Monday, April 07, 2008

...because...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080407064033752

Data “Dysprotection:” breaches reported last week

Monday, April 07 2008 @ 06:50 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



No doubt government agencies in the US love this opinion – the communications companies must pay for retrieving the data. Think that might result in more and larger requests?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080406124332463

Ca: Court ruling may clear the way for more digital surveillance

Sunday, April 06 2008 @ 12:43 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News

Canada's biggest police association says a Supreme Court ruling on who should pay the cost of digital surveillance should clear the way for the federal government to reintroduce legislation that would help authorities to monitor Internet and wireless communications.

The country's top court last week dismissed an appeal by Telus Mobility, which wanted to be compensated for digging up call records as part of two 2004 criminal investigations in Ontario.

Source - Vancouver Sun



Have you no respect for privacy! (Men, we are doomed!)

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080407064327197

UK: Net snooping rife among spouses

Monday, April 07 2008 @ 06:43 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Internet & Computers

A fifth of married internet users regularly snoop on their spouses' emails and text messages, Oxford University researchers have found.

The survey found general agreement between couples about the acceptability of certain online behaviours.... Meanwhile, 13% of respondents admitted to checking up on their partner's browser history.

Source - BBC



I'll have to read this...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/018027.html

April 06, 2008

Study Group Issues Report Recommending Changes in Copyright Law to Reflect Digital Technologies

"After nearly three years of intensive work, the independent Section 108 Study Group has issued its report and recommendations on exceptions to copyright law to address how libraries, archives and museums deal with copyrighted materials in fulfilling their missions in the digital environment...Section 108 is the section of the Copyright Act that provides limited exceptions for libraries and archives so that they may make copies to replace copyrighted works in their collections when necessary, preserve them for the long term and make them available to users."

  • The Section 108 Study Group Report, An Independent Report sponsored by the United States Copyright Office and the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program of the Library of Congress, March 2008



Always a few interesting items...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/018036.html

April 06, 2008

New on LLRX.com for April 2008



Need to research Canada? Think of this as a really big list...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/018035.html

April 06, 2008

Canadian Federal Government Databases on the Web (2008)

"This is the 4th edition of the bibliography of online Canadian federal government databases, replacing the 3rd edition [Oh Cana-duh... Bob] published in 2005. This current edition lists 488 databases publicly accessible on Government of Canada Web sites. Some of these databases require user registration. This edition contains 334 entries from the previous edition that have been reviewed and verified as well as 154 databases that have appeared since the previous edition." [Michel-Adrien Sheppard]



Interesting. Who makes the call that a customer's computer is “adequately secure?”

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/06/1641201&from=rss

UK Banking Law Blames Customers For Insecure OS

Journal written by twitter (104583) and posted by Zonk on Sunday April 06, @02:23PM from the laws-with-no-cause dept. Security Businesses The Almighty Buck The Courts

twitter writes

"If you use an insecure OS in the UK and someone drains your bank account, the banks say it's your fault. The Register reports: 'The Banking Code produced by the British Bankers' Association (BBA), and followed by most banks, makes it clear that banks will not be responsible for losses on online bank accounts if consumers do not have up to date anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall software installed on their machines.'"

twitter went on to note that the majority of consumer PCs use an operating system with a history of security issues. Should end users be ultimately responsible for the state of their systems?



Interesting question of liability. Is this a “product defect” that requires a recall? (In New Jersey, we would call this “share a ride”)

http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2174801.0.scientists_crack_security_system_of_millions_of_cars.php

Scientists crack security system of millions of cars

University team breaks code of KeeLoq system used by major manufacturers

By James Hamilton

... The research team from Ruhr's Electrical Engineering and Information Sciences Department said the crack applies to all known car and building access control systems that rely on the KeeLoq cipher. It targeted and ultimately cracked its RFID as part of its research in embedded security. "The security hole allows illegitimate parties to access buildings and cars after remote eavesdropping from a distance of up to 100 meters," says professor Christof Paar, head of the communication security group at the department.

Timo Kasper, a PhD student who worked on the research, blamed KeeLoq for keeping the cipher secret. He said: "If they had made it public they would have found out 20 years ago that it's insecure. Now it's a little bit too late, because it's already built into all the garages and cars."

Because most access devices are publicly available, it's not too hard for attackers to get their hands on one to perform the analysis. The hack requires about £1500 worth of equipment and a fair amount of technical skill, but once the unique master key for a particular model is available, it works universally, Kasper said.

... "These theoretical attacks are not unique to the Keeloq system and could be applied to virtually any security system."

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