http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081001044905707
Hacker compromises data on 11,000 at U. of Indy
Wednesday, October 01 2008 @ 04:49 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
A hacker attacked the University of Indianapolis' computer system and gained access to personal information and Social Security numbers for 11,000 students, faculty and staff, the school said.
The 4,300-student university's information technology staff and outside computer security experts are investigating the breach, which was discovered Sept. 18 when another institution warned the school.
Source - Chicago Tribune
[From the article:
"We don't know that anything was done with this information, just that there was a compromise," university spokesman Scott Hall told The Indianapolis Star on Tuesday. [Typical ignorance! Bob]
... "Our investigation leaves no doubt that this was a professional job by hackers from outside, and it was well beyond our control," [Bulls**t! You had no control – not the same! Bob] Pitts said in the e-mail.
... Investigators believe the attack may have originated outside the United States because a foreign language was found embedded in programming code [Ach du lieber! Bob]
Still making headlines. Is this better than releasing all the bad data at once? Machiavelli thought not...
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080930133253319
248,000 in N.C. affected by lost personal data (BNY Mellon update)
Tuesday, September 30 2008 @ 01:32 PM EDT Contributed by:PrivacyNews
About 248,000 North Carolinians are among those whose personal information was included in tapes lost by the Bank of New York Mellon, the state Attorney General's Office said today.
The company is notifying people affected by the security breach and offering them two years of credit monitoring for free.
Source - The News & Observerf
More evidence that governments are starting to enforce industry standards by law, regulation or edict.
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081001060023188
UK: Virgin Media slammed by Data Protection Commissioner
Wednesday, October 01 2008 @ 06:00 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
Virgin Media, which in June lost an unencrypted CD containing the bank details of 3,000 customers, has been found to be in breach of the Data Protection Act.
Virgin Media, which alerted the Information Commissioner to the problem in the first place, was ordered by the ICO to encrypt all portable and mobile devices that store and transmit personal information. Any company processing personal information on behalf of Virgin Media must also use encryption. [...and will use this order to justify increasing their charges to Virgin Media... Bob]
Source - CIO
Attention Security Managers!
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/01/0127245&from=rss
New Denial-of-Service Attack Is a Killer
Posted by kdawson on Wednesday October 01, @08:08AM from the fighting-a-resource-war-with-an-unfair-advantage dept. Security The Internet
ancientribe writes
"Hacker RSnake blogs about a newly discovered and deadly denial-of-service attack that could well be the next big threat to the Internet as a whole. It goes after a broadband Internet connection and KOs machines on the other end such that they stay offline even after the attack is over. It spans various systems, too: the pair of Swedish researchers who found it have already contacted firewall, operating system, and Web-enabled device vendors whose products are vulnerable to this attack."
Listen to the interview (MP3) — English starts a few minutes in — and you might find yourself convinced that we have a problem. The researchers claim that they have been able to take down every system with a TCP/IP stack that they have attempted; and they know of no fix or workaround.
Would you like a Diplomatic Passport from Grand Fenwick? (Or would you like to be that other mouse from the Magic Kingdom?)
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/09/how_to_clone_an.html
September 30, 2008
How to Clone and Modify E-Passports
The Hackers Choice has released a tool allowing people to clone and modify electronic passports.
Hey! We're doing important stuff here. We'er not interested in your opinion, so don't bother us!
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/30/208234&from=rss
US House Limits Constituent Emails
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 30, @04:49PM from the just-the-fax-ma'am dept. Government United States Politics
Plechazunga passes along this note from The Hill:
"The House is limiting e-mails from the public to prevent its websites from crashing due to the enormous amount of mail being submitted on the financial bailout bill. As a result, some constituents may get a 'try back at a later time' response if they use the House website to e-mail their lawmakers about the bill defeated in the House on Monday in a 205-228 vote."
This would be easily countered if DHS could point to ANY terrorist discovered by searching a laptop... Still nothing addresses search and seizures by TSA domestically..
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081001045508135
Bill Would Rein In Laptop Searches at the Border
Wednesday, October 01 2008 @ 04:55 AM EDT Contributed by:PrivacyNews
Random, intrusive searches of the contents of laptop computers at the border would be outlawed by legislation introduced on September 26 by Senators Feingold, Cantwell, Wyden, and Akaka. The Traveler's Privacy Protection Act (S. 3612) would require U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials to have a "reasonable suspicion" of a crime before they could search a laptop computer and other data storage devices; a court order based on probable cause would be needed to seize a device. Travelers could be present while electronic devices were searched, discriminatory searches would be barred, and strict time limits for searching would be imposed. The bill, which limits its protection to residents of the US, would displace recently-disclosed Customs policies permitting suspicionless laptop searches at the border that could last for weeks.
Source - CDT.org Related - Text of Bill S. 3612 [PDF]
Related What exactly are we looking for? Terrorist training camps? Large concentrations of camels? Mosques?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2008100105022661
Satellite-Surveillance Program to Begin Despite Privacy Concerns
Wednesday, October 01 2008 @ 05:02 AM EDT Contributed by:PrivacyNews
The Department of Homeland Security will proceed with the first phase of a controversial satellite-surveillance program, even though an independent review found the department hasn't yet ensured the program will comply with privacy laws.
Source - WSJ
Related (Ve vas only following orders!)
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019442.html
September 30, 2008
Over 16,000 Pages of FBI File on Martin Luther King Posted Online
Internet Archive: "The FBI's entire main (Headquarters) file on Martin Luther King, Jr. All 121 parts - 16,600+ pages - posted online for the first time, by The Memory Hole. The 121 parts have been put into 12 zip files. To access them, click here."
Related ...and useful on its own.
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019434.html
September 30, 2008
Online Guide - How to Read an FBI File
How to Read an FBI File by Phil Lapsley, author of The History of Phone Phreaking: "Maybe you found an FBI file on the web, maybe you got it through a web site like Get Grandpa's FBI File or Get My FBI File, maybe you found it at the National Archives, or maybe it was up in the attic in great-aunt Mildred's possessions. If you're like most people, after you read it you probably had a bunch of questions. FBI files are filled with jargon, abbreviations, file numbers, codes, blacked out chunks of text, and odd little codes in the margin. Very puzzling! If you're serious about trying to understand the stuff in that file, this document is for you. Its goal is to help you understand the contents of your FBI file. (For convenience, let's say "your file" even though the file may be about someone else." [Michael Ravnitzky]
One measure of success?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081001060759103
Ca: Website, phones jammed on Day 1 of do-not-call list registration
Wednesday, October 01 2008 @ 06:07 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
So many people were trying to sign up their phone numbers Tuesday on the first day of registration for the federal do-not-call list, the website crashed at one point and the phone lines were busy.
Source - cbc.ca
Is this (evidence/justification) that Google will be offering: “g-Market” -- an Open Source alternative to the NY Stock Exchange!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13515_3-10055022-26.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
September 30, 2008 4:10 PM PDT
Google's stock plummets to $249 due to 'erroneous orders'
Posted by Harrison Hoffman
Privacy isn't a category (yet)
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019435.html
September 30, 2008
Redesigned Global Legal Monitor Launched
"The Law Library of Congress is pleased to announce the launch of the redesigned Global Legal Monitor. The Global Legal Monitor has transformed from a monthly published PDF to a dynamic continuously updated website. The new Global Legal Monitor has the ability to view legal developments by topic (more than one hundred so far) and by jurisdiction (over one hundred and fifty). The content of the Global Legal Monitor can also be searched through its advanced search interface."
Outsourcing and Cloud Computing share the same security problems.
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080930100307489
Outsourced--And Out Of Control
Tuesday, September 30 2008 @ 10:03 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
As the economy sinks and budgets are squeezed, outsourcing looks more and more like a thrifty necessity. But when it comes to the data security of those far-flung offices, businesses may find they get what they pay for.
A study released Tuesday, compiled from surveys of information technology managers and users in 10 countries, reveals an alarming gap between the information-security practices of developed countries and those of emerging markets like China, Brazil and, to a lesser degree, India.
Source - Forbes
Other countries are enlarging their pipes – we try to limit usage by making them more difficult/expensive to use. Economics 101 suggests they are right and we are wrong.
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/30/1759229&from=rss
The Facts & Fiction of Bandwidth Caps
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 30, @02:44PM from the consequences-we-at-least-hope-were-unintended dept. The Internet
wjamesau writes
"What's the deal with broadband caps, like Comcast's 250GB/month data transfer limit, which goes into effect tomorrow? Om Malik at GigaOM has a whitepaper laying out the facts and fiction about Comcast's short-sightedness (which other carriers are mimicking), and how it will impact the future Internet: 'Given the growth trend due to consumers' changes in content consumption, today's power users are tomorrow's average users. By 2012, the bill for data access is projected to be around $215 per month.' Ouch."
The white paper is embedded at the link using Scribd; for a PDF version you'll have to give up an email address.
Very cool!
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/30/2122205&from=rss
Towards a Wiki For Formally Verified Mathematics
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday September 30, @06:14PM from the preparing-the-ground-for-our-robot-overlords dept. Math Social Networks Science
An anonymous reader writes
"Cameron Freer, an instructor in pure mathematics at MIT, is working on an intriguing project called vdash.org (video from O'Reilly Ignite Boston 4): a math wiki which only allows true theorems to be added! Based on Isabelle, a free-software theorem prover, the wiki will state all of known mathematics in a machine-readable language and verify all theorems for correctness, thus providing a knowledge base for interactive proof assistants. In addition to its benefits for education and research, such a project could reveal undiscovered connections between fields of mathematics, thus advancing some fields with no further work being necessary."
For my students, few speak English well.
http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/cosmotrainer-com-learn-foreign-languages-easily
CosmoTrainer.com - Learn Foreign Languages Easily
With the arrival of the Internet, learning a language has never been easier. Now the Cosmo Trainer folks are making their contribution towards the cause with their site. Basically, the visitor can specify both his native language and the language he wishes to work on. After that, the user can choose the vocabulary he wishes to train. Featured vocabularies include “Colors”, “Food”, “Human Body” and “Numbers” to name but four. Once this has been dealt with, it’s finally time to get down to some linguistic action and training.
It is nice to see startups like this one come along. As a Spanish King once commented, a man is as realized as the number of languages he has mastered, an opinion that has been shared by an endless number of artist and writers (Goethe springs to mind). As such, online resources like this one play a role in the realization of people and the breaking down of barriers that should not be overlooked. Check it out.
...for the watercooler crowd... (read carefully...)
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019436.html
September 30, 2008
Online Guide: History of U.S. Government Bailouts
Pro Publica: "With the flurry of recent government bailouts, we decided to try to put them in perspective. The circles below represent the size of U.S. government bailout, calculated in 2008 dollars. They are also in chronological order. Our chart focuses on U.S. government bailouts of U.S. corporations (and one city). We have not included instances where the U.S. government aided other nations. Check out how the Treasury did in the end after initial government outlays."
Related postings on financial system
Ditto
http://www.electoral-vote.com/
electoral-vote.com
Obama 286 McCain 190 Ties 62
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