Another “hack” in Massachusetts. Makes you wonder what they teach at MIT.
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/02/19/stop__shop_reports_credit_data_was_stolen/
Stop & Shop reports credit data was stolen
Card readers reveal tampering
By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff | February 19, 2007
SEEKONK -- With help from US Secret Service agents, Stop & Shop Supermarket Cos. executives scrambled yesterday to determine how many consumers may have had their credit and debit card data stolen by high-tech thieves who apparently broke into checkout-line card readers and planted the equivalent of bugs to steal information.
Stop & Shop said customer information, including personal identification codes for cards, was confirmed stolen from supermarkets in Coventry and Cranston, R.I. The company said it had found evidence that card readers were tampered with in a similar way at four other stores in Seekonk and in Bristol, Providence, and Warwick, R.I. But the supermarket company said it had no reports of illegal transactions on cards that had been used at those stores.
After being notified by a bank last week that its Coventry and Cranston stores appeared to be the common link to a number of stolen card numbers, Quincy-based Stop & Shop has bolted down card readers at all 385 of its supermarkets in New England, New York, and New Jersey, company spokesman Robert Keane said yesterday.
"They would not now be able to tamper with the units the way they did before," Keane said. He declined to reveal details of how the scam worked, other than to say it involved card readers being removed, tampered with, and reinstalled. [Sounds like someone should have noticed... Bob] "Our investigation has not uncovered any involvement or suspected involvement of any Stop & Shop personnel in the tampering," Keane said.
... The Stop & Shop case will serve as a warning to retailers that they must get vigilant about securing, protecting, and inspecting scanners for evidence of tampering.
... In law enforcement's never-ending battle against identity theft, the use of sophisticated technology to grab credit card data from scanners "is definitely becoming more common," said Judith M. Leary, president of Identity Force, a Framingham data security company whose customers include the federal General Services Administration.
... Based on what has been reported so far, Leary said, the Stop & Shop approach would yield only a few credit card numbers per hour as consumers rang up sales at the checkout lines -- one each in Coventry and Cranston, according to the company -- where devices had been tampered with.
... Keane said card numbers used by customers at the Coventry and Cranston stores "in early February" were stolen. But until the investigation is complete, Keane said, he could not say for how long before that, if at all, numbers may have been stolen.
Why so many?
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/02/20/20laptop.html
Laptop with patients' personal information stolen
Seton computer contains information on 7,800 uninsured patients.
Listen to this article or download audio file Click-2-Listen
By Andrea Ball AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Tuesday, February 20, 2007
The theft of a laptop computer from an Austin office last week has led the Seton hospital system to warn about 7,800 uninsured patients to watch for signs of identity theft.
The Dell computer contained personal information — names, birthdates and Social Security numbers — for uninsured patients who have gone to Seton-owned emergency rooms, outpatient services and area health clinics since July 1, 2005.
The laptop was taken during work hours Friday from the system's information services department at 7715 Chevy Chase Drive.
Some new information?
http://nwitimes.com/articles/2007/02/18/news/illiana/doc667b1edeca6f5b39862572860005b932.txt
Date posted online: Sunday, February 18, 2007
Voters' Social Security numbers still out there
Chicago election board working to retrieve data
BY MISA MARUYAMA Medill News Service
The whereabouts of discs containing Social Security numbers of 1.3 million Chicago voters are still unknown.
The problem began when a serious fire broke out at the Cook County Administration Building in October 2003. The Chicago Board of Elections was forced to remove information from its mainframe and temporarily store it on compact discs. [I don't remember this from the original announcement. Security has to be the same for all versions/copies of sensitive data. Bob]
The CDs included registration records and other personal data, including Social Security numbers. Later, the information was sent to aldermen and ward committees as part of the so-called "Ward Work" discs, a digital collection of voters' information. [This was in the original story. Bob]
Social Security numbers were not supposed to be included on those discs.
The board has failed to notify the majority of 1.3 million voters that their private information -- including birth dates and addresses -- was placed accidentally on about 100 CDs, board spokesman Jim Allen said.
Who's who?
http://www.kxly.com/news/?sect_rank=1§ion_id=559&story_id=8615
Man cleared in cyberstalking case; 13-year old girl arrested
Jeff Humphrey / KXLY4 Reporter Last updated: Sunday, February 18th, 2007 04:40:45 PM
SPOKANE -- Spokane Police have arrested a 13-year old girl for allegedly using the internet to terrorize her own family. The teen was taken into custody on Saturday after detectives learned they had arrested the wrong person on cyber stalking charges.
... Once inside the victim's home Sergeant Sean Nemec then wrote Marco asking him to stop and when he didn't detectives backtracked the messages to a north Spokane home where Dean Dunn was arrested.
Detectives found no evidence that Dunn had sent the messages and in the meantime the e-mail from the person who called himself "Marco" continued.
Police say they now believe a 13-year old girl living in the home sent the death threats and on Saturday booked her on two felony counts of cyber stalking. Detectives say Dean Dunn has been cleared of any wrong doing and they do not believe he had any involvement in this case.
Next? Your shopping cart? Lawn mower?
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070219/NEWS/702190412/1060
New system has fishermen on hook
Article published Feb 19, 2007
They say a federally required boat tracking system they must install is an unfair government intrusion.
By TONI WHITT toni.whitt@heraldtribune.com
CORTEZ -- For generations, the Gulf of Mexico's reef fishermen have plied the waters on their cramped fishing boats, alone with their crews and their catch.
Starting March 7, they will get a new passenger: the watchful eye of the federal government.
More than 1,200 reef fishermen must install a satellite system that allows the government to track their movements. The system is part of a federal effort to prevent overfishing of the reef and nursery areas and protect stocks of snapper, grouper, amberjack and tilefish.
It is also part of a growing trend to enforce federal regulations on the water using satellite technology on individual boats.
The reef fishermen say the government has gone too far.
... "We don't see this as a way to protect the resources," says Glen "Rabbit" Brooks, a Cortez-based fisherman and president of the Gulf Fishermen's Association. "It's a whole lot more intrusive than the regulations, and it treats us like criminals."
The numbers are most interesting. This is a full order of magnitude greater than is reported in the US.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1409395.ece
February 20, 2007
Privacy row as checks on phones and e-mails hit 439,000
Home Office reveals figures for first time Watchdog condemns high number of errors
Michael Evans, Defence Editor and Philip Webster, Political Editor
Almost 450,000 requests were made to monitor people’s telephone calls, e-mails and post by secret agencies and other authorised bodies in just over a year, the spying watchdog said yesterday.
In the first report of its kind from the Interceptions of Communications Commissioner, it was also revealed that nearly 4,000 errors were reported in a 15-month period from 2005 to 2006. While most appeared to concern “lower-level data” such as requests for telephone lists and individual e-mail addresses, 67 were mistakes concerning direct interception of communications.
Sir Swinton Thomas, the report’s author, described the figure as “unacceptably high”.
The disclosures came as Tony Blair admitted that the fingerprints of everyone obtaining identity cards could be checked against nearly a million unsolved crimes.
Human-rights campaigners described the twin revelations yesterday as signs of a “creeping contempt for our personal privacy”.
For its report the spy watchdog monitored 795 bodies, all of which were empowered to seek out communications data. These included MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, the signals intelligence centre in Cheltenham, as well as 52 police forces, 475 local authorities and 108 other organisations such as the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Services Authority. Between them they made 439,000 requests for communications information over the 15-month period.
The Home Office said that the total number of such requests, which includes information on e-mail addresses and lists of phone numbers, had not been published before. It was unable to say if this represented a huge increase in data collection.
... David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said of Mr Blair’s response to the petitioners: “This is a massive move away from the presumption in Britain that a man is innocent until proven guilty. Tony Blair has admitted that the authorities will go on a fishing expedition through the files of innocent people to try to match them up to unsolved crimes.
Perhaps we don't need laptop batteries?
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/19/1811214&from=rss
Cold Fusion Scientist Exonerated
Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 19, @01:47PM from the cold-hearted dept. Science News
Icarus1919 writes "New Scientist reports that the scientist who discovered a possible cold fusion reaction by bombarding a solvent with neutrons and sonic waves has recently been exonerated of accusations of scientific misconduct following the verification of his results by another scientist."
So much for “crime spotters”
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/19/1924245&from=rss
Couple Who Catch Cop Speeding Could Face Charges
Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 19, @03:13PM from the turnabout-isn't-fair-play dept. The Courts It's funny. Laugh.
a_nonamiss writes "A Georgia couple, apparently tired of people speeding past their house, installed a camera and radar gun on their property. After it was installed, they caught a police office going 17MPH over the posted limit. They brought this to the attention of the local police department, and are now being forced to appear in front of a judge to answer to charges of stalking."
Interesting questions...
http://techdirt.com/articles/20070219/183214.shtml
How Come The MPAA Is Helping The FBI Train Swedish Police?
from the seems-a-bit-outside-their-job-description dept
Last year Swedish law enforcement, at the urging of the US government (who, of course, was being pushed by the entertainment industry) raided the Pirate Bay and took all its servers (along with many others as well), declaring it a "significant blow" against piracy. In retrospect, many are considering the raid "botched." Not only did it fail to shut down the Pirate Bay (which was back up in a short time and became much more popular thanks to all the press coverage), it also pissed off a bunch of other companies whose servers were seized in the raid for no good reason. In response to the "botched" raid, it appears that the MPAA is now training a special group of Swedish anti-piracy police with the help of the FBI (found via Digg). This raises a ton of important questions -- that aren't easily answered by the information provided. First of all, which part of the "botching" required this response? Somehow, we think that they're probably a lot more upset that the service went right back up and became more popular -- but that's hardly something that police training is going to help with. Perhaps it's the collateral damage issue -- but, if that's the case, why would the MPAA be involved at all? That's not the MPAA's area of expertise at all. Even more importantly, why are the Swedish police taking its lessons from a private entity that is clearly biased, has been consistently wrong about the impact of piracy (remember when it insisted that VHS tapers were the Boston Strangler to the movie industry?) and doesn't follow its own rules anyway? On top of that, why then is the FBI helping the MPAA if this is really a civil dispute rather than a criminal one? It's time that law enforcement around the world started realizing that all of these enforcement efforts have little to do with actually protecting inherent rights -- and plenty to do with propping up an outdated understanding of a business model.
Always useful
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/013989.html
February 19, 2007
New on LLRX.com for February 2007, Part 2
Knowledge Discovery Resources 2007 - An Internet MiniGuide Annotated Link Compilation, by Marcus P. Zillman
LLRX.com Guide to State and Federal Legislative Research, by Sabrina I. Pacifici
LawPro Links - An A to Z Directory of Web Resources, by Sabrina I. Pacifici
Commentary: The Real Costs of America's Nuclear Power Program and the Impact on Global Climate Change, by Beth Wellington
See also New on LLRX.com for February 2007, Part 1, and here is the direct link to the LLRX Table of Contents which includes all this month's articles along with abstracts. Enjoy!
It's about bloody time!
February 19, 2007
Music Labels Offer Teasers to Download
By JEFF LEEDS
For all the disquiet the Internet has fostered in the music business, almost every rock star and record executive is intrigued with the prospect of marketing to music fans directly instead of wrangling for exposure with radio programmers or retailers.
But the expansion of the online marketplace, coupled with ever-worsening CD sales, is now all but forcing the music companies to tread on ground they once viewed as off limits. [Think of it as being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century. Bob]
Starting this week, Suretone Records, a label distributed by the Universal Music Group, plans to distribute video files featuring popular acts like Weezer and new bands like Drop Dead Gorgeous on file-sharing networks that the industry has long viewed as illicit bazaars for pirates.
Unlike the music audio and video files that major labels sell at services like iTunes, the video files will not be wrapped in protective software to limit copying, executives say. But they will also be incomplete: users who download them will see perhaps half the video and will be directed to the label’s own Web site to watch the complete version — and the advertising planned to run alongside.
... A number of independent artists offer their songs on MySpace. The reggae act Shaggy charges 99 cents a song, for example, and the band Barenaked Ladies charges 83 cents.
Hummmmm
http://digg.com/linux_unix/Pre_Installed_Linux_Tops_Dell_Customer_Requests
Pre-Installed Linux Tops Dell Customer Requests
Within only a few days of Dell opening a new customer feedback website, they discovered that the feature most requested (by an almost 2-to-1 margin!) is an option on all new Dell PCs: pre-installed Linux. (And the number 3 request is pre-installed Open Office.)
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