According to our site statistics, nearly 41% of you out there are reading this article on some flavour of Microsoft Windows. In addition, 22% are using various versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser. And it’s to you, our IE users, to whom this message is addressed: use a better browser, preferably an open source […]
The Joint Committee of MPs and Lords today published its report into the draft Communications Data Bill, otherwise dubbed the Snooper’s Charter. The Committee has spent six months scrutinising the proposals, receiving a substantial amount of oral and written evidence. The final report is available from the Joint Committee website. As predicted yesterday (news passim), […]
IT news website The Register reports today that the joint parliamentary committee scrutinising the government’s draft Communications Data Bill – also known as the Snooper’s Charter (news passim) – will publish its report tomorrow. It is believed that most of the committee’s members felt the Home Office had failed to make a convincing case for […]
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) reports that the German Ministry of the Interior published a white paper (English version here) about “Trusted Computing” and “Secure Boot” yesterday. The white paper says that “device owners must be in complete control of (that is to say able to manage and monitor) all the trusted computing security […]
It’s always encouraging to see some good open source advocacy and Namibia’s Elizabeth Asino-Joseph doesn’t disappoint with a recent piece on Namibia’s New Era news website. There’s a great justification in the opening paragraph, which reads: Namibia has limited resources to carry out government programs such as computerizing schools, providing universal access to information technology […]
Mark Taylor of Sirius has been tweeting today about how the UK public sector is waking up to the security benefits of open source software. He’s now followed this up with the tweet below: Can only be a matter of time before we see security assured Open Source in the UK… and you can quote […]
Earlier today, Bristol Wireless wrote to its local MP, Bristol South’s Dawn Primarolo (affectionately known to Private Eye readers as Red Dawn. Ed.) regarding the coalition Government’s draft Communications Data Bill, aka the “Snoopers’ Charter”, which seems to be more draconian than the previous Labour government’s proposals along similar lines (and rejoicing in the name […]
It’s that time of year when good intentions abound in the form of New Year resolutions. One of the most intriguing (don’t you mean nerdy? Ed.) that has come to light comes from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in the USA, which calls upon readers to use full disk encryption on every computer they own. […]
Computer World UK reports that a survey of wifi networks around NHS Trust hospitals in the United Kingdom has found that fewer than 1 in 5 secure data connections using encryption. Worse than that, over half have not changed the manufacturer’s default wifi access point settings, potentially making them easy targets for anyone with malicious […]
Just before Christmas, PCWorld.com ran an article speculating on the differences if the world ran its IT on secure Linux-based systems rather than insecure closed source proprietary operating systems. One reason for such speculation is that, for as long as we advocates can remember, it’s always been the next year that’s going to be the […]
Late yesterday evening, the Financial Times (the sporting pink for the casino economy. Ed. 😉 ) reported that search engine giant Google is phasing out the use of Microsoft’s Windows platform for its employees. The policy has been gradually implemented since January, when Google’s Chinese operations were hacked, which Google blames on the lack of […]
The sad plight of our dear friends the Internet Explorer user base has come to our attention. Apparently a serious security flaw in version 7 of their flagship web browser and according to the BBC, the seriousness of the problem means that security experts are advising users to switch to another browser until the issue […]
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/story.jsp?story=540603 In the beginning was Word When schools buy software, there seems to be only one choice: Microsoft. Why don’t more of them use Linux? It can do most of the work, it’s more secure and it’s free. Michael Pollitt investigates 14 July 2004 In the past week there’s been a lot of talk about […]