Internode Boosts Southern Cross Capacity

Internet service provider Internode has signed up for 2.5 gigabits per second more international capacity from Southern Cross Cable’s Network and says it has plans to buy another 12.5 gigabits. Southern Cross had been providing 5Gbps to the ISP, with the increase announced today to take the purchased capacity to 7.5Gbps. Internode hopes to ramp up capacity to 10Gbps by the middle of this year and double it again next year

Filter Trial Vendor Sceptical over Internet Clean-Feed

Internet filtering won’t prevent people deliberately looking for inappropriate material from accessing blocked content, according to security vendor, M86 Security. Six of the nine ISP participants in the URL-based Internet filter trial last year used M86’s R3000 filtering kit. The technology was originally developed for the education sector and was then applied to enterprise businesses

Apple’s Future Won’t be Brought to You by the Letter ‘i’

Apple has been dealt a severe blow having been told that it no longer has a monopoly on the letter i as part of the name for its products. A trademarks tribunal has knocked back Apple’s bid to stop a small company from trademarking the name DOPi for use on its laptop bags and cases for Apple products. Apple argued that the DOPi name — which is iPod spelt backwards — was too similar to its own popular portable music player, which has sold in excess of 100 million units worldwide

The Dark Side of the Web

When Google indexes so many billions of web pages that it doesn’t even bother listing the number any more, it’s hard to imagine that much lies beyond its far-reaching tentacles. Beneath, however, lies an online world that few know exists. It’s a realm of huge, untapped reserves of valuable information containing sprawling databases, hidden websites and murky forums. It’s a world where academics and researchers might find the data required to solve some of mankind’s biggest problems, but also where criminal syndicates operate, and terrorist handbooks and child pornography are freely distributed. At the same time, the underground web is the best hope for those who want to escape the bonds of totalitarian state censorship, and share their ideas or experiences with the outside world. Interested? You’re not alone. The deep web and its darknets are a new battleground for those who want to uphold the right to privacy online, and those who feel that rights need to be sacrificed for the safety of society. The deep web is also the new frontier for those who want to rival Google in the field of search

Australia on Internet Censorship Threat List

A top media rights watchdog has listed Australia along with Iran and North Korea in a report on countries that pose a threat of internet censorship. Paris-based Reporters Without Bordersput Australia and South Korea on its list of countries under surveillance in its Internet Enemies report. Australia was listed for its government’s plan to block access to websites featuring material such as rape, drug use, bestiality and child sex abuse. Critics say the plan is a misguided measure that will harm civil liberties

Insulators Made into Conductors

Most polymers — materials made of long, chain-like molecules — are very good insulators for both heat and electricity. But an MIT team has found a way to transform the most widely used polymer, polyethylene, into a material that conducts heat just as well as most metals, yet remains an electrical insulator

China to Build High-Speed Rail Link to Europe

The journey from London to Beijing by rail could take just two days under a Chinese plan to build an international network for trains that can travel almost as fast as aircraft. Three networks are planned, with the Britain to China route to be extended to Singapore, and built within a decade. Passengers on a second route would travel to the north of China and through Russia and on to Germany, where the network would join the European railway system

Former TSA Analyst Charged with Computer Tampering

A US Transport Security Administration analyst has been indicted with tampering with databases used by the TSA to identify possible terrorists who may be trying to fly in the US. Douglas James Duchak, 46, was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday with two counts of damaging protected computers. According to a federal indictment, Duchak tried to compromise computers at the TSA’s Colorado Springs Operations Center (CSOC) on 22 October 2009, seven days after he’d being given two weeks notice that he was being dismissed. He was also charged with tampering with a TSA server that contained data from the US Marshal’s Service Warrant Information Network

Zeus Botnet Dealt a Blow as ISP Troyak Knocked Out

Internet service providers linked to the notorious Zeus botnet have been taken down, knocking out a third of the command-and-control servers that run the network of hacked machines. Two ISPs, named Troyak and Group 3, were home to 90 of the 249 known Zeus command-and-control servers. Zeus Tracker, a Web site that tracks the botnet, noticed the steep drop in servers on Wednesday morning

Internet Freedom: Beyond Circumvention

Secretary Clinton’s recent speech on Internet Freedom has signalled a strong interest from the US State Department in promoting the use of the internet to promote political reforms in closed societies. It makes sense that the State Department would look to support existing projects to circumvent internet censorship. The New York Times reports that a group of senators is urging the Secretary to apply existing funding to support the development and expansion of censorship circumvention programs, including Tor, Psiphon and Freegate