http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=8956
Webcamgate: Laptops took thousands of images – lawyer
April 16, 2010 by Dissent
John P. Martin reports:
The system that Lower Merion school officials used to track lost and stolen laptops wound up secretly capturing thousands of images, including photographs of students in their homes, Web sites they visited, and excerpts of their online chats, says a new motion filed in a suit against the district.
More than once, the motion asserts, the camera on Robbins’ school-issued laptop took photos of Robbins as he slept in his bed. Each time, it fired the images off to network servers at the school district.
Back at district offices, the Robbins motion says, employees with access to the images marveled at the tracking software. It was like a window into “a little LMSD soap opera,” a staffer is quoted as saying in an e-mail to Carol Cafiero, the administrator running the program.
“I know, I love it,” she is quoted as having replied.
Those details, disclosed in the motion filed late Thursday in federal court by Robbins’ attorney, offer a wider glimpse into the now-disabled program that spawned Robbins’ lawsuit and has shined an international spotlight on the district.
Read more on Philly.com
[From the article:
The motion says Cafiero, who has been placed on paid leave, has failed to turn that computer over to the plaintiffs despite a court order to do so, and asks a judge to sanction her.
Cafiero's lawyer Thursday night disputed the suggestion that his client had downloaded any such photos to her home computer. Lawyer Charles Mandracchia said Cafiero has cooperated with federal investigators and is willing to let technicians hired by the district examine her computer if the judge so orders.
He also said Robbins' attorney had never asked him for Cafiero's personal computer. "He's making this up because his case is falling apart," Mandracchia said.
… The Robbinses' lawyer, Mark S. Haltzman, said the new details emerged in tens of thousands of pages of documents and e-mails the district turned over to him in recent weeks.
Three district employees have also given sworn depositions in the suit. A fourth, Cafiero, declined to answer Haltzman's questions, asserting her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
(Related) Is this another indication this is going to blow up?
Senators Introduce Bill in Response to EFF’s Call for New Protections Against Secret Video Surveillance
April 16, 2010 by Dissent
Kevin Bankston writes:
Wow, that was fast: little more than two weeks after EFF testified to a Senate subcommittee that federal electronic privacy law needs to be updated to protect against secret video surveillance just like it regulates electronic eavesdropping, Senator Arlen Specter has responded by introducing a bill to do just that.
Specter, chairman of the subcommittee that held the hearing in response to the scandal over a Pennsylvania school district’s alleged use of webcams on school-issued laptops to spy on students at home, today introduced the Surreptitious Video Surveillance Act of 2010. The bill, co-sponsored by Senators Feingold and Kaufman, would update the federal wiretapping statute to create serious criminal and civil penalties for secret, nonconsensual [Isn't that redundant? Could you have “secret, consensual” surveillance? Bob] video surveillance inside any temporary or permanent residence, be it your house, your apartment, or your hotel room.
Read more on EFF.
(Related)
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=8961
Study finds young adults do care about online privacy, despite anecdotes of raunchy photos
April 16, 2010 by Dissent
Barbara Ortutay of the Associated Press reports:
All the dirty laundry younger people seem to air on social networks these days might lead older Americans to conclude that today’s tech-savvy generation doesn’t care about privacy.
Such an assumption fits happily with declarations that privacy is dead, as online marketers and social sites such as Facebook try to persuade people to share even more about who they are, what they are thinking and where they are at any given time.
But it’s not quite true, a new study finds. Despite mounds of anecdotes about college students sharing booze-chugging party photos, posting raunchy messages and badmouthing potential employers online, young adults generally care as much about privacy as older Americans.
Read more in the Chicago Tribune.
[The full report: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1589864
It is bad, but not uncommon, for management not to know where their assets are, but I would have expected the Police to look for some evidence before arresting people!
http://www.databreaches.net/?p=11230
(follow-up) St Albans laptop theft suspect released
April 16, 2010 by admin
Alex Lewis reports:
The man arrested for stealing a laptop computer containing the addresses of thousands of people in St Albans has been released by police without charge.
The 35-year-old Stevenage man, employed by a contractor providing computer services to the authority, was arrested in October after it emerged that a computer with the personal details of every postal voter in the district was missing.
Police spokeswoman Laurel Smithson said: “After an extensive and thorough police investigation, it is unknown whether the laptops were stolen or simply went missing, possibly over a much longer time period.”
Source: St. Albans Review.
That last statement suggests that St. Albans cannot even determine that anyone actually saw the laptop or checked it off on an inventory at some point in time close to the date when it went missing or was stolen. Not good.
A website for financial institutions with no adequate legal representation? Or is the assumption: Otherwise, nothing will get done?
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=8965
Federal Regulators Release Model Consumer Privacy Notice Online Form Builder
For my Computer Security students.
http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/trackerwatcher-checks-websites-companies-track/
TrackerWatcher: Checks Websites For Companies That Track You
… TrackerWatcher is a Firefox plugin that helps us know which companies track our activities on websites and how they handle that information they collect.
This plugin was developed by PrivacyChoice, a website that aims to make consumer privacy choices understandable and actionable. Installing this plugin will add an eye button to your toolbar. Clicking it while on a website will open a PrivacyChoice page that will show you what ad-targeting companies are running on that page.
It also displays the highlights of those companies’ privacy statements on how they handle your information on various aspects such as anonymity, sharing, sensitivity, and deletion.
After viewing the privacy policies, you can use PrivacyChoice to tell these companies not to use your information to target advertising to you. [i.e. You can opt out. Bob]
Check out and download TrackerWatcher @ https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/14454
Know your hackers... Will Cyber Command become just a division of NSA?
Prospective U.S. Cyber Commander Talks Terms of Digital Warfare
By Nathan Hodge April 15, 2010 9:57 am
… In a hearing this morning, the Senate Armed Services Committee will review the nomination of Army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander to be the head of the Pentagon’s new Cyber Command.
…. He comes from the world of electronic intelligence: He is director of the National Security Agency (NSA), [and he stays in command. Bob] the super-secretive military and intelligence outfit at Fort Meade, Maryland, that is charged with code-cracking and foreign communications interception. And he will head an organization that, in large part, will be an important line of defense against cyberspying. (He’s a classmate of Gen. David Petraeus, West Point class of ‘74.)
It never hurts to ask. If you can do it with a straight face, many politicians my even believe you.
RIAA/MPAA Want Government-Mandated Spyware That Deletes 'Infringing' Content Automatically
The RIAA and MPAA have submitted a plan to the Office of Intellectual Property Enforcement. It's basically a plan that they want the government to enact, and it's terrifying.
Here are some of the lovely things that they're calling for:
* spyware on your computer that detects and deletes infringing materials;
* mandatory censorware on all Internet connections to interdict transfers of infringing material;
* border searches of personal media players, laptops and thumb-drives;
* international bullying to force other countries to implement the same policies;
* and free copyright enforcement provided by Fed cops and agencies (including the Department of Homeland Security!).
The FCC could care less what the rest of the world is doing, but Apple should...
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362697,00.asp
Israel Bans iPad Imports Over Wi-Fi Issue
… "The iPad device sold exclusively today in the United States operates at broadcast power levels [over its WiFi modem] compatible with American standards," according to statement published by the Monitor. "As the Israeli regulations in the area of WiFi are similar to European standards, which are different from American standards, which permit broadcasting at lower power, therefore the broadcast levels of the device prevent approving its use in Israel."
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