We are all familiar with close-circuit televisions (CCTVs) in banks and at the cashiers. How about having CCTVs nationwide?

That’s exactly what Malaysia may do. Its capital, Kuala Lumpur, currently has 255 CCTVs in seemingly innocuous spots to keep a close watch on the traffic situation in there. Local police have found these CCTVs to be also helpful in solving vehicle thefts, robberies, kidnappings and even murders.

Speaking to reporters after a recent community event, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said: “We want to try out these electronic eyes. Our policemen are insufficient… If CCTVs prove effective and practical, what’s wrong if we use them throughout the country?”

Federal Territories Minister Datuk Zulhasnan Rafique said: “The 14 cameras placed by the police at the Golden Triangle area have helped reduce crime rate in the area by 20 per cent and we feel that the reach of the cameras should be expanded.”

Officials intend to fully integrate these traffic cameras into a full-fledged crime-monitoring system to reduce crime in the Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

If this pilot project proves successful, officials will implement CCTVs across the whole nation of Malaysia.

If this proves to be successful for Malaysia, should other countries follow? Would you be supportive if you have CCTVs all over your neighborhood in the name of reducing crime?

Is your PC protected with the latest anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-phishing and firewall?

A study released last December by AOL and the National Cyber Security Alliance found that 81% of home PCs lack at least one of the three critical protections — updated computer virus software, spyware protection, and a secure firewall — necessary to help guard against viruses, spyware, hackers, and other threats. More than half (56%) of the participants either had no anti-virus protection or had not updated it within the last week, almost half (44%) did not have a properly-configured firewall, and four in ten (38%) lacked spyware protection.

Yet, despite these findings, the large majority of users (83%) falsely believed that they were safe from online threats. 

We believe having to pay subscriptions for security software contributed greatly to these statistics. Now, thanks to AOL, PC users worldwide can protect themselves with the latest industry-strength anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-phishing and firewall at no cost, no obligation, and no AOL membership required.

AOL is giving away two security software for free: Read the rest of this entry »

Do you know anyone using McAfee security programs?

They must apply an official update to avoid passwords and other sensitive data from being exploited by hackers.

Marc Maiffret, chief hacking officer at eEye Digital Security Inc., a competing maker of security products, has found a way to access PCs running the flawed McAfee software over the Internet and make them run his code. If exploited, this flaw can allow hackers to track bank account numbers, and access, change and delete sensitive files and do other damage to those PCs.

McAfee spokeswoman Siobhan MacDermott confirmed the vulnerability and said their software engineers were expected to release the fix on Wednesday for its Internet Security Suite, SpamKiller, Privacy Service and Virus Scan Plus titles.

According to experts, McAfee and top security solution providers like Symantec and Trend Micro are always very open targets to hackers.

Some experts recommend running two or more security software at the same time. Any reason why you wouldn’t do it?

Generally speaking, your email privacy is safe with Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. Unless you send undesirable emails and the government gets involved, then Google and Yahoo will comply with all lawful requests for information with proper process.

Here’s a recent case:

The US National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) received a threatening e-mail on 22 May 2006 and notified the FBI.

The FBI then requested information from Google via a federal grand jury subpoena to release the records of the incident including the offending email, registration information, session timestamps, and originating IP addresses for *[removed]@gmail.com. Google also informed the FBI that the user applied for the Gmail account using the name “*[removed]” and gave a secondary email account as *[removed]@yahoo.com.

After examining the registration records from Yahoo, the FBI confirmed that the owner of both accounts was *[removed], a resident in the New York state. With the IP addresses and timestamps from Google and Yahoo, the FBI further confirmed that both accounts were accessed on the same day and at the same location: a law office in Weston, West Virginia.

The FBI learned that the law office maintained an annex office across the parking lot which had a computer that was not password-protected and had Internet access. That office was accessible via an adjacent apartment which *[name] rented from 20 May 2006 to June 2006. Also, he left a forwarding address as Dover, Delaware, and the FBI caught up with him there.

He admitted to accessing *[removed]@yahoo.com.

Bottomline 1: One must not send undesirable emails, coz one will never know who might be knocking on one’s door.

Bottomline 2: There’s no such thing as email privacy.

Do you send emails with private and sensitive content? How do you protect your emails’ privacy? Anyone sending encrypted emails?

* Updated: real email addresses and name removed. At this point, while he has been investigated by the FBI, no charges have been pressed against him.

Many would be jaded when yet another reason why Microsoft sucks is mentioned. Rarely do we hear anything bad about Apple.

Everything about Apple is cool, their ads, their gadgets, their brand. Even the mere mention that one is a Mac-user often elicits a ‘Wow!’ and sets one apart from the rest.

Unfortunately, what lies beneath all these coolness has made longtime Mac die-hards, Bryan and Chris, who are also editors of a popular Macintosh Web site, ResExcellence.com, make the painful decision to ditched Apple for Linux, specifically for Ubuntu Linux. Reasons cited include:

1. Negative Mac community who expect much more than they deserve
2. Apple’s long track record of developing their own software which are ‘clones’ of popular 3rd parties ones
3. Deteriorated software quality from Apple that crash often

It might have crossed the minds of countless Microsoft Windows users to consider switching to Mac. Perhaps after reading Bryan’s essay on why he ditched Mac for Linux would make them consider switching to Ubuntu Linux instead.

What’s really cool about Ubuntu, other than the fact that it is free, is that you can use it without installing it and without destroying anything in your existing hard disk. This is the concept of LiveCD, while can be found in many flavors of Linux, certainly makes test driving Linux a lot easier.

Would you ditch your Windows or Mac for Linux? 

Are you using antivirus software from Symantec, McAfee or Trend Micro?

According to experts, these best-sellers are far less likely to detect new viruses and Trojans than the least popular ones.

The reason: Malware authors are specifically testing their viruses and Trojans against these best-sellers to make sure they can bypass them before unleashing their malware into the world.

Gartner’s figures for 2005 show that Symantec is the leader with 53.6% of the market. McAfee and Trend Micro own 18.8% and 13.8% of the market respectively.

“If you are running these pieces of software [from Symantec, McAfee, or Trend Micro], 8 out of 10 pieces of malicious code are going to get in[to your computer].” said Graham Ingram, general manager of the Australian Computer Emergency Response Team (AusCERT).

The solution: Use antivirus solutions from vendors with small market share.

One vendor Ingram mentioned was Russian outfit Kaspersky, which in the same tests managed to block around 90% of new malware. According to Gartner, Kaspersky’s market share is a mere 0.7%.

Another solution: Run two or more antivirus applications (which many big firms do), but at most one from the best-sellers list or none at all (hopefully, big firms do this too).

If you’re already using one from Symantec, McAfee or Trend Micro, consider adding another like Kaspersky, Panda Software, AVG by Grisoft, and NOD32 by Eset.

Is your system safe right now? Find out for sure: Use each of their FREE scanners to check your system now. And if need, you can use their FREE removal tools to clean your system too.

Cute boy meets pretty girl. Boy asks for girl’s phone number, but girl was afraid boy may turn out a weirdo. But he IS cute, and she DOES hope to keep in touch.

Tough decision, but not anymore with Private Phone.

Launched by Internet provider NetZero, you can get your very own disposable phone number from Private Phone. The price tag - FREE!

You won’t need an extra phone line, as your disposable number works with your existing number. Simply sign-up online, select the area code and number and you’re done. When people call your disposable number, they’re forwarded to a voicemail automatically, and you’ll get an email or text message notification. You can then retrieve online or by phone.

Need more than one disposable numbers? No problem. Open multiple accounts and close them whenever you like. The best part (did I mention this service is FREE) is that the callers won’t even know they’re not reaching your real number! Each voicemail account can only hold 10 messages, so do keep it clear to keep receiving calls.

Alright, there are other uses of disposable numbers that can come in handy:

1. On classified ads
2. When you sign-up with certain Web sites, in case they share the number you provided
3. Post on your Web site or blog

How will companies like Private Phone change the dating scene? Will it lead to infidelity? Will fraud increase? Would you get one?