Does this seem high to you?
http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/onein10-aussies-victims-of-id-theft/2007/08/28/1188067100796.html
One-in-10 Aussies victims of ID theft: report
Asher Moses August 28, 2007 – 4:40PM
Almost 2 million Australians have had their personal details stolen and used fraudulently by a third party, according to a report released today by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, which highlights the internet as a growing privacy pain point.
The report found only 17 per cent of Australians trusted online businesses to handle their personal information responsibly, compared with 37 per cent for regular retailers, 73 per cent for government departments and 91 per cent for health service providers.
... Another survey released this month by Newspoll, which questioned 1202 people, found Australians were more concerned about the misuse of their personal information than national security in relation to war or terrorism.
... Half of the respondents were more concerned about giving personal information over the internet than they were two years ago, while 45 per cent believed ID theft was likely to occur as a result of using the internet.
... She said the laws got the balance right as her office received only 1100 privacy-related complaints a year, but acknowledged Australia's privacy laws were based on guidelines that were more than 30 years old - the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights and the OECD Privacy Guidelines.
... She said the Australian Law Reform Commission would release its draft report discussion paper containing recommendations on changes to privacy laws in the middle of next month, which she expected would be 1200 pages long.
Among the report's other findings were that 65 per cent of Australians were more concerned about providing details online than in hard copy format and 25 per cent said they gave false information in online forms as a way of protecting their privacy.
[Reporsts are available here: http://www.privacy.gov.au/business/research/index.html ]
Interesting reaction... (Also the burden of e-Discovery just got bigger)
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9767300-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Court decides RAM is stored information in TorrentSpy case
Posted by Greg Sandoval August 28, 2007 2:59 AM PDT
A federal judge issued a decision on Monday that would have required TorrentSpy, a BitTorrent search engine, to hand over information about its users had the company not ceased operating in the U.S. a day earlier.
TorrentSpy, accused of encouraging movie piracy in a lawsuit filed by the film industry last year, was ordered in June to provide the studios with user information found in the company's computer RAM. The site, which can help people find bootleg films, had long promised to protect the anonymity of visitors.
TorrentSpy filed an appeal and argued that data in a computer's RAM was too temporary to be considered "stored information," and that it was impractical for companies to produce such material as part of a civil suit. According to court documents, the judge on Monday denied TorrentSpy's appeal.
"The court holds that data stored in RAM, however temporarily, is electronically stored information," wrote U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper in her 18-page decision.
Ira Rothken, TorrentSpy's attorney, said that as far as the court order goes, if the company isn't doing business in the U.S. there isn't any U.S. records to turn over. Nonetheless, Rothken said TorrentSpy plans to continue the court fight by filing a new appeal with the 9th Circuit.
... While the court's decision may have little impact on TorrentSpy--now that the company has ceased doing business in the U.S.--it could mean a great deal to scores of other companies, according to some experts.
Ken Withers, a legal scholar with the think tank, Sedona Conference, said shortly after TorrentSpy was ordered to turn over user information in June that he feared court's were creating "weapons of mass discovery" and expanding the scope of discovery too far.
An interesting variation on the 'social networking' sites...
http://www.gigalaw.com/news/2007/08/men-arrested-in-japan-after-using-crime.html
Men Arrested in Japan After Using "Crime Mates" Site
Three men who met on an Internet site that matches up criminals were arrested after battering a woman to death and abandoning her body in a forest, police and Japanese media said. The three arrested men swapped details on a "crime mates" site through their mobile phones, Kyodo news agency reported, and agreed to kidnap a 31-year-old office worker as she walked home.
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUST28582520070827
well... we gotta blame someone!
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6204295.html
Discover security breach, blame the co-workers?
By Tim Ferguson, Silicon.com Published on ZDNet News: Aug 24, 2007 5:37:00 AM
IT managers in small and midsize businesses blame their fellow workers for online security breaches--despite the fact many small enterprises still don't enforce Web usage policies.
More than a fourth of European IT managers in small businesses said they believe that company employees are responsible for security problems, according to research commissioned by security software company Websense.
The most frustrating problem for IT managers is employee behavior (cited by nearly a third of managers), followed by security not being high enough on the corporate agenda and then budget constraints.
The survey found that nearly a third of employees said they need to access sites known to present a high security risk, such as peer-to-peer services and free software-downloading sites.
... The survey also reveals that 23 percent of small to midsize companies have Web security policies but don't enforce them among their employees. Another 16 percent of smaller enterprises have no Web usage policy at all, preferring to trust employees to not put them at risk.
Always some good stuff...
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/015830.html
August 27, 2007
New on LLRX.com for August 2007
Legal Information Management in a Global and Digital Age: Revolution and Tradition, by Claire M. Germain
IM a Librarian: Establishing a Virtual Reference Service with Little Cost or Technical Skill, by Bonnie Shucha
Search at the Foundation of the Enterprise, by John I. Alber
Technology and the Generation Gap, by Genevieve Zook
E-Discovery Update: Understanding the Consequences of an Unsuccessful Meet and Confer Session, by Conrad J. Jacoby
A Review of TechnoLawyer's Free BlawgWorld 2007 ebook, by Brett Burney
The Government Domain: Back to School for Constitution Day 2007, by Peggy Garvin
Law and Technology Podcasts, by Roger V. Skalbeck
FOIA Annual Reports: A Diagnostic Tool for Identifying FOIA Administrative Problems, by Michael Ravnitzky
CongressLine by Gallerywatch.com: Votes and Whips, by Paul Jenks
Burney's Legal Tech Reviews: The Kingston Data Traveler Reader and New Jabra Bluetooth Headset, by Brett Burney
Commentary: The Protect America Act and Legislation Related to the Domestic Surveillance Program, by Beth Wellington
This is very interesting. I wonder if we could hold them to these principles? (Yeah, silly question. It uses 'hold' and 'politician' in the same sentence.)
http://www.fcw.com/article103603-08-27-07-Web
OMB, CIO Council issue architecture principles
BY Jason Miller Published on Aug. 27, 2007
The Office of Management and Budget and the CIO Council released today a new framework that underpins many of the Bush administration’s core management tenets.
... The principles include:
The federal government focuses on people.
The federal government is a single unified enterprise.
Federal agencies collaborate with other governments and people.
The federal architecture is mission-driven.
Security, privacy and protecting information are core government needs.
Information is a national asset.
The federal architecture simplifies government operations.
Consolidation or the transfer of technology leadership?
http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/27/2156231&from=rss
Lenovo Looking to Buy Seagate, May Raise Political Concerns
Posted by Zonk on Monday August 27, @07:22PM from the this-is-what-we're-worried-about dept. Businesses Data Storage Politics Hardware
andy1307 writes "According to an article in the New York Times, Lenovo has expressed an interest in buying Seagate. This has raised concerns among American government officials about the risks to national security in transferring high technology to China. From the article: 'In recent years, modern disk drives, used to store vast quantities of digital information securely, have become complex computing systems, complete with hundreds of thousands of lines of software that are used to ensure the integrity of data and to offer data encryption.'"
...or perhaps Taiwan just wants to stifle the mainland?
Lenovo's plan for Packard Bell hit by Acer-Gateway deal
Acer just might end up owning both Gateway and Packard Bell
By Sumner Lemon and Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service August 27, 2007
Acer's agreement to acquire Gateway has foiled Lenovo Group's plans to buy PC vendor Packard Bell, and could leave Acer owning both Gateway and Packard Bell.
On August 7, Lenovo revealed it was in discussions with Packard Bell over a possible acquisition. At the time, it looked like Lenovo had beaten Acer, which was also interested in acquiring the company.
However, Acer's plan to buy Gateway for $710 million, announced Monday, trumps anything Lenovo brings to the table in its negotiations with Packard Bell.
In 2006, Gateway signed an agreement with John Hui, Packard Bell's largest shareholder, that gives Gateway the right of first refusal if he decides to sells PB Holding Co. SARL, the parent company of Packard Bell.
What that means is that if Packard Bell wants to enter into a final agreement to be purchased, the company has to ask Gateway first, said Y.T. Du, of Citigroup Global Markets, which represented Acer in the negotiations. Gateway can refuse the deal if it wants and enter into purchase talks with Packard Bell, he said.
That is exactly what Gateway has done, announcing plans to exercise its right of first refusal at the same time the Acer deal was unveiled.
The agreement between Hui and Gateway is rooted in Gateway's 2004 acquisition of eMachines, a PC vendor that Hui founded. When Hui acquired his stake in PB Holding, he granted the right of first refusal to Gateway in exchange for the company waving parts of the noncompete agreement that Hui signed when eMachines was sold.
Now that Gateway has entered into talks to acquire PB Holding from Hui, Acer could end up owning both Gateway and Packard Bell. While a Packard Bell acquisition would increase Acer's market share in Europe, a deal also means Acer will face having to integrate two companies with its existing operations instead of only one.
"Acer is still really strong in Europe," said Bryan Ma, director of personal systems research at IDC Asia-Pacific. Ma worried that Acer's desire to acquire Packard Bell is driven more by a desire to slow Lenovo's growth in Europe, rather than a pressing need to strengthen its own position there.
A Lenovo spokeswoman was not immediately available to comment.
Opinions vary... See next article.
Unlocking the iPhone could invite DMCA suit
Intellectual property lawyers split over consequences for users who unlock their iPhones, but agree that trying to sell those secrets likely to lead to legal troubles
By Grant Gross, IDG News Service August 27, 2007
Hackers who unlock Apple's iPhone from the AT&T network and share the method with 10 million of their closest Internet friends are inviting a lawsuit from the two companies, several intellectual property (IP) lawyers said Monday.
...so who is right?
http://techdirt.com/articles/20070827/111009.shtml
iPhone Supposedly Gets Unlocked, AT&T Apparently Freaks Out
from the on-what-grounds dept
There were several reports last week that the operator lock on the iPhone had been broken, meaning that people might be able to use the device with service from a company other than AT&T. The first to emerge was from a New Jersey teenager, who came up with a complex method involving soldering and software; then two separate companies later said they had software-only unlocking methods. To be sure, these unlocking methods and services will only ever appeal to a small number of users, as most general consumers won't really care, or won't want to go to the trouble. With that in mind, it really doesn't seem like AT&T has much at stake financially, but that apparently hasn't stopped its lawyers from threatening one of the software providers. The company claims it got a call from a law firm representing the company, tossing around things like copyright infringement and "illegal software dissemination" in what appears to be an attempt at intimidating the company to keep them from releasing the software (particularly since the DMCA doesn't cover phone unlocking). It's worth reiterating that these are supposedly AT&T's lawyers, not Apple's -- but it's not clear what standing AT&T would have to sue, making this look like little more than a SLAPP situation. Apple's remained quiet on the matter, but it wouldn't be surprising to see the company close the loophole or re-lock the phones with one of its software updates, [Would the customer then have a cause of action? Bob] since it has a financial stake in iPhone buyers activating and using their phones on AT&T thanks to its revenue-sharing deal with the operator. Of course, it could take the more enlightened view that it doesn't want to frustrate and annoy the customers who would go to the trouble of unlocking their iPhones -- but if it were going to do that, it wouldn't have locked the device to AT&T in the first place.
...or maybe they're all nuts.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2007/tc20070827_230698.htm
Why Apple Can't Stop iPhone Hackers
AT&T and Apple may face an uphill battle prosecuting hackers that untether the iPhone from the AT&T wireless network
by Olga Kharif August 28, 2007, 12:01AM EST
... Individual users are already allowed to unlock their own phones under an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that the U.S. Copyright Office issued last November. The exemption, in force for three years, applies to "computer programs…that enable wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telephone communication network, when circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of lawfully connecting to a wireless telephone communication network."
What's less clear is whether companies and hackers can legally unlock the phones and then sell them to others, or sell unlocking software.
Interesting thought...
http://gigaom.com/2007/08/27/google-phone-an-attempt-to-take-on-100-pc/
Google Phone An Attempt To Take On $100 PC?
Written by Om Malik Monday, August 27, 2007 at 10:53 AM PT
Google Phone has been a subject of many rumors lately. Mark Hopkins, a technology podcaster, says he got the confirmation of the Gphone after talking to an insider Google.
He said that the Google (applications) Suite is going to play a huge role in the usability of the GPhone, and the thought process behind it’s functionality is less about beating the iPhone and more about beating the $100 Laptop, which provides a huge clue behind what will be the pricing structure on this…regarding the two week timetable on it’s release, he said he could not confirm that part of the story.
Don't ya just love competition?
http://digg.com/gaming_news/Tera_Discs_To_Blow_Away_Blu_Ray_and_HD_DVD
Tera-Discs To Blow Away Blu-Ray and HD-DVD?
Tech UK is reporting a startling new disc storage technology that could end the HD war between HD- DVD and Blu-Ray: the Tera-Disc. How much data? On a 1TB disc, you could store 212 DVD-quality movies, 250,000 MP3 files or 1,000,000 large Word documents. Holy flarging snit!
http://www.gamestooge.com/2007/08/27/tera-discs-to-blow-away-blu-ray-and-hd-dvd/
New business model?
http://www.dvd-recordable.net/Article3448.phtml
Copyright Holders Hire Human YouTube Crawlers
Date Tuesday, August 14 @ 14:56:28
Google says it will implement an automated filtering system this autumn that will stop music videos and other copyrighted material from finding their way onto its YouTube site without permission. But for the work of identifying allegedly infringing material is done by humans.
The Wall Street Journal reports that a company called BayTSP has hired over 20 analysts, which it pays $11/hour and up to scour the site for its clients' material in the recently uploaded section of YouTube and a few other sites.
In some cases, they have a standing order to issue takedown notices for anything they find; in others, the analysts log allegedly infringing videos and then issue one big takedown notice consisting of hundreds of thousands of them.
Not as well handled as Tylenol, but still worth study?
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5755.html
Mattel: Getting a Toy Recall Right
Published: August 27, 2007 Author: John Quelch
Executive Summary: Mattel has been criticized heavily for having to recall not once but twice in as many weeks 20 million toys manufactured in China. But Mattel also deserves praise for stepping up to its responsibilities as the leading brand in the toy industry. Harvard Business School professor John Quelch examines what Mattel did right. Key concepts include:
Mattel's recall of 20 million toys made in China was handled deftly: The CEO took personal charge of the problem.
Consumers are being empowered by Mattel's communications.
The recall Web site is a model of excellence. http://service.mattel.com/us/recall.asp
Mattel's compensation program to customers may not be sufficient.
Has potential...
http://www.researchbuzz.org/wp/2007/08/27/professor-cooks-up-news-metasearch-with-lots-of-muscle/
Professor Cooks Up News Metasearch With Lots of Muscle
27th August 2007
With two coconuts and some bamboo… sorry, wrong professor. THIS professor is Clement Yu from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and he’s come with a metasearch engine for news. What impressed me was its scope — it covers about 1800 news search engines across about 200 countries and territories. After all that it has the terribly pedantic name Allinonenews; you can try it at www.allinonenews.com.
For my web site class... Think about how this tool could manipulate image “evidence”
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/27/i-want-this-in-photoshop-immediately/
I Want This In Photoshop Immediately
Michael Arrington August 27 2007
This image resizing and manipulation demonstration is sort of jaw dropping, particularly as the video goes on. The related paper, written by Dr. Ariel Shamir and Dr. Shai Avidan is available here.
Doesn't surprise me at all...
Fake money doesn't fool Tenn. strippers
Sun Aug 26, 2:18 AM ET
SMYRNA, Tenn. - A man who authorities say used his computer to make fake $100 bills to buy lap dances at a strip club has pleaded guilty to counterfeiting charges, federal prosecutors said.
Dilbert on the consequences of bad contracts...
http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2045830070828.gif
