Wired News: Web Banking to Upgrade Security
“BOSTON — If you do banking over the internet, generally the drill is pretty simple: You enter your user name and password, and away you go. But behind the scenes, the bank can do a lot to check you out: Are you at your home computer, or at one […]

The Register: eBay scam gang jailed
“A trio who conspired together to fleece eBay users worldwide out of around £300,000 in a long-running scam were jailed for a combined total of eight and a half years at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court on Friday. Nicolae Cretanu, 30, and his wife Adriana, 23, a Romanian couple based in […]

BBC News: Warcraft game maker in spying row
“Game maker Blizzard has been accused of spying on the four million players of World of Warcraft.
Net activists branded software used to spot cheats “spyware” because it gathers information about the other programs running on players’ PCs.
In its defence Blizzard said nothing was done with the information […]

CNN: Two U.S. soldiers charged with prisoner abuse
“WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. military has charged two soldiers with assaulting detainees in Afghanistan, according to a news release issued Sunday.
The soldiers — whose names were not released — are accused of punching prisoners at a U.S. base in Oruzgan province in southern Afghanistan.
According to the military’s […]

Washington Post: U.S. Passports to Receive Electronic Identification Chips
“The State Department yesterday issued final rules for implanting electronic identification chips into all U.S. passports, despite continuing controversy over the security of the system and its impact on personal privacy.
The regulations mean that as of October 2006, all new and renewed U.S. passports will contain radio […]

Yahoo! News: Iran Film Ban Attempts to Curtail Freedoms
“TEHRAN, Iran - There won’t be any liquor-swilling God-denyers on the Iranian silver screen any time soon. Drug takers, secularists, liberals, anarchists and feminists are out, too.
That’s what a committee of Islamic clerics, led by new hard-line President Ahmadinejad, ruled earlier this week when it banned foreign […]

Asbury Park Press: Principal curbs kids’ Internet activity
“When students post their faces, personal diaries and gossip on Web sites like Myspace.com and Xanga.com, it is not simply harmless teen fun, according to one Sussex County Catholic school principal.
It’s an open invitation to predators and an activity that Pope John XIII Regional High School in Sparta […]

CNN: Iran anti-Israel remarks slammed
“TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) — Several world capitals have condemned Iran’s leader for saying Israel should be “wiped off the map,” and Israel’s vice premier has called for Tehran to be expelled from the United Nations.
During a meeting with protesting students at Iran’s Interior Ministry, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad quoted a remark from […]

CNN: Amnesty assails Brazil over human rights record
“SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) — Brazil is not committed to fighting human rights abuses, Amnesty International charged Tuesday.
The group cited as examples the murder of an American nun in the Amazon and the massacre of 29 people by police near Rio de Janeiro this year.
In a report released […]

CNN: Watchdog says FBI violated surveillance rules
“WASHINGTON (CNN) — A government watchdog is calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate at least 13 occasions of alleged improper use of FBI surveillance, including searches and seizures of e-mail and bank records.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) released 93 pages of internal FBI documents obtained through […]

CNN: Civil rights icon Rosa Parks dies at 92
“(CNN) — Rosa Parks, whose act of civil disobedience in 1955 inspired the modern civil rights movement, died Monday in Detroit, Michigan. She was 92.
Parks’ moment in history began in December 1955 when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man […]

CNN: Terror suspect’s torture claim rejected
“ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (AP) — Jury selection is to begin Tuesday after a judge rejected a terror suspect’s claim that his confession was obtained illegally through torture.
U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee ruled Monday that prosecutors can use a confession by Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, who charged with joining al Qaeda […]

Wired News: No Longer Safe for Work: Blogs
“Robert Mason (not his real name) would love to spend a few minutes during lunch catching up on blog posts from around the web, but his company doesn’t allow it. The financial institution where Mason works as a vice president has security filters set up to block access […]

Amnesty International: Torture “Evidence” is Unacceptable
“Torture is never acceptable and evidence extracted under torture should never be admissible in any court, except in proceedings against the alleged torturer.
Amnesty International has joined forces with 13 other organizations in asking the UK Law Lords to overturn a 2004 judgement which permits the admissibility of evidence obtained by […]

ACLU: ACLU Applauds Unanimous Kansas Supreme Court Decision Reversing Conviction of Gay Teen Unfairly Punished under “Romeo and Juliet” Law
“TOPEKA, KS – The Kansas Supreme Court today unanimously struck down part of a law that sent a gay teenager to prison for over 17 years, when a heterosexual teen would have served only 15 months […]

CNet News: Separating myth from reality in ID theft
” Gretchen Hayes was understandably concerned when she received a letter warning that she could be at risk of identity theft.
A laptop had been stolen from the University of California at Berkeley in March, and stored on it was personal information on 98,369 graduate students or graduate-school […]

CNN: Terror suspect: Saudis tortured him
“ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (CNN) — A U.S. citizen accused of participating in an alleged al Qaeda plot to assassinate President Bush testified Wednesday he was tortured by Saudi authorities into making confessions after his arrest in 2003.
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali said he confessed to taking part in terror activities only because […]

An anonymous Hacktivismo News reader submits:
“I ran across the web site for Tom DeLay, http://www.tomdelay.com, and thought I’d spread the good word. Just so we’re clear, I am not advocating that this URL be given to any hackers who may choose to do nefarious things. I would NEVER condone such behavior!”
Sorry, but you came to […]

BBC News: US planning invasion, says Chavez
“Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chavez, says he is in possession of intelligence showing that the United States plans to invade his country.
In a BBC interview, Mr Chavez said the US was after his nation’s oil, much as it had been after Iraq’s.
But he stressed that any invasion would never be […]

The Register: Irate Chinese threaten Google boycott
“China has thrown a predictable strop at Google after the search monolith apparently bowed to Taiwanese pressure to stop calling the island a province of China on its popular maps service.
As we recently reported, Taiwan emailed Google to insist it is in fact the Republic of China. Foreign ministry […]