MacBook Spying Case | Image Source : Appleinsider.com

FBI investigates, federal prosecutors subpoena documents in MacBook spying case, say reports.

The parents of a Pennsylvania high school student have asked a federal judge to bar school district personnel from switching on cameras in school-issued MacBook laptops, calling the security feature “peeping tom technology.”

In their motion Friday, Michael and Holly Robbins of Penn Valley, Pa., asked U.S. District Court Judge Jan DuBois to issue a restraining order preventing the district from remotely activating the webcams on student notebooks. They also requested that the judge block the district from recalling the laptops from students, saying that they believe school officials will then wipe the MacBooks’ hard drives to delete evidence of any camera activation.

“There can be no assurances that the School District will disable the use of the remote webcam or, once deactivated, make an internal decision to reactive the webcam,” the motion argued.

Elsewhere in the motion, the Robbins labeled the camera functionality “peeping tom technology,” and disputed the district’s account that cameras had been activated only when a notebook was reported lost or stolen. “[Blake Robbins] was at home using a school issued laptop that was neither reported lost nor stolen when his image was captured by Defendants without his or his parents’ permission and while he was at home,” the motion said. Read more ……

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Body Scanners | Image Source : Privacylover.com

The full-body scanning technology being adopted and discussed since the attempt to take down a passenger plane on Christmas Day isn’t a “magic machine” that will solve aviation security issues, experts say.

“Regardless of the sophistication of the piece of technology, if you can collect the information on how it works and what its technical parameters are, then that machine is not going to deter a [sophisticated] terrorist operation,” said Dr. Richard Bloom, director of terrorism, intelligence and security studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Full-body screening and other security measures are more effective in detecting threats from an increasing number of unsophisticated, mentally troubled suspects acting alone, he said. The technology is “only a piece” of aviation security.

Security technologist Bruce Schneier believes that the body scanning machines are a waste of money. Investigation and intelligence gathering is where the money would make a difference, he said.

“Stop trying to guess. You take away guns and bombs, the terrorists use box cutters. You take away box cutters, they put explosives in their shoes. You screen shoes, they use liquids. You take away liquids, they strap explosives to their body. You use full-body scanners, they’re going to do something else,” said Schneier, who is the author of a number of security-related books, including “Beyond Fear.”

“In general, the odds are really stacked in the terrorists’ favor … because they only have to be successful one time and the government has to be successful all the time.” Read more ……

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Image Source : Techcrunch.com

Internet giant Google.com has lost an arbitration case over the domain name Groovle.com. In a decision released today, The National Arbitration Forum, dismissed Google’s complaint which claimed that it was entitled to the domain name Groovle.com. Google claimed that the domain name  is “confusingly similar” to its trademark for “Google”.

The unanimous three person panel ruled that Groovle.com “is not confusingly similar” to Google’s trademark, “Google”.  Google has commenced 65 similar domain name disputes and this is only the second time that it has ever lost. Domain name lawyer and Internet law expert, Zak Muscovitch is responsible for successfully defending the “little guy” against the mega-corp Google.

The domain is owned by Canadian entrepreneurs Jacob Fuller and Ryan Fitzgibbon, who launched Groovle.com in 2007. As Fuller explains, “Groovle was created to provide users the ability to upload photos and customize their Internet start page. We thought it would be a cool feature to have a nice photo of friends, family etc., every time you launch your web browser”. Says Fitzgibbon, “since we launched Groovle in 2007, Google, Bing and Ask.com have each come out with something similar”.

The pair are elated with the decision. “We were stunned when Google launched the domain name dispute as we have great respect for Google and have always had a good relationship with them”, said Fitzgibbon. Fuller added that, “Google never had anything to fear from our web site. The arbitrators’ decision that the two domain names are sufficiently different should put Google at ease and we look forward to a renewed positive relationship with Google”.

Muscovitch concluded “Google clearly miscalculated here however my clients are prepared to put this behind them”.

Source : Google News

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Source : b2net.co.uk

IT security firm Sophos has announced its latest probe into how easy it is to steal identities via Facebook and found that user negligence is worst in 2009. It is assumed things would be better in 2009 but the situation is worse. This really is a wake-up call,” said Paul Ducklin, head of technology, Sophos Asia-Pacific (Sydney).

Ducklin, who led the Facebook probe, said they created two fictitious users with names based on anagrams of the words “false identity” and “stolen identity.” He said 21-year-old “Daisy Felettin” was represented by a picture of a toy rubber duck bought at a US $2 shop; 56-year-old “Dinette Stonily” posted a profile picture of two cats lying on a rug. Each sent out 100 friend requests to randomly-chosen Facebook users in their age group.

Within two weeks, a total of 95 strangers chose to become friends with Daisy or Dinette — an even higher response rate then when Sophos first performed the experiment two years ago with a plastic frog. Worse still, Ducklin said, in the latest study, eight Facebookers befriended Dinette without even being asked.

Ducklin said 89% of the 20-somethings and 57% of the 50-somethings who befriended Daisy and Dinette also gave away their full date of birth.

“Nearly all the others suppressed their year of birth, but this is often easy to calculate or to guess from other information given out,” he said, adding that even worse, just under half of the 20-ish crowd, and just under a third of the 50-ish crowd, gave away personal information about their friends and family.

The following top tips for users who want to protect themselves from identity thieves on Facebook:

• Don’t blindly accept friends. Treat a friend as the dictionary does, namely “someone whom you know, like and trust.” A friend is not merely a button you click on. You don’t need, and can’t realistically claim to have, 932 true friends.
• Learn the privacy system of any social networking site you join. Use restrictive settings by default. You can open up to true friends later. Don’t give away too much too soon.
• Assume that everything you reveal on a social networking site will be visible on the internet for ever. Once it has been searched, and indexed, and cached, it may later turn up online no matter what steps you take to delete it.

Honeymoon period with social networking sites ought to be over by now — but many users still have a ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude to their personal data. Read more ……

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