SecurityFocus: Groups fight Internet wiretap push
“Companies and advocacy groups opposed to the FBI’s plan to make the Internet more accommodating to covert law enforcement surveillance are sharpening a new argument against the controversial proposal: that law enforcement’s Internet spying capabilities are just fine as it is.
In comments filed with the FCC Tuesday, advocates with the […]

The New York Times: Blogs Provide Raw Details From Scene of the Disaster
“For vivid reporting from the enormous zone of tsunami disaster, it was hard to beat the blogs.
The so-called blogosphere, with its personal journals published on the Web, has become best known as a forum for bruising political discussion and media criticism. But the […]

The New York Times: Internet Use Said to Cut Into TV Viewing and Socializing
“SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 29 - The average Internet user in the United States spends three hours a day online, with much of that time devoted to work and more than half of it to communications, according to a survey conducted by a […]

Wired News: LAPD: We Know That Mug
“LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Police Department is experimenting with facial-recognition software it says will help identify suspects, but civil liberties advocates say the technology raises privacy concerns and may not identity people accurately.
“It’s like a mobile electronic mug book,” said Capt. Charles Beck of the gang-heavy Rampart […]

SocietyGuardian: Nanotechnology boost for medical diagnosis
“Don’t tell Prince Charles, but scientists in the US have turned to nanotechnology in the fight against cancer. While HRH’s worries over the science of the very small sparked headlines last year about the world being consumed by “grey goo”, doctors at Harvard medical school have been injecting magnetic nanoparticles […]

CNN: Uzbek vote called ‘undemocratic’
“TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (Reuters) — Uzbekistan’s parliamentary election on Sunday fell significantly short of international standards because it featured only parties loyal to President Islam Karimov, Europe’s main human rights body said on Monday.
“Although minor improvements since the 1999 elections were identified, the mission concludes that the elections did fall significantly short […]

The EFF is developing software to make the anonymous use of the internet easier for the average user:

Tor is a toolset for a wide range of organizations and people that want to improve their safety and security on the Internet. Using Tor can help you anonymize web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and […]

Human Rights Watch: Angola: Between War and Peace in Cabinda
“The armed conflict in Angola’s Cabinda province, an oil-rich enclave separated from the rest of the country by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is one of the world’s longest but least reported armed conflicts. For more than forty years, Cabindans have been subjected to persistent […]

India Daily: UFO Sightings over Iranian nuclear installations – Iranian Air Force orders shoot at sight but admits technical inability
“Iranians complained about Unidentified Flying Objects at very low altitudes around its nuclear installations all around the country. United States has excellent satellite imagery and hence do not need low altitude spy planes to monitor the […]

CNN: Yushchenko declares victory in Ukraine re-vote
“KIEV, Ukraine (CNN) — Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko declared victory early Monday in Ukraine’s presidential election, telling supporters it is the dawn of a new political era in the former Soviet republic.
Although final results will be released Monday morning, Yushchenko had a huge lead in early returns, and exit […]

The Register: EU biometric RFID scheme unworkable, says EU tech report
“European plans for biometric passports and visas have been derailed by, er, European plans for biometric passports and visas. A technical committee set up to report to the Council of Ministers on the implementation of a uniform visa format has concluded that collisions between contactless […]

InternetNews: Cyber Criminals Prove Elusive
“It was a great year for catching cyber criminals, but the culprits behind some of the most damaging software viruses of 2004 are proving adept at eluding authorities, security experts say.
Tracking virus writers — and more importantly, gathering evidence against them — is a thorny problem for law enforcement agencies worldwide. […]

InternetNews: Countdown to RFID
“When Wal-Mart first mandated that its top suppliers start using RFID to help it track shipments, the Jan. 1, 2005 deadline seemed a long time away. With that target date upon us, the automatic identification and tracking of products in the supply chain remain a work in progress.
“When they first mandated the […]

azcentral.com: Kids naughty, so dad sells their gifts on eBay
“There’s not much laughter today at the home of a Pasadena information technology specialist who has decided to auction off his kids’ Christmas presents - and possibly dismantle the family tree - because the youngsters, ages 9, 11 and 15, have been naughty, not nice.
“One thing […]

Ok, not actually “Fuck the North”, I’m just instigating but… back on November 9 we posted an article about a website called “Fuck the South” that’s generated the biggest comments flamewar in Hacktivismo history with tempers flaring on all sides.
Today Dood points us to The North Sucks, a rebuttal site to Fuck The South and […]

CNN: TSA modifies pat-downs to exclude breasts
“WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Transportation Security Administration announced late Wednesday that it is modifying pat-down procedures at airports — a decision that comes after hundreds of complaints, most of them from women, that the procedure is too intrusive.
Under the new guidelines, screeners will not be able to pat-down a […]

Xinhua News Agency: China closes 1,129 porn web sites
“BEIJING, Dec. 22 (Xinhuanet) — China has closed 1,129 pornographic web sites since the nationwide crackdown began this July, according to Internet Society of China (ISC) here Wednesday.
Since the web site, www.china.cn was opened June 10 by the ISC, it has received 95,000 reports of pornographic and […]

The Christian Science Monitor reports that poor states tend to give more charitably than the richer states in Who are the nation’s ‘cheapstates’? Try the blue ones.:

At this time of the year, charities of every shape and size are hunting for the most generous donors. To find them, the Catalogue for Philanthropy has a counterintuitive […]

I just set up my new personal website, http://www.securitypunk.com/. There’s not much on it that would interest anyone yet, except for this anonymous emailer. Be sure to read the sections below the form before you use it.
Enjoy.

CNN: Study: Mobile phone radiation harms DNA
“MUNICH/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Radio waves from mobile phones harm body cells and damage DNA in laboratory conditions, according to a new study majority-funded by the European Union, researchers said on Monday.
The so-called Reflex study, conducted by 12 research groups in seven European countries, did not prove that mobile phones […]