Privacy and Security - Articles Archive
from December 16, 2005 to April 9, 2005

I am part of a group of citizens who are concerned about control over digital media. In particular, I am, like others, very worried about proposed laws, regulations and technological systems that will make digital media more expensive, less useful, less diverse and less democratic. This ... read more

Podjack: (verb) – To create an alternate RSS feed to a podcast without the permission of the podcast’s owner. I am writing this piece for the sake of giving podcasters information on how to protect themselves from similar podjackings. And I’m also going to finish this piece ... read more

Free software, copyright issues, software patents remain highly important issues to follow and to understand if you are looking into a future where more of the small businesses and professionals will have an opportunity to play in the marketplace with their ideas and inventions. But this may ... read more

Though this is not this morning breaking news, the story of the Sony rootkit still surfs many of the top news headlines as it keeps evolving and revealing more of its nasty nature. What Sony did, was to include within commercial music CDs a hidden malicious software ... read more

"The big content owners have been determining the world's intellectual property regimes for the last few decades. By clever lobbying at extraordinarily boring conferences, they had managed by the late 90s to commit governments, through the world trade talks, to a draconian programme of laws extending ... read more

While much of the online world crows on about the benefits of interactivity and community building, the plain truth is that such openness punching through from the open Web to intranets gives most corporations nightmares. A Wired News article points out that it's common practice for ... read more

Color printers leave a technical fingerprint that identifies the source of the document, silently encoding information about time and date of printing, and the printer’s serial number on every page printed. The Electronic Frontiers Foundation recently released the results of the Machine Identification Code Technology ... read more

Are the virus and worm attacks of recent months preluding to a major disruptive attack on ur technological infrastructures? Are we prepared to counter such a possibility? What are the strategies and approaches that security experts would suggest to adopt to reduce to a minimum the possibilities for ... read more

Reporters Without Borders has produced the Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber Dissidents, a 46-page eBook describing how to successfully create a blog even under government censorship scenarios, or where speaking up openly can endanger the freedom of the blogging author. "[Blogs are regarded by many] as ... read more

Blogs are an incredible tool for information sharing, communicating ideas, or just putting thoughts out in the open. But blogging is not a Teflon coating, there are dangers associated with these tools especially when the topic of your own blogging is the company you work for ... read more

If you haven't heard the news from Sophos, a top computer security firm, it's time you did. According to the company, one in every 44 emails was viral in 2005, with an unbelievable 48% increase over the previous year. Over 15,000 malware threats were identified. Sophos' report ... read more

Though I am and have been a strong supporter of the adoption of RSS as an effective, user-centered, content delivery and distribution mechanism, I must be frank enough to show some of my concerns as well for this great technology. Photo credit: Kristen Handfield I am not drawing ... read more

In March 2005, Google registered the trademark 'TrustRank' with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). What might this tell us about Google's forthcoming initiatives and how might this trademark's application, and its potential functionality, fit alongside the existing Google 'PageRank' feature? Photo credit: Diego Sapriza PageRank (PR) ... read more

Be very, very careful when typing "www.google.com" into your browser's address window. If you inadvertently type (do not do this) "www.googkle.com", your computer will be infested with Trojan droppers, downloaders, backdoors and spyware, and an unsuspecting user only has to visit the page to be at ... read more

If you're concerned about your online privacy and object to having spyware and adware installed on your computer without your permission, then you've probably already installed an anti-spyware program. You now feel that you can rest easy, safe in the knowledge that what you do and ... read more

I was recently struck by the title of a short post pointing to what appeared to be security article entitled "A Public Health Approach to Preventing Malware Propagation" published by Technology Review. Photo credit: Nick Winchester The article is in fact only a short pointer to the master ... read more

Blogs are a direct Web publishing tool that most any non-technical person can use to write and report online. What you do with this capability is just too vast to be categorized, judged and evaluated under one generic umbrella. One use, often unpopular of blogs is the ... read more