internet kaspersky security: Microsoft Office OneNote File Uniform Resource Locator Remote Code Execution

Microsoft Office OneNote File Uniform Resource Locator Remote Code Execution
Microsoft Office is vulnerable to remote code execution through specially-crafted OneNote URLs.

Everything you wanted to ask Freeview...

I've just opened a discussion in our Freeview forum on Geekzone where you can post your questions about the Freeview broadcast service.

Freeview will be answering your questions and we will post the replies to start a discussion on that.

With time, if people show interest we could even schedule a live on-line chat. It all depends of your participation.

If you have been living under a rock, Freeview will become the standard open to air TV broadcast standard with satellite (standard definition) and and terrestrial (high definition) services.

Is Fleet Management an invasion of employee privacy?

An interesting story originating from the Sydney Morning Herald last week, and doing the rounds in New Zealand, says that ‘Privacy Experts’ and Unions are saying that vehicle tracking systems used by companies are an invasion of staff privacy.

It goes on to talk about a former Telstra employee who committed suicide shortly after having a vehicle tracking system attached to his company vehicle. The employee was being treated for depression and the story infers that his suicide was in part a consequence of Fleet Management equipment being installed in his vehicle.

Over the last decade I have been in various ways involved with Vehicle and Personal Tracking technology and only once have I come accross a company that wanted it to be able to check up on the honesty of their staff.

There is no question that some companies have found a sudden increase in profitability and decrease in vehicle costs since they put FM systems in place, but monitoring staff integrity was not the reason the system went in. This particular company wanted to know which vehicles were close to clients that needed urgent service so that they could allocate the nearest vehicle to provide a quality reponsive service.

A few years ago I met the CEO of a rapid response plumbing firm. They guaranteed a minimum response time for people who needed a plumber in an emergancy. He was able to manage this as a consequence of using Navman Wireless technology to locate the nearest vehicle to the job.

They also wanted to compare time based service contracts to the actual time the vehicle was parked at the client site. They wanted to know if they had under or overquoted because there was sometimes a gap between the sales person’s enthusiasm to win a contract and the reality of the job being done.

What did happen was that a number of staff people whom they had suspected of taking liberties with the vehicle on the job and after hours, left the company within a month or so of their own volition. They were under no pressure, in fact their employer said to them "We don't care what happened in the past, this is not a big brother situation, however we do expect a fair day's work for a fair day's pay". In fact the CIO of this company absolutely hates and deplores the concept of big brother and would fight tooth and nail to stop the system being used to monitor the staff to see if they were skyving off. It was never about that. They did know that a couple of the people were abusing their employer's trust, but nothing was ever said to them about it and basically what happened was that those people knew they couldn't continue in the way they were used to and resigned.

I am against (and it may well be illegal) tracking people and their vehicles without their knowledge. The only people able to do that should be the Police and even then, only with a legal warrant produced through the courts.

On the other hand there are many potential benefits. In the courier and freight industry, Fleet Management means that people can easily apply track and trace to good being picked up and delivered without needing additional staff to place calls to drivers.

In the security industry it means that security guards on patrol can confirm the safety and location of their staff and also provide clear evidence to clients that their premises have been visited when they said they were. It can also mean that these people can be backed up in an emergancy. This technology is used internationally to track and protect the safety of VIP’s such as politicians in government vehicles.

Another area that is becoming popular is using this technology to keep track of a personal vehicle’s location. For example, when Dad lends the car to his son or daughter who is just popping down to the shops or a mate’s place, who could be boy racers. There have been a number of occassions where a stolen vehicle has been recovered with the thief still inside, such as the case earlier this year. Sometimes a car is irreplacable such as a classic, or sports car. Insurance money can’t always allow someone to recover the time spent in restoring or bulding a vehicle. This technology can also be used to secure trailer water craft and motorcycles which are often easy targets for criminals.

Another area which is becoming very popular and which I have written about a number of times before is tracking elderly people. With the Baby Boomers living longer and being more mobile, there is a growing population of elderly people, some of whom are sprightly of mind, but less of body and at risk of breaking hips or other body parts, while others are sound in body but suffering onset of Alzheimers Disease or other forms of dementia and likely to wander off and not remember where they live. Whether it is the Retirement Village or Rest Home, or their children, this common problem becomes much easier to manage if you can send a text message to the device they are carrying and receive one back with the nearest street address to their current location.

I think tracking is a great thing for unions to use to help them shore up membership and totally endorse them helping people out when it comes to unethical practice on behalf of the company they work for. However, in most cases FM (Fleet Management) is about providing better service to a company’s clients, being able to stay competitive in a time of heavy traffic, high cost of petrol and consumers who expect cheaper prices.

TVNZ7 Internet Debate

The TVNZ 7 Internet Debate, in association with InternetNZ involves four politicians quizzed on major areas of ICT policy with questions coming from you through the online chat, a studio audience, and experienced journalists.
The politicians are Labour’s Minister of Communications Hon David Cunliffe, National ICT Spokesperson Hon Maurice Williamson, ACT Leader Rodney Hide and Greens ICT Spokesperson Metiria Turei.
Broadcaster Sean Plunket will moderate the debate, with questions posed by experienced journalists Fran O’Sullivan and Russell Brown.

Mauricio has already mentioned this debate numerous times on Geekzone and from the lack of comments in the forums set up for this thread it seems that people don't seem interested in what is happening in the internet scene in NZ which is rather ironic because the second xxx ISP has poor speeds of xxx telco has a problem suddenly out of the woodwork come hundreds of people all lining up to complain!

This is YOUR chance to have YOUR questions answered by these four MP's, any of whom could be key players in the telecommunications sector in New Zealand after this years election.

Ask your Broadband questions here

Ask your cybersafety questions here

Ask your digital divide questions here

Ask your copyright questions here

Ask your convergence questions here

The debate screens live on TVNZ7 at 9pm on Tuesday 23rd September. It will also be streamed live in the TVNZ website.

Symantec rewrites Internet security suite to curb nuisances - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

The new Microsoft ads... enjoy!
Here we go, for your viewing pleasure:

I like those. Why? Because when Apple launched the "I am a Mac, I am PC" ads they decide to approach the whole game as a battle between stereotypes. They also had no moral problems in comparing the platforms directly. Which is ok, when done by a independent party - not by a company that will of course show some bias.

So the Microsoft "I am a PC" ads are not like that. They don't try to make the competition look bad. Instead they try to show you why you should care.

And yes, I do have Macs here at home too.