Shortened URLs, a service on many sites that turns lengthy Web addresses into shorter URLs, is rapidly becoming a popular way for spammers to reach unsuspecting readers. New analysis from Symantec’s MessageLabs finds shortened URLs now account for 2 percent of all spam in inboxes
A food thickener used in yoghurts and jellies could be used to help make artificial muscle. Nanotechnology graduate Cameron Ferris, and supervisor Dr Marc in het Panhuis, of the University of Wollongong report on their work developing tissue scaffolds in the journal Soft Matter. Tissue engineers use scaffolds to help get cells to grow into the right kind of tissues
An in-depth investigation by an Australian retiree has revealed that fake bids are running rampant
on eBay, forcing users to pay inflated prices for items on the auction site. Philip Cohen, 69, from Brighton-Le-Sands in Sydney, found several instances of shill bidding – where phoney eBay accounts are used to bid up the price of items on the auction site to inflate the final price paid by buyers. He places the blame squarely on eBay, saying that its anti-shill security systems are flawed or non-existent. He says that shill bidding has been encouraged by a new policy from eBay to hide from other users the usernames of people bidding on items
Power sockets can be used to eavesdrop on what people type on a computer. Security researchers found that poor shielding on some keyboard cables means useful data can be leaked about each character typed. By analysing the information leaking onto power circuits, the researchers could see what a target was typing. The attack has been demonstrated to work at a distance of up to 15m, but refinement may mean it could work over much longer distances
University of Wollongong researcher Willy Susilo has been awarded a grant to develop cryptographic algorithms that will remain secure from quantum computer attacks. Researchers say quantum computers will be able to crack all encryption systems in use today. The enormous computing power promised by quantum computers is expected to present critical cyber-security threats that can only be removed by new cryptographic algorithms. Professor Susilo said the algorithms, used to secure transactions over the internet, were based mainly on public key infrastructure, but when quantum computers emerged, they would be under real threat
The French Senate has once again approved a reworked version of the country’s controversial three strikes
bill designed to appease the Constitutional Council. Instead of a state-appointed agency cutting off those accused of being repeat offenders, judges will have the final say over punishment. Meanwhile, New Zealand is ready to reintroduce the three-strikes
rule that says that everyone in your household will be denied Internet access (and all that goes with it, from education to civic engagement to health information) if one person is accused of infringing on copyright
Adobe has discontinued HomeSite. Nick Bradbury, HomeSite’s creator, has some parting thoughts — via kottke.org
A new networking technology called Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) could give astronauts direct Internet access within a year. The technology currently is being tested aboard the International Space Station (ISS), and could lead towards what has been dubbed the Interplanetary Internet
. DTN communications protocol is a like TCP/IP, which defines how information is encoded and routed through a network. However, while TCP/IP deals with a continuous end-to-end network of Internet hosts and computers, DTN deals with spacecraft whose communications may be disrupted as they travel. DTN deals with disruptions by storing unsent data packets in a queue until conditions allow for them to be transmitted
Stephen Conroy’s mandatory internet filtering plans have earned him the title of Internet Villain of the Year at the 11th annual Internet Industry Awards. The Internet Villain category recognises individuals or organisations that have upset the Internet industry and hampered its development — those whom the industry loves to hate. As Australia’s communications minister, and supporter of one of the world’s most ambitious internet censorship plans, Senator Conroy beat out tough competition from the likes of the European Parliament and French President Nicolas Sarkozy
Twitter is suspending the accounts of some users whose computers have fallen victim to a well-known piece of malicious software that has targeted other sites such as Facebook and MySpace. The malware, Koobface, is designed to spread itself by checking to see if person is logged into a social network. It will then post fraudulent messages on the person’s Twitter account trying to entice friends to click the link, which then leads to a malicious Web site that tries to infect the PC
The surviving workers from the Bletchley Park cryptography unit are to be honoured, nearly 70 years after the unit was formed. The Bletchley Park code breakers, known as Station X during the Second World War, were never officially recognised for their invaluable work in deciphering German, Italian and Japanese military codes — work this is thought to have shortened the war by more than two years and saved millions of lives
In a study published in Cell Metabolism, chemical and biomolecular engineering professor James Liao, associate professor of human genetics and paediatrics Katrina Dipple, and their research team at UCLA showed that genetic alterations enable mice to convert fat into carbon dioxide and remain lean while eating the equivalent of a fast-food diet
An Australian web site that allows users to bypass registration details on other web sites using communal usernames and passwords could be shut down for breaching terms and conditions of other sites, a law expert says. Deacons partner Nick Abrahams says BugMeNot.com, which was created by former realestate.com.au employees Guy King and Bevan Clark has put safeguards on its site but could still face legal action
There are signs that the concerted cyber attacks targeting US and Korean government and commercial Web sites this past week are beginning to wane. Yet, even if the assaults were to be completely blocked tomorrow, the attackers could still have one last, inglorious weapon in their arsenal: New evidence suggests that the malicious code responsible for spreading this attack includes instructions to overwrite the infected PC’s hard drive
Teams at Stanford and MIT have each reported getting strong light signals from germanium-based diodes on silicon at room temperature. Engineers have long sought to do this because, with further refinement into lasers, such diodes would allow for optical interconnects on chips. Optical interconnects could operate much faster and with less power than electrical (metal) ones that are becoming bottlenecks on current chips — via Slashdot
Google has finally removed the beta tag from a slew of applications, including Gmail and Docs, in a bid to woo large corporate clients. The software giant hopes the move will convince Microsoft and IBM customers to switch to Google Apps Premier Edition, comprising Gmail, Docs, Calendar and Talk. The Premier version is the paid service for Google’s online application suite for communication, productivity and collaboration — areas where Microsoft traditionally dominates with its Office and Outlook products, and where IBM has a legacy foothold with Lotus. The beta tags carried an air of unfinished business and the applications were perceived by some customers as not enterprise-ready
Police say there will be no further investigation of claims that a huge mobile phone-hacking operation was launched by the News of the World. The Guardian alleged the tabloid’s reporters paid private investigators to hack into thousands of phones, many owned by politicians and celebrities. But the Metropolitan Police said no new evidence had emerged since an original inquiry saw two men jailed in 2007
The author of a new climate study commissioned by the Federal Government says people in southern parts of Australia can expect the dry weather in many areas to continue indefinitely. The study by Australian National University (ANU) professor Will Steffen looked at scientific papers published since the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change’s last major report in 2007. He found there is growing evidence that prolonged dry spells in certain parts of Australia are linked to climate change rather than nature
In a direct challenge to Microsoft, Google has announced that it is developing an operating system for PCs that is tied to its Chrome Web browser. The software, called the Google Chrome Operating System, is initially intended for use in the tiny, low-cost portable computers known as netbooks, which have been selling quickly even as demand for other PCs has plummeted. Google said it believed the software would also be able to power full-size PCs. The move is likely to sharpen the already intense competition between Google and Microsoft, whose Windows operating system controls the basic functions of the vast majority of personal computers
A wave of cyberattacks aimed at 27 American and South Korean government agencies and commercial Web sites temporarily jammed more than a third of them over the past five days, and several sites in South Korea came under renewed attack on Thursday. The latest bout of attacks, which affected service on one government and six commercial Web sites in South Korea, was relatively minor, and all but two of the sites were fully functional within a few hours, an official from the state-run Korea Communications Commission said
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