“You were serious about that?” Joe Pesci in “My Cousin Vinnie” (Anyone want to take my wager that there is still classified information on these computers?)
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080507062007777
State Department Says ‘Missing’ Laptops Have Been Located
Wednesday, May 07 2008 @ 06:20 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches
The State Department says it has found the 400 laptops that CQ reported were unaccounted for last week.
A senior official in the department’s Office of the Inspector General, speaking only on a not-for-attribution basis, acknowledged that managers in the Diplomatic Security service had lost track of the computers, which are destined for friendly foreign police services.
But he said that they were located “within 24 hours” after CQ reported them missing over the weekend.
“We didn’t start looking until Monday morning, and found that this may have been an internal management count (problem),” the official said. “By the end of the afternoon they found out they were in Springfield or Herndon or wherever [There is noting like specificity to make statements seem credible. Bob] they’re stored before they go overseas.”
Source - CQ Politics
A new crime trend? Willie Sutton robbed banks because “That's where the money is.” Not obviously an Identity Theft article, but their first priority is to get their store back up. Do you suppose they have names and credit card numbers on their servers?
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/06/1639257&from=rss
Peter Gabriel's Web Server Stolen
Posted by timothy on Tuesday May 06, @01:14PM from the maybe-just-a-disgruntled-fan dept. Data Storage Music
miller60 writes
"Web servers hosting musician Peter Gabriel's web site have gone missing from their data center. "Our servers were stolen from our ISP's data centre on Sunday night — Monday morning," reads a notice at PeterGabriel.com. The incident is the latest in a series of high-profile equipment thefts in the past year, including armed robberies in data centers in Chicago and London. How secure is your data center?"
Targeting kids?
Trojan adware hiding in MP3s, McAfee says
Once downloaded, these Trojan horse programs disguised as fake MP3 files try to install a shoddy media player and adware on user's computer
By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service May 06, 2008
... On Tuesday, security vendor McAfee reported that it's seen a huge spike in fake MP3 files spreading on peer-to-peer networks. Although the files have names that make them look like audio recordings, they're really Trojan horse programs that try to install a shoddy media player and adware on your computer, said Craig Schmugar, a researcher with McAfee.
"Once you run it, there is no content. You're taken to this site to install this player, which you don't really need," he said.
Another “Trojan” for the kids or something useful...
http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=91292
Consumer Minute: Chrysler gas deal, smaller soft drinks, iHound cell phone finder
posted by: Mark Koebrich , 9NEWS Consumer Reporter
... A new program tracks missing and stolen iPods.
Dave Schuman of iHound Software created a free program that flashes up a message on the thief's computer when he hooks it to his own computer.
Not only that, the program sends the name of the computer, the name of the person logged in and the IP address back to iHound.
Schuman says iHound has already helped 10 people find their iPods.
The software works on anything with memory, from camera memory cards to flash drives.
You can find the software at www.ihoundsoftware.com.
Reputation management is the top concern. We have seen this in other recent surveys...
http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/732?ref=rss
Study: Security pros look to wireless, biometrics
Published: 2008-05-06
Companies plan to invest in wireless security and biometric technologies over the next year and increasingly view continuing education as a necessity to make their businesses more secure, according to a recently published survey.
The report, published by business-intelligence firm Frost & Sullivan and funded by security-certification group (ISC)2, found that companies in each of three major regions -- the Americas, Europe and Asia -- listed wireless-security, biometric-authentication and business-continuity systems in their top-5 technologies to deploy in the next year.
Interesting comments from the judge. He sees what the defendants can't?
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/05/judge-in-murdoc.html
Judge in Murdoch Hacker Trial Admonishes CEO
By Kim Zetter May 05, 2008 1:47:45 PM
A California judge overseeing the trial against a Rupert Murdoch company for allegedly hacking a competitor and helping pirates steal pay-TV content, admonished the CEO of the Murdoch firm for leaving the court without testifying. As a result of the CEO's action, the judge suggested that if his company loses the trial it could face shareholder lawsuits.
Future implications?
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/07/1334246&from=rss
A Yottabyte of Storage Per Year by 2013
Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday May 07, @10:23AM from the more-bits-please dept. Data Storage
Lucas123 writes
"David Roberson, general manager of Hewlett-Packard's StorageWorks division, predicts that by 2013 the storage industry will be shipping a yottabyte (a billion gigabytes) of storage capacity annually. Roberson made the comment in conjunction with HP introducing a new rack system that clusters together four blade servers and three storage arrays with 820TB of capacity. Many vendors are moving toward this kind of platform, including IBM, with its recent acquisition of Israeli startup XIV, according to Enterprise Strategy Group analyst Mark Peters."
“Remember, we're a monopoly with the right to change our service agreements at any time...”
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080506/1750001049.shtml
Comcast Thinking About Overage Fees And Tiered Usage
from the please-don't-use-our-broadband dept
Following Time Warner's recent plans to test broadband caps and overage fees, Broadband Reports has the scoop that Comcast is very strongly considering the same thing. Unlike Time Warner Cable's plans to test super low caps, Comcast is looking at 250GB/month -- which it claims will only impact 0.1% of users. Overage fees will be pretty high, however: $15 charge for each 10 GB over the cap. [Who counts? Will there be notice when you reach the “Extra charges apply” level? Bob] Comcast will also give users one free "slip up" month per year, for those who go over just for that one month.
There are some good and bad things to this news. On the good side, it would represent a big step up for Comcast in terms of actually being transparent. The company has always had caps, but they've been totally secret "fuzzy caps." Users would have no idea if they had gone over until Comcast sent them a nasty letter telling them to cut down on usage -- or they would lose their account. That said, the problem with tiered broadband is that it can serve to hold back innovation. It puts a limit on what people can do online, just as ISPs should be encouraging more innovative uses. As higher bandwidth applications are coming, limiting the value of an internet connection doesn't seem particularly wise. Providers who embrace innovation and supply the bandwidth to support it will be rewarded with happy customers.
Clearly the strategy isn't to deter or capture criminals or terrorists. Look at what they have achieved.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3877670.ece
May 6, 2008
CCTV boom has not cut crime, says police chief
Billions of pounds spent on Britain’s 4.2 million closed-circuit television cameras has not had a significant impact on crime, according to the senior police officer piloting a new database.
Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville said it was a “fiasco” that only 3 per cent of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV.
Mr Neville, who heads the Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office (Viido) unit, told the Security Document World Conference that the use of CCTV images as evidence in court has been very poor.
“Billions of pounds have been spent on kit, but no thought has gone into how the police are going to use the images and how they will be used in court,” he told the conference.
... Viido had launched a series of initiatives including a new database of images that will be used to track and identify offenders using software developed for the advertising industry. [“Oi mate! Before you rob that bloke, wouldn't you like a Pepsi?” Bob]
Another “What makes you think their strategy isn't working?” article. You're not relying on the word of a politician are you?
http://www.phiprivacy.net/?p=364
May-6-2008
Anti-Discrimination Bill Inadvertently Legalizes Sharing of Genetic Information Without Patient Consent
The Institute for Health Freedom has published a new article on its site:
“While authors of the recently passed Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (H.R. 493) had good intentions, the bill inadvertently legalizes the sharing of genetic information without patient consent,” says Sue Blevins, president of the Institute for Health Freedom (IHF). “It does so by applying HIPAA regulations to genetic data.”
Blevins points out, “HIPAA regulations permit data sharing without patient consent in connection with treatment, payment, and oversight of the health-care system (‘health-care operations’). Thus, by passing a bill that says HIPAA regulations apply to genetic information, Congress unintentionally legalized the sharing of information among many health-care ‘covered entities’ without patient permission.”
The bill passed the Senate late last month, a year after the House approved its own version. Differences between the two were resolved May 1, and the final bill has been sent to President Bush.’
In a letter published in the Baltimore Sun regarding the Senate’s vote on the anti-discrimination bill, Janis G. Chester, M.D., president of the American Association of Practicing Psychiatrists, stressed: “…A person’s genetic test results, and all of his or her medical data, should not be available to anyone without the patient’s consent. One’s employer should not even know he or she has had testing done, let alone know the results. The sad fact is that the regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act [HIPAA], which were intended to extend patient privacy as we moved from a paper-based system of medical records to a digital system, are a sham. HIPAA allows the routine release of personal health information without patient consent or knowledge, and even over a patient’s objection….”
Read the rest of the article on IHF
When does it become obvious that politicians are never influenced by the facts?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080507061303964
UK: Data fear haunts ID card scheme
Wednesday, May 07 2008 @ 06:13 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News
THE UK government has been warned that it should deal with the risk of data loss from its Identity Card Scheme before it proceeds any further.
The latest data warning follows repeated requests from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK data guardian, that the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) conduct a proper assessment of the risks of data loss from the ID Scheme. That advice was ignored and now, in the wake of the HMRC data fiasco, the IPS has been told that it must improve its data standards across the whole of government to avoid data leaks from the ID scheme.
The 2007 report of the Independent Scheme Assurance Panel (pdf), which provides official oversight of the ID Scheme, said yesterday that the data risks were so serious that they needed ministerial direction and that its precautions ought to be transparent because public trust was vital to the scheme's success.
Source - The Inquirer
Comment: Politicians ask three questions: 1) How will this impact my electability 2) Can I get away with it? 3) Who can I blame if something goes wrong?
New Jersey justice? Ordered to “henceforth obey the law” and fined the amount illegally gained but you don't really have to pay that fine, since you've already spent most of the money...
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/07/0138243&from=rss
First Caller-ID Spoofers Punished
Posted by kdawson on Wednesday May 07, @08:14AM from the what-do-not-call-means dept. The Courts Communications
coondoggie plugs a NetworkWorld story that begins,
"The first telemarketers charged with transmitting false Caller IDs... to consumers were fined and barred from continuing their schemes by a New Jersey District Court judge.... [T]wo individuals and one corporate defendant have been barred from violating the agency's Telemarketing Sales Rule and its Do Not Call requirements... They were also found liable for $530,000 in damages... [T]he case was the first brought by the Commission alleging the transmission of phony caller ID information or none at all."
[From the article:
The order imposes suspended civil penalty judgments of $530,000 against each of the individual defendants and $160,000 against the corporate defendant – representing the total gross revenues resulting from their telemarketing violations. Based on the defendants’ inability to pay, however, the order requires Venkataraman to pay $15,000, Bhupatiraju to pay $10,000, and Software Transformations to pay $20,000. It also contains a right to reopen the case if the FTC later finds the defendants have misrepresented their financial condition.
“You can't use it to cure cancer – we patented it as a cough drop!” (Or do I have the logic wrong?)
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/06/1715213&from=rss
Who Owns Software?
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 06, @02:01PM from the can't-interoperate dept.
SeeSp0tRun writes to remind us of Blizzard's lawsuit against MDY Industries over the Glider cheat. It seems that Blizzard is pushing it even further. They're trying out the legal theory that a software creator retains complete control over how a program is used, meaning that anyone who uses it in a different way could be found guilty of copyright infringement, at $750 a pop. The EFF and Public Knowledge are among the organizations trying to assure that the court doesn't set a really bad precedent here.
Do you suppose this is more of that intellectual leadership stuff?
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080504/2148451026.shtml
Oxford Fines Students For Post-Exam Celebrations By Trolling Facebook
from the this-is-the-best-use-of-their-time? dept
We've talked about police trolling sites like YouTube, Facebook and MySpace to catch people posting evidence of their own illegal activities, but it appears that some universities are doing the same thing as well. While we missed the story when it originally came out a couple weeks ago, reader Tom Pritchard writes in to let us know that Oxford University proctors have been scouring Facebook to find any evidence of post-exam "trashings," an (apparent) Oxford tradition of students who have finished their exams spraying each other "with champagne, foam, eggs, flour and any number of other substances." After finding evidence of many such trashings on Facebook the Oxford proctors started fining students, bringing in plenty of cash -- but also plenty of annoyed students who feel their privacy was violated. That's a little tough to support considering they posted such evidence... in public. Though, it does seem a bit overzealous to fine students for blowing off some steam after exams are over.
I think they are starting to get a bad reputation. This kind of action can't help.
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/06/1954237&from=rss
Florida Judge Smacks Down RIAA
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday May 06, @04:11PM from the which-part-of-no dept. The Courts
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes
"The RIAA is going to have to face the music in Tampa, Florida, and answer the charges of extortion, trespass, conspiracy, unlicensed investigation, and computer fraud and abuse that have been leveled against them there. And the judge delivered his ruling against them in in pretty unceremonious fashion — receiving their dismissal motion last night, and denying the motion this morning. The RIAA's unvarying M.O., when hit with counterclaims, is to make a motion to dismiss them The RIAA quickly settled that one. When a new case came up in the same Tampa courthouse before the very same judge, and the same 5 counterclaims were leveled against the record companies, I opined that 'it is highly unlikely that the RIAA will make a motion to dismiss counterclaims,' since I knew they'd be risking sanctions if they did. Well I guess I underestimated the chutzpah — or the propensity for frivolous motion practice — of the RIAA lawyers, as they in essence thumbed their nose at the judge, making the dismissal motion anyway, telling District Judge Richard A. Lazzara that his earlier decision had been wrong. The judge wasted no time telling the record companies that he did not agree (PDF)."
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