Isn't it interesting how the size of the breach always grows beyond the initial announcement?

http://www.databreaches.net/?p=6431

Update on Alico breach

July 27, 2009 by admin Filed under Breach Incidents, Business Sector, ID Theft, Non-U.S.

Insurance firm Alico Japan said Monday the suspected leakage of its customers’ credit card information may have led to about 2,200 cases of credit card fraud, more than twice as many as in its previous announcement.

Kazuyuki Takahashi, representative of the Japanese insurer affiliated with American International Group Inc, told a press conference that credit card information related to up to 130,000 insurance contracts may have been leaked, up from the previously estimated 110,000.

[...]

The company initially said information on customers who subscribed to Alico insurance policies between July 2002 and May 2008 had been leaked.

But the company said Monday that information on customers who took out policies before July 2002 and changed their payment method to credit card afterward has also been leaked, bringing the total cases of leakage to 130,000.

Source: Japan Today.

You don't need a cell phone to be tracked down.

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=2265

Taspo data not kept private

July 27, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Businesses, Non-U.S.

The Tobacco Institute of Japan, the industry body of tobacco manufacturers, has turned over vending machine logs on individuals’ cigarette purchases and their personal information to prosecutors for investigative purposes, informed sources said.

The logs showing the use of taspo smart cards included records of when and at which vending machines the smokers bought cigarettes, as well as their dates of birth, addresses and phone numbers, the sources said.

There has been at least one case in which the logs helped investigators find a person they were looking for, the sources said.

Taspo cards, issued by the institute, are required to buy cigarettes from vending machines. The cards are issued only to adults aged 20 and older to block smoking by minors.

This appears to be the first time the use of taspo logs by criminal investigative authorities has become public knowledge.

We have your dossier and we're not afraid to use it!

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=2268

Bennett has no regrets over welfare details

July 27, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Breaches, Govt, Non-U.S.

The [New Zealand] Government’s making no apologies for revealing the welfare payments of two solo mums.

Natasha Fuller, who is taking home $715 a week and Jennifer Johnston, who gets $554, have both have been complaining about their tertiary training allowances being axed.

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett says they’ve chosen to go public with their plight but haven’t been telling the full story.

Read more on TVNZ.

[From the article:

However, Bennet is being accused of being over the top in responding to criticism of cuts to training allowances.

Labour leader Phil Goff says those who criticise should expect scrutiny, but he believes the Government's actions are excessive.

"You don't expect to see the full weight of the state, and use of Government departments, to breach people's privacy in such a way," says Goff.

… Now, Labour is laying down the gauntlet to Bennett by challenging her to reveal what benefits she received before she became an MP.

Labour Social Development spokeswoman Annette King says Bennett was on the DPB herself off and on for five years and also received training allowances.

“It's not nice to insult Mother nature!”

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=2262

Google flames Tory MP Davis on privacy claims

July 27, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Businesses, Non-U.S.

Google had better hope former Tory shadow minister David Davis doesn’t return to a senior role in a future Conservative government. Its chief privacy counsel Peter Fleischer has given Davis a tongue-lashing for opposing Google Health and criticising Google’s privacy record.

Davis was writing in The Sunday Times in opposition to Tories’ wish to give citizens ownership and transportability of their health records. But a furious-sounding Fleischer, on Google’s European policy blog, lambast the “polemicists who abuse the truth” including Davis for his “extraordinary attack, riddled with misleading statements”.

Google Health isn’t yet available in the UK, Fleischer wrote, countering Davis’ views that Google is “hostile to privacy”, European privacy law “does not apply to it”, its Google.cn launch in China was an “amoral deal” and that Google is “exploiting its customers’ private data”.

Read more on PaidContent.

Obviously some bands actually look at the sales figures. No doubt the RIAA would claim sales went up for a completely unrelated (but copyrighted, so we can't talk about it) reason.

http://torrentfreak.com/pirated-youtube-clip-boosts-bands-album-sales-090727/

‘Pirated’ Youtube Clip Boosts Band’s Album Sales

Written by Ernesto on July 27, 2009

If the major record labels are to believed, they lose millions of dollars due to YouTube pirates. But is this really the case? While anti-piracy outfits try to have all infringing music taken offline or have the audio on pirated YouTube clips disabled, the band Barcelona responded with a video thanking a video uploader for using their song.

Every day hundreds of thousands of clips are uploaded to YouTube, some of which use copyrighted music. Of course the major record labels argue that these illegal uploads are killing their profits as people buy less music when YouTube users add a track to a home made video.

Not everyone in the music business agrees with this assessment though. When the indie rock band Barcelona saw one of its latest tracks featured in a viral video with nearly a million views, they responded quite differently. They claim that the clip below actually boosted their album sales and concert visits.

(Related)

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/07/27/2219257/Music-Industry-Thriving-In-an-Era-of-File-Sharing?from=rss

Music Industry Thriving In an Era of File Sharing

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday July 28, @02:21AM from the told-you-so dept.

levicivita notes ZeroPaid coverage of a recent study by the UK music industry's own economist showing that overall UK music industry revenues were up in 2008 (study, PDF). The study is titled "Adding up the Music Industry for 2008" and it was authored by Will Page, who is the Chief Economist at PRS for Music, a UK-based royalty collecting group for music writers, composers, and publishers. From ZeroPaid:

"[T]he music industry is growing increasingly diverse as music fans enjoy a wide range of platforms to hear and consume music. Sales of recorded music fell 6% for example, digital was up 50% while physical dropped 10%, but concert ticket sales grew by 13%. In terms of what consumers spent on music as a whole last year, this surprisingly grew by 3%."

(Related) Apple faces a dilemma.

http://news.digitaltrends.com/news-article/20500/spotify-looks-to-the-iphone

Spotify Looks To The iPhone

July 28, 2009 | by Christopher Nickson

Spotify, the music streaming service that's already big in Europe, has submitted an iPhone application.

… With its large library, ease of use, and free service (with ads), it’s be hailed as an iTunes killer, putting it in direct competition with one of Apple’s most cherished services.

If accepted, the application will be free to download, but will require a premium subscription, costing around $15 a month and ad free) to use.

(Speaking of Pirates) This has the potential to lower the sale price.

http://torrentfreak.com/ok-sell-the-pirate-bay-everyone-will-have-a-copy-soon-090727/

OK, Sell The Pirate Bay - Everyone Will Have a Copy Soon

Written by enigmax on July 27, 2009

The Pirate Bay tracks half the world’s torrents and it’s getting sold, which might be viewed as a bit of a disaster for the BitTorrent world. But The Pirate Bay isn’t really needed anymore, GGF can have it in August as planned and not much will change. All of the torrents will survive and carry on working. It’s time to pirate The Pirate Bay.

Interesting. It might be the basis of corporate policies as well.

http://news.digitaltrends.com/news-article/20501/u-k-government-issues-official-twitter-guide-for-employees

U.K. Government Issues Official Twitter Guide For Employees

July 28, 2009 | by Christopher Nickson

[The guide is available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/17313280/Template-Twitter-Strategy-for-Government-Departments

Expect new laws? Perhaps a DWT (Driving while Texting?)

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10296992-94.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Study: Texting while driving increases crash risk 23-fold

by Jennifer Guevin July 27, 2009 10:49 PM PDT

Interesting. I suspect SAS turned them down. Perhaps my Statistics students will be more inclied to pay attention? Naaaaa...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10297059-92.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

IBM to acquire analytics provider for $1.2 billion

by Lance Whitney July 28, 2009 6:47 AM PDT

IBM will buy analytics and information forecaster SPSS for $1.2 billion in cash, the companies said Tuesday.

IBM is paying $50 per share for the publicly traded company, which closed Monday on Nasdaq at $35.09.

For a select few of my students...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-10296895-245.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Talent search is on for cybersecurity students

by Elinor Mills July 27, 2009 4:52 PM PDT

The U.S. government on Monday launched a national talent search for high school and college students interested in working in cybersecurity.

With the U.S. Cyber Challenge the goal is to find 10,000 young Americans to be "cyber guardians and cyber warriors," according to a statement from the Center for Strategic & International Studies, which is sponsoring the event.

… There are three competitions that make up the U.S. Cyber Challenge: CyberPatriot network defense high school competition conducted by the Air Force Association; DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center; and NetWars, a vulnerability discovery and exploitation competition conducted by the SANS Institute.

Candidates with promising skills will be invited to attend regional camps at local colleges beginning next year. The top candidates will be hired by the National Security Agency, the FBI, Defense Department, US-CERT, and the U.S. Department of Energy Laboratories.

Tools & Techniques Now you can steal LOTS of data with the handy dandy pocket sized hard drive!

http://news.digitaltrends.com/news-article/20495/western-digital-puts-a-terabyte-in-your-pocket

Western Digital Puts a Terabyte in Your Pocket

July 27, 2009 | by Geoff Duncan

… The drives measure just 3.1 inches long, 5 inches wide, and 0.6 inches deep; they weigh just over 6.3 ounces.