More Information : 5150 at IBM.com
Further Spec : Old-Computers.com
Last night, mobile phone operator Orange managed to cripple services to its network. Reports state that just before 6pm, access in and out of the Orange network was severely disrupted. To make matters worse, calls to Orange Customer Service numbers where also plagued with problems. I can confirm, from first hand experience, as I was in the middle of trying to modify my tariff at the time. Calls to customer service were either dropped instantly, met with a message informing the user that the line was busy, or a nondescript beeping loop. Orange have made a statement on the issue claiming the problems were due to a technical bork in one of the areas managed by one of its network partners
In a very controversial move, long time ISP AOL; have released the search details of 657,427 of its users for “research purposes”. Realising what a bollocks up they’ve made, AOL have now pulled the data, although it is still available via The Pirate Bay.
“AOL has released very private data about its users without their permission. While the AOL username has been changed to a random ID number, the ability to analyse all searches by a single user will often lead people to easily determine who the user is, and what they are up to. The data includes personal names, addresses, social security numbers and everything else someone might type into a search box.”
Notes Michael Arrington of TechCrunch.
Owners of the .cm Top Level Domain, Cameroon, have stumbled across a controversial new business model. Noticing that their TLD is only one letter short of .com, the Cameroons have now added a wildcard entry to their DNS records pointing all unresolved queries to an ad-based search engine. Unfortunately, ICANN has little control over what a country can do with its own TLD, unlike the earlier attempt by Verisign on the actual .com TLD
Aiding the fight against malware, Google have added a new feature to its search results. Now flagging sites that are suspect of carrying malware, spyware and all other kinds of naughtyware, Google is giving users the option to steer clear by giving them an early warning and offering an alternative search result.
The feature employs a list of known reprobates as determined by the Stop Badware Coalition, of which Google is a member. Upon clicking an offending link, users are presented with a warning and the option to continue or go someplace else.
At this years Black Hat conference in New York, security consultant Brendan O’Connor displayed a proof of concept attack against a Xerox printer. Exploiting vulnerabilities in the printers embedded software; O’Connor was able to snoop on the traffic being passed to the device. During the conference O’Connor highlighted the importance of security in embedded software and pointed out the huge amount of sensitive information that could be leaked if such an attack occurred. Xerox has released a patch for their WorkCenter printers but O’Connor maintains that the issue is not fully resolved.
The Register is running a two-page article on the cloning of the new biometric passports that are becoming widely implemented. Lukas Grunwald, from Germany’s DN-Systems consultants, demonstrated, at Black Hat, the ease to which a biometric passport can be fraudulently cloned. What may be even more surprising, is that the, widely available, ICAO documentation actually outlines the technical processes in quite a lot of detail.
To read more, please follow this link to The Register
Telecoms regulator Ofcom, are making efforts to increase the availability of wireless networks in rural parts of the UK where broadband isnt readily available.
The problem with wireless networks outside of urban areas is that, due to the relatively low range, a greater number of transmitters is required to provide wide coverage. This of course costs alot of money. Ofcom aims to increase the range of each node in order to reduce the number of transmitters required.
In a BBC article, Selina Lo of Ruckus said;
“A typical network will have hundreds or low thousands of access points. If you have power limits, these nodes have to be closer together and you need a lot more nodes.”
In an effort to reduce mobile phone related crime, the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum (MICAF), along with all five major UK mobile networks, have vowed to block 80% of stolen phones, within 24-48 hours of being reported.
MICAF are now making the phone networks take full accountability for the theft of mobile phones. Backing the incentive, Home Secretary, John Reid has pledge £1.35 million in order to form a new “National Phone Crime” unit.
It is likely that the IMEI will be blocked in order to render the phones useless, but many people fear that this may lead to an increase in stolen phones as thiefs will be likely to use the phoen for 48 hours and discard it in place of another.
The Mozilla Foundation have just released version 1.5.0.5 of their popular Internet browser. The latest download is a security and patch release, covering the recent JavaScript and memory vunerabilities as well as a number of other issues. Users are advised to upgrade as soon as possible.