filter

Internet Explorer 8, with the help of its SmartScreen Filter, has "blocked 1 billion attempts to download malware," Microsoft product manager James Pratt said in a blog post Friday.

The SmartScreen Filter evaluates URLs and their associated servers. If the software recognizes a server as containing malicious content, it displays a warning, saying it's unsafe to browse to a respective site that could cause harm on the user's computer. The user is then given the option to continue to the page or go back to their home page without downloading any content.

According to Microsoft, the … Read more

China's Green Dam software-filtering project has been staying afloat without government funds for the past year, but the project may now be in danger of collapse, according to a story in Tuesday's Beijing Times as covered by BBC News.

The project was launched last year in response to demands from the Chinese government to block pornography and other Internet content considered objectionable. Beijing initially wanted the software to be installed on all computers sold in China, but it provided project funding only for the first year, from 2008 to 2009.

The lack of funding since then has forced … Read more

A recent vote in the U.S. House of Representatives seemed straightforward enough: government computers must block viewing or downloading porn.

After all, a series of news reports have highlighted, in scandalous detail, how some financial regulators earning six-figure salaries were watching porn at work as Wall Street imploded. So, as it turns out, did employees of the National Science Foundation and the Interior Department--including ones who were supposed to be inspecting oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

But the exact wording of the legislation (PDF) that the House approved last week by a 239-to-182 vote could, civil libertarians … Read more

The company that operates the LimeWire file-sharing software continues to maneuver in an effort to save the company from a potential court-ordered closure but time is slipping away.

Two weeks ago, U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood handed a major legal victory to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which filed a copyright lawsuit against the Lime Wire company in 2006. She ruled that Lime Group, parent of LimeWire software maker Lime Wire, and founder Mark Gorton are liable for copyright infringement. Lime Group and Gorton could be required to pay hundreds of millions in damages and legal experts … Read more

Facebook is taking a lot of heat — again — about failing to protect the privacy of its users. (See Caroline McCarthy's The Social blog for a recap of the service's most-recent security gaffes.)

No matter what safety precautions Facebook and other social networks and Web sites take, eventually somebody's private data will become public, whether due to human error or a successful hack attack. Either way, your Web activities and the personal information you post to an online profile may be viewed by strangers, regardless of the account's security settings.

There are ways to minimize the risk … Read more

Some people choose lottery numbers randomly, or they play numbers that are meaningful to them, like loved ones' birthdays. Other people are more methodical and calculating (no pun intended), and for those people, there are programs like PowerLotto5. This software allows users to perform a variety of different analyses on previous winning lottery numbers, ostensibly helping to predict the numbers that are most likely to win in the future.

PowerLotto5 is definitely geared toward people who have at least some familiarity with statistics and who like to geek out on numbers. There is a Help file with a glossary, but … Read more

Announcing our very first not-even-remotely sanctioned by the legal department video creation contest: make us an awesome video in which Steve Jobs and the Predator work out who has prior art on swipe-to-unlock. We will reward the awesomest video with a Buzz Out Loud ceramic travel mug. Oh, and Google turns off its filters in China ... briefly.

Google turns off filter in China http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-approach-to-china-update.html http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-23/google-said-to-have-made-no-progress-in-two-month-china-dispute.html http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/interview-sergey-brin-on-googles-china-gambit/… Read more

There are any number of ways to childproof your PC, to rope off the objectionable areas of the Internet. But what about the kids' iPhones and iPod Touches? Safari offers no parental controls to speak of, no filtering or monitoring or search guards.

Enter Mobicip Safe Browser ($4.99), which offers a familiar Web interface, but with a raft of protections designed to keep kids safe.

The app looks and functions almost exactly like Safari, so there's almost no learning curve for kids already accustomed to the built-in browser (which, FYI, you can lock out by venturing into Settings &… Read more

The Web has such a witty way of bringing the realities of life into the forefront of public thought.

Who can, therefore, not feel a sublime level of sympathy for Canada's National History Society? No, not because Canada's history might seem like a drift from one sleepy century to another. Canada is an exciting place.

No, please feel for your Canadian cousins because the society's magazine, one that celebrates so much that is decent and sensible and, well, Canadian, is being forced by a tsunami of childish smuttiness to change its name.

The magazine, you see, enjoys … Read more