Archives for the month of: November, 2007

Charles Arthur of the Guardian describes a WordPress security vulnerability discovered by a research team at Cambridge University.

Big deal, you say. Well, think about this: By gaining entry into your WordPress account, they can find your email address. And if you use the same password for different places you might log in, a hacker can gain access to lots of information you’d rather they not have.

If you think you’ve got a secure password, you might want to be sure. This is also another reminder that it’s best not to use the same password for lots of different accounts (email, banking, social networking sites, etc.).

From the Guardian post:

So: want to check the security of your favourite password(s)? First, use the MD5 hashing page here (it’s a Javascript function; there’s nobody grabbing your password, I’d wager, though if you want to feel safe and have OSX, go to the terminal and type md5 -s mypassword – though use your password, not mypassword.

Second, paste that code into your favourite search engine. If it returns no results – well done! You’ve evaded that hack, for now.

Media people move around a lot and sometimes it’s hard to keep track of who went where. A couple of sites are useful, but one of the best by far is Gorkana.

Sign up for the email alerts and you’ll get one or two emails a day with the latest journo moves and contact information, including email addresses and phone numbers. Note Gorkana only keeps track of people on the business and finance beats. Other useful sites:

Have more? Send ’em on in or leave your tip in a comment.

For the last month or so, media watchers, investors and people interested in a democratic press have been monitoring a story about FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s proposal to revise and relax media ownership rules.

Currently,  the government limits the number of newspapers, radio stations and TV stations that any one company can own in a single market. The revised rules would allow companies to own multiple outlets in a single market.

What’s at stake? Some say the very future of the media business hangs in the balance. Without the relaxed rules, some worry that TV, radio and newspaper companies will not be able to sustain themselves and eventually go out of business.

Others say the proposed revisions would give a handful of large businesses the power to strangle the diverse voices that come with having a variety of independently-owned outlets.

Bill Moyers covered the issue on his PBS show.

Earlier this month, Bob Garfield examined the proposal, as well as the FCC’s moves to give apartment dwellers the ability to choose their own cable providers, rather than being locked into whatever exclusive deal the apartment owner has signed.

If you want to weigh in on the media ownership rule review, make a public comment to the FCC’s website. You have until Dec. 11.

The Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press just launched a blog called Sidebar.

Now you can keep up with the latest developments in FOI and free press cases.

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