Monday, August 27, 2007
iPhone Hack
Come to think of it, you don't even need the cell phone since the phone comes wi-fi equipped. Using VO.I.P., one could have a revolutionary Internet phone device available for use.
Cyber-Fire
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Vodaphone Bungles a Cyber-Crime Investigation
The
Briefly, the case is as follows.
During the 2004 Olympics in
Eventually, the tap was discovered; however, Vodaphone bungled the investigation by erasing data logs and other important evidence which could have been used to track down the perpetrators. The only evidence that is available is the triangulation of the spy-phones, all of which were in the vicinity of the U.S. Embassy there.
The lack of either a cyber-forensics squad, or know how of how to conduct a cyber-crime investigation on the part of the Hellenic police is indicative of an important problem in tackling the issue of cyber-crime not only in Hellas, but in all countries.
Without technical know-how of a dedicated corps of officers, it will be impossible for even developed countries to assure prosecution of cyber-crime.
The solution: I propose an international task force that trains and maintains a liaison with police departments. It would be best to do so under the auspices of INTERPOL. The authors of the article would agree.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Telepresence
"Telepresence has created a new paradigm in visual communications not
only in Asia-Pacific, but globally," notes Frost & Sullivan industry
analyst Yen Yen Har.
"The solutions available today are capable of delivering full-size,
real life images in a fully interactive environment with the use of
advanced real-time audio, video and data technologies, giving users in
different geographies the experience of being in the same physical
location," adds Har.
Seen as the closest alternative to physical meetings, telepresence has
become a powerful productivity tool and is expected to find wider
acceptance amongst MNCs (multinationals) and large corporations.
Full article here.
Envatement
The Matrix presents a version of an old philosophical fable: the brain in a vat. A disembodied brain is floating in a vat, inside a scientist's laboratory. The scientist has arranged that the brain will be stimulated with the same sort of inputs that a normal embodied brain receives. To do this, the brain is connected to a giant computer simulation of a world. The simulation determines which inputs the brain receives. When the brain produces outputs, these are fed back into the simulation. The internal state of the brain is just like that of a normal brain, despite the fact that it lacks a body. From the brain's point of view, things seem very much as they seem to you and me.
The brain is massively deluded, it seems. It has all sorts of false beliefs about the world. It believes that it has a body, but it has no body. It believes that it is walking outside in the sunlight, but in fact it is inside a dark lab. It believes it is one place, when in fact it may be somewhere quite different. Perhaps it thinks it is in Tucson, when it is actually in Australia, or even in outer space.
The whole article is a must read for all those interested in the philosophical problems surrounding the merging of humans and machines.
This envatment hypothesis is the continuation of Socrates' Allegory of the Cave. I guess humans just don't trust their senses. Today, our ideas of the merging of humans with computers and machines are posing new problems, which Chalmer's deals with in his article.
Monday, August 13, 2007
U.N. Website Hacked
THE official website of the United Nations appeared to have been hacked last night and briefly displayed a message protesting US and Israeli policies in the Middle EastFULL ARTICLE
"The chief architects of this protest are myself, Eno 7 from Turkey, and the byond hackers team from Chile ... We expanded our efforts as nine other countries joined us afterwards," it said.
What remains to be seen is how the governments of Turkey and Chile will respond to this.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Domestic Efforts at Governing Cyberspace
This article is a case in point for why international negotiations have to take place in order to secure cyberspace.
It has been suggested that more cybersecurity laws here will help with computer security. Thompson and I agreed on a view about that. It's a waste of time to pass laws in the US that can't or won't be enforced in Russia or China.