Swedes Revolt Against Online Snooping
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By LOUISE NORDSTROM STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Want to know how much your boss earns? Or whether your daughter's fiance is in debt? For Swedes, it takes just a few clicks on the Internet to find out.
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(InfoWorld) - Usernames and passwords for more than 100 e-mail accounts at embassies and governments worldwide have been posted online. Using the information, anyone can access the accounts that have been compromised. Computer Sweden Â has verified the posted information and spoken to the person who posted them. The posted information includes names of the embassies and governments, addresses to e-mail servers, usernames and passwords. Among the organizations on the list are the foreign ministry of Iran, the Kazakh and Indian embassies in the U.S. and the Russian embassy in Sweden. Freelance security consultant Dan Egerstad posted the information. He spoke openly about the leak when Computer Sweden contacted him. "I did an experiment and came across the information by accident," he said. Egerstad says he never used the information to log in to any of the compromised accounts in order not to break any laws. Computer Sweden confirmed that the login details for at least one of the accounts is correct. Egerstad forwarded an e-mail sent on Aug. 20 by an employee at the Swedish royal court to the Russian embassy. The person who sent the e-mail, in which she declines an invitation to the Russian embassy, has confirmed that she sent the e-mail. "Yes, that is right. We did decline the invitation. As far as I can remember I did send the e-mail," she said. Computer Sweden has not been able to confirm the authenticity of any of the other information that has been posted. "When something like this happens you usually contact people and ask them to fix it. But in this case it felt too big for that, calling to other countries," Egerstad said. Of the compromised accounts, 10 belong to the Kazakh embassy in Russia./p> Around 40 belong to Uzbeki embassies and consulates around the world. Login details for e-mail accounts at the U.K. visa office in Nepal were also posted. Login details for the foreign ministry of Iran, the Kazakh and Indian embassies in the U.S. and the Russian embassy in Sweden were also posted. "I hope this makes them take action. Hopefully, faster than ever before, and I hope they become a bit more aware of security issues," Dan Egerstad says. Computer Sweden has contacted both the Russian and Indian embassies in Stockholm for comment. The Russian embassy confirmed the leaks and says that logins have now been changed. The Indian embassy declined to confirm the information and give comment. Computer Sweden has not published where the login details can be found. The information in this story has been verified by Computer Sweden without using any of the published login details. Computer Sweden is an InfoWorld affiliate.
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It's a freedom of speech thing A Swedish company owned by the founders of controversial torrent tracker site The Pirate Bay is hosting a site that defends paedophilia.â¦
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Trying to outlaw using fake information to open e-mail accounts or set up websites, some European nations could run afoul of privacy advocates. By the Associated Press.
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Much ado about nothing? Swedish prosecutors have launched another invesigation into suspected child pornography, shared through the controversial bittorrent site The Pirate Bay. However, this time police aren't theatening to blacklist the Swedish website. "The Pirate Bay are not suspects," prosecutor Cathrine RudstrÃ¶m told Swedish newssite The Local. Police have requested logs from The Pirate Bay, including IP addresses.â¦
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TechWeb - AskEraser will provide Ask users with privacy controls that will prevent their searches from being retained on the company&#39;s servers.
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Bookies sans frontiÃ¨res German and Sweden are to be hauled over the coals by EU competition regulators for stopping online gaming firms entering their markets.â¦
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Now that weâve analyzed the causes for verbal vitriol on the Net, letâs consider a cure. Readers like Ryan , Andrew and Forest Bell blamed the smears and flames on the anonymity offered by the Web. Thereâs lots of research to back the notion that an end to anonymity would encourage people to be nicer. [...].
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The Swedish authorities seek new powers to spy on any e-mail or phone call into or out of the country.
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The publication of a list of domain names some officials in Finland wished to keep secret has ignited public discussion about Internet censorship there.
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Local pest rather than international conspiracy Estonia has fined a local man a year's salary for involvement in last April's sustained denial of service attacks against the Baltic nation's critical internet systems.â¦
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook.com, a fast-growing U S social network website has sparked a privacy backlash that has quickly become one of the broadest cyber-protests ever with more than 600,000 members signing an online petition by midday yesterday.
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Also: Electronic devices seized at border searches. See what people are saying on News.com Extra.
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By Anonymous  WAN lessons learned  Plus: How to hide your online footprints.
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A tool is created that can circumvent government censorship of the web, researchers report.
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Swedes reject the copyright reform movement in favor of more mainstream political parties. Pirates vow to come back. By Quinn Norton.
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The Pirate Bay says it won't shutter, even if its operators are convicted. Its servers are scattered across the globe, out of reach of the Swedish authorities. Defendant Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi says the charges are "lame."