Legal, Privacy & Security
23 April 2013
Google Glass in Australian privacy battle Australian Financial Review
Google is set to face a battle with Australian privacy regulators when it releases its hotly anticipated Google Glass product as federal and state commissioners raise the alarm about covert filming and security implications.
21 April 2013
From SOPA to CISPA: A controversial cyber-bill sparks a heated debate about online privacy The Economist
When a coalition of internet activists and web companies scuppered the Hollywood-sponsored Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) last year, they warned Congress that future attempts to push through legislation that threatened digital freedoms would be met with a similar response. Now some of them are up in virtual arms again, this time against the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). This is one of several bills designed to reinforce America's cyber-defences that were being discussed by the House of Representatives as The Economist went to press this week.
19 April 2013
Internet drug dealing on the rise, survey finds The Guardian
The internet is starting to rival the backstreets as a place to buy illicit drugs, according to findings from the 2013 Global Drug Survey, with 22% of users reporting they had bought drugs online.
18 April 2013
Pirate Bay co-founder charged with hacking and fraud BBC News
The Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg has been charged with hacking into several Swedish companies and stealing personal data.
17 April 2013
Symantec report finds small businesses battered by cybercrime Computerworld
Cybercriminals are increasingly targeting small businesses due to their less sophisticated defenses, according to a new report from Symantec.
Cyberattacks can't break the Internet CNN
A recent string of gigantic cyberattacks has proven it is possible to bend, but not break the Internet.
16 April 2013
Cyber criminals target employees' devices Financial Times
It's unclear exactly when BYOD, or bring your own device, computing was born. But it was probably some time between the launch of the iPhone and its appearance in the boardroom.
14 April 2013
Cyber thieves target bitcoin owners BBC News
The bitcoin virtual currency has had a volatile 24 hours that saw values plummet, hack attacks, trading shutdowns and bitcoin-stealing malware.
U.S., China agree to work together on cyber security Reuters
China and the United States will set up a working group on cyber-security, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Saturday, as the two sides moved to ease months of tensions and mutual accusations of hacking and Internet theft.
13 April 2013
Cybersecurity: A View From the Front New York Times
The changes in the digital world today represent a dramatically sped-up version of the changes the world underwent in a century of industrialization. It is a paradigm transformation of our world: Notions of a nation's size, wealth, power, military might, population and G.D.P. mean something altogether different from what they meant a generation ago.
11 April 2013
Top porn sites 'pose growing malware risk' to users BBC News
Browsing some of the internet's most popular pornography websites is increasingly putting visitors at risk, research has found.
10 April 2013
UK to host global cybersecurity centre BBC News
Foreign Secretary William Hague has announced that a global centre for cybersecurity will be opened at the University of Oxford.
Mobile phone apps view private data more than necessary, says French study Computerworld
Mobile phone apps are accessing users' private data and transmitting it to remote servers far more than appears strictly necessary, while users have inadequate tools to monitor or control such access, according to a new study by two French government agencies.
06 April 2013
Google revolution isn't worth our privacy Financial Times
Let's give credit where it is due: Google is not hiding its revolutionary ambitions. As its co-founder Larry Page put it in 2004, eventually its search function "will be included in people's brains" so that "when you think about something and don't really know much about it, you will automatically get information".
Right to erasure protects people's freedom to forget the past, says expert The Guardian
He describes himself as the "midwife" of the idea of the right to be forgotten. And for Viktor Mayer-Schönberger , it's not just about the legal, moral and technical arguments - but about what it is to be human.
05 April 2013
Britain seeks opt-out of new European social media privacy laws The Guardian
Britain is attempting to opt out of a European initiative enabling anyone to delete their personal details from online service providers - a power known as the "right to be forgotten".
Arming for Virtual Battle: The Dangerous New Rules of Cyberwar Der Spiegel
Now that wars are also being fought on digital battlefields, experts in international law have established rules for cyberwar. But many questions remain unanswered. Will it be appropriate to respond to a cyber attack with military means in the future?
02 April 2013
Explainer: what is hacking? The Conversation
Last week, we woke to news that the largest cyber attack ever was underway in Europe, with reports of global internet speeds falling as a result of an assault on the anti-spamming company Spamhaus.
31 March 2013
Cyber Attack Thought to Originate in Russia Wall Street Journal
A massive cyber attack targeting a European spam-fighting group that slowed some global Internet traffic to a crawl appears to have been launched by a gang of hackers from Russia and neighboring countries, says the head of a Russian firm specializing in defending against such attacks.
Letting Down Our Guard With Web Privacy New York Times
Say you've come across a discount online retailer promising a steal on hand-stitched espadrilles for spring. You start setting up an account by offering your e-mail address -- but before you can finish, there's a ping on your phone. A text message. You read it and respond, then return to the Web site, enter your birth date, click "F" for female, agree to the company's terms of service and carry on browsing.
An American Quilt of Privacy Laws, Incomplete New York Times
We don't need a new platform. We just need to rebrand. That was the message of a report from the Republican Party a few weeks ago on how to win future presidential elections. It's also the strategy that Peter Fleischer, the global privacy counsel at Google, recently proposed for the United States to win converts abroad to its legal model of data privacy protection.
The digital arms trade: The market for software that helps hackers penetrate computer systems The Economist
It is a type of software sometimes described as "absolute power" or "God". Small wonder its sales are growing. Packets of computer code, known as "exploits", allow hackers to infiltrate or even control computers running software in which a design flaw, called a "vulnerability", has been discovered. Criminal and, to a lesser extent, terror groups purchase exploits on more than two dozen illicit online forums or through at least a dozen clandestine brokers, says Venkatramana Subrahmanian, a University of Maryland expert in these black markets. He likens the transactions to "selling a gun to a criminal".
30 March 2013
Cyberattacks Seem Meant to Destroy, Not Just Disrupt New York Times
American Express customers trying to gain access to their online accounts Thursday were met with blank screens or an ominous ancient type face. The company confirmed that its Web site had come under attack.
Provocateur Comes Into View After Cyberattack New York Times
Sven Olaf Kamphuis calls himself the "minister of telecommunications and foreign affairs for the Republic of CyberBunker." Others see him as the Prince of Spam.
29 March 2013
Bitcoin miners hit back at cyber-thieves BBC News
Cyber-thieves are attempting to cash in on the rising value of the bitcoin virtual currency.
