Today’s release from fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden says that the NSA was spying on users through the cookies that web browsers save to customize commercial space on sites like Google.
According to an internal presentation slide showed that when companies follow internet consumers to better serve advertising it opens the door for government tracking. The slides suggest the NSA was already using the tracking to follow targets.
Online privacy advocates had been claiming for years the tracking tools called “cookies” left open the possibility for violations of web user privacy.
Cookies can allow the NSA to track a single individual’s communications among all internet transactions. Cookies are not just reserved for browsers on desktop or laptop computers. Smartphone apps that run on iPhones and Android devices, even the Apple and Google operating systems, track the location of each device sometimes without alerting the device’s owner.
The slides did not say how the NSA obtained access to Google’s tracking system.
A study analyzing Wikipedia data to determine who has been the most significant person in history has said Jesus tops the list.
Two computer scientists used quantitative analysis of the data on Wikipedia to create the list that they said is similar to how Google ranks web pages in its search engine.
“We would call Jesus ‘The most significant person ever,’” Professor Steven Skiena said. “With over 2 billion followers a full 2,000 years after his death, Jesus is an incredibly successful historical meme.”
The scientists did add that the ratings could change over time because of the continuing evolving nature of Wikipedia. They noted many people in the lower parts of their list will likely have more significant movement through time.
Ranked behind Jesus in the list was Napoleon Bonaparte and William Shakespeare.
A pair of Pennsylvania newlyweds decided that the way to celebrate their three-week wedding anniversary was to commit murder.
Officials say the case graphically brings home the dangers of meeting a stranger from the internet.
Sunbury police said that Elytte Barbour and his wife Miranda had been using the website Craigslist to lure in men through a “business” where Miranda would rent herself out as a “companion” for as much as $850 a night. The couple said they were searching for someone that would fit their desire to kill someone.
They found that person in 42-year-old Troy LaFerrara.
Barbour reportedly told police that after receiving contact from LaFerrara they arranged to meet him at a mall. When the victim sat in the passenger seat of Miranda’s Honda CRV, her husband appeared from the back seat and held down LaFerrara while his wife stabbed him to death.
The body was dumped in an alley in Sunbury, PA.
The two are being held in separate county prisons facing charges of criminal homicide. They are being held without bail.
Police officials said that if you are going to do business through an internet site that it’s best to meet someone in a visible public place surrounded by others.
A web company that is accused of helping child abusers share files on a hidden part of the internet has been compromised by malware.
The sites were using the service provider Freedom Hosting and had code attached to their pages that could be used by law enforcement to reveal the people visiting the pages. Continue reading →
Researchers in Japan have a new system that will increase internet data transmission rates to 20 times over the most common internet wi-fi standard. The research claims that the “T-Ray” band could offer huge amounts of bandwidth that has been previously unavailable to businesses and consumers.
The band is between the microwave and the far-infrared regions of the spectrum and it’s currently unregulated, allowing anyone to use the space. Continue reading →
If you have visited a website in the last few years that asked you to install a “video codec” to watch a web video you might have accidentally installed the “DNSChanger” virus. As a result, you could find that your computer is unable to access the internet after July 9th.
Continue reading →
