Tech Brief
On Tech Brief today: Virtual fraudsters, virtual festivals and a blizzard of Oz data.
• The computer industry loves its three-letter acronyms but here is a trilogy of initials that AT&T will be less than thrilled to read: FBI. The agency has opened an investigation into the AT&T security breach that exposed the names and addresses of US iPad owners. that the probe is in its early stages but the calibre of the victims suggests it will run and run.
"Those who had their e-mails exposed may find hackers attempting to crack their accounts, however, and that could be a major irritant for some of the officials from the FCC, FAA, NASA, and the Army members on the list."
• Be careful of who you talk to online, they might be a robot. A criminally-minded robot. French security researchers have created software that can act convincingly like a human when communication is done via text. its creators have used it to strike up conversations with folks via instant messaging systems to see if it can defraud them. It can.
"The researchers had plenty of success in their tests: They were able to get users to click onto malicious links sent via their chat messages 76% of the time."
• Europeans are used to having information about where they go online retained and Australians could soon be joining them. by the Australian government that it is in talks with the nation's ISPs about retaining e-mails and browsing histories. Colin Jacobs, head of Electronic Frontier Australia (EFA), does not like what he hears.
"At some point data retention laws can be reasonable, but highly-personal information such as browsing history is a step too far," Jacobs said. "You can't treat everybody like a criminal. That would be like tapping people's phones before they are suspected of doing any crime."
• With summer almost upon us, many people are thinking about which festivals to attend this year. gamers not wishing to be left out can go along to the Weatherstock festival to be held on 12 June on the virtual Weathertop on the Landroval realm.
"Where once Frodo and Aragorn fought off the NazgΓ»l, these grounds now will be covered in song and spirits. Organized by the Lonely Mountain Band kinship, Weatherstock will feature three hours of music as 10 bands face off to win prizes."
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