exinfo88

The Justice Department asks a judge to approve Patriot Act e-mail monitoring without any evidence of criminal behavior. read more  |  digg story

A company called United Nuclear is selling sugar cube-size samples of REAL AEROGEL for $30 and Big lighter-size samples for $125. read more  |  digg story

Security and critical updates are now available from the Microsoft Download Center. I run across a few 3rd party sites providing Windows Updates for people with questionable cd keys. Microsoft is making these updates for Win2000,XP, and 2003 available in a downloadable ISO image. Great for those who want to save all the trips to Windows Update! read more  |  digg story

WASHINGTON - The U.S. military's role in deterring attacks on commercial satellites is set to be strengthened in the first broad overhaul of U.S. space policy in a decade, a U.S. official said Wednesday. The policy would remove any ambiguity about official responsibility for figuring out who was behind any attack on U.S.-owned commercial satellites, said Air Force Col. Anthony Russo, head of the U.S. Strategic Command's space division. Russo said recent drafts of the policy, which he said could be announced within months, did not rule out weapons in space. Instead, they speak of taking "all appropriate measures to defend our space assets," he told a reporters at a forum organized by the private Center for Media and Security. "'All appropriate measures' is a pretty broad statement," Russo said. "It doesn't rule out weapons in space. It doesn't say go build them either." Currently, no known weapons specifically designed to apply force...

Microsoft is launching its own brand of home security software to protect Windows PCs from hackers, viruses, spyware and other net threats. The software giant will unveil the OneCare Live service in June in the US. The move puts Microsoft in direct competition with well-established companies such as Symantec and McAfee. The Windows operating system has long been a favourite of virus writers, malicious hackers and other hi-tech vandals because it is so widely used. Closing Windows The launch of OneCare Live is the latest result of Bill Gates' declaration in January 2002 to make Windows more secure. In September 2004 Microsoft released the SP2 update for Windows XP which introduced a security console that users could use to check the status of their anti-virus software, firewall and Windows updates. In the past few years it has also bought some security companies and has used their software as the basis for the new service. In 2005 Microsoft began offering its own-brand an...

SAN FRANCISCO - Web search leader Google Inc. is introducing an upgraded version of its software for users to organize and find information on any computer and to share it with friends, the company said on Thursday. Google Desktop 3 poses new challenges to Microsoft Corp.’s dominance of the way people interact with computers, but also demands users place far greater trust in Google’s capacity to protect their privacy. Google Desktop vacuums up data stored on a user’s PC and makes it accessible on any other computer in regular use by the customer at home or work or even on an airplane trip, assuming users consent to storing data on Google’s central computers.

Almost 1,000 Danish websites have been defaced by Islamic hackers protesting about controversial cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad. The attacks typically replace home pages with pro-Islam messages and condemn the publication of the images. Hack attack monitoring group Zone-H said the defacements were done both by hacker groups and individuals. Zone-H said some hackers left moderate messages but many called for a violent response to the cartoons' publication. Fast response "We have never seen so many defacements that are politically targeted in such a short time," said Roberto Preatoni, founder and administrator of Zone-H. "What is extraordinary for this Danish case is the speed in which the community united," he added. Mr Preatoni said monitoring of hacker chat channels revealed that hackers and groups in different Islamic nations had banded together to make the protests more effective. Attacks were known to have come from groups in Turkey, Saudi A...