http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080918133143382
Hacked Texas National Guard site serves up malware
Thursday, September 18 2008 @ 01:31 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
Attackers have hacked the Web site of the Texas National Guard and are using it to serve up offers of fake security software and plant rootkits on unpatched PCs, a security researcher said today.
The National Guard's site was hacked sometime before yesterday, [Translation: We don't know when it was hacked. Bob] said Roger Thompson, the chief research officer of Czech Republic-based security vendor AVG Technologies Cz SRO. Thompson confirmed Thursday that the site was still pushing phony antispyware software and infecting users with a rootkit.
Source - Computerworld
First “entire country” breach?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080918163037449
Norway sends entire citizenry's ID info to media
Thursday, September 18 2008 @ 04:30 PM EDT
Contributed by: PrivacyNews
Norway's national tax office erroneously sent CD-ROMs crammed with the 2006 tax returns of nearly four million people living in Norway to national newspapers, radios and tv stations, news agency AFP reports.
Although tax statements have been open to public scrutiny in Norway since 1863, the social security number of each citizen remains highly confidential.
According to the tax authorities, the documents can only be opened by using a secret code [Sounds like a password to me. Bob] and so damage may be limited. Norwegian Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen described the glitch nonetheless as "extremely serious".
Source - The Register Thanks to Brian Honan for this link.
Related? Looks like the number of breach reports will grow!
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080918091525202
European companies forced to own up to data losses
Thursday, September 18 2008 @ 09:15 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
European companies will be forced to tell customers if their personal data has been lost or stolen, as part of a new EC directive.
The data breach notification provision is part of the ePrivacy Directive that is currently being debated by the EU.
However, speaking to journalists in London, MEP Malcolm Harbour said he was confident that the data breach legislation will be approved.
"It will be mandatory for service providers to disclose to customers if their personal data has been breached," he claimed.
Source - PC Pro
[From the article:
It wouldn't include incidents such as the Government's infamous HMRC disc fiasco, however, which saw the personal details of 25 million child benefit claimants go astray.
A hack in the Cloud. Was the Alaska email server too hard to crack? (or was Yahoo too easy?)
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2008091819420677
DOJ View on Email Privacy May Hamper Prosecution of Palin Hackers
Thursday, September 18 2008 @ 07:42 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
On Wednesday, some hackers apparently obtained unauthorized access to Gov. Sarah Palin's Yahoo! email account by posing as Gov. Palin [Social Engineering? Bob] and getting a new password (Michelle Malkin and Wired News have details). Yesterday we noted that, based on the facts in newspaper reporting, a court would likely consider this a violation of the Stored Communications Act (SCA).
However, the Department of Justice may be hamstrung in any prosecution of this invasion of privacy by its restrictive view of "electronic storage." The SCA prohibits unauthorized "access to a wire or electronic communication while it is in electronic storage." The act defines "electronic storage" as "any temporary, intermediate storage of a wire or electronic communication incidental to the electronic transmission thereof," or in the alternative as "any storage of such communication by an electronic communication service for purposes of backup protection of such communication."
Source - EFF
[From the article:
The DOJ, however, strongly disagrees with Theofel. According to its Prosecuting Computer Crimes Manual, the DOJ "continues to question whether Theofel was correctly decided, since little reason exists for treating old email differently than other material a user may choose to store on a network." [Somehow I think they'll reconsider. Bob]
[Related:
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10501205?nclick_check=1
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/19/hacker-wanted-to-derail-palin/
Measuring the greatest shift in phone useage since the Princess phone... For those of you too young to remember that, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_telephone
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019354.html
September 18, 2008
"Use of wireless services is increasingly a necessary and integral part of our everyday lives"
Teenagers: A Generation Unplugged - A National Survey by CTIA–The Wireless Association® and Harris Interactive: "As the wireless industry celebrates the upcoming 25th anniversary of the first commercial cell phone call (October 13, 1983), this in-depth online study of more than 2,000 teenagers around the nation sheds new light on how today’s teens feel about wireless products and services, how they are using them today and most importantly, how they would like to use them in the future. A growing wireless segment, teens view their cell phones as more than just an accessory."
See also Remarks of Jonathan S. Adelstein, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission, A View on Today’s Most Pressing Wireless Issues, The Fifth Annual Conference on Spectrum Management Law Seminars International, Arlington, VA, September 18, 2008
Interesting that restrictions apply only in the Journalism class. Vive la free press!
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080918/0244482305.shtml
Should You Live Blog/Twitter A College Class?
from the questions-of-a-new-age dept
It's quite common these days for people to "live blog" or "live Twitter" different conferences or events they're attending, filling in others what's happening in near real time. However, what happens when someone does that in a college class? Already, there are some professors struggling with the fact that students use the internet during class, but they're not at all happy about the idea that they might not just be using the internet to surf around -- but to report to others what's happening inside the classroom. The issue is discussed in detail by Mark Glaser in his latest MediaShift column after an NYU professor told her students to stop blogging or Twittering things about her class.
The controversy apparently began when a student in the class actually wrote a guest "embedded" column for MediaShift a few weeks ago, complaining that NYU's journalism school wasn't up-to-date on teaching students about social media and the new tools of journalism. The professor in the class she talked about wasn't particularly happy about the article, which was then discussed in the class itself (very meta). According to students in the class (and the author of the original piece), the professor made it clear that they were no longer to blog, text or Twitter about the class, or to quote the professor without permission. Considering the class itself is called “Reporting Gen Y," that seemed like an odd restriction.
The professor differs on what she told the students, saying that she only meant they couldn't blog or Twitter during the class, but were free to afterwards. However, she stood by the comment that she shouldn't be quoted without permission. Glaser investigates the legality of this, and how it fits with NYU's journalism standards. That said, it is a little odd that it's perfectly fine to quote or blog about conferences or other events, but once you're in the classroom, a cloak of silence is expected. To some extent, this sounds like it may just be a generational issue. Perhaps it's the actual Gen Y'ers who should be teaching the class on Reporting Gen Y.
Proof that only Bob Barr (who?) is ready to lead the country!
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/19/0116219&from=rss
Barr Sues Over McCain's, Obama's Presence on Texas Ballot
Posted by timothy on Thursday September 18, @10:03PM from the try-getting-the-signatures-for-a-3d-party-in-pennsylvania dept. The Courts Politics
corbettw writes
"Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party's nominee for president, has filed a lawsuit in Texas demanding Senators John McCain and Barack Obama be removed from the ballot after they missed the official filing deadline."
“We gotta do something immediately!” v. “What's the best way to solve this problem?”
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080918/0218462303.shtml
People Finally Realizing That SMS Isn't Good For Emergency Alerts
from the about-time dept
Only two years or so after we questioned why anyone would seriously consider the notoriously unreliable SMS text messaging system for emergency alerts, the mobile trade group 3G Americas has released a research report stating the same thing. Basically, the system isn't reliable or efficient, and in an emergency is likely to get overloaded quickly. It's not clear why it took anyone until now to notice this, but hopefully no one was seriously considering using SMS for emergency alerts.
This probably is good for emergency alerts either, but it could be amusing.
http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/hazelmail-com-let-hazel-mail-it
HazelMail.com - Let Hazel Mail It
With the site, you’ll be able to upload your pictures, turn them into postcards, and have them mailed to anyone around the world.
... For the slower people in the class, you’re sending actual postcards.
... The site can be viewed in many different languages, making for this a most interesting postcard experience and service.
Geeky stuff. Who cares about the article, but the timeline tool is very slick!
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/09/track-the-life.html
Internet Memes Time Line Goes Viral
By Jenna Wortham September 18, 2008 | 5:24:00 PM
An interactive time line tracking the internet's most-popular memes has itself become a viral hit.
The Internet Memes time line, created using web service Dipity, charts hundreds of web phenomena that have captured surfers' imaginations over the years.
Another reason to beat your underperforming child...
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/18/177238&from=rss
7th-Grader Designs Three Dimensional Solar Cell
Posted by timothy on Thursday September 18, @01:54PM from the lucky-guess dept. Power Education Science Technology
Hugh Pickens writes
"12-year-old William Yuan's invention of a highly-efficient, three-dimensional nanotube solar cell for visible and ultraviolet light has won him an award and a $25,000 scholarship from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development. 'Current solar cells are flat and can only absorb visible light'" Yuan said. 'I came up with an innovative solar cell that absorbs both visible and UV light. My project focused on finding the optimum solar cell to further increase the light absorption and efficiency and design a nanotube for light-electricity conversion efficiency.' Solar panels with his 3D cells would provide 500 times more light absorption than commercially-available solar cells and nine times more than cutting-edge 3D solar cells. 'My next step is to talk to manufacturers to see if they will build a working prototype,' Yuan said. "If the design works in a real test stage, I want to find a company to manufacture and market it.""
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