Via UPI.

China is running a massive program to spy on British business executives and hack into their computers, leaked intelligence documents indicate.

A report written by the British spy agency MI5 and leaked to The Sunday Times of London asserts that undercover Chinese intelligence officers have bugged and burglarized China offices of British executives and have used sexual entrapment to lure them into compromising situations in which they can be blackmailed for commercial secrets.

The MI5 document also reportedly alleges that People’s Liberation Army and Ministry of Public Security agents have approached British businessmen at trade fairs to offer them “gifts” and “lavish hospitality,” in which they are given cameras and computer memory sticks implanted with malicious software to provide remote access to their computers.

The Sunday Times reported that M15 report, written by its Center for the Protection of National Infrastructure, contends the situation “represents one of the most significant espionage threats to the U.K.”

Link.

Via UPI.

China is running a massive program to spy on British business executives and hack into their computers, leaked intelligence documents indicate.

A report written by the British spy agency MI5 and leaked to The Sunday Times of London asserts that undercover Chinese intelligence officers have bugged and burglarized China offices of British executives and have used sexual entrapment to lure them into compromising situations in which they can be blackmailed for commercial secrets.

The MI5 document also reportedly alleges that People’s Liberation Army and Ministry of Public Security agents have approached British businessmen at trade fairs to offer them “gifts” and “lavish hospitality,” in which they are given cameras and computer memory sticks implanted with malicious software to provide remote access to their computers.

The Sunday Times reported that M15 report, written by its Center for the Protection of National Infrastructure, contends the situation “represents one of the most significant espionage threats to the U.K.”

Link.

A new study notes that hands-free cell phone bans will not significantly reduce auto accidents. Rather, what the study says is that distracted driving is the problem. However, before wireless carriers and cell phone manufacturers start (or continue) lobbying against such bans, they need to remember that cell phones are one of those distractions.

The study was conducted by the Highway Loss Data Institute, an insurance industry group. It examined accident rates before and after hand-held cell phone bans went into effect in New York, the District of Columbia, Connecticut and California.

“The laws aren’t reducing crashes, even though we know that such laws have reduced hand-held phone use, and several studies have established that phoning while driving increases crash risk,” says Adrian Lund, president of both the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and HLDI. For example, an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study that relies on driver phone records found a 4-fold increase in the risk of injury crashes. A study in Canada found a 4-fold increase in the risk of crashes involving property damage. Separate surveys of driver behavior before and after hand-held phone use bans show reductions in the use of such phones while driving.

So why aren’t the results better? The HLDI is gathering further data to try to make that determination. The answer, however, may be simply common sense: it’s not the use of hand-held phones that is the issue; it’s the use of cell phones will driving, period. In fact, some studies have already posited that cell phone conversation while driving alone is a distraction that needs banning. This isn’t the first such study to note that hands-free setups don’t reduce accidents, either.

Let’s not forget, also, that even before starting to talk on a cell phone, and even with a Bluetooth headset, a driver must dial a number (unless it’s one he can redial from the headset). That’s a major distraction, as well.

There’s also a conundrum, as well, with car manufacturers beginning to stuff more and more technology into cars, which simply add to the distraction. It was bad enough before the advent of cell phones, with complex stereo systems and eating, but now manufacturers are adding wi-fi hotspots to cars. While common-sense would say that drivers should be smart enough to know better than to turn to the laptop sitting on their passenger seat to Google something, it seems pretty obvious that there will be some who do.

Those who rail against legislation need to recall what good seat-belt laws did. They also need to remember, that we wouldn’t need to legislate such matters, if people were smart enough or had enough common sense on their own.

A new study notes that hands-free cell phone bans will not significantly reduce auto accidents. Rather, what the study says is that distracted driving is the problem. However, before wireless carriers and cell phone manufacturers start (or continue) lobbying against such bans, they need to remember that cell phones are one of those distractions.

The study was conducted by the Highway Loss Data Institute, an insurance industry group. It examined accident rates before and after hand-held cell phone bans went into effect in New York, the District of Columbia, Connecticut and California.

“The laws aren’t reducing crashes, even though we know that such laws have reduced hand-held phone use, and several studies have established that phoning while driving increases crash risk,” says Adrian Lund, president of both the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and HLDI. For example, an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study that relies on driver phone records found a 4-fold increase in the risk of injury crashes. A study in Canada found a 4-fold increase in the risk of crashes involving property damage. Separate surveys of driver behavior before and after hand-held phone use bans show reductions in the use of such phones while driving.

So why aren’t the results better? The HLDI is gathering further data to try to make that determination. The answer, however, may be simply common sense: it’s not the use of hand-held phones that is the issue; it’s the use of cell phones will driving, period. In fact, some studies have already posited that cell phone conversation while driving alone is a distraction that needs banning. This isn’t the first such study to note that hands-free setups don’t reduce accidents, either.

Let’s not forget, also, that even before starting to talk on a cell phone, and even with a Bluetooth headset, a driver must dial a number (unless it’s one he can redial from the headset). That’s a major distraction, as well.

There’s also a conundrum, as well, with car manufacturers beginning to stuff more and more technology into cars, which simply add to the distraction. It was bad enough before the advent of cell phones, with complex stereo systems and eating, but now manufacturers are adding wi-fi hotspots to cars. While common-sense would say that drivers should be smart enough to know better than to turn to the laptop sitting on their passenger seat to Google something, it seems pretty obvious that there will be some who do.

Those who rail against legislation need to recall what good seat-belt laws did. They also need to remember, that we wouldn’t need to legislate such matters, if people were smart enough or had enough common sense on their own.

Google is about to show Internet Explorer 6 the door, which is probably what end users should have done long ago. The Internet giant announced on Friday that as of March 1st, it will no longer support IE6 on its Google Docs or Google Sites services.

At the same time, in a blog post, Google outlined minimum browser requirements for other browsers as well. These requirements will all go into effect on March 1st. The requirements, in total, are:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0+
• Mozilla Firefox 3.0+
• Google Chrome 4.0+
• Safari 3.0+

It is indeed time to retire IE6.  It’s ridiculous to expect not just Google, but anyone to continue to support such archaic software.  Besides, how can you IE6 users survive without tabs?

Google is about to show Internet Explorer 6 the door, which is probably what end users should have done long ago. The Internet giant announced on Friday that as of March 1st, it will no longer support IE6 on its Google Docs or Google Sites services.

At the same time, in a blog post, Google outlined minimum browser requirements for other browsers as well. These requirements will all go into effect on March 1st. The requirements, in total, are:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0+
• Mozilla Firefox 3.0+
• Google Chrome 4.0+
• Safari 3.0+

It is indeed time to retire IE6.  It’s ridiculous to expect not just Google, but anyone to continue to support such archaic software.  Besides, how can you IE6 users survive without tabs?

Google Voice has added a feature, at least online, which has been widely asked for. The new feature is the ability to send SMS or text messages to multiple recipients.

As you can see from the image above, when you login to your Google Voice account on the web, you can now enter multiple numbers or contacts to send an SMS to. The only better feature than that might be the ability to send to a group.

Unfortunately, I checked my iPhone and the new Google Voice web app does not appear to support this function, at least yet. I also checked the GV Mobile+ application for jailbroken devices; that also does not support the function (I didn’t expect it to as it would require a new release).

Google Voice, for those who don’t know, is Google’s service that allows you to call and SMS using a different number than your actual cell phone number. Calls to that number are routed to different phones depending on your settings (including landlines), and text messages are free. Google also has an international calling service tied to Google Voice.

There’s not much more to the new feature than that, but it’s still cool.