http://www.databreaches.net/?p=9856
WY: Kid Care CHIP Client Information Exposed Online
February 5, 2010 by admin
The Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) announced today an error has lead to potential online exposure of personal information provided by clients and applicants of the Wyoming Kid Care CHIP program.
WDH Information Technology was notified Thursday that personal information of Kid Care clients was improperly appearing in Google search results. [I wonder who discovered the files? Bob] Thirty seconds upon receiving the call, Information Technology shut down the web site involved. [Unbelievably fast, if “upon” means “after.” Who made the call? Bob] The files that were being searched by the search engine have also been removed from the web site.
“I want to make it crystal clear that NO health record information was compromised by this error,” said Dr. Brent Sherard, Wyoming Department of Health director and state health officer. “However, personal information such as address information and children’s social security numbers provided by clients and applicants of the Wyoming Kid Care CHIP program may have been exposed.”
Lee Clabots, Wyoming Department of Health deputy director for administration, said “We are still investigating exactly what happened and do not yet have all the answers. [Honesty! How unusual. Bob] However, we do know the problem was not caused by intentional wrongdoing.”
WDH provided automated recorded calls [Very fast notification. Another unusual plus! Bob] to about 5,000 affected families this afternoon with an initial notice about the situation. Each family will also be receiving detailed letters in the coming days.
The department is contracting with Debix, an identity protection service, to offer free help to affected families. “This company’s services will offer additional security to families to help ensure the children’s information is not stolen or improperly used,” Clabots said. Affected families will be asked to contact Debix at 877-676-0371 beginning Saturday morning.
Sherard said, “While we believe at this point the potential harm was minimal, this is a situation we are taking very seriously. My staff is working diligently to ensure this does not happen again.”
Source: Wyoming Department of Health
“Ah ha! Here's another “citizen that spent several minutes at “FBI_Sucks.com.”
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=7591
FBI wants records kept of Web sites visited
February 5, 2010 by Dissent
Declan McCullagh reports:
The FBI is pressing Internet service providers to record which Web sites customers visit and retain those logs for two years, a requirement that law enforcement believes could help it in investigations of child pornography and other serious crimes.
FBI Director Robert Mueller supports storing Internet users’ “origin and destination information,” a bureau attorney said at a federal task force meeting on Thursday.
As far back as a 2006 speech, Mueller had called for data retention on the part of Internet providers, and emphasized the point two years later when explicitly asking Congress to enact a law making it mandatory. But it had not been clear before that the FBI was asking companies to begin to keep logs of what Web sites are visited, which few if any currently do.
Read more on CNET.
(Related) Does Big Brother want to start tracking citizens before they are born?
The New National Health Plan Is Texting
Posted by timothy on Saturday February 06, @07:48AM
theodp writes
"With a gushing press release, Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra announced the launch of Text4baby, 'an unprecedented mobile health public-private partnership' designed to promote maternal and child health. Expectant women are instructed to 'Enter the date of the first day of your last menstrual period' to start receiving 'timely and expert health information through SMS text messages' until their child reaches the age of 12 months (limited to 3 free messages/week). The White House Blog has more information on the 'historic collaboration between industry, the health community and government.' Separately, the White House announced plans to spend $3,000 on 'Game-Changing' Solutions to Childhood Obesity. Once again, Dilbert proves to be scarily prescient."
Ha! I called this one. (Okay, it was obvious, but I still want the points!) When bureaucrats see potential tax money, they can easily ignore the ethical questions surrounding rewarding criminals.
http://www.databreaches.net/?p=9854
London moves to buy stolen bank data
February 5, 2010 by admin Filed under Financial Sector, Insider, Non-U.S., Theft
Vanessa Houlder reports:
Britain has approached Germany to buy data stolen from a Swiss bank in an effort to discover details of accounts hidden in the country by potential UK tax evaders.
[...]
A number of German politicians, as well as the Swiss government, have criticised Berlin’s decision to purchase the stolen data.
Although the same criticism is likely to be levelled at the Revenue, the UK tax authorities are allowed to pay a reward for information in return for extra taxes collected.
The Dutch, Belgian and Austrian governments have also signalled they wish to buy data from the same disc relating to their citizens.
Read more in The Financial Times.
If governments pay data thieves for the proceeds of crime, doesn’t that only encourage more potential data thieves? [I'm gonna ask for a bigger classroom. Bob]
“Cloud is all there is... “ Perhaps in the marketing departments, but then it's all in the definition.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19413_3-10448200-240.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Oracle signals change of tone about cloud
by James Urquhart February 5, 2010 5:55 PM PST
Software heavyweight Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems has (and will have) a wide impact on the technology market.
Oracle's strategy of targeting an "all in one" relationship with its customers--providing hardware, software, and services--is something to which the rest of the high-technology industry will have to pay close attention. Modeling yourself after the "IBM of the 1960s" is not a bad target, especially when you consider market share. [So is Cloud Computing a “Back to basics” strategy? Bob]
… Said Ellison: "Everything's called cloud now. If you're in the data center, it's a private cloud. There's nothing left but cloud computing. People say I'm against cloud computing--how can I be against cloud computing when that's all there is?" [So Cloud Computing Computing just French for “Stuff the Geeks do?” Bob]
(Related) Another definition. If it's available online, it's in the Cloud.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/02/authors-guild-to-riaa-or-not-to-riaa/
Authors Guild: ‘To RIAA or Not to RIAA’
By David Kravets February 5, 2010 5:39 pm
… Yet building that library in the clouds would be allowed without the rights-holders’ consent — which the Justice Department and others contend is a complete and fundamental alteration of copyright law.
Not to keep pounding on Al Gore (There's an Al Gore heat wave dumping a couple of feet of snow on Washington today) but backing your political arguments with indisputable facts is much better. (Not that any politician bothers with “truth, justice or the American way.”)
India Ditches UN Climate Change Group
Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Friday February 05, @04:54PM
Several readers have told us that the Indian Government is moving to establish its own group to address the science of climate change since it "cannot rely" on the official United Nations panel. [No real surprise there. Bob]
"The move is a severe blow to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) following the revelation parts of its 3000 page 2007 report on climate science was not subjected to peer review. A primary claim of the report was the Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035, but the claim was not repeated in any peer-reviewed studies and rebuffed by scientists. India's environment minister Jairam Ramesh announced that the Indian government will established a separate National Institute of Himalayan Glaciology to monitor climate change in the region. 'There is a fine line between climate science and climate evangelism,' Ramesh said. 'I am for climate science.'"
How education will work in the very near future. (Notice the IM style name?)
2tor Raises $20 Million Series B To Go After The High End Of Online Education
by Erick Schonfeld on February 5, 2010
… One startup trying to bring entire degree programs online is 2tor
… “What is unique about 2tor is they are the first online education program to go after the high end—elite programs at elite schools,” says Paul Maeder, a founder and general partner at Highland who will be taking a board seat. 2tor was founded by John Katzman, who previously founded test-prep giant Princeton Review.
(Related) A Mindomo mindmap
http://www.mindomo.com/view.htm?m=73adb8d9c6d24d0a9f92090d5877b862
Teaching & Learning in the Digital Age
It looks like MakeUseOf is down (one hopes temporarily) but I'll include the blurb from their RSS feed that I thought was interesting. The links to the sites work, those to the MakeUse Of pages don't
3ouTube – There are number of tools for downloading videos from YouTube, but none quite as simple as 3outube – the easiest YouTube downloading tool to use in the entire world. Don’t believe me? To download a video from YouTube using this tool, all you need to do is browse to your video and change the “y” in “youtube.com” to a “3″. Read more: 3ouTube: The Simplest YouTube Downloading Tool Ever.
I've already ordered this book from the library! A great lady and true evangelist for computers. (and I still have the nanosecond she handed me!)
Think It’s Hard Being a Woman in Tech? Try It in the 1940s.
by Sarah Lacy on February 5, 2010
… you should start by reading the new book “Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age,” by Kurt W. Beyer.
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