http://www.databreaches.net/?p=4201
Heartland Data Breach: Hearing Set for Class Action Suits
May 20, 2009 by admin Filed under: Financial Sector, U.S.
From BankInfoSecurity.com:
A federal judicial panel will hear arguments next week on whether to consolidate the class action lawsuits brought against Heartland Payment Systems (HPY) by financial institutions. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation in Louisville, KY will hear the arguments next Wednesday, according to Benjamin Johns, one of the lawyers representing the class action suit from the law firm of Chimicles & Tikellis, Haverford, PA.
What an interesting law... I just love those “You can't graze your horse on the courthouse lawn” kinda laws...
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/05/fcc-raid/
FCC’s Warrantless Household Searches Alarm Experts
By Ryan Singel Email Author May 21, 2009 12:00 am Categories: Privacy, Spooks Gone Wild, Surveillance
You may not know it, but if you have a wireless router, a cordless phone, remote car-door opener, baby monitor or cellphone in your house, the FCC claims the right to enter your home without a warrant at any time of the day or night in order to inspect it.
… The FCC claims it derives its warrantless search power from the Communications Act of 1934, though the constitutionality of the claim has gone untested in the courts. That’s largely because the FCC had little to do with average citizens for most of the last 75 years, when home transmitters were largely reserved to ham-radio operators and CB-radio aficionados. But in 2009, nearly every household in the United States has multiple devices that use radio waves and fall under the FCC’s purview, making the commission’s claimed authority ripe for a court challenge.
… The rules came to attention this month when an FCC agent investigating a pirate radio station in Boulder, Colorado, left a copy of a 2005 FCC inspection policy on the door of a residence hosting the unlicensed 100-watt transmitter.
… In the meantime, pirate radio stations are adapting to the FCC’s warrantless search power by dividing up a station’s operations. For instance, Boulder Free Radio consists of an online radio station operated by DJs from a remote studio. Miles away, a small computer streams the online station and feeds it to the transmitter. Once the FCC comes and leaves a notice on the door, the transmitter is moved to another location before the agent returns.
You just need your Craftsman magnifying glass to read the fine print...
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20090520090829121
Court Certifies Class Action Against Sears for Alleged Sale of Customers' Private Information
Wednesday, May 20 2009 @ 09:08 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
From the press release:
A notice program authorized by the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, began today. The notice is a result of the Court certifying, on April 7, 2008, a plaintiff class in lawsuits alleging that customers' personal, private, and confidential financial information was disclosed for profit by Sears to certain third-party vendors contrary to the representations and obligations to its credit card holders.
It's amazing how many class action lawsuits I seem to be a member of without ever lifting a finger or filing a lawsuit... [AMEN Bob]
Is this a “get out of jail free!” card?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20090520150750184
Accused Palin Hacker Says Stolen E-Mails Were Public Record
Wednesday, May 20 2009 @ 03:07 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
A surprise legal maneuver by the defense in the Sarah Palin hacking case could undermine key charges carrying the stiffest potential penalties.
A lawyer for the Tennessee college student charged with hacking into the Alaska governor’s Yahoo e-mail account last year says his client couldn’t have violated Palin’s privacy because a judge had already declared her e-mails a matter of public record.
Source - Threat Level
[From the article:
Last year, following the initial indictment, Davies objected to the computer hacking charge on the grounds that the government had erroneously used two misdemeanors pertaining to the same crime to elevate the charge to a felony. In order for hacking to be a felony under the federal law, it has to be done for the purpose of committing an additional crime, or a “tortious” act — i.e., an action that could give rise to a civil suit.
But in a circular argument, the government had essentially charged Kernell with obtaining unauthorized access to information in Yahoo’s computers for the criminal purpose of obtaining unauthorized access to the information. [No doubt they teach you how to craft such logic free arguments in Law School... Bob]
Looks like the French are learning from the Brits...
Next up for France: police keyloggers and Web censorship
The French government, fresh from passing its controversial "three strikes" law to boot repeat file-sharers off the Internet, is now prepping its next assault on online malfeasance. A new bill would legalize government keyloggers, institute ISP censorship of child porn sites, and set up a massive citizen database called Pericles.
[From the article:
Critics like Jean-Michel Planche, who advises the French government on Internet issues, are already calling the new bill the end of an open and neutral Internet.
Ubiquitous self-surveillance? Wholesale crowd sourcing?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10246268-2.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Waze: The traffic of the crowds
by Rafe Needleman May 21, 2009 4:00 AM PDT
Israeli start-up Waze is at the Where 2.0 conference this week showing off its service for collecting real-time traffic and driving condition data from its users. Currently running on 80,000 smartphones in Israel, Waze shows you traffic flows on highways, and unlike other traffic services, it also shows it on side streets, and it creates routing advice based on that data.
The service allows users to report accidents, speed traps, cops by the side of the road, and other traffic-related items. What's cool is that these items fade automatically over time, and there's also the possibility for the system to ping a driver as he or she passes a previously reported incident to see if it's still there.
CEO Noam Bardin tells me that in Israel, Waze doesn't even use commonly available street maps as its base layer of data. Instead, it tracks users (with their permission), and builds maps from those traces. Then it asks users to name the roads.
For Cindy's “Sex & Power” class. (With more students than I've had in the last year!) Perhaps Craigslist is not as willing to roll over as I thought?
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/20/1740237&from=rss
Craigslist Fights Back, Sues SC Atty General
Posted by timothy on Wednesday May 20, @01:53PM from the wouldn't-have-happened-to-a-nicer-guy dept. Censorship The Courts The Media United States News
FredMastro writes
"Craigslist has now stepped past just asking for an apology. The Wall Street Journal and CNet report that Craigslist is fighting back. 'Craigslist said it has sued South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster, in the latest escalation of a battle over adult-oriented ads on the company's site. Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist's chief executive, said in a blog post that the company filed its suit in federal court in South Carolina. ...'"
Unfortunately, the WSJ's piece requires a subscription, [but as any hacker will tell you, searching for the article title in Google News gives you access to the full text. Bob] but reader Locke2005 adds a link to coverage in the San Jose Business Journal.
Would you call this bad behavior? “You own the car, but only the manufacturer can repair it?” (and yes, it is a miracle that I might, possibly agree with Ralph Nader, just a bit)
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/20/2219236&from=rss
Right-to-Repair Law To Get DRM Out of Your Car
Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday May 20, @07:27PM from the do-it-yourself dept. Transportation Technology
eldavojohn writes
"Ralph Nader's back to hounding the automotive industry ... but it's not about safety this time, it's about the pesky DRM in your car. Most cars have a UART in them that allows you to read off diagnostic codes and information about what may be wrong with the vehicle so you can repair it. Late model cars have been getting increasingly complex and dependent on computers which has caused them, as with most things digital, to move towards a proprietary DRM for these tools, diagnostic codes and updated repair information. This has kept independent auto-shops out of the market for fixing your car and relegating you to depend on pricier dealers to get your automotive ailments cured. The bill still has a provision to protect trade secrets but is a step forward to open up the codes and tools necessary to keep your car running."
Delete doesn't mean delete. It means, make it invisible.
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20090520184257691
Websites 'keeping deleted photos'
Wednesday, May 20 2009 @ 06:42 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews
User photographs can still be found on many social networking sites even after people have deleted them, Cambridge University researchers have said.
They put photos on 16 popular websites - noting the web addresses where the images were stored - and deleted them.
The team said it was able to find them on seven sites - including Facebook - using the direct addresses, even after the photos appeared to have gone.
Source - BBC
Related?
Google Street View blurs face of Colonel Sanders at every KFC
Fast food chain KFC has been taken off the menu by Google Street View after privacy technology blurred the face of Colonel Sanders.
Last Updated: 5:22PM BST 20 May 2009
… The company says it took the decision because he is 'a real person' - despite him passing away in December 1980 aged 90.
Thanks to our brothers in academia, soon hackers will be able to hack anything anywhere anytime!
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021416.html
May 20, 2009
Ubiquitous Smart Cards Proven Vulnerable to Hacking
Government Technology: "University researchers have discovered vulnerabilities in NXP's MIFARE Classic card, which belongs to a family of smart cards with more than 1 billion units distributed worldwide. These smart cards are used to access buildings and public transportation systems. One example is the Oyster card, which Londoners use for citywide travel. Researchers from Radboud University in the Netherlands received the Best Practical Paper Award at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy on Monday for their work demonstrating how to pickpocket the card wirelessly."
Support the competition?
http://www.businessinsider.com/hulu-is-the-no-10-most-watched-youtube-channel-of-all-time-2009-5
Hulu Is The No. 10 Most-Watched YouTube Channel Of All Time (GOOG)
Dan Frommer May. 20, 2009, 7:00 AM
This has nothing to do with my normal topics, but I do find it interesting to compare financial information. For example, look at how cities generate revenue. (and how can 22% be “other?”)
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021422.html
May 20, 2009
Report: How Philadelphia and Other Cities are Balancing Budgets in a Time of Recession
"A new study from the Pew Philadelphia Research Initiative looks at how 13 major cities are coping with the recession and finds that most are facing significant budget gaps and are cutting services and personnel in response. Philadelphia is one of four cities studied that is planning at least one major tax hike—a five-year, one percentage point increase in the sales tax. Tough Decisions and Limited Options: How Philadelphia and Other Cities are Balancing Budgets in a Time of Recession examines the budget decisions that have been proposed or enacted in Philadelphia, placing its challenges in the context of 12 other cities: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Columbus (OH), Detroit, Kansas City (MO), Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Pittsburgh and Seattle."
Related postings on financial system
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