Techno-News Blog

by the BBC

A crackdown on “phishing” scams has been announced by 15 of the top technology companies. Email providers such as Google and Microsoft will work with companies like Paypal and the Bank of America to improve authentication. Phishing attacks typically involve scammers posing as familiar companies in an attempt to trick users into sharing personal information. This co-ordinated effort aims to make this more difficult. The Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMarc) – as the coalition is known – has released plans to produce a “feedback loop” between email receivers and senders.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16787503

By Dave Lee, BBC

Israel handles over 1,000 attacks every minute, government advisors said. Israel, Finland and Sweden are seen as leading the way in “cyber-readiness”, according to a major new security report. The McAfee-backed cyberdefence survey deemed China, Brazil and Mexico as being among the least able to defend themselves against emerging attacks. The rank is based on leading experts’ perception of a nation’s defences. The report concluded that greater sharing of information globally is necessary to keep ahead of threats.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16787509

by the White House

The public asked the questions, and President Obama answered in the first-ever completely virtual interview from the White House, presented by YouTube and Google+. This may open the door to further interactions using this technology.

http://youtu.be/eeTj5qMGTAI

By Rachel Metz. Technology Review

The market for sweetly named smart-phone assistants is heating up, as Siri, Apple’s iPhone-based virtual helper, just got a new “frenemy” named Evi. Created by True Knowledge, a Cambridge, U.K.-based semantic technology startup, Evi, like Siri, can answer questions posed aloud in a conversational manner. But unlike Siri, which is only loaded on the latest iPhone, Evi is available as an app for the iPhone and phones running Google’s Android software.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/39560/?p1=A3

by Christopher Mims, Technology Review

New Hanover County, North Carolina, just rolled out Super Wi-Fi, which is its actual name, not just a patronizing euphemism I’m deploying because I think you can’t handle “a new Wi-Fi standard operating in the ‘white spaces’ between 50-700Mhz, where previously only television stations were allowed to transmit.” Aside: here’s a very accessible primer on what Super Wi-Fi is and why you should care about it (http://gizmodo.com/5646259/what-is-super-wi+fi) .

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/27531/?p1=blogs

by Tim Maly, Technology Review

I’d like to sneak up on the question of 3-D printing by way of boring old 2-D printing. Typography used to be heavy industry. The companies that make typefaces are still called foundries because there was a time when letters were made of metal. When you got enough of them together to reliably set a whole book or whatever, you had a serious amount of hardware on your hands. Fonts were forged. Picking a new one was a large capital investment. Today, fonts are a thing that you pick from a drop-down menu and printers are things in your home that can render just about any typeface you can imagine. We went from massive metal fonts and centralized presses to the current desktop regime by degrees. In the early days of desktop printing, we had the dot-matrix. The deal was simple: “We give you one crappy font and you need specialized paper but you can do this at home”. It wasn’t useful for much, but it was useful for some things, and used frequently enough that it was worth developing improvements.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/guest/27533/?p1=blogs

By: Nathan Eddy, eWeek

A new rule imposed by Twitter that would see certain comments from particular countries censored is drawing the ire of many Twitter users. Twitter has said it could block a Tweet in a country where what was being said is illegal—in accordance with that country’s laws—but the rest of the world would be able to read the content. Demand Progress, which also has a Twitter account, called the decision “tragic” and stressed the importance of open platforms like the microblogging service, calling for support to send an open letter to the company to protest the decision. “As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there,” Twitter officials said in a blog post. “Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content.”

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Twitter-Censorship-in-Some-Countries-Spurs-User-Protests-317575/?kc=rss

By: Clint Boulton, eWeek

Several U.S. senators Jan. 26 fired off a bipartisan letter to Google CEO Larry Page, asking for more information about the search engine provider’s revised privacy policy. Google Jan. 24 announced that it will aggregate 60 of its Web services under one single privacy policy. Under this new policy, a user with a Google account who signs into Google’s search, YouTube, Gmail and other applications is treated as the same individual across all of those services, and data may be shared between those services. Consumers may not opt out of this change, which goes into effect March 1.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Google-Privacy-Policy-Update-Challenged-by-Lawmakers-625688/?kc=rss

By: Frank Ohlhorst, eWeek

Improvements to flash memory technology may spell the end for spinning media as the primary storage mechanism for enterprise tier 1 storage. When it comes to performance, flash-based memory has always been the undisputed king. However, flash memory has also been the leader in another area as well—expense. Until recently, flash memory has proved to be far too expensive for the typical enterprise to deploy for tier 1 storage. Simply put, the performance offered was not worth the additional cost. Nevertheless, enterprise needs change, and access speed is becoming more and more critical to many enterprises, especially those looking to deploy virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), mine big data and push ahead with private cloud technologies. All of which depend on fast, reliable and affordable storage, which is where tier 1 storage with cache technology normally comes into play.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Data-Storage/Flash-Memory-Moves-Into-Enterprise-Tier-1-Storage-Space-102114/?kc=rss

By Tim Weber, BBC News

The value of the web economy in G20 countries will nearly double by 2016, according to Boston Consulting Group. Driving the spurt from $2.3tn (£1.5tn) to $4.2tn (£2.7tn) will be the rapid rise of mobile internet access. The study, supported by web giant Google, assumes that in four years 3bn people will be using the internet, or nearly 50% of the world’s population. The research suggests that the UK is one of the most advanced e-commerce economies. Right now, every year about 200 million people are going online for the very first time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16753902

by the BBC

Twitter has announced that it now has the technology to selectively block tweets on a country by country basis. In its blog, Twitter said it could “reactively withhold content from users in a specific country”. But it said the removed content would be available to the rest of the world. Previously when Twitter deleted a tweet, it would disappear worldwide. The decision has been criticised by the freedom of information advocacy group Reporters Without Borders. The move comes at a time when Twitter is in the process of expanding its global business.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16753729

by the BBC

Facebook will begin the process of becoming a publicly-listed company this week, valuing the social networking site at between $75bn (£48bn) and $100bn, reports suggest. The company plans to file papers with the US financial watchdog on Wednesday, according to the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. The flotation later this year would raise about $10bn, they reported. This would be one of the biggest share sales seen on Wall Street. It would dwarf the $1.9bn raised by Google when it went public in 2004. It would still, however, be some way short of the $20bn raised by carmaker General Motors in November 2010.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16779779

By Clint Boulton, eWeek

Google risked drawing the ire of privacy pundits and federal regulators Jan. 24 with its augmented privacy policies. The practices, which kick-in March 1, call for a single, unified privacy policy to preside over 60 of Google’s 70 products that previously had disparate privacy rules. What this means is users of Google search, YouTube, Gmail and Google Docs and Calendar will all be using the services under the banner of one privacy policy. This may sound fantastic to some users and for government regulators who lament complex, long-winded legalese—until you get down to the other details. Going forward, Google account users may have their data from Gmail or YouTube cross-pollinated with Google search, Calendar and dozens of other Google applications. Users can’t opt out of these privacy changes without closing their Google accounts, a radical measure for most users. The eWEEK slide show examines the policy details and the public backlash that is already gathering strength.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Google-Privacy-Policies-Rile-Users-Regulators-With-Zero-OptOut-513281/

By: Clint Boulton, eWeek

Google continued its wholesale integration of Google+ with its existing applications, launching Google Earth 6.2 with the capability to let users share their virtual images with their contacts on the social network. Google Earth 6.2 includes the option to let users share a screenshot of their current Google Earth image, as well as images of places they’ve already “virtually traveled” with contacts in their Circles.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Search-Engines/Google-Earth-Meets-Google-Includes-Seamless-Imagery-545422/

Jonathan Angel, eWeek

America’s first public “WhiteFi” network, leveraging spectrum previously occupied by analog TV channels, has been launched in North Carolina. Running at 1.5 to 3.1 MB/sec., the service will initially be used mostly for municipal functions such as surveillance cameras and transmitting water quality data, according to reports. White space networking — sometimes also known as “WhiteFi” — relies on radio spectrum that was previously reserved for TV stations. Because available frequencies vary from location to location, the technology involves access points and clients fitted with cognitive radio equipment, which can detect interference and automatically switch frequencies when they need to.

http://www.windowsfordevices.com/c/a/News/Americas-first-WhiteFi-network-goes-live/

By Don Reisinger, eWeek

The time has come once again to think seriously about Apple’s iPad. Only this time, the focus isn’t on the iPad 2 but on Apple’s iPad 3. That tablet, which is rumored to be launching in March or April, could very well be a groundbreaking option for consumers and enterprise users alike. The excitement and speculation has been building for months already. That excitement becomes all the more impressive when one considers that the device’s details have yet to be announced. In fact, Apple hasn’t even acknowledged that that it will launch an upgraded tablet model this year. For now, in official channels, Apple’s focus is solely on the iPad 2. But those who have been following Apple over the years know better. Apple will release a new tablet this year and there’s a solid chance the slate will come with a host of features to appeal to customers. But just what features should be built into this new tablet?

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Networking/Apple-iPad-3-10-HighPriority-Features-We-Want-in-the-New-Tablet-739540/

By: Chris Preimesberger, eWeek

Despite all the fresh new ideas on display for the Apple world from exuberant third-party companies, it matters quite a bit that the Apple mothership isn’t here with her children. For the third consecutive year since the event began way back in 1985, Apple was nowhere to be found at the Macworld 2012 conference and expo here at the Moscone West center. Despite all the fresh new ideas on display for the Apple world from exuberant third-party companies, it matters quite a bit that the mothership isn’t here with her children.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Apple/Innovation-High-Attendance-Dips-at-Macworld-2012-299045/

by KOSU

Thrun’s colleague Andrew Ng taught a free, online machine learning class that ultimately attracted more than 100,000 students. When I ask Ng how Stanford’s administration reacted to their proposition, he’s silent for a second. “Oh boy,” he says, “I think there was a strong sense that we were all suddenly in a brave new world.”Ng says there were long conversations about whether or not to give online students a certificate bearing the university’s name. But Stanford balked and ultimately the school settled on giving students a letter of accomplishment from the professors that did not mention the university’s name. “We are still having conversations about that,” says James Plummer, dean of Stanford’s School of Engineering. “I think it will actually be a long time — maybe never — when actual Stanford degrees would be given for fully online work by anyone who wishes to register for the courses.”

http://kosu.org/2012/01/stanford-takes-online-schooling-to-the-next-academic-level/

By: Fahmida Y. Rashid, eWeek

The unveiled rules for the EU’s data privacy law revamp includes 24-hour breach notification, appointing a data protection officer and required user consent for online data access. The European Commission on Jan. 25 unveiled its proposed changes to existing data privacy laws that would force Internet companies to better protect user information or face fines. The European Commission introduced new rules to update the 17-year-old data privacy laws to better protect Internet users on Jan. 25. The laws are intended to improve online defenses that protect children from online predators, simplify data protection laws across all European Union countries and reduce bureaucracy.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/EU-Proposed-New-Data-Privacy-Laws-to-Impact-US-Internet-Giants-587985/

By: Fahmida Y. Rashid, eWeek

Instead of just launching distributed denial-of-service attacks, cyber-attackers have started hijacking domain names and redirecting traffic from legitimate sites to malicious ones. The hacker group Anonymous recently managed to hijack the Domain Name System record for CBS.com and redirected all traffic to another Web server that displayed an empty directory structure. It appeared as if the contents of CBS.com had been wiped, but it was actually a different server altogether. CBS.com managed to regain control of its domain after the DNS poisoning attack.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Attackers-Using-DNS-Poisoning-to-Hijack-Website-Domains-Divert-Traffic-555640/

By: Wayne Rash, eWeek

The U.S. Trade Representative apparently negotiated in secret a new intellectual property treaty with restrictions far more onerous than SOPA or PIPA to avoid a congressional review and public objections. Imagine, if you will, SOPA with even more restrictions than the bill that was shelved by Congress last week. Now imagine that it’s administered by a shadowy international organization that has no accountability under U.S. law, but can still order your ISP to monitor your personal communications. Finally imagine that this organization can order you disconnected from the Internet and could also order your ISP offline. Welcome to the ACTA treaty.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Secret-Government-Talks-Create-Treaty-Stricter-than-SOPA-or-PIPA-522416/?kc=rss