A study produced by Google, IBM and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have found that around fifty nine per cent of internet users do so carefully by making sure that they are using the latest browser.

But that still leaves over forty per cent of internet users who are still using an older browser which will have holes in, it is these weak spots that can be found by the bad guys who are looking to exploit these holes and gain access to the computer for whatever their reasons for doing so is. This could be to take the computer over or to steal information such as personal data; either way getting the latest browser should be paramount.

Source [Ars Technica]

The internet cold war is very different, on the one side there is money and power, these are the governments and business, while on the other are the internet users, the ordinary man in the street who have found something that is truly wonderful, the internet.

For years the internet has been free from the restrictions of governments, well in most cases it has! However the authorities have other ideas, for there is a spy more power than big brother which is going to be used to monitor our internet activities.

Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) is basically internet monitoring, the advertisers gold mine and the dream of governments who cannot stand the fact that people can simply do things for themselves.

As with all cases like this in history, they always in revolution!

Source [Torrent Freak]

This agreement will allow the US agencies to access information regarding what we spend out money on, where we have travelled before and even our internet surfing and emailing habits. This information can be accessed through this agreement.

The problem is that if this is a government agreement then there is not really much that we can do about it, but what is going to cause problems is the actual accessing and transferring of the details. More importantly is what happens to this information when it arrives in the states, do they keep it or destroy it?

Source [Times]

It all started with .com, the web addresses ending in a combination which represented the country from where the business is based. But as more and more organisations got themselves a piece of the web the domain names expanded, leaving very few top level domains available.

But following the meeting it would seem that anything goes and for those involved in the industry it could be a potential gold rush, with businesses, organisations and individuals all claiming their own piece of the net.

Source [CNN]

The problems lies with the way that the RIAA are going about their legal cases, this is what EEF are looking to upset and it is all going to boil down to exactly what is copyright.

All of this is coming about because of the new copyright act which is set to not only protect the owners of music, software and film but is being said that it will make a criminal of millions of people who have unwittingly sold, exchanged or even given away all or part of anything that has been copyrighted.

It is unclear how this is going to affect the ordinary man in the street, but it is scary enough to put fear into the minds of many users of the internet, music and computers.

Source [Ars Technica]

However you would have thought that that would also mean that the half believe that the government should be able to manage how and what happens on the internet, but that is not the case as there sixteen per cent who are undecided.

But when it comes to internet bullying, like what we have seen on some social networking sites, there was a huge amount of Americans around seventy five per cent who believe that this sort of behaviour should be a serious crime, as there have been a number of case where the victims have committed suicide.

Source [Rasmussen Reports]

The French Government believe that the internet should not be a lawless zone where people can carry on as they please. In order to enforce these plans the French have created a new £15 million agency known as the High Authority for Copyright Protection and Dissemination of Works in the Internet (HADOPI).

This follows the cross industry agreement where the internet service providers have to cut off the internet access for any period up to a year to those offenders who have been warned and yet decided to take no notice, after the third warning that is that!

Source [Times]

Cyber crime is fast becoming the route that many gangs are looking to take, organised crime see this as the new world of crime, as it can be done from anywhere in the world and by people who are willing to work very cheaply.

With so many computers connected to the internet it is a matter of playing the numbers, the more people who fall for their tricks the better the chance of getting another computer infected and so the cycle continues.

Once they have enough computers then the zombies can be used for almost any purpose such as spamming, fraud and other things not to be mentioned. The worst thing is the gang leaders sit back and get away with it.

Source [News]

The PRS have issued a writ against in the High Court in which they are calling for an injunction and of course payment of damages and costs.

A public performance is when any organisation plays music that can be over heard by the public. To overcome this with a licence is needed. A while ago the tyre and exhaust company Kwik Fit was fined £200,000 for allowing the radio to be heard outside of the work area.

Source [Ars Technica]

This it not just the matter of recording, the industry is looking to rearrange the whole film distribution process, by allowing films to be shown by some TV channels before they are released on DVD.

Naturally by doing this it will open up the industry to these films being recorded and then copied before they reach the stores, meaning that they would lose a lot of revenue through this. But if they were able to block the films from being recorded this would stop that problem occurring.

Source [Ars Technica]