Friday, April 29, 2011

Prince William and Kate Middleton now officially married

By Zachary Roth
It's official!
A smiling Prince William and Kate Middleton were declared man and wife at London's Westminster Abbey, in front of a congregation of around 1,900 and a worldwide television audience estimated at as many as 2 billion.
Wearing an ivory and white satin dress designed by Sarah Burton--a closely guarded secret until minutes before the service began--Kate accepted a wedding ring of Welsh gold, given to William by the Queen soon after the couple were engaged. The bride also wore a diamond-studded halo tiara loaned by the Queen, with her gently curled hair down at the back.
In a marriage ceremony led by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Kate promised William that she would "love him, comfort him, honor him, and keep him," and he offered the same pledge. Like William's mother Princess Diana at her own 1981 wedding to Prince Charles, Kate struck a modern note by omitting the traditional vow to "obey" her husband.
[ Photos: Check out a gallery of Kate's wedding dress ]
William, who chose not to wear a ring, donned a bright red tunic, with a crimson and gold sash and gold sword slings, from the Irish National Guards, a British Army regiment of which he is an honorary colonel. The choice was made in part to honor three members of the Guards who were killed in action in Afghanistan.
The bride's ring was created by Wartski, a Palace spokesperson said, a family jeweler that also created the wedding bands for Prince Charles's 2005 marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles, now the Duchess of Cornwall.
Kate, 29, the daughter of creators of a successful party-planning business, becomes the first commoner in line to be queen in modern times. She'll now be known officially as Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge, Buckingham Palace said in a statement this morning--though the public will know her as Princess Catherine. William becomes the Duke of Cambridge.
The bride's three-and-half minute procession through the abbey was accompanied by a choir singing the soaring English choral "I Was Glad," composed in 1902 by Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry. In a tribute to Princess Diana, the congregation began the service by singing "Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer," a Welsh hymn sung at her 1997 funeral. It also sang "Jerusalem," the popular English hymn based on a poem by William Blake.
[ Related: The best hats from the royal wedding ]
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, along with Kate's parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, served as witnesses and signed the marriage registers. The bride's mother wore a gray-blue dress designed by Catherine Walker, a fashion designer whose work was championed by Princess Diana. The Duchess of Cornwall opted for a champagne silk dress designed by Anna Valentine, and a Philip Treacey hat.
The hour-long service was conducted by the Very Reverend Dr. John Hall, the dean of Westminster. It also included an address from the Right Reverend Richard Chartres, the bishop of London and a friend of the royal family.
William, 28, spent a low-key last bachelor evening with his father at St. James's Palace, then traveled this morning to the abbey in a uniquely designed Bentley, with his best man, Prince Harry--both brothers smiling and waving through the window to the crowds. Before the service, they greeted members of the congregation, including Earl Spencer, Princess Diana's brother.

Kate, meanwhile, stayed the night with her family--including her maid of honor, younger sister Philippa--at London's Goring Hotel, and came to the abbey alongside her father in a Rolls-Royce Phantom VI owned by the queen.
After the service, the newlyweds are set to ride to Buckingham Palace in a horse-drawn open-top carriage--originally built in 1902 for William's great-great-great grandfather, King Edward VII. They'll pass Parliament Square, Whitehall, and the Mall along a processional route, lined since yesterday--despite the chilly and overcast weather--with crowds cheering and waving the Union Jack, having heard the service over loudspeakers.
At the palace, the Queen will host a lunchtime reception for a select 650 members of the congregation, during which William and Kate will appear on the balcony--weather permitting--for what's expected to be their first public kiss as newlyweds. Later, they'll head to a roughly 300-person dinner and dance party given by Prince Charles, also at Buckingham Palace. The Queen, who wore an Angela Kelly primrose dress and matching coat, will skip that event, the Palace has said, to allow the younger crowd to properly let their hair down.
Elsewhere, millions of Britons took advantage of the national holiday--declared months ago by Prime Minister David Cameron--by gathering in pubs, private homes, and public viewing areas to celebrate the event, which for months has dominated the country's news coverage. Estimates for the hit to Britain's economy, thanks to the day off work, have ranged from $10 billion to $50 billion.
[ Photos: See images of the royal wedding party ]
Cameron, who famously camped out on the Mall for Charles and Diana's wedding, called the day "a chance to celebrate."
"We're quite a reserved lot, the British," the prime minister told the BBC this morning. "But then when we go for it, we really go for it."
The wedding congregation mixed personal friends of the bride and groom, royalty from around the world, dignitaries from numerous former British colonies, foreign officials and diplomats, and celebrities including Elton John and David and Victoria Beckham.
Representatives of all governments with whom Britain has normal diplomatic relations had originally received invitations. But the Syrian ambassador was informed yesterday that he was no longer welcome, amid a violent ongoing crackdown against pro-democracy protesters carried out by the regime of President Bashar Assad. The presence of the Bahraini ambassador, who previously ran a government agency accused of using electric shocks and beatings, has also provoked controversy.
[ Related: All of the details on Kate's dress ]
Adding to the rancor over the guest list, two former Labour Party prime ministers, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, were not invited, even as two former Conservative PMs, Baroness Thatcher and Sir John Major, were included--an arrangement that was criticized by several Labour members of parliament (Thatcher was too unwell to attend). St. James's Palace said that Thatcher and Major received invitations because they're both Knights of the Garter, unlike Blair and Brown. Major also was appointed a guardian to William and Harry after Diana's death.
The wedding caps a nearly decade-long relationship for William and Kate, who met in 2001 as students at the University of St Andrew's in Scotland, and began dating a year or so later. Aside from a brief reported split in 2007, they appear to have been an item ever since. William proposed during a vacation in Africa last October.
The pair's lengthy buildup contrasts with that of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, who were estimated to have spent just 21 hours together before marrying. That famously troubled union ended in divorce in 1996, after a long estrangement. Diana died in a car accident in Paris the following year.
The wedding comes at a pivotal time for the House of Windsor. Though she appears to remain in good health, the 85-year-old Queen reportedly has begun planning for her funeral. Charles, the heir to the throne, is seen by much of the public as stiff and out of touch, prompting concern that his accession could undermine the monarchy's standing with the public. Polls indicate that upon the Queen's death, most Britons would like to see the throne skip straight to William, though that currently appears unlikely.
In addition to being given the titles of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the couple will also become the Earl and Countess of Strathearn, as well as Baron and Baroness Carrickfergus.

Source: Yahoo News

Sunday, April 24, 2011

NY case underscores Wi-Fi privacy dangers

By CAROLYN THOMPSON, Associated Press – Sun Apr 24, 3:35 pm ET
BUFFALO, N.Y. – Lying on his family room floor with assault weapons trained on him, shouts of "pedophile!" and "pornographer!" stinging like his fresh cuts and bruises, the Buffalo homeowner didn't need long to figure out the reason for the early morning wake-up call from a swarm of federal agents.
That new wireless router. He'd gotten fed up trying to set a password. Someone must have used his Internet connection, he thought.
"We know who you are! You downloaded thousands of images at 11:30 last night," the man's lawyer, Barry Covert, recounted the agents saying. They referred to a screen name, "Doldrum."
"No, I didn't," he insisted. "Somebody else could have but I didn't do anything like that."
"You're a creep ... just admit it," they said.
Law enforcement officials say the case is a cautionary tale. Their advice: Password-protect your wireless router.
Plenty of others would agree. The Sarasota, Fla. man, for example, who got a similar visit from the FBI last year after someone on a boat docked in a marina outside his building used a potato chip can as an antenna to boost his wireless signal and download an astounding 10 million images of child porn, or the North Syracuse, N.Y., man who in December 2009 opened his door to police who'd been following an electronic trail of illegal videos and images. The man's neighbor pleaded guilty April 12.
For two hours that March morning in Buffalo, agents tapped away at the homeowner's desktop computer, eventually taking it with them, along with his and his wife's iPads and iPhones.
Within three days, investigators determined the homeowner had been telling the truth: If someone was downloading child pornography through his wireless signal, it wasn't him. About a week later, agents arrested a 25-year-old neighbor and charged him with distribution of child pornography. The case is pending in federal court.
It's unknown how often unsecured routers have brought legal trouble for subscribers. Besides the criminal investigations, the Internet is full of anecdotal accounts of people who've had to fight accusations of illegally downloading music or movies.
Whether you're guilty or not, "you look like the suspect," said Orin Kerr, a professor at George Washington University Law School, who said that's just one of many reasons to secure home routers.
Experts say the more savvy hackers can go beyond just connecting to the Internet on the host's dime and monitor Internet activity and steal passwords or other sensitive information.
A study released in February provides a sense of how often computer users rely on the generosity — or technological shortcomings — of their neighbors to gain Internet access.
The poll conducted for the Wi-Fi Alliance, the industry group that promotes wireless technology standards, found that among 1,054 Americans age 18 and older, 32 percent acknowledged trying to access a Wi-Fi network that wasn't theirs. An estimated 201 million households worldwide use Wi-Fi networks, according to the alliance.
The same study, conducted by Wakefield Research, found that 40 percent said they would be more likely to trust someone with their house key than with their Wi-Fi network password.
For some, though, leaving their wireless router open to outside use is a philosophical decision, a way of returning the favor for the times they've hopped on to someone else's network to check e-mail or download directions while away from home .
"I think it's convenient and polite to have an open Wi-Fi network," said Rebecca Jeschke, whose home signal is accessible to anyone within range.
"Public Wi-Fi is for the common good and I'm happy to participate in that — and lots of people are," said Jeschke, a spokeswoman for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that takes on cyberspace civil liberties issues.
Experts say wireless routers come with encryption software, but setting it up means a trip to the manual.
The government's Computer Emergency Readiness Team recommends home users make their networks invisible to others by disabling the identifier broadcasting function that allows wireless access points to announce their presence. It also advises users to replace any default network names or passwords, since those are widely known, and to keep an eye on the manufacturer's website for security patches or updates.
People who keep an open wireless router won't necessarily know when someone else is piggybacking on the signal, which usually reaches 300-400 feet, though a slower connection may be a clue.
For the Buffalo homeowner, who didn't want to be identified, the tip-off wasn't nearly as subtle.
It was 6:20 a.m. March 7 when he and his wife were awakened by the sound of someone breaking down their rear door. He threw a robe on and walked to the top of the stairs, looking down to see seven armed people with jackets bearing the initials I-C-E, which he didn't immediately know stood for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"They are screaming at him, 'Get down! Get down on the ground!' He's saying, 'Who are you? Who are you?'" Covert said.
"One of the agents runs up and basically throws him down the stairs, and he's got the cuts and bruises to show for it," said Covert, who said the homeowner plans no lawsuit. When he was allowed to get up, agents escorted him and watched as he used the bathroom and dressed.
The homeowner later got an apology from U.S. Attorney William Hochul and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent in Charge Lev Kubiak.
But this wasn't a case of officers rushing into the wrong house. Court filings show exactly what led them there and why.
On Feb. 11, an investigator with the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees cybersecurity enforcement, signed in to a peer-to-peer file sharing program from his office. After connecting with someone by the name of "Doldrum," the agent browsed through his shared files for videos and images and found images and videos depicting children engaged in sexual acts.
The agent identified the IP address, or unique identification number, of the router, then got the service provider to identify the subscriber.
Investigators could have taken an extra step before going inside the house and used a laptop or other device outside the home to see whether there was an unsecured signal. That alone wouldn't have exonerated the homeowner, but it would have raised the possibility that someone else was responsible for the downloads.
After a search of his devices proved the homeowner's innocence, investigators went back to the peer-to-peer software and looked at logs that showed what other IP addresses Doldrum had connected from. Two were associated with the State University of New York at Buffalo and accessed using a secure token that UB said was assigned to a student living in an apartment adjacent to the homeowner. Agents arrested John Luchetti March 17. He has pleaded not guilty to distribution of child pornography.
Luchetti is not charged with using his neighbor's Wi-Fi without permission. Whether it was illegal is up for debate.
"The question," said Kerr, "is whether it's unauthorized access and so you have to say, 'Is an open wireless point implicitly authorizing users or not?'
"We don't know," Kerr said. "The law prohibits unauthorized access and it's just not clear what's authorized with an open unsecured wireless."
In Germany, the country's top criminal court ruled last year that Internet users must secure their wireless connections to prevent others from illegally downloading data. The court said Internet users could be fined up to $126 if a third party takes advantage of their unprotected line, though it stopped short of holding the users responsible for illegal content downloaded by the third party.
The ruling came after a musician sued an Internet user whose wireless connection was used to download a song, which was then offered on an online file sharing network. The user was on vacation when the song was downloaded.

Source: news.yahoo.com