Information Policy

Egypt rounding up “Internet youth”

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) said on Thursday that the Egyptian security forces had arrested 14 Internet activists known as the "6th of April Youth." The group had been travelling to Alexandria when they were detained by police. They have yet to appear before a judge and charges have not yet been filed against any of them, ANHRI said. Ahmed Maher, a leading member of the group, was arrested by security forces "while walking in the Al Raml station of Alexandria," the pan-Arabic human rights network reported. ANHRI said that the government was targeting as many as 35 young men and women belonging to the group who were attending a planned trip by the group. Another member of the group, Mahenor Al Masri, in a phone call to ANHRI said "the officers had beaten them..." and seized the list of participants on the trip which numbered 50 of young men and women.

http://www.afriquenligne.fr/egypt-rounding-up-%22internet-youth%22-200807259538.html

Speculation over back door in Skype

According to reports, there may be a back door built into Skype, which allows connections to be bugged. The company has declined to expressly deny the allegations. At a meeting with representatives of ISPs and the Austrian regulator on lawful interception of IP based services held on 25th June, high-ranking officials at the Austrian interior ministry revealed that it is not a problem for them to listen in on Skype conversations.

This has been confirmed to heise online by a number of the parties present at the meeting. Skype declined to give a detailed response to specific enquiries from heise online as to whether Skype contains a back door and whether specific clients allowing access to a system or a specific key for decrypting data streams exist. The response from the eBay subsidiary's press spokesman was brief, "Skype does not comment on media speculation. Skype has no further comment at this time." There have been rumours of the existence of a special listening device which Skype is reported to offer for sale to interested states.

There has long been speculation that Skype may contain a back door. Because the vendor has not revealed details of its proprietary Skype protocol or of how the client works, questions as to what else Skype is capable of and what risks are involved in deploying it in an enterprise environment remain open.

Last week, Austrian broadcaster ORF, citing minutes from the meeting, reported that the Austrian police are able to listen in on Skype connections. Interior ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia declined to provide heise online with a comment on the matter. He did, however, offer general comments on the meeting, which were, however, contradicted by other attendees.

In contrast to statements from the interior ministry, the meeting was not attended solely by technical staff; those present included lawyers, regulatory experts and staff at the regulator. Neither were the ministry representatives mere technicians, rather they were high-ranking officials in management positions. They demanded from the ISP representatives present an "Austrian industry solution" for accessing data traffic. They called for ISPs to allow the interior ministry to install network bridges and Linux computers in their network centres. These would be used to copy and filter data traffic and forward it to the interior ministry via an encrypted connection. To facilitate filtering, ISPs should assign fixed IP addresses to customers being monitored.

it was made clear that should ISPs oppose these demands, monitoring legislation would be revised at some future time-point to prescribe the use of the ETSI ES 201 671 Version 3.1.1. monitoring standard. This would be legally binding and would require significantly more time and effort and be more expensive to implement. The reason given for not updating the legislation right away was that, in view of the present absence of terrorist activity, it would not currently be possible to mobilise political support for such a move. The officials are reported to have made clear that they were well aware that their monitoring plans would only catch the more gauche end of the criminal spectrum. Professionally organised criminals would utilise encryption algorithms that would not allow easy decryption.

It was also put about that two major ISPs had already succumbed to this pressure. The network bridges requested by the interior ministry have reportedly already been installed on their systems. This was confirmed by both companies, off the record. UPC/Inode was willing to "definitively deny" that a network bridge had been installed on its network and stated that there were also no plans to do so. Monitoring was carried out in individual cases only and only when instructed by a court order.

According to Mobilkom Austria, "the authorities have no access and will not be granted access." Likewise its fixed line affiliate Telekom Austria. Mobilkom has informed heise online, that, in response to a court order, on a single occasion it stored the total data traffic for one customer over a number of days and forwarded it to the police. In such cases, the interior ministry now wants to replace the use of physical media, with the inevitable delays this entails, with an encrypted connection. ISPs will, however, remain responsible for separating the monitored data stream from overall traffic.

For reasons of redundancy, Mobilkom's network does not have a central point from which all traffic can be accessed. Because the plan has now been made public, the money-saving idea of assigning fixed IP addresses to customers who are to be monitored is unlikely to be able to be implemented. More expensive solutions are likely to be required, though it remains unclear who will bear the ensuing costs.

http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/Speculation-over-back-door-in-Skype--/111170

European Union: Legislators Urged to Oppose Cyber-crime Bill Likely to Threaten Online Free Expression

(PNG) Reporters Without Borders is worried about the impact of a proposed law on cyber-crime, adopted by the Senate on july 9th 2008, that will be submitted to the Chamber of Deputies in the next few days. The press freedom organisation calls on deputies to clarify the bill''s wording so as to safeguard online free expression.

The bill would punish 13 computer activities:

1 - non-authorized access to an information device or automated system

2 - obtaining, transferring or providing of non-authorized data or information

3 - disclosure or misuse of personal information and data

4 - destroying, making unusable or degrading other people"s objects or electronic data

5 - introducing and distributing viruses

6 - severer sentencing for introducing or distributing of viruses followed by damage

7 - electronic deception (phishing)

8 - attack on security service or public utility

9 - interruption or disruption of telephone, telegraph computer, or electronic services, communication device, computer networks or computer system

10 - falsification of electronic public data and

11 - falsification of private electronic data (credit card and mobile phone cloning, for example)

12 - discriminating against people regarding race or color disseminated through computer networks (amendment to the Afonso Arinos Law)

13 - receiving or storing pictures with pedophile content (amendment to the Child and Adolescent Statute).

(PNG) "This bill is potentially dangerous for online free expression," Reporters Without Borders said. "It reinforces surveillance of the Internet and provides for penalties of up to three years in prison without any precision as to how they should be applied. It is still loosely worded although amendments have been made in the three years since it was first introduced. We urge deputies to examine it closely, in order to clarify its content and ensure that online free expression is guaranteed."

Introduced by Eduardo Azeredo (PSDB-MG) in 2005, the bill is to go before the Chamber of Deputies for adoption of the latest amendments before being submitted to the full Chamber for a vote in the coming weeks.

A senate press relations bureau release on 10 July said: "This law will not be applied to those who use the Internet correctly, including those who download music, talk on chat platforms, write their views on a blog, search for information or any other similar activity. A good Internet user will not be punished. Only the growing security that we are developing as regards technology use will change Internet usage."

Reporters Without Borders calls on deputies to define the "correct" way to use the Internet and the methods that will be used to establish "growing security" online. Under articles 285-A and B, anyone "accessing a computer network, communication device or informatics system by means of a breach of security" or "obtaining or transferring protected data or information without authorization or in breach of the authorization of the legitimate holder of computer networks, communication devices or informatics systems" could get one to three years in prison.

(PNG) "What is meant by ''data'' in this bill?" Reporters Without Borders asked. "Does an email address count as data? Does an online post count as data? What happens to an Internet user who unwittingly transmits a virus? The possibility of being imprisoned for ‘transferring'' data would have a dramatic impact on online free expression."

The organisation added: "We understand that legislators want to combat online paedophilia and piracy but we urged them to clearly define the punishable offences so that Internet users can be aware of the legal limits to what they do."

Article 22 of Chapter V concerning "crimes performed against or through a computer network, communication device or informatics system," says ISPs must "confidentially inform the competent authority about received complaints containing evidence of the perpetration of a crime" on the Internet.

Reporters Without Borders urges deputies to clarify what ISPs must tell the "competent authority" and what powers this authority has.

By the Computer Crime Research Center

http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?s=sa&id=1333

Report: Mobile Internet use has reached “critical mass”

Using the Internet from mobile devices is a lot more popular than some of us realize, and even more surprising is the fact that the US leads the pack when it comes to mobile Internet usage. That's the gist of some new data from a new report form Nielsen Mobile, "The Worldwide State of the Mobile Web," which says that adoption of the mobile web has reached a critical mass and can now support "large-scale mobile marketing efforts." Nielsen says that, as of May 2008, 15.6 percent of mobile subscribers in the US make regular use of the mobile Internet on their devices, totaling some 40 million subscribers. This is just a subset of the 95 million US mobile subscribers who pay for access to the mobile Internet (through data plans or some other setup) but don't use it quite so regularly. The UK and Italy weren't far behind, with 12.9 percent and 11.9 percent actively using the 'Net on their mobile devices. It should be noted, however, that while the US may lead in mobile Internet use, other countries lead in terms of mobile being the primary way that their population gets online. In Russia, Brazil, and India, mobile lines far outnumber landlines, and as those countries continue to flourish, they will become a greater driving force in mobile Internet use.

http://www.ejc.net/media_news/report_mobile_internet_use_has_reached_critical_mass/

YouTube partners with TiVo

Just what the television industry needs, increased competition from those wacky YouTube videos that 68 million people watch every month. Only now, it will be easier than ever to view them on television screens. Beginning Thursday, TiVo offers thousands of its subscribers the ability to stream YouTube videos onto their television sets through their broadband-enabled TiVo boxes. It's TiVo's first deal for streaming online content, though the company has partnerships with 60 Internet sites that provide content to TiVo. Unlike with those relationships, TiVo users won't be able to store YouTube video clips, just watch them and bookmark them for easy retrieval later. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, YouTube attracted 68 million unique users in May who streamed 3.8 billion videos, making it by far the most popular video brand on the Internet. Fox Interactive Media, which includes MySpace, was second with 18 million unique users and 328 million video streams.

http://www.ejc.net/media_news/youtube_partners_with_tivo/

Germany monitoring 'problematic' Google Earth street scanning

German data-protection agencies have started to monitor street scanning by Google as it seeks to build three-dimensional city pictures for its Google Earth application. The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection said Google's activities in filming German streets are "problematic" though federal and state data-protection agents have yet to find a legal basis to stop filming that is carried out by cameras mounted on vehicles.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_9895987?nclick_check=1

Searching for Radio "Sweet Spots"

Two recent studies--one in the U.K., one in the U.S.--show how an understanding of radio signal propagation characteristics may help prevent mobile phone interference and boost performance.

Research conducted at the University of Leicester resulted in the discovery a "time window" when mobile signals and radio waves reach "super strength"-–allowing them to be clearer and travel greater distances, potentially increasing interference with other systems. The research, examining the signal strength of radio waves traveling over the sea, identified late afternoons and early evenings in the spring and summer as the times when enhanced signals are most likely to occur.

Salil Gunashekar, a graduate student in the University of Leicester's engineering department, observes that the research's results could have important implications for the design of cellular phone networks operating in marine and coastal regions. "When radio waves travel for long distances over the sea, their strength can be affected by the weather," says Gunashekar, now a post-doctoral research associate in the department's radio systems research group. "The constantly changing weather conditions over the sea mean that marine and coastal environments, in particular, are prone to unusual atmospheric phenomena that enable radio waves to travel longer distances and have higher strengths than expected."

Meanwhile, in the U.S., researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have confirmed that underground tunnels—-generally a difficult setting for radios—-can have a frequency "sweet spot" at which signals may travel several times farther than at other frequencies. The optimal frequency, according to the researchers, depends on the dimensions of the tunnel. For a typical subway-sized tunnel, the sweet spot is found in the frequency range of 400 MHz to 1 GHz. The finding, which uses new data to confirm models developed in the 1970s, may point to future strategies for enhancing communications in road and rail tunnels, subways and mines.

NIST researchers were surprised by how much farther signals at the optimal frequency traveled in above-ground building corridors as well as underground. Tunnels can channel radio signals in the right frequency range because they act like giant waveguides, the pipelike channels that confine and direct microwaves on integrated circuit wafers and in antenna feed systems and optical fibers. The channel shape reduces the losses caused when signals are absorbed or scattered by structural features. The waveguide effect depends on a tunnel's width, height, surface material and roughness, plus the floor's flatness and the signal's frequency.

Lead author Kate Remley notes that the study's results may help engineers design better communications systems for public service and emergency rescue workers as well as those who control search and rescue robots.

http://communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/100/31656

Telecentre.org joins UNESCO's Open Training Platform

Telecentre.org is a community of people and organizations committed to increase the social and economic impact of telecentres around the world. It now joins the Open Training Platform (OTP), a UNESCO-powered hub to free and open learning for development. Both Telecentre.org and OTP are the Flagship Partnership Initiatives of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID).

At present, OTP regroups partners from all UN agencies (FAO, ILO/ITC, ITU, UNESCO, UNITAR, UNU, UNV, WHO and UNEP), worldwide development practitioners and agencies, as well as regional and local NGOs and CBOs. This 15-month old web portal keeps on growing: it has been visited 80 000 times since its creation, counts now over 2400 learning resources shared by 1700 members from 770 development stakeholders worldwide.

The evaluation of OTP conducted last May proved that the Platform is largely used, highly rated and adds additional value to the shared training material. The respondents showed most interest for “Computer Science and Information Management”, “Environment” and “Education” areas and recommended that OTP continues to expand in all development domains.

In addition to the “Training-on-demand” function already available, other new services will be developed shortly, such as the Francophone version, the customisation option for any interested communities or networks and enhanced search engine system. These concomitant efforts aim to even better serve the local people learning needs and to reinforce the active participation of development stakeholders.

Telecentre.org is a community of people and organizations that work together to create the resources telecentres need to succeed and to build the capacity of telecentre managers. The telecentre.org community includes grassroots activists, national telecentre networks, content and service providers, governments, and organizations that fund telecentre activities. Initial efforts to convene and resource this community were led by a consortium of Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Microsoft and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=27403&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

"Wi-Fi Squatting" a Crime – By the Victim

It’s a federal offense in the U.S. to use someone else’s unsecured wireless network for illicit purposes. It’s a crime in Germany, too – committed by the network owner. We’ve always thought that so-called Wi-Fi squatting was largely a victimless crime. We’ve done it, and, based on the comments our previous posts on the topic received, so have most of this blog’s readers. The FBI has told us that it isn’t a federal offense to squat, as long as the squatter doesn’t use the connection to do anything illegal. Wi-Fi squatting is against the law in some states, however: A few unlucky folks have been arrested for checking email or surfing the Web while parked in a car outside a coffee shop or library.

http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/07/18/wi-fi-squatting-a-crime-by-the-victim/

Report: 81.5 percent of all e-mails sent in June were spam

Almost everyone hates spam. The only people that don't hate it are the ones that make vast amounts of money from sending it. The profits they turn are so large that regardless of what spam fighters do, the amount of spam keeps increasing. According to web security firm MessageLabs, spam accounted for 81.5 percent of all e-mail traffic in June.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080717-report-81-5-percent-of-all-e-mails-sent-in-june-were-spam.html