ITGS News

"Derek Lowe and his Iranian-born wife were appalled by the violence that came in the wake of Iran's disputed presidential election, and by the Tehran government's attempts to censor news of the upheavals. And so they joined the protest, as best they could from their home in Acton. They decided to become members of the legion of Internet activists fighting the Iranian government's aggressive attempts at post-election censorship. Armed with their computers and Internet access, they are helping Iranian protesters get the words and images out of their country for the world to see."

"The aim of the Isis project is to develop an ethics-centred monitoring framework and tools for supporting law enforcement agencies in policing online social networks for the purpose of protecting children. The project will develop natural language analysis techniques to help identify paedophiles from chat logs and monitoring mechanisms that can be non-invasively attached to file sharing systems for identifying the distributors of child abuse media. "

"The debate surrounding the new Facebook privacy settings has been raging in the electronic community since its roll-out earlier this month. As Facebook stands to gain better ground with search engines thanks to the privacy adjustments, a plethora of privacy advocate groups have taken a critical look at the changes which allow for more user information to be made public. While many stronger privacy settings were put in place by Facebook, allowing for greater controls by the user, the ACLU and others argue that some important information is no longer optional to divulge, thus creating a breach of consumer privacy protection in their opinion. Profile pictures, location and gender are now among the settings that have gone from optional to mandatory settings available for everyone to see."

"But things might be turning around. The CDT and other civil liberties groups have been able to convince Congress to consider reforming a part of the law that gave the FBI the authority to issue "National Security Letters" (NSL) ordering ISPs and other types of businesses to turn over sensitive customer records. A measure before the U.S. House of Representatives would require that records sought with an NSL pertain to somebody who is either a terrorist or a spy or someone known to be in contact with a terrorist or spy, Nojeim said. For Americans with no ties to such individuals, the FBI can require a company to turn over its financial information and communications only after judicial review or with a subpoena in a criminal investigation, he said. The issue is likely to be resolved in the spring, he added."

"If you send out a tweet, or privately post pictures on Facebook to a selected group of friends, can police turn those uploads against you?"

"As you weigh the choices, you might want to consider views of privacy advocates like the ACLU that have thought through some of the possible implications of certain settings."

"Facebook would like people to think the move is aimed solely at empowering users and giving them more control over their data. But there are other motivations. "

"Those fun Facebook quizzes can leave a user vulnerable, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which has posted its own quiz to let users find out just how much of their sensitive data is out in the online realm."

"K-12 COPYRIGHT LAWS: PRIMER FOR TEACHERS COPYRIGHT LAWS DO'S AND DON'TS WHAT IS LEGAL IN THE SCHOOL CLASSROOM "

"To study what brains look like when people are searching the Internet"

"Teachers trying to get students interested in molecular biology or space now have a new tool -- video games. As more children grow up playing video games, educators are partnering with game developers and scientists to create new interactive experiences for the classroom."

"According to the Global Web Index the answer could be simple and obvious: why bother downloading something illegally when you can watch it or listen to it perfectly legally using streaming media services?"

"Want to cripple content piracy? Stream your video online instead. That's the conclusion of a new study from Global Web Index, which says content piracy isn't about having the content, it's about watching it as soon as possible. GWI -- the offspring of research consultancy Trendstream and Lightspeed Research -- contends that the increasing popularity of Hulu, YouTube and other online video hubs has increased content availability to the point where personal ownership is redundant, making users less inclined to steal content."

"Research conducted by London-based Global Web Index, a collaboration between online market research agency Lightspeed Research and Trendstream, suggests that streaming might in fact be the right antidote against content piracy. "

"In a statement the ICO said the Trust reported the loss of an unencrypted memory stick containing treatment details "after a member of staff left it in an unattended vehicle" towards the end of last year. Other ICO cases revealed Central Lancashire Trust lost an encrypted memory stick with details of 6,360 prison patients of HMP Preston The North West London Hospitals Trust reported the theft of computers containing the details of test results of 361 patients. Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals Trust reported the loss and theft of computers containing details of 2,300 patients. The memory stick, which was privately owned, was discovered by a car wash attendant who was able to access the contents to establish ownership and returned it to the Trust. Three other health trusts have also been found to have breached the Data Protection Act: Central Lancashire Primary Care Trust, North West London Hospitals NHS Trust and Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust. All four have all signed formal undertakings outlining that they will process personal information in line with the Data Protection Act. "

"n one incident computers containing the names, addresses and medical diagnoses of 2,500 patients were left next to a skip in St Pancras Hospital, in north-west London. The computers, which were not encrypted, went missing and have never been recovered. "

"Of 300 hard disks bought randomly at computer fairs and an online auction site, 34% still held personal data."

""The malicious insider is classed as the greatest security concern because they have access, and relatively easy access, to corporate assets," said Mr Leland."