Thursday, July 11, 2013

Interesting. Does this shut down any customer lawsuits? Why else would they even comment?
E. B. Solomont reports:
Schnuck Markets Inc. did not violate Missouri law regarding data security, an investigation into a widespread data breach at Schnucks by Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster’s office has concluded.
The St. Louis-based grocery chain “was itself a victim of criminal wrongdoing,”Nanci Gonder, press secretary for the attorney general, told the Business Journal. “After reviewing the records and speaking with forensic investigators, we did not find that Schnuck Markets violated Missouri laws regarding data security,” she said.


I think Colorado Technical University should offer this one a scholarship! (Note that large companies are not the only ones to re-assess their security after an incident.)
Toddler buys 1962 Austin Healey on eBay
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Sorella Stoute bought a 1962 Austin Healey Sprite on eBay last month. She’s a toddler.
The 14-month-old opened the eBay app on her dad’s smartphone last month and bought the car for $225 — without his knowledge.
Her dad, Paul Stoute, didn’t know about it until he got a congratulatory email from eBay.
… “I’m just glad she didn’t buy the $38,000 Porsche I was looking at,” he said.
Since Sorella bought the car, though, he activated the facial recognition technology and has a new PIN code, just in case she ever gets the shopping bug again.


Interesting, because they are trained to use tools like LinkedIn, so I doubt they were unaware.
Mike Masnick writes:
So, over the weekend, the Washington Post revealed some of the code names for various NSA surveillance programs, including NUCLEON, MARINA and MAINWAY. Chris Soghoian has pointed out that a quick LinkedIn search for profiles of people in Maryland with codenames like MARINA and NUCLEON happen to turn up profiles like this one which appear to reveal more codenames:
+Skilled in the use of several Intelligence tools and resources: ANCHORY, AMHS, NUCLEON, TRAFFICTHIEF, ARCMAP, SIGNAV, COASTLINE, DISHFIRE, FASTSCOPE, OCTAVE/CONTRAOCTAVE, PINWALE, UTT, WEBCANDID, MICHIGAN, PLUS, ASSOCIATION, MAINWAY, FASCIA, OCTSKYWARD, INTELINK, METRICS, BANYAN, MARINA
TRAFFICTHIEF, eh? WEBCANDID? Hmm… Apparently, NSA employees don’t realize that information they post online can be revealed.
So… will DOJ prosecute these people for leaks? Will the Army block the military from reading LinkedIn?
No, I don’t think either should happen but if the government really wants to keep some information from the public forum, they’re not doing a great job, are they?
But more to the point: how many members of Congress even know what these programs are or do? How many members of Congress are engaging in actual oversight of these programs?


Does the new CEO hope to gain credibility for the actions of her predecessor?
Brandon Bailey reports:
In a rare legal move, Yahoo is asking a secretive U.S. surveillance court to let the public see its arguments in a 2008 case that played an important role in persuading tech companies to cooperate with a controversial government data-gathering effort.
Releasing those files would demonstrate that Yahoo “objected strenuously” to government demands for customers’ information and would also help the public understand how surveillance programs are approved under federal law, the company argued in a filing with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court this week.
Read more on Mercury News.
You can read the court filing here.


Useful. Learn what laws you are breaking! If you aggregate the laws of all 100 countries, could you still operate a business?
Dave Banisar has updated his global map on data protection laws:
Approximately 100 countries and independent jurisdictions and territories around the world have adopted comprehensive [??? Bob] data protection/privacy laws to protect personal data held by both governments and private companies. This map shows which jurisdictions have adopted laws or have pending initiatives to adopt one.
You can download the map from SSRN.


Just in time for my Linear Algebra students
Paperkit is a free to use website that lets you download graph templates which you can print out. There are various properties of the grid that the website lets you modify. To get started using the site’s tools, you do not need to create any new accounts – you simply visit the website and start tweaking the various graph properties.


For all my students. Looks like the grab the RSS feed. (At least, it works like an RSS reader but in your browser!)
Most people who frequently use the Internet have a bunch of websites bookmarked to get news and updates. But visiting these websites individually and checking out their new posts can be quite time consuming.
Skimr is a free to use web service that helps you quickly browse the latest updates on your favorite websites. This is accomplished by letting you view your favorite websites in a list view where you click on a site and subsequently read the corresponding updates. When you first the site’s home page, you will find a list containing a few websites on which you will find the latest technology-related news on the Internet.
You can edit this list by creating an account on the website and adding any website that you want; you can add the websites through their URL or through their RSS feed.
Similar: Skimzee [Similar, but works with Twitter Bob]

(Related)
Last.fm founders to use your browser history to conquer the Web
Last.fm founders Felix Miller and Martin Stiksel think they have the solution to the overabundance of the Web and the ever-flowing rivers on social media feeds.
The two European entrepreneurs, who created a music service that recommends music based on your listening history, have decided to apply their technology to the entire Internet.
… The pair launched a new product on Thursday, a Web discovery tool called Lumi. In the spirit of Last.fm, which Miller and Stiksel sold to CBS in 2007 for $280 million (CBS also owns CNET), Lumi is a site that relies on a user's browser history to determine what they should see or read on the Internet.
Users must install the Lumi browser extension and allow the tool to collect their browsing history. It's available on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Lumi starts processing your information once you install it and spits out results in about 20 seconds. (Two-thirds of Stiksel's results are music-related, of course.)
… When they started testing Lumi in December, 10,000 users signed up for its trial run. Those testers were most concerned with privacy, Miller said. If you browse in incognito mode, which hides your browsing history, Lumi can't see where you have surfed. Otherwise, your movement on the Internet is fair game.

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