Malaysia to block internet content

Malaysia has joined the club!
According to latest news reports from Reuters, the country intends to impose an Internet filter to block "undesirable" content.

Who is next?

SEC ban social networks during games!

Imagine walking into Gator Stadium this fall and watching Tim Tebow throwing a game winning pass at the end of overtime. How do you celebrate in today's age? After hugging everyone around you and doing the chomp, you would probably take out your phone and do one or more of the following:

* Take a picture and upload it to Twitpic or Facebook
* Update your Twitter status to say " Unbelievable Throw! Go Gators"
* Take a video and upload it to Facebook or YouTube.
Well, none if these are going to work.
Recently, the SEC released their policy to restrict the use of social media during any of their football games this fall. Part of the issue is $3 billion deal that CBS has with the conference over the next 15 years according to The St Petersburg Times that gives them the only "authorized" media coverage of all SEC games.

Marines blocked Facebook.

The marines have made it into this blog! They have officialy blocked facebook access from all their networks.

From all people THEY should know that it is almost impossible to block facebook.

The Corps is reported to have forbidden access to sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace while it draws up a waiver system for permitting access during the course of work. The ban is expected to last a year.
The report says that the marines are concerned about the potential for viruses and malware living on these sites to infect the department's computers through the network. There is also concern that sensitive information could be released online, potentially compromising operations and security.

More companies block Facebook!

Canada.com reports that In the past six months, there's been a 20% increase in the number of companies blocking Facebook, Twitter and other social networking web sites.
Their report is based on a study released by ScanSafe, released this week.

James Norrie, the associate dean and professor at Ryerson University's Ted Rogers School of Management, harshly criticized the trend. He said that banning employees from using social-networking sites is "one of the most awful things businesses can do to themselves."
"The whole notion of trying to take technology away from (workers) is as good as spanking them and sending them to their room," said Norrie.
I can't think of a better way to say it!

FOE - Feed Over Email

Reuters has a story about FOE (Feed Over Email) - a tool that allows users in Internet censored countries to access foreign news websites or RSS feeds over email.
The tool allows users to receive RSS feeds from foreign websites without the need to find a working proxy server or install any proxy software. The idea is pretty simple, the tool is built on top of SMTP and all you need is a secure email client and a secure email server.

Reuters say that this technology is currently tested by the US Government.

This is very exciting. This is the first time I hear that the US goverment is taking real action in the process of bringing uncensored news to china.

I have a few other ideas for the US goverment, maybe I should give them a call?

How Dangerous are public Wi-Fi hotspots?

CNN has a nice story about the dangers of rough Wi-Fi hotstpots.

In this video they show how easy it is to hack your communication while using the Heathrow airport public Wi-Fi network

Internet Filtering in the Middle East

The OpenNet Initiative has released their new report about Internet Filtering in the Middle East and North Africa. According to their study, censorship across the Middle East is on the rise, and the scope and depth of filtering are increasing. Filtering is both political and social, and the only onces that still don't filter any material are Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and the West Bank. And Israel of course. All the others work hard on blocking whatever they can. Bahrain, Iran, Syria and Tunisia have the strictest political filtering practices in the region.

It is insteresting to see that while the world is getting more and more global, some countries are doing anything they can, to stay more and more local.

It seems that the fear from free information makes quite a lot of Arab leaders loose sleep.