09.21.11

Links – Microsoft Boot Malice, TH Kicked to the Curb

Posted in Site News at 1:20 pm by Guest Editorial Team

Reader’s Picks

Security
- Chrome developer calls SSL exploit sensationalist nonsense
- Deep Packet Spying Breaches Gmail and All Security
  
  Another data point on SSL “trusted” root CA reliability (S Korea) … NIS admits to packet tapping Gmail If proven, international fallout could occur over insecurity of the HTTP Secure system
- There Goes Apple’s Reputation for Security
  
  Apple changed how authentication works and it’s all falling apart.
  
  There is no security with non free software because the owner can always do what they want but this wreck is amusing.
Defence/Police/Aggression
- Inside the Surveillance State: How Peaceful Activists Get Swept Up onto “Terrorist” Watch Lists
Anti-Trust
- Microsoft will keep people from booting gnu/linux by making every PC a cell phone like jail through “UEFI secure booting”
  
  Microsoft requires that machines conforming to the Windows 8 logo program and running a client version of Windows 8 ship with secure boot enabled. … A system that ships with only OEM and Microsoft keys will not boot a generic copy of Linux.
- Google Is No Microsoft
  
  [Critics] analogize Google’s conduct today to that of Microsoft’s during the 1990s. That sounds appealing but it could not be more wrong…. Let’s remember the past. (I should, I was an FTC staff attorney who worked on the FTC Microsoft investigation in the early 1990s). … In its 1998 case the DOJ condemned a wide variety of exclusionary conduct, carried out (in Microsoft’s words) to “cut off the air supply” of its rivals. In particular Microsoft tied its browser to its operating system to safeguard its operating system monopoly and extend it to the web. Microsoft compelled customers to purchase products they did not want and created obstacles for rival browsers to work effectively.
- HP starts to fire WebOS people
  
  All things Digital is a Microsoft booster site, so this news should be taken with a grain of salt.
- EU Closes Turbo Hercules charges against IBM
  
  PJ adds:
  
  So when do Florian Mueller and the TurboHercules trolls come by and tell me they are sorry they were wrong and sincerely apologize to me for filling the Internet and Groklaw comments with attacks on me because I said nothing ought to come of the complaints against IBM? Should I hold my breath for an apology? No. But it turns out the EU Commission confirms my position. It all came to nothing…. Well. Nothing but FUD.
PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying
- Microsoft creates a new astroturf group headed by a former executive with Microsoft seed money
  
  Presumably the BSA and other groups focused on “promoting responsible business practices including respect for intellectual property” have lost all of their credibility or the company needs a new fake independent FUD and threat source.
Privacy
- OnStar, continues to spy on drivers after useful service is terminated.