cbc

Report: Canadian cyberattack traced to China

A cyberattack against Canada that tried to access classified government information and forced two key departments to go offline has been traced back to China, according to a story today from CBC News.

Sources told the CBC that the attacks were initially discovered in early January but that it's unknown whether the attackers themselves were in China or just directed their attacks through the country to hide their true source.

Specifically, the attacks reached computer systems at the Canadian government's Finance Department and Treasury Board in an attempt to capture passwords for government databases. In response, the government … Read more

Canadian public TV to try out BitTorrent

Update at 10:10 a.m. PDT: The titles for Tessa Sproule and Guinevere Orvis have been tweaked.

Following closely on the heels of Norway, Canada's public broadcasting service is adopting DRM-free BitTorrent distribution for a major prime-time show.

On March 24, CBC will use BitTorrent to distribute this year's broadcast of Canada's Next Great Prime Minister. This will make Canada the first country in North America to release high-quality, DRM-free copies of a prime-time show using the popular P2P file-sharing technology.

Canada's Next Great Prime Minister, an annual competition in which young adults propose ways … Read more

Undercover reporters find PC repairmen batting .300

Hitting .300 or shooting 30 percent might be a standard of excellence in professional baseball and basketball, but in computer repair? Not exactly MVP material.

The Consumerist links to CBC Marketwatch's undercover investigation of PC repair services, which shows that employees often have a startling lack of basic knowledge about the machines they are paid to fix. Plus, while they're misdiagnosing your technical problems, they'll likely overcharge you, and maybe even access your personal files for good measure.

Scary stuff for the technophobe or anyone who doesn't have the time or resources to fix a computer. … Read more