Where has all your data gone?

Long time passing

Where has all your data gone?

Long time ago

Where have all the laptops gone?

Crooks have hacked them every one

When will they ever learn?

When will they ever learn? With abject apologies to Pete Seeger

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080322091913287

Stolen PC had Agilent workers' personal data

Saturday, March 22 2008 @ 09:19 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

A laptop containing sensitive and unencrypted personal data on 51,000 current and former employees of Agilent Technologies was stolen from the car of an Agilent vendor March 1 in San Francisco, the company said in a letter mailed to former employees this week.

The data includes employee names, Social Security numbers, home addresses and details of stock options and other stock-related awards.

In the letter, Agilent blamed the San Jose vendor, Stock & Option Solutions, for failing to scramble or otherwise safeguard the data - "in violation of the contracted agreement."

"It wasn't encrypted, which was a surprise to us," said Agilent spokeswoman Amy Flores. She said the vendor told Agilent that an East Coast employee had brought the data-laden laptop to California for encryption, but someone broke into her car and stole the computer and her other belongings while the vehicle was parked near Fisherman's Wharf.

Source - MercuryNews.com

We have good news and bad news...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080323073706901

WCU ID security breached

Sunday, March 23 2008 @ 07:37 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

The news arrived by mail, and it was unsettling.

Someone had hacked into a computer and had access to the Social Security numbers of 555 graduates of Western Carolina University who had signed up for a newsletter.... Ironically, WCU officials discovered the breach while trying to track down and eliminate private information on unsecure computer servers. [Good (late but Good) Bob]

... The compromised information was on a computer server managed by the Department of Business Computer Information Systems and Economics. And it was hacked several times, as long ago as 2006, said Bil Stahl, chief information officer at WCU.

“We know the data was taken off the server, but we don’t have any evidence that their data was used,” he said.

Source - Citizen-Times.com

Just a reminder: Identity Theft isn't new, we're simply see the impact of automation...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080322171136653

Man stole vet ID to get married, have surgery

Saturday, March 22 2008 @ 05:11 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

A Colorado man is accused of stealing an Army veteran’s identity and using it for 24 years to get married, obtain free medical treatment and even serve as president of a VFW post.

Mark Mulcahy, 46, faces felony charges of identity theft, forgery and criminal impersonation. He was being held in the Garfield County jail Friday in lieu of $45,000 bail. It wasn’t known whether he had an attorney.

Source - Army Times

So is this a firm and unequivocal “Maybe?”

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/017875.html

March 22, 2008

CRS Report - Border Searches of Laptops and Other Electronic Storage Devices

RL34404 - Border Searches of Laptops and Other Electronic Storage Devices, March 05, 2008

• Summary: "The Fourth Amendment generally requires a warrant to support most searches and seizures conducted by the government. Federal courts have long recognized that there are many exceptions to this general presumption, one of which is the border search exception. The border search exception permits government officials, in most "routine" circumstances, to conduct searches with no suspicion of wrongdoing whatsoever. On the other hand, in some "non-routine" and particularly invasive situations, customs officials are required to have "reasonable suspicion" in order to conduct a search. Several federal courts have recently applied the border search exception to situations in which customs officials conducted searches of laptops and other electronic storage devices at the border. Though the federal courts have universally held that the border search exception applies to laptop searches conducted at the border, the degree of cause required to support the search has not been established. Though some federal appellate courts do not appear to require any degree of suspicion to justify a search, one federal district court stated categorically that all laptop searches conducted at the border require at least reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing."

If they didn't extend the deadline, they would need to defend their regulation in court, right? Better to leave it for the next administration...

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/03/montana-gov-dhs.html

Montana Governor: DHS 'Blinks' on Real ID

By Ryan Singel March 21, 2008 | 7:13:27 PMCategories: Identification

Montana governor Brian Schweitzer declared victory Friday after the Department of Homeland Security sent his state an extension to the Real ID act, despite his insistence Montana will never comply with a mandate he describes as a "boondoggle."

... Montana's attorney general sent DHS chief Michael Chertoff a letter (.pdf) Friday outlining the security features in Montana's current driver's licenses, which DHS threatened to reject as valid I.D. for boarding airplanes or entering federal buildings come May 11 unless the state promised to comply with Real ID.

DHS responded by interpreting that letter as a request for an extension (.pdf) of the Real ID deadlines until 2010, reversing its previous position that Montana ID cards would be rejected by federal agents.

Related?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080322183946732

Terminal Five chaos threat over fingerprint plan: Commissioner tells passengers to protest security measures

Saturday, March 22 2008 @ 06:39 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News

The opening of Heathrow's new Terminal 5 was under threat last night after its management was warned that a plan to fingerprint passengers may be illegal.

The £4.3billion terminal is due to open on Thursday.

But the Information Commissioner has told Spanish-owned airport operator BAA that its plan to fingerprint all passengers may breach the Data Protection Act.

Source - Daily Mail

[From the article:

David Smith, the Deputy Information Commissioner, said: "We want to know why Heathrow needs to fingerprint passengers at all.

"Taking photographs is less intrusive. So far we have not heard BAA's case for requesting fingerprints.

[How are either of these “Security Measures?” Can you tell from prints or pictures that you have a hijacker? Bob]

Tools & Techniques: Do I trust this? At $3,350 it's still a bit pricey for the average user...

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/03/spooks-get-a-sm.html

Spooks Get A Smart Phone

By Ryan Singel March 21, 2008 | 3:52:29 PM

Tools & Techniques: Dossier building.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/22/1314253&from=rss

Google Patents Detecting, Tracking, Targeting Kids

Posted by CmdrTaco on Saturday March 22, @11:12AM from the well-maybe dept. Patents Google

theodp writes

"A newly-issued Google patent for Rendering Advertisements With Documents Having One or More Topics Using User Topic Interest describes how to detect the presence of children by 'using evidence of sophistication determined using user actions' and tracking their behavior using the Google Toolbar and other methods to deliver targeted ads. Which is interesting, since the Google Terms of Service supposedly prohibit the use of Services by anyone 'not of legal age.' The inventor is Google Principal Scientist Krishna Bharat, who is a co-inventor of another pending Google patent for inferring searchers' ethnicity, reading level, age, sex and income (and storing it all)."

Ok I'll be the first to admit that this is greek to me. Someone smart figure this out and post a comment translating patentese into english.

New tools – new rules? Have you ever been able to sell copies? (Comments may be worth reading...)

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/22/2150244&from=rss

Why Your e-Books Are No Longer Yours

Posted by kdawson on Saturday March 22, @09:47PM from the i-am-not-a-lawyer-but-they-are-or-at-least-will-be dept.

Predictions Market sends us to Gizmodo for an interesting take on the question: when you "buy" "content" for Amazon's Kindle or the Sony Reader, are you buying a crippled license to intellectual property when you download, or are you buying a book? If the latter, then the first sale doctrine, which lets you hawk your old Harry Potter hardcovers on eBay, would apply. Some law students at Columbia took a swing at the question and Gizmodo reprints the "surprisingly readable" legal summary. Short answer: those restrictive licenses may very well be legal, and even if you had rights under the first sale doctrine, you might only be able to resell or give away your Kindle — not a copy of the work.

Interesting. Control doesn't take as much effort as I'd assumed. Why, we could even do this here...

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/chinese-firewall?reddit

“The Connection Has Been Reset”

China’s Great Firewall is crude, slapdash, and surprisingly easy to breach. Here’s why it’s so effective anyway.

by James Fallows March 2008 Atlantic Monthly

... Depending on how you look at it, the Chinese government’s attempt to rein in the Internet is crude and slapdash or ingenious and well crafted. When American technologists write about the control system, they tend to emphasize its limits. When Chinese citizens discuss it—at least with me—they tend to emphasize its strength. All of them are right, which makes the government’s approach to the Internet a nice proxy for its larger attempt to control people’s daily lives.

... What the government cares about is making the quest for information just enough of a nuisance that people generally won’t bother.

I gotta follow this one. Imagine learning this trick! (Very brief and uninformative video)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7309947.stm

'Hypnotist' thief hunted in Italy

Last Updated: Saturday, 22 March 2008, 18:43 GMT

Police in Italy have issued footage of a man who is suspected of hypnotising supermarket checkout staff to hand over money from their cash registers.

In every case, the last thing staff reportedly remember is the thief leaning over and saying: "Look into my eyes", before finding the till empty.

In the latest incident captured on CCTV, he targeted a bank at Ancona in northern Italy, then calmly walked out.

A female bank clerk reportedly handed over nearly 800 euros (£630).

... Italian police believe the suspect could be of Indian or North African extraction. [Perhaps he escapes up the Indian Rope? Bob]

Only in America. No doubt there are “ermine lined executive urine bags” for those long staff meetings...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080321/ap_on_fe_st/qwest_urine_4

Union: Workers told to use urine bags

Thu Mar 20, 10:48 PM ET

Union officials in Colorado say a Qwest supervisor tried to cut down on lengthy bathroom breaks by telling workmen to use disposable urinal bags in the field.

The manager distributed the bags to 25 male field technicians, telling them not to waste time leaving a job site to search for a public bathroom, the Rocky Mountain News reported Thursday.

... Ryan Hiott, a regional director for Innotek, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency ordered 2.5 million bags after Hurricane Katrina.

A nod to the Academic side...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080322184508140

Journal of Consumer Affairs Call for Papers on Privacy

Saturday, March 22 2008 @ 06:45 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Other Privacy News

The Journal of Consumer Affairs plans a special issue on Privacy Literacy -- How Consumers Understand and Protect Their Privacy. Here is the Call for Papers:

Consumers increasingly confront a wide array of privacy-related information and are called upon to make decisions impacting their privacy in a growing number of arenas and contexts. Existing research suggests that many consumers do not understand the decisions they are forced to make nor the impact of those decisions. For this special issue of the Journal of Consumer Affairs, manuscripts are being solicited devoted to the effects of privacy literacy on consumer welfare. The goal of this special issue is to extend our theoretical and practical knowledge of how consumers obtain, process, and use information and mechanisms that relate to their privacy. We seek contributions from multiple disciplines including communications, consumer education, economics, finance, law, public policy, psychology and marketing. Authors may submit empirical studies or conceptual work. Papers that are theoretically grounded and also contain significant implications for consumer welfare are especially appropriate.

Source - Consumer Law & Policy Blog

Why can't our schools keep up with the times? We can't even produce effective criminals any more... And why won't the police accept a ready made case?

http://digg.com/xbox/WOW_You_re_a_MORON

WOW, You’re a MORON!

blog.mcfearsome.com — This kid robbed my house, this is the story so far.

http://blog.mcfearsome.com/2008/03/22/wow-your-a-moron/

Using the “Political Indicator” (Horse gone = Lots of talk about theneed to lock door) this smells correct.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23411799-7583,00.html

Climate facts to warm to

Christopher Pearson | March 22, 2008

CATASTROPHIC predictions of global warming usually conjure with the notion of a tipping point, a point of no return.

... Duffy asked Marohasy: "Is the Earth stillwarming?"

She replied: "No, actually, there has been cooling, if you take 1998 as your point of reference. If you take 2002 as your point of reference, then temperatures have plateaued. This is certainly not what you'd expect if carbon dioxide is driving temperature because carbon dioxide levels have been increasing but temperatures have actually been coming down over the last 10 years."

[Global Cooling! Global Cooling! Bob]