IRS Security Faults Leave Taxpayer Data At Risk
Posted by Soulskill on Saturday March 20, @11:46AM
coondoggie writes
"In this tax season, when billions of dollars and tons of personal information is relayed to and from the government, it's more than disconcerting to hear that the Internal Revenue Service is still struggling to keep private information secure. A report out Friday from watchdogs at the Government Accountability Office says about 69% of the tax agency's previously noted security flaws remain unfixed and continue to jeopardize the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the IRS's systems (PDF). The problems put the IRS at increased risk of unauthorized disclosure, modification, or destruction of financial and taxpayer information, the GAO concluded."
There's smart and then there's e-smart. If this is how easily (presumably) smart people can be scammed, is there any hope for the half of the world that is below average?
US Law Firms Targeted By Cyberscams
Posted by timothy on Sunday March 21, @07:59AM
Hugh Pickens writes
"The San Francisco Chronicle reports that last year a Long Beach law firm received an e-mail from a Hong Kong businessman seeking help collecting debts from American customers. After a month of signing paperwork and exchanging telephone calls, the attorney received word that one debtor had sent a $200,000 cashier's check to pay off his balance. The attorney deposited it in his firm's account, subtracted his $10,000 fee and wired the remaining $190,000 to his Hong Kong client. Then the attorney's bank called and told him the $200,000 check had bounced. 'They send me a nice, big, worthless check,' says the attorney. In this case, the bank was able to prevent the wire transfer from reaching its destination, but attorneys say they are on the receiving end of sophisticated scams with increasing frequency that include attacks to steal client data that can be sold or used to learn the details of future litigation."
There's a moral here: Don't “party” in front of a camera (or cell phone)
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=8475
Anonymous sender of beer pong email gets to remain unknown
March 21, 2010 by Dissent
Evan Brown reports on a case in New Jersey where the standards for unmasking an anonymous party articulated in Dendrite v. Doe were applied to a case involving a teenage girl who tried to unmask the anonymous party who sent pictures of her playing beer pong to the her school administrators.
In A.Z. v. Doe, the trial court granted Doe’s motion to quash the subpoena served on Optimum Online because the court concluded that A.Z. had failed to meet the fourth prong of the Dendrite analysis, which balances First Amendment protection of anonymous speech against both the strength of the prima facie case and the plaintiff’s need for the anonymous speaker’s identity to be disclosed to proceed (see the four prongs as outlined in Dendrite, below the break). A.Z. appealed, and the appellate court upheld the trial court’s decision, but on different grounds. The appellate court held that A.Z. hadn’t met the third prong in the Dendrite analysis, i.e., she hadn’t made a prima facie case.
Read more of the background on this case on Internet Cases.
—- from Dendrite:
We offer the following guidelines to trial courts when faced with an application by a plaintiff for expedited discovery seeking an order compelling an ISP to honor a subpoena and disclose the identity of anonymous Internet posters who are sued for allegedly violating the rights of individuals, corporations or businesses. The trial court must consider and decide those applications by striking a balance between the well-established First Amendment right to speak anonymously, and the right of the plaintiff to protect its proprietary interests and reputation through the assertion of recognizable claims based on the actionable conduct of the anonymous, fictitiously-named defendants.
We hold that when such an application is made, the trial court should first require the plaintiff to undertake efforts to notify the anonymous posters that they are the subject of a subpoena or application for an order of disclosure, and withhold action to afford the fictitiously-named defendants a reasonable opportunity to file and serve opposition to the application. These notification efforts should include posting a message of notification of the identity discovery request to the anonymous user on the ISP’s pertinent message board. [Difficult if the anonymous user used a 'disposable' (one time) account. Bob]
The court shall also require the plaintiff to identify and set forth the exact statements purportedly made by each anonymous poster that plaintiff alleges constitutes actionable speech.
The complaint and all information provided to the court should be carefully reviewed to determine whether plaintiff has set forth a prima facie cause of action against the fictitiously-named anonymous defendants. In addition to establishing that its action can withstand a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted pursuant to R. 4:6-2(f), the plaintiff must produce sufficient evidence supporting each element of its cause of action, on a prima facie basis, prior to a court ordering the disclosure of the identity of the unnamed defendant.
Finally, assuming the court concludes that the plaintiff has presented a prima facie cause of action, the court must balance the defendant’s First Amendment right of anonymous free speech against the strength of the prima facie case presented and the necessity for the disclosure of the anonymous defendant’s identity to allow the plaintiff to properly proceed.
[From the article:
A purported “concerned parent” set up a Gmail account (anonymously) and sent an email to the faculty advisor for the Cool Kids & Heroes program. The email had photos attached showing several of the program’s kids doing things they shouldn’t be doing like drinking and smoking pot. [Welcome to “Your Resume” the Internet version. Bob] In all fairness it should be noted that the picture of plaintiff only showed her playing beer pong — it didn’t actually show her drinking or smoking, though there were cups and beer cans on the table in front of her.
The faculty advisor forwarded the email and images on to school administrators, and the school also notified the police. But law enforcement apparently took no further action.
… The big problem with plaintiff’s defamation claim came from the requirement that the statement alleged to be defamatory (in this case, that plaintiff had broken the law) needed to be “false.” The court found five reasons why this element had not been met:
What a marvelous “Big Brother” idea! If you want to exist in the eyes of the government, you must do so through a webpage that reports your activity and location. (and God only knows what else in the future.) I'm sure congress will want to “Keep American up with the rest of the world!” NOTE: The comments indicate the threat to Privacy was the first thing readers thought of...
Every British Citizen To Have a Personal Webpage
Posted by timothy on Saturday March 20, @07:00PM
Hugh Pickens writes
"The Telegraph reports that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is about to announce that within a year everyone in Great Britain will be given a personalized webpage for accessing Government services as part of a plan to save billions of pounds by putting all public services online. The move could see the closure of job centers and physical offices dealing with tax, vehicle licensing, passports and housing benefits within 10 years as services are offered through a single digital gateway. [This] 'saves time for people and it saves money for the Government — the processing of a piece of paper and mailing it back costs many times more than it costs to process something electronically,' says Tim Berners-Lee, an advisor to the Prime Minister. However, the proposals are coming under fire from union leaders who complain that thousands of public sector workers would be made jobless and pointed to the Government's poor record of handling personal data. 'Cutting public services is not only bad for the public who use services but also the economy as we are pushing people who provide valuable services on the dole,' says one union leader."
Interesting and technically correct ruling. Is it too technical for a jury? (Consider: We all click to the wrong website on occasion. You might need this defense!)
Canada's Top Court Quashes Child Porn Warrant
Posted by Soulskill on Saturday March 20, @01:51PM
m.ducharme writes
"The CBC is reporting that the Supreme Court of Canada has handed down a decision quashing a search warrant used to obtain the computer of a man accused of possession of child porn. 'Urbain P. Morelli maintained his charter rights were violated when police searched his computer for child pornography after a technician who had visited his home to work on the machine expressed concerns to police.' What the Slashdot community may find notable about this decision is the distinction drawn between 'accessing' and 'possessing' digital images, most particularly the recognition that a user does not 'possess' cached data. From the decision: '[35] When accessing Web pages, most Internet browsers will store on the computer's own hard drive a temporary copy of all or most of the files that comprise the Web page. This is typically known as a "caching function" and the location of the temporary, automatic copies is known as the "cache." While the configuration of the caching function varies and can be modified by the user, cached files typically include images and are generally discarded automatically after a certain number of days, or after the cache grows to a certain size. [36] On my view of possession, the automatic caching of a file to the hard drive does not, without more, constitute possession. While the cached file might be in a "place" over which the computer user has control, in order to establish possession, it is necessary to satisfy mens rea or fault requirements as well. Thus, it must be shown that the file was knowingly stored and retained through the cache.'"
Even some movies not yet available on DVD?
http://www.killerstartups.com/Video-Music-Photo/johoo-tv-watching-movies-tv-shows-at-no-cost
Johoo.tv - Watching Movies & TV Shows At No Cost
… Named Johoo.tv, it will let you watch all these shows that are currently making waves as well as those past shows that have gone down in history as genre-defining. Besides, the site makes it possible for you to watch movies in an equally simple way – simply input your search and away you go.
Because sometimes you need a backup...
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-simple-steps-rip-entire-dvd-hard-drive/
5 Simple Steps To Rip An Entire DVD To Your Hard Drive
For my website students.
http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/colorhex-hsl-values
ColorHex: See RGB, HSV & HSL Values For Any Color
You see a color, you like it, but you want to know more about it. ColorHex is probably the best site to know a color inside out. Just pick any color from the palette or select your desired one by entering the 6 digit hex code. ColorHex will then show you detailed information like the RGB, HSL, HSV and CMYK values.
It will also display a pie chart showing the RGB value composition and an HSL color chart showing Hue, Saturation and Lightness. ColorHex also changes the background of the webpage to your selected color so you can see it clearly and also display information such as opposite color, brightened color and web safe color related to your desired color.
It also displays the use of your selected color in text, background and borders, along with generating a CSS code for using that color on your website.
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