censorship

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is a lightning rod for controversy, but a recent attempt to keep a low profile might just result in, well, more press. The onetime vice presidential hopeful Palin, who stepped down from the governorship this summer, will be speaking at a Right to Life event in Milwaukee, Wis., on Friday evening, and her team has mandated that there are no reporters allowed--or gadgets.

According to CNN, laptops, cell phones, cameras, and anything else that could potentially be used as a recording device will not be allowed into the auditorium. Tickets to the event were $30.… Read more

China's Green Dam-Youth Escort censorship initiative is facing hurdles as some schools and Internet cafes either don't have the software or have uninstalled it.

Initially required for all new PCs when it was introduced in June, the Chinese government revised its mandate in August and effectively lifted the burden on PC makers to package the so-called content-filtering software in computers. However, the highly controversial software is still required to be installed in PCs used in schools and public places, including Internet cafes.

Green Dam is one of many tools the government uses to control Internet content.

Read more … Read more

We learn that not only is a botnet using Twitter to store some of its data but that botnet follow Veronica. Who is a bot herself. We also ponder why leaked pictures of the Dell smartphone are so blurry. And bad news folks. Looks like no tablet for the Apple announcement, but it sounds like it will be in September.

Dell’s first phone spied on web http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/08/14/dell_smartphone_pictures/

Apple planning September event? http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10309110-37.html… Read more

This is just getting ridiculous.

John Gruber at Daringfireball.net points to the latest example of an iPhone application being stymied by Apple's App Store approval process. In this case, it's a dictionary app called Ninjawords (so called because ninjas are "smart, accurate, and really fast") that was rejected three times over the course of two months, mostly because "objectionable" words could be looked up and found in the dictionary's search function, Gruber reported.

It's a new version of an old story, but one that almost seems like a parody of the … Read more

China has indefinitely delayed enforcement of a requirement that PC makers preinstall Green Dam-Youth Escort software that experts believe would have screened not just Internet pornography but also some online political content.

The reprieve, announced by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, according to reports in The New York Times and the Associated Press, came just one day before the preinstallation rule was to go into effect.

But thus far the reprieve appears temporary: the ministry said the delay will give computer makers more time to comply with the rule, and the government also will continue to equip … Read more

The content-filtering software the Chinese government wants installed on all PCs sold in that country beginning next week was poorly developed and puts users at risk of having their computers compromised, a security expert who examined the code said on Thursday.

The Chinese government is requiring that all PCs include the Green Dam-Youth Escort software to block pornography, but it also blocks access to content related to violent computer games, illegal drugs and political speech, said Ben Feinstein, director of research at SecureWorks, a managed security service provider.

Critics are worried that the Chinese government could use Green Dam, a … Read more

An exploit for a flaw in censorware mandated by the Chinese government has been made publicly available for download on the Internet.

The buffer overflow flaw exists in the latest, patched version of Green Dam, 3.17, according to security researcher "Trancer," who claims authorship of the attack code.

"I wrote a Metasploit exploit module for Internet Explorer, which exploits this stack-based, buffer overflow vulnerability in Green Dam 3.17," Trancer wrote in his Recognize-Security blog. "I've tested this exploit successfully on the following platforms: IE6, Windows XP SP2, IE7, Windows XP SP3, Windows … Read more

Updated at 2:20 p.m. PDT with comments from HP and Lenovo.

The U.S. Trade Representative has written a letter to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce asking that the country drop its requirement that all new PCs sold in China have special filtering software installed.

The letter was sent Tuesday by Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, and expressed concern that the Green Dam-Youth Escort software required to be in all new PCs by July 1 violates World Trade Organization rules.

The Green Dam software is intended to keep … Read more

A joint venture of Siemens AG and Nokia Corp., two large European technology firms, is denying reports that Iran uses its Web-monitoring technology to censor and spy on its citizens' online activities.

Nokia Siemens Networks said Monday that it has sold telecommunications systems to the Iranian government but that any built-in monitoring technology was for voice communications and not the Internet.

"The lawful intercept capability is purely for local voice calls," spokesman Ben Roome said in an interview. "We don't know who may have provided other Internet technologies to Iran."

The company's denial comes … Read more