Communications Technology

It has no capital, no airport and only 1400 people who call it home, but the tiny isle of Tokelau has become the cyber crime centre of the world.

A new report by an international group tackling internet scams has confirmed that Tokelau, a New Zealand territory, has more malicious registrations under its .tk domain name than any other domain except .com.

These fraudulent web addresses are used for phishing, where emails are sent to random web addresses in an attempt to steal banking information and other personal details.

Tokelau sold its domain name to a Dutch company, BV Dot TK, which provides the domain free worldwide, making it an easy target for scammers.

“By offering free domain names, .tk has become the third largest country code top-level domain after Germany’s .de and Great Britain’s .uk,” The Anti-Phishing Working Group wrote in its latest global report, released at a technology conference in Malaysia this week.

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Manila authorities are putting up pictures of speeding vehicles on an official website in an usual attempt to stop drivers breaking the law on the Philippine capital’s sometimes hairy roads.

The snapshots, along with a listing of the speed of the vehicles and the time and date the photographs were taken, are designed to shame or even scare people into better driving.

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority website shows a succession of cars, vans and buses, with licence plates visible, as they are caught by anti-speeding cameras.

The chairman of the authority, Francis Tolentino, said in a statement the pictures were part of a new automated system where drivers are sent their speeding tickets later rather than being apprehended on the scene.

“Once captured by our cameras, there is no escape,” Tolentino said.

More than 7000 drivers have been caught on camera and sent tickets for exceeding the 60 kilometre per hour limit at that part of the metropolis, he added.

There has been a drop in the number of accidents on the highway as a result, he said without elaborating.

The automated picture system is only in force along the 12-kilometre Commonwealth Avenue, site of frequent accidents due to speeding.

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Teachers looking for school excursion ideas are being offered an ”unforgettable learning experience” - a trip to the Apple store.

The technology company’s field trip program invites groups of 25 students, from kindergarten to year 12, to spend 90 minutes learning to work on projects using Apple products.

”Your class will experience the Mac, iPad and other Apple products as learning tools - and have fun to boot,” says the Apple website.

But not everyone is excited. Nick Broughall, editor of the technology and gadgets site Gizmodo, has concerns about excursions to retailers.

”There are plenty of really good educational programs and tools Apple has created that are perfect for school-age children … but trying to encourage it as a part of a school’s actual curriculum? No way. That’s stepping beyond the realm of education and dipping the toe in the murky waters of indoctrination,” he said.

Sharryn Brownlee, of the Federation of Parents and Citizens Association of NSW, said she supported links between businesses and schools as long as they were relevant to what students were studying. Excursions such as the Apple program could be ”useful for specific secondary student subject areas for retail or IT”.

An Apple spokeswoman said it was up to teachers to design a program for the excursion: ”A lot of these schools don’t have the technology - we’re providing a facility.”

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