Blackhacker

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.