Despite misleading Ministerial claims in the UK that ID cards will be “voluntary”, these plans are still going ahead. In fact if you are a UK resident and need to apply for a passport in the next 10 years you will in any case end up in the ID database. Read more a no2id.
Month: January 2010
Novel ways to reach your end-users on the importance of information security in your organisation
Are you looking to find a way to reach your end-users to be serious about information security, but missing the mark. Take a look at this for a great novel idea something created by Application Security Incl., a digital comic.
Are you worried about having your identity stolen?
… well check this out Awesome Database Security Contest Submission Video 😉
it was done for a contest at Application Security Incl., and shows that we can have fun in our domain of information security 😀
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UzSBGBKCPI&hl=en_US&fs=1&]
Nothing to hide – CCTV in school toilets!
An excellent article on the use of CCTV, biometrics, databases, etc., in schools in the UK.
Can you imagine that on the uncertainly of whether CCTV should be permissible in toilets, Sayner (managing director of Proxis, a security installation company) reasons that “it depends exactly on what it is looking at,” adding that “If you’ve got nothing to hide, why should you object to that?” I just love this “nothing to hide” argument. For myself I’m not too keen on being the star on some camera footage when I visit the ladies room!
Online resource for parents, educators and kids
Did you know that it is Data Privacy Day 2010 tomorrow? Jack made a posting on this earlier this month .. Check it out as there is a really nice online resource there for parents and children online, loads of advice and a bundle of links.
So who’s hacking who ;-)
Chinese search engine Baidu.com has filed a lawsuit that blames a U.S.-based Internet domain registrar for allegedly allowing a hacking attack that left the site disabled and defaced. Read more at cnet news.
Apple launch free background check app on iPhone
A new app from BeenVerified is enabling users to conduct background checks on anyone in a matter of seconds from their iPhone. I believe that this is just in the US. The Background Check App is free and employers and individuals can use it to conduct up to three free background checks per week via the iPhone. Users, particularly employers who may want to conduct checks of employees, vendors, suppliers, partners, and other parties they do business with, can also subscribe to the BeenVerified service which would grant them unlimited background checks starting at only $8 per month.
Apparently “A BeenVerified background check contains information collected from thousands of public records and publicly available data where the average person would not even know where to begin. All of the information found in our reports is already out there and accessible to anyone.” claims Levy, BeenVerified CEO. Read more at PCWorld.
Anonymous Data?
In this article, it was been reported that computer scientists were able to de-anonymize supposedly anonymous data and re-identify individuals. This, however, is not entirely new. De-anonymisation has been conducted successfully in 2006 when AOL released the search logs of over a half million of their users (here) and in 2009 by researchers in social networks (here). Stripping personal identifiable information such as usernames from data sets is an insufficient step in the anonymizing process.
China’s Googlegate, update
China’s government departments are sticking to their guns, saying that the Chinese people need guided internet access, and that companies operating in China need to abide by local laws.
Read the update and summary of past events here
I nitpick on some of the article’s sarcasm here
Search Giants Google & Microsoft Bing Compete on Privacy
In August 2008, Google cut the retention period of user search data to 9 months, down from 18 months. After 9 months it no longer retains the IP addresses that can be used to link a user search to an individual.
Recently Microsoft, not to be outdone, reduced the retention period of its users search data to a mere 6 months. Microsoft has accused Google of retaining a portion of the user’s IP address after it’s self-imposed 9 month retention period, while Microsoft claims it will remove the entire IP address.
“Quality of search won’t be reduced but privacy will be enhanced”
Brendon Lynch, Microsoft’s director of privacy policy
Microsoft’s actions appear to be in response to European Union data protection officials request that leading search engine makers respond to their privacy concerns by the end of this month over retaining IP address data.
We can only hope that increased competition will lead to improved privacy and data security by industry leaders, setting a course for others to follow.
Article here