“What a country!” (Worth reading the article)
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080310103720975
TJX Demonstrates Data Protection Doesn’t Matter
Monday, March 10 2008 @ 10:37 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches
As much as security vendors and practitioners would like it to be true there is no truth in the assertion that failed security leads to a drop in a company’s stock value. Studies abound that show a correlation of perhaps four to eight percent declines with major data breaches but it is hard to stick to that argument in light of TJX’s spectacular failure to secure their operations and yet suffer no consequences.
... On top of all of this TJX is violating all of supposed best practices in data breach disclosure. Most advice you will hear from PR pros says that you should be completely forthcoming in what you say about your breach. You should come clean right away, explain to your stakeholders exactly what happened and how it can never happen again thanks to new processes and controls you are instituting.
Has that happened at TJX? No. TJX, is re-writing the book on how to handle a major breach. In that book the instructions are: admit no fault, trickle information out piecemeal, create confusion over facts, and never reveal the hacker’s techniques.
Source - CIO Update, March 5
This is a growing trend. I wonder who is providing these devices? (and why no one notices that they have been replaced?)
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080310142956811
Ca: Customers warned after three Park Royal stars (sic) have PIN pads stolen
Monday, March 10 2008 @ 02:29 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches
Customers who recently made debit card purchases at any of three Park Royal stores should change their PIN numbers immediately, West Vancouver police say.
PIN pads went missing from two La Senza outlets and the Aldo shoe boutique during the lunch period on Friday.
The Park Royal mall was the subject of a debit card fraud investigation last summer after PIN pads were removed and replaced with others containing undetectable, covert electronic systems that could steal customers' financial information.
Source - The Province
Okiay, so maybe prison isn't a deterrent to cyber-crime...
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080310075300213
Petersburg man to be sentenced for fraud (update 1)
Monday, March 10 2008 @ 07:53 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches
In 2006, Charles A. Mitchell of Petersburg found a convenient solution to his holiday shopping needs. He spent more than $34,000 on friends and family -- including $800 for Godiva chocolates -- using the names and account numbers of 60 American Express card customers obtained by duping a Thai restaurant in Charlotte, N.C.
...Court records show that Mitchell used a cell phone smuggled in to him at the Federal Correctional Institution Petersburg, where he was serving 71 months for his earlier crimes. He used the cell phone to call the Thai House restaurant in Charlotte and posed as a credit-card-processing company representative.
He told an employee that the system had failed to process the restaurant's credit-card transactions and that he needed the information if they were to be paid. He obtained the card information for about 60 people who dined at the restaurant.
Source - inRich.com
Update: Mitchell was sentenced to an additional 64 months behind bars yesterday.
...because...
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080310004850342
Data “Dysprotection:” breaches reported last week
Monday, March 10 2008 @ 07:27 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches
A recap of incidents or privacy breaches reported last week for those who enjoy shaking their head and muttering to themselves with their morning coffee.
Source - Chronicles of Dissent
Why you should carefully considr what Marketing is doing?
http://blogs.computerworld.com/microsoft_filing_in_junk_pc_lawsuit_is_full_of_holes
March 10, 2008 - 10:47 A.M.
Microsoft filing in 'junk PC' lawsuit is full of holes
Preston Gralla Seeing Through Windows
Microsoft's attempt to get a judge to throw out the Vista "junk PC" suit shows off every aspect of the lawyer's art: It's misleading, factually incorrect, and stresses legalisms over common sense. It also flatly contradicts emails from Microsoft officials. Here are the details, including excerpts from Microsoft's filing.
Perhaps all we will get is a hint...
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9889825-7.html
March 10, 2008 9:55 AM PDT
FCC hints at taking action against Comcast
Posted by Marguerite Reardon | 8 comments
The Federal Communications Commission is edging toward taking action against cable operator Comcast for monkeying with its customers' peer-to-peer traffic, according to several news reports.
Why you should not be on the “bleeding edge” of technology?
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/10/2013251&from=rss
MacBook Air Confuses Airport Security
Posted by Zonk on Monday March 10, @11:26PM from the when-consumer-electronics-attack dept. Portables (Apple) It's funny. Laugh. Apple
Ant writes
"MacNN reports that the thin design of Apple's MacBook Air is causing some confusion for the technically ignorant, according to one blogger who says that the ultra-portable caused him to miss his flight. When going through the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) airport security checkpoint, blogger Michael Nygard was held up as security staff gathered around his MacBook Air, trying to make sense of the slender laptop/notebook. One of the less technically knowledgeable staff points out the lack of standard features as cause for alarm..."
Hey! Don't I have a right as a citizen to surveil anyone I want?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080310121033591
EPIC Urges Investigation of "Stalker Spyware"
Monday, March 10 2008 @ 12:10 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Internet & Computers
EPIC filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against several purveyors of stalker spyware. Stalker spyware products are over the counter surveillance technologies sold for individuals to spy on other individuals -- and can be used by abusers to spy on their victims. The complaint alleges that these companies engage in unfair and deceptive practices by: (1) promoting illegal surveillance by abusers of their victims; (2) promoting "Trojan Horse" email attacks; and (3) failing to warn their costumers of legal dangers of misuse of stalker spyware. The EPIC complaint asks the FTC to stop these practices, seek compensation for victims, and investigate other harms that stalker spyware may cause.
Source - Complaint [pdf]
Related?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080311061454338
The NSA: The Total Information Awareness Agency
Tuesday, March 11 2008 @ 06:14 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Surveillance
Remember when, about five years ago, a program called Total Information Awareness (TIA) came to light. TIA was a plan to create a massive government database of personal information which would then be data mined. The program led to a public outcry, with William Safire writing a blistering op-ed in the New York Times attacking TIA. In 2003, Congress voted to deny it funding.
...The Supreme Court has already limited the reach of the Fourth Amendment, making it possible for the government to collect records from businesses with no oversight and few limits. The courts today are finding many ways to dismiss lawsuits challenging the NSA surveillance -- through an expansive application of the state secrets doctrine or through uncharitable views of plaintiffs' standing to bring a challenge. The Executive Branch, it seems, can do whatever it wants. All of this strikes me as a tremendous failure of our political system.
Source - Concurring Opinions blog
Related, but a bad headlin. How is this different from a police officer using a Mark I eyeball? (The problem was: what do they do with the data after the scan?)
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080311073216260
German court strikes down police license-plate scanning tactic
Tuesday, March 11 2008 @ 07:32 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News
Germany's highest court on Tuesday ruled that a police practice of automatically scanning license plates and checking them against lists of suspects violates the country's constitution.
The Federal Constitutional Court said in its ruling that the practice violates privacy rights.
Source - PR-inside.com
[From the article:
The court agreed with their argument that the two states' regulations on the surveillance technique were too broad, and could allow authorities to do things such as profile individuals' movements.
Resource?
http://www.phiprivacy.net/?p=66
AU: New privacy guidance to assist private health service providers
Posted by Dissent on Mar 11, 2008
From the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, this media release:
The Australian Privacy Commissioner, Karen Curtis, has today issued new privacy guidance materials for medical practitioners and other health service providers and the public.
... Released on the Office’s website, the guidance materials consist of five information sheets for healthcare in the Australian private sector, and seven FAQs for members of the public.
I wonder if we have contingency plans... My students would.
http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39170300,00.htm
Nato: Cyber terrorism 'as dangerous as missile attack'
Countries' recovery strategy - "weak"
By Nick Heath Published: 7 March 2008 11:16 GMT
Nato's cyber defence chief has warned that computer-based terrorism poses the same threat to national security as a missile attack.
Suleyman Anil, head of Nato Computer Incident Response Capability Co-ordination Centre, said a determined cyber attack on a country's online infrastructure would be "practically impossible to stop".
Rate a Teacher/Lawyer/Cop (Students/Clients/Criminals are off-limits)... Is this a trend that truly impacts privacy?
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080305/075621447.shtml
Police Accountability Is A Good Thing
from the public-scrutiny dept
Jim Lippard points out that a site called Rate My Cop is generating some controversy from Arizona police departments who apparently consider the site an invasion of officers' privacy. The site doesn't have pictures, addresses, or other personal information on the site. It only lists officers' names and the department they work for. But this is still too much for the Tempe police department. "If everybody went home everyday and you had the whole world ranking your job, we do make mistakes, but other days we do great things," said one Tempe police officer. I've have a lot more sympathy for the guy if this wasn't true of a ton of other professions. When I do a stupid blog post, you guys all leave comments saying so. Most restaurants and retail business have complaint cards so customers can complain about bad service. There are a ton of sites where consumers rate hotels, bands, restaurants, books, and a ton of other stuff -- such as rating teachers (although some people do want to make that illegal too). The big difference is that police officers have the force of law behind them, so they need to be held to a higher standard than other professions. The worst thing my blog posts can do is annoy our readers and hurt Techdirt's traffic. When a police officer screws up, the result can be innocent people being harrassed, humiliated, arrested, injured or killed. The cops who do those things are a small minority, obviously. But that's precisely why we need sites like this to help bring some public attention to the few bad apples who are out there.
Interesting study...
Study: H-1Bs go with job creation
National Foundation for American Policy survey finds that companies applying for H-1B visas create jobs not filled by foreign workers, but opponents contest figures
By Grant Gross, IDG News Service March 10, 2008
... For every H-1B position requested, tech companies listed on the S&P 500 stock index increased their employment by five workers in an analysis of 2002 to 2005, according to a study by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP). For tech firms with fewer than 5,000 employees, each H-1B request corresponded with an average increase of 7.5 workers, the group said.
Tools & Techniques
http://digg.com/software/Dropping_22TB_of_patches_on_6_500_PCs_in_4_hours_BitTorrent
Dropping 22TB of patches on 6,500 PCs in 4 hours: BitTorrent
arstechnica.com — BitTorrent is often maligned, but overlooking it might be foolish. One IT department found that it can speed patching and image updates so much, that rollouts that once took four days now only take four hours.
Diversion?
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9890771-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
March 10, 2008 11:21 PM PDT
Hulu to offer lulu of a video selection
Posted by Greg Sandoval
... Hulu said in a statement that it will offer free videos from more than 50 top broadcast and cable networks, movie studios and Web content providers when it launches.
128 years later we get: “I've fallen and I can't get up!”
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/03/dayintech_0310
March 10, 1876: 'Mr. Watson, Come Here ... '
By Randy Alfred Email 03.10.08 | 12:00 AM
1876: Alexander Graham Bell makes the first telephone call in his Boston laboratory, summoning his assistant from the next room.
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