Is the way the internet translates friendly URLs — such as ChristopherHedges.com into IP addresses (this website’s IP address is 208.109.149.107, for example) — that send people to websites threatened by a flaw that the bad guys can exploit?

The New York Times reports that IT people and ISPs are rushing to fix their DNS servers before the information about the exact problem is released to the public.

The potential consequences of the flaw are significant. It could allow a criminal to redirect Web traffic secretly, so that a person typing a bank’s actual Web address would be sent to an impostor site set up to steal the user’s name and password. The user might have no clue about the misdirection, and unconfirmed reports in the Web community indicate that attempted attacks are already under way.

One easy solution computer users can do for themselves right now if their ISP hasn’t responded to the threat is to switch to Open DNS, reports the New York Times.

Technorati Tags: computer security, internet, life online, Open DNS

The Northwest Indiana Times calls on a local Democratic party mayor to stop censoring its message boards after it discovered IP addresses leading back to Hammond, Indiana’s government.

Supporters of Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. who have been interfering with public discourse on Hammond issues need to be reined in. And the one to reel them is the mayor himself.

Unfettered public dialogue on the issues is one of the founding principles of democracy. It’s important enough that the Founding Fathers put it in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

And yet that public discourse has been under attack in Northwest Indiana. Comments unfavorable toward McDermott have been under attack on The Times message boards.

It’s a sad day in America when a newspaper has to ask a government official — a Democratic mayor — to tell workers using government computers stop censoring items on its website.

It’s another piece of evidence that shows why it is always important to not give government officials unlimited control over our lives and our businesses because they can use their control of these things to limit our freedom and liberties.  When the government feeds and takes care of people, it can also withhold those same necessities to those it does not like.  If the government is so afraid of dissent it is willing to censor its opponents, what else is it willing to do to its opposition?  Unfortunately, world history is replete with examples of the horrors that power-drunk governments commit on their citizens.

In the heart of anyone in a power position in government, there is the potential to become ultimately corrupt like King George III, Stalin, Pol Pot or Robert Mugabe.  We’re seeing this evil tendency at work right at home when government officials censor the Northwest Indiana Times’ message board in an effort to silence the opposition.

It’s just another reason why the northern part of the county continues to lose population and businesses.  Why put up with corruption, waste and now censorship when there are better places to live and work?

Technorati Tags: censorship, corruption, Democratic Party, Hammond Indiana, Lake County, life online, Northwest Indiana Times, Thomas McDermott

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