Stories by: Carl Jongsma

PHP security guru Stefan Esser recently posted on some of the changes and important security issues that are likely to have significant effects for the everyday PHP coder (and user) with the release of the upcoming PHP 5.3.

What if I was to tell you that I have a secret that could end the Internet as you know it? What if I was only going to tell you at a fee-based conference once speculation had gone on for a month or more? How would you respond to that?

If you needed any more reminders about why it isn't a good idea to use external mail services to conduct critical business, the recent break-in to US Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's gov.palin@yahoo.com Yahoo inbox should be it. Of note is that following the disclosure of the inboxes the compromised address and another address, gov.sarah@yahoo.com, have been suspended.

Something that might have gone unnoticed from Google this week is the patching of a serious vulnerability that previously allowed an attacker to exploit a weakness in Google's Single Sign-On service used with Google Apps to take over a victim's Google account.

Microsoft's Security Vulnerability Research & Defense team (SVRD) have recently posted information online about the Cross Site Scripting (XSS) filter to be incorporated into Internet Explorer 8 when it is released.

Without getting into the argument of who is right in a five-sided conflict (South Ossetia, Georgia, Russia, Abkhazia, and the various external groups and individuals who are motivated enough to be involved), interesting conclusions can be drawn from what is happening online and also how those events are being reported upon.

Late last week it was reported that a number of Egyptian Internet cafes had been directed by the Egyptian government to collect personal information from prospective Internet users before they would be entitled to access the Internet at the cafe. This information included names, email addresses and phone numbers. Following submission of this information, an access code would be sent to the supplied mobile number then allowing them access to the Internet.

For a technology that has been in stable release since May 22, 2000, PHP 4 has finally reached the end of its official life. With the release of PHP 4.4.9, official support has ended and the final security patch for the platform issued.

Satellite navigation devices, the ubiquitous GPS interfaces that many have in their cars, are, it seems, the cause for more than their fair share of accidents and risky driving practices in the UK.

In South Korea, the world's most online country (by percentage), the Internet has become a tool of politics as much as it has a tool for the everyday Web surfer. When a former CEO took the reins of the country earlier this year, it was effective use of the Internet which contributed to his rise to power. According to Reuters, the power that helped the new president Lee Myung-bak take power is now threatening the ongoing survival of his government.

There has been a lot of speculation devoted to the impending release of information about a DNS vulnerability discovered and initially announced by Dan Kaminsky almost two weeks ago. A lot of the coverage has been back and forth arguing about whether what has been discovered is relevant or not but the best thing to have done in the intervening period is to have sat on your hands and waited.