NY Times: 2 Chinese Universities Tied to Google Hacking

AN FRANCISCO — A series of online attacks on Google and dozens of other American corporations have been traced to computers at two educational institutions in China, including one with close ties to the Chinese military, say people involved in the investigation.

James C. Mulvenon said the Chinese government often used volunteer “patriotic hackers” to support its policies.

They also said the attacks, aimed at stealing trade secrets and computer codes and capturing e-mail of Chinese human rights activists, may have begun as early as April, months earlier than previously believed. Google announced on Jan. 12 that it and other companies had been subjected to sophisticated attacks that probably came from China.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/technology/19china.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Google Plans Assault on Facebook

Google is set to make a fresh attempt to gain a stronger foothold in the booming social networking business on Tuesday as it seeks to counter the growing threat that Facebook poses to some of its core services.The search company is preparing to announce new features for Gmail that wouldextend the capabilities of the internet-based e-mail service to mirror some aspects of the fast-growing social networking site, according to a person familiar with its plans.

See here for more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9f96e616-150e-11df-ad58-00144feab49a.html

Microsoft to Patch 17 Year Old Bug

A 17-year-old bug in Windows will be patched by Microsoft in its latest security update.

The February update for Windows will close the loophole that dates from the time of the DOS operating system.

First appearing in Windows NT 3.1, the vulnerability has been carried over into almost every version of Windows that has appeared since.

See here for more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8499859.stm

WP: Google to Enlist NSA to Help It ward Off Cyberattacks

The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.

Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google -- and its users -- from future attack.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020304057_pf.html

It's been 10 years: Why won't people pay for privacy?

An Internet start-up wants to sell you the ability to protect your privacy, allowing you to create different online identities for different purposes and cloak your true self from prying eyes.

Early press coverage has been uniformly positive. CNN.com's review says "Total digital privacy may be on the horizon." The San Francisco Chronicle's article is titled "Online disguises from prying eyes." To BusinessWeek, it's a "A big boost for Net privacy."

"Think about how much business is predicated on the flow of personal information!" one of the founders predicts. "If you need to add privacy as a foundation under all of that, what is that industry worth? It's huge. Billions and billions and billions."

The year was 2000, and the company was named Zero Knowledge Systems. Even by the standards of that era, it spent staggering sums of money with virtually no sales: ZKS brought in only $400,000 in 2001 in license revenue from its flagship Freedom software, while losing $24 million a year, according to documents filed for its initial public offering. The IPO was canceled two months later, and ZKS abandoned the idea of selling privacy for a profit; under a new name it sells IT services to Internet service providers.

See below for more:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10443575-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

NY Times: Web Users Still Using 'Password' as Their Password

[And, people have the nerve to complain about being 'hacked'? ]

According to a new analysis, one out of five Web users still decides to leave the digital equivalent of a key under the doormat: they choose a simple, easily guessed password like “abc123,” “iloveyou” or even “password” to protect their data.

See here for more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/technology/21password.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Google Wave FAQ

It appears that Google's latest by-invitation-only Beta Geek Gadget, Google Wave, is getting off to a slow start, even amongst the geekiest geeks.....which is not a good sign.

Why Should I Use Google Wave? FAQ:

http://lifehacker.com/5446406/frequently-asked-questions-about-google-wave?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+lifehacker/full+(Lifehacker)&utm_content=My+Yahoo