When the law chases the Internet | csmonitor.com

~~~ Cybercrime in Cyberspace.
The Internet will never be a totally safe place.
Just be careful out there !! ~~ TP

When the law chases the Internet | csmonitor.com: "And yet cybercrime is now considered a greater worry than physical crime among US businesses, according to a new IBM survey. Nearly 9 out of 10 companies experienced a computer security incident in 2005, the FBI has found, with viruses, computer theft, and other such crimes costing US firms more than $67 billion a year. And the latest worry to individual PC owners is a type of 'spyware' that can remotely follow a person's keystrokes to steal a password or other vital information.

Google itself is quite aware of potential abuse by new software, and how much governments, from Washington to Beijing, want to control or snoop on Google users.

It is primarily up to Congress to pass new laws that can provide the tools to fight cybercrime while also balancing privacy concerns.

One pending bill would provide national standards for companies to notify customers if personal data on their computers has been breached. About half the states have such laws. Another bill would provide protection against spyware intrusion on PCs."

Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts - New York Times

~~~ The NY Times has an extensive article today on the Bush team again forgetting that a Democracy is a place where the Government does not spy on its citizens with out first getting a Court order. This is major news , but unless Congress raises a stink and starts hearings , it will pass under the radar of most voters.

I have to keep saying to myself -

-- "Just three more years,, Just three more years".

Anybody will be better than the Bushies in 2008. 

{ Assuming that Team Bush does not find 

some way to cancel the 2008 American elections.] ~~~ TP
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Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts
By JAMES RISEN and ERIC LICHTBLAU

"WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials"

BBC NEWS | Technology | ID theft ring escapes shutdown

~~ Cops vs. Robbers in the 21st Century.~~ t p ~

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BBC NEWS | Technology | ID theft ring escapes shutdown:
"ID theft ring escapes shutdown"

"The bug keeps track of what you type on your keyboard
An ID theft ring that has hit thousands of people is proving hard to shut down."

Web of Crime: Who's Catching the Cybercrooks? - Yahoo! News

~~~ First there was the Internet.

Then came Cyber-crooks.

And now Cyber-detectives.

Then soon we will need to police the Cyber-Police ,

as they could become double agents with all that cyber-knowledge.

Then of course there will be the TV show about

"Cyber-Cops Gone Bad " on FOX. ~` TP

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Web of Crime: Who's Catching the Cybercrooks? - Yahoo! News:

".........tracking every digital footstep the hacker took as he wreaked havoc on dozens of businesses by shutting down their online storefronts........."

As blogging grows, companies eye legal pitfalls - Yahoo! News

~~~ Soon there will also be a

"Cyber-Lawyer"

television show.

Watch them as they battle evil bloggers!!!

It can follow the "Cyber-Dectectives Gone Bad " on FOX ~` ~~`tp

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As blogging grows, companies eye legal pitfalls - Yahoo! News: "But lawyers see possible legal pitfalls for companies looking to join the blogging phenomenon. What, for instance, would happen if someone at a publicly traded company unwittingly divulged confidential financial information or a trademark secret on one of these Web diaries?

There already have been cases of people being fired for writing about life inside their companies on blogs not affiliated with their employers. Experts say the real test will come when courts must consider the legal ramifications of what employees say on corporate blogs.

'There's very, very little case law at this point , [ ~ ` `not for long ~ TP ~~ ` ]' said Paul Arne, co-chairman of the technology group at law firm Morris Manning & Martin LLP. He recently conducted a telephone seminar for other corporate lawyers to discuss blogging.

It's no surprise that big businesses are increasingly interested in blogs. An estimated 40,000 to 50,000 new blogs are created each day, according to Intelliseek, a technology company that tracks developments in the medium."

Just Monitoring Blogs Isn't Enough - Yahoo! News

~~` Wherever people congregate --- in real-space or cyber-space ---

the marketing slime fungus sprouts.

Maybe Proctor and Gamble will come up with some spray cleanser to

fight this fungus --soon to be-- among us.

They can advertise it here on

"Technopolitical"

if they do ~

`~` ` TP

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Just Monitoring Blogs Isn't Enough - Yahoo! News: "Just Monitoring Blogs Isn't Enough" - by BRIAN MORRISSEY of ADWEEK

Fri Aug 26, 5:04 PM ET


The rise in consumer-generated Web content is leading at least one interactive agency to branch into blog relations in an effort to help clients steer online chatter about their brands.

Ripple Effects Interactive, a Pittsburgh-based independent agency, last week formed an online relations unit to monitor and influence blogs, message boards and other user-generated media."
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BBC NEWS | Technology | Poor print exposing pin numbers

~~~~ Technology breeds problems for technology to solve . ~~~ TP

BBC NEWS | Technology | Poor print exposing pin numbers: "Poor print exposing pin numbers
By Mark Ward
Technology Correspondent, BBC News website

The pin numbers of millions of consumers are being put at risk by shoddy printing, warn security experts.

Bright lights and easy to use software helped University of Cambridge researchers defeat tamper-proofing on letters telling people their new pin.

The researchers fear the security lapses could put consumers at risk as the UK adopts chip and pin technology.
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"On the Net, Unseen Eyes" NY Times :By PATRICK DI JUSTO

If you own a webcam be careful. ~~ tp

"On the Net, Unseen Eyes"
NY Times :By PATRICK DI JUSTO
Published: February 24, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/24/technology/circuits/24camm.html

With the proliferation of surveillance cameras in everyday life and Webcams at home computers, the ease with which unsecured cameras can be detected on the Internet has become an increasner's permission.

The Yankee Group, a market research firm, estimates that as many as 13 percent of American households have a Webcam attached to one of their computers, often sitting on top of a monitor in a living room or a bedroom.

It is illegal to gain access to a secured computer without the proper authorization, even if the computer's password is publicly known. But is it legal to look at unsecured Webcams discovered as a result of a Google search, through the back door, so to speak? "It's probably not illegal, but you never know," said Annalee Newitz, policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group. "That would be the court case - would a reasonable person consider these cameras to be public?"

Jennifer Stisa Granick, executive director of the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, agrees that it is a gray area. "The law states you have to know that you're not authorized to look at this information," she said. "But if it's available through Google, most people would reasonably think that it was all right. But what if a person didn't realize that their Webcam image was going out over the Internet? Do they have an expectation of privacy?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/24/technology/circuits/24camm.html

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Associated Press : Microsoft Corp. offered Wednesday to begin alerting the world's governments early to CyberThreats....."l

Microsoft Corp is big , very big. ~~tp

Microsoft Offering Gov'ts Early Warnings
02.02.2005, 04:25 PM

Associated Press : Microsoft Corp. offered Wednesday to begin alerting the world's governments early to cyberthreats and security flaws in its attack-prone software.

So far three countries, Canada, Chile and Norway, as well as the U.S. state of Delaware, have been engaged in the new project, Vanzini said.
"Prevention of cyberdisruptions and improving our capacity to respond to incidents are critical to securing both our economy and public safety," Anne McLellan, Canada's Minister of Public Security and Emergency Preparedness, said in a statement.

Microsoft said it is currently in discussions with a number of countries about their possible participation in the program.
Governments currently under a trade embargo with the United States are not eligible to sign up to the program, which is provided free of charge.

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"Bulk e-mail providers will send a company's ad to one million e-mail addresses for as little as $200,

Innocent 'Hello' Sells Hot Sex on the Internet
Sat Apr 27,12:13 PM ET

By Andrea Orr

PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=581&e=2&cid=581&u=/nm/20020427/tc_nm/column_nettrends_dc_26

"Bulk e-mail providers will send a company's ad to one million e-mail addresses for as little as $200,

and consumers have to date been mildly annoyed but not really outraged. Regulators, meanwhile, have gone after only the most egregious forms of e-mail deception."

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