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In this Issue:

• Featured Site - Ellis Bed & Breakfast
• Greedy ISPs kept from filtering trial
• NSW passes police hacking Bill
• IE8 to arrive on 20 March
• Darwin hacker jailed for three years
• Quotes of the Day

Featured Site  

Ellis Bed & Breakfast

Welcome to Elli's Bed & Breakfast for Quality Accommodation in Kiama. Situated in the historic and picturesque Kiama's Little Blowhole...coastal township of Kiama, just 120km drive South of Sydney.

This spacious welcoming home provides very comfortable accommodation and is located a close walking distance to the centre of charming Kiama, its harbour, beach, Blowhole, Little Blowhole, railway, shops, restaurants & cafes and so much more...

Visit the Ellis Bed & Breakfast website...

Greedy ISPs kept from filtering trial  

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said that the reason some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) hadn't been chosen in the first round of ISP filtering was that they had greedily tried to get the department to pay for upgrades to their own equipment.

"Some of them, cheaply, took the opportunity to try and get the Commonwealth to fund an upgrade in their own equipment," he said, speaking at the Australian Telecommunications Users Group (ATUG) conference. "Some of them came to us and said look, we can do this no problem, zero dollar costs. So obviously we were able to start with them."

The million dollar costs which some parties had brought to the table were veiled attempts to try and get the government to upgrade their boxes, Conroy said.

"There were a few try-ons in the process, but we had to work our way through it," he said.

That was the reason the first six ISPs were chosen, Conroy said. "It was actually a function of the applications which came in. No great conspiracy theory. We're still actively engaged in conversation with a number of applicants," he assured Blue Coat's country manager Wayne Neich who had brought up the subject. ZDNet Australian March 2009. more >>>

NSW passes police hacking Bill  

Legislation to boost NSW Police covert searching and computer hacking powers looks set to go ahead after facing almost no opposition in the lower house of the NSW Parliament earlier this week.

NSW shadow Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Greg Smith, who led the opposition's stance on the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Amendment (Search Powers) Bill 2009, has given his party's "in principle" agreement to pass the Bill.

Key powers under the Bill include remote access to a suspect's computer network, the right to remove a suspect's computer for between seven to 28 days for forensic investigation, and the right to use an adjoining property without notice or impersonate anyone in order to gain physical access to a target's computer.

The opposition's major amendment to the Bill was to reduce the three-year extension period on the six-month time frame police would have to notify the suspect of covert access to their equipment.

"The opposition will seek to amend that three-year extension to 18 months," Smith said.

Police will need to be granted a warrant by a Supreme Court judge who has been declared suitable by the Attorney General under the bill. Privacy advocates have raised concerns that the bill had been structured in a way that would facilitate "judge shopping".ZDNet Australian March 2009. more >>>

IE8 to arrive on 20 March  

Microsoft Taiwan representatives have reportedly revealed that the launch date for version 8 of Internet Explorer: 20 March.

According to the Taipei Times, the announcement happened in a press conference held yesterday to unveil the Taiwanese IE8 partners. This date coincides with Microsoft's MIX web development conference to be held in Las Vegas next week.

Microsoft has also this week published a whitepaper and video that claim Internet Explorer 8 is faster more often than Chrome and Firefox on 25 popular websites. ZDNet Australia March 2009. more >>>

Darwin hacker jailed for three years  

A Northern Territory IT worker who caused millions of dollars of damage to government systems has reportedly been jailed for three years.

Computer engineer David Anthony McIntosh, 28, is a former CSG employee who crashed several government services at Berrimah Prison, Royal Darwin Hospital and the Supreme Court on 5 May last year. McIntosh also deleted over 10 thousand public servants from the system. CSG holds major contracts with the NT Government.

Ninemsn late yesterday reported McIntosh had been jailed for three years as a result of the system crashes, with Justice Stephen Southwood reportedly telling McIntosh he "didn't cause significant permanent harm (but) nonetheless it was malicious".

The Northern Territory News reported last year that McIntosh said he felt "isolated" and "stressed" due to his physical segregation from the rest of his team. McIntosh used his colleague's log-in and IP address to breach the systems. ZDNet Australia March 2009.

Quotes of the Day  

A motion to adjourn is always in order. Robert Heinlein (1907 - 1988), Lazarus Long: Time Enough For Love

Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind. Marston Bates

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865), (attributed)

These days an income is something you can't live without--or within. Tom Wilson, "Ziggy" (comic)

Brought to you by The Quotations Page

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