Tech Talk Guest Telemarketing Companies Eye Alternative Plans Hostile Takeover of Peoplesoft by Oracle Is Personal Hacker Hoax or Serious Threat Wi-Fi Encryption Study Music Distribution History Repeats Itself Telcos Duke it out in Iraq Americans For Dean Website Taps Grassroots Support Microsoft Admits Passport Security Flaw Spying on the Government eBay?s User Convention Held Last Week in Orlando New Software Paradym According to Tim O'Reilly ICANN Relinquishes Power Under Pressure MS Worker Software Racket Stratford University News
Where: 802.11 Planet Expo Conference in Boston Last Week
What: A Wireless Network of 141 nodes provided for conference goers
Tools: AirDefense Guard sensors at opposite corners of conference center
The Findings: Users checking their e-mail through unencrypted POP connections vastly outnumbered those using a VPN or another encrypted tunnel
Only three percent of e-mail downloads were encrypted
12 percent on the second day
The other 88% could easily be intercepted by eavesdroppers using commonly-available tools, compromising both the e-mail and the user’s passwords.
Additionally, 84 out of the 523 users monitored were configured to allow ad hoc networking, and 74 were configured to automatically connect to the access point with the strongest signal strength — a default mode that could leave a laptop prey to a rogue access point.
Tecore Wireless Systems, a private company in Columbia, Maryland, said it would lay the groundwork for phone companies to offer wireless in Iraq.
Tecore sells cellular infrastructure and software to carriers in Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates and other parts of the Middle East. It plans to begin building a distribution center in Iraq by the end of summer, the company said.
US government awarded WorldCom a $45 million contract to build a cell network in Iraq
Pentagon also gave Motorola a $10 to $25 million contract — depending on options the company exercises — to install radio communications for security forces in Baghdad.
Iraq has never had a cell-phone system, but analysts say it would be easy and cheap to install.
"It’s an autonomous, self-organizing, grassroots campaign network," said Zack Rosen, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign computer science student who cooked up the idea. "We’re giving people a Web tool to organize the campaign network. We want to help get this man elected."
Rosen said about 15 developers are working to get the tools up and running in the next few weeks, but anyone is welcome to contribute.
They’re building on Drupal, an open-source content-management system, for the project.
Uses RSS [Rich Site Summary] Feed
A format designed for sharing web content [articles, blogs, calendar info, etc.].
Think of it as a way to distribute "What’s New."
Originated by UserLand in 1997, and subsequently used by Netscape
RSS has evolved into a popular means of sharing content between sites [including the BBC, CNET, CNN, Disney, Forbes, Motley Fool, Wired, Red Herring, Salon, Slashdot, ZDNet and more].
Patch was posted last week after learned about the vulnerability after Victor Manuel Alvarez Castro of Mexico published details to an Internet discussion list
Microsoft does not believe any accounts were compromised
In May, a Pakistani computer researcher determined that by typing a specific Web address that included the phrase "emailpwdreset," he could seize any Passport account.
I keep no critical information in a Passport account
To empower citizens by providing a single, comprehensive, easy-to-use repository of information on individuals, organizations, and corporations related to the government of the United States of America.
To allow citizens to submit intelligence about government-related issues, while maintaining their anonymity. To allow members of the government a chance to participate in the process.
Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and
Currently the database contains information on more than 3,000 public figures.
4,000 members of eBay’s elite power-seller corps attended "EBay Live" convention
EBay estimates that about 150,000 people earn their living on the site
About 90,000 dealers are in its power-seller group
To receive an invitation, dealers must sell more than $1,000 worth of merchandise each month for three months and maintain a stellar feedback rating from customers
The power-seller club has five levels — bronze, silver, gold, platinum and titanium — based on sales volume. Titanium sellers move more than $150,000 in merchandise on eBay a month.
A Microsoft worker has been charged with stealing $17 million of software from Microsoft’s internal store in the second case of its type in recent months
Richard Gregg, 43, and a Windows program coordinator, has pleaded not guilty to 62 counts of mail and computer fraud, Gregg, who denies the charges, has been released on bail.
From January to October 2002, Gregg allegedly ordered 5,436 copies of software such as Windows XP, SQL Server, Exchange and Office with retail prices over $17 million which he subsequently resold.