Simple question: Why did they need SSANs online for this application?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080109075003434
UGA contacting 4,000 after server breached by hacker
Wednesday, January 09 2008 @ 07:50 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches
University of Georgia officials are trying to contact more than 4,000 current, former and perspective residents of a university housing complex after a hacker was able to access a server containing personal information, including Social Security numbers.
The security breach happened sometime between Dec. 29 and Dec. 31, the university said Tuesday.
Source - Ledger-Enquirer
Related - Univ. investigates online security breach
[From the second article:
In 2006, administrators told The Red & Black the University will replace all Social Security numbers with another identifying number by 2009 or 2010.
That warm fuzzy feeling...
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080108135425786
GAO: Numerous security flaws in IRS computers
Tuesday, January 08 2008 @ 01:54 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Fed. Govt.
It's the worst-case privacy nightmare. Hackers get into the Internal Revenue Service's computer system, which has incomes, Social Security numbers and other detailed financial information on practically every American. It hasn't happened yet, but the Government Accountability Office is saying today that the IRS still has "pervasive weaknesses" in security.
Source - Baltimore Sun
Related - Information Security: IRS Needs to Address Pervasive Weaknesses [pdf], GAO-08-211, January 8, 2008
Why is this important? See next article
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080108/151810.shtml
FCC To Investigate Comcast Filtering; Questions Why Comcast Wasn't Forthcoming
from the what-about-if-it-had-been-a-telco? dept
The FCC hasn't appeared to have much of an issue with the various telcos spouting off about how they need to block certain kinds of traffic. In fact, even when AT&T agreed to keep its network neutral (sort of, but not really), FCC chair Kevin Martin made it clear that he wouldn't hold AT&T to its concessions on network neutrality. However, when a cable company, such as Comcast, starts doing some traffic shaping... well, that's a different story. There was a big fuss last year about Comcast's traffic shaping efforts. While it took a little while, the FCC has now said that it's going to probe Comcast's traffic shaping actions. Now, as we've said from the beginning, if Comcast feels it needs to do this kind of traffic shaping, that's one thing -- but there's simply no good reason (and a number of bad ones) not to be upfront and let its customers know about this. In fact, that appears to be a part of the FCC's thinking, as well, noting that the FCC allows "reasonable network practices" to protect a network, but: "when they have reasonable network practices, they should disclose those and make those public." Martin clearly has no love for cable companies, but how the FCC handles this issue could become important in determining how the FCC deals with other traffic shaping issues in the future.
Related
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/att-and-other-isps-may-be-getting-ready-to-filter/
AT&T and Other ISPs May Be Getting Ready to Filter
By Brad Stone January 8, 2008, 7:07 pm
For the past fifteen years, Internet service providers have acted - to use an old cliche - as wide-open information super-highways, letting data flow uninterrupted and unimpeded between users and the Internet.
But ISPs may be about to embrace a new metaphor: traffic cop.
At a small panel discussion about digital piracy here at NBC’s booth on the Consumer Electronics Show floor, representatives from NBC, Microsoft, several digital filtering companies and telecom giant AT&T said the time was right to start filtering for copyrighted content at the network level.
... Internet civil rights organizations oppose network-level filtering, arguing that it amounts to Big Brother monitoring of free speech, and that such filtering could block the use of material that may fall under fair-use legal provisions — uses like parody, which enrich our culture.
Here's one I don't get. Is there a lot of demand for access to Microsoft's $400 Office suite if Linux comes with several free suites? Will Sir Bill donate the operating system or charge $80 per copy (kinda kills that $100 laptop goal)
OLPC developing dual-boot Windows, Linux OS for laptops
Microsoft is working with OLPC to put a dual-boot system on laptops aimed at kids in developing countries
By Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service January 09, 2008
The One Laptop Per Child Project (OLPC) and Microsoft are working together to develop a dual-boot system to put both Linux and Windows on laptops aimed at kids in developing countries, the head of OLPC said in an interview Tuesday.
Similar (I guess) to the “tax” on blank CDs. 22 million users (out of a population of 33 million) would yield $132 million per year.
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35521/118/
Canada's RIAA rejects $5/month fee per Internet user for unlimited access to all copyrighted music
By Rick C. Hodgin Tuesday, January 08, 2008 15:03
The Canadian Record Industry Association (CRIA), Canada's equivalent of the US's RIAA, has rejected a proposal that would've tacked on an additional $5 per Internet account per month to generate revenue for that industry. The additional revenue would've given all paying users unlimited access to copyrighted music, and would've been distributed to labels, artists, producers and everyone involved in the music pipeline. The Internet users could download and exchange music freely with other fee-paying users, thereby getting around the P2P block seen today.
The plan was created by The Songwriters Association of Canada, and presented to the CRIA, the Canadian Independent Record Production Association, and other publishing groups. It is estimated that it would've raised $1 billion per year. [perhaps they can't do math? Bob] The CRIA president, Graham Henderson, said, "We don't want to pursue what amounts to a pipe dream that is presented as a quick fix. We'll lose focus on the real issues that will help us resolve the industry's problem."
[perhaps $25/user/month would work? Bob]
http://www.cria.ca/news/020306a_n.php
Net music sales in Canada declined by $23 million, or 4 percent, to $608.7 million in 2005, the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) reported today.
Tools & Techniques Useful for image capture, but Wink is better for building instruction videos...
http://www.hyperionics.com/hsdx/index.asp
HyperSnap
HyperSnap is the fastest and easiest way to take screen captures from Windows screen, and text capture (TextSnap™) from places where normal text copy is not possible. HyperSnap combines the power of a first-class screen capture application with an advanced image editing utility - wrapped into one easy-to-use tool!
Something for my Stat class?
No comments:
Post a Comment