Arizona man imprisoned for selling access to botnets

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7 September 2012
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A 30-year-old Phoenix man was sentenced Thursday to 30 months in prison for using botnets and selling access to them, the US Department of Justice announced.

Joshua Schichtel, allegedly connected to a group of hackers who used denial-of-service attacks to target businesses, was sentenced in US District Court for the District of Columbia. Schichtel was allegedly a member of the so-called DDoS mafia, a group of hackers that attacked websites on behalf of a business owner, but 2004 charges in California were dropped because prosecutors didn’t file an indictment by the required deadline.

He pleaded guilty on 17 August 2011, in Washington, DC, to one count of attempting to cause damage to multiple computers without authorization by the transmission of programs, codes or commands, a violation of the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Arrested Facebook ‘Troll’ Revealed as UK Policeman

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5 September 2012
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A troll arrested on suspicion of aiming a torrent of abuse at a fellow Facebook user has turned out to be a 32-year-old Birmingham policeman, it has been revealed.

Nicola Brookes, 45, from Brighton was targeted earlier this year after expressing support on Facebook for a contestant on the X Factor TV show, Frankie Cocozza, after he had received abusive messages on the service — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Family First New Zealand Forgot To Renew Its Domain Name

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4 September 2012
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New Zealand’s political climate isn’t too dissimilar from ours right now. They’re mulling over plain packaging, a carbon tax, a fibre-broadband network and the controversial issue of same-sex marriage. A staunch opponent to the marriage equality movement is Family First New Zealand — a political party that recently collected 50,000 signatures against the move. Little did they know that as they passed around slips of paper to be signed, their domain name had fallen out of registration. It was then swooped on by none other than a pro-Marriage Equality movement.

This means that whenever someone goes to www.familyfirst.co.nz, they are automatically redirected to www.marriageequality.co.nz, where they’ll find a whole raft of pro-marriage equality content — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Forget naked DSL, says Telstra: Our IT can’t handle it

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4 September 2012
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The nation’s largest telco Telstra has claimed in a submission to the competition regulator that it can’t deploy naked DSL broadband services to customers and other ISPs as doing so would require it to undertake significant development of its IT systems, which require a phone line to be connected before broadband can be provided.

A number of Telstra’s major rivals, such as iiNet and TPG, have sold so-called naked DSL services, where ADSL broadband is provided to customers without the requirements of a bundled traditional PSTN telephone line, for half a decade. iiNet, for example, first launched naked DSL to customers in November 2007, and had 131,000 customers using the service in June last year. Many of iiNet’s customers bundle cheap IP telephony services with its naked DSL platform. However, Telstra has consistently declined to provide the service to customers, preferring instead to sell bundled services including monthly traditional PSTN line rental plans, which are typically more expensive than IP telephony options.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is currently examining the case for stronger regulation of the way in which Telstra provides wholesale ADSL services to retail ISPs such as iiNet, TPG and Optus. In a submission (PDF) to that process released last week (and first reported by iTNews), Telstra argued that the ACCC should not force is to provide new services such as a wholesale version of naked DSL — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Don’t Build a Database of Ruin

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3 September 2012
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Many businesses today find themselves locked in an arms race with competitors to see who can convert customer secrets into the most pennies. To try to win, they are building perfect digital dossiers, to use a phrase coined by Daniel Solove, massive data stores containing hundreds, if not thousands or tens of thousands, of facts about every member of our society. In my work, I’ve argued that these databases will grow to connect every individual to at least one closely guarded secret. This might be a secret about a medical condition, family history, or personal preference. It is a secret that, if revealed, would cause more than embarrassment or shame; it would lead to serious, concrete, devastating harm. And these companies are combining their data stores, which will give rise to a single, massive database. I call this the Database of Ruin. Once we have created this database, it is unlikely we will ever be able to tear it apart.

I have become convinced that my earlier, bleak predictions about the Database of Ruin were in fact understated, arriving before it was clear how Big Data would accelerate the problem. Consider the most famous recent example of big data’s utility in invading personal privacy: Target’s analytics team can determine which shoppers are pregnant, and even predict their delivery dates, by detecting subtle shifts in purchasing habits. This is only one of countless similarly invasive Big Data efforts being pursued. In the absence of intervention, soon companies will know things about us that we do not even know about ourselves. This is the exciting possibility of Big Data, but for privacy, it is a recipe for disaster — via redwolf.newsvine.com

New high-tech airships are rising in Southern California

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3 September 2012
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Not since the waning days of World War II have the mammoth wooden blimp hangars at the former military base in Tustin seen as much airship manufacturing work as they do today.

Inside the 17-storey structures that rise above southern Orange County, Worldwide Aeros Corp is building a blimp-like airship designed for the military to carry tons of cargo to remote areas around the world.

Nobody has ever tried to do what we’re doing here, Chief Executive Igor Pasternak said of the 265-foot skeleton being transformed into the cargo airship. This will revolutionise airship technology — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Get Apple To Replace A Defective Out-Of-Warranty iPhone In Australia

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1 September 2012
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With the two year anniversary of the release of the iPhone 4 in Australia just past, many folks who bought their iPhone 4 after that period would now be approaching the end of their contracts. The iPhone 4 has been known to experience some common defects later in its life (does anyone have a flaky home button?), so here is a guide for how to get Apple to honour the Trade Practices Act of 1974, and provide you with free warranty service: that is, a replacement for your defective iPhone.

First, let’s clear up some initial points. This is not a scam, or a way to scam Apple. The Australian Government and the ACCC have some fantastic consumer protection policies in place that many people simply aren’t aware of, and many companies don’t rush to inform you about. In 2011, they increased these protections even further with the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, but in the case of the iPhone 4, it’s likely that your situation is covered by the 1974 act, which this guide is based upon.

Also, this protection is to cover defects. You are not meant to use this guide if you have damaged your phone through accident, neglect or abuse — via Gizmodo Australia

IPA damns ‘extraordinary’ data retention policy

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1 September 2012
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One of Australia’s most prominent conservative and free market-focused think tanks has published a strongly worded critique damning the Federal Government’s planned telecommunications surveillance and data retention reform package as excessive and systematically breaching Australians’ right to privacy.

The Institute of Public Affairs is an independent, non-profit organisation which describes itself as supporting the traditional ideals of liberalism, being the free flow of ideas, free markets and capital flows, small government, representative democracy and so on. It is usually referred to by commentators as being associated with the conservative side of politics in Australia, but also often espouses more traditional liberal ideals which neither major side of Australian politics openly supports.

The Federal Attorney-General’s Department is currently promulgating a package of reforms which would see a number of wide-ranging changes made to make it easier for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to monitor what Australians are doing on the Internet. For example, one new power is a data retention protocol which would require ISPs to retain data on their customers’ Internet and telephone activities for up to two years, and changes which would empower agencies to source data on users’ activities on social networking sites — via redwolf.newsvine.com

How to Run Mac OS X Inside Windows Using VirtualBox

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29 August 2012
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Even if you’re a Windows fan, you’ve probably thought about trying OS X. Maybe you’d like to test drive OS X before switching to a Mac or building a Hackintosh, or maybe you just want to run that one killer OS X app on your Windows machine. Whatever your reason, you can actually install and run OS X on any Intel-based Windows PC with a program called VirtualBox. Here’s how.

Running OS X on your Windows desktop will take a bit of work, but it’s pretty easy to do and the final product is awesome. To see what the whole setup will look like when you’re done, check out the video above. Then, head to the instructions on Lifehacker to set it up for yourself — via Lifehacker

Grum Botnet: Down One Month, No Impact on Spam

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29 August 2012
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It’s been over a month since the spam-spewing Grum botnet has been shut down, but spam experts say there hasn’t been a noticeable impact on global spam volume.

Security researchers from FireEye worked with Internet service providers in Russia, the Netherlands, and Panema to shut down the command-and-control servers controlling the Grum botnet.. The last server Ukraine was shut down July 18. Symantec researchers at the time estimated that Grum was responsible for one-third of all spam being sent worldwide, and its takedown led to an immediate drop in global spam email volumes by as much as 15 to 20 percent, according to July’s Symantec Intelligence Report.

However, the drop was only temporary, since in the days since, the global volumes have been creeping up, Eric Park, an Abuse Desk Analyst at Symantec, told SecurityWeek. In fact, if the present trend continues, August may wind up with a higher global spam volume than in July, Park said. According to Symantec’s July report, global spam volume was 67.6 percent (1 in 1.48 emails was flagged as spam), an 0.8 percent increase over June.

There’s been minimal to no change in spam as a result of the Grum takedown, Park said — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Crunching Numbers G4 / re:form designs

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27 August 2012
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At one time in their lives, these G4 towers were Apple’s flagship workstations — possibly cutting hundreds of hours of footage or editing thousands of photos. But today they’re barely useful as paperweights and probably best suited as a pair of stylish supports for this Crunching Numbers coffee table.

$US600 might seem a little steep for a pair of defunct computer towers and a large piece of glass, but there’s probably quite a few man hours involved in turning the hardware into a centrepiece for any Apple fanatic’s living room. The addition of a brightly painted shock absorber in-between is a little odd, as are the non-functioning cranks on the towers, but let’s just chock those up to design for design’s sake — via Gizmodo Australia

Who inherits your iTunes library?

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27 August 2012
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Many of us will accumulate vast libraries of digital books and music over the course of our lifetimes. But when we die, our collections of words and music may expire with us.

Someone who owned 10,000 hardcover books and the same number of vinyl records could bequeath them to descendants, but legal experts say passing on iTunes and Kindle libraries would be much more complicated.

And one’s heirs stand to lose huge sums of money. I find it hard to imagine a situation where a family would be OK with losing a collection of 10,000 books and songs, says Evan Carroll, co-author of Your Digital Afterlife. Legally dividing one account among several heirs would also be extremely difficult.

Part of the problem is that with digital content, one doesn’t have the same rights as with print books and CDs. Customers own a license to use the digital files—but they don’t actually own them — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Fibre to the home the ‘preferred’ option, says New Zealand

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24 August 2012
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New Zealand’s conservative party technology minister has hailed fibre to the home as the preferred option for national telecommunications infrastructure, stating during a visit to Australia this week that it made better fiscal sense to deploy fibre all the way to the premise where possible, instead of only to neighbourhood ‘nodes’ as Australia’s Coalition is proposing.

Amy Adams is New Zealand’s Minister for Communications and Information Technology and a member of the National Party, which is a centre-right party in New Zealand similar to the Liberal Party in Australia. Currently the National Party holds Government in New Zealand. Adams was in Australia this week to launch a bilateral agreement on mobile phone roaming charges. In a joint press conference with Australia’s Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, Adams was asked why New Zealand switched from a FTTN-based rollout for its own version of the National Broadband Network to a predominantly FTTH-based deployment — via redwolf.newsvine.com

You Are All Under Surveillance

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23 August 2012
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The Government’s Internet security plan to store the web history of all Australians for up to two years has been put on the backburner until after next year’s election — even though submissions have only just closed for the Inquiry into reform of national security legislation.

It is likely that the Inquiry will agree to the push for expanded powers, and that legislative reforms will be enacted very early in the term of our next government, whether Labor or Liberal. The Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011 was passed by the Senate this week. This occurred before the Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety got the chance to do its work and before the public was able to give evidence.

The haste to pass legislation before appropriate public and parliamentary debate reflects an international trend towards the enactment of harmonised laws to the detriment of national sovereignty — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Rackspace confirms dedicated Sydney data centre

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22 August 2012
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US hosting giant Rackspace has confirmed plans to launch a large data centre in Sydney later this year, to support growing local demand for its services after entering the Australian and Zealand markets in 2009 using its infrastructure located overseas.

In a statement this morning, Rackspace revealed the data centre, based in the Sydney suburb of Erskine Park, is being built in partnership with data centre specialist Digital Realty. It’s currently in the late stages of construction and the first customers are expected to go live in late 2012, said Rackspace’s statement. To ensure it’s operated in the same manner as other Rackspace data centres, it includes security certifications upon launch for UTI Tier III Design and Construction, with certifications planned for SSAE16, ISO 27001, ISO 14001, PCI, and ASIO Intruder Resistant once fully operational. Further information is available online.

Rackspace is one of the largest global hosting companies, providing a range of services from eight existing data centres located overseas. The company provides infrastructure services ranging from dedicated hosting to private and public cloud services, as well as application hosting — such as email systems.

The company said today that since formally entering the Australian and New Zealand markets in 2009, it had experienced a significant increase in local customer numbers. Prominent local customers include Rio Tinto, Telstra, Australia Post, Monash University, Tourism Queensland and more — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Create folder from multiple selected items in Finder

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20 August 2012
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You can create a folder from a selection of files, instead of creating a folder first, then moving files in. In the Finder, select any files you want to put into the same folder. You can do this in any Finder window, including the Desktop or from the results of a Spotlight search (not the Spotlight menu itself). Right-click on any one of the selected files, and the top menu item is New Folder with Selection (number of Items). When you choose that command, a new folder will be created, and the files literally leap into the folder (cute animation!). The new folder is called New Folder With Items, and you can change its name — via Mac OSX Hints

Revealed: TrapWire spy cams’ ticket to Australia

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14 August 2012
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A shadowy private security company with deep links to the CIA — and a parent company awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in Australian government transport contracts — is operating a pervasive global surveillance and facial recognition network on behalf of law enforcement.

Over the past few days the internet has been abuzz with revelations regarding TrapWire, an analytical system that integrates with surveillance cameras to capture photographs or video evidence of “suspicious activity”.

The TrapWire story began late last week, when emails from a private intelligence company, Stratfor — originally released as part of WikiLeaks’s Global Intelligence Files in February — appeared online.

The emails and other documentation revealed TrapWire is installed in some of the western world’s most sensitive locations — including the White House, 10 Downing Street, New Scotland Yard, the London Stock Exchange and five hundred locations in the New York subway system. Trapwire is also installed in many Las Vegas casinos — via redwolf.newsvine.com

A New Species Discovered On Flickr

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13 August 2012
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Semachrysa jade new lacewing species
Semachrysa jade new lacewing species, originally uploaded by Guek Hock Ping.

One day in May of 2011, Shaun Winterton was looking at pictures of bugs on the Internet when something unusual caught his eye.

It was a close shot of a green lacewing — an insect he knew well — but on its wing was an unfamiliar network of black lines and a few flecks of blue.

Winterton, a senior entomologist at the California Department of Food and Agriculture, has seen a lot of bugs. But he hadn’t seen this species before.

I sent the link to a few colleagues of mine, Winterton told The Picture Show. They hadn’t seen it either. And I realised: This thing’s new — via redwolf.newsvine.com

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