Friday, February 01, 2008

Even third world terrorists can commit Identity Theft. (but you can't change behavior that quickly)

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080131073901852

Debit-card ring may be linked to Tamil terrorists

Thursday, January 31 2008 @ 07:39 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

A routine traffic stop this week has unravelled an international debit card fraud ring, has led to 373 criminal charges and possibly has broken up a Tamil Tiger terrorist fundraising and money laundering operation, police said Wednesday.

All because four men ran a stop sign in a Scarborough, Ont., last Monday, Det. Peter Trimble said.

"That's not too smart a thing to do when you're driving a van full of stolen bank cards," he said. "And they had been drinking and had open liquor in the car, which also isn't very smart."

Source - Canada.com



The “personal liability” side of data spills. Do you suppose this is covered by malpractice insurance?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080131121312148

MN: Doctor Loses Flash Drive With Patient Information

Thursday, January 31 2008 @ 12:13 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

Parents with fertility problems know that it's a very private struggle. Couples often don't even tell close friends or relatives they're having trouble having a baby.

That's why the loss of patient information at the University of Minnesota's Reproductive Medicine Center has leaders there especially worried.

Dr. Theodore Nagel, a doctor at the fertility clinic, lost a flash drive that he used to back up his computer. The drive holds details of infertility treatments for 3,100 patients going back to 1999.... No financial or social security information was on the drive.

Source - WCCO (hat-tip, ESI)



I missed it...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2008013112012967

Voter Privacy Is Gone -- Get Over It

Thursday, January 31 2008 @ 12:01 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Other Privacy News

Last month VanityFair.com published an enlightening article that unfortunately got lost in the holiday shuffle and didn't get a lot of play. It's worth reading so I want to highlight it here.

The article examines a voter registration data broker named Aristotle, which buys voter registration lists from counties and states. It then combines that information with highly personal and detailed information about voters that it mines from various other sources before reselling the data to candidates, political operatives, and commercial entities.

Source - Threat Level blog



A privacy sound bite... (20 second video)

http://blog.aclu.org/index.php?/archives/472-Senator-Feingold-Puts-Protect-America-Act-in-a-Nutshell.html#comments

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Senator Feingold Puts Protect America Act in a Nutshell

Courtesy of Matt Stoller, this gem of a clip shows Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) explaining the Protect America Act (PAA) in a nutshell.



"L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace!"

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CYBER_STORM?SITE=VALYD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Threats From Everywhere in 'Cyber Storm'

By TED BRIDIS Associated Press Writer Jan 31, 2:01 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the middle of the biggest-ever "Cyber Storm" war game to test the nation's hacker defenses, someone quietly targeted the very computers used to conduct the exercise.

The surprising culprit? The players themselves, the same government and corporate experts responsible for detecting and fending off attacks against vital computer systems, according to hundreds of pages of heavily censored files obtained by The Associated Press. Perplexed organizers sent everyone an urgent e-mail marked "IMPORTANT!" instructing them not to probe or attack the game's control computers. [“Hey! In a real attack, this would never happen.” Bob]

... Among the mock disasters confronting officials in the previous exercise: Washington's Metro trains shut down. Seaport computers in New York went dark. Bloggers revealed locations of railcars with hazardous materials. Airport control towers were disrupted in Philadelphia and Chicago. Overseas, a mysterious liquid was found on London's subway. [Why not “a cable in the Suez Canal was cut...” Bob]

... In one scenario, after mock electronic attacks overwhelmed computers at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, an unspecified "major news network" airing reports about the attackers refused to reveal its sources to the government. [Thank god for waterboarding! Bob] Other simulated reporters were duped [by both sides? Bob] into spreading "believable but misleading" information that confused the public and financial markets, according to the government's documents.



Have I posted this before?

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/017346.html

January 31, 2008

Minimizing the Effect of Malware on Your Computer: FTC Offers Information on Protecting, Reclaiming Your Computer

"Criminals are hard at work thinking up creative ways to get malware on your computer, warns the Federal Trade Commission. With appealing Web sites, desirable downloads, and compelling stories, these criminals try to lure consumers to links that will download malware, especially on computers that don’t use adequate security software. Then, they use the malware – malicious software – to steal personal information, send spam, and commit fraud. A new publication from the FTC has information that could help consumers protect their computers against malware and reclaim their computer and electronic information if malware is already on their computer. The publication, Minimizing the Effects of Malware, provides tips on spotting malware, and urges consumers to act immediately if they suspect their computer is affected by malware."


Another resource

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080131165015766

Resource: Identity Theft Prevention and Identity Management Standards

Thursday, January 31 2008 @ 04:50 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Businesses & Privacy

Courtesy of ANSI:

IDSP Final Report - Summary This 20 page summary is an excerpt from Volume I [pdf]

Volume I: Findings and Recommendations This 134 page volume comprises the Panel’s findings and recommendations for areas needing new or updated standards, guidelines, best practices or compliance systems. [pdf]

Volume II: Standards Inventory This 124 page volume comprises the Panel’s complete catalog of existing standards, guidelines, best practices and compliance systems. [pdf]

IDSP Webinar Powerpoint Presentation Jan. 31, 2008 Webinar



Is this a wise investment? Possibly, but I don't think Microsoft is the one to turn them around... Anyone want to join me in a counter-bid?

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MICROSOFT_YAHOO?SITE=VALYD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Feb 1, 7:44 AM EST

Microsoft Offers $44.6B for Yahoo

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Business Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. has pounced on slumping Internet icon Yahoo Inc. with an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion in its boldest bid yet to challenge Google Inc.'s dominance of the lucrative online search and advertising markets.



Speaking of big bucks (although I think this quite doable)

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/31/2024239&from=rss

Fixing US Broadband Would Cost $100 Billion

Posted by Zonk on Thursday January 31, @04:02PM from the let's-get-started dept. The Internet Networking The Almighty Buck United States Technology

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "According to a new report from EDUCASE (pdf), it would cost $100 billion to wire the US with fiber optics and keep our infrastructure from falling behind the rest of the world. Specifically, they recommend what has worked in many other countries — government investment and unbundling — which are often criticized by free market groups, even though those policies have resulted in faster, better connections for smaller total costs. Ars Technica mentions in their analysis of this report that the President will be releasing a report on US broadband today, too."



Dilbert nails me! (What did I ever do to Scott Adams?)

http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2008073343201.gif



For my web site class

http://www.killerstartups.com/Video-Music-Photo/wwwphatfusionnetmultibox---Multi-Media-Lightbox/

www.phatfusion.net/multibox - Multi-Media Lightbox

Although there are already many Javascript modal windows or lightboxes available on the net, Multibox is offering something different. Multibox from Phatfusion is a lightbox which supports image, videos, mp3s, html, and flash. What you get are slick looking framed pictures with html texts, quicktime movies, Real player clips, .wmv files, and more. Multibox allows for overlays with semitransparent backgrounds, containers, show numbers, class name of the description, and content color. It is compatible with Firefox, IE and Safari and it works on Windows as well as Macs. To use it you'll need mootools version 1.11. It is free to download.

http://www.phatfusion.net/multibox/


http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/RichChartLivecom---Making-Charts-Sexy/

RichChartLive.com - Making Charts Sexy

Tired of those old, standard charts that bore you to tears? Rich Chart Live aims to revolutionize the way you look at charts. Rich Chart Live is a newly released web-based charting product that creates sexy charts using Flash. You don’t need to download anything, just a browser will work--and any operating system. Charts created using the application have attractive visuals and are interactive. Simply input the information manually, or copy and paste from any spreadsheet. You can publish your creation for the whole world to see, or export to Flash or PowerPoint. You can even embed to blogs or websites with a simple copy and paste job. Now there’s no excuse to bore your clients or boss with ugly charts. It’s free to use or you can purchase the full edition (minus the RCL’s corner logo) for $39 a month.

http://www.richchartlive.com/RichChartLive/



http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/FormStyleGeneratorcom---Create-Forms-in-Minutes/

FormStyleGenerator.com - Create Forms in Minutes

So forms may not win you awards, and no one really pays too much attention to them anyhow, but they often do play an important role on websites. FormStyleGenerator is just the tool you need to design and create forms without any hassle. It takes only three steps. First, you've got to design it. You pick the background style and color, the borders (color and size and perimeters), font and text (style and size and weight), label and font, and mouse event. Once you've got all that sorted out, preview your form and then download it. Step three: apply. You find the style to apply to Input, TextArea, Slect and Buttons form elements. And that's it, your form is ready to go.

http://www.formstylegenerator.com/#

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