Saturday, September 24, 2011

I'm going to summarize these “get out of jail, free” user agreements on the back of my business cards. I'll be invulnerable!
"Electronic Arts has updated its Terms of Service Agreement for the Origin platform. Following Sony's steps, and taking it even further, EA has added a new clause that prevents users from suing them in both class action and jury trial forms."


“Hello, this is Peggy...”
September 22, 2011
Check Point Survey Reveals Nearly Half of Enterprises Are Victims of Social Engineering
News release: "Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. announced the results of a new report revealing 48 percent of enterprises surveyed have been victims of social engineering, experiencing 25 or more attacks in the past two years, costing businesses anywhere from $25,000 to over $100,000 per security incident. The report, The Risk of Social Engineering on Information Security, shows phishing and social networking tools as the most common sources of socially-engineering threats – encouraging businesses to implement a strong combination of technology and user awareness to minimize the frequency and cost of attacks. Socially-engineered attacks traditionally target people with an implied knowledge or access to sensitive information. Hackers today leverage a variety of techniques and social networking applications to gather personal and professional information about an individual in order to find the weakest link in the organization. According to the global survey of over 850 IT and security professionals, 86 percent of businesses recognize social engineering as a growing concern, with the majority of respondents (51%) citing financial gain as the primary motivation of attacks, followed by competitive advantage and revenge."


I am surprised that the percentages are so low. Why wouldn't everyone ask for this stuff?
September 22, 2011
Symantec Survey Finds Emails Are No Longer the Most Commonly Specified Documents in eDiscovery Requests
News release: "Symantec Corp. announced the findings of its 2011 Information Retention and eDiscovery Survey which examined how enterprises manage their ever-growing volumes of electronically stored information and prepare for the eventuality of an eDiscovery request. The survey of legal and IT personnel at 2,000 enterprises worldwide found email is not the primary source of records companies must produce, and more importantly, respondents who employ best practices for records and information management are significantly less at risk of court sanctions or fines."
[From the press release:
When asked what types of documents are most commonly part of an eDiscovery request, respondents selected
files and documents (67 percent), and
database or application data (61 percent) ahead of
email (58 percent).
As evidence of just how many sources companies must be prepared to produce information from, more than half indicated
SharePoint files (51 percent), and nearly half cited
instant messages and text messages (44 percent) and
social media (41 percent).


It will be interesting to see if the “promised” new jobs actually materialize.
Gov. Jerry Brown signs Amazon sales tax collection law
… The new law will "create tens of thousands of jobs [How and where? Bob] and inject hundreds of millions of dollars back into critical services like education and public safety in future years," Brown said Friday at a ceremony held at the San Francisco headquarters of clothier Gap Inc.
… They also predicted that new jobs would flow into the state if Amazon, as expected, opens some large distribution centers to better serve California, which is estimated to represent as much as 20% of the company's market. [I'm betting they open their warehouses in Nevada... Bob]
… California law requires consumers to pay a "use tax" that is equal to the sales tax if the merchant doesn't collect the levy for the state. However, tax collectors generally do not enforce that obligation on non-commercial transactions, and less than one-half of 1% of taxpayers voluntarily pay, state officials said.


What do the students say?
September 23, 2011
Pew Report: The Digital Revolution and Higher Education
  • "As online college courses have become increasingly prevalent, the general public and college presidents offer different assessments of their educational value, according to a new Pew Research Center report. Just three-in-ten American adults (29%) say a course taken online provides an equal educational value to one taken in a classroom. By contrast, about half of college presidents (51%) say online courses provide the same value. More than three-quarters of college presidents (77%) report that their institutions now offer online courses, and college presidents predict substantial growth in online learning: 15% say most of their current undergraduate students have taken a class online, 50% predict that ten years from now most of their students will take classes online. The report is based on findings from two Pew Research Center surveys: a national poll of the general public, and a survey of college presidents done in association with The Chronicle of Higher Education. It analyzes the perceptions of the public and college presidents about the value of online learning, the prevalence and future of online courses, use of digital textbooks, the internet and plagiarism, and technology use in the classroom, as well as college presidents’ own use of technology."
[From the report:
Among all adults who have taken a class online, 39% say the format’s educational value is equal to that of a course taken in a classroom.


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)