According to a report in The Chronicle-Telegram, Kurt Oehlstrom Sr., and his wife, Stephanie Oehlstrom, accepted a plea deal Thursday to misdemeanor charges for hacking into an Amherst police dispatcher’s personal e-mail account in 2006. Oehstrom was an Amherst police officer at the time. They both pleaded guilty to attempted unauthorized use of property, which…
FBI investigating laptops sent to US governors
Robert McMillan of IDG News Service reports: There may be a new type of Trojan Horse attack to worry about. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is trying to figure out who sent five Hewlett-Packard laptop computers to West Virginia Governor Joe Mahchin a few weeks ago, with state officials worried that they may contain…
FTC drops the banhammer on prerecorded “robocalls”
The Federal Trade Commission next week will make automated robocalls illegal for most telemarketers. Still, the list of exceptions mean that the calls will continue as charities, politicians, banks, and telcos can continue their prerecorded pitches. Read Nate Anderson’s commentary on Ars Technica. Deborah Yao of Breaking News 24/7 provides a somewhat more optimistic report.
Google to crowd-source traffic data
Google announced yesterday in a blog post that it is harnessing anonymous speed and position from Google Maps (GMaps) users to improve its traffic service. As a consequence, Google is able to expand its traffic layer to cover all U.S. Highways and arterials – i.e. where and when they have users on the road. This…