New Research On Computer Backdoors Reveals Disturbing Long Term Risks For All Netizens

Nov 052012
 

Research by the University of Toronto Citizen Lab shows that computer back doors are a permanent security risk to users through out the world.

Their research based on events in the middle east demonstrates readily available commercial software is being used by governments to infiltrate computers used by critics and dissidents.

Bloomberg news reported the case of Ahmed Mansoor who was sitting in “his study in Dubai and made the mistake of clicking on a Microsoft Word attachment that arrived in an e-mail, labeled “very important” in Arabic, from a sender he thought he recognized.

“With that click, the pro-democracy activist unwittingly downloaded spyware that seized on a flaw in the Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) program to take over his computer and record every keystroke. The hackers infiltrated his digital life so deeply they still accessed his personal e-mail even after he changed his password.

Since then, Mansoor, 42, an electrical engineer and father of four, says he has suffered two beatings by thugs in September during his campaign for citizens’ civil rights in the Persian Gulf federation of the United Arab Emirates. While those assailants remain unknown, researchers say they’ve figured out what was behind the virtual assault.

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Less Restrictions On China’s Overseas Media Than At Home

May 052011
 

China has been expanding its media outlets worldwide at a staggering pace putting out its own views on world affairs to wider and wider audience.

This has raised concerns in some corners about pro China propoganda and distorted news judgement sidling into foreign countries including the U.S.

But a study by Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism entitled Global Media Wars has found the reporting for foreign audiences by China’s state TV network CCTV is freer and more open than may have been expected.

The study by graduate students in early 2011 monitored five state-funded, English-language TV news channels available in tens of millions of homes worldwide. This provided data for an analysis of how each covered Egypt’s revolution, as well as a range of other issues.

It  found CCTV had technical glitches and production values were not as high as other large networks but as for content well it was much freer than would have been expected from a State in which censorship and information restrictions are commonplace.

This is not to say it is not state controlled and censorship is not a factor but it is not as dramatic as probably once would have been which is something of a subjective measure. 

And it did note that journalists inside China, reporting for the domestic audience did not enjoy the same latitude as their colleagues producing for the foreign markets.

Overall an excellent and interesting project that anyone with an interest in media issues should read.