Tech Risk & Security

U.S. Attorney General said Internet service providers should retain subscriber information and network data for two years. Previously, I blogged about China's legislation on keeping user Internet-activity by ISP. Now US is going the same direction. When I was skeptical about Chinese government uses of IP address log, US government is doing it in the name of child pornography . I am more concern about the possible uses of these IP address. In HK and Japan , cases has been brought by music companies to request ISPs to disclose IP address logs and their correspondents. These information was used for copyright infringements. Once the detail user activity is kept. The uses of it will be unlimited and it is scary. There is nothing wrong for music company to sue for infringements. But if music company could use these logs, what will stop someone to bring civil cases against you and request ISP to disclose your internet activity. Recently, the Hong Kong Examination Authority used web serve

A study focused on the effects of Wal-Mart stores on poverty rates found that an estimated 20,000 families nationwide have fallen below the official poverty line as a result of the chain's expansion. Although I have not read the whole report nor the article confirmed the research method is scientific, I agree with the author that "found that one of the greatest effects of a Wal-Mart opening is the closing of mom-and-pop-type operations."

BBC posted a new on China government is promoting Chinese using the Internet . Chinese is getting more attentions now. This brings me to think the process I learn English. Reading storybooks was the major part of it. Animal Farm , The Tale of Two Cities and Sophia were those I read. Those books were written not for learning English as a second language but they are interesting even after centuries. Chinese has some great storybooks too and I hope these books will enable people to understand Chinese culture. I am interested in knowing which books or stories will China government uses to educate Chinese to the world.

A council question on whether IP should be treated as Personal Data as defined in Section 2 of Personal Data (Privacy) Ordiance was asked by CK Sin . This issue was raised because Yahoo Hong Kong gave Internet usage information to China official and resulted in some arrestments in China. In reading the reply from government, I notice that government official referred to EU Directives but not China’s Law despite the fact that both EU and China adopt civil law legal system and HK is common law. I believe it is the intuitive reaction for HK government official to look for guidance from EU on privacy matters and it is this intuitive distinguish HK from other China cities. How will HK change to more like China cities or China cities changes to more like HK? I am not totally sure. Back to the real issue. I always think absolute anonymity is a fake concept in the Internet since each and every bytes transferred can be recorded with little incremental cost. ISPs have both the ability and capa

Two ransomware cases were reported recently, both involved a Trojan control access to computer. The trend of cybersecurity is going from phishing to ransomware and it is alarming as these ransomware will cause real damages. 16 March PCworld 27 April Yahoo News As I am working in a bank, I notice that both cases relied on money transfer company(Western Uinion & e-Gold) for their operations. The convenient e-payment infrastructure is one of the factors for this type security incidence. The Torjan instructed victims to deposit money via this money transfer company and their computer/file will be unlocked. If the criminals are able to open a large amount of money transfer account for large scale operation, it will be a real danger to the Internet.