The Congressional Quarterly's Jeff Stein recently reported that the FBI went trawling through grocery store records in order to track down Iranian terror cells. In his article, he writes, "like Hansel and Gretel hoping to follow their bread crumbs out of the forest, the FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists." The program, however, was short lived and was quickly "torpedoed by the head of the FBI's criminal investigations division, Michael A. Mason, … Read more

On August 31, Lakshmana Kailash K. was arrested in Bangalore, India, and charged with posting insulting images of a revered historical figure on the Internet. The police claimed that he had uploaded disrespectful images of Chhatrapati Shivaji, the Indian equivalent of George Washington. Free speech, it seems, does not extend to that sort of thing in India.

Normally, this wouldn't be a press-worthy story. After all, India is not the first country to take a hard line against Internet free speech. The Thai military regime blocked the entire YouTube Web site earlier this year after a single video posted … Read more

Apple set the blogosphere on fire Monday when word leaked of the company's latest effort to limit iPhone unlocking. Recent media reports reveal that that the company has instituted a two-device-per-visit limit for iPhone purchases and has banned the use of cash for such transactions. However, the latest news indicates that Apple is now also banning the use of Apple Gift Cards for iPhone sales. Wired News confirmed the rumor on Monday afternoon. A representative from the Burlingame, Calif., Apple store told Wired News that "official" policy is now that gift cards will not be accepted for … Read more

While a class action lawsuit is definitely one way to get Comcast to behave, another perhaps more productive way to do so is to have politicians step in and regulate.

On Tuesday, I discussed the issue of Comcast's anti-BitTorrent "network management" with Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., who is a strong supporter of consumer rights and has led the battle to undo the damage caused by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA.

He was named Politician of the Year for 2006 by Library Journal, largely due to his efforts to protect the fair-use doctrine and expand Internet … Read more

The blogosphere is abuzz over an Associated Press investigative article this past Friday on the subject of Comcast's BitTorrent filtering. Briefly, there were a number of articles in early September which alleged that Comcast was using some fairly sneaky techniques to throttle BitTorrent traffic on its network. Comcast, of course, denied any such behavior. It took a month and a half, but both a mainstream media news organization as well as the Electronic Frontier Foundation have tested and confirmed the previously reported claims. It turns out that Comcast is not only throttling BitTorrent, but Gnutella and, strangely, Lotus Notes … Read more

Caller ID information is not to be trusted. Judging by the reactions I've gotten from colleagues and friends recently after they've been the victims of spoofed-ID demonstrations, it's not common knowledge that caller ID information, primarily the phone number that often appears on the recipient's telephone display, can be easily faked. Best of all for the mysterious caller, it's not illegal in the U.S. (except in cases where fraud occurs). Calls for the purpose of amusement or revenge are perfectly legal.

With the help of easy-to-use Internet calling card services, it's possible to … Read more

Later today, I will be presenting as part of a panel on the subject of political phishing at the Anti-Phishing Working Group eCrime Researchers Summit.

During the panel discussion, I will be speaking about the threats to the online fundraising model used by political candidates in the United States. While attacks in the wild have yet to be seen, there are a number of factors which make online campaign giving particularly vulnerable to phishing attacks.

To go along with my talk, Professor Markus Jakobsson and I have released a white paper which clearly explains the issues, threats and a solution … Read more

During my blog posts this week, I'll be focusing on ways in which the Internet can be used to disrupt elections and the political process. On Friday, I'll be giving a talk on the subject at the Anti Phishing Working Group eCrime Researchers Summit on the subject of Political Phishing.

In today's post: What happens when voter suppression calls get outsourced to India? How will law enforcement track down the evildoers, and what will this mean for our elections?

Shortly before the 2006 election, voters across Virginia received calls that falsely claimed that their voting places had … Read more

With Steve Jobs' recent announcement of his intention to fight off the independent iPhone developers, the question that must be asked is how will Apple try to defeat the hackers: Frequent and disruptive software updates, or lawsuits? Will Apple risk losing its most frequently (ab)used legal tool, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, to try to punish the developers of the iPhone unlocking tools?

The wait is over. After being teased over the past few weeks with rumors that Apple would turn a blind eye to iPhone hacking or *gasp* even encourage it, the news is in and it ain'… Read more