Monday, March 03, 2008

...and we wonder why there are TJX level events.

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id%3b483933484%3bfp%3b16%3bfpid%3b1

Security skills of IT workforce lacking, survey finds

CompTIA's most recent survey reveals wide gap between IT security skills wanted and those workers bring to the job

Denise Dubie (Network World) 28/02/2008 07:10:33

A majority of organizations are in need of IT workers with security, firewall and data privacy skills, but more than 40 per cent surveyed by the Computing Technology Industry Association in the US said their IT employees are not proficient in such skills.

Nearly three-fourths of 3,500 technology professionals polled identified security, firewall and data privacy as the IT skills most important to their organization today, according to CompTIA, which commissioned The Center for Strategy Research to conduct the telephone and online survey during the fourth quarter of 2007. Tied for second in terms of importance behind security skills were general networking and operating system skills, cited by 66 per cent of respondents each.

Yet despite the importance 73 per cent of IT managers place on security skills, just 57 per cent also said they believed their IT employees were proficient in such skills, which represents a gap of 16 percentage points between the skills IT organizations need and those they have in place.



What ethics?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080302011143552

Lawyer admits computer breach

Sunday, March 02 2008 @ 07:11 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

A Charleston lawyer could be suspended from the State Bar after admitting that he accessed another law firm's computer system because he suspected his wife was having an affair.

According to a brief filed with the state Supreme Court by the Bar's Lawyer Disciplinary Board, Michael P. Markins repeatedly accessed e-mail accounts at Offutt, Fisher and Nord, where his wife, Andrea N. Markins, worked as an associate.

..."From his wife's e-mail address, [Markins] was able to determine he could gain access to various OFN e-mail accounts ... by going to the OFN main Web page, clicking on a link, and typing in an e-mail address and a person's last name," the brief states. (emphasis added by Dissent).

Source - The Charleston Gazette



How could this possibly work?

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/02/credentica

Startup Plans to Solve Online Identity Theft, But Does Anyone Care?

By Alexander Gelfand 02.08.08 | 12:00 AM

Imagine you could prove you were 21 without revealing your date of birth -- or anything else about you, for that matter. Or qualify for a loan without disclosing your net worth. Or enjoy the benefits of e-commerce, e-health and e-government without a moment's fear that you are open to identity theft.

Sound impossible? It is. But it won’t be if cryptographer and entrepreneur Stefan Brands has his way.

Brands runs Credentica, a Montreal-based startup that is rolling out an encryption-and-authentication system called U-Prove that allows users to disclose the absolute minimum to complete digital transactions -- and to do so in a way that ensures the information they need to reveal has no shelf life whatsoever.



At what point did this become a “big deal” because obviously before that, it was not...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080302094805478

AU: Agency made 700 privacy breaches

Sunday, March 02 2008 @ 09:48 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

THE Child Support Agency faces an urgent review over nearly 700 privacy blunders in the past year, including people being given the confidential contact details of their former spouses.

Human Services Minister Joe Ludwig said yesterday that he questioned the agency's competence over the breaches, and ordered an overhaul of its administration.

Source - The Australian



Protecting politicians from the second class...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080303065857585

CO: Bill would curb access to data

Monday, March 03 2008 @ 06:58 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: State/Local Govt.

Getting voting records, school budgets, property assessments and other public records could get more difficult as lawmakers attempt to fend off websites and blogs that have used public data to target politicians.

Draft legislation to erect more speed bumps to access — such as requiring that requests come from Colorado citizens — would make the state's rules tougher than its neighbors'.

Source - Denver Post



This could be interesting. What is the next election worth?

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080303/003001402.shtml

United Technologies Corporation Makes A Bid For Diebold

from the buy-now,-vote-later... dept

Just as the Onion is poking fun at Diebold for releasing the results of the 2008 Presidential election months early, it appears that United Technologies Corporation is attempting a hostile takeover of the company after it turned down a private offer. Diebold is mostly known these days for its controversial e-voting business (which the company has renamed "Premiere" to try to disassociate it with the Diebold name) but is also a major player in the ATM business. Whether or not UTC takes the company over, there's little doubt that Diebold has done a terrible job responding to the questions and accusations about the security and reliability of its e-voting machines. Having a company like UTC come in and take over could actually do a lot for the company to regain some trust.



Stuff for my web site class...

http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/WaveMakercom----Software-for-Developing-Web-20-Apps/

WaveMaker.com - Software for Developing Web 2.0 Apps

WaveMaker provides powerful solutions for the development of web applications. Their chief products Studio and Framework offer clean, intuitive user interfaces that take advantage of drag and drop assembly of widgets and service and quick, code free integration of web services. WaveMake Studio runs with with Ajax and utilizes Push to Deploy technology, allowing one touch application deployment. WaveMaker’s Framework deploys Java files from the Studio, maintaining and extending their usage. It makes use of open source components such as Spring and Acegi; it also reduces the necessity of custom coding, which means apps are both of higher quality and easier to support. WaveMaker can be freely downloaded for Macs, Windows and Linux users.

http://www.wavemaker.com/


Ditto

http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/RollBasecom---Make-Your-Own-Business-Apps/

RollBase.com - Make Your Own Business Apps

RollBase is a new platform as a service provider (PaaS) which is looking to simplify application creation for businesses. Its web based software is designed for small and medium sized businesses. RollBase provides drag and drop technology so that users can easily pick and choose apps they want to incorporate into their account. Among these, users can choose from a wide variety of categories, for instance, apps for creating an online community, apps designed for managing sales, and there are apps for human resources. Those with a little more tech know how can choose to customize their apps by implementing code; however, Rollbase has been designed to obviate the need for programmers altogether while still providing high quality, sophisticated applications. Rollbase offers both fully featured backed end apps as well as front end applications which can be directly plugged into company websites and intranets. There is a free 60 day trial version available.

http://www.rollbase.com/home/index.shtml



Got ancestors?

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/017685.html

March 02, 2008

National Archives Makes Some Passenger Arrival Records Available Online

News release: "For the first time, the National Archives and Records Administration has made available online more than 5.2 million records of some passengers who arrived during the last half of the 19th century at the ports of Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia. The records were transcribed from original ship manifests into electronic databases by Temple University’s Center for Immigration Research at The Balch Institute. The Center donated the digital records to the National Archives. The records are known as Data Files Relating to the Immigration of Germans to the United States, 1850-1897; Data Files Relating to the Immigration of Italians to the United States, 1855-1900; and Data Files Relating to the Immigration of Russians to the United States, 1834-1897."

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