http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/090831-internet-40th-video-ap.html
Internet's 40th "Birthday" Marked
This is not a big deal relative to a TJX or Heartland, but perhaps it goes into the “US is falling behind” folder, since it seems these crimes are most often blamed on “Eastern Europe” or China or somewhere in Africa. Perhaps we should be recruiting from these countries?
http://www.databreaches.net/?p=6999
5 men named in racket that netted $4m in stolen card data
September 2, 2009 by admin Filed under Breach Incidents
The Register has more on a case reportedly here previously. It turns out that the “news” actually relates to a case that was originally filed in 2007. For the detailed version, read the prosecutor’s press release.
Prosecutors in Manhattan have named five additional men from Eastern Europe in an alleged scheme that pilfered $4m using more than 95,000 stolen credit cards.
Using handles such as “the Viver,” “Inexwor,” and “DoZ,” the men were part of an international conspiracy that reached half-way around the world to snatch the payment card credentials of people located in New York, according to prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney’s office. They branded their highly profitable enterprise the Western Express Cybercrime Group.
Read more in The Register and PC World.
Keep this in mind the next time the DoJ (or FBI or DHS or 'fill in the blanks') says we need to modernize our legal system into match those of other countries.
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=3448
Eavesdropping on Internet
September 2, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Internet, Non-U.S., Surveillance
Imagine an invisible person is behind you watching all you do on the Internet, like searching, chatting and file downloading. Horrible as it may sound, this was what the National Intelligence Service allegedly did to a pro-unification civic group leader.
As if that was not enough, the NIS agents wiretapped all communications in cyberspace, not just of the suspected violator of the anticommunist law but of his family members and coworkers who shared the same Internet lines with him, in what experts call “packet eavesdropping.” Could one brush it aside as just another shady aspect of “IT Korea”?
Even more astonishing was nobody knew about the Internet bugging until the prosecution presented wiretapped contents as evidence during a trial. [They learned this trick from Perry Mason! Bob] Most shocking of all, the top spy agency says its agents acted with court warrants and committed no legal violations, reaffirming the nation’s far too porous legal system to protect communication secrecy and other privacy.
Read more of this Op-Ed The Korea Times.
(Related) On the other hand, some laws (government initiatives?) are not worth emulating.
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=3439
Scottish govt publishes plans to reduce personal data collection
September 2, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Featured Headlines, Govt, Non-U.S.
The Scottish Government plans to reduce the amount of information on citizens held by large public databases and curb the collection and use of personal data by public authorities.
A consultation on its plans has just begun. The Scottish Government, run by the Scottish National Party in a minority administration, has the backing of the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for its plans.
It has proposed a set of Identity Management and Privacy Principles with which public bodies will have to comply. The principles move the Scottish Government away from the trend of building very large public databases of personal information.
Read more on Out-Law.com
According to a news release on the government’s web site, the draft principles include:
Proving identity or entitlement: people should only be asked for identity when necessary and they should be asked for as little information as possible
Governance and accountability: private and voluntary sectors which deliver public services should be contractually bound to adhere to the principles
Risk management: Privacy Impact Assessments should be carried out to ensure new initiatives identify and address privacy issues
Data and data sharing: Organisations should avoid creating large centralised databases of personal information and store personal and transactional data separately
Education and engagement: Public bodies must explain [To whom? Bob] why information is needed and where and why it is shared
This is becoming much more common. Are lawyers learning how to do it, or are organizations becoming more aggressive?
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=3402
York University obtains court order for Bell and Rogers subscriber information
September 1, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Court, Internet, Non-U.S.
Michael Geist writes:
There has been considerable discussion in recent weeks regarding the prospect of court orders mandating ISPs or other intermediaries disclose identifying information about anonymous individuals (Google model case, Ottawa city hall blog). Overlook, however, is a recent order obtained by York University requiring Bell and Rogers to disclose subscriber information. Neither ISP opposed the order, which included some novel requirements in return for ordering the two companies to disclose the names of customers associated with particular IP addresses. First, York University was required to pay the ISPs to compensate them for providing the information - Rogers gets $600, while Bell gets $300. Second, the court added a condition that required notification of the customers identified by Bell and Rogers so that they could apply to the court to vary or vacate the order. Despite constituting only three paragraphs, the order raises some very interesting issues including the questions about why a university would seek this order, the compensation to the ISPs, and the attempt to factor in a response from the identified subscribers.
A copy of the order is embedded in the blog entry.
Another “first?” (I suspect more than the article suggests.
Web Hosts Hit With $32 Million Judgment For Content
Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday September 02, @08:40AM from the time-to-pay-the-piper dept.
mikesd81 tips news that a California jury has found two web hosting companies liable for "contributing to trademark and copyright infringement" after hosting web sites that sold counterfeit Louis Vuitton items. Both companies are owned by the same man, Steven Chen, and are being ordered to pay $32 million in fines. A similar judgment for $61 million went against eBay last year for facilitating the sale of counterfeit Louis Vuitton merchandise.
"The US District Court for the Northern District of California is expected to issue a permanent injunction banning the internet service providers from hosting Web sites that selling fake Louis Vuitton goods in the future, the company said. Attorneys for the luxury goods maker said in a statement that the case is the first successful application on the internet of the theory of contributory liability for trademark infringement. Under this theory, companies that know, or should know, that they are enabling illegal activities have an obligation to remedy the situation. Entities that fail to do so, as Louis Vuitton alleged in this case, can be held legally responsible for contributing to the illegal activities."
Follow-up Perhaps this topic is of interest to a wider audience that it used to be?
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=3406
DHS: All your laptops are belong to us
September 1, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Featured Headlines, Govt, Surveillance, U.S.
As a follow-up to the position of the Department of Homeland Security on searching laptops at the border (reported here last week), Jaikumar Vijayan of Computerworld reports:
The Department of Homeland Security’s Privacy Office has approved the controversial searches, copying and retention of laptops, PDAs, and other digital devices without cause at U.S. borders.
Travelers could soon start seeing notices from the Privacy Office, which last week released a report supporting the right of customs agents to conduct such searches.
The 51-page Privacy Impact Assessment also supported the right of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to copy, download, retain or seize any content from these devices, or the devices themselves, without assigning any specific reason for doing so.
Read more on Computerworld.
Elsewhere, Jurist provides an interesting commentary on the legal underpinnings of DHS’s position :
John Wesley Hall, Jr. [Former President, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers]: “This fiscal year, through August 11, 2009, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) tells us that there were about 1,000 laptop computer searches, only 46 of which were in-depth. This out of 221 million border crossings. It simply is not possible for CBP to widely search laptop computers at the border. Too many people are lined up coming in to search everybody intensively, let alone their computers and electronic media too.
CBP is searching laptop computers, a least in the litigated cases that I have seen, only for child pornography. [So they do have cause? Bob] And they at least appear to be limiting these searches to those whom they have reasonable suspicion to believe are potentially transporting child pornography into the country so as to target their resources. But what happens when these searches begin to occur based on political speech because one opposes a government position or happens to disagree with the opinion of the customs agent making the decision (“the discretion of the officer in the field”)?
All the case law to this point is clear that reasonable suspicion is not required for a laptop search. [Is that the same as saying you can search for unreasonable reasons? Bob] No case has held that it is, and I don’t think that any will. That should not be surprising considering the Supreme Court held in 2004 in United States v. Flores-Montano that the reasonable suspicion requirement is limited to searches of the person and not personal belongings, and in 1971 that pictures and motion pictures could be examined at customs in United States v. Thirty-Seven Photographs. Thirty-Seven Photographs predated the widespread use of truly portable laptop computers by more than a decade.
Read more on Jurist.
Updated: I contacted John Wesley Hall, Jr., an expert on Fourth Amendment law, to ask him about the Fourth Amendment basis for not just searching, but copying, the contents of devices, as there has been some talk among privacy advocates and attorneys about attorney-client privilege or other confidential materials that might be copied or put at risk of a breach. John’s response:
The right to search would presumably include the right to copy what is found for evidentiary use.
If it was copied or taken and never used in a criminal prosecution, it would be subject to return under F.R.Crim.P. 41(g) if it was noncontraband. [Is there a simple procedure for this? Bob]
What about attorney-client privileged information? There has been some list serv traffic about this risk, which is a theoretical risk at best. CBP just does not have the time to search except for contraband. 221 M border crossings between 10/1/08 and 08/11/09 means it is impossible for them to do anything but a search that is likely to bear fruit; hence a virtual self-imposed reasonable suspicion standard, although the law does not require one. [Interesting argument. Still wouldn't address the “why me” question. Bob]
Apparently some people in the UK are finally waking up. This is not news, but the realization of what the government is doing seems to be growing.
UK Plans To Link Criminal Records To ID Cards
Posted by timothy on Wednesday September 02, @04:41AM from the oh-sure-blame-the-children-again dept.
Death Metal writes with this excerpt from ComputerWeekly.com about the UK's national ID card scheme:
"Privacy advocates have reacted angrily to reports that the government plans to link national identity records to criminal records for background checks on people who work with children and vulnerable people. Up to 11 million such workers could be affected immediately if the plan goes ahead. Phil Booth, national co-ordinator of privacy advocates NO2ID, said the move was consistent with the various forms of coercion strategy to create so-called volunteers for national ID cards. 'Biometrics are part of the search for clean, unique identifiers,' Phil Booth said. He said the idea was patently ridiculous when the Home Office was planning to allow high street shops and the Post Office to take fingerprints for the ID card. [Anyone else think there is an opportunity for hanky-panky here? Bob]
What a fun area for hackers! “Oh look, the patient just died! No, he's alive again, but his body temperature has dropped to -18 degrees. Ah, now he's pregnant with octuplets!”
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-10323325-247.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Coming to a bedside near you: Body sensor networks
by Elizabeth Armstrong Moore September 1, 2009 5:01 PM PDT
GE Healthcare is developing a Body Sensor Network (BSN) that consists of sensor devices that collect patient-specific data, from body temperature and pulse-oximetry to blood glucose levels and respiratory function. The real-time information will be transmitted to doctors, nurses, caregivers, etc., to enable far more efficient body monitoring from any location, which in turn provides the most current patient information and treatment option evaluations.
This is sure to catch on. Perhaps there is an opportunity for a “Bill me through this email account” service that would check your bills for you? Probably not.
T-Mobile users to be billed for bills
Posted: Tuesday, September 1 2009 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
Rob Connor of Charleston, S.C., watches his bills carefully. So he's pretty "steamed" that soon he's going to have to pay for the right to do so.
Connor is caught in a debate that could pit environmentalists against consumer rights advocates over the basic monthly task of paying the bills.
Connor's mobile phone provider, T-Mobile, recently sent him a note saying it will now charge customers $1.50 per month to receive paper bills mailed to their homes, or $3.50 per month for detailed bills. E-mailed bills are free, but Connor says that won't help him. He doesn't have Internet access at home.
T-Mobile says it's making the change, which takes effect in September, in part to help the environment, but Connor doesn't buy that.
"This thing of having to pay so I can pay is just a little too much," he said. "And I'm certainly not interested in some bogus argument about me contributing to global warming by NOT signing on to making it cheaper for T-Mobile to send me a bill."
Is T-Mobile stiffing consumers like Connor or helping the environment? Many companies are strongly encouraging consumers to forgo paper bills in favor of electronic versions. Sprint offers a $5 credit to consumers to enroll in online billing. Verizon recently offered consumers who make the switch a chance to win a Toyota Prius.
But T-Mobile's fee for even summary paper bills marks one of the most aggressive steps by companies trying to push consumers into the paperless world.
… The firm is not the first wireless company to charge for paper bills. Verizon Wireless and AT&T charge $2 monthly fees for consumers who want to receive detailed bill statements via U.S. Mail. Basic summary bills are still free, however.
… But Connor thinks he has a right to the paper bills for free, and he's not alone. T-Mobile customers have taken their displeasure with the new policy to the Internet, registering complaints on dozens of Web sites.T-Mobile’s own consumer message boards are full of angry notes.
“It really pisses me off when companies hide behind the environmental wackos for a reason why not to include services anymore,” reads one.
… Harvey Rosenfeld, founder of Consumer Watchdog and lead attorney in several lawsuits against the mobile industry, says Conner and other complainers may have legal grounds for their objection. He recently settled a lawsuit against Nextel Corp. for requiring consumers to pay for detailed billing statements back in 2003. As part of the settlement, Nextel agreed to refund customers. He says consumers are entitled to bills and invoices that itemize costs.
"There's a lot of policy language in state and federal law that says consumers need to be able to determine the validity of a bill," he said. "You need to know if you're being overcharged, if you've received a promotional discount. You can't figure anything out from a bill if all they give you is a single unitemized bill."
Rosenfeld says he's seen hospital bills where the consumer was charged $2.50 to obtain a copy of the bill.
"To bill you for the price of billing you is an outrage" he said. "It's the cost of doing business."
… Meanwhile, many T-Mobile consumers are wondering if the new paper bill fee constitutes a change in contract terms which would allow customers to break their contracts without paying an early termination fee.
T-Mobile says no.
"It doesn't qualify for opt out in the contract because customers were given 30 days notices as part of terms and conditions. They have the option to opt out. And they have access to bills for free online," said a company spokesman, speaking on condition he not be identified.
But Rosenfeld said the firm has clearly changed the cost to consumers – a $50 plan now costs $50 plus at least $1.50 to get a paper bill – so consumers should have the right to cancel.
"If a company starts charging for a service that they previously did for free ... that’s a material change for sure," he said. "I think consumers can get out of their contracts."
More interesting that I expected...
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/022208.html
September 01, 2009
National Library of Medicine Offers Disaster Information Resources on Wildfires
Newsletter for the NN/LM Pacific Southwest Region: "An extensive list of resources related to wildfires is now available from the Specialized Information Services division at NLM. Learn how to prepare and protect yourself from wildfires, and get information on how the smoke and particulate matter may affect your health." [Dan Mitchel]
Is Kindle doomed? This may at least break the “proprietary” barriers
Google Broadens Attack On Amazon Kindle, Partners With COOLERBOOKS
by Robin Wauters on September 2, 2009
… First, the company teamed up with Sony, adding about 1 million public domain books to the technology giant’s eBook Store.
Now Mountain View has sealed a deal with British Interead, bringing the same amount of ebooks to an online store outside the U.S. for the first time (where close to half a million of them are available for free).
Reading-based Interead is the company behind ebook store COOLERBOOKS. The company also manufactures COOL-ER eReaders, small, elegant ebook readers that kinda look like giant iPods and cost $249 in the United States.
Oo! Oo! Can I “soundmark” such phrases as “I didn't know there was a test today!” or “Yeah, I know I missed eight of the last nine tests, but I've gotta pass this class!”
Tour Companies Battle Over Trademarked Duck Noises
Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday September 01, @01:15PM from the totally-quackers dept.
Tour company Ride the Ducks is suing rival tour company Bay Quackers, alleging that it holds trademark rights to the sound made by tourists using duck call devices, while on amphibious vehicle tours. San Francisco-based Ride the Ducks holds a 'sound mark' on the noise. Very few companies hold sound marks, but some of the more famous include: the NBC chimes and the MGM lion. The company holds US Trademark No. 2,484,276, which protects a mark consisting of 'a quacking noise made by tour guides and tour participants by use of duck call devices throughout various portions of [guided amphibious vehicle] tours.' Reading this makes my think that there is a room full of litigious monks somewhere, just waiting for someone to try clapping with one hand.
Tools & Techniques. A bit of a rambling article, but shows a simple way to customize your “file open dialogue box” (The explorer-like window that opens when you want to Open a file.)
Use The Places Utility To Customize Your Open File Locations In Windows
Sep. 2nd, 2009 By Karl L. Gechlik
… Some programs like Outlook open the file box to a suitable folder – so why don’t they all? But what if I want to replace the links on the left with my most common folders?
Yeah there is a piece of software for that. Let’s help you make use of it. You can download the small 623kb file from here. It is compatible with Windows 2000 upwards, so that means XP, Vista and Seven friendly!
Not that I have a lot of wino friends... This is for my Small Business Management students. I tell them to start businesses that involve things they love.
Panorama Capital Pours $4.5 Million Into Online Wine Outlet Vinfolio
by Robin Wauters on September 2, 2009
Online wine store and community site Vinfolio has raised $4.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Panorama Capital after receiving an undisclosed amount of angel investment earlier.
… There’s no shortage of wine-related websites and services out there. From the top of my head: review sites Snooth and Corkd, Vinogusto, good old Wine.com and wine ‘discovery’ service Adegga, although I’m sure there are many more.
Both a sign of Microsoft lack of dominance and a great premise for the next “I'm a PC...” ad. (Bill Gates will be rolling over in his retirement.)
iPhone App Wins Microsoft-Campus Programming Contest
Posted by timothy on Tuesday September 01, @03:43PM from the cross-platform dept.
imamac writes
"Startup Weekend was a 54-hour coding marathon held on Microsoft's campus last weekend. It was designed to encourage the use of MS programming technologies. However, the winner of the contest was an iPhone app: ' "Awkward," whispered Startup Weekend organizer Clint Nelsen into the microphone upon announcing the top vote getter.'"
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