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The Telecom Digest for June 25, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 154 : "text" Format
====== 30 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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against crime. - Geoffrey Welsh
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
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Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2012 22:24:28 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: It's as Easy as 123!@S
Message-ID: <p062408cccc0c2a942f26@[10.0.1.6]>
It's as Easy as 123!@S
By JACOB BERNSTEIN
June 22, 2012
WITH numbers. Without. One capital letter. None. More than eight
characters. Fewer than 16.
"It's a nightmare," the comedian Tracey Ullman said. "These passwords
just keep getting longer and longer. I try to think of a startling
emotional thing that jogs my memory or something that's frightening,
or my grandmother's name with 666 at the end. But I really don't know
what to do."
Neither, it would seem, does the actress Parker Posey, who said she
writes them down "on tiny pieces of paper, like little secrets,
because yes, someone could find them." But then, Ms. Posey added, she
forgets which Web sites the codes are for.
The writer Paul Rudnick finds himself equally bewildered. Simply
tracking down the password for his Time Warner Cable modem was like
"a 'Bourne Identity' moment," Mr. Rudnick recalled.
Just a decade ago, an Internet user rarely had to do more than enter
a simple, easy-to-remember e-mail password, recycling it for every
online account. But as our dependency on the Internet has grown, so
has the complexity of its restrictions.
The end result: a mind-boggling array of personal codes squirreled
away in computer files, scribbled on Post-it notes or simply lost in
the ether. Virtually any online user without a computer science
degree now seems to be one failed login attempt away from a nervous
breakdown.
Worse, are the dreaded security questions, which began simply enough
("In what city were you born?") but have increasingly "moved from the
purely factual to things that would require you to have a judgment,"
lamented Jeffrey Leeds, the president of Leeds Equity and a fixture
on the New York social scene.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/fashion/computer-passwords-grow-ever-more-complicated.html
***** Moderator's Note *****
As with most things related to computers, what you think of as a
personal itch has probably already annoyed someone else - and Open
Source software, which is free-as-in-speech, showcases a great example
of how this itch has already been scratched.
It's called Password Safe, and it lets you remember one password
that gives you access to all the other ones, stored safely with
military-grade encryption.
You can download it, no strings attached, at
http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/
.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2012 22:21:43 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: To Settle Lawsuit, Facebook Alters Policy for Its Like Button
Message-ID: <p062408cbcc0c2a101054@[10.0.1.6]>
To Settle Lawsuit, Facebook Alters Policy for Its Like Button
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
June 21, 2012
SAN FRANCISCO - Complicating its efforts to accelerate advertising
revenue, Facebook has agreed to make it clear to users that when they
click to like a product on Facebook, their names and photos can be
used to plug the product. They will also be given a chance to decline
the opportunity to be unpaid endorsers.
The changes are part of a settlement for a class-action lawsuit
against Facebook in Federal District Court in California. The
agreement compels the company to change one of its most effective
advertising tools, known as Sponsored Stories.
According to the agreement, filed Wednesday with the court in San
Jose, Facebook users will be able to control and see which of their
actions on Facebook are used to generate advertisements seen by their
Facebook friends. For Facebook users under 18, there is an additional
requirement: the company must give parents the opportunity to keep
their children out of advertisements.
The settlement does not inhibit the company from using Sponsored
Stories, which Facebook executives have repeatedly described as the
most effective form of advertising in part because they do not seem
like traditional advertisements. Both on the Web and on a mobile
device, a Sponsored Story features the name and picture of a Facebook
friend who has clicked on the like button for a product or
organization.
This is exactly why Sponsored Stories can be bewildering, or
off-putting, to some users. Until now, Facebook users were unaware
when and how they were exploited for advertising, and they may not
have realized that a click on something as vague as a like button
could be used to enrich Facebook, the company.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/technology/to-settle-suit-facebook-alters-policies-for-like-button.html
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2012 22:21:43 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: U.S. Military Hunts for Safe Smartphones for Soldiers
Message-ID: <p062408c9cc0c2939dde1@[10.0.1.6]>
U.S. Military Hunts for Safe Smartphones for Soldiers
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
JUNE 22, 2012
The military has long needed computers that are tough enough on the
outside to withstand the rough and tumble of the battlefield. Now,
with the proliferation of smartphones and tablets in the hands of
soldiers, those devices also have to be strong on the inside. They
are loaded with contacts, location information and all kinds of
military-grade applications, so it can be deadly for a soldier to
lose a mobile device or have its data leak out unwittingly.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, has now
assigned Invincea, a company based in Fairfax, Va., to fortify
Android-based phones and tablets so they are safe in soldiers' hands.
The $21 million grant to the company is a window into how pervasive
networked technologies have become in the military - and the market
that has opened up to secure them.
Part of the problem, said Anup Ghosh, a professor at George Mason
University and the founder of Invincea, is that soldiers often want
to use their mobile devices to communicate with families back home,
and to entertain themselves when they can. And so military
applications sit side by side with games, social networking apps and
other distractions.
The risks can be unexpected. Soldiers playing games on an Army base
in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, can easily and unknowingly transmit
the names of their friends. A piece of malware can penetrate the
operating system and suck out location information.
At the same time, mobile devices are beginning to change the work and
lives of soldiers as they have for everyone else, as the Department
of Defense acknowledged in a strategy paper earlier this month.
...
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/u-s-military-hunts-for-safe-smartphones-for-soldiers/
***** Moderator's Note *****
Maybe it's just me, but when I read this, I think "Wikileaks".
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2012 21:08:27 -0400
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Bankrupt LightSquared's Drama Drags On -- And Markets Move On
Message-ID: <20120625010827.GA2553@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
The specter of spectrum.
Last time we checked in with LightSquared, its sad saga suggested why
crony capitalism might be here to stay. Philip Falcone, I remarked,
sounded like some of the less sympathetic Occupy protestors who have
complained that even though they went through the motions prescribed
by the system, the system failed them.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamespoulos/2012/06/08/bankrupt-lightsquareds-drama-drags-on-and-markets-move-on/
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)
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