Eventually, even management can do the right thing.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080924111405982

UK: M&S appeal dropped as it encrypts laptops (follow-up)

Wednesday, September 24 2008 @ 11:14 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

An appeal by Marks and Spencer (M&S) against a decision by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) ordering the retail giant to encrypt all its laptops has been dropped for a strange reason - M&S has completed a laptop encryption programme.

The apparent confliction between the laptop encryption scheme and the decision to appeal the enforcement notice has been given different explanations by different sources.

Source - computing.co.uk

[From the article:

Computing was told by a source close to the case that M&S changed tack and decided to comply with the enforcement notice rather than appeal it because the retailer had originally over-estimated its legal position and did not think the ICO would pursue the case to court.

“Do as I say, not as I do.”

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080924161637132

Possible security breach in New Haven

Wednesday, September 24 2008 @ 04:16 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

New Haven (WTNH) -- The personal information of people working at ports in Connecticut and across the country could be in jeopardy. Thieves have made off with vital equipment, leaving the Department of Homeland Security scrambling.

Two laptop computers were missing after the break-in. One was used to enter the personal information of applicants undergoing a background check.

DHS insists information in the lap tops is encrypted and the data is suppose to be deleted after it's transmitted to Washington.

Still, in a statement to News Channel 8, the FBI says the "Joint Terrorism Taskforce is assessing if there's been a breach in national security."

Source - WTNH.com

[From the article:

Today, truckers like John Rocchi showed up at the office to apply for an ID only to be turned away until new laptops arrive to replace the ones that were stolen. [Apparently there are no paper forms? Why laptops? Desktops are cheaper and less a target for thieves... Bob] Rocchi, like many others, wonders why such a sensitive office was placed in an inner city neighborhood.

... Who ever was responsible obviously broke in the front door but the office door for TWIC has no sign of forced entry. The office manager here believes that might mean someone had a key to get in. [...or the door was unlocked? Bob]

Related? Is this technology too expensive (free) or too complex for Homeland Security?

http://www.linux.com/feature/148197

Track your missing laptop with Adeona

By Nathan Willis on September 23, 2008 (9:00:00 PM)

... Adeona runs in the background, and works its magic by waking up at random intervals to record data about the equipment's location and status, which it encrypts and then silently uploads to off-site storage. If your laptop (or, for that matter, your co-located server) goes missing, you can retrieve its latest records from elsewhere, learning such information as its internal and external IP address, local network configuration, and more. Armed with that info, you can call John Law and take a big step toward recovering your goods.

Related? Security rules are occationaly followed...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019396.html

September 24, 2008

DOE IG: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Unclassified Cyber Security Program - 2008

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Unclassified Cyber Security Program - 2008, DOE/IG-0802 September 2008

• "The Commission had taken action to improve cyber security practices and implemented protective measures designed to defend its networks against malicious attackers and other external threats. Our evaluation, however, disclosed that additional actions are needed to reduce the risk of compromise to the Commission's business information systems and data to an acceptable level."

Since our citizens object, we have no choice but to stop all public discussion of this database. Henceforth, this will fall under our “Double Secret Probation” classification.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2008092506111137

UK.gov 'to drop' überdatabase from Communications Data Bill

Thursday, September 25 2008 @ 06:11 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

The government will drop plans for a massive central database to track UK citizens private communications from the forthcoming Communications Data Bill, but civil servants will proceed with the multi-billion project in the background instead.

Senior civil servants will discretely proceed with the project to swerve potential political opposition to a scheme which would retain details of every phone call, email, and web browsing session carried out by every UK citizen, sources have told The Register.

Source - The Register

“Security is as good as we can program it to be...” Scary thought.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/09/20m_cameras_at.html

September 25, 2008

$20M Cameras at New York's Freedom Tower are Pretty Sophisticated

They're trying to detect anomalies:

If you have ever wondered how security guards can possibly keep an unfailingly vigilant watch on every single one of dozens of television monitors, each depicting a different scene, the answer seems to be (as you suspected): they can't.

Instead, they can now rely on computers to constantly analyze the patterns, sizes, speeds, angles and motion picked up by the camera and determine -- based on how they have been programmed -- whether this constitutes a possible threat. In which case, the computer alerts the security guard whose own eyes may have been momentarily diverted. Or shut.

An alarm can be raised, for instance, if the computer discerns a vehicle that has been standing still for too long (say, a van in the drop-off lane of an airport terminal) or a person who is loitering while everyone else is in motion. By the same token, it will spot the individual who is moving rapidly while everyone else is shuffling along. It can spot a package that has been left behind and identify which figure in the crowd abandoned it. Or pinpoint the individual who is moving the wrong way down a one-way corridor.

Because one person's "abnormal situation" is another person's "hot dog vendor attracting a small crowd," the computers can be programmed to discern between times of the day and days of the week.

Certainly interesting.

The “Big-Brotherhood” is growing... Any chance we will see a similar headline in this country?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080925061722578

Norway signs over the personal data of its citizens to the US

Thursday, September 25 2008 @ 06:17 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

In a historic deal, the United States and Norway are set to sign an agreement to share the personal data of each other’s citizens. A similar deal has just been struck between the US and the EU, allowing for everything from personal web surfing information to mobile phone numbers and email addresses to be exchanged between the government bodies.

Source - IceNews

Big Brother has great big eyes...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2008092506314079

AU: Councils spy with Google eye

Thursday, September 25 2008 @ 06:31 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Thinking of extending the kitchen but want to avoid council red tape and building permits? Maybe you have forgotten to register the family pet or failed to fence off the pool?

Be careful, Big Brother could be watching, with several Victorian councils using Google Earth and Google Street View to identify illegal building activity and breaches of local government laws.

Source - The Sydney Morning Herald Thanks to Brian Honan for the link.

The price of SPAM?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080925063020313

Timberland pays $7m to settle SMS spam lawsuit

Thursday, September 25 2008 @ 06:30 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Outdoor gear firm Timberland has agreed to pay $7m to settle a text message spam class-action lawsuit in the US.

Recipients of unsolicited SMS messages punting the rappers' favourite stand to collect up to $150 in compensation from the fund, under the terms of a preliminary agreement.

Source - The Register Thanks to Brian Honan for the link.

A new legal term?

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/25/0311207&from=rss

DOJ Opposes Extending DOJ Copyright Authority

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday September 25, @07:57AM from the not-our-problem dept.

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes

"The White House has opposed the bipartisan bill that would create copyright cops on the grounds that it would cause the Department of Justice to end up 'serving as pro bono lawyers for private copyright holders.' And while they do occasionally prosecute criminal copyright infringement, they have no intention of dabbling with civil cases because, 'taxpayer-supported department lawyers would pursue lawsuits for copyright holders, with monetary recovery going to industry.' At this rate, the discovery of winged suiformes [Flying pigs? Bob] would appear to be immanent."

“We like our public records to be public—just not too public.” I like it!

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/24/181233&from=rss

Chicago Law Firm Sues Over Hyperlink To Trademarked Name

Posted by timothy on Wednesday September 24, @02:32PM from the quick-don't-ever-mention-any-company-names dept. The Internet The Courts

TheSpoom writes

"Large Chicago law firm Jones Day are suing internet startup BlockShopper over the issue of whether linking to a business with their trademarked name should be legal. It would seem they are using trademark dilution as a tool to get BlockShopper to cease linking to their website. The EFF has filed an amicus curiae, as might be expected. If Jones Day wins this suit, anyone linking using a trademarked name may be in legal hot water."

Music lovers don't tend to fight the RIAA, but never mess with the gamer crowd...

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/24/1939256&from=rss

EA Hit By Class-Action Suit Over Spore DRM

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday September 24, @04:02PM from the was-it-worth-the-hassle? dept.

The ever-growing unrest caused by the DRM involved with EA's launch of Spore came to a head on Monday. A woman named Melissa Thomas filed a class-action lawsuit against EA for their inclusion of the SecuROM copy-protection software with Spore. This comes after protests of the game's DRM ranged from a bombardment of poor Amazon reviews to in-game designs decrying EA and its policies. Some of those policies were eased, but EA has also threatened to ban players for even discussing SecuROM on their forums. The court documents (PDF) allege:

"What purchasers are not told is that, included in the purchase, installation, and operation of Spore is a second, undisclosed program. The name of the second program is SecuROM ... Consumers are given no control, rights, or options over SecuROM. ... Electronic Arts intentionally did not disclose to any such purchasers that the Spore game disk also possessed a second, hidden program which secretly installed to the command and control center of the computer."

Hacker response: Change your userid every 30 seconds...

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/24/1941221&from=rss

Comcast Outlines New Broadband Policy

Posted by timothy on Wednesday September 24, @04:49PM from the knowledge-is-power dept. The Internet

Slatterz writes

"US cable provider Comcast has presented its long-term solution for managing broadband traffic. The new system is set at putting to bed a minor scandal that erupted around the company when it was found that Comcast deliberately limited traffic for certain applications. The company said that under its new system, traffic will be analyzed every fifteen minutes. Users who are found to be occupying large amounts of bandwidth will be placed at a lower priority for network access behind users with less bandwidth-intensive traffic. The new system will not replace or be related to the company's earlier installment of bandwidth caps, which limited a user's data intake to 250GB per month."

Related? What happens when everyone is using the Internet rather than cable. Satellite or broadcast to get their TV?

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE48O42020080925?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews

IPTV subscriptions to grow 64 percent in 2008: Gartner

Thu Sep 25, 2008 9:00am EDT

A “Cloud Computing” question for my Computer Lawyer friends: If my applications are stored “in the cloud” and vendors like IBM dynamically move them from center to center to balance the load, how will you word a subpoena? Will “located in the cloud” be sufficient?

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/09/24/IBM_launches_four_new_cloud_computing_centers_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/09/24/IBM_launches_four_new_cloud_computing_centers_1.html

IBM launches four new cloud computing centers

IBM now has 13 cloud computing centers worldwide to let enterprises, universities, and governments test Web-based services and applications

By John Ribeiro, IDG News Service September 24, 2008

IBM opened up cloud computing centers in four countries on Wednesday to let enterprises, universities, and governments test Web-based services and applications.

The new cloud computing centers are in Bangalore, India; Hanoi, Vietnam; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Seoul, South Korea. The company now has 13 cloud computing centers worldwide.

Interesting when you think about it. This must include a majority of blue collar workers too.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019395.html

September 24, 2008

Pew Report: Most working Americans now use the internet or email at their jobs

News release: "A new national survey shows that 62% of adults who are currently employed use the internet or email at work and they have mixed views about the impact of technology on their work lives. [Imagine that! Bob] On the one hand, they cite the benefits of increased connectivity and flexibility that the internet and all of their various gadgets afford them at work. On the other hand, many workers say these tools have added stress and new demands to their lives."

• Networked Workers: Most workers use the internet or email at their jobs, but they say these technologies are a mixed blessing for them, September 24, 2008

Related Does this explain the previous article?

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/25/1314251&from=rss

Quarter of Workers' Time Online Is Personal

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday September 25, @10:03AM from the this-is-why-we-created-the-idle-section dept. The Internet

sloit writes

"Most people spend more than 25 per cent of their time online at work on personal activities. And 80 per cent of emails sent by volume in the workplace are personal. Bosses often have no way of tracking Internet activity or policies to define what staff can and cannot do. Paul Hortop, who reviews company network security for consultancy Voco, said the most common websites visited by personal web surfers were online trading sites, instant messaging/chat services and peer-to-peer sharing sites (allowing movie, music and software sharing)."

"Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
Alice in Wonderland.

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/25/036232&from=rss

Studies Say Ideology Trumps Facts

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday September 25, @02:54AM from the water-still-wet dept. Science

Anti-Globalism writes

"We like to think that people will be well informed before making important decisions, such as who to vote for, but the truth is that's not always the case. Being uninformed is one thing, but having a population that's actively misinformed presents problems when it comes to participating in the national debate, or the democratic process. If the findings of some political scientists are right, attempting to correct misinformation might do nothing more than reinforce the false belief."

Related: Oxymoron alert! “Political Facts” (At 6:10AM MDT the link doesn't work. Has Homeland Security been busy?)

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019403.html

September 24, 2008

New on LLRX.com - The Government Domain: Political Fact-Checking Websites

The Government Domain: Political Fact-Checking Websites - Peggy Garvin's well-timed article identifies and evaluates key websites that monitor the accuracy of statements and representations made by political candidates and their respective campaigns.

For those of us who care...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019400.html

September 24, 2008

State of the Blogosphere - 2008

"Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2008 report...will be released in five consecutive daily segments. Since 2004, our annual study has unearthed and analyzed the trends and themes of blogging, but for the 2008 study, we resolved to go beyond the numbers of the Technorati Index to deliver even deeper insights into the blogging mind. For the first time, we surveyed bloggers directly about the role of blogging in their lives, the tools, time, and resources used to produce their blogs, and how blogging has impacted them personally, professionally, and financially."

[From the article:

Blogs are Profitable

The majority of bloggers we surveyed currently have advertising on their blogs. Among those with advertising, the mean annual investment in their blog is $1,800, but it’s paying off. The mean annual revenue is $6,000 with $75K+ in revenue for those with 100,000 or more unique visitors per month.

Definitely something for my students!

http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/ebook-x-com-download-e-books-for-free

Ebook-X.com - Download E-books For Free

http://www.ebook-x.com

Are you looking for computer-related books online and can’t seem to find what you need? If that happens to be the case, then a visit to the Ebook-X website is more than likely to set you going. The site collects together computer books ranging far and wide, and the database is constantly updated. A menu located on the left-hand side of the main page will let you find what you need in an uncomplicated manner. This menu is broken in categories such as “Free programming e-books”, “Free database e-books” and “Operating Systems” to name but three. Other category that merits a mention is the one entitled “Free video training”, where you can find out how to hone your skills online. Featured books are highlighted on the main page, and a brief description of each title is provided. This description showcases how each book is structured, and the different chapters are enumerated. In addition to that, miscellaneous books that are going to be of interest to computer enthusiasts the world over dealing with aspects such as Internet security and so forth can be procured online in a similar fashion.

Another “password only” laptop.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080923164122105

National Bank Laptop With Mortgage Data Stolen From Head Office

Tuesday, September 23 2008 @ 04:41 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

National Bank of Canada, the country's sixth-biggest lender by assets, said a laptop computer with client information on mortgage loans was stolen from its Montreal headquarters.

The laptop, stolen Sept. 19, had information on ``a high percentage of our customers who have mortgages,'' spokesman Denis Dube said today in an interview. The information included details on mortgages and account numbers, but didn't have personal information such as birth dates, credit-card numbers or signatures, he said.

``The impact will be minimal since the information is basic information,'' Dube said.

Source - Bloomberg

So we begin to learn what the criminals know -- “default passwords”

http://digg.com/security/First_Bust_Ever_for_ATM_Reprogramming_Scam

First Bust Ever for ATM Reprogramming Scam

blog.wired.com — The pair allegedly reprogrammed the machines to believe they were loaded with one-dollar bills instead of tens and twenties. A withdrawal of $20 would thus net $380. [Reporters can't do math? Bob] The Nebraska case marks the first reported arrests for the keypad capers

[From the article:

It took a high-speed chase and some gunplay, but two men in Lincoln, Nebraska, are the first to face felony charges for using default passcodes to reprogram retail cash machines to dispense free money.

... Threat Level later confirmed that default administrative passcodes for ATMs manufactured by industry leaders Tranax and Triton were printed in owner's manuals easily found online.

... In 2006, both Tranax and Triton issued software patches for new ATMs that force operators to change the default passcodes on first use.

All you paper belong to us!

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2008092316441011

Internal DHS Documents Detail Expansion of Power to Read and Copy Travelers' Papers

Tuesday, September 23 2008 @ 04:44 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Recently obtained documents show that last year the Department of Homeland Security quietly reversed a two-decades-old policy that restricted customs agents from reading and copying the personal papers carried by travelers, including U.S. citizens. The documents were made public today by the Asian Law Caucus (ALC) and Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which sued the government under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain policies governing the searches and questioning of travelers at the nation’s borders.

Source - EFF

[From the website:

For the complete set of FOIA documents and more detailed analysis: http://www.eff.org/cases/foia-litigation-border-searches.

RIM must be thrilled! All you lawyers using Blackberries take note! (Most likely this is not a true encryption failure...)

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080924053601283

India Claims To Have Cracked Blackberry Encryption; Proudly Spying On Emails

Wednesday, September 24 2008 @ 05:36 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Earlier this year, India demanded that RIM allow it to easily snoop on any email messages sent via Blackberry devices. The company explained that since the end user sets the encryption key, there's simply no way to provide a backdoor to snoop on the messages. However, now the government is proudly claiming that it's cracked the code and can now monitor Blackberry messages on various mobile operator networks.

Source - Techdirt

(My bible is “How to Lie with Statistics,” a must read for all MBAs.) It's not that we have more computers or even more crooks. What we have is bad security that allows the crooks to take control of our computers.

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/23/1713233&from=rss

US Responsible For the Majority of Cyber Attacks

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday September 23, @01:32PM from the we're-number-one-we're-number-one dept. Security United States

Amber G5 writes

"SecureWorks published the locations of the computers from which the greatest number of cyber attacks were attempted against its clients in 2008. The United States topped the list with 20.6 million attempted attacks originating from computers within the country, and China ran second with 7.7 million attempted attacks emanating from computers within its borders. This was followed by Brazil with over 166,987 attempted attacks, South Korea with 162,289, Poland with 153,205, Japan with 142,346, Russia with 130,572, Taiwan with 124,997, Germany with 110,493, and Canada with 107,483."

What a fun hack this would be: “Ja, you can make it. Trust me!”

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/09/audi-puts-more.html

Audi Puts More 'Go' Into Stop-and-Go

By Keith Barry September 23, 2008 4:11:02 PM

If police officers in Ingolstadt notice a decrease in luxury car drivers running red lights these days, we suspect it's because of a new project piloted by Audi that lets drivers know exactly how long before a traffic light turns. According to Audi's press release, the system is meant to prevent "frustrating, fuel-sapping stops at red traffic lights."

Ask any Statistician: Half the world is below average. Ask any teacher: “90% of my students are below average.”

http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/23/2052200&from=rss

Popup Study Confirms Most Users Are Idiots

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday September 23, @05:40PM from the at-my-office-they-all-are dept. It's funny. Laugh.

danieltdp writes

"Testing students at a University, psychologists made many of them click on a dialog box that in effect said: 'You are about to install some malware. Malware is bad. By clicking yes you are failing the Windows Darwin Test.' Nearly half of them said all they cared about was getting rid of these dialogs." [Irritating pop-ups are automated social engineering. Bob]

Related

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080924054701412

UK: ICO urges consumers to take control of their data

Wednesday, September 24 2008 @ 05:47 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has called on consumers to use their legal rights to manage their personal information - because organisations aren't doing such a great job.

... With that in mind, the ICO has launched a new online tool to help consumers do their bit to protect and manage their personal information.

Smith said: “Our Personal Information Healthcheck is suitable for everyone, whether they’ve never before thought about protecting their personal information or could just benefit from a few extra tips and ideas.”

Source - IT PRO

[From the article:

An ICO-sponsored survey of over 2,000 UK adults found the level of awareness around the importance of personal data had grown – 95 per cent considered it ‘quite’ or ‘very’ valuable – and more than 70 per cent claimed to routinely shred personal documents.

But it revealed 44 per cent of those questioned by the ICM Research poll had never considered contacting an organisation to find out what information it holds about them. More alarmingly, 40 per cent admitted they would hand over their details to a company without knowing whether it was trustworthy.

[We need to involve a Psychiatrist or ten to figure out how to get this through thick skulls. Bob]

Related? I won't call these policies vastly idiotic any longer, I'll call them half-vast.

http://idle.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/23/1528259&from=rss

Students Are Always Half Right In Pittsburgh

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday September 23, @11:26PM from the think-of-the-children dept.

Pittsburgh Public Schools officials have enacted a policy that sets 50 percent as the minimum score a student can receive for assignments, tests and other work. District spokeswoman Ebony Pugh said, the 50 percent minimum gives children a chance to catch up and a reason to keep trying. If a student gets a 20 percent in a class for the first marking period, he or she would need a 100 percent during the second marking period just to squeak through the semester. The district and teachers union issued a joint memo to ensure staff members' compliance with the policy, which was already on the books but enforced only at some schools. At this rate, it won't be long before schools institute double extra credit Mondays and Fridays to ensure students don't take three day weekends.

It ain't bragging if it's true.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/09/24/39NF-it-financial-meltdown_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/09/24/39NF-it-financial-meltdown_1.html

How IT could have prevented the financial meltdown

The tools are largely there, but not the visibility needed for regulators and banks to catch problems early

By Ephraim Schwartz September 24, 2008

For my Website students and anyone who want's to “quote” a small section of video –without the bother of installing video editing software. (Fair Use?)

http://www.killerstartups.com/Video-Music-Photo/splicd-com-chop-up-your-youtube

Splicd.com - Chop Up Your YouTube

http://www.splicd.com

Let’s be honest, most of the videos on YouTube are boring. If you find a particular part of a video you want to share with your friends, without them being bored by what’s before it, then you have to check out Splicd.com. With this site, you’ll be able to chop up YouTube videos, and send your friends a direct link to the part you want them to see. Just paste the URL of the video into the site and tell it from where to where you want the video to be viewed. You’ll then get another link to the part of the video that’s worth seeing, that you can then share with your friends.

It’s a very simple service that should make it possible for you to share parts of videos that are worth seeing. The site works pretty well, but since it’s a work in progress, you’ll be able to get in touch with them in case you find anything wrong. In short, this site could make it possible for you to finally share what you want your friends to see, without the extra garbage.

For the students in Surgical Technology (and hypochondriacs)

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019392.html

September 23, 2008

New on LLRX.com: Researching Medical Literature on the Internet - 2008

Researching Medical Literature on the Internet - 2008: Medical journals, dictionaries, textbooks, indexes, rankings, images – all can be found on the Net, and much of it is available free. Sources include publishers, government agencies, professional organizations, health libraries and commercial entities. Gloria Miccioli's completely updated and revised topical guide expertly focuses on what she identifies as the best, content-rich databases and services for researchers.

A hacker how to...

http://digg.com/hardware/The_2008_PC_Builder_s_Bible

The 2008 PC Builder's Bible

gamesradar.com — This guide not only gives you all you need to know about every component that goes in your gaming PC, but also thoroughly walks you through the entire building process with detailed instructions and helpful photographs.

http://www.gamesradar.com/f/the-2008-pc-builders-bible/a-20080918153014865039

Casinos take their security seriously? If so, who wrote this law? Who cares why, will any multi-state businesses comply? (Enforcement will likely be based on breach disclosures... ) Some of the pitfalls are explored in the comments.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/22/190256&from=rss

Nevada Businesses Must Start Encrypting E-Mail By Oct. 1st

Posted by Soulskill on Monday September 22, @03:53PM from the wouldn't-bet-on-it dept. Encryption Businesses Privacy Security United States

dtothes writes

"Baseline is reporting the state of Nevada has a statute about to go in effect on October 1, 2008 that will force businesses to encrypt all personally identifiable information transmitted over the Internet. They speak with a Nevada legal expert who says the problem is that the statute is written so broadly that the law could potentially open up a ton of unintentional liability and allow for the interpretation of things like password-protected documents to be considered sufficiently encrypted. Quoting: 'Beyond the infrastructure impact, the statute itself looks like Swiss cheese. Bryce K. Earl, a Las Vegas-based attorney, ... has been following the issue closely and believes there are some problems with the statute as it is on the books right now, namely the broad definition of encryption, the lack of coordination with industry standards and the unclear nature of penalties both criminal and civil.'"

[From the article:

The statute was signed into law in 2005 and is about to kick in as an enforceable law next month. Three years flies when you're raking in chips at casinos and enjoying the rising popularity of poker.

Laws & regulations are increasingly forcing “Best Practice” security on organizations.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080923053741621

MA: Tougher consumer data rule adopted

Tuesday, September 23 2008 @ 05:37 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

In the wake of a series of alarming data breaches, placing hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts consumers at risk of identity theft, state regulators released new rules yesterday ordering businesses to better safeguard consumers' personal information.

The regulations, issued by the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, require companies that handle personal information such as credit card accounts and Social Security numbers to encrypt data stored on laptops, monitor employee access to data, and take other steps to protect customer information, beginning Jan. 1. Governor Deval Patrick also signed an executive order requiring state agencies to take similar measures.

Source - Boston Globe

[From the article:

The full regulations are online at www.mass.gov/oca.

[I think it's this one: http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=ocamodulechunk&L=1&L0=Home&sid=Eoca&b=terminalcontent&f=idtheft_201cmr17&csid=Eoca

A much more ambitious approach... How will KISA know the sites you have 'subscribed' to? Will all website operators be required to provide that information? How will they enforce the requirement? Could you identify all the sites you have ever subscribed to?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080923054123539

Kr: Users May Delete Their Info at Suspicious Web Sites

Tuesday, September 23 2008 @ 05:41 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Internet users will be allowed to erase data about themselves at Web sites that they believe are abusing their personal information, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said Tuesday.

The state-run Korea Information Security Agency (KISA) will provide a section in its Web page (http://p-clean.kisa.or.kr) that will provide users with a list of Internet sites they have subscribed to and allow them to pick sites they want their personal information deleted from. KISA will later provide an update on the termination process and confirmation after about four weeks.

Source - The Korea Times

Obvious but difficult?

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/22/2254228&from=rss

Stanford Teaching MBAs How To Fight Open Source

Posted by timothy on Monday September 22, @07:43PM from the then-they-fight-you dept. Businesses GNU is Not Unix Software The Almighty Buck

mjasay writes

"As if the proprietary software world needed any help, two business professors from Harvard and Stanford have combined to publish 'Divide and Conquer: Competing with Free Technology Under Network Effects,' a research paper dedicated to helping business executives fight the onslaught of open source software. The professors advise 'the commercial vendor ... to bring its product to market first, to judiciously improve its product features, to keep its product "closed" so the open source product cannot tap into the network already built by the commercial product, and to segment the market so it can take advantage of a divide-and-conquer strategy.' The professors also suggest that 'embrace and extend' is a great model for when the open source product gets to market first. Glad to see that $48,921 that Stanford MBAs pay being put to good use. Having said that, such research is perhaps a great, market-driven indication that open source is having a serious effect on proprietary technology vendors."

Wish I was in this group...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10048448-2.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Confirmed: The blogosphere is mainstream

Posted by Dan Farber September 22, 2008 9:23 PM PDT

With nearly 1,000,000 posts a day, the blogosphere is overflowing with content and now fully established as a mainstream rather than fringe phenomenon. Traditional media have adopted blogs as a complementary form of content to the traditional news and feature stories. According to Techhnorati's latest report on the state of the blogosphere, many bloggers are making money. Technorati surveyed a sample of about 1,000 bloggers and found that the mean annual revenue for advertising is $6,000, but sites with 100,000 or more unique visitors are generating more than $75,000 in revenue.

Keeping your name in the news...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=200809210730301

US Foodsservice data loss greater than originally thought

Sunday, September 21 2008 @ 07:30 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

When a U.S. Foodservice laptop was stolen earlier this year, the company hired an unnamed "outside computer forensics expert" to help them determine whose data were on the stolen laptop. And on June 13, they, notified those affected -- some present and former USF employees, some of their dependents, and applicants for jobs at USF. Although the company had stopped using Social Security numbers in its internal reports several years ago, the laptop had contained old data files.

On September 3, USF notified the NH Attorney General that they "were recently informed after additional computer forensic work was performed that the laptop computer contained sensitive personnel information about a larger group of individuals than previously had been identified." and that additional notification letters were being sent out.

In its newest notification letter, the company writes:

We recently discovered that the external computer forensics expert had not searched the laptop for social security numbers that were contained in a non-standard format, such as including additional symbols, numbers or letters beyond the base nine digits. At our request, the vendor conducted extensive further forensic analysis, which resulted iII the identification of additional individuals whose data were contained in the laptop. We are sending this notification letter to you because you are in this group of individuals.

Pursuant to USF policies, the laptop was protected by a unique user lD and password, but the individual files containing personal information were not encrypted or password protected. At this point, we have no reason to believe that the Information on the laptop has been accessed or misused; however, we felt that it was very important to notify you about this incident.

As in its earlier disclosure, the firm did not indicate how the laptop was stolen or the total number of individuals affected.

...because...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080922054933526

Data “Dysprotection:” breaches reported last week

Monday, September 22 2008 @ 05:49 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

A recap of incidents or privacy breaches reported last week for those who enjoy shaking their head and muttering to themselves with their morning coffee.

Source - Chronicles of Dissent

Not every bank took great risks. Those who survive will not eat the losers...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019379.html

September 21, 2008

Federal Reserve Board Approves Applications of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to Become Bank Holding Companies

News release: The Federal Reserve Board on Sunday approved, pending a statutory five-day antitrust waiting period, the applications of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to become bank holding companies. To provide increased liquidity support to these firms as they transition to managing their funding within a bank holding company structure, the Federal Reserve Board authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to extend credit to the U.S. broker-dealer subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley against all types of collateral that may be pledged at the Federal Reserve's primary credit facility for depository institutions or at the existing Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF); the Federal Reserve has also made these collateral arrangements available to the broker-dealer subsidiary of Merrill Lynch. In addition, the Board also authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to extend credit to the London-based broker-dealer subsidiaries of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch against collateral that would be eligible to be pledged at the PDCF."

• Related postings on financial system

90% of colleges can't use technology?

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/21/1459214&from=rss

10 Percent of Colleges Check Applicants' Social Profiles

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday September 21, @11:58AM from the mood:-unsurprised dept. Privacy News

theodp writes

"Confirming paranoid high-schoolers' fears, a new Kaplan survey reveals that 10% of admissions officers from prestigious schools said they had peeked at sites like Facebook and MySpace to evaluate college-bound seniors. Of those using the profiles, 38% said it had a 'negative impact' on the applicant. 'Today's application is not just what you send ... but whatever they can Google about you,' said Kaplan's Jeff Olson. At Notre Dame, assistant provost for enrollment Dan Saracino said he and his staff sometimes come across candidates portraying themselves in a less-than-flattering light. 'It's typically inappropriate photos — like holding up a can of beer at a party,' Saracino said. On the other hand, using the Internet to vet someone's character seems overly intrusive to Northwestern's Christopher Watson. 'We consider Facebook and MySpace their personal space,' the dean of undergraduate admissions said. 'It would feel somewhat like an invasion of privacy.'"

We recently discussed similar practices from prospective employers.

Something for the Chem Majors to hack!

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/09/skunk-attack.html

Israel Unleashes First 'Skunk Bomb'

By David Hambling September 21, 2008 | 8:53:00 AM Categories: Bizarro, Chem-Bio, Less-letha

Possibly because of excitement over the Russia-Georgia conflict last month, little attention was given to a new development in chemical warfare – the first use by the Israeli police of a new, smelly weapon to disperse demonstrators:

Think you have political chops?

http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/commentary/games/2008/09/gamesfrontiers_0922

The Game of Politics Is Ready for Its Upgrade

By Clive Thompson Email 8 hours ago

I won the White House for Barack Obama last week. And for John McCain, too!

I was playing The Political Machine 2008, this year's big sim-election title, and had a blast slinging mud and pandering. Playing as Obama, I stormed around the coasts, promising clean coal and running ads blasting McCain for supporting the war, and soon I was kicking back in the Oval Office. Playing as McCain, I played precisely the opposite cards in the red heartland, and won that race as well.

http://www.politicalmachine.com/

Political Machine 2008 Express Edition is a free demo for The Political Machine 2008. Download it now!

Sometimes “breach disclosure” is done for you... But you should still be careful what you say!

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080920172507606

BBC customers deluged by spam after hackers break into mailing list

Saturday, September 20 2008 @ 05:25 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Names and e-mail addresses on a BBC mailing list were exploited by hackers to send "spam", or unwanted e-mail, offering the anti-impotence drugs Viagra and Cialis. Anyone who replied to the sender could have been targeted with scams or computer viruses.

The failing drags the Corporation into the on-going row over how large organisations store private information about individuals. Last night a senior MP called the incident "very serious" and demanded that the BBC take action to tighten its security.

A spokesman for the Corporation confirmed that members of the public had been affected after their details were hijacked from a list of people who had signed up to receive information about next month's BBC Electric Proms music festival.

Source - Telegraph

[From the article:

A BBC spokeswoman said: "As a result of an administrative error, spam mail received by the BBC was accidentally [No accident, they meant to do it! Bob] sent out to subscribers of the Electric Proms mailing list.

"We apologise for this mistake and have contacted everyone on the list to explain the situation. We wish to assure all subscribers that no details have been passed on to third party companies [How could they conceivably know this? Bob] and all the data held on our systems is completely secure." [Oh? Bob]

Democrats got hackers! (Clearly one of those politically motivated hate crimes which means the little bugger is on his way to Guantanamo!)

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080920123910652

Proxy server trail leads FBI to Palin email hacker

Saturday, September 20 2008 @ 12:39 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

FBI agents are using proxy server logs to track down the hacker who broke into Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email account. The hacker gained access to the Republican Vice Presidential candidate’s account by resetting the password. He then posted details of his adventures up on a popular online forum, but that information is now leading reporters and federal investigators to the suspect – a Tennessee university college student [I wonder what his major is? Bob] and son of state democratic representative Mike Kernell.

Source - tgdaily

[From the article:

But it gets even better. White hat hackers didn’t even need proxy information to find the culprit because they discovered that the Rubico forum handle was linked to rubico10@yahoo.com. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it A few searches on Google and YouTube further links this email address to 20-year-old David Kernell, a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. His father is Democratic Tennessee state representative Mike Kernell.

As you can expect, the Yahoo account has been frozen and all the incriminating forum posts on 4chan.org have been deleted. But this didn’t stop Wired.com from printing some of the posts. Don’t you just love it when hackers brag about the “leet” skills?

This is either a great business model (interested in investing?) or an indication that machines will replace humans – first they take our women...

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/20/webkare-a-girls-only-combination-of-social-network-and-dating-game-from-japan/

Japanese Girl Sensation: Virtual Boyfriends (Webkare)

by Serkan Toto on September 20, 2008

In Japan, girls are crazy over virtual boyfriends. Webkare (Web Boyfriend in Japanese), a mix between a social network and dating simulation site, is Nippon’s newest web sensation. Geared exclusively towards girls, the site attracted over 10,000 members just 5 days after its release on September 10, racking up 3.5 million page views in the same time frame.

The site is a huge hit over here. Girls sign up and become members of a social network but also users of a dating simulation in cartoon style. They have to try to hook up with one of four male Anime characters (who are the “stars” of the site) through “conversations” and must collaborate with other Webkare members in order to move on in the game. Eventually they conquer the heart of the chosen cartoon boy.

Great legal minds or legal minds that grate?

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/20/2339234&from=rss

Nielsen Sends Wikipedia DMCA Takedown For Station Descriptions

Posted by timothy on Saturday September 20, @08:12PM from the for-our-eyeballs-only dept. Censorship Television

RockMFR writes

"A DMCA takedown notice sent by Nielsen Media Research to the Wikimedia Foundation has resulted in the deletion of over 300 pages on the English Wikipedia. The pages were 'templates' and categories that listed television stations within various geographical markets in the United States. Discussion of the deletions has focused on whether this type of information can actually be copyrighted, though the content of the takedown notice have not been made public."

[From the comments:

They should also send a take down notice to another illicit site as well then.

... It's practically un-american that anyone can access those same details via fcc.gov. Those weezles have been indexing this exact same information for ages under the pretense of "licensing."

In fact, I thought the details were rather verbatim so these two problem children probably get the warez from the same place.

Global Warming! Global Warming!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080918/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_almanac_weather;_ylt=AixsEJVNxu65lfDtk7_PApCs0NUE

Old Farmer's Almanac predicts global cooling

By Michael HirtzerThu Sep 18, 12:05 PM ET

The world is set for a "big chill," possibly a mini-ice age, according to the venerable and whimsical Old Farmer's Almanac, first published in 1792 and the United States' oldest continuously published periodical.

The 2009 edition, published earlier this month, predicts that the earth already has entered a sustained period of global cooling.

... She said the method is not exact. Since the almanac is published so far in advance, it cannot take into account the most up-to-date information on Pacific Ocean oscillations El Nino or La Nina, for instance.

Still, the almanac has an 80 percent success rate for its weather predictions, Perreault said.

Think this will attract more or less press coverage than the Governor's?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080920050543372

Wikileaks posts Bill O'Reilly Web site data

Saturday, September 20 2008 @ 05:05 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Just days after publishing U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's personal email messages, the Wikileaks Web site has published data about members who signed up for a section of Fox Television host Bill O'Reilly's Web site.

Hackers were able to obtain a list of Billoreilly.com premium members, including email addresses, site passwords and the city and state where they live. Some of the information was published Friday on Wikileaks.com, which has been under fire from conservative commentators, including O'Reilly, for publishing Palin's messages.

... A link to the full membership list has been published on a little-known political discussion Web site, which reported that rather than seizing control of O'Reilly's site, hackers were able to get the information from an unencrypted Web page that did not require a login. The list includes information about 205 people who signed into the O'Reilly site during the previous 72-hour period.

Source - Computerworld

Bad law or bad lawyers?

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080917/0245292290.shtml

Judge Says School Can Suspend Student For Fake MySpace Page Of Principal

from the questionable-reading-of-the-legal-tea-leaves dept

Just about a month ago we wrote about a principal losing a lawsuit against some students for posting a fake MySpace page pretending to be the principal. However, in a different case, a court has ruled that a school has every right to suspend students for creating a fake MySpace page of a principal. The two cases are different in a few ways, as the first one involved the principal suing the student, rather than just suspending the student. That said, the ruling by the court in this case seems problematic, and I'd be surprised if it was upheld on appeal (assuming the student appeals). The Supreme Court's famous Tinker v. Des Moines case established the precedent that schools can't punish students for protected free speech -- especially if that speech takes place off of the school campus. The court said that other Supreme Court rulings applied over Tinker, but both of the cases it cites in support involve disruptive actions at school events. A MySpace page created at home doesn't seem to qualify. Either way, if the principal's intent was to get the pages hidden so people didn't talk about them, this resulting lawsuit seems to have created the opposite situation. [No indication in the articles that the web site was taken down. Bob]

I believe this is the proper (best) way to handle a dysfunctional organization – kill it, before it spreads.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10047014-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Google to close Arizona office

Posted by Elinor Mills September 19, 2008 4:22 PM PDT

Google will be shuttering its Arizona office on November 21, the company announced on Friday.

"We've found that despite everyone's best efforts, the projects our engineers have been working on in Arizona have been, and remain, highly fragmented," Alan Eustace, senior vice president of engineering and research, wrote in a post on the Official Google Blog. "So after a lot of soul searching we have decided to incorporate work on these projects into teams elsewhere at Google."

The office opened in 2006 on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe, just south of Phoenix.

The closure is the latest of several: the company announced plans in July to close offices in Denver and Dallas.

This is new. We'll have to see if it turns into a useful resource. These seem fairly trivial...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080919152413803

Cybercrime in the federal courts this week

Friday, September 19 2008 @ 03:24 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Threat Level has started a weekly roundup of computer crime cases in the courts. In addition to the Citibank breach reported in another post, here are some other breaches they reported this week.

Two employees of an unnamed investment company in Indianapolis are accused of grabbing customer information like names, addresses, Social Security numbers and dates-of-birth from their employer's computers, and passing it to a boyfriend who then got others to fill out credit card applications using the information.. There were 129 victims in that scam, with 581 people having their info stolen.

Two Chicago temp workers at the investment management firm Computershare supposedly used their inside access to dump over $700,000 from 67 trading accounts, routing at least some of the cash-out checks to themselves.

A Miami man was indicted last week for allegedly setting up online bank accounts for Washington Mutual customers and transferring a few thousand dollars from their home equity credit accounts.

A Tennessee man was charged with reprogramming blank credit cards with stolen Discover card data. He didn't work at a bank, though the Secret Service did find an ATM in his house.

For more details, see Threat Level

Some detailed crime statistics, including the spreadsheets.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019364.html

September 19, 2008

Bureau of Justice Statistics: Cybercrime Against Businesses, 2005

Cybercrime against Businesses, 2005: "Presents the nature and prevalence of computer security incidents among 7,818 businesses in 2005. This is the first report to provide data on monetary loss and system downtime resulting from cyber incidents. It examines details on types of offenders, reporting of incidents to law enforcement, reasons for not reporting incidents, types of systems affected, and the most common security vulnerabilities. The report also compares in-house security to outsourced security in terms of prevalence of cyber attacks. Appendix tables include industry-level findings."

Better research through technology?

http://www.killerstartups.com/Search/cognition-com-semantic-searches

Cognition.com - Semantic Searches

http://www.cognition.com

There are many companies looking to tap into the many possibilities of semantic searches. If you’re looking to see what it can do for your web searches, then take a look at this site, Cognition.com. On it, you’ll be able to learn about the many advantages of semantic searches and even try it out by yourself. It’s amazing to see how accurate it is when searching through legal records.

... If they manage to get the whole web indexed, this search system will make Google’s look like a toddler programmed it. In short, if you want to see what the future of searching could look like, then you have to give this site a try.

About 25 years ago I heard Grace Hopper explain why COBOL (which she helped create) should be abandoned for more modern languages. Why do we never listen?

http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/19/2035223&from=rss

Don't Count Cobol Out

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday September 19, @06:25PM from the great-disturbance-in-the-force dept. Programming IT

Hugh Pickens writes

"Although Turing Award-winning computer scientist Edsger Dijkstra once said, 'the use of Cobol cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be regarded as a criminal offense,' Michael Swaine has an interesting entry to Dr. Dobb's Journal asserting that Cobol is the most widely used language in the 21st century, critical to some of the hottest areas of software development today, and may be the next language you'll be learning. In 1997, the Gartner Group estimated that there were 240 billion lines of Cobol code in active apps, and billions of lines of new Cobol code are being written every year. Cobol is a key element in the realization of modern distributed business software architecture concepts — XML/metadata, Web Services, Service Oriented Architecture — and e-business."

Is the Czech Republic the first line of defense in Texas?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080918133143382

Hacked Texas National Guard site serves up malware

Thursday, September 18 2008 @ 01:31 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Attackers have hacked the Web site of the Texas National Guard and are using it to serve up offers of fake security software and plant rootkits on unpatched PCs, a security researcher said today.

The National Guard's site was hacked sometime before yesterday, [Translation: We don't know when it was hacked. Bob] said Roger Thompson, the chief research officer of Czech Republic-based security vendor AVG Technologies Cz SRO. Thompson confirmed Thursday that the site was still pushing phony antispyware software and infecting users with a rootkit.

Source - Computerworld

First “entire country” breach?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080918163037449

Norway sends entire citizenry's ID info to media

Thursday, September 18 2008 @ 04:30 PM EDT
Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Norway's national tax office erroneously sent CD-ROMs crammed with the 2006 tax returns of nearly four million people living in Norway to national newspapers, radios and tv stations, news agency AFP reports.

Although tax statements have been open to public scrutiny in Norway since 1863, the social security number of each citizen remains highly confidential.

According to the tax authorities, the documents can only be opened by using a secret code [Sounds like a password to me. Bob] and so damage may be limited. Norwegian Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen described the glitch nonetheless as "extremely serious".

Source - The Register Thanks to Brian Honan for this link.

Related? Looks like the number of breach reports will grow!

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080918091525202

European companies forced to own up to data losses

Thursday, September 18 2008 @ 09:15 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

European companies will be forced to tell customers if their personal data has been lost or stolen, as part of a new EC directive.

The data breach notification provision is part of the ePrivacy Directive that is currently being debated by the EU.

However, speaking to journalists in London, MEP Malcolm Harbour said he was confident that the data breach legislation will be approved.

"It will be mandatory for service providers to disclose to customers if their personal data has been breached," he claimed.

Source - PC Pro

[From the article:

It wouldn't include incidents such as the Government's infamous HMRC disc fiasco, however, which saw the personal details of 25 million child benefit claimants go astray.

A hack in the Cloud. Was the Alaska email server too hard to crack? (or was Yahoo too easy?)

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2008091819420677

DOJ View on Email Privacy May Hamper Prosecution of Palin Hackers

Thursday, September 18 2008 @ 07:42 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

On Wednesday, some hackers apparently obtained unauthorized access to Gov. Sarah Palin's Yahoo! email account by posing as Gov. Palin [Social Engineering? Bob] and getting a new password (Michelle Malkin and Wired News have details). Yesterday we noted that, based on the facts in newspaper reporting, a court would likely consider this a violation of the Stored Communications Act (SCA).

However, the Department of Justice may be hamstrung in any prosecution of this invasion of privacy by its restrictive view of "electronic storage." The SCA prohibits unauthorized "access to a wire or electronic communication while it is in electronic storage." The act defines "electronic storage" as "any temporary, intermediate storage of a wire or electronic communication incidental to the electronic transmission thereof," or in the alternative as "any storage of such communication by an electronic communication service for purposes of backup protection of such communication."

Source - EFF

[From the article:

The DOJ, however, strongly disagrees with Theofel. According to its Prosecuting Computer Crimes Manual, the DOJ "continues to question whether Theofel was correctly decided, since little reason exists for treating old email differently than other material a user may choose to store on a network." [Somehow I think they'll reconsider. Bob]

[Related:

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10501205?nclick_check=1

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/19/hacker-wanted-to-derail-palin/

Measuring the greatest shift in phone useage since the Princess phone... For those of you too young to remember that, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_telephone

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019354.html

September 18, 2008

"Use of wireless services is increasingly a necessary and integral part of our everyday lives"

Teenagers: A Generation Unplugged - A National Survey by CTIA–The Wireless Association® and Harris Interactive: "As the wireless industry celebrates the upcoming 25th anniversary of the first commercial cell phone call (October 13, 1983), this in-depth online study of more than 2,000 teenagers around the nation sheds new light on how today’s teens feel about wireless products and services, how they are using them today and most importantly, how they would like to use them in the future. A growing wireless segment, teens view their cell phones as more than just an accessory."

• See also Remarks of Jonathan S. Adelstein, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission, A View on Today’s Most Pressing Wireless Issues, The Fifth Annual Conference on Spectrum Management Law Seminars International, Arlington, VA, September 18, 2008

Interesting that restrictions apply only in the Journalism class. Vive la free press!

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080918/0244482305.shtml

Should You Live Blog/Twitter A College Class?

from the questions-of-a-new-age dept

It's quite common these days for people to "live blog" or "live Twitter" different conferences or events they're attending, filling in others what's happening in near real time. However, what happens when someone does that in a college class? Already, there are some professors struggling with the fact that students use the internet during class, but they're not at all happy about the idea that they might not just be using the internet to surf around -- but to report to others what's happening inside the classroom. The issue is discussed in detail by Mark Glaser in his latest MediaShift column after an NYU professor told her students to stop blogging or Twittering things about her class.

The controversy apparently began when a student in the class actually wrote a guest "embedded" column for MediaShift a few weeks ago, complaining that NYU's journalism school wasn't up-to-date on teaching students about social media and the new tools of journalism. The professor in the class she talked about wasn't particularly happy about the article, which was then discussed in the class itself (very meta). According to students in the class (and the author of the original piece), the professor made it clear that they were no longer to blog, text or Twitter about the class, or to quote the professor without permission. Considering the class itself is called “Reporting Gen Y," that seemed like an odd restriction.

The professor differs on what she told the students, saying that she only meant they couldn't blog or Twitter during the class, but were free to afterwards. However, she stood by the comment that she shouldn't be quoted without permission. Glaser investigates the legality of this, and how it fits with NYU's journalism standards. That said, it is a little odd that it's perfectly fine to quote or blog about conferences or other events, but once you're in the classroom, a cloak of silence is expected. To some extent, this sounds like it may just be a generational issue. Perhaps it's the actual Gen Y'ers who should be teaching the class on Reporting Gen Y.

Proof that only Bob Barr (who?) is ready to lead the country!

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/19/0116219&from=rss

Barr Sues Over McCain's, Obama's Presence on Texas Ballot

Posted by timothy on Thursday September 18, @10:03PM from the try-getting-the-signatures-for-a-3d-party-in-pennsylvania dept. The Courts Politics

corbettw writes

"Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party's nominee for president, has filed a lawsuit in Texas demanding Senators John McCain and Barack Obama be removed from the ballot after they missed the official filing deadline."

“We gotta do something immediately!” v. “What's the best way to solve this problem?”

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080918/0218462303.shtml

People Finally Realizing That SMS Isn't Good For Emergency Alerts

from the about-time dept

Only two years or so after we questioned why anyone would seriously consider the notoriously unreliable SMS text messaging system for emergency alerts, the mobile trade group 3G Americas has released a research report stating the same thing. Basically, the system isn't reliable or efficient, and in an emergency is likely to get overloaded quickly. It's not clear why it took anyone until now to notice this, but hopefully no one was seriously considering using SMS for emergency alerts.

This probably is good for emergency alerts either, but it could be amusing.

http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/hazelmail-com-let-hazel-mail-it

HazelMail.com - Let Hazel Mail It

http://www.hazelmail.com

With the site, you’ll be able to upload your pictures, turn them into postcards, and have them mailed to anyone around the world.

... For the slower people in the class, you’re sending actual postcards.

... The site can be viewed in many different languages, making for this a most interesting postcard experience and service.

Geeky stuff. Who cares about the article, but the timeline tool is very slick!

http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/09/track-the-life.html

Internet Memes Time Line Goes Viral

By Jenna Wortham September 18, 2008 | 5:24:00 PM

An interactive time line tracking the internet's most-popular memes has itself become a viral hit.

The Internet Memes time line, created using web service Dipity, charts hundreds of web phenomena that have captured surfers' imaginations over the years.

Another reason to beat your underperforming child...

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/18/177238&from=rss

7th-Grader Designs Three Dimensional Solar Cell

Posted by timothy on Thursday September 18, @01:54PM from the lucky-guess dept. Power Education Science Technology

Hugh Pickens writes

"12-year-old William Yuan's invention of a highly-efficient, three-dimensional nanotube solar cell for visible and ultraviolet light has won him an award and a $25,000 scholarship from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development. 'Current solar cells are flat and can only absorb visible light'" Yuan said. 'I came up with an innovative solar cell that absorbs both visible and UV light. My project focused on finding the optimum solar cell to further increase the light absorption and efficiency and design a nanotube for light-electricity conversion efficiency.' Solar panels with his 3D cells would provide 500 times more light absorption than commercially-available solar cells and nine times more than cutting-edge 3D solar cells. 'My next step is to talk to manufacturers to see if they will build a working prototype,' Yuan said. "If the design works in a real test stage, I want to find a company to manufacture and market it.""