Interesting at several levels. Open government in the land of Big Brother. A cautionary tale for politicians who use electronic tools (Mr. Obama) Lots of collateral damage (his dentist?) is Blair liable for that?

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=23541

Hackers leak Former British PM Tony Blair data

June 24, 2011 by Dissent

Elinor Mills reports:

Hackers today released what looks like personal information on former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and contents of his electronic address book, including contact data for what could be his dentist, mechanic and members of Parliament.

A link to the data on the Pastebin Web site was sent out on Twitter from the account of “TeaMp0isoN” along with a message saying “Tony Blair should be locked up, he is a war criminal.” Earlier in the day, the account had tweeted that it was targeting Blair for his support of the war in Iraq.

Read more on cnet

(Related) I wonder how many organizations believe their security isn't adequate. That is what they are saying, right?

Telstra Fears LulzSec Attacks, Hesitates On Internet Filter

After the earlier report that some of Australia's largest telcos (and ISPs) were to start censoring internet traffic based on a blacklist, rdnetto writes with the news that

"Telstra is now hesitating to deploy the internet filter it had previously promised to implement, fearing reprisals from online vigilantes."

The linked article specifically names LulzSec as the source of such reprisals.

I have visions (nightmares) of Social networks for Health data hat I can Opt Out of...

Google Health Creator Adam Bosworth On Why It Failed: “It’s Not Social”

After several years languishing in the backwoods of Google’s server farms, the company today decided to pull the plug on Google Health. Why didn’t the ambitious project to record your health record online and help you research your every ailment fail? I asked this to Adam Bosworth, the former Googler who originally created Google Health, a few weeks ago when he was in the TCTV studio to talk about his new health startup Keas.

In a sentence, “It’s not social.”

Never attribute to enemy action that which can be explained by simple stupidity.

Power Grid Change May Disrupt Clocks

hawguy writes with an AP story about upcoming tests of greater allowed variation in the frequency of the current carried on the U.S. electric grid: "

A yearlong experiment with the nation's electric grid could mess up traffic lights, security systems and some computers — and make plug-in clocks and appliances like programmable coffeemakers run up to 20 minutes fast."

[From the article:

The North American Electric Reliability Corp. runs the nation's interlocking web of transmission lines and power plants. A June 14 company presentation spelled out the potential effects of the change: East Coast clocks may run as much as 20 minutes fast over a year, but West Coast clocks are only likely to be off by 8 minutes. In Texas, it's only an expected speedup of 2 minutes.

Some parts of the grid, like in the East, tend to run faster than others. Errors add up. If the grid averages just over 60 cycles a second, clocks that rely on the grid will gain 14 seconds per day, according to the company's presentation.

How the Irish government views surveillance...

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=23544

Pointer: Irish documents on interception of communications and surveillance

June 25, 2011 by Dissent

TJ McIntyre has helpfully uploaded some documents on interception of communications and surveillance in Ireland:

• Interception and Data Retention Annual Report 2009/10

• Covert Surveillance Report 2009-10

• Revenue Surveillance Manual

Read the reports on his blog.

Why cops want to search cell phones? I can see my Ethical Hackers going two ways: Passive, renaming the “Cop Recorder” App to “Donate to the PBA” OR Aggressive, renaming all their Apps along the lines of “Live video chat with my Lawyer” and “Stream your Police encounter in Real Time” and “Information for ACLU Board Members”

LulzSec Document Dump Shows Cops' Fear of iPhones

"People are starting to comb through the details of the law enforcement documents made public by LulzSec. Blogger Kevin Fogarty noticed one interesting trend: The cops seem very anxious about iPhones, particularly apps that would allow encounters with police officers to be recorded. Ironically, the cops seem extremely concerned with protecting their own privacy, but the documents encourage police to examine iPhones during the course of interacting with the public to see what apps they have."

[From the article:

A document labeled "iphone apps- used against officers.doc" front-line officers encourages officers making an arrest to search for iPhones or other smartphones and look specifically to see what apps are running on them.

Specifically the document warns that an app called Cop Recorder can be activated while the phone is in a suspect's pocket to record what happens during an arrest, then upload the audio to a network server beyond the officer's reach.

This would seem a trivial number next to their first quarter profit of $3 billion, so...

http://www.databreaches.net/?p=19209

Citigroup Cites $2.7 Million in Customer Losses From Hack

June 24, 2011 by admin

Randall Smith reports:

Citigroup Inc. has told government officials that about 3,400 of the customers whose credit-card information was hacked have suffered about $2.7 million in losses, according to people familiar with the matter.

The disclosure is the first acknowledgment by the New York company that the May security breach resulted in any losses. Citigroup has previously indicated it would cover any losses, saying customers wouldn’t be liable for unauthorized use of their accounts in connection with the attack.

Read more on WSJ.

...Why are they being so cheap in the customer relations area? (Is “too big to fail” also “too big to care?”)

http://www.databreaches.net/?p=19196

Citi skimps on “standard” customer monitoring after security breach

June 24, 2011 by admin
Filed under Breach Incidents, Financial Sector, Hack, Of Note, U.S.

2 Comments

Reuters reports:

After a massive data breach last month, Citigroup did not offer its hacked clients the same degree of identity-theft protection that many other companies provide, drawing criticism from privacy advocates.

Citigroup, which had over 360,000 credit card accounts exposed last month, sent letters to affected customers this month with advice on protecting themselves against identity theft.

But unlike other large U.S. companies breached by cybercriminals, Citigroup did not offer to buy or give all affected customers a year of preventive credit file monitoring services, according to a sample of a letter the bank sent to many customers and filed with regulators in Maine.

Read more on Smart Business.

So let’s review: they don’t publicly disclose the breach until confronted by Financial Times and then they don’t make what has pretty much become a pro forma offer of free credit monitoring services? Did they miss the memo on public relations or is this just a company in serious need of an attitude correction?

Sucking up abandoned property? I wonder if there is such a thing as a “Quitclaim Copyright?” If so, I would be willing to sell my rights to the complete Harry Potter collection...

WIPO Talks May Portend Sweeping Broacast-Based Copyright

"It seems the nasty 'Broadcast Treaty' is rearing its head again in the WIPO talks. This would give a new copyright to what is uncopyrighted or out of copyright material to anyone who broadcasts the material. It essentially re-ups the copyright — not to the original copyrights holder, but to the broadcaster, without any contract to the original holder."

I wouldn't expect to see any action in this area since both sides assume the flaws work to their advantage. It will be interesting to see what the “hacktivists” do to them...

E-Voting Reform In an Out Year?

"Most of us know the many problems with electronic voting systems. They are closed source and hackable, some have a default candidate checked, and many are unauditable (doing a recount is equivalent to hitting a browser's refresh button). But these issues only come to our attention around election time. Now is the time to think about open source voting, end-to-end auditable voting systems and open source governance. Not in November of 2012, when it will, once again, be far, far too late to do anything about it."

It'll be interesting to see what e-voting oddities start cropping up in the current election cycle; Republican straw polls have already started, and the primaries kick off this winter.

So sad (yet funny)

http://www.mobiledia.com/news/95188.html

Amish Man Busted in Buggy for Sexting