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Owners of Cisco/Linksys home routers got a nasty shock this week, when their devices automatically downloaded a new operating system, which locked out device owners. After the update, the only way to reconfigure your router was to create an account on Cisco’s “cloud” service, signing up to a service agreement that gives Cisco the right to spy on your Internet use and sell its findings, and also gives them the right to disconnect you (and lock you out of your router) whenever they feel like it.

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Hours ago, Rob brought you the news that Charles Carreon had voluntarily dismissed his dumbass lawsuit against webcomic The Oatmeal, its creator Matthew Inman, and the charities he’d nominated to receive more than $220,000 sent by people who thought that Carreon (and his client, FunnyJunk) were full of lima beans, the American Cancer Society and the National Wildlife Federation.

At the time, Rob asked, “What will the new dawn bring?”

The answer is here: Charles Carreon has told Ars Technica that he was the victor in the lawsuit, using the phrase “Mission accomplished” (seemingly without irony).

So Carreon is just an attention whore. What a surprise.

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regrets that Syrian forces shot down a Turkish jet last month and said he would not allow the tensions between the two countries to turn into open combat, according to an interview with a Turkish newspaper.

“We learned that it belonged to Turkey after shooting it down. I say 100 per cent: ‘If only we had not shot it down’,” Assad told Cumhuriyet, a daily newspaper, in an interview published on Tuesday.

Al-Jazeera is also reporting that the pilots’ bodies have been found.

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The European Parliament has voted to reject the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta).

The proposed agreement sought to curb piracy, but internet campaigners said it posed a threat to online freedoms.

The rejection vote followed a failed attempt to postpone the decision because of ongoing investigations into Acta by the European Court of Justice.

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Cybercriminaliteit kost de Nederlandse samenleving jaarlijks zeker 10 miljard euro. Dat is 1,5 tot 2 procent van het Nederlands bruto binnenlands product. Dat blijkt uit een vandaag gepubliceerde raming door onderzoeksorganisatie TNO.

Volgens de onderzoekers kan de werkelijke schade zelfs 20 tot 30 miljard zijn. Nederland is volgens TNO kwetsbaar voor cybercriminaliteit vanwege de hoge dichtheid in bekabeling, geavanceerde infrastructuur en grote hoeveelheid dataverkeer.

Newspaper 1: The Netherlands are “vulnerable to cyber crime” because of the high quality of its infrastructure and high amounts of traffic.

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Nederland is na de Verenigde Staten de belangrijkste uitvalsbasis van cybercriminelen in de wereld. Maar liefst 15% van alle kwaadaardige software komt uit ons land.Please Wait …Een belangrijke reden dat zo veel verspreiders van virussen vanuit Nederland opereren, is de goede internetinfrastructuur.

Newspaper 2: The Netherlands are (again because of the good internet infrastructure) the second biggest source of cyber-attacks after the United States.

Different interpretations of the same report? Didn’t find anything on this on TNO’s own website…

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…Eight years after his death, it remains a mystery exactly what killed the longtime Palestinian leader. Tests conducted in Paris found no obvious traces of poison in Arafat’s system. Rumors abound about what might have killed him – cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, even allegations that he was infected with HIV.

A nine-month investigation by Al Jazeera has revealed that none of those rumors were true: Arafat was in good health until he suddenly fell ill on October 12, 2004.

More importantly, tests reveal that Arafat’s final personal belongings – his clothes, his toothbrush, even his iconic kaffiyeh – contained abnormal levels of polonium, a rare, highly radioactive element. Those personal effects, which were analyzed at the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland, were variously stained with Arafat’s blood, sweat, saliva and urine. The tests carried out on those samples suggested that there was a high level of polonium inside his body when he died.

Just when things in the Middle East were settling down a bit.