Whistleblower Site Cryptome to Microsoft: Make Your Spying Guide Public
February 26, 2010
(ChattahBox)— Forget about the Olympics and the healthcare showdown between Republicans and Democrats; the big event in the geek-o-sphere this week has been the entertaining battle between tech giant Microsoft and the little-known whistleblower site Cryptome. After Cryptome posted an internal law enforcement document revealing Microsoft’s how-to manual on ways to subpoena online user data, Microsoft demanded that the document be removed under the shield of copyright law. And all of the entertaining back-and-forth email exchanges between Microsoft, Cryptome and Network Solutions, the site’s server, have been posted online.
Of course, Microsoft’s heavy-handed legal brouhaha resulted in drawing even greater attention to its spying document, when Network Solutions responded by taking the whole site offline. And finally on Friday, Microsoft withdrew its complaint and the site was back up, but not before Cryptome’s founder John Young made his point, referring to Microsoft as law enforcement ass kissers, among other things. Young ended his rant against Microsoft, as well as Yahoo, with the words: “Quote me.” Read more
Yelp Accused of User Review Extortion Racket
February 25, 2010
(ChattahBox)—Apparently the consumer online review site Yelp is taking a page out of the book of Tony Soprano. The San Francisco-based site is being accused in a lawsuit of running an online extortion racket, by publishing fake negative reviews about a business and then pressuring that business to ante up for a paid $300 a month subscription, in exchange for removing the negative reviews. A Long Beach veterinary hospital named Cats and Dogs Animal Hospital, didn’t play ball and cried foul, when the owner became subjected to high-pressure sales tactics after two suspect negative reviews appeared on the Yelp site. The veterinarian filed a federal class action lawsuit against Yelp for extortion. Read more
UN Warns of Environmentally Toxic E-Waste Mountains
February 24, 2010
(ChattahBox)—The United Nations is sounding the alarm on global e-waste of cell phones, computers and other electronic devices that is quickly clogging up our planet with toxic pollution. A report by the UN’s Environmental Program found that global e-waste is growing by 40 million tons a year. And the international agency is calling for new green global standards of recycling e-waste to minimize the serious environmental hazards. The UNEP warns that unless something is done to effectively deal with electronic waste, many developing countries face a public health and environmental nightmare from hazardous e-waste mountains filled with discarded cell phones. Read more
Israel Unveils Drones That Could Reach Iran
February 22, 2010
Israel (ChattahBox) – Israel has announced the creation of a platoon of droids that can be navigated unmanned as far as the Gulf Coast, giving them access to Iran if they so choose to attack.
US Finds China Cyber Attackers Code Author
February 22, 2010
US (ChattahBox) – Officials have confirmed that they have found one man who is believed to have helped code the program used by Chinese hackers on the attack on Google and other companies last year.
Proxies Becoming More Popular In Heavily Censored Countries
February 19, 2010
(ChattahBox) – Companies are cashing in on more powerful programs and proxies that allow censored countries to bypass the blocks put on the web.
Mystery Deepens With Chinese Schools Linked To Cyber Attacks
February 19, 2010
(ChattahBox)—The recent announcement by Google that the search engine giant, along with other American companies were victims of online attacks originating from China, set off a dispute with the Chinese government and the United States over cyber warfare. And now the origin of the cyber attacks has been traced not to the Chinese government, but to two universities in China. Computer security experts from the National Security Agency, have raised a number of possibilities for using Chinese students to wage online attacks, including a camouflage military or government espionage operation, student volunteer “patriotic hackers,” or the hijacking of the schools’ I.P. addresses. Whatever the real scenario, this is the first link to China found by computer experts investigating the online breaches, which targeted trade secrets and the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Read more
Courts Agree To Yahoo!, Microsoft Search Fusion
February 18, 2010
(ChattahBox) – Microsoft and Yahoo! have had a deal authorized by the European Commission that will allow them to combine their two search engines.
Class Action Lawsuit Tells Google Buzz to Buzz Off
February 18, 2010
(ChattahBox)—–You recently discovered that someone or some thing broke into your house, rifled through your underwear drawer and exposed your various unmentionables, including some with holes, others a bit risque and a few pairs of embarrassing white cotton granny pants, to the entire world. What do you do? Besides becoming outraged at the invasion of privacy, you can hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit. And that’s just what one Florida woman did to Google, Inc. for its new social networking tool, Buzz. Gmail users woke up one morning to find that their email accounts had been automatically linked to Buzz, which allowed other users to view contacts whom they frequently e-mailed or chatted with, as well as photos and information shared in other Google tools, such as Reader and Picasa. Google responded to the criticism, by giving users the ability to turn the feature off. But the damage has already been done with the release of private email contacts, which may have helped stalkers, compromised journalist sources and may have even broke up a few relationships by exposing affairs. Read more
How Cell Carriers ‘Reduced Cost’ Plans May Cost You More
February 11, 2010
(ChattahBox) – CNN Money released a story this week that shows you may not be getting the low price you thought on your slashed cell phone packages.