While the world watched in fascination and horror as Russia and Georgia fought over the region of South Ossetia this week, it is alleged that Russia was also waging its war on another, less carefully-watched front: the Internet. If true, this marks the first time that a nation has publicly added to its arsenal of war strategies the taking out of an enemy’s national computer infrastructure.

AT&T has announced the roll-out of their AT&T Navigator Global Edition. This truly global cell phone GPS system allows AT&T customers to use their GPS-enabled AT&T phones to navigate with GPS all around the world.

Auction giant eBay was recently fined more than 74million dollars for allowing the sale of knock-off designer purses to go unabated.

As a good percentage of the United States grinds to a halt for a day of 4th of July festivities, to celebrate our Independence Day, I’d like to make this observation: At this moment in time, many people are not terribly happy with the state of the United States. Indeed, I’d dare say that very few Americans are currently happy with the state of their home country. But I’d like everyone to take a moment to think about how absolutely extraordinary it is that we are here at all.

Ian Usher, a British man living down under, has put his entire life up for sale on eBay. The winning bidder – and there are bidders – gets Usher’s house, the contents of his house, his car, even his job. Says Ian Usher, “On the day it is all sold and settled I intend to walk out of my front door with my wallet in one pocket and my passport in the other.” But would you really want his life? We’ve done some digging, and we think not.

Google had its Gmail tail handed to it on a platter when a German court held – not once, but twice (in preliminary and final orders) – that it could not use the name “Gmail” in Germany, as it infringed on a prior user of that name. As a result, Google is banned from using the Gmail name in Germany, and German Gmail users and others in Germany who wish to access the Google email service are banned from accessing the service via the Gmail name.

Pool crashing is the newest in thing with teenagers in Britain, and could well catch on quickly in other countries. The teens are using Google Earth to locate swimming pools in their area; then setting up the pool crash party by announcing it on Facebook.

Hot on the heels of a US Air Force Colonel advocating building a bigger, badder and bolder bot-net (reported here on the Internet Patrol) comes news that seven of the twenty-six current members of NATO, the military alliance of democratic European and North American states, are to establish the Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre Of Excellence, in Tallinn, Estonia, taking further the work of NATO’s existing internal computer network defense team.

Andrew Kellett, known on YouTube as MrChimp2007, has been served with a restraining order that prevents him from adding to his extensive YouTube collection of 80 videos showing off his unlawful behaviour, including dangerous, reckless and high-speed driving; drug use; and theft. His parents must be so proud.

The Internet has opened to many of us opportunities to communicate, to share information, and to learn about the rest of the world. We take this almost for granted in the United States. Many countries, though, run scared from the free flow of information and ideas, believing that by repressing the Internet they can continue to repress their population. The Global Online Freedom Act of 2007, also known by its rather more prosaic name, HR 275, is a bill that would outlaw US companies from dealing with countries that censor the internet, and in particular from “disclosing personally-identifiable information about a user, except for legitimate foreign law enforcement purposes.”

A top U.S. Air Force brass has recommended that the U.S. military create their own super bot-net to attack other bot-nets that are attacking U.S. military computer networks. One of the main problems with this idea, among others, is that it will fry thousands of computers belonging to innocent end-users around the world – users who have no idea that their home computer has been controlled remotely as part of a bot-net ring.

The rise in social networking has created an information management and overload problem for many users known as the “Data Portability” problem. The problem starts with authentication, includes having data (profile data, media or otherwise) in several different sites and in different versions, and is compounded by the fortress mentality of many social networking sites. These factors make it difficult for users to manage their online identity and control who sees, at what level of granularity, their personal data. The data portability movement is meant to make this easier. On the other hand, it may also make it easier for social networking sites to buy, sell, and use your data. So how come nobody is talking about the privacy concerns inherent with data portability?

The controversial online advertising firm Phorm (pronounced “form”) has, for much of this year, been in the middle of a maelstrom of criticism over its plans to serve up ads specific to the user’s browsing history. Yet to go live, Phorm continues to sign up ISPs, mostly in the UK where their ISP partners cover 70% of the UK broadband market. Their early access trials, though, have been contentious, and the debate is far from over. How do you feel about having someone access your browsing history, the better to serve you relevant advertising? The good news, for savvy users, is that it can be blocked at the user’s browser by permanently blocking cookies from the domain www.webwise.net.

Yes, it’s really true – people are having Internet funerals. Online funerals have the advantage of allowing people who otherwise could not attend the service to tune in. But still, an online funeral? Why would anybody want to have – or attend – an Internet funeral? Do you really want to entrust the paying of your last respects to your wifi connection? It turns out that some people in England do, and here’s why.

It’s long been apparent to our readers that we at the Internet Patrol are not exactly blind fans of online gaming. And we don’t exactly holding up gambling sites as paragons of Internet virtue, either. So news from last week’s e-crime congress in London, bringing to light a
case of the bad (a gambling site) being brought to its knees by the
worse (a botnet), has us pondering the larger implications.