http://www.databreaches.net/?p=13154
VA Data Breaches Go Live
August 11, 2010 by admin
Bob Brewin alerts us to another new resource on data breaches:
Today the Veterans Affairs Department started posting online its monthly data breach reports as part of its ongoing transparency thing, VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker told a press briefing this morning. He said the latest report (for July) might not make it to the Web until Thursday
Read more on NextGov.
The reports make for interesting reading. Most of the incidents are relatively minor, but the VA has meticulously documented them and aggregated them by type of incident.
If they intended to make these public as part of a transparency initiative, the FOUO designation on the reports is somewhat confusing:
For Official Use Only/Limited Distribution
WARNING: This document is FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY. It contains information that may be exempt from public release under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552). This document is to be controlled, handled, transmitted, distributed, and disposed of in accordance with DHS policy relating to FOUO information and is not to be released to the public or other personnel without prior approval of the Veterans Affairs Chief Information Officer. Where appropriate, U.S. person identities have been removed. Should you have a requirement for particular U.S. person identity information, contact the VA-NSOC. No portion of this report should be furnished to the media, either in written or verbal form.
Posting it on their web site doesn’t count as furnishing it to the media, I guess.
“Hey, that's a feature not a failure!”
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=12785
Facebook bug could give spammers names, photos
August 11, 2010 by Dissent
Robert McMillan reports:
Facebook is scrambling to fix a bug in its website that could be misused by spammers to harvest user names and photographs.
It turns out that if someone enters the e-mail address of a Facebook user along with the wrong password, Facebook returns a special “Please re-enter your password” page, which includes the Facebook photo and full name of the person associated with the address.
Read more on Computerworld.
Start 'em young and Big Brother will be a familiar part of their lives.
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=12805
Maine Schools Asking for Students’ Social Security Numbers
August 12, 2010 by Dissent
Reported by MyFOXMaine.com:
With the start of school just weeks away, many parents are on edge about a new state law asking schools to collect students’ Social Security numbers.
The state plans to use the data to measure the efficiency of the current curriculum by tracking students’ progress from elementary school to their first place of employment. [Why stop there? Bob]
The Maine Department of Education says there will be no consequences for withholding the information.
This is an issue that goes beyond Maine and is actually a national issue in tracking students’ progress. However, I think it is a terrible idea for schools to be collecting Social Security numbers. In this day and age, and given the lack of security/IT in place in most public school systems, I see this as an invitation to more hacks and breaches that could lead to ID theft for minors who may not even discover the ID theft or compromise until they are much older.
If my kids were still of school age and I was asked for their SSN, I’d decline or fight it.
Here in the wild west, we believe is “shoot first, find your justification later.” Won't they be surprised when the owner of the “preemptive lawsuit patent” sues them!
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/08/11/1846228/Music-Festival-Producer-Pre-Sues-Bootleggers?from=rss
Music Festival Producer Pre-Sues Bootleggers
Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 11, @05:03PM
"Apparently, if you even have been *thinking* about bootlegging the Mile High Music Festival this coming weekend in Denver you've already been sued. No joke. Event producer AEG has already filed trademark infringement claims against 100 John Does and 100 Jane Does in anticipation that they're going to bootleg the event. Since none of the sued parties have actually done anything yet, no one's showing up in court to protest the lawsuit either, so it moves forward... meaning that AEG can use it to get all sorts of law enforcement officials (US Marshals, local and state police and even off-duty officers) to go seize bootleg material."
Politicians will want this banned, if it actually works and can't be subverted.
http://www.killerstartups.com/Search/poligraft-com-understanding-political-information
Poligraft.com - Understanding Political Information
A very novel web-based tool, Poligraft can be used to discover all there is to know about the politicians and political organizations that are mentioned in any text. By copying and pasting a text into the box that is provided you will be able to have its every political connotation analyzed. You will know exactly who is who, and the way in which individuals relate to any of the organizations that are mentioned as part on that document. You will also learn about the connections between organizations, obviously.
Apparently, it is not illegal, but very, very irritating?
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/08/11/1525231/Obama-Wants-Allies-To-Go-After-WikiLeaks?from=rss
Obama Wants Allies To Go After WikiLeaks
Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday August 11, @12:04PM
"Coming on the back of human rights groups criticizing WikiLeaks, American officials are saying that the Obama administration is pressuring allies such as Australia, Britain, and Germany to open criminal investigations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and to try limit his ability to travel.[Even over the Internet? Bob] 'It's not just our troops that are put in jeopardy by this leaking. It's UK troops, it's German troops, it's Australian troops — all of the NATO troops and foreign forces working together in Afghanistan,' said one American diplomatic official, who added that other governments should 'review whether the actions of WikiLeaks could constitute crimes under their own national-security laws.'"
When you first thoughts are not about privacy...
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=12780
UK: Personal details of thousands of 999 callers stored on ‘secret police database’
August 11, 2010 by Dissent
Rebecca Camber reports:
Tens of thousands of people who report crimes to police are having their personal details stored on a ‘secret’ police database.
Innocent members of the public who call 999 about an incident or witness a crime are routinely being asked for their ethnicity and date of birth, it has emerged.
The details are being kept on a ‘Big Brother’ police file where thousands of suspected criminals’ details are also held for years without their knowledge.
Read more in the Daily Mail.
Is it news or is it proof of guilt?
Prior Restraint Lives: Newspaper Blocked From Publishing Photo of Murder Suspect
We’re not sure what’s more alarming: that a local California judge has barred the Los Angeles Times from publishing lawfully obtained photos of a murder defendant, or that an appeals court has just decided not to immediately reverse this clear exercise of prior restraint.
Okay, I admit this has noting to do with my normal topics, but I sent this to everyone I know who find my driving (on mountain roads with no guardrails) less than inspiring. See? It could be worse. Check the handy data readout in the lower right.
Video: Climb Pikes Peak With The Monster
Stay cautious...
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/024929.html
August 11, 2010
An Analysis of Private Browsing Modes in Modern Browsers
An Analysis of Private Browsing Modes in Modern Browsers, by Gaurav Aggarwal and Elie Bursztein, Stanford University; Collin Jackson, CMU; Dan Boneh, Stanford University
"We study the security and privacy of private browsing modes recently added to all major browsers. We first propose a clean definition of the goals of private browsing and survey its implementation in different browsers. We conduct a measurement study to determine how often it is used and on what categories of sites. Our results suggest that private browsing is used differently from how it is marketed. We then describe an automated technique for testing the security of private browsing modes and report on a few weaknesses found in the Firefox browser. Finally, we show that many popular browser extensions and plugins undermine the security of private browsing. We propose and experiment with a workable policy that lets users safely run extensions in private browsing mode."
Stay current...
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/024933.html
August 11, 2010
Cisco 2010 Midyear Security Report
"Web 2.0, mobility, virtualization, and other dramatic shifts in how we communicate and collaborate are carving out a new landscape for business and for enterprise security. The Cisco® Midyear Security Report examines these changes and their impact on the enterprise, and highlights other significant trends and threats creating security challenges for organizations worldwide. The report also includes recommendations from Cisco security experts designed to help enterprises strengthen their security."
Stay connected...
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/024931.html
August 11, 2010
Pew Internet Report: Home Broadband 2010
Home Broadband 2010 by Aaron Smith, August 11, 2010
"After several years of double digit growth, broadband adoption slowed dramatically in 2010. African-Americans experienced broadband adoption growth in 2010 well above the national average After several consecutive years of modest but consistent growth, broadband adoption slowed dramatically in 2010. Two-thirds of American adults (66%) currently use a high-speed internet connection at home, a figure that is not statistically different from what The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found at a similar point in 2009, when 63% of Americans were broadband adopters.
The lack of growth in broadband adoption at the national level was mirrored across a range of demographic groups, with African-Americans being a major exception. Broadband adoption by African-Americans now stands at 56%, up from 46% at a similar point in 2009. That works out to a 22% year-over-year growth rate, well above the national average and by far the highest growth rate of any major demographic group. Over the last year, the broadband adoption gap between blacks and whites has been cut nearly in half."
Do we do or do we don't, that is the question.
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/08/11/1826231/The-Case-Against-Net-Neutrality?from=rss
The Case Against Net Neutrality
Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 11, @04:09PM
"While I certainly don't agree with it, this article tries to make the case that Net Neutrality may actually be bad for America. From the article: 'If the government regulates net neutrality, policies for internet access are set by one entity: the FCC. However, if the government stays out, each company will set its own policies. If you don’t like the FCC’s policies, you are stuck with them unless you leave the United States. If you don’t like your internet service provider’s policies, you can simply switch to another one. So which model sounds better to you?'"
(Related) Hummm...
Another Net Neutrality Option: Remove Financial Incentives
… The answer to all of this could be simple: let ISPs prioritize content where doing so makes its customers happy — just don’t let them charge when they do it. Removing financial incentives to mess with the internet could help mitigate the unseen consequences of whatever tampering is soon to happen, like it or not.
A Beta worth waiting for?
Meet Treesaver, a New HTML Magazine App
A startup called Treesaver has developed a slick presentation framework for digital magazines that runs in the browser. It has many of the features you’d expect from a clean, reader-friendly content wrapper (like Instapaper or Readability) but it couples that functionality with a way-cool user interface.
Pages can be navigated by swiping from side-to-side, and you get helpful ghost images on either side of the page you’re reading, which aid in signposting. Also, the pages within the web app dynamically resize for different screens — and it even resizes on the fly as you make the browser smaller and larger. It’s all HTML, JavaScript and CSS.
… Treesaver will be entering beta testing in a few weeks, and the code will be released under an open-source license soon after that.
[Sign up for the newsletter at: http://treesaver.net/
Eight will get you five, my statistics students will jump all over this one.
http://idle.slashdot.org/story/10/08/11/2150206/Website-Lets-You-Bet-On-Your-Grades?from=rss
Website Lets You Bet On Your Grades
Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 11, @08:15PM
"College students who expect to get good grades can get a good payoff, if they're willing to put their money where their mouse is. A website is taking wagers on grades from students at 36 American colleges. Students have to register, upload their schedule, and give the site access to official school records. The site, called Ultrinsic, then calculates odds and the students decide whether to place their bets. Ultrinsic's CEO Steven Woldf insists it's not online gambling, since these wagers involve skill. He says 'The students have 100 percent control over it, over how they do. Other people's stuff you bet on — your own stuff you invest in.'"
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