Anonymous Aussies take responsibility for Paypal shutdown

December 10th, 2010

Sydney Morning Herald reveals that a Sydney man (name to be kept secret) was responsible for the denial of service attacks of Paypal, Mastercard and Visa websites, in support of Julian Assange.

Dubbed “Anonymous“, the group claiming responsibility has taken Operation Payback to target companies which are not co-operating with Wikileaks or ‘doing them damage’ says, the Sydney man. “Anybody who’s accusing WikiLeaks of doing anything illegal – it’s just rubbish, because if that were true every journalist in Australia would be going to jail every time they got a leak”.

At face value, Visa and Mastercard appear to have cut off WikiLeaks based on increased pressure from the US government, although they are now feeling the heat themselves for their actions.

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Posted in Assange, Mastercard, Paypal, Visa, WikiLeaks | No Comments »

Heavy fine for SMS Spammer

December 3rd, 2010

Scott Gregory Phillips was fined $2.5 million by the Federal Court, Brisbane, for obtaining the mobile numbers of people from online dating sites and sending them unsolicited texts, some of which were charged for it.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority took proceedings against Mr Phillips for breaches of the Spam Act and the Trade Practies Act., with Mr Phillips being the first person in Australia who had contested the contraventions of the Spam Act.

Justice Logan of the Federal Court is quoted as saying that Mr Hillips was “…at the most senior level…it it involved systematic and studied deception of those who use internet dating websites.”

Read the full SMH article here.

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Posted in fine, Scott Phillips, Spam Act | 1 Comment »

Obama hands out innovation awards

November 18th, 2010

SMH reports today that President Obama presented the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, and the National Medal of Science to leading US scientists and inventors, in a White House ceremony.  These awards are said to be the highest honour to be given by the US government.

One of the award winners was Stephan Sasson who was the first builder of the digital camera prototype in 1975. These cameras “revolutionized photography, as all these folks back here can testify,” Obama said to the press.

Awards also went to Federico Faggin, Marcian Hoff and Stanley Mazor, who designed in 1971 the Intel 4004, the California firm’s first commercial microprocessor, and Stanley Prusiner, the man who discovered prions, misfolded proteins that can cause mad-cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

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Posted in awards, innovation, technology, Washington DC | No Comments »

Rankings drop after Google change

November 11th, 2010

Some small businesses dropped in rankings when Google changed its search algorithms a few weeks ago.

‘Many local businesses will find Google doesn’t position their entries as high as previously, meaning potential customers will have to scroll further down the pages of results to find them’, said search engine consultant Ash Nallawalla.

For example, a company that might have previously come up higher in the Google search results, now may have other ‘map-based’ entries above it, pushing it lower down the page and putting it below the ‘fold’ (tech-speak for the bottom of the computer screen).

Nallawalla says that businesses above the fold are far more likely to gain the attention, and custom, of people conducting a Google search.

What is the solution? Businesses need to optimise their online presence, ensure they have a physical address on their website, with phone and other relevant contact information.

View the full article here.

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Posted in Google, maps, web-based | No Comments »

Tap and Pay: new card technology

October 29th, 2010

Don’t have cash, don’t want to sign or use your pin? Just tap your card in front of the new reader, and you are off.  Mastercard and Visa have been rolling out  the “tap and pay” machines for transactions under $100 AUD.

Banks are quick to roll out the machines, with Commonwealth Bank expecting to have 20,000 introduced in stores by the end of the year. NAB expects to have 25,000 out by mid 2011.

Not all cards have the technology yet, but those that do have the logo clearly displayed on the card.

What about privacy and theft concerns? Commonwealth Bank says the $100 limit is too small to attract fraudsters, who are interested in large, big ticket purchases.  The Banking Ombudsman notes that the Electronic Funds Transfer Code of Conduct covers transactions using tap and pay, so customers can be compensated for fraud providing the other conditions under the code of conduct are met.

The full article from Sydney Morning Herald is available here.

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Posted in cybercrime, Expansion to Australia, NAB, technology | No Comments »

You have been served – by Facebook!

October 21st, 2010

Police in Victoria used non-traditional means (where traditional means had otherwise not been a success) to serve a man with court papers via Facebook, reports Sydney Morning Herald today.

A local magistrate allowed the service of the court documents by Facebook, then Senior Constable Walton read out the court order in private messages. After the final message was sent, Victorian Police were able to contact the man who confirmed he had received the messages.

The end result was that the woman who was being harassed by this man, was able to get a desired outcome by being able to serve him with these documents, although Facebook itself was of no assistance to the Police.

Internet bullying, stalking and intimidation are taken very seriously. ‘In this instance we were able to deliver justice through the same medium as the crime committed’ says Senior Constable Walton.

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Posted in cybercrime, Facebook, internet bullying | No Comments »

Ghermez Cupcakes on Kochie’s Business Builders

October 20th, 2010

We are delighted to hear that our client Ghermez Cupcakes (www.ghermez.com.au) was recently featured on Kochie’s business builders.

Click here to visit their website and check out the advice Kochie and his team were able to give to Ghazaleh Lyari and her growing business.

Posted in OPMC | No Comments »

Internet Explorer 6 and disposal methods: Why it won’t be the death of me

October 14th, 2010

As a website development firm that wants our clients to be well looked after, we are often concerned when we discover clients still using Internet Explorer 6.

If you have come across this article because you use Internet Explorer 6 and someone has told you that you should upgrade to a newer version, then please, just upgrade to the newer version now!

Some background information is available about Internet Explorer 6 here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer_6

Internet Explorer 6 is a problem both for the security of your Windows computer, and for web developers, primarily because it’s so old. It was made in 2001, almost 10 years ago.

“10 years?” I hear you say, “that’s not that old.”

Certainly from a timeline of modern inventions no, it’s not.

On a timeline of when the modern desktop computer was invented, it seems a lot older. And scale that down to the age of YouTube, Facebook and the iPhone and Internet Explorer 6 is as old as time.

So why is it so important to get rid of it?

Because the relative age of IE 6 is so old, that it has become a thorn in the side of web developers. Any new or interesting features or functionality you want on your website won’t work on IE 6. For web developers, building a great website can mean having to build a great website, and then a version in IE 6. Which is why we no longer support this in our development for clients unless it’s absolutely critical.

Worse than being a problem for web developers, it’s also a major issue for you. Not only do you get an ugly web browsing experience, you also get a web browser that is no longer maintained. Any new threats are not covered – you’re not protected against them. You might as well stick your credit card to a shop window and let someone take it – the potential risks are severe.

When I started using the internet, I used Netscape as it was the only one I knew how to get access to. If you wanted to download a file from a website – say a PDF file – you had to stay doing that the entire time until it was done – if you browsed to another web page the download would stop and you would have to start all over again. Of course in those days downloading a file was a major process and took hours instead of seconds, sometimes.

Now we have the benefit of browsers with all sorts of tools and widgets – you can download and upload and browse 30 websites in separate tabs or windows or screens if you want. If you want more, or different features in your web browsing experience, you have dozens of choices. Or, you can use several at the same time to take advantage of different benefits. But most of all, you now have choice. And there is no reason for you to be using Internet Explorer 6. At its peak of popularity, Internet Explorer 6 was used by 90% of web users. Now that number is down to about 10-20% depending on which website you visit, but my own opinion is that number is about 10%. And it’s dropping quickly – the only reason people still use it is because they’re not forced to upgrade by anyone, or that their organisation uses an ancient legacy system that needs replacing anyway – if it only runs on Internet Explorer 6.

Did you know many websites now advise people using IE 6 that they do not support this browser anymore? Or, they simply block access.

So please, if you haven’t upgraded your Internet Explorer 6 to a new version, please do it now. Because IE 6 isn’t going to be the death of me!

Posted in Internet Explorer 6 | No Comments »

Consumer devices need a clean bill of health

October 7th, 2010

Scott Charney, Microsoft’s VP for trustworthy computing spoke at the International Security Solutions Europe (ISSE) conference in Berlin, suggesting that the IT Industry, government and ISPs institute a new “health model” for the internet.

The suggested health model would mean that relevant stakeholders would have to ensure that consumer devices were safe from malware before allowing the devices to access the internet.  A health certificate would be required from consumer machines  showing what software patches were used, firewalls, and anti-viruses in place before the machine could access the internet.

Therefore, if major problems were found, such as a malware infection, the device’s bandwidth could be constricted.

A risky idea which requires a balance between privacy and risk control, but perhaps wise given increasing cybercrime worldwide.

The full article at SC Magazine is available here.

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Posted in E-mail & the internet, Microsoft, technology, web filter | No Comments »

Top 10 business/technology trends for 2010

September 23rd, 2010

So the year is not yet over, but Sydney Morning Herald would like to update us on the top 10 biztech trends for 2010.

Some of the best trends noted in the article include:

  • The ‘big four’ Microsoft upgrades, including Office 2010 and Sharepoint 2010.  And Windows 7 (as XP starts to wane).
  • Virtualisation, which will soon become a standard industry recovery and available technique.  Desktop virtualisation in particular is something for businesses to give more thought to as the technology develops.
  • Biometric Authentication - NAB now uses voiceprints to authenticate its customers for phone banking.  This technology will be available for wider deployment soon.

View all 10 trends in the article here.

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Posted in browsers, children, E-mail & the internet, Microsoft, NAB, Online Sales, technology | No Comments »

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