ErisCalmsme - Slashdot User

Submission + - Nationwide fined $1.9 million for stolen data

Submitted by

JamesD_UK

on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @09:03AM

JamesD_UK writes: "The BBC reports that the UK's Nationwide Building society has been fined £980,000 ($1.9 million USD) for failures that led to details of 11 million customers being compromised from an employee's stolen laptop. Financial Services Authority found that the employee had put the data on the laptop without the knowledge of Nationwide and that investigations into the loss did not start until three weeks after it was reported. It is not publically known exactly what information was lost; the laptop is still missing."

70% of Sites Hackable? $1,000 Says "No Way" 146

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @09:03AM from the money-where-mouth-is dept.

netbuzz writes "Security vendor Acunetix is flogging a survey that claims 7 out 10 Web sites it checked have vulnerabilities posing a medium- to high-level risk of a breach of personal data. Network World's go-to security guy, Joel Snyder, says that percentage is 'sensationalist nonsense' — and he's willing to back that judgment with $1,000 of his own money. In fact Snyder will pay up if Acunetix can get personal data out of 3 of 10 sites chosen at random from their survey list."

Submission + - Gmail Open to All, Still in Beta

Submitted by Spritzer on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @08:30AM

Spritzer writes: It seems that Google's mail service has been opened up to everyone. An invitation is no longer required.

From the article:
Invitations will no longer be required to join the nearly 3-year-old "Gmail" service in the United States, Canada, Mexico and a swath of Asian and South American countries where the Mountain View-based company previously limited the number of users.

With those restrictions now lifted, Gmail will be open to all comers worldwide for the first time since Google unveiled the service on April Fool's Day in 2004.

Although it will no longer require invitations to sign up, Gmail is retaining its "beta," or test, status, signaling that Google still considers the service to be a work in progress.

Submission + - The 1 million pound laptop

Submitted by on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @08:28AM

An anonymous reader writes: The UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) has imposed a fine of nearly £1m on the Nationwide — the largest building society in the country — because of poor controls over data on a laptop that was stolen from an employee's home. The laptop contained data on 11 million customers, but the Nationwide didn't take any action for 3 weeks. There is no evidence that the confidential data was actually used to disadvantage customers.

According to the FSA, the Nationwide: failed adequately to assess the risks in relation to the security of customer information; had procedures in relation to information security which failed adequately and effectively to manage the risks it faced; failed to implement adequate training and monitoring to ensure that its information security procedures were disseminated and understood by staff; and failed to implement adequate controls to mitigate information security risks, to ensure that employees followed its procedures, and to ensure that it provided an appropriate level of information security.

How many other businesses meet the standards of information security excellence demanded by the FSA?

Submission + - Not A Normal USB Telehone

Submitted by

sightandsound

on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @08:21AM

sightandsound writes: "Interesting tidbit — The ZiPhone has been drawing a LOT of attention this past week, in the gadget blogs and gadget websites. This may be due to the call recording capabilities, OR I'm thinking more of the PHONE HACKER or (ahem) 'application designer' aspect of the phone with it's programmer's development kit, and sample code. I can smell a "hacking the ZiPhone" blog or book coming soon... This thing works with every voip application ever created for windows, and does land line connections too. Sounds cool to me..."

Submission + - P = NP Finally Proved?

Submitted by Yosi on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @08:15AM

Yosi writes: Ashay Dharwadker claims to have proved that P = NP. In a paper he publishes on his website he claims to have found a polynomial algorithm for finding maximal independent sets in a graph and provides actual source code implementation of the proposed algorithm. If this is indeed true, I guess a lot of professors will start looking for a new job.

Submission + - Google hosts talks for Haiku project.

Submitted by on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @07:45AM

An anonymous reader writes: Google has recently been playing host to presentations by Haiku Inc. (the not-for-profit corporation working on an open-source, MIT-licensed operating system based on BeOS), and yesterday was thier final talk, held at the Googleplex in Mountain View. Among guests were former Be Inc. CEO Jean Louis Gassée and other former Be engineers. Could this show Google's interest in Haiku as their much talked about GoogleOS ?

Submission + - Advertising on your cell phone?

Submitted by techmuse on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @07:42AM

techmuse writes: The New York Times has an article (free registration required) on the plans of advertisers and the cell phone industry to serve advertising to cell phone users before they can make a call or send a text message. For example, the phone might play a 15 second video clip, with the contents of the ad tied to your location, cell phone plan, and whatever other data the phone company can obtain about you. This might be offered in exchange for lower rates, for example. How do you feel about ads on your cell phone? Would you accept them in exchange for lower rates? Would you drop any carrier that served them to you? What would you do to NOT receive ads on your cell phone? Either way, it might be time to contact your cell provider to let them know how you feel — while you still can.

Submission + - Teacher to be jailed for spyware porn incident

Submitted by

BabyGotMac-com

on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @07:42AM

BabyGotMac-com writes: "A substitute teacher who was given orders to not shut down a computer has been charged and tried and is about to be sentenced to up to 40 years. The system was exposed to malware, and popped up porn banners and sites, exposing a classroom of children to them. Computer experts have vouched for the likelihood of spyware being the cause, but the woman was prosecuted and is scheduled to be sentenced March 2nd. This highlights the lack of technology training in the education arena, both on the administrative side and that of the teacher, who was evidently not even able to turn off the monitor or understand how to deal with the popups. http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/02/13/teacher.porn.ap/ index.html"

Submission + - UK bank fined $1.8 million for stolen laptop

Submitted by

cliffski

on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @07:34AM

cliffski writes: "UK building society 'nationwide' has been fined £980,000 (approx 1.8 million dollars) by the Financial Services authority as a penalty for allowing the theft of a laptop containing customer records, according to the BBC website. The director of enforcement at the FSA said "Nationwide's customers were entitled to rely upon it to take reasonable steps to make sure their personal information was secure". Despite the theft of the laptop, which became public news in November, the building societies chief executive said "I wish to emphasise that there has been no loss of money from our customers' accounts as a result of this incident". Is this a rare example of a financial watchdog showing real teeth? or is the fine trivial for a company that size?"

No Closed Video Drivers For Next Ubuntu Release 448

Posted by kdawson on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @06:30AM from the defaulting-to-freedom dept.

lisah writes "Ubuntu's next release, Feisty Fawn, is due out in April and, according to company CTO Matt Zimmerman, proprietary video drivers failed to make the cut for the default install. Zimmerman told Linux.com that although the software required for Composite support is not ready for prime-time and therefore will not be included in Feisty, Ubuntu hasn't given up entirely on including video drivers in future releases. '[T]he winds aren't right yet. We will continue to track development and will revisit the decision if things change significantly.' Ambiguous or not, the decision to exclude proprietary drivers for now should satisfy at least some members of the Ubuntu Community. In other Feisty Fawn news, the Board also decided to downgrade support for Power PC due to a lack of funding." Linux.com and Slashdot are both part of OSTG.

Submission + - Ebay lose the plot

Submitted by Devon Dan on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @06:05AM

Devon Dan writes: Ebay have announced that they are to start charging users $5 to use their service. In a BBC article it is claimed that trials in the US will soon require users to log in using a key code generated by a security token in an attempt to defeat phising attacks. This move seems to not only be hugely inconvenient (in that you will need to have the thing with you when ever you want to log in or buy a new one if you lose it) but to have almost no security value other than to prove you have a token.

Submission + - TGV breaks speed record

Submitted by zeux on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @05:50AM

zeux writes: While testing the new Paris — Strasbourg line, the TGV broke a 17 years old speed record (babelfish translation), travelling at 553 km/h (343 mph). The last record, of 515 km/h (320 mph), was set on May, 18th 1990. According to the French National Railroad Company (SNCF) the testing campaign will continue and speeds up to 570 km/h (354 mph) could be atteigned by June of this year.

Submission + - College claims BitTorrent is a security breach

Submitted by nevesis on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @05:46AM

nevesis writes: The University of Iowa's Daily Iowan reports on an increase of "web pirating profilerating." But the obnoxious headline isn't the worst of it. The article then claims, "When you register with a bit torrent, it can publicize personal data, allowing hackers and viruses to collect information such as medical and financial records." Is this just poor reporting or intentional FUD spread by the RIAA?

Submission + - Seagate's DAVE to Work with Symbian Phone

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Wednesday February 14, 2007 @05:42AM

Anonymous Coward writes: "First shown two weeks ago at the DEMO conference, DAVE is a credit-card-sized mobile storage device that communicates with a phone via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. With a 10-to 20-Gbyte DAVE, which will cost approximately $150 to $170, Symbian smart phone users will be able to store much more music, photos and video than they would on a flash memory card. Right now, phones' support for flash memory cards generally tops out at 2 Gbytes, though some 4-GB cards work with some phones. As a Symbian Platinum program partner, Seagate will make DAVE APIs freely available to developers. DAVE will be compatible with Series 60 Version 3 devices, such as the Nokia E62 and N80, and with UIQ devices such as Sony Ericsson's W950."

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