RSS Newsfeeds
These RSS Newsfeeds reflect the newest and most current information related to the many facets of intergovernmental technology. Content will be added to and updated on a daily basis.
Governor Rendell Proclaims September ‘National Preparedness Month’ in Pennsylvania Encourages Citizens to Be Informed, Be Prepared, Be Involved
HARRISBURG – Governor Edward G. Rendell today encouraged all Pennsylvanians to recognize National Preparedness Month this month by remembering three simple steps: be informed, be prepared, be involved.
“You only have to watch a few minutes of any newscast to know that emergencies can happen to anyone at any time,” said Governor Rendell. “The time to prepare for a disaster is before it happens and emergency preparedness is the responsibility of every Pennsylvanian. It’s important to create an emergency supply kit, make a family emergency plan and stay informed – we need to make citizen preparedness a priority in every community.”
Governor Rendell said the commonwealth will unveil a new awareness campaign, called ReadyPA, this month as part of its National Preparedness Month activities. The campaign includes, among other outreach opportunities, a new Web site that will serve as a clearinghouse for emergency preparedness information in Pennsylvania; television and radio public service announcements; and a toll-free phone number to provide information and resources for those without internet access.
NC State develops “Internet for energy” at new NSF Research Center
The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced today that North Carolina State University will lead a national research center that aims to revolutionize the nation's power grid and speed renewable electric-energy technologies into every home and business.
The NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems, to be headquartered on NC State's Centennial Campus, will partner with universities, industry and national laboratories in 28 states and nine countries. The center will be supported by an initial five-year, $18.5 million grant from NSF with an additional $10 million in institutional support and industry membership fees. More than 65 utility companies, electrical equipment manufacturers, alternative energy start-ups and other established and emerging firms have committed to joining this global partnership.
The new center will develop technology that transforms the nation's century-old, centralized power grid into an alternative-energy-friendly "smart grid" that can easily store and distribute energy produced from solar panels, wind farms, fuel cells and other energy sources. This "Internet for energy" will enable millions of users to generate their energy from renewable sources and sell excess energy to the power companies. Researchers envision consumers using this "plug-and-play" system anytime, from anywhere.
Washington, D.C. think tank Brookings Institution has ranked Georgia’s state government online presence second in the nation. This compares with a ranking of 13th in 2007 in the nonprofit’s study of e-government. Georgia ranked 38th in 2006.
The “2008 report on State and Federal Electronic Government in the United States’ study evaluated an average of 30 agency Web sites for each state on features such as online services, publications and databases; multimedia offerings; foreign-language translation and disability access; privacy and security factors; and contact information.
“Providing our citizens information that is useful and easy to access is an important part of improving customer service within state government,” said Gov. Sonny Perdue. “We have made significant progress in such a short period of time, and we will continue to look for ways to improve the availability of government services through technology.”
Georgia started several new features at Georgia.gov and other state agency sites, adding foreign language translation, mobile access and multimedia. Several agency sites were redesigned, including the Governor’s Office, Lieutenant Governor’s Office and Attorney General’s Office.
Liquid-Lens Webcam, By TR Editors
A new self-focusing webcam is the first consumer product with a liquid lens. The lens, from the French company Varioptic, consists of an oil-based and a water-based fluid sandwiched between glass discs in a drum the size of a watch battery. An electric charge causes the boundary between the oil and water to change shape, altering the lens's focus. Because the lens has no moving parts, it's more durable than other lenses of similar size.
future technology
Google launches internet browser
Google is launching an open source web browser to compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox.
The browser is designed to be lightweight and fast, and to cope with the next generation of web applications that rely on graphics and multimedia.
Called Chrome, it will launch as a beta for Windows machines in 100 countries, with Mac and Linux versions to come.
HP completes acquisition of EDS for $13.9B
Computer maker Hewlett Packard (HP) announced Wednesday it has completed the acquisition of Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS) for $13.9 billion.
It said the acquisition, by value, is the largest in the information technology services sector following HP's purchase of Compaq in 2002.
EDS is a leading outsourcing services provider, with the ability to provide lifecycle capabilities in health care, government, manufacturing, financial services, energy, transportation, consumer & retail, communications, and media and entertainment.
HP said it would shift the outsourcing services operations as well as portions of consulting and integration activities of its Technology Solutions Group to EDS. The said group will then focus on servers, storage, software and technology services, such as installing, maintaining and designing technology systems for customers.
Davos Annual Meeting 2008 - The Future of Mobile Technology
IronPort research reveals link between malware botnets and illegal online pharmaceutical supply chain
IronPortSystems, a leading provider of enterprise spam, virus, and spyware protection and a Cisco Systems subsidiary, today revealed a link between malware botnets and illegal pharmaceutical supply chain businesses that recruit botnets to send spam that promote their websites.
IronPort’s research revealed that more than 80 percent of Storm botnet spam advertise online pharmacy brands; the spam is transmitted via a network of personal computers infected by the Storm worm Trojan using several sophisticated social engineering tricks and web-based exploits. The report showed that spam templates; “spamvertized” uniform resource locators; website designs; credit card processing; product fulfillment; and customer support were being provided by a Russian criminal organization that operates in conjunction with Storm.
Perspective: Internet conduct that crosses the state line?
Illinois has just ordered Global Payday Loan to stop issuing loans to state residents. It also has fined the company $234,000 for charging excessive interests rates. But the decision raises the broader question of whether states should regulate Internet conduct that crosses state lines.
Why a New Browser From Microsoft Matters,
By STEVE LOHR
Microsoft’s new Web browser, Internet Explorer 8, is now available in a beta version meant for ordinary users, and it’s a pretty good piece of software.
Besides the private browsing mode, called InPrivate, which Microsoft has already announced, there are other nifty features. When your cursor moves over, say, an address on a Web site, one of IE 8’s so-called Accelerators drops down a menu bar of different Web mapping services. Click and the address is mapped. No copying and pasting across Web sites.
IE8 has also been designed so that tabbed Web sites are isolated. That means a poorly behaving Web site won’t crash the whole browser, just that tab.
The list goes on, and Microsoft explains all the new features on its Web site.
National Cyber Alert System
Cyber Security Bulletin SB08-238 Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The US-CERT Cyber Security Bulletin provides a summary of new vulnerabilities that have been recorded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) National Vulnerability Database (NVD) in the past week. The NVD is sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) / United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT). For modified or updated entries, please visit the NVD, which contains historical vulnerability information.
The vulnerabilities are based on the CVE vulnerability naming standard and are organized according to severity, determined by the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) standard. The division of high, medium, and low severities correspond to the following scores:
High - Vulnerabilities will be labeled High severity if they have a CVSS base score of 7.0 - 10.0
Medium - Vulnerabilities will be labeled Medium severity if they have a CVSS base score of 4.0 - 6.9
Low - Vulnerabilities will be labeled Low severity if they have a CVSS base score of 0.0 - 3.9
Road Tolls Hacked A researcher claims that toll transponders can be cloned, allowing drivers to pass for free. By Duncan Graham-Rowe
Drivers using the automated FasTrak toll system on roads and bridges in California's Bay Area could be vulnerable to fraud, according to a computer security firm in Oakland, CA. Despite previous reassurances about the security of the system, Nate Lawson of Root Labs claims that the unique identity numbers used to identify the FasTrak wireless transponders carried in cars can be copied or overwritten with relative ease.
Child Welfare Division Leverages Business Intelligence and Location Intelligence to Meet Needs of Children and Families. Information Builders, the independent leader in operational business intelligence (BI) systems, today announced that its customer, Louisiana Department of Social Services' (DSS) Office of Community Services (OCS), was awarded the 2008 Recognition Award for Excellence in Human Services by the IT Solutions Management for Human Services (ISM) organization. The award recognizes the use of emerging information technologies in the arena of state and local human services. Louisiana's OCS Child Welfare Division won for its application of WebFOCUS BI technology from Information Builders, and geographic information system (GIS) software from ESRI.
Northern Light Launches Government Procurement Resource
Northern Light (www.northernlight.com) launched the first hosted market research portal specifically geared to help companies identify sales opportunities with federal, state, and local governments throughout the U.S. The SinglePoint Government Opportunities Edition indexes a broad array of government buying intention announcements, reports, and news stories from authoritative research sources specializing in government procurement. Government specific sources include Centurion Research Solutions, EagleEye, Infobase Publishers, and FedBizOps.gov.
National Cyber Alert System Cybersecurity for Electronic Devices
Cyber Security Tip ST05-017
When you think about cybersecurity, remember that electronics such as cell phones and PDAs may also be vulnerable to attack. Take appropriate precautions to limit your risk.
Why does cybersecurity extend beyond computers? Actually, the issue is not that cybersecurity extends beyond computers; it is that computers extend beyond traditional laptops and desktops. Many electronic devices are computers—from cell phones and PDAs to video games and car navigation systems. While computers provide increased features and functionality, they also introduce new risks. Attackers may be able to take advantage of these technological advancements to target devices previously considered "safe." For example, an attacker may be able to infect your cell phone with a virus, steal your phone or wireless service, or access the data on your PDA. Not only do these activities have implications for your personal information, but they could also have serious consequences if you store corporate information on the device.
What types of electronics are vulnerable? Any piece of electronic equipment that uses some kind of computerized component is vulnerable to software imperfections and vulnerabilities. The risks increase if the device is connected to the internet or a network that an attacker may be able to access. Remember that a wireless connection also introduces these risks (see Securing Wireless Networks for more information). The outside connection provides a way for an attacker to send information to or extract information from your device.
How can you protect yourself? Remember physical security - Having physical access to a device makes it easier for an attacker to extract or corrupt information. Do not leave your device unattended in public or easily accessible areas.
Vaultus Mobile Technologies Helps Mobilize the U.S. Government
BOSTON, Aug 20, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- CIOs, CTOs and IT directors at government agencies across the country turn to Vaultus to mobilize business critical applications, earning superior efficiencies and new levels of productivity. Vaultus Mobile Technologies, a leader in extending business-critical applications to handheld devices, today offers pre-packaged mobile Helpdesk, CRM and Sales Performance Dashboard solutions for the Public Sector that allow agencies to achieve new and dramatic returns on existing business application investment. Vaultus has experienced significant growth in its public sector sales since the third quarter of 2007. Federal Agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense - U.S. Army and State government agencies are opting for more efficient use of time and resources and the immediate extension of time-sensitive business critical data to the mobile worker is increasingly becoming the way to achieve this - with increased adoption, reduced downtime and accurate and on-demand reporting.
Why You Should Turn Gmail’s SSL Feature On Now
By Scott Loganbi
Let’s talk security and why you should take advantage of Gmail’s recent SSL feature, and why you might want to be careful using other non-SSL webmail services. But first, make sure your connection is secured using SSL. How do you know a connection is secured by SSL? The handy “s” after “http” will tell you. For example, https://mail.google.com is encrypted while http://mail.google.com is not. You can force an encryption by adding the “s” yourself, or by turning on “Always use https” from the Browser Connection settings of your Gmail account. Why? Because without it, anyone can easily hack someone’s account and in two weeks it is going to get even easier. Mike Perry, a reverse engineer from San Francisco, announced his intention to release his Gmail Account Hacking Tool to the public. According to a quote at Hacking Truths, Perry mentioned he was unimpressed with how Google presented the SSL feature as less-than-urgent. It is urgent, and here’s why.
Lighting the Big Apple With L.E.D.’s
By ERIC A. TAUB
When a small city, like Calabasas, Calif., does something innovative, like banning outdoor smoking, that’s interesting. But when a big city like New York tries something new, it’s probably time to sit up and take notice. Which is what makes an announcement scheduled for Wednesday so interesting. The city’s Department of Transportation has contracted with the Office for Visual Interaction, a lighting design group, to install and test L.E.D. street lighting. If the tests are successful, the city’s entire stock of 300,000 street lamps could one day be replaced with L.E.D. versions.
U.S. at risk of cyberattacks, experts say
(CNN) -- The next large-scale military or terrorist attack on the United States, if and when it happens, may not involve airplanes or bombs or even intruders breaching American borders. Cyberattackers shut down one Georgian government site and defaced another with images of Adolf Hitler. Cyberattackers shut down one Georgian government site and defaced another with images of Adolf Hitler. Instead, such an assault may be carried out in cyberspace by shadowy hackers half a world away. And Internet security experts believe that it could be just as devastating to the U.S.'s economy and infrastructure as a deadly bombing. Experts say last week's attack on the former Soviet republic of Georgia, in which a Russian military offensive was preceded by an Internet assault that overwhelmed Georgian government Web sites, signals a new kind of cyberwar, one for which the United States is not fully prepared. "Nobody's come up with a way to prevent this from happening, even here in the U.S.," said Tom Burling, acting chief executive of Tulip Systems, an Atlanta, Georgia, Web-hosting firm that volunteered its Internet servers to protect the nation of Georgia's Web sites from malicious traffic. "The U.S. is probably more Internet-dependent than any place in the world. So to that extent, we're more vulnerable than any place in the world to this kind of attack," Burling added. "So much of what we're doing [in the United States] is out there on the Internet, and all of that can be taken down at once."
Microsoft Surface Next Generation
Talkswitch VoIP Saves Huron County Michigan $14,000 Annually
By Anuradha Shukla , TMCnet Contributing Editor
A recent case study published by TCE Company, a Platinum-level national reseller of Talkswitch hybrid PBX (News - Alert) phone systems, describes how Talkswitch VoIP phone systems saved the Huron County Road Commission more than $14,000 annually. The case study “TCE & TalkSwitch (News - Alert) Helping to Keep Northern Michigan Roads Passable” indicates that Huron County Road Commission’ phone technology was seriously out of date when the commission’s IT Manager Steve Kanaski contacted TCE Company. Kanaski wanted to implement a new system that would seamlessly integrate multiple buildings on a wireless network along with multiple locations, offices and people.
Microsoft launches Windows 7 blog
Seeks dialogue based on mutual respect
By Aharon Etengoff: Inquirer
THE marketing department has unveiled a rather bland-looking Windows 7 blog.
The new E7 blog is hosted by Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky, the two senior engineering managers for the Windows 7 product. In their first post, DeVaan and Sinofsky expressed interest in conducting a “two-way discussion” about designing Windows 7. The blogging duo readily admitted that they had learned certain lessons about “disclosure” and getting ahead of themselves “in talking about features before understanding of them is solid”.
Apple "MacBook Touch" MultiTouch Tablet Concept
More IT Spending for 2009?
By ALLAN HOLMES | Tech Insider NextGov
Spending on information technology in the federal government has been flat at best for the last few years -- a trend that is unequal in modern times. The government’s fiscal 2008 IT budget hardly budged from fiscal 2007, dropping slightly to $68.1 billion in fiscal 2008 from $68.2 billion in fiscal 2007, according to the Office of Management and Budget. That followed a 2 percent drop in the federal IT budget from fiscal 2006 to fiscal 2007, Government Executive reports in its annual top 200 contractor issue coming out Aug. 15.
Oregon Legislators committee hears of data center problems 08/13/2008 Associated Press
Oregon lawmakers who listened to reports of planning flaws in the state's $64 million computer center say increased oversight of future technology projects is in order. The center, built in 2005, houses computer operations for major state agencies but was troubled early on by a rushed schedule, incomplete planning and unproven forecasts of cost savings. The Oregon House's Technology Committee heard all about it Tuesday. Rep. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, and other committee members said it will help them ask better questions about projects such as a statewide emergency communication system that started with a $650 million price tag. Rep. Chris Edwards, D-Eugene, said legislators don't want to be holding similar hearings about the emergency system in five years.
Google's Keyczar designed to make cryptography easier
Posted by Robert Vamosi
Google on Tuesday announced Keyczar, an open-source project to help developers select and use safe cryptography in their applications. Built on OpenSSL, PyCrypto, and the Java JCE libraries, Keyczar supports authentication and encryption with both symmetric and asymmetric keys. It simplifies some of the details by choosing safe defaults and automatically tagging outputs with key version information. Keyczar also provides a simple interface. The project provides developers with a simple API, key rotation and versioning, and safe default algorithms, modes, and key lengths.
Microsoft Powerful Image Technology
Cyberlink Blu-ray testing tool tips up / See if you can handle it
By INQUIRER Staff:
CYBERLINK SAID its BD Advisor 2 tool helps users identify if their system is able to play advanced Blu-Ray Disc content such as interactive BD-Live features and Picture-in-Picture (PiP) movie commentary. Friend of the INQ, Alice H. Chang, CEO of CyberLink. said, "the BD Advisor is a free tool helping our users to check PCs
IEEE approves faster Firewire 3.2 Gbps
By Aharon Etengoff: the Inquirer
THE INSTITUTE of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEE) formally approved a faster Firewire specification. The new specification, officially known as IEEE 1394-2008, supports blazing bandwidth rates of up to to 3.2 Gbps and offers full backwards compatibility with S400 and S800 ports. Although the 800Mbps S800 standard is widely available, numerous implementations still utilise the older 400Mbps S400 specification.
New US security head advocates partnership at Black Hat By Joel Hruska | Published: August 08, 2008 - 12:44PM CT
The head of the newly formed National Cyber Security Center, Rod Eckstrom, was one of Black Hat's keynote speakers this year, even though he's not actually a cyber security expert. Eckstrom is the co-author of a book entitled The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, and was presumably tapped to lead the NCSC based on his book's insights into the function of centralized organizations vs. decentralized organizations. Organizational principles might not seem to have very much to do with cyber security, but the two issues align more readily than may be immediately apparent.
IBM open sources HPC software
A supercomputing first for Big Blue
By INQUIRER staff: Thursday, 07 August 2008, 3:29 PM
THE BLUE SUITS at IBM celebrated its first 10 years of supporting Linux and open source software Tuesday at the Linux World / Next Generation Data Center conference by marking the company's first ever contribution of open sauce software for supercomputing facilities. IBM's new High Performance Computing (HPC) Open Source Software Stack includes its Extreme Cluster Administration Toolkit. The software will reside at the University of Illinois.
DNS flaw is much worse than first thought
Most everything on the Net's at risk
By Egan Orion: Thursday, 07 August 2008, 1:08 PM
IN A TALK at the Black Hat conference in Las Vega on Wednesday, security researcher Dan Kaminsky said that the systemic Internet Domain Name System (DNS) vulnerability he discovered some months ago is much more dangerous than most have appreciated. "Every network is at risk," Kaminsky told the overflow crowd gathered for his presentation. "That's what this flaw has shown." He said that what little he'd initially revealed about the DNS vulnerability, and the later leak of more details about it, was only the tip of an iceberg that he called the worst Internet security risk to surface since 1997.
Hackers create fake sites through Internet flaw
- STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Computer security consultant discovers vulnerability in the Internet's design
Security flaw allows criminals to redirect traffic to fake Web sites they control
Consultant: 84 percent of servers had security hole at beginning of testing
Experts say attacks that would take hours or days now take only seconds
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- A giant vulnerability in the Internet's design is allowing criminals to silently redirect traffic to Web sites under their control. The problem is being fixed, but its extent remains unknown and many people are still at risk. The gaping security hole enables a scam that targets ordinary people typing in a legitimate Web address. It happens because hackers are now able to manipulate the machines that help computers find Web sites. If the trick is done properly, computer users are unlikely to detect whether they've landed at a legitimate site or an evil double maintained by someone bent on fraud. Security experts fear an open season for virus attacks and identity-fraud scams.
Microsoft Sees End of Windows Era
Microsoft has kicked off a research project
to create software that will take over when it retires Windows.
Called Midori, the cut-down operating system is radically different to Microsoft's older programs. It is centred on the internet and does away with the dependencies that tie Windows to a single PC. It is seen as Microsoft's answer to rivals' use of "virtualisation" as a way to solve many of the problems of modern-day computing. Although Midori has been heard about before now, more details have now been published by Software Development Times after viewing internal Microsoft documents describing the technology. Midori is believed to be under development because Windows is unlikely to be able to cope with the pace of change in future technology and the way people use it.
webmonkey, the web developer's resources:
Firefox Lends IE Hand for Next Gen HTML
According to Mozilla engineer Vladimir Vukicevic, Internet Explorer isn’t adapting to the next generation of web standards fast enough, so he’s going to have to do it himself. Vukicevic has been working to introduce HTML 5 graphic canvas elements to Firefox. As we mentioned in our preview of Firefox 3.1, canvas elements introduce the ability to render two dimensional, and soon three dimensional, graphics directly through web pages without a download. The graphics are part of the next-generation HTML 5 standard, and it’s something Opera and Safari have already implemented.
In the latter half of the 20th century, IBM helped create "computer science" as a field of study for college students and academic research in its efforts
to build the information technology industry and supply it with talent.
Today, IBM is again at the forefront of the next major trend in college and professional education. Students of Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME) are now studying the dynamic configurations of people, technologies, organizations and shared information that create and deliver value to customers, providers and other stakeholders—and how they can use management and engineering practices to improve them.
With SSME curricula now on offer or in development at institutions of higher learning around the world, IBM and other institutions interested in the future of innovation hope to enable a new generation of expertise and insight into what makes the world work and how we can make it work better.
We exchanged e-mail with a few of the early adopters: an IBM scientist involved in establishing the field at colleges and universities, professors and administrators at various institutions of higher learning, and a student who is getting his master's degree in this new field of study at the same time he starts his career at the "international business machine" company in the forefront of this new world in education.
Jim Spohrer,
Director,
Almaden Services Research, IBM
Lynne Rosansky, Vice Provost,
The Levin Institute
Mohammed Ghriga, Dean, School of Business Public Administration
and Information Sciences, Long Island University
Guido M. Rey, Scientific Director of SSME program
Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna
Aaron Quirk, WebSphere Application Server developer,
IBM, and master's degree graduate, North Carolina State University
Project to rebuild Internet gets $12M, bandwidth By ANICK JESDANUN AP Internet Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- A massive project to redesign and rebuild the Internet from scratch is inching along with $12 million in government funding and donations of network capacity by two major research organizations.
Many researchers want to rethink the Internet's underlying architecture, saying a "clean-slate" approach is the only way to truly address security and other challenges that have cropped up since the Internet's birth in 1969. On behalf of the government, BBN Technologies Inc. is overseeing the planning and design of the Global Environment for Network Innovations, or GENI, a network on which researchers will be able to test new ideas without damaging the current Internet.
Some of the government’s biggest information security challenges continue to revolve around how best to share data between multiple departments, services, subagencies, bureaus and programs. And that does not include sharing information with state, local and tribal governments, corporations, schools, coalition partners, and first responders.
ESRI and Xplore Technologies Announce the 2008 Mobile Government Grant Program
Redlands, CA - ESRI, the leading developer of geographic information system (GIS) software and spatial solutions for local government, and Xplore Technologies, an innovative manufacturer of rugged mobile computing systems, announce the launch of the 2008 ESRI and Xplore Technologies Mobile Government Demonstration Project Grant Program.
The goal of this grant series is to foster innovative approaches to solving government problems through the combined use of GIS, GPS, wireless, and server technology. Projects must demonstrate how GIS is a mission-critical technology in delivering government services as well as how mobile GIS solutions will result in increased efficiencies and/or effectiveness in daily efforts. The current Mobile Government Demonstration Project Grant Program offers hardware, software, and training grants totaling $95,950. The ESRI and Xplore Technologies grants will be awarded to a total of 10 state, regional, or local governments within the United States.
HP, Intel and Yahoo! Create Global Cloud Computing Research Test Bed
PALO ALTO, Calif. & SANTA CLARA, Calif. & SUNNYVALE, Calif. - (Business Wire) HP (NYSE:HPQ), Intel Corporation and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) today announced the creation of a global, multi-data center, open source test bed for the advancement of cloud computing research and education. The goal of the initiative is to promote open collaboration among industry, academia and governments by removing the financial and logistical barriers to research in data-intensive, Internet-scale computing. The HP, Intel and Yahoo! Cloud Computing Test Bed will provide a globally distributed, Internet-scale testing environment designed to encourage research on the software, data center management and hardware issues associated with cloud computing at a larger scale than ever before. The initiative will also support research of cloud applications and services.
Web 2.0 Directory has Personal Information
Humanbook.com is the first website of its kind to combine web 2.0, wiki technology with social networking and an open, scaleable framework for advanced communications. This patent-pending platform creates an online community where users can add information about themselves and anyone they have ever met - existing active or passive users as well as non-users. Unlike many social networking or personals sites, HumanBook provides people with one central place to maintain all of their life's connections - for life.
Akorri Facilitates Sales of BalancePoint Virtualization to Federal, State and Local Agencies
The GSA Contract, which represents Akorri's continued momentum in the government market, makes it easier for U.S. federal government as well as all state and local agencies to procure BalancePoint virtualization performance management
Cuil Challenges Google With Privacy By Thomas Claburn InformationWeek
Founded by husband-and-wife team Tom Costello and Anna Patterson, a search-engine researcher from Stanford University and a Google technical lead respectively, Cuil aims to rank the relevancy search results by content analysis rather than by popularity. It's an obvious swipe at Google, which treats Web links as popular votes in weighing Web page relevancy for a given query.
Microsoft backs open source work
Microsoft has bolstered its credentials with advocates of open source software. It has given cash to the Apache organisation which oversees development of open source web server software. It has also pledged to open up some of its communications software and protocols so developers are free to study and use them. The moves are seen as significant because of Microsoft's former opposition to the way open source software is written and maintained.
Fingerprints on the fly
You can't escape your fingerprints
DR. DOUG HANSON, Forensics Contributor Mobile fingerprint units that allow you to obtain a persons thumb and fingerprints right at the road side, upload them instantaneously (Wi-Fi enabled) to a database containing up to 650,000 prints and have an answer back two to several minutes. Any outstanding warrants, felony charges, DUIs or terrorist watch list items come back to you guiding your course of action. These units are being used in the UK and Europe and are now beginning to get attention in the US.
The US-CERT Cyber Security Bulletin provides a summary of new vulnerabilities that have been recorded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) National Vulnerability Database (NVD) in the past week. The NVD is sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) / United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT). For modified or updated entries, please visit the NVD, which contains historical vulnerability information.
Kaminsky (finally) provides DNS flaw details Posted by Robert Vamosi
In his first public comments since his Domain Name System (DNS) cache poisoning flaw was made public, Dan Kaminsky said in a conference call on Thursday he doesn't want to parse who said what when. He just wants everyone to understand that they must patch their systems now. Speaking during the second pre-Black Hat security conference Webinar, Kaminsky, who's director of penetration testing for IOActive, provided the most information to date about the DNS flaw he found earlier this year but only disclosed in public on July 8. DNS is what translates the common name of a Web site into its numerical IP address, and is therefore a fundamental component to the Internet. His announcement coincided with a massive, multivendor patch release. But he withheld details, hoping that most people would get their systems patched before the bad guys got a hold of it.
Users can automatically encrypt Gmail traffic Posted by Stephen Shankland
Gmail now can be set to encrypt communications e-mail by default, an option that makes the e-mail service harder to snoop on but also potentially slower. Users already could encrypt communications with Gmail servers (by going to https://mail.google.com), but on Thursday, the company added an option to use the encrypted version automatically.
Niche 'vertical sites' refine Web searching
By SCOTT DUKE HARRIS - San Jose Mercury News
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Center'd, with its friendly winking apostrophe, seems an apt name for a Silicon Valley start-up with the ambitious goal of becoming the go-to Web site for what it calls "local planning." It bills itself as a useful place for today's harried multi-taskers to become, yes, "centered.
Security Researcher Amit Klein Can Discuss Kaminsky DNS Cache Poisoning Flaw
Trusteer CTO has Discovered Numerous DNS Vulnerabilities; Can Explain Risks and Countermeasures. Trusteer, is an expert DNS issues and endpoint security. He has discovered and reported numerous http://www.trusteer.com/researchDNS vulnerabilities http://www.trusteer.com/research. Prior to Trusteer he was Chief Scientist at Cyota, Inc. (now part of RSA Security) aleading provider of layered authentication solutions. In this role, Mr. Klein researched technologies that prevent onlinefraud, phishing, pharming.
Web 2.0 fuels open-source database boom
The market for open-source databases is booming due to new workloads such as RFID projects, rich web applications and small portals, despite the unwillingness of enterprises to replace their Oracle, DB2 or SQL Server systems with open source, according to new figures from Forrester Research.
Still on Hold? Twitter Can Rescue You From Customer Service Line Waits
Millions of people call customer service every day, yet few are satisfied with the responses they get. What does a frustrated consumer need to do to get prompt help? Tweet. That's right,tweet. Twitter is the newest social networking Internet site that asks its 50,000 users only one question when they log on: "What are you doing? The trick is to respond in 140 characters or less, which keeps posts short and pithy.
PA Supreme Court Improves Court Security
While being transported to or from court proceedings, criminal defendants can be combative and occasionally make desperate attempts to flee, jeopardizing the safety of law enforcement officers, judges, court staff and the public. To avoid such situations and to reduce defendant transportation costs, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is launching a $2.8 million initiative to expand the use of video conferencing technology within Pennsylvania’s magisterial district courts. Instead of having a constable, sheriff or police officer transport defendants to court, this technology allows magisterial judges to arraign or hold hearings with defendants from secure locations within central booking centers, local police departments, jails, state police barracks, and state and county correctional institutions. “Implementation of video preliminary arraignment enhances safety for magisterial district judges, their staffs and others who have business in their courts since fewer detainees are present,” Chief Justice of Pennsylvania Ronald D. Castille said. “In addition, this technology makes defendant processing more efficient, while significantly reducing defendant transportation costs.”
Googling State Government Documents
Google is set to announce Monday that it is working with officials in four U.S. states to make sure all the public information they have online is easily accessible through the company's search engine. As part of a voluntary public-private sector partnership, Google has been helping technology managers in Arizona, California, Utah and Virginia remove technical barriers that prevent the search giant from adding information to its index. Some state government documents are hidden behind design elements of the Web site or, more commonly, in a database that a search engine's crawlers can't access, said J.L. Needham, manager of public sector content partnerships at Google.
London, England CNN: Scientists, Humans and Machines Will Merge in Future
A group of experts from around the world will Thursday hold a first of its kind conference on global catastrophic risks.
Mobile Web Reaches Critical Mass
The mobile web has reached a "critical mass" of users this year, according to a report by analysts Nielsen Mobile.
Wired Magazine: Issue 16.07: Tap Into the 12 Million-Teraflop Handheld MegaComputer
Never mind Web 3.0: The next stage in technological evolution is a single worldwide computer. Collectively, we are already assembling this megacomputer from our billions of Net-connected PCs, cell phones, PDAs, and the like. As an increasing number and variety of devices are lashed to one another via the Internet and other communication systems, they form the components of what we might call the One Machine.