Provided by CommunityDNS, the information in this post consists of news items in the security-based Internet community.

As Internet turns 40, barriers threaten openness that spawned email

“Few were paying attention back on Sept. 2, 1969, when about 20 people gathered in Kleinrock’s lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, to watch as two bulky computers passed meaningless test data through a 4.6-metre grey cable.”

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Four arrested in China over net-paralysing gaming spat

The DDoS attack that affect six of China’s provinces last May was the result of gaming enthusiasts striking back at each other.

As reported previously in News Bits, some DoS or DDoS attacks are engineered merely to get back at someone; not attack a corporation, group, region or country. As laid out in the following article the spat included renting a BotNet as well as hiring someone to specifically engineer the attack.

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Researcher Launches Facebook Bug Project For September

In the rush to gain exposure and, in some cases, money for social networking-based applications it has been seen where such applications were developed without security in mind. The following story exemplifies this fact. In the case of Facebook their site itself is fairly secure. However, some of Facebook’s largest third party applications are vulnerable to attacks.

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Privacy Groups Urge Congress to Toughen Up on Online Ads

As has been seen in other countries, as reported in News Bits, there is discussion within the US Congress to limit the information organizations obtain through a user’s browsing habits. While organizations may use such information internally to maximize effectiveness of their websites in retaining customers, people are finding where such mined information is being sold to other firms for direct marketing efforts.

Comment: As users need to reach sensitive sites, or conduct sensitive transactions, this may actually hamper people from using the Internet to its fullest extent. To help promote Internet usage in Europe, the EU Commission has initiated a program to help people increase their level of confidence in using the Internet.

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Can “flexible broadband pricing” fix the digital divide

In the debate over net neutrality where the Internet should be open for all without prejudice due to traffic shaping or pricing differences, the following raises an interesting argument in favor of differential pricing. In order to eliver broadband to greater potential users of the populace funding is required to extend the broadband infrastructure. A recent study indicates that a “flat rate” pricing schedule where everyone pays the same rate will yield 74.9% penetration for people who earn under $30,000 per year whereas a penetration rate of 86.4% of the populace that earns over $75,000 per year will be achieved. However, if 80% of the additional cost for infrastructure expansion is allocated to the top 20% of very high bandwidth users through increased rates, penetration rates for the lower income will reach 98.5% by 2017.

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Men far worse than women on password security

Among serious topics here is one that has an element of fun facts associated with the general cyber topic. So for the statistics-minded, here we go!

A recent survey says 47% of men use the same password across websites they use. Only 26% of women use multiple passwords. Roughly 66% of men would open links or attachments from e-mails that came from a friend without first checking the e-mail address whereas only 48% of women would. On the flipside, 85% of men are more aware of malware abuses that come through e-mail, IM, websites and social networks as compared to 44% for women.

On a geographic scale, 33% of all Brits fail to update their security software making them the world’s worst. Citizens of the UK are also known to be the worst at surfing without security protection.

Before the French cheer over the lackluster stats of the Brits, consider the French win the “Worst” award for using the same password for all websites they log into, weighing in at 56%!

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