http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080906190041854
UK: Personal details of 5,000 jail staff lost
Saturday, September 06 2008 @ 07:00 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
Jack Straw, the justice secretary, has called for an urgent inquiry into the latest government loss of computer data, a disk containing the personal details of 5,000 prison staff.
Although the prison service was informed of the loss in July, Straw, who is the minister responsible, was only made aware of it yesterday when he was contacted by a Sunday newspaper.
The hard disk containing personal details of up to 5,000 staff, including probation workers, was mislaid by a computing firm working for the Ministry of Justice more than a year ago.
According to a letter sent by the firm, EDS, on July 4, the 500GB portable hard disk contained names, dates of birth, National Insurance numbers and prison service employee numbers of about 11% of the UK prison service’s 45,000 workers.
Source - Times Online
Related When you have no clue what happened, you only HOPE the data isn't in the wrong hands (it clearly isn't in the right ones)
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2008090706150680
UK: Lost data disc 'not in wrong hands' (follow-up)
Sunday, September 07 2008 @ 06:15 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
A lost computer disc containing personal details about thousands of justice staff is not thought to have fallen into the wrong hands, a Government minister said.
... The hard-drive was last seen by contractors EDS in July 2007, but it was not until July this year that the private contractor informed the Prison Service and Mr Straw himself did not learn of the loss until it was uncovered by the News of the World.
The 500GB disc contained personal details including the names, dates of birth, National Insurance numbers and employee numbers of 5,000 people employed by the National Offender Management Service, who may include many prison officers as well as administrative staff and other workers.
It was shipped from offices at Mitcheldean in Gloucestershire in July 2007 for testing [Live data is not good for testing. Testing is intended to catch errors, which should not exist in live data that has already been edited. Bob] at a data centre in Washington, Tyne and Wear, and then moved to an EDS facility in Telford, Shropshire. It was only when an employee went to use it on July 2 this year that it was realised that it had gone missing. [Not a very urgent project... Bob]
Source - The Press Association
“Mission creep” only applies when you didn't plan to do something in the first place...
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080907060942460
UK using anti-terrorism laws to spy on noisy kids
Sunday, September 07 2008 @ 06:09 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
Seventy-five percent of the local councils across Britain have reportedly used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000, an anti-terrorism law, over the past year to spy on residents and tackle barking dogs and noisy children.
A Sunday Telegraph report said that the act gives councils the right to place residents and businesses under surveillance, trace telephone and email accounts and even send staff on undercover missions.
Source - BritainNews.net
Chrome continues to be an interesting target. Google claims to have assembled their “Terms of Use” by cut an paste from other products. Perhaps some law professor (and a philosophy professor?) will write a “guideline for privacy” that could be used instead? (Hint Hint)
http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/06/1316257&from=rss
Development, Privacy, and Standards for Chrome
Posted by Soulskill on Saturday September 06, @10:15AM from the chrome-chrome-chrome-chrome-chrome dept.
Continuing our coverage of Google Chrome, snydeq points out an Infoworld story about looking at the new browser from a developer's perspective, and another about how WebKit should be the focus of development efforts, rather than the browsers that use it. TGdaily notes that Chrome's search box will fetch all types of data, and can be made to display banking information with little effort. ABC and coderrr have slightly more paranoid articles questioning Google's commitment to privacy. NetworkWorld suggests that Chrome's unique process model (explained here) will require the development of new measurement standards.
Sounds like an easy win...
http://xp-vista-update.net/?id=31863829103
isoHunt Sues the CRIA to Legalize BitTorrent Sites
Written by Ernesto on September 05, 2008
Following Demonoid and QuebecTorrent, the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) has threatened isoHunt with legal action. However, isoHunt has decided to launch a preemptive strike, as it turns the tables and sues the CRIA instead.
... Fung has pointed out that, like most other BitTorrent sites, isoHunt has a Copyright Policy, and takes down .torrent files when they receive an appropriate request. The CRIA simply ignored this, even though they have sent correct takedown notices to isoHunt before (and isoHunt complied), and continued to threaten with legal action.
Hack du jour “Password security” is an oxymoron.
http://digg.com/linux_unix/Recover_a_Lost_Linux_Password
Recover a Lost Linux Password
lifehacker.com — Here's a step-by-step account of the command line fix you can make by booting into "single user mode." The fix is written from an Ubuntu perspective, but applies to most any Linux system that boots with the GRUB manager. It's also a reminder that even a password-protected Linux box isn't truly protected from the curious, so encrypt your data.
http://lifehacker.com/5045857/recover-a-lost-linux-password
Related One hack gets every taxpayer? I'd call that a big target...
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019245.html
September 06, 2008
Treasury OIG: Unauthorized and Insecure Internal Web Servers Are Connected to the Internal Revenue Service Network
Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration: Unauthorized and Insecure Internal Web Servers Are Connected to the Internal Revenue Service Network, August 26, 2008. Reference Number: 2008-20-159
"We recommended that the Chief Information Officer establish official ownership and assign responsibilities for the web registration program, enforce IRS procedures to block unauthorized web servers from providing data over the IRS network, and require an annual scan of web servers and comparison to the web registration database to identify unauthorized web servers. [Only once a year? Bob] Unauthorized web servers should be immediately disconnected from the IRS network, and inappropriate web sites should be referred to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Office of Investigations."
Where to recruit hackers. (A great list of Hacker Conventions)
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/06/220210&from=rss
Hacker Conventions Ranked By Bandwidth-Per-Visitor
Posted by timothy on Saturday September 06, @06:50PM from the elbowroom-is-too-hard-to-quantify dept. Networking IT
Anonymous Coward writes
"Ever wondered how much bandwidth you will get at a hacker con? This web page tells you how much. It shows the total bandwidth and bandwidth for each visitor for all the recent hacker cons."
It looks like Defcon attendees get the short end of the stick, while those at metarheinmain chaosdays are practically swimming in bandwidth. There are a lot of other cons (a few examples listed here) which I'd like to see added to this list.
Another step towards automation of student papers. Type in a topic, answer a few simple questions and the program searches the web, collects articles, makes proper citations, and pumps out the required number of pages...
http://digg.com/tech_news/RDFa_goes_to_W3C_Proposed_Recommendation
RDFa goes to W3C Proposed Recommendation
creativecommons.org — Yesterday RDFa reached Proposed Recommendation status at the World Wide Web Consortium, the final stage before becoming a W3C Recommendation. RDFa makes data in web pages rendered for humans readable in a meaningful way by computers. It's always been difficult to bring the Semantic Web to the World Wide Web, RDFa is crucial bridging them together.
Are you ready for some e-Football?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10034466-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
In NFL deal, an extra point for Adobe's Flash
Posted by Jonathan Skillings September 6, 2008 6:40 PM PDT
Adobe Systems' Flash technology may not have qualified for the Olympics, but it is in tip-top shape for the National Football League season just getting under way.
With the bulk of NFL teams hitting the gridiron in earnest Sunday, it'll be Flash that delivers the live video streaming on the Web of NBC's Sunday Night Football games. This marks the first time that full-length NFL games are widely available online in the U.S., according to Adobe and the NFL.
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