As part of its ongoing enforcement actions against phishers, Microsoft has created a global initiative designed to thwart large-volume scam artists, no matter where they are in the world. A year ago, Microsoft filed 117 lawsuits against phishers and found that many of the perpetrators were overseas. That finding led the company to launch the Global Phishing Enforcement Initiative and to file 53 new suits against alleged phishers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Like its US antiphishing activity, Microsoft’s new campaign will bring together law-enforcement agencies in other countries to pursue forensic evidence, network shutdowns, and eventual prosecution
Playing DRM-crippled music will shorten the battery life of your music-player. Listening to DRMed iTunes songs on an iPod shortens the battery life by eight percent; playing back WMA-crippled files on a device from Creative Labs can knock 25 percent off the life of your device’s battery. The extra battery-drain is attributed to the computation necessary to decrypt the files and verify their licences — via Boing Boing
The Canadian Record Industry Association’s own research now concludes that P2P downloading constitutes less than one-third of the music on downloaders’ computers, that P2P users frequently try music on P2P services before they buy, that the largest P2P downloader demographic is also the largest music buying demographic, and that reduced purchasing has little to do with the availability of music on P2P services — via Boing Boing
An Israeli company says it has developed a system for managing traffic by tracking drivers’ mobile phone signals. Based on the idea that most people keep their mobile phones on while driving, Israel-based Cellint created the TrafficSense system to detect the cellular signals and use them to create a real-time moving picture of what’s happening on the roads — via Warren Ellis
The Australian Government has shut down a parody web site that mocked Australian Prime Minister John Howard. The web site featured a satirical speech that apologised
for the Iraq war. The site was down for two days before a phone call from Melbourne IT advised the owner that it had been shut down on the advice from the Australian Government
. A mirrored PDF copy of the apology speech
is available
In a legal win for Google, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by a writer who claimed the search giant infringed on his copyright by archiving a Usenet posting of his and providing excerpts from his Web site in search results. Thankfully, we can all still read Usenet articles on Google as well as other archive services
The Pentagon’s defence scientists want to create an army of cyber-insects that can be remotely controlled to check out explosives and send transmissions
Reporters who write about government surveillance could be prosecuted under proposed legislation that would solidify the administration’s eavesdropping authority, according to some legal analysts who are concerned about dramatic changes in US law
Internet copyright pirates in France will face prison and large fines after French MPs pushed through laws to curb illegal music and film downloads
Cheap radio chips that are replacing barcodes are a threat to privacy and susceptible to computer viruses. Researchers at the Amsterdam’s Free University created a radio frequency identity (RFID) chip infected with a virus to prove that RFID systems are vulnerable despite the extremely low memory capacity on the cheap chips
Online codebreaking enthusiasts working to solve a series of German World War II ciphers have cracked the second of three codes. Thousands of users around the world have joined the M4 Project, using spare computing power to crack the codes — via BBC News
Telstra yesterday officially launched a free blogging service to broadband customers of its retail BigPond arm
Nanotechnology has restored the sight of blind rodents, a new study shows. After injecting the hamsters with a solution containing nanoparticles, the nerves re-grew and sight returned — via BBC News
New versions of Ubuntu Linux have been released at a steady six-month cadence, but project founder Mark Shuttleworth is considering a six week delay to improve the reliability of an important new version
A recent virus-definition update from security firm McAfee incorrectly flagged several applications as viruses, even removing the core Microsoft Excel executable from some users’ computers
In another blow to the reputation of the agency that just can’t seem to get anything right, the Chicago Tribune used web searches and various commercial online databases to uncover a treasure trove of information about the CIA. The Tribune found the identities of over 2600 CIA employees (including an undisclosed number of covert operatives) as well as the locations of over two dozen CIA facilities across the US, internal telephone numbers, and information on 17 aircraft
Automated phone system annoy the hell out of people, so it is a welcome relief to find GetHuman, which offers a list of hacks for getting to talk to a human faster. The Australian section is still in progress
Today, the possibility of being moved around by an outside force is more science than fiction, thanks to researchers at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone in Japan
iiNet will invest a further AU$15 million into expanding its ADSL2+ network which should increase its coverage to 90 percent of metropolitan Australia. The additional funding would allow the nation’s third largest ISP to install another 150 DSLAMs (DSL Access Multiplexers) in exchanges around Australia by January 2007
An upcoming version of Firefox will include protection against phishing scams, using technology that might come from Google
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