Say it isn't so! Could this be true? Could any organization be so... so... STUPID?!?!
http://techdirt.com/articles/20070914/175349.shtml
Ameritrade Knew About Data Leak Long Before It Told Customers
from the quite-some-time,-it-seems dept
Late Friday, the news broke that TD Ameritrade is the latest in a long, long, long, long, long list of companies who have leaked data of its customers. In this case (as in many others) it was apparently due to their computers getting hacked. Considering how many similar stories we see, it almost didn't seem worth writing about. However, it appears that Ameritrade was well aware of the hacking long before they disclosed it. According to a lawsuit that was filed months ago, Ameritrade users had been receiving stock spam to unique email addresses provided only to Ameritrade as far back as October of 2006 -- and some of those users had reported this to Ameritrade. Then, back in May, Slashdot ran a detailed piece on the apparent leaking of Ameritrade email addresses, and even questioned why Ameritrade had not disclosed this breach, as is required under California law. The lawsuit, filed at the end of May, questions this as well. Yet, Ameritrade waited until now to disclose that their systems had been hacked, making email addresses available to people. Amusingly, Slashdot's report on this fails to note Slashdot's earlier story that helped spur the lawsuit and apparently pushed Ameritrade to finally investigate the claims. [Suggesting that Ameritrade's security didn't notice the hacker? Bob] Either way, it raises questions about why Ameritrade waited this long to inform its customers that their emails had been leaked, despite pretty clear evidence of a leak from quite some time ago.
More on the Ohio tapes: Perhaps because Ohio can easily be mis-spelled as Connecticut?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070914154942432
(update) Connecticut data on stolen Ohio computer tape, comptroller says
Friday, September 14 2007 @ 03:49 PM CDT
Contributed by: PrivacyNews
News Section: Older News Stories
State Comptroller Nancy Wyman says names and Social Security numbers of 57 Connecticut residents were improperly listed on a computer backup tape stolen in Ohio.
Connecticut will offer free credit protection to affected residents. Accenture, a consultant that worked on both states' computer systems, will pay for the service.
Source - Newsday
All the news that wouldn't fit...
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070917070030450
Data “Dysprotection:” breaches reported last week
Monday, September 17 2007 @ 07:12 AM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches
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
No doubt this will lead to mandatory “server overload” protection... Right?
http://techdirt.com/articles/20070917/001053.shtml
What An Online Bank Run Looks Like
from the 404-page-not-found dept
In the bad old days (or in countries with questionable financial situations) when there were concerns a bank might run out of money, there would be an old-fashioned "bank run," with tons of customers all trying to withdraw their money at once. That could cause all sorts of problems, since most banks work on the theory that such runs won't happen. Thanks to the FDIC, you don't see bank runs in the US these days, but apparently that's not the case in the UK, where concerns over the financial status of the bank Northern Rock led to what certainly looks like an old-fashioned bank run. However, in this modern age, not everyone is lining up on the street to get into their nearest Northern Rock branch. Apparently, the bank's website has experienced the equivalent of a bank run on its servers -- meaning that they've been pretty much unable to handle the traffic, frustrating a number of online account holders who say the terms of service say the only way they can retrieve money is via the online interface. Of course, the fact that many of those account holders can't even reach the site is leading to increased panic among those who fear that the site is down permanently. Apparently, even if the interface is different, an online bank run pretty much mimics the offline one.
Smart or Not Smart: “We're not only going to stop using iTunes, we're going to make sure those customers never use our products again!”
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/17/1927212&from=rss
Universal Offers iPod-Resistant Music
Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday September 17, @03:41PM from the that-wont-last-long dept. Music The Internet
dprovine writes "Universal is now offering music through Spiral Frog as free downloads supported by advertising revenue. But according to Daily Tech, the files being offered won't work on iPods. 'The move to not allow its content to be played on iPod's appears to be a clear snub by the Universal Music Group, similar to NBC's recent move of its television content from iTunes to Amazon.com. Apple has not commented on this development. For many, though, SpiralFrog.com presents an intriguing new business model that may present a legal alternative to file sharing or spending large amounts of money on CDs or paid download services, such as iTunes.'"
Smart or Not Smart: Eventually, someone will do the math.
Times to Stop Charging for Parts of Its Web Site
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA Published: September 18, 2007
The New York Times will stop charging for access to parts of its Web site, effective at midnight Tuesday night.
The move comes two years to the day after The Times began the subscription program, TimesSelect, which has charged $49.95 a year, or $7.95 a month, for online access to the work of its columnists and to the newspaper’s archives. TimesSelect has been free to print subscribers to The Times and to some students and educators.
In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There will be charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free.
Yes, it's public information, but not, you know like public!
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/14/218200&from=rss
City Fights Blogger On Display of Public Information
Posted by Zonk on Friday September 14, @06:33PM from the security-through-obscurity-right dept. Censorship The Media The Internet Politics
rokkaku writes "When the gadfly blogger Claremont Insider went searching for information about employee compensation on the city of Claremont web site, they never expected to find scans of pay stubs for all the employees. Nor did they expect the city attorney to demand that they remove copies of those pay stubs from their web site. They found it especially odd since, according to California law, the compensation of public employees is public information."
Hey guys! Even better, lets add this to a trojan so we can turn cameras on without the owner knowing!
http://www.killerstartups.com/Video-Music-Photo/homecamera--Your-Webcam-Surveillance-System/
HomeCamera.com - Your Webcam Surveillance System
HomeCamera is a downloadable program which turns your webcam into a free surveillance system. Great for keeping tabs on the kids, the dog, the spouse. Once you download the app you can hook up up to four cameras and find out what’s going down in your house or office. Camera footage can be accessed from any computer, mobile phone, or PDA with an internet browser. Additionally, you can share your footage with friends and family. If you’re using it for security, you can set up the motion detection feature; images can be sent to your email address or cellular. Store photos and videos on their servers for up to a month at no extra charge. While the service is currently in beta, everything’s free; however, once the service goes commercial, beta trialists will receive a free Lite version along with special offers on subscription and mobile access.
http://www.homecamera.com/web/Home.do
Downside of 'Ubiquitous Surveillance?'
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070917194101251
Caught Snooping, Husband Sues Spy Software Vendor - UPDATED
Monday, September 17 2007 @ 07:41 PM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: In the Courts
An Ohio man facing a lawsuit from his wife's friend for intercepting her emails using spyware on a household computer filed suit Friday against the spyware maker, arguing the company's ads failed to warn him that using it to monitor his family, including his wife, would violate state and federal laws.
Relying on a federal wiretap law that allows victims of spying to sue for damages, Jeffrey Havlicek argues that Deep Software, the Canadian company that sold him the key logger, should pay him thousands of dollars in damages and pay any claim from the lawsuit filed against him for spying illegally.
Source - Threat Level (blog)
Microsoft and the death of 1000 cuts!
http://techdirt.com/articles/20070917/230811.shtml
Microsoft's Tough Night: Google And IBM Both Launch Free Office Products
from the on-your-toes... dept
Just about 24 hours after continued to insist that Microsoft is a monopoly that needs to be restricted, three major tech companies demonstrated why that might not be the case. First up, Google rolled out their long awaited presentations capabilities to Google Docs. Google continues to insist that this is merely a "feature" added to the Google Docs offering, but obviously, this is a light version of PowerPoint. Still, Google seems to recognize that this isn't a full featured offering just yet, and the announcement plays up the biggest strength of Google Docs that can't be matched by Microsoft's Office Suite: the real-time collaboration ability. That's what made the original Writely so useful, and Google seems to recognize that and know to focus on it. My quick test of the software suggests that it works pretty much exactly as you'd expect it to -- which means it's quite simple to pick up and use.
While the Google announcement may be more important long-term, it's also worth noting IBM's decision to offer a free downloadable office suite. Way back when, IBM bought Lotus and tried to compete with Microsoft in the online collaboration, email and office suite arena -- and pretty much failed miserably. Sure, there were an awful lot of legacy customers (especially on things like Notes) who kept sending cash to feed the cash cow, but it was clear many years ago that the offering was losing to Microsoft. In recent years, there's been a new interest in office suite applications with the various online offerings from the likes of ThinkFree, Zoho and Google -- as well as via the open source desktop office suite client OpenOffice (and Sun's StarOffice variant). Last week, IBM threw its support behind OpenOffice, and the new free "Lotus Symphony" suite is going to be based on that platform. This could lead to two important things. First, if IBM dedicates increased resources to improving OpenOffice, it can become an even stronger competitor to Microsoft's office suite (and it's already pretty strong) -- similar to the way that IBM added some heft to Linux. However, more importantly, the IBM brand name is likely to go a lot further in enterprises than OpenOffice (or even Sun's StarOffice).
Finally, as we've already discussed, Yahoo's Zimbra purchase gives it a path into enterprise collaboration software as well. If you're Microsoft right now, it would seem you have pretty good evidence that a strong market position is no guarantee of keeping competitors out of the market.
How not to screw up e-Discovery
Sedona’s New Commentary on Search, and the Myth of the Pharaoh’s Curse
The Sedona Conference has just released its Best Practices Commentary on the Use of Search and Information Retrieval Methods in E-Discovery (August 2007) for public comments. A copy may be downloaded for personal use.
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