These announcements are normally held until Friday. Someone screwed up!
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/10162004/detail.html?rss=den&psp=news
Computer With Info On Colo. Human Services Dept. Clients Stolen
POSTED: 4:27 am MDT October 26, 2006
DENVER -- A computer containing personal information of some clients of the Colorado Department of Human Services was stolen from a Dallas-based firm that operates the Family Registry.
The desktop computer, which was stolen during the weekend of Oct. 13, had data on clients who were involved with child support payments. It was stored in a secure area monitored by surveillance cameras accessible only by password, said Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services Inc. [Gee, that doesn't sound like a “secure area” to me... Bob]
Company spokesman Kevin Lightfoot said letters were sent to the clients about the theft and advised on how to protect their information.
There was no evidence of identity theft or an intent to do so, he said.
Department spokeswoman Liz McDonough did not say how many clients could be affected and where the theft occurred, citing the cases involves child support.
Detectives were investigating the theft and were trying to recover video from the surveillance cameras, [Shouldn't that be simple? Bob] said Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson. Colorado Bureau of Investigation and officials from the human services department were assisting detectives.
"We are monitoring the actions of the contractor to make sure they meet the expectations of the state," [Haven't they failed already? Bob] McDonough said.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5092102,00.html
Personal info in stolen computer
Data from clients in child-support cases, state officials report
By Hector Gutierrez, Rocky Mountain News October 25, 2006
A desktop computer [Not something that could be confused with a visitor's laptop. Should be a red-flag to whoever is monitoring security. Bob] containing personal information of Colorado human services department clients involved in child support payments was stolen this month, officials said Tuesday.
Failures in quality have costs. (The old “Quality if free” argument)
Batteries push Sony to Q2 operating loss
Sony's operations for the quarter go into the red despite a jump in sales
By Martyn Williams, IDG News Service October 26, 2006
The global recall and replacement of millions of laptop batteries, and start-up costs for the PlayStation 3 console, pushed Sony's operations into the red for the July to September quarter, despite a jump in sales.
The company reported an operating loss of ¥20.8 billion ($174.5 million) against an operating profit of ¥74.6 billion in the same period last year. The loss includes the estimated ¥51.2 billion that Sony will lose as a result of the laptop battery recall currently under way.
Sony's net income, which includes profit and loss from its core operations and subsidiaries, and other extraordinary items, dropped 94.1 percent to ¥1.7 billion.
However, sales and operating revenue rose 8.3 percent to ¥1.85 trillion.
... Sony's core electronics business saw a 12.1 percent increase in sales but operating profit dropped more than 70 percent, largely due to the battery replacement costs and a one-time pension fund gain the year earlier.
One of my prediction areas: Expect charges of voting fraud this year!
http://techdirt.com/articles/20061025/101539.shtml
Quebec Report Slams E-Voting Failure; Company Responsible Says To Cut It Some Slack
from the you-don't-get-a-few-tries-to-get-it-right dept
While American elections officials continue to ignore the long, long, long list of evidence that e-voting machines are not secure and cannot be relied upon to work properly, it appears that elections officials in Quebec recognize the importance of holding a fair election that people are confident accurately reflected the voting will of the people. Following a report by Quebec's electoral chief that runs through all of the problems Quebec had with e-voting machines last year, the government has extended an injunction against e-voting machines that had been put in place after the problems in the election became clear. The elections official admits that there's no way to tell if last year's election results were accurate or fair -- but that there's nothing that can be done now. Some opposition politicians, however, are thinking of trying to force the election to be wiped out and held again, claiming that the results clearly were incorrect. To make it even more fun, the firm that supplied the e-voting machines, PG Elections, is apparently upset that Quebec hasn't paid their bill in full for the machines that didn't work properly. Even worse, they seem to shrug off the problems: "We have to admit that we did have a few problems," but he then suggests you have to give them some leeway because "It was the first time all Quebec municipal elections were held on the same day and that so many used electronic voting." I'm sorry, but if the one thing your machines are supposed to do is handle the election and count people's votes, it really needs to do that -- and trying to brush it aside because it was the first time so many of your machines were being used isn't just a bad excuse, it's a reason no one should use your machines again.
Five Ways
How To (Legally) Spy On Employees
Hannah Clark, 10.25.06, 6:00 PM ET
Hewlett-Packard has given spying a bad name. But when former Chairwoman Patricia Dunn spearheaded an investigation against board members, staff and journalists, she was, in a way, simply following a nationwide trend. As technology has improved, risks have increased. As a result, most corporations are now monitoring their employees closely.
Press leaks, theft of trade secrets and time wasting are big concerns. But the main reason is fear of lawsuits, says Nancy Flynn, executive director of the ePolicy Institute, a consulting firm that helps companies develop monitoring policies. Almost 25% of companies have had employee e-mails subpoenaed because of a workplace lawsuit, usually involving harassment or discrimination. "Employers need to view e-mail as the electronic equivalent of DNA evidence," says Flynn.
While employees may have been slow to get the message, corporations are catching on. More than 75% of employers monitor their workers' Web site connections, according to a survey by the ePolicy Institute, a consulting group. About half of all companies store and review computer files, and 55% read e-mail messages. About 26% of firms have fired workers for misusing the Internet.
In Pictures: Are You Being Watched?
But what if companies misuse their spying programs? That's what happened at HP. The computer giant hired private investigators who used a tactic called pretexting, or posing as someone else to gain access to their phone records. Investigators tailed reporters, dug through trash and sent a reporter a fake e-mail that contained tracking software. Most of these tactics are slimy, but legal. Pretexting, however, is not. Without permission, there are only two ways to get phone records legally: Obtaining a warrant or digging through the trash.
Dunn has been charged with four felonies; so has Kevin Hunsaker, the company's senior counsel and chief ethics officer. (See: "Chief Ethics Officers: Who Needs Them?") But breaking the law wasn't HP's only mistake. Here are five ways corporations can run a legal, ethical spying program and stay out of the headlines.
Try Google first. There are a lot of ways to obtain information without breaking the law, says Efrem Grail, a partner at law firm Reed Smith. The Internet is an obvious place to start. And instead of targeting personal phone records, look at company-owned records first. Who have your employees been calling on their office phones?
Check out personnel files for context, says Grail. Is someone living in Beverly Hills, Calif., on a salary that should relegate him to a less desirable district? That might help you learn who could be stealing and selling company secrets. Don't forget public documents like property records, credit reports and criminal histories. Grail once discovered that someone had applied for a fishing license in Alaska on a day when he was supposed to be somewhere else, working for his employer.
Be honest. When Dunn became concerned about boardroom leaks, she should have tried openness first. "HP might have avoided a lot of headlines if they had simply gone to their board members and said, 'Can we have your telephone records?'" says Jim Moorhead, a partner with law firm Steptoe and Johnson.
If that didn't work, one-on-one interviews with board members might have been a good next step. That would have given directors an opportunity to air their grievances and possibly even confess. "You'd be surprised what people say. All you have to do is ask," says Ted Frank, CEO of Axentis, which makes software that helps companies manage regulatory compliance issues.
Create a policy--and make it public. The honesty policy also applies to ordinary workers. Employers should establish a written policy about computer use, says Flynn. And don't just put it in a vault. Make sure workers know what's appropriate, and what's not. Then, establish consequences for those who violate email and Internet policies. Some companies fine their employees as much as $1,000 for a first violation, Flynn says.
Be nice to journalists. Reporters jumped on the HP scandal for the obvious reason that it's a very juicy story. But they really dug in when reporters learned that they were actually targeted by HP's spies. One of the targeted journalists, Pui-Wing Tam, wrote a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal on Oct. 19, detailing what she knew about the surveillance. That spawned even more stories, when the Associated Press picked it up.
Brush up on all those pesky legal issues. Privacy laws vary widely across state and national borders. Americans have fewer privacy protections than Europeans, but even within the U.S. laws vary widely. Delaware and Connecticut, for example, require companies to inform employees if they're being monitored. Californians have a right to privacy enshrined in the state Constitution. All of a company's investigators should have an understanding of these laws--or know who to call for advice.
If there is a need for “do it yourself” surveillance, it's probably much cheaper and easier to visit Radio Shack...
AT&T Launches Video Monitoring Service
By BRUCE MEYERSON AP Technology Writer Oct 26, 1:02 AM EDT
NEW YORK (AP) -- AT&T Inc. is introducing a home monitoring service that includes live video surveillance on a computer or cell phone, as well as lighting controls and detection sensors for motion, temperature changes and flooding.
...and to answer those “What's he doing now?” questions...
October 25, 2006
Veeker Launches Today- Mobile Video Will Be Changed Forever: a MobileCrunch Exclusive
Posted by Oliver
ScreenHunter_881.jpgVeeker, the San Francisco based company that has been in high profile stealth mode for some time finally launches today and promises to change the way we use the video capability in our camera phones. I had the good fortune to get an early preview yesterday with Roger Raderman, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing & Product Officer of Veeker and I have to say the Veeker platform (it’s too substantial an offering to simply call it an application) has the potential to radically alter both the way we use the video functionality of our camera phones and along with that change the way in which we communicate in general.
In a nutshell, Veeker is instant video messaging. The most basic use case is to shoot 60 seconds of video from your mobile phone and upload this video to Veeker in the form of an MMS. Within about 60 seconds your video is on the Veeker portal where, depending upon whether you sent it to one of three addresses is visible only by you (me@veeker.com) visible to you and your contacts (v@veeker.com) or made available for viewing by anyone who visits Veeker and is inclined to check you out (world@veeker.com).
... Veeker’s next tricks are where things start to get exciting. Each time you upload video to Veeker you are creating what they call a “Veek” which is short for Video Peek - which is of course, what these short videos really are. Your collection of Veeks is a “VeekFeed” and like RSS Feeds you can subscribe to other’s feeds and see in near real-time what they’re up to when they choose to upload video to their feeds.
Another issue for my Business Continuity class. Some pithy comments too...
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/25/1554213&from=rss
Generator Delays May Slow Data Center Projects
Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday October 25, @01:00PM
from the so-that's-why-mmos-can't-expand-to-meet-needs dept. Hardware Technology
miller60 writes "The data center building boom is causing backlogs for new generator orders, with some companies reporting delivery delays of up to a year for new 2,000kw units, which are the current standard for mission-critical facilities. Generator availability is 'the No. 1 thing that will drive your construction schedules,' according to Equinix, which is building centers in three major markets. 'This will be a big issue for the next wave of data center builds,' says another industry executive. Used generators and smaller units tend to be more available than the 2 megawatt units, but companies targeting the enterprise sector may be wary of relaying on used units or smaller generators than those powering competing facilities."
Do you suppose this flatters the Execs or intimidates them? How would you feel?
http://it.slashdot.org/it/06/10/24/1654234.shtml
Unisys Targets Just 20 Execs With Ad Campaign
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday October 24, @02:10PM from the atomic-force-advertising dept. It's funny. Laugh. IT
Carl Bialik from WSJ writes, "Security company Unisys is taking niche marketing to a new level, aiming ads at about 20 top executives, delivering custom-covered issues of their Fortune magazine subscriptions, and even placing billboards where these individuals will be likely to see them, the Wall Street Journal reports."
From the article: "If an executive flips over the mock Fortune cover, he or she will discover a letter — also individually tailored — from a senior Unisys manager describing challenges in the target's specific industry. The Fortune 'cover wraps' also offer personalized Web addresses, where the executives can find mock news videos that mention their names and tell how they achieved business success. To reinforce the message, Unisys is placing billboards and outdoor signs — albeit without information-chief portraits — close to the executives' offices. Some ads will even appear on video screens in the elevators of their office buildings."
Who thought this was a good idea?
http://www.platinax.co.uk/news/26-10-2006/firefox-2-releases-privacy-storm/
October 26, 2006
Firefox 2 releases privacy storm
The most-awaited Firefox 2.0 was launched by the Mozilla Foundation yesterday - and immediately generated a storm of protests over privacy issues.
Key to privacy concerns is that Mozilla have set up their long-awaited phishing protection feature on Firefox 2.0 - but to use it properly, you have to send Google a record of every single website you visit.
A cookie will record all your behaviour data when using Firefox and provide the information free to Google, who can then use that information for their own commercial purposes.
Although, the feature does require an explicit opt-in, it’s an unwelcome trade-off for many Firefox users, who believe that there is no reason to tie-in phishing protection with providing free data to a billion-dollar multinational.
The concerns may be damaging to the Mozilla Foundation - who have long had a close relationship with Google - and who became a “for-profit” business last year.
The provision of free tools and services simply for the purposes of collecting user data has become a habit with Google in recent years, and especially raised privacy concerns - not simply on the data collection, or how it may be used - but also how it may be collected by government agencies.
What ethics? These are politicians!
http://techdirt.com/articles/20061025/185634.shtml
Politicians Mine Commercial Databases In Get Out The Vote Effort
from the what-they-know-about-you dept
It used to be that people were worried about all the data that the government collected on them, and would refer to things like "Big Brother." However, more recently, with the rise of huge database companies and serious data collection and data mining efforts in the private sector, people have begun to realize that it's really the corporations that are keeping the closest tabs on you. However, that doesn't mean politicians can't use that data themselves. The Associated Press is running an article about the level of sophistication being used behind the scenes by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign. Rather than more general statistics, they've taken a page out of just about any large company's marketing textbook and have purchased access to all sorts of demographic data from things like what you drink to what you drive to what you read -- on the assumption that they can then use this data to better target people more likely to vote for the governor's re-election in their "get out the vote" effort. The opposing campaign claims that this "microtargeting" is simply being used to "manipulate people" while giving different messages to different people. However, it's not clear why that's so bad, if the targeted messages are actually relevant. It does seem a little creepy to find out the level to which they can segment voters, but it's really no different than what companies do these days. Of course, for those who are still uncomfortable about all of this, perhaps it'll make you feel more comfortable to know that much of the data these firms have is often wrong.
Just think of it as a tool for practicing discovery techniques. See if you can find the smoking gun...
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/24/enron_explorer_mines.html
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Enron Explorer mines Enron's emails
Charles sez,
To celebrate Mr Skilling's sentencing, the "Enron Explorer" offers access access to the whole corpus of 200,000 enron emails released during the fraud investigation.
The system generates a visualisation of each executive's social network and analyses the thematic signature of their communications. you can access each person's mailbox, read individual messages, or take a thematic slice through the archive. clicking on someone in the visualiser zooms them to the centre and loads their information.
[Enron Explorer: http://enron.trampolinesystems.com/ ]
How to save big money on Christmas gifts! (I blame all of this on Dan Aykroyd and his “Ronco Price-o-matic” skit on Saturday Night Live.)
http://www.nwfdailynews.com/articleArchive/oct2006/hightechshoplifters.php
Thursday 26th October 2006
Retail losses rise as shoplifters go high tech
By ANN ZIMMERMAN The Wall Street Journal Via AP 2006-10-25
AP) - William Swanberg had a thing for Legos, but it was hardly child's play.
After he was arrested last November near Portland, Ore., police investigators determined he had stolen more than $600,000 of the Danish building toys over three years from dozens of stores in at least five Western states.
He pilfered the toys by creating counterfeit bar codes that allowed $100 Lego sets, for example, to be rung up for just $19. Then he resold them on a Web site for toy collectors.
... Law-enforcement officers say many of the high-tech thieves belong to organized-crime rings that have turned retail theft into big business. And the Internet has made it easier for them to find buyers for the loot.
... Last December, a Target security guard nabbed a Colorado college student after he purchased a $150 iPod that carried a bar code for $4.99 headphones, according to Mr. Brekke. The thief had fashioned the fake label with a $25 software program called Barcode Magic, which he'd downloaded from the Internet, Mr. Brekke says.
... Another vexing new problem, retail executives say, is gift-card fraud. Many retailers now issue gift cards in place of paper gift certificates and receipts from returned merchandise. The cards, which resemble credit cards, have been a boon to the retail industry, accounting for $60 billion in sales last year, almost one-third of it during the holiday season.
But they've also been a boon to thieves. In one scam, crooks copy numbers from gift cards hanging on store racks. After the cards are purchased and activated, buyers use them to shop online by entering the card numbers.
So do the thieves. To figure out which cards have been activated, they phone an 800 number to check on balances for card numbers they've copied. When they discover activated cards, they use the card numbers to buy merchandise on a store's Web site, explains Dan Doyle, vice president of loss prevention at Beall's Inc., a Southeastern department-store chain.
Another swindle involves stealing merchandise, then returning it for store credit in the form of gift cards. In 2003, Herion Karbunara, a Massachusetts man in his mid-20s, paid women $50 to $200 a day to shoplift merchandise from stores ranging from Pottery Barn to Victoria's Secret and then return it for gift cards, according to the Massachusetts attorney general's office. Some stores required receipts for returns, so the women first would buy one of each product they intended to steal, prosecutors say. Mr. Karbunara would scan the receipts into a computer and print counterfeits, they say.
... The Internet has become so popular for moving stolen goods that a term has been coined for the practice, "efencing." Thieves or fences who sell loot out of a truck or at a flea market typically get 20 to 30 cents per dollar of retail value, according to a 2005 report on organized retail crime commissioned by the National Retail Federation. On the Internet, where their wares are exposed to many more potential buyers, they bring in, on average, 70 cents on the dollar, the report says.
Law-enforcement officials say the Web allows thieves to unload merchandise quicker than in the past, and in greater volume. [Technology improves every human endeavor... Bob] More thieves are taking orders for items to steal, a felonious twist on just-in-time inventory, these officials say.
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