AI, Human Rights and the Rise of the Global South

As the current global geopolitical space becomes less friendly to Human Rights1, are there potential offsetting trends supporting them? Yes, but... it will require initiatives from the Global South for AI data-driven policies supportive of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), demonstrating the value of SDGs and Human Rights combined. more

Microsoft Releases Patches to Fix Close to a Hundred Flaws, Including for Unsupported Windows XP

Microsoft has released security updates for close to a hundred security vulnerabilities in a number of Windows operating systems. more

UK Government Reports Nearly Half of Businesses Identified Cyber Security Breaches in the Past Year

The UK government has released the results of national cybersecurity survey revealing nearly seven in ten large companies in the country have identified a breach or attack in the past 12 months. more

Documentary Balmes Israel for Stuxnet Malware Failure

Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney's "Zero Days" -- coming out on Friday -- investigates the story of the classified Stuxnet attack on Iran by the US and Israel. more

Yahoo to Confirm Massive Data Breach, Several Hundred Million Users Exposed

"Yahoo is expected to confirm a massive data breach, impacting hundreds of millions of users," reports Kara Swisher today in Recode. more

H.R. 2666 Bill Proposes Deregulating U.S. Broadband Rates, Obama Threatens to Veto

President Obama has threatened to veto a backdoor attempt by a Republican-backed bill that would undermine net neutrality protection measures. The "No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act", or H.R. 2666, proposes to prohibit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from regulating the rates charged for broadband Internet access service. more

Broadband Speeds Will Affect Saleability of Properties in the UK

Paul Budde writes: According to the Office of National Statistics in the UK, 85% of the population are regular internet users. With advances in internet technology, individuals and businesses are becoming increasingly more reliant on having instant access to high speed broadband. Statistics show that 69% of UK internet users would be put off from purchasing a home if it did not have a high speed internet connection. more

China Calls for Global “Governance System” to Regulate Internet, Activist Warn Threat to Free Speech

Speaking at the the Second World Internet Conference, a government-organized conference attended by executives of global and Chinese Internet companies, Xi called for the creation of a global "governance system" to reflect the "wishes and interests of all countries." more

Governments Divided Over Management of Core Internet Functions

Monika Ermert reporting in IP Watch: "Amidst rising voices that time is of essence to finalize the oversight transition for core internet functions from the United States government to the community of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), governments are divided over what their role should be." more

.brand Delegated? Now Comes the Fun Part

A little over a year ago I wrote a series of articles to help guide those with a .brand TLD through the delegation process. After ICANN's recent push for .brands to delegate, the majority are now across the line. There would be many organizations out there currently feeling like first time parents who've just brought a newborn home from the hospital -- it's been a long process already, and the hard work hasn't even begun. more

Iraq Shuts Down Internet Once Again to Combat Cheating

Earlier this morning, the national fiber backbone of Iraq was taken offline in an effort to combat cheating on 6th grade placement exams. more

More Petition by Google for Greater Transparency

Google reported today that it has filed an amended petition in the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The company, in a blog post, reports: "This petition [PDF] mirrors the requests made to Congress and the President by our industry and civil liberties groups in a letter [PDF] earlier this year. Namely, that Google be allowed to publish detailed statistics about the types (if any) of national security requests we receive under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, including Section 702." Request has also been made by Google for the court to hold its hearing in open rather than behind closed doors. more

A Look at the New ISO27001:2013 Revision

Recently the 2013 revisions of the internationally acclaimed standard for information security management, ISO27001 and accompanying 27002, 'Code of practice for information security management controls' were released. Whether you're new to this or are looking for a smooth transition, it's important to reflect on the changes made. Being compliant with the latest information security standards is becoming more and more important these days. more

New Australian Law Could Turn ISPs Into Online Sheriffs

According to reports today, the Australian federal government made a drastic change to a bill that could potentially allow ISPs to police online traffic. Karen Dearne of the Australian IT reports: "Electronic Frontiers Australia spokesman Geordie Guy said it was unclear if the draft Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment Bill was an "attempt to sneak through" a wholesale expansion of intercepts of private emails and file-sharing or merely a badly drafted bill." more

Further Ideas in Mark Similarity Measurement

In the final three articles in my series looking at algorithms for measuring the similarity of marks, I extend the ideas to provide a more sophisticated and adaptable framework. Article 4 introduces a similarity score based on color distance in RGB space, offering a quantitative approach to trademark similarity. Article 5 refines word mark similarity by using the International Phonetic Alphabet to improve phonetic analysis. The final article presents a method for sorting colors by dominant shade, aiding in trademark review and potential guidelines for color mark protection. more