#ISPs Refuse to Block New Pirate Bay IP-Address #TPB
by enigmax, May 24, 2012
In recent days The Pirate Bay announced the addition of a new proxy-friendly version of their site supported by a new IP address. This means that customers of ISPs that had previously implemented a court-ordered blockade could now access the site again. In the Netherlands, anti-piracy group BREIN is already battling to have that censored too. However, it seems that some ISPs are refusing to play ball, and several are challenging the entire blockade.
Following an earlier court ruling that ordered Ziggo and XS4ALL, two of the Netherlands’ largest ISPs, to start blocking access to the The Pirate Bay, two weeks ago Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN chalked up another victory.
On May 10th, the Court of The Hague ordered an additional five ISPs – UPC, KPN, Tele2, T-Mobile and Telfort – to block two TPB IP addresses and 20 domain names within 10 days or face fines of up to 250,000 euros.
These pair of court rulings, although similar, were not identical. In the first ruling permission was given for BREIN to add additional IP addresses should The Pirate Bay choose to switch or add IP addresses to their site.
Not surprisingly and as already reported, TPB did in fact add a new IP address plus a proxy-friendly version of their site in recent days. BREIN was quick to react and has now ordered Ziggo and XS4ALL to block the IP address 194.71.107.80 within 10 days or face fines of up to 250,000 euros.
However, in the second ruling against the five other ISPs, the Court felt that the XS4ALL/Ziggo ruling went too far. As a result the Court only allowed two TPB specific IPs to be censored and disallowed BREIN from simply adding more. This means that even when the ban kicks in during the days to come, users of UPC, KPN, Tele2, T-Mobile and Telfort will be able to access TPB by using the IP address listed above.
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ISPs Refuse to Block New Pirate Bay IP-Address | TorrentFreak
Understanding Debian, the universal operating system (version 1.01 in English)
Why the death of #DRM would be good news for readers, writers and publishers
The decision by Tor Books to ditch digital rights management signals the beginning of the end of the ebook format wars
By Cory Doctorow, 3 May 2012
At the end of April, Tor Books, the world’s largest science fiction publisher, and its UK sister company, Tor UK, announced that they would be eliminating digital rights management (DRM) from all of their ebooks by the summer. It was a seismic event in the history of the publishing industry. It’s the beginning of the end for DRM, which are used by hardware manufacturers and publishers to limit the use of digital content after sale. That’s good news, whether you’re a publisher, a writer, a dedicated reader, or someone who picks up a book every year or two.
The first thing you need to know about ebook DRM is that it can’t work. […]
http://m.guardian.co.uk: Why the death of DRM would be good news for readers, writers and publishers
FBI: We need wiretap-ready Web sites - now
by Declan McCullagh May 4, 2012
CNET learns the FBI is quietly pushing its plan to force surveillance backdoors on social networks, VoIP, and Web e-mail providers, and that the bureau is asking Internet companies not to oppose a law making those backdoors mandatory.
The FBI is asking Internet companies not to oppose a controversial proposal that would require firms, including Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google, to build in backdoors for government surveillance.
In meetings with industry representatives, the White House, and U.S. senators, senior FBI officials argue the dramatic shift in communication from the telephone system to the Internet has made it far more difficult for agents to wiretap Americans suspected of illegal activities, CNET has learned.
The FBI general counsel’s office has drafted a proposed law that the bureau claims is the best solution: requiring that social-networking Web sites and providers of VoIP, instant messaging, and Web e-mail alter their code to ensure their products are wiretap-friendly.
“If you create a service, product, or app that allows a user to communicate, you get the privilege of adding that extra coding,” an industry representative who has reviewed the FBI’s draft legislation told CNET. The requirements apply only if a threshold of a certain number of users is exceeded, according to a second industry representative briefed on it.
The FBI’s proposal would amend a 1994 law, called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, that currently applies only to telecommunications providers, not Web companies. The Federal Communications Commission extended CALEA in 2004 to apply to broadband networks. […]
CNet: FBI: We need wiretap-ready Web sites - now
Note: As user of software, you need to at least to be able to determine for yourself whether you wish to participate in such nation state spying schemes. Move over to using GNU free open source software, where you can see what’s in it. And if you decide to use free open source software for a website and not participate in nation state spying and surveillance schemes, don’t remove the labels from your site, so that visitors can determine for themselves too.
Bit9 Cyber Security Research Report 2012
The most devastating attacks by nations states and criminal enterprises is what cybersecurity IT professionals express are least concerned with, while fear for hacker groups runs rampant, and is most likely inflated by the media hype (view the infographic from the same research).
The types of attacks respondents of the survey were most concerned with, malware and spearphishing, are the types of attack you would see with a nation state or a targeted criminal enterprise, not a hacker or hacktivist group.
What is considered the most effective solution for security, critical information systems, is actually the solution that is targeted by advanced attackers with increasing success.
(video by Bit9Inc)
Note: I am not surprised. This is the story of the “known” and the “unknown”. Attacks by nation states, and even criminal enterprises are boxed in the “known” as these are after the “known” thing, money and power, while independent hackers are feared for their freethinking focus and creativity and hacktivists for being focused on freedom of expression, direct democracy, a more fair economical system, human rights, indigenous rights, animal rights, you name it, and their creativity.
Both hackers and hacktivists are aliens from outer space and we can expect just about anything from those! Now we know!
Most of all, these aliens don’t seem to take themselves and us not very serious, and this is serious business! They have a sense of humour! GHA! GARGL! Most threatening!
Just because you’re being cautious about privacy doesn’t mean other people are. Burn Note allows you to send self-destructing messages–such as passwords you’d like to share–so you don’t have to worry about them lingering in someone else’s e-mail inbox. It’s not the only self-destructing message service, but it has a very comprehensive privacy policy.
Learn to Hack pulled from Barnes and Noble: Available online
May 3rd 2012
We’ve just learned that issue 154 of Linux Format, the one with ‘Learn to Hack’ on the cover, was removed from Barnes and Noble bookstores in the US after a complaint was made. We’d like to apologise if you were affected and couldn’t find a copy.
As a reminder, we’ve put the contents of the main feature online: http://www.tuxradar.com/content/learn-hack
Here’s a quote from Bruce Schneier’s Crypto-Gram Newsletter from August 2003 where he announces his book ‘Beyond Fear’, and explains why demystifying security is so important:
“This is a book for everyone. I believe that security, as a topic, is something we all can understand. And even more importantly, I believe that the subject is just too critical, too integral a part of our everyday lives, to be left exclusively in the hands of experts. By demystifying security, I hope to encourage all of us to think more sensibly about the topic, to contribute to what should be an open and informed public discussion of security, and to participate vocally in ongoing security negotiations in our civic, professional, and personal lives.”We feel exactly the same, which is why we ran that feature.
