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(via Do Not Track Is An Opportunity, Not a Threat | John Battelle’s Search Blog) This is a mockup — for now anyway. But speaking personally, I think it would be fair enough; albeit with the addition of a 3rd option “click to pay (eg: 2$) for a months access to ad-free version” or similar.
First off, to emphasize again: This is a mockup, not real. But it’s rare to see Microsoft ahead of the curve on something like “Do Not Track,” which will be turned on by default on IE10. The solution for sites which could suffer from this type of change is to be upfront about it. Or, you know, to change up their model a little. Either way, let’s not do more stuff like this.
» You get what you pay for: Really, guys? Thirteen times in a year? This means NASA gets hacked more often than I pay my phone bill. But maybe that’s to be expected when you spend so little on cyber security. This is all based on testimony from the agency’s inspector general, Paul Martin, and the rest of his testimony is quite terrifying. For example, Martin says that hackers working through Chinese IP addresses were able to gain full system access to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, steal user credentials from over 150 NASA employees, and modify system logs to cover up their tracks. Let’s hope it was just a couple of bored middle schoolers.
Between MWC and RSA, Worlds of Mobility and Security Collide
Mobile World Congress, the largest and most important mobile conference of the year, runs this week in Barcelona. Meanwhile, about 6000 miles away in San Francisco, the RSA Conference brings together cryptographers and security geeks. These conferences, while seemingly unrelated, have more in common in 2012 than ever before. Juniper Networks created an exclusive infographic for ReadWriteWeb encapsulating the colliding worlds of mobility and security. Check this out (click here).
Pretty neat graphic at the link. Check it out. There’s been a major jump in malware on Android, per the graphic.
Nothing has changed with the withdrawal of the American forces from Iraq on the security level because basically it has been in our hands.Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki • Emphasizing that the country can handle the forthcoming departure of U.S. troops, as an eight-year war dies down. Al-Maliki says he has “no concerns whatsoever” about the ability of his troops to maintain security in the region, and says the sectarian violence that broke out immediately in the wake of the downfall of the Saddam Hussein government is a thing of the past. “I assure the world that the Iraqi forces and the general situation in the country hasn’t changed and will not change,” he emphasizes. source (via • follow)
A follow-up to our Tumblr likespam post from last night: One of the things pointed out to us by one of our readers, Paulo Ordoveza, is that the blank profiles also have a payload, although it’s not obvious (we initially said the blank profiles were merely holding spots for future backlinking). We just did a check of the source code on one, and here’s what we found. Click with care, guys.
Shopping at the mall? You may end up in a police database as a suspicious person.
Mall of America, the home to terrorism, apparently.
As Salon’s Glenn Greenwald points out, could you imagine any US politician saying that, ever?
Fascinating thing to say — for any leader.
Yahoo wants to buy Hulu now too. They’re going on an “I...
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
The new normal in airport security? It was announced today by the TSA that terrorists might try to surgically implant bombs into themselves to bypass airport checkpoints, a warning which seems to imply further heightening of security could be coming. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney explicitly said that the warning “does not relate to an imminent or specific threat.” That said, that a terrorist could hide a bomb in their body is fairly obvious, so whatever intelligence they’ve gleaned must be enough to drag this out of the realm of the hypothetical. The TSA has also advised international airports to tighten their security. source
The dangers of the rope-line: French President Nicolas Sarkozy was grabbed and pulled by a man while walking past a rope-line at a public event today. What we find most interesting about this: “Sarkozy says he will take no action against the man.” Now, we’d be shocked if this guy isn’t in a world of legal trouble right now, but for Sarkozy to openly state he’ll take no action against him sort of surprised us. If this happened to President Obama, we bet there would be a lot more emphasis and on this, both from the administration and the media. source
A certain hacker group that’s been making headlines lately hacked the Senate’s website. However, they stole nothing of value — they only obtained information about to go on the site itself. The firewall protecting the Senate’s important documents kept them away from the data that could have been potentially harmful if released. Investigators traced the weakness in the system back to one senator’s office, but the senator hasn’t been named. In a press release about the incident, the hackers made it sound like this wouldn’t be the last time they targeted a government site, either. One thing is for sure — the White House should really look into cyber security if some amateur hackers are breaking into government websites this regularly. source
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