At last (and for the fifth or sixth time) this end the TJX incident. Right?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080229100350221

(follow-up) Court to Notify Those Who Made a Purchase or a Return at a TJX Store about a Class Action Settlement

Friday, February 29 2008 @ 10:03 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

A notification program began today in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, as ordered by the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, to alert people who made a purchase or return to a TJX store about a proposed settlement reached with The TJX Companies, Inc. and Fifth Third Bancorp ("Defendants") in a class action lawsuit against them about the computer system intrusions into personal and financial information at TJX retail stores. The settlement provides benefits to those shoppers who may have been damaged in some way.

... Notices informing members of a portion of the settlement Class about their legal rights will be mailed, and otherwise are scheduled to appear in newspapers and/or magazines all over the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico leading up to a hearing on July 15, 2008, when the Court will consider whether to approve the settlement.

Source - The Earth Times Press Release

This wouldn't be a problem if you used a unique logon id and password for each account... You do, don't you?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080229094727326

Computer Sweden: Swedish Officials’ Passwords Revealed by Hacker

Friday, February 29 2008 @ 09:47 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

Passwords used by many of Sweden’s cyber elite are now available on the Internet following a hack against the Swedish Computer Society, an organization of IT professionals. Among the victims are a former security officer at Microsoft, a Symantec security expert and the director of Sweden’s largest Internet bank.

The list of logins for more than 24,000 mail accounts was published Thursday afternoon on an anonymous server. Several of Sweden’s major Internet forums soon linked to the list. The list contains user names, encrypted passwords and e-mail addresses.

The CEO of the Swedish Computer Society, Annica Bergman, confirmed the theft Thursday night after an emergency meeting with the board.

Source - CSO Perspectives

Elsewhere - Computerworld: Finjan uncovers database storing more than 8,700 stolen FTP credentials

[From the article:

It is not known how long the hackers have had access to the servers and the logins.

So, is this good news or bad?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080229204340333

Bush Nominates Three to Empty Privacy Board

Friday, February 29 2008 @ 08:43 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Fed. Govt.

A newly independent Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board may soon actually have members again, after sitting empty for nearly a full month.

On Thursday, President Bush took the first step to fill vacancies on the Board as he nominated 3 people, including a chairman, to fill some of the five seats.

... Bush nominated Daniel Sutherland, the current civil liberties officer at the Department of Homeland Security, to head the commission for the next six years. Ronald Rotunda, a George Mason University law professor known for his bow ties and for work on the Senate Watergate Commission, was nominated to join the board for an initial four-year term, while Francis X. Taylor, who previously served on the board, was re-nominated for a two-year term.

Source - Threat Level blog

This is another example of an “un-managed” disaster... You can't even ask “What were they thinking?” because plainly they weren't thinking.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080229143714791

OR: Whistleblower claims Salem Clinic mishandled patient info

Friday, February 29 2008 @ 02:37 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

Most people don't expect their personal information will end up in someone's living room after they visit their doctor's office.

But that may have happened to dozens of patients of a facility called the Salem Clinic, which is located in Salem. The records of some patients were apparently included in an employee handbook, according to an ex-employee.

A former worker who wishes to remain anonymous told KATU News that everything from actual Social Security numbers to records revealing patient's ailments were part of the clinic's training binder.

Source - KATU.com

Fun statistics to quote at your next cocktail party...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080229145833696

2007 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey

Friday, February 29 2008 @ 02:58 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Workplace Privacy

From e-mail monitoring and Website blocking to phone tapping and GPS tracking, employers increasingly combine technology with policy to manage productivity and minimize litigation, security, and other risks. To motivate compliance with rules and policies, more than one fourth of employers have fired workers for misusing e-mail and nearly one third have fired employees for misusing the Internet, according to the 2007 Electronic Monitoring & Surveillance Survey from American Management Association (AMA) and The ePolicy Institute.

Source - Earth Times Press Release

Perspective?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080229114503421

special report: privacy matters

Friday, February 29 2008 @ 11:45 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Other Privacy News

A multi-part series published this week by Telephony Online:

Part 1: The Triple- and Quad-Play View
Part 2: Privacy and the holy grail of mobility
Part 3: Consumers beware
Part 4: Web of identity

A simple summary of the Streisand Effect...

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080229/143915387.shtml

All Streisand Effects Considered

from the drive-time-radio dept

The Streisand Effect is getting a bit more coverage these days. After the Associated Press mentioned it the other day, I got to sit down and talk with Robert Siegel for today's "All Things Considered" where we discussed The Streisand Effect starting with the Wikileaks case and moving on to some other cases where the Effect clearly made an appearance. If this keeps up, maybe we can look forward to a day when lawyers think twice about trying to force perfectly legitimate content offline. [Nah.... Bob]

Includes recordings of a couple of the phone calls, including the 911 call.

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2008/02/blind_hacker

Teenage Hacker Is Blind, Brash and in the Crosshairs of the FBI

By Kevin Poulsen Email 02.29.08 | 12:00 AM

At 4 in the morning of May 1, 2005, deputies from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office converged on the suburban Colorado Springs home of Richard Gasper, a TSA screener at the local Colorado Springs Municipal Airport. They were expecting to find a desperate, suicidal gunman holding Gasper and his daughter hostage.

"I will shoot," the gravely voice had warned, in a phone call to police minutes earlier. "I'm not afraid. I will shoot, and then I will kill myself, because I don't care."

Was this more important than I thought?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080228123613113

Germany's New Right to Online Privacy

Thursday, February 28 2008 @ 12:36 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News

A ruling against government surveillance of personal computers, delivered this week by a German court, has set a precedent: Computer users have the right to trust their IT equipment. What sounds wonkish could affect many aspects of life in the 21st century.

Source - Spiegel Online

Tools & Techniques: I thought I was cool using only a number 2 pencil, but a paperclip is cooler... (No doubt the government will stop anyone at the boarder who tries to bring such dangerous technology into the US!)

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/28/2018228&from=rss

Researchers Expose New Credit Card Fraud Risk

Posted by kdawson on Thursday February 28, @04:01PM from the tamper-proof-isn't dept. Security

An anonymous reader writes

"Researchers from the University of Cambridge have discovered flaws in the card payment systems used by millions of customers worldwide. Ross Anderson, Saar Drimer, and Steven Murdoch demonstrated how a simple paper clip can be used to capture account numbers and PINs from so-called 'tamper-proof' equipment. In their paper (PDF), they warn how with a little technical skill and off-the-shelf electronics, fraudsters could empty customers' accounts. British television featured a demonstration of the attack on BBC Newsnight."

Think of it as the camera lens looking back at you... Since this is part of the metadata on digital photos, will it become illegal to remove this feature?

http://www.photographybay.com/2008/02/09/canon-iris-registration-watermark/

Canon’s Iris Registration Mode - Biological Copyright Metadata

Posted on February 9, 2008

Canon is using Iris watermarking to take photographer’s copyright protection to the next level.

The following articles seem to point out a trend. Are the 'digital age” kids starting to react to 'analog age' thinking?

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/29/0120224&from=rss

University of San Francisco Law Clinic Joins Fight Against RIAA

Posted by Soulskill on Friday February 29, @05:22AM from the bay-area-reinforcements dept. The Courts

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes

"The RIAA's litigation campaign has met resistance from the academic community before, but now it's been taken to a whole new level: the defense of RIAA victims who are not part of the college community. First the University of Oregon lashed out on behalf of its students, then it was the University of Maine's Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic on behalf of its undergrads. Now, the University of San Francisco School of Law has taken the fight a giant step further. Its Intellectual Property Law Clinic's attorneys-in-training, working under the supervision of law professors, are going to bat against the RIAA by helping outside lawyers to defend their clients, pro bono. They reached out 3000 miles to get involved in Elektra v. Torres and Maverick v. Chowdhury, two cases going on in Brooklyn, NY, against non-college defendants. Two of the law students in the USF's legal program assisted in the research and preparation of briefs in these cases, opposing the RIAA's motion to dismiss the defendants' counterclaims. Thousands of honor students throughout United States law schools, most of them digital natives who actually understand the legal fallacies and technological missteps the RIAA is taking, and who can't wait to expose them, make a pretty good resource for the poor and middle class people trying to defend these cases."

...and the 'beneficiaries?'

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080228/125620382.shtml

Musicians Wondering Why They're Not Seeing A Cut Of RIAA Settlements

from the hey,-wait,-isn't-that-our-money? dept

The RIAA and its associated organizations certainly have a rather long history of not sharing the windfall from various lawsuits and settlements with the artists the RIAA likes to claim it represents -- and now those musicians are getting angry. Torrent Freak points us to the news that various managers and lawyers representing some big name musicians are discussing filing a lawsuit against the record labels for keeping all of that money. The record labels claim either that they are distributing some amount (if required to contractually) or that they're still trying to figure out how to "split" the money. Of course, they're also giving the usual story about how "after legal fees" there really isn't that much left to give out. Remember, though, when it comes to talk to the press or politicians, they'll swear up and down that these lawsuits are all for the musicians.

The lash-back continues here too

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080228/124631381.shtml

Julius Baer Defends Wikileaks Shut Down; Digs A Deeper Hole

from the backed-into-a-corner... dept

The "Wikileaks" shutdown situation continues. The Associated Press covered the story late yesterday, noting how Julius Baer's lawyers were apparently unfamiliar with the concept of the Streisand Effect, and how the attempt to get Wikileaks taken offline would only get it -- and the content the company was trying to hide -- a lot more attention. Today, Julius Baer has finally made a statement on the matter, claiming a variety of contradictory things. It says that it didn't want the entire site taken offline, but hasn't asked the court to reverse its order shutting down the site. As Slashdot points out, the bank also seems to be claiming that the controversial documents in question need to be taken offline both because they're forged and also because they reveal confidential info. While it is possible that a forged document would also have some legitimate confidential info, it does seem like a strange defense to bring up both of these things. At the very least, it certainly seems like the bank keeps digging itself a deeper and deeper hole. If it really was afraid that having this content out there would make things worse in its ongoing legal battles, things seem a lot worse now as many more people are aware of the documents.

I've tried to get my wife to start a site like this for years. (It'll probably make the owners billionaires...)

http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/dUkEsPoStcom---Craigslist-for-Pets/

dUkEsPoSt.com - Craigslist for Pets

Do you want to find a site with information on pets and pet supplies? dUkEsPoSt.com is a Craigslist for pets. You can search for pet information in your city by choosing your state just like in Craigslist. dUkEsPoSt.com features many categories: adoption, “stuff” for sale, services, community, education, and discussion forums. Within these categories you can find all you need to know about pets.

http://dukespost.com/

Ah! Perhaps my web site class is now obsolete?

http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/G/GOOGLE_WEB_SITES?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-02-28-09-16-24

Google Unveils Tools to Set Up Web Sites

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE AP Business Writer Feb 28, 9:16 AM EST

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google, already the world's most popular spot for finding Web sites, is aiming to become the go-to place for creating Web sites too.

http://sites.google.com/

Where was the accident here? If the data was not to be posted, then who overrode the security controls to allow it to be? Why did no one notice for two months? Looks like a lot of poor management oversight...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080228002743494

103,000 Doctor's Social Security Numbers Posted on Website by Accident

Thursday, February 28 2008 @ 12:27 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

The Vice President at Marshfield Clinic confirmed Wednesday afternoon that social security numbers for his doctors and thousands of others all over the midwest were posted on a website, accidently.

Dr. Doug Reding tells us the numbers were posted to a website by a company called Health Net Federal Services based in Rancho Cordova, California.

The company is a government contractor that deals with health insurance for military families and veterans.

Health Net Federal Services representatives told us Wednesday night the company notified 103-thousand doctors in eleven states that their personal information was openly posted on a company website.

The states involved include Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky and West Virginia.

Director of Communications, Molly Tuttle, says the information was accidently posted to the website for about two months, and involved doctors who had filed a claim with the company between September of 2005, and September of 2006.

Source - weau.com

You know they expect to eat some costs due to ID Theft. Here's a look at the range in the industry.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080227110323705

FEATURED: Ranking Corporate America on Identity Theft

Wednesday, February 27 2008 @ 11:03 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

This is a chart that lots of well-paid corporate executives probably do not want you to see. Based on consumer complaints to the Federal Trade Commission, it purports to rank the overall vulnerability of the world’s largest financial institutions, phone companies and retailers –- and their customers –- to identity theft.

... None of these corporations disclose internal data on the number of account takeovers or fraudulent accounts created. The new statistics are part of a provocative, though preliminary, report, “Measuring Identity Theft at Top Banks,” by Chris Hoofnagle, a senior fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology at the University of California at Berkeley.

Source - NY Times

Related - Measuring Identity Theft at Top Banks (Version 1.0) [pdf]

Abstract of Paper:

There is no reliable way for consumers, regulators, and businesses to assess the relative incidence of identity fraud at major financial institutions. This lack of information prevents more vigorous competition among institutions to protect accountholders from identity theft. As part of a multiple strategy approach to obtaining more actionable data on identity theft, the Freedom of Information Act was used to obtain complaint data submitted by victims in 2006 to the Federal Trade Commission. This complaint data identifies the institution where impostors established fraudulent accounts or affected existing accounts in the name of the victim. The data show that some institutions have a far greater incidence of identity theft than others. The data further show that the major telecommunications companies had numerous identity theft events, but a metric is lacking to compare this industry with the financial institutions.

This is a first attempt to meaningfully compare institutions on their performance in avoiding identity theft. This analysis faces several challenges that are described in the methods section. The author welcomes constructive criticism, suggestions, and comments in an effort to shine light on the identity theft problem (choofnagle@law.berkeley.edu).

...related

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080228051808884

Measuring identity theft at top banks: do the data correlate with known data breaches?

Thursday, February 28 2008 @ 05:18 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

Chris Hoofnagle has published a seminal study [pdf] on the rate of ID theft associated with top financial institutions.

.... After reviewing Chris’s results, I went back and looked to see what we knew about data breaches shortly before or during the relevant periods of 2006 for the banks in question. Using a search of PogoWasRight.org’s news stories, Attrition.org’s DLDOS database and documents Chris Walsh obtained under FOI requests from NYS, the following table reflects known breaches for the top 25 banks listed in the second figure above.

Source - Chronicles of Dissent

Is it me, or does this read like an exercise in circular reasoning?

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/27/2310247&from=rss

Former FBI Agent Calls for a Second Internet

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday February 27, @08:58PM from the it-became-necessary-to-destroy-the-internet-to-save-it dept. The Internet

An anonymous reader writes

"Former FBI Agent Patrick J. Dempsey warns that the Internet has become a sanctuary for cyber criminals and the only way to rectify this is to create a second, more secure Internet. Dempsey explains that, in order to successfully fight cyber crime, law enforcement officials need to move much faster than average investigators and cooperate with international law enforcement officials. The problem is various legal systems are unprepared for the fight, which is why he claims we must change the structure of the Internet."

This is a security geek thing...

http://csdl2.computer.org/persagen/DLAbsToc.jsp?resourcePath=/dl/mags/sp/&toc=comp/mags/sp/2008/01/msp01toc.xml&DOI=10.1109/MSP.2008.9

January/February 2008 (Vol. 6, No. 1) pp. 52-60

Estimating a System's Mean Time-to-Compromise

David John Leversage, British Columbia Institute of Technology Eric James Byres, BCIT Critical Infrastructure Security Center

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9065038

Finjan uncovers database storing more than 8,700 stolen FTP credentials

Data enables cybercriminals to upload malware to compromised systems more easily

By Jaikumar Vijayan

February 27, 2008 (Computerworld) A fresh discovery by security vendor Finjan Inc. provides yet another example of how easy it is becoming for almost anyone to find the tools needed to break into, infect or steal data from corporate Web sites.

The San Jose-based vendor announced today that it has uncovered an illegal database containing more than 8,700 stolen File Transfer Protocol server credentials including usernames, passwords and server addresses. Anyone can purchase those credentials and use them to launch malicious attacks against the compromised systems.

An interesting thought. As the rate of technological change increases, shouldn't the rate of organizational change keep pace?

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/02/28/McNealy-Telcos-falling-behind-in-Internet-race_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/02/28/McNealy-Telcos-falling-behind-in-Internet-race_1.html

McNealy: Telcos falling behind in Internet race

Sun Chairman Scott McNealy says telecom companies need to go beyond just providing bandwidth and begin acquiring Internet destination sites that are heavily trafficked

By Agam Shah, IDG News Service February 28, 2008

Telecommunication companies need to go beyond just providing bandwidth and look into acquiring Internet destination sites that are heavily trafficked, Sun Microsystems Chairman Scott McNealy said on Friday.

"I have explained to every telco that either you become a destination site, or the destination site will become a telco," McNealy said at a news conference at Sun Microsystems' Worldwide Education and Research Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.

Internet destination sites are already gaining on telecommunication companies, McNealy said, giving as examples eBay integrating Skype's VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) technology and Google trying to buy wireless spectrum and help build cables across the Pacific Ocean. Microsoft's attempted acquisition of Yahoo would create another behemoth that could compete with carriers, such as by combining Microsoft's technology with Yahoo's existing VoIP and messaging services.

I must have missed this earlier. It was ineveitable...

http://www.gilbertrandolph.com/about-news-64.html

Gilbert Randolph LLP Announces Class Action Lawsuit Against Comcast of the District, LLC for Misrepresentation and False Advertising

Complaint alleges that cable company misled customers about "unfettered" Internet access

Washington, DC (February 19, 2008)—Gilbert Randolph LLP announced today that it has filed a class action lawsuit against Comcast of the District, LLC in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of its client, Dr. Sanford Sidner, and all citizens of the District of Columbia who have subscribed to Comcast's high-speed Internet service during the past three years. The Complaint alleges that Comcast advertises and represents that it provides the "fastest Internet connection" and "unfettered access to all the content, services, and applications that the Internet has to offer." These representations allegedly are false because Comcast intentionally blocks or otherwise impedes its customers' access to peer-to-peer file-sharing applications.

Good stuff...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/017646.html

February 27, 2008

New on LLRX.com

• Eight Legal Technology Trends for 2008 – Good Times, Bad Times or Hard Times in Legal Tech? by Dennis Kennedy

• E-Discovery Update: Resolving Client-Vendor Disputes, by
  Conrad Jacoby

• Happ-eee with my Eee PC, by Bette Dengel

• Knowledge Discovery Resources 2008, by Marcus P. Zillman

• The Government Domain: What's New in DotGov and Beyond, by
  Peggy Garvin

• FOIA Facts: The Congressional Role in FOIA Operations, by
  Scott A. Hodes

• Mexico and its Legal System, by Prof. Jorge A. Vargas

• CongressLine: The Budget, by Paul Jenks

• The Caribbean Court of Justice: A Research Guide, by Yasmin Morais

• Burney's Legal Tech Reviews, by Brett Burney

• More Recommendations from MacWorld 2008, by Nicholas Moline

• Commentary: The Theory of the Unitary Executive and the FY2009 Budget, by Beth Wellington

What hath Al Gore wrought?

http://www.dailytech.com/Temperature%20Monitors%20Report%20Worldwide%20Global%20Cooling/article10866.htm

Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling

Michael Asher (Blog) - February 26, 2008 12:55 PM

Twelve-month long drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warming

Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.

Another fine example of the “We don't know”school of management

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080227080915164

UT: Students fear personal data may be compromised

Wednesday, February 27 2008 @ 08:09 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

Marty Greenlief is concerned his personal information may have been compromised after a laptop disappeared at Salt Lake Community College.

"I'm upset that they're not telling me everything that happened," the SLCC student said.

Greenlief said the school called him early last week and instructed him to change the password he uses to access his student page on the SLCC Web site because of a possible security breach.

SLCC acknowledged a laptop had been stolen, but spokesman Joy Tlou said the school is still unsure whether the laptop taken from the Continuing Community Education of SLCC's Miller campus in Sandy contained internal login information for about 1,000 students, faculty and staff.

"We know which computer it was and we are trying to ascertain what information was on that computer," Tlou said.

Source - Salt Lake Tribune (h/t., ESI)

[From the article:

Within a matter of hours of the computer's disappearance, the school began to contact all subscribers to the SLCC Web site through telephone calls, e-mails and a notice on the site.

"By the end of the next day, we called more than 25,000 people," he said.

[That's got to cost more than knowing who to contact... Bob]

Imagine a German court making this ruling!

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080227073527769

German Court Finds State's Use Of Cyber-Spying Violates Privacy

Wednesday, February 27 2008 @ 07:35 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News

Germany's highest court ruled Wednesday that spying on individuals' personal computers violates their right to privacy, restricting security officials' ability to use virus-like software to monitor suspected terrorists' online activity.

The Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe said security services could carry out such activity only in exceptional cases and with a judge's permission beforehand.

Source - Wall Street Journal

Not new, but a clear example...

http://www.cnet.com/8301-13639_1-9879433-42.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Data-mining detects the disaffected

Posted by Mark Rutherford February 27, 2008 6:41 AM PST

Here's another reason to get off that anti-social kick and get with the networking.

The Air Force is developing a data-mining technology meant to root out disaffected insiders based on their email activity--or lack thereof, according to an article in this month's International Journal of Security and Networks.

The technology, based on something called Probabilistic Latent Semantic Indexing (PDF), scours an organization's e-mail traffic and constructs a graph of social network interactions illustrating employee activity. If a worker suddenly stops socializing online, abruptly shifts alliances within the organization, or starts developing an unhealthy interest in "sensitive topics," the system detects it and alerts investigators.

I like it! (But I didn't find the link. Even looked on Google.co.uk. I did see ad ad from Marks & Spencer, so perhaps the outbid the union?)

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article3441589.ece

Union swaps walkouts and pickets for a different kind of direct action

Steve Hawkes, Retail Correspondent February 27, 2008

Britain’s biggest private sector union is using “cyber-warfare” to open a new front in a campaign against Marks & Spencer over workers’ rights.

Unite, which has nearly two million members, plans to use searches for M&S on Google from 5am today to divert users to its list of grievances.

Anyone typing “M&S” or variations of “Marks & Spencer” into Google will see a direct link to the “Look Behind the Label” campaign put together by the T&G section of Unite, as well as normal search results.

Does this sound like a strategy to you? It seems more like panic to me.

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080226/144346360.shtml

Comcast Hires People Off The Street To Fill Seats At FCC Hearing

from the better-to-keep-out-those-net-neutrality-hippies dept

We pretty much ignored yesterday's FCC hearing concerning Comcast's traffic shaping activities, as the whole thing seemed like a bit of grandstanding. However, it's fairly stunning to find out that Comcast has admitted to hiring people off the street to fill seats at the hearing, blocking out many Comcast critics who were turned away once the room was full. Comcast claims that they hired the people merely to act as placeholders for Comcast employees (since, apparently, Comcast employees are too important to actually show up on time and wait in line like everyone else). However, as the picture at that first link shows many of the "paid" sitters stayed throughout the event and either slept or cheered on Comcast.

...and perhaps they have good reason to panic – others are jumping on the bandwagon.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_8369162?nclick_check=1

N.Y. attorney general subpoenas Comcast on traffic throttling

Associated Press Article Launched: 02/26/2008 01:55:16 PM PST

NEW YORK - The New York attorney general's office has requested information from Comcast Corp. on the company's handling of Internet traffic.

(Somewhat related to the articles above) I'll repeat what I've been saying for years: Cities should form their own “Infrastructure Service” to lay fiber to the home, then let anyone use it for a nominal fee. If you don't have a monopoly, how would you attract clients?

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080225/135642351.shtml

We Need A Broadband Competition Act, Not A Net Neutrality Act

from the get-out-the-wrecking-ball dept

Andy Kessler has put together a fantastic editorial for the Wall Street Journal explaining why Markey's attempt at legislating Net Neutrality won't do any good. As we pointed out when Markey first announced it, this plan seems to be focused on the symptoms, not the real problem (and, no, just having the FCC step in to slap the wrists of neutrality violators doesn't help either). The real problem, of course, is the lack of real competition in the broadband market. Kessler suggests that we shouldn't be focused on Net Neutrality, but should wipe out the bogus regulations that are currently restricting competition in the broadband market. That means not going through a painful localized franchising process or making it a pain to get the rights of way necessary to install equipment necessary for next generation broadband. It means actually opening up the market to competition, not creating subsidies and regulations that mean only the incumbents can play. Not that politicians are about to do anything like this, but it sure would be nice.

Interesting way to personalize the rhetoric. (And what is on the Internet never dies)

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/017630.html

February 26, 2008

C-SPAN Congressional Chronicle

"The C-SPAN Congressional Chronicle is an index to the C-SPAN video recordings of the House and Senate floor proceedings. The video recordings are matched with the text of the Congressional Record as soon as the Record is available. It only includes members who appeared on the floor to deliver or insert their remarks. The text included here is what the member submitted. Each appearance has a video link where users can watch and listen to the actual remarks."

I suppose Apple cuts them a deal, but will it attract students?

http://www.acu.edu/news/2008/080225_iphone.html

ACU to give iPhone or iPod Touch to all incoming freshmen; will pioneer learning strategies with devices

An Apple iPhone or iPod Touch will become a central part of Abilene Christian University's innovative learning experience this fall when all freshmen are provided one of these converged media devices, said Phil Schubert, ACU executive vice president.

At ACU - the first university in the nation to provide these cutting-edge media devices to its incoming class - freshmen will use the iPhones or iPod Touches to receive homework alerts, answer in-class surveys and quizzes, get directions to their professors' offices, and check their meal and account balances - among more than 15 other useful web applications already developed, said ACU Chief Information Officer Kevin Roberts.

... ACU's vision for technology has been captured in a forward-looking film called 'Connected,' found online - along with information about ACU's other ground-breaking mobile learning efforts - at www.acu.edu/connected.

Interesting idea. Objective reviews and sell ads to everyone...

http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/Vinquirecom---Search-Review-and-Buy-Wine/

Vinquire.com - Search, Review, and Buy Wine

Wine lovers may soon be raising their glasses to Vinquire.com, a one-stop destination for wine information, pricing, and reviews. Vinquire features a powerful, free search engine and a database of over 570,000 wines. Specify as many or as few criteria as you’d like and search for wines by name, vintage, retailer, price range, type, and/or size. Vinquire will return a list of wines that match your criteria, with prices and links to retailers for each.

http://www.vinquire.com/

Boy, them iPods does everything!

http://www.killerstartups.com/Mobile/Theplaceforitallcomipodulator---Create-iPod-Compatibl/

Theplaceforitall.com/ipodulator - Create iPod Compatibl

Would you like to use your iPod for more than just listening to music and playing solitaire? The iPodulator allows you to quickly and easily copy web pages or RSS feeds and read them on your iPod.

http://www.theplaceforitall.com/ipodulator/

Let's not forget the golf nuts!

http://www.golfflyover.com/

GolfFlyover

A golf course flyover is a virtual tour showing every hole of a golf course as if you were riding in a helicopter stopping at each tee, fairway and green for a closer look.

Guidelines?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2008022508095820

NZ: Data breach guidelines here

Monday, February 25 2008 @ 08:09 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News

Following several months of consultation on the August 2007 draft data breach notification guidelines, the Privacy Commissioner has now released a final version of the voluntary guidelines (.doc) accompanied by an information paper (.doc).

The guidelines consist of two documents- Key Steps for Agencies in Responding to Privacy Breaches and a Privacy Breach Checklist.

Source - Identity and Privacy Blog

In other words: You should have known this was bogus...

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/25/186247&from=rss

Judge Make Lawyers Pay For Frivolous Patent Suit

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 25, @03:17PM from the not-making-partner-anytime-soon dept. Patents The Courts

Gallenod writes "The Denver Post is reporting that the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the decision of a Federal judge who threw out and reversed a jury decision in favor of a patent infringement claim and ordered the plaintiff's lawyers to pay the defendants' court costs. U.S. District Senior Judge Richard P. Matsch sanctioned the plaintiff's attorneys for 'cavalier and abusive' misconduct and for having a 'what can I get away with?' attitude during a 13-day patent infringement trial in Denver. With the Appeals Court in agreement, could this case be the 'shot heard round the world' in the revolution against patent trolls?"

UK: Data breaches cost £47 per record

Monday, February 25 2008 @ 07:13 AM EST
Contributed by: PrivacyNews
News Section: Breaches

The average cost of a data breach is £47 per record, and the bulk of that cost is from lost business, according to new research.

The study, by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Symantec and PGP Corporation, contacted every UK company known to have suffered a data breach in the past year. Some 21 organisations across eight sectors replied.

It's the first time the institute has done the study in the UK, after three annual surveys in the US.

Source - IT Pro

Related - UPDATED: Data thefts and losses in the UK - Timeline

Have you noticed that all reporters take Sunday off – because noting happens on Sunday?

Was this there but not noticed before the Internet?

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1203677130140

Cybersex Defense a Growing Practice Area

Vesna Jaksic The National Law Journal 02-22-2008

Five years ago, Internet sex crime allegations made up about 5 percent of Brad Bailey's criminal defense practice. Now it's at 20 percent.

... Criminal defense lawyers across the country said sex crimes involving the Internet -- such as online child pornography or using the Internet to solicit sex from minors -- are becoming a growing part of their workload. The increase has in part been fueled by a law enforcement crackdown.

... "We're seeing that most of these cases that are actually prosecuted are sting operations," Wyatt said.

... In Colorado, the district attorney for Jefferson and Gilpin counties has announced, through its Child Sex Offender Internet Investigation unit, a number of cases in January alone, including an arrest of a 20-year-old man for allegedly having sexual contact with a 12-year-old girl he met over the Internet, and arrests of a 27-year-old man and a 23-year-old man in separate cases involving Internet luring of children.