Wednesday, May 02, 2012


I can see we need a “debate” to clear this up.
Eric Goldman: The Irony of Privacy Class Action Lawsuits
May 1, 2012 by Dissent
Eric Goldman writes:
I’ve posted a new essay to SSRN titled The Irony of Privacy Class Action Lawsuits. It should be published later this year in the Journal of Telecommunications and High Technology Law at University of Colorado. The essay comes out of a panel discussion we had at Colorado Law in December on the Economics of Privacy. The version I’ve posted is still in draft form, so I should be able to make some changes. I welcome your comments.
The essay issues a challenge to privacy advocates who support enforcement of privacy violations via class action lawsuits.


Not very well managed for a breach of more than a million cards. Perhaps we need a new mantra:
“If at first you don't detect,
make damn sure you find out what is happening before opening your mouth...”
Global Payments breach went on for at least 8 months – revised estimate
May 1, 2012 by admin
Brian Krebs has an update on the Global Payments breach:
A hacker break-in at credit and debit card processor Global Payments Inc. dates back to at least early June 2011, Visa and MasterCard warned in updated alerts sent to card-issuing banks in the past week. The disclosures offer the first additional details about the length of the breach since Global Payments acknowledged the incident on March 30, 2012.
[...]
Initially, MasterCard and Visa warned that hackers may have had access to card numbers handled by the processor between Jan. 21, 2012 and Feb. 25, 2012. Subsequent alerts sent to banks have pushed that exposure window back to January, December, and then August. In an alert sent in the last few days, the card associations warned issuers of even more compromised cards, saying the breach extended back at least eight months, to June 2011.
Read more on Krebs on Security.
So far, there’s no revised/updated information on Global Payment’s site, but they will undoubtedly respond to Brian’s latest exposure of these details. And once again, they will be behind the story instead of ahead of it, it seems.


A tweek for my lawyer friends...
INFOGRAPHIC: America's Obsession with Lawyers


It's “Genetically Modified Milk,” they just did it the old fashioned way. Interesting article.
The Perfect Milk Machine: How Big Data Transformed the Dairy Industry


For my Computer Security students. Not actually “links” but at least citations.
May 01, 2012
CRS: Cybersecurity: Authoritative Reports and Resources
Cybersecurity: Authoritative Reports and - Resources, Rita Tehan Information Research Specialist, April 26, 2012
  • "Cybersecurity vulnerabilities challenge governments, businesses, and individuals worldwide. Attacks have been initiated by individuals, as well as countries. Targets have included government networks, military defenses, companies, or political organizations, depending upon whether the attacker was seeking military intelligence, conducting diplomatic or industrial espionage, or intimidating political activists. In addition, national borders mean little or nothing to cyberattackers, and attributing an attack to a specific location can be difficult, which also makes a response problematic... There is no shortage of data on this topic: government agencies, academic institutions, think tanks, security consultants, and trade associations have issued hundreds of reports, studies, analyses, and statistics. This report provides links to selected authoritative resources related to cybersecurity issues."


Since the definitions for each fallacy have their own URL, that's all I need to send to my Congressman.
When I taught current events to ninth grade students the first unit I taught was about recognizing bias, propaganda, and logical fallacies. Today, through a Tweet by Lee Lefever, I found a nice website that I wish I had had when I was teaching that class.
Your Logical Fallacy Is provides short explanations and examples of twenty-four common logical fallacies. Visitors to the site can click through the gallery to read the examples. Your Logical Fallacy Is also provides free PDF poster files that you can download and print. I dropped one of these posters into Zoom.it for easy embedding into this blog post.


Humor. The Google home page in Nigeria

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