“What, me worry?” A. E. Newman
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,139212-c,onlineprivacy/article.html
Most Consumers Clueless About Online Tracking
Online privacy is vastly overestimated, as ad networks and marketers track surfers, study reports.
Jaikumar Vijayan, Computerworld Friday, November 02, 2007 11:00 AM PDT
... One example of that disconnect is that more than half -- about 55 percent -- of those surveyed falsely assumed that a company's privacy polices prohibited it from sharing their addresses and purchases with affiliated companies. Similarly, nearly four out of 10 online shoppers falsely believed that a company's privacy policy prohibits it from using information to analyze an individuals' activities online; in fact, this is a common practice. A similar number also assumed that an online privacy policy meant that a company they're doing business with wouldn't collect data on their online activities and combine it with other information to create a behavioral profile.
report (PDF)
Attention Hackers: Talk about a target!
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20071103142533833
NZ: Have your say about proving your identity online
Saturday, November 03 2007 @ 02:25 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News
The Government is proposing a new service that will allow people to prove their identity to government agencies online and in real time to a high level of confidence. The Department of Internal Affairs is holding a public consultation on the identity verification service between now and 7 December 2007. The aim is to gather feedback from potential users about how this new service might work for them.
This Identity Verification Service will be provided as a part of the All-of-Government Authentication Programme being led by the State Services Commission. The working title for all of the services offered to the public by the Authentication Programme is “igovt”.
Source - Scoop (Press Release: Department Of Internal Affairs)
Sort of a WalMart for computer thieves?
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/03/2054208&from=rss
Datacenter Robbed for the Fourth Time in Two Years
Posted by Zonk on Saturday November 03, @06:36PM from the that's-quite-a-router-failure dept. Security IT
mariushm writes "According to the Register, the Chicago-based colocation datacenter C I Host was attacked by armed intruders recently, making it the the fourth time in two years that armed thugs have made off with data. According to a letter C I Host officials sent customers, 'At least two masked intruders entered the suite after cutting into the reinforced walls with a power saw ... During the robbery, C I Host's night manager was repeatedly tazered and struck with a blunt instrument. After violently attacking the manager, the intruders stole equipment belonging to C I Host and its customers.' Aggravating the situation, C I Host representatives took several days to admit the most recent breach, according to several customers who said they lost equipment, all the while reporting the problems as 'router failures'."
For you Google watchers...
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/writing/2007/11/the-best-blogs-.html
Saturday, November 03, 2007
The best blogs about Google
Rex Sorgatz of Fimoculous, answers the question: Among the scores of sites devoted to Google-watching, sympathetic and skeptical, which are the best?
Worried about wireless?
http://www.citeulike.org/group/136/article/1846675
Proximity Breeds Danger: Emerging Threats in Metro-area Wireless Networks
Online Article USENIX: View article online
Abstract
The growing popularity of wireless networks and mobile devices is starting to attract unwanted attention especially as potential targets for malicious activities reach critical mass. In this study, we try to quantify the threat from large-scale distributed attacks on wireless networks, and, more specifically, wifi networks in densely populated metropolitan areas. We focus on three likely attack scenarios: “wildfire” worms that can spread contagiously over and across wireless LANs, coordinated citywide phishing campaigns based on wireless spoofing, and rogue systems for compromising location privacy in a coordinated fashion. The first attack illustrates how dense wifi deployment may provide opportunities for attackers who want to quickly compromise large numbers of machines. The last two attacks illustrate how botnets can amplify wifi vulnerabilities, and how botnet power is amplified by wireless connectivity.
To quantify these threats, we rely on real-world data extracted from wifi maps of large metropolitan areas in the States and Singapore. Our results suggest that a carefully crafted wireless worm can infect up to 80% of all wifi connected hosts in some metropolitan areas within 20 minutes, and that an attacker can launch phishing attacks or build a tracking system to monitor the location of 10-50% of wireless users in these metropolitan areas with just 1,000 zombies under his control.
Could any US hospital do this?
http://www.researchbuzz.org/wp/2007/11/03/london-childrens-hospital-puts-historic-records-online/
London Children’s Hospital Puts Historic Records Online
3rd November 2007
London’s Great Ormond Street children’s hospital has launched a Web site containing more than 50 years’ worth of patient records. The new site covers over 84,000 child patients who were treated between 1852 and 1914. You can search it at http://www.smallandspecial.org/.
From the front page you can search by first name, surname, and approximate year of birth. (There is a far more extensive search available at http://www.smallandspecial.org/search but you’ll have to register to use it.) I did a search for Dickens and got 18 results, including Dickenson as well as Dickens.
The results are in a table that shows date of admission, sex, name, diseases, and registration district. There are no hyperlinks on the table but you can choose a name and click on it for more details. Additional information includes admitting doctor, ward, and length of stay. If you register on the site (registration is free) you’ll get even more information including case notes, residence of the patient, and outcome of the disease. (Not all data is available for all records.)
This is a very interesting set of data for historical or genealogical research. Definitely worth a look!
Humor
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