http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081111053623907
Paper: Privacy and Consumer Information at Risk in Schools
Tuesday, November 11 2008 @ 05:36 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
A new study by J. Campana & Associates reveals that U.S. school-related data breaches account for nearly one-third of all the data breaches reported. The Education Sector, which comprises as little as 0.6% of the total number of U.S. entities, reported a disproportionate number of breaches. Over 1,000 data breach incidents that were logged by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse during the period January 2005 through October 2008 were considered in the study.
Source - Press Release Related - Education Sector Data Breach Study
Comment: the 1/3 statistic seems high when compared with reports by the Identity Theft Resource Center's 2008 analyses that indicate that 21% of their database of U.S. breaches were in the education sector. -- Dissent.
Follow the money!
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019780.html
November 10, 2008
Spamalytics: An Empirical Analysis of Spam Marketing Conversion
Spamalytics: An Empirical Analysis of Spam Marketing Conversion, October 2008 - Chris Kanich, Christian Kreibich, Kirill Levchenko, Brandon Enright, Geoffrey M. Voelker, Vern Paxson† Stefan Savage
"The “conversion rate” of spam — the probability that an unsolicited e-mail will ultimately elicit a “sale” — underlies the entire spam value proposition. However, our understanding of this critical behavior is quite limited, and the literature lacks any quantitative study concerning its true value. In this paper we present a methodology for measuring the conversion rate of spam. Using a parasitic infiltration of an existing botnet’s infrastructure, we analyze two spam campaigns: one designed to propagate a malware Trojan, the other marketing on-line pharmaceuticals. For nearly a half billion spam e-mails we identify the number that are successfully delivered, the number that pass through popular anti-spam filters, the number that elicit user visits to the advertised sites, and the number of “sales” and “infections” produced.
“If you want to exercise one right, first you must give up another.” (Why do they think citizens want guns?)
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081111054609381
Fi: Interior Minister would compromise on data protection for gun licence applicants
Tuesday, November 11 2008 @ 05:46 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
Minister of the Interior Anne Holmlund (Nat. Coalition Party) feels that compromises need to be made in the right to privacy when security issues are at stake. [Funny, so does Homeland Security. BOb] Speaking at the opening of the National Defence Course on Monday, Holmlund suggested that police who handle applications for firearms licences could be given access to the applicant’s health information, and information about medicines used by the applicant.
Source - HELSINGIN SANOMAT
Related “It's back or white. You can have security or privacy, pick one.”
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081111055404863
Ca: Don't let national security trump privacy: report
Tuesday, November 11 2008 @ 05:54 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
The privacy of Canadians shouldn't be sacrificed on the altar of fighting terrorism, says a new report based on the views of experts.
It says privacy and security must not be considered at odds with one another, and suggests weak privacy laws may actually make Canada more vulnerable to extremism.
"Other jurisdictions are outpacing the federal government on privacy and they may be reluctant to share information with Canada," says the report prepared by the Public Policy Forum.
Source - The Canadian Press
Oh, so that's what a slippery slope is...
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081110100439440
The End of the Road for Personal Data Protection in the EU (commentary)
Monday, November 10 2008 @ 10:04 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
JURIST Guest Columnist Virginia Keyder, currently teaching European Union law at Bogazici University and Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey, says that while the European Commission, aided most recently by the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice, has taken steps to encourage and even mandate increased state data retention for more efficient crime-fighting in the EU, the trend threatens to limit fundamental individual rights in the name of an ever-widening definition of "state security"...
Source - JURIST
Oops! Sounds like a pretty serious omission in their test plan...
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/10/2319209&from=rss
AVG Virus Scanner Removes Critical Windows File
Posted by kdawson on Monday November 10, @07:42PM from the it-just-acts-like-one dept. Windows Bug It's funny. Laugh.
secmartin writes
"The popular virus scanner AVG released an update yesterday that caused their software to mark user32.dll as a virus. Since this is a rather critical file, AVG's suggestion to remove it caused problems for users around the world who are now advised to restore the file through the Windows Recovery Console. AVG just posted an update about this (FAQ item 1574) in the support section of their site. Their forums are full of complaints."
Geeks or not, this is a great little video. Give these kids an “A!”
http://digg.com/comedy/If_The_Matrix_Ran_on_Windows
If The Matrix Ran on Windows watch!
collegehumor.com — Take the red pill. Get the blue screen.
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1886349
Listening to this Blog while driving could be hazardous to your health. Also good for students who can't won't read.
http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/ispeech-org-read-with-your-ears
iSpeech.org - Read With Your Ears
In a nutshell, iSpeech is a web-based solution that will allow you to convert your favorite websites and blogs to audio. A service like this caters for multiple users. For example, bloggers can easily increase their existing reader base by giving readers the chance to listen to the blog, whereas content providers can easily mobilize digital content and reach a broader audience instantly. Of course, the general public will also find such an approach compelling as they will be able to dispense with sitting in front of the computer to read the news – rather, they can listen to them whenever they desire.
iSpeech has been in development for over 18 months now, and it works in a very straightforward manner – as a matter of fact, you don’t even need to download or install anything. You simply cut and paste what you want to convert into the box that is provided on the site, or upload the files in question. Supported files include Microsoft Word and Excel documents along with Rich Text Files and RSS news feeds among several others.
Useful tool
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019780.html
November 10, 2008
Consumers Can Sign Up for Free Electronic Vehicle Recall Alerts From NHTSA
News release: "Vehicle owners across the nation can be instantly informed of a safety recall under a new automated alert system announced today by U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters. The recall alerts can be received via e-mail or RSS-feeds on personal computers, cell phones or PDA devices-automatically and free-of-charge. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there are about 600 vehicle recalls each year. Historically, one in four motorists ignore these recalls when they are announced."
Also useful? (Do I detect a slight New Jersey accent in the host avitar?)
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019781.html
November 10, 2008
Free Web Site Launched to Help Immigrants Learn English
News release: "The U.S. Department of Education today launched U.S.A. Learns, a free Web site to help immigrants learn English. The Web site, which is located at www.USALearns.org, provides approximately 11 million adults who have low levels of English proficiency with easily accessible and free English language training."
E-commerce made easy (For my website class)
http://www.canvasburn.com/13-beautiful-and-open-source-e-commerce-applications/
13 Beautiful And Open Source E-Commerce Applications
Too late, Halliburton! I hold the patent on patenting patent scams. You will be able to license it from me as soon as we win our lawsuit against someone who claims to have the patent on patenting a patent to patent patents... or something like that.
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/10/1651236&from=rss
Halliburton Applies For Patent-Trolling Patent
Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday November 10, @01:58PM from the meta-evil dept. Patents It's funny. Laugh.
An anonymous reader writes
"Halliburton, the company many folks know as Dick Cheney's previous employer, has apparently taken an interest in methods of patent trolling. In fact, according to Techdirt, the company has applied for a patent on patent trolling. Specifically, it's applied for a patent on the process of finding a company that protected an invention via trade secret, figuring out what that secret is, patenting it ... and then suing the original company. Hopefully, the patent office rejects this patent, because I somehow doubt that Halliburton is trying to get the patent as a way to block others from patent trolling."
It is traditional for campaign promises to disappear after the election, however that could be more difficult when everything on the Internet is in some (several) archives. (Wheedle is as wheedle does)
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10093042-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Agendas vanish from Obama's transition Web site
Posted by Declan McCullagh November 10, 2008 3:13 PM PST
Last week, President-elect Barack Obama launched a Web site with detailed information about his plans for technology, Iraq, and health care policies.
Now they're gone.
The "agenda" Web pages on Change.gov seem to have mysteriously disappeared on Sunday. By Monday morning, they were replaced with a vague statement saying that Obama and running mate Joe Biden have a "comprehensive and detailed agenda" that will "bring about the kind of change America needs," with the individual pages deleted entirely.
Related
http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/change-gov-office-of-the-president-elect
Change.gov - Office Of The President-Elect
This website stands as the online Office of the President-Elect, Barack Obama. It is a resource where all Americans can convene together and submit their ideas for making a better America a reality, as well as sharing stories about the campaign and Election Day.
Finally, a section that is entitled “Jobs” will let you put your services forward to the consideration of the Obama-Biden Administration as regards non-career positions. [Perhaps: “Blooger-in-Chief?” “Hacker-in-Chief?” Bob] A form is provided for you to fill out and submit over the web to these effects.
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