Think of it as a
research project collecting “Strategies for Effective Data Breach
Lawsuits?”
You won’t find it on
their home page, but if you dig into the U. of Arizona‘s
web site, you’ll find this notice, posted today:
Personal
information of certain former law students and applicants to the
University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law
may have been exposed after being stored on a server in error. The
University has attempted to notify all those affected by personal
letter and set up a toll-free number to answer questions.
The
University of Arizona is informing certain former law students and
applicants to the James E. Rogers College of Law that an unauthorized
intruder may have had access to their personally identifiable
information.
An
intruder accessed a server hosting the College of Law public website
on July 29. Analysis of the server showed that the intruder may have
accessed old class rosters and applicant lists that were stored on
the server in error. The investigation identified 9,080 individuals
whose names and social security numbers were potentially accessible.
[...]
The
University no longer uses social security numbers as personal
identifiers except where required by law. Instead, all students,
alumni, faculty and staff, and others whose records are kept for
business reasons are assigned a personal University identification
number. The files stored on the compromised web server predated this
policy by several years.
The Arizona
Daily Star reported this incident earlier today.
For my Computer
Security students – this is how you get hired.
How
to Design — And Defend Against — The Perfect Security Backdoor
… Having lost that
public battle, the NSA decided to get
its backdoors through subterfuge: by asking
nicely, pressuring,
threatening, bribing, or mandating through secret
order.
The general name
for this program is BULLRUN.
Sliding down that
slippery slope like an Olympic Luge. This seems to be “Wouldn't it
be nice” data rather than “We can significantly reduce our risk”
data.
A reader kindly sent
along this link to a post by Michael Geist:
The
Royal Bank of Canada updated its mobile
application for Android users earlier this month. Like many
banking apps, the RBC version allows users to view account balances,
pay bills, and find bank branches from their smartphone. Yet when
users tried to install the app, they were advised that the bank would
gain access to a wide range of personal data.
The
long list of personal data – far longer than that found in
comparable applications from banks such as TD Canada Trust or Bank of
Montreal – included permission to use the device’s
camera, to read the user’s call history, to access the user’s
Internet browsing habits, and to even check out their browser
bookmarks. After users took to Twitter and the Google app
review section to complain, RBC advised that it would update the app
and that users should “stay tuned” about the permission
requirements.
My
weekly technology law column (Toronto
Star version, homepage
version) notes that RBC is not alone in requiring users to
disclose more personal information in order to access services.
Aeroplan, the loyalty program linked to Air Canada, sent an email
last week to hundreds of thousands of Canadians notifying them that
it too was changing its data collection practices.
The
company disclosed that holders of its popular financial credit cards
(which can be used to earn Aeroplan points based on total spending)
will soon be required to grant it access to detailed financial
activity. Starting next year, Aeroplan will be privy
to all cardholder transactions, including merchant names,
transaction amounts, and dates of the transactions.
Read more on Michael’s
blog. I guess I won’t be using Aeroplan any more!
Clearly, Congress
hasn't seen this yet. My Statistics students could have explained it
to them.
Poll
– The New American Center
“An exclusive
Esquire-NBC News survey [rendered in a series of infographics
that accompany the data for each respective question/answer] shows us
that everything we are told about politics in America today—that
there is no middle ground between left and right, blue and red, us
and them—is wrong. The data, compiled by the Benenson Strategy
Group (pollster for Obama for America ’08 and ’12) and Neil
Newhouse of Public Opinion Strategies (lead pollster for Romney for
President), show us there is a large group of American voters—even
a majority—who make up a New American Center that is passionate,
persuadable, and very real. They are merely waiting for
Washington to find them.” ["The Benenson Strategy Group
and Public Opinion Strategies conducted a nationwide survey from
August 5 through 11, 2013, with 2,410 registered voters. They
applied a k-means clustering technique to group respondents into
"segments" based on attitudinal and demographic
commonalities and like-mindedness. They conducted eight iterations
of the clustering to optimize the differentiating variables that feed
into the segmentation methodology. The segments were formed based on
commonalities across their demographics; psychographics; political,
social, and economic values; and lifestyles. The pollsters selected
the segmentation solution that yielded the most unique and
differentiated clusters."] Esquire, November 2013 issue.
For my “starving
students” (Unfortunately, a series of infographics. )
200
Ways To Make Money Online
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