Usually, this meme is supposedly just a cliché in futuristic action movies in which the main character receives a sensitive message that cannot be read by anyone, so it blows up. Researchers at the University of Washington have developed ways to make messages “blow up” after they have been read. Not in the sense that you will get a letter, read it, and it will burst into flames the second you are done, but e-mail. The message you read can be set on a timer, and once the timer is up, the message will deleted permanently from any servers, and any other people’s mailboxes. The new software will called Vanish and it will require encrypted messages for the service to work.
The service is part university experiment, and partly made out of necessity. Many companies use these services because more and more, things are being stored using cloud computing; storing data online rather than in personal computers and data banks.
Cloud computing is useful because the Internet has an unlimited amount of space, and is free to store on. This saves companies money on saving the information, and protecting it, and it allows them to use their saving space for other useful things. This also protects the information from being lost if the company data base were to collapse.
This presents some safety hazards though, as the companies themselves are not ensuring the messages and data anymore. The messages and other data then sit on these often unsecured servers for an extended period of time, just waiting for someone to unrightfully gain access.
The concept of the self-destructing message is not new however. Some documents in the past have been wired to do this, but Vanish will be the first publicly released software to give these capabilities.
The software is groundbreaking and necessary in today’s society. These important messages are just sitting on unsecured servers waiting to be hacked, and if they are, sensitive information and data would be released to people who were never supposed to see it. This can also be used for public e-mails too. There are situations in both the public and private world that would warrant the use of this technology, but right now the aim is at big business people.
The technology is made with security at the top of their list. First, the selected message will be written by the sender, and then encrypted with a high quality encoding service to make sure that if it is somehow intercepted, all the hacker would see is a bunch of hieroglyphics. Then, when it arrives at the recipients desk(top), it will be unencrypted so that the user can get the data and read the message. Then, if the user decides delete the message then, no qualms, but if the user forgets or simply decides not to do so, the sender can put a time limit on the message so that it will delete itself.
While this program is still in the developmental stages, the technology is almost ready to be released, and could prove to be an asset for business owners and family members alike.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Remain Safe While Traveling
When you are traveling, there are many things to keep in mind; and safety is at the top of the list. Being safe and anonymous by using a change IP proxy while traveling abroad is very important. Using an anonymous proxy server will help you get past government censorship in order to surf the sites you wish to go; never miss another Internet television show again!
While Internet business is important while traveling, if you have children, they take priority. Everyone knows how much care babies take, but only people who have one themselves truly know how much equipment is necessary. That’s right; equipment! High chairs, bibs, rocking chairs; all tools of the trade and all needed to keep children safe.
Any concerned parent can vouch for how fragile babies are too, and how easily they can fall ill. While many adults could eat a spoiled meal and have nothing but an upset stomach, babies can touch a slightly dirty object and wind up in the hospital. Germs are all around us and on everything we touch; how do we keep out little ones safe?
First, make sure to sanitize everything, and do so often. This will keep any harmful bacteria from contaminating anything your little one might touch. You may consider keeping a sanitary room where they are not pestered by tons of little micro-bacteria. One more thing, always wash all of your food that your baby will eat.
This is just a rudimentary list, but it already seems like quite a handful. Now we’ll touch on equipment… just kidding! Let’s just say there is quite a few things that are needed for a child to be healthy and safe. Any parent can attest to how heavy and expensive some of these things are. Now the question is posed; how do I travel with any of this? Many people have trouble getting their bags to meet the stringent weight and size requirements set forth by the airports.
Enter Babysaway.com: a god-send to travelers with little ones. Instead of carrying all of your weighty baby apparatus while flying or driving, you can simply rent these items! Once you order all of the items you require through a simple e-mail, they will have it set up and ready as soon as you arrive. Imagine, instead of lugging all of your high chairs, bottles, diapers, and other miscellaneous baby paraphernalia around, you can quickly type out an e-mail, and have it all there as soon as you arrive.
They have locations in many states and their delivery services can find any object you need that they might not have. Best of all, the “profile” section states that the site is run by parents and grandparent: you know they are experienced in handling and caring for babies.
Some of you may be worried about the equipment they send being dirty, but they have a strong sanitary guarantee. Everything is washed and cleansed as soon as it returns and they personally guarantee that your child will be perfectly safe in their equipment.
Traveling parents, don’t fret over bringing all of your baby apparatus around ever again. Babysaway.com has got you covered with safe and reliable services run by fellow parents and seasoned grandparents. Best of all, it won’t break the bank. Take the fuss out of traveling: send your brief e-mail, relax on your flight or stretch out in your roomy car and know Babysaway.com will have clean services ready for you as soon as you arrive.
While Internet business is important while traveling, if you have children, they take priority. Everyone knows how much care babies take, but only people who have one themselves truly know how much equipment is necessary. That’s right; equipment! High chairs, bibs, rocking chairs; all tools of the trade and all needed to keep children safe.
Any concerned parent can vouch for how fragile babies are too, and how easily they can fall ill. While many adults could eat a spoiled meal and have nothing but an upset stomach, babies can touch a slightly dirty object and wind up in the hospital. Germs are all around us and on everything we touch; how do we keep out little ones safe?
First, make sure to sanitize everything, and do so often. This will keep any harmful bacteria from contaminating anything your little one might touch. You may consider keeping a sanitary room where they are not pestered by tons of little micro-bacteria. One more thing, always wash all of your food that your baby will eat.
This is just a rudimentary list, but it already seems like quite a handful. Now we’ll touch on equipment… just kidding! Let’s just say there is quite a few things that are needed for a child to be healthy and safe. Any parent can attest to how heavy and expensive some of these things are. Now the question is posed; how do I travel with any of this? Many people have trouble getting their bags to meet the stringent weight and size requirements set forth by the airports.
Enter Babysaway.com: a god-send to travelers with little ones. Instead of carrying all of your weighty baby apparatus while flying or driving, you can simply rent these items! Once you order all of the items you require through a simple e-mail, they will have it set up and ready as soon as you arrive. Imagine, instead of lugging all of your high chairs, bottles, diapers, and other miscellaneous baby paraphernalia around, you can quickly type out an e-mail, and have it all there as soon as you arrive.
They have locations in many states and their delivery services can find any object you need that they might not have. Best of all, the “profile” section states that the site is run by parents and grandparent: you know they are experienced in handling and caring for babies.
Some of you may be worried about the equipment they send being dirty, but they have a strong sanitary guarantee. Everything is washed and cleansed as soon as it returns and they personally guarantee that your child will be perfectly safe in their equipment.
Traveling parents, don’t fret over bringing all of your baby apparatus around ever again. Babysaway.com has got you covered with safe and reliable services run by fellow parents and seasoned grandparents. Best of all, it won’t break the bank. Take the fuss out of traveling: send your brief e-mail, relax on your flight or stretch out in your roomy car and know Babysaway.com will have clean services ready for you as soon as you arrive.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Privacy Mode
As Microsoft’s much anticipated Internet Explorer 8 was launched, many people looked forward to the Privacy Mode, called the InPrivateBrowsing. Although people are excited about this all encompassing privacy technology, it may not be everything it seems. According to PCAdvisor, the privacy mode doesn’t really do much at all in terms of protecting. Although all of the security locks and other advisory warning are pretty to look at, they are not pragmatic at well and the information can easily be retrieved.
The premise of InPrivateBrowsing is that it deletes surfing history, cookies, and other things that can tell where you were, what you were doing, and even the amount of time on a site! While this all sounds good, it appears to be a superficial facade; all of the information was easily retrieved by forensic experts. Their major selling point is that cookies are not stored; these show log-in names, passwords, and definitive proof that you visited and lingered on a particular site. It also doesn’t allow Internet browser history to be stored either.
The major downfall of InPrivateBrowsing is in their incessant chronicling of cache files. The programs on the Internet use these to store websites so that can be accessed more quickly later, and the websites will even load faster. Anyone even with the most rudimentary knowledge of the Internet can see where this would create a privacy problem. Although a user can go deep into the software and actually delete these files themselves, most people wouldn’t bother to learn how, or don’t know of this, and therefore, security is completely compromised just by one little aspect.
Although they have good intentions, don’t be fooled by the glossy exterior. The bottom line is, even if cookies, browsing history, and everything else is deleted, if one thing is left out, it’ll be the death of the project. The program is still in its infancy though, and changes can still be made. A program and company as big as Microsoft is sure to look at the feedback and realize and re-test. The great thing about products online is that if there is an error, all they have to do is design a patch and everything will be fixed up by a simple download.
In the mean time though, don’t trust it with your online security. Internet crime rises every year in correspondence with the amount of Internet travelers, and as more travelers become more protected, hackers prey on the ones still living in the dark ages of a simple firewall or a rudimentary virus scanner. If you are currently using InPrivateBrowsing, don’t wait for a patch to get protected. Use an anonymous proxy server and get your secure tunnel of access for which to travel safely and securely through.
The premise of InPrivateBrowsing is that it deletes surfing history, cookies, and other things that can tell where you were, what you were doing, and even the amount of time on a site! While this all sounds good, it appears to be a superficial facade; all of the information was easily retrieved by forensic experts. Their major selling point is that cookies are not stored; these show log-in names, passwords, and definitive proof that you visited and lingered on a particular site. It also doesn’t allow Internet browser history to be stored either.
The major downfall of InPrivateBrowsing is in their incessant chronicling of cache files. The programs on the Internet use these to store websites so that can be accessed more quickly later, and the websites will even load faster. Anyone even with the most rudimentary knowledge of the Internet can see where this would create a privacy problem. Although a user can go deep into the software and actually delete these files themselves, most people wouldn’t bother to learn how, or don’t know of this, and therefore, security is completely compromised just by one little aspect.
Although they have good intentions, don’t be fooled by the glossy exterior. The bottom line is, even if cookies, browsing history, and everything else is deleted, if one thing is left out, it’ll be the death of the project. The program is still in its infancy though, and changes can still be made. A program and company as big as Microsoft is sure to look at the feedback and realize and re-test. The great thing about products online is that if there is an error, all they have to do is design a patch and everything will be fixed up by a simple download.
In the mean time though, don’t trust it with your online security. Internet crime rises every year in correspondence with the amount of Internet travelers, and as more travelers become more protected, hackers prey on the ones still living in the dark ages of a simple firewall or a rudimentary virus scanner. If you are currently using InPrivateBrowsing, don’t wait for a patch to get protected. Use an anonymous proxy server and get your secure tunnel of access for which to travel safely and securely through.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Advertising Controversy
BT, the U.K.’s largest Internet provider has opted out of using “Phorm”, a large-scale behavioral advertiser. Phorm can gather information about the surfers on a particular ISP and then tailor ads to the persons needs and wants. For example, if a certain user frequents car sites, and automobile tuning sites, then they will likely see ads about motor oil, tires, and the like. Phorm’s philosophy is that, instead of being bombarded with random advertisements that the people probably won’t be interested in, they will create product demographics by performing an involuntary interview with the person, and figure out their likes and interests. BT is still interested in the program, but chose to take the philanthropically route and use their money to bring people the fastest Internet possible, and all of the technological advances that come with it.
Phorm knows it has an intuitive and breakthrough technology, and charges a pretty penny for its services. What ads of old would charge to be posted is nothing compared to the fees Phorm would charge, but for good reason. Think about it, if a guy interested in football and weightlifting gets a pop-up about the latest Cabbage Patch Kid to hit the scene, he will most likely just grunt and dislike dolls even more after he smacked the “x” button. Phorm aims to eliminate these ill-placed ads and replace them with ads that are custom fit to the user’s needs. Based on his habits of browsing NFL’s website, managing his fanatical fantasy football team, and ordering protein shakes, Phorm would conclude ads showing these types of products would be most appealing to him, and more likely to get him to buy than would the new clothing options on the hot new Barbie doll.
As one can imagine though, there are many security and privacy risks with this new technology. Such concerns are inherent with the nature of the product, as it (without permission) inspects your browsing history and other documents you view in order to find out what interests you. Privacy advocate groups believe this is just one step closer to the dystopian world of 1984, and are fighting against it. The program assures the public that no information is personally recognizable and no names are kept while the browsing is in progress, only numbers and incoherent data.
In some areas, the concerns for privacy invasion have been too much for these behavioral advertisers. Nebuad, an advertiser like Phorm, withdrew from the market after a controversy over its blatant privacy invasions put it on the blacklist for many ISPs. Analyzing people’s data is a strong gray area, and these companies must be careful to walk the line carefully, lest they fall over and snoop somewhere they shouldn’t have.
BT found themselves the subject of such criticism after they, unbeknownst to their customers, ran Phorm for around three months. The people caught on, and many resigned from the Internet Service Provider because they felt betrayed and unprotected.
As more and more major ISPs are considering running this software, Phorm could be the status quo of online advertising. While it does seems useful to get advertisements tailored to your interests rather than complete guesswork that is usually completely off, one must ponder the repercussions of allowing such an open window into our Internet habits just so people can solicit products we MIGHT enjoy.
Phorm knows it has an intuitive and breakthrough technology, and charges a pretty penny for its services. What ads of old would charge to be posted is nothing compared to the fees Phorm would charge, but for good reason. Think about it, if a guy interested in football and weightlifting gets a pop-up about the latest Cabbage Patch Kid to hit the scene, he will most likely just grunt and dislike dolls even more after he smacked the “x” button. Phorm aims to eliminate these ill-placed ads and replace them with ads that are custom fit to the user’s needs. Based on his habits of browsing NFL’s website, managing his fanatical fantasy football team, and ordering protein shakes, Phorm would conclude ads showing these types of products would be most appealing to him, and more likely to get him to buy than would the new clothing options on the hot new Barbie doll.
As one can imagine though, there are many security and privacy risks with this new technology. Such concerns are inherent with the nature of the product, as it (without permission) inspects your browsing history and other documents you view in order to find out what interests you. Privacy advocate groups believe this is just one step closer to the dystopian world of 1984, and are fighting against it. The program assures the public that no information is personally recognizable and no names are kept while the browsing is in progress, only numbers and incoherent data.
In some areas, the concerns for privacy invasion have been too much for these behavioral advertisers. Nebuad, an advertiser like Phorm, withdrew from the market after a controversy over its blatant privacy invasions put it on the blacklist for many ISPs. Analyzing people’s data is a strong gray area, and these companies must be careful to walk the line carefully, lest they fall over and snoop somewhere they shouldn’t have.
BT found themselves the subject of such criticism after they, unbeknownst to their customers, ran Phorm for around three months. The people caught on, and many resigned from the Internet Service Provider because they felt betrayed and unprotected.
As more and more major ISPs are considering running this software, Phorm could be the status quo of online advertising. While it does seems useful to get advertisements tailored to your interests rather than complete guesswork that is usually completely off, one must ponder the repercussions of allowing such an open window into our Internet habits just so people can solicit products we MIGHT enjoy.
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