No doubt part of TJX's defense...
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20071110102952299
(update) In 2005, Visa Agreed To Give TJX Until 2009 To Get PCI Compliant
Saturday, November 10 2007 @ 10:29 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches
Back in late 2005, Visa knew of the extensive security problems at TJX but decided to give the retailer permission to remain non-compliant through Dec. 31, 2008, according to documents filed in federal court Thursday.
The Dec. 29, 2005, letter from Joseph Majka, a fraud control vice president for Visa, was written months after cyberthieves had already secretly infiltrated TJX's systems, starting the work that would ultimately become the worst data breach in credit card history.
Source - StorefrontBacktalk (blog) (Props, Fergie's Tech Blog)
Maybe “We can, therefore we must” isn't a viable strategy?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20071110133416888
Schools Trying To Use Biometric Scanners For Lunch Lines Jump The Gun
Saturday, November 10 2007 @ 01:34 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Minors & Students
The Seminole County School District is backing away from a fingerprinting system that school leaders said would speed up lunch lines. Some parents were not happy about the decision to use biometrics.
The superintendent said the district really jumped the gun with the biometric program. It never even notified parents that their child's fingerprints would be needed in order for them to get lunch.
Source - WFTV (Props, Biometrics in schools blog)
But it could be worse...
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2007111108274281
Five drops of blood: Invasion of privacy?
Sunday, November 11 2007 @ 08:27 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Medical Privacy
About 24 hours after a baby is born in Minnesota, a hospital nurse pricks a heel and squeezes five drops of blood.... Within days, the family will know if the child has one of more than 50 rare hereditary conditions that can now be detected and treated.
... But the state screening program that likely saved Ella is now at risk as Minnesota becomes the battleground in the first big clash between genetics and privacy in the DNA age.
Why here? A confluence of factors: Minnesota screens newborns for more disorders than most other states. Minnesota also passed a law last year protecting the privacy of all genetic data. And Minnesota happens to be home to a very determined nurse-turned-privacy advocate, Twila Brase.
Source - Star Tribune
Don't we still define privacy as the right to be left alone?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20071111083008570
Government Seeks to Redefine Privacy
Sunday, November 11 2007 @ 08:30 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Fed. Govt.
Donald Kerr, a deputy director of national intelligence, thinks that it is time people in the United States changed their definition of privacy so that it no longer means anonymity, but rather, that the government and businesses safeguard our private communications and financial data.
Source - Associated Press
Easy & cheap publicity. Sponsor's cost is very low. Contestants do all the work. Results splashed on video sites pointing back to the organization. I'll bet this model gets copied frequently!
http://www.privacydigest.com/2007/11/10/following+cookie+crumbles+contest
Following up on the Cookie Crumbles Contest
November 10, 2007 - 7:23pm — MacRonin
The finalist videos from the Cookie Crumbles contest are taking flight in the blogosphere, helping to educate internet users on just what web cookies actually are, and where we should (and shouldn’t) be concerned.
You can now see the grand prize winner, Clayton Miller’s ‘Cookies,’ the Audience Choice winner, Justin & Kristin Schaack’s ‘Got Cookies?,’ and the other three finalist videos on the contest homepage. You can view all the videos entered to the contest at our YouTube group.
You can also see all the finalist videos featured on Google’s newly created YouTube privacy channel. The channel will be a new way for Google users to learn about the privacy aspects of Google’s products.
... The Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s post on the contest includes some useful resources of its own, linking to a how-to on disabling cookies.
File this one next to those misspelled URLs – Miss the valid link, go to the hacker site. Clever
http://www.privacydigest.com/2007/11/10/background+images+emerging+tool+myspace+hackers
Background images emerging tool of MySpace hackers
November 10, 2007 - 7:25pm — MacRonin
MySpace users, look out for a new brand of website hacking technique that’s emerged over the past week. The hack inserts code that loads a background image linking back to a badware site, and has so far had several prominent victims, most notably pop star Alicia Keyes.
A user who clicks anywhere on the site that is not a legitimate, pre-existing link will be redirected by the linked background image to the badware site, apparently hosted in China. The user will also be prompted to download a codec to view videos - something one might expect on a MySpace page - which itself delivers malware.
The attacks were first noted last week by researchers at FaceTime Communications, and have gained widespread coverage this week due to the hacking of Keyes’s page.
While MySpace reacted quickly to reports of the hacks, there is also word that Keyes’s page, at least, has been reinfected once. There’s no estimate yet on how many users may have been infected, or how many MySpace pages have been compromised, but one thing seems certain: this is a technique to watch out for in the future, on MySpace, and beyond.
This should amuse RIAA
http://torrentfreak.com/canadian-police-tolerates-piracy-071110/
Canadian Police Tolerates Piracy For Personal Use
Written by Ernesto on November 11, 2007
The Canadian police announced that it will stop targeting people who download copyrighted material for personal use. Their priority will be to focus on organized crime and copyright theft that affects the health and safety of consumers instead of the cash flow of large corporations.
... According to the Canadian police it is impossible to track down everyone who downloads music or movies off the Internet. The police simply does not have the time nor the resources to go after filesharers.
“Piracy for personal use is no longer targeted,” Noël St-Hilaire, head of copyright theft investigations of the Canadian police, said in an interview with Le Devoir. “It is too easy to copy these days and we do not know how to stop it,” he added.
Meanwhile, in the land of big lobbyists...
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/11/0342213&from=rss
Bill Would Tie Financial Aid To Anti-Piracy Plans
Posted by kdawson on Sunday November 11, @07:56AM from the finest-congress-money-can-buy dept. Education The Almighty Buck United States
theodp writes "The MPAA is applauding top Democratic politicians for introducing an anti-piracy bill that threatens the nation's colleges with the loss of a $100B a year in federal financial aid should they fail to have a technology plan to combat illegal file sharing. The proposal, which is embedded in a 747-page bill, has alarmed university officials. 'Such an extraordinarily inappropriate and punitive outcome would result in all students on that campus losing their federal financial aid — including Pell grants and student loans that are essential to their ability to attend college, advance their education, and acquire the skills necessary to compete in the 21st-century economy,' said university officials in a letter to Congress. 'Lower-income students, those most in need of federal financial aid, would be harmed most under the entertainment industry's proposal.'"
Since military exercises are announced in advance, this was not an error. What message are they sending? (“Still think you can defend Taiwan, Yankee Dog?”)
The uninvited guest: Chinese sub pops up in middle of U.S. Navy exercise, leaving military chiefs red-faced
By MATTHEW HICKLEY - More by this author » Last updated at 00:13am on 10th November 2007
When the U.S. Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, it takes the security of its aircraft carriers very seriously indeed.
At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard while the technical wizardry of the world's only military superpower offers an invisible shield to detect and deter any intruders.
That is the theory. Or, rather, was the theory.
American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk - a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board.
By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier.
... One Nato figure said the effect was "as big a shock as the Russians launching Sputnik" - a reference to the Soviet Union's first orbiting satellite in 1957 which marked the start of the space age.
The incident, which took place in the ocean between southern Japan and Taiwan, is a major embarrassment for the Pentagon.
... Commodore Stephen Saunders, editor of Jane's Fighting Ships, and a former Royal Navy anti-submarine specialist, said the U.S. had paid relatively little attention to this form of warfare since the end of the Cold War.
Opportunity? Sounds like several, actually.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/10/2022251&from=rss
IBM Predicts Massive Shifts In Advertising
Posted by kdawson on Saturday November 10, @05:41PM from the adapt-or-die dept.
Tech.Luver writes with news from IBM Global Business Services about its new report, The End of Advertising as We Know It (report PDF, summary PDF). It forecasts greater disruption for the advertising industry in the next five years than has occurred over the previous 50. Among the conclusions: broadcasters will have to change their mass audience mind-set to cater to niche consumer segments. Distributors will need to deliver targeted, interactive advertising for a range of multimedia devices. Advertising agencies must become brokers of consumer insights and guide allocation of advertising dollars amid exploding choices. All players must adapt to a world where advertising inventory is increasingly bought and sold in open exchanges vs. traditional channels.
Is this due to someone's recognition of the changing world described in the article above? Also trending towards “all media on demand”
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/11/0329213&from=rss
NBC Direct Launches With Free Downloads
Posted by kdawson on Sunday November 11, @04:40AM from the tv-for-some dept. Television Entertainment
thefickler writes "It's here, and it's no joke. NBC has launched NBC Direct where most shows can be watched online and some shows are available for full episode downloads. This comes after NBC decided to pull out of iTunes."
For now it's Windows only, XP or Vista, IE 6 or 7. [“'cause we don't need the entire market.” Okay, not everyone thinks it through... Bob]
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