On page 18 of the April, 2008 Symantec Global Internet Security Threat Report, there is a chart that lists how much stolen information trades for on the underground market. I think it would be safe to say that $15 for my identity is pretty insulting. It would take a lot more than 15 bucks to get it back.

Gives you an idea of how many identities must already be compromised for the value to be so low.

OTTAWA - The federal government is secretly negotiating an agreement to revamp international copyright laws which could make the information on Canadian iPods, laptop computers or other personal electronic devices illegal and greatly increase the difficulty of travelling with such devices.

The deal could also impose strict regulations on Internet service providers, forcing those companies to hand over customer information without a court order.

Called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), the new plan would see Canada join other countries, including the United States and members of the European Union, to form an international coalition against copyright infringement.

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Most of those who come across my blog can tell pretty quickly that data privacy is on the top of my list regarding the field of Information Security. I ran across an interesting article on personal data privacy and ways to help ensure your private, personal data is kept just that, private and personal. Most of the tips are pretty general and fall into the category of common sense. Examples include checking your credit report regularly for unauthorized charges or changes, using an anti-virus program on your computer and not sharing your driver’s license or social security number. Other tips like using TOR to “assist” in “anonymizing” your surfing habits, using an encrypted internet messaging client like Bitwise IM or signing checks with a gel pen are some of the less obvious tips that might be found useful for even those “security conscious” individuals.

50 Tips to help you secure your personal data

Source

Ed Tittel and Kim Lindros
05.08.2008
Rating: -4.83- (out of 5)

For this update to our survey we added only one new vendor-neutral certification, the GIAC Certified Incident Manager, or GCIM. On the other side of the table, numerous items were deleted or removed. 12 full-blown vendor-neutral credentials were dropped for reasons that vary from no information available, to no visible signs of life, to a virus lurking on the program’s home Web page. We can’t take a security program seriously if its operator lets its website attempt to download viruses to its visitors. We also decided to drop individual Brainbench security exams, because they don’t lead to certification in and of themselves, which drops the vendor-neutral count by another 5 items. We also did away with coverage of the GIAC certificate and specialist items to drop another 23 items.

Source

A virus that takes all your important files hostage and then demand money is on the loose according to security experts.

This blackmailer virus uses 1024-bit key to encrypt data on user’s PC and then demands money for decryption key.

According to Kaspersky Lab public should be on the lookout for ransomware virus named “Gpcode” which encrypts your files using an RSA encryption algorithm with a 1024-bit key.

Source

Friday, June 6, 2008; Page A19

So now we know: The price point is $4.

At $3 a gallon, Americans just grin and bear it, suck it up and, while complaining profusely, keep driving like crazy. At $4, it is a world transformed. Americans become rational creatures. Mass transit ridership is at a 50-year high. Driving is down 4 percent. (Any U.S. decline is something close to a miracle.) Hybrids and compacts are flying off the lots. SUV sales are in free fall.

Today, I finally received my MBA/Information Security diploma from James Madison University. I had attended on campus ceremonies the first week of May but after getting the diploma actually in my hand, I have to say, today is a good day.

Source

By Ryan Singel June 05, 2008 | 5:43:36 PM

An internal British Telecom report on a secret trial of an ISP eavesdropping and advertising technology found that the system crashed some unsuspecting users’ browsers, and a small percentage of the 18,000 broadband customers under surveillance believed they’d been infected with adware.

The January 2007 report (.pdf) — published Thursday by the whistle blowing site Wikileaks — demonstrates the  hazards broadband customers face when an ISP tampers with raw internet traffic for its own profit. The leak comes just weeks after U.S. broadband provider Charter Communications told users it would be testing a technology similar to what’s described in the BT document.

The report documents BT’s partnership with U.K. ad company Phorm, which specializes in building profiles of ISP customers, then serving targeted ads on webpages the user visits.

Source

By Elizabeth Cohen
CNN Medical Correspondent

ATLANTA, Georgia — Imagine my surprise when, in the course of doing research for this story, I stumbled upon my own personal health information online

There it was in black, white, and hypertext blue. My annual mammograms; the visits to the podiatrist for the splinter in my foot; the kind of birth control I use — it was all on my health insurance company’s Web site. And that’s not all: The prescriptions drugs I use were listed on the Web site where I get my prescription drug insurance.

I had no idea this was all on the World Wide Web. Welcome to the 21st century, says Dr. Steven Schwaitzberg, associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and a medical informatics expert.

“There’s more information out there about people than could ever possibly be realized,” he says.

Source

Secret Service’s Distributed Computing Project Aimed at Decoding Encrypted Evidence

washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Monday, March 28, 2005; 6:48 AM