general internet news - 6 October

[David Goldstein <goldstein_david@yahoo.com.au>]

The war on al-Jazeera - The US is determined to suppress
the independent Arab media
When my husband decided to go to Baghdad, he knew that I
would protest. He told me that I was exaggerating the
risks; that there was nothing to be afraid of because he
was a reporter, an objective witness, neither on this nor
that side, and because of that was protected by world
protocol. He bid us farewell, apologising for having been
so busy. He promised to make it up to me and our daughter,
Fatimah, when he returned.
 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1055684,00.html

.us - Principles for Internet Policy
Of all the candidates for the Democratic nomination, Howard
Dean raised the most amount of money over the Internet. On
March 15th, the Dean campaign launched the first official
weblog in presidential campaign history, six days after
Dean himself first stumped in the blogosphere. What follows
are Dean's principles for Internet Policy.
 http://www.circleid.com/article/297_0_1_0_C/

.za - M-Web Pledges to Buttress Chat Room Safety
INTERNET chat rooms operated by M-Web, the largest consumer
internet access provider domestically, will not be closing
down despite the risk that they are haunted by paedophiles
and porn merchants.
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200310020112.html

Online talk gets less cheap
What is the real reason Microsoft is planning to close its
free chat rooms?

http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2087944

Coroner's plea over chatrooms
A coroner yesterday called for greater public vigilance to
combat the danger of internet chatrooms.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1052959,00.html

Chatroom teenager 'had near miss'
A teenager who went missing after arranging to visit people
he met on the internet had a "near miss", police said
today. The disappearance of Darren Freeman, 15, from his
college campus last Tuesday sparked a nationwide hunt amid
fears that he had been abducted. The teenager returned home
voluntarily last night after spending five days with a
17-year-old youth and a 21-year-old man he had met in a
chatroom.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/child/story/0,7369,1052056,00.html

Web gossipmonger warned over rape allegations
Lawyers for a Premiership footballer accused of rape have
warned a computer user that he could face a libel action
for spreading rumours by email.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1053551,00.html

Australian Students Learn how to Go Online Safely
Young people in Australia can discover how to use the
internet safely through an innovative program launched
yesterday by the Australian Broadcasting Authority and the
Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the
Arts.

http://www.findlaw.com.au/news/default.asp?task=read&id=16773

.uk - Mobile filtering tool blocks adult content
Interactive mobile content specialist Bango.net has
launched new filter technology designed to stop children
from accessing adult content on mobile phones.
 http://www.vnunet.com/News/1143984

Text blocking aid fights bullies
Children who get threatening and unwanted text messages
could soon have a way of fighting back.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3152628.stm

Single tip smashes child porn ring
Thanks to a single tip-off to a hotline a year ago, one of
the biggest child pornography rings was smashed last week
in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.
 http://www.electricnews.net/news.html?code=9376756

INHOPE TIP LEADS TO BREAKUP OF LARGEST GLOBAL CHILD PORN
RING (news release)
Following from a tip received from the INHOPE (Association
of Internet Hotlines) member hotline in Germany (ECO's ICTF
hotline) in July 2002, on Friday 26th September 2003 the
German Police in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt and
prosecutors in the city of Halle cracked one of the largest
global child pornography networks involving some 26,500
Internet users in 166 countries!
 http://www.inhope.org/english/news/20030929.htm

.uk - NI paedophile fears over internet predators
Police fear paedophiles could launch an intense three-month
internet campaign targeting children in Northern Ireland.

http://www.utvinternet.com/newsroom/indepth.asp?id=37745&pt=n

Africa - Bridging the Digital Divide to Be Discussed At
Summit
The development of information and communications
technologies (ICTs) in the Commonwealth will be discussed
by representatives of Commonwealth governments, business
leaders, civil society groups, donor agencies and academics
at the Commonwealth Network Society Summit.
 http://allafrica.com/stories/200310010764.html

OECD Global Forum on Information Systems and Network
Security: Towards a Global Culture of Security, Oslo, 13-14
October 2003
The 2002 OECD Guidelines on the Security of Information
Systems and Networks ("Security Guidelines") call for the
development of a “culture of security” among all
participants to ensure the stable evolution of the digital
economy and information society.  The economic and social
benefits have the potential to accrue on a global scale. 
In addition to the familiar concerns about the security of
electronic commerce, hacking, privacy and cyber crime such
as consumer fraud, there is added societal vulnerability
due to global economies' increasing dependence on
information systems and the spectre of cyber terrorism. It
is necessary to extend the OECD’s efforts to implement the
Security Guidelines globally, beyond its own membership.

http://www.oecd.org/document/14/0,2340,en_2649_37409_8165070_1_1_1_37409,00.html

Children fuel internet explosion
Children are leading the way when it comes to venturing
into cyberspace, surfing the net for music and games.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3155184.stm

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030930/wr_nm/tech_internet_kids_dc_2

Site attacked over suicide
AN internet broadcast of a concert that was to feature a
suicide of a terminally ill person did not happen Saturday
because the website was attacked. The band's leader said
the concert still went on, but he didn't know whether the
suicide did.

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,7473989%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html

Senator seeks reduced penalties for music downloading
Sen. Norm Coleman said Thursday he will push legislation
this year to reduce legal penalties for people who download
copyrighted music off the Internet.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6918373.htm

Rappers in Disharmony on P2P 
Two popular rappers added their voices to the debate over
file sharing in the Senate on Tuesday, a platform usually
dominated by the music industry's lobbying group.
 http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,60650,00.html

.us - Florida Dorms Lock Out P2P Users
A program designed to nab file swappers at the University
of Florida appears to be successful, much to the chagrin of
students. The pilot project is a model for other schools
coping with peer-to-peer sharing on campus networks.
 http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,60613,00.html

Pushing Peer-to-Peer
The same technology that is threatening to make the
recording industry obsolete could also bring about a more
reliable Internet. The key is to treat all machines on the
network as first-class citizens.

http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_garfinkel100303.asp

Innocent file-sharers could appear guilty
Security weaknesses in file-sharing networks could lead to
false accusations of illegal music sharing, according to a
new analysis
 http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994222

.au - Text generation growing up online
The prophets of the online world did not dream it up, the
Jesuits did, but as mottos go it is hard to top: "Give me
the child until he is seven and I will show you the man."
And how true it is. With almost every girl and boy in
Australia using the internet - 93 per cent, according to
the atest reckoning - a new "kid society" is blooming.

http://smh.com.au/text/articles/2003/10/03/1064988405807.htm

Anti-spam legislation has consequences for Australian (reg
req'd)
businessNew anti-spam legislation, currently before Federal
Parliament, will impose a number of obligations on
organisations in the field of e-commerce. The Spam Bill
2003 is designed to tackle the proliferation of unsolicited
emails and other messages such as SMS text, used by
marketeers that not only clog-up recipients' inboxes and
slow productivity, but often carry offensive and illegal
content such as pornography and financial scams.

http://www.mondaq.com/article_preview.asp?a=22745&p=5&c=11399&e=on

Spam: This Time It's Personal
Andy Markley was really looking forward to a work-free
Labor Day weekend far away from his computer. But he made
the mistake of checking his inbox before he left for his
planned holiday.
 http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60635,00.html

Spam Fighters Turn to Identifying Legitimate E-Mail (reg
req'd)
The software engineers helped create the spam problem. Can
they solve it? As politicians have been racing to find ways
to ban the junk e-mail known as spam, Internet providers
have been boasting about filtering technologies capable of
identifying the sort of messages typically sent by spammers
and disposing of them.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/06/technology/06SPAM.html

E-Spying on Your Lover Could Be Illegal - Experts
A company calling itself Lover Spy has begun offering a way
for jealous lovers -- and anyone else -- to spy on the
computer activity of their mates by sending an electronic
greeting, the equivalent of a thinking-of-you card, that
doubles as a bugging device.

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3527514

Computer Viruses and Organized Crime: The Inside Story
Computer security specialist Erik Laykin, president of
Online Security Inc., sees the criminal underworld of
Eastern Europe and Russia as a prime source for the worm
onslaught. "There you will find a large stable of very
bright hackers, scientists and criminal underground,"
Laykin told TechNewsWorld.
 http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/31679.html

.nz - Tougher computer laws in force
New laws came into force today carrying sentences of up to
seven years jail for computer crime. The Crimes Amendment
Act sets out a raft of new offences which Police Minister
George Hawkins said put the law in line with the latest
technology. It is now an offence to access a computer for
dishonest purposes, damage or interfere with a computer
system, access a computer without authorisation or make,
sell, distribute or possess software to commit a crime.
 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3526533

.nz - Police not equipped to enforce new computer laws,
says National
 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3526683

.au - Man charged with defamation over explicit emails
A Perth man has appeared in court today charged with
criminal defamation after allegedly sending explicit emails
about a woman to her friends and associates.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/01/1064819978396.html

.au - ABC allocated nation-wide datacasting licence - ABA
Australia's national broadcaster, the ABC, has been
allocated a datacasting licence to provide services to the
whole of Australia.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/communications/story/0,2000048620,20279306,00.htm

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/03/1064988371984.html

Phone makers dismiss 3G study
European mobile phone makers moved to dismiss a Dutch
government-sponsored study that found 3G infrastructure can
cause nausea and headaches among people living near base
stations.

http://www.itnews.com.au/storycontent.asp?ID=12&Art_ID=15653

Next waves For Wi-Fi
Wireless LAN chips will show up in mobile phones and start
embracing smart antenna technology in 2004, according to a
panel of wireless chip experts at the Communications Design
Conference in the US.

http://www.itnews.com.au/storycontent.asp?ID=12&Art_ID=15664

Will IM ever replace email?
While businesses and consumers are warming to the idea of
instant messaging as an effective communications tool they
are still certain it will never overthrow email.

http://www.silicon.com/news/169-500001/1/6250.html?nl=d20031003

Microsoft suit raises thorny questions
The software giant plans to fight a lawsuit that claims the
company is responsible for privacy leaks that stem from
vulnerabilities in its software.
 http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5086385.html

Attack program hijacks surfing in IE
A malicious program, dubbed QHosts, infects PCs using a
recent flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer to take
control of how computers look up Internet addresses,
antivirus firms warned on Thursday.
 http://news.com.com/2100-7349_3-5085861.html

IE holes lead to AIM, dial-up attacks
Security holes in Microsoft's Internet Explorer have been
exploited by hackers to hijack AOL instant messaging
accounts and force unsuspecting Web surfers to run up
massive phone bills, computer experts cautioned on Friday.
 http://news.com.com/2100-7349_3-5083234.html

P2P, IM attacks skyrocket
Security firm Symantec, which published its bi-annual
Internet Threat Report on Wednesday, has found that the
number of attacks over instant messaging and P2P systems
quadrupled between January and June 2003.
 http://zdnet.com.com/2110-1105_2-5085502.html
 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/33151.html

When crooks go a-phishing, don't bite
The old adage that you can't always believe everything you
read holds especially true when it comes to e-mail. From
Viagra spam to viruses sent by acquaintances, you can't
take every piece of e-mail you receive at face value.

http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/AnchorDesk/4520-7297_16-5083032.html

You've Got Deceit: E-Mail Scams Grow
Beware of a rash of e-mail scams lately that can stop cold
the spam-deleting duties of even the smart consumer --
momentarily at least. One arrived here last week with a
subject line typical of this spam scam genre: "Your credit
card has been charged $234.65." Gulp!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19955-2003Sep29.html

CNET NEWS ROUNDUP - Time to cut out patchwork defenses?
With software flaws under increasing attack, Microsoft says
patches just won't cut it anymore and lays plans to
construct a "perimeter" defense. Meanwhile, the company
draws criticism for an element of trusted computing
technology it's promoting.
 http://news.com.com/2009-7355_3-5085728.html

Microsoft faces class action on security
Microsoft faces a proposed class-action lawsuit in
California based on the claim that market dominance and
vulnerability to viruses in its software could lead to
"massive, cascading failures" in global computer networks.
 http://news.com.com/2100-1009_3-5085730.html

Williams F1 gives green light to Linux
The BMW Williams Formula 1 (F1) team has dramatically
improved its high-resolution aerodynamic modelling of team
cars by introducing an HP Linux supercomputer cluster.
 http://www.vnunet.com/News/1144043

For P2P, Skype is now the limit
The software developers who wrote file-swapping legend
Kazaa are taking the concept of peer-to-peer sharing to
telecommunications, launching an internet phone service
they claim could put traditional phone companies out of
business.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/06/1065292505188.html

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=====
David Goldstein
 address: 2/4 Dundas Street
             COOGEE NSW 2034
             AUSTRALIA
 email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au
 phone: +61 418 228 605 - mobile; +61 2 9665 0015 - home

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