UK Will Block Payments to Sites Failing to Restrict Children Access to Porn

It seems that UK banks and credit card companies will be asked to hold back cash from customers of sites hosting explicit content if they fail to implement restrictions to stop children from accessing it.

Financial entities and the video services regulator are going to meet in October to finalize the deal. Media reports also reveal that a voluntary deal might be agreed with credit card firms. It seems that government would be prepared to consider legislation, if necessary.

While some online services require users to verify their age, most of them offer free and unrestricted access to any visitors. This is why the authority regulating British websites hosting videos decided to act against services operating in this way. In the beginning of 2013, regulator Ofcom fined Playboy £100,000 for failing to protect kids from porn content. A couple of websites owned by Playboy allowed everyone to access explicit content without having acceptable controls in place to check that users are adults. Ofcom claimed that Playboy’s failure to protect kids from potentially accessing adult content was serious, repeated and reckless.

The UK government supports the work that the watchdog has undertaken, and it will explore with local financial organizations and credit card companies the possibility to decline processing payments to websites operating outside the EU that allow British kids to view porn content.

The authorities also support efforts to encourage the Internet industry to design new effective ways of verifying the age of visitors. In the meanwhile, it wouldn’t be appropriate to block outright all online services providing free hardcore porn because they host legitimate content for adults to view.

So, the meeting is scheduled to October with the UK Cards Association, the British Bankers Association, the Payments Council and the leading credit card companies. It is already known that the financial services companies had provided a “very positive response” to the proposal.

As you remember, the UK Prime Minister has suggested a new initiative earlier in 2013 aimed at getting ISPs to put filters in place. Online giants including Google and Yahoo are set to be called back to Downing Street in October to update the Prime Minister on the progress on such measures.

Internet Connections to Sudan Cut off

All online connections to Sudan were abruptly cut off after riots erupted over the ending of fuel subsidies. The government seems to make the move in order to prevent protesters from using social media to organize riots. Although the real reasons are unclear, the Internet monitoring firms point out that it was either a coincidental catastrophic failure of all three independent ISPs and their connections out of Sudan (as well as a terrestrial link into Egypt) or some centrally directed, government action.

In most cases of a failure of this kind which is not governmentally directed (for example, a power failure or a cut cable), ISPs switch to their satellite backups. However, this time it didn’t happen. It was a total shutdown, as happened earlier in Egypt.

Cutting off Internet is normally used by some governments in Middle Eastern countries in order to regain control amid heated protests. As you now, the now-defunct Mubarak regime in Egypt and the Assad regime in Syria have severed online links in attempt to restrict protests. Indeed, cutting international links makes it difficult to upload videos of protests to YouTube, among other things.

The industry observers confirmed that Sudan’s Internet connectivity abruptly dropped to zero. According to media reports, it broke out after the local government removed fuel subsidies, with a number of petrol stations and a university building set on fire. In the meantime, security forces fired teargas to disperse protesters who have demonstrated and set fire to a police station in Khartoum.

Since the protests have gone on for a few days after the country’s Council of Ministers decided to stop the subsidies, the price of fuel immediately doubled. The industry experts point out that the cut in subsidies followed the split of South Sudan to form an independent state two years ago. The latter took more of the main oil-producing territory which had previously been part of Sudan. In addition, the International Monetary Fund has previously told Sudan to cut the subsidies, as they consumed over 3/4 of the government’s total tax revenues. As a result, the people have no access to Internet and are in isolation from the world.

UK Will Block Payments to Sites Failing to Restrict Children Access to Porn

It seems that UK banks and credit card companies will be asked to hold back cash from customers of sites hosting explicit content if they fail to implement restrictions to stop children from accessing it.

Financial entities and the video services regulator are going to meet in October to finalize the deal. Media reports also reveal that a voluntary deal might be agreed with credit card firms. It seems that government would be prepared to consider legislation, if necessary.

While some online services require users to verify their age, most of them offer free and unrestricted access to any visitors. This is why the authority regulating British websites hosting videos decided to act against services operating in this way. In the beginning of 2013, regulator Ofcom fined Playboy £100,000 for failing to protect kids from porn content. A couple of websites owned by Playboy allowed everyone to access explicit content without having acceptable controls in place to check that users are adults. Ofcom claimed that Playboy’s failure to protect kids from potentially accessing adult content was serious, repeated and reckless.

The UK government supports the work that the watchdog has undertaken, and it will explore with local financial organizations and credit card companies the possibility to decline processing payments to websites operating outside the EU that allow British kids to view porn content.

The authorities also support efforts to encourage the Internet industry to design new effective ways of verifying the age of visitors. In the meanwhile, it wouldn’t be appropriate to block outright all online services providing free hardcore porn because they host legitimate content for adults to view.

So, the meeting is scheduled to October with the UK Cards Association, the British Bankers Association, the Payments Council and the leading credit card companies. It is already known that the financial services companies had provided a “very positive response” to the proposal.

As you remember, the UK Prime Minister has suggested a new initiative earlier in 2013 aimed at getting ISPs to put filters in place. Online giants including Google and Yahoo are set to be called back to Downing Street in October to update the Prime Minister on the progress on such measures.

অল্টার+কন্ট্রোল+ডেল ভুল ছিল

সফটওয়্যার জায়ান্ট মাইক্রোসফটের সহ-প্রতিষ্ঠাতা বিল গেটস সম্প্রতি জানিয়েছেন, পিসিতে লগ ইন করার জন্য Ctrl+Alt+Del  কমান্ডটি ব্যবহার করার সিদ্ধান্ত ভুল ছিল।

     

সংবাদমাধ্যম বিবিসি এক প্রতিবেদনে জানিয়েছে, সম্প্রতি হার্ভার্ড ইউনিভার্সিটির অর্থ সংগ্রহ অনুষ্ঠানে গেটস এ বিষয়টি ব্যাখ্যা করেন।

Ctrl+Alt+Del  মূলত ডিজাইন করা হয়েছিল পিসি রিবুট করার জন্য। এখনও এ কমান্ডটি উইন্ডোজের পুরনো কিছু সংস্করণে ব্যবহৃত হয়। কমান্ডটি প্রথমে আইবিএম এর ম্যানেজার ডেভিড ব্র্যাডলি উদ্ভাবন করেছিলেন। কিন্তু প্রথমদিকে তার প্রক্রিয়াটি একটু জটিল ছিল। পরবর্তীতে তিনি এটি সহজ করে দিয়েছিলেন।

সম্প্রতি আইবিএম এর ২০তম প্রতিষ্ঠাবার্ষিকীতে ব্র্যাডলি জানান, তিনি হয়তো কমান্ডটি উদ্ভাবন করেছিলেন, কিন্তু এটি বিখ্যাত করেছেন গেটস।

গেটস তার বক্তব্যে বলেন, “আমরা এ কাজটি হয়তো একটি মাত্র বাটনের সাহায্যেই করতে পারতাম। কিন্তু আইবিএম-এর যে ব্যক্তি কিবোর্ড ডিজাইন করেছিলেন, তিনি আমাদের তা দিতে চাননি।”

তবে সে অনুষ্ঠানে অংশ নেওয়া একজন জানিয়েছেন, একটি মাত্র বাটনের সিদ্ধান্তটিই বরং ভুল হত।

Syrian Hackers Attack New York Times and Twitter in Melbourne

Pro-Assad Syrian group was the one who claimed responsibility for hacking Melbourne IT systems with a valid password. Australian Internet hosting firm Melbourne IT suffered a major hacker attack which affected the New York Times website and Twitter.

The Syrian Electronic Army is known for supporting the Assad regime in Syria and it was the one who claimed responsibility for the DDoS attack on the New York Times website, which resulted in downtime of a few hours. The group also claimed that it hacked Twitter’s domain. The affected websites both use Melbourne IT as a domain name registrar.

Theo Hnarakis, the CEO of Melbourne IT, admitted that the perpetrators gained access to the company’s systems using a valid user name and password. It seems like one of the company’s resellers in the United States was targeted and the outfit is now investigating how it could have happened. Melbourne IT is working with a variety of parties in order to trace the Internet service provider in charge and find out who was responsible for the failure. The company had to admit the vulnerability exists and agree it needs to make sure the failure won’t happen again. However, Melbourne IT can’t even confirm at which stage the systems had been hacked.

The company announced that the New York Times and Twitter were both back online and operating as usual, after changing and locking system passwords. Aside from the online giants, four other lesser known services were affected as well. The company holds registrations for major sites in the country.

In the meantime, Twitter confirmed that it regained control of its domain, stating that the viewing of pictures was “sporadically impacted”. As for the New York Times, they said the incident was caused by a “malicious external attack” and recommended its employees to be careful when sending emails. The NYT believes that a domain registrar should be very serious about security, as it is holding the security to thousands of websites. If someone obtains access to the domain registrar, the site visitors can be easily redirected away from a website, while their emails can be read.

A couple weeks before this incident, the Syrian Electronic Army was reported to hack the Washington Post’s website, with the site operators admitting that the service had fallen victim to a sophisticated phishing attack to gain password data.

Smart cities

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Smart cities may be new cities built smart right from the start or cities established for a special purpose (such as an industrial city or a science park) or — most commonly — an existing city made smart step by step.

What is a smart city?

A smart city can be defined as a “knowledge”, “digital”, “cyber” or “eco” city, depending on the goals set by the city’s planners. Smart cities are forward-looking economically and socially. They monitor critical infrastructure including roads, bridges, tunnels, rails, subways, airports, sea-ports, communications, water, power, even major buildings, to optimize resources and security. And they maximize services to citizens, providing a sustainable environment that fosters happiness and wellness. These services rely on information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure.

Structurally, a smart city is a system of systems working together. This interoperation of countless systems demands openness and standardization — key principles in smart city construction. Without openness and standardization, a smart city project quickly becomes cumbersome and expensive. A smart city’s constituent technologies include the high-speed optical, sensor, wired and wireless networks that are necessary to enable such benefits as intelligent transport systems, smart grids and home networking.

A smart city’s relationship with its citizens is what distinguishes it most from a traditional city. The ICT-supported services of traditional cities cannot respond to changing economic, cultural and social contexts in the way that smart-city services can. Thus a smart city is above all a human-centric city, which relies on an ICT infrastructure and continued urban development, always taking environmental and economic sustainability into account (see figure).

Smart cities around the world

Smart cities may be new cities built smart right from the start or cities established for a special purpose (such as an industrial city or a science park) or — most commonly — an existing city made smart step by step. Many of the world’s major cities have embarked on smart city projects, including Seoul, New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Singapore, Amsterdam, Cairo, Dubai, Kochi and Malaga. Considering today’s rate of innovation, it is highly likely that over the coming decade, smart city models will become widely attainable and popular strategies for city development.

Existing smart city projects differ. Amsterdam’s approach is to achieve greater environmental sustainability through smarter operations, employing state-of-the-art technologies in efforts to reduce emissions and use energy more efficiently. Other cities aim to make a broad range of city functions smart, with ubiquitous smart technology playing a role in all aspects of citizens’ lives. Two examples of this strategy are the Republic of Korea’s Ubiquitous City (u‑City), launched in 2004, and Deutsche Telekom’s T‑City launched in Germany in 2006. Smart Seoul (seehttps://itunews.itu.int/En/4148-Smart-Seoul.note.aspx) aims for smarter city management and a better quality of life for its inhabitants.

Cities set their own priorities, but all smart cities display three essential traits. The first is ICT infrastructure. Securing next-generation ICT infrastructure is critical to the success of emerging smart-city services and to anticipating future service demands. Second, the city must have a well-defined and integrated management framework. The many systems of a smart city will work in harmony only through strict adherence to common standards. Third, a smart city needs smart users. ICT are the tools to enable a smart city, but are of no use without technically savvy users able to interact with smart services. A smart city must not only increase access to smart devices across income levels and age groups, but also offer access to education on the use of these devices. A smart city relies on an inclusive network of smart device users, with the city’s inhabitants demanding or creating the services they most value.

Standardizing for smart cities

Given the importance of standardization in creating smart cities, a wide range of activities are under way in different organizations. For example, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is looking at smart city standards through a group focused on “smart community infrastructure metrics”. ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU–T) has established a Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities to assess the standardization requirements of cities aiming to boost their social, economic and environmental sustainability through the integration of ICT in their infrastructures and operations.

ITU–T Study Group 5 — Environment and climate change — agreed to form this new Focus Group at its meeting held in Geneva from 29 January to 7 February 2013. The creation of the Focus Group answers a call to action proposed in September 2012 at ITU’s second Green Standards Week, held in Paris. “Smart Sustainable Cities” is also the theme of ITU’s third Green ICT Application Challenge.

Making the smart city the next stage in the process of urbanization will call for new ICT standards, infrastructure and solutions to ensure that this vision becomes a reality. The ITU–T Focus Group on Smart Sustainable Cities will act as an open platform for smart city stakeholders — such as municipalities, academic and research institutes, non-governmental and ICT organizations, and industry forums and consortia. Stakeholders will be able to exchange knowledge in the interests of identifying the standardized frameworks needed to support the integration of ICT services in smart cities.

The full report is available at http://www.itu.int/en/ ITU-/techwatch/Pages/smart-city-Seoul.aspx.

China and NSA to Spy on the UN

It seems that the spying etiquette doesn’t exist anymore after failing to deal with a very embarrassing situation in the United Nations.

It turned out that the US National Security Agency has recently cracked the encryption protecting the UN’s internal videoconferencing system, but when it got there it found out China was already there and listening in. It seems that the spooks hacked the United Nations that has its headquarters in New York, a year ago. Within 3 weeks of initially gaining access to the system of the United Nations, the National Security Agency had increased the number of such decrypted communications from a dozen to over 450.

According to the US spooks, there had been numerous data breaches since 2004 to a Chinese military unit in Shanghai. In response, Chinese authorities denied all the claims, while the United States instead made an attempt to arrest the person who catches it and have them shot.

This turn of events is actually a follow up from a story about the NSA spying on the European Union. The report also exposed a “Special Collection Service”, jointly staffed by the CIA and NSA, which exists in more than 80 embassies and consulates across the globe, usually without the knowledge of the host country. Everything was revealed by Edward Snowden – a US citizen and former NSA contractor.

9 Million UK Users Suffered from Cybercrime

It turned out that 8% of cybercrime targets suffered financial losses – among them, people aged over 55 were least likely victims. In the meantime, the financial impact of cybercrime varies, with the overall cost to the economy estimated at £27 billion annually.

Over 9 million UK Internet users have had their accounts hacked. Of them, 8% of the population explained that they have lost money in 2012 due to cybercrime. Online security experts pointed out that it was quite surprising that 2.3% of the population reported losing over £10,000 to Internet fraudsters.

According to the survey, about 18% of the respondents had experienced attempts to break into their Internet accounts, including email, Internet banking, gaming and social media. 30% of them said it had happened more than once. The researchers revealed that people aged 55 to 64 were least likely to be targeted by cyber criminals – the rate was around 11%, perhaps because they are more care more about security. More than 25% of people aged 18 to 24 have become a victim of cyber attack.

92% of respondents said they had lost nothing in 2012 due to any kind of cybercrime. However, over 3% of more than 1,500 surveyed had lost up to £100, another 2.5% complained they had lost up to £10,000, and 2% claimed to have lost over £10,000.

For comparison, back in 2011, a British government claimed that the overall cost to the economy was £27 billion per year, of which identity theft accounted for £1.7 billion and Internet scams and ripoffs – another £1.4 billion. According to the report, the main loser was UK business, which lost £21 billion due to high levels of IP theft and industrial espionage.

In the meantime, now the social media revolution had changed the way hackers do their job. They explain that a computer virus which used to steal credit card information now creates bogus Instagram “likes” that could be used to generate buzz for someone. Fake “likes” are sold in batches on online hacker forums. For example, one can get 1,000 Instagram followers for $15 and 1,000 Instagram “likes” for $30, while 1,000 credit card numbers cost only $6. Apparently, cyber crime has a clear impact on the lives of average British citizens, with their accounts and credentials being compromised, perhaps even multiple times.

Teenagers Care about Online Privacy

According to the 2012 Teens and Privacy Management Survey conducted by Pew Internet, teenagers are probably more worried about online privacy than adults – it turned out that they have taken steps to uninstall or avoid many teen apps over concern about their privacy.

According to statistics, teen girls are more likely to delete location data, and most of them have disabled location tracking features on mobile phones and in applications, as they are worried about others’ access to that private data. The survey in question was conducted among American teenagers ages 12-17.

Over 50% of all teens have downloaded applications to their cell phone or tablet PC and 51% of teen apps users have also avoided certain software because of privacy concerns. More than 25% have uninstalled an application because they found out that it was collecting personal data which they didn’t want to share. Finally, over 46% have switched off location tracking features on their cell phone or in an application since they were worried about the privacy of their data.

UK Government Fears of Laser Spying

The UK authorities claimed that conversations about Snowden leaks could have been monitored by foreign agents. One of the reasons government sources provided for demanding the return of the Snowden documents held by the Guardian at its London offices was that foreign agents were able to monitor conversations in the room through laser spying.

The authorities were not satisfied with assurances that the computers with the sensitive data were disconnected from any networks or Internet, and the security agencies remained concerned that the discussions around them could be heard. For example, one intelligence agency expert claimed that in case there was a plastic cup in the room, a laser trained on it could be able to pick up the vibrations of the conversation. Another variant was that a laser, using non-visible light, could be bounced off a window of the room.
Indeed, the idea of laser spying is known worldwide, and it has been already used by the United States against Russian embassies – a high-quality laser is able to fire a beam of invisible light for half a mile without spreading. Besides, there were reports that the CIA used a “laser microphone” to find out that a building in Abbottabad contained a previously unseen male inhabitant (Osama bin Laden).

However, this method wouldn’t necessarily yield what was actually being spoken, and therefore poses less of a risk than any other method. Security experts admit that if the others want to listen to what’s going on in a room, there are easier ways to do so. The laser spying works the following way: the conversation inside a room moves the air, which in its turn moves the windows. A laser beam will shift slightly in wavelength as the window moves, yielding the original conversation. It is known that the US government used it against the Russians. In addition, Nasa technology has recently been suggested as a method of extending the method: in 2005, New Scientist reported that the American security services were using a space technology to eavesdrop on a room with the pulled curtains.

In the meantime, simpler systems containing a bug are also able to transmit conversations which are picked up inside a room to the outside through a laser beam. This has been the plan when a bug with a laser transmitter was discovered in the offices of Trinidad & Tobago’s director of public prosecutions earlier in 2013. Undoubtedly, spying is much easier when you start inside the room rather than outside.
Indeed, the idea of laser spying is known worldwide, and it has been already used by the United States against Russian embassies – a high-quality laser is able to fire a beam of invisible light for half a mile without spreading. Besides, there were reports that the CIA used a “laser microphone” to find out that a building in Abbottabad contained a previously unseen male inhabitant (Osama bin Laden).
However, this method wouldn’t necessarily yield what was actually being spoken, and therefore poses less of a risk than any other method. Security experts admit that if the others want to listen to what’s going on in a room, there are easier ways to do so. The laser spying works the following way: the conversation inside a room moves the air, which in its turn moves the windows. A laser beam will shift slightly in wavelength as the window moves, yielding the original conversation. It is known that the US government used it against the Russians. In addition, Nasa technology has recently been suggested as a method of extending the method: in 2005, New Scientist reported that the American security services were using a space technology to eavesdrop on a room with the pulled curtains.

In the meantime, simpler systems containing a bug are also able to transmit conversations which are picked up inside a room to the outside through a laser beam. This has been the plan when a bug with a laser transmitter was discovered in the offices of Trinidad & Tobago’s director of public prosecutions earlier in 2013. Undoubtedly, spying is much easier when you start inside the room rather than outside.
However, this method wouldn’t necessarily yield what was actually being spoken, and therefore poses less of a risk than any other method. Security experts admit that if the others want to listen to what’s going on in a room, there are easier ways to do so. The laser spying works the following way: the conversation inside a room moves the air, which in its turn moves the windows. A laser beam will shift slightly in wavelength as the window moves, yielding the original conversation. It is known that the US government used it against the Russians. In addition, Nasa technology has recently been suggested as a method of extending the method: in 2005, New Scientist reported that the American security services were using a space technology to eavesdrop on a room with the pulled curtains.
In the meantime, simpler systems containing a bug are also able to transmit conversations which are picked up inside a room to the outside through a laser beam. This has been the plan when a bug with a laser transmitter was discovered in the offices of Trinidad & Tobago’s director of public prosecutions earlier in 2013. Undoubtedly, spying is much easier when you start inside the room rather than outside.
In the meantime, simpler systems containing a bug are also able to transmit conversations which are picked up inside a room to the outside through a laser beam. This has been the plan when a bug with a laser transmitter was discovered in the offices of Trinidad & Tobago’s director of public prosecutions earlier in 2013. Undoubtedly, spying is much easier when you start inside the room rather than outside.