NSA Can Tap 1/3 of World's Telecoms

Under new provisions of the Protect America Act 2007 recently signed into legislation, as an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978, the US National Security Agency (NSA) can monitor all traffic originating, passing through or terminating in the US without requiring a court order. Given that more than 35% of the world's voice and non-voice telecom traffic is routed through US hubs, the act essentially gives the NSA legal access to monitor over one third of the world's telecom traffic. The bill was passed by 44 votes with 23 abstentionsThe bill was hotly debated in the US House of Representatives with right-leaning congressional proponents saying the amendment is necessary in the ongoing war on terrorism, and left-leaning representatives arguing that it would undermine civil liberties. "In the 30 years since Congress enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, telecommunications technology has dramatically changed," said congressman Lamar Smith, representing the 21st district of Texas. "As a result, the intelligence community is hampered in gathering essential information about terrorists needed to prevent attacks against America. Congress must modernise FISA to address this problem."However, congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, representing the 16th district of California, disagrees: "This bill goes far beyond what is necessary and Â… would grant the Attorney General the ability to wiretap anybody, anyplace, anytime, without court review, without any checks and balances. I think that this unwarranted, unprecedented measure would simply eviscerate the fourth amendment that protects the privacy not of terrorists, but of Americans." View: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2196443/...-world-telecoms Read full story...

 


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Universal goes DRM-free

Universal has announced that it is abandoning the practice of embedding digital rights management (DRM) software in its music. In a limited trial Universal will strip out the DRM from music sold via some retailers, including Google, Wal-Mart, and Amazon.com. Music sold on iTunes will still have DRM embedded however.Universal said: "The experiment will run from August to January and analyse such factors as consumer demand, price sensitivity and piracy in regards to the availability of open MP3s." View: The full story News source: vnunet Read full story...

 


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Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2c Release

Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2c has released to manufacturing and will be available to system builders in September 2007. Critical Action Item:System builders who use imaging must create new Windows XP Professional images with Service Pack 2c when shipping Service Pack 2c product keys; otherwise end users will not be able to complete installation. SP2c to Resolve Shortage of Windows XP Product Keys  Due to the longevity of Windows XP Professional, it has become necessary to produce more product keys for system builders in order to support the continued availability of Windows XP Professional through the scheduled system builder channel end-of-life (EOL) date of January 31, 2009. View: The full story News source: MS Technet Blog Read full story...

 


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Google starts charging for extra storage

Just hours after Microsoft rolled out its Skydrive online storage service on Thursday, Google Inc. unveiled pricing for shared online storage available to both Gmail and Picasa, the search giant's Web-based photo and e-mail services. The new storage space, which Google took pains to stress is in addition to the free allowance for each service (1GB for Picasa, 2.8GB for Gmail), is priced starting at $20 a year for another 6GB. In the first 20 minutes after the paid storage debuted, however, Google sold the 6GB bump for just $1.00 a year; that was quickly changed to $20. Other plans provide an extra 25GB for $75 annually, 100GB for $250, and 250GB for $500.  View: The full story News source: ComputerWorld Read full story...

 


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Digital photo frames becoming more functional

Due to intense competition, digital photo frames are increasingly being offered with more functions such as MP3 and MPEG-4 (MP4) playback, according to Taiwan-based manufacturers of digital photo frames.Lite-On IT, a maker of digital photo frames under the Cenomax brand name, indicated that MP3 and WMA playback, calendar and even alarm clock functions can be built into digital photo frames and may become mainstream. Boxter, another Taiwan-based maker, has offered digital photo frames that can play back MP4, DivX and XviD video formats, the company indicated View: The full story News source: DigiTimes Read full story...

 


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Symantec patches critical Norton flaw

A bug in the way Norton AntiVirus software uses the ActiveX programming language could cause serious problems for users of Symantec's products. On Thursday, Symantec patched the flaw warning that a bug in two ActiveX controls used by Symantec's client software could allow an attacker to run unauthorized software on a victim's computer. Security vendor Secunia ApS rates the problem as "highly critical." The flaw is an "input validation" error, meaning that Norton doesn't properly check the data it's receiving to ensure that it can't be mistaken for malicious commands. The bug affects users of the 2006 versions of Norton AntiVirus, Norton Internet Security, and Norton System Works. Norton Internet Security 2006, Anti Spyware Edition is also affected.  View: The full story News source: InfoWorld Read full story...

 


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Microsoft Plans Nine Security Updates for Next Week

Microsoft Corp. will release nine sets of security patches next week, including six critical updates for Windows, Office, Internet Explorer and its Visual Basic development software. The updates will come as part of Microsoft's regular monthly security patch process, and will be made available to customers late Tuesday morning, Pacific time.Less-serious updates are also being readied for Windows, Windows Vista, and Microsoft's Virtual PC and Virtual Server software, Microsoft said in a note on the upcoming patches, published Thursday. With nine sets of patches, August will be a busy month for system administrators. Microsoft released just six updates in July, and has averaged around seven updates per month this year. News source: PCWorld Read full story...

 


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Vonage works around Verizon patents

Vonage is still smarting from that legal tete-a-tete with Verizon, but after throwing together a trio of patent workarounds, it's confident that a full recovery is on the way. Today, during an earnings call with inventors and industry analysts, the pioneering voice over IP company said that, thanks to its ongoing patent battle with the nation's second largest telco, it stomached $6m in litigation costs during the second quarter and struggled to attract new customers.Of course, CEO Jeffrey Citron believes there's light at the end of the tunnel. "I am very excited about our accomplishments this quarter and am confident we are taking the appropriate steps to turn our business around," he said. "The second quarter was one of transition for us, and I believe that we are turning the corner on one of the most difficult periods in Vonage's history." View: The full story News source: The Reg Read full story...

 


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Windows Live Folder Beta transforms into Live Skydrive Beta

Good News! Windows Live Skydrive (formerly Windows Live Folders) is now available in the United States in English and Spanish, Great Britain, and India! You will not be able to access the Live Skydrive site if you are outside these markets. We look forward to growing into further markets in the future!When you sign in to Windows Live Skydrive, you're in charge. For each folder you create, you choose who has access to it. Add new folders, rename them, or change who has access at any time. Always where you need them500 MB of free online storage, available from any computer with Internet access.Create personal, shared, and public folders -- you decide who has access to each folder.Skydrive work well on any Windows or Macintosh computer with Firefox 1.5 or higher, or Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher. News source: Microsoft Connect Read full story...

 


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Deutsche Telekom's Profit Falls 40 Percent

Deutsche Telekom AG said Thursday that its second-quarter net profit fell by 40 percent as more than half a million customers abandoned its traditional land-line offerings for cheaper rivals or switched completely to mobile phones. The company earned 608 million euros ($839 million) in the April-June period, compared with 1.02 billion euros a year earlier. It blamed the decrease not only on the loss of customers but also on higher tax expenses and greater depreciation, amortization and impairment losses. However, the figure was still better than the 563 million euros ($777 million) that analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast.In addition, the company's pretax profit unexpectedly rose by 1.8 percent to 4.9 billion euros ($6.8 billion) from 4.82 billion euros a year earlier, beating expectations of a decline to 4.74 billion euros ($6.5 billion). Sales rose 2.9 percent to 15.6 billion euros ($21.5 billion) from 15.13 billion euros, lifted by continued growth at the company's wireless unit, T-Mobile. Analysts had expected sales of 15.5 billion euros ($21.4 billion). Sales at T-Mobile were up 10 percent to 8.65 billion euros ($11.93 billion) from 7.86 billion euros, lifted higher in part by the addition of 857,000 new customers at its growing U.S unit. Read full story...

 


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Blockbuster Acquires Movielink

The rivarly between two popular online movie rental businesses, Netflix and Blockbuster's Total Access, is about to heat up; Total Access, although reportedly adding subscribers faster than Netflix, lagged behind in one area: on demand movie and TV show downloads. Until now. Blockbuster announced this Wednesday that it is buying the digital movie-download service Movielink, giving the company a stronger online foothold to compete with its rival. Movielink will continue to operate as a stand-alone service, but Blockbuster plans to eventually make elements of Movielink available through it's own online-ordering, mail-delivery service.Blockbuster was in already advanced talks to buy Movielink in Febuary of this year but backed off, renewing the talks in July, about the time that it named a new chief executive, James Keyes. "Many of our stores still say 'Blockbuster Video,"' Keyes said in an interview. "We're taking a fresh look at the future of Blockbuster. The popularity of (online rentals) convinced us that customers are ready for more convenient forms of digital delivery that we think Blockbuster can successfully enter." The deal, whose terms have not yet been released, gives Blockbuster access to Movielink's large catalog and, for the first time, gives its customers the ability to download movies. View: Full Story on SiliconValley.com Read full story...

 


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One Billion Mobile Broadband Users by 2012

The internet is about to become even more ubiquitous, according to analyst firm Juniper Research. In a report released today, analysts predict that nearly one in three mobile subscribers around the world, representing over one billion users, will use a mobile broadband connection by 2012. The growth will lead to mobile broadband service revenues totalling over $400 billion worldwide, driven by demand from North America, Western Europe and, to a lesser extent, the Far East and China. Juniper says that High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA), which includes HSDPA and HSUPA as well as upcoming versions, will dominate mobile broadband network deployments over the next five years, consistently accounting for about 70 per cent of the total mobile broadband subscriber base until 2012."HSPA's in-service status in 2007 makes it already the most advanced mobile broadband technology, with many further deployments due in the near and medium term," said Howard Wilcox, the report's author. "For the 3G service provider base, HSPA represents a software upgrade rather than a new network investment. HSPA will also benefit from technology 'leap' subscribers in the developing nations, and handset churn elsewhere, with users migrating to HSPA-based broadband as the norm."The report also predicts the growth of WiMax, a high-speed wireless network technology capable of spanning for many miles; WiMax could achieve single digit percentages in world-wide usage. Alongside the growth of WiMAX, the report predicts that Evolution-Data Optimised (EV-DO) technology, which is a standard for the wireless transmission of data using radio signals, will be the next most prolific technology driven by extensive penetration of the Americas and Far East. View: Full Story on vnunet.com Read full story...

 


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VMWare Eyes Virtual Appliances to Combat Software Bloating

With today's operating systems ever increasing in size and complexity, a result of the wide variety of applications and usage situations they must support, maintenance of the codebase against bugs and security vulnerabilities becomes ever harder. Fortunately, VMWare thinks it has a solution; VMWare co-founder and chief scientist Mendel Rosenblum said in a keynote at Linuxworld in San Francisco that corporations should eye virtual appliances as a way to create a highly customized platform to run their applications. Instead of customizing applications to suit the target OS, Rosenblum advised, developers should consider creating a custom operating system. ""Rather than making your application run on a bunch of different operating systems, you choose one operating system. You bundle it together and you ship this thing around as a virtual appliance." And an application specific operating system doesn't just cut back on the potential number of bugs and security flaws: developers can also add features that for instance increase the software's performance. Read full story...

 


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ISPs Suspected of Massive Identity Theft in Korea

Police are investigating South Korea's two biggest internet service providers, KT and Hanaro Telecom Inc., on suspicion that they broke identity theft laws on more than seven million occasions. The two companies are suspected of signing up more than seven million customers for services without their permission, according to police sources cited by local media today. Investigators stated that many of the company's internet service customers were apparently illegally signed up for additional services by telephone sales agents, who did not obtain the written consent required under law. The two ISPs may have illegally signed up 7.3 million of the 10 million households and businesses in the country that rely on them for internet service.More than 60 employees and agents working for the two firms are now being questioned by police. KT has announced that it is cooperating with authorities and that it will improve internal data security procedures. Hanaro Telecom CEO Park Byung-Moo made an apparent apology at a press conference today, saying "he feels sorry to customers for causing such trouble," according to the Korea Herald.  View: Full Story on vnunet.com Read full story...

 


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