http://www.databreaches.net/?p=5657
TJX reaches settlement with states attorney general
June 23, 2009 @ 11:32 am by admin Filed under: Breach Incidents, Business Sector, Hack, ID Theft, U.S.
TJX announced that it has settled with 41 Attorneys General over its massive data breach that they disclosed two years ago. In its statement, TJX denied that it broke any laws, saying, “TJX firmly believes that it did not violate any consumer protection or data security laws.” Under the terms of the settlement, as described in their press release, TJX will:
– Provide $2.5 million to establish a new Data Security Fund for use by the States to advance effective data security and technology;
– Provide a settlement amount of $5.5 million together with $1.75 million to cover expenses related to the States’ investigations;
– Certify that TJX’s computer system meets detailed data security requirements specified by the States; [This could be major! Can we get copies of the requierments? Bob] and
– Encourage the development of new technologies to address systemic vulnerabilities in the United States payment card system.
[The Press Release:
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/tjx/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090623006073&newsLang=en
“Much” older than TJX, CardSystems is the “Father of them all”
http://www.databreaches.net/?p=5674
Pointer: Analysis of Savvis’ motion to dismiss lawsuit
June 23, 2009 @ 9:42 pm by admin Filed under: Breach Incidents, Business Sector, Commentaries and Analyses, Financial Sector, Hack, Subcontractor, U.S.
David Navetta has written a clear and helpful analysis of Savvis’ motion to dismiss Merrick Bank’s lawsuit against Savvis, arising out of the CardSystems Solutions breach.
On Privacy Jury questionnaires, socialized medicine, and the Census.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/how_much_information_can_the_g.html
How much information can the government demand from us?
By Bookworm June 24, 2009
,,, When it's the government demanding your information, you have no leeway to say "no!"
The problem I see is that some day (soon) this too will be “primitive” technology.
GPS Ruling Challenges N.Y. Law Enforcement
By David Frey New York Law Journal June 24, 2009
On May 12, 2009, the Court of Appeals issued People v. Weaver, 2009 NY Slip Op 03762. This article provides a brief summary of the opinion and goes on to discuss some of the concerns it raises with respect to its effects on law enforcement.
… What Weaver did not know was that police had magnetically attached a GPS device to his car three days earlier.
Weaver was found guilty of the burglary after a jury trial. The Appellate Division, Third Department, upheld his conviction 3-1.
He appealed to the Court of Appeals, and the court, in an internally controversial 4-3 decision, reversed his conviction, remanded it for a new trial, and found that the police needed a warrant to attach the GPS to his car's undercarriage.
… The court went on to review the leading U.S. Supreme Court case, United States v. Knotts, 460 U.S. 276 (1983), in which a "mere beeper" was used to do exactly the same thing as the GPS device in the case before them. The court distinguished the "beeper" from a GPS device with the following line: "[W]e must now, more than a quarter of a century later, recognize [the beeper] to have been a very primitive tracking device."
Didn't the Democrats block this under Bush? What makes this version different?
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021658.html
June 23, 2009
Defense Secretary Announces Creation of Unified U.S. Cyber Command
WSJ: "Defense Secretary Robert Gates created a new military command dedicated to cyber security on Tuesday, reflecting the Obama administration's plans to centralize and elevate computer security as a major national-security issue. In a memo to senior Pentagon officials, Mr. Gates said he intends to recommend that Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, take on the additional role as commander of the Cyber Command with the rank of a four-star general."
Now I'm embarrassed to be Dutch. But perhaps I should have expected it from a country that supported the “oldest profession” I wonder if they tax manufacturers to support “hunter-gatherers?”
Dutch Gov. Wants To Tax Online Media To Fund Print
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday June 23, @04:54PM from the reverse-robin-hood dept. media internet
Godefricus writes
"Outrage ensued among Dutch techie and media websites, after a government report advised that the dwindling print media industry should be financially supported by the online industry (Google translation; Dutch original here). The idea is to help the old media fund 'innovative initiatives.' The suggested implementation of the plan is by taxing a percentage of each ISP subscription, and give the money to the papers. The report, which was solicited by the Dutch parliament and written by a committee of its members, specifically states that 'news and the gathering of news stories is not free, [Did they charge for this press release? Bob] and the public must be made aware of that.' The report is not conclusive, but from here it's just one step toward a legislative proposal. Both industries are largely privately owned in The Netherlands, and the current government is center-left wing. Who needs an RIAA if you can build one into your government? And hey, why invest in the future if you can invest in the past?" [Amen! Bob]
Bloggers beware?
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=643
MN: Posting online can be invasion of privacy, Appeals Court rules
In a case that seems like deja vu all over again, the Minnesota Court of Appeals held that posting someone else’s embarrassing personal information on the Internet can be a legal invasion of privacy, regardless of how many people view the site. In this case, the personal information concerned a woman’s sexually transmitted disease that was posted to a MySpace page (see an extremely similar case in Hawaii: Woman Posted Online HIV Patient Record).
The Star Tribune reports that in this case, a lawsuit was filed by a Twin Cities woman diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease after a post about her showed up in 2006 on a MySpace page that displayed her picture and said she cheated on her husband and was addicted to plastic surgery.
… Significantly, the court also held that HIPAA does not prevent the woman from recovering damages under a Minnesota law. [I didn't know this was an issue. Bob]
Social Media is evil!
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=610
AP Issues Strict Facebook, Twitter Guidelines to Staff
The Associated Press is adopting a stringent social-networking policy for its employees, informing them to police their Facebook profiles “to make sure material posted by others doesn’t violate AP standards.”
The policy (.pdf) comes weeks after an AP reporter was reprimanded for posting a comment to his own Facebook profile criticizing the Sacramento-based newspaper chain McClatchy, whose stock has become nearly worthless after a string of costly acquisitions.
Read more on Threat Level.
Comment: So AP thinks it can limit its employees’ First Amendment rights when they are on their own time and on their own computers? Isn’t there something hypocritical about a press association that fights for free speech doing this? The workplace has to send [End? Bob] somewhere, sometime. People have a right to life outside of work.
[From the article:
Reporters for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, for example, have been told not to”friend” confidential sources, Editor & Publisher columnist Joe Strupp wrote this month. Reporters at the New York Times are urged to show “common-sense.” Other publishers, including Wired.com, have no formal policy.
… But the most contentious element in the new policy, which the union also decried as “vague,” gives this instruction to employees using Facebook: “Monitor your profile page to make sure material posted by others doesn’t violate AP standards: any such material should be deleted.”
(Related) Social Media is good!
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=593
Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen on Social Networking
During a Defense Department briefing, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mullen talked about the importance of utilizing Twitter, Facebook and other on-line social networking media to communicate information of national importance. From C-Span, via YouTube:
(Related) “We don't need no stinking iPhone!” Just “Add-on” a Twitter app.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-twitter-quickly-and-simply-from-firefox-ie-opera-and-chrome/
How To Twitter Quickly from Firefox, IE, Opera and Chrome
Jun. 23rd, 2009 By Saikat Basu
Tools & Techniques I might require this. Then there are no excuses like “It was there last night!”
http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/icyte-highlight-text-on-a-webpage/
iCyte: Highlight Text On A Webpage & Save It Online
If you are researching a topic online, probably you simply bookmark the relevant visited pages as a way to store and organize the necessary information. While this is the common way to do things, it is not the most efficient way.
Enter iCyte. It is an add-on for your browser that lets you highlight text on a web page and save only the highlighted portion, annotate it, add relevant tags and save it online. You may also organize these bookmarks into separate projects and share them with others.
Similar tools: Ibrii, Markkit and AwesomeHightlighter.
Tools & Techniques Might make an innovative student project, I'll have to work something up...
http://www.killerstartups.com/Blogging-Widgets/21classes-com-get-your-students-blogging
21Classes.com - Get Your Students Blogging
Quite a useful service, 21 Classes aim to let teachers and students have a space where they can meet outside the classroom and communicate with each other. This way, a more realized learning experience can hopefully be achieved. Teachers can review entries as well as making important announcements, whereas students can receive feedback almost instantly. A nice touch is that students do not need to disclose information such as their e-mail addresses in order to get going.
As regards the actual setup and layout, the teacher can customize the headers as well as choosing a suitable template for his students to feel comfortable with. CSS editing is fully taken into account, too.
This service is essentially free, although it is always possible to upgrade to a paid plan. Features of this on-demand upgrade option includes a bigger number of student blog accounts (up to 100 – the free edition supports only 10), as well as the ability to use a domain of its own. All in all, a very well-focused service that I am certain can further education by giving teachers and students more channels for interaction.
Tools & Techniques Geeky! Is this a better idea than the $100 laptop? Might be interesting to see if you could get companies to donate their old machines for “rejuvenation.”
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/06/24/1243255/OLPC-Fork-Sugar-On-a-Stick-Goes-10?from=rss
OLPC Fork Sugar On a Stick Goes 1.0
Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday June 24, @08:52AM from the one-easily-lost-usb-stick-per-child dept. education linux
Marten writes
"It was more than a year ago that Walter Bender left OLPC and started SugarLabs.org. Now, the first version of the new project has been released. Sugar on a Stick is a USB-drive that runs on Mac and PC-style hardware. 'The open-source education software developed for the "$100 laptop" can now be loaded onto a $5 USB stick to give aging PCs and Macs a new interface and custom educational software.' Bender said, 'What we are doing is taking a bunch of old machines that barely run Windows 2000, and turning them into something interesting and useful for essentially zero cost. It becomes a whole new computer running off the USB key; we can breathe new life into millions of decrepit old machines.'"
Tools & Techniques I WANT ONE!
Touchwall Demo
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