06/18/2001 - 19:08
One of the basic beliefs most everyone seems to share is that once you're acquitted of a crime, you're freed of any penalty associated with that crime. But we're learning that, at least in the United States, that's not really the case. In a decision issued Wednesday in Philadelphia, Judge Gary S. Glazer denied a motion by 2600 layout artist ShapeShifter (Terrence McGuckin) to have the full amount of his bail returned. McGuckin was arrested last August during the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. All charges were either dropped or found to be without merit. McGuckin had been held on half a million dollars bail and was imprisoned for a week. Eventually the bail was reduced to $100,000 which meant that ten percent of that in cash would be enough to get him released. 2600 staffers scrambled to raise the money and, on August 8, McGuckin was finally released. McGuckin's trial was held on November 14 but the bail money - intended to ensure a defendant's presence in court, was not returned. Even after the appeal on the two remaining charges which were quickly found to not have any merit whatsoever, the bail money remained with the authorities - no doubt gathering interest somewhere. Wednesday's hearing was an attempt to get the full amount returned. The judge refused, allowing $750 to be kept for administrative costs. Ironically, it was the same judge who threw out the remaining charges back in May. To us, this is nothing short of state-sanctioned theft. What kind of message does it send if authorities can arrest people for invalid charges and then have it paid for by their victims, even after they're found to be entirely innocent? How many other times has this been allowed to happen? In this case, the authorities caused tremendous damage yet were never held entirely accountable. They squashed legal demonstrations, intimidated and assaulted innocent people, and behaved in much the same manner that we would expect to see in an undemocratic society. And now they've been rewarded for it. This is a development that nobody can be proud of.
06/18/2001 - 18:07
Privacy advocates are incensed over an AltaVista announcement today regarding the impending release of a software product that allows personal information to be searched on employees' computers. According to the Associated Press, "The AltaVista software is based on the premise that businesses operating in an information-driven era will be better off if more employees can sift through a community storehouse of data gathered from corporate intranets, workers' e-mail boxes and PC hard drives." The legal ramifications of this kind of product have already come in to question. Not a particularly good sign considering the product hasn't even been released yet. Read about this on NewsFactor Network or in The Associated Press via Wired!
05/11/2001 - 18:08
2ND CIRCUIT COURT ASKS FOR 1ST AMENDMENT CLARIFICATION ON DECSS CASE! See all the story here!
05/10/2001 - 18:38
ZDNet reported yesterday that VBS.VBSWG2, otherwise known as 'Homepage' has surfaced at scores of companies, and is likely to hit more firms today. The email attachment (homepage.html.vbs) uses similar code to the Kournikova worm which spread quickly in February. In fact, according to F-Secure's website, it was written with the same virus kit. This virus is a new version of something we've all seen before. Graham Cluley, head of research at Sophos, is quoted as saying: "It's not even a particularly clever bit of social engineering," he says. "It just says 'this is cool'." He goes on to note that what is most disturbing about the success of this worm is that many companies are still not blocking Visual Basic attachments--they could easily do so with basic filtering technology. Not to mention that Microsoft has had a patch for this type of problem since June. In other words, come on folks, this is old news. This particular game we already know how to win. See it here!
05/03/2001 - 15:08
A new Exploit has been found on IIS... What shows that IIS is really buggy and insecure... One more bite to Microsoft. eEye found the exploit, and you can see the advisory here!
04/30/2001 - 17:42
As BlackSun has _really_ newbie stuff, they made today an huge update of tuturials and things like that. If you feel like, visit them...
04/27/2001 - 19:50
The Secure Digital Music Initiative is a coalition of technology companies and major record companies formed to develop a watermarking standard for music, so that it may be tracked and its use controlled. SDMI will do to music what the Content Scrambling System does to DVDs. Since the Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes it a crime to circumvent such measures, content providers can essentially use technology to dictate what is legally permissible, not just what is technically possible. Last September, SDMI announced "HackSDMI," a public challenge to attack proposed watermarking schemes with a $10,000 prize. In general, public hacking contests are ill-conceived, unscientific, and don't really prove anything. Several groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, called for a boycott of HackSDMI - urging the public not to undermine their own rights by participating. By November, researchers from Princeton and Rice Universities announced that they had successfully broken four of the content-control schemes. However, they declined to claim any prize money, as doing so would have required signing a non-disclosure statement. Having completed their academic research, the group didn't participate in the final rounds of the contest, as it offered no new information. Princeton professor Edward Felten intended to present their paper, entitled "Reading Between the Lines: Lessons from the SDMI Challenge," at the Fourth International Information Hiding Workshop yesterday. Instead he read a statement explaining why he could not. Apparently, the scheme from Verance Corporation is already being used, and they fear that if the attack is published, people will be able to circumvent it. Good thing they have the faithful DMCA on hand. It seems that they don't think that DMCA's extremely narrow and burdensome encryption research exception protects Dr. Felten. The RIAA, SDMI, and Verance have threatened to sue under the DMCA if the paper is presented. It isn't source code, it isn't a program, it's just a paper that explains scientific research - and it is being censored. While we are still busy fighting the last bullet we took from the DMCA, our friends at the cryptome have published the threatening letters and the paper. If the precedents set by Judge Kaplan in the DeCSS case stand, some day we may not even be able to link to such things.
04/26/2001 - 15:37
A team of computer hackers has captured £35,000 ($AU99,000) for hacking into a computer system just 24-hours after the competition began. The hack is likely to be a major embarrassment for the company behind the high-profile hacking comptetion, despite its assertion that the break in has highlighted a major new vulnerability in the Solaris operating system running on Intel x86 microprocessors. Argus Systems organised the competition - to break into a Web server locked down using its security product called PitBull - to promote its products and to coincide with the start of Infosec, the UK's premier computer security event. Hackers were invited to circumvent PitBull, which automatically secures known vulnerabilities and restricts activity at the operating system level, and deface two functional - but fictitious - company Web sites. The hacking group - Last Stage of Delirium (LSD) - broke into the target server just a day after the competition began and informed Argus Systems. The target server was shut down as the company immediately launched an investigation.
04/23/2001 - 12:10
Hi... First of all forgive me 'cause this section has been down, but that's not my fault, it's freeshell's fault, and I can't do nothing about it, 'cause I've no money :P But, after all, here I am, and ready to give you the news. But, before the news I'm going to give you today, I have to tell you one more trhing: www.mindbooster.net is now requesting for people to work out with us, providing all the best links, sofware, textware, news and it all... If you want to help us, turning www.mindbooster.net in a big project, please contact me in root@mindbooster.net.
04/17/2001 - 17:59
Hi all... The Affiliate Underground Program from VALINUX is over... so, All the pub referred to that in this Site has been removed.
04/16/2001 - 20:29
A new link is in the main page... winTLK.
04/16/2001 - 20:14
Hey ppl, sorry for not having updates, but, u know, I've been on vacations... But now I'm back! And nothing better to proove it that announcing that I updated #LAMEGO WebPage... Check it out!