http://breachblog.com/2008/11/23/childhosp.aspx?ref=rss
Children's Hospital families affected by ex-employee fraud
Date Reported: 11/23/08
Breach Description:
"DENVER - The Children's Hospital and a third-party billing contractor will warn as many as 1,000 families that their credit card information may have been compromised by a former employee."
... The Oginskys are also frustrated, upset that the person who stole their information is not likely to face criminal charges.
[Evan] What?! Are you kidding me? How can this be?
The hotel where their credit card was used, the Excalibur, plans to write off the loss instead of filing a police report.
[Evan] In my opinion, this is a case where ethics should come before a "business case". This seems a little selfish.
According to the Oginskys, Denver Police sent them a letter saying they would not pursue to the case due to a backlog of similar reports unless the hotel would also press charges.
The Revenue Enterprises employee passed a background check before beginning work, the company said.
The Oginskys are troubled that she could still pass that same check in the future.
[Evan] This is huge concern. Due to the fact that there will be no charges filed, there is nothing to stop this crook from doing the same thing in the future. If there is no public record, there is little or no information available to warn future employers.
See what happens when you insist on that morning coffee? Drink beer!
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081123121910942
Starbucks notifies 97,000 of stolen laptop (updated)
Sunday, November 23 2008 @ 12:19 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
Several web sites and blogs are reporting that Starbucks employees were notified on Nov. 22nd of a laptop theft in Seattle on October 29th. The laptop reportedly contained personal information including names, addresses, and Social Security numbers.
The text of what is reported to be an internal memo signed by Russell Walker, Vice-President, Enterprise Security has been reproduced on a number sites, including the Starbucks Gossip blog and Laptop Theft Resources.
The internal memo does not state how the laptop was stolen, and suggests that the data were not encrypted. The company is offering those affected free credit-monitoring services with Equifax.
No statement has appeared on Starbuck's web site, and no one was available to confirm or deny the story at the time of this publication.
Update: We have just received this confirmation and statement from Starbuck's:
We recently learned that a laptop containing partner files was stolen on October 29, 2008. The laptop contained a file with the private information of approximately 97,000 U.S. partners (employees). At present, we have no indication that any partner data has been misused.
Starbucks takes our commitment to safeguarding the personal information and security of our partners very seriously, and we regret the inconvenience that this incident may cause. Currently, we are making every reasonable effort to notify those partners whose information may have been on the missing laptop and are offering to them a year of credit monitoring services at no cost.
We encourage any partners with questions or concerns related to this incident and the steps we have taken to contact the Starbucks Partner Contact Center at (866) 504-7368.
It could be worse. They could ask you to explain all the stuff they already know...
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081124061144208
Barack Obama wants you (to spill your secrets)
Monday, November 24 2008 @ 06:11 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
In his first press conference after the election, Barack Obama cracked a joke about Nancy Reagan holding séances in the White House. (It was factually inaccurate; the former first lady was into horoscopes, not "Hellraiser.") This provoked the administration’s first apology, but not the first bipartisan critique. That came a week later, with the release of the administration’s job application.
In 63 questions over seven pages, prospective White House employees are being asked — in addition to questions about finances, gun ownership and, possibly, flossing habits — to list “all aliases or ‘handles’ you have used to communicate on the Internet,” [I don't think I could do that. And how can I explain that not all posts by “anonymous” are mine? Bob] everything they’ve written, “including, but not limited to, any posts or comments on blogs or other websites,” links to their Facebook or MySpace pages and any potentially embarrassing “electronic communication, including but not limited to an email, text message or instant message.”
Source - Salon.com hat-tip, InfoWarrior.org Mail List
Related? Another reason the state wants real-time surveillance of “citizens”
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10106379-36.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Report: British juror axed for disclosures on Facebook
Posted by Caroline McCarthy November 24, 2008 5:43 AM PST
A British woman has reportedly been kicked off a jury for posting a "note" on Facebook asking her friends what they thought of the trial. She was given the boot after the court was tipped off.
...because...
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2008112405335253
Data “Dysprotection:” breaches reported last week
Monday, November 24 2008 @ 05:33 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
A recap of incidents or privacy breaches reported last week for those who enjoy shaking their head and muttering to themselves with their morning coffee.
Source - Chronicles of Dissent
For those interested in both Identity Theft and Economics... I wonder how many “advertisers” are scam artists or police stings?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081124052349901
Market for stolen goods valued at £184m
Monday, November 24 2008 @ 05:23 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
Credit card details sold on the black market could be worth over £57m, according to new research on the 'underground economy' released today by Symantec.
The security vendor monitored the internet chat rooms and forums where personal information stolen by hackers via Trojans, phishing attacks and other methods are bought and sold. Symantec found nearly 70,000 active advertisers selling compromised bank account and credit and debit card details, email accounts and pirated desktop games.
Source - vnunet.com
Ain't technology wonderful!?!
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10106213-16.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Two years later, McDonalds' sandwich patent can't hold back Dominos
Posted by Matt Asay November 22, 2008 8:03 PM PST
For centuries people have enjoyed sandwiches, and many businesses have made them without the "critical" protection of patents to ensure a short-term monopoly. Indeed, here in the United States, Dominos Pizza is making a furious push to up-end Subway's sandwich dominance.
!%!%!%!% pirates!
Have they forgotten that McDonalds filed for a patent on sandwich-making two years ago? The UK's Guardian covered this momentous patent two years ago, but it apparently hasn't struck fear into these would-be sandwich maestros.
Of course, McDonalds was not simply trying to patent the sandwich. It was trying to put a lock on automating sandwich making, so that 16-year olds everywhere would find themselves unemployed, and so that its plastic-tasting burgers would have even less variation in plasticity:
Perhaps we could learn from this? (probably not...)
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/23/1952248&from=rss
EU Strikes Down French "3 Strikes" Copyright Infringement Law
Posted by timothy on Sunday November 23, @03:24PM from the mon-dieu dept. The Internet
Erris writes
"Opendotdotdot has good news about laws in the EU: 'EU culture ministers yesterday (20 November) rejected French proposals to curb online piracy through compulsory measures against free downloading ... [and instead pushed] for "a fair balance between the various fundamental rights" while fighting online piracy, first listing "the right to personal data protection," then "the freedom of information" and only lastly "the protection of intellectual property." [This] indicates that the culture ministers and their advisers are beginning to understand the dynamics of the Net, that throttling its use through crude instruments like the "three strikes and you're out" is exactly the wrong thing to do.'"
Some textbooks and course descriptions. I'd say they were in favor of teaching this in law schools...
“Teach Your Children Well” - A Case for Teaching E-Discovery in Law Schools
Guest Blog by Shannon Capone Kirk and Kristin G. Ali
Related? Why Geeks should have lawyers!
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/24/0041238&from=rss
Psystar Case Reveals Poor Email Archiving At Apple
Posted by timothy on Sunday November 23, @09:03PM from the let-me-check-the-round-file dept. The Courts Communications Data Storage Apple
Ian Lamont writes
"Buried in the court filings of the recently concluded Psytar antitrust suit against Apple is a document that discussed Apple's corporate policy regarding employee email. Apparently, Apple has no company-wide policy for archiving, saving, or deleting email. This could potentially run afoul of e-discovery requirements, which have tripped up other companies that have been unable to produce emails and other electronic files in court. A lawyer quoted in the article (but not involved in the case) called Apple's retention policy 'negligent.' However, the issue did not help Psystar's lawsuit against Apple — a judge dismissed the case earlier this week."
How to impress a geek...
http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/23/1637219&from=rss
Google Sorts 1 Petabyte In 6 Hours
Posted by Soulskill on Sunday November 23, @11:53AM from the sort-of-fast dept. Google Databases Technology
krewemaynard writes
"Google has announced that they were able to sort one petabyte of data in 6 hours and 2 minutes across 4,000 computers. According to the Google Blog, '... to put this amount in perspective, it is 12 times the amount of archived web data in the US Library of Congress as of May 2008. In comparison, consider that the aggregate size of data processed by all instances of MapReduce at Google was on average 20PB per day in January 2008.' The technology making this possible is MapReduce 'a programming model and an associated implementation for processing and generating large data sets.' We discussed it a few months ago. Google has also posted a video from their Technology RoundTable discussing MapReduce."
For the Computer Forensics team. A cheap (free) first guesstimate?
http://digg.com/software/Is_That_Photo_Shopped
Is That Photo 'Shopped'...?
tinyappz.com — Error Level Analyser allows you to quickly check any image to determine if it might be photoshopped or altered. Simple, Quick, Free, and Effective.
http://www.tinyappz.com/wiki/Error_Level_Analyser
[Paper discussing modified images: http://www.hackerfactor.com/papers/bh-usa-07-krawetz-wp.pdf
I could improve my memory by smoking... er... that green stuff that caused my memory loss in the first place?
Marijuana Could Reduce Memory Impairment
Posted on: Wednesday, 19 November 2008, 15:40 CST
The more research they do, the more evidence Ohio State University scientists find that specific elements of marijuana can be good for the aging brain by reducing inflammation there and possibly even stimulating the formation of new brain cells.
Toward computerized musicians? (“I'm sorry, Dave. I can't let you play that in B-flat...”)
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/23/227214&from=rss
A Computer Composing and Playing Jazz
Posted by timothy on Sunday November 23, @05:40PM from the jazz?-you-really-are-polite dept. Music Technology
Roland Piquepaille writes
"The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has some unusual teaching programs. One PhD student, Øyvind Brandtsegg, is a graduate of the jazz program and this article describes how has developed a computer program and a musical instrument for improvisation. The PhD student is 36 years old and is at the same time a composer, a musician and computer programmer. His 'computer instrument' can take any recorded sound as input and split it into a number of very short sound particles that can last for between 1 and 10 milliseconds. 'These fragments may be infinitely reshuffled, making it possible to vary the music with no change in the fundamental theme.'"
Brandtsegg improvisational software is called ImproSculpt; his site contains several selections from his musical output, including "some pieces made with the predecessor of ImproSculpt," called FollowMe.
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