Blackhacker

I hope so.

CNN is also reporting that the SSNs have not been accessed since the robbery. Not sure how this could be verified, but I do recall that file creation, modification, and access date & times of each file is maintained by the file system. It been a minute since I did any REAL work with a PC so I’m not sure. But I think that the more interesting stuff is at the end of the piece:

According to the documents provided to The Associated Press, the analyst, whose name was being withheld, had approval as early as September 5, 2002, to use special software at home that was designed to manipulate large amounts of data.

A separate agreement, dated February 5, 2002, from the office of the assistant Veterans Affairs secretary for policy and planning, allowed the worker to access Social Security numbers for millions of veterans.

A third document, also issued in 2002, gave the analyst permission to take a laptop computer and accessories for work outside of the VA building.

“These data are protected under the Privacy Act,” one document states. The analyst is the “lead programmer within the Policy Analysis Service and as such needs access to real Social Security numbers.”

The department said last month it was in the process of firing the analyst, who is now challenging the dismissal.

It is not the analysts fault for being robbed. It is the VA’s fault for having insufficient procedures for handling personal data, the analyst apparently followed established procedures for taking and handling the data. This is not just a problem with the VA but with corporate and government organizations all over.

Telegraph
The US Supreme Court has found that President George W Bush exceeded his authority by ordering military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees.

(Bloomberg)“In undertaking to try Hamdan and subject him to criminal punishment, the executive is bound to comply with the rule of law that prevails in this jurisdiction,’ Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court.

In this case it is the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The voting breaks down like you think: Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer for the majority; Scalia, Thomas, and Alito dissenting. Roberts abstains being that he heard the as an appellate Judge.

I remember them saying they weren’t doing this but it looks like they lied.
So like the Google shill that I am… here’s the commercial for Google Checkout!

Blade the Series premiered last night on Spike. Here’s a trailer Last nights ep can be downloaded from itunes for a free until 7/11.

Spidey 3 Trailer
Dap:Google Blogscoped

The following is the best description of what Net Neutrality is about:

If I pay to connect to the Net with a certain quality of service, and you pay to connect with that or greater quality of service, then we can communicate at that level.(link)

Dap: Cobb

Others still don’t understand, when people who are “barely” aware of how technology works are allowed to make policy that effects it. This WSJ Opinion piece is an example of such cluelessness.

Meanwhile, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and other Net neutrality proponents seem to want it both ways. They insist both that this is pro-consumer legislation and that the best thing is for consumers to pay for things that Google and other content providers would rather not. Net neutrality only became a cause of these companies and of the Moveon.org crowd when some phone companies suggested they might want to charge Google or other content providers for priority access to their networks.(OpinionJournal )

Understand what the enemies of Net Neutrality want to do. They want to be able to examine data packets as they come to and from their customers to determine what kind of applications/services they are using. (IE VOIP) This is called deep packet inspection. The ISPs then route those packets through faster, less congested routes if they are using “preferred” services provided by the them or business partners, (ie VoiceWing) or slower more congested routes for everybody else (IE Skype), or even block them altogether. This is called traffic shaping.

Lets be clear. nodes that are closer together can “talk” much faster than nodes that are farther apart. So if you are on VerizonDSL, I would expect that any service provided by them would have a technical advantage that services hosted outside of Verizon do not, but Verizon and other ISPs who appose Net Neutrality want to to be able to do is banish non sanctioned communication to the “surfaces roads” leaving the express lanes clear for only those who have paid a little extra.

You might hear tech people talk about how dumb the Internet is. This is true. ALL the intelligence of the Net is at the “Edges.” That means what make the Internet cool are the people, applications and services you can connected thought the Internet. The net’s jobs is simply move bits from point A to point B. And up until now the ‘net has used what is called “best effort” in determining how those bits get moved around. Now best effort will go out the window in favor what business agreement the ISPs have made with the content providers or application hosts. This is some old Microsoft bull. The ISPs want to leverage their position as the “platform” on which the Internet runs to skim of the profits of those that ACTAULLY INNOVATE. In much the same way that Microsoft leveraged its position as the dominate OS on which PC applications ran. Those that will not pay the ISP tax will suddenly have competition from some Comcast or AT&T sanctioned service to punish them or simple have there service diminished or out right blocked. And it will all be legal.

Few things in this world get me to cussing. When a grown man gets into my personal business is one of them.

AT&T rewrites rules: Your data isn’t yours
AT&T has issued an updated privacy policy that takes effect Friday. The changes are significant because they appear to give the telecom giant more latitude when it comes to sharing customers’ personal data with government officials.

Let’s understand. Who I call is only the business of me the person I call and those entities THAT I HIRE make the call possible. Being that I am the customer I feel those ENTITIES in my employ are are obliged to keep that information to themselves. THEY ONLY exception to this rule is when ordered by a court to do otherwise. I expect that their policies and practice to reflect these ideal. Anything less is a betrayal.

I suppose it is a good thing I am not a customer if AT&T. Verizon, this is for you TOO.

Never heard of these guys but I may check more of their stuff.

Cool Concept,, and not a bad song either.

Dap: Star Wars for Colored Folks

Andrew Hawkins, a descendant of the Britain’s first slave trader arrived in The Gambia, West Africa, in shackles and knelt before The Gambia’s Vice-President and thousands of Africans, to offer apologies, on behalf of his family.(link)

I am sure that there are those who would say, and have said already, that this man cannot apologize for what his ancestor did, because guilt cannot be inherited.

True, guilt can’t be inherited, but benefits, liabilities, freedoms, and responsibilities can. While he is not guilty of what his ancestor did, he and his whole family benefited, and you cannot divorce the benefit his family received from the institution of slavery, from responsibility of righting a very old wrong by saying “I’m Sorry.” Granted the gesture is only symbolic, but symbols have meanings. Just ask those who want to amend the Constitution to ban burning the American Flag, or the state of South Carolina which still flies the Confederate Flag.

Dap: Prof. Kim