Web problems hit release of al Qaeda 9/11 video

By Firouz Sedarat

al QaedaSeptember 11 attacks

The delay of the much-touted 87-minute video, caused in
part by the main Islamist websites crashing, has thwarted al
Qaeda's yearly celebration of its attacks on U.S. cities in
2001.

But the full version hit websites on Friday, eight days
after the anniversary.

On it, senior al Qaeda commander Mustafa Abu al-Yazid vowed
that Western forces in Afghanistan would face "more large-scale
attacks ... where they least expect it" and called for
militants in Pakistan to step up their fight.

"In order for jihad in Afghanistan to continue and be
victorious, you must stand with your Mujahideen brothers in
Afghanistan and ... strike the interests of Crusader (Western)
allies in Pakistan," said Abu al-Yazid, a commander of al Qaeda
fighters in Afghanistan.

A suicide car bomber attacked the Marriott Hotel in the
Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Saturday, killing at least 40
people and starting a fire that swept through the hotel.

Al Qaeda has marked the anniversary of September 11 in the
past with releases including a tape on September 7 last year in
which its leader, Osama bin Laden, appeared on video for the
first time in nearly three years, addressing the American
people.

It was unclear why the websites normally favored by al
Qaeda had gone down. By Saturday, the two most popular were
still out of action.

TONGUE-IN-CHEEK

Some suspected they had been targeted by hackers. India's
Hindustan Times pointed the finger at intelligence websites
that track militant sites on the Internet, which responded in
tongue-in-cheek fashion.

Rusty Shackleford of My Pet Jawa (www.mypetjawa.mu.nu)
denied his web group was behind any cyber-attack on the
websites. "But if I was responsible I'd deny it," he said.

Aaron Weisburd of www.internet-haganah wrote: "The
actual reasons for this are not known to me (and I would say
that even if I actually knew what was going on)."

This further delayed the release and unnerved al Qaeda
sympathizers, one of whom wrote: "May God bless you my
brothers, but the password is wrong."

The video also showed al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman
al-Zawahri accusing predominantly Shi'ite Muslim Iran of taking
part in a Western "crusade" against Islam.

The closure of the Sunni websites coincided with a
widespread cyber attack which shut down some 300 Shi'ite sites,
Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said. Fars blamed this on
hardline Wahhabi Sunni hackers in the United Arab Emirates.

www.sistani.orgGrand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistaniyoutube

(Editing by Elizabeth Piper)

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Suspect Nabbed in Palin E-mail Hack

Steve Bosak, newsfactor

Vice Presidential candidateSarah PalinWeb sleuths

According to reports in Knoxville's Tennessean, Democrat State Representative Mike Kernell admitted that his son, David Kernell is being questioned by authorities in connection with the crime. The Secret Service and the FBI launched an official investigation on September 17.

Kernell, 20, is a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Rep. Kernell refused to disclose any further information about his son, including his whereabouts.

Not-So-Secure Security

In a message on a Web site frequented by hackers, a poster who identified himself as 'rubico' explained how he cracked Palin's Yahoo! account. The hacker tracked Palin's Yahoo! e-mail address from materials posted in the media, and then used the 'password reset' function to get into the account.

Analysts, of course, note that such security questions are less than secure. The hacker continues in his message to express frustration over his inability to download all the material. He then posted the password to the board after leaving screen captures of a few messages, family pictures and the inbox on the Wikileaks Web site, and asks other hackers to check out the material.

Alarmed by the message, another anonymous message board member logged into the Palin account, changed the password again, then contacted the Palin family with the new password and a warning that someone had hacked the account.

Tracking the Hacker

After determining that 'rubico' had used a proxy server in an attempt to cover his tracks, it appears that the Ctunnel proxy service, operated by Gabriel Rumuglia, cooperated with FBI investigators to track the elusive IP address of the culprit by turning over IP cache records. The trail allegedly leads back to David Kernell.

It appears Kernell's YouTube, MySpace and e-mail addresses have been terminated; one email address began with 'rubico10.' Kernell apparently used variations on the 'rubico' handle on other Web groups he belongs to, such as a chess group and other e-mail accounts. Bloggers such as Michelle Malkin and the Register were instrumental in tracking down leads to the perpetrator and tracking the path of the hacker through a proxy service.

Other fallouts from the hack are continued allegations in major newspapers that Palin was violating ethics standards by using a private e-mail count to conduct state business and the refusal of the Associated Press to turn over e-mail communications with the hacker. Some Web sites posted the e-mail addresses of Palin's family members and even posted Crystal Palin's cell phone number.

The hacker Web site that 'rubico' posted on, 4Chan.org, was most recently in the news when some members coordinated an online information blitz and attack on the Church of Scientology.

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Google co-founder Sergey Brin begins blogging

GoogleSergey BrinParkinson's Diseasegenetic testing

While Brin is no stranger to news-making webcasts and online press announcements, he made a blogging debut Thursday by sharing personal musings in a post at the Blogger weblogging website Google bought in early 2003.

Brin wrote of his mother being diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and how testing by 23andMe, a company started by his wife Anne Wojcicki, shows he has a gene mutation that "markedly" increases his chances of getting the illness.

"This leaves me in a rather unique position," Brin wrote.

"I now have the opportunity to adjust my life to reduce those odds. I also have the opportunity to perform and support research into this disease long before it may affect me."

Brin told of working with The Parkinson's Institute and the Michael J. Fox Foundation to combat the disease and provided links to the organizations' websites.

"I feel fortunate to be in this position," Brin wrote.

"Until the fountain of youth is discovered, all of us will have some conditions in our old age, only we don't know what they will be. I have a better guess than almost anyone else for what ills may be mine and I have decades to prepare for it."

Brin wrote of comparing his genes with those of relatives and of checking whether his DNA links him to others with his family name.

Founded by Wojcicki and Linda Avey two years ago, California-based 23andMe offers genotyping for a price of 399 per person.

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Comcast details changes for managing Web traffic

Comcast CorpWeb traffichigh speed Internet network

The move comes after the Federal Communications Commission
voted last month to uphold a complaint that Comcast had
violated the regulator's open-Internet principles by hindering
peer-to-peer traffic from applications such as BitTorrent.

Comcast said on Friday that under the plan designed to give
all users their "fair share" of bandwidth it would focus on
managing the traffic of customers who are using most bandwidth
when the network is congested.

It said it will use software on its network to determine if
particular subscribers have been the source of high volume of
traffic and will temporarily give traffic from those
subscribers a lower priority status.

It said that when a subscriber's traffic is assigned a
lower priority status its traffic could be delayed if the
network is congested but would not be delayed if there is no
congestion.

Comcast said it expect to have the new traffic management
system in place across its network by the end of December.

U.S. Internet service providers such as Comcast have been
overwhelmed by the rapid growth of online services including
peer-to-peer applications as well as online video, music
downloading and photo-sharing, and are seeking ways to
cost-effectively avoid network congestion.

Comcast, which has more than 14 million high-speed Internet
subscribers, had previously said it was changing its network
management practices to ensure all Web traffic is treated
essentially the same.

(Reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Anshuman Daga)

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Comcast: No complaints on new Internet management

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer

Comcast CorpInternet trafficcable modemtrial runs

The new system is set to replace the current one, which drew a sanction from the Federal Communications Commission, for all Comcast subscribers by the end of the year.

In its filing Friday, the cable company said the new system kicks in only when Internet traffic in the area approaches congestion. It then identifies which customer accounts are using the greatest amounts of bandwidth and slows down their Internet traffic until the traffic jam eases.

"Customers will still be able to do anything they want to online, and many activities will be unaffected, but they could experience things like: longer times to download or upload files, surfing the Web may seem somewhat slower, or playing games online may seem somewhat sluggish," the company said in a filing with the FCC Friday.

In a precedent-setting ruling, Comcast was ordered by the Federal Communications Commission in August to institute a new traffic management system, and provide details on its workings by Friday.

Under its older system, still in place for the majority of subscribers, Comcast blocks or delays some forms of Internet file-sharing to prevent traffic jams. In its August ruling, a divided FCC sided with consumer groups who had complained that in discriminating against certain forms of traffic, the system violated the FCC's guidelines on the openness of the Internet and the unwritten principle of "Net neutrality."

Months before the FCC's order, Comcast responded to the investigation by saying it would institute a new management system that treats different traffic types equally by the end of the year.

The new system has been tried out in: Colorado Springs, Colo.; Warrenton, Va.; Chambersburg, Pa.; Lake City, Fla.; and East Orange, Fla.

The trials show that less than 1 percent of customers have their traffic slowed on a typical day, Comcast said.

"Comcast did not receive a single customer complaint that could be traced to this new congestion management practice, despite having publicized the trials and notifying customers involved in the trials via e-mail," it said.

While complying with the FCC's ruling, Comcast has also challenged it in a federal appeals court, saying it was legally inappropriate and unjustified.

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Google ramps up defense of Yahoo ad search deal

By Dawn Kawamoto, CNET

Googlesearch advertisingYahoo

The Internet search giant posted an FAQ on its proposed partnership and its affect on advertising prices on its public policy blog Thursday and followed it up with another posting Friday on it's potential affect on competition.

In both cases, Google makes the argument that the deal would not harm competition nor lead to increased advertising prices.

But the blog postings were only part of its busy week. On Wednesday, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt told reporters during a press conference that the company planned to proceed with the deal, in absence of any challenge from regulators. The companies expect to move forward with the deal in the second week of October to mid-October, one source familiar with their plans said.

But what Yahoo and Google have not made clear is what their plans will be should the antitrust division of the Department of Justice, or a multi-state task force, announce plans to challenge the deal by filing a lawsuit to block it, or should regulators seek a temporary or permanent injunction. The companies, for example, could demonstrate their resolve and still move forward with the partnership, despite knowing it would wrap them in legal wrangling with regulators.

Google, however, said in a statement:

"When we announced our deal with Yahoo we agreed to give the Department of Justice several months to review the deal before we began implementing it, and we continue to cooperate with regulators as that process continues. Ultimately we have confidence that they'll be able to conduct their review within that time period and allow us to move forward."

"When we announced our deal with Yahoo we agreed to give the Department of Justice several months to review the deal before we began implementing it, and we continue to cooperate with regulators as that process continues. Ultimately we have confidence that they'll be able to conduct their review within that time period and allow us to move forward."

And on Tuesday, Google's chief economist Hal Varian disputed reports of potentially higher advertising costs should his company do its advertising search partnership with Yahoo in his blog.

Such efforts by the Internet giant follow a couple of events last week which may not bode well for its nonexclusive partnership agreement with Yahoo. The Association of National Advertisers announced its opposition to the Google-Yahoo deal. And, on top of that, word began to spread that the Department of Justice had hired seasoned antitrust litigator Sandy Litvack to assess whether a case could be won in trial against the partnership.

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Online pharmacies may face stricter regulation

By Stephanie Condon, CNET

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