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lupinwick Joined: 24 Sep 2005 Total posts: 1883 |
 Posted: 31-05-2006 19:11 Post subject: |
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Could be deemed a slightly different form of mistrust -
| Quote: | Users worried about staying safe online will soon be able to get software to protect their home PC direct from Microsoft.
The software giant's first security product goes on sale in the US from 1 June and will become available in other countries over the next 12 months.
The product, dubbed OneCare, rolls anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall programs into one package.
OneCare costs $49.95 (£26.50) to protect three computers for a year. |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5032832.stm
Stunning that this shouldn't be free - given the holes in XP. Those cynics amongst may see a slight conflict of interest here....
Oh well |
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| Traprain Yeti Joined: 31 Aug 2005 Total posts: 33 Location: Outside Auld Reekie Gender: Male |
| Posted: 31-05-2006 23:48 Post subject: Chinese Twist |
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The US State Department has yanked computers made by China's Lenovo from networks that provide access to information vital to national security, it has emerged. The move follows fears the kit could be used by China to spy on the US.
The department ordered 16,000 PCs from Lenovo earlier this year. Some 900 of these machines were due to be connected to secure networks, Republican Congressman Frank Wolf revealed this week.
But after Congress' US-China Economic and Security Review Commission expressed concerns that the equipment could be used for espionage - worries Wolf communicated to the US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice - the State Department removed any Lenovo-made PCs from networks that could be used to access classified data.
"The State Department... has now taken the appropriate steps to ensure that classified information is not compromised by the purchase of these new computers," Wolf told the House appropriations subcommittee yesterday. "It has identified the machines that have already been installed and will remove them [and] it is making changes to ensure that its procurement process keeps up with the changes of ownership of IT companies."
For its part, Lenovo said the PCs had all been manufactured in North Carolina and Mexico in factories acquired through its purchase of IBM in 2005.
"We know that our computers present no security risk to the US government because we do not install back-doors or surveillance tools in our computers," a company spokeswoman told the AFX newsagency.
In January 2005, the US Treasury Department was asked to investigate the $1.25bn sale of IBM's PC division to Lenovo because of its potential national security fears voiced by the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. In March that year, the Treasury Department permitted the sale to go ahead.
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http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/05/19/us_govt_pulls_lenovo_pcs/
Looks like they are being over sensitive or they are protecting against something that they already do to others. |
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| Zilch5 Vogon Poet
Great Old One Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Total posts: 1463 Location: Western Sydney, Australia Gender: Male |
| Posted: 12-07-2013 07:17 Post subject: |
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Apparently we definitely can't...
| Quote: | Microsoft helped NSA, FBI spy on users: report
icrosoft has been collaborating with the National Security Agency for its internet surveillance program PRISM, according to a report.
Despite Microsoft's complaints that it can't be more transparent about government requests, the revelations in The Guardian assert that the software company has helped US intelligence agencies intercept web chats and emails on Outlook.com and Hotmail, as well as Skype phone and video conversations. The report comes from more secret documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
Skype started integration within PRISM in November 2010, but apparently, the VoIP service wasn't served with a directive from the attorney general compelling it to comply until February 4, 2011.
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"Collaborative teamwork was the key to the successful addition of another provider to the Prism system," boasted a document the newspaper has not yet released.
The document reportedly added that video interception has been possible since July 14, 2012. "The audio portions of these sessions have been processed correctly all along, but without the accompanying video," The Guardian reported that the document read. "Now, analysts will have the complete 'picture'."
The NSA and even the FBI allegedly receive access to emails and chats on Outlook, which are sent over before encryption.
"For PRISM collection against Hotmail, Live, and Outlook.com, emails will be unaffected because PRISM collects this data prior to encryption," read a Microsoft newsletter.
The Redmond, Washington-based company also helped grant the FBI easier access to SkyDrive, Microsoft's cloud service, through PRISM.
These revelations further explain how the NSA accesses internet traffic through its far-reaching PRISM program, revealed in early June by The Guardian and The Washington Post.
It's still unclear, on a technical level, how the program actually works, but companies allegedly involved have strongly denied implications of collaborating with the NSA outside of responding to legal requests.
These new documents, however, seem to run contrary to those denials – at least in Microsoft's case. And, moreover, these revelations seem to contradict Microsoft's own claims about protecting its user's privacy. "Your privacy is our priority," reads a company slogan. Skype has made similar claims in the past.
As reported by CNET in 2008, the company – which at the time wasn't owned by Microsoft – has also argued that Skype calls use end-to-end encryption that make wiretapping impossible. This is a dubious claim that has been disputed in recent years, despite Skype's denials.
In March 2012, when Microsoft released its first transparency report, Brad Smith, the company's executive vice president and general counsel, wrote that "Skype produced no content in response to these [law-enforcement] requests."
According to reports in the wake of the PRISM revelations, Skype had been involved in "Project Chess", a secret program to determine how the company could cooperate with government requests.
In a statement sent to The Guardian, Microsoft said it only provides customer data "in response to government demands and we only ever comply with orders for requests about specific accounts or identifiers".
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http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/security-it/microsoft-helped-nsa-fbi-spy-on-users-report-20130711-hv0w1.html |
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| Jonfairway Great Old One Joined: 09 Mar 2005 Total posts: 1163 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 12-07-2013 12:46 Post subject: |
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why does this not surprise me in the slightest...
i said this would happen 7 years ago... and was poo poo'd every time i said it...
TOLD ya so |
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| Pietro_Mercurios Heuristically Challenged
Gender: Unknown |
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| OneWingedBird Great Old One Joined: 19 Nov 2012 Total posts: 418 Location: Attice of blinkey lights Age: 44 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 12-07-2013 17:19 Post subject: |
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Makka-fee.  |
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| Mythopoeika Boring petty conservative
Joined: 18 Sep 2001 Total posts: 8820 Location: Not far from Bedford Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 12-07-2013 20:52 Post subject: |
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One word: brilliant! 
How did he keep a straight face?
Yeah - McAfee (the product) is shit - I can vouch for that. |
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| Human_84 We wont hurt you human.
Great Old One Joined: 30 Mar 2005 Total posts: 1374 Location: Invisible, sitting next to you. Gender: Male |
| Posted: 13-07-2013 21:48 Post subject: |
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This might be a good thread to discuss Microsoft's new gaming console to be released near the end of this year, Xbox One.
For the layman it's constantly connected and communicates on the internet (even when "turned off") and is powered on via voice command by walking into the room and saying "xbox on."
A camera is required for it to work, which constantly peers into your living room and cannot be switched off and has no shutter to close (presumably, the console stops functioning if the camera lens is covered up).
It remembers faces. It also has content protection which understands how many people are in the room and is able to STOP a movie from playing if there are too many people in the room, otherwise charge you more money.
The controller has an ambient sensor which can read your pulse rate as well.
Thoughts? |
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| Pietro_Mercurios Heuristically Challenged
Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 13-07-2013 22:07 Post subject: |
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| Human_84 wrote: | ...
Thoughts? |
No doubt the thought reader will be in the next service pack. |
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| Mythopoeika Boring petty conservative
Joined: 18 Sep 2001 Total posts: 8820 Location: Not far from Bedford Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 14-07-2013 11:45 Post subject: |
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| Pietro_Mercurios wrote: | | Human_84 wrote: | ...
Thoughts? |
No doubt the thought reader will be in the next service pack. |
Classic. |
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| Mythopoeika Boring petty conservative
Joined: 18 Sep 2001 Total posts: 8820 Location: Not far from Bedford Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 14-07-2013 11:46 Post subject: |
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| Human_84 wrote: | This might be a good thread to discuss Microsoft's new gaming console to be released near the end of this year, Xbox One.
For the layman it's constantly connected and communicates on the internet (even when "turned off") and is powered on via voice command by walking into the room and saying "xbox on."
A camera is required for it to work, which constantly peers into your living room and cannot be switched off and has no shutter to close (presumably, the console stops functioning if the camera lens is covered up).
It remembers faces. It also has content protection which understands how many people are in the room and is able to STOP a movie from playing if there are too many people in the room, otherwise charge you more money.
The controller has an ambient sensor which can read your pulse rate as well.
Thoughts? |
My thoughts are: don't buy it! |
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| jimv1 Great Old One Joined: 10 Aug 2005 Total posts: 2645 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 14-07-2013 13:28 Post subject: |
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| Human_84 wrote: | This might be a good thread to discuss Microsoft's new gaming console to be released near the end of this year, Xbox One.
For the layman it's constantly connected and communicates on the internet (even when "turned off") and is powered on via voice command by walking into the room and saying "xbox on."
A camera is required for it to work, which constantly peers into your living room and cannot be switched off and has no shutter to close (presumably, the console stops functioning if the camera lens is covered up).
It remembers faces. It also has content protection which understands how many people are in the room and is able to STOP a movie from playing if there are too many people in the room, otherwise charge you more money.
The controller has an ambient sensor which can read your pulse rate as well.
Thoughts? |
Microsoft backtracked after the outcry to their plans of having their customers connect to the internet every 24 hours to play a game they bought and consider they own as well as restrictions on sharing games. For non-users, the announcement http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/update ranks alongside Tesco's 'Sorry about the horse in the burgers' ad for schadenfreude.
Meanwhile, other sites were peering in to Xbone's camera and rumours are that potentially, it could be used to see if the number of people in the room watching a DVD doesn't infringe the law on public viewing.
http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/156515-kinect-for-xbox-one-an-always-on-works-in-the-dark-camera-and-microphone-what-could-possibly-go-wrong
How this would work if there's only one person sitting in front of a poster of the Sgt Pepper album cover is, I suspect, untested.
But all this is academic. Like hundreds of thousands of others, I really don't need this from a product and will switch from Microsoft to the Playstation. Apart from the personal intrusion of the tech, there's something sinister about the corporation's desire to have these features in our homes and the arrogance that dictates what we want a toy (which is essentially what a games console is) to do and how much it monitors our activities.
Microsoft have made a huge mistake but their backtracking won't be enough. The function has already shaped the form. Microsoft are keen to implement features that have us madly jumping around in our living rooms when most of us simply don't have the space or may be too disabled to act their puppet scripts out. They're implementing features simply because they can, not because they're desirable to the consumer - which is usually what happens when those at the top of a corporation become delusional about their own ideas. The philosophy of the company to put an eye and an ear in the living room of every purchaser is not a one I wish to invest in. Especially when you consider any new release from Microsoft is seen as a challenge and a golden hack. |
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| Zilch5 Vogon Poet
Great Old One Joined: 08 Nov 2007 Total posts: 1463 Location: Western Sydney, Australia Gender: Male |
| Posted: 15-07-2013 07:01 Post subject: |
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| jimv1 wrote: |
How this would work if there's only one person sitting in front of a poster of the Sgt Pepper album cover is, I suspect, untested.
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Classic!
Better not put my copy of Jimi Hendrix "Electric Lady Land" in front of it...  |
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