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Iowa State University is hosting a new collaboration between academics, business leaders and government interests. The Center for Information Protection brings cyber security vendors together with businesses to try and tackle emerging Internet threats, whether it's stealing credit card information or someone filching company secrets. Iowa State Professor Doug Jacobson, director of the center in Ames, Iowa, says the project's goal is to develop swift responses to problems the participants identify as they crop up.
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Consulting and research firm Gartner estimates that for every two new computers shipped one will be resold in the secondary market. The study finds computer users worldwide unloaded some 152-million PCs in 2004. Gartner Vice President for Client Platforms Joe Smulders says where those used computers end up depends on market forces, environmental rules and the willingness of the user to seek proper methods of disposal. The study also concludes the use of second hand computers doesn't diminish the new PC market.
Other links:
Techsoup resources
National Recycling Coalition-Electronics Initiative
Used computer list on DMOZ
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A commercial collective of independent music labels is getting ready to launch a marketing scheme aimed at generating Internet buzz for artists. Promonet from the Independent Online Distribution Alliance is gearing up to send free tracks to music head bloggers and podcasters. The Alliance does a lot of the legwork for some 750 indy labels to help them rise above the giant promotional machines that deliver the Maroon 5s and Sheryl Crows of the music world.
Alliance Vice President for Business Product and Development Tim Mitchell says Promonet gets copyright clearance on some selected tracks and sends those to key people who can get artists noticed.
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The Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C. released documents on its Web site highlighting the federal government's missteps in trying to keep terrorists from boarding planes. The Center has some 200 pages of complaint calls to the Transportation Security Administration by ordinary people flagged as potential security risks and delayed or prevented from getting on their flights. The main link appears to be the passenger's name is similar to names law enforcement officials have tagged as threats. This week Wired News writer Ryan Singel wrote about a 62-year-old Catholic nun who was routinely detained by airport security because her last name, McPhee, matched a name on the no-fly list. Sister McPhee's repeated attempts to clear her name from the list went unanswered for nine months. Only a plea to the White House from a high level church official got a response.
The Center's Staff counsel Marcia Hofmann says Sister McPhee is not alone.
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When looking at the new Apple iPod Nano, one might wondere just how much smaller people can make such electronic machines. For the first time, researchers at the University of Arizona have developed a way to measure the smallest practical space atoms need to operate. While the research has a long way to go before it's applied to consumer electronics, it has real world applications. Devices, like some gyroscopes, rely on the movements of single atoms to make extremely delicate measurements. The research zeroes in on the unique attraction atoms exert, known as the Van der Waals interaction. Arizona Ph.D. physics student Jon Perreault, along with his advisor Alexander Cronin used what's called an atom interferometer to measure for the first time how far apart atoms need to be before the Van der Waals interaction starts gumming things up.
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When Yahoo admitted this month to providing information that helped the Chinese government arrest journalist Shi Tao, it stirred questions about the balance between business and human rights. Chinese officials sentenced Shi to ten years in prison for allegedly e-mailing a government document related to the Tiananmen Square crackdown to foreign Web sites. In an article this week, San Francisco Chronicle technology reporter Carrie Kirby reports the lure of China's massive market makes companies like Yahoo and Microsoft complicit with the government's human rights abuses. Kirby says the companies' continued presence in China hinges on their willingness to filter out words like "Dalai Lama" and "democracy".
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Dial-up Internet connections are now in the minority according to a new report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. At the same time, demand for broadband is flattening out. Cable, DSL and other broadband hook-ups reached 53% of all online connections in May of this year. But that's a measly growth increase from the year before. Pew Research Director John Horrigan says the good news is broadband companies will now have to work harder for new customers, meaning more price breaks and other incentives.
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Online harrassment is often a difficult problem to stop. In the first place, it's hard to define and not all states recognize it as a crime. Also, people who use the Internet as a method to stalk or harass someone may be savvy enough to hide their identity. Statistics on cyberstalking are hard to come by, but women are frequent targets. It's also a tool used by race-based hate groups. E-mail is one vehicle used by stalkers, but they can also use instant messages and chat rooms.
Researchers at Florida State University have developed a way to make monitoring cyberstalking cases easier. Professor Sudhir Aggarwal says the Predator and Prey Alert (PAPA) system allows police to watch and securely record victim's online interactions.
Other links:
Stalking resource center
Wired Safety's cyberstalking report form
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A new report out by the Symantec security firm shows attackers are now less interested in notoriety and more motivated by profit. The company's Internet Security Threat Report, which comes out twice a year, shows hackers and other miscreants are more often quietly targeting individual PCs where they can pinch personal information. That's a shift from the showy vandalism attacks like CodeRed and Blaster that give some geeks their jollies. The report finds almost three quarters of the top 50 viruses and other attacks are trying to get at confidential information. About one in every 125 email messages Symantec reviewed for the study was a phishing scheme, aimed at duping computer users into giving away bank account numbers or other personal information.
Symantec's Senior Manager for Security Response Patrick Martin says the jump in electronic fraud attempts indicates the key motivation is money.
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As Hurricane Katrina was still zeroing in on the Gulf Coast, Petfinder.com, a national pet adoption site, started working on a national database to connect lost pets with their owners. Two weeks after the database went live, Fifteen thousand owners have registered to say they don't know where their pets are. The U.S. Agriculture Department's Larry Hawkins called the Katrina effort the largest animal rescue in the country's history.
Petfinder Vice President Kim Saunders says round-the-clock preparation before the hurricane's destruction by some of the company's 26 paid staff members may help to reunite hundreds of people with their pets.
Other links:
Louisiana SPCA
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Identity theft complaints to the Federal Trade Commission shot up 52 percent between 2002 and 2004. And a report out this week by the non-profit Identity Theft Resource Center finds the average time an identity theft victim spends trying to repair the damage is 330 hours. Chicago-based Internet security consultant Jack Vonder Heide speaks to corporate employees about possible threats. He says it takes work to keep up with phishing, pharming and phone scams.
Links:
Anti Phishing Working Group
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Students whose classes are closed or delayed by Hurricane Katrina have as many as 1,000 online courses to choose from. The effort is called Sloan Semester.
University of Illinois at Springfield Technology Enhanced Learning Director Ray Schroeder and his collegue at the UI at Champaign-Urbana, Burks Oakley, got the ball rolling on the idea. The catalog includes online classes from some 200 public and private institutions around the country. the classes are free for affected students.
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The increasing use of devices like cell phones, PDAs, and USB drives is also expanding the number of digital footprints people leave. Those footprints are potentially valuable for prosecutors looking to establish a suspect's motives are whereabouts related to a crime. And some crimes are committed by sophisticated hackers and require a response by equally savvy technicians.
A study this year by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute found the number of incoming freshmen studying computer science declined nearly 40% from 2000 to 2004. But digital forensics and information security programs are growing.
Gary Kessler is an associate professor at Champlain College. The college's computer forensics program is two years old. This month they're offering a new information security major.
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Why would an Internet auction company want to buy an Internet phone firm?
EBay CEO Meg Whitman says Skype's voice capabilities will speed communication between eBay's buyers and sellers and increase the level of trust.
Skype gives away software that lets people talk for free over the Internet using computers and microphones. A paid version, SkypeOut, allows those calls to be connected to regular phones.
Auction giant eBay has made a giant bid of its own to gobble up Skype -- at least $2.6 billion in cash and stock.
Guest: Wade Roush, executive Web editor of Technology Review.com
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Brown University's annual survey of e-government shows steady improvement in digital government. Researchers evaluated more than 1600 state and federal Web sites for the presence of government documents, online databases, video and audio clips, tax services, disability access, credit card payments and more.
Utah and Maine came out on top. Wyoming was worst.
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For the past several weeks, Canadians have had to live without their favorite public radio and television shows from the government-funded CBC. Management locked out workers after a dispute over temporary and contract workers.
CBC journalists are are producing dozens of Weblogs and podcasts to provide news and opinions about the labor dispute to the nation.
Guest: Tod Maffin, CBC technology journalist, creator of CBC Unplugged
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Hurricane Katrina survivors and their loved ones can search for each other on dozens of Web sites, but the sheer number of survivor information sites can be a problem. You can search for a family member on 15 sites - but she might be listed only the sixteenth.
The all-volunteer Katrina PeopleFinder Project hopes to make things better by combining data from all known Katrina bulletin boards into one site.
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When disaster strikes, altruistic Americans are used to stopping off on their way home from work to give blood or putting a check to the Red Cross in the mail. In addition to all the typical methods of support available for people caught in the destruction and flooding caused by hurricane Katrina, online communities are serving as clearinghouses for individuals wanting to help from all over the country.
(Art Hughes hosts)
Links:
Krisitina aid wiki
Share Your Home
Craigslist New Orleans
Nola.com/Times-Picayune
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An industry analyst says Apple Computer and Motorola plan to unveil a combination mobile phone and music player next week.
Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst with market research firm Ovum, says he's been told that Cingular Wireless will market the new phone. Entner says consumers will be able to transfer music from computers to the new phone, and listen with headlines.
James Kim, senior editor of digital music for CNET, says the move comes as no surprise.
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