Gerald Combs, founder of the Ethereal project caused a flurry of excitement among users and developers Wednesday when he announced on the Ethereal developers mailing list that he was changing jobs, moving to a new location, and taking the project and its core developers with him as he leaves.
Stolen personal data for 26.5 million veterans and military personnel may have been erased by teenagers who sold the computer equipment, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said Thursday.
I hope this is the case. But the real problem is that it could happen again. If the VA doesn't make an example out of someone, it is hoped that they will at least tighten up their policy. Its the least they can do for the Vet who have served.
The secretary of veterans affairs, R. James Nicholson , in the spotlight because of a breakdown in data security, called yesterday for tougher penalties on federal employees who mishandle sensitive information.
Nicholson told the House Government Reform Committee that it is “too hard, in my opinion, to discipline people in the civil service — it's too hard to impose sanctions.”
Man, that is the truth. I've worked closely with civil servant for about six years now and the stuff these guys get away with is insane. The ones that are prior military are usually pretty cool, but a few that I've worked with seem to be completely above policies that guard against discrimination and sexual harasment. It seems the worse they are the more they get promoted. Don't get me wrong. I've worked with some brilliant civil servants as well. Its just that when they are bad… they are REALLY bad.
The government wants Internet firms to store records about you so that it can have them if necessary for an investigation. Should you worry?
Here is what Ben Franklin said about liberties:
“They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.”
It still surprises me that so many Americans don't seem to mind that their liberties are being striped slowly but surely. How do we continue to elect the loudest proponents of security as a reaction to fear.
I made my way to the credit union at about 6 a.m. to make sure no employees saw us. I then proceeded to scatter the drives in the parking lot, smoking areas, and other areas employees frequented.
I knew a professor who did something similar to this. He and his class wanted to prove how unsecure the computer stores are so they went to CompUSA/Fry's type computer store and loaded up the display computers with malware. But they weren't evil malware.. they were “happy malware”. They notified the manager of what they'd done in order to give them a heads up on the lack of security. Needless to say the store was pissed. Gray Hats get no respect.