Something is missing here – they can't be that ignorant...
http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6512881
CCSN Warns 197,000 Students of Computer Security Breach
Edward Lawrence, Reporter May 14, 2007 07:13 PM
There's a warning for current and former students at the Community College of Southern Nevada to check their credit.
School officials say a virus attacked one of the school's computer servers, which possibly contained students' personal information, names, social security numbers and dates of birth. Eyewitness News discovered this affects 197,000 people.
The attack happened on the West Charleston and Torrey Pines campus, but could have been launched from anywhere. The virus bounced from place to place over the Internet hiding its tracks before attaching to a server at CCSN.
CCSN president Richard Carpenter says the virus could have allowed a hacker to access student records on the server but that it is not certain whether anything was actually stolen from the school's computer system.
Carpenter says the malicious virus attack happened at the end of February. However, a letter warning the potential victims of identity theft was mailed at the end of last week.
... Carpenter says the school waited to notify the current and former students until technicians finished their investigation. "Our reason for alerting the students involved is not because we think their data was acquired. We don't. But there is an outside possibility it was," Carpenter explained.
School technicians discovered the virus four days after it attached to the server. They pulled the server offline and had each of the 197,000 files examined [unlikely each student had their own file... Bob] to see if it was downloaded. The school then sent the server to a third-party for an examination.
Again, CCSN President Richard Carpenter thinks no information was taken, but cannot be sure. That's why the school mailed letters to all potential victims and replaced all social security numbers in all the servers with school identification numbers. [Governments claim this will take “years” Bob]
Inevitable. Amusing?
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2129790,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594
DHS Employees Sue TSA over Lost Hard Drive
May 14, 2007 By Lisa Vaas
The American Federation of Government Employees is suing the Transportation Security Administration after the TSA lost a hard drive containing employment records for some 100,000 individuals.
... In AFGE, et al v. Kip Hawley and TSA, the AFGE claims that by failing to establish safeguards to ensure the security and confidentiality of personnel records, TSA violated both the ATSA (Aviation and Transportation Security Act) and the Privacy Act of 1974.
Forcing data storage into offshore data havens? (Data haven are like tax havens) ...and didn't TJX pass its PCI audits?
Texas mulls bill that would make PCI requirements a state law
Retailers that accept credit cards would be financially liable for data breach costs
Jaikumar Vijayan
... The state's House of Representatives last week voted 139-0 in favor of a bill that would formally codify PCI requirements into a state law that merchants would be obliged to comply with if passed.
“We don't need no stinking subpoenas!” Part 96... Consti-who-tion?
State Police, ACLU at odds over phone records legislation
May 14, 2007
PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Police departments would be able to obtain Rhode Islanders' telephone and Internet records without court review or a warrant under legislation pending before the General Assembly.
“We want your files?”
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN1429244520070514
Thousands of sex offenders discovered on MySpace
By Scott Malone Mon May 14, 2007 3:38PM EDT
BOSTON (Reuters) - Thousands of convicted sex offenders have registered for profiles on social networking Web site MySpace, [How do they know? Bob] posing a risk to children who are among the site's most avid users, eight U.S. attorneys general said on Monday.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and counterparts in seven states called on the company, owned by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., to hand over the offenders' names and addresses. [How do they not know? Bob]
Sources told the attorneys general that MySpace had discovered thousands of sex offenders on its site in an internal investigation, Blumenthal said. He did not give the identity of the sources. [I don't think this explains it... Bob]
Toward ubiquitous surveillance...
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2129979,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594
Calculators Tell Teachers Which Pupils Need Help
By Philipp Gollner, Reuters May 14, 2007
NEW YORK (Reuters)—Texas Instruments, whose calculators helped make the company a household name, has found a way to help teachers quickly identify students who may be failing math, CEO Rich Templeton said on May 14.
The so-called TI-Navigator sends wireless signals from pupils' handheld calculators to a personal-computer screen that lets instructors correct and analyze errors in real time.
"The teacher can understand who's not getting it" by assessing which functions students keyed into their calculators, Templeton said at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York.
Always interesting...
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/05/does_secrecy_he.html
Schneier on Security
A blog covering security and security technology.
May 14, 2007
Does Secrecy Help Protect Personal Information?
Personal information protection is an economic problem, not a security problem.
Old ideas, but not from legal scholars.
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9719339-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Gonzales proposes new crime: "Attempted" copyright infringement
Posted by Declan McCullagh May 15, 2007 2:00 AM PDT
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is pressing the U.S. Congress to enact a sweeping intellectual property bill that would increase criminal penalties for copyright infringement, including "attempts" to commit piracy.
"To meet the global challenges of IP crime, our criminal laws must be kept updated," Gonzales said during a speech before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington on Monday.
The Bush administration is throwing its support behind a proposal called the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007, which is likely to receive the enthusiastic support of the movie and music industries and would represent the most dramatic rewrite of copyright law since a 2005 measure dealing with pre-release piracy.
Here's our podcast on the topic.
The IPPA would, for instance:
* Criminalize "attempting" to infringe copyright. Federal law currently punishes not-for-profit copyright infringement with between 1 and 10 years in prison, but there has to be actual infringement that takes place. The IPPA would eliminate that requirement. (The Justice Department's summary of the legislation says: "It is a general tenet of the criminal law that those who attempt to commit a crime but do not complete it are as morally culpable as those who succeed in doing so.")
* Create a new crime of life imprisonment for using pirated software.
* Permit more wiretaps for piracy investigations.
* Allow computers to be seized more readily.
* Increase penalties for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's anti-circumvention regulations.
* Add penalties for "intended" copyright crimes.
* Require Homeland Security to alert the Recording Industry Association of America. [Now I see who drafted this law... Bob]
Worth watching...
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/014861.html
May 14, 2007
CeRI: Cornell e-Rulemaking Initiative
CeRI: Cornell e-Rulemaking Initiative: "The Cornell e-Rulemaking Initiative brings together faculty and students from several disciplines and the legal informatics professionals at LII. We consult with government agencies on, and engage in theoretical and applied research about, the technology and practice of e-rulemaking and related areas of e-government. An alliance of broad-ranging scholarly expertise with LII's recognized proficiency in Web-based provision of legal information, CeRI's goals are:
Helping agencies use the transition to Internet-based rulemaking as an opportunity to improve the quality and efficiency of their regulatory practice.
Facilitating public and private efforts to realize e-rulemaking's potential for increasing citizen understanding of, and participation in, government policymaking.
Assisting, and actively promoting, agency experimentation in Internet-based ways to elicit public participation beyond just the notice-and-comment process.
Increasing the data available to scholars on rulemaking practices, as well as on how agencies manage and change in light of significant shifts in technology."
Worth watching covertly...
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/014827.html
May 14, 2007
CIA Unveils New Web Site
Press release: "On Monday, May 14, 2007, the CIA unveiled its newly designed public Web site. The new site is an extension of the CIA’s social contract with the American people... In addition to a new look and feel, the redesigned CIA.gov introduces a variety of interactive features – including videos and virtual tours – and revamped, updated and improved content.
Key changes include:
A movie on the homepage that easily and quickly details who we are and what we do
Virtual tours of CIA Headquarters and the CIA Museum
Kerfuffle followup.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/11/ap/national/main2792485.shtml
Men Apologize For Boston Cartoon Stunt
BOSTON, May. 11, 2007(AP) Prosecutors said they would not pursue charges against two men who planted electronic devices around the city as part of a botched advertising campaign after the pair apologized Friday for causing a bomb scare.
Peter Berdovsky, 27, and Sean Stevens, 28, also performed community service at a rehabilitation center in a deal with prosecutors.
In contrast to their first court appearance in January, when they mugged for the camera and waved to friends in the courtroom, the men offered contrite apologies and said they never expected the stunt to cause any turmoil.
... The two were accused of planting about three dozen battery-powered devices in Boston and Cambridge on Jan. 31. The devices, a promotion for Cartoon Network, had lights that created images of a cartoon character making an obscene gesture. [Sure to please the Boston market? Bob]
... Similar signs were placed in nine other cities around the United States, but only in Boston did they elicit such a response.
Berdovsky and Stevens were charged with placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct.
... Berdovsky performed 80 hours of service and Stevens completed 60 hours at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Center in Boston.
... Turner Broadcasting and the advertising agency that carried out the campaign, Interference Inc., agreed to pay a $2 million settlement to cover costs and restitution for the law enforcement response. The head of the Cartoon Network resigned nine days after the stunt.
Watching your cat while you work? (They also list some services...)
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/57378.html
Remote Home Monitoring: Passing Fad or Wave of the Future?
By Bill Ablondi TechNewsWorld 05/14/07 3:38 PM PT
With an estimated 80 million households using broadband Internet by 2010, what does the future look like for remote home monitoring services? When looking into the face of a new market opportunity to quantify its magnitude, sometimes it's useful to examine where people currently spend their money and if some of this spending could be diverted to an alternative.
... Here are some of our key assumptions based on our research and analysis:
Self-monitoring systems will appeal to some households with security systems installed.
Five to 6 percent of households with a security system will adopt self-monitoring capability in the next 12 to 18 months; 12 to 15 percent will do so in five years.
Not all of these households will be willing to pay for self-notification services; most will opt for free services.
Households with no security system currently installed are less likely to adopt some form of self-monitoring capability.
Only 0.5 to 0.6 percent will adopt in next 12 to18 months; 1 to 1.5 percent will do so in five years.
Overall, 4 to 5 percent of households that opt for some form of self-monitoring system will pay for a notification service in the next 12 to 18 months; this will increase to 15 to 20 percent within five years.
Replacing the SCO litigation?
Microsoft desperate, says target OpenOffice.org
Open source alternative to Office incredulous over Microsoft's claims
By Gregg Keizer, Computerworld May 14, 2007
OpenOffice.org Monday called Microsoft's assertion that its open source application suite violates 45 of its patents "a desperate act."
Business opportunities abound...
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2129527,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594
Online Retail Years Away from Saturation: Survey
By Reuters May 14, 2007
LOS ANGELES—E-commerce is moving "full steam ahead" and is years away from saturation, with double-digit growth expected for several years, according to an online retail industry report published on Sunday.
... But it is not quite time to shutter that brick-and-mortar store. The online retail industry still only accounts for 7 percent of total retail sales, excluding travel. But certain categories represent a much higher percentage, like computers, where online sales make up 44 percent of the total.
The food and beverage category, by contrast, represents only 1 percent.
Critical advice (from the Wall Street Journal no less!)
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB117873682757897483-YOE18NkHlFKKRDnCxjJx_OTtvvE_20080513.html
How to Be a Star in a YouTube World
What it takes to stand out when anyone can be an entertainer
By MICHAEL TOTTY May 14, 2007; Page R1
There are millions of people trying to get noticed on the Web, with everything from blogs to podcasts to videos. So with the huge glut of material out there, how do amateurs get attention -- let alone become bona fide online stars?
... It turns out that success in the new-media world depends on a lot of the same things as in the old-media universe.
Will everyone learn this or die?
http://techdirt.com/articles/20070514/102806.shtml
CBS Learns The Lesson Quickly: Don't Build Your Own Destination; Syndicate Your Video Content
from the go-forth-and-multiply dept
Whenever we talk about the ridiculousness of big media companies demanding all their content be stripped from YouTube, people show up in the comments saying that they need to do this in order to build their own destination site for video. That doesn't make sense. In a world where attention may be the scarcest resource of them all, you should want your content spread as widely as possible. It appears that CBS is the first of the major networks to get this. While the company had tried to build its own video destination site for its content, it's now admitting that it should have been called CBS.com/nobodycomeshere. CBS is learning that people don't want to have to hunt down your silo for content and deal with your redesign and usability issues. They want the content wherever its easiest to get it -- and CBS has decided to comply. Rather than focusing on building out its own destination site, the network is going to push to get its content syndicated everywhere possible. This really isn't that surprising, given that CBS was one of the few networks to recognize that YouTube actually increased viewership of its TV shows. However, it is a bit amusing to think that CBS was just recently split off from Viacom, who has gone in the exact opposite direction.
Perhaps less protesting would have reduced the “Streisand Effect”
http://digg.com/world_news/BBC_Scientology_documentary_Watch_it_in_full_online
BBC Scientology documentary: Watch it in full online
For the next 7 days you can watch the BBC's documentary about Scientology in full on their website. Click 'Watch Now' at the top of TFA.
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