contributed by weld pond and laney
It has been called many things, but an increasingly disturbing phenomenon has the World Wide Web being mentioned more and more alongside terms such as, "battlefield," "cyberwar," and "dangerous." The conflict in the Middle East has spurred an online war of grand proportions and at the same time merely serves as an indication of what the future may have in store for us. While the recent influx of online vandalism is not a complete surprise, it certainly drives home a message to even the most ardent disbelievers - computers have the potential to become the one of the most viable and destructive forms of ammunition in the 21st century.

ZDNet
Wired

contributed by iron river
Both Inside.com and Evote released the results of several exit polls before all polls were closed yesterday, a move traditional media outlets are none too happy about. Television no longer does this sort of thing because of a belief that stems back to the 1980s where people in the Western half of the country cried voter apathy and inaction as a result of releasing predictions too early in the voting process. While this is a legitimate concern, it is clearly the least of our worries this post election day.

AP - Tech Section
CNET

contributed by weld pond and silicosis
According to the Register, the Business Software Alliance claims it "can detect PCs running illegal software." While this certainly sounds as bizarre as it does farfetched, a read through of a paper unrelated to the BSA claims may change your mind. Marcus Kuhn's paper entitled "Soft Tempest - Hidden Data Transmission Using Electromagnetic Emanations," lends validity to this strange concept, making its potential existence highly plausible. Kuhn's paper focuses on ways in software to stego information over monitor emissions while managing to provide excellent real-world demonstrations.

The Register
Marcus Kuhn's "Soft Tempest" paper
Marcus Kuhn's "Soft Tempest" slides

contributed by laney
AT&T and PSINet are in the middle of a spam scandal that finds them both guilty of "unwittingly" doing business with spammers. Both companies are scrambling to disassociate their names and brands with any word connoting the ickiness of spam. In a striking bit of coincidence , both companies blame their respective mishap on "junior or inexperienced employees."

Info World

contributed by weld pond
In completely separate cases, two young men have entered guilty pleas for their roles in two high profile computer attacks. In one case, Jason Allen Diekman or "Shadow Knight" could receive up to 16 years in prison for the damage he caused during his repeated break-ins at NASA. In another case, a minor who goes by "Mafia Boy" has decided to plead guilty to the majority of the 66 charges that have been brought against him for the attacks he launched against CNN, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay among others.

AP via Las Vegas Sun
Reuters via Yahoo
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