Preview: The Register - Public Sector
The Register - Public Sector
Biting the hand that feeds IT — sci/tech news and views for the world
Updated: 2010-09-06T14:19:16Z
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… Data Government :
ICO chides TalkTalk over sneaky StalkStalk trials
2010-09-06T12:53:50Z
Malware monitoring tech draws official ire
Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner, has rebuked TalkTalk for following its 4.2 million customers around the web without telling them.…
Children's rights group threatens ICO with judicial review
2010-09-06T12:03:58Z
Action over inaction against Youth Justice Board
Children's Rights Group ARCH has threatened to take the Information Commissioner to a judicial review after the data regulator declined to take enforcement action the Youth Justice Board for unlawfully collecting and distributing data.…
Craigslist blocks US escort ads
2010-09-06T11:24:25Z
Save our sensitive souls
Craigslist has bowed to pressure and stopped access to erotic services ads for its sensitive US customers.…
Gordon Brown joins World Wide Web Foundation
2010-09-03T15:51:22Z
That's Doctor Brown to you, says unemployed PM
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has buddied up with the Greatest Living Briton by becoming a director of the World Wide Web Foundation.…
Google's Schmidt satirised as privacy pervert
2010-09-03T14:42:24Z
Run for your lives, kids. The ice cream man is coming!
Eric Schmidt has been portrayed as a depraved privacy pervert by the US-based ConsumerWatchdog.org, which is running an advert in New York’s Times Square that mocks the Google boss.…
German gov pooh-poohs biometric ID card hack
2010-09-03T13:52:18Z
Nicht ein biggie
German hackers successfully used off-the-shelf kit to extract personal data from the federal government's supposedly secure ID cards, but the government has downplayed the significance of the attack.…
Ex-spook jailed for selling secrets
2010-09-03T12:50:25Z
12 months for CD & USB shenanigans
Ex-MI6 worker Daniel Houghton has been sentenced to 12 months in prison for unlawfully disclosing top secret material, in breach of the Official Secrets Act.…
Wikileaks founder blasts reopening of rape probe
2010-09-02T18:28:42Z
New 'unrelated' case filed in US
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has blasted Sweden's investigation into allegations against him for sexual misconduct after prosecutors reopened a probe into charges he raped a woman last month.…
StreetView passed by Kiwi cops
2010-09-02T11:28:19Z
Google's data slurp legal in New Zealand
Police in New Zealand have bounced a complaint about Google's StreetView service back to the country's Privacy Commissioner.…
UK.gov fishes for ID ideas
2010-09-02T09:14:22Z
Turns to IT suppliers, says 'Er, what do you think?'
Directgov has asked IT suppliers to come up with new thinking on identity verification.…
Porn-browsing Oz minister quits
2010-09-01T09:04:33Z
So that's why they need a firewall..
The point of the Great Australian Firewall is revealed at last today - it's to keep Aussie politicians in line.…
Ad watchdog to bite Facebook, Twitter
2010-09-01T08:18:42Z
ASA extends tentacles online
The Advertising Standards Authority is to take responsibility for more online content, not just the paid-for advertisements it currently regulates.…
Consumers should get price transparency, says OFT
2010-09-01T08:12:35Z
Calls for tougher contract law
Current law on fairness in consumer contracts contains a loophole that may be harmful to consumers, according to consumer watchdog the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). Businesses should be more restricted in their freedom to charge ancillary fees, it says.…
Judge bashes warrantless cellphone tracking
2010-08-31T21:33:41Z
Tower data protected by Fourth Amendment
A federal magistrate has ruled that information pulled from cellphone towers provides such an intimate portrait of a customer's life that government investigators must get a warrant before obtaining it.…
Game-addicted man scores rare win over software lawyers
2010-08-31T18:52:26Z
Lineage II and the unenforceable EULA
A Hawaii man who sued a company over his crippling addiction to the computer game Lineage II has gone where few litigants have managed to go, defeating the end-user agreement that said he had no right to bring the case to begin with.…
Bye-bye to bizarro bye-laws, says UK.gov
2010-08-31T15:55:04Z
Local laws, for local people
If you have plans to fry fish in Gloucester or beat your carpet along Blackpool promenade or transport a dead horse through Hammersmith and Fulham, you should know all these activities are still subject to local bye-laws. But this may be about to change, with the announcement today by Local Government Minister Grant Shapps of plans to give councils a new power to review and revoke outdated bye-laws.…
NHS Online consult service to live on: Calls go to 111
2010-08-31T15:34:53Z
Free gov phone-a-lonely-nurse service dropped
The Department of Health has said there are no immediate plans to drop the NHS Direct web service, despite signalling the end of telephone consultations.…
US gov slaps flack for fake iTunes game reviews
2010-08-27T18:29:03Z
'But we really liked 'em!' claims firm
The US Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement with a California public-relations firm in which the company agrees to stop posting reviews on Apple's iTunes Store of their clients' games, and take down the ones already posted.…
Euro bell tolls for UK's data protection regs
2010-08-27T12:23:08Z
Deadline day for European review
The Ministry of Justice has said it has responded on time to the European Commission's request that it beef up British data protection to bring it into line with European law.…
Holiday snaps? Er, no - criminal porn
2010-08-27T10:05:38Z
Know the difference - or you could be in trouble
Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Nor is it especially clever, if you’re voluntarily handing your PC over to the police to assist them in their inquiries, not to understand the difference between “holiday snaps” and pictures of a criminally pornographic or indecent nature.…
ROBOT KILL-CHOPPER GOES ROGUE above Washington DC!
2010-08-26T12:26:19Z
'Software error' sends droid off military reservation
A software error, combined with an unfortunate user action, led to a US military robot helicopter - developed from a manned version and capable of carrying a fearsome arsenal of weapons - straying into restricted airspace near Washington DC, according to reports.…
Facebook death lists spook Colombian town
2010-08-26T10:20:11Z
100 teenagers named, three already killed
The southwestern Colombian town of Puerto Asís is in a state of "panic and anxiety" after two death lists naming a total of 100 young people were posted on Facebook, warning them to get out of town within three days or face the consequences.…
Flyover states up attacks on Craigslist
2010-08-26T09:10:20Z
17 states call for end of adult ads
Attorneys-general from 17 US states have signed an open letter to Craigslist calling for the immediate closure of its adult services section.…
Wikileaks publishes secret CIA memo
2010-08-25T23:05:58Z
More to come...
Wikileaks posted a classified CIA memo on Wednesday, three weeks after the Pentagon warned the self-described whistleblower website to return a huge cache of of unpublished documents believed to be in its possession.…
Robocopter combat cargo skyhook chosen by US forces
2010-08-25T22:47:54Z
Meatsack stickjockeys no longer required
A US military competition aimed at finding a robotic unmanned helicopter able to haul supplies to isolated bases in Afghanistan has a winner, according to reports.…
Intel chief: Obama (still) driving US off cliff
2010-08-25T21:56:59Z
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
Intel CEO Paul Otellini believes that the US is heading towards a second-rate status as a technology leader, and it's the Obama administration's fault.…
Pentagon confirms attack breached classified network
2010-08-25T18:58:54Z
'Network administrator's worst fear'
The Pentagon has opened the kimono on what it described as the “most significant breach of US military computers ever,” in which a flash drive in 2008 was used to infect large numbers of computers, including those used by the Central Command overseeing combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.…
Home Office unveils new UK passport
2010-08-25T13:32:07Z
Better security, lovely pictures
The Home Office has said that new UK passports with 'strengthened security features' will be issued from October.…
Royal Society opens inquiry into why kids hate tech
2010-08-25T13:30:32Z
Lessons that is, not games, mobiles, Facebook
The Royal Society has opened its investigation into why kids are so bored with technology and computing classes in British schools - even if they're obsessed with their mobiles and iPods and applications like Facebook.…
Pupils find teacher's abuse images
2010-08-25T11:48:40Z
Who knew you could retrieve stuff from the recycling bin?
A teacher who let a class use his laptop was given a suspended sentence yesterday after kids found child sex abuse images in his recycling bin.…
How extreme is your pr0n? Depends on your lawyer
2010-08-25T11:12:14Z
Beware bluetooth bearing gifs
Analysis In matters of extreme porn, the message of recent cases seems to be that whether you get off increasingly depends on how familiar your legal team are with a law still in its courtroom infancy.…
WikiLeaks readies next release
2010-08-25T09:59:20Z
CIA documents next up
WikiLeaks used Twitter to tell the world it is to release a CIA document later today.…
Danes work up head of steam over manga exhibition
2010-08-24T14:16:01Z
Scribblesmut scorned by censorious Scandinavians
A manga exhibition in a Danish museum is attracting protestors concerned that material on display depicts fictional children in a sexual manner.…
Scareware solicitors sent to regulator
2010-08-24T14:14:03Z
Lawyers to defend P2P porn pensioner pestering
Consumer group Which? has welcomed a decision by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to send Andrew Crossley of ACS:Law to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.…
Secret X-37B space plane lost by sat-spotters for 2 weeks
2010-08-24T12:43:04Z
Roboshuttle relocated - for now
The United States' X-37B robot mini-shuttle spaceplane, which was launched into orbit on a classified mission in April, has changed its orbit. However the "secret space warplane" - as the X-37B has been dubbed by the Iranian government - has now been re-acquired by alert amateur skywatchers.…
CISx plans scrapped
2010-08-24T10:47:51Z
DWP slams brakes on gov data sharing system
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed that it has halted the development of a central data sharing system for government.…
Take-Two Interactive loses fight for Bioshock.com
2010-08-24T09:21:41Z
Game over, man
Games giant Take-Two Interactive has lost an attempt to obtain the domain name Bioshock.com through arbitration proceedings from a company that owns hundreds of thousands of domain names.…
Data protection and surveillance: Swapping the speed camera for ANPR?
2010-08-24T08:18:24Z
The great LibCon privacy test
When on holiday in the Dordogne two weeks ago (feels like two months now!), I picked up a Sunday Times newspaper which stated that the government was reducing grant-funding for speed cameras. This was given the thumbs-up by the paper which reported that many motorists see such cameras as a tax first and a life-saver second.…
Australian Sex Party stands proud
2010-08-23T14:14:58Z
Progressive support hardening, reactionaries limp into fifth place
Despite its failure to win any seats in last week’s Australian General Election, the Australian Sex Party was today celebrating its arrival on the scene as the "Major Minor Party" of Australian politics.…
Aus gov, ISPs book seats for firewall demolition
2010-08-23T14:11:53Z
New filters to catch nasty stuff
With the future of the great Australian firewall once more up for grabs, major ISPs are seeking to forestall government plans by announcing a filter of their own. However, unlike the government’s proposed filter, this one will apply specifically to sites identified as hosting child porn.…
