Thursday, March 13, 2008

More on the cost of a security breach...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080312192600690

(follow-up) Certegy offers deal to ID theft victims

Wednesday, March 12 2008 @ 07:26 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

Certegy Check Services notified millions of Americans last fall that a rogue employee had stolen and sold their personal financial information. Now the St. Petersburg company is preparing to unleash some more bad news: a proposed legal settlement that some critics say will do little to fight identity theft.

The preliminary deal between Certegy and class-action attorneys, currently under review by U.S. District Court Judge Steven D. Merryday in Tampa, would offer partial relief to some of the 8.4-million Americans - including 460,000 Floridians - whose data were methodically stolen over a five-year period. Among the benefits:

- Credit monitoring. [...]

- Bank account monitoring. [...]

- Identity-theft reimbursement. [...]

- Fee reimbursement. [...]

- Heightened security. [...]

"It is an excellent (settlement), providing valuable and important benefits for class members," plaintiffs' attorneys wrote in a court filing. But privacy and data-security experts contacted Tuesday disagreed.

... Lillie Coney, associate director of the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C., said the settlement "makes you wonder who represented the consumers."

Source - St. Petersburg Times



New legal term?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080312210445421

Ph: Internet new battlefield for citizens’ right to privacy

Wednesday, March 12 2008 @ 09:04 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News

Chief Justice Reynato Puno Wednesday justified the adoption by the Supreme Court of the writ of habeas data last month, saying that the Internet age had opened a new battlefield for citizens fighting to protect their right to privacy.

Speaking at a forum hosted by the National Union of People’s Lawyers in Quezon City, Puno stressed that computer technology continued to erode personal privacy and diminished a person’s ability to control the flow of information.

There is, therefore, a pressing need to provide for judicial remedies that would allow the summary hearing of the unlawful use of data ... and to remedy violations of the right to privacy,” he said.

Source - Inquirer.net



You don't suppose this has anything to do with the rash of laptop thefts?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080312114523217

Dutch interior affairs minister says widely used security pass can be hacked

Wednesday, March 12 2008 @ 11:45 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News

The Dutch interior affairs minister said Wednesday that a computer chip widely used in security cards in the Netherlands and beyond can easily be hacked.

The "Mifare" chip technology is owned and licensed by NXP Semiconductors and is frequently used in public transport systems such as London's "Oyster" card. It is also used by corporations and governments in "swipe" access cards.

Source - The Age



Two bad decisions in Oklahoma? First, cutting off access via the Court's site wont cut of access elsewhere...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080312123837988

OK: Court rules cut off online access to records

Wednesday, March 12 2008 @ 12:38 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: In the Courts

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has adopted rules cutting off public access to court records now available on the Internet.

When the rules go into effect on June 10, online access to court documents in the Supreme Court and district courts would be limited to court dockets only.

"The individual pleadings and other recorded documents filed of record in state court actions shall not be publicly displayed on the Internet," according to an order signed by Chief Justice James R. Winchester and four other justices.

The order, released on Tuesday, described the new rules as an effort to balance the rights of privacy of individuals and public access.

Source - The Norman Transcript


This one opens the door to entrepreneurs who sell those “upside-down” tripods that let you point your camera up from ground level without getting that crick in your back...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080312122047993

OK: Court Drops Case of 'Peeping Tom' in Target; Says Victim Was Not in Private Place

Wednesday, March 12 2008 @ 12:20 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: In the Courts

A man accused of using a camera to take pictures under the skirt of an unsuspecting 16-year-old girl at a Tulsa store did not commit a crime, a state appeals court has ruled.

The state Court of Criminal Appeals voted 4-1 in favor of Riccardo Gino Ferrante, who was arrested in 2006 for situating a camera underneath the girl's skirt at a Target store and taking photographs.

Ferrante, now 34, was charged under a "Peeping Tom" statute that requires the victim to be "in a place where there is a right to a reasonable expectation of privacy." Testimony indicated he followed the girl, knelt down behind her and placed the camera under her skirt.

In January 2007, Tulsa County District Judge Tom Gillert ordered Ferrante's felony charge dismissed. That was based upon a determination that "the person photographed was not in a place where she had a reasonable expectation of privacy," according to the appellate ruling issued last week.

Source - MyFox Toledo



Could be an interesting read, if I didn't expect a full background check of every reader...

http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/12/1427252&from=rss

Air Force Cyber Command General Answers Slashdot Questions

Posted by Roblimo on Wednesday March 12, @11:41AM from the 30-pushups-and-50-lines-of-code-before-breakfast dept.

Here are the answers to your questions for Major General William T. Lord, who runs the just-getting-off-the ground Air Force Cyber Command. Before you ask: yes, his answers were checked by both PR and security people. Also, please note that this interview is a "first," in that Generals don't typically take questions from random people on forums like Slashdot, and that it is being watched all the way up the chain of command into the Pentagon. Many big-wigs will read what you post here -- and a lot of them are interested in what you say and may even use your suggestions to help set future recruiting and operational policies. A special "thank you" goes to Maj. Gen. Lord for participating in this experiment, along with kudos to the (necessarily anonymous) people who helped us arrange this interview.



Isn't this illogical on the face? Are they saying that the digital information (for example) that routes an e-mail to its destination is not retained? Because clearly it exist on storage at the time of creation (and until it is flagged for deletion)

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/12/Data-creation-outstrips-storage-for-the-first-time_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/12/Data-creation-outstrips-storage-for-the-first-time_1.html

Data creation outstrips storage for the first time

A new IDC report shows that data is being created at a faster rate than previously thought, and yearly data production is exceeding available storage space

By Jon Brodkin, Network World March 12, 2008

Digital information is being created at a faster pace than previously thought, and for the first time, the amount of digital information created each year has exceeded the world's available storage space, according to a new IDC report.



This sounds like a great research paper for my e-commerce class... Okay, maybe not.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SPITZER_HIGH_TECH_PROSTITUTION?SITE=VALYD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Prostitution Advances in a Wired World

By HILLARY RHODES Associated Press Writer Mar 12, 11:09 AM EDT

It may be the world's oldest profession, but prostitution is using some 21st-century tricks.

The prostitution scandal involving New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer lays bare some of the inner workings of modern-day sex work: text messaging to clock in the client, electronic fund transfers, a Web site featuring color photos, prices and rankings.

There's always been a distinction between indoor and street-level prostitution, and advances in technology have increasingly separated the two, said Ronald Weitzer, author of "Sex for Sale: Prostitution, Pornography and the Sex Industry."

Not only can prostitutes and escort services now run more efficient businesses, but they can leverage word-of-mouth advertising in new ways to build their brands and troll for clients. Online social communities built around the escort and sex worker industries can solidify customer loyalty. [See, you can't talk about sex without automatically generating puns... Bob]

... "If we didn't have so many clients, we wouldn't be prostitutes." [Best quote in the article Bob]


Related? I'm sure you'll want to add this to your “Favorite Sites” list...

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9892733-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

March 12, 2008 5:45 PM PDT

Meet Spitzer's 'Kristen' on MySpace

Posted by Steven Musil

It's probably a safe bet that you won't find Eliot Spitzer listed among "Kristen's" friends on MySpace, even though the alleged prostitute in the sex scandal seems to have quite a few.

... Thanks to her MySpace page, we have a chance to meet "Kristen," a 22-year-old aspiring musician whose real name was revealed by the New York Times as Ashley Alexandra Dupre.



Is this a big deal?

http://ralphlosey.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/sanctions-have-been-lifted-against-the-qualcomm-six-and-a-new-trial-ordered-where-they-may-now-speak-freely-to-defend-themselves/

Sanctions Have Been Lifted Against the “Qualcomm Six” and a New Trial Ordered Where They May Now Speak Freely to Defend Themselves

Just when you thought the Qualcomm case was finally over, it’s back with a vengeance. In an Order dated March 5, 2007, Judge Rudi Brewster vacated Magistrate Barbara Major’s Sanctions Order of January 8, 2007, but, as will be explained, the Sanctions Order was only vacated as to the attorneys sanctioned, and not as to Qualcomm. This may seem like a bad deal for Qualcomm, but actually it is a great result for them.



Use it before we lose it...

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/crgslst_the_endangered_sexy_craigslist_search_tool.php

Crgslst: The Endangered, Sexy Craigslist Search Tool

Written by Marshall Kirkpatrick / March 12, 2008 12:51 PM

Denver, Colorado based Superhero.es has built crgslst, a very slick multi-city search tool for Craigslist. Craigslist itself doesn't offer a multi-search service. By combining the publicly available RSS feeds from Craigslist with AJAX, crgslst fills this need "so fast, we left the vowels behind."

Unfortunately, crgslst may be in violation of the Craigslist terms of use and could face the same shutdown that other similar projects have in the past. This situation brings up a number of questions about intellectual property, RSS and mashups.



Nothing specific to blogging, so I guess this isn't a not-so-subtle hint...

http://education-portal.com/articles/10_Universities_Offering_Free_Writing_Courses_Online.html

10 Universities Offering Free Writing Courses Online

Whether you are currently writing professionally or are looking to break into the field, formal writing courses can help you to hone your skills. If you don't have the money or the time for campus-based courses, there are plenty of universities offering free writing courses online.


...and I'd never put up just one list...

http://lifehacker.com/336650/ten-universities-with-free-online-courses

Ten Universities with Free Online Courses

The web has democratized a lot of things since its birth, including the learning previously available only with a hefty tuition check. College site Education Portal has a handy list of the colleges that offer the most comprehensive course material online, including open-course trailblazers like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tufts University, and programs like Stanford's lecture podcasts on iTunes U. You can't get a sheepskin for free, but you can further your knowledge and training for less than even the cost of a book. For way more college-based free learning, check out Wendy's comprehensive guide to the .edu underground.

Universities With the Best Free Online Courses


...as luck would have it, I've found yet another...

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2008/03/30-useful-websites-you-probably-didnt.html

30+ Useful Websites You Probably Didn't Know About

Posted on 3/12/2008

[An example:

Search Public Records. Links to over 41,000 searchable public record databases. United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe.

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