L&g Cyber Discussion Threads

[waldron] 13/9/2009 16:51

Snooper's handbook for council tax hikes
Glen Owen, Mail on Sunday
13 September 2009
If you have just proudly added an en suite bathroom to your house or laid a tiled floor in your conservatory, then beware.




Hikes: Re-evaluations are predicted to lead to sharp rises in council tax for many

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As part of secret plans for a council tax hike on the middle classes, inspectors have been armed with a new 'snoopers handbook' to ensure that no home improvement - however discreet --escapes their scrutiny.
The Big Brother manual trains valuation experts how to follow up leads from 'informants' by undertaking 'detective work', including photographing properties, plundering estate agents' details and room-by-room inspections.

- How to challenge your council tax


In July, The Mail on Sunday revealed that the Valuation Office Agency is compiling a database that will give all 23million homes in England one of 100 'dwelling house codes', which are expected to form the basis of a council tax revaluation if Labour wins the next Election.

Middle-income families are likely to bear the brunt of any tax increases as the Government struggles to fill the black hole on its balance sheet caused by the recession.

The handbook, complete with audio commentary, sets out how inspectors can catch homeowners who have socalled 'value significant' features. One exercise reads: 'Your office has been informed the roofspace has been converted into a fourth bedroom. Your task is to establish whether existing details [for the house] require amendment.'

Another states that 'information has been obtained' about a house that has been 'extended to include another living room and two new bedrooms with en suites. It also emerges that the house has a partial view of the mountains'. The trainee inspectors then have to change their valuation to place the home in a higher bracket.

A further exercise trains inspectors to look out for 'a garage large enough for two cars and a drive large enough for three', a 'hardwood conservatory with single glazing and tiled floor', a 'full sea view' and recent modernisation.

The language in the manual will strike homeowners who have carried out improvements as positively Orwellian. Alongside pictures of homes and their value-adding features - including in some cases a Sherlock Holmes-style magnifying glass on the pictures for inspecting building features --inspectors are urged to 'use detective work'.

They are told: 'The guide is effectively a glossary of the different types of dwellings within the country. You could even say that it's a kind of illustrated social history.' They are even wished 'good luck' on their missions.


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1-4 of 17»
« click to reveal more » Last night, Conservative Local Government spokeswoman Caroline Spelman said: 'Labour Ministers have been caught red-handed training a cadre of State snoopers for a council tax revaluation. These new tools blow out of the water any claims that the revaluation has been postponed and proves more tax hikes are on the cards if Gordon Brown clings to power.

'Families face being taxed for their sash windows and en suite bathrooms. There is nothing that Gordon Brown won't tax. These inspectors have alarming powers to enter people's homes --and there is clear evidence that they now intend to exercise them.'

A VOA spokesman denied the manual was a sinister training tool. He said: 'The VOA is completely open about how it values properties for council tax and there is a wealth of information on its website. Any suggestion our staff are trained to snoop around homes in order to increase their bandings is wrong.'

[ariane] 13/7/2009 15:59

Snooping through the power socket
Power sockets can be used to eavesdrop on what people type on a computer.

Security researchers found that poor shielding on some keyboard cables means useful data can be leaked about each character typed.

By analysing the information leaking onto power circuits, the researchers could see what a target was typing.

The attack has been demonstrated to work at a distance of up to 15m, but refinement may mean it could work over much longer distances.

Hotel attack

"Our goal is to show that information leaks in the most unexpected ways and can be retrieved," wrote Andrea Barisani and Daniele Bianco, of security firm Inverse Path, in a paper describing their work.

The research focussed on the cables used to connect PS/2 keyboards to desktop PCs.

Usefully, said the pair, the six wires inside a PS/2 cable are typically "close to each other and poorly shielded". This means that information travelling along the data wire, when a key is pressed, leaks onto the ground wire in the same cable.

The ground wire, via the PC's power unit, ultimately connects to the plug in the power socket, and from there leaks out onto the circuit supplying electricity to a room.

Even better, said the researchers, data travels along PS/2 cables one bit at a time and uses a clock speed far lower than any other PC component. Both these qualities make it easy to pick out voltage changes caused by key presses.

A digital oscilloscope was used to gather data about voltage changes on a power line and filters were used to remove those caused by anything other than the keyboard.

"The PS/2 signal square wave is preserved with good quality... and can be decoded back to the original keystroke information," wrote the pair in a paper describing their work.

They demonstrated it working over distances of 1, 5, 10 and 15m from a target, far enough to suggest it could work in a hotel or office.

"The test performed in the laboratory represent a worst case scenario for this type of measurement, which along with acceptable results emphasizes the feasibility of the attack on normal conditions," they added.

The pair said their research was "work in progress" and expect the equipment to get more sensitive as it is refined.

The attack is due to be demonstrated at the Black Hat conference that takes place in Las Vegas from 25-30 July.

Story from BBC NEWS:


Published: 2009/07/13 13:21:27 GMT

[waldron] 11/7/2009 20:04

Call for limits on web snooping
Governments and companies should limit the snooping they do on web users.

So said Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web, who said that growing oversight of browsing could have a pernicious effect.

A greater part of the value of the web lay in the lack of constraints on what people could do with it.

He also warned that attempts to censor what people could say or what they could do online were ultimately doomed to failure.

Open triumph

"When you use the internet it is important that the medium should not be set up with constraints," he said.

The internet, said Sir Tim, should be like a blank piece of paper. Just as governments and companies cannot police what people write or draw on that sheet of paper so they should not be restricted from putting the web to their own uses.

"The canvas should be blank," he said

While governments do need some powers to police unacceptable uses of the web; limits should be placed on these powers, he said.

" It's a wonderful experiment and I hope it will have consequences for the way TV is produced in the future "
Russell Barnes, Digital Revolution producer

If people know that where they go online and the terms they look for are under scrutiny it could have all kinds of pernicious effects, he warned.

Repressive regimes, such as China and Iran, that work hard to limit what people can do online would struggle to maintain that control over time, he said.

"The trend over the years is that the internet in the end goes around censorship and openness eventually triumphs," he said. "But it is by no means an easy road."

Sir Tim made his comments during a speech at an event that helped to launch the BBC Two series Digital Revolution.

The four-part series aims to explore the history of the World Wide Web and generate debate about how it is changing the way people live their lives. It aims to debate how the web is changing the nation state, how it affects identity, freedom and anonymity.

Over the next eight months as the programme is being produced, viewers will be encouraged to get involved by sending in questions for interview subjects and being able to produce their own clips using the rushes generated during filming.

Social media researcher and broadcaster Aleks Krotoski will present the series of programmes.

Story from BBC NEWS:


Published: 2009/07/10 17:21:05 GMT

[waldron] 01/6/2009 06:25

War on fakes goes under microscope
Andrew Leach, Financial Mail
31 May 2009, 10:22am
Microscopic edible identity tags are to be launched as the latest weapon for luxury goods manufacturers and food and drug makers in a £600bn-a-year battle against counterfeiters.




Tagged: The IntelliMark could be used to track fresh produce

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Smiths Group, which makes everything from airport luggage scanners to medical devices, has developed the revolutionary security markers that are smaller than the diameter of a human hair.
They are the first edible and intelligent tags and will help companies protect their brands and the integrity of their supply chain.

The tags, in the shape of bar codes, logos or even pictures, such as fish, can be made of edible starch and marked on foods, such as tomatoes, to ensure they are sourced from where the buyer expects. They can also be used on pills to expose counterfeit medicines.

They may also be made of plastic and used as minuscule labels on luxury goods brands that are often targeted by counterfeiters, such as Rolex watches and Gucci handbags.

The product, called IntelliMark, is already being tested by some drugs companies and has been launched by Smiths Detection in partnership with US company Armark.

As well as developing the identity tags, applied during the production process, Smiths pro-ducethe scanning equipment that enables products to be verified.

Last year, the global trade in counterfeit goods, which encompasses everything from medicines to DVDs and cigarettes, was estimated to have been worth about £500bn a year. And with the recession fuelling demand for cheaper goods, there are estimates that the trade could hit £600bn this year - 50% higher than the world's illegal drugs trade.

While luxury manufacturers want to protect the exclusivity and quality of their products, the consequences of fake drugs can be a matter of life or death.

Smiths' system allows for several levels of hidden security, as well as the ability to verify contents, monitor environmental conditions and identify the origin of the product.

It means a food company could put a mark on a particular product to verify where it came from and add another layer that could be read to determine whether the food exceeded a set temperature while in transit.

Stephen Phipson, president of Smiths Detection, said: 'The need to protect intellectual property and other brand-owner rights is a critical concern of businesses in today's global economy.

'Counterfeits continually flood the marketplace and IntelliMark will help industries to protect their products and business to help maintain legitimate revenue channels.'

IntelliMark has been developed by Smiths Detection's Product Inspection Division, which has annual turnover of about £25m and sales in more than 150 countries.

[waldron] 23/3/2009 10:34

source: the connexion

CCTV cameras to be tripled
March 23, 2009
INTERIOR Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie has promised to triple the number of CCTV cameras on public streets by the end of the year.

The number is expected to increase from 20,000 to 60,000. Ms Alliot-Marie says that towns that have cameras are often able to double the rate of detection of street crimes.

Towns with CCTV also typically see a drop in crime.

"Over the last five years, in the context of a general tendency to lower crime rates, the amount of crime has dropped nearly twice as fast in areas protected by cameras," said Ms Alliot-Marie.

In Orléans installing cameras has seen street crime drop by 58%. The councillor in charge of security, Florent Montillot, said their €1.9 million network would even save money as it allows them to pay less insurance on public buildings, which are no longer vandalised, and phone costs, as public services use the cameras fibreoptic network to make calls.

In Hauts-de-Seine the council says cameras have even helped uncover fraud cases – where a person has taken money out of their own account then claimed it as stolen, or burned their own car to claim insurance.

Across France, 300 communes have cameras installed (about 1%), though this is expected to rapidly rise to 500.

Out of these, 120 have monitoring centres to which images from around the commune are relayed, linked up to the police and gendarmerie. The state is helping fund installations like these.

[waldron] 14/3/2009 09:15

March 13, 2009 - 9:34 PM
Future web will "rock the boat", says creator
Image caption: The inventor, Tim Berners-Lee (Keystone)The worldwide web has altered society, but unbelievable future developments will totally "rock the boat", says the web's creator on its 20th birthday.
British scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee made the remark on Friday at his former place of work, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or Cern, in Geneva.

While speaking of his fond memories of his time at Cern - "an excellent place to start a new idea" - Berners-Lee stressed the importance of looking to the future of the web.

"The rate of creative new designs and development and innovation on the web is getting faster and faster all the time," he told the 500-strong audience in his keynote speech.

Today there are upwards of 80 million websites, with many more computers connected to the internet, hundreds of millions of users and billions of web pages.

"The web is not all done; this is just the tip of the iceberg. New changes are going to rock the boat even more. When we get new data out there on the web things will happen that will change the world, as things will be processed on our behalf by machines which are much more powerful," said Berners-Lee, who is director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), that guides its technological development.

Another key future development is web-to-mobile phone initiatives, he explained.

"Getting the web onto phones is very important, as there are many more browsers on phones than laptops, and in developing societies it's really exciting as that's the only way people use the web," he explained, who added that 80 per cent of the world's population still doesn't surf the web.

Berners-Lee is also fired up about collaborative data projects and open social networking projects.

Potential threats
But he also said he was concerned by a number of threats, in particular the emergence of user profiling on the internet and "snooping".

"The fact that when information travels across the web it isn't interfered with, snooped or molested, is very important," Berners-Lee told swissinfo.

He pointed to new systems that can automatically detail a person's online habits and build up their profile.

"That sort of snooping is really important to avoid," he added.

He underlined that one of the biggest challenges is to ensure that information available online is used transparently for the specific purpose that its owner intended or consented to, avoiding privacy pitfalls.

"Technologies are also coming that will be able to distinguish the appropriate use of data," he explained, underlining that the internet "is a cloud."

"Vague but exciting"
Twenty years ago Berners-Lee handed an ordinary looking document to his supervisor at Cern entitled "Information Management: A proposal" that would revolutionise the way we live today.

His proposal showed how information could be transferred easily over the internet by using hypertext, which would enable users to browse easily between texts on web pages using links.

His boss, Mike Sendall, described the idea as "vague but exciting". But Sendall gave it the nod and the worldwide web was born, going online in December 1991.

From then on the web experienced exponential growth, "by a factor of ten every year," he explained.

"The reason that most things happened with the web is that somebody just decided that they were going to make it happen, and did," said Berners-Lee.

"It was in the air, in the sense that sooner or later it had to happen," added Belgian computer scientist Robert Cailliau, who worked with Berners-Lee.

Vision and persistence
The web was invented to deal with a specific problem. In the late 1980s Cern was planning to build one of the most ambitious scientific projects ever, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the so-called Big Bang machine, which is due to be operational at the end of September.

Berners-Lee's proposal was seen as a way of automatically sharing information about the LHC project between scientists working in different universities and institutes all over the world.

But it wasn't all that straightforward.

"Cern was full of smart people, but this was a paradigm shift and they didn't understand it," he explained. "You showed them a hypertext link and then another and they used to say 'So, big deal'. They couldn't imagine that a link could take them to another link on another part of the planet."

An important step was made in 1994 when Cern decided not to charge royalties for the web, declaring it an open standard for all to use and that no one should lock it up into a proprietary system.

"Without that it would have died," said Berners-Lee.

Enthusiasm then spread from PC to PC around the world and volunteers sprang up to develop the technology.

"It took off because people across the world got involved. That's the exciting thing," he said.

"Tim told me back in 1989, 'people just need to agree on a few simple things'. The miracle is that they actually did," said Ben Segal, Berners-Lee's mentor at Cern.

"But the vital ingredients behind the web were Tim, and Cern tolerating what he was doing. He had vision and persistence and was a great implementer."

swissinfo, Simon Bradley in Geneva

GALLERIES

Dinosaurs in the workplace
Complaining about spotty wifi? What about the time when a computer took up a room?


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THE WORLDWIDE WEBThe first proposal for the worldwide web was made at Cern by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, and further refined by him and Robert Cailliau in 1990.

The Web was originally conceived and developed to meet the demand for automatic information sharing between scientists working in different universities and institutes all over the world.

The basic idea of the web was to merge the technologies of personal computers, computer networking and hypertext into a powerful and easy to use global information system.

Important elements in the success of the web included the development of the Unix operating system (1980), the workstation project (1981), the TCP/IP protocol (1983) and the NeXT operating platform (1989).

The first web servers were all located in European physics laboratories and only a few users had access to the NeXT platform on which the first browser ran.

Cern soon provided a much simpler browser, which could be run on any system. A wide range of universities and research laboratories then started to use it. A little later it was made generally available via the internet, especially to the community of people working on hypertext systems.

The existence of reliable user-friendly browsers on PC and Macintosh computers had an immediate impact on the spread of the web.

The world's First International Worldwide Web conference was held at CERN in May. It was attended by 400 users and developers, and was hailed as the 'Woodstock of the Web'.

An essential feature was that the web should remain an open standard for all to use and that no-one should lock it up into a proprietary system.

In January 1995, the International World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was founded 'to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability'.

By 2007 W3C, run jointly by MIT/LCS in the US, INRIA in France, and Keio University in Japan, had more than 430 member organizations from around the world.

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LINKSWhere the web was born – Cern (
Tim Berners-Lee (
Gridtalk (

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URL of this story:

[grupo guitarlumber] 24/2/2007 18:54

Last Updated: Friday, 23 February 2007, 13:23 GMT

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World's tiniest RFID tag unveiled

Here the tiny tags can be seen next to a human hair
The world's smallest radio frequency identification tags have been unveiled by Japanese electronics firm Hitachi.
The minute devices measure just 0.05mm by 0.05mm (0.002x0.002in) and to the naked eye look like spots of powder.

They are thin enough to be embedded in a sheet of paper, Hitachi spokesman Masayuki Takeuchi says.

RFID tags store data about the objects they are attached to, and companies are vying to create increasingly tiny versions.

Recently, Hitachi unveiled another RFID tag, the Mu-chip, which measures 0.4mm by 0.4mm (0.02x0.02in).

But the latest chips, which are yet to be named, can hold the same amount of data as the Mu even though they are much smaller.

They have one major issue, however - they need an external antenna to work, and the smallest antenna developed so far is about 80 times bigger than the tags.

Hitachi says it wants to study the tags' possible uses, but it does not yet have any plans to put its latest creation into commercial production.

Spy-tags

Unlike its predecessor, the barcode, an RFID tag's data can be extracted from afar - sometimes from hundreds of metres away - by radio-reading devices, and the technology is already widely used.

Stores use it to track stock in warehouses and shops. Some countries are using the tags to hold passport data or for payments in transport systems, and they are even being used for animal identification.

However, some have raised concerns that the technology poses a threat to privacy, and that it could be used in covert monitoring schemes.

And the fact that they are becoming ever more invisible could fuel this apprehension.

However, said Mr Takeuchi: "We are not imagining such uses."

[grupo guitarlumber] 28/7/2005 09:50

Implant chip to identify the dead

Dr Seelig first tried the chip after the 11 September attacks
The carnage inflicted by bomb attacks in Egypt, London and across Iraq has raised the problem of how the authorities identify people in an emergency situation.
Whether through natural disaster or man-made, the killing of large numbers of people presents a great challenge to the emergency services, who have to identify the victims as quickly as possible.

One aid to identification advocated by an American company is the VeriChip, a small device containing a unique number injected into a person's arm.

During 11 September, some rescue workers, aware of the huge dangers they were facing, took to writing their badge number on their skin, in case they became victims themselves.

Their attempts to ensure their own identity should the worst happen was spotted by New Jersey surgeon Richard Seelig. Five days later, he injected himself with two rice grain-sized chips, containing a unique number which could be used to identify him.

"I wanted to demonstrate its effectiveness as being used as an identifier for people," Dr Seelig told BBC World Service's Analysis programme.

"Also, I wanted to show it could be as comfortable for a person as not having one, so that it wouldn't interfere with that person's daily life."

Losing anonymity

Following the Asian tsunami which struck on Boxing Day 2004, many thousands of bodies could only be identified by DNA testing - a process that, in some cases, took months to complete.

Similarly, following the bomb blasts on the London Underground, the process of identifying some bodies - particularly on the deep-lying Piccadilly Line - became very difficult, with some families upset by the amount of time it took to confirm a relative had died.

VeriChip advocates argue it could help in these circumstances.

Dr Seelig is now vice president for medical applications at VeriChip, which makes the devices - although it is yet to make a profit.


For my personal goal of being identified in the case of an accident, it does work for me

Dr John Halamka, Harvard Medical School
He had been developing the device for more than a year before the 11 September attacks.

The inspiration to develop it arose during his 20 years as a surgeon and the regular delays caused by patients unable to remember important healthcare information.

He saw that the delays could be eliminated by marrying an identifier to link a person with healthcare information and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).

Dr Seelig see three major uses for the chip, all of which relate to the need for access to a patient's medical records.

One is for individuals who have memory impairments, such as Alzheimer's, or those who are unable to speak, such as those who have suffered a stroke.

It may also be very useful for those with chronic diseases, such as heart disease or epilepsy, who can suffer an attack almost instantaneously. Being able to access a person's medical records in such an event could be life-saving.

And the third category, Dr Seelig said, is those who have sophisticated medical devices such as pacemakers, as the details of these devices are very advanced and difficult for someone who is not technically-minded to recall.

Scanned and known

Others are also taking note of the technology. The US Federal Drug Administration, which scrutinises all drugs and medical devices in the US, has given the chip its approval; officials in Mexico have already used the chip as a way of heightening security in sensitive areas; and the Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts now has several hospitals testing the device.

The emergency room at one hospital has been fitted with readers so that anyone who has the chip can be scanned - but Harvard has not yet decided how much emphasis to put on the chip's use.


Devastating attacks can make it very difficult to identify bodies
As part of the trials, Dr John Halamka, the chief information officer at Harvard, has been fitted with the chip in the back of his arm.

"In a sense I've lost my anonymity," he told Analysis. "Anywhere I go I can be scanned and known."

However, he said he had been convinced by the chip.

"The side effects have been none - the readability of the chip has been good," he added.

"So for my personal goal of being identified in the case of an accident, it does work for me."

Identity theft

Others, however, are not as supportive.

"It's a very scary technology," said Katherine Albrecht, a consumer rights analyst and founder of Caspian, a pressure group which opposes RFID.

Ms Albrecht has been tracking the development of the VeriChip.

"It's very de-humanising," she added.

"I would no longer be known as a living, breathing, spiritual person but become known as a single number that would be emanating from a chip in my flesh... essentially becoming a form of human inventory, rather than a human being."

She also argues that the chip is not secure - every time a reader is passed, the number is tracked, whether the user wishes this or not - and contends that being constantly identifiable is not necessarily a good thing.

"A criminal could scan you surreptitiously, then use that information to access other information about you, and potentially do some identity theft," she said.

"The other thing they could do is that, by scanning that number, it's actually quite a simple matter to capture the number and create your own chip with the same number in it.

"You could simply programme a different chip, put it inside an encapsulated device, and put it in your own arm - and at that point you could pose as the individual whose identity you have chosen to steal."

[waldron] 31/1/2005 16:30

U.S. electronic passports will incorporate smart card technology
Monday, January 31 2005
The U.S. Government aims to begin issuing the world's most secure passport by the end of October this year. A chip embedded in the travel document will store information related to the passport holder. To ensure the most effective technology is selected, the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) expanded the test phase by an additional round of contract awards. The GPO has requested that technology group Giesecke & Devrient (G&D), together with its partner Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS), supply covers for the electronic passport incorporating an RFID inlay.

Giesecke & Devrient passport covers with integrated RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) inlay meet the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and others. The inlay consists of a substrate and a chip with an antenna, which serves as the RFID transponder. Via the antenna, the chip can communicate with a reader to display the stored information. The chip can also store biometric data - e.g. a facial image or fingerprint - which unmistakably identifies the holder and can be quickly and easily verified.

G&D is providing chip technology with 72 KB to store the information. A key component of the solution is G&D's STARCOS( 3.0 operating system, featuring optimum security and high-speed performance. This advanced operating system exceeds the ICAO's requirements with respect to secure storage and transfer of passport data.

G&D is uniquely qualified to provide highly secure electronic passports. They manufacture traditional passports and provide passport personalization systems for many countries. G&D has also been a leading provider of contactless technology since 1995. Serving on ICAO and other committees ensures that G&D is at the forefront of formalizing the interoperability standards of new technological innovations in smart cards.

"As one of the world's largest suppliers of contact and contactless card technology and a leading printer of secure documents, including currency and passports, G&D has the expertise to help GPO and the Department of State ensure success," commented Peter Eisenbacher of G&D's Board of Directors.

The first electronic passports are to be issued to U.S. Government employees for testing in practical use at the end of the first quarter of 2005.

[maywillow] 29/1/2005 10:10

Western Europe RFID Market to reach €844m by 2007 – study

28/01/2005 by John Tilak



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Western European revenues for RFID are set to reach €844m by 2007, says a report from telecoms research company Juniper Research. Germany and the UK between them are to account for 40 per cent of the market. The most significant application will be in the supply chain and logistics sector, where RFID will be used to drive increased efficiencies from producer to retailer. In the retail market success for RFID will come from niche applications such as the library sector, and within mass transportation.

Agreement of standards such as EPC Gen-2 is to be key to developing the market beyond today's limited trials.

While Germany and the UK are the leading growth markets, significant developments are taking place in the Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland.

The most likely solution for companies operating in the supply chain will be to implement a mobility solution comprising a hybrid of RFID technology plus a mobile element such as GPS or GSM.

Opportunities exist for those companies with experience of implementing mobility solutions and business process re-engineering to offer assistance in implementing RFID.

[grupo guitarlumber] 26/1/2005 19:45

Tesco 'spychips' anger consumers

Tesco says the trial will benefit its customers
A US consumer privacy group has called for a global boycott of Tesco stores over the company's trial of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips.
The technology allows products to be tracked via radio waves.

Privacy groups have labelled them "spy chips" because they fear the tags attached to products, can be used to track the behaviour of customers.

But Tesco said the tags, being trialled on high value items in 10 stores, were only to help its distribution process.

Automated checkout

"Suggestions that Tesco might use this technology to track products once they have been purchased, thereby invading customers privacy are simply wrong, in fact it would be illegal in Europe," a Tesco spokeswoman told the BBC's Newsnight programme.

"The radio barcode is only activated when in close proximity to the reader located in the store or distribution centre."

More people across Great Britain will be taking home items containing spy chips, and that is simply unacceptable

Katherine Albrecht, Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering

Up to now the Tesco has used RFID chips on cases of non-food items at its distribution centres.

The spokeswoman said the new trial was to help the company track products between its distribution centres and stores.

"This helps us ensure that products are in the right place at the right time for customers."

If RFID technology was attached to most products, checkout scanning would take seconds although Tesco has said in the past it had no plans to automate the payment process in this way.

Informal moratorium

The boycott is being called by the group Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (Caspian).

Caspian director Katherine Albrecht said the decision to carry out in-store RFID trials on products breached an informal moratorium that has, until now, limited the technology mainly to the production and supply-chain areas of big business.

"More people across Great Britain will be taking home items containing spy chips, and that is simply unacceptable."

She added: "If people must shop at Tesco, we are asking them to reduce their purchases."

[grupo guitarlumber] 26/1/2005 19:41

Technology: Enterprise Software



by Arif Mohamed

Tuesday 25 January 2005

Retailers see 2005 as year of RFID



Leading retailers will gather at a major radio frequency identification conference in London this week to debate how they can maximise return on investment from the tagging technology.

Among the speakers sharing details of their RFID strategies will be representatives from Tesco, Metro Group and Boeing.

Companies such as Tesco are expecting to cut costs by using RFID technology to track goods along their supply chain, in an effort to make it more efficient.

Nigel Montgomery, director of European research at analyst firm AMR, who will chair the RFID ROI Summit, said, "2005 is going to see a fundamental change in RFID adoption."

[grupo guitarlumber] 26/1/2005 19:38

Germany and UK driving RFID market to $1billion
By Colin Holland

Embedded.com
26 January 2005 (7:37 p.m. GMT)


LONDON - Western European revenues for RFID are set to reach $1.1billion by 2007 according to a report from Juniper Research, with Germany and the UK between them accounting for 40% of the market.

The main application will be in the supply chain and logistics sector, where RFID will be used to increase efficiencies from producer to retailer. In the retail market success for RFID will come from niche applications such as the library sector, and within mass transportation.

The report also says that the agreement to use standards such as EPC Gen-2 is key to developing the market beyond today?s limited trials and that companies operating in the supply chain should look to implement a mobility solution comprising a hybrid of RFID technology plus a mobile element such as GPS or GSM.



As well Germany and the UK providing the growth markets other significant developments taking place in the Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland. To date most trials have been in-house or between two trading partners, but as technology standards develop so businesses will have the confidence to deploy it more widely across their supply chains.

Opportunities exist for those companies with experience of implementing mobility solutions and business process re-engineering to offer assistance in implementing RFID.

The report also identifies the key strategic issues associated with RFID implementations, and provides market forecasts with in Western Europe up to 2009.

[maywillow] 26/1/2005 19:05

New rumours about spy chips in Euro notes
There is a renewed rumour that the European Central Bank is going to add spy chips (RFIDs) to Euro banknotes. 'Czerwensky intern', a German newsletter providing bank and insurance background reports, says the ECB might have already signed contracts with Hitachi, and is ready to introduce the spy-notes this year. Allegedly, the contract requires such a high volume of RFIDs that Hitachi can't deliver all chips itself, but has to rely on subcontractors.

Earlier rumours (dating back to 2001) about plans to track and trace all Euro notes with the help of RFIDs were strongly denied by the ECB. On 4 June 2003 EDRI-gram reported about a press release from Hitachi announcing negotiations about the contract to Japanese investors. The RFIDs in euro banknotes could help against counterfeiting and make it possible to detect money hidden in suitcases at airports. But the technology would also enable a mugger to check if a victim has given all of his money. If RFIDs are embedded in banknotes, governments and law enforcement agencies can literally 'follow the money' in every transaction. The anonymity that cash affords in consumer transactions would be eliminated.

According to the biannual report from the ECB on the counterfeiting of the euro, released on 13 January 2005, the amount of counterfeited euro banknotes is still very low. It has risen 8% compared to 2003, "but the recent trend has been downwards."

EZB: Die intelligente Euro-Note kommt noch in diesem Jahr (German, 25.01.2005, access restricted)


EZB 'Intelligente' Euro-Note kommt noch 2005 (German, 25.01.2005)


Hitachi mu-chip


Biannual information on the counterfeiting of the euro (13.01.2005)

[waldron] 01/1/2005 07:36

California sets fines for spyware
By Peter Bowes
in Los Angeles



Arnold Schwarzenegger approved the measure
The makers of computer programs that secretly spy on what people do with their home PCs could face hefty fines in California.

From 1 January, a new law is being introduced to protect computer users from software known as spyware.

The legislation, which was approved by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, is designed to safeguard people from hackers and help protect their personal information.

Spyware is considered by computer experts to be one of the biggest nuisance and security threats facing PC users in the coming year.

The software buries itself in computers and can collect a wide range of information.

At its worst, it has the ability to hijack personal date, like passwords, login details and credit card numbers.

The programs are so sophisticated they change frequently and become impossible to eradicate.

Ad onslaught

One form of spyware called adware has the ability to collect information on a computer user's web-surfing.

It can result in people being bombarded with pop-up ads that are hard to close.

In Washington, Congress has been debating four anti-spyware bills, but California is a step ahead.

The state's Consumer Protection Against Spyware Act bans the installation of software that takes control of another computer.

It also requires companies and websites to disclose whether their systems will install spyware.

Consumers are able to seek up to $1,000 in damages if they think they have fallen victim to the intrusive software.

The new law marks a continuing trend in California towards tougher privacy rights.

A recent survey by Earthlink and Webroot found that 90% of PCs are infested with the surreptitious software and that, on average, each one is harbouring 28 separate spyware programs.

Currently users wanting protection from spyware have turned to free programs such as Spybot and Ad-Aware.

[maywillow] 08/10/2004 07:25

US seeks to fine spyware makers


Spyware can smuggle its way on to your PC
The makers of programs that secretly spy on what people do with their home computer could soon face hefty fines.
US legislators have overwhelmingly backed a proposal to impose penalties on the creators of so-called "spyware".

These programs gather information about browsing habits, passwords and credit card details and some even turn home computers into spam relays.

Later this month a second spyware bill is being debated that criminalises secret spyware installations.

Jail sentence

The US Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act (aka Spy Act) was passed 399-1 in the House of Representatives.

The dissenting voter was Representative Ron Paul from Texas who believes the government should not police the net.

The Spy Act aims to impose civil penalties when spyware is smuggled on to a PC without an owner's knowledge or consent. Those found guilty could face a fine of up to $3m.

The measure demands that any maker of a spyware program gets permission from a user to install itself and gets their agreement about what kinds of information can be collected.

However, it does nothing to tackle spy programs that watch the keys being press and steal personal information because existing US laws already criminalise this behaviour.


US politicians have three chances to show how they feel about spyware
Spying software exempt from the provisions in the Spy Act include programs used by the FBI and other law enforcement organisations to gather data on suspects.

There are another two anti-spyware bills making their way through the US legislative system.

The Internet Spyware Prevention Act (aka I Spy Act), proposes jail sentences for those who hide installations of spyware and the gather personal information without permission.

House members are expected to try to combine the two bills into one later this month to avoid a lengthy debate later in the year that could delay the adoption of anti-spyware laws.

Also pending is the Software Principles Yielding Better Levels of Consumer Knowledge Act (aka Spy Block Act) is backed by the Senate and also outlaws the surreptitious installation of software to spy on computer users. There is no date set for a vote on this bill.

Critics said these bills would make little difference to the amount of spyware in circulation and cited the US Can-Spam Act which has, so far, done little to curb the amount of junk mail people are being sent.

A survey by US net provider Earthlink has found that, on average, a net-connected PC is home to 26 spyware programs.

To gather its raw data, Earthlink scanned more than three million machines over the last nine months and found more than 83 million spyware programs during its trawl.

Computers infested with spyware can run slowly and erratically and bombard users with unwanted adverts.