ACTA treaty criticized for data protection abuse

In today's podcast: ACTA treaty criticized for data protection abuse; Chinese schools deny role in Google attacks; and Chuck Norris hacks his way into broadband routers.

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The anti-counterfeiting trade agreement, ACTA, being negotiated in secret by the U.S., the E.U. and others potentially runs roughshod over European data protection requirements, the European data protection supervisor warned on Monday. His remarks followed the leaking on Friday of part of the draft treaty, which revealed plans to make ISPs liable under civil law for the content of messages distributed on their networks. The leak also revealed that negotiators, led by the U.S., want ISPs to monitor the content on their networks and to sever internet connections of subscribers who repeatedly upload or download copyright-protected content without permission. The next meeting of ACTA negotiators will take place in New Zealand in April.

If you haven't changed the default password on your home router, you may be in for an unwanted visit from Chuck Norris -- the Chuck Norris botnet, that is. Discovered by Czech researchers, the botnet has been spreading by taking advantage of poorly configured routers and DSL modems. It installs itself on routers and modems by guessing default administrative passwords and taking advantage of the fact that many devices are configured to allow remote access. It also exploits a known vulnerability in D-Link Systems devices. Because the Chuck Norris botnet lives in the router's RAM, it can be removed by turning the router off and on again.

Two schools in China where computers were reportedly linked to cyberattacks made on Google and other U.S. companies in December have denied involvement in the hack, Chinese state media said Sunday. U.S. investigators say they have traced the attacks back to computers at a vocational college and at one of China's top universities, The New York Times reported last week. Even if the colleges’ computers were found to have been involved in the attack, the real hackers may be elsewhere, using the computers to disguise their identity.

Chinese president Hu Jintao has opened a microblog, making him the first elite Chinese official to do so. While U.S. President Barack Obama has an account on Twitter, Hu Jintao’s microblog is on a blogging service operated by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the ruling Communist Party. Twitter has been blocked in China since last year and authorities are asking its Chinese rivals to censor messages posted by users.

And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I’m Peter Sayer in Paris. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.