FC: Online porn; Forbes on Net-regulation; Australian intrusions

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Updates on court challenge to COPA antierotica law:
  http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19991105/wr/internet_porn_2.html
  http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,32313,00.html


> Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 14:03:28 -0500
> To: declan () well com
> From: Reusch <reusch () home com>
> Subject: Re: FC: More on Australian official demanding Net-regulation
>  --  demonstrating ignorance to the world
>
> Dear Declan,
>
> Speaking of regulating the Internet, I don't know if you saw the 
> first of these Forbes articles. I include the second because it
> was in the same Nov. 1 issue, and of interest.
>
> Regards,
>
>   Michael
>
> Source: http://www.forbes.com/forbesglobal/99/1018/0221020a.htm
>
> Regulate the Internet? The very idea sends
> shivers down a lot of spines, ours included. But
> one of the World Wide Web's inventors argues
> that only regulation can save it from its own
> excesses. 
>
> Bring in the cyberpolice 
>
>                  By Christopher Watts 
>
>                  Cyberspace is getting scary. Those sleazy
>                  porn sites. Viruses. Gaudier and gaudier ads.
>                  Unstoppable spam e-mail. You click OK on an
>                  e-commerce item and hope that your money
>                  doesn't vanish into some Internet bandit's
>                  account in Lagos. If things get much worse,
>                  logging on to the Net may be as perilous as
>                  straying into a bad part of town after dark. 
>
> Source: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/99/1101/6411390a.htm
>
> Requiem for a Bright Idea 
>
>                  By Julie Pitta 
>
>                  DAVID CHAUM SAVORED HIS first taste of
>                  success two years ago. A brilliant scientist
>                  whose specialty is cryptology, he started
>                  DigiCash in 1989 to create an on-line
>                  currency as secure and private as cash in
>                  the physical world. By 1997 he had lured
>                  venture backing, snagged the celebrated
>                  guru Nicholas Negroponte as chairman and
>                  signed a St. Louis bank as his first client. If
>                  the cashless society was imminent, he
>                  would be among the chief beneficiaries.


> From: dakin () nationalpost com
> X-Web-site: http://www.nationalpost.com
> Date: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 13:23:46 -0400
> To: declan () well com
> Subject: Oops - Aussie ISP leaves pw file open
>
> [Thought the Politech folks might be interested in this news from Australia ]
>
> Optus calls police after ISP breached
>
> One of Australia's largest Internet service providers has been forced to
> advise all customers to change their passwords after a major security
> breach was uncovered this morning.
>
> Cable and Wireless Optus called in police after what it calls "an
> unauthorised intrusion" into its system, but angry customers say the breach
> was the company's own fault.
>
> The company operates under the Optusnet, Microplex and DingoBlue banners,
> and a huge file containing all the login passwords was made available to
> anyone who wanted them.
>
> Optus says as soon as its staff were made aware of the breach, it moved to
> close the security loophole.
>
> However, it took the company nearly 18 hours before it alerted its 100,000
> customers via an email that their passwords could no longer be considered
> secret and should be changed immediately.
>
> Full story at:
> http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/internet/1999/11/item19991103191534_1.htm
>
>
> David Akin / Technology Reporter
> National Post / dakin () nationalpost com
> VOX: 416.383.2372 / FAX: 416.383.2443
> 300-1450 Don Mills Road
> Don Mills / Ontario / CANADA / M3B 3R5


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