christmas
Hack of Google, Adobe Conducted Through Zero-Day IE Flaw
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a link to a Microsoft advisory about the new vulnerability as well as a Microsoft blog post discussing ways for users to reduce their risk of attack. The recent hack attack on Google, Adobe and other companies occurred through exploitation of a zero-day vulnerability that affects many versions of Internet Explorer, according to Microsoft and a security researcher with a leading anti-virus firm. Microsoft learned about the vulnerability only Wednesday evening, said the researcher, who asked not to be identified because he’s not authorized to speak with the press.
Continue reading »Body Scanners Might Violate U.K. Child Protection Laws
The deployment of body scanning x-ray machines could violate child protection laws in the United Kingdom and prevent their implementation, according to the Guardian . British officials were forced to exempt the scanning of anyone under 18 during a year-long test of the machines at Manchester airport until legal questions could be worked out, the newspaper said. There are also concerns that images of nude celebrities could be posted online or sold to tabloids.
Continue reading »How to beat Google in a domain name dispute
Google has filed 64 domain name disputes with the National Arbitration Forum since 2001. It has won 62 times, arguing that the names in question were confusingly similar to its own. But on Christmas Eve, Google suffered its second loss in eight years as the arbiters decided that groovle.com was not similar enough to Google’s name and that it had not been registered in bad faith.
Continue reading »BaconBits, A BitTorrent Tracker for Redditors Only
Social news sites like Reddit carry great influence and the capacity to mobilize thousands of people for causes deemed important by the masses. A perfect example of the efficiency and speed of Reddit users became apparent a few days ago when a group of Redditors decided that the community should have a private BitTorrent tracker, exclusive to respected Reddit users. On Christmas day the idea was born and just a few hours later the tracker named ‘ BaconBits ‘ was already up and running, with the first torrents being uploaded by an enthusiastic crowd.
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