Mozilla has postponed blocking third-party cookies by default in the Beta version of Firefox 22, "to collect and analyze data on the effect of blocking some third-party cookies."
Computerworld News
Tag Archives: Blocking
Nokia wins injunction blocking sales of microphones for HTC One
Posted by Gsurface
on April 23, 2013
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Nokia has accused supplier STMicroelectronics of selling microphones Nokia says it developed to rival HTC, and on Monday won an injunction in the Amsterdam District Court preventing their sale.
Computerworld News
Russian government blocking some Internet content
Posted by Gsurface
on April 1, 2013
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There are number of places around the world where the government blocks all sorts of Internet content to prevent citizens from accessing things deemed inappropriate. While no one would be particularly surprised that Internet content is being filtered in the Middle East or in some parts of Asia, you might be surprised to learn that
Skype for Windows 8 gains contact blocking and performances improvements
Posted by Gsurface
on March 30, 2013
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Those of you using Skype in Windows 8 will be happy to know that Microsoft’s just bumped the app to version 1.6. It’s been a few months since the last update, and this revision brings more features to the table, including contact blocking and a slew of performance tweaks. You’re now able to block users, with an option to remove or report the offending party. Speed and reliability have been improved, especially when loading contacts, and a number of bugs have been fixed, including one where the outgoing video was not always displayed after switching cameras. The update’s available in Windows Store, so what are you waiting for?
Filed under: Microsoft
Source: Skype Blogs
Spam blocking group Spamhaus reports being hit by massive cyberattack, many affected
Posted by Gsurface
on March 27, 2013
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Spam-fighting organization Spamhaus says it’s being subjected to a massive cyberattack, apparently from groups angry at being blacklisted by the Geneva-based group.
FOX News
Microsoft reverses IE10′s Flash blocking in Windows 8, RT
Posted by Gsurface
on March 12, 2013
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Microsoft later today will reverse a months-long practice in how Internet Explorer 10 handles Adobe’s Flash Player on Windows 8′s and Windows RT’s Modern user interfaces.
Computerworld News
Safari blocking outdated Flash plug-ins due to security holes
Posted by Gsurface
on March 1, 2013
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Adobe recently issued a security update for Flash Player which patches an exploit that gave hackers the ability to take over a vulnerable system. Not leaving things to chance, Apple is now rolling out a hotfix for Safari that blocks outdated versions of the tainted web plug-in. If your system hasn’t been patched yet, you may receive a notification when attempting to access Flash-based content. The prompt will then advise that a new software version is available. If you’re running OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or higher and Safari is your browser of choice, you may want to nab this update from Adobe. Otherwise the next time you go online, the internet might be a far cry from what you’re used to seeing.
Filed under: Internet, Software
Source: Apple
Google may need history lesson on blocking rivals’ products
Posted by Gsurface
on January 5, 2013
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Is there any good reason Google is blocking Windows Phone users from accessing Google Maps via the Internet Explorer browser? [Read more]
CNET News
Judge Issues Temporary Order Blocking Expulsion For Refusing To Wear RFID Tag
Posted by Gsurface
on November 23, 2012
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An anonymous reader writes with an update about the student refusing to wear an RFID badge in Texas. From the article: “A district court judge for Bexar County has granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) to ensure that Andrea Hernandez, a San Antonio high school student from John Jay High School’s Science and Engineering Academy, can continue her studies pending an upcoming trial. The Northside Independent School District (NISD) in Texas recently informed the sophomore student that she would be suspended for refusing to wear a ‘Smart’ Student ID card embedded with a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tracking chip.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Google access returns to China after brief blocking
Posted by Gsurface
on November 10, 2012
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Access to Google services in China appeared to return Saturday morning after they were blocked briefly as the country prepares to appoint new leadership.
Computerworld News
Nokia not blocking multiple users on Android phones
Posted by Gsurface
on November 1, 2012
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The Finnish handset giant says it dropped its patent application for multiuser account functionality, and Google hasn’t contacted it to license technology for Android. [Read more]
CNET News
Windows 8 Changes Host File Blocking
Posted by Gsurface
on August 20, 2012
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An anonymous reader writes “Windows 8 has been confirmed to not only ignore, but also modify the hosts file. As soon as a website that should be blocked is accessed, the corresponding entry in the hosts file is removed, even if the hosts file is read-only. The hosts file is a popular, cross-platform way of blocking access to certain domains, such as ad-serving websites.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Startups Worry that Twitter and Facebook Are Blocking Their Way
Posted by Gsurface
on August 6, 2012
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As the social networking companies try to make more money, they may become less friendly to outside developers.
Hundreds of thousands of developers know that building apps that rely on the Facebook or Twitter platforms comes at a risk—at any time, the companies can change their access rules or launch a competing feature.
PR Done Right: Facebook Engineer Apologizes On Reddit For Blocking Imgur Links
Posted by Gsurface
on July 17, 2012
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Facebook software engineer Matt Jones has taken to Reddit to apologize to users for accidentally blocking popular image hosting site Imgur while working to catch malicious URLs. The image below was posted by Redditer “AmericanDerp” and was upvoted 2,469 times with 663 comments in the past five hours.
TechCrunch
Blue Coat software allows blocking, control of mobile apps
Posted by Gsurface
on July 16, 2012
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New software from Web security specialists Blue Coat Systems allows companies to restrict what employees can do on their cellphones while logged into the corporate Wi-Fi.
Computerworld News
BT Starts Blocking the Pirate Bay
Posted by Gsurface
on June 21, 2012
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judgecorp writes “The UK’s largest ISP, BT, has obeyed a court order to block The Pirate Bay, following similar moves by five other service providers, after complaints by music trade body BPI. The Pirate Bay says it can continue regardless through workarounds. From the article: ‘BT has started blocking access to The Pirate Bay, becoming the sixth major ISP to prevent access to the file-sharing service. It follows blocks enforced by Orange, Virgin, Sky, TalkTalk and O2, after they all obeyed a court order made in April. BT, which has been in ongoing discussions with trade body the BPI over how it would carry out a block, had not been hit with such an order until this week.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Kazakhstan blocking Russian satellite launch
Posted by Gsurface
on May 28, 2012
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Russia is hoping to launch three new satellites into space, but Kazakhstan has blocked the launches due to disputes over the drop zone for the rocket debris. The debris would fall in the northern region of Kazakhstan, with the country believing that Russia should sign a new leasing agreement if the debris zone is to
‘First Base’ In Greek Courts For ISP-Level Blocking
Posted by Gsurface
on May 20, 2012
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arisvega writes “At a first level (the lowest court level in the Greek judiciary system) an order has been issued (article in Greek, Google translation is fair enough) for a ‘plan on behalf of Internet Service Providers regarding he implementation of technological measures to deny access to internet users for webpages through which illegal copies of copyrighted work are being distributed.’ The order seems to be general and descriptive, and is a manifestation of the implementation process for an even more general and vague larger-scale EU directive, which is the common source that caused the rulings recently posted on slashdot regarding the UK, the Netherlands and Finland. This appears to be one of the reasons that prompted Anonymous to launch defacing attacks on Greek government websites some three months back.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
GameStop CEO doesn’t believe in Xbox 720 pre-owned blocking feature
Posted by Gsurface
on March 25, 2012
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The man at the top of the #1 video game retailer in the US does not believe all the hype about rumors Microsoft’s next home console will be able to block consumers from playing pre-owned games. Rumors surrounding this mechanic have said that Microsoft will implement technology that essentially creates a one-to-one relationship between a
Twitter’s country-specific blocking brings hazards and hope
Posted by Gsurface
on January 28, 2012
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Twitter's move to comply with government requests and block tweets in specific countries could blunt its edge as a political tool, but there may be an upside in helping to unmask censorship, some privacy experts said Friday.
Computerworld News
Twitter Changes The “Contours” Of Censorship With Country-By-Country Blocking
Posted by Gsurface
on January 27, 2012
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Twitter has announced in a blog post a glorious new ability: “the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country — while keeping it available in the rest of the world.” At last!
There are two ways of looking at this new “ability,” one optimistic and one pessimistic. One is that Twitter is now more able to effectively tailor itself to the needs of certain countries. The other is that Twitter is now more able to effectively tailor itself to the needs of certain countries.
TechCrunch
White House responds to SOPA petition as hearing is delayed, DNS blocking on the outs
Posted by Gsurface
on January 14, 2012
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It’s turned out to be a big weekend for those concerned about the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act. Yesterday came word that a key House hearing originally scheduled for Wednesday will be delayed until there is a “consensus” on the bill, and today the White House has issued an official statement on SOPA (and the Protect IP Act, its counterpart in the Senate) in response to a petition that drew thousands of signatures. While it doesn’t go quite as far as to issue a firm veto threat from the President, it does lay out the administration’s position in the clearest terms yet, including the condition that any proposed law “must not tamper with the technical architecture of the Internet through manipulation of the Domain Name System.” That follows word late last week that Representative Lamar Smith and Senator Patrick Leahy would indeed pull the DNS provisions from SOPA and PIPA. The White House statement is less specific in other respects, but it broadly states that the administration will “not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”
In related news, the planned blackouts to protest SOPA and PIPA only seem to be increasing, with the popular xda-developers forum recently announcing that it will go dark at 8AM on January 18th, and return either at 8PM or as soon as it’s able to get 50,000 people to sign a pledge to contact their local Senator or Representative.
White House responds to SOPA petition as hearing is delayed, DNS blocking on the outs originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink 
Ars Technica, BoingBoing | 
WhiteHouse.gov, xda-developers | Email this | Comments
Engadget
SOPA author to remove ISP blocking provision
Posted by Gsurface
on January 14, 2012
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The lead sponsor of the U.S. Stop Online Piracy Act, a controversial copyright enforcement bill, will remove a much-debated provision that would require Internet service providers to block their subscribers from accessing foreign websites accused of infringing the copyrights of U.S. companies.
Computerworld News
Comcast network upgrade blocks DNS blocking, could make SOPA self-incompatible
Posted by Gsurface
on January 12, 2012
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Now here’s a quirky twist in the ongoing SOPA opera. Comcast has just deployed DNSSEC technology across its entire internet service, which adds an extra layer of security to websites by checking that they have a special DNS signature to prove their identity. All well and good, except that in the process Comcast has been forced to admit that DNSSEC is “technically incompatible” with DNS redirect tools — which happen to be precisely the tools that the Stop Online Piracy Act would use to block websites accused of copyright violation. The irony only deepens when you realize that Comcast is a major proponent of SOPA and, if anything, ought to be able to comply with its future edicts.
Comcast network upgrade blocks DNS blocking, could make SOPA self-incompatible originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink Techdirt, The Verge | Comcast(1), Comcast(2) | Email this | Comments
Engadget
Google patches Chrome, beefs up malicious file blocking tech
Posted by Gsurface
on January 9, 2012
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Google last week patched Chrome 16 and improved the download warnings in the impending Chrome 17.
Computerworld News
Spanish Website Blocking Law Implemented
Posted by Gsurface
on January 3, 2012
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Sir Mal Fet writes “In a very polemic move by the Spanish parliament, the infamous ‘Sinde’ law, already discussed here, was implemented on December 31st. Albeit modified from their original version, the law will allow the Spanish government to request ISPs to summary close a website due to copyright infringment (English translation). If the ISP refuses, then it’s passed to court where a judge can order the website closed. It seems it’s one good, one bad over there. The law is in public consult until March, and No Les Votes, a Spanish organization that opposes the law, has already started a campaign to boycott it (English translation).”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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