Saturday, November 05, 2011


...and the nominees for the Forrest Gump “Stupid is as stupid does” award are:...
By Dissent, November 4, 2011
Public notice from UCLA Health System, posted today on their web site:
The UCLA Health System is notifying thousands of patients by mail that on Sept. 6, 2011, an external computer hard drive that contained some personal information on 16,288 patients was among a number of items stolen during a home invasion. Although this information was encrypted, the password necessary to unscramble the information was written on a piece of paper near the hard drive and cannot be located.


What changes a companies mind? (someone pointing out reality?)
By Dissent, November 4, 2011
TRICARE, the military health program, has directed its business associate, Science Applications International Corp., to offer one year’s worth of free credit monitoring and restoration services to the 4.9 million beneficiaries affected by a recent breach.
Earlier, TRICARE had announced that it would not offer credit monitoring services, citing the minimal risk involved in the breach, which involved backup tapes stolen from an SAIC employee’s car.

(Related) It is bigger than initially reported (that's common) perhaps it is also riskier?
By Dissent, November 4, 2011
The HHS breach tool has been updated and I noticed that the SAIC/TRICARE breach entry has been added. I also noticed that although media reports had the breach as affecting 4.9 million, the actual number appears to be 5,117,799. A lawsuit has been filed against the Department of Defense after backup tapes were stolen from a SAIC employee’s car that had been left unattended.


Would we react differently if they were domestic spies?
Foreign Spies Stealing US Economic Secrets in Cyberspace
November 4, 2011 16:41
Source: Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive
The threat to the United States from foreign economic collection and industrial espionage is appraised in these annual reports to Congress.
This [year's] report differs from previous editions in three important ways. The first and most significant is the focus. This report gives special attention to foreign collectors' exploitation of cyberspace, while not excluding other established tactics and methods used in foreign economic collection and industrial espionage. This reflects the fact that nearly all business records, research results, and other sensitive economic or technology-related information now exist primarily in digital form. Cyberspace makes it possible for foreign collectors to gather enormous quantities of information quickly and with little risk, whether via remote exploitation of victims' computer networks, downloads of data to external media devices, or e-mail messages transmitting sensitive information.
+ Link to full report (PDF; 2.69 MB)


So perhaps you should use Times New Roman?
Microsoft defends against espionage virus
Microsoft has released a temporary software patch to defend against the threat from Duqu, an espionage virus thought to be closely related to Stuxnet, the cyber attack that disrupted the Iranian nuclear programme.
… Microsoft said it exploited a vulnerability in the Windows TrueType font parsing engine to gain control of infected computers.


Worth a read. Who would do this in the US?
Snooping councils, phone hacking, CCTV… time to reform surveillance laws?
November 4, 2011 by Dissent
Adam Wagner writes:
JUSTICE, a law reform and human rights organisation, has today published a significant and wide-ranging critique of state surveillance powers contained in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).
The report - Freedom from Suspicion – Surveillance Reform for a Digital Age – is by Eric Metcalfe, former director of JUSTICE and recently returned to practise as a barrister. It reveals some pretty stunning statistics: for example, in total, there have been close to three million decisions taken by public bodies under RIPA in the last decade.
Read more on Adam’s excellent blog, UK Human Rights Blog.


...and now, no one needs to go postal!
USPS Need Not Disclose Psych Tests to Union
November 4, 2011 by Dissent
Julia Filip reports:
The U.S. Postal Service was justified in refusing to let its workers’ union access the confidential test scores of 22 employees without written consent, the 1st Circuit ruled.
Though the National Labor Relations Board had found that the union’s collective bargaining interests outweighed employees’ privacy interests, the Boston-based federal appeals court disagreed.
Read more about this case on Courthouse News.
[From the article:
"The Privacy Act notices first reaffirmed to applicants that their information would be kept private, and then alerted them to possible, limited disclosures," Chief Judge Sandra Lynch wrote for the court. "The notices did not wipe out all expectations of privacy."
The routine-use exception allows disclosure of relevant information to labor organizations, but it does not mandate such disclosure unconditionally, the order states.
"Thus, the fact that information may be disclosed 'as required by law' does not itself defeat all expectations of privacy, nor does it create an expectation that the information will be disclosed automatically whenever it is relevant to a union," Lynch added.


I can see the opportunity for so real geeky humor here. Hack the system so clicking on the icon gives more amusing reasons for the ads... “Because you NEED deodorant!”
New Google ‘Transparency’ Feature Aims to Reduce Ad-Targeting Creepiness
Google’s bread and butter is its targeted advertising technology, a multi-billion dollar business that includes tailors ad results to the browsing habits of individual users. The problem is, the better Google gets at guessing which ads we might want to see, the creepier its system feels.
Google wants to change that. The company just announced plans to roll out a new feature that provides clarity (or “transparency” in Google parlance) on why you receive certain ads on Google’s sites. A simple icon labeled “Why these ads” will soon begin appearing next to advertisements in Google Search and Gmail. Click on the icon, and you’ll get information on why the ad was personalized just for you.


Books you can read when the snowdrifts block the door...
"The book Digital Assassination: Protecting Your Reputation, Brand, or Business Against Online Attacks says businesses that take days to respond to social media issues are way behind the curve. Social media operates in real-time, and responses need to be almost as quick. In a valuable new book on the topic, Securing the Clicks Network Security in the Age of Social Media, Gary Bahadur, Jason Inasi and Alex de Carvalho provide the reader with a comprehensive overview on how not to be a victim of social media based security problems."
Read on for the rest of Ben's review.


Perspective: I can't see lots of Facebook programmers working for minimum wage and Social Networking access...
Facebook Access More Important Than Salary To Many Young Professionals
… Cisco Systems has just released its second annual "Connected World Technology Report." And the study reveals a series of data points that speak to the centrality of digital and mobile technology, as well as social media, to the professional expectations and habits of Generation Y.
But among the most glaring conclusions are the following two: 40 percent of college students and 45 percent of young professionals would accept a lower-paying job if it had more access to social media; a third of respondents consider the Internet as important as air, water, food and shelter. (Generation Y is roughly defined as having been born after Generation X -- some sources put the Gen Y starting point as the late 1970s and its end point as late as the beginning of the 21st century.)

(Related) Apparently, hactivists feel the same way!
Anonymous rejects a 5th November attack on Facebook
THE WIDER PART of the Anonymous hacktivist group has again publicly denounced a proposal to attack the social networking web site Facebook.

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