http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021851.html
July 18, 2009
Javelin: U.S. Credit Card Issuers Dramatically Improve Customer Fraud Detection
News release: Javelin Strategy & Research released its Fifth Annual Card Issuers’ Identity Safety Scorecard, which analyzes the top 25 U.S. card issuers’ capabilities for protecting customers from identity fraud. To compile the report, Javelin incorporated data from annual household, consumer, and issuer surveys using Javelin’s Prevention, Detection and Resolution™ criteria to accurately reflect customer demands and trends in how issuers protect against fraud. The Javelin scorecard is a structured assessment of each issuer’s fraud protection services. The scorecard ranks features that best empower two major victims of the nation’s $48B identity fraud problem—cardholders and issuers—showing how to turn the tables on a worrying method of crime."
Perhaps this is a pilot project for Google's expansion of Google Maps? Perhaps it is viewed as a way out of California's Budget Crisis? (Visit our town, pay a toll?) Perhaps they think crooks drive around in their own cars... (...a van with “Crooks R Us” painted on the side?)
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=1995
Tiburon wants to photograph every car
July 19, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Govt, Surveillance, U.S.
Visitors should be prepared to have their pictures taken as they enter and leave this picturesque town of million-dollar views and homes along the San Francisco Bay.
Officials want to photograph every car and use the license plate information to solve crimes in the town of 9,000. Critics see the plan as an intrusion into the rights of visitors, but proponents say it is a sensible precaution that absolutely will not cross privacy lines.
Read more in the Sacramento Bee.
Perhaps lawyers are (at last) noticing the Cloud?
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=2011
Lost in the Cloud
July 20, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Breaches, Internet, Other
Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor at Harvard and the author of “The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It,” had an op-ed in The New York Times about the dangers of cloud computing. He writes, in part:
The cloud, however, comes with real dangers.
Some are in plain view. If you entrust your data to others, they can let you down or outright betray you. For example, if your favorite music is rented or authorized from an online subscription service rather than freely in your custody as a compact disc or an MP3 file on your hard drive, you can lose your music if you fall behind on your payments — or if the vendor goes bankrupt or loses interest in the service. Last week Amazon apparently conveyed a publisher’s change-of-heart to owners of its Kindle e-book reader: some purchasers of Orwell’s “1984” found it removed from their devices, with nothing to show for their purchase other than a refund. (Orwell would be amused.)
Worse, data stored online has less privacy protection both in practice and under the law. A hacker recently guessed the password to the personal e-mail account of a Twitter employee, and was thus able to extract the employee’s Google password. That in turn compromised a trove of Twitter’s corporate documents stored too conveniently in the cloud. Before, the bad guys usually needed to get their hands on people’s computers to see their secrets; in today’s cloud all you need is a password.
Thanks in part to the Patriot Act, the federal government has been able to demand some details of your online activities from service providers — and not to tell you about it. There have been thousands of such requests lodged since the law was passed, and the F.B.I.’s own audits have shown that there can be plenty of overreach — perhaps wholly inadvertent — in requests like these.
The cloud can be even more dangerous abroad, as it makes it much easier for authoritarian regimes to spy on their citizens. The Chinese government has used the Chinese version of Skype instant messaging software to monitor text conversations and block undesirable words and phrases. It and other authoritarian regimes routinely monitor all Internet traffic — which, except for e-commerce and banking transactions, is rarely encrypted against prying eyes.
With a little effort and political will, we could solve these problems.
Read more in The New York Times.
Typical politician mis-understanding of technology or recognition that data in the Cloud is out of their control?
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=1997
Web-based mail exempt from data retention
July 19, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Govt, Internet, Legislation, Non-U.S., Surveillance
Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo Mail users will be exempt from the (Irish) government’s new telecoms surveillance bill, according to industry experts.
The Retention of Data Bill, published by the Minister for Justice to combat serious criminal offences, compels internet and telephone operators to retain customer data on calls, texts and e-mails for up to two years.
But a loophole will result in the majority of Irish email accounts falling outside its provisions - including the users of popular web-based services such as Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo Mail. The bill’s provisions will also not affect communications on social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo and Twitter.
Read more in ThePost.ie.
(Related) Everyone underestimates the Swiss.
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=2006
Internet interception to start in Switzerland
July 20, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Internet, Non-U.S., Surveillance
Wikileaks.org has published confidential documents that “detail information on an official program for centralized, real-time, interception of Internet traffic in Switzerland. The interception will start on August 1, 2009.”
One of the documents in the file is draft version 0.2 of TR TS (Technical Requirements for Telecommunication Surveillance). It is dated May 2009 and “applies to every telecommunication provider operating in Switzerland or offering services to customers geographically based in Switzerland or abroad.”
What happens when “It's for the children” changes to “It's for your own good?”
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=2004
Call for NZ website blacklist leak
July 20, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Govt, Internet, Non-U.S.
A euthanasia activist is questioning the Government’s motives behind blocking access to objectionable websites.
The new Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System , worth $150,000, will be provided free to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in a couple of months.
The Government said 7000 objectionable sites [Is there a US government agency tasked with finding Child Porn sites? If so, which politicians provide constant/extensive/detailed/personal oversight? Bob] would be blocked to fight child sex abuse.
[...]
The software, called Whitebox, will reroute all site requests to government-owned servers.
It compares users’ site requests with a list of banned links. If a match is found, the request is denied.
It will not cover email, file sharing or borderline material.
Internal Affairs censorship compliance head Steve O’Brien said the blacklist would be personally reviewed by staff each month and would be restricted to paedophilic content only.
The scheme was voluntary for internet service providers, but Telecom, TelstraClear and Vodafone, which represented more than 93 percent of the market, had expressed interest in adopting it.
Read more from the New Zealand Press Association.
NOW do you see why I don't trust electronic voting that does not provide an Audit Trail? (Still leaves the question: Why do we (the State Department) want this guy back in power? Perhaps this was a trial run for “Hillary 2012?”)
Computerized Election Results With No Election
Posted by kdawson on Sunday July 19, @02:28PM from the why-bother-with-mere-tampering dept. government
_Sharp'r_ writes
"In Honduras, according to breaking Catalan newspaper reports (translations available, USA Today mention), authorities have seized 45 computers containing certified election results for a constitutional election that never happened. The election had been scheduled for June 28, but on that day the president, Manuel Zelaya, was ousted. The 'certified' and detailed electronic records of the non-existent election show Zelaya's side having won overwhelmingly."
Are we blazing trail through new areas of law or wading through a swamp of new technologies? When stolen data is “published” (even if only to a few Blogs) does it become “public knowledge?”
Possible Twitter lawsuit would dive into murky blog waters
Twitter may file suit against blogs, other Web sites that published hacked information
By Sharon Gaudin July 16, 2009 05:06 PM ET
Computerworld - If Twitter decides to sue Web sites and bloggers that published information pilfered from its systems by hackers, the company could be diving into murky and largely untested legal waters.
Biz Stone, co-founder of the microblogging site, confirmed in a blog post yesterday that a hacker gained access to the personal e-mail account of a Twitter employee and with that was able to lift private company documents. At that point, the hacker offered the information to various blogs and online publications.
Bloggers from multiple Web sites followed the Twitter hack story, but TechCrunch, a well-known blog covering the tech industry, went a step further and published a few of the stolen documents.
… In a blog post yesterday, Michael Arrington, founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, said [...]that any unethical or illegal activity weighs solely on the person who took the information and then distributed it. "On our end, it's simply news," wrote Arrington.
… And then another question pops up: Are bloggers considered to be journalists under the law? That issue, legal experts say, is still up in the air.
Earlier this month, a New Jersey Superior Court judge ruled that a blogger who posted comments about the pornography industry is not protected by journalistic shield laws and can be sued for defamation, according to a report on New Jersey On-Line LLC's NJ.com Web site. [Only in New Jersey can you defame a porn site Bob]
(Related) Background Includes an assertion that the password on (at least one of) Twitter's server was “password”
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/19/the-anatomy-of-the-twitter-attack/?awesm=tcrn.ch_6B7
The Anatomy Of The Twitter Attack
by Nik Cubrilovic on July 19, 2009
The Twitter document leak fiasco started with a simple story that personal accounts of Twitter employees were hacked. Twitter CEO Evan Williams commented on that story, saying that Twitter itself was mostly unaffected. No personal accounts were compromised, and “most of the sensitive information was personal rather than company-related,” he said. The individual behind the attacks, known as Hacker Croll, wasn’t happy with that response. Lots of Twitter corporate information was compromised, and he wanted the world to know about it. So he sent us all of the documents that he obtained, some 310 of them, and the story developed from there.
This is huge! What tactic did the EU use to force Microsoft to change?
http://www.pcworld.com/article/168661/internet_explorer_modified_nudged_by_antitrust_charge.html
Internet Explorer Modified -- Nudged by Antitrust Charge?
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld Jul 18, 2009 2:22 pm
Microsoft last week bowed to critics [I doubt it Bob] involved in the company's European antitrust case who have accused it of silently changing users' default browsers, a move that may be aimed at Brussels-based regulators.
Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) will no longer replace a PC's default browser when a user selects the already-checked "Use express settings" option in the setup screen, Microsoft said. Both Opera Software and Mozilla had hammered Microsoft in May over the tactic, accusing the company of force feeding Internet Explorer 8 to users with Windows Update, and silently changing the default browser on PCs.
Strategy This happens when you fail to understand the business you are in. AT&T is still thinking “telephone company” while Apple sees them as a “Data Delivery Utility” (Perhaps Apple should buy AT&T to “save” it.)
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/07/13/apples_iphone_wrecking_the_cell_industry.html
Apple's iPhone "wrecking" the cell industry
By Aidan Malley Published: 06:55 PM EST
Analyst Craig Moffett of Bernstein Research likens the relationship between Apple and AT&T as that between the former and music labels dating as far back as 2001, when Apple first had to ingratiate itself with labels as it incorporated music CD ripping into iTunes. Apple at first won important concessions and praise from its partners, only for them to regret it later as the iPod maker's popularity left these companies at the supposedly smaller company's mercy.
… As late as this spring, AT&T has continued to praise the iPhone as virtually saving the company from the US economy's fallout by driving customers to its network and encouraging them to spend more on data plans. But with the launch of the iPhone 3GS in June and the 3G congestion problems in the months leading up to the handset's debut, AT&T was increasingly cast as Apple's anchor -- keeping a good device locked to a carrier that doesn't enable features like MMS and tethering.
(Related) What happens when Apple customers (used to reliable computers) subscribe to AT&T systems that fail like they did in the 1930's? You get lot's of articles/blogs calling on Apple to dump AT&T.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/18/att-is-a-big-steaming-heap-of-failure/
AT&T Is A Big, Steaming Heap Of Failure
by MG Siegler on July 18, 2009
I too think they have it backwards. “Really Early Early-Adopters” like the Porn industry see profit in each new technology, but are unlikely to be the research funders.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10290322-71.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
So porn revolutionizes technology, right?
by Chris Matyszczyk July 19, 2009 11:30 AM PDT
Another source of videos for the classroom
http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/watchknow-educational-videos/
WatchKnow: Educational Video Resource
WatchKnow is a new educational video resource for students and teachers. It aggregates quality educational video content from all over the web, nicely organizes it, and presents on clean interface. You can search for videos by keywords and browse by category such as Mathematics, Science, History, Practical Skills, Pedagogy… etc.
Similar websites: Lectr, AcademicEarth and MBAvid.
I use both Google and Wolfram Alpha, so I hope this site recovers from whatever clobbered it.
http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/goofram-search-google-and-wolfram-alpha-at-the-same-time/
Goofram: Search Google And Wolfram Alpha At The Same Time
Goofram lets you search Google and Wolfram Alpha at the same time and compare their search results side-by-side. While Google is a general purpose search engine, Wolfram Alpha bills itself as a “computational knowledge engine” due to its ability to understand and answer natural language queries (”capital of India”, “population growth in California” etc)
Might find a use for this in my Stat class...
http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/cynergy-systems-map-us-census-data-online/
Cynergy Systems Map: View US Census Data Online
Cynergy Systems Map is an interesting Google Maps mash up that lets you view US census data online. Simply enter any zip code and the application will show corresponding census data sets such as age distribution, ethnic distribution, household statistics, population statistics, housing units and vacancy rates. For each data set it is possible to view the raw data and a chart view.
www.cynergysystems.com/blogs/blogs/andrew.trice/census
For my Forensics Class
How To Protect Sensitive Information by Erasing Your Hard Disk Completely
Jul. 20th, 2009 By Varun Kashyap
Why am I certain that many of my readers will find this interesting? Because I attend so many “Legal Seminars/Wine Tastings”
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021857.html
July 19, 2009
LLRX Book Review - The Little Red Book of Wine Law: A Case of Legal Issues
LLRX Book Review by Heather A. Phillips: The Little Red Book of Wine Law: A Case of Legal Issues - Heather A. Phillips recommends this slim volume as it provides an engaging and accessible introduction to American wine law and history that will broaden the reader's appreciation of the wine industry. Though short and non-technical, this book is suitable for a surprising number of library collections.
(Related) Proof the iPhone owners are winos?
http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/cellar-app-com-manage-your-wine-collection-on-the-go
Cellar-App.com - Manage Your Wine Collection On The Go
In case you are interested in fine wines and you have a wine library, this is the right site for you to stop by. Here, you will start learning about a solution that will be very helpful for you to organize your wine collection. Cellar can be actually defined as a transportable showcase that was designed to let you store your favourite wine selections. This is going to be an interesting and fun way to effectively organize your wine collection.
One of the best things about the site is the fact that allows you to perform a quick data entry as well as to keep track of your wine library. This solution was created by Airsource Ltd and Glasshouse Apps and can be described as a collaborative iPhone app that works precisely when it comes to helping you be well organized in order to learn what to buy the next time you visit the liquor store.
[From their website:
What an amazing launch. To think that Cellar was only approved by Apple on Monday and 24 hours later it was the 15th top paid app in Lifestyle on the US App Store and another 24 hours after that it became the #1 top paid app in Lifestyle on the Australian App Store (even Barista only managed to reach #2).
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