http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080923164122105
National Bank Laptop With Mortgage Data Stolen From Head Office
Tuesday, September 23 2008 @ 04:41 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
National Bank of Canada, the country's sixth-biggest lender by assets, said a laptop computer with client information on mortgage loans was stolen from its Montreal headquarters.
The laptop, stolen Sept. 19, had information on ``a high percentage of our customers who have mortgages,'' spokesman Denis Dube said today in an interview. The information included details on mortgages and account numbers, but didn't have personal information such as birth dates, credit-card numbers or signatures, he said.
``The impact will be minimal since the information is basic information,'' Dube said.
Source - Bloomberg
So we begin to learn what the criminals know -- “default passwords”
http://digg.com/security/First_Bust_Ever_for_ATM_Reprogramming_Scam
First Bust Ever for ATM Reprogramming Scam
blog.wired.com — The pair allegedly reprogrammed the machines to believe they were loaded with one-dollar bills instead of tens and twenties. A withdrawal of $20 would thus net $380. [Reporters can't do math? Bob] The Nebraska case marks the first reported arrests for the keypad capers
[From the article:
It took a high-speed chase and some gunplay, but two men in Lincoln, Nebraska, are the first to face felony charges for using default passcodes to reprogram retail cash machines to dispense free money.
... Threat Level later confirmed that default administrative passcodes for ATMs manufactured by industry leaders Tranax and Triton were printed in owner's manuals easily found online.
... In 2006, both Tranax and Triton issued software patches for new ATMs that force operators to change the default passcodes on first use.
All you paper belong to us!
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2008092316441011
Internal DHS Documents Detail Expansion of Power to Read and Copy Travelers' Papers
Tuesday, September 23 2008 @ 04:44 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
Recently obtained documents show that last year the Department of Homeland Security quietly reversed a two-decades-old policy that restricted customs agents from reading and copying the personal papers carried by travelers, including U.S. citizens. The documents were made public today by the Asian Law Caucus (ALC) and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which sued the government under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain policies governing the searches and questioning of travelers at the nation’s borders.
Source - EFF
[From the website:
For the complete set of FOIA documents and more detailed analysis: http://www.eff.org/cases/foia-litigation-border-searches.
RIM must be thrilled! All you lawyers using Blackberries take note! (Most likely this is not a true encryption failure...)
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080924053601283
India Claims To Have Cracked Blackberry Encryption; Proudly Spying On Emails
Wednesday, September 24 2008 @ 05:36 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
Earlier this year, India demanded that RIM allow it to easily snoop on any email messages sent via Blackberry devices. The company explained that since the end user sets the encryption key, there's simply no way to provide a backdoor to snoop on the messages. However, now the government is proudly claiming that it's cracked the code and can now monitor Blackberry messages on various mobile operator networks.
Source - Techdirt
(My bible is “How to Lie with Statistics,” a must read for all MBAs.) It's not that we have more computers or even more crooks. What we have is bad security that allows the crooks to take control of our computers.
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/23/1713233&from=rss
US Responsible For the Majority of Cyber Attacks
Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday September 23, @01:32PM from the we're-number-one-we're-number-one dept. Security United States
Amber G5 writes
"SecureWorks published the locations of the computers from which the greatest number of cyber attacks were attempted against its clients in 2008. The United States topped the list with 20.6 million attempted attacks originating from computers within the country, and China ran second with 7.7 million attempted attacks emanating from computers within its borders. This was followed by Brazil with over 166,987 attempted attacks, South Korea with 162,289, Poland with 153,205, Japan with 142,346, Russia with 130,572, Taiwan with 124,997, Germany with 110,493, and Canada with 107,483."
What a fun hack this would be: “Ja, you can make it. Trust me!”
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/09/audi-puts-more.html
Audi Puts More 'Go' Into Stop-and-Go
By Keith Barry September 23, 2008 4:11:02 PM
If police officers in Ingolstadt notice a decrease in luxury car drivers running red lights these days, we suspect it's because of a new project piloted by Audi that lets drivers know exactly how long before a traffic light turns. According to Audi's press release, the system is meant to prevent "frustrating, fuel-sapping stops at red traffic lights."
Ask any Statistician: Half the world is below average. Ask any teacher: “90% of my students are below average.”
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/23/2052200&from=rss
Popup Study Confirms Most Users Are Idiots
Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday September 23, @05:40PM from the at-my-office-they-all-are dept. It's funny. Laugh.
danieltdp writes
"Testing students at a University, psychologists made many of them click on a dialog box that in effect said: 'You are about to install some malware. Malware is bad. By clicking yes you are failing the Windows Darwin Test.' Nearly half of them said all they cared about was getting rid of these dialogs." [Irritating pop-ups are automated social engineering. Bob]
Related
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080924054701412
UK: ICO urges consumers to take control of their data
Wednesday, September 24 2008 @ 05:47 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has called on consumers to use their legal rights to manage their personal information - because organisations aren't doing such a great job.
... With that in mind, the ICO has launched a new online tool to help consumers do their bit to protect and manage their personal information.
Smith said: “Our Personal Information Healthcheck is suitable for everyone, whether they’ve never before thought about protecting their personal information or could just benefit from a few extra tips and ideas.”
Source - IT PRO
[From the article:
An ICO-sponsored survey of over 2,000 UK adults found the level of awareness around the importance of personal data had grown – 95 per cent considered it ‘quite’ or ‘very’ valuable – and more than 70 per cent claimed to routinely shred personal documents.
But it revealed 44 per cent of those questioned by the ICM Research poll had never considered contacting an organisation to find out what information it holds about them. More alarmingly, 40 per cent admitted they would hand over their details to a company without knowing whether it was trustworthy.
[We need to involve a Psychiatrist or ten to figure out how to get this through thick skulls. Bob]
Related? I won't call these policies vastly idiotic any longer, I'll call them half-vast.
http://idle.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/23/1528259&from=rss
Students Are Always Half Right In Pittsburgh
Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday September 23, @11:26PM from the think-of-the-children dept.
Pittsburgh Public Schools officials have enacted a policy that sets 50 percent as the minimum score a student can receive for assignments, tests and other work. District spokeswoman Ebony Pugh said, the 50 percent minimum gives children a chance to catch up and a reason to keep trying. If a student gets a 20 percent in a class for the first marking period, he or she would need a 100 percent during the second marking period just to squeak through the semester. The district and teachers union issued a joint memo to ensure staff members' compliance with the policy, which was already on the books but enforced only at some schools. At this rate, it won't be long before schools institute double extra credit Mondays and Fridays to ensure students don't take three day weekends.
It ain't bragging if it's true.
How IT could have prevented the financial meltdown
The tools are largely there, but not the visibility needed for regulators and banks to catch problems early
By Ephraim Schwartz September 24, 2008
For my Website students and anyone who want's to “quote” a small section of video –without the bother of installing video editing software. (Fair Use?)
http://www.killerstartups.com/Video-Music-Photo/splicd-com-chop-up-your-youtube
Splicd.com - Chop Up Your YouTube
Let’s be honest, most of the videos on YouTube are boring. If you find a particular part of a video you want to share with your friends, without them being bored by what’s before it, then you have to check out Splicd.com. With this site, you’ll be able to chop up YouTube videos, and send your friends a direct link to the part you want them to see. Just paste the URL of the video into the site and tell it from where to where you want the video to be viewed. You’ll then get another link to the part of the video that’s worth seeing, that you can then share with your friends.
It’s a very simple service that should make it possible for you to share parts of videos that are worth seeing. The site works pretty well, but since it’s a work in progress, you’ll be able to get in touch with them in case you find anything wrong. In short, this site could make it possible for you to finally share what you want your friends to see, without the extra garbage.
For the students in Surgical Technology (and hypochondriacs)
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019392.html
September 23, 2008
New on LLRX.com: Researching Medical Literature on the Internet - 2008
Researching Medical Literature on the Internet - 2008: Medical journals, dictionaries, textbooks, indexes, rankings, images – all can be found on the Net, and much of it is available free. Sources include publishers, government agencies, professional organizations, health libraries and commercial entities. Gloria Miccioli's completely updated and revised topical guide expertly focuses on what she identifies as the best, content-rich databases and services for researchers.
A hacker how to...
http://digg.com/hardware/The_2008_PC_Builder_s_Bible
The 2008 PC Builder's Bible
gamesradar.com — This guide not only gives you all you need to know about every component that goes in your gaming PC, but also thoroughly walks you through the entire building process with detailed instructions and helpful photographs.
http://www.gamesradar.com/f/the-2008-pc-builders-bible/a-20080918153014865039
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