Categoria: HardwareSoftware

 We will trust the telcos and ISPs not to be naughty

Details of the US internet watchdog’s net neutrality policy seem to indicate that the Federal Communications Commission does not understand what its role in the universe is.

While most people are terrified that ISPs will charge them an arm and a leg in a two-tiered internet the FCC claims it has a cunning plan which will protect consumers. And it is a plan so cunning that it could have been invented by a convention on cunning attended by the world’s most cunning professors of cunning.

According to a draft memorandum of understanding (MOU), the FCC and FTC described how the two watchdogs would work together. However the method they will use to police the ISPs is not to do anything and trust ISPs to keep their promises not to make huge profits by blocking or throttling Internet traffic.

ISPs will be free to do whatever they want—unless they make specific promises to avoid engaging in particular types of anti-competitive or anti-consumer behaviour. So if they don’t make any net neutrality promises and break them, the FTC will leave them alone.

When companies make promises and break them, the FTC can punish them for deceiving consumers.

That’s what FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Acting FTC Chair Maureen Ohlhausen are counting on.

“Instead of saddling the Internet with heavy-handed regulations, we will work together to take targeted action against bad actors,” Pai said in a joint announcement with the FTC today.

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat who opposes the net neutrality repeal, is not impressed. She gave this statement to Ars:

“The agreement announced today between the FCC and FTC is a confusing, lacklustre, reactionary afterthought: an attempt to paper over weaknesses in the Chairman’s draft proposal repealing the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality rules. Two years ago, the FCC signed a much broader pro-consumer agreement with the FTC that already covers this issue. There is no reason to do this again other than as a smoke-and-mirrors PR stunt, distracting from the FCC’s planned destruction of net neutrality protections later this week.”

Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel agreed. FTC enforcement is no substitute for strict rules against blocking, throttling, and discrimination, she said. “Plus, FTC enforcement would happen long after the fact—many months, if not years, after consumers and businesses have been harmed,” she said in a statement to Ars. “This is why the FCC must not relinquish its authority and, more importantly, its responsibility, to the public interest.”

Pai’s approach essentially lets ISPs pick and choose which net neutrality guidelines, if any, they want to follow. The just can’t make any promises.
This might be the reason that Comcast deleted a “no paid prioritisation” pledge from its net neutrality webpage on the very same day that Pai announced his plan to repeal net neutrality rules, as we previously reported.

Ohlhausen confirmed again today that FTC jurisdiction hinges on those ISPs’ promises. This leaves open the possibility that ISPs could change guarantees related to blocking or throttling.

If only there were a watchdog to protect ordinary people from the stupidity of watchdogs.

Public health issue

The French government is planning to ban students from using mobile phones in the country’s primary, junior and middle schools.

While children will be permitted to bring their phones to school, they will not be allowed to get them out at any time until they leave, even during breaks.

French education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said the measure would come into effect from the start of the next school year in September 2018.

It will apply to all pupils from the time they start school at age of six – up to about 15 when they start secondary school.

Blanquer said some education establishments have already prohibited pupils from using their mobiles.

“Sometimes you need a mobile for teaching reasons… for urgent situations, but their use has to be somehow controlled”, he told RTL radio.

The minister said the ban was also a “public health message to families… It’s good that children are not too often, or even at all, in front of a screen before the age of seven”.

The French headteachers’ union was sceptical that the ban could be enforced as some kids will not turn off their phones even if you threaten them with heavy ordinance.

Un ricercatore autonomo ha scoperto la presenza di un componente che può comportarsi come keylogger nel driver che sovrintende il touchpad Synaptics, integrato in moltissimi notebook HP.
Ovviamente, HP non ha inserito scientemente alcun oggetto capace di attivare funzionalità di keylogging, ovvero di “catturare” tutto quanto inserito – da tastiera – da parte degli utenti. Purtuttavia, il file SynTP.sys del driver Synaptics contiene alcuni residui di operazioni di debugging che se abilitati (per default non lo sono), possono attivare il keylogger.

Michael Myng, autore della scoperta, ha spiegato che un malware può semplicemente attivare il keylogger applicando una banale modifica a una chiave del registro di Windows e avere così la possibilità di spiare indisturbato tutte le attività dell’utente usando un driver nativo firmato digitalmente e approvato dai software di sicurezza.
Sui sistemi HP, il consiglio è quello di portarsi nella cartella di sistema di Windows usando la combinazione di tasti Windows+R quindi digitando %windir%\system32.
Cliccando con il tasto destro del mouse sul file SynTP.sys, bisognerà quindi scegliere Proprietà e portarsi nella scheda Dettagli.
Se, in corrispondenza della voce Versione, fosse riportato 19.3.11.37 16Aug16, si avrà la certezza di usare una versione vulnerabile del driver Synaptics.Per mettersi al riparo, si dovrà quindi fare riferimento a questa pagina di supporto HP con la lista delle ultime versioni del driver Synaptics per ciascun sistema potenzialmente aggredibile.
Per risolvere il problema di sicurezza, basterà scaricare e installare l’ultima versione del driver ad oggi disponibile.