only low-security prisons (e.g. so-called "Club Feds"). My impression was that it was allowed for "research" and "educational" purposes, though some had found ways of accomplishing other tasks with it. I'll see if I can dig up links to such articles.
It's not like he can't run a web site from behind bars. Every prison library has computers and Internet access nowadays. I'll be surprised if he is not still raking in dough from online ventures -- overseas if not domestically.
No, really, it is. If MS Word can open and save in OpenDocument XML format, then Microsoft can honestly say, "Sure, Mr. Corporate Buyer, go ahead and experiment with that open source stuff. And when you're done, you can rest assured that your data can safely return to Microsoft Word with nary a scratch."
At the very least it is a slight nod to the increasing public awareness of open source software.
That's fine for music, but what about DVDs, software, etc.???
I'm sure "members of the public" will surreptitiously submit support for the RIAA on this topic.
Anyway, from the page: "...which users are, or are likely to be, adversely affected in their ability to make noninfringing uses due to the prohibition on circumvention."
Well, there's the argument that DMCA locks you to a specific vendor (Microsoft or Apple, basically) and therefore is a monopoly-style problem for consumers, but the Gov'mt is likely to think this is akin to complaining that you can't listen your LP's on your CD player. Yeah, the format is locked to a vendor or kind of equipment, but there are ways of transferring it if you really want to. (Yes, there are. Stop complaining.)
Then there's the argument that consumers ought to be able to back up the media they buy in case something happens to the original. This is true. Of course, you could say the same thing about books, but nobody actually photocopies a whole book (and it wouldn't be the same thing, anyway). But maybe you should be able to. If I've paid once for rights to use media, are my terms of agreement limited to the physical state of the data? Or to do they apply to continued use?
And there is also the general idea that prohibition rarely works. Digital locks only keep digital crackers in business. If all media was unprotected, it wouldn't be so thrilling to get something illegal.
Finally, if the media industries took all the time and money that they've spent on DMCA and put it into producing better works, we'd have much better music and movies... or maybe CDs that cost less than $10.
$100 a year gets him 1GB actually.
Wow, you're right. I too am surprised that CNN didn't follow up to verify this guy's facts -- at that rate, he'd be spending $8000/yr to get 80gb. I didn't look either; I use a Mac but not the .Mac service.
Hey, are you making furn of my tynping?!?
This is just celebrity research. So Darwin and Einstein handled paper mail like we handle electronic mail. Guess what? I handle paper mail that way too. I bet most people do, and pronbably always have. The article doesn't talk about that, however.
"Ozzie, the former chairman of Groove Networks, has been charged with leading Microsoft in this area." If only that was a criminal charge.
Elsewhere: "How much competitive advantage does e-mail give any company? Wouldn't those internal IT resources be better deployed elsewhere?" said one Microsoft source, who asked not to be named.
You mean, you won't need to buy email server software and support from MS?
From the article: "IChat may not always provide the best video-quality images, depending on the network bandwidth available, but it's cheap and easy to use in comparison with the alternatives."
Just what I want to hear from my doctor: this isn't the best, but it's cheap!
And using Apple's .Mac for MEDICAL DATA BACKUP?! If this were done in the U.S., the HIPAA laws (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) would slap him down very, very fast. And sure, $100/yr gets him 80gb of data... but why not talk to the hospital IT department and spend $1000 one time to get a cheap, secure Linux server with many times that capacity?! Oh wait, Linux servers don't come with nifty earbuds that let you listen to your own music while on-the-go....
Bah! I want low signal boosting and Verizon service stabilization technology!!!
The thing he's wrong about is the causes of these electrical phenomena. It's definitely Russian-made electromagnetic generators operated by the Yakuza. If we really want to harness the power of hurricanes, we simply need to find these generators and either (a) destroy them or (b) sell them to Third World dictators to destroy each other with.
if it is a couple of dozen bytes here and there it might be possible to store lots of stuff with a reasonable degree of safety.
Wow... this gaves me a great idea... the Slashdot Sig File System!