Monday, July 23, 2007

Its tough working backwards. I wonder if they can determine the source of the information in all cases? (Why does a medical center take Home Depot charge cards? Are wooden teeth back in style?)

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070722102929648

MI: Local police help break up identity theft ring

Sunday, July 22 2007 @ 10:29 AM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

Investigators from the Walled Lake and Wolverine Lake police departments have broken a substantial identity theft ring in Detroit, finding over $100,000 in fraudulent charges and roughly $43,000 stolen [Chump change... Bob] from Oakland County residents, including a few from Walled Lake.

... A report was filed by Home Depot Corporate Security in Livonia when a Walled Lake resident was notified of unpaid charges on his account, which the victim was unaware of and didn't make.

... The suspects reportedly used information they obtained from Detroit Medical Center (DMC) hospital records, which often include Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and other information. Though not every identity was stolen in this manner, the suspects would place phone orders or have the billing addresses changed in order to run up charges undetected, and then sell of the stolen goods.

It's unclear how the suspects were able to attain such information from DMC, though it's believed one of the suspects worked for the medical group or has an acquaintance that did or does, according to Noble.

Source - Spinal Column Online (Props, Identity Theft Daily)



There's a paper here!

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/015516.html

July 22, 2007

World Privacy Forum's Top Ten Opt Outs

World Privacy Forum's Top Ten Opt Outs, July 22, 2007: "This list is a distillation of ideas for opting out that the World Privacy Forum has developed over the years from responding to those questions. The list below does not contain all opt outs that are available. Rather, it contains the opt outs that we believe are the most important and will be the most useful to the most consumers."



Keep current

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/015517.html

July 22, 2007

World Privacy Forum: State Security Freeze Laws and General Information

World Privacy Forum: State Security Freeze Laws and General Information, July 22, 2007: "A credit freeze (sometimes called a security freeze) lets you stop the disclosure of your credit report by a credit bureau. If you live in a state with a security freeze law, then you may be able to place a security freeze on your files. (See list of states with security freeze laws)."

Colorado

See: http://www.ago.state.co.us/idtheft/securityfreeze.cfm

State law: http://www.leg.state.co.us/Clics2005a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/349195C4D17F1A7787256F8E0001202B?Open&file=137_enr.pdf



Does this remind you of the Tattered Cover?

http://techdirt.com/articles/20070720/014625.shtml

More Music Retailers Learn To Change With The Times

from the not-so-hard,-is-it? dept

While the recording industry continues to insist that its world is dying, the music industry continues to thrive -- even if it's not in the same way it did a decade ago. One of the more interesting things about this trend is watching how music retailers have tried to adapt to the change. Not surprisingly, it involves a lot of experimenting, and quite a bit of failure -- but record store owners seem to have realized that not adapting means certain death. One of the big trends we've seen is for record stores (usually independent ones) to recognize that it's important to become destination sites, rather than just music stores. They're also recognizing that record store employees can provide value by being trusted guides. To that end, a well-known UK music retailer is opening a new larger shop, even as many are insisting that music retailing is over. However, this isn't an ordinary record shop. Instead, it's playing up the relationship between the knowledgeable employees and shoppers, providing a lot of counterspace for visitors to talk with staff about what kind of music they might like. It's also becoming more of a destination site, with free WiFi, workshops and a stage for live performances. This certainly isn't a new idea as we've seen very similar reactions from stores for many years, but it does show how more and more of these stores are learning to adapt and change with the times, while the recording industry stubbornly goes down with its obsolete ship.


Related

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/015521.html

July 22, 2007

Bivings Report: American Newspapers and the Internet: Threat or Opportunity?

Posted on July 19, 2007, By Erin Teeling in Newspaper Study, Bivings, Research (TBG): "We have recently completed the 2007 study of America’s top 100 newspaper websites, entitled American Newspapers and the Internet; Threat or Opportunity? As the newspaper industry continues to suffer declines in readership and circulation, using the Internet to expand a newspaper’s reach is becoming more and more important. While many industry experts fear that the Internet will spell the end of newspapers as we know them, our team here at TBG feels that the Internet presents newspapers with a unique opportunity to make up for lost circulation and readership. This study explores these concepts, as well as the difficulties facing newspapers regarding online advertising, shrinking staffs, and reaching out to consumers...research data is available in Excel format here."



Business Opportunity:

http://techdirt.com/articles/20070720/070040.shtml

High Interchange Fees Help Keep Cash Alive

from the ka-ching dept

In addition to the added convenience, electronic payment methods promise to reduce costs by saving merchants money spent on handling cash. Well, that's how it's supposed to work in theory. In practice, many merchants don't see much benefit from electronic payments due to onerous interchange fees. While the major payment processors take a cut of every transaction, merchants typically pay a flat fee for all of their cash management needs, which makes cash sales appealing. The current system works well for companies like Visa, Mastercard and American Express, which enjoy a lucrative oligopoly. But for smaller startups developing payment solutions, the economics aren't favorable. Already the EU is looking to crack down on high interchange fees, and although EU regulators are typically much more proactive about such issues than their counterparts in the US, Congress is starting to explore the issue. Either way, if fees remain high in the US, innovation in this area is likely to remain slow.



Sounds like fun! Let's do it to Congress!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070722/ap_on_hi_te/phony_phishing

School conducts anti-phishing research

By RYAN LENZ, Associated Press Writer Sun Jul 22, 12:37 PM ET

The e-mail appeared to be a routine correspondence between two friends. "Check this out!" it read, then listed a Web address.

But the note was fake, part of an online ruse called phishing that has become a scammer's favorite way to get sensitive information from unsuspecting computer users.

The catch? The scammers were Indiana University researchers, the e-mail an experiment.

... As universities nationwide study ways to protect online security, methods at Indiana are raising ethical and logistical questions for researchers elsewhere: Does one have to steal to understand stealing? Should study participants know they are being attacked as part of a study? Can controlled phishing ever mimic real life?

Indiana researchers say the best way to understand online security is to act like the bad guys.

... Another conducted in May found that 72 percent of more than 600 students tested on the Bloomington, Ind., campus fell for an e-mail from an account intended to look familiar that sought usernames and passwords.

By contrast, only 18 percent of 350 students in a separate control group were fooled when they received e-mails from addresses they did not recognize.

The experiments found that hackers have the most success by using hijacked Web addresses or e-mail accounts that look real. The research also showed computer users generally have little knowledge of Web site security certificates and leave themselves open to attack with poorly configured routers or operating systems.

... Federal laws governing university research allow scientists to use deceptive means if the risk participants face is minimal and no greater than what they would face in daily life.

... Celia B. Fisher, a human research ethicist at Fordham University in New York, said the experiments qualify as "deception research" and are legal, even necessary.

"There is no way to find this information out without deceiving the participants, because as soon as you tell them what you're doing, you won't have any real information," she said.

On the Net: The Anti-Phishing Group at Indiana University: http://tinyurl.com/2dru4e



Perhaps some eastern European gangs have hacked into these machines?

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/22/1712252&from=rss

US Government Checking Up On Vista Users?

Posted by Zonk on Sunday July 22, @02:24PM from the security-theatre-in-your-home dept. Privacy Microsoft IT

Paris The Pirate writes "This article at Whitedust displays some very interesting logs from Vista showing connections to the DoD Information Networking Center, United Nations Development program and the Halliburton Company; for no reason other than the machine was running Vista. From the article 'After running Vista for only a few days — with a complete love for the new platform the first sign of trouble erupted. I began noticing latency on my home network connection — so I booted my port sniffing software and networking tools to see what was happening. What I found was foundation shaking. The two images below show graphical depictions of what has and IS trying to connect to my computer even in an idle state'."



Its all about asking the right questions

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/07/help-wired-news.html

Help Wired News Make Sense of FBI Computer Crime Stats

By Ryan Singel July 20, 2007 | 7:28:53 PM Categories: Crime

The FBI revealed some very interesting statistics about computer crime investigations in its 2008 budget request to Congress.

Here's three of the choicest graphs, with portions of the FBI's explanation of what the statistics mean.

Several of their explanations, especially the attribution of the enormous growth number of computer intrusion tools to mobile device exploits, don't seem to make sense.

But surely, some of you out there have better hunches. Drop 'em in the comments and I'll add the best to the post.



The US falls behind again. Write your congressman!

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/885129.html

Jurist: Israel okays 20 times more wiretaps per capita than U.S.

By Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondent Last update - 04:10 23/07/2007

Israel carries out 20 times more wiretaps per capita than the United States, jurist Yoram Shahar told the Knesset's investigative committee on wiretaps Sunday.



An interesting area of debate...

http://www.globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=3144&cid=1&sid=112

Interview: Peter Suber On Copyright Law and Free Online Scholarship

Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 7/24/2007

The battle between owners of content and its users extends to all corners of the publishing world. Following a brief period of enthusing about "synergies", most media companies, content aggregators, content providers - movie and recording studios, publishers, news organizations - came to view the digitization of content as a threat rather than an opportunity. In an effort to protect their intellectual property rights, publishing and recording corporations have fostered the radicalization of copyright law (mainly in the DMCA - the Digital Millennium Copyright Act). They have also retarded the fair use of copyrighted material and the rights and traditional privileges enjoyed by content users. This was achieved mainly by incorporating "rights management" or "asset management" technologies into readers of digital records (such as e-books). These technologies prevented users from copying the files they purchased, from converting them to audio, from lending them to others (as they would a print book), and from reading them on more than one device.

Consider, for instance, scholarly publishing. It is in the throes of a protracted crisis.


If true, why do they sign these agreements?

http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/23/0421259&from=rss

Linspire/Microsoft Agreement Useless to Users

Posted by Zonk on Monday July 23, @03:29AM from the par-for-the-course dept. Microsoft Linux Business

Stephen Samuel writes "Groklaw host PJ has dissected the 'patent peace' agreement between Linspire and Microsoft, and has determined that what Linspire agreed to is next to useless for many users. Essentially, under the agreement Linspire software is almost unusable: 'You can't share the software with others, pass it on with the patent promise, modify your own copy, or even use it for an "unauthorized" purpose, whatever that means in a software context. You must pay Linspire for the software, but then the "covenant" says to use Linux, you must also pay Microsoft. That payment doesn't cover upgrades. Linspire said it was absorbing the initial fees, but I don't know about upgrades. New functionality means you lose your coverage or presumably must pay again.'"



Lists! Cool!

http://mashable.com/2007/07/22/online-collaboration/

Work Together: 60+ Collaborative Tools for Groups

July 22, 2007 — 05:13 AM PDT — by Sean P. Aune



More lists/compilations!

http://news.com.com/2100-1038_3-6197920.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news

Free information for the taking

There's a wealth of free resources out there--online databases, audiobooks, museum passes. You just need to know where to look.

By Candace Lombardi Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: July 23, 2007, 4:00 AM PDT

There's a wealth of free resources out there--online databases, audiobooks, museum passes, and help so that you can find even more resources. You just need to know where to look:



Its all about asking the right questions (I suspect they were tipped of by North Korea)

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/22/178214&from=rss

High-Tech Squirrels Trained to Conduct Espionage

Posted by Zonk on Sunday July 22, @07:37PM from the the-weekly-world-news dept. Privacy Communications It's funny. Laugh. Toys Technology

Pcol writes "In the July 20 issue of the Washington Post, columnist Al Kamen reports that the BBC has translated a story headlined 'spying squirrels,' published in the Iranian newspaper Resalat on the use of trained animals to conduct espionage against their country: 'A few weeks ago, 14 squirrels equipped with espionage systems of foreign intelligence services were captured by [Iranian] intelligence forces along the country's borders. These trained squirrels, each of which weighed just over 700 grams, were released on the borders of the country for intelligence and espionage purposes.' According the story the squirrels had 'GPS devices, bugging instruments and advanced cameras' in their bodies. 'Given the fast speed and the special physical features of these animals, they provide special capabilities for spying operations. Once the animals return to their place of origin, the intelligence gathered by them is then offloaded. . . .' Iranian police officials captured the squirrels before they could carry out their assignments."

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