It's not that we object to visiting the big bad puddy tat in cyberspace, but it seems more of us prefer the old-fashioned telephone to the new-fashioned Internet when it comes to dialing Uncle Sam, especially for more sensitive, complicated business. So says the Pew Internet and American Life Project in a new study.
"People may go online to find some information about their particular issue they need to contact government over," said study author John Horrigan, "and then pick up the phone. It may give them information with which to ask questions or carry out transactions efficiently."
The study showed 40 percent of those adults surveyed prefer the blower while 35 percent prefer the bytes, Web and e-mail alike. The main reason, according to Horrigan, isn't security so much as patience or a lack thereof: "They want a conversation over the phone so they get immediate feedback on what to do next or even face-to-face interactions for certain kinds of problems."…
The government itself has certain kinds of problems in cyberspace, computer terrorism being among the prime such troubles. Prosecutors in the trial of Idaho graduate student Sammi Omar al-Hussayen – accused of turning the Islamic Assembly of North America's Website into the core of a Net network helping finance and recruit terrorists – are said to be using testimony from a Virginia man, Khwaja Hasan, who claims information in cyberspace factored in his own decision to train as a terrorist. Hasan is serving just over 11 years in the hoosegow for supporting terrorism. Al-Hussayen's defense says both sides earlier agreed that their client had nothing to do with al-Qaeda or 9/11 but accuses the prosecution of trying to remind jurors of those attacks…
The Supreme Court is being asked to remind people that online alcohol availability may be hazardous to your childrens' health. The high court is taking on a Michigan case in which the state is appealing a decision from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – nullifying the state's system of regulating alcohol import through in-state, licensed, highly-regulated businesses – on grounds that it would "allow to stand, unregulated Internet, phone and direct mail sales of alcohol by out-of-state retailers and producers would have been permitted for the first time in Michigan," said the Coalition for a Safe and Responsible Michigan. "While the case is portrayed as only impacting premium wine sales," said Homer Smith, director of CSRM member MADD-Michigan, "the truth is it would open the floodgates for unregulated sale of beer, wine and liquor over the Internet and by phone. Our regulations and our safeguards against underage purchases will become meaningless."…
Not so meaningless, so far as global marketer and researcher Ipsos is concerned, is competition among cable and DSL providers to get those Netizens planning to switch service providers in the next few months. Ipsos says one out of four American households plan to make the switch and a little more than half of those using dialup plan to upgrade to high speed – with a near-even divide between those looking at cable and those looking at DSL. "Broadband is here," said Ipsos senior vice president of technology and communications Todd Board, "and with it, a battle is brewing between cable and DSL. While the number of new-to-Internet users is declining, broadband companies including cable, DSL, and satellite Internet providers will have to compete for a relatively focused segment of consumers who are likely to upgrade their connection from dial-up to high-speed."
Meanwhile, some might say never mind cable or DSL because "the Internet's fast lane" is arriving sooner than you think. Internet2, known formally as Abilene and already zipping along at a pace making the Internet we know and love resemble the Model T, just isn't available to thee and me just yet. A group of researchers demonstrated Interner2's speed in February and sent a terabyte of data (equal to 150 full-length DVDs) from Los Angeles to Geneva in 10 minutes – but only researchers and other scientists and universities for now are actually able to work with it. Well, they once said only the wealthy or the scientifically needing-for-speeding were going to be able to handle or afford Tin Lizzie, too…
We'd better be ready to handle the rising cost of Internet security, though. So says the Australian Broadcast Company, which reported May 24 that the cost of keeping cyberspace more secure from the crooks has climbed 20 percent in the past year while the attacks are rising and the bad guys often seem to have the upper hand. "We have seen a merging of skill sets, where we have seen spamming skills, combining with traditional fraud skills and then some of the more technical skills of hacking," said Australian High Tech Crime Centre director Alastair MacGibbon. "And that's been evident for example in some of the more recent bank phishing frauds. We do know that obviously highly organised groups with good technical skills are indeed committing these crimes." Australian computer crime is estimated to cost affected organizations over $100,000 a year…
Speaking of Internet crime, the FBI has custody of a man who last week was accused of kidnapping a 13-year-old girl he met on the Internet. William Robert Bender is accused of snatching the girl in San Antonio, boarding a bus with her May 20. Bender was arrested by New Orleans police in the French Quarter two days later, and they have the girl in custody pending her family's arrival to bring her home…
Ireland's government is apparently moving forward with a bid to impeach Judge Brian Curtin, after Curtin – offered the chance to answer a request that he explain why child porn was found on his computer – may have told the government it was not entitled to ask, when it was a matter for a judicial panel with which he pledged to cooperate. Curtin was acquitted in April based on problems with the search warrant for his home, in a case where child porn was said to be found on a computer seized from Curtin's home in May 2002…
A Sri Lankan special police unit is said to have exposed a worldwide child sex abuse racket where Sri Lankan children are sold to foreigners on the Internet. The National Child Protection Authority special police launched an investigation after reports that cyberspace was a favorite route for local child sex traffickers, and ended up arresting several foreigners who were convicted in Sri Lankan courts…
A week after Patrick Ryan McKinney got 100 years in the calaboose for having child porn on his home computer, Terry Adkins of Nicholasville, Kentucky learned he'd be going up the river for 75 years and ten months for downloading dozens of child porn images. Adkins's wife, Jane, got off lighter as his accomplice – a mere 30 years and five months. The prosecution sought an extremely harsh sentence for Adkins on grounds he posed a bigger danger and thus deserved something beyond the normal federal sentencing guidelines. The couple were each convicted in 1999 of receiving and possessing child porn and of conspiracy…
Enough of the sewage swamp for now, please. Call this one Ripley time – as in, believe it… or not: The Lothian NHS Trust has "encouraged" their staff to hit the sex shops or the Internet and find hardcore porn for the handicapped. "They've been welcomed," said director of partnership development Ray Flint, "as a valuable tool, providing guidance for staff on handling the issues surrounding sex and relationships." Tell that to the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, whose spokesman Ronnie Convery said it was irresponsible for any public body to aid and abet access to porn. Or, to Scottish Women Against Pornography spokeswoman Catherine Harper, who said she was appalled that those with learning disabilities are being encouraged to see the stuff.
