http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/10/1539246&from=rss
World Bank Under Cybersiege In "Unprecedented Crisis"
Posted by kdawson on Friday October 10, @12:34PM from the wolf-really dept.
JagsLive sends in a Fox News report on large-scale and possibly ongoing security breaches at the World Bank.
"The World Bank Group's computer network — one of the largest repositories of sensitive data about the economies of every nation — has been raided repeatedly by outsiders for more than a year, FOX News has learned. It is still not known how much information was stolen. But sources inside the bank confirm that servers in the institution's highly-restricted treasury unit were deeply penetrated with spy software last April. Invaders also had full access to the rest of the bank's network for nearly a month in June and July. In total, at least six major intrusions — two of them using the same group of IP addresses originating from China — have been detected at the World Bank since the summer of 2007, with the most recent breach occurring just last month. In a frantic midnight e-mail to colleagues, the bank's senior technology manager referred to the situation as an 'unprecedented crisis.' In fact, it may be the worst security breach ever at a global financial institution. And it has left bank officials scrambling to try to understand the nature of the year-long cyber-assault, while also trying to keep the news from leaking to the public."
[From the article:
While it remains unclear how much data has been pilfered from the bank, it's a lot. According to internal memos, "a minimum of 18 servers have been compromised," including some of the bank's most sensitive systems — ranging from the bank's security and password server to a Human Resources server "that contains scanned images of staff documents."
One World Bank director tells FOX News that as many as 40 servers have been penetrated, including one that held contract-procurement data.
... "It's about the FBI coming last summer and saying, 'You should take a look at your systems because we think something weird is going on.' [Another “We didn't know” incident Bob] It's about the intruders knowing what information they wanted — and getting to it whenever they wanted to. They took our existing data stores and organized them in a way that they could be easily accessed at will." [and no one at the bank noticed... Bob]
Hey, trust us! We've been in the security business a long time.
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081010080639147
UK: MoD loses hard drive with troop and family details
Friday, October 10 2008 @ 08:06 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
The Ministry of Defence has begun an investigation into its worst information security breach after a portable hard drive with details of about 100,000 servicemen and women and 800,000 applicants to join the Armed Services was found to be missing on Wednesday.
Sensitive details of the family members of personnel were also among the data stored, including bank details and passport numbers.
The portable hard drive — which is believed not to have been encrypted [“We don't know...” Bob] — was used by EDS, the MoD’s main IT contractor, to test computer equipment. It could have en missing for several days.
Source - TimesOnline Related - The Register: MoD loses most of the armed forces
Similar, but a non-event?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081010123023353
UK: Pensioner's details stolen (Deloitte update 2)
Friday, October 10 2008 @ 12:30 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
A LAPTOP containing data on around 100,000 pensioners was stolen last month, it was revealed today.
Source - The Sun
[From the article:
The computer, which contained pensioners’ names, National Insurance numbers and salary details, was in a handbag snatched from an employee of accounting firm Deloitte.
... In a statement, Deloitte said the laptop was protected by a number of security measures, including start-up and operating system passwords and data encryption.
... A spokesman for Deloitte said they did not want to say where the theft took place to reduce the chance of the thieves realising what they had taken.
Strategy: They will copy our “telecomm get-out-of-jail-free” legislation, then in a few years we can start a “We're behind the Brits on Terrorist tracking” campaign and copy their database.
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/11/0257222&from=rss
UK Government Says More Spying Needed
Posted by timothy on Saturday October 11, @01:32AM from the need-to-make-up-for-the-losses dept. Privacy Communications Government
An anonymous reader writes
"Our wonderful government here in the UK has decided we're not being surveilled enough, and agreed to spend £12 billion on a programme to monitor every Briton's phone calls, e-mails, and internet usage. According to various sources, upwards of £1 billion has already been spent on the uber-database. Rationale? Terrorism, of course (no prizes for guessing). Needless to say, not everyone is as happy as Larry over this: Michael Parker pointed out how us Brits are being 'stalked.' I'm just looking forward to when the data gets lost."
Let's hope the comments were an afterthought...
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/10/1243212&from=rss
Judge Tosses Telco Suit Over City-Owned Network
Posted by kdawson on Friday October 10, @09:23AM from the why-not-sue-the-state-for-building-roads dept.
tsa sends along news of the city of Monticello, Minnesota, which was sued by their local telco, Bridgewater Telephone Company, because the city chose to build a fiber optics network of their own. The judge dismissed their complaint of competition by a governmental organization. Quoting:
"The judge's ruling is noteworthy for two things: (1) the judge's complete dismissal of Bridgewater Telephone Company's complaint and (2) his obvious anger at the underfunding of Minnesota's state courts. Indeed, the longest footnote in the opinion is an extended jeremiad about how much work judges are under and why it took so long to decide this case."
The numbers get bigger, but I still get SPAM
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081010074935476
US couple fined $236 million for spamming
Friday, October 10 2008 @ 07:49 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
A US couple who sent vast quantities of spam via a small ISP for around four months in 2003 have been fined a whacking $236 million.
According to the IDG newswire, Perez and Suzanne Bartok used a bulk emailing package to send millions of spammed messages to CIS Internet Services in Iowa.
The small ISP said it had to dedicate three servers to blocking the couple's spam, which amounted to an astonishing 500 million emails every day for around four months in 2003.
Source - ITProPortal.com
Any chance this sets a precedent for those of us who are not “tabloid fodder?”
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081010135011830
Lindsay Lohan's Lawyers Battle For Her Privacy In California Courtroom
Friday, October 10 2008 @ 01:50 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
Lindsay Lohan's attorneys filed a motion on her behalf this week, seeking a judge's order barring any filming or taping whatsoever of the bisexual actress' upcoming deposition in a lawsuit filed by lover Samantha Ronson.
Lohan's attorneys have asked the court that transcripts or any other accounts of the deposition be sealed from being introduced into public records. The motion states that Lohan feats (sic) videotaping the deposition will "unduly embarrass, oppress and burden her because of the private subject matter of the expected testimony and the virtual certainty that, unless access is significantly limited, the transcript and videotape of the deposition will be illegally exploited by the media." [“Illegal” isn't protection enough? Bob]
Source - The Post Chronicle
How to win loyal customers? Oh wait, Many of these content providers aren't Verizon customers. (and soon, none of them will be.) Comments are amusing too.
http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/10/209209&from=rss
Verizon To Charge Content Providers $.03 Per SMS
Posted by timothy on Friday October 10, @04:12PM from the but-there's-no-penny-slot dept. Cellphones Communications The Almighty Buck
An anonymous reader writes
"It appears that Verizon is going to start double-dipping by charging both consumers AND content providers for SMS text messages. Verizon has informed content partners that it will levy a $.03 charge for messages sent to customers, effective November 1. From RCRWireless: 'Countless companies could be affected by the new fee, from players in the booming SMS-search space (4INFO, Google Inc. and ChaCha) to media companies (CNN, ESPN and local outlets) to mobile-couponing startups (Cellfire) to banks and other institutions that use mobile as an extension of customer services.'"
One of the promises of the Internet was that anyone could learn any subject from the best teachers in the world. In the US we insist on a “license to teach” and a degree in “remedial grammer school” rather than a degree in the topic being taught.
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/10/234230&from=rss
How US Schools' Culture Stifles Math Achievement
Posted by timothy on Friday October 10, @07:18PM from the expensive-gubmint-babysitting-castles dept. Education Math United States
Zarf writes
"I'd like to file a bug report on the US educational system. The New York Times reports on a recent study that shows the US fails to encourage academic talent as a culture.' "There is something about the culture in American society today which doesn't really seem to encourage men or women in mathematics," said Michael Sipser, the head of M.I.T.'s math department. "Sports achievement gets lots of coverage in the media. Academic achievement gets almost none."' While we've suspected that the US might be falling behind academically, this study shows that it is actually due to cultural factors that are devaluing the success of our students. I suspect there's a flaw in the US cultural system that prevents achievement on the academic front as valuable. Could anyone suggest a patch for this bug or is this cause for a rewrite?"
Good for non-judges too?
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019530.html
October 10, 2008
Federal Law Framework Explored in New Guide
Statutory Structure and Legislative Drafting Conventions: A Primer for Judges, M. Douglass Bellis, Deputy Legislative Counsel, United States House of Representatives, Federal Judicial Center 2008
"The Federal Judicial Center has published a guide, Statutory Structure and Legislative Drafting Conventions: A Primer for Judges. It describes the statutory framework of federal law and examines some legislative drafting conventions. It may be useful to judges for statutory interpretation.
TV ain't TV any more. There is a rumor that Apple will produce a fully Internet enabled TV soon.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10063661-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
YouTube beams up 'Star Trek' for long-form video
Posted by Stephen Shankland October 10, 2008 2:48 PM PDT
Google's YouTube has begun testing a dramatic departure in content and advertising, adding 15 50-minute TV episodes from Star Trek, Beverly Hills 90210, and MacGyver and with prominent new ads.
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