See? It can be done! I'd like some additional details, like the costs of software, end-user training, etc. Clearly the $6,000,000 figure is largely the cost to “do it over, correctly” What are their ongoing costs?
TN BlueCross Encrypts All Data After 57 Disks Stolen
"After dozens of hard disk drives were stolen from a leased facility in Chattanooga, potentially exposing the personal data of more than 1 million customers, BlueCross decided to go the safe route: they spent $6 million to encrypt all stored data across their enterprise. The health insurer spent the past year encrypting nearly a petabyte of data on 1,000 Windows, AIX, SQL, VMware and Xen server hard drives; 6,000 workstations and removable media drives; as well as 136,000 tape backup volumes."
[From the article:
The company said it spent more than 5,000 man-hours on the encryption effort, which encompassed about 885TB of at-rest data.
BCBS said it is now encrypting all data on 1,000 Windows, AIX, SQL, VMware and Xen server hard drives; 6,000 workstation hard drives and removable media drives; 136,000 tape backup volumes; and 25,000 voice call recordings per day.
… BCBS completed the encryption project in just over a year.
How does one distinguish theft by Spammers from theft by intelligence agencies or an act of war?
35 Million SK Telecom Accounts Stolen By Chinese Hackers
"South Korea's SK Telecom has revealed that earlier this week hackers stole 35 million account details from two sites. A portal called Nate Portal that provided e-mail services and a social networking site called CyWorld were the two targets by hackers who, SK Telecom claims, used IP addresses originating from China. From the article, 'The stolen data included user IDs, passwords, social security numbers, names, mobile phone numbers and email addresses. Nate said the social security numbers and passwords are encrypted so that they are not available for illegal use.'"
The real reason for the Debt Ceiling kerfuffle?
Senators Want Secret Warrantless Wiretap Renewal
"A group of Senators are meeting in secret today, while most people are focused on the 'debt ceiling' issue, in order to try to rush through a renewal of the FISA Amendments Act, which expressly allowed warrantless wiretapping in the U.S. The law isn't set to expire until next year, but some feel that the debt ceiling crisis is a good distraction to pass the extension without having to debate the issue in public. The meeting is being held in secret, but it's not classified, so people can demand to know how their Senator voted."
Copyright Piracy is as evil as Child Pornography!
British Court Orders ISP To Block Filesharing Website In Potential Landmark Ruling
Document: FBI Surveillance Geeks Fear, Love New Gadgets
According to an internal FBI document (.pdf), the law enforcement agency has a keen interest in evaluating each new technology for its surveillance possibilities and challenges.
The FBI fears, for example, that 4G will require agencies to “deal with significantly higher data rates than in current wireless network intercepts,” according to the document. “Managing this ‘fire hose’ of data is complicated by the lack of buffering or reliable delivery requirements. … These higher data rates could place a greater emphasis on the filtering of data to identify specific content.”
To intercept VoIP, or voice-over IP traffic, in this environment, “voice packets will need to be extracted from the packet stream in near real-time,” the document states.
… The unclassified document is a handy primer on all of the latest wireless technologies, presumably to help FBI engineers devise strategies for circumventing any surveillance obstacles the technologies might pose. Each technology section includes a discussion of the potential challenges to surveillance, but most of these discussions were redacted by the FBI before releasing the document. The document covers net neutrality, 4G, public Wi-Fi, anonymity services like Tor, and cloud storage and file-sharing services such as Dropbox, SpiderOak and SugarSync.
… On the other hand, the FBI appears to be excited about the new opportunities for surveillance and evidence-gathering that Microsoft’s new Greenfield application might provide. Greenfield is reportedly an“activity-based navigation” system from Microsoft Research that will be able to track a phone user’s movements through a suite of sensors on the mobile phone, allowing a trail to be gathered indoors, where GPS tracking doesn’t reach.
… There’s also a fascinating description of a device called Slurp (see below) that was developed by a former MIT Media Lab student. The device resembles a large eye dropper, and uses infrared ports to allow a user to easily slurp up (extract) and squirt out (inject) data from one device to another. The user touches the dropper to a file icon on a computer screen to slurp up the file, and then points it at a second display while squeezing the dropper to squirt the file back out.
Because of the device’s small and inconspicuous design, the document notes, the “act of capturing or transferring data may go undetected.” [Watch the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ICAUOwpeecI Bob]
… In a show of irony, the document holds an uncharitable view of another cutting edge technology: an Apple patent for a “killswitch” that uses voice and facial recognition to shutdown an iPhone or its data if the device detects that the person using it is not the rightful owner. The FBI calls Apple’s concept “Big Brother-ish”.
(Related) One of my students has one of these, as a supplement to his smartphone, tablet and iPad. Imaging copying data to this device without ever removing it from your pocket... All for $200!!
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/external-hard-drive/goflex-satellite
GoFlex Satellite™ Mobile Wireless Storage
Take your media library with you. Stream it to your iPad®.
Take more than 300 HD movies on-the-go1
Stream media over Wi-Fi to 3 iPads at the same time
Automatically sync media and documents from your PC or Mac® computer
Up to 5 hours battery life2
Find me three engineers, quick!
Feds Giving Engineers and Scientists $50K to Learn to Start Companies
The Innovation Corps program — which starts in September at Stanford University –will give $50,000 to 100 different teams (3 or more people per team) every year to go through an intensive entrepreneurial education class. The I-Corps class will be modeled on a Stanford engineering class called Lean LaunchPad that was taught earlier this year by serial entrepreneur Steve Blank and a coterie of entrepreneurial thought leaders, technologists and venture capitalists.
Interesting service. Caution: Who owns the map?
Topo.ly - Put Excel Addresses On A Map
This web service can take as many addresses as you have in the same document, and turn them into markers on a map that you can proceed to click upon at will.
… Best of all, this service can be used absolutely for free. You can throw as many addresses as you wish at it, and they all will be handled with the same speed and precision.
Global Warming is real. It's just Al Gore's graphs that are bogus...
New NASA Data Casts Doubt On Global Warming Models
"Satellite data from NASA covering 2000 through 2011 cast doubt on current computer models predicting global warming, according to a new study. The data shows that much less heat is retained by carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere than is assumed in current models. 'There is a huge discrepancy between the data and the forecasts that is especially big over the oceans,' said Dr. Roy Spencer, a co-author of the study and research scientist at the University of Alabama."
Note: the press release about the study is somewhat less over the top.
This could be exceptionally useful. It could also be a way to support my online students!
Show Me What's Wrong - Help Your Friends With Their Computer Problems
Show Me What's Wrong is a free service offered byScreencast-O-Matic. The service is designed to help you help others with their computer problems. To use the service enter your name and email address to have a custom url assigned to you. You then send that url to the person who needs help. They open the link and can start recording their screens and talk about the trouble they're having. When they finish recording the screencast is sent directly to you. Watch the two minute video below to see Show Me What's Wrong in action.
[The video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNqO_uKui6s&feature=player_embedded
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