http://www.databreaches.net/?p=4468
MI: Credit-card thefts blamed for Spicy Pickle closings
June 2, 2009 by admin Filed under: Business Sector, Hack, ID Theft, U.S.
This follow-up to a breach originally reported on PogoWasRight.org last year demonstrates how what might appear to be less than catastrophic data breaches can wipe out a small or medium-sized business.
William R. Wood reports on MLive.com:
The area’s two Spicy Pickle restaurants closed Monday, their owner saying that they were victims of the fallout from a credit-card theft that happened at one of the restaurants last fall.
Thieves hacked into the computers of the Spicy Pickle location at 3774 W. Centre Ave. between last September and November, gained access to the credit-card information of about 150 customers and made purchases using the information.
Spicy Pickle may have been one of the first businesses in Kalamazoo to be targeted by computer hackers.
“It hurt us so bad, you wouldn’t believe it,” Spicy Pickle co-owner Terry Henderson said of the effects the thefts had on customers, and the chilling effect it had on business. “It went on for weeks. We never recovered our sales levels. We never came close.
Bad idea! But then look who the AG is... 1) Now anyone you deal with will assume you are guilty unless you can produce “proof” of your innocence. (Will you need multiple “passports” if you travel to other states? Another excuse for RealID?) 2) We now have another target for wholesale hacking.
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2009060215133711
DE: AG helps ID theft victims get their lives back
Tuesday, June 02 2009 @ 03:13 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
The Delaware Attorney General's Office will soon be using holographic technology developed by DuPont to help identity theft victims move on with their lives.
The ID Theft Passport is a laminated photo identification the AG's office will give to victims to substantiate the crime and help prevent arrest for offenses committed by someone else using a victim's stolen information. It can be presented to creditors to aid in the investigation of fraudulent charges, and to consumer reporting agencies as official notice of disputed charges on credit reports.
Source - CommunityPub.com
Why are all lawyers rich? (Makes an interesting idea for a Mutual Fund...)
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/06/02/2334226/Investing-In-Lawsuits-Beats-the-Street?from=rss
Investing In Lawsuits Beats the Street
Posted by kdawson on Wednesday June 03, @05:01AM from the some-dare-call-it-champerty dept.
guga31bb sends word on the next wave of investment in a slow market: bankrolling others' lawsuits. The practice sounds on the face of it indistinguishable from champerty.
"Juris typically invests $500,000 to $3 million in a case, Mr. Desser said. He would not identify the company's backers, but said that 'on the portfolio as a whole, our returns are well in excess of 20 percent per year.' He added, 'We're certainly beating the market.'"
Related Let's replace lawyers with automation!
http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/jdsupra-com-online-storehouse-of-legal-documents
JDSupra.com - Online Storehouse Of Legal Documents
… On this site you can get access to a wide assortment of documents like court filings and decisions, in addition to an assortment of forms and articles, etc. In case you want to receive a number of alerts and newsletters that are uploaded on a daily basis, then this is a website you should take a look at.
Jdsupra.com was created and designed by lawyers and gives you all the information you need to get from trusted law firms, as well as advocacy groups, law professors, etc. In this way anybody will have the chance to learn more about different legal matters right away.
It isn't confusing, unless you believe ethics vary depending on the situation? e.g. Murder is never right, unless you murder scabs during a labor strike.
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20090602105504458
The Obama Administration’s Silence on Privacy
Tuesday, June 02 2009 @ 10:55 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
The Obama administration is attempting to take the lead on a number of technology issues, including cybersecurity, network neutrality and broadband availability. But one prominent omission is privacy, a topic about which the administration has said very little.
... Peter Swire, an Ohio State law professor who served on the Obama transition team, offered one reason why it may be difficult for the administration to find its voice on privacy. There is a split, he told the conference, between the typical view of privacy among technology experts and the emerging view of people brought up in the social-networking, Web 2.0 world.
Source - New York Times
But not knowing the policy won't stop them from enforcing it – at least as far a businesses are concerned.
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20090602085122512
White House Aide Warns Online Advertisers To Be Monitored
Tuesday, June 02 2009 @ 08:51 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
A senior aide to President Barack Obama on Tuesday warned that the administration will keep a close watch on online advertisers that track consumers' Internet activity.
"Online tracking and data collection, put together with inadequate notice to consumers about what information is collected and how it is used, raises critical privacy issues," said Susan Crawford, special assistant to the president and a member of the National Economic Council.
Source - Wall Street Journal
Got Expertise? (Not as catchy as “Got Milk?” is it.)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10255071-2.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Mahalo 2.0 is Wikipedia plus money
by Rafe Needleman June 2, 2009 5:00 PM PDT
Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo, is modifying his business once again. He's taking a page from Wikipedia and opening up his curated topic pages to user editing. The big difference from Wikipedia is that he's melding this idea with the Mahalo Answers business model in which users are paid for contributing content to the site.
… Registered Mahalo users will be able to "claim" pages on the site. For example, if you're an expert in Betty Boop trivia, you'd claim the Betty Boop page. You'd be responsible for keep the content on the page relevant and fresh. In return, you will get half the advertising revenue (Mahalo uses Google AdSense) that the page generates.
Since they are all free, how do you choose?
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021500.html
June 02, 2009
Comparison: Bing vs. Google vs. Yahoo
PC World - Bing vs. Google vs. Yahoo: Feature Smackdown - quick, useful guide with accompanying screenshots, includes tools and features for shopping, local, travel, music and health.
Related Same thing in other search engines takes as many as two extra clicks!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10255043-238.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Parents beware: Bing previews video porn
by Larry Magid June 2, 2009 3:00 PM PDT
Microsoft's new Bing search engine has a highly touted feature that some parents may find troublesome. Bing's video search tool has a preview mode that lets you view and listen to part of a video simply by hovering over it with your mouse. Trouble is, it works with porn as well as "family friendly" videos.
Do you need a clearer indication that there are musicians out there who are not too happy with the recording industry?
http://torrentfreak.com/artists-abused-in-pirate-bay-trial-strike-back-090602/
Artists Abused in Pirate Bay Trial Strike Back
Written by Ernesto on June 02, 2009
Hiphop group Advance Patrol was used by the music industry in the Pirate Bay trial, portrayed as artists suffering losses from illegal downloading. However, the group itself was never consulted, and they are now striking back at the music industry by releasing their new album for free - on The Pirate Bay, of course.
Another for the Swiss Army folder. It makes it easier to steal plagerize do detailed research... I've used Readability successfully.
http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/alltextpaper-makes-hard-to-read-web-pages-readable/
AllTextPaper: Makes Hard To Read Web Pages Readable
If you often find yourself reading webpages with weird sparkly design and annoying ads, try AllTextPaper.com. It is a simple browser bookmarklet that can instantly remove all the clutter (design, ads and banners) from those hard to read web pages leaving only nicely formatted text content.
Similar websites: TidyRead and Readability.
Another replacement for PowerPoint
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/make-your-speeches-shine-with-acrobat-presentations/
Make Your Speeches Shine with Acrobat Presentations
Jun. 2nd, 2009 By David Pierce
… It’s called Presentations, and is the latest offering from the folks at Adobe’s Acrobat.com, the makers of (among other things) Buzzword, a fantastic online word processor.
To get to Presentations, go to the Acrobat.com site, and look at the bottom. There’s a link for Presentations near the bottom – this is Adobe’s way of making sure you know it’s not a full-featured release yet. But it’s still darn good.
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