Tech Talk

Folks in some of the most rural parts of New England have been left to fend for themselves at this hour — thanks to the very individuals promising to deliver a better life. Interesting strategy.

The Associated Press is reporting that political robocalls have sparked service outages among Comcast subscribers throughout parts of Massachussets and New Hampshire meaning 911 service has been knocked offline.

The telecommunications company was forced to reroute phone traffic as a result, the wire service reported Monday evening.

In addition, the New Hampshire Democratic Party reported a loss of phone service at 11 locations across the state on Monday afternoon, the wire service reported. The outages reminded Hearst Connecticut copy editor Bob Gottlieb of outages the party suffered in the state eight years ago.

Conspiracy theorists, be on alert.

Tech Talk thanks Hearst Connecticut copy editor Tim Bleasdale for this tip.

Google has done it again.

The technology giant is causing a buzz in cyberspace over its latest logo creation.

Web surfers visiting Google’s homepage were greeted Tuesday with blue, red, yellow and green balls that bounce around the screen before eventually settling to form the familiar company name. When a user moves his or her mouse over the balls, they scatter before eventually reforming.

Speculation is rampant on the Web about exactly why Google has launched the logo.

Some are speculating it has to do with Google’s 12th birthday, the anniversary of Javascript and the use of HTML 5. Whatever the inspiration or reason, the company is remaining mum. The company has previously utilized its logo to celebrate the likes of individuals like H.G. Wells, among others.

Google has demonstrated yet again how effective a relatively simple creation could be causing an international stir — and undoubtedly inspiring a spike in traffic and usage.

Apple released more unfortunate news on Friday.

The highly anticipated white iPhone 4 has been delayed — again.

In a statement, Apple stated:

White models of Apple’s new iPhone 4 have continued to be more challenging to manufacture than we originally expected, and as a result they will not be available until later this year. The availability of the more popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected.

ZDNet reports that some have speculated the delay may be a result of engineers revisiting the poor antenna. However, the technology news site reports that the speculation seems unlikely — and likely has more to do with supply issues.

But don’t be down, we posted several iPhone 4-related videos to cheer you up. Check them out here. And check out more iPhone coverage here.

Tech Talk recently reported on Wired magazine’s challenge to crack the code in the United States Cyber Command’s logo.

The technology magazine reported that a reader was able to break the 32 character code embedded within the highly secretive agency in a matter of hours.

You could learn what 9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a translated to here – and read some creative guesses, too.

Tech Talk applauds the United States Cyber Command for joining forces with Wired and the general public to find a fun and creative way to interact. It would be nice if other government agencies followed Cyber Command’s lead.

One of America’s most secretive military facilities reportedly embedded a series of numbers and letters in its logo for the public to crack.

The United States Cyber Command embedded the following code around a perched eagle: 9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a.

“It’s not just random numbers and does ‘decode’ to something specific,” a source told Wired magazine.

The technology publication will award a small, but appropriate prize, to the first person to send it the correct answer.

Learn more here — and get cracking.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental affairs Committee unanimously approved a piece of legislation that could ultimately give the federal government unprecedented control of the Internet.

The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010, as Tech Talk has previously denounced, will now head for a full Senate vote.

The bill, if passed and signed into law, would give the American president the authority to “authorize emergency measures to protect the nation’s most critical infrastructure if a cyber vulnerability is being exploited or is about to be exploited.”

During an emergency, the president would be able to turn off the Web. Frightening indeed — particularly at a time when an uninterrupted open stream of information would be needed the most.

“While the bill makes it clear that it does not authorize electronic surveillance beyond that authorized in current law, we are concerned that the emergency actions that could be compelled could include shutting down or limiting Internet communications that might be carried over covered critical infrastructure systems,” several privacy groups wrote in a letter to addressed to several U.S. Senators, including Connecticut’s own Joe Lieberman who is also sponsoring the legislation.

The Huffington Post reported:

The bill would also see the creation of a new agency within the Department of Homeland Security, the National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC). Any private company reliant on “the Internet, the telephone system, or any other component of the U.S. ‘information infrastructure’” would be “subject to command” by the NCCC, and some would be required to engage in “information sharing” with the agency, says CBS4.

The House version of the bill, H.R. 5548, has not passed committee — yet.

Tech Talk contends that there is no need for this bill and that it should be rejected.

Google collected sensitive data, including passwords, a French data protection agency examination has found.

The information was collected from unsecured wireless networks by the search engine’s Street View vehicles as the company logged WiFi hotspots, the BBC reported Monday.

CNIL, the French data protection agency, told reporters that an early look indicated the presence of “data that are normally covered by… banking and medical privacy rules,” the BBC reported.

Passwords for e-mail and “chunks of text from messages” were reportedly found, according to the British media.

The search engine giant said it was working with authorities and would delete the information it had gathered, if requested, the BBC reported.

Google acknowledged that its vehicles had “mistakenly” collected and stored data broadcast from wireless networks in Connecticut, Tech Talk reported earlier this month.

The search engine called the collection a software mistake, Tech Talk cited a release by Connecticut’s Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, as saying. Google has stressed that the data has been secured and was not used “in any Google service or product.”

Google said it has grounded its entire Street View fleet and has stopped collecting wireless data, Tech Talk has previously reported. The search engine “believes” it started collecting the data in Connecticut two years ago, Blumenthal said in a statement.

“Our ultimate objective is to delete the data consistent with our legal obligations and in consultation with the appropriate authorities,” a Google spokesperson said.

Investigations have been launched in Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, New Zealand and Spain. Several U.S. states are considering filing civil suits, the BBC reported.

The company stated earlier this month in a release sent through Blumenthal’s office that it considered the information broadcast from the personal and business networks to be public information. It said it needs the information to “improve our location-based services.”

This is a serious issue. Any information collected could lead to people becoming victimized – not just by Google but by someone who hacks into the technology giant’s servers, which have been compromised before.  This news should remind Web surfers that they should only use secure wireless connections – or else they face becoming a victim. Learn more about wireless security here.

Even before Monday’s news, Connecticut’s attorney general indicated that a probe in the state was underway.

“Google’s actions raise troubling and profound questions about privacy and whether laws need to be clarified or changed,” Blumenthal said in a statement distributed earlier this month. “I urge consumers to consider encrypting their wireless computer networks. An unencrypted network is an invitation to snooping, like broadcasting all communications on loudspeakers. Anyone with the right software and equipment can listen in.”

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., is sponsoring a disturbing bill that would grant the president far-reaching powers to take control of, or even shut down, parts of the Internet.

Broadband providers, search engines and software companies that the U.S. Government selects “shall immediately comply with any emergency measure or action developed” by the Department of Homeland Security if the legislation became law, ZDNet reports. Resistance would be met with fines.

Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security committee, told reporters that the emergency authority would allow the federal government to “preserve those networks and assets and our country and protect our people.”

This legislation should be met with resistance until it fails.

One of the most important things about the Internet is its relative lack of regulation and government control. The proposed legislation would give the American president immense power and could be renewed indefinitely — creating a bigger threat to the United States than any other risk.

Even if one believes the legislation was proposed with the best intentions, the unintended consequences of such passage could be devastating and lead to absolute power by our government.

Cyberthreats should be taken seriously, but granting the government this much power and creating more bureaucracy is no more practical than it is acceptable.

Our government must craft more dynamic and preventive measures to safeguard domestic companies and citizens — as well as develop effective and robust models of what to do when the worst happens.

Implementing the proposed plan would do nothing more than cause chaos and limit the information available American citizens.