Group items tagged

Every day for one hour, Olympic-level athletes all over the world have an appointment they cannot break. The swimmer Dara Torres, a 12-time Olympic medalist, squeezes her hour into training, running errands and caring for her 3-year-old daughter. The curler Nicole Joraanstad schedules her hour at dawn, but says it often interrupts her sleep. The Olympic decathlon champion Bryan Clay makes himself available at night, when he is most likely to be home with family. Since Jan. 1, Olympic-level athletes have had to schedule their daily availability - hour and place - three months in advance so drug testers can find them, according to new World Anti-Doping Agency rules. And violating those rules can have serious repercussions. Three missed drug tests within an 18-month period during an athlete's appointed hour count as a positive drug test and can result in a one- to two-year ban from competition. Because the element of surprise is crucial to effective testing, athletes are also subject to random out-of-competition tests at any time. And they are tested at competitions. Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee said, "Sports today has a price to pay for suspicion." But some athletes say the rules have gone too far. "It's absolutely too much," Torres said in a telephone interview. "Why make this more cumbersome when we do so much already? We're at the point where we have to find a middle ground." Never before has there been so much protest regarding out-of-competition testing. Athletes in nearly every sport as well as organizations like FIFA, soccer's international governing body, have publicly criticized the doping agency's regulations. At least one lawsuit challenging the rules is in court. Sixty-five Belgian athletes, including the world-class Quick Step cycling team and its star Tom Boonen, filed a class-action lawsuit claiming that the new rules violate European privacy laws.

When the director of IT at a Boston-based, midsize pharmaceutical firm was first approached to participate in a data leakage audit, he was thrilled. He figured the audit would uncover a few weak spots in the company's data leak defenses and he would then be able to leverage the audit results into funding for additional security resources. "Data leakage is an area that doesn't get a lot of focus until something bad happens. Your biggest hope is that when you raise concerns about data vulnerability, someone will see the value in allowing you to move forward to protect it," the IT director says. But he got way more than he bargained for. The 15-day audit identified 11,000 potential leaks, and revealed gaping holes in the IT team's security practices. (Read a related story on the most common violations encountered.) The audit, conducted by Networks Unlimited in Hudson, Mass., examined outbound e-mail, FTP and Web communications. The targets were leaks of general financial information, corporate plans and strategies, employee and other personal identifiable information, intellectual property and proprietary processes. Networks Unlimited placed one tap between the corporate LAN and the firewall and a second tap between the external e-mail gateway and the firewall. Networks Unlimited used WebSense software on two servers to monitor unencrypted traffic. Then it analyzed the traffic with respect to company policy. Specifically, Networks Unlimited looked for violations of the pharmaceutical firm's internal confidentiality policy, corporate information security policy, Massachusetts Privacy Laws (which go into effect in 2010), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and Security and Exchange Commission and Sarbanes-Oxley regulations. Auditor Jason Spinosa, senior engineer at Networks Unlimited, says that while he selected the criteria for this audit, he usually recommends that companies take time to determine their policy settings based on their risk

Hunch.com helps users search for answers -- but first, it performs a detailed search on the users themselves. Launching today after a year in development, Hunch aims to supply users with computer-generated advice on thousands of lifestyle and consumer questions: What kind of dog should I buy? What should I get dad for Father's Day? Which book by George Orwell would I like? Most important, though, Hunch is not a search engine. Rather than scouring the open Web for information, as Google, Microsoft's new Bing and scores of others do, or collating written opinions, as Amazon.com does, Hunch computes answers by comparing what it knows about you to what it knows about people like you. "Ultimately, what we're doing is providing a kind of shortcut through human expert systems," said Hunch founder Caterina Fake, who also started Flickr.com, the popular photo-sharing site that was acquired by Yahoo in 2005. By first inviting users to answer as many as 1,500 questions about themselves -- an addictive kind of personality test that involves such diverse questions as political orientation, relationship status and whether you believe in UFOs and keep your closet organized -- Hunch looks to assemble a demographic profile whose depth could rival anything in the commercial universe. The New York company also believes that users stand to benefit from this kind of large-scale data farming -- not just from getting better answers, but also from discovering the many microdemographics to which they belong. Hunch also says it will not sell user data to marketers. But this promise, written into the site's privacy policy, is not precisely a legal contract, said Siva Vaidhyanathan, a new-media scholar at the University of Virginia, and the difference leaves the data it collects in a fuzzy domain.

"Identity theft can happen to anyone," is the frequent refrain of government and advocacy groups warning consumers about bank fraud. What they don't add: The crime is far more likely when that "anyone" is a woman. A study released Monday by the fraud-tracking firm Javelin Research showed that women are 26% more likely than men to be the victims of identity theft. While 3.8% of men had their banking details stolen and used for fraud in the last year, 4.8% of women were victimized. And women took far longer on average to discover their financial identities had been compromised, leading to far greater risk of repeat fraud: Women took 83 days to detect they'd been targeted, compared with 45 days for men. The growing reason behind this disparity, argues Javelin President James Van Dyke, is an often-misunderstood trend: Digital commerce is making identity theft harder, rather than easier. Because men are statistically more likely than women to adopt newer technologies such as online banking and shopping, they more often have the benefit of high-tech safeguards, Van Dyke says. Women, because of their lesser use of Web banking and sales, suffer from more old-fashioned fraud caused by stolen credit cards or retail employees, he says. Fifty-eight percent of women, for instance, have never banked online, compared with 55% of men, according to Javelin's study. That means women are less likely to sign up for fraud protection programs like text message or e-mail alerts that warn of abnormal transactions. Twenty-three percent of men use e-mail alerts, compared with 15% of women; 8% of men receive text message warnings, compared with just 3% of women.

This FFIEC Financial Privacy InfoBase contains resource documents, audio presentations, and interactive training material for FFIEC agency examiners. InfoBase resources are organized to support independent study and research and are not presented as formal linear training.

Stay Online on the world wide web online roulette from Contemporary sydney, Fun and Free! Now you is capable of doing Actual "www.funlivecasino.com.au" Stay Online on the world wide web online roulette for Fun in Contemporary sydney on a product new web page, FunLiveCasino.com.au. Using the newest on the world wide web operating technology, Fun Stay Gambling house allows you be a part of a genuine action occurring on a genuine desk in a genuine betting house, all approved on Live! You can see other real gamers in the betting house betting on the same outcomes you do providing you greatest believe in in the outcomes as they are not designed 'just for you a, like other action experiencing items such as 'live studios' or pc designed actions. Its awesome to think next time your really in the betting house that you might be on digicam, and individuals on the world wide web might be watching! The long run is scary! Believe one day soon this will be the only way individuals would bet on the world wide web because the worldwide web is complete of fraudsters, you have to be extremely cautious, and why would you perform Online Online on the world wide web online roulette any other way except from a Actual Gambling house you can check out, see, pay attention to and trust! Amazingly this site is absolutely 100 % 100 % 100 % free and has no determining upon up process, no junk, no pc rabbit mouse mouse clicks and no pressure. Just Immediate Fun "www.funlivecasino.com.au" 100 % 100 % 100 % free Stay Roulette! Give it a try, its value verifying out! "www.funlivecasino.com.au"Australia's Online Fun Stay Casino! Backlinks designed from http://fiverr.com/radjaseotea/making-best-156654-backlink-high-pr

Cyber Security Training Overview The OISPP provides training and access to other training resources for government entities. These resources are collected from numerous sources. The OISPP will continue to update this web site as new training resources become available. * Information Security Leadership Academy * OISPP Security and Privacy Training * Free Online Training Resources * Other Free Training Resources Obtained Through the OISPP

Stay Online on the world wide web online roulette from Contemporary sydney, Fun and Free! Now you is capable of doing Actual "www.funlivecasino.com.au" Stay Online on the world wide web online roulette for Fun in Contemporary sydney on a product new web page, FunLiveCasino.com.au. Using the newest on the world wide web operating technology, Fun Stay Gambling house allows you be a part of a genuine action occurring on a genuine desk in a genuine betting house, all approved on Live! You can see other real gamers in the betting house betting on the same outcomes you do providing you greatest believe in in the outcomes as they are not designed 'just for you a, like other action experiencing items such as 'live studios' or pc designed actions. Its awesome to think next time your really in the betting house that you might be on digicam, and individuals on the world wide web might be watching! The long run is scary! Believe one day soon this will be the only way individuals would bet on the world wide web because the worldwide web is complete of fraudsters, you have to be extremely cautious, and why would you perform Online Online on the world wide web online roulette any other way except from a Actual Gambling house you can check out, see, pay attention to and trust! Amazingly this site is absolutely 100 % 100 % 100 % free and has no determining upon up process, no junk, no pc rabbit mouse mouse clicks and no pressure. Just Immediate Fun "www.funlivecasino.com.au" 100 % 100 % 100 % free Stay Roulette! Give it a try, its value verifying out! "www.funlivecasino.com.au"Australia's Online Fun Stay Casino! Backlinks designed from http://fiverr.com/radjaseotea/making-best-156654-backlink-high-pr

A former Miss West Virginia has won a $7.2 (NZ$12.6) million verdict against nine internet companies that tried to sell pornographic videos they falsely claimed featured her. A jury in US District Court in Clarksburg on Wednesday ordered each defendants to pay Allison Williams $800,000 for damaging the 2003 beauty queen's reputation and invading her privacy. Williams' attorney is appealing US District Judge Irene M. Kelley's decision to dismiss 28 other defendants in the United States, Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Cayman Islands, Canada and South Africa that allegedly took part in distributing the bogus videos. The videos surfaced in the fall of 2004. The videos show a woman that they claim to be, but isn't Williams, engaged in sex in the back of a television news truck.

Stay Online on the world wide web online roulette from Contemporary sydney, Fun and Free! Now you is capable of doing Actual "www.funlivecasino.com.au" Stay Online on the world wide web online roulette for Fun in Contemporary sydney on a product new web page, FunLiveCasino.com.au. Using the newest on the world wide web operating technology, Fun Stay Gambling house allows you be a part of a genuine action occurring on a genuine desk in a genuine betting house, all approved on Live! You can see other real gamers in the betting house betting on the same outcomes you do providing you greatest believe in in the outcomes as they are not designed 'just for you a, like other action experiencing items such as 'live studios' or pc designed actions. Its awesome to think next time your really in the betting house that you might be on digicam, and individuals on the world wide web might be watching! The long run is scary! Believe one day soon this will be the only way individuals would bet on the world wide web because the worldwide web is complete of fraudsters, you have to be extremely cautious, and why would you perform Online Online on the world wide web online roulette any other way except from a Actual Gambling house you can check out, see, pay attention to and trust! Amazingly this site is absolutely 100 % 100 % 100 % free and has no determining upon up process, no junk, no pc rabbit mouse mouse clicks and no pressure. Just Immediate Fun "www.funlivecasino.com.au" 100 % 100 % 100 % free Stay Roulette! Give it a try, its value verifying out! "www.funlivecasino.com.au"Australia's Online Fun Stay Casino! Backlinks designed from http://fiverr.com/radjaseotea/making-best-156654-backlink-high-pr

Jan 15, 2009 There may be only a handful of days left in the Bush administration, but the brouhaha over White House e-mail retention policies promises to continue right up to the last day. A federal court yesterday extended a preservation order to ensure that the outgoing administration does everything it can to recover any missing White House e-mails. The White House IT staff now has five days to scour workstations for missing e-mail before administration data records are archived on Jan. 20. The ruling, by U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy Jr., also orders staff of the Executive Office of the President (EOP) to relinquish any digital media that may contain e-mails from March 2003 and October 2005. The legal action is the latest resulting from a lawsuit filed in September 2007 by the National Security Archive against the EOP, seeking to preserve and restore White House e-mails it alleged were missing. "There is nothing like a deadline to clarify the issues," Tom Blanton, the National Security Archive's director, said in a statement. "The White House will complain about the last-minute challenge, but this is a records crisis of its own making." The Archive, an independent nongovernmental research institute based at George Washington University, is a repository of government records and does not receive U.S. government funding. The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a left-wing public advocacy group, also filed suit, but its legal action was subsequently consolidated with the Archive's legal action, which is taking place in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Last May, the White House's top tech staffer acknowledged that three months of data were missing from backup tapes. In earlier testimony before a congressional committee, White House technical staff said millions of e-mails from the past eight years could potentially have been erased. Also yesterday, Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola held an emergency status con

In April 2008, the blogosphere was abuzz with news that someone was auctioning then-candidate Barack Obama's half-eaten breakfast on eBay, along with silverware purported to contain his DNA. This episode led some to speculate that the DNA of one or both of the presidential candidates would be surreptitiously analysed and their genetic information broadcast before the election for all to examine. Although this scenario did not take place during this election cycle, it is well within the realm of technological possibility. Every day, we shed millions of cells during ordinary activities - licking envelopes, blowing our nose, combing hair. These cells may seem to be mere human detritus, but our biological trash could be a gold mine for information prospectors looking for clues to our health or ancestry. And as an investigation in the latest issue of New Scientist magazine found, there already is a vibrant industry offering covert DNA tests to confirm infidelity and parentage. We have reached this point through technological advances in laboratory genetic analysis, dramatically reduced costs for the analysis and an almost complete absence of rules governing the legal status of "abandoned DNA."

Premier Election Solutions (formerly Diebold Election Systems) admitted in a state hearing Tuesday that the audit logs produced by its tabulation software miss significant events, including the act of someone deleting votes on election day. The company acknowledged that the problem exists with every version of its tabulation software. The revelation confirmed that a problem uncovered by Threat Level in January, and reiterated in a report released two weeks ago by the California secretary of state's office, has widespread implications for election jurisdictions around the country that use any version of the company's Global Election Management System (GEMS) software to tabulate votes. "Today's hearing confirmed one of my worst fears," said Kim Alexander, founder and president of the non-profit California Voter Foundation. "The audit logs have been the top selling point for vendors hawking paperless voting systems. They and the jurisdictions that have used paperless voting machines have repeatedly pointed to the audit logs as the primary security mechanism and 'fail-safe' for any glitch that might occur on machines. To discover that the fail-safe itself is unreliable eliminates one of the key selling points for electronic voting security."

Heartland Payment Systems Inc., which announced a breach of potentially millions of credit and debit cards last month, said it plans to vigorously defend itself against lawsuits filed as a result of the data breach. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Heartland Chairman and CEO Robert Carr acknowledged the claims that cardholders, card issuers, the credit card brands, regulators, and others have asserted, or may assert, against the payment processor as a result of the breach and the impact it could have on the business. Several class action lawsuits have been filed against Heartland, claiming that the payment processor issued belated and inaccurate statements when it announced a security breach of its systems. Carr He said the company could not "reasonably estimate the potential impact of the breach on the day-to-day operations" of the business. "We intend to vigorously defend any such claims and we believe we have meritorious defenses to those claims that have been asserted to date," Carr said. "At this time we do not have information that would enable us to reasonably estimate the amount of losses we might incur in connection with such claims." The Princeton, N.J.-based payment processor announced Jan. 20 that its systems were breached last year when intruders installed malware to pilfer data crossing the company's network. Since then, Sherriff's authorities in Tallahassee, Fla. arrested three suspects for using stolen credit card numbers to make purchases at local Wal-Mart stores. The credit card numbers used by the trio were allegedly stolen from the Heartland processing center in New Jersey. Carr said the company's sales force was doing well despite the obvious challenges caused by the combination of the downturn in the economy and the data security breach. The payment processor's current customer base has responded positively, he said. "In the weeks since our announcement of the breach, we have installed more margin, and have a bit

Emily Riley of Forrester Research presented a lot of data during her keynote presentation at today's OMMA Behavioral Conference but one point she made seemed rather salient to me: many of those marketers and data firms involved in behavioral targeting seem to skip over social media as a source of information. They might look at the data surrounding the usage of those sites but they seem to rarely do any actually monitoring, let alone interacting there. It reminded me of an experience I had with my wife. We once lived in a building where we didn't have much interaction with our neighbors, very little beyond an occasional wave in the hallway. We could, however see their mail mixed with ours and our landlord's. My wife began to notice that the landlord and our neighbor were starting to get similar envelopes from law firms. I, being the incurious mail sorter I am, didn't really think much of it. She, on the other hand, was convinced that one of them must be suing the other and was able to spin out some fairly detailed scenarios based on other clues from the hallway, the presence of exterminators one day, the thickness of paint on the front door etc. One day I encountered our neighbor in the hallway and did my customary wave. "Oh by the way," He said, "We're moving out next week." Oh really? He then regaled me with the entire story which involved a variety of things including an exterminator, paint thickness, and law firms. My wife and I were both able to glean essentially the same information. However if I had approached him and said, without any warning, "I bet you and our landlord are having one heckuva legal squabble," he probably would have punched me in the nose. I also believe that the ease with which I was able to get the whole story out of him suggests that had we interacted more it would have been I scooping my wife and not the other way around. These two approaches to gathering information are akin to the difference between following

Hackers, possibly from Asia, have stolen about a decade's worth of personal information on current and former UC-Berkeley students, the university announced Friday. The breaches involved records dating to 1999 at the school's health center that included Social Security numbers, health insurance information, immunization history and the names of treating physicians. No other treatment-related records were stolen, the university said, although self-reported medical histories of students who studied abroad were hacked. The school on Friday sent e-mails and letters to 160,000 people, including about 3,400 Mills College students who used or were eligible for University of California-Berkeley medical services. About 97,000 people are most at risk because their names and Social Security numbers could be connected by the hackers, said Steve Lustig, the university's associate vice chancellor for health and human services. "What's been taken is bits of data that the thief might put together into an identity," he said. The university traced the hackers back to Asia, possibly China, but the exact origin could not be pinpointed. UC and FBI investigators are probing the breaches, which apparently occurred over several months. An FBI spokesman said the agency was informed of the hacking immediately, but declined to provide more information. The thefts were discovered about a month ago, but system administrators did Advertisement not realize the breadth of the attack until April 21. The hackers disguised their work as routine operations and then left taunting messages for UC-Berkeley employees, said Shelton Waggener, the university's associate vice chancellor for information technology. The thieves accessed the information through the university Web site, he said. "You should think of it as a public building," Waggener said. "They got into the building properly, but then they broke into secure areas." Administrators at Mills College, which contracts with UC-Berkeley for

A Troy woman learned Tuesday that she will spend 180 days in the Livingston County Jail for stealing the identity of a local woman who was dying. Judge Stanley J. Latreille also sentenced Vershawn Jones, who earlier pleaded guilty to identity theft, to four years of probation. Assistant Prosecutor Pamela Maas said the victim, who was not in court Tuesday, wanted to know how Jones, 38, got his wife's identification. His wife, Maas noted, was dying in a Hospice facility at the time. Jones, who said she operated a mortgage business, said she got it from one of four employees who brought her applications from people seeking mortgages. Those applications included personal information, such as Social Security numbers, she said. When pressed for names, Jones glanced at her attorney and shrugged. "I apologize to the victim and the victim's family," she said. "I've done the best I can running my own business." Maas initially requested that the state be allowed to withdraw from the plea deal that called for her office to recommend Jones serve no more than 90 days in the county jail after noting Jones had twice been sent to jail for failing to show for court hearings. While Jones apologized, Latreille was unmoved, telling the defendant "you're fortunate you're not going to prison."

The Nature of the Problem Identity theft has been referred to by some as the crime of the new millennium. It can be accomplished anonymously, easily, with a variety of means, and the impact upon the victim can be devastating. Identity theft is simply the theft of identity information such as a name, date of birth, Social Security number (SSN), or a credit card number. The mundane activities of a typical consumer during the course of a regular day may provide tremendous opportunities for an identity thief: purchasing gasoline, meals, clothes, or tickets to an athletic event; renting a car, a video, or home-improvement tools; purchasing gifts or trading stock on-line; receiving mail; or taking out the garbage or recycling. Any activity in which identity information is shared or made available to others creates an opportunity for identity theft. It is estimated that identity theft has become the fastest-growing financial crime in America and perhaps the fastest-growing crime of any kind in our society. Identity Theft: Is There Another You?: Joint hearing before the House Subcomms. on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection, and on Finance and Hazardous Materials, of the Comm. on Commerce, 106th Cong. 16 (1999) (testimony of Rep. John B. Shadegg). The illegal use of identity information has increased exponentially in recent years. In fiscal year 1999 alone, the Social Security Administration (SSA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) Fraud Hotline received approximately 62,000 allegations involving SSN misuse. The widespread use of SSNs as identifiers has reduced their security and increased the likelihood that they will be the object of identity theft. The expansion and popularity of the Internet to effect commercial transactions has increased the opportunities to commit crimes involving identity theft. The expansion and popularity of the Internet to post official information for the benefit of citizens and customers has also increased opportunities to obtain

Stay Online on the world wide web online roulette from Contemporary sydney, Fun and Free! Now you is capable of doing Actual "www.funlivecasino.com.au" Stay Online on the world wide web online roulette for Fun in Contemporary sydney on a product new web page, FunLiveCasino.com.au. Using the newest on the world wide web operating technology, Fun Stay Gambling house allows you be a part of a genuine action occurring on a genuine desk in a genuine betting house, all approved on Live! You can see other real gamers in the betting house betting on the same outcomes you do providing you greatest believe in in the outcomes as they are not designed 'just for you a, like other action experiencing items such as 'live studios' or pc designed actions. Its awesome to think next time your really in the betting house that you might be on digicam, and individuals on the world wide web might be watching! The long run is scary! Believe one day soon this will be the only way individuals would bet on the world wide web because the worldwide web is complete of fraudsters, you have to be extremely cautious, and why would you perform Online Online on the world wide web online roulette any other way except from a Actual Gambling house you can check out, see, pay attention to and trust! Amazingly this site is absolutely 100 % 100 % 100 % free and has no determining upon up process, no junk, no pc rabbit mouse mouse clicks and no pressure. Just Immediate Fun "www.funlivecasino.com.au" 100 % 100 % 100 % free Stay Roulette! Give it a try, its value verifying out! "www.funlivecasino.com.au"Australia's Online Fun Stay Casino! Backlinks designed from http://fiverr.com/radjaseotea/making-best-156654-backlink-high-pr

"Scott Fortnum had put in almost a full day of work at his Markham, Ont., office when he decided to "check in" on Foursquare, a location-based social network where users log the names and co-ordinates of the places they visit with a time stamp. The 44-year-old's check-in was marked with a small coral balloon on an embedded Google Map and instantly viewable by the 12 friends he lists on Foursquare - and millions of others. His check-in found its way onto pleaserobme.com, a recently launched website with a mischievous mandate: "listing all those empty homes out there." With March break approaching, many impending vacationers are installing automatic timers on their lights and putting their newspaper subscriptions on hold to deter burglars. Many are also posting on Twitter about when they're leaving and touting their week-long getaway to Jamaica on Facebook - unwittingly letting the online world know exactly when they're away. Mr. Fortnum's check-in appeared this way on Please Rob Me: @sfortnum left home and checked in 30 minutes ago: I'm at ALS Canada (3000 Steeles Ave. E. #200, DVP & Steeles, Toronto.) http://4sq.com/4MmX51 Many Foursquare users such as Mr. Fortnum cross-post their check-ins to Twitter, where they are easy to find through the search function. With some simple coding, Please Rob Me's creators are able to collect those millions of public tweets on their site in real time, highlighting one of the many security concerns that springs from broadcasting one's whereabouts online. Frank Groeneveld, one of the three students from the Netherlands who designed Please Rob Me, says he co-created the site to give members of social networks a wake-up call."

Finally a site that might make someone a profit!

"In a sign that state attorneys general may be flexing the HIPAA enforcement muscle granted by the HITECH Act provisions in the Recovery Act, the Connecticut and Arizona attorneys general are investigating health plans that recently experienced data breaches that they failed to disclose for several months. Typically, state attorneys general prosecute only violations of state laws, but they now have authority to investigate and levy fines for violations of HIPAA and the HITECH Act, which requires mandatory notifications within two months of knowledge of a breach. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) has emerged as possibly the first AG to take on a HIPAA investigation, and Arizona's AG may also be pursuing a similar course. The larger of the two breaches that have come to the AGs' attention was experienced by Health Net, Inc., which lost a portable external hard drive containing seven years of data for 446,000 Connecticut residents. The lost data came from 1.5 million individuals in total, who also hailed from New Jersey and New York. Health Net reported the loss to the Connecticut AG on Nov. 19, and on the same day Blumenthal issued a scathing statement demanding answers and promising action. He specifically said he was investigating whether Health Net may have violated "federal laws," as well as his state's own data protection laws."

"A Little Rock doctor was reprimanded and fined $500 by the Arkansas State Medical Board on Thursday for illegally accessing Anne Pressly's medical records as she lay unconscious in intensive care at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center before she died. Dr. Jay Douglas Holland, who has a family-practice clinic in the Hillcrest neighborhood, was also ordered to pay $265 to cover the cost of the board's investigation into the matter. Pressly, 26, was a news anchor for KATV-TV, Channel 7, when she was found raped and badly beaten in her Hillcrest home the morning of Oct. 20, 2008. She spent five days in intensive care before succumbing to her injuries."

"Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin Wednesday said the Internet giant "screwed up" by collecting personal data through wireless networks and promised new oversight as European officials pledged to open investigations of the data collection. Authorities in Germany, Spain and Italy said Wednesday they were investigating Google and its Street View service, which uses camera-equipped vehicles to take street images and mark the location of Wi-Fi networks. Mr. Brin, speaking the same day at Google's developer conference in San Francisco, said the company would put "more internal controls in place" to prevent such data captures in the future, including the hiring of outside help. "Trust is very important to us," Mr. Brin said. "We're going to do everything we can to preserve that trust.""

G apologizes. Again, better to ask forgiveness... If users remain silent & gvt doesn't prosecute, why comply?

"Data broker ChoicePoint, the victim of a 2004 data breach affecting more than 160,000 U.S. residents, has agreed to strengthen its data security efforts and pay a fine for a second breach in 2008, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said Monday. ChoicePoint, now a subsidiary of Reed Elsevier, will pay US$275,000 to resolve the newest FTC complaint. The FTC accused the company of failing to implement a comprehensive information security program to protect consumers' personal information, as required by the agency after the 2004 breach. The April 2008 breach compromised the personal data of 13,750 people, the FTC said in a press release. ChoicePoint turned off a "key" electronic security tool used to monitor access to one of its databases, and failed to detect that the security tool was turned off for four months, the FTC said. For a 30-day period, an unknown hacker conducted thousands of unauthorized searches of a ChoicePoint database containing sensitive consumer information, including Social Security numbers, the FTC said. After discovering the breach, the company notified the FTC. If the software tool had been working, ChoicePoint likely would have detected the intrusions "much earlier," the FTC said. "