My read on the original comment was that dstates was poking some fun at the notion that they 'could' fix the problem. How do you 'fix' unauthorized SSN access? It isn't really fixable - the FAQ sited says they are giving them access to free credit monitoring services. Gee thanks. That doesn't fix anything. Whoever was responsible for releasing that FAQ needs to do some soul-searching, imho. It seemed, to me, to almost suggest that the users were somehow responsible for this breach, because they "opted in" to a public search option. Excuse me, but they didn't opt into a public search of their SSNs. The rest of the FAQ was equally disturbing. The section "Who was impacted?" is laughable. But they didn't have the balls to just come out and say "we don't know". It is clear they don't have logging enabled at a suitable level to know who was impacted. "When did the security incident take place?" Another chuckle here, no? There are one of two possibilities - either they introduced the problem to the system on the 8th of March, 2013 - and again are lacking in accountability; or, as it states, the vulnerability was discovered on the 8th - and they have no idea when it was introduced. So, either they screwed the pooch on the 8th (it happens), or this exposure was much longer in duration than what the FAQ is leading people to believe. In either case, it screams cowardice in the harsh light of accountability. Pathetic. The whole situation is pathetic. Too many people hiding behind the increasingly inaccurately interpreted notion that 'no computer can be 100% secure' - as if that is an excuse to lay-off, or never hire proper sys-admins and infosec people. As if that is a reason to fly fast and free with updates and patches - rather than having actual dev and test environments. The problem isn't the level of difficulty in creating and maintaining a secure environment - the problem is that people don't want to hire FTEs when they can cling to hopes of buying some silver bullet software program that never needs configuration or maintenance. "How do I know if my data was exposed?" - "Why did this Happen?" - yeah... more dodging and reiterating that they have now patched the system. I guess they have been taking lessons from politicians. Why not state the truth? Here's my best guess, 'we are under-staffed, over-worked, under-paid, and pissed off - when we told them we needed more system administrators, we were told to sit down, shut up, and be thankful we still have jobs.' ... just a guess. I've done vuln assessments and pentests coast to coast - and it is the same in just about 90% of the cases. This isn't just a government phenomena - and I can't speak for the rest of the world - but this IS a US phenomena. This is pass the buck and avoid responsibility and accountability at its worst.

sorry - don't have edit permissions on my post... should have said "Doesn't Tribune Company have a policy to remove access upon termination of an employee?" - and Tribune Company didn't do due diligence... not Reuters.

BIG sigh. and the worst part of it is... this was his "previous employer". Doesn't Reuters have a policy to remove access upon termination of an employee? I'm not saying what he did was right - but the "disgruntled ex-employee" is NOT exactly a new phenomena. So Reuters didn't do due diligence - and this angry unemployed person might go to jail for 30 years. "Do not collect unemployment - Go directly to jail". :(

No one in this case has purchased anything from LG - they bought the product from Apple. Obviously, Apple has a case to make against LG - ... and so it goes.

Anyone can learn to program. But not everyone may enjoy programming - or programming well. I enjoy writing short stories - I'm not so much a fan of going over them again and again to edit them. Programming can be the same way, but my IDE helps me edit. ;) I am mostly a "right brained" person; but, I enjoy programming - as it involves solving problems. But I'm more of a hacker than programmer. I think though, an important thing to note is that Programming is a tool that many different minds and personalities will use in the years to come. When I first showed an interest in programming, I was told that I would not do well in this field, because I was not "good at math". That was an opinion given to me by people, who I can say now, had no idea what they were talking about. (Some of these same people also said that I needed to learn Cobol before C++ -- I chose to never learn Cobol - and it has never hindered me.) If there is any one thing that will be of huge value to someone interested in Programming, it would be Logic. But, I can even think of an exception to that. Programming in ProLog in a very real way handles most of the logic for you, so in the end you only have to describe relationships and rules. But I digress. In short, the question Can anyone become a programmer? must be qualified OR answered quickly and simply: YES. If deciding to qualify the question, consider the following: If you are seeking to program Artificial Intelligence - then you should probably be someone who enjoys exploring the mind, such as a Psychologist. If you are going to be programming something that requires huge amounts of physics calculations - then you probably should be good at math. If you are focussing on Natural Language Processing (a field within AI) - then you probably should be a linguist. Beyond that though, there are some basic skills that would seem to usually be required or at least helpful. I think a Programmer needs an ability to have an attention to detail. I think having skills at recognizing patterns can be helpful. I think understanding (really groking) Logic is usually helpful. But - I believe anyone can build those skills, and should. I don't see the continued benefit of keeping programming out of the hands of the Information Owners. Let each man (and woman) crunch their own data until their heart's content! Many people, imho, have an unrealistic fear of programming. With higher level languages like Ruby and MacRuby - I hope more people take up the challenge to codify solutions to their problems. The Information Owners of the world should at least be able to code a proof of concept or get something working before bringing in expert Keyboard Cowboys to refactor and tune. Today - I think "refactoring" is the task that many people won't be able to do or want to do. I suppose some might say, "Well that is what we mean by becoming a 'Programmer'"; but, I think anyone who writes code that executes as intended is a 'Programmer' - and a decent one at that. And anyone who writes code that doesn't execute as intended is a "Windows Programmer" - (j/k I grew up running away from broken Windoze). HHoS. The "refactoring" task would be the task that might require a "special kind of person". That task where you need to reduce the amount of memory being used or increase the speed of the program by optimizing the code beyond what any computer compiler might do, for example. But - ugly, sloppy, uncommented, spaghetti code that no one in their right mind would ever want to maintain may be all you will ever need. Such code often works fine for the programmer's purposes. In today's world of ever increasing RAM and hard disk sizes, there is room for less than elegant code. Today, every line of code doesn't need to be a terse zen koan to be useful. Therefore, we can all be Programmers, if we will it.

The millimeter wave scanners ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millimeter_wave_scanner ) in use at airports now, have a resolution that exceeds what is needed to catalog faces for facial recognition software. I don't think there is any evidence that the TSA has been tasked with building a facial recognition database. But, I also see that there is nothing stopping them from doing it. There is nothing stopping Congressmen from passing laws that would make such a thing legal. I'm not even sure if new laws would be required, at this point it seems the executive branch has been given a blank check in many regards when it comes to "terror".

I have been practicing "false gaits" a la the Ministry of Silly Walks. I suggest you all do the same. Rather than a burqa, I am opting for a Guy Fawkes mask (aka V for Vendetta mask, aka Anonymous mask). I have a casual notion to start a new religion called the Anonymous Children of God Church (ACGC), which will have as a core precept the wearing of such a mask in public. The reason we all need to wear masks is self-evident. If we all look like Guy Fawkes, there will be less prejudice in the world. The truly devout ACGC evangelist will also wear gloves, and ensure that no portion of skin is visible to another while in public. Before you laugh me out of the room - consider that the US military "normalizes" the appearance of all new recruits via shaving their heads and dressing them all identically in boot camp. So, my inanity is based upon tried and true insanity. ;) On a more comical note... To anyone who thinks that the drones are a good idea in general... I would ask you to seriously consider the following question: Why is it that we, as a nation, feel it is vital that each and every citizen is innocent until proven guilty? I would also ask everyone to ponder the many values that make up America - and ask yourself, "Which value do I hold highest?" "Which value will I use as a Standard?" In case there is any doubt. My answer to the above "Value" questions is LIBERTY. I hold Liberty above all other values. I use it as a standard to help me determine if proposed laws are in line with my values. I have given this a lot of thought. I value everyone who has given the same amount of thought to their Champion Value - regardless of what they determine theirs to be. I don't expect you to join my Liberty camp. If you do - you are welcome. If you don't - that's cool too - but - for the love of God have some reasons that go deep and to your core.