If Shakespeare was writing today, he would have said, “The first thing we do, let's kill all the Internet providers.”

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/01/egypt-isp-shutdown/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

Egypt Shut Down Its Net With a Series of Phone Calls

… While the world has seen net filtering and disruption in places like Burma and Iran following social and political unrests, Egypt’s decision to shutter it is different, according to Craig Labovitz, the chief scientist at Arbor Networks, a computer security firm that has nearly unequaled real data on international internet traffic.

“What’s different with Egypt is the scale,” Labovitz told Wired.com. “By that I mean that Egypt has fairly significant internet infrastructure with a diversity of paths — satellite, microwave and fiber links — a number of large providers and hundreds of smaller providers. It is one of the more significant internet infrastructures in the Middle East and certainly within Africa. Egypt has a very well-developed economy with a significant reliance on the internet, this is very different from Burma.”

(Related) Think it couldn't happen here?

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/01/kill-switch-legislation/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

Internet ‘Kill Switch’ Legislation Back in Play

Legislation granting the president internet-killing powers is to be re-introduced soon to a Senate committee, the proposal’s chief sponsor told Wired.com on Friday.

The resurgence of the so-called “kill switch” legislation came the same day Egyptians faced an internet blackout designed to counter massive demonstrations in that country.

The bill, which has bipartisan support, is being floated by Sen. Susan Collins, the Republican ranking member on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The proposed legislation, which Collins said would not give the president the same power Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak is exercising to quell dissent, sailed through the Homeland Security Committee in December but expired with the new Congress weeks later.

The bill is designed to protect against “significant” cyber threats before they cause damage, Collins said.

(Related) Maybe it is too good?

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/01/does-obamas-internet-freedom-agenda-hurt-the-u-s-without-helping-dissidents/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

Does Obama’s ‘Net Freedom Agenda’ Hurt The U.S.?

On Thursday, President Obama declared access to social networks to be a “universal” value, right alongside freedom of speech. But when those networks helped weaken Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, one of the U.S.’ strongest allies in the Middle East, the Obama team demanded Mubarak turn the Egyptian Internet back on — but didn’t abandon support for him, either. Maybe this “Internet Freedom Agenda” wasn’t so well thought out?

For more than a year, the White House has been pushing the idea that online connections are a good thing — no matter what’s said using those tools. It’s a way of signaling to wired people, not just governments, that the U.S. is on their side. The Obama administration called for Twitter to stay online during 2009 protests in Iran, and U.S. cash for new social networks like Pakistan’s Humari Awaz and SMS relief webs for Haitian earthquake victims. “The very existence of social networks,” State Department tech adviser Alec Ross said, “is a net good.”

(Related) What was different in Tunisia? They didn't understand that they could shut it down...

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/01/as-egypt-tightens-its-internet-grip-tunisia-seeks-to-open-up/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

Exclusive: Tunisia Internet Chief Gives Inside Look at Cyber Uprising

(Related)

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/01/29/0025210/Egypt-Cuts-the-Net-Net-Fights-Back?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

Egypt Cuts the Net, Net Fights Back

GMGruman writes

"Egypt's cutoff of the Net enrages the Netizenry, who are finding a bunch of ways — high tech and low tech — to fight back, from dial-up to ham radio, from mesh networks to Twitter. Robert X. Cringely shows how the Net war is being waged, and asks, Could it happen at home, too?"

Sure, it could. On the same topic, reader dermiste writes

"In reaction to the Egyptian government crackdown on the Internet, the French non-profit ISP French Data Network set up a dial-up Internet access. This way, anyone in Egypt who has access to a analog phone line and can call France is able to connect to the network using the following number: +33 1 72 89 01 50 (login: toto, password: toto)."

Just in time for Privacy Day?

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=20089

Data retention push confirms DOJ hypocrisy

January 29, 2011 by Dissent

Chris Soghoian writes:

As I described in a lengthy blog post a couple days ago, the US law enforcement community is yet again pushing for mandatory data retention laws, which would require internet service providers to keep records detailing the IP addresses issued to their customers.

At the hearing last Tuesday, Jason Weinstein of the Department of Justice argued that the government needed this data to be able to effectively investigate serious crimes, such as terrorism and child exploitation.

In what truly is a bit of Orwellian doublespeak Mr. Weinstein told the Congressional committee that retaining this data would actually protect privacy….

Read more on slight paranoia.

[From the argument:

Imposing greater retention requirements would raise legitimate concerns about privacy, and these concerns should be considered. However, the absence of strong data retention requirements introduces different privacy risks, as the government may be less effective at targeting malicious activities that threaten citizens’ private data. [Sounds remarkably like, “In order to save the village, it was necessary to destroy it.” Bob]

Not as easy as “do not call” because the technology is based on a network intended to route around roadblocks?

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=20083

Is True Do-Not-Track a Pie in the Sky?

January 28, 2011 by Dissent

Richard Adhikari writes about recent browser developments addressing “do not track.” Of particular interest to me, this part of his discussion:

Further, the requirements of do-not-track guidelines might create problems, Greenhouse told TechNewsWorld.

“An ad that is well-targeted based on other factors that don’t fall under do-not-track could be misinterpreted by the consumer as a violation,” Greenhouse explained. “I would anticipate that anyone responsible for enforcement will have to wade through mountains of false positives.”

[...]

“Ultimately, someone who’s very technology-savvy will have to draft a very clear, detailed set of guidelines that are mindful of the realities of Web application architecture,” Greenhouse said.

Those guidelines will still depend on implementation by websites and ad networks, Greenhouse remarked. “It’s just not something that a Web browser can accomplish on its own,” he added.

Read more on TechNewsWorld.

Will this be banned in the US?

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/01/29/0417208/UK-ISPs-Consider-VPN-To-Avoid-Piracy-Crackdown?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

UK ISPs Consider VPN To Avoid Piracy Crackdown

"Broadband internet providers in the UK are considering whether or not to follow the example of a Swedish ISP, Bahnhof, which recently put all of its customers behind a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) in order to circumvent new European Data Retention and Internet Copyright Infringement laws. By doing this is makes their logs less useful to outside forces (e.g. rights holders) and allows customers to use the internet anonymously. However several UK ISPs, including business provider AAISP (Andrews and Arnold), have suggested that there may be better solutions than sticking everybody behind a costly VPN. AAISP's boss, Adrian Kennard, claims, 'something ISPs will be doing anyway, carrier grade NAT, will create a similar anonymity as there is no requirement to log NAT sessions.' Meanwhile, Timico's CTO, Trefor Davies, warns, 'It would be a pretty costly project for all ISPs to implement such a system. It would also bring with it risks – suddenly it becomes a lot easier for governments to start monitoring all your traffic because it all goes through a single point (or at least a few points) on the network.'"

I wonder how much will reach Facebook users?

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/01/28/1758259/Facebook-Spammer-Fined-360-Million?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

Facebook Spammer Fined $360 Million

"Facebook has been awarded $360,500,000 in damages against spammer Philip Porembski, who phished the login details of at least 116,000 Facebook users and sent more than 7.2 million spam messages to victims' online friends. Facebook claimed it received more than 8,000 complaints from users as a result of the spam campaign, and more than 4,500 users had deactivated their accounts."

(That's Wharton) Interesting, but nothing earth shattering.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/026368.html

January 27, 2011

Whaton Knowledge: On the Move: Adapting to a New Global Economy

The Lauder Global Business Insight Report 2011 - On the Move: Adapting to a New Global Economy:

• "In this special report, students from the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management & International Studies analyze some of the more far-reaching changes affecting people, industries and regions around the world. The articles offer new perspectives on trends that will shape the coming year, including the emergence of a high-tech sector in Russia, the growth of private equity in Brazil and China, and the rise of social investing in France. Industries undergoing significant change are analyzed in articles about new media-driven ventures in the Middle East, improvements in educational opportunities for lower- and middle-class Mexican students, the rise of solar power in France, China's push to speed up the manufacture of electric cars and Mexico's initiatives to promote sustainable housing. Other articles look at the production of unique regional products in Japan, and an innovative French company that offers clients opportunities to become wine experts. The sports business is explored by examining new forces shaping China's approach to promoting basketball, and the ways in which Brazil may, or may not, benefit from the 2014 World Cup. The rise of German patriotism, the economic impact of the drug wars in Mexico, and how new urban prosperity in parts of China is affecting the strategy of multinational retailers are also analyzed."

You only need to backup the things you can't do without... Translations: Personal – backup anything you don't want to re-create or re-purchase. Business – backup anything your manager would fire you for losing, delete everything else.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easeus-free-backup-software-review/

Backup Your PC With Ease For Free Using Easeus Todo Backup [Windows]

Backing up your data is one of those things in life that you really won’t understand until disaster strikes, by which time it’s too late. For most people who haven’t experienced data-loss, the task of backing up just seems like such a good idea in theory, but so much effort in reality.

But take my advice, use this incredible free Easeus Todo Backup software and it’ll be so easy you won’t even have to think about it.

… There are also full guides on the site for every type of backup operation you could want.

For my students...

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/01/quicklyst-quick-way-to-create-outlines.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29

Friday, January 28, 2011

Quicklyst - A Quick Way to Create Outlines

Quicklyst is a nice tool for taking notes and creating outlines. Quicklyst provides a simple outline template that you can use to take notes. There are two neat features of Quicklyst that really stand out. First, you can do basic web searches within the framework of taking notes. To do a search just type a question mark (?) before a word then press enter. Quicklyst will then fill-in that line with some basic information about that word. For example, when I typed ?egypt that line on my outline was filled with some basic information about Egypt. The other useful feature offered by Quicklyst is the option to search within your notes. If you've created a lot of outlines in your Quicklyst account you can use the search function to quickly locate your notes about a particular topic.

Quicklyst can be accessed from your computer, your Kindle, your iOS device, or your Android device. You can also download and print your notes from Quicklyst.

Which is most logical? Most just?

http://www.databreaches.net/?p=3136

Data Breach Notification Law Across the World from California to Australia

April 18, 2009 by admin Filed under: Breach Laws, Commentaries and Analyses, Non-U.S., U.S.

Alana Maurushat of University of New South Wales has published a review and comparison that is available online at bepress.com in pdf format. The abstract:

Data breach notification and disclosure laws are emerging around the globe. The following article and table examine the specifics of data breach notification frameworks in multiple jurisdictions. Over the year of 2008, Alana Maurushat of the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre, with research assistance from David Vaile and student interns Renee Watts, Nathalie Pala, Michael Whitbread, Eugenie Kyung-Eun Hwang and David Chau, compiled the data. The table represents a detailed survey of data breach disclosure requirements in 25 countries, conducted by surveying those current or proposed statutory or similar instruments setting out the nature and conditions of such requirements to give notice. The Centre hopes that the table will be useful to compare and contrast elements of data breach notification schemes. The researchers at the CLPC will research the effectiveness of such schemes in future projects.

So, it will be illegal for me to find out what's on the RFID tag attached to my purchase? Or the one on that yard sale item that claims to have a year left on the warranty? Shouldn't all of this be open?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20090418073057137

Washington State Adopts Second RFID Privacy Law

Saturday, April 18 2009 @ 07:30 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire has signed into law a bill prohibiting the scanning of an RFID tag by anyone except the business or agency that issued that tag, with certain exceptions.

The legislation, known as House Bill (HB) 1011, lists a dozen such exceptions, including situations in which the scanning is part of a sales transaction initiated by the tag holder, or data from an individual's identification device is remotely read or stored in the course of an act of good-faith security research, experimentation or scientific inquiry. The law is set to go into effect on July 26, 2009.

Source - RFID Journal

Oh look, an open can of worms!

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/19/007219&from=rss

Internet Archive Seeks Same Online Book Rights As Google

Posted by timothy on Sunday April 19, @01:26AM from the from-a-to-z-and-back-again dept. Books The Internet

Miracle Jones writes

"Brewster Kahle's Internet Archive has jumped on Google's 'Authors Guild' settlement and asked to be included as a party defendant, claiming that they ought to get the same rights and protections from liability that Google will receive when the settlement is approved by federal court. From the Internet Archive's letter to Judge Denny Chin: 'The Archive's text archive would greatly benefit from the same limitation of potential copyright liability that the proposed settlement provides Google. Without such a limitation, the Archive would be unable to provide some of these same services due to the uncertain legal issues surrounding orphan books.'"

Hell no! I determine which truth is THE truth, and it's whatever I answered on my test – not what that defamatory textbook says!

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20090418105746245

The Dynamic Balance Between Free Speech and Privacy Interests (commentary)

Saturday, April 18 2009 @ 10:57 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

There have been a host of apocalyptic warnings in the blogosphere about the First Circuit’s recent decision holding that truth is not an absolute defense to a defamation claim. One blogger dubbed it “the most dangerous libel decision in decades,” and nearly everyone predicts it could have serious implications for journalists. But instead of joining the chorus of First Amendment advocates decrying the decision, I propose we take a step back to calmly examine the simple but extremely controversial idea that the truth could be defamatory.

Source - Sarah Hinchliff, on CIS

Related Another “Should it be that public” question?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10222755-71.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

The city where every arrest gets Twittered

by Chris Matyszczyk April 18, 2009 11:12 AM PDT

… A Twitter page, headlined "Denton Police," fed details of every arrest the department had performed, coupled with TwitPic mugshots.

This remarkable, real-time communication between the police and outside world surely was a futuristic forerunner to Texas' progression towards secession.

Until it was revealed to be the work of University of North Texas senior, Brian Baugh.

“You are still innocent until proven guilty, but we need the DNA because eventually you're gonna commit a crime.” There are no ethical concerns until someone says, “HEY!”

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021145.html

April 18, 2009

NYT: F.B.I. and States Vastly Expand DNA Databases

F.B.I. and States Vastly Expand DNA Databases, by Solomon Moore: "Law enforcement officials are vastly expanding their collection of DNA to include millions more people who have been arrested or detained but not yet convicted. The move, intended to help solve more crimes, is raising concerns about the privacy of petty offenders and people who are presumed innocent. Until now, the federal government genetically tracked only convicts. But starting this month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will join 15 states that collect DNA samples from those awaiting trial and will also collect DNA from detained immigrants — the vanguard of a growing class of genetic registrants. the F.B.I., with a DNA database of 6.7 million profiles, expects to accelerate its rate of growth from 80,000 new entries a year to 1.2 million by 2012 — a 17-fold increase. F.B.I. officials say they expect DNA processing backlogs — which now stand at more than 500,000 cases — to increase."

It's my proposal as well. Interesting comments.

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/18/1739236&from=rss

Why Is Connectivity So Cheap In Stockholm?

Posted by timothy on Saturday April 18, @03:30PM from the umlauts-defy-gravity dept. Networking The Almighty Buck IT

lpress writes

"Symmetric, 100 Mbps service in Stockholm, costs $11/month. Conditions in every city are different, but part of the explanation for the low cost is that the city owns a municipal fiber network reaching every block. They lease network access to anyone who would like to offer service. The ISPs, including incumbent telephone and cable companies, compete on an equal footing."

Conflict between old and young tech users. Specific look at legal profession.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021142.html

April 18, 2009

New Study Examines Technology Generation Gap in the Workplace

News release: "A national survey of American white collar workers found that while technology is widely embraced among working professionals, significant gaps exist among generations regarding its use and application in the workplace. The newly released Technology Gap Survey found generational differences in the effect of technology on workplace etiquette, the blurring boundaries between personal and professional tasks, and the impact of technology overload. The survey – commissioned by LexisNexis, a leading provider of content-enabled workflow solutions – examined the impact of technology in the workplace. It compared technology and software usage among generations of working professionals, including Boomer (ages 44-60), Generation X (ages 29-43) and Generation Y (ages 28 and younger)."

• The Technology Gap Survey was commissioned by LexisNexis. WorldOne Research, an international market research agency specializing in the collection and analysis of data for leading organizations, conducted this survey of 450 professionals.

[Correct link to the survey: http://www.lexisnexis.com/media/pdfs/LexisNexis-Technology-Gap-Survey-4-09.pdf

For the White Hat Hacker Club?

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/18/1630223&from=rss

DHS Seeks "Ethical Hackers" To Protect Federal Net Infrastructure

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday April 18, @01:21PM from the loaded-phrases dept. Security Government

Death Metal sends this excerpt from an AP report:

"General Dynamics Information Technology put out an ad last month on behalf of the Homeland Security Department seeking someone who could 'think like the bad guy.' Applicants, it said, must understand hackers' tools and tactics and be able to analyze Internet traffic and identify vulnerabilities in the federal systems. In the Pentagon's budget request submitted last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon will increase the number of cyberexperts it can train each year from 80 to 250 by 2011. With warnings that the US is ill-prepared for a cyberattack, the White House conducted a 60-day study of how the government can better manage and use technology (PDF) to protect everything from the electrical grid and stock markets to tax data, airline flight systems, and nuclear launch codes. ... Nadia Short, vice president at General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, said the job posting for ethical hackers fills a critical need for the government."

Find free software that does what commercial software does.

http://www.osalt.com/

osalt.com

Find open source software alternatives to well-known commercial software

You should know how to get the most out of these services.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-youtube-url-tricks-you-should-know-about/

10 Youtube URL Tricks You Should Know About

Apr. 18th, 2009 By Varun Kashyap

Would you like the President to comment on your website?

http://host-d.oddcast.com/php/workshop_UI/door=237&cl=86&AID=0

Global Warming! Global Warming! Another Al Gore “fact”

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/18/2059204&from=rss

Antarctic Ice Is Growing, Not Melting Away, At Davis Station

Posted by timothy on Saturday April 18, @05:13PM from the weather-is-what-you-get dept. Earth Science

schwit1 writes

"A report from The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research says that Antarctic ice is growing, not melting away. Ice core drilling in the fast ice off Australia's Davis Station in East Antarctica by the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Co-Operative Research Centre shows that last year, the ice had a maximum thickness of 1.89m, its densest in 10 years. The average thickness of the ice at Davis since the 1950s is 1.67m. A paper to be published soon by the British Antarctic Survey in the journal Geophysical Research Letters is expected to confirm that over the past 30 years, the area of sea ice around the continent has expanded."

Keeping your story straight? Blogger/reporters could sit in the court for a while then step out to blog – how much is too much?

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_11337664?source=rss

DA, defense want to prevent blogging at trial

The Associated Press Posted: 12/30/2008 03:17:11 PM MST Updated: 12/30/2008 04:05:29 PM MST

DENVER—Prosecutors and defense attorneys want to prevent blogging out of fear witnesses could learn what's happening inside the courtroom before they testify in the Jan. 12 trial of a man accused of causing the death of his 11-week-old son

... The joint motion filed Monday seeks to ban cell phones and computers.

A common argument and cogent rebuttal...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081231055917855

Are state and federal breach notification mandates unreasonable?

Wednesday, December 31 2008 @ 05:59 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Chris Wolf, an attorney and head of the Proskauer Rose (Washington, D.C.) law firm’s privacy and security group, stated in a recent interview that breach notifications should be delayed until all the facts are in about what was lost and who was affected. While this might be a good legal position, I’m not sure this view is shared by victims of a breach, privacy advocates, or me if the delay reaches across weeks or months.

[...]

Organizations unable or unwilling to provide the controls necessary to react immediately to protect customer, employee, or patient information should reconsider keeping it in the first place.

Source - Tech Republic

[From the article:

Wolf also asserts that organizations need time to understand the breach–who was affected and what was taken–before they release a notification. I don’t disagree with this. However, making these decisions quickly, within regulatory constraints focused on risk mitigation, is the role of a well-designed and practiced incident response process.

... Each organization must know where PII and ePHI is stored, use reasonable and appropriate controls to prevent unauthorized access, use intrusion or extrusion monitoring to detect a breach, and document a quick breach response. I define “quick” as hours, not weeks or months.

George Orwell was an optimist.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081230181401423

UK's database plan condemned by Europe

Tuesday, December 30 2008 @ 06:14 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Britain must rethink plans for a database holding details of every email, mobile phone and internet visit, Europe's human rights commissioner has said in an outspoken attack on the growth of surveillance societies. Thomas Hammarberg said that UK proposals for sweeping powers to collect and store data will increase the risk of the "violation of an individual's privacy".

Source - The Independent

[From the article:

These proposals have already been described by the Government's own terrorism-law watchdog as "awful" and attacked by civil liberty groups for laying the basis of a Big Brother state.

Related. The US is moving toward the UK's position, but not in one swell foop.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081231051711813

Ga. sex offenders must hand over online passwords

Wednesday, December 31 2008 @ 05:17 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Privacy advocates are questioning an aggressive Georgia law set to take effect Thursday that would require sex offenders to hand over Internet passwords, screen names and e-mail addresses.

Georgia joins a small band of states complying with guidelines in a 2006 federal law requiring authorities to track Internet addresses of sex offenders, but it is among the first to take the extra step of forcing its 16,000 offenders to turn in their passwords as well.

Source -

Better is still a long way from adequate.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081231051917788

Adobe’s Flash and Apple’s Safari Fail a Privacy Test

Wednesday, December 31 2008 @ 05:19 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews

In the new browser war, privacy is a crucial battleground.

Mozilla’s Firefox, Google’s Chrome, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Apple’s Safari all compete to give users the most control over their online identities and the best protection from Web sites that use “cookies,” those unique identifiers that can track users online.

So how effective are the newest batch of browser privacy tools? Kate McKinley, a researcher at iSec Partners, a San Francisco security firm, sought to find out.

Source - New York Times

[From the article:

In a paper published Tuesday, Ms. McKinley found particular problems with Safari and concluded that none of the four major browsers extends its privacy protections to Adobe’s immensely popular Flash plug-in, which is used to display Web animations and video.

When the government starts being rational, it probably means they will cancel the whole plan.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10129818-94.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

FCC chairman revises wireless broadband plan

Posted by Marguerite Reardon December 30, 2008 10:23 AM PST

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has backed off his plan that would require free wireless broadband license holders to filter for smut.

“All that is not mandatory is forbidden, all that is not forbidden is mandatory.” E. B. White

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10129841-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Business groups sue over Homeland Security E-Verify program

Posted by Stephanie Condon December 30, 2008 12:11 PM PST

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business organizations filed suit against U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff last week, complaining that the Homeland Security Department cannot legally require federal contractors to use its online worker verification database.

... Use of the system is voluntary, but President George Bush signed an executive order earlier this year requiring federal contractors to electronically verify their workers' employment eligibility.

The lawsuit, filed on December 23 in the U.S. District Court for Maryland's southern division, asks the court to declare the executive order and subsequent rule changes to be illegal and void, since the president's order is in direct contradiction to the law, which says that no person or entity shall be compelled to participate in the E-Verify program. The only exemptions are federal agencies, the legislative branch, and certain immigration law violators.

Cyber war: The electronic equivalent of a Fireside Chat?

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/12/israels-info-wa.html

YouTube, Twitter: Weapons in Israel's Info War

By Nathan Hodge December 30, 2008 1:47:01 PM

Days after sending aircraft to strike Hamas militants in Gaza, the Israeli government is launching a campaign to dominate the blogosphere.

Among other things, the Israeli military has started its own YouTube channel to distribute footage of precision airstrikes. And as I type, the Israeli consulate in New York is hosting a press conference on microblogging site Twitter.

Another TJX victory!

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080327120519773

FTC settles charges against TJX, and Data Brokers Reed Elsevier and Seisint for security failures

Thursday, March 27 2008 @ 12:05 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

In two unrelated Federal Trade Commission actions, discount retailer TJX and data brokers Reed Elsevier and Seisint have agreed to settle charges that each engaged in practices that, taken together, failed to provide reasonable and appropriate security for sensitive consumer information. The settlements will require that the companies implement comprehensive information security programs and obtain audits by independent third-party security professionals every other year for 20 years.

Source - FTC Press Release

Related - Agreement Containing Consent Order, TJX [pdf], other TJX files
Related - Agreement Containing Consent Order, Reed Elsevier Inc. and Seisint, Inc. [pdf], other Reed Elsevier and Seisint files

Well yes, we knew this... How about more details of what went wrong. (A fairly lucid article from someone who has done their homework)

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080327193959978

Hannaford may not have to pay banks' breach costs under PCI, says Gartner

Thursday, March 27 2008 @ 07:39 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

If Hannaford Bros. Co. was compliant with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard at the time it was breached, banks and credit unions will have a hard time getting the supermarket chain to pay their breach-related costs, according to a Gartner Inc. analyst.

Source - Computerworld

[From the article:

Hannaford spokeswoman Carol Eleazer today said the company was certified as being compliant with PCI as recently as this February. Hannaford had been similarly certified last year, Eleazer said.

... Under PCI rules, it is these acquiring banks that are directly responsible for ensuring that their merchants are PCI-compliant.

Apparently China wanted to know... Who else would want that information? The article does not suggest these files were on a computer, so someone had to enter the offices, locate the files (nothing else taken?) and carry them out.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080327132942768

UK: Sue Barker's personal details stolen in Olympic security breach at BBC

Thursday, March 27 2008 @ 01:29 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

Detectives have been called into the BBC after the personal files of the 440 staff - including household name presenters - being sent to the Beijing Olympics were stolen.

Two files, containing the accreditation details of presenters such as Sue Barker and Sharron Davies, the Olympic swimming medallist, disappeared from a sport production office.

Internal security is being reviewed after the theft was discovered at the beginning of the week at Television Centre. The police were called after an internal search failed to find them.

Source - Telegraph

You know, we could assemble a great “Don't do this” guide just from the stories on data breaches. I wonder if anyone learns form the failures of others?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080327193247154

Thief steals records of former, current DHR employees

Thursday, March 27 2008 @ 07:32 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

A thief has stolen computer records containing identifying information on current and former employees of the state Department of Human Resources, including names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and home contact information, officials said Thursday.

DHR officials say the theft occurred about March 19. An external hard drive that stored a database was removed "by an unauthorized person," according to a statement issued by the agency.

The statement did not say how many employees are affected, but the agency employs about 19,000 people. DHR officials didn't respond to a request for information on the number of employees involved.

Source - AJC

[From the article:

In the meantime, DHR is requiring employees to have password protection on jump and flash drives and portable computers that contain personnel information. [But no encryption? Worthless... Bob]

The agency also instructed workers to secure these items when away from their desks.

Here's a legislative suggestion. Let's fine organizations $10 per individual exposed, with the money going to pay for more “computer cops”

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080328060113425

No sure bets in personal data security

Friday, March 28 2008 @ 06:01 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

When a Maryland dental HMO acknowledged this week that it had accidentally posted the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of 75,000 members on its Web site, the revelation made news.

But the security breach at The Dental Network is just one of more than three dozen filed so far this year with the Maryland attorney general's office[...]

Thirty-nine businesses or groups have reported losses of sensitive information involving about 87,500 Maryland residents in the three months since a state law took effect requiring that people be informed of such incidents, records show.

And though most of the security breaches are much smaller, they underscore how hard it is to completely protect computerized information. [I would say they show that many organizations still don't protect their data... Bob]

Source - Baltimore Sun

Implications of identity theft. (Something had to go right for this guy eventually)

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080327194123741

Credit bureau settles Los Gatos cancer survivor's suit

Thursday, March 27 2008 @ 07:41 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

It's mind-numbing what Eric Drew has been through.

The former Los Gatos High School quarterback and runway model was diagnosed with leukemia seven years ago. A hospital lab technician stole his credit cards before he went into surgery. After that, credit card companies first blanketed him with cards he didn't want, then with threatening letters saying he owed them thousands of dollars. He thought his life was over, and even if survived, he was afraid he was financially ruined because of identity theft.

But last week, the 40-year-old Drew announced he'd had a stroke of good fortune.

He settled with TransUnion, a credit reporting company in Chicago, one of six banks and credit card companies he sued under fair-credit and consumer-protection laws.

All Drew would say from his bed at O'Connor Hospital in San Jose - a small grin on his face - was that the money was "considerable" and "unprecedented."

Source - Mercury News

hat-tip, The Consumerist blog

[From the article:

The deal with TransUnion was reached in January. But Drew, who is temporarily living with his parents in Los Gatos because a redwood tree fell onto his San Jose condominium in January, didn't get around until announcing the news until Thursday. He's been undergoing severe joint replacement surgeries, first his hip, then his ankle, and last week, his knee.

Worth a look? Perhaps others could point to these resources?

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/privacy-made-easier.html

Privacy made easier

3/28/2008 07:20:00 AM Posted by Jane Horvath, Senior Privacy Counsel

... With that in mind, today we're announcing a revamp of our Privacy Center. The new Center is a one-stop-shop for privacy resources, with various multi-media formats aimed to help you further understand how we store and use data, how to control who you share your data with, and how we protect your privacy.

They will sell this as a medical device (automatically dials 911 when the owner stops breathing) and a security device (works only for the “proper” user) but it could also “report” the DNA scans to insurance companies, governments, and other interested bystanders. Some times there is too much convergence...

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/28/NTT-DoCoMo-steps-towards-bio-sensing-cell-phones_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/28/NTT-DoCoMo-steps-towards-bio-sensing-cell-phones_1.html

NTT DoCoMo steps towards bio-sensing cell phones

Researchers demonstrate technology that could eventually enable phones to monitor owner's health

By Martyn Williams, IDG News Service March 28, 2008

Ah... Another political solution to a technological problem.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9072438&source=rss_news10

Washington state passes RFID antispying law

Skimming personal data off an RFID card could lead to 10-year prison sentence

By Sharon Gaudin

March 27, 2008 (Computerworld) Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire this week signed a bill making it a Class C felony to use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to spy on someone.

http://search.leg.wa.gov/pub/textsearch/ViewRoot.asp?Action=Html&Item=0&X=328081451&p=1 ??

Related? Or just a “well, duh” article?

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/28/Analyst-Money-will-fuel-mobile-spying-programs_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/28/Analyst-Money-will-fuel-mobile-spying-programs_1.html

Analyst: Money will fuel mobile spying programs

Programs could ultimately become harder to detect, speaker at Black Hat says

By Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service March 28, 2008

... Some of the more well-known spy programs are Neo-cal land FlexiSpy. Neo-call is capable of secretely forwarding SMS (Short Message Service) text messages to another phone, transmitting a list of phone numbers called, and logging keystrokes. FlexiSpy has a neat, Web-based interface that shows details of call times, numbers and SMSes, and it can even use a phone's GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver to pinpoint the victim's location.

Interesting method to improve a weak law.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080327131317680

Ca: iOptOut: My Response to the Do-Not-Call Disappointment

Thursday, March 27 2008 @ 01:13 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News

Regular readers of my work will know that I have been frustrated by Canada's do-not-call list, which contains far too many exceptions and has taken an embarrassingly long time to become operational. In response, today I am launching iOptOut, a website that will allow Canadians to opt-out of further phone calls (and emails) from dozens of organizations with a single click.

I began to develop the site soon after the do-not-call bill became law. The premise is simple - under the law, exempted organizations (which include charities, political parties, polling companies, newspapers, and companies with a prior business relationship) are permitted to make unsolicited telephone calls despite the inclusion of a number in the do-not-call registry. However, organizations must remove numbers from their lists if specifically requested to do so.

Source - Michael Geist's Blog

This is interesting. By extension, I could be next (since I link to a link that links to the link the French don't like...) No doubt Napoleon would say, “Je n'ai aucune idée de ce que vous parlez.”

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080327145631880

French court fines user-generated website for privacy breach

Thursday, March 27 2008 @ 02:56 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: In the Courts

A Paris court ruled on Thursday that a user-generated website had violated a film star's privacy by hosting a link to a report about him, in a potentially landmark ruling for the French Internet.

The court ruled that fuzz.fr made an "editorial" decision to link to a story on a gossip news site about French actor Olivier Martinez and his relationship with singer Kylie Minogue -- and was therefore responsible for its content.

The fuzz.fr website -- taken offline following the lawsuit -- allowed users to post links to their favourite stories elsewhere on the web, with the most popular ones automatically displayed at the top spot.

Its creator Eric Dupin was ordered to pay 1,000 euros (1,600 dollars) in damages to Martinez and 1,500 euros in legal costs.

Source - AFP

Could this be done correctly?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080328071331660

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro: Heavily Promoted Identity-Theft Protection Company, LifeLock, Sued for Misleading Consumers

Friday, March 28 2008 @ 07:13 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: In the Courts

Today an Arizona consumer filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against LifeLock, a heavily promoted company that claims to protect consumers against identity theft. The lawsuit alleges that the three-year-old company defrauds customers by offering services it cannot legally perform, and by touting a $1 million guarantee that the suit alleges is wildly misleading.

Filed in United States District Court for the District of Arizona, the suit seeks to recover money consumers paid to LifeLock.

[...] According to the complaint.... LifeLock will not pay any losses directly to the consumer and does not cover consequential or incidental damages to identity theft. The guarantee is limited to fixing failures or defects in the LifeLock services and paying other professionals to attempt to restore losses.

"The fine print in this $1 million guarantee is so limiting, we think it is almost worthless," said Rob Carey, partner in the law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, who is representing consumers. "LifeLock buries the truth beneath a pile of inconsistencies and disclaimers so deep that we believe the intent is to mislead consumers so they don't make claims."

[...] According to the suit, LifeLock's "proven solution" consists of illegally placing and renewing fraud alerts under consumers' names with credit bureaus. Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, however, corporations such as LifeLock are not allowed to place fraud alerts on a consumers' behalf - in fact, according to the complaint, the law was written so as to specifically bar credit-repair companies from improperly using fraud alerts.

Source - PR Newswire

What ever you do, don't fix the problem!

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080326/194543660.shtml

Can The DMCA Be Used To Stifle Speech?

from the we're-about-to-find-out dept

Last summer, we wrote about a very questionable DMCA lawsuit filed by Coupons.com. The company lets people download coupons using its own software. The software is designed to limit how many copies of a coupon people can make. The company accused John Stottlemire of violating the anti-circumvention part of the DMCA by offering up some software that would help people get around the copy limit. However, he didn't just offer up software to do it, elsewhere he explained how you could do it manually, just by deleting a couple of files on your computer. That's hardly a "hack." There was no encryption to defeat, just some files to delete. Basically, Coupons.com couldn't be bothered to come up with a system that was actually secure and put in only the weakest of "protections." [Sound familiar? Bob]

Yet, Coupons.com claims that telling people to delete some files is circumventing their copy protection. The EFF (along with the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at UC Berkeley) have now filed an amicus brief with the court pointing out the numerous problems with the charges. As the filing notes, the DMCA is focused on people providing a "technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof," and comments on a website hardly seem to qualify. It also notes that even if the court interprets written comments to be included, the DMCA is specific that it does not diminish any free speech rights. The filing also looks at other problems with the Coupons.com filing, including the company mixing up the difference between access controls and rights controls. Hopefully the judge realizes that this is (yet another) abuse of the DMCA and tosses the case out quickly.

Ineresting article

http://digg.com/political_opinion/Slate_Magazine_The_Education_of_a_9_11_Reporter

Slate Magazine - The Education of a 9/11 Reporter

slate.com — The inside drama behind the Times' warrantless wiretapping story.

http://www.slate.com/id/2187498/

[From the article:

For more than an hour, we told Bush's aides what we knew about the wiretapping program, and they in turn told us why it would do grave harm to national security to let anyone else in on the secret. Consider the financial damage to the phone carriers that took part in the program, one official implored.

Out of the mouths of babes...

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080327/152312670.shtml

Mainstream Press Finally Realizing That Kids Want To Share News, Not Read News

from the it-took-them-this-long? dept

In an interesting followup to our earlier post about the state of the news business, Robin writes in to point us to a NY Times article all about how a younger generation of news readers now focus on sharing the news, rather than just consuming it. Mathew Ingram highlights the key sentence in the article, from a college student: "If the news is that important, it will find me." Very few mainstream publications have grasped that concept, even if some folks have been saying the same thing for years. It's time for those in the newspaper business to stop thinking of readers as straight consumers. They're distributors, promoters, creators and analysts of the news as well. Once you recognize that, you start to change how you approach the news business. You certainly get rid of paywalls and registration walls, and you start enabling your users to do more, rather than less, with the news.

Is this an indication of where the Feds are heading? (Not enough details in the story)

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080327201017311

RI: Jury Rules Against City In Wiretapping Suit

Thursday, March 27 2008 @ 08:10 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Workplace Privacy

A federal jury returned a verdict against city of Providence authorities for illegally recording the phone calls of their employees at a public safety complex.

City officials said the jury on Wednesday awarded compensatory and punitive damages of about $525,000 to be split among the more than 100 plaintiffs.

Source - turnto10.com

Ignorance or intent?

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080326/170300659.shtml

California Reviews... And Decertifies... More ES&S E-Voting Machines

from the a-lesson-in-weak-security dept

Remember how e-voting firm ES&S was so against letting California's Secretary of State have an independent security team review their e-voting machines? Well, now we know why. The state had already released one damning security report and sued ES&S for giving the state uncertified machines. Now the state has come out with another report on more ES&S machines and the story gets worse and worse and worse. The good news is that California won't certify any of them. The bad news is that ES&S appears to not only be belligerent in not wanting to let California review its machines, but it also seems to be incompetent as well. As Dan Wallach notes in reviewing the report, ES&S appears to have outright ignored issues that the state asked them to address. As for the machines themselves? There seem to be all sorts of problems, including an awful lot of data stored in cleartext rather than encrypted, easily accessible and easily changed or corrupted data, and seldom-used and easily-broken password protection. Physical locks were all easily picked (some within 5 seconds, the rest within a minute). In other words, the security is a near total joke. This, despite the fact that people have been pointing out these kinds of security concerns for over five years. I wonder if the guy from ES&S who showed up a year ago and told us all we had no clue what we were talking about and swearing up and down that the machines were safe will come back and explain these latest results.

This is interesting. I wonder what scared them? (We know it wasn't their customers.)

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080328062048823

Comcast agrees not to interfere with file-sharing

Friday, March 28 2008 @ 06:20 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Internet & Computers

Comcast Corp., an Internet service provider under investigation for hampering online file-sharing by its subscribers, announced Thursday an about-face in its stance and said it will treat all types of Internet traffic equally.

Source - CNN

[From the article:

On Thursday, Comcast said that by the end of the year, it will move to a system that manages capacity without favoring one type of traffic over another. [I bet they still sell “unlimited” service, and will still impact the same (high volume) people. Bob]

This seems strategically backward to me. Volunteers will report more “incidents” that the cops must investigate, but the cops are overloaded with paperwork today – why generate more?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080327201201695

AU: Surveillance volunteers need training, says MP

Thursday, March 27 2008 @ 08:12 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News

The South Australian Opposition says it wants an assurance that volunteers recruited for a new surveillance program will get proper police training.

Police are expected to launch a number of programs for volunteers to carry out surveillance in public areas.

Opposition police spokesman David Ridgway says the plan is good in theory but must be done carefully.

Source - ABC (AU)

I think my hackers would like to try this?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080328062826706

Next time you go to the loo, bring your locked laptop with you

Friday, March 28 2008 @ 06:28 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Internet & Computers

Building off recent research that showed how to extract encryption keys from a computer's memory, a penetration testing company has unveiled a tool that sniffs out passwords, documents, and other sensitive data in a matter of minutes.

DaisyDukes is a memory sniffer that resides on a USB device. A researcher can plug it into an unattended machine that is turned on but has been locked and reboot the machine off a compact operating system contained on the drive. Depending on the user's needs, it can be configured to capture the entire contents of a computer's memory, or sniff out only certain types of data - say a password to access the company network or unlock a user's private encryption key.

Source - The Register

My hacker students need heroes...

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/27/Gone-in-2-minutes-Mac-gets-hacked-first-in-contest_1.html

Gone in 2 minutes: Mac gets hacked first in contest

CanSecWest's PWN 2 OWN contest was won in 2 minutes -- after the rules were relaxed a bit -- as Charlie Miller hacked a MacBook Air

By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service March 27, 2008

It may be the quickest $10,000 Charlie Miller ever earned.

... Nobody was able to hack into the systems on the first day of the contest when contestants were only allowed to attack the computers over the network, but on Thursday the rules were relaxed so that attackers could direct contest organizers using the computers to do things like visit Web sites or open e-mail messages.

... Miller, a former National Security Agency employee best known as one of the researchers who first hacked Apple's iPhone last year, didn't take much time. Within 2 minutes, he directed the contest's organizers to visit a Web site that contained his exploit code, which then allowed him to seize control of the computer, as about 20 onlookers cheered him on.

He was the first contestant to attempt an attack on any of the systems.

What does this suggest? A few out-of-control employees? Management that doesn't notice? This would seem to be an extremely risky thing to do... or am I wrong?

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9759184-7.html

AT&T admits it censored other bands

Posted by Marguerite Reardon August 13, 2007 3:44 PM PDT

It looks like Pearl Jam isn't the only band that has had its politically charged comments bleeped from concerts streamed from AT&T's Blue Room Web site.

AT&T issued a statement on Friday admitting that this kind of thing has happened before. And the company once again apologized.

... Exactly how many performances have been edited is unknown. AT&T hasn't specified. Nor has it said what exactly it's doing to ensure that this won't happen again.

... AT&T originally said that it only edits Blue Room Webcasts for profanity since the site is available to all age groups. But a group calling itself the Future of Music Coalition, counted 20 instances of curse words being used during the Pearl Jam Webcast that were not censored by the content monitor.

"It's clear AT&T has not made a mistake. They or the companies they've hired to monitor Webcasts have engaged in a clear and consistent pattern of silencing free speech," Jenny Toomey, executive director of the Future of Music Coalition, said in a statement.

... And to be honest, I can't see any business-related reason for doing such a thing. [Me too, neither. Bob]

Resources for e-law experts?

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/015714.html

August 13, 2007

ABA Launches New Consumer E-Commerce Site

"Safeselling.org offers a resource for business people launching ecommerce enterprises and for businesses venturing into online sales. First-time entrepreneurs and established small to medium-sized business expanding their horizons should find helpful information on this site about selling goods and services online...Safeselling.org is a companion to safeshopping.org, an earlier project of the Cyberspace Law Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section of Business Law, which answers questions for consumers about shopping on the web."

Another suggestion that a true military attack would be lots (orders of magnitude?) worse...

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/08/stonias-lesson-.html

Estonia's lesson for "cyberwar" fighters: Learn digital crowd control

By John Borland EmailAugust 10, 2007 | 8:44:05 AM Categories: CCC, Cybarmageddon!

Three months after May's "information warfare" attacks on Estonia, computer security experts continue to scrutinize the event for clues to the future of digital conflicts.

Israeli security expert Gadi Evron, who helped the Estonians with their response, argued here at Chaos Communication Camp, following similar speeches at other recent gatherings, that the attacks were far more akin to a "cyber-riot" than to actual warfare.

The May events followed the Estonian decision to dismantle and move a symbolically significant Russian war memorial in their capital city of Tallinn (Estonia was an unwilling part of the USSR from the end of World War II to the Soviet dissolution). Riots of the local Russian-speaking population resulted, and calls for retaliation quickly spread to Russian blogs.

Many of the early attacks that subsequently overwhelmed Estonia's Web servers, banks, and government email systems were rudimentary, with instructions widely posted on these blogs telling people how to send manual pings to the country's servers. But more sophisticated tools soon were used, with botnets flooding Estonian addresses with traffic anywhere from 100 to 1000 times ordinary levels.

The Estonians, and much of the world press, initially characterized this as the first true information war. Fingers were pointed towards the Russian government, largely on the basis of IP addresses (probably spoofed) traced to government facilities. For their part, Russian officials hotly denied any involvement.

Evron doesn't downplay the seriousness of the situation – it effectively hamstrung facilities for days in a country far more deeply reliant on Internet infrastructure than is the United States. But he points to the way activity and action spread through the blog community as evidence that this was something very different than a conventional military operation.

"Fighting is not necessarily warfare," he says. "The whole idea of the blogosphere, of online mob psychology, is taking psychological warfare and putting it on the offensive."

Defenders against this kind of attack, which spreads meme-like through an easily inflamed, but not necessarily coordinated online community, need to think more in terms of policing metaphors than military, he says. Crowds without centers need to be controlled and subdued, rather than attacked. Damage must be mitigated, with a focus on defense rather than offense.

So who was ultimately behind the attacks? Evron says portions of the attacks looked suspiciously like there was some central coordination happening; but it's as yet impossible to trace anything back to the government.

More important is the lesson that in future events, cyber-conflicts may best resemble guerrilla battles, or even spontaneous riots, in which the general opponents are known, but the immediate attackers are not.

As for Americans still trying to adapt to asymmetric warfare tactics in Iraq, these lessons may take time to sink in. But it seems certain that Estonia will remain a case study for years to come.

Perhaps we need more annotation (that was irony, except in New Jersey)

http://techdirt.com/articles/20070813/100307.shtml

Inadvertent Online Resumes Continue To Cause Some Problems

from the broken-off dept

It's pretty common for people to do Google background checks on prospective employees (or potential dates) these days, so it's a little surprising to see people still put all sorts of information that could harm their job prospects online. A substitute judge in Las Vegas lost his position last week, after some people noticed that his MySpace profile listed his personal interests as, among other things, "Breaking my foot off in a prosecutor's ass ... and improving my ability to break my foot off in a prosecutor's ass." A local district attorney alleged that this displayed a bias against prosecutors, and asked that the judge be recused from his criminal cases, but court administrators went a step further and decided not to use his services any more. The judge, or now ex-judge, says that, basically, he was trying to be funny, and that the overstatement on his page was obvious. That may be the case, but given his position -- and his political ambitions -- it's hard to imagine that he couldn't foresee any problems from putting the comments up online.

Interesting report title. These suggestions will likely be resisted.

http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1397,2170461,00.asp

Zen IT for Demanding Employees

August 13, 2007 By Deborah Perelman, eWEEK

What do mainframes and networks have in common? Centralized control, and these command and control structures have long assured IT professionals that the technology game is played on their terms.

Yet, in the age of the consumerization of technology, the effectiveness of centralized IT control has slipped. In fact, a report released by the Yankee Group Research Aug. 6, a Boston connectivity research firm, found that 50 percent of employees felt that their personal technology is more advanced than workplace technology.

Furthermore, "Zen and the Art of Rogue Employee Management" argues, banning employees from using consumer technology at work creates an endless game of whack-a-mole; and the only way to win is to manage both the technology and the insistent employee.

Consumerization of technology is one of the five things—including content, client, connectivity and collaboration—that the Yankee Group argues will be a nightmare for IT departments, as they create maintenance and support problems that easily overwhelm resources. IT can fight this tooth and nail, or it can concede and adopt a Zen-like approach which will give control to users through a cooperative care model, reduce IT's burden, and improve internal customer satisfaction.

... "As ubiquitous connectivity takes hold, consumers are driving more innovation and technology trends in the enterprise," said Holbrook.

Perhaps I could combine this with a research project in my Statistics class?

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/13/2151255&from=rss

Google's $10 Local Search Play

Posted by kdawson on Monday August 13, @09:23PM from the cheap-feet-on-the-street dept. Google

thefickler writes "Google has come come up with a novel way to boost the information it has about local businesses. As part of its Business Referral Representative program, Google is offering individuals up to $10 to visit local businesses and tell them about Google Maps and Google AdWords, collect information (such as hours of operation and types of payment accepted), and take digital photos of the business. Reaction to the program has been mixed."