links for 2010-01-25

China's hackers subverted the access system Google put in place to comply with U.S. intercept orders. Why does anyone think criminals won't be able to use the same system to steal bank account and credit card information, use it to launch other attacks or turn it into a massive spam-sending network? Why does anyone think that only authorized law enforcement can mine collected Internet data or eavesdrop on phone and IM conversations?

Half of the participants were tasked with simply getting the highest score possible, while the other half was given a series of tasks that forced them to improve their skills in different areas. The researchers found that those with a larger nucleus accumbens learned faster and excelled at the early stages of the game regardless of which group they were in. Participants with larger caudate nucleus and putamen did best on the variable priority training exercises, where they had to focus on different aspects at various times throughout the training.