Stories by Stephen Bell

New Zealand gov't looks to boost confidence in e-voting

Early voting and the option of a repeat vote may become a feature of electronic voting in New Zealand, according to the country's Chief Electoral Office.

'Net engineer argues firewalls are a security distraction

Early and extensive deployment of firewalls gave internet users "a false sense of security" and compromised the ideal end-to-end transparency of the internet, says former Internet Engineering Task Force head Brian Carpenter.

New Zealand gov't ID plan lacks 'terrorism bug' infection

International experts in Wellington for a conference on identity last week expressed admiration for the New Zealand government's igovt identity information management scheme and the policy behind it.

'Reputation' weapons help spurn Web 2.0 malware

Reputation-measurement is one of the newer ways of blocking malware in a world where threats have grown more elaborate and cunning, and Web 2.0 has grown the audience for rich media.

Student exposes NZ govt Web site shortcomings

The winner of the New Zealand Computer Society's (NZCS) annual Wellington-based honors student research contest has claimed his award by uncovering shortcomings in accessibility of government Web sites for disabled and other disadvantaged users.

Web 2.0 needs 'Govt 2.0' for citizen engagement

Government needs to reflect the changes in communications that have resulted from Web 2.0 technology and help facilitate two-way communication between citizens.

Spamming not to be a criminal offense in New Zealand

Internet service providers have been relieved of the burden of being the first port of call for spam complaints, under proposed legislation that has been reviewed by a select committee.

Aussie anti-spam law working, NZ to follow suit

Spam volumes in Australia continue to be high, but the proportion of worldwide spam coming from Australia has dropped since the passing of the Spam Act in 2003, says the Australian government's Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA).

New Zealand shows how to guard against domain name scoundrels

The latest ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) meeting, which was held in Morocco last week, heard about the dangers associated with the growing secondary market in domain name resale. It heard about two cases where a Cub Scout site and one for a women's refuge were, legitimately, acquired by pornographic website operators.

Electronic approval takes seconds, not weeks

Web services and XML are being used to implement a much faster process for the approval of risky or expensive medicines by local New Zealand health authorities - a system said to be ahead of most in the world.

NZ government backs off 'death-sentence' tax

Xsol chief executive officer John Blackham's argument that proposed company tax reforms could kill local hi-tech start-ups seems to have carried weight with the government.

Users buy Linux on reliability, says Novell boss

Novell President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Ron Hovsepian sees the acquisition of the JBoss application server by Red Hat as having "further validated our early adoption of JBoss."

NZ banks jittery about ATM skimming

A bank spokesman suggests interest in anti-fraud devices for ATMs might create a shortage and lead to delays in delivery.

Cerf: Governments to participate in, not dominate, 'Net

Some internet users and administrators see increased input by governments into the public policy aspects of the internet as worrying, but ICANN chairman Vint Cerf views it as a positive move.

Cerf wary of biased broadband business models

Vint Cerf says New Zealand needs to look to "open access" to the internet rather than a business model that allows domination by any one party.