Thursday, June 23, 2011

Nothing about WHY. I'd like to know if consumers are getting educated or are getting burned by the breaches.

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=23522

A third of consumers withhold personal information online, DMA study claims

June 22, 2011 by Dissent

Oliver Luft reports:

More than one in three consumers withhold entirely information that could be used to identify them while engaging with brands online, a new study has found.

[...]

The number of consumers willing to provide name, address and email details has seen a substantial drop over the past six months, according to the study. Almost a third more people (31%) were unwilling to share this information online, compared with six months ago.

Read more on Marketing.



For my Ethical Hackers. If Google can bypass security, we can too...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20073586-264/chrome-frame-hops-over-pc-lockdown-barrier/

Chrome Frame hops over PC lockdown barrier

One of the reasons I've been skeptical about Google Chrome Frame is that using the software was difficult for one of the prime audiences using the ancient Internet Explorer 6: those who had no choice.

That's because some corporations lock down computers so users don't get the administrative privileges needed to upgrade IE to a version less than a decade old or to install an alternative browser. With that lockdown, it also wasn't possible to install Chrome Frame, which implants Chrome's modern Web page rendering technology into Internet Explorer.

At Google I/O in May, Google announced that the developer version of Chrome Frame could sidestep the lockdown, though, and now the company is publicizing the move more broadly.

"Non-Admin Chrome Frame runs a helper process at startup to assist with loading the Chrome Frame plug-in into Internet Explorer. The helper process is designed to consume almost no system resources while running," said Google programmer Robert Shield in a blog post this week. "Once installed, non-admin users will have the same no-friction experience that admin users of Chrome Frame have today."



“We kinda think we need to do something about Security but we have no idea what that might be...”

http://www.databreaches.net/?p=19120

DHS official says ISPs would likely be covered by Obama cybersecurity plan

June 22, 2011 by admin

Gautham Nagesh reports:

A top Department of Homeland Security cybersecurity official told lawmakers Internet Service Providers (ISPs) would likely be among the private-sector firms that would be subject to federal oversight under the White House’s proposed cybersecurity legislation.

At a hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, DHS acting Deputy Under Secretary Greg Schaffer acknowledged that under the White House’s plan, ISPs would likely be among the private firms deemed critical infrastructure and therefore subject to federal security standards.

Read more on The Hill.

[From the article:

Schaffer emphasized that the administration's legislative proposal doesn't explicitly lay out which industries would be deemed critical and core critical infrastructure, but witnesses at Tuesday's hearing mentioned transportation, financial services, utilities and healthcare providers as among those sectors that could be included.

Subpanel Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) noted that ISPs are in a unique position to know when consumers' computers are under attack or have been enslaved by malicious botnets. He suggested ISPs should take action against infected devices in the event consumers are not aware of the breach. [Assuming they can reach into my computer and tell an infection from an Ethical Hacking tool... Bob]



This is quite depressing. It's bad enough that some firms don't log computer activity and therefore can't determine what happened or when it happened, now they tell us they don't keep any history for analysis. How does management determine if employees are doing their job?

http://www.networkcomputing.com/wan-security/231000143

Verizon Launches Service Based On Data Breach Report Methodology

Verizon Business is offering an security incident analysis service based on the Verizon Incident Sharing framework (VerIS), the foundation of the organization's highly regarded annual Data Breach Investigation Report (DBIR). The aim of the service is to generate metrics of an organization’s security incidents over time to discover the root causes of vulnerability and take preventive measures.

… "We see patterns when we study the community," said Wade Baker, director of research and intelligence and principal DBIR author. "The same kinds of problems occur over and over again."

… Organizations often have capable incident response, but typically deal with incidents as one-offs rather than collect information that could show patterns of successful attacks. "There’s a disconnect when we ask, ‘What kind of incidents have you had in the past?'" Baker says. "I’ve never been in an organization that can just print out a list of incidents of all types over the last two years so they can do risk analysis."



Attention e-Discovery experts and those who think they can communicate securely.

http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/quickforget-share-private-information-online/

QuickForget: Securely Share Private Information Online & Set Its Expiration

Email and instant messaging are not suitable means to share private information online. What would be very helpful is a self-destructing message which expires after your contact views the information. This is precisely what QuickForget offers.

QuickForget is a free to use web service that lets you securely share sensitive information online. The site does not require any software download or account registrations. You simply type in the information, which you can code in whichever way you desire, and specify the number of views or time duration for which the information will be active. Your message is then put up on a public URL that is displayed to you.

Sharing this URL with friends and contacts takes them to the information page. When your message reaches the limits you set, it expires and URL visitors are told that the site has “forgotten the secret”.

www.quickforget.com

Similar tools: OneTimeMessage, SelfDestruct, Norbt, and Send.



This can't be right (as in legal) can it?

"Expert Body" To Decide Which Sites To Block For Copyright Infringement

"Rights holders in the UK are proposing to appoint a 'council' and an 'expert body' to decide which websites should be blocked by ISPs for infringing copyright. The controversial Digital Economy Act made provisions for sites accused of hosting copyrighted material to be blocked by British ISPs. 'The cost of the proposed scheme is not indicated, but is likely to be substantial, including the running cost of two non-judicial independent bodies and the cost to ISPs of permanently blocking websites,' Consumer Focus said."

[From the article:

“We do not believe that it is appropriate for two non-judicial bodies to broadly interpret existing case law, effectively establish new copyright law, and direct the Applications Court to issue a permanent injunction, without a trial.”


(Related) Apparently Australia does it without even pretending there is a committee. It's done at the whim of Big Brother.

Australia's 2 Largest ISP's Start Censorsing the Web

"Looks like after Stephen Conroy's web filter went down in flames he went quietly behind the backs of Australians and struck a deal with Telstra and Optus to start filtering an undisclosed blacklist of sites from organization within and external to Australia. From the article: 'Electronic Frontiers Association board member Colin Jacobs also expressed concern at the scheme, saying the Government and internet providers needed to be more upfront about websites being blocked and offer an appeals process for website owners who felt URLs had been blocked unfairly. "There is a question about where the links are coming from and I'd like to know the answer to that," Mr Jacobs said."



Another reversal of myth? Research disproves “the obvious?”

Violent Games Credited With Reducing Crime Levels

"According to a research paper produced from a collaboration between the University of Texas and the Centre for European Economic Research, violent video games may induce aggressive behavior, but the incapacitation effect outweighs this and produces a genuine reduction in violent crime. This paper was referenced in a BBC news story giving reasons why the US crime rates are falling (at least outside the prisons!)"



Lots of Open (AKA free) resources.

OKCon11 Opens In Berlin

"The annual conference of the Open Knowledge Foundation will be held in Berlin. There will be different lectures about open data, open science, open access, etc. and different free workshops where hackers, volunteers, designers, etc. can participate learning new tools, or helping scientists to develop new prototypes for their research projects."

[A couple of examples:

http://scraperwiki.com/

http://openshakespeare.org/



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