Archive for category IT
Spamming Malaysia
— The Malaysian Insider
Dec 13, 2012
DEC 13 — In the past 24 hours, some of you and definitely The Malaysian Insider have been inundated with emails from a number of names like Imran Sulaiman, Ranesa Jegatheesa and Malaysian Indian over the PKR protest for Indians who are purportedly stateless in Malaysia.
These emails are spam.
They are a waste of time and definitely a waste of money if someone is being paid to churn them out and send them to all and sundry.
It shows how much political parties and even governments go to great lengths to get their views across to each and every one of us Malaysians ahead of the general election.
But it is a pain. Read the rest of this entry »
Spyware Leaves Trail to Beaten Activist Through Microsoft Flaw
By Vernon Silver
Bloomberg
Oct 10, 2012
On a Monday in July, Ahmed Mansoor sat in his study in Dubai and made the mistake of clicking on a Microsoft Word attachment that arrived in an e-mail, labeled “very important” in Arabic, from a sender he thought he recognized.
With that click, the pro-democracy activist unwittingly downloaded spyware that seized on a flaw in the Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) program to take over his computer and record every keystroke. The hackers infiltrated his digital life so deeply they still accessed his personal e-mail even after he changed his password.
Since then, Mansoor, 42, an electrical engineer and father of four, says he has suffered two beatings by thugs in September during his campaign for citizens’ civil rights in the Persian Gulf federation of the United Arab Emirates. While those assailants remain unknown, researchers say they’ve figured out what was behind the virtual assault.
The spyware that penetrated his laptop appears to be a Western-made surveillance tool sold to police and intelligence agencies that’s so powerful it can turn on webcams and microphones and grab documents off hard drives, according to the findings of a study being published today by the University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs’ Citizen Lab.
Mansoor’s predicament shows how nations have rapidly moved beyond the surveillance of phone and e-mail transmissions to rifle through the most intimate details stored by personal computers and the smartphones that citizens carry with them everywhere. The tools, which can peer into people’s living rooms and access rough drafts of love letters, business strategies or plans for street demonstrations, mark the latest escalation in a digital arms race between governments and the people they watch. Read the rest of this entry »
Internet blackout day: Politicisation of online activism?
Posted by Kit in IT, Media, Najib Razak on Sunday, 2 September 2012
— Damien D. Cheong and Yeap Su Yin
The Malaysian Insider
Sep 02, 2012
SEPT 2 — An internet blackout day was declared in Malaysia on 14 August 2012.
This was in protest against Section 114A of the recently-amended Evidence Act, which enables the authorities to act firmly against individuals who post defamatory, inflammatory and/or seditious content on the Internet.
The law not only holds the user/blogger potentially accountable for the offending post(s) but also any individual or organisation connected to the objectionable website or blog such as a person who: owns, administers or edits the website; is registered with the network service provider; and is in custody or control of the computer at the time the offence was committed.
These new amendments have alarmed many netizens and civil society groups because of the legislation’s wide scope and the heavy onus placed on the accused to prove his or her innocence. Many individuals have interpreted these amendments as an attempt by the Malaysian government to stifle internet freedom. The Stop 114A campaign was spearheaded by the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), a civil society group, but it soon attracted support from several prominent civil society organisations, bloggers and opposition parties.
In the wake of Internet Blackout Day, the Najib administration promised to re-evaluate Section 114A, with the prime minister assuring the public that ‘Whatever we do, we must put the people first’. While this outcome may be interpreted as a success for online activism in Malaysia, the question this raises is whether such online activism can truly create an impact on its own or whether it needs support from opposition parties and political notables to do so. Read the rest of this entry »
Stop 114A and stop these mistakes
Posted by Kit in IT, Law & Order on Saturday, 25 August 2012
— Michael Yap (loyarburok.com)
The Malaysian Insider
Aug 25, 2012
AUG 25 — I must admit that when the Evidence (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 2012 was given royal assent, it infuriated me so much that our new laws of Malaysia are nothing better than what we have had for the past 50 years. When every statute book of ours is filled with laws that are draconian, that respect no rule of law, that are harsh and cruel in punishment; and that work unfairly against the individual, the 2012 Act is certainly outrageous to the extent that no right-thinking Malaysian would ever believe what the law minister has professed to be the “legitimate aim” of the Act.
I too joined the Internet blackout day on August 14, and appreciated the fact that I was not alone, for thousands and millions of my peers echoed the same concerns on that very same day. It was — to me and to all Malaysians — a successful step in our battle against section 114A! It was truly momentous to see a united front in our cyberspace at that point.
However, having said that, it is alarming to see that not every Malaysian who opposed (and supported) section 114A are getting their facts (and contents) right. It is meaningless to see section 114A being repealed (or upheld) when the masses do not really understand what they are opposing (or supporting). Developments since August 14 have been vibrant as there are many more statements on the section being made by various stakeholders, plus increasing media reports over the subject matter, and not to mention the volume of comments on Facebook and Twitter.
I might not be well informed either on the issue of how many Malaysians truly understand the nature of section 114A and why we oppose it; there is neither empirical evidence nor statistics to reflect that. Perhaps those misinformed are just a minority or maybe I have inadvertently exaggerated such a phenomenon. But these are some of the errors that “might” be perceived amongst fellow Malaysians: Read the rest of this entry »
Section 114A and legal presumptions: Are they fair?
By Art Harun | August 15, 2012
The Malaysian Insider
AUG 15 ― Many may not realize this but the law does make many presumptions about the subject matter of its governance, namely, us.
The most famous (infamous?) and perhaps harshest presumption that our law makes is in respect of drug trafficking. Section 39B of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952 stipulates that whoever is found guilty of drug trafficking shall be punished by death.
Making things a lot easy for the prosecution is a legal presumption imposed by Section 37 of that Act that any person who is found in possession of, among others, 15g or more of heroin or morphine or 200g or more of cannabis will be presumed to be a drug trafficker unless proven otherwise.
Without that legal presumption, the prosecution would, regardless of the quantity of the drug being in possession of the accused person, have to prove that he or she is a trafficker. That means, the prosecution would have to prove that the accused person has been doing any of the following acts, namely, “manufacturing, importing, exporting, keeping, concealing, buying, selling, giving, receiving, storing, administering, transporting, carrying, sending, delivering, procuring, supplying or distributing any dangerous drug otherwise than under the authority of the Act.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Najib to Reassess Malaysian Web Law
Posted by Kit in IT, Media, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 15 August 2012
By SHIBANI MAHTANI | August 14, 2012, 11:50 a.m. ET
The Wall Street Journal
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak took to microblogging site Twitter on Tuesday to say that he will ask his government to reassess a new law that critics say could restrict online freedoms.
Throughout the day, Malaysians surfing popular blogs and some political websites were greeted by pop-up banners and blacked-out pages prepared as part of a concerted campaign against section 114A, a controversial amendment to the country’s Evidence Act. The law holds owners of Wi-Fi connections or editors of blogs or forums legally accountable for any seditious or defamatory material spread through their accounts or websites.
A series of prominent websites, including those of the Malaysian Bar Council, the opposition Democratic Action Party, and news portals Malaysiakini, Free Malaysia Today and BFM Radio, were either blacked out voluntarily or featured a pop-up message: Stop 114A.
Read the rest of this entry »
Does it takes a blackout, sir?
Posted by Kit in IT, Media, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 15 August 2012
— Jaleel Hameed
The Malaysian Insider
Aug 14, 2012
AUG 14 — Thank you, Mr Prime Minister, for realising the effects of the Internet Blackout Day today.
But, sir, how did this come about? Why does it take an uproar for your ministers and government to snap into action.
Well, not the government. Only you, sir, and a few other lawmakers, figured it out but that too way after Section 114A of the Evidence Act was passed.
Is this People First, Performance Now?
Because tonight, sir, you reaffirmed that people come first.
“I have asked Cabinet to discuss section 114A of the Evidence Act 1950. Whatever we do we must put people first,” you said on Twitter.
See, sir, you have to watch what’s going on now within your government and supporters, including the sycophantic cybertroopers who support anything done by your colleagues without thinking about it. Read the rest of this entry »
Historic triumph 4Msian online democracy
Posted by Kit in IT, Media, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 15 August 2012
Tweets @limkitsiang
12:01am
Historic triumph 4Msian online democracy – 24hr Internet Blackout Day initiated by CIJ 2demand repeal of repressive S114A Evidence Act 1950
12:02am
“I have asked cabinet 2discuss S114A” – Najib acknowledges power of solidarity of online Msian community w sea of black on Msian cyberspace
12:02am
Law needed 2deal with slanderous offensive incendiary postings lies falsehoods 2incite hatred illwill agnst individual group race religion
12:03am
But NO 2any law which acts as internet censorship 2violate responsible legitimate freedom of expression online n persecute innocent ppl
12:03am
Outcome of historic “Internet Blackout Day” – Online community should be fully involved/consulted in framing any internet legislation
Internet Blackout Day on 14 August gaining momentum
Posted by Kit in IT, Law & Order, Media on Monday, 13 August 2012
CIJ Release
13 August 2012
Kuala Lumpur — Malaysian civil society’s latest effort in campaigning against the newly introduced Section 114A to the Evidence Act 1950 — Internet Blackout Day – is gaining momentum and has received more endorsements from prominent websites, Netizens and politicians.
Bar Council has confirmed taking down their website (http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/) to support this while the Democratic Action Party (DAP) is shutting down all websites administered by them and will not be updating their Facebook and Twitter accounts all day on 14th August, 2012. Tech-savvy DAP politician Lim Kit Siang and lawyer/avid Twitter user Edmund Bon have both vowed to go offline for 24hours.
Bloggers who have pledged to support a pop-up to promote the Stop 114A campaign include Marina Mahathir, Hishamuddin Rais (Tukar Tiub), Uppercaise, Nat Tan, Niki Cheong, Anil Netto, Juana Jaafar, Sarawak Bloggers, Fahmi Fadzil, myasylum etc.
Internet Blackout Day pop-up is also being supported by news sites Free Malaysia Today, Malaysiakini, Digital News Asia, The Nut Graph, bfm, Merdeka Review, and party organ news sites Harakah Daily and Keadilan Daily. Supporters from commercial/entrepreneurial sector include lelong.com.my, entrepreneurs.my, nexusmediaworks and MOL. From the online resources & community sector, cari.com.my, anixekai.com, LoyarBurok, mobile88, jbtalks and edu.joshuatly.com Read the rest of this entry »
Black day for Internet users
Posted by Kit in IT, Lim Guan Eng, Media, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 29 May 2012
— CPI
The Malaysian Insider
May 29, 2012
MAY 29 — The Evidence (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 2012 will come into operation in a few days on June 1. The impact of this hastily and stealthily rushed legislation could be devastating.
De facto law minister Nazri Abdul Aziz denies that amendments to the Evidence Act were a means for the government to curb online dissent by making Internet anonymity more difficult to maintain or ignorance to be used as an excuse.
Instead Nazri claims that the law was tightened because “we don’t want [anonymous or pseudonymous] people to slander or threaten others,” according to a report in the Sunday Star.
However opposition leaders such as DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng are unconvinced. Read the rest of this entry »
DDOS attacks against Malaysiakini begin, again
Malaysiakini.com
6:49PM Apr 27, 2012
Malaysiakini’s server came under attack as tensions mount ahead of tomorrow’s Bersih 3.0 rally.
Readers and subscribers, especially those using international routing such as Blackberries phones, have been unable to access Malaysiakini since 5.30pm this evening.
azlanThe attack known as a – distributed denial of service (DDOS) – involves using a large number of computers to flood Malaysiakini’s servers with ‘dud’ traffic, causing a traffic jam which denies access to legitimate users.
The attack is normally carried out by international syndicates paid to disrupt targeted websites.
A similar attack was carried out against Malaysiakini in April and July last year, in tandem with the Sarawak elections and Bersih 2.0 respectively.
Malaysiakini’s technology team is currently studying the attack patterns and will take measures to overcome the attacks. Read the rest of this entry »
Wire Up, or Miss Out on Tomorrow’s Jobs
Posted by Kit in Articles, IT, university on Friday, 6 January 2012
Thomas L. Friedman | January 05, 2012
The Jakarta Globe
Two things struck me about the Republican presidential candidate debates leading up to the Iowa caucuses. One is how entertaining they were. The other is how disconnected they were from the biggest trends shaping the job market of the 21st century. What if the 2012 campaign were actually about the world in which we’re living and how we adapt to it? What would the candidates be talking about?
Surely at or near the top of that list would be the tightening merger between globalization and the latest information technology revolution. The IT revolution is giving individuals more and more cheap tools of innovation, collaboration and creativity — thanks to hand-held computers, social networks and “the cloud,” which stores powerful applications that anyone can download.
And the globalization side of this revolution is integrating more and more of these empowered people into ecosystems, where they can innovate and manufacture more products and services that make people’s lives more healthy, educated, entertained, productive and comfortable.
The best of these ecosystems will be cities and towns that combine a university, an educated populace, a dynamic business community and the fastest broadband connections on earth. These will be the job factories of the future. The countries that thrive will be those that build more of these towns that make possible “high-performance knowledge exchange and generation,” explains Blair Levin, who runs the Aspen Institute’s Gig.U project, a consortium of 37 university communities working to promote private investment in next-generation ecosystems. Read the rest of this entry »
Dissatisfied with TM UniFi High-Speed Broadband Service
Letter by James Ooi
I am a TM UniFi High-Speed Broadband VIP5 package subscriber since March 2011. As I am staying at a high-rise building, the TM UniFi service is provisioned to my premise using VDSL (copper) instead of using fiber optics. Ever since one month after I started using TM UniFi, I have been facing two major issues with the service of which one has been completely resolved while another has been happening up till this very day I am writing this letter!
Between April and July 2011, I had been experiencing disconnection where the DSL indicator on the VDSL modem blinked and reconnected itself. This happened randomly a few times a day. After numerous technician visits where they replaced my VDSL modem and changed the port, the problem was finally resolved in July 2011.
However, since May 2011, I have been experiencing what I call the “Upload Speed Syndrome” randomly where my upload speed drops till near zero. This happens randomly almost on a daily basis and at certain times, it happens at about the same time daily! At other times, the problem resolved by itself only to recur after a few days to a couple of weeks! Whenever this problem occurs, my upload speed drops till near zero where a speed test performed would either results in an “Upload Test Error” message or an extremely slow speed of 0.01Mbps! Performing a ping to a locally-hosted web server will even exhibit random packet losses! However, there is nothing wrong with the download speed as in most cases, my download speed is at least 90% of the advertised bandwidth.
Read the rest of this entry »
Russians fight Twitter and Facebook battles over Putin election
Miriam Elder in Moscow
guardian.co.uk
Friday 9 December 2011
Protests against president’s party escalate across social media with flood of automated counterattacks and alleged hacking
Protest against Vladimir Putin United party over elections have escalated across social media, including Twitter and Facebook, with a flood of automated counterattacks.
Russians have flooded Facebook and Twitter as they organise unprecedented protests against Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party. But they are not alone. Thousands of Twitter accounts appear to have been created with the sole purpose of drowning out opposition voices by flooding the service’s hashtag search function.
The automated attacks have dumped a blizzard of meaningless tweets with hashtags such as #Navalny, on which tweets about Alexei Navalny are collated, making it impossible to follow the flow of news about the arrested opposition leader. Many of the so-called “Twitter bots” have now been shut down. Read the rest of this entry »
Impotent rage
By Kapil Sethi | November 09, 2011
The Malaysian Insider
NOV 9 — So it’s final. No more PPSMI. Over a year of PAGE campaigning, petitioning, protesting and writing letters to the editors have come to naught. As the deputy prime minister remarked, the decision was made by the government in 2009 and it will not bow to the demands of small groups. The only concession is that those already under PPSMI will be allowed to finish their schooling under PPSMI.
So it’s final. No more arguments over amendments to the Employment Act. Three months of the Malaysian Trade Unions Congress (MTUC) campaigning, petitioning and picketing have had no impact on the government. The human resource minister called the picket illegal (November 1, The Malaysian Insider) and insisted “this is a policy issue by the government. If they picket, they are going against the law.”
Both PAGE and MTUC threatened to divert support from Barisan Nasional to the opposition if their demands were not met. The PAGE Facebook protest page garnered approximately 100,000 “Likes” while MTUC has over 800,000 members and counts on the support of 5.7 million workers. Even the Lynas controversy has managed to alienate a substantial portion of Kuantan residents, with no solution offered by the government beyond bare denials.
Read the rest of this entry »
Mozilla, Microsoft Withdraw Trust in Malaysian Intermediate CA
By John Ribeiro, IDG News
PCWorld
Mozilla and Microsoft said Thursday they are revoking trust in all certificates issued by Digicert, a Malaysian intermediate certificate authority (CA) , after it was found that it had issued 22 certificates with weak 512-bit keys and missing certificate extensions and revocation information.
The Malaysian company was issued an intermediate CA certificate in July, 2010 by Entrust in Dallas, Texas, which was licensed for distribution with SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) certificates.
Entrust said in a bulletin on its website that it had been discovered that Digicert Malaysia has issued certificates with weak 512-bit RSA keys and missing certificate extensions. Entrust has revoked the 512-bit certificates issued by Digicert and made them available to major browser vendors to blacklist if found appropriate, it added.
Digicert in Malaysia does not have any relationship with DigiCert, a CA based in Utah.
Read the rest of this entry »
DAP wants MCMC to probe websites
By Yow Hong Chieh | October 24, 2011
The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 — The DAP wants the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to act against websites spreading allegations that Lim Guan Eng’s son molested a girl.
DAP publicity chief Tony Pua said the party will submit to the MCMC a list of 34 offending websites and 200 pages of printouts compiled over the past three days for the regulator’s immediate action.
They include blogs by Papagomo and Bukit Gelugor Umno division chief Dr Novandri Hasan Basri, Pisau.net and Utusan Malaysia.
“Frankly speaking… they (MCMC) don’t need a report from us. Once they see something happening they can take the necessary action.
Read the rest of this entry »
Steve Jobs – Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Steve Jobs
1955-2011
Stanford Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.
I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
Read the rest of this entry »
‘Diamlah’ wake-up call for Najib
Posted by Kit in Facebook, IT, Najib Razak, Twitter on Monday, 1 August 2011
Oon Yeoh | Jul 28, 11 2:31pm
Malaysiakini
I read with amusement that news portals were not included in the media consultative council, mooted to be jointly-headed by Information, Communications and Culture Minister Rais Yatim and Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein.
Instead of having Malaysiakini, Malaysian Insider and Free Malaysia Today – all very popular news sites – as representatives of new media, the government proposal included Blog House, a bloggers’ association.
This is not surprising as the government still obviously thinks of new media as consisting of blogs. Read the rest of this entry »
Utusan hitting the streets with blacked-out headlines, blotches of black and full pages in black if it gets “Economist” treatment from Home Ministry
Posted by Kit in Bersih, Hishammuddin, IT, Najib Razak, Police on Wednesday, 20 July 2011
The UMNO official organ, Utusan Malaysia, will be hitting the newsstands every day with blacked-out headlines in front or inside pages, blotches of black or even full pages in black if it is given the Economist treatment by Home Ministry “censoring incorrect and misleading information”.
And what a sight it would be!
This is because no other mainstream media in Malaysia could compete with Utusan for the tonnage of garbage, lies and falsehoods it purveys everyday!
It would undoubtedly make Utusan Malaysia the only one newspaper of its kind in the world as to justify to get into both the Guinness and Malaysia Books of Records! Read the rest of this entry »
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