Bill Lindner

Nokia Equipment Used to Monitor Iranians Iran: Latest Victim of World's Surveillance State Nokia Monitoring Centre Used to Silence Iranians By now, virtually everyone in the world is aware of the situation in Iran. While protests in Iran continue, ... new details of the technology used to monitor its citizens -- filtering the Internet and mobile phones -- is emerging. (Source: bbc.co.uk ) Nokia Siemens Network reportedly told the news network BBC that it sold a product called Monitoring Centre, which is used to monitor, control, and read local telephone calls, to Iran Telecom in the second half ... (view more)

According to reports, the National Security Agency (NSA) has been busted once again for illegal surveillance. Worse yet, it seems the NSA has moved beyond wiretapping land lines to the wireless phone industry, too. (Source: nytimes ) Legal experts ... suggest that collaboration between the wireless phone industry and the NSA runs far deeper than originally thought. There are over 3,000 wireless companies operating in the U.S.; furthermore, the majority of industry-aided snooping is quietly handled by companies that most consumers have never heard of. (Source: cnet.com ) Major Networks Sold Data ... (view more)

After being criticized for their plans to limit sales of XP systems, Microsoft has reportedly decided to extend Windows XP's lifespan to as late as April 2011. Michael Silver of Gartner Research, along with numerous others, scolded Microsoft for ... limiting users downgrade rights from Windows 7 to Windows XP for only six months after Windows 7 makes its first appearance. Short Window for 'Downgrade' Option Windows 7 is currently scheduled to launch on Oct. 22, 2009. Originally, Microsoft was only going to allow PCs to be downgraded to Windows XP until April 22, 2010. Enterprises who wait for a ... (view more)

Buyers of Windows 7 beware: Microsoft is putting restrictions on downgrades for new PCs with Windows 7 preinstalled. Readers may recall that Windows Vista had major incompatibilities when it first debuted; as such, many users requested to downgrade ... to Windows XP. Windows 7 Downgrade Cut Off Dates With Windows XP approaching its ends of life, the downgrade rules for Windows 7 are as follows: If you purchase a PC after April 23, 2010 with Windows 7 pre-installed, Microsoft will only allow you to downgrade to Windows Vista. However, if you purchase a new PC with Windows 7 preinstalled before ... (view more)

France's plan to cut off the Internet connections of digital pirates has been defanged by the country's highest constitutional body, who called the law unconstitutional. France's Constitutional Council reviews legislation that has been approved by ... Parliament before it goes into effect. The core portion of the controversial "three-strike" law could have created a new agency that, under the orders of copyright owners, would have the authority to order Internet service providers to shut down the accounts of copyright cheats who ignored two warnings to stop pirating. (Source: nytimes. ... (view more)

Starting July 1st, 2009 all PCs sold in China are to include Internet content filtering and censorship software also known as " Green Dam Youth Escort software ." The program works by creating log files of all the sites and pages the user tries to ... access. Software Flaws Leave Users Vulnerable Computer experts discovered a series of software flaws, including unencrypted communications between the company's servers and the software itself. It's suggested that the software is susceptible to large-scale disaster, including hackers that could steal private user information or install ... (view more)

Banks are being warned of trouble ahead after approximately 20 ATMs, mostly in Eastern Europe, were compromised. The ATMs running Microsoft's Windows XP operating system were infected with malware that captures magnetic strip data and PIN codes. ... According to a report from Trustwave's SpiderLabs, the malware uses the strip data and PIN codes to access the private memory space of transaction-processing applications. Advanced Management Functionality Built into the Malware Attackers gain control over the ATMs by inserting specialized controller cards into the ATM's card reader. (Source: tgdaily. ... (view more)

In a move designed to give the government unprecedented control over what users will and will not be able to see on the Internet, the Chinese government reportedly wants all computers sold in China after July 2009 to come pre-installed software that ... automatically censors the Internet. That's not surprising when you consider the fact that China recently ranked number one as the most complete Electronic Police State in the world. (Source (PDF): cryptohippie.com ) During the twentieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre this past week, China reportedly blocked access to websites like ... (view more)

According to a new study from the Identity Theft Resource Center, the most common use of identity theft involves opening a new credit account in the victim's name. This type of fraud affects almost two-thirds of identity theft victims. 39 per cent ... of the 2008 victims faced fraudulent charges, up more than twice the 15 per cent of those victimized in 2007. According to the 2009 Breach List report (PDF) from the Identity Theft Resource Center, as of 5/26/09, 230 breaches exposing 11,615,507 records had been reported. (Source: pcworld.com ) Reversing ID Theft Requires Time and Money It can take ... (view more)

Users of Mozilla's Firefox web browser may have received an unpleasant surprise when they performed a routine security update for a Microsoft Windows component. Tens of millions of computers have quietly installed an extra Firefox add-on whether ... users wanted it or not. Firefox .NET ClickOnce Addon The Firefox add-on shipped with a bundle of updates via Microsoft's .NET Framework Service Pack that was made available to users through the Windows Update Web site. If a user installs the .NET update, it automatically installs its own ClickOnce Firefox add-on that is both difficult and dangerous to ... (view more)