Is this another indication that companies are actually starting to look at the security of their applications?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20071204084716846

Security Lapse Affects Thousands Of Electric Customers

Tuesday, December 04 2007 @ 08:47 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

The private information of thousands of Indianapolis Power and Light customers was inadvertently posted online for up to four years, [...and nobody noticed? Bob] officials said Monday.

The information affects 3,000 residential IPL customers from 2003 until November 2007.

IPL said the data included names, addresses and Social Security numbers that somehow ended up on an accessible server on the Internet.

Source - The Indy Channel

Another retailer who keeps old records online...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20071204194103598

KimsCrafts website security breach exposes customers' credit card numbers

Tuesday, December 04 2007 @ 07:41 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

eMotive, Inc., d/b/a KimsCrafts, has notified the New Hampshire H DOJ that a website security breach affecting its e-commerce site allowed access to customers' names, addresses and credit card numbers during the period of August 13 to October 1, 2007. The breach affected all customers who placed orders after June 25, 2001. KimsCrafts indicated that it was notifying 4,500 customers of the breach.

Source - Notification letter to NH DOJ [pdf]

Laptops are designed to be portable. It takes real skill to misplace a desktop...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20071204193458908

Oracle "misplaces" desktop with employee information

Tuesday, December 04 2007 @ 07:34 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

Oracle Corporation reported that a desktop computer containing personal information on employees and contractors of Lodestar was "misplaced" during a move. Lodestar had been recently acquired by Oracle.

The personal information included one or more of the following types of information on the employees and contractors: name, home or business address, Social Security number, and other earnings or expense information.

Those affected were notified by letter and offered free credit monitoring services.

Source - Notification letter to NH DOJ [pdf]

Is this an example of a self-regulating industry?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20071204084844656

TJX’s Settlement with Visa Casts Light on Murky World of PCI Penalties

Tuesday, December 04 2007 @ 08:48 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Businesses & Privacy

The settlement The TJX Cos. and Visa Inc. announced Friday not only shows the retailer is well on its way to disposing of the myriad problems arising out the intrusion into its computer system that potentially compromised nearly 100 million credit and debit cards, but it also gives a rare glimpse into the secretive realm of penalties networks use to enforce rules for protecting cardholder data.

Source - Digital Transactions

New technology requires new law?

http://volokh.com/posts/1196148513.shtml

Fourth Amendment Protection in Text Pager Messages:

[Orin Kerr, November 30, 2007 at 6:45pm] Trackbacks

The Ninth Circuit recently held oral argument in a fascinating case on how the Fourth Amendment protects messages sent and received via pagers. The name of the case is United States v. McCreary, and I have posted the brief for the defense here and the brief for the United States here. You can listen to the audio of the oral argument from mid-October before Judges Hug, W. Fletcher, and Clifton from this link. This potentially is a very important case, so I thought I would blog some relatively detailed thoughts about it. Given the usual pace of such things, the opinion probably will be published in a month or two.

... The legal question in United States v. McCreary is whether the government violated McCreary's Fourth Amendment rights by obtaining the text of the pager messages using a subpoena instead of a search warrant.

Because he thinks...

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/04/2128256&from=rss

Freakonomics Q&A With Bruce Schneier

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday December 04, @05:10PM from the thinking-like-an-economist dept. Security

Samrobb writes "In grand Slashdot tradition, the Freakonomics blog solicited reader questions for a Q&A session with Bruce Schneier. The blog host writes that Mr. Schneier's answers '...are extraordinarily interesting, providing mandatory reading for anyone who uses a computer. He also plainly thinks like an economist: search below for "crime pays" to see his sober assessment of why it's better to earn a living as a security expert than as a computer criminal.'"

The interview covers pretty much the whole range of issues Schneier has written about, and he provides links to more detailed writings on many of the questions.

Everything you ever wanted to know about Spam, Spam, Spam Spam...

http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/60587.html

The Evolution of Spam, Part 3: Now Taking Control of Your PC

By Andrew K. Burger E-Commerce Times Part of the ECT News Network 12/04/07 4:00 AM PT

"People have to stop buying from spam. I have to wonder if there are really people, even one in 10 million, who are so stupid that they think it is a good idea to buy Viagra from an e-mail titled 'Fires in California kill a second person.' It would seem so," said Randy Abrams, director of technical education at ESET.

A backoffice tool

http://www.wral.com/business/blogpost/2126165/

Web Tool Quickly Shows You Shipping Prices

Posted: Today at 2:37 a.m.

Yow, if you have to mail anything this holiday season I've found you a great Web site. It takes your to and from destination zip codes and gives you a table of shipping prices across several different carriers. It's called ShipGooder and it's available at http://shipgooder.com/.

Reeeaaalll simple explanation...

http://www.managednetworks.co.uk/how-the-internet-works.html

How the Internet works (explained with tennis balls)

I haven't pointed to one of these recently...

http://lifehacker.com/software/feature/how-to-track-down-anyone-online-329033.php

How to Track Down Anyone Online