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ICT Diary

MPAA hits bit-torrent tv

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has started to serve writs on people who operate Web sites that store unlicensed copies of TV programs. The recent Dr Who remake was available on the Web before the series was shown on TV.

Bit Torrent is a file sharing system that increases the speed of file downloads by storing parts of files on a large number of servers. As organisations like the MPAA remove servers from the system, the speed of downloading reduces, thus making the system less attractive to downloaders.

The full story is on the BBC News / Technology Web site.

posted by Keith Burnett :: on 17.5.05 :: Permanent link ::  0 comments  

Metropolitan Police CCU

Each police force in the country has had some finance to set up a computer crime unit. The Met has built an extremely effective CCU as you might expect (most computer crime in the UK is aimed at London based targets). And now three of them are going to work for Bill as opposed to the Old Bill....

posted by Keith Burnett :: on 9.5.05 :: Permanent link ::  0 comments  

$2.25 per year per PC infected with spyware

Spyware scumbags make $2bn a year according to The Register, a UK based Web journal about IT and goings on in cyberspace. I like The Register - they use words like 'scumbags' instead of talking about 'trailer parks' and dumpsters.

$2.25 per year is from advertisers of dodgy services in the male hydraulics department and similar. Might not seem much, but there are 290,000,000 computers out there logging into the Web. Believe it or not, someone somewhere buys this stuff and that makes revenue for the people who kidnap part of your screen with silly pop-ups.

Hacking is the next scenario and this plugs into the spam business.

posted by Keith Burnett :: on 4.5.05 :: Permanent link ::  0 comments  

Denial of Service attacks not illegal

Neil Barrett's article called Criminal IT: The crime you can still get away with summarises the current situation regarding denial of service attacks nicely. His article draws on the All Party Internet Group report on the Computer Misuse Act that we have been using in lessons.

A 'denial of service' attack occurs when a Web site is purposely flooded by page requests by a person, often using several computers to repeatedly request a service. Most Web servers are geared to a certain number of page requests per day (known as the 'bandwidth'). Sudden peaks can stress the server to the extent that the computer restarts the Web server process. During this time, legitimate users cannot access the server.

Under the current form of the CMA (1990) such a coordinated attack is not an offence as the Web server is simply being used to do what it is supposed to do, only very quickly.

posted by Keith Burnett :: on 28.4.05 :: Permanent link ::  0 comments  

blogging and the sack

Blogger gets the sack for slagging off his employers. To what extent should companies be able to restrict the activities of their employees?

Waterstones offered the blogger reinstatement but he got head hunted anyway by a science fiction bookshop.

A factor in the offer of reinstatement (negotiated by the bogger's union without going to tribunal) was the fact that the company had no policy regarding external Web sites....

posted by Keith Burnett :: on 25.4.05 :: Permanent link ::  0 comments  

Writing, briefly

Apologies for nagging, but a look at Paul Graham's advice on brief writing (in brief) might help.... This whole assignment can be done in less than 4500 words, honest.

posted by Keith Burnett :: on 20.4.05 :: Permanent link ::  0 comments  

NHTCU turning away cases...

Read the Computer Weekly article. Mike Deats is deputy head of the NHTCU and he is asking for more resources.

posted by Keith Burnett :: on 17.4.05 :: Permanent link ::  0 comments  


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