Not-so-secret intelligence chief puts his personal details on the web
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=494407
November 16, 2007
It may not be the most advisable action when you've been appointed the
Government's head of secret intelligence.

Hacked iPhone No Longer Just a Theory: Demo Turns iPhone into Spy Device
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/11/hacked-iphone-n.html
Readers of Threat Level will recall a little bit of flack that I and
Wired received recently for writing a couple of stories about problems
with the iPhone's security.

Laptop with workers' personal information stolen from auditors
http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2007/11/16/ddn111707battelle.html
Battelle & Battelle LLC would not disclose the number of individuals
affected by the theft but Masonic Home officials said 600 of its
employees' information was stored in the laptop.


-->> Will math itself be classified as a weapon, just as cryptography was and is? (comments anyone?)

Adding Math to List of Security Threats
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/17/technology/17code.html
One of the world's most prominent
cryptographers issued a warning on Friday about a hypothetical incident
in which a math error in a widely used computing chip places the
security of the global electronic commerce system at risk.
Adi Shamir, a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel,
circulated a research note about the problem to a small group of
colleagues. He wrote that the increasing complexity of modern
microprocessor chips is almost certain to lead to undetected errors.
Historically, the risk has been demonstrated in incidents like the
discovery of an obscure division bug in Intel’s Pentium microprocessor
in 1994 and, more recently, in a multiplication bug in Microsoft’s Excel
spreadsheet program, he wrote.

Boeing bosses spy on workers
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/339881_boeingsurveillance16.html
One such team, dubbed "enterprise" investigators, has permission to read
the private e-mails of employees, follow them and collect video footage
or photos of them. Investigators can also secretly watch employee
computer screens in real time and reproduce every keystroke a worker
makes, the Seattle P-I has learned.

Auditors: One NASA hack cost $1.5M
http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/45450-1.html
A recent series of intrusions into the Earth Observing System's networks
cost NASA $1.5 million for incident mitigation and cleanup costs
alone,said the agency's inspector general, Robert Cobb, in a memo
issued Nov. 13.
Those costs came on top of the “operational impact to the agency's
mission, such as the temporary suspension of automated processes,
caused by the criminal hack of the networks, Cobb said. The memo was
addressed to NASA's administrator and accompanied the IG's report titled
NASA's Most Serious Management and Performance Challenges.
Our criminal investigative efforts over the past five years confirm
that the threats to NASA's information are broad in scope, sophisticated
and sustained, auditors wrote in the report.
Even more troubling is that the threats appear to evolve along with new
technologies and range from low-end hacking to complex attacks aimed at
some of NASA's most sensitive data,” the report states.



60-year-old computer loses race
A modern computer crunches data much faster than a 60-year-old one. The 60-year-old computer in this race may have been the first computer ever built. The BBC reported that scientists in England recently completed a 14-year effort to restore Colossus, the computer that broke the codes the Germans used during the Second World War.  See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7098005.stm
Also related:
About Ray Kurzweil
has a chart that shows exponential growth of computing 
power for the last 100 years, going through eras such as relays, 
tubes, transistors, etc.  It is remarkably consistent.
http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0134.html?printable=1



U.N. conference ponders Internet's future
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/v-print/story/21582.html
When more than 1,700 technology experts from 
around the world envision the Internet's future, they see cars and 
household appliances that are online, wireless Internet networks in 
remote African villages and astronauts e-mailing one another from 
different corners of outer space. (bad article)
All of the main sessions were transcribed by the excellent team that 
ICANN uses, and all of the detail is on line at www.intgovform.org. It 
makes for fascinating reading, and anyone who wants to protect the 
Internet and help it to evolve should read some of this to understand 
how representatives, some self-appointed, from other parts of the 
world view this technology and the institutions that enable it 
presently. (good article)





Verizon does let you opt-out of their 'enhanced' DNS service.  The method is right there in their revised terms of service.
Here are the instructions for
   FIOS customers:  http://tinyurl.com/33ju2w
   DSL customers:  http://tinyurl.com/ypnqom




Google 700 MHz Intentions
http://vonmag.com/editorial/web-exclusives/google-700-mhz-intentions
Google’s Washington Telecom and Media Counsel made it clear the company is almost certain to bid on 700 MHz spectrum in the January 2008 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auctions. Speaking on a panel before a group of telecommunications professionals in Northern Virginia, Rick Whitt said the company was “probably…more likely than not” going to participate in the 700 MHz auctions. The company is entertaining “numerous” proposals from potential consortium partners and has assembled a team of “Economists, game theorists, and outside council” to work through all of its potential options.



EarthLink Says No More Money for Existing Muni Networks
http://wifinetnews.com/archives/008052.html
EarthLink drops another bombshell: They hired Rolla Huff to sort out 
their future business, and his message from the start was steely eye, 
bottom line, get things on track for the future in an industry in 
turmoil. Then Huff cuts a huge percentage of the staff, lays off the 
municipal network head, and says no more investment in new networks 
without a change in model. Now the final piece is in place: No more
“significant investments” for existing networks without some 
alternative model being in place, which isn’t specified in the press 
release.



We paid to produce the research - why should we pay again to read it?
http://HTDAW.livedigital.com/blog/100463
A Step Forward for Open Access
Source: Center for Science in the Public Interest, October 29, 2007
The U.S. Congress has approved legislation that would provide free 
public access to all published research funded by the National 
Institutes of Health, despite a lobbying campaign by the Association 
of American Publishers (AAP), which includes leading scientific 
publishers like Elsevier, Wiley, and the American Chemical Society. 
Earlier this year, AAP hired the PR firm of Dezenhall Resources to 
campaign against open access. In August, it launched Partnership for 
Research Integrity in Science and Medicine (PRISM), to promote its 
claim that open access would undermine peer review.